fredag 31 augusti 2012

Grabben i graven brevid

This post is going to be in swedish, mostly. It's going to be a sort-of review of the book and movie Grabben i graven brevid ("The Guy in the grave nextdoor"). If you want a review in english, check out imdb.com and the users review of the film. Here goes:

Grabben i graven brevid handlar helt enkelt om de kulturkrockar som sker när en väldigt "bonnig" mjölkbonde och en prydlig bibliotekarie träffas och blir kära. Går inte att beskriva det på ett annat sätt.

Jag köpte boken för några dagar sedan boken i en second-hand affär (Erikshjälpen för dem som undrar). Jag är en storbokläsare och det blir minst plågsamt för plånboken att köpa så billigt som möjligt. Filmen hade jag hört talas om innan, men aldrig sett den därav mitt val att köpa boken. Jag skulle ta tåget idag till Kristianstad (låna ännu fler böcker, dock litteratur till skolan) och började läsa då de första sidorna. Katarina Mazetti lyckades verkligen fånga mig från första stund. Den hade en feel-good känsla i historien och jag ville bara få veta mer om hur detta skulle sluta. Dialogen är inte så rapp, men när vi dyker in i karaktärernas sätt att tänka blir det "rappt". Ingen är rädd för att uttrycka sina behov och "säger" som det är till oss läsare. Ännu en applåd för Mazetti! Jag förvånades dock över slutet, vilket var ett ganska öppet slut. Men ändå med hintar om att bonden och bibliotekarien skulle få varandra, fast kanske ändå inte. Boken är definitivt läsvärd och den är inte speciellt lång för dem som inte orkar med trehundra-sidors (ca 190).

Detta triggade igång mig till att se filmen. Självklart fick jag mamma med på det så det sluta med att vi två satt vid tv:n, framför soffan och fnissade som två hormonstinnade tonåringar. Med boken färsk i minnet kände jag igen många scener från vad jag läst bara några timmar tidigare. Dock hade de lagt till en del händelser, tagit bort och ändrat slutet. Från mitt perspektiv gjorde det storyn bättre. Boken i sig kunde vara förvirrande, men filmen gjorde handlingen glasklar; Vilka rörde det sig om och vilka hinder hade de i sin väg mot lycka. En klassisk kärlekshistoria om man så säger. Michael Nyqvist var perfekt i rollen som bonden Benny. Elisabet Carlsson gjorde inte heller en dålig imitation av den prydliga Desirée. Personligen satt jag och fnissade, skrattade, gömde mig bakom kudden varannan minut av pinsamma scener, rangliga repliker och generade kinder. Självklart gillade jag filmen och kände mig mer tillfredsställd av det valda slutet i stället för boken.

Sammanfattning: Vill ni inte läsa? Se filmen. Gör gärna båda. Det ger en annan blick in på karaktärerna och vad de tänker. Jag kunde lättare förstå Bennys situation tack vare att jag läst boken, men annars förklarades det lite dåligt till varför han inte kunde lämna sin gård (I boken dog hans pappa när Benny var ung och därav fick han axla ansvaret).
Läs boken, se filmen. Det är en underhållande historia som aldrig tröttas ut.

4/5

onsdag 29 augusti 2012

The boy who lived

Heads up: This post is going to be most about Harry Potter. Who am I kidding? It's all I'm going to talk about. If you're not interested to get scarfaced, then I propose you close the window right away.
Oh, and I might give away details. Don't read if you don't want spoilers!

Where to begin... My first encounter with the phenonemon Harry Potter, I was nine years old. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's stone was running the cinema. My dad, brother and me went to see it. I don't remember what my actual feeling was during the film, but I do remember that it intrigued me to read the book. My brother was one step ahead and had already read the first three books. I gave the book a shot and read about fourteen pages before I gave up. Don't get me wrong, I love to read but somehow the book didn't capture my interest and it got shelved again.

The year was 2002 and the Chamber of Secrets arrived. As I actually liked the first movie, I went to see the second. I've never liked the basilisk and all of this The chamber is once again opened. That movie was terryfying! After this I decided to give the books a second try. Somehow I managed to plug through the first one and it got really interesting as I also remembered sequences from the film. When I got to the third book, Prisoner of Azkaban, I remember I was curious because this was the first book I didn't have a clue of what was going to happen.
At the time my brother had bought the first five and the waiting for the sixth and seventh book was nervewrecking. I plowed through the first five without a hazzle and got dragged into Harry's many adventures. When the seventh book came out (and I finally got to read it once my brother had finished it), I held it like it was the freakin' bible! I mean, this was holy to me. This was the ending of an era. The war that's been going on since the first book; how to defeat the evil dark lord, Voldemort.
As a noble Hogwartian-fan you should think to read the book carefully and plow through every word with carefulness. Bullshit! I plowed through that piece of crap (Sorry!) in a week and didn't even remember half of what happened. Oh god, how I detest myself for that.

When the final movies came out I remember how everyone was talking. It was a bit fun, because for those who hadn't read the book they didn't have a clue of what was going to happen. I went to see the sixth film with a friend, who hadn't read the books, and just waited for her reaction when Dumbledore died.
My point is when I decided to re-read the books. It was when I'd seen the movies over and over again and couldn't even remember the books. The books that got me hooked. My "twin-sister" kept making references to the series and how it didn't fit with the films. So I grabbed bok nr 1 and started all over again. This was about a month ago. This time I went through every word with care and got surprised how many small details and hints that were made for different characters or things that werent properly introduced until a book or two later. This is what amased me the most. The details, their lives. I admire J.K. Rowling for creating such a world and how she spent fiften, almost twenty years, to build this world. And I can't get my grip on why someone didn't even thought of this before? I mean, the story is not original. You can easily draw the lines to other famous stories. Switch the wands to swords and you've got a typical medieval battle. How on earth hasn't someone come up with this idea before? I don't get it. Wizards and witches is a concept that has been around for hundreds of years. I won't sit here and wonder how she even came up with the idea for the books.
The details, the characters, the stories. My favourite part is when the story isn't centered about some mystery they need to solve, but the ordinary life of a wizard. What emotional conflict they have and so on.

I will try to summon this up or I can just keep going and going. The reason to why I needed to write this down was because I finished the last book, like 30 minutes ago. I needed release for all the thoughts in my head. I've never bothered about the ending before. I know many of HP-fans don't like the "All is well.". First time I read it, didn't bother me so much. All was well; what more was there to say? Voldemort was gone and hadn't been around for nineteen years. But now, when I read it again. Yeah, it bothered me. It felt like it was more to it. The story wasn't over. Ron, Hermione, Harry along with the others had more to tell us. Their lives wasn't over.
I texted my "twin" earlier in a desperate manner to make her calm me down. "I've lived with this world for a month! I can't believe it's over" I wrote. Her answer made me smile:
"It's far from over. That world will always live on"