Rant: Bury Dumbledore!

BURY DUMBLEDORE!

If you haven't seen Harry Potter 7.1 yet, there may be spoilers ahead (though if you read the books, no surprises).

Shame on you, Steve Kloves and David Yates. Shame on you, J.K. Why, oh, why would you even consider the omission of Dumbledore's funeral on film? Are you really telling me that the horribly executed and in poor taste wands-in-the-air moment in movie 6 is all we get as a send-off for one of the most important characters of this series? I hoped you had chosen to open movie 7.1 at Dumbledore's funeral--a fitting choice to give closure to his death and launch the action of Deathly Hallows. No such luck. AND you add insult to injury by dedicating 5+ minutes of screen time to Dobby's death and burial? Nothing against Dobby, he was a good Elf, but you can find precious screen time to bury an Elf and not the Godfather of this story? Shameful. As filmmakers, Kloves/Yates, you should have seized the opportunity to use Dobby's burial scene as a catalyst for Harry to flashback to images of Dumbledore's funeral, seamlessly transitioning the audience and poignantly juxtaposing these images to the final scene of the film. And you, Rowling, you can't stand up to the movie eggheads and insist your beloved fans see your beloved Dumbledore given a proper burial? Shame, shame, know your names.

I can only hope you have the sense to put this scene in HP7.2. To close this series' final screen adaptation without burying Dumbledore would be a huge omission. Fans of the books can forgive a lot, but this is an Unforgivable.

Disappointed,

Bonnie

Going Bovine by Libba Bray

What? Seriously, Printz committee!?! I quit listening to this contrived literati mess half-way through then skipped to the final disc and really didn't miss all that lie between.

This must be a love-it or hate-it book. I hated it. If you loved it, please explain.

Booooo....moooo....booooo. Did anyone on the committee even read Wintergirls???

1* out of 5

Tangent: Twi-rant

Something has been bugging me for quite a while...WHY is Twilight so unbelievably popular despite the fact that it is, well, pretty much crap? I have a theory!

First theory link: I quickly associated Twilight with the SBTBE...what I call the Saved By the Bell Effect. We all watched that horrible, horrible show knowing full-well how horribly horrible it was yet we couldn't look away. Something made you watch.

Next theory link: What exactly is it about the writing that evokes the SBTBE? Could it be the constant use of trigger words...wistful...exquisite...that somehow reprogram the brain? Or the ultra-packaged teenagers (Rosalie=Kelly, Alice=Jessie, Edward=Zach, Jacob=...Screech?)? Which led to...

Final theory link: Aha! The simple-minded, obsessive, angsty, self-involved way Meyers writes (esp. Bella) makes an instant connection with the primal, teenage brain still lingering in even the oldest reader (mainly female, sorry to discriminate). This flips the teenage brain switch, flooding the mind with those hormonal, obsessive, angsty feelings/memories. The reader vulnerable to this literary drug becomes hooked, plowing through book after book only to crash when the supply is exhausted (no New Moon? boo-hoo).

So, whaddya think? Am I onto her or just totally out in left field (during a Cullen baseball game, of course)?

rant out. -B