Sunday, April 29, 2012

Ruined for the Month of May

"What you don't understand, you can make mean anything."-Diary
Chuck Palahniuk

I'm halfway through this book, and just like his other book I read (Choke) its making me hate everyone and everything. Its like this horrible horrible trade off. Like selling your soul to the devil. or taking a hit of cocaine. you just know that it's not going to work out for you. you just know that it's not healthy to look at life the way he explains it. but my god, I don't think I adore anyone's writing style more than his. it's like a physical drug, the feeling you get from reading. it's so difficult to understand, so impossible to explain. but I cannot, in good conscious, recommend you Diary. it is possibly one of the best books I have ever read, but I will not tell you to read it. because, like all of his books, you have to be prepared. you have to be ready to feel like the world is an unfair place.

what he does is makes you unable to trust anyone. the narrators a liar, maybe. who knows? they're all liars anyways. everyone's a liar. even you are a liar. (when you begin to think of yourself as the narrator, the only fair person in the world, you suddenly realize your no better than anyone else). everyones full of bullshit. but that's not a bad thing.

I don't know. it's difficult to explain the feeling, but I am simultaneously loving and hating the way I feel right now.

like he says in this book, we'd rather feel those intense emotions rather than feel nothing. Misty wouldn't love him if she wasnt torturing him.

all I know is that i still haven't gotten to the plot twist (which, when I read choke made me feel like there was no point in the world) yet and I still feel like life is pointless.

the mere fact that I feel this intensely during reading a *book*, *a made up story*, shows how well he writes. if you decide to read it, just be prepared to be ruined for the month.

Aryion

Saturday, April 28, 2012

wise words

"The most important thing is that we confront our fears. If we don't, they can throw us out of balance"- Tenzin (Avatar Aang's son, The Legend of Korra)


just some really nice wise words. he's my favorite character so far... haha. i think its because he reminds me of Katara. i want to write down so much from this show : D

-Abi

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Little Universes

"At any given moment it seems theres a million separate universes going on." Mr. Barkin

I have been debating whether or not to put one of my poetry teacher's on here. He's a genius and I am always inspired by whatever he shows me. I have about a million quotes from him that hopefully I will be posting here.

Aryion

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

the question

"Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer."

-Rainer Maria Rilke, 1903


We kinda studied the 'existentialism'-ness of this quotation in class one day... but it stuck with me. recently, it appeared in a book i was reading called "The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating" (its a charming book, truly!) but i realize i've been doing this more and more, and i find it important to do... which is just to wait for the answer, listen to the universe. in time, everything has its purpose... the stars align, or they don't, and if they don't, well then, that's a sign, too. its a patience game, like when you strum a guitar, carefully pulling down each string. in the lull there is power too, and so much space and energy. i want to listen to that space as well as the actual note.

its like the journey is the destination, eh? there is no destination without the journey, because you can't just arrive at your own doorstep if you're already standing there. 

-Abi

Monday, April 23, 2012

The Best Way to Describe It.

"There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit at a typewriter and bleed."-Ernest Hemingway

there is no better way to say it, honestly.

aryion

Saturday, April 21, 2012

invisible strings

"Funny, what invisible strings connect us all" -monk in Avatar: The Last Airbender


I always go back to this quotation in my mind... thinking more and more that coincidence is minor, and that fate is a web that connects us all. like a collective fate. nothing pre-ordained, just tugged on and updated, like when strings in a web get pulled and the spider knows.


had one of those moments the other day, thats why this popped into my head again!


aryion-- i will give it a shot!! (once i finish my book list : ) )




-Abi


Wednesday, April 18, 2012

To be in Love with Yourself

"In the end, though, maybe we must all give up trying to pay back the people in this world who sustain our lives. In the end, maybe it's wiser to surrender before the miraculous scope of human generosity and to just keep saying thank you, forever and sincerely, for as long as we have voices."-Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat Pray Love

Before any judgmental notions pop into your brain let me tell you; this book is amazing. The writing is witty and very personal, and it is like we go on that journey of self-fulfillment with her. I feel that oftentimes we get lost trying to live in this world and sometimes we just need to pause and brush off the old spirituality once in a while. The stigma of popularity follows this book, and I myself thought it was one of those 'housewife' reads, but it was wonderful, and I am glad it is in my life now. Thank you, Elizabeth Gilbert. Thank you and thank you and thank you.

Abi, I feel like you'd really like this book and I may or may not be giving it to you the next time we meet.

Aryion

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

fairytale

"If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairytales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairytales." -Albert Einstein


love : ) its true... i think a lot of what our culture is based off of, well, the processes that make cultural evolution possible, are found in the very means of legend, folklore, and myth. and they add a bit more magic to everyday life.


i'm really liking this quotation as i read more and more children's stories... finding that every story is apart of the narrative (and i'd like to contribute to that)


-Abi



Saturday, April 14, 2012

Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes

"You see, Doctor, God didn't kill that little girl. Fate didn't butcher her and destiny did not feed her to those dogs. If god saw what any of us did that night he didn't seem to mind. From then on I knew... God didn't make the world this way. We do."- Watchmen

Alan Moore is depressing. He's kind of cynical and such. But he's just like Chuck Pala-something, he's a great writer. Anyone who can win a Pulitzer for a comic book means he'll be on my favorites list.
This is from watchmen, but I also highly recommend V for Vendetta.

Who watches the Watchmen?
Aryion

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Fredrik Gertten

"When you have mighty enemies, it's good to have many friends"
 -Fredrik Gertten


*ahem* i was just about to blog, ar! haha.


So I just came back from the Environmental Film Festival at Yale, and i've seen like 3 screenings so far. tonight though was by far my favorite film, a film called Big Boys Gone Bananas!, an amazing sequel to Gertten's first documentary Bananas, that filmed the legal battle between Nicaraguan banana farmers and Dole fruit company, and the pesticide use that was causing medical issues and beyond to these workers.


When Gertten and his small company of 4, based in Sweden, were about to launch their first film at the L.A film festival, Dole WENT BANANAS. I mean, they flipped out-- they emailed, and sent notices, and subtle threats to everyone related to this film, even to the L.A film festival organization. long story short, he did get to play his documentary there, but Dole filed a suit right after.


Big Boys Gone Bananas! chronicles Gertten's unwillingness to give in to the corporate scheme. i had the opportunity to watch the film alongside Gertten, the director. afterwards he spoke. preceding the screening and interview, he said the quotation above.


i think its so important to stand up to the powers that be. its amazing how the crowd reacted to the ending of the movie, which i won't ruin.


but everyone burst into applause, and stood up and everything. we really do salute truth, and this guy told it.




boycott Dole! (and stick up for independent documentarians)


-Abi

In a Four Dollar Room

Abi's been a bit bogged down lately so I figured I'd help her out! This one is straight out of... The Twilight Zone (doo doo doo do doo doo doo do).

"Live 'till tomorrow and that's how it ends."- The Twilight Zone

Truth is I really like this show. Rod Serling was fantastic. Oftentimes the plot twists are disgustingly easy to recognize but all I care about is the dialogue and the acting. The acting is a bit overdramatic (although it tends to be on the female side for some reason) but seriously, the way he writes they could give the script to a five year old and it would still give you goosebumps.

The title of this post is part of the episode I got the quote from, and it really puts an emphasis on acting and dialogue, since for twenty five minutes a man has a battle with his conscious.

Stay fantastical!
Aryion

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

A Feeling

"I swear to you, there are divine things more beautiful than words can tell."- Walt Whitman

I've been thinking a lot about art and such, wondering why we still feel that our physical world is more beautiful now that there is sound that is more defined, picture more crisp and clear than real life.
Its because we can't get that 'feeling' that life brings you. I can't even explain what that feeling is, and I guess that's what old Walt here was getting at.

Be a Pioneer,
Aryion

Sunday, April 8, 2012

I hope

“For what it’s worth: it’s never too late or, in my case, too early to be whoever you want to be. There’s no time limit, stop whenever you want. You can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. And I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life you’re proud of. If you find that you’re not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again.”


-F Scott Fitzgerald.


this is my moto forever now... Its ok that you missed your scholarship deadline, Ar... you can always begin afresh : )


you can always just be the person you want to be. or write the book you want to read. We can all take a breath, and step forwards and be courageous. And I'm so ready to keep going... so, huzzah to a tomorrow, and to a today... I'm feeling so grateful for it all.




-Abi

Saturday, April 7, 2012

To Fly Away

"I always wonder why
birds stay
in the same place
when they can fly
anywhere on Earth.
Then I ask myself
the same question."
-Harun Yahya

I missed a scholarship deadline. I know its not the end of the world but it just has me thinking how I plan on acting toward my future goals.

Sometimes I wish I could fly away, and this little poem simplifies life to the point where you can.

Kind of romantic, isn't it?
Aryion

Friday, April 6, 2012

Found on Olympus... and Manhattan?

"... I wasn't sure what I saw in his face. There was no clear sign of love or approval. Nothing to encourage me. It was like looking at the ocean: some days, you could tell what mood it was in. Most days, though, it was unreadable, mysterious." 
-Percy Jackson, The Lighting Thief, page 341


so i just finished The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan, and am totally in love with the "Percy Jackson & the Olympians" series. i thought at first that the tone of the novel was a bit flat, sometimes percy would say things and i would be wondering how he developed as a character to say that thing... but then riordan kicks it up a notch, and his writing flourishes towards the middle and closing of the book.


i was impressed by the tone of his narrator, which is percy. it is funny, whole heartedly individual, and enjoyably boisterous. but riordan isn't afraid to mix in his authorial voice.


i loved this quotation because, well, its true. and because each time percy encounters his father, poseidon, he has these really great thoughts.




thank the gods this book exists!


-Abi

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

The Teen Years

"I feel like to be 'in love' cannot happen until you don't love anyone at all"- Heather Flinn

Hello! It's been a bit! Wanted to keep my submission until the end of the day because I traveled to the MoMA today! It was my first time going and I really enjoyed it, although per usual I am more apt to like the art styles the Met has created. (Although I am wholly and entirely infatuated with design an typeface). While on the bus there I was talking with one of my friends and somehow we ended up on the topic of love. We both have similar views about the thing.

I believe that there is different types of love, but the version I attribute the word to has to do with companionship. I feel like love is like having a sibling, that you can't love them without having to hate them with all your might at one point and still want to live with the person.

When she said the quote above it really hit me, it was exactly what I feel like about the topic. It makes me happy that I've now put a sentence to the feeling because I hate to have society fill in the blank for me.

I 'love' Rothko!
Aryion

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Acknowledged.

"Lastly, a very special thanks to my characters, who bravely face the dangers I force them to confront, and without whom I wouldn't have a story.


May your swords stay sharp!"
-Christopher Paolini.

I was re-reading Eragon (best book ever) and flipping through the pages when I found the author's acknowledgments at the end. As a kid, I wouldn't have really read these, but I find now that they are very quite interesting.

Where do characters come from? They are our imagination, but sometimes they just seem to appear in our heads, as real as ever (heh, what is real anyhow?). Its a strange thing, but in the mind of an author, they are just as real as you or I; they have motivations, fears; they love, they burn with anger. We make them confront things we would be frightened to confront, and we have them learn things that people wouldn't normally learn in day to day life. I was thrilled when Paolini acknowledged this basic current of creative writing... because I am sure his characters really did, apart from Paolini, move the story along.

The scary thing is having your characters die... I heard its really hard. Or having them be emotionally hurt. Its interesting, its like feeling your characters' pain inside of you when they get hurt. Its fascinating how authors move around with their characters.

So,

may your swords stay sharp!

-Abi