Imagining books and music in quirky and creative ways
Brahms Waltz No. 3, Op. 39
(Brass version)
The music is slightly creepy and mysterious as Dorian flits around at parties, acting and sounding like the perfect gentleman (especially as the sound gets brighter). But there have been rumors about his horrible actions that leave people unsure of him…who is this man, really??
Missed the last one on Peter Pan? Here it is!
My Idea: The world is ending. Every superhero has been vanquished, every villain triumphant. Until…
Ms. Marvel appears on the scene. She embodies the best traits of every hero before her, making her the ultimate superhero: the strength of Hulk, the fierce loyalty and endurance of Captain America, the sneakiness of Black Widow, the leadership of Thor, the flight of Iron Man, and the archery skills of Hawkeye. But faced with the nameless power now decimating the city, will she be enough?
Goodreads Summary: “From the moment Kamala put on her costume, she’s been challenged. But nothing has prepared her for this: the last days of the Marvel Universe. Lucky she’s got the help of Carol “Captain Marvel” Danvers! Between Continue reading “Judging the Book By Its Cover: Marvel Edition”
“Tip of My Tongue” by The Civil Wars makes me think of Jane and Mr. Rochester. A love song in the form of a duet, tinged with mystery…
From Jane Eyre, spoken by Mr. Rochester to Jane:
“When you came upon me in Hay Lane last night, I thought unaccountably of fairy tales, and had half a mind to demand whether you had bewitched my horse: I am not sure yet.”
Yay or nay?
I bet Vronsky and Wickham would have been friends.
They’re both ladies’ men.
They’ve both gone after high-society women (Anna and Georgianna—hey, their names are even similar).
They’re both soldiers.
They both end up in not the happiest of situations (married to Lydia and trying to get himself killed in the Servian war, respectively).
I can just picture them both sitting in a bar, good-naturedly arguing over whose woman is better while simultaneously complaining about said woman and swapping war stories. Two peas in a pod.
What other literary characters do you think would get along well?
Bananagrams is kind of like Scrabble: you race against other players to get rid of your letter tiles by making words. But do you ever feel like a cheat when you find yourself using the same words over and over again or making a lot of three-letter words? Well, I do, and as a result I tend to look for crazy words even if it takes extra time, just because it’s fun! Here are some of my favorites that I’ve found and that I suggest to any of you Bananagrams or Scrabble players if you’re in a word rut:
Pilfer
Regicide
Lexicon
Sphinx
Squid
Fastidious
Sanitize
Grenade
Magi
Briar
Bonus! Even those these words are fairly simple and short, I love them:
Poof
Crib
What are some of your favorite words?
Whether it’s heartbreak or true love or “girl power,” we tend to say the same types of things over and over again through music. But have you ever heard two songs that really struck you as fundamentally similar? Ones that seemed to have the same message, even if communicated slightly differently? Sometimes music is similar in both meaning AND mode, yet that doesn’t make one or the other superfluous, at least in my experience.
I was thinking about this idea recently after watching the Christmas movie, “Elf.” I noticed that Frank Sinatra’s “You Make Me Feel So Young” (as heard in the movie) has a similar message to…well…One Direction’s “Act My Age.” While Sinatra’s song talks about feeling younger than normal because of a girl, the modern boy band’s song states that in the future they will feel as young as they do now.
But this one line in Sinatra’s song particularly Continue reading “Similar Songs Across Time: Elf and Boy Bands”
My Idea: Is it inconceivable that a love for the movie “The Princess Bride” could result in love between two people?
Apparently not.
Told from a third-person perspective, Wren’s novel alternates between following Adam and Elle as their knowledge of the movie subtly influences their actions and movements in various ways. Ultimately, they both meet in London where they fall in love, invoking the question: how much can a single inanimate object truly influence our lives?
Goodreads Summary: “When Ozarks native Hatty goes ‘whole hog’ during karaoke, she catches the eye of Prince John. He isn’t what she expects the heir to a small European nation to be: he’s affable, witty, and isn’t put off by her tell-it-like-it-is demeanor. Their flirtation should be short lived, but a force stronger than fate—Hatty’s newspaper editor—assigns her to cover the royals. After spending time together, she and John soon begin dating, and Hatty finds herself making headlines instead of writing them.
But challenges loom that are even more complicated than figuring out how to Continue reading “Judging the Book By Its Cover: Fate and the Princess Bride”
Classic literature is great. But have you ever wondered what would happen if two of history’s greatest stories were combined into one like some incredible atomic fusion?
Well, I have! Here are some of the ones I’m dying to read:
Alice’s Adventures in 1984 (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland + 1984)
To Kill a Frankenstein (To Kill a Mockingbird + Frankenstein)
The Great Jane (The Great Gatsby + Jane Eyre)
The Secret Women (The Secret Garden + Little Women)
Sense and a Mockingbird (Sense and Sensibility + To Kill a Mockingbird)
What book mash-ups would you read?
Your questions about limericks are hereby answered.
Fun facts about the limerick, the five-line comic poem whose origins are shrouded in mystery
1. Nobody knows for sure why limericks are named limericks. There have been numerous theories put forward for why the five-line verse known as the ‘limerick’ is so named, but none of them is conclusive. The name ‘limerick’ was first applied to the five-line form in the late nineteenth century, and one theory holds that comic verses once contained the line ‘Will [or won’t] you come (up) to Limerick?’ But although the poems are almost certainly named after Limerick in Ireland, whether this is the true explanation of the name’s origin remains unproven. One thing’s for sure: the limerick, unlike the sonnet or other poetic forms, seems to be a peculiarly English form. It has even been described by Brander Matthews as perhaps the only original verse form in the whole of English literature. (Or is…
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Schoenberg’s Suite for Piano, Op 25: IV. Intermezzo
This is like the ticking of the clock inside the crocodile. It seems unthreatening, and to most of the pirates it is—but not to Hook. He is terrified because he recognizes that crocodile as an overhanging and absolutely terrifying threat to him. In return, the creature plays with his fear by pretending to leave or feigning harmlessness, but Hook knows better and feels only an increase in terror. Though it finally leaves, Hook is still nervous as he never knows how far it’s gone, or when it will return, or if it will lose the clock inside of it that warns him of the impending danger…
Can you hear Hook’s fear? Do you hear something else?
You can also discover Classical Music Stories about The Great Gatsby, Wuthering Heights, and more.
If Mermaids Wore Suspenders 