Genius At Work

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Bradbury has always been one of my favorite authors. Get transported back to early 20th century America when a sense of magic and mystery still existed and traveling carnivals were still the highlight of the year in many a town and neighborhood. However, one such traveling carnival is unlike any other as two adventurous best friends will soon discover. Rather than bring vitality and energy in, this carnival siphons it away from every place unfortunate enough to be visited. The plot focuses around existential stress and coming of age at all stages in life, but I won't give too much more away. The foreboding sense of "the coming storm" growing closer and closer will keep you sucked in all the way into the crisis and climax of the story.

I read the Ember series a while ago, this one is a prequel set centuries before. In it is described a world where international law and diplomacy have broken down after conflict between the US and an unspecified alliance of nations called the "Phalanx." It becomes clear the world is careening toward the very disaster that ultimately precludes the first three books, meanwhile a few in the know quietly work to build the City of Ember. The main character lives out her life in the midst of the events more deeply entangled in them than she's aware. As the reader knows, the world is doomed, but one can't help hoping the efforts of Yonwood's heroes give a chance it isn't. I'll admit, it has some loose ends and doesn't have the same feel as the others but it isn't bad or hard to understand and the characters and events are believable.

It's chilling how well this little story almost predicted some of the worst exploits of what's often called the "woke" movement now that it has captured a lot of the positions of power and places of influence. It takes on a new dimension at the time of me writing this that I wonder if the author then had ever guessed, considering how long ago 1961 was. And if many of the reviews on it here are anything to go by it also aptly predicted how dumbed down people in the future would be. Obviously it's supposed to be parable and allegory, intentionally silly and exaggerated. That's the apparently missed point of a satire. Hopes to 2081 looking a little more optimistic!

If you loved the books like I did, you will not love the movie at all because it almost completely scrapped the book. Imagine taking Lord of the Rings, and then forcing King Arthur and Captain America into the story line and dropping Gandalf because he's "too old and stereotypical of wizards." This is sort of what happened. Basically, it isn't Madeline L'Engle's story, it's Ava Duvernay's story borrowing heavily on Madeline's for inspiration. If you're okay with knowing that, or you've never read the books then perhaps it's an okay movie. Even so, the trick of trying to impress an audience with sweeping CGI landscapes, distracting movement, and wide pan outs was the method heavily leaned on to sell it, even though it's old hat and not how to make a big box office hit anymore, this isn't the Independence Day/Titanic era and expectations are returning to good characters and subtlety. The creators and directors seemed to have missed the memo though. They completely changed everything just to be trendy and appeal to the fads of the moment, a lot of the fundamentals of each character were scrapped or contorted confusing the role they each played to create the story. Even critics have been too generous to say the actress chosen to play Meg was good, even though she really wasn't. Most of the acting was okay at best but usually felt forced and amateur like a budget Netflix series. I really wished they fleshed out Meg and Charles better, they were completely unrelatable and annoying. I really wished they stuck to Camazotz as a world profoundly enslaved by an evil force rather than a clumsy abstract allegory of evil in general. Why does only the Ms. character that Oprah plays feel wise while the other two feel foolish? Why did they turn the Happy Medium into this obnoxious, floopy guy? Some questions are better left unanswered.