Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Youtube Culture

I really got into youtube about a year and a half ago. I started with Jenna Marbles and then moved on to Zoella, and then to the rest of her friends affectionately named "The British Invasion."
At first I just watched the main channel beauty videos, but as these internet sensations rose to stardom their videos became less and less about what they started out about and more into the relationships and collabs with their friends.
Let me set this straight: I am not complaining.
I love these youtubers, they make me happy when I'm sad and they make my day so much lighter. However I feel that lately I've been relying on their "perfect lives" a bit too much. The viewers seem to forget that these people are human and that when you watch their daily vlogs that you are only seeing 10 MINUTES OF THEIR DAY.
That's ten minutes! that's nothing, I spend more than ten minutes in the shower and that is all you are seeing of their day. Yet during these vlogs you feel like you get to know them, they have conversations with you and you get to know parts of their personalities, and to you it can feel like you would be such good friends. There are probably five million other people who feel they would be best friends with the entire british invasion.
We see ten minutes of their day and feel like we know them so well, but if I were to walk up to them and say hello. They would have no idea I even exist.... doesn't that seem weird to you?
I've never been one to have serious celebrity crushes. It's just so weird that I feel like I know sooo much about them (in reality I don't) and that they don't have any idea who I am or what my life is like.
It feels weird that I can spend an entire day watching their lives and not doing anything with mine... it's kind of sad actually.
I realise for a lot of people that these videos are an escape, they are for me too. It's just that while they are fun and while they make you happy, people need to realise that they only show a very limited amount of themselves. They don't have videos where they bitch about other YouTubers, you don't see their faults.
It is not possible for a person to have NO FAULTS. There is not group of friends in the world where no one is annoyed by ANYTHING another person does.
So while YouTube does offer a utopian get-a-way I think it's important to realise that their lives are not our lives, and that the life you watch them have is basically them having a good time with friends who they love and friends who they play games with. Once you take away the fans and the videos and the fact that they all have amazingly white teeth. Then they are all just human.
And guess what?
So are you.

I do not own this image (as if that wasn't obvious)

Thursday, August 7, 2014

Girl with a Pearl Earring

So today I want to write this blog entry in two parts, the first is a review of the book, Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier and the second on the movie they made of the book.

So part one:
When I was in year eight, my english teacher came up to me during a period called Wider Reading (basically a lesson spent getting books suggested to us and then choosing a book and reading for the rest of the lesson). My teacher approached me and took me to the senior fiction and pulled out a stack of books for me to read. One of them was Girl with a Pearl Earring, sadly I made the unfortunate decision to read the book Possession by A. S. Byatt first, not a great decision on my part as this book put me off all books of that nature. I gave up after about 300 pages on snail paced supposed romance. I then made an even worse by my choosing Wuthering Heights as my next book (one of the most depressing novels I have ever in my life attempted to read) and soon gave up after about 200 pages.

Sadly, I never decided to read Girl with a Pearl Earring that year, but perhaps it was a good thing because I'm not sure I would have enjoyed it the same way if I had read when I was fourteen.

When I picked up this book again from my school library I was looking for something "literary," I felt like something that would challenge me a little, but still something I would enjoy. So I chose that book, and surprising I really enjoyed it.

The story line was gentle, it was nice book, yet it was full of anticipation. Griet, the main character was very interesting and I found myself staring at the painting on the front cover and wondering if I could see the Griet, whose mind I had read in her eyes. I found that I could, this book gave me a new appreciation for a painting which I had always liked, but now find that I love.

The relationship between her and Vermeer was tenuous and filled with fleeting glances. There's a lot of forbidden love but mixed into a real life situation which adds finality to the book. I can't explain my love for this book without giving away a heap of spoilers, but it's safe to say that this is one of my favourites.

Part two:
The movie... *sigh,* I wasn't expecting much when I started this movie and after watching the trailer I had set my expectations even lower, with hope that it would somewhat impress me. But when you skip the first half of the book and cut out major characters? that's where I draw the line.

This movie wanted so badly to get to the "real" plot line that it skipped over the build up. It didn't give any insight into Griet's personality and if you had never read the book, you wouldn't understand the way she thinks at all. The plot line focused so much on the romance, that it brought the movie down.

I had wondered how they were going to make a movie of a book where the main character is so internalised and they did not do it well. As much as I loved Scarlett Johansson in The Avengers I feel like she didn't quite pull off the depth this character had, the depth the painting has. She lacked those emotions and values that are so integral to Griet and only focussed on how ladies at the time would have acted in regard to men, rather than how Griet acted.

The only highlight of the movie was Colin Firth as Vermeer, although I have to admit that I am biased when it comes to Colin Firth (be still my beating heart), but while he almost seemed too young for the role, he did seem to capture some of his character's sardonic nature and intense feelings.

Overall I wouldn't recommend the movie, especially if you have read the book, it only leads to disappointment and bafflement at the spoiled plot. Plus the skipped a significant part of the ending.

If you would like the Goodreads link to the book click here