The Name of the Rose was a wildly interesting read that I'm glad I finally got around to reading. From a high level, the book is the story of a monk and his young assistant (novice) investigating a string of murders in a monastery in the 13th century. However, giving a "high level" overview of this book is a little misleading because there is just so, so, so much going on with this book. I read Foucault's Pendulum last year and the nature of the research and depth of this book is similar, but overall Name of the Rose is more accessible and likely to find a wider audience than Foucault's Pendulum.

A quote from Eco indicated that the book has three primary ways to be read: First, to read just for the plot. Second, to be read from a historical standpoint and learn about the workings and debates of the medieval church. Third, to be read as an intertextual novel.

The book follows a monk, William of Baskerville, and his assistant, Adso, as they travel to a monastery for the purpose of participating in a debate on a piece of church doctrine (the poverty of Christ) which was causing unrest and dissension among the various monastic orders. This particular issue, and many of the other conversations among the monks, is based on true historical events. The attention to detail and accuracy is one of the many things that impressed me a lot about this book and about Eco's writing in general. Reading some of the commentary of the book, it's explained how Eco went about determining the setting, the year and even the time of year for the book based on keeping true to research and data. Furthermore, the nature of the elements he wanted to include "forced" Eco to set his novel in a different century than the one he was already proficiently studied in (I believe the article indicated that Eco was well studied in 14th Century history)...but in order to keep the novel accurate, he set the novel in a different year and thus had to do more research.

As I mentioned at the beginning, the main plot follows the investigations of William and Adso as they try to solve a string of grisly murders within the monastery. We're also taken alongside them in the debate and discussion about theology and, as a later part of the investigation, get to see the nature of a medieval Inquisition.

The intertextuality of the story stood out to me quickly as William and Adso approached the monastery at the beginning and William deduced the "mystery" of a lost horse and then explained his deductive reasoning to Adso. I was quickly reminded of Sherlock Holmes and Watson. Indeed, William's home (Baskerville) served as another tribute to Holmes. The format of the narration is also similar to the way Watson narrates the Holmes adventures. In a large degree, William and Adso are presented as a sort of medieval Sherlock and Watson. William is sometimes quirky and snarky but also has a very methodical deductive process that seems to get results.

Some of the other intertextual references were less obvious. I thought about a possible relation between Jorge of Burgos (one of the main monks) to the author Jorge Luis Borges. I haven't read enough of his work to see comparisons or tributes or anything, but in the commentary I read, it indicated that Eco definitely wanted to give a nod to Borges. There were a few other potential intertextual references that were less known to me, but also very interesting. The title of the book is apparently an intertextual reference to lines of a poem quoted at the very end of the book. I don't understand the full relationship, but it is an added element to shine on the depth of meticulous research that Eco uses in his writing.

Overall, I found that the depth and detail of the novel was very, very intriguing but it also slowed down my reading progress at times. Especially when the text explored the elements of theological elements such as the nature of heresy, the poverty of Christ, the relationship between the Pope and the Emperor, etc., I felt myself get bogged down a bit. Part of me wanted to skip over these moments...but a larger part of me was so interested that I plowed through, not always understanding, but always intrigued. Apart from these slower historical moments, there were also a few significant sections of the book that were similarly slowing to my progress...Adso's dream/vision/nightmare and Jorge's sermon. Each of these had elements that were important to the plot but were also somewhat heavy in historical and theological detail (albeit obscure and strange to a layman such as myself).

In spite of the slowdowns which made this book take a little longer to read, I really enjoyed the book in terms of all of the elements Eco mentioned...the story/plot itself, the intertextual elements and the historical/theological commentary. The book is a very interesting read and a very well crafted murder mystery with plenty of bizarre and intriguing twists and turns. Even though some of the historical/theological segments may be a bit daunting at times, I recommend taking the time to read this book.


4 out of 5 stars

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The trailer (included below) for Unknown offers a little insight into what to expect from this movie. A strange mystery of a man who wakes up from a coma to find that someone else has taken over his life...even to the extent that his own wife no longer recognizes him and fully accepts this newcomer as her husband.

The movie starts out simply enough, with Liam Neeson (Martin Harris...the husband) and his wife Liz on an airplane to Berlin where he's participating in some bio-technology summit. They land and take a taxi to the hotel but on reaching the hotel, he realizes one of his bags was left at the airport and catches another taxi to go back and get it...only to be in a severe car accident that puts him in a coma.

The strange mystery begins when he awakens 4 days later with limited memory of what he's doing in Berlin and who he is. Once he has enough recognition of who he is and where his wife is staying, he rushes to the hotel to reunite with her...only to find her standing next to a man claiming to be Martin Harris and completely accepted as Martin Harris by everyone around him...even his wife. Unfortunately 'our' Martin Harris has no identification (it was left in the bag he was returning to the airport to retrieve) and thus no way to prove who he is, especially given that those who should be able to identify him (namely his wife) are claiming not to know him.

The mystery is very intriguing and plays out in rather compelling ways. I don't remember the exact wording, but there's a line spoken by Liam Neeson to a doctor talking about the nature of insanity and wondering how it feels to be insane. Truly, through the first half+ of the movie, the audience is right alongside Martin Harris in the feeling of disorientation and insanity.

Slowly, Martin begins to find random threads and people to help him try and figure out who he is and what's going on. Through the course of his investigation, there are a few events that definitely bring rise to questions and considerations that point to the resolution of the mystery. Overall, I felt that the intrigue and clues were well presented to the extent that they adequately keep the audience in the dark and guessing right alongside the main character.


trailer

My only real complaint with the movie was with Martin's (Liam's) anger management. I fully understand that it would be extremely disorienting and confusing to be in his situation...but his initial response is heated anger towards the hotel manager, police, etc as he confronts them with his story. Don't get me wrong...I am sure I would be angry in the situation, but I personally felt like Liam's portrayal of anger was a little static...in that he always portrayed the same sense of fury regardless of the situation.

A hypothetical example would be:

• the waiter at a restaurant brought Liam the wrong entree --- GRRR...he yells at the waiter in his tense, frantic tone
  VS
• an international human trafficking ring kidnapped his daughter --- GRRR...he yells at the villains in his tense, frantic tone.

I personally felt like Liam had two settings for angry -- growling and speaking in the same heated tone...or beating the crap out of somebody. Now naturally he wouldn't want to beat the crap out of the hotel manager, but still, he shouldn't be growling at him in the same way he'd growl at the main villain.

Beyond that aspect of Liam's emotional acting, I found the story and its twists and turns strangely believable. At first I was taken aback by his degree of paranoia early on (somewhat related to his anger management issues), but I gave that over to his amnesia and disorientation. It also proved an intriguing sidenote as he slowly regained his memory and unraveled the mystery.

Overall, I found this a pretty fun movie. I saw a reviewer compare it to Taken (Neeson's action movie from last year) and while it's got some action and it's set in foreign countries, I don't find it an adequate comparison.

Unknown has moments of high action but in a lot of ways it is set as a psychological thriller. Still, it's not as psychologically mind twisting as others in that genre. It sits somewhere beyond the mind-twist and the high-adventure genre. It's a fun escapist movie with a thought provoking twist and some nice semi-inspirational one-liners.


3 out of 5 stars

When I first read the synopsis blurb for Matched, I was intrigued. I enjoy the Dystopian genre and this sounded like a fun new addition. The cover for the book is pretty eye-catching as well. It definitely presents a feminine aspect to the book (what with the main art being a girl in a green dress), but I was really taken in by the imagery of the girl being trapped in a bubble. It is really very suggestive and left me with a lot of hope for the novel.

Now that I've read it, I can say that it is worth reading. It's not an overly deep or revolutionary book in terms of genre or plot. To a large sense, it felt very similar to other dystopian novels I've read in the past. In fact, I was left with a very distinctive feeling of similarity to 1984 and with the strong desire to go and re-read that classic book.

Even though Matched had a lot of classic similarities and elements that are very common to the genre, I felt like it had a lot of power in doing something that some of these other books hadn't done...to take the depth and power of these classic elements and present them in a "bubblegum" format. When I say "bubblegum", I mean a couple of things. Mainly though I mean that in many ways this book felt light and airy and full of sugary goodness, which was ironic given the underlying tone of dystopia in general. Because of that lighter feeling, it was a very quick read and I have a feeling it will be quite accessible to younger readers who would be put off picking up 1984 or a heavier work like that. Furthermore, Matched takes on the romantic element head on by keeping us close to a female protagonist who is very much in the thick of dating and planning for her future...literally scoping out her perfect "match" and becoming engaged to be married. Thus we have the teenage romance brewing from a female perspective which, in terms of other dystopian novels, again feels somewhat more light-hearted than problems of Society.

Given that Matched felt like a "bubblegum" novel to me, it might be shocking to hear that it actually had more depth of theme and content than expected. As I mentioned, it reminded me a lot of 1984...even more so than some of the other recent dystopian YA novels I've read (like Hunger Games and Maze Runner). While the other novels were very focused on the adventure of fighting against the Society (or directly confronting the elements of the Society), in Matched we are taken on a very personal inspection of the Society and allowed to experience things not from the point of view of a rebel or one who is in a struggle for her life, but from the point of view of a person (or people) who are caught in the midst of this "perfect Society" and begin to wonder if things are as perfect as they appear...and as they wonder, they worry about whether or not it is safe to "wonder" (let alone to do anything about it...which is a huge risk).

I really enjoyed the slower pacing of this book. While it's great fun to have an adrenaline filled romp through the world alongside protagonists striving to set things right in a "perfect" Society gone bad, I personally find it equally entertaining (more so in some ways) to take a slower, methodical analysis and inspection of the Society. I loved the introspection of the characters as they try to determine the nature or existence of problems within the Society and then weigh their personal options of whether to take action or not and what may happen in either case.

For those who are worried from my comments that this book is a slow paced social investigation with a love story at the forefront, let me assure you that there are elements of tension and action but I will also say that they aren't the kind of action from a Hunger Games or a Maze Runner. There is some "off-screen" violence alluded to and a small "on-screen" scuffle but otherwise, most of the action is of a more suspenseful nature and the intrigue of keeping actions hidden and covert.

While I suspect there will be some people who aren't as interested in this title because of its slower pacing and greater focus on introspection, analysis and the teenage romance, I also feel like this is a worthy addition to the dystopian genre and I feel like it's a great gateway book to classic dystopia. While a reader may be a little wary of diving into the heavier 1984 or Fahrenheit 451, the same reader may feel quite comfortable with Matched and come away with some similar thoughts and ideas and may feel more comfortable diving into heavier material.

Give it a try and let me know what you think.


3 out of 5 stars

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Yes, I'm alive. I've been AWOL from the blogging world for the past couple of weeks due to a bit of wild and hectic craziness IRL. So I figured, what better way to try and get back on the blogging horse than with a random assortment of random fun and silly images, videos and links that I've collected while lurking around the blogosphere for the past few weeks (yes, I have been reading blogs…just haven't been posting on my own).

Enjoy some of the fun stuff that I've found. And hopefully this will be the start of more frequent posting.







First a link to a semi/pseudo scientific Psychological Analysis of Facebook

Second here's a news article about a woman who tried to mail a puppy to her son and was shocked when she got in trouble for it.

Here are a couple of links to articles at Cracked.com where they talk about plot major plot holes from Hollywood.








I know that the thumbnail used for that video is pretty gross, but it's a rather interesting video about a "skin gun" that can be used for burn victims to essentially spray the burned area with skin cells that will grow back much faster and healthier than the older grafting methods.