Stardust!

I have decided to change the font again...I just realised that it's a bit of a chore to read my posts, what with the minuscule words and mad ravings and etc.

Good news! Neil Gaiman's Stardust is being made into a movie! Yaaaaayyy...I was jumping for joy when I visited the guy's blog recently...his link is here, just added it today. (I know, I don't have a life.)

I loved the book, which was a modern fairy tale with all the old-fashioned goodies. An earnest young man named Tristran Thorn falls in love with the beautiful Victoria Forrester (Sienna Miller will be playing her in the movie) and he makes a rash vow to bring back the falling star they see at that moment in exchange for anything he wants from her. He sets off into Faerieland, but what he doesn't know is that his mother is a faerie. His father Dunstan kept it a secret from Tristran, but when the young lad announced his decision to venture into Faerie to catch the falling star, Dunstan lets him go willingly.

Tristran finds the fallen star easily enough, aided by a leprechaun and a candle (the candle from the old nursery rhyme 'How Many Miles to Babylon?'). The fallen star turns out to be a young lady, but she cannot return to the sky due to her broken leg and Tristran's bind on her.

And then there's more magic, a dead unicorn, a kingdom with many dead heirs and floating ships. Floating ships - even better than the Black Pearl! Oh, and not forgetting three deathless but nevertheless rapidly decaying old hags who plan to kidnap the fallen star for her heart. They need her heart to continue living, you see.

Anyway, read the book. Gaiman is twisted, but he is...better...than J. K. Rowling. Has anyone seen his graphic novel The Sandman? If you have, please tell me more about it! Haven't had a chance to see this in Borders/ MPH/ Times/ any bookshop around here...they seem to have loads of Gossip Girl, though.

Then there was a short story by Gaiman - The Problem of Susan - in which he reworked the ending of the Narnia series into something much darker and dangerous...never mind. Read it if you want to, but if you do, you'll never read or watch Narnia the same way again. That story kinda spoilt the movie for me...shame really.

Last but not the less important: Coraline! One of Gaiman's books for children, but this story should have a warning label over it: CAUTION: NOT TO BE TAKEN IN CASE OF NIGHTMARES. The scare factor is more psychological than horror, though.

The rise of the ego. I have seen tension in 5 Seroja this year...and most of it - don't hammer me for saying this - is due to the egos: inflated, injured and pricked egos. I have a niggling presentiment that more tension will arise soon...but I hope I'm wrong.

On other stuff...what is going on with this hush-hush talk about The Harmony Silk Factory?

Last quote; I can't resist:

Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn't it? It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens up your heart and it means someone can get inside you and mess you up. You build up all these defenses. You build up a whole armor, for years, so nothing can hurt you, then one stupid person, no different from any other stupid person, wanders into your stupid life... You give them a piece of you. They didn't ask for it. They did something dumb one day, like kiss you or smile at you, and then your life isn't your own anymore. Love takes hostages. It gets inside you. It eats you out and leaves you crying in the darkness, so simple a phrase like 'maybe we should be just friends' or 'how very perceptive' turns into a glass splinter working its way into your heart. It hurts. Not just in the imagination. Not just in the mind. It's a soul-hurt, a body-hurt, a real gets-inside-you-and-rips-you-apart pain. Nothing should be able to do that. Especially not love. I hate love.

That was Neil Gaiman, and it was said by the character Rose Walker in the Sandman.

He wasn't wrong.