Friday Fiction Flash #40- Saturday edition ;)

Amy C at Romance Book Wyrm and Dottie atTink's Place have come up with the idea for a Monday Morning Flash Fiction challenge. Each Monday a new picture prompt will be posted and if you choose to participate - you publish your Fiction Flash  on Friday - 350 words, give or take.

It's been ages since I wrote a flash but this week's pic was so nice and dark that I decided to give it a try:

"Farewell, My Lovely One" by Anachronist

"NEVERMORE" - that's all he wanted to be written on his grave. No name or surname, no dates, not even the simplest eulogy. Why? It was too late to ask but she was sure even if she had asked before he died he wouldn't have explained. Obnoxious, conceited, irritating, beloved man. She sobbed with grief every time she thought about him and the sudden illness which ravaged his body and finished his life prematurely. She was visiting his grave day and night, hoping for some relief and finding none, just crouching by that cold marble gravestone with the mysterious caption: "NEVERMORE" and crying her eyes out.

One night she was sitting by the grave, feeling cold and empty, unable to move, hugging herself and crying hard, when she heard a strange noise. An animal? Some graverobbers or other criminals? Drunkards? Young Goths proving that they were braver than their friends had ever imagined them to be? She didn't care much but the noise was quite disturbing. She raised her head and looked in that direction. It was full moon so she had no problems with noticing a bulky shape walking on two legs,  rather squat and hunched. It keened pitifully.

"Who are you?" she asked, her voice husky from hours of crying.

The creature approached with an unsteady gait.

"Don't you recognize me, my lovely one?"

She gasped. That voice - although distorted and strangely high-pitched, she would recognize it everywhere.

"Amadon?"

The creature half sobbed half laughed.

"Hello, my lovely one. Yes, it's me. Still alive but not exactly kicking. Shuffling rather. I did want to die this time. I really, truly did. I infected myself and everything was going just fine. Now take a look at me. All my efforts, all my sufferings - in vain. The only thing I managed to achieve is a new, ugly body of an ape or a miserable gargoyle. Not exactly fun, don't you think, my lovely one?"


She stood up in a flash, ran to him and threw her arms around his bulky torso, crying again but this time with relief.


"Don't you dare speak like that, Amadon. Don't you dare. I love you, no matter in what body you come, as long as it is still you inside."


"Bloody stupid, aren't you?" he murmured into her chest. He was a head shorter than she now.


She laughed - her first real laugh in months.

"I need your brains to survive - it's obvious. Never leave me again."

"It seems I can't, even if I wanted to."

"We are tied to each other. For eternity."

"It doesn't have to be like that, my lovely one."

"But I WANT it to be like that, Amadon.I want to be with you forever."

"Er...does my opinion count?"

Surprised by his question she stopped hugging him tightly and looked into his dark, shiny eyes.

"Wh...what? You are playing your games with me as usual, right? You can't possibly...Amadon I LOVE you! I will love you forever! Aren't you happy we are together again?"

He nodded, his expression suddenly very solemn and even a bit sad.

"Happy? Oh dear, such a nice girl but so stubborn and stupid. I tried to solve it in a honourable way - I really did. Luckily there is a cure for your kind of illness although there is no cure for me. Farewell, my lovely one."

She didn't feel the knife until it came out of her body. Then she was more dizzy than in pain; the night around her was turning a bit more darker with every second. Her breathing became laboured and shallow. Then she closed her eyelids. She was so tired and heavy and cold...When her body slumped to the ground she didn't feel anything anymore.

"As dead as a doornail, and so quickly" Amadon sighed. "In a matter of minutes. Some girls are lucky."

The Most Fascinating Libraries of the World 04 - Heidelberg University Library

I visited a friend's blog one day and I was literary blown over by a picture of one of the most fascinating libraries around - Trinity College Library in Dublin, Ireland. It also gave me an idea of a series of posts about the best, the most beautiful, the strangest and the biggest libraries there are. The libraries that can make you drool, where you would be able to spend an indefinite period of time without noticing, where you would like to live and die till the end of the world (if they only served coffee and cake that is). Perhaps you can't visit them all but what is the Internet for? I'll try to illustrate my posts as well as it is only possible, providing, I hope, a nice tour for every visitor around. Enjoy!

Heidelberg University Library

Germany´s oldest university library is considered to be one of the best scientific libraries of Germany. She dates back to the 14th century, to the year of the foundation of the Heidelberg University in 1386. The latest university ranking gave her rank two just behind the state library of Goettingen. With more than 1.6 million book lendings and about two million visitors per year the Heidelberg University is even top of the ranking.

The man responsible for   the library's first major extension was Elector Ottheinrich, an avid bibliophile – and the extension itself lasted from1556 to 1559. He donated his Castle library to the university and with this laid the foundation-stone of the Bibliotheca Palatina, which was supplemented by the extensive library of Ulrich Fugger. The Biblioteca Palatina quickly attained world fame as “scholarly Germany´s most precious treasure” and became the most important library north of the Alps.

Nowadays the Heidelberg University Library comprises of 6.02 million volumes. It possesses a collection of 6 600 manuscripts of the 9th to 17th century, going back to the foundation year of the Heidelberg University in 1386. The highlight among the manuscripts is the Codex Manesse, the “big Heidelberg song manuscript”, which originates between the years 1300 and 1340 and is the most voluminous collection of Middle High German poetry, the work of 140 poets. Page-size miniatures are devoted to 137 medieval bards.

Yes, they've digitalized some of those nice Egyptian papyri as well! In full colour!

Source:

http://guideheidelberg.de/article_single.php?lng=en&cid=13&aid=90
http://www.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/Englisch/

Review: Rape Girl by Alina Klein

Book info:

Format: Kindle e-book

Genre: contemporary fiction

Target group: older YA, adult

Synopsis:

It is a story of a teenage girl called Valerie who got raped after a party in her own house by a guy she fancied; it is narrated by the victim herself and it spans a period of several months.

What I liked:

The book was well written but firstly and foremostly I appreciated the fact that all everything rang so true - the voice of Valerie, her reactions and the reactions of people around her. I know it because not so long ago I went through a similar situation in my family, which, unable to keep quiet, I described on myblog,. A short version: my cousin was raped after her prom ball by her date and his older brother who was a designated driver. She simply agreed to stop by their house after the ball and yes, most likely she drank one drink too many but she definitely didn’t want to have sex, let alone with them both at the same time. They chose to understand her otherwise; then they claimed she didn’t fight or try to defend herself (well, she was drunk, right?). It was basically her word against their word. My aunt and uncle decided not to press charges, accusing my cousin that she’d led them on somehow. It was disgusting and harmful.

 Date rapes or party rapes do happen all too often; well, in the case of Valerie we should actually call it a post-party rape but you know the premise: a boy and a girl are having a good time; the boy thinks the girl has nothing against sex so he continues his game although he heard her saying ‘no’. Then the victim goes to the police and all of a sudden it turns out she is the aggressor, not the victim. I am yet to meet a rapist who calls himself so – instead they blame the other part for ‘leading him on’. The excuses are surprisingly repetitive: girls/women don’t know what they really want, they often say ‘no’ meaning ‘yes’, if they don’t scream like a banshee or fight or bite and scratch your face raw it means they agree (and even if they do it the rapist might always claim it was nothing but a kind of foreplay, right?). It’s so easy to blame the victim because, after all, more often than not she does feel guilty, like Valerie in this novel. She shouldn’t have drunk so much. She shouldn’t have stayed that long in bed. She shouldn’t have worn this or that piece of clothing. She shouldn't have organized that party.

Valerie undergoes several stages of a post-traumatic shock: disbelief, self-disgust, aggression, depression and guilt. Then she returns to school and attends a support group therapy so we can know how her situation is perceived by other people: other rape victims, her older brother, her mum, her best friend, Mimmi, and even Adam, the rapist. Who, of course, claims there was no foul play, everything was nice and consensual, he just had the bad luck of having sex with one mean girl who now wants to draw attention to herself and to ruin his future prospects as a Mormon missionary. A classic, don’t you think?

I also appreciated the very realistic outcome of  the lawsuit, which ensued - a spoiler, highlight to read: (the prosecutors had to drop charges against Adam because his buddies testified that during the party Valerie was gagging for it; of course it wasn’t true) and the fact that Valerie found a way to get to terms with the whole situation.

What I didn’t like:

It was too short – rather a longer novella than a novel. I read it in approximately two hours. It ended too quickly.

Final verdict:

One of these books you would like to read before anything bad happens to you or to your relatives, no matter male of female. Boys: if a girl says no, no matter how she expresses it, please always assume she means it and back off. Girls: even somebody you know and like might be a potential rapist. 


ETA: thanks, Rameau, for tweeting me a link to this one!

Movie review: The Social Network by David Fincher

Directed by: David Fincher

Screenplay: Aaron Sorkin

Cast:

Mark Zuckerberg: Jesse Eisenberg

Eduardo Saverin: Andrew Garfield

Erica Albright: Rooney Mara

Sean Parker: Justin Timberlake

Release date: 2010

MPAA rating: PG-13

Synopsis:

It is a story based on facts, telling how Mark Zuckerberg came up with the idea (or rather stole the idea) of Facebook. It really rings true.

My impressions:

This movie might have been very boring. I almost expected some boring parts, you know, it is all about one ugly lawsuit between Mr. Zuckerberg and people he allegedly cheated. Instead, the director partially showed us some flashes from the past and partially told us about the whole issue during a deposition, using also a great soundtrack to emphasize several turning points of the screenplay. The result was interesting, dynamic and fresh.

Mark Zuckerberg, the main character, is presented in a clever way – he is an underdog, a really gifted IT student at Harward who got there because he was talented, not because he was backed by rich parents or good connections. At first you want to cheer for him. BUT. Even in the opening scene, when his girlfriend breaks up with him in a pub (and let me tell you she does it for a reason), you can notice he is too ambitious, vengeful and ruthless to be a positive character. Immediately after the break-up he calls Erica (the said ex-girlfriend) a bitch on his blog, offends her and her family and then he hacks for fun into the sites of different Harward houses and creates the Face Mash - a program which intention was to find the most attractive female student. His first idea, though, was to compare those girls to animals. A lovely reaction, isn't it? 

I don’t know whether it was true but I think it might be - after all good, meek citizens don’t become the youngest billionaires ever - but even if it was false I really enjoyed the complexity of Mark's character. As the story evolves it becomes clear he is a man for whom the end ALWAYS justifies the means - he betrays his only friend (Saverin) when he thinks it can be profitable and generally breaks his word several times without any great pangs of conscience. Ok, maybe he is not exactly comfortable with himself but he never truly blames himself either. He is a genius, isn't he? Even if he steals the ideas of other people he does so only to transform them and create something fantastic and unique, right? He shouldn't be judged like the rest of dumb, unimaginative herd of ordinary men, should he?

The second issue, perhaps a secondary one in this movie but important to me, is an amazing degree of misogyny among those young, influential and educated young men. I was really surprised by the fact that in their humble opinion girls at Harward (and pretty much elsewhere) existed for three basic purposes: to be picked up and shown around, to be bedded or, in case they are not exactly pretty, to perform different tasks you wouldn't like to do yourself. None of the characters in this movie treats any of females in their proximity as their equal partners. None of the females voices any objections either.


The most blatant scene? Mark is choosing his first and most senior employees, like his CFO, and he takes into account only men, present in the room – the two girls, both lovely Asians, who hang out with them at that time are not taken into any serious consideration. When asked what they are doing there he says they do “nothing”, not even bothering to find out what subject they study (as the girls are obviously both students) or what they know. Afterwards we see the Facebook office with men and women working side by side, that’s true, but I got an impression women were there just for these stupid, repetitive, menial tasks no man would bother to do. Once again, I don’t know if this truly abhorrent approach is really prevalent among Harward students but if it is, my commiseration, dear gentlemen, as you try to ignore to your cost half of the humankind. That’s why Zuckerberg’s ex-girlfriend was my favourite character in this movie; she rejected the a*****e and she never looked back even though she's created a profile on Facebook as well.

Final verdict:

A very intelligent and surprisingly entertaining movie which speaks volumes about the Facebook founder, his methods and his real aims. Really recommendable especially if you've ever visited Facebook or have had an account there. It is good to know who manages your personal data.

. 


  

Silent Saturday

Heracleum sosnowskyi Manden - a plant straight from the Soviet hell. Never come close to it, be happy if it doesn't grow nearby.

Common names: Sosnowski's hogweed (GB), Bolševník (CZ) Rundlobet bjørneklo (DK), Sosnovska latvānis (LV), Sosnovsky karuputk (EE), Sosnovskio barštis (LT), barszcz Sosnowskiego (PL), борщевик Сосновского (RU) Bereklauw (NL).

Go here if you want to know more.

Review: The Devil and Preston Black by Jason Jack Miller

Book info:

Form: e-book Kindle format

Target audience: adult

Genre: contemporary fiction

Synopsis:

Life of Preston Black has never been easy but when he reaches 27 everything seems to be going to the devil double fast. He is a musician and all of a sudden his beloved band is falling apart - the drummer, Stu, is being sent to Afganistan and Pauly, his foster brother, decides he’s had enough of drinking and playing covers. Then Preston falls in love with Dani, a mysterious woman from the Czech Republic who works as a translator and, like him, has no family of her own; although she readily offers him a warm bed and a meal when he needs it the most she also starts cheating on him from the very beginning. She turns his life upside down like a force of nature - does she do it because she is from Europe or maybe because she is the devil?

Then he finds in a record store a LP with a very strange and pessimistic song about the devil and Preston Black. He buys the record and keeps wondering – just a coincidence or a pointer leading to his unknown father? Is it the right time to start anew or maybe to cash in the chips like many other more famous and more successful musicians before? Who keeps sending him strange texts from an unknown number? Preston decides to try once again – he sells his old instruments, buys a new, acoustic guitar and heads south to find an old singer who knows the rest of that elusive song and maybe also his destiny. Will the Devil follow him? Who will control his life? Can things go even more wrong? Yes, of course they can. Always.

What I liked:

It was a good interesting story, smoothly told in limited first person. It was gritty, without any maudlin moments - maybe because of that I felt for Preston almost all the time. He seemed so lost and so twisted despite the fact that he just wanted to make a career as an independent musician.  Katy, his other romantic interest, was nice as well – she was such a sweet contrast to that absinthe- swilling, unstable smart-pants Dani.

I also liked the fact that there was no baddie here. The devil was in people, including the main character, bad and good people but mostly ordinary people who tried very hard to be good but still managed only average. Preston, deep in the doldrums  says:

“My life had become a Chinese take-out fortune,  a receipt for a guitar that cost way too much money, a thirty characters text, a name no a faded concert flier stuck to a light pole with rusty nails, footprints disappearing with the melting snow, a black and white picture in a high school year book.”

That’s the start of pure evil – feeling you are worth nothing at all.

I also learned a lot – those different types of guitars were a bit misleading at first (especially that the author uses abbreviations as the characters, mostly musicians, know everything about them) but I googled them and I was fine afterwards. I appreciated the bits about Appalachian folklore as well.

What I didn’t like:

I really resent the fact that there is no cd or at least a play list attached to this book. It is all about music after all,  and nobody is perfect – I knew some of these songs (Metallica, Pink Floyd, the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and of course those ugly, stupid boys from Duran Duran ;p ) but some of them went right above my head and I wish they didn’t.

My last carping: the voice of Preston was good but I would love to hear some words from the mouth of the devil as well. I am strange like that. ;)

Final verdict:

A surprisingly good debut – I  would like to read more!

Movie review: Men in Black 3

Directed by: Barry Sonnenfeld
Screenplay: Etan Cohen
Cast:
Agent J: Will Smith
Agent K: Tommy Lee Jones
Young Agent K: Josh Brolin
Agent O: Emma Thompson
Boris the Animal: Jemaine Clement
Release date: 2012
MPAA rating: PG-13

Synopsis (in just three nifty sentences ;p ):

Boris the Animal, a nasty alien creep, has just escaped from a special prison on the Moon – now he wants to go back in time and rewrite the history. Will he succeed? No, he won’t because Men in Black or, more precisely, agent J and agent K, will stop him just in time.

My impressions:

While it’s impossible to recreate the feeling of originality that made the 1997 MIB so different, the screenwriter, Etan Cohen, and the director have done the next best thing: they’ve created a story that probes the friendship between Smith and Jones and plays on our fondness for the actors in these roles.I was really pleasantly surprised because such a move is not popular among sci-fi films directors, who just seem to think 'action-action-action'. It was subtle in an unexpected way. And you got action as well so it is a win-win situation.

I also loved the sense of humour. Have you ever seen a band of aliens playing bagpipes and singing Auld Lang Syne during a funeral? Or Emma Thomson (Agent O, the new boss) speaking Alienish (even if she was just paraphrasing) ? This movie might be the only occasion! I bet the actors had a lot of fun shooting this one; let me assure you the audience feels and enjoys it as well!

I appreciated such moments when a simple pan or a bottle of mustard sauce (I am not completely sure but the colour was right for the mustard sauce) was as efficient a weapon as any space gun and the characters could not only kick and shoot but also turn philosophical. Really, for a third part of a series it was a very decent movie. Of course it didn’t have the freshness of the first installment and the plot repeated the pattern of the previous two films so yes, no big surprises in this one but still it was really good. It is mainly the performance of the actors which won my heart over – Tommy Lee Jones is really a nice Agent K although you can see he is not so young anymore (110? Maybe 111 but certainly not older ;)) . Well, the best actors are like certain types of wine – the older the better. In this one you also get a younger version of Agent K which is not bad! Emma Thompson was a real asset – I adore this actress, I really do. She is a great comedian and mainly because the characters she plays have a certain warmth I always appreciate very much. She feels real, not like these plastic dolls with tons of make-up, false smiles and silicone…whatever. Whoever decided to employ her in Hollywod made a very good move.

Going back in time, especially the jumping bit, was nicely and intelligently done – the screenwriter managed to avoid most of traps which are faced by authors using such a plot device- and of course moving to the sixties of the twentieth century was a treat in itself. By the way the chocolate milk craving as a side effect of a time warp was hillarious, now I know why I crave chocolate all the time! 

So Andy Warhol was a MIB agent? I always knew there was something shifty about him and his ‘art’- and all models are aliens! I can’t agree more! Finally let me say that I really liked the fact that Agent J didn’t need a girlfriend to keep the things interesting - another intelligent but not so very popular decision taken by the director.

Final verdict:

A nice, funny, relaxing  movie, perfect for a summer evening. Nothing very deep or horribly philosophical but it has its moments - not bad for sci-fi stuff!