I wonder...

...if Henry Selick hates Victoria Beckham.

The past few evening we have been watching Coraline, an adaption of Neil Gaiman's children's book, and it hit me, that as soon as "The other mother" gets mad and does not look like the real mother, she immediatley becomes... Victoria Beckham.

You know, the bob, the skinny waist, the thin arms and the bony face.

Victoria Beckham...

...and The other mother?

I even wonder if those sunglasses she wears almost all the time could count as button eyes?

P.s now when I was looking, I even found this picture!

Good Omens - Gaiman/Pratchett

I was just going to put a suggestion in here for a book, that I haven't read in ages, but that is so incredibly amazing!

The books is written by Neil Gaiman (the dark and gloomy world view) and Terry Pratchett (writing very fun books), and at first, I was thinking that the combo was, for sure odd, but a bit intriguing. I was amazed how very well executed the books was!

For anyone who has seen the film Dogma (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120655/) from 1999 with Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, you will sort of get the idea with the book. They are not extremely similar, but, some bits are.

Plot

Aziraphael and Crowley... An angel, and a demon, a part of the Great Plan. Both have their own mission and this unlikely friendship which has became trough thousands of years of spending time together, has made them look out for their others, not ruining to much for each other.

Anti- Christ is born.

(that's mostly Crowley's fault)

Armageddon is coming.

Soon...

As soon as next saturday.

The Four Bikers of the Apocalypse are on their way and Aziraphael and Crowley tries to solve the problem, as they have became fond of living on earth. So the idea is to kill Anti-Christ, it's just... He seams to have been misplaced!

Opinion

What's interesting is that, to understand this book, you have to assume that, all Christian beliefs and values are true. If you do not set your mind to that stage, you will most probably think the books is silly and weird and hard to understand.

The books is rather "jumpy", just because a chapter ends in a way, does not mean the next start even closely similar! At the same time the book is thick, but it is so worth it to read trough it, and (just as with the Watchmen comic) the more times you read it, the more you get, the more jokes gets funny and so on.

The story is hilarious, and, you can really see (well, read) that Pratchett have been a part of it, but it seams like Mr Gaiman has once again managed to do a book based on religion (other books with the same theme from him is for example American Gods, Anansi Boys and Odd and The Frost Giants http://aiki-samurailady.blogspot.com/2011/02/bit-inspired.html)

Seriously, if you haven't read it... Do it! It's sooooo worth the time and effort if you like fantasy!

A bit inspired

Well, studying religion this semester, and right now, Old Scandinavian religion, I had to re-read the book "Odd and The Frost Giants" by Neil Gaiman.

It is not a very long book, you read it in a few hours, but you have that Neil Gaiman feeling from the first page to the last.

Odd and The Frost Giants

Plot

The books protagonist is Odd, a (looking at the name, Neil is most probably inspired by the Norse and Norwegian names) boy who lives with his mother in Norway in ancient Scandinavian times.

Odd was crippled as his right leg had been injured, but he still moved away from his mother. In the woods (where he lived in his fathers old woodcutting cabin) he met three animals, a fox, a bear and an eagle. The animals brings Odd on an adventure trough the cold and ice Norway. The creatures turn out to be Tor, Odin and Loki, three of the most famous gods from the Old Scandinavia myths and legends.

Opinion

The book is cute, very suitable for one familiar with Old Scandinavian religious myths and believes. You can see the fun, but still dark and serious side of Neil Gaiman in the book, and it reminds a lot about other books he has written (Anansi Boy, American Gods for example). It is not a genuine "this happened" but it has many elements know, like the gods fights with the giants, nicely woven together with Odds daily life. This is not really uncommon in ancient beliefs with gods associating with humans. You can really see that Gaiman knows very much about this.

Read it if you can! If you are a teacher in religion or something, get your students to read it!

Picture found on:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51t-H6ss1hL._SL500_AA300_.jpg