Still waiting...
Aug. 21st, 2003 01:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
azuriteWell, Dad postponed the road trip to next weekend. Not too upset, maybe disappointed. I still want to see him before school starts and all, so I'm going up north to see him this weekend anyhow. Taking Golden Gate Transit, so I have to figure out, if I go to RTA, what bus I'll need to catch where... and when. It's leaning towards the Transbay Terminal in the late evening, something like 8 o'clock, but I have an old schedule, so I need to doublecheck-- and get cash for tomorrow. Not to mention-- what do I bring?
Dad was teasing me about Joe too. -.-; I think I have to explain a few things to him, which is never a perfectly appetizing idea... you know, explaining those kind of things to PARENTS? But somehow my dad strikes me as more understanding (!) than my mom.
Oh yeah, finished reading Battle Royale. The full review... is...
Well, at the back of the book, all it says in regards to the translator is "so-and-so is a writer and a translator." That's it. I don't know whether the person mentioned is a Japanese-language native that LEARNED English, and therefore is permitted more leeway with mistakes than an English native, but still...
Overall, spelling and grammar throughout BR warrants a 7 on a scale of 1-10. It was okay, but there were some obvious mistakes that I caught my FIRST time reading a sentence, and they really should have been spotted either in a spell-check or by an editor.
This is part of the grammar-- I noticed frequent shifts in the point of view. I realize that the story is almost entirely from the point of view of the students, and therefore they're not expected to have perfect diction all the time, but we're looking at them as omniscient 3rd person outside-characters-- so there are some points where things should shift, be italicized, that kind of thing.
Also, if you want to point out significant changes-- well, the one things I never understood entirely was WHY the Program was running. Before I'd read the book, watched the movie, or read the manga, I'd heard it had something to do with overpopulation. That doesn't come up in either the book or the movie, so I presume it's either a manga-only theory, or something people were just hypothesizing, and isn't part of the BR story at all. In the movie, the reason why the program is in existence seems to be because of rebellious kids; 800,000 students dropping out of school, exponential rise in crime... and then, all the "bad kids" (and good kids alike) decide they want to stay together for one last "study trip"-- and that's when they find themselves on Okishima.
As for the huge change between the Program runner (Kitano) in the movie, and in the book (Sakamochi), it was WEIRD. Why make it an old teacher... not to mention, why the heck did Noriko lie about being the one to stab Kitano-sensei on his last day of teaching? She wasn't-- she just ended up with the knife. Huh.
Also, the thing with Shogo Kawada *dr00ls* ... What *DID* happen when he was in the Hyogo Prefecture Program? Who was Keiko Okuni? Sakamochi said that though they barely interacted in the game, and Shogo barely spoke to anyone (save to say "Stop!" or "I'm not an enemy!") when he went to the place where she died, he stayed there for two hours. Shogo said that it was because the place was a good place to hide and all-- but the rest of what he said was an utterly transparent lie, so... @_@; I'm stuck wondering. Who *was* the girl in the photo in his wallet (why did he claim to have lost it? Did he really?) -- and if she was Keiko, was it just a "friends" picture, or did he have a serious crush on her...? I don't get it.
The book really fills in some gaps that aren't explained well in the movie, but leaves holes in other places; we only have a short narrative regarding Kazuo Kiriyama, and likewise with Shogo Kawada. Of course, they're not centric characters, but they are the two characters (aside from our hero and heroine, Shuuya and Noriko) that last the longest. Also, the way some characters died (by what and by whom) changed-- the whole "that bitch must die" scene never happened in the book at all-- you know, where Chigusa stabs Niida in... yeah. The Zone. ^^;
All in all, I'd rate the book an 8/10. Good, not great. It makes you think, but leaves you wondering.Maybe it's Viz' fault, but maybe not. Who knows?
Hey, Walgreens recycles batteries! WHOOHOO! We can finally get rid of this huge box of batteries that probably weighs more than I do! YATTA!
>_> 7 loads of laundry, two of them mega-sized, and Joe's nice enough to let me do them at his house, for free. -.- That's nice of him and all, but I seriously feel like I'm exploiting the poor guy (not to mention his parents). Yeesh, I hate to think of all the heat, electricity, and water I'm going to use... maybe I should put a few loads back in my room? o_O
Hey, I have 2755 HiPoints! But there's nothing good to redeem my portfolio for... yet. @_@ Still, the prospect is exciting! Free stuff! =D
I better drag my boombox in here now and get working on the dishes. Mata~
P.S. I had a really weird dream last night again. If I remember it later on, I'll tell you about it.
Dad was teasing me about Joe too. -.-; I think I have to explain a few things to him, which is never a perfectly appetizing idea... you know, explaining those kind of things to PARENTS? But somehow my dad strikes me as more understanding (!) than my mom.
Oh yeah, finished reading Battle Royale. The full review... is...
Well, at the back of the book, all it says in regards to the translator is "so-and-so is a writer and a translator." That's it. I don't know whether the person mentioned is a Japanese-language native that LEARNED English, and therefore is permitted more leeway with mistakes than an English native, but still...
Overall, spelling and grammar throughout BR warrants a 7 on a scale of 1-10. It was okay, but there were some obvious mistakes that I caught my FIRST time reading a sentence, and they really should have been spotted either in a spell-check or by an editor.
This is part of the grammar-- I noticed frequent shifts in the point of view. I realize that the story is almost entirely from the point of view of the students, and therefore they're not expected to have perfect diction all the time, but we're looking at them as omniscient 3rd person outside-characters-- so there are some points where things should shift, be italicized, that kind of thing.
Also, if you want to point out significant changes-- well, the one things I never understood entirely was WHY the Program was running. Before I'd read the book, watched the movie, or read the manga, I'd heard it had something to do with overpopulation. That doesn't come up in either the book or the movie, so I presume it's either a manga-only theory, or something people were just hypothesizing, and isn't part of the BR story at all. In the movie, the reason why the program is in existence seems to be because of rebellious kids; 800,000 students dropping out of school, exponential rise in crime... and then, all the "bad kids" (and good kids alike) decide they want to stay together for one last "study trip"-- and that's when they find themselves on Okishima.
As for the huge change between the Program runner (Kitano) in the movie, and in the book (Sakamochi), it was WEIRD. Why make it an old teacher... not to mention, why the heck did Noriko lie about being the one to stab Kitano-sensei on his last day of teaching? She wasn't-- she just ended up with the knife. Huh.
Also, the thing with Shogo Kawada *dr00ls* ... What *DID* happen when he was in the Hyogo Prefecture Program? Who was Keiko Okuni? Sakamochi said that though they barely interacted in the game, and Shogo barely spoke to anyone (save to say "Stop!" or "I'm not an enemy!") when he went to the place where she died, he stayed there for two hours. Shogo said that it was because the place was a good place to hide and all-- but the rest of what he said was an utterly transparent lie, so... @_@; I'm stuck wondering. Who *was* the girl in the photo in his wallet (why did he claim to have lost it? Did he really?) -- and if she was Keiko, was it just a "friends" picture, or did he have a serious crush on her...? I don't get it.
The book really fills in some gaps that aren't explained well in the movie, but leaves holes in other places; we only have a short narrative regarding Kazuo Kiriyama, and likewise with Shogo Kawada. Of course, they're not centric characters, but they are the two characters (aside from our hero and heroine, Shuuya and Noriko) that last the longest. Also, the way some characters died (by what and by whom) changed-- the whole "that bitch must die" scene never happened in the book at all-- you know, where Chigusa stabs Niida in... yeah. The Zone. ^^;
All in all, I'd rate the book an 8/10. Good, not great. It makes you think, but leaves you wondering.Maybe it's Viz' fault, but maybe not. Who knows?
Hey, Walgreens recycles batteries! WHOOHOO! We can finally get rid of this huge box of batteries that probably weighs more than I do! YATTA!
>_> 7 loads of laundry, two of them mega-sized, and Joe's nice enough to let me do them at his house, for free. -.- That's nice of him and all, but I seriously feel like I'm exploiting the poor guy (not to mention his parents). Yeesh, I hate to think of all the heat, electricity, and water I'm going to use... maybe I should put a few loads back in my room? o_O
Hey, I have 2755 HiPoints! But there's nothing good to redeem my portfolio for... yet. @_@ Still, the prospect is exciting! Free stuff! =D
I better drag my boombox in here now and get working on the dishes. Mata~
P.S. I had a really weird dream last night again. If I remember it later on, I'll tell you about it.
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no subject
Date: 2003-08-21 04:34 pm (UTC)Re: Still waiting...
Date: 2003-08-21 04:56 pm (UTC)Walgreens recycles batteries? I didn't know that. Wait a minute. Which Walgreens did you go to?
Re: Still waiting...
Date: 2003-08-21 05:25 pm (UTC)Re: Still waiting...
Date: 2003-08-21 05:37 pm (UTC)I asked because I wanted to make sure. I remember back in high school when a classmate of mine said that if you remove the stubs from aluminum cans, and collect enough of them to fill a 2 liter bottle, that you would get at least $200 bucks for it. I did just that, but when I went to numerous recycling places in San Francisco, they wouldn't give me a dime for it, and I ended up empty handed. :p
Sometimes those good-to-be-true things just don't work. I don't know. I could be wrong. *shrugs*
Re: Still waiting...
Date: 2003-08-21 10:46 pm (UTC)