Currently 11/4/11

A Game of Thrones: 200 Pages
A Clash of Kings: 117 Pages

The ending to A Game of Thrones was awesome! So much stuff to find out in the coming books! I just started the 2nd in the series, A Clash of Kings. Its just as good as the first so far!

Close-Reading Bingo

Under the Oak: "The diction within this passage uses a precise, with intermediate writing literal and direct."
Chillin in the Nyle: "Salinger first describes the parents as “touchy as hell”."
The Lost Message of Words: "“They were the free-standing kind: a pair of integral sins swooping upward between the two floors they served without struts or piers to bear any intermediate weight.”"
Back of the Blog: "..shows the way he is able to control his writing."
The best I saw was InsideOut...

Practice Diction Analysis

Analysis of J. D. Salinger's "Catcher in the Rye"

J. D. Salinger is an author who uses very low and denotative words to write his stories. This is evident in his story “Catcher in the Rye”, which is written as if it were a personal account of the author's.  In “Catcher in the Rye”, his low, denotative words express a very blunt, down-to-earth nature of the narrator’s tone, while the fear of acting out against his parents’ wishes, not wanting them to have “two hemorrhages apiece” should he tell the reader “anything personal about them” surges through his mind. The narrators makes comments of his parents like “They’re nice and all-I’m not saying that-but they’re also touchy as hell” and says “I mean that’s all I told D.B. about, and he’s my brother” about his brother. These selections suggest a withdrawal from his family and possibly that he feels insecure about who he’s related to and that he does not wish to make his parents mad at him. The use of such words may reflect Salinger’s opinions on other writers at the time and their use of large, figurative language and words. Salinger’s works are not the most image-inducing, but while they don’t drip out of the reader’s mouth with luscious figurative language, they do have a certain tone and different sense to them then found in other author’s works.

Currently 10/20

Pages Read:
A Game of Thrones: 100 pages

Style Mapping Posts:
The Chief: The adealine injected cheering of the crowd and violent spasisms of the bull give a noisy claging sound to this excert.
Running in Circles: The Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy has a musical and elegantly figurative sound to it.
Purple Moments: The word choice is more familiar and blunt, grating and clattering, and also suggestive and imagistic.
Less Than Three: It pays no heed to the way that words sound together and has extraordinarily little figurative language.
DolphinCat: In the excerpt from Stardust the words contains a very straight-forward description of a town named Wall that has a very primitive feel with huts instead of houses and tracks instead of roads.

My favorite has to be The Cheif's use of "spasms"  and "clanging"... very unique.

Style Mapping

From author to author, the style of writing changes, from musical to harsh and abrupt, from denotative to connotative. In the literary piece Stardust, author Neil Gaiman uses words that are not exactly fancy.The words he uses come from a lower point on the graph and are on the "common" side. Although, the use of words such as "taciturn" and "stocky" shift the graph to the lower right. In Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian, McCarthy uses a higher vocabulary. His graph would be towards the top and to the right towards the more Harsh and elevated grouping of words. He uses words like "sacristy", "deadcart", and "cantina". Finally, In George R. R. Martin's A Game of Thrones, the words used are very fancy and elaborate and give great detail. His graph would be in the upper right as well, bu tit would be higher than McCarthy's point. It is easy to see, each writer has their own style that is unique to them. From Gainman, to McCarthy, to Martin, they are all different.

A True Game of Thrones

So, the protagonist, Ned has been locked away in the dungeons, his oldest son, Rob who is only 15, has called the banners for war, Sansa has been taken prisoner by the Queen, the King is dead, and Araya is missing. All of this has ensued in the moments following Ned's betrayal of Littlefinger. Down in the dungeons for what seems like days, Ned's visited by The Spider and is told if he wishes to live and if he wishes Sansa to live, he would do well to take a knee and confess his sins to the Queen. War is ravaging the land around them and friends are turning to enemies. Thus is the rich story of A Game of Thrones.
I await eagerly to continue with the last couple pages of the book, and then continue on with the rest of the series. This book is, by far, the best thing I have ever read. I highly recommend it to anyone ever slightly interested.

Quarterly

So I have kind of surprised my self with this free reading. I have vary rarely ever read by my own free will. Ever since this class started, however, I've read all the time willingly. I am not sure if its the books I read, the class itself, or what ever, but for the first time, I think, I'm really enjoying reading and have not been able to stop. I hope this is something that will continue with me throughout the rest of my life and never leave. I've found the joy of reading and am enjoying it to the fullest extent.

Currently 10/11/11

A Game of Thrones
Total pages read: 550
Read this week: 110

Sentences of the Quarter:
1. "I said nothing of need," Lord Tywin replied. "My words were courtesy, nothing more. You need not join us. Then men of the Winterlands are made of iron and ice, and even my boldest knights fear to face them."
Oh, deftly done, Tyrion thought, smiling crookedly.
"The Burned Men fear nothing. Timmett son of Timett will ride with the lions."
2. Lord Tywin did not stir from his chair, but he did give his dwarf son a long, searching look. "I see that the rumors of your demise were unfounded."
"Sorry to disappoint you, Father," Tyrion said. "No need to leap up and embrace me, I wouldn't want you to strain yourself.."
3. Shagga glowered, a fearsome sight to see. "Shagga son of Dolf likes this not..."

Currently Friday, September 30th, 2011

Game of Thrones: Pages read 100.

Quotes:
1.) "The High Hall of the Aryns was aglow with the light of fifty torches, burning in the scones along the walls."

2.) "What if you'd only wounded him? What if you had made his hand jump, or hit Bran instead? For all you knew, the man might have been wearing a breastplate, all you could see was the back of his cloak. What would have happened to my brother then? Did you ever think of that, Greyjoy?"

3.) "Robb glanced over at where Stiv lay sprawled in the stream, hi ragged black cloak moving fitfully as the rushing waters tugged at it."

My favorite is quote two because it gives a unique characterization of the character Greyjoy.

Currently Post With Quote of the Month

Game of Thrones: Pages Read:100

Quotes of the Month:
-"The rising sun sent fingers of light through the pale white mists of dawn. A wide plain spread out beneath them, bare and brown, its flatness here and there relieved by long, low hummocks."

-"Two seats away, the king had been drinking heavily all night. His broad face was flushed behind his great black beard. He made many a toast, laughed out loudly at every jest, and attacked each dish like a starving man, but beside him, the queen seemed as cold as an ice sculpture."

-"The godswood there was a garden, bright and airy, where tall red woods spread dappled shadows across tinkling streams, birds sang from hidden nests, and the air was spicy with the scent of flowers."

I like these quotes the best because of the imagery they create. All three of these sentences drip with branches, modifiers, and describers that paint a very pretty picture.

Best Posts

5 Favorite:
-Blogs With Friends:
In this photo it seems that a group friends are marking the end of an era or the start of something new, the arms outstretched are either reaching for something that's gone or welcoming something that is coming.
 -Golb:
In this scene you see Blake Griffin dunking a basketball, his expressions show his immense, powerful, and colossal body floating in the air, putting the extravagant crown into a short time of faint, quiet, and peaceful time before they erupted into a thundering and noisy crowd.
-Memoirs of a White Latino:
"The Hollow"'s dark, jagged scenery emanates the state of internal desperation and broken loneliness that is expressed constantly throughout the album.
-Swimstrong:
In Versace's purple ruffled gown, his fading colors, smooth lines, and rough and fragile textures along with a flowing and clean shape create a complimentary and whimsical sense of beauty in fashion-art.
-DolphinCat:
Team iLuminate’s performance on NBC’s Americas Got Talent the groups [jerky but elegant movements, strange and breath-taking choreography, and rapid roaming use of space]

Favorite Claim: DolphionCat had the most unique object to observe in my opinion. 


I think Memoirs of a White Latino and Dolphin cat had the best claims simply because of how they were worded and what they described.

Observing and Making an Inference

Object: Cars
Elements:
Shape: curved, flat, low, wide, fluid, and smooth
Sound: deafening, loud, noisy, resonant, and thundering
Appearance: clean, colorful, distinct, shiny, and smoggy

Tones: aggressive, animated, majestic and vibrant

Sentence:
With a curved and fluid body, a deafening roar and clean and colorful finish and the majestic way they drive on the roads, cars today express an animated and aggressive vibrance that is all themselves.

Game of Thrones...TV vs. Book

So, in case I haven't blogged about this(honestly can't remember if I did or not) then I'll tell you now. I started watching the Game of Thrones TV series and was pleasantly surprised to find out that with each episode being one hour long, and even though multiple chapters are squeezed into one episode, the season is as accurate as it could have been to the book. They use direct quotes that I easily recognize from the book.

On another note, I've found that the plot of the book is fro lack of a better word, awesome! I would have never guessed it. Game of Thrones is full of conspiracies, Treason, murder, death, adventure, love, coming of age and more! To me, this book is everything Lord of the Rings was not.

Poem of the Month

The three poems we've read that I have most enjoyed were Poem to Be Read at 3 AM, The History of Desire, and First Kiss. These are my favorites because they are the silliest, but yet they still make you think about the author's intentions and underlying meaning. A good author accomplishes this with ease and I think these poems have done that.

Currently Sept. 16th, 2011

Pages read: 100 pages

Game of Thrones Quotes:
1. Whatever pride his lord father might have had felt at Samwell's birth vanished as the boy grew up plump, soft, and awkward.

2. Hours later, as the castle slept, three of them paid a call on his cell. Grenn held his arms while Pyp sat on his legs. Jon could hear Rast's rapid breathing as Ghost leapt onto his chest. The direwolf's eyes burned red as embers as his teeth nipped at the soft skin of the boy's throat, just enough to draw blood. "Remember, we know where you sleep," Jon said softly.

The first quote is my favorite because it is a great example of what a good author can do with words; creating a picture in the reader's mind.

Personality Test

The test says my "type" is INFJ

slightly expressed introvert

distinctively expressed intuitive personality

distinctively expressed feeling personality

slightly expressed judging personality

Doesn't seem too far off I suppose...

Currently Post

Number of Pages Read this week: 190 pgs.

Game of Thrones UPDATE 4

As I read, I find that it is seemingly impossible to determine what happens next in this book. It seems like the book is twist after crazy, unexpected, twist. From an atempted muder within Lord Stark's family to the fact that it might possibly be the Queen who is behind it and "treason" is the first thought in everyone's mind, Game of Thrones is a rollercoaster ride that doesn't seem to end, ever. I'm really excited to find out what happens next.

Week 2 Blog Tour

Here's my list of nine blog visits...

The Chief
Less Than Three
E-Dubs
Read Between the Blog
Memoirs of a White Latino
Dolphincat
Purple Moments
Organization of...
Hipsteroku

UPDATE FOR ETY

In the last week, I've read from Game of Thrones, and Mila 18.

Game of Thrones: 50 pages this week and 85 last week.
Mila 18: 52 this week and 85 last week.

Total read this week:112 pages.
Total read last week:175 pages.
Total read this semester: 197 pages.

Favotire quotes can be found under the post: Quotes O' The Week!

Choice in Posts

I find it interesting. I am actually reading three different books at the same time. I'm reading Game of Thrones, Timeline by Michael Crichton, and Mila 18 by Leon Uris, yet the only book I've talked about is Game of Thrones. For what ever reason, I can't seem to put it down. I will probably find time to blog about the other two books sometime but not now...later perhaps.

That is all...

Game of Thrones UPDATE 3

It's funny, the whole reason I wanted to even start thus book was because the HBO TV show looked good. I had known that it was based on a book series and that the series was supposed to be very good as were the books by author George R. R. Martin, but I had not really intended on reading the series. I normally don't read very often, but I saw that we had the entire Game of Thrones series in our home library so I decided that it would be a great book to start while I watched the TV series in parallel to see how they differ. Now, I have no desire to touch the TV series until I'm done with the book! Haha, it's weird how that works. Although the series is supposed to actually do good, as most book to TV series are normally not great, I still feel that with the amount of work that was put into this book, the TV series cannot possibly do it justice. Who knows though. Maybe I will watch it after all and find that I like it all the same. My suspicion is that I will like the TV series, but not as an adaptation form the book. I will probably just like it as a TV show alone and no more.

Quotes O' The Week!(Game of Thrones)

-The rising sun sent fingers of light through the pale white mists of dawn. A wide plain spread out beneath them, bare and brown, its flatness here and there relieved by long, low hummocks.

-Dawn broke as they crested a low ridge, and finally the king pulled up. By then were miles south of the of the main party. Robert flushed and exhilarated as Ned reigned up beside him.

-As angry as he was, his father could not help but laugh. "You're not my son," he told Bran when they fetched him down, "you're a squirrel. So be it. If you must climb, then climb, but try not to let your mother see you."

More on Viking Death Metal...

Here are a few links to some of my favorite Viking Death metal songs if you are so inclined to take a listen...

Amon Amarth: Pursuit of Vikings...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPRt6Tt6RyM

Amon Amarth: War of the Gods...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVAQQujgSxQ&feature=related

Ensiferum: From Afar...
ensiferum from afar

Tyr: Hold the Heathen Hammer High...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fu2bgwcv43o

Powerwolf: Sanctified With Dynamite...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3HSnWDAJpc

Well, there you are...hope you enjoy!

Game of Thrones UPDATE 2

While reading Martin's Game of Thrones, it amazes me at how well these characters are developed. I think I can safely say that this is the first time I have ever actually cared about what happened to the characters in the book. The shear amount of detail that Martin uses to tell each character's back-story and tell of the very rich history of this made up world really is remarkable. I've read the Lord of The Rings trilogy and Stephan King's The Dark Tower series and I find that, while all three of these series are great in their respects, Martin's, to me, is the most well defined. I find it interesting how he jumps from one character's situation to another's in each chapter. I will read one chapter and, "get in the groove", if you will, of that character and what is going on, then int he next chapter, Martin switches to a completely different character in a completely different area of the world. Through all of this, he still manages to tie all the the character's stories together. In fact, it is fairly early on in the book that it is evident to the reader that all of these characters are tied together in a very interesting way. This constant switching actually drives me a little crazy at times,because I'll be reading and want to just continue with tat one character until their story is finished, but I feel that this book and the whole series really would not be as rich as it is now if Martin had written his books like any other regular story out there today.

The Power of Words II

Here's a quote for you...

"Two seats away, the king had been drinking heavily all night. His broad face was flushed behind his great black beard. He made many a toast, laughed out loudly at every jest, and attacked each dish like a starving man, but beside him, the queen seemed as cold as an ice sculpture."

Game of Thrones Update

I find it interesting. Martin uses the names of his characters as the titles for his chapters. So, he will do the back-story of one caharacter, then go off and talk about other characters in other chapters. Eventually he will come back to all of his characters using their names as the titles again. So, there may be ten chapters with "Bob" as the title...it's kind of weird I think, but its different. I haven't seen any other author do this. Very cool...

UPDATE:

Just started Leon Uris's Mila 18  and Michael Citeon's Timeline. So far enjoying both. Really liking Martin's Game of Thrones...

The Power of Words

I was reading and remembered a quote that George R. R. Martin uses. It describes the scenery that is around a character, Catelyn, at the beginning of the chapter with the same name. The quote demonstrates well how with the right words, images can instantly form in the readers mind about exactly what something looks like. The quote is as follows:

"The godswood there was a garden, bright and airy, where tall red woods spread dappled shadows across tinkling streams, birds sang from hidden nests, and the air was spicy with the scent of flowers."

Now, if that doesn't bring images to your mind, I'm not honestly sure what will...

Game of Thrones First Impressions...

       From the very begining, George R. R. Martin plunges you head first into a rich, fantasy world. Martin does an excellent job of using his words to describe the beautiful and often times, dangerous, lands which the main charcters travel. The characters, by the way are well developed and I found that it wasn't long before images began to form in my head, like a movie that was being played out in front of me, and where the only way to find out what happened next was to read further instead of just sit and watch. I will admit, at first, I  was uneasy to start reading fantasy books similar to the Lord of the Rings series. While I have read the Lord of the Rings books before, I was all too aware of the aweful trend fantasy writers falll into. By this, I mean their insitance on names that are absolutely impossible to pronounce. I mean, who can pronounce the name "Kijjiitwaskialti Forgaburn" correctly every time they happen upon it. Furthermore, who wants to???!!! Such names have, at least for me brought a sense of unease when it came to fantasy books. The Lord of the Rings books were fine because they, while being perhaps the best fantasy series of all time, had easy to pronounce names. Now, when I satarted Game of Thrones, I hand not heard much beyond the fact that it rivaled the Lord of the Rings series and has been hailed by many as surpassing it; being named the single best fantasy series of all time...When I began to read Game of Thrones, needless to say, I was relieved to find that the names were easy to pronounce, at least, I think they are.

What is Viking Death Metal???

Well, I'm so glad you asked!
Viking Death Metal melds lyrical conent revolving around Norse Mythology with the extreme metal genre Death Metal, or most commonly, Melodic Death Metal. Death Metal employs deep gowls from the vocalist, while the guitars play fast, drop-tuned, scales. The drums normally play fast double bass lines with heavy emphasis on the china crash cymbal and the ride cymbal and ride bell.
Death metal varies greatly. the most common sub-genre is Melodic Death Metal, or commonly called Melo-Death.
The most common bands in Viking Metal are Amon Amarth and Ensiferum. Amon Amarth tend to stick with slower, and heavier sounding beat with long, slow vocal growls, where as Ensiferum uses fast thrash metal speeds with low and high screams. Both stand out as exceptional bands that put a great twist to the dulled down Death Metal genre.