The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Monday, March 28, 2011 - 5A
My novel
personality
S urrounded by a pile of college classics like "1984" and
jeans, cereal boxes, "A Hitchhiker's Guide to the
DVDs, posters and Galaxy." I had books no one had
notebooks waiting to find a ever heard of, like the entire
temporary cardboard home, I bibliography of Tom Robbins.
struggled to I had childhood favorites like
tape shut a Philip Pullman's "His Dark
huge, almost- Materials" trilogy. My books
bursting were quirky; I was quirky. My
packing box. identity was slowly being tied to
My dad, who what was on my bookshelf.
was loading Only in retrospect do I real-
up the car ize how common this is. Per-
that would LEAH haps second only to an iTunes
take me to BURGIN library, a populated bookshelf
my first day defines our perception of its
of college, owner. If someone displayed
almost broke his back lifting it. every Judi Picoult and Nicholas
Demanding to know what was Sparks book ever published, we
inside, he pulled apart the lov- would think of that person dif-
ingly applied duct tape to reveal ferently than someone whose
... books. And lots of them. library boasted Shakespeare
Refusing to cart this minia- and Nietzsche. Now, obviously,
ture library four hours north, an individual is much more
my parents demanded I leave than the contents of his or her
some of my precious books bookshelf, iPod, DVD collection
behind. It was a cruel and ter or closet. No one can be solely
rible process - I forced myself defined by material things -
to abandon the Laura Ingalls there are unique nuances and
Wilder series, the "Harry Pot- idiosyncrasies that cannot be
ter" novels, most of Orson Scott conveyed through commodities,
Card's bibliography and count- no matter how convenient it
less other books from my child- may seem to proscribe people as
hood. The thought of facing the sum of their material pref-
college without the familiarity erences.
and comfort of my books was But what if we could be? What
intimidating. What if I needed if we could be solely defined by
to quote Michael Crichton's the pages upon our bookshelves?
"Jurassic Park" or Alexander If you had to pick five books that
Dumas's "The Count of Monte defined your personality in total,
Cristo" for a paper? What if could you do it? Which ones
my siblings, in my absence, would they be?
borrowed Gaston Leroux's
"The Phantom of the Opera"
and wiped their snotty noses
all over its pages? What if my 'Tuesdays W ith
books missed me?
Despite these concerns, my M orrie' is the
parents refused to budge. So I
grudgingly re-packed the sur- ideal icebreaker.
vivors of the purge and went
on to pack the slightly more
necessary items, like toothpaste
and pens. Little did I know that With a preliminary perusal
the books I chose to grace my of my current dorm room book-
dorm's bookshelves were to shelf (which is now hidden
impact how people perceived under my bed so no one can
me throughout freshmen year. judge me), I've chosen the five I
It began with my roommate. think can pretty much sum up
She judged me, not for the con- my personality. And they are -
tents of my bookcase, but for drum roll please! - Orson Scott
the sheer number I brought. It's Card's "Enders Game," Wil-
something she still teases me liam Goldman's "The Princess
about. She also was amused by Bride," Jean-Dominique's "The
my confession that I only added Diving Bell and the Butterfly,"
Mitch Albom's "Tuesdays with Jerome Lawrence and Robert
Morrie" to the pile to stimulate E. Lee's "Inherit the Wind" and
conversation with her if we had Martin McDonagh's "The Pil-
nothing else to talk about - she lowman."
had told me she liked "memoir So, OK, the last two are tech-
books" and it was the only one I nically plays. But still, these
owned. Luckily, we didn't have are the five books I could never
to resort to that plan B. leave behind. They belong on
But the judgment didn't end my bookshelf. They each have
there. Whenever new acquain- a special, irreplaceable place
tances would walk into our in my heart and, because of
dorm room, they would be this connection, I believe they
distracted by my books. People define me the most. If you want
would want to talk about them, to get to know me better (and
gush about which ones they who wouldn't?) read them.
also loved or inquire who in Absorb them. And then let me
the world was Tom Robbins know what you think. Please
and why did I own a dozen of remember, though, to take the
his books? (Hint: Robbins in experiment out of context and
the genius behind "Even Cow- realize that, outside of a hypo-
girls Get the Blues," which was thetical realm, there is much
adapted for the silver screen by more to me than the charac-
Gus Van Sant.) It came to the ters, thoughts, jokes, stories
point that friends of friends of and emotions that exist within
friends would walk in, share an those pages.
in-depth conversation with me And please don't read "The
about literature and then leave, Pillowman" first. You will want
never to be seen again. to run as fast as you can in the
Friends began associating opposite direction.
me with my books. If someone
wanted a recommendation or Burgin is looking for new reading
to borrow a book, he or she material. To provide, e-mail
would come to me. I had the her at Irburgin oumich.edu.
Lamenting the loss of Liz
Elizabeth Taylor made the most of
her fame on and off the screen
By Ben Verdi I Daily Arts Writer
Liz Taylor's passing from con-
gestive heart failure last Wednes-
day, at the age of 79, is a sad loss
for the entertainment world, and
the world in general, as we've not
only lost an icon, but a good soul.
While she may not have starred
in the films on our generation's
list of favorites, losing her is akin
to losing Michael Jackson, her
good friend, from the perspec-
tive of the cultural influences and
legacies they both left behind.
Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor
meant so much to the world of
American film and entertain-
ment, gracing the screen in films
like "Cleopatra," "Who's Afraid
of Virginia Woolf?" and "Cat on a
Hot Tin Roof," that it's not quite
possible to quantify her effect on
the American art of show busi-
ness. At age 12 she was headlin-
ing films like MGM's "National
Velvet" and carving out a place
in '40s and '50s cinema as a child
star. Unlike most child stars,
however, she transitioned seam-
lessly from the teen icon she was
into the world-renowned cultur-
al force she was to become.
Despite standing 5'2", she
commanded the focus of people
in every room she walked into.
She was the woman you'd teach
your child to point at and say
"movie star." She had the kind
of beautiful face that could go in
the dictionary next to the words
"innocence" or "grace," and no
one would disagree. She was the
kind of celebrity that other celeb-
rities had a crush on, the kind to
dominate headlines - with eight
marriages to seven different men
- as much as the box office. She
won two Academy Awards and
was the first actress to earn $1
million for a film role. She han-
dled every high and low of her
life with enough aplomb to keep
people smiling and hopeful.
Liz Taylor had a famous heart
too. Despite her success, she
remained the same witty, intelli-
gent and caring woman her whole
life. She helped raise more than
$100 million for AIDS research
and was a voice for the causes of
civil and gay rights before either
cause was "cool" or profitable.
It's as difficult to sum up what
she meant to the world as a phi-
lanthropist and caring soul as it
is to describe how powerful and
famous she really was.
While Taylor had issues and
weathered the storms of celeb-
rity, she did so with a sense
of humor, and an uncommon
amount of appreciation for her
own fame, knowing that she had
a responsibility and an example
to set as someone in the public
Elizabeth Taylor in the film "Butterfield 8" in 1961.
AP
eye. She never thought she was
more famous than she actu-
ally was. She was never afraid
to make fun of herself. She
knew what she bargained for,
in becoming famous worldwide
because fame itself was never
her goal. For her, fame almost
came by accident, a residual
affect of her undeniable talent
and effortless beauty. What she
did with that fame, however, was
always something she consid-
ered more important than sim-
ply acquiring more of it.
Taylor always knew where
the camera was, an unteachable
characteristic of true celebrities
that does not arise out of vanity
like most people think, but out of
a genuine awareness of one's self
- one's true, silent confidence -
and a respect for the humbling
responsibility of fame. Beauty
fades, and dollars and tabloids
last only as long as it takes to
print new ones. But her legacy
of grace, combined with humil-
ity under the American spotlight,
still remain after her death as
reminders that even though a lot
of people have become famous
in America, few will ever be as
deserving of fame as Liz.
Snyder packs a visual 'Punch'
By WILL DEFEBAUGH
Daily Arts Writer
Reality is a prison. Freedom
is in the mind. These are the
mantras of director Zack Sny-
der's ("Watch-
men") new *
film, "Sucker
Punch." Sucker Punch
The film
follows the At Quality 16
mind-bending and Rave
story of Baby
Doll (Emily Wamer Bros.
Browning, "A
Series of Unfortunate Events"), a
20-year-old girl who is sent to an
insane asylum after she acciden-
tally shoots her sister in an effort
to protect them both from their
evil stepfather. Upon arriving,
her stepfather makes a deal with
the twisted owner of the asylum
to ensure that Baby Doll will be
lobotomized in five days.
To cope with the harsh new
reality in which she finds her-
self, Baby Doll re-imagines her
prison as a burlesque house. The
owner of the asylum becomes her
pimp, the doctor becomes her
dance instructor and the other
inmates, Blondie (Vanessa Hud-
gens, "Beastly"), Amber (Jamie
Chung, "Grown Ups") and sisters
Sweet Pea (Abbie Cornish, "Lim-
itless") and Rocket (Jena Malone,
"Into the Wild"), become her fel-
low dancers and friends. Unfor-
tunately, this fantasy is not much
better than reality - they're still
prisoners, only now they're strip-
pers too.
This might leave some view-
ers to wonder why Baby Doll may
not have chosen a more pleasant
reality, but those people prob-
ably aren't familiar with Snyder's
work. He has a penchant for the
macabre and it's this aesthetic
that ultimately makes the film.
So, when Baby Doll is first asked
to dance, she escapes to an alter-
nate reality within her alternate
reality, where an old man tells her
she needs five items in order to
escape: a map, fire, a knife, a key
and a mysterious fifth item that
only she will be able to get. On the
quest to get each of these objects,
Baby Doll and company are trans-
ported to other worlds filled with
apparent robot Nazis and fire-
breathing dragons, where they
have machine guns, samurai
swords and even racier outfits.
The blueprints to the asylum-
brothel become a treasure map,
the kitchen knife becomes a
bomb on a high-speed train that
they must dismantle.
Robot Nazis,
strippers and
dragons, oh my.
These alternate worlds are
visually stunning. The incorpo-
ration of Bjork and music from
the film's own Emily Brown-
ing (try her cover of "Sweet
Dreams" and her duet with
Yoav, "Where Is My Mind?")
work well. The aesthetic is clas-
sic Snyder, looking half like a
movie and half like an extreme-
ly well-developed video game -
and wholly over-the-top.
While some might see this
over-the-top quality as a prob-
lem, it works for most aspects
of the movie. The only place it
doesn't is for the ridiculously
revealing "costumes" the girls
wear. Despite the film's claims
to be feminist, it still feels like a
bunch of half-naked girls with
machine guns running around in
fishnets and heels - or, in other
words, every man's "fantasy."
Apart from that, the film's
main problem may actually be
that it isn't over-the-top enough.
Many films adapt an in-your-face-
ridiculous quality and it works for
them. The problem is, it needs to
carry over into the writing as well
- it can't just be in the direction
and cinematography. And despite
the film's name, its plot is actu-
ally quite straightforward and
predictable, establishing a pattern
for itself within the first 30 min-
utes (find object, fight bad guys,
repeat). All in all, "Sucker Punch"
doesn't just look like avideo game,
it functions like one too - enjoy-
able and visually entertaining, but
without much depth.
The Department of Communication Studies
The Howard R. Marsh Center
present a lecture by
MICHAEL DOBBS
2010-2011 Howard R. Marsh Visiting Professor ofJournalism
TWEETING THE REVOLUTION: THE ROLE OF
SOCIAL MEDIA IN TOPPLING DICTATORSHIPS
Tuesday, March 29; 2011
Reception 4:30 pm - Lecture 5:00 pm
The Hussey Rooms in the Michigan League
911 North Unisersity Avenue
Ann Arbor, MI48109-1265
For directions, pleas 'e
http://suniorn.unrici.edu/league/nmips/directions/
Contact the Department of Communication Studies
(734.764.0423) for more information.
Rich Cormier
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