Monday 5 July 2010

The most important of the R's

We live in a world surrounded by things that put us down, the constant grind of working to pay off large sums of money we need to borrow to have a supposedly “nice” life. Even in our respite, we flick on the television only to find that soldiers are being killed in pointless wars thousands of miles away, serial killers are threatening to make us all homebound and politicians are doing their damndest to screw over the working class population to line their own pockets with what can only be describe as a shit load of money. All in all, there isn’t a lot in life to make a song and dance about, well not in my life anyway. I have Clazz, but I am hundreds of miles away from my friends and struggling to make ends meet because I am apparently the most unemployable person since Hitler tried to get a second job to pay for the German army.

This is why I love reading, stories, things that will transport me to a world that is different to the crazy one we currently reside in. Words can have a massive effect on peoples mood, whether it is blogs that are critical and make people stand up for what they believe in, or whether they are pieces of fantasy work that make the reader want to become a hero, and slay a plethora of mythical creatures before having their end away with the big boobed heroine who seems to have caught “Princess Peach” syndrome and get’s kidnapped at every available opportunity. It’s an escape, and one I am happy to say I use.

What annoys me is that people seem to think that reading is the nerdiest thing since sliced bread with thick rimmed glasses. Television and Computer Games have chocked the need for authors and their wonderful stories, why read a thrilling book with lots of action and suspense when you have Eastenders... Even famous books have been turned into major films (Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter), which would be fine if the films didn’t cut out a lot of the content of the original to save on time so they can add a crap ton of CGI. The only Book to Film remake I can think of that sticks rigidly to the plot is To Kill A Mockingbird, which was made nearly 50 years ago, which speaks volumes about the changing of peoples wants when it comes to Cinema.

People have tried to write to get people back into the idea of reading, Rick Riordan for example, who wrote a series about the son of a Greek God in modern times, it was meant for kids but it was bloody epic. Then they turned it into a film. This wasn't.

Another thing that pisses me off, is the rise in popularity of Stephanie (seeing as spell-check doesn’t like Stephenie, I’m going to go by how it SHOULD be spelt) Meyer. She wrote a little series called Twilight, which everyone seems to be bumming at the moment. I wouldn’t mind if Stephanie Meyer could write something that doesn’t reek of the ruminants of last night’s curry, what I am trying to say here is that she can’t write for SHIT. I am one of the few people in a privileged position to criticise the books, having read them, so people don’t need to jump down my throat about missing the story. I know what the story is, Vampire falls in love with Human, Vampire is stupid enough to get involved with Human, Vampire Sparkles, Werewolf enters, Love Triangle occurs and some boring stuff happens, The End. It’s so mundane it actually hurts me to write about it, not to mention a stunning array of bad grammar and spelling mistakes that make me look good.

It makes me worry for the future of literature when kids would rather watch TV than read a good book or a classic novel. No-one can bullshit me into thinking its boring, the only reason why you idiots think reading is boring is because it has the damned indecency not to have lots of colour and moving pictures. A book is far more exciting than you think if you would just give it a chance, honestly, read Lord of the Rings, Of Mice and Men, Frankenstein etc. Read Charles Dickens, Stephen King, Tolstoy, Rowling, Tolkien, C.S Lewis. And remember, books are far more imaginative and informative than a lot of the crap you see on TV and in Computer Games today, so don’t be an idiot and write them off just because of common opinion.

Love 'n' Stuff

Ash

x

P.S Rest In Peace Jim, You were once of the best writers around and you will be sorely missed.

No comments:

Post a Comment