Thursday, 2 June 2011
The Reapers are the Angels: Video Review
To conclude my reading of Alden Bell's The Reapers are the Angels, I've made a short review of the book. It talks about a lot of the things I covered in previous posts, focusing mainly on Temple's growth as a character. I hope you enjoy, and welcome to SUMMER (after Friday)!
Wednesday, 1 June 2011
Warm Bodies: First Impressions
After finishing The Reapers are the Angels, I began another piece of zombie literature. Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion is told through the eyes of "R," a zombie who spends his time groaning and riding escalators up and down in the post-apocalyptic world in which he exists. Unlike in the last book I read, zombies have thoughts. They're primitive, but they're thoughts nonetheless. Zombies are more than just instinctual creatures -- they can even mumble a few syllables at a time.
R, unlike many of his walking dead comrades, has more feeling. He knows there is more to life than eating people, and he likes to relive their lives by eating their brains. While hunting, he ate some of the brain of a young guy, Perry, and through that, he learned about his relationship with another girl nearby, Julie. He takes a liking to both the memories he sees when he eats the brain and the girl, much to the confusion of his zombie community.
Already, though the basics of zombie existence (thoughts, emotions, etc.) are different, a reoccurring symbol has appeared -- airplanes. R's community lives in an old, abandoned airport, and his home is a 747 plane. In one of Perry's memories, he hears Julie say, "I miss airplanes... That muffled thunder in the distance, those white lines... the way they sliced across the sky and made designs in the blue? My mom used to say it looked like Etch A Sketch. It was so beautiful." (p. 26) This could represent, like in The Reapers are the Angels, freedom. The airplanes in which the zombies live can't fly, and without flight, airplanes aren't worth much. Julie describes missing airplanes, as if she misses the freedom before the zombie apocalypse.
So far, I really like it. It's funny -- R has a sharp sense of humor -- and the writing is entertaining and moves quickly. I look forward to reading more.
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| Isaac Marion |
Already, though the basics of zombie existence (thoughts, emotions, etc.) are different, a reoccurring symbol has appeared -- airplanes. R's community lives in an old, abandoned airport, and his home is a 747 plane. In one of Perry's memories, he hears Julie say, "I miss airplanes... That muffled thunder in the distance, those white lines... the way they sliced across the sky and made designs in the blue? My mom used to say it looked like Etch A Sketch. It was so beautiful." (p. 26) This could represent, like in The Reapers are the Angels, freedom. The airplanes in which the zombies live can't fly, and without flight, airplanes aren't worth much. Julie describes missing airplanes, as if she misses the freedom before the zombie apocalypse.
So far, I really like it. It's funny -- R has a sharp sense of humor -- and the writing is entertaining and moves quickly. I look forward to reading more.
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