My Childhood Idols

Tanis Half-Elven sketch

Tanis Half-Elven of the Dragonlance Chronicles (Trilogies). I’ve been fascinated with this character for a long time and his inner struggles between his two halves. It’s interesting to me also because I am a Gemini, I guess Although he’s fictional, I had no one to idolize in real life, and since reading was the only thing I did as a past time, he is the most influential character in my life. Actually, come to think of it, I love all the characters in the DL Chronicles.

Note :

While I was given the option to add a picture, I simply searched online hoping to find a traditional Dragonlance picture of Tanis but wow – it’s really a surprise to see that this old drawing of mine is being used somewhere in one of those fantasy-community-forums. I still have this sketch somewhere in one of my drawing books. He was practically drawn  from pure imagination during my college years while coming up for some themes in my Illustration class. I think I might have done this around 1998 or 1999.

Stoning and Witches

I have not thought of how this should be written, but then again, I promised to write something now and then.

A good and often misunderstood friend of mine made an appointment to have lunch and a movie with me this afternoon, in which I accepted because I needed something ‘light’ to take the weight off my mind. So we watched “The Season of the Witch” in which starred (not-so-favourite-but-tolerable) Nicholas Cage.

I thought it would be one of those historical fiction stories which chronicles the witch hunts during the early dark history of Christianity, but boy, was I wrong. And for that, I enjoyed the movie as it was more to dark fantasy. I would call this movie as ‘light’ despite the gore and violence, plus additional demonic fight scenes, because it was nothing compared to what I saw the night before.

Just last night, I was made to watch “The Stoning of Soraya M.” a movie which is “based on a book by journalist Freidoune Sahebjam, it tells the true story of Soraya, who was accused of adultery in a remote village in Iran in 1986.” I was told I must watch it in order to understand what is really going on.

From the very beginning, I knew it would be a gut-wrenching movie, much worst than any other gory teen flick as this is real and undeniable, and in the words of my encourager : “It’s still happening now.”

A tender scene in which Soraya’s aunt, Zahra supports her

Out of curiosity, I sat down like the obedient child and began the movie. The film is not easy to watch as the viewer would know what would ultimately be the end, but it is the amazing cast of how they portrayed the depths of the human kindness and also the evil within them that is undeniably heart-wrenching because it is all too real.

I told myself that I would not cry over it but in the end, I couldn’t stop the tears from flowing too. The excellent direction of the movie also made it all the more horrifying because the viewer could feel how the characters must have felt.

After the movie, I was treated to poetry and traditional songs in an attempt to soothe my assaulted emotions, and thank goodness it worked.

The Swan Thieves

It’s been a while since I last read a good book. Nowadays, I find myself alternating between books on political thoughts/writings, mind management, Spanish lessons or even history. I have lost the joy of reading a novel, so I am going to start this month, this year with this first book.

Hopefully then, I’ll move on to finish up the rest of the novels I have stacked up waiting to be read.

Kostova’s “The Historian” had made a huge impact on me to make me buy this book without hesitation. There are some good reviews and also lousy reviews regarding this book.

Sure it starts out rather slow and boring, but Kostova’s style told me that I have to take it slow, and read her words, carefully. The other thing is that this book talks alot about Impressionism, and being an art student, I happen to like this movement in art history. The writing has taken on the quality of an Impressionists’ style. Bit by bit, if read up close seems to have no meaning, just like the strokes of the brushes of an Impressionist on his canvas… that the colors and shades have no meaning to it and you would wonder why in the world it is done that way. But when you step back and look at it on a whole, you’ll see the picture and how it has been pieced together so elaborately to make sense.

This book is going to take me awhile but if anyone plans on reading this, they should do so with a relaxed mind and of course, do read up a little on French Impressionism, the arts during that era and also look up the story of Leda and the Swan (Greek mythology).