The Carbondale storm

At first, I want say this is the first storm in my life. I already have been in Carbondale for one and half years. here were some storm warning in Carbondale, but none was a real storm. When the storm warning is on, I didn't pay attention to that. I just stayed in my home, watched the storm and saw that the power was down. After the storm, I found that many trees had fallen don and some houses were broken. I could never imagine that the storm could break trees and houses, because as I saw in my house, the storm is just a heavy rain. I think the recover around the area is too slow. My friend told me that the workers need 5 days to fix the power. So I just went to another city, because I cannot do anything without power.

Welcome to CESL, 093 students!

What was done below this picture, was done before the storm.

Maiko Ariki

Big Fish: What people say about the movie?

Big Fish movie was made in 2003, and directed by Tim Burton. I prefer the movie to the book for many reasons. The movie was easier to recognize than the book, and every scene was beautiful. Also, the movie has more realistic in the scenes that were different between the book and the movie. Many people also have some opinion about the movie.

First, a reviewer states that “The movie says that the only answer is yes. And selects maudlin moonshine over engagement with the difficulties of life, which is exactly the choice Edward has made. Its vision of America during the last four decades has been scrubbed clean of any social or political messiness and has been burnished to a warm, happy glow” (A.O. Scott, 2003). I agree with this opinion because I also felt that the movie insisted in the difficulties of life, especially in the conflict of the marriage party. After the marriage party, the father and the son didn’t have contact for three years. In this movie, I could see some difficulties of life, but Edward changed them to happiness.

Another reviewer says that “It's a simple premise, but a complex film with brilliant imagery and imagination” (Jordan, 2008). I also agree with her, because I felt the film was complex, but the imagination was great. Actually, I couldn’t understand or imagine some parts of the book, but after I watched the movie, I could understand, and the scene was more brilliant than what I expected. I think it was well-made because the movie was not as complicated as the book. The time is always changing between Edward’s time and the son’s time, so it is difficult to imagine in the book. But the movie helped me to understand the time lag.

In conclusion, there are some opinions about the Big Fish movie, and the commentators say that the movie describes maudlin moonshine with the difficulties of life, and it has great imagination. I also like the movie better than the book.

Scott, A, O (2003, December 10). Big Fish FILM REVIEW; Hook, Line and Sinker: A Life of Telling Tall Tales. The New York Times. Retrieved on April 27, 2009, from
http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9C03E1D81E3DF933A25751C1A9659C8B63
Jordan, T (2008, November 7). Big Fish Movie Review. Ezine Articles. Retrieved April 27, 2009, from
http://ezinearticles.com/?Big-Fish-Movie-Review&id=1667885

Big Fish Writing Assignment

Director Tim Burton presented us a great movie; it was filled up with love, myth, and dreams. The movie was Big Fish. When I read the book, I liked this book and thought it was great. The author Daniel Wallace wrote the story between son and his father. The father always tells the son unbelievable stories such as the two-head woman, the giant and the special eye which could predict future. The son doesn’t believe them. But all the stories are true, the son knows after his father’s death. It was a warm story-Big Fish.

So the question is here, what should he do to shorten the novel with details to a short movie? How to keep the original style? These are common problems to transfer novel to movie. But Burton successfully did it; even though he changed some things, it was still like the novel. Sometimes, the story was really changed. For example, the strange villages are different in movie and book. I think the movie version was better because many children may see this movie, and the villagers who were in the book having lost their fingers would be little scary for them. In the book, there were many different short stories and they didn’t have obvious relations. In some cases, Burton merged several stories into one story. I think that was good; if the movie 100% copied the book that would be messy and ambiguous.

However, I learned so much from this movie not only the wonderful story, but also the love, the love among family. All of us came from little children, it’s undeniable. When we were young, we liked to do something silly, believe in magic, and listen to mythic stories. Like the movie, when Will was a litter boy, he always asked his father to tell stories before bedtime. Moreover, he truly believed these stories so that he got nightmares sometimes. But he was growing up gradually. He began to not believe what his father said. In the beginning of the movie, a big fish story was told through a long time from young Will to his wedding by the father. After his father finished the story in the wedding, Will felt upset; he felt his father took the focus away from him, and he didn't talk with his father for a long time. Several years later, when the father was dying, Will came home to see him and recollect his father’s life. However, Will did not believe that; he though his father had another family. He asked his father to tell the truth and told his father there was a misunderstanding between them; he just wanted to know who his father was. The father said all of them which he told were true. Finally, in the hospital, before the father died, he asked Will to describe how he died. It was a weird question. Will though for a little while, then he began his story: he carried his father and broke out of the hospital, then he drove his father to the river, they saw the giant on the road; at the river, everybody appeared there, everybody, they said goodbye to Edward, but no one was sad; Will laid Edward into the water, Edward became a big fish and swam away. Will fell into weeping while finishing the last story, the father was dead. In the end of the movie, at the father’s funeral, everybody came, including the giant, the two-headed women.

Will, the son, understood his father at the end. Maybe we understood as well. His father told those stories because he wanted to make it fancy and interesting. When we were young, we liked incredible stories. But when we grew up, we didn’t believe them anymore. The stories don’t change, the only thing changed are our hearts. However, there is another thing that will never ever change and that is love. Those lies are a span of love, so much love.

Maybe that is the most important thing which the novel and the movie want to tell us.

Weiran

Big Fish

There are many different descriptions between the movie and the book - big fish.

In the story starting at William's wedding party, Edward Bloom tells the same story which he's told many times over the years: one day, his son was born, he was out catching a big fish, using his wedding ring. William was angry with that, because his fatehr never told the truth on anything.

He went to Paris to work, and his relationship with his father becomes so strained that tehy do not talk for three years. But, when his mother called hime and thold hime his father's health has started to fail, he and his pregnant wife return to Alabama. on the plane, William recalls his father's night story wehn he was child, and met a witch who showed him his death in her glass eye. After three years, the father and the son talked again. However, Edward still tell his son the stories about his life. Some of the stories are not real, such as the strange village.

In the movie, Edward went to a horrible forest and discovered the tiny hiddent town of Spectre, where the missing poet Norther Winslow has settled with people so friendly. In here, no one wants to leave, they can be comfortable and walk around barefoot. but Edward wtill felt he did not want to settle anywhere yet and left; moreover, he promised the young girl jenny that he would return.

In the book, Edward wanted to leave his mother town. On his way, he must cross the strange village. In here, people wanted to leave would lose their finger to a dog. It looked like a gate man.

I think the movie changed something from the book, because it is very difficult to show people. People can not control the animal's behaviour. For example, how could the director show the dog bite the humans finger in the strange village? So, the director changed this part. Ibelieve people can understand, because it is funny in the movie.

Qian

Big Fish

When I heard the name of this book, I thought it talked about the animal, a big fish. However, the teacher told us the novel is about a person who exaggerates his story to tell everyone. At the beginning, I couldn’t understand why he exaggerates the story, and I thought he was a person who tells a lie. After I read this novel, I understand this father and I think he is a great man. He makes me know life can consist of the many fairy tales and wonderful life needs to be created by myself.

Edward knows a lot of people in his life: a beautiful wife, a common job. These things can’t make him be a legend. However, he can make those normal experiences to be the fantastic and wonderful stories. For example, when his son was born, he caught a big fish. When he was a child, he met the witch and saw the way of his death in the future. When he was young, he met a giant of three meter height and they left his hometown together. At the circus, he worked for three years in order to get anything about his beloved girl. And then he pursued the girl, and so on. There are a lot of stories and each of them is very interesting.

Nevertheless, Edward makes his son confused because of the fantastic stories. The son can’t believe the stories, and wants to know who his father is. At last, the son can understand the father and he seems to know how his father dies when he takes care of his father who is a very sick man in the hospital. The son tells the story to his father, and he told the son to take him to the river. When they came to the river, they saw every person that the father has met in his life. The son put his father into the river and his father became a big fish and swam far away them.

Every person has a different realization for their life. Some people like to live in the real world, but some people like to live with fantasy. I think the factor of the differences between the romanticism and the realism is not the main reason to make people have different ideals. The attitude to life is the main reason, leading people to live in the different style. I admire the novelist, movie director, drawer, and poet and so on. In my opinion, their life is full of different kinds of fantastic stories and their life is rich and colorful. We are likely to have a long distance to relate with them. We usually think that our life is boring and admire the artist’s wonderful life. In fact, the artist’s life is the same as ours, such as eating, sleeping and talking. The only difference is that they are able to make their life to be the fantasy by themselves. They, like Edward, love life and take a positive attitude to face everything. “Big Fish” encourages me to live happily. When I really love life, I will have a wonderful life despite whether it exists or not.

Dan Dong

welcome 092 CESL students!

things done below this were done before 092!