Hidden stories in books

They say; "Don't judge a book by its cover". I think I found why.

In really old books people painted illustrations on the edge of the book. An illustration you can only see when you slightly fan the pages of the book. Because when the book is closed you can't see any of it.

Take a look at this website with some images and videos showing them to you.

Makes me totally wonder why to put so much effort into something that people might not even see. Or would it be that it was custom back in those days to look at the book if it had a nice picture there instead of on the cover? Not judging the book by its cover, but by the edging?

1001 stories

The famous stories of 1001 nights.
Told by Scheherazade.

Her own story goes as follows.

A Persian King was very angry, because his wife had been unfaithful to him. To relief his anger he married a different virgin every night, and beheaded her the next morning. 

Scheherazade heard of this madness and wanted to stop it. So she asked her father to marry her to the king. He didn't want to, but she had a plan. 

After the wedding she started telling the king a story. When dawn broke, she stopped without finishing the story. Because she knew she had to be beheaded. But the king wanted to hear the ending of the story. So he asked her to finish her story the next night. She finished it, but went straight to the next, even more exciting story. And again, she stopped at dawn, without the story being finished. And again, the king granted her another night. This went on for 1001 nights. When finally the king was over his anger and had fallen in love with Scheherazade, marrying her.

Her stories have given us many wonderful Persian stories about flying carpets, magic lamps, thieves in caves, pirates at sea and travelers hot wide deserts. What a wonderful storyteller she must have been.

Life of Pi

Life of Pi of course has a book and a movie.
But for this blog I'm going to use the book. Why, because it has so more depth than the movie, although the movie was visually stunning.

But the book allows you to go in your own pace to places you have never been before, walking with Pi through his fathers zoo, through the hills of India, on the big boat (Tsimtsum) and on that so very small boat and of course finally back on land. Where he talks to the two investigators from the firm the Tsimtsum was from.

The part I really liked and shows the importance of a good story with good characters is where Pi just told the two investigators the story of his amazing survival. He got off the Tsimtsum in a small lifeboat together with a zebra, an orangutan, an hyena and a tiger named Richard Parker. After a short struggle Pi and Richard Parker remain. With Richard Parker in the life boat and Pi on a small raft behind it.

The investigators don't believe him. It can't be true with all the animals, since Richard Parker has vanished when getting onto land. They want to force him to tell the "truth", give them the names of the people with whom he got of the boat. This quote follows:

'So tell me, since it makes no factual difference to you and you can't prove the question either way, which story do you prefer? Which is the better story, the story with animals or the story without animals?' Mr. Okamoto: 'That's an interesting question?' Mr. Chiabe: 'The story with animals.' Mr. Okamoto: 'Yes, The story with animals is the better story.'

Pi respond to it with that it is the same with believing in God. But I think it is the same with all stories. A good story needs characters you can relate to, emphasize with. An exciting storyline. Something the reader can take with him, to learn from and believe in. So if that is with animals or with people, indeed, as long as it is a good story, it is worth telling and hearing.

Humans are capable of working magic

Because I can't say it any better than Carl Sagan can say it.

The power of books:

Fairy tales

Once upon a time, in a kingdom far far away, there lived a beautiful princess.

Fairy tales, one of the first stories we get familiar with in our lives. I remember my dad reading them to me and my brother. From these big books with beautiful pictures in them, so I could see what my father was reading to us. Tales from Hans Christian Andersen, the brothers Grimm or Mother Goose.

Although nowadays fairy tales are mostly associated with stories for children. They used to be told to adults. Because when you want to tell somebody something important, you best wrap it in a very good story. That way the message will be remembered. And if the story is exceptionally good, even be told along. (Remember my post about rumour?)

Fairy tales are very old. Once they were told and carried around the world by mouth. Around 1725 the Brothers Grimm started collecting all the tales they heard in their homeland Germany. To preserve them for future generations. 

Little Red Riding Hood is known to have been around a long time before 1500. And tales somewhat similar are known around the entire world. But that is of course because the message from that tale "Listen to your mother" is a world wide message.

What makes a fairy tale? The way a fairy tale is told is normally the same. The unlikely person to be the hero (a girl with a little red hood, the poor daughter, the beggar) gets some help (from a hunter, a fairy god-mother or a prince) to become the hero of the story. But first, there has to go something wrong (eaten by a wolf, losing a glass slipper, being caught in the castle). It will always end on a happy note. And a fairy tale is usually set in a world where magic still is around. Where witches, leprechauns, fairies and magical animals live.

Current written fairy tales are now labelled Fantasy. But The Hobbit, Harry Potter, Narnia and the Disc World-series are of course also fairy tales.

There is a lot to be told about fairy tales. But I'm off to my real world, try to get everything fixed with my magic wand to make sure ...

... all lived happily ever after.

Book to movie adaptations - The Hobbit

Nothing harder than turning a book into a movie. One type of storytelling turning into another. But such different ways of storytelling.

In a book you can explain, tell what people think, how they feel. In a movie you have to show. You can let the person say it out loud, but it still is different than somebody reading about it.

And when reading people use their own imagination, what they know about live, what they have experienced, how they see the world, to complete the story. A movie shows the vision of the director and screenwriter on the story.

With a beloved book like The Hobbit it is even harder. The book has been around since 1937, millions of people have read it. Know it almost by heart and have their favourite characters. But the movie is showing what Peter Jackson thinks the characters looks like.

I'm going to use The Hobbit - The Desolation of Smaug to explain.

Beorn, "He is a skin-changer. He changes his skin: sometimes he is a huge black bear, sometimes he is a great strong black-haired man with huge arms and a great beard."
From this I have always seen a big, broad man. Not a giant, but a muscular, black haired man. Very large, both tall and wide To use an image, more like Hagrid from Harry Potter, only stronger, more muscles.
And what does Beorn looks like according to Peter Jackson 

It does fit in the movie, although I see more a cat than a bear in him.

Another part is spot on with what I had figured:
"Before his huge doors of stone a river ran out of the heights of the forest"
This is what it looks like in the movie:

But maybe somebody living in a different part of the world and having seen rivers of a very different kind their entire life, will have a completely different vision.

What do you think? Have you ever seen a movie that was spot on with what you had read in the book? Or something that was completely different? Please, do tell.

The Hobbit - the book

Before there was the movie (or right now two, and next year even three), there was the Book - The Hobbit. Written by J.R.R. Tolkien, published by George Allen & Unwin in 1937. And why? Because the proof reader of the book, Rayner Unwin, aged 10, liked the book. He gave it the okay because he thought the book was entertaining for kids and the images and map in the book helped also.

What a great way to give a childrens book a go. Let your kid read it, and if they like it, it is okay.

And it actually is a childrens book. Hard to believe when you have seen the first two movies, because they are not a typical Disney movie.

The book starts with the very famous line: "In a hole in the ground there lived a Hobbit.". This Hobbit is Bilbo Baggins, a hobbit who has never any adventures. But Gandalf, the wizard thinks he can use an adventure and sets it up so 13 dwarves come together at Bilbo's house and take him with them on a quest to their homeland, Erebor. To reclaim it from Smaug the dragon, who has taken it, together with all the treasures inside.

As if that isn't already exciting enough. On their way they encounter trolls (with a talking purse), goblins, get rescued by eagles, sleep in the home of a skin changer (man and bear), get lost in an elvenwood, almost eaten by spiders, trapped in the dungeons of the elvenking, have to escape in barrels to a lake city. And than find a way inside a mountain where there is a live dragon.

The books is a classical heroes adventure. To set out, get in trouble, with some help get out of the trouble, and in the end, all ends well. With a narrator, telling the reader what is actually happening, what Bilbo is thinking or what the dwarves are actually doing.

An exciting book, fun to read, even for adults. And if you want to get an easy introduction into the world of Middle-earth, start here!

The tales that really mattered

or the ones that stay in the mind."

Some people reading this line will recognize it immediately. It is from The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. Samwise Gamgee is talking to Frodo when they struggle on their path in Mordor.

They are talking about the important stories. How people in those stories had chances to change their paths, back out so they wouldn't get into trouble. Being in a situation like Sam and Frodo at that moment. But they didn't, they kept on going. Making it in the end a beautiful story. A story to be told: "Let's hear about Frodo and the Ring!" And they"ll say: "Yes, that's one of my favourite stories."

Lord of the Rings has become one of those famous stories. Still being told after almost 60 years. Read by millions of people. And turned into three billions earning movies. It is one of the first fantasy novels recognized as literature. Most fantasy books afterwards have their roots in The Lord of the Rings.

But all stories can learn from what Sam is saying. Make your story so that it really matters to your readers. Or make sure it stays in the mind of your readers. With those ingredients you have a good story to tell.

Inkheart

Yesterday I talked about reading to children. How wonderful it is to them to use their imagination and go on an adventure with the main character of the story.

But how amazing would it be if they didn't have to use their imagination. What if the characters the person who was reading about would jump of the page and land in the real world.

That's what Inkheart is about. 

Inkheart (2003) is the first book of a series of three by Cornelia Funke. There has also been a movie made from the book. But I personally like the book better.

The main character in the book is Meggie, a young girl who lives with her father. Her mother has left when she was really young. Her father, Mo, is a bit strange. He binds old books and is always looking for a certain book he can't find. 

The further we come in the story, the more we learn about Mo. He has a special ability. He can read a character from the pages of a book. The character he is reading about actually comes to life. But, it has a down side. When a character from the world of the books comes to this world, a character from our world disappears into the book. And this is what has happened to Meggies mum. She ended up in the world of Inkheart. And some really bad guys from Inkheart have been stranded in our world.

Meggie discovers this secret and from that time on, she and Mo are no longer safe. They have to find a way to to bring her mum back into this world. And put the bad guys back into the book. A true adventure with some amazing characters from various other books.

And for bookfans. Each chapter starts with a short passage from another book. Especially fun when you have read that book and see the reference to the chapter in Inkheart. And yes, there even is a reference to Lord of the Rings!

My advice, do read the book, but be careful. Maybe you also have that magical ability to read characters from the book, and I really wouldn't like to have Capricorno or the Shadow in our world.