Blog Post 5: 1/9                                               Shutter Island


                   I believe the main challenge that the film maker would have when developing this book into a film is creating the scenary/setting. This is because the book doesn't describe in mass detail, most of the island is left up to the reader's imagination. The author gives just enough to get the 'jist' but not enough to cast roles or choose the perfect setting to film at. I don't think the film maker will necessarily have to change the characters or plot to make the film work. He/she would just have to work their imagination a little more.
                   There are three scenes that I can think of that the film maker would have to include and not alter. One scene would be when Ted and Chuck are introduced to Dr. Naehring. They begin agressively arguing over the case and it's the first time Ted blantantly blames the people working on the island for the disappearance of Rachel. It's not a major twist. But it is essential to include in order to tract Ted's frustrations and thought process with the case. The second scene to keep and not change would be the dream Ted has when he falls asleep and his dead wife, Dolores, appears to him. She actually helps him solve the code that Rachel had written in her room. Without this scene, Ted would just 'magically' solve this code and it would seem unrealistic. The dream gives that sense of logic behind it and should not be altered. Finally, the third scene essential to include is the flash back to Ted and Dolores in their apartment, when she begs for him to stay home and spend the day with her. It shows the destruction of their marriage, and Ted actually says the last words he ever said to Dolores in this scene. This allows the reader/viewer to truly feel how much guilt he is living with and explains why he acts the way he does.
                    There are also two parts that I think should be altered/not included. Going back to the third scene I believed should be kept, I think all of the curse words could be left out. I do agree that some could be included in order to get across how much innocence Dolores has lost, but some of the curse words were foul and unnecessary. It made me dislike her a little bit, which I don't believe was the point of the author. The second part that I would remove is when Ted and Chuck flirt with the nurse on the island. It causes the reader to dislike the two men for that moment, considering Chuck claims to be so in love with his girl back home and Ted had just lost his wife. To me it takes away from their character.

Book Project 1: 13 Reasons Why Tape Pack

            Attention, attention! Fans everywhere have been exclaiming how much the 13 Reasons Why Tape Pack makes the book ten times more intriguing. Within the package, there are all of Hannah Baker’s tapes (with the recordings), a Walkman, a pair of headphones, and a map with pictures of the locations Hannah wanted Clay to visit. Sounds enticing? It definitely is.

      In 13 Reasons Why, a high school student named Hannah Baker recently committed suicide. Within weeks of the tragedy, Clay Jensen receives a mystery box with no return address. Inside he finds 7 tapes, each numbered front and back up to 13. A little suspicious, he

decides to listen to them anyways. After grasping that he was listening to Hannah retell events that led up to her suicide and naming the people involved with them, it wasn’t a clever idea to continue listening to them inside his own house. Strolling over to his friend’s house, Clay manages to snag a Walkman from him. This takes the reader through the rest of the book. Clay merely walks around listening to the tapes and visiting each place on the map Hannah drew out for him. Luckily, with this pack, you can follow along right with him.

By purchasing the 13 Reasons Why Pack, the reader can truly experience the book to its maximum potential. Clay is the narrator of the story. He’s the character that the reader gets to hear thoughts from. He’s a great character and all, but also very disrupting. When the tapes are playing and it’s reaching the climax of the story Hannah is retelling—boom. The story is put on hold for, yet again, another comment put in by Clay. It’s becomes irritating and ruins the suspense. But by having your very own tapes with ONLY Hannah’s voice, you can listen to it straight through. The suspense will not be ruined at all. It’s just you and Hannah’s voice. Her emotion and tragedy will get across better through the pack. Clay didn’t have to hear Hannah’s story along with someone else’s thoughts, so why should you? It allows the reader to become more intertwined with Hannah. Because of Clay’s comments, the audience seems to lose touch with Clay and the spot light seems competed for. The whole goal is to get hooked on Hannah. It’s important to become so interested in her that putting the book down becomes impossible and wanting to know every detail of Hannah’s life is inevitable. Luckily, that’s what the 13 Reasons Why tapes will allow. The reader will be isolated with the recorded tapes to only focus on her. Then after getting to know Hannah alone, adding Clay’s thoughts into it will simply broaden the story, not take away.  
  Finally, the last item found in the pack would be Hannah’s map. In the book, it is hard to picture all of the locations that Hannah is saying each story occurred at. Everything happened in one small town. So what could be better than a map of the town with pictures included of each location? Everything in the 13 Reasons Why pack with do nothing but enhance the story and makes everything more hands on. The reader will become intrigued by Hannah’s story in a way that the book couldn’t offer by itself.

Post #2 (What is a book?)

A book is an escape route from reality into the deepest parts of your mind. Opening a physical book and flipping through the pages, releases an entire world into your thoughts. When you begin reading, there's a battle in your head. The world from the story is attempting to remove and reject reality and take it's place (momentarily). When you take that and shove it behind a screen, that world becomes trapped. It can't escape. It immediately loses the battle with reality because of the fact that technology is a constant reminder of the world we live in. If you're reading a book about the colonial times, how does that piece of technology bring the story to life? They don't fit. You don't experience the true era. And that's why i agree completely with Tom Piazza's argument. He states that when caging a book behind a screen, "you get no sense of the scale of things, of the nature of the artist's ambition...". He aslo goes on to say that "the information has no smell, no weight, no texture. Nothing that seriously impinges on your reality". The Kindle and iPad just don't do it for me. They don't draw me into the book as much as turning pages do. It's my own little world that isn't a part of the reality I'm currently in right now. I can completely disconnect from technology, struggles, anything. That's what I'm not willing to give up for the sake of using technology. I strongly disagree with Victor LaValle when he said that books are treated like a pair of stone tablets. It's not like we worship books. It's simply that once you pick up a book, you crave it. You love the feeling of escaping into it. Is that so wrong to find that insanely special? So saying that a book is "no more divine than a toaster" is completely ignorant. A toaster is the same every time. But a book is definitely not.

Why Do I Read? (post #1)

I read for many different reasons. Sometimes I read because I'm forced to in English class, while other times I read for entertainment. When it comes to being told what to read, I don't enjoy it nearly as much when compared to having freedom to pick any book I want. So I mainly do it for the sake of entertaining myself. Reading is like a gateway to escape your daily life. One of the best feelings ever is when you've hit the point that you're so intrigued by the characters and plot, that time escapes you and you feel as if you are the main character. That's my favorite part of reading and the main reason as to why I do it. Books that are narrated in first person are my favorite. The use of "I" is really what enables you to insert yourself into the character. It almost bonds you together, as you repeat "I" over and over again in your head. Once you're so consumed by the character and what is going on with him/her, that's when reading is ten times more enjoyable and meaningful. No matter what, you always have a way to let go off the daily stress and escape for a few minutes, or even a few hours. And that is why I read.

cute kitty awh ----->

Here's a link to one of my favorite books: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6482837-before-i-fall