The true myth

Books are extremely important to me, and they have been ever since I learned to read.

When my parents taught me (and my twin brother, Daniel), we took to it slowly, like a nervous cat testing the water. It took a while to get my brother and me interested in reading - for a long time, we were content being read to before bed.

But as my Dad has said numerous times since: "Once you started reading, you didn't stop."

As I started to read, I began to devour books so fast that my parents could not stock my bookshelf fast enough. So, I would re-read books over and over again, until the new shipment came in.

At school, I would plead with my parents to purchase a bunch of books from the book order forms for me, take books out of the library by the cartload and purchase books at the bookstore every time I was within running distance of one (which was often).

The more I read, the more I wanted to continue reading. I loved the escapism inherent to being transported to another world or life, the "a ha!" moment of a mystery novel, the well-crafted pun, etc. I became a reading machine.

In fact, I started reading adult books long before anyone in my class moved beyond The Babysitter's Club and Goosebumps. My very first adult book was, naturally, Jurassic Park. And the books only got bigger and more complicated - such as Clan of the Cave Bear, Stephen King's It and more. I started to experiment with different genres, narrative styles and themes, but always returned to two types: horror and science.

I relished the challenge of trying to understand what was going on in the universe that was created within my mind, and I honed my reading skills to the point where I became an extremely fast reader.

My passion for the written word could explain why I decided to go into journalism and why I am currently working on two very different novels and a short story in my spare time.

But it was not until university, where I took an English class on a whim, that I really learned what it was to investigate literature.

In that class, all about Gothic literature (naturally), we explored three types of horror stories - vampires, werewolves and witches. We carefully dissected one of my favourite books, Dracula by Bram Stoker, and the hidden literary agenda slowly began to unfurl. Suddenly, a red flower was not simply an ornamental thing, but it served a purpose. The random encounter with a character was part of a greater plan. The path of the hero was written out long beforehand. And while the characters, events and situations differ, a large majority of stories shared a similar structure - known as "The Hero's Journey" (or the "monomyth").

I've been wanting to write something about "The Hero's Journey" for a while, but could not think of a "novel" way to do it (if you'll pardon the pun). Then, I found a video on YouTube, and I realized that I could not do it any better, or in a more original way, than this video did with puppets.

It's more common than you think - from Star Wars to the French Connection, from Harry Potter to Happy Gilmore. Watch and see!

Update and recent movie reviews

HELLOOOOO EVERYONE!

First off, I would like to apologize to everyone for not writing anything for so long. Once I was done at York, I relaxed, went on vacation to Vegas and started work, I got side-tracked. BUT, I'm going to now try to update it as much as possible.

So, to begin, an update in the David-verse:
I found a place in Ottawa! It's just a room in a house with a nice man who rents out the room to students. The move will be taking place August 31st I think... so, anyone who wants to host a farewell party... keep that in mind ;)

Other than that, work is keeping me exceptionally busy and exhausted simultaneously. That being said, it's better than a few of jobs I have worked in the past :)

Let's start with some movie reviews, shall we?
X-Files: I want to believe
I was excited for this movie, because I was a fan of the series back in it's heyday and I possess all the DVD seasons. Therefore, I was expecting more than was delivered. HOWEVER, it was still an enjoyable movie and you do get a few drops of interesting information about what has transpired in between the end of the series and the beginning of this movie. I would have enjoyed a more paranormal story, as opposed to the human monster variety that was presented. But, it was still great to see Mulder and Scully once again.... and I hope they keep making more!

Wall-E
Fantastic animation, heart-warming story, great characters. It's no Finding Nemo, though

Iron Man
I LOVED IT so much that I saw it twice. It was everything I expected a more. Amazing, funny, action-packed... SEE IT!

The Dark Knight
As much as I anticipated Iron Man, this movie eclipsed it. I bought tickets ahead of time and counted down the days until I could see it. It is a rare occasion where a movie actually exceeds my expectations and the hype surrounding it, and this was one of those movies. Christian Bale was good, Aaron Eckhart gave a great performance and Maggie Gylenhaal did a respectable job... but none holds a candle to the fabulously transcendent Heath Ledger. Forget Jack in all of his brilliance... this is now the Joker to me. He stole EVERY SINGLE SCENE HE WAS IN, and I could not take my eyes off of him. He was deliciously evil, beautifully acted, amazingly portrayed, and as mad as a hatter. I HOPE he is nominated for an Oscar and would win, as he definitively deserves it, based on the current movie crop I have seen so far this year. I heartily recommend everyone to see it and it my favourite movie I have seen this year bar none. ALL the rest of the movies I see this year will stand up to this, and I doubt any will even be close to it.

Well, that's all for now, but I have many ideas for posts and I will do the next one ASAP.

Cheers!