"Mirrormask" by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean

"Mirrormask" (2005)

Written By: Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean

Illustrated By: Dave McKean

Source: Personal library

Website: Mirrormask


Synopsis: Helena Campbell is 15, the young daughter of entertainers whose lives revolve around a travelling circus. Although raised in the circus, Helena often dreams of leaving and joining what she calls the "real life". Joanne, Helena's mother, falls ill one night, after a fight with Helena, who now believes she is to blame for what happened to her mother. On the night of Joanne's surgery, Helena dreams of a strange world. The White Queen has fallen ill, and Helena is being blamed for it. A Princess who looks exactly like Helena has stolen the Charm (whatever that is) and the only way to make things right again is for that Charm to be retrieved. Helena goes on a quest to find the Charm, which turns out to be the Mirrormask. But before she can get to it, Helena meets strange characters (a man named Valentine who doesn't want to be a waiter), is captured by the Shadow Queen, and eventually meets the Princess, who's a mirror image of her, and who is bent on taking over her life.

Favorite Quotes

"Listen to those kids there", said Mum. "They all want to run away and join the circus."
"Let them," I said. "I want to run away and join Real Life."

Real-life Connections
"Mirrormask" (the movie) has been shown in selected theaters in the US and was received with varying reviews. Most people who aren't familiar with the previous collaborations of Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean probably would not immediately take to either the book or the movie, but those who are fans of their work will love the book. It actually feels more like a graphic novel, only easier to read, in my opinion. I haven't seen the movie, but if it's anything like the book, then we are all in for a treat. :)

Insights
Most of "Mirrormask", I believe, is an allegory, describing parallels between the struggles of Helena in the real world and in her dream. Just when I thought she has managed to escape the trials of her own Real World, she is plunged into another, with a different set of challenges, but with the same lessons to be learned. The challenges take on a more appealing guise, but does that make them easier to overcome? I think not.

Review
"Mirrormask", though following the "Alice in Wonderland" route that "Coraline" also took, feels a lot more surreal than "Coraline" was for me. Although Helena met her other self in much the same way as Coraline met her Other parents, Helena's Other World was fantastical, while Coraline's was just a mirror of her real world. The writing style is signature Gaiman, but when combined with McKean's art, it becomes almost like a graphic novel, with the art supplementing the reader's own visualization of the world being described. Somewhere along the way, the story became a little too weird for me, I admit, but that happens to me almost everytime when reading something of Gaiman's, so I am not surprised. I guess my imagination isn't up to par with his. :p

Rating (out of 5 dreamcatchers)

catch!

Thank you, Sister C! I am now well equipped to do some dreamcatching! :D

A Hundred-Word Interlude, Episode 2

I was doodling in the PHP GoF guestbook yesterday, and wrote this hundred-word Harry Potter fanfic (slightly edited version posted here) on one of the graffiti pages:

Bill Weasley walked into the chamber, stopping in front of the wooden double doors set into the wall at the far end of the room. He could feel something powerful emanating from it, probably a powerful curse cast by a wizard long ago. The Curse Breaker reached for the knob and pulled the door open, gaping at the sight that greeted him --- a land wrapped in a blanket of snow. A foot in midair, about to step into the door, he stopped.

“Hey! This is Narnia! Who put me in this fanfic? I didn’t ask for a ruddy Wardrobe!”

Ah, boredom. :p

"The Penultimate Peril (ASoUE Book the Twelfth)" by Lemony Snicket

"The Penultimate Peril" (A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book the Twelfth)

Author: Lemony Snicket

Publishing Date: October 2005

Source: The library of Cousin Malkin.

Website: Lemony Snicket

I know I said I was supposed to write about "Wicked", but Cousin lent me this book before I could finish my notes for "Wicked", so I decided to post about this one first.

Synopsis: Book the Twelfth tells the story of what happens to the Baudelaire orphans when a mysterious woman brings them to the Hotel Denouement and assigns them some volunteer work: to masquerade as concierges and find out the identity of a certain "J.S.", and to keep a look-out for the arrival of the legendary VFD sugar bowl.

Favorite Quote

A great man once said that right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant. - Kit Snicket

Real-life Connections

Well, the Hotel Preludio is a lovely place, but the Hotel Denouement is more than that. For years, it's been a place where our volunteers can gather to exchange information, discuss plans to defeat our enemies, and return books we've borrowed from one another. Before the schism, there were countless places that served such purposes. Bookstores and banks, restaurants and stationery stores, cafés and laundromats, opium dens and geodesic domes -- people of nobility and integrity could gather nearly everywhere.

The term "geodesic dome" caught my eye immediately. That term is right up my alley, being a geodetic engineer, and all. However, it's nothing too technical. It's simply this. :p

The Hotel Denouement was organized according to the Dewey Decimal System. Rooms are assigned based on what their corresponding category in the system is. The concept sounds ridiculous, but I immediately recalled a Discovery Travel and Living Channel documentary about unusual hotels, and there is one just like it in New York. The Library Hotel.

The publishers, through Amazon, are propagating an unfortunate divination device: The Misfortune Teller.

Insights: The most striking theme of the story for me revolves around the question "What determines nobility and who is and who isn't noble?". One can get a headache trying to recognize who is noble and who isn't among the characters (past and new) who congregate at the Hotel Denouement for the denouement (which here means "the unraveling or discovery of a plot") of some of the secrets of VFD. If you do an unnoble deed for a noble cause, what does that make you? That's the big question the Baudelaires will have to answer as they sail into the 13th and final book.

Review: Although the book boasts of some very interesting stuff like the Hotel Denouement itself, the Denouement triplets, Kit Snicket, the supposed arrival (but non-appearance) of the sugar bowl, an insight into the past of the Baudelaire parents and their connection to Count Olaf's past, and the return of many previous villains and volunteers, the book is too long for a story that does not necessarily advance the plot much. There were a lot of parts that could have done with some trimming (although readers should be used to Lemony Snicket's style by now), and I honestly skipped several parts because it just got too redundant. The whole book, trimmed down to its bare essentials, could easily fit into the plot of either Book the Eleventh or Book the Thirteenth. Maybe the title should've been "The Trivial Twelfth". :p Despite all that, I still enjoyed parts of the book, and needless to say, it is a must-read for all ASoUE fans, and Baudelaire sympathizers. :p

Rating (out of 5 dreamcatchers)

One Hundred Words: An Interlude

Neil Gaiman's "Nicholas Was" is a one-hundred-word story (title included in word count) about Santa Claus. It was one of the very first Gaiman anything I've read. This morning, most likely subconsciously trying to forget that I'll probably be roasted alive by our external auditor tomorrow, my brain churned out the following hundred words -- a tribute to Gaiman and one of his most fascinating characters: Morpheus, The Sandman, The King of Dreams.

~*~*~*~

There was once a little girl who never dreamed. She made a dreamcatcher hoping that the next time she slept, she will see into the Dream World. But nothing she did could make her dream.

One day, a dark-haired man walked by. Familiar, yet otherworldly, he stopped by her side and spoke, “In sleep, dreams will finally come to you.”

The girl slept and the dreams did come. She slept for so long, not even her mother could wake her. She slept on, caught in the magic of the King of Dreams, from which no one could bring her back.

~*~*~*~

I thought that's a good way to start this journal. :)

that "reading journal" business

While reading through the numerous posts that have accumulated during the first 2 days of my "Anansi Boys" Reading Group I came across an Activity Suggestion from the group moderator. She suggested keeping a Reading Journal where one can record her thoughts or favorite quotes from a book she has read. That sounded like a good idea, and since I was probably subconsciously trying to find another reason to blog, well, here I am.

First up on this journal after my scheduled office audit: "Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West" by Gregory Maguire

Hello, world!

Testing...