The Turning movie

A few months ago The Turning movie aired on the ABC (Australia’s public broadcast network), and I had recorded it, and only recently was able to watch it. To my disappointment, not the entire thing was aired (and the time had passed to watch the ‘extras’ online – partly my fault for waiting so long). Now this was an interesting cinematic experiment, because, there were 17 ‘movies’ within this one movie. Each of them was by a different director, had a different cast, and in different locations. Which sounds very weird, and indeed the viewing experience (of what I saw) was weird. So only 8 of the 17 were shown by the ABC, and I sort of understand that they were reluctant to have to air what I think was in total 4 hours (if that was the case they could have palmed us off to an additional digital channel – or better advertised the condensed nature or done it over two nights). And I was going to discuss the film, but now knowing I saw so little, it feels slightly wrong, but I’ll do a bit, despite my condensed viewing.

Bookish Topic Tuesday – Cloudstreet the Miniseries

Bookish Topic Tuesday

Cloudstreet the Miniseries

Again cheating with the topic slightly, but it’s still related to books, this time a TV miniseries adaptation. So the first book I did on this blog was Cloudstreet, over two years ago now! And at the end of it, I mentioned the miniseries which was about to air, and I said I would try to go ahead and watch it, and now over two years later, I finally have!

2 Year Blogiversary

My oh my how the years fly by! It sounds so clichéd to say that “it feels like only yesterday I started this blog” but it’s the truth! I can hardly believe, that I’ve been here blogging for 2 years, writing 555 posts (covering 33 categories and 1705 tags!). We’ve had 221 comments nearly 25,000 views! And it keeps growing, last year we had around 7,500 views, and this year we’ve already more than doubled that with 16,600! Which is absolutely phenomenal, and we’re on track to treble last years views! I cannot thank you enough for this, it really means a lot. And I love reading your comments, and I want this to continue into the future.

I know I haven’t posted much that’s related to books, but, I’m quite busy studying for senior year exams and trying to organise my life for next year with more applications and interviews in the next few months than I care to think about! But don’t fret, I’ll be back, in fact, this time next month, I’ll (probably) be posting again. And I’ve got so many books to catch up on! I’ll be finishing off a Cuckoo’s Calling, and getting around to Catch-22, and I need to read Greylands, and some books by John Green. And House of Hades, Under the Dome, The Silmarillion and Metro Winds. And that’s not even half of the books I have waiting! I’ll also have posts on Pride and Prejudice, the Time Machine, Candelo, The Road and Ninety-eightyfour! And I’ll be hopefully discussing Cloudstreet’s adaptation, plus the Catching Fire movie, The Hobbit movie (though it will be later than the rest of the world cause I’m in Aus), The Book Thief movie (again later cause of my location) and possibly The Turning! So there’s so much to get around to, I hope you can join me, it’s going to be an exciting time!

Movie News – Greylands and the Turning

So I’m back again with more movie news, since it’s all I can really manage at the moment while I’m busily studying for exams. The first is some exciting news for Isobelle Carmody fans, the author herself (just like JK Rowling with Fantastic Beasts) is in the process of writing a screenplay for her book Greylands, which was re-released only last year as an ebook and by Ford Street Publishing. I have a copy of the book, and over this summer I’ll be most certainly reading it. The screenplay will be turned into a movie by producer Tara Morice, obviously right now there is no word on when the movie will be coming out, but there’s plenty of time for excitement! For more information check out Obernewtyn.net

In other movie news, The Turning by Tim Winton (author of Cloudstreet and you can find all of my reviews of that book here), which is a collection of short stories has been made into a unique cinematic experience. It too is a collection of really 17 short films, by 17 different directors, which is very unusual. It actually goes for 3 hours, so there is a 10 minute intermission in the middle of the film. It stars Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving, Miranda Otto and Rose Byrne, and is only out in select theatres, so check it out if you can (so far I believe it is only having Australian screenings, with New Zealand screenings to come. No word on an international release). I’ve read the story (I recommend that you read the book it really is very interesting!), but I doubt I’ll be able to catch a screening, hopefully it will come out on DVD at a later date. More information here: http://www.theturningmovie.com.au/

You can watch the trailer right here:

The End of Cloudstreet – The final words, and my thoughts

Well, this is it! The ultimate (original meaning of the last, though hopefully the more modern meaning of ultimate too) post of Cloudstreet! The culmination nearly 60 posts and 2 months of reading.

There is no title for the last words, like the beginning, but let’s read on.

Oh my! THAT WAS AMAZING! What a fitting end to the story. Oriel is moving back inside and folding up the tent. Obvious symbolism here! And then Dolly walks over and helps her, and it mentions the fact that there is no fence! Obvious symbolism here again! The families are no longer divided, they are now one. Was it Fish’s death that caused this to happen, or more the culmination of events, probably the latter, but there is no more text, so you can think what you want. That’s the end and there is no more, but there really shouldn’t be anymore, that was a superb ending.

Now what did I think of the book overall. Well, I really did love it! It’s unlike anything I’ve read before, and was really well written and interesting. Tim Winton is a really good writer and I understand, truly, why this is ‘critically acclaimed’ and whatnot. To say it was my ‘favourite’ book ever, is impossible! Why? Because I don’t have a favourite or even favourites really. I am just too indecisive to actually make a decision and say this is my favourite. How can you have a favourite when every book is different, and some are from different genres and by different authors who all have different styles. How can you weigh up everything and just plainly say that is my favourite. I love lots of books, which could be called ‘favourites’. I have surprisingly, read predominately books that I have enjoyed, I have never really encountered (or so I remember) a book that I truly hated at the time. I may have disliked parts of it, like The Riders but other than that, I haven’t had a bad experience with a book, which may be rare, or it may not. So I cannot rank Cloudstreet, certainly not in a numerical form (the number of 5/5’s I have given on Goodreads.com is amazing) and I probably am not the harshest of critics, and have a pretty open mind and would never stop reading a book in the middle, no matter what (by my choosing, I remember a couple, but I either forgot what book it was or was busy so they don’t count. And I may come to eat my own words one day, when I encounter such a book). But I would honestly have to say, to read this book. Truth be told, I would tell you to read any book, even if it was bad, so you could make up your own mind. But Cloudstreet was good, better than good. Sure some parts make you go ‘What?’ but you do get used to them, or at least they don’t detract from the value of reading, though it would be interesting to note if someone who completely understood these strange ‘image’ sections had a different idea of the story than someone who didn’t (like me!).

This is the first book I read that I really reviewed and certainly the first I have blogged about. Sure I’ve done reviews and essays on books and whatnot in school, but nothing to this level of detail (it would be nice for wordpress to give me a total word count, that would be interesting, I wonder how many words it would be… {I think around 30,000+ words from a quick estimation from copying and pasting into word}). Which means that I will certainly remember my experience of reading Cloudstreet and I will always be able to look back at my 58 (Or maybe it was 57) posts on Cloudstreet. Maybe one day in the future, I will read it and think what the hell was I thinking or that is the most stupid thing I have ever said or that is the worst post ever (I will almost certainly think one of these things later down the track) but it has been immense fun and has been extremely interesting. Currently, I don’t believe anyone has read my Cloudstreet posts (yes bring out the world’s smallest violin for Daniel) but I really don’t care, maybe one person will read it eventually, or not. Blogging, is pretty ‘selfish’ because it really is about ‘me’, but it would be nice to have a community in my blog, but maybe one day!

All things said, I have to say, that I did say, AGES ago, that it was Fish who would jump in the water, and that I thought he would die. Just saying! Did anyone else figure this out early, like me, and was so obvious that this does not warrant any celebration, or was it not obvious, in which I can gloat?But now I wonder about the 3-part miniseries that was recently filmed, and I cannot wait to one day see this. And I must say, that on my nearly ritualistic (I do this with nearly every book now) internet search of the book, I stumbled onto the trailer of the miniseries. And I want to see it right NOW! But I already noticed a mistake, it says 10 years instead of 20 for the period of time when they cannot sell, just saying. And the house is not what I imagine, but this is with every book to movie franchise isn’t it. WOAH they even include the living breathing house, bit! {I’ve decided to include the trailer, I forgot that I could do this}

CANNOT WAIT TO SEE THIS!!!!

Now tomorrow, will have some sort of post, we’ll see what it is on, but the next book will begin next year (as previously mentioned) and another clue is that it is again an Australian author (no this is not just a blog about Australian authors it just happens that way)!

Part Ten – Spaces, Soon Stayin and Moon, Sun, Stars

WOW!!!! This is basically THE END of Cloudstreet!!!!! What is going to happen??????? I have no idea.

Spaces

Ooooooooooh, maybe Rose and Quick won’t leave afterall. Screw their new house, give it to someone else, sell it, whatever! They belong in Cloudstreet with everyone else! Humans are programmed to live with other people, isolation does not go down well with us, that’s why we once lived in tribes. Today with our technology that allows faceless communication 24/7 many of us are beginning to feel isolated, when paradoxically we are more ‘connected’ than ever. It’s so strange that with facebook and twitter, we now basically know every detail of somebody’s life, celebrity or not, and yet we hardly even know the person. Things that people share online, don’t really give you a perfect picture of what the person is like, hell, even talking and being with a person can sometimes give you the wrong impression of someone (especially if they are good actors). If human kind is going to continue, we need to return to community and family and actually physically interact with people. Families are breaking down in record numbers, probably because of the lack of time spent with one another, and when you are all together you are either fighting, doing other things or not giving attention to everyone. We all seem to have busy lives, but for what purpose if we are all lonely and unhappy?

Enough opinion, back to the story. I forget why do they call him Quick, was it ever revealed, or have I (most likely) forgotten, I mean it was like 2 months ago I began this book. Just saying that parts, like the end of this ‘chapter’ are interesting ideas, and good ‘images’ from Tim Winton, but I never really understand their symbolism and significance. I am afterall, not an English teacher, who somehow seem to get more meaning out of a book than the author themselves!

Soon

Again with the strange poetic, symbolic stuff. But, is it like this often repeated ‘water’ that is talking. Will Fish ‘become a man’ when he connects back with the water. Does this mean he will become ‘whole’ again, and not be ‘different’ or something else. Sometimes it is nice to get straightforward questions and answers, sure I like to have to think about it a bit, but sometimes I have no idea what Tim Winton is on about. Which reminds me of another one of his books The Riders, jeez was that hard to understand the meaning of. So many unanswered questions, and kinda like Cloudstreet strange things that to me, have no meaning or significance. I was not really a fan of that book, the beginning was great and the adventure that followed was quite interesting, but the ending, left me more confused than ever. But I do suggest you read it, and tell me what you think about it.

Stayin

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They are having THE picnic that we opened with!!!!!!!!!! OMG, my level of excitement is indescribable! LOL I love how Rose says that ‘a session of parliament’ is longer than a Test Match of cricket which is 5 whole days!

Moon, Sun, Stars (Actually didn’t expect this new ‘chapter’, I thought Stayin was going to be the last one, but oh well, I guess this post is going to be a long one!)

WOAH! That wraps everything up nicely doesn’t it. Hard to say if it is ‘happy’ ending or more a ‘sad’ ending. Cause sure it is sad, Fish died. But it seems like, Fish was happy in the end. He was whole, and complete, and he was Fish Lamb for a fraction of a second. So does this mean that Fish was narrating the whole time? Kinda sounds like it. But I think I’ll leave future discussion for the next, and FINAL Cloudstreet post which will be up TOMORROW! (Though I must admit, I will be writing it right after this! Can’t stop now!) Nearly forgot to mention the fact that it even mentions the killer again. It really does sum up and tie up all the loose ends of the book nicely doesn’t it. The world is a cruel place if the killer can’t be buried next to his son that drowned. Tim Winton certainly liked to go back and make sure everyone’s story is complete, didn’t he.

Part Ten – Below Deck and Inland

Below Deck

I completely forgot about tea, and the fact that Quick and Rose would be kinda stuck in between the two. Good old Oriel, always practical and on the ball! Sad to think that Quick and Rose will actually be leaving Cloudstreet for good, we are coming to the end I guess, so people do have to move on. Their first dinner together in their nearly 20 years of living together, and it will be likely be the last. Fish is classic! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I love how he can say things most people just ‘can’t’ because it is insensitive, but he just says what everyone else is thinking. Oriel has every right to find out whether Sam is going to sell, especially if they have paid for nearly another 20 years of rent! “A house should be a home, a privilege, not a possession. It’s foolish to get attached.” Wise words, but it’s hard not to get attached to things, even though we shouldn’t. OOOOOH! Maybe they won’t leave now, and they will stay there forever! They are all too attached, and it really seems that the house has changed, and no longer is trying to get rid of them! Out treatment of Aboriginals has been a very ugly mark on Australian history, something we should be very disappointed in!

Inland

Should they let Fish come along? It would be hard work, but it sounds like neither family have ever been on a holiday, and Fish would love it. Go Rose! Let Fish come, he’ll have a great time, even if you don’t! Sounds like a nice holiday, just sitting being read to! I love Rose, she’s funny too! I swear I like love all the characters, nearly. Sorry where is the Southern Cross, isn’t it just stars, so how can they go there? Ok, it’s just a place somewhere in Western Australia. LOL Australia does have odd place names, don’t most countries though, you tend to run out of the ‘normal’ ones pretty quick. No one said it would be easy taking Fish on a holiday. That would be one AWFUL experience for BOTH Quick and Fish, Fish is smart enough to know it’s not right. That would probably one of the worst things to do really. You can’t blame anyone, but I think it might have changed Quick and Fish’s lives or relationship, sounded like it near the end!

 

2 POSTS TO GO!!!!