Saturday 16 February 2013

Fahrenheit 451

... For Guy Montag, a firefighter. But not the normal kind of firefighter. In the future Ray Bradbury imagines, firefighters don't save houses from fires anymore, they burn them if anyone in them has books. Guy is one of them. He hates book, lives with a wife he thinks he loves. But his life just flips over when he meets Clarisse, a strange girl that still walks home and looks at the tiny things in life, like the taste of rain when you look up and open your mouth or other people. She's seventeen, and is soon run over by a car. But Guy remembers her for ever. He realizes his wife is actually like a stranger to him and starts to hate her.

He continues to burn books. But one day, when a woman burns herself with her books, he manages to steal one. He reads it and doesn't want to burn them anymore. His wife reads it too. We learn the books is not the first one Guy stole. His wife reports to the firefighters that he has a book. Guy has to burn his own house. Guy kills his boss with the flamethrower he used to burn his own house down and also kills a first mechanical dog that is supposed to kill him with poison. Another 'dog' is sent after him to kill him. The war of his country with another begins.

Guy runs away from the mechanical dog that has to kill him and finds people walking along the railway line, that also love books and remember them. Bombs are dropped on Guy's city and his wife is killed. He's not sad and the war is over.

The book ends with Guy thinking that maybe after the war, books would be okay again...

I just loved this book and hope the world will never be like that - and if it will, I'd have been killed straight away because I love books so much. And you?

I keep on thinking about this book and I think it'll just keep on thinking about it until I read a book that makes me think about the future and books just as much as this book. :-(

I also think that what happens in this book could happen, and easily! Would you like a future like that? I guess not. At 451 degrees Fahrenheit, paper burns...

In that future, all the books have been banned. Some have already been banned now, and I know there are good reasons for it, but still... Here is the link for the list of banned books (not by the whole world, but by some governments; plus, I can't know if it's true because it's Wikipedia) : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_books_banned_by_governments
and also, just as an ironic fact, at some point in history, the books Fahrenheit 451 was banned.

Thursday 14 February 2013

Welcome Posts

Just for you to know, this is going to be a post about posts, so it's kind of weird. That's it. You've been warned.

You know how blogs tend to write their first post going: Welcome, people blah blah blah...
Well, I kinda forgot to do that. And I realize that it's also kinda late to write one because I have nearly 2000 view already - today 1957 and counting - so I figured out I'd rather write a post about welcome posts instead of writing one for my blog. But if you'd like to read a welcome post for THIS blog, here it is:

Welcome to THE new cool blog: Ragdolls?Maybe. I've got no idea, or only a tiny one of why I chose that title, but let's not think much of that: listen to what's going to be on this blog: book and movie critics, and that's not all: also stuff about my life on live, which is stuff about my life and random things like ideas, messed up plush toys and more stuff like that!

Well, that was random. It should have been the welcome post to this blog, but it wasn't. Let's just say it's a post about this blog or a post celebrating the upcoming 2000 views of this blog. Well, enough of this. The subject: welcome posts. I've read lots of those, and they're not all good. Some of them think too much about the image of the blog, some of them not enough... But the one thing I know and it's awesome and cool about all of them, it's that they're all original in some way or the other.

Well, if you, the reader, ever start a blog, keep this in mind: don't forget to write a welcome post for your blog or might end up writing in the 22nd or anything post!

I know this is super random, but I just felt like writing that and I think that this blog will keep on being written on, and at least I won't have to write a welcome post when I have like A LOT of views.

Yeah. That's it. And I also hope I'll keep on getting lots of views and stuff. But I'd like to get a comment.

 PLEASE COMMENT ON THIS POST!

Tuesday 12 February 2013

Firmin - or the Adventures of a Metropolitan lowlife.


Firmin: Is he a human? A rat? Well, if you guessed so by looking at the picture you're right. Firmin is a rat.

But not an ordinary one. He is a Reading Rat. Let me tell you his story, which is also the story of the book. Firmin is the 13th out of 13 siblings, and the weakest because he gets no milk. The only way he can survive is by eating the litter on which they have to pee and poo. But this is no normal litter - it's made of books! Firmin, eating books to survive, ends ups learning how to read. He lives in a library.

His siblings go away when their mum dies, and Firmin is left alone. He then sees the owner of the bookstore, Norman and Firmin kind of falls in love with him. But when Norman sees Firmin for the first time, Firmin's happy days at the store are over. Norman tries to poison Firmin and Firmin realizes at last humans hate rats.

So he runs away from the shop, luckily, to be taken as a pet by a nice author called Jerry that loves him but doesn't understand Firmin can read. So Firmin reads the newspapers with Jerry and reads that the square where they live, and the bookstore is, is going to be destroyed. A theater on the same square burns down. Firmin lives on, being loved by Jerry. He goes to the Rialto cinema and falls in love with a human actress.

One day, when Jerry isn't at home, Firmin dies, thinking he is being hugged by the actress. It's pretty sad for a book. But I really loved it, even though it's not the normal kind of book. It's actually super weird, but when you start reading it, you kind of get pulled in and you can't come out until you're finished reading. So, I actually do advise you to read it, because it might become one of your favorites. Especially if you're someone that loves reading. Like Firmin... Except you're human. Or are you?

I wonder if any rats like Firmin are reading this... No, joking. I don't really think rats can read. Well, you never know.

Monday 11 February 2013

Premium Rush

Premium Rush


It's a movie about bike coursiers in New York. They exist in real life. And they deliver messages quickly. There's a bit of an article from www.nydailynews.com:“ The faster you go, the more money you make,” says Kevin Bolger, president of the New York Bike Messenger Foundation. “The money is there, but it’s up to you to chase it.”And with the internet taking business away from the courier companies, the riders are racing to bag what jobs they can.“There’s no way you are going to get something from Point A to Point B faster than a bike messenger can do it,” says Heather Muller, who took second place in the women’s division of the Cycle Messenger World Championships in Chicago this month.“We can move through traffic the fastest — but it does get dangerous.”Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv-movies/wheel-world-real-life-premium-rush-riders-spin-nyc-bike-messenger-tales-article-1.1140273#ixzz2Kao3qAnI
Now about the movie again. There's a bike coursier called Wyley, and he has to deliver a mysterious envelope to the Chinatown side of NY. But in this envelope is the key to lots of money, and a secret... Because the one that asked him to deliver the envelope needs to make her son pass to the USA from China...Wyley gets pursued by a maniac police officer. But in the end, he does manage to deliver the envelope and the son gets delivered to the USA.


I know this is pretty short, but there's not much of a story in that movie, and most of the scenes are just on top of bikes, doing crazy races. And some fights. So... Action lovers, you should watch this.

Life of Pi - The Movie

I already talked about Life of Pi before, if you remember. But that was the book. Nobody knew it, and suddenly it became very fashion, because there was a movie. I got to watch it twice. And I'm going to tell you what I think about it. If you want the story, there it is, but you can also check out the Life of Pi post. The story: http://ragdollsmaybe.blogspot.ch/2012/08/life-of-pi.html - too lazy to copy and paste it.

Well, what I think about the movie is that it followed the story of the book pretty well. Except I think that Pi should have been a bit more skinny. For all of that, I think that the movie is super well done, with lots of special effects. To learn more, check the website out: lifeofpimovie.com

I really liked the movie and I think you should see it, because it's one of those rare movies that actually follow the story of the book and manage to add stuff in that makes the movie very interesting to watch even to those who have read the book and/or have seen the movie already.

Monday 4 February 2013

Paranorman


I'm kind of surprised of myself. This is the 3rd post in a day! But when I saw this movie I just had to write a post about it! Basically, if you're scared of zombies you wouldn't be scared of that because it's super funny!

This is Norman.
The movie is about a boy, Norman, who is paranormal. Why? Well, because he can see dead people. He's walking on the street or at his house, and he talks with his dead grandma or a dead person!

His parents don't want to believe him and everyone hates him. But when zombies attack the city, he is the only one to be courageous enough to confront them - and then to become friends with them!

This is now one of my favorite movies!

Check this link out to know more about Paranorman!
paranorman.com

There's also loads of funny and weird scenes like this for example:

No, you're not dreaming. Norman is on a toilet, in a forest, surrounded by zombie toilet paper.

So, are you watching the movie?

I'd like to have Norman's power to talk with dead people! It's super cool.




Norman trying to brush his hair

Norman's sister

Norman Brushing his teeth

A zombie on the windshield

Messed up Plushies




 Were you ever shopping and then you just happen to see the most messed up plushie ever? Well, that happens to me all the time and I'm going to present you a selection of the most horrible ones ever. 

1st Place: A knitted, messed-up Spongebob. Look at his nose! And his teeth! Plus, his feet are completely disproportioned compared to his body. Does he look a tiny bit like the original Spongebob? 


2nd Place: This Red Horse with huge yellow eyebrows and a blue and green rope.  First, does a horse have red skin or eyebrows. If someone has kids and buys them this, they're traumatized for life! It's just horrible! Plus, it has super short legs. 




3rd Place: this Rabbit. Teeth in a rabbit don't go up. His eyes look in different ways. His mustaches are all over his face and if you look at the plush in whole, his body is as not well done as his head. Ugly!


Le Marginal

Finally I have time to write a post! That's cause I'm sick.
Yesterday I stayed up really late watching this old french movie, it's called Le Marginal.

Mecachi
Basically, it's about this police officer who wants to kill a mafiosi that's involved in various drug problems and other illegal things. If you want to know, the mafiosi is called Mecachi and that's him. Belmondo, the police officer, gets into lots of trouble when he drops drugs off a boat into the sea so nobody can get hold of them. Mecachi wants to kill Belmondo. Mecachi's workers two twin-looking brother try to kill Belmondo in his car - but it's bulletproof. So he kills them ! In the end, Belmondo takes another person's gun and kills Mecachi while he is playing billiard. The other police officers ask Belmondo if he knows who killed Mecachi and he says: 'No.' Even though it's him. There's also loads of funny moments and fights. It's a super cool movie!