A Beginning To End All Beginnings

It's not really the beginning to end all beginnings, and, were such a thing to exist, then the claim to such would belong to either God, or Neil Gaiman, and not necessarily in that order.

For a while, I have been thinking about putting up some kind of regular blog, in which I can happily rant and rave about all the fun stuff I come across (although when I rant, it's the not-so-fun-stuff). I read a lot of books, and graphic novels. I watch all manner of films. Some I love, others, I hate, and there is a fair lot that I find pretty mediocre. Incidentally, though, if you want to hear my opinion (which you must, if you bother coming back), I spell it out as I see it, and you may not. But that's cool. That's why they're postmodern rantings. They are my version of reality.

For the unenlightened:

Postmodernism
A general and wide-ranging term which is applied to literature, art, philosophy, architecture, fiction, and cultural and literary criticism, among others.
Postmodernism is largely a reaction to the assumed certainty of scientific, or objective, efforts to explain reality. In essence, it stems from a recognition that reality is not simply mirrored in human understanding of it, but rather, is constructed as the mind tries to understand its own particular and personal reality.

For this reason, postmodernism is highly skeptical of explanations which claim to be valid for all groups, cultures, traditions, or races, and instead focuses on the relative truths of each person. In the postmodern understanding, interpretation is everything; reality only comes into being through our interpretations of what the world means to us individually.
Postmodernism relies on concrete experience over abstract principles, knowing always that the outcome of one's own experience will necessarily be fallible and relative, rather than certain and universal.
Postmodernism is "post" because it is denies the existence of any ultimate principles, and it lacks the optimism of there being a scientific, philosophical, or religious truth which will explain everything for everybody - a characterisitic of the so-called "modern" mind.
The paradox of the postmodern position is that, in placing all principles under the scrutiny of its skepticism, it must realize that even its own principles are not beyond questioning. As the philospher Richard Tarnas states, postmodernism "cannot on its own principles ultimately justify itself any more than can the various metaphysical overviews against which the postmodern mind has defined itself."

Thank you to www.pbs.org for the above, which I located when doing a Google search for good definitions of postmodernism.

Essential to my understanding of things is that perception is all. There are very few (if any that we can as humans grasp) absolute, overriding truths. I believe in God, and I believe that he is good, and watches out for us, but I believe that the truth of him has to be found individually, so it can be my truth, or your truth.

But, enough of that. I decided to review a movie and a book to begin the show, to give you some indication of whats going on here.

ATONEMENT - Directed by Joe Wright.

Atonement is a film released late last year, which is based on a novel by Ian McEwan, and directed by Joe Wright, whose other mentionable work was the 2005 version of Pride and Prejudice, also starring Keira Knightley (a theme emerges).

It follows at a relatively winding, but well shot pace, the story of a young girl who makes up stories and sends her sisters lover to prison. She then tries to atone for her actions (hence the name of the film Sherlock), which concerns the rest of the film.

The acting was rather good, the characters were played convincingly, with a great performance by the three characters depicting Briony (the young, aforementioned girl): Saoirse Ronan , Romola Garai , and Vanessa Redgrave in order of age.

The camerawork was good, as was the lighting, and my only real issue with the film was that of its pace. Now, people whine and say "But its about building the mood and atmosphere." Normally, I would take the point, but when the pace is continually slow, exacerbated by medium length shots and long takes, the film lapsed occasionally into feeling more like a chore than entertainment.

That being said, I quite enjoyed the film for the most part.
I give it 8/10.

SMOKE AND MIRRORS by Neil Gaiman

At this point, before we begin, its worth mentioning that I am a huge fan of Neil Gaiman, and all his assorted works. He is brilliant, and, ironically, listed as one of the top ten living postmodern authors. His collection of short stories called Smoke and Mirrors is absolutely marvellous. For the first time in a long time, I found myself possessed by a driving need to read. I couldn't put this book down. It's amazing. Fabulous.

Personal favourites include the stories The Price, and Babycakes. If you fancy, duck over to YouTube and have a peek at Neil Reading Babycakes (about 3 minutes).

Also, check out his website, and I thoroughly recommend his blog. It's rather good: http://neilgaiman.com/.

Anyway, the book, or rather, the stories. The tales are superbly crafted, drawing the reader into the world of the text. His writing style makes it easy to move from one tale to another, and the ordering is well thought out, even if it was a "strange and haphazard well-it-feels-right sort of order" (Neil in the intro).

Overall, a great read, and at about $16.00 Australian, why would you let it slip???

I would give the book the full 10 out of 10, but that would be presumptous on the first entry, so I'll give it a 9, and wait for his new book The Graveyard Book to award a 10. I give it 9/10.

So there you have it. Me done. Entry number one finished. I hope to see you again.

Blake.