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Author
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Comment
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Nalo
Registered User
(9/30/03 9:07 pm)
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Whale Rider
I'd like to recommend _Whale Rider,_ a youth novel by Maori writer Witi
Ihimaera. It was originally published in 1987, and has recently been
re-released, probably to coincide with the release of the film inspired by
the book. I just read it, and though structurally there were some elements
that didn't work for me, it didn't matter; I gulped the novel down in two
hours and cheered at the end.
It's about a young Maori girl who can speak to whales, only her grandfather
won't accept her because the position has traditionally been held by
men. Great book. I found it because I was recently shopping in a
university bookstore, was disappointed in their SF/F/H section, and went to
the young adult section instead. There I found a ton of novels, many of
them fantastical, by authors I hadn't heard of.
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Charles Vess
Unregistered User
(10/2/03 8:54 am)
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Mythic movie...
Nalo, I couldn't agree with you more about WHALE RIDER. My wife and I went to see the movie adaptation twice this summer. A beautiful, contemporary story, filled with mythic resonance, which on it's miniscule budget certainly put to shame any number of would-be Hollywood blockbusters. The book is now hovering on our beside table, waiting for us to finish up our respective current reading and then I guess we will have to arm wrestle over who gets it first.
Enjoy!
Charles
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Nalo
Registered User
(10/3/03 8:21 pm)
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Re: Mythic movie...
So glad to hear that the movie is strong, too! Did they keep the character of the grandmother? I loved her.
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Charles Vess
Unregistered User
(10/4/03 2:48 pm)
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Grandmother power...
Yes, the grandmother is there. Strong, powerful with a face full of strength and perserverance. I fell in love with her as a character. Really, I can't think of anything that the movie did wrong, either thematically or visually. A real treat, that's for sure.
Best,
Charles
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Nalo
Registered User
(10/4/03 8:29 pm)
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O Brother, Where Art Thou?
I saw O Brother, Where Art Thou? for the first time last week, and *loved* it. I read the Odyssey as a kid, so I got those jokes, and a number of the others as well.
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Niniane
Sunyata
Registered User
(10/9/03 4:49 am)
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Re: Grandmother power...
I loved the grandmother as a character too. Definitely the best movie I saw this year. I haven't read the text but have been looking for Witi Ihimaera's stuff in bookstores for quite awhile, ever since a New Zealander recommended him to me. Only other New Zealander I've ever read is Albert Wendt.
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Ron McCutchan
Unregistered User
(10/9/03 4:20 pm)
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One (very minor) gripe
I saw WHALE RIDER last month and it IS great--wonderful acting and a satisfying story. My gripe? The whale on the ridgepole looks to be a sperm whale, and there's the business of the girl's grandfather having the whale tooth pendant. Yet the whales that beach themselves are humpback whales (i.e. baleen whales)--so the grandfather's tooth pendant couldn't have come from that sort of whale.
I rented RABBIT-PROOF FENCE last week--sort of an interesting bookend (30s Aboriginal Australia as opposed to contemporary Maori New Zealand). Nothing mythic about that one--all too much realistic human history.
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Nalo
Registered User
(10/13/03 10:48 pm)
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Re: One (very minor) gripe
That's a pretty vexing gripe, I'd say. *I* can't tell one whale from another (except killer whales), but the characters in the story can.
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Blackwolf
Unregistered User
(10/14/03 7:24 am)
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Of whales and men - a wee bit OT
Richard Ellis's 'Dolphins and Porpoises' has a good listing and research on the current species and sub-species of dolphins and porpoises. He also wrote 'The Book of Whales'.
The two books are a little bit dated but very informative.
www.tonmo.com/ellis.php
Blackwolf
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Annette
Unregistered User
(10/14/03 8:12 am)
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Whale Rider
I haven't read the book, but we went to see the film twice, it does put many blockbusters in the shade. Only depressing thing was, it makes you want to go and visit New Zealand (and that's something we can't afford to do -yet!)
I wouldn't know one whale from the other, I loved the grandmother in it, such a realistic character.
Annette
Drowning Rapunzel
Murder, obsession, insanity
www.annetteigsby.n3.net
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