Remakes bring fresh look to old classics

Remakes bring fresh look to old classics

By Nicole E. Avery
GVL Columnist
3/21/2010

I've noticed lately that there has been a lot of creative tweaking to old classic movies and novels.

Since I am a nerdy bookworm, the first example of this practice that pops up into my mind is the numerous editions of Jane Austen's famous novel "Pride and Prejudice."

There are endless spin-offs to all of Austen's novels but versions of the story of "Pride and Prejudice" outrank them all.

Some center on the fictitious children of Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy while others devote themselves to exploring the sexual relationship between Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy as newlyweds.

Still, turning the romance in Austen's novels into a dirty smut-fest wasn't taken as controversially as the addition of zombie mayhem to the original plot of "Pride and Prejudice." This literary union between Austen and zombies festered into the prequel "Dawn of the Dreadfuls," a novel by Steve Hockensmith, which explores the town of Meryton before the arrival of Mr. Darcy.

Everyone but me, of course, was upset. I appreciated these novels for what they were and found the fight scenes very clever and funny. Reading these books made me want to compare them to the originals, and it became an excuse for me to read the original classic over again.

What is perhaps even more shocking than the revisions of these classics is the fact they're actually good. All of the zombie books published by Quirk Books are quick, fun reads that I enjoy.

Another recent revision was of Lewis Carol's novel, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" into Tim Burton's movie "Alice in Wonderland," which featured the same lovable characters but a twist -- Alice was older and this was her second trip to Wonderland. I saw the movie, and it was fantastically charming and creative, and I did appreciate the very realistic effects of our progressed technology.

The Mad Hatter played by Johnny Depp in Tim Burton's revision tells Alice she "has lost her muchness." Is the face that we are remaking classics a sign that we have lost our muchness?

I don't think we have.

Remaking movies, writing prequels or sequels to novels is just another side of creativity and is really asserting our own confidence that our generation can, if not do it better, at least make it relatable to our own era.

Authorial intent has given way to readers' or viewers' interpretation and expectations. Movies rarely stay verbatim to the book, which has become not only accepted but expected. We trust the movie to explore the "what-if" sections of the book so why not let another author do the same?

Everyone should just relax. No one is banned from reading the original "Pride and Prejudice." The old idea isn't eliminated by the new one.

navery@lanthorn.com

Prejudice -- inherent and learned?

By Nicole E. Avery

GVL Columnist
2/28/2010

This term at Grand Valley State University, I'm taking a class called Social Class Inequality. It's a tough one. The topics are controversial and the ideas are hard to grasp, let alone swallow. I like the class though because it makes me think.

This week we signed up for group projects in pairs and picked from a list different topics. Each topic had two main arguable positions. Many of them caught my eye, but one in particular got my wheels turning: prejudice.

You're thinking to yourself that of course it was. Ideologies of racism and prejudice are at the top of controversial subjects you do not want to bring up at dinner when you're meeting someone's parents.

What intrigued me about prejudice and racism being one of the topics was the two arguable points attached with it -- A: learned and B: human nature. When you're beginning to unpack this loaded gun of an idea, you must first acknowledge that they are two separate branches of the same tree -- they are not the same. Prejudice isn't limited to the confines of race whereas racism is by definition. Ironically enough, even if they are not the same, prejudice can and does lead to racism.

No one would argue racism is not learned by some people. A racist father can lead to racist sons and grandchildren but everything can be counteracted by choice. If the daughter of a racist mother decides she does not agree with the ideologies of her family, she breaks that cycle of thought by exhibiting her free will to not think the way her parents have taught her to think.

What is even more interesting is the idea that prejudice is a part of human nature, and I would agree with that argument wholeheartedly.

From the moment we are born and begin to learn, we are socialized to categorize things.

As children we are trained to match colors and taught the ability to pick out the object from a group of that doesn't belong.

Children are thought beautiful when they resemble their parents and teased that they are adopted when they do not.

Everyone thinks their grandma's cooking is the best even when it isn't and every American proudly brags about their non-American heritage.

There seems to be an innate human need to find meaning in everything and that leads to over-categorizing even the simplest things. Even a silverware drawer is grouped by like objects.

Of course these things aren't bad alone but when they are combined with pride, somehow they get distorted into reasons of why X human is better than Y human or why this quality is better than that and these ideas snowball into full-blown prejudices and racism.

Is it really a stretch from wanting to be in a particular high school group to wanting elevated social status to then thinking you're better than an immigrant or someone who is poor?

No, when you think about it this way it actually make a lot of sense and shows how we are our own worst enemies.

navery@lanthorn.com

Revolutionizing the Publishing Industry

I recently wrote an article for suite101.com about the changes being made in the publishing industry. The EBM or Espresso Book Machine is a printing, binding and distributing station. I was excited to write about this topic after being inspired by my WRT 495 capstone class. We have been discussing Genre Theories and the evolution of print on demand came up in my class. The EBM affects the publishing industry completely. The whole print on demand concept opens avenues for more than just publishers to publish books. We've already seen an expansion of self-publishing through places like lulu.com, but the EBM in away even surpasses norms for the self-publishing author because it always anyone to print any .pfd file from any EBM location. This means small businesses no longer have to spend extra money on books that have a slow turn around, libraries will be able to have more copies of rarer books for cheaper prices, and schools and other educational institutions will be able to offer more resources to their communities. This is an exciting time for the reader and the writer. I hope you like the article, be sure to check out the embedded link because it takes you two a youtube.com video where you can see just exactly how the magic happens. Enjoy!

Espresso Machines are No Longer Just for Coffee

Why I talk about being biracial

Why I talk about being biracial

By Nicole E. Avery
GVL Columnist
1/31/2010

An apology by definition is either a form of justifying one's actions, defending them or an admission of remorse. This column is none of the above but rather a in-depth description of my own writing process.

There has been some annoyance and acceptance from Lanthorn readers about my habitual mention of my biracial heritage in past columns.

There was an assumption in a comment on the Lanthorn Web site that I wrote last week about stereotypes because I was either made to by my editor, I couldn't think of anything else to write about or because I take any possible chance to mention that I'm biracial.

None of these reasons are true.

I make it a habit to read the Lanthorn and other news and if I can, I try to write about something that stirs any kind of emotion in me. If it raises a question in my mind, such as whether or not a stereotype can be seen as positive, I pursue it and try to offer a tangible discussion and possible answer in my column.

There are two other main reasons why I mention my ethnicity in my columns: it is my personal life experience and provides an enriching point of view and insight other people might be interested in because it is different from their own, and out of admiration and respect for my parents. I owe it to them and myself to not be ashamed of who I am.

For me, mentioning my heritage is as natural as telling someone my name and my favorite color. I'm very comfortable with talking about myself and that openness is displayed in my columns when I reference my family, friends, relationships or personal struggles.

In many ways, mentioning the fact I am biracial and talking about the issues that come with being both white and black is therapy for my soul. Talking about who I am helps me accept and understand myself better not only as a writer but as a person. I strongly believe to know myself is to love myself.

When it comes to race I believe it is an individual's choice what they identify with, but it isn't always that simple. Everyone still has to deal and cope with the way they are perceived regardless of whether you are a minority or not.

I could refer to myself simply as being black or African-American and that would be acceptable by the black community and is also commonly done.

If I were in the south even as few as 20 years ago, I would have been considered black even though my mother is white. However, I was raised to identify with both races and that is what I do. To not mention one, for me, is omitting a part of myself and I simply cannot and will not do that.

This is me. Either accept it or don't read it.

navery@lanthorn.com

Enjoy lack of substance in year of the Tiger

Enjoy lack of substance in year of the Tiger

By Nicole E. Avery
GVL Columinst
2/21/2010

This is my year according to the Chinese zodiac calendar and I -- similar to the rest of the people born in '86 -- gladly bear the marks of the tiger.

According to the characteristics of the Tiger sign, I am lively, lucky, resilient and self-sufficed, but there's another Tiger who outshines the rest of us, even though this should by right be our year.

I heard it on the radio Friday while riding on the CV to Grand Valley State University shuttle bus to Kirkhof that Tiger Woods had publicly apologized to his wife and fans for his unsolicited behavior.

The radio personalities of this particular sports channel commented that without being adorned head to foot in sports logos, Tiger was a mere shadow of the man he once was.

Woods had multiple affairs -- how many celebrities haven't had affairs? Mostly the least known and least attractive ones I would presume.

This is old news. Why are we still talking about this? Is it because Tiger checked into rehab and absence has made the fans and paparazzi grow fonder of trying to get the scoop on what Tiger does next?

I love how when men cheat, they go to rehab. When women cheat -- well, let's just say they become labeled in a way that might as well plaster a large scarlet letter on their chest.

It's the curse of the double standard -- and we know it well. Men can do it and woman can only complain about men doing it, and the thrill of celebrity sexual liaisons has enabled Tiger to outshine all other world news even when he isn't in the public eye.

Here's the kicker: it isn't just affairs that draw us in like moths to the flame of bad TV reality shows. It's anything and everything that is without substance or quality. There is just something undeniably alluring about being interested in useless information or personal information about people that doesn't really matter because it doesn't change our daily lives.

I wish I could say we should all stop caring about stupid things that make no sense or do not matter, but I like pictures of cats jammed into infant-sized overalls with funny, phonetically spelled sentences in white bold font stamped on them.

Perhaps these useless things do have a function -- even if it is minute. They do make people laugh, give people something to gossip about and for a moment even possibly engage strangers in conversation when they would have otherwise been glued to their iPods or Zunes.

Overzealously practical people might argue that all time must be spent doing something productive, but I think perhaps we should every now and then leave practicality on the shelf and, for our sanity, do something meaningless.

Life is hard, college is tough and to avoid being stuck in a mental rut people need to idly talk about things that take few neurons to understand.

navery@lathorn.com