Thursday, October 27, 2011

Sorry Everybody

Sorry for leaving you guys hanging. Haven't had much time to write posts.

For a brief catchu-up, my art professor hated my animation, hated the first copy of my t-shirt project, and kind of hated my final product for the t-shirt project. In every other class, everything is going well.

On a personal note, my boyfriend and I have made the decision to go on a break. Very dramatic. Facebook statuses were changed. It is something that I feel has been coming for a while now, but I think that we both need to discover our individual paths first before we can even consider being a couple again.

Anyway, to assure you all that I am okay, I just want to keep you up to date on what I am currently reading. As a continuation of the short story binge, I am currently reading Ancient Enchantresses edited by Kathleen M. Massie-Ferch, Martin H. Greenberg, and Richard Gilliam.

The book is a collection of short stories written about and from the viewpoints of 19 sorceresses and enchantresses from around the world. These powerful women include Echo from the tale of Narcissus, and Nimue from the Arthurian legends. Each is written in a different style and from a slightly different viewpoint. These women are wonderful, powerful, and sassy in their own right, and are wonderful examples of strong women.

I will give you all a full review when I have finished the book. Looking forward to it!

Friday, October 21, 2011

Androgyny Pt.2

This is a follow-up on the Androgyny video and my teachers' less-than-pleased response to it. As far as I can tell, the professor hated the video. Honestly that should not be an enormous surprise to me, but it still was quite unpleasant. Of course, this rejection was emotionally compounded by the fact that I had gone to bed at 5 in the morning because of this project and was artistically wiped out.

Anyway, please tell me that I am amazing, because my self-esteem needs it right now.

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Androgyny

Androgyny is a short, 10 second animation that I finished for my art theory class. The wonderful part is that I stayed up until 5 in the morning finishing the damn thing. It is not as clean-looking as I wish it would have been, but considering the time constraints and the fact that I lost the work I did a week ago, it is better than it could have been.

The video is essentially a commentary on the loss of femininity, especially in the workplace, but also in society at large. We see models with boyish figures, and women are encouraged to "grow some balls". Masculinity is emphasized in any patriarchal society, but today it seems that we are encouraging women to obtain masculine features at the cost of what is feminine. This is done often with the premise that women and men need to change in order to become more equal in society, but I see very few men taking on masculine traits for the cause.

In this video, the opening scene shows a woman with short hair and bound breasts holding a sword. She turns to the audience and drops the sword, a symbol of masculine power, and it disintegrates, representing a loss of power. She also loses color, representing a loss of passion and personality. She blinks her eyes, and as they close, she begins to disintegrate as well, representing the loss of value associated with loss of masculinity or (often at the same time) loss of power. Only the eye remains, representing the third eye concept, and the idea of spirituality that is closely associated with women. The eye opens and the same woman is there, only a nude bust in full color, set against a lavender background. She flips her long, feminine hair, which begins to turn progressively darker shades of red, until it turns completely black. The background and her green eyes also begin to darken, an ominous symbol for future misfortune. A sword comes out of the background, again a symbol of masculinity, and cuts her hair as she closes her eyes. When she opens them again, her hair is short and her eyes are red, both symbols of masculinity and power.

The video is set to Eluveite's Gobanno, which is one of my favorite songs by the band for the deep wordless vocals of the male singer and the trilling voice and lilting flute lines. 

Hopefully I get a decent grade for this project, because I may cry if I don't.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Facebook and Dorm Life Do Not Mix

One of the things I have learned from living in a dorm is that you should never ever EVER leave your computer open and unattended while your floormates are still in the room. Your computer will not be stolen or defiled or broken, but your reputation might.

I was working on an animation project for class when I started to hear giggling from my fellow floormates. My computer had been open in preparation for the compilation of all my hard work from the past few weeks, but I had not logged off of facebook. The next thing I know, my status has been changed to "POOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP! :)" and I suddenly like "Surprise Butt Sex". Not only did that completely freak out my poor father who had just logged on to facebook after weeks of ignoring social networking, but it annoyed me, who is in the middle of what will possibly be an all-nighter.

So now, as I am recovering from a bad social networking experience that also managed to increase activity on my profile by about 400%, I am doing repetitive scanning of a project that has haunted me for the majority of 3 weeks. Animation, especially hand-drawn animation, is possibly the most tedious, most rewarding experience I have yet encountered.

Snow White, Blood Red

Snow White, Blood Red is a compilation of adult versions of fairy tales edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling. The stories are written by acclaimed writers of fantasy, science fiction, and horror, and include such names as Charles de Lint, Neil Gaiman, and Jane Yolen.

I must say, as a lover of anything relating to fairy tales, this book was an absolute dream to read. The stories range in length anywhere from 2 to 30 pages, and are separated by title pages including a short description of the author and an introduction to the story. The stories each involve fairy tales, some famous and some very obscure, in very different ways. Some, like Like a Red, Red Rose by Susan Wade, are written very much like the fairy tales we were read as children, in that somewhat distant, dreamy tone, while others reapply the same story to a more modern or even futuristic setting, such as Tanith Lee's Snow-Drop. In a few stories, like Grahan Wilson's The Frog Prince and Charles de Lint's The Moon is Drowning While I Sleep use the fairy tale portions in dream sequences, more strongly identifying them as subliminal and archetypal stories.

I will admit that some of these stories were a little difficult to get through, and there were a few that I found to be very disappointing to the point of regrettable. Despite these few lemons, the majority of the stories were wonderfully written and deliciously dark. My favorites by far were The Moon Is Drowning While I Sleep by Charles de Lint, The Changelings by Melanie Tem, Troll Bridge by Neil Gaiman, A Sound, Like Angels Singing by Leonard Rysdyk, Puss by Esther M. Friesner, and The Snow Queen by Patricia A. McKillip.

Overall this was a wonderful addition to my library, and will be revisited quite often.

Writing: 8
Immersablility: 7
Re-Readability: 10

Greetings and Salutations

Hey this is Tia, with her first post to Sincerely, Book Fiend.

Just to start off I will tell you a little bit about myself, although you probably don't care too terribly much.

I am an art and biological science major hoping to one day attend graduate school for medical illustration, and after that, *fingers crossed*, get a job as an actual medical illustrator.

As the title of this webpage suggests, I am an avid reader of everything from history to science fiction, from comic books to anatomical coloring books, from magazines to web articles. My favorite genres of books include science fiction, fantasy, and historical fiction, although i am always up for a good comdey or Greek play. I am in love with nonfiction in general, but I read mostly books about social issues and religion. Right now I am on a bit of a feminist streak, having just bought Starhawk's Truth or Dare, and Walker's The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets and The Skeptical Feminist. I also love comic books, and my two favorite series are Fables (I just finished the Volume 4) and Y: The Last Man (Which I have read in it's entirety). Although I am not a huge fan of manga, Godchild is by far my favorite.

If you ever find yourself in a situation where you need to buy me a present, here are the rules when buying me books:
1. Do not buy anything by Starhawk, Barbara Walker, or Judika Illes. Chances are, I probably have it.
2. Anything involving fairy tales or myths is a big YES.
3. Anything involving vampires or werewolves, especially in combination, is to first be read by you to make sure it is not some sappy, poorly-written crap *cough Twilight cough*, so that I do not tear my eyes out in sheer agony.
4. Comic books with interesting art, interesting stories, or involving anything Victorian-themed are a go.

Anyway, this site is mostly meant to update my family on what is going on in my life, but it is also for me to talk about books I am reading or have read and would like to talk about. I find that doing this is the best cure for a bad ending.

Hope you enjoy my posts (and if you don't, please keep it to yourselves.)