"Point of View- Rick Rielly

The writer I chose was Rick Reilly, who worked for ESPN Sports after writing some columns. Reilly writes about one thing: sports. I was drawn to this columnist because I like sports, I personally have played softball for around 7 years and living around sports from a young age I have developed a liking for them. Although he has written many columns on various sports, I chose two specific columns by Reilly the first one being “The Weak Shall Inherit the Gym” and the second one being “Sis! Boom! Bah! Humbug!”.

Reilly uses many writer’s craft in the columns however the most prominent technique is syntax. He communicates his point of view, sports, through short-sentences in order to create play-by-play action similar to that in a sports game. Through this short-sentence syntax structure he is able to mock the overprotective people in the world and create humor in the piece. He begins by saying “Marbles. WInning others’ marbles is overly capitalistic.” He later continues this same trend later in the piece by saying “Kick the can. Unfair to the can.” (Weak Shall) This allows him to add humor to the piece by mocking the overprotective people and their ideas on “bad games”. Reilly also mentions at the beginning of his second piece, how cheerleading is causing injuries around the world, and yet is not a “true sport”. He states, “Every Friday night on America’s high school football fields, it’s the same old story. Broken Bones. Senseless Violence. Clashing egos. Not the players. The cheerleaders.” He continues the short sentences to emphasize his previous point of cheerleading not being a sport. In this article, rather than mocking the overprotective people in the world, he mocks the cheerleaders in the world. By saying “Broken bones” and “Clashing egos” to repeat how cheerleaders are not competing and how cheerleading is not a sport. In both columns, Reilly uses short-sentenced syntax to mock society’s views on sports.

Articles!

The Weak Shall Inherit the Gym

Sis! Boom! Bah! Humbug!

Movie vs. Book

I read and watched Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. The book actually wasn't as bad as I originally thought it would be. I somewhat enjoyed the book. The plot was okay, but I did wish that there was more action in the plot and more suspense. Overall, the book was okay. I watched the movie also. It stinks. I know it's an older movie and all of that but I would expect something! It was awful!!! They actors they casted were bad, they have Clarisse and Mildred casted by the same  woman. This, in my opinion was wrong. Clarisse and Mildred are too separate people and should therefore be casted by separate people also. Clarisse is someone who notices the world around her and appreciates what she has. Mildred, on the other hand, doesn't appreciate anything that she has. She also always wants "another TV" or wall screen or whatever she calls of in the book. She doesn't really care for anyone's opinion either. Although, she is reluctant to agree wit Montag and hide the books, Mildred still never listens to Montag's thoughts or opinions. She regards him when he asks her how many pills she has had, to make sure she is okay, and she just says "a few." In the book she drives me crazy, and in the movie she also drives me crazy just because the casting was off.

The plots of both the movie and the book are similar, the details are off but the majority of the main events are the same in both. This was nice, but they kind of downplayed the key events in the book. These elements were very essential to the book, like Beatty's death for example. This was one of turning moments in the book, and in the movie it did not play out as I imagined it. It seemed in my head that it was a lot more thrilling, and then in the movie it just seemed like it was there, and it was honestly boring. I think part of the reason that I didn't like the movie as much would be because I had already known what was going to happen, but even the small parts that I didn't remember still seemed to predictable to me. 

Overall, the book and the movie are very similar, yet different also. I do think that the novel was better because I liked how I imagined things in my head better than the film portrayed the characters and key events. If you want to watch the movie click here. If you want to watch the trailer click here. 

Trailer and Movie Expectations

The book I decided to read is called Fahrenheit 451. I wanted to read this book for two main reasons, 1) I had to read it anyway for school and I thought that I might as well knock out two books I have to read by combining the books into one book and 2) Even though this was a school book,  I read the back of the book and it actually seemed remotely interesting, unlike most you-have-to-read-this sort if books. Now this book is a much older book, and that means that the movie, made in 1996 is... How do I put this nicely... very cheesy. The trailer, from my glimpse seemed to keep the general storyline of the novel, however it seems it must have sidetracked a little bit from the main plot. Over of the things I noticed that was different format the trailer and the book is that the romance, that rally occurred in the novel! seemed to be played out more. They also exaggerated some of the characters in my opinion. Like Clarisse, for example, she had absolutely no romantic connection with Montag in the novel, however in the trailer for Fahrenheit 451, it is shown to be two girls fighting over Montag, and he must choose between the two.

Now, if I was trying to sound like a good student I would say that the book is great, and the elevated vocabulary used throughout the novel grabs the attention of the audience, and so on and so on. But, in reality, the book is just plain awful.  In my opinion, I know it's a piece of satire and I know what they have to teach it, but they couldn't pick any book with... better and more exciting characters?!?! In conclusion, this book is literally so boring.

The characters on the other a hand, relate pretty closely to what I imagined in my head. Mildred looks the same as she did in my head, a selfish blonde, and Clarisse was relatively close to what I imagined in my head, although while reading, I pictured Clarisse with brown hair. May I mention though! That the same actor that plays Clarisse, is also the same actor that plays Mildred? If you have onto read this dreadful novel before I would like you to know that these characters are the most contrasting characters with contrasting personalities in the novel. Overall, I am not looking forward to watching the movie because of everything I stated above.

Book to Film Adaptation

I think book to film adaptations are okay. I have never experienced an adaptation where the film was better than the book. Hunger Games for example, by Suzanne Collins was a far better book than a movie. Honestly, I think the problem with the Hunger Games was it's casting. Jennifer Lawrence conveyed the oddest emotion throughout the movie. She (no offense) made pretty stupid faces when trying to act out the emotion. This was the main problem for me with the movie. Also, it missed some key elements from the book that should've been included in the film adaptation.
The Divergent film adaptation was bad in my opinion. Tris, the main character, was supposed to be mediocre. Not to pretty, not to ugly. She was also SUPPOSED to be tough. Clearly in the movie, if you even watch her run it's kind of funny and sad. This was casted so poorly, however, the movie had decent suspense and action. Overall, though I don't think that it did the book justice. Another example of book to film that I found pretty bad was Life of Pi. I loved the book, it was kind of different to read and even though it's not a recent book it applied to my life. However, when I watched the movie, there was something there that was just different. There is no other way to describe it, and if you asked me to tell you what it is that's different I wouldn't be able to. Maybe it was just the idea that it "looked" different in my head then it did when it was played out on the screen. Overall, though the film adaptation was just not that effective for me. It was one of those books where in my opinion it should not have become a movie. It was just such a good book to me, and I kind of knew that the movie wasn't going to be that good but my family was watching it and I figured, eh why not right? Well no, definitely no.

Overall, if you ask me, there are such books out there that should not be made into movies and there are movies out there that do not do the book justice. But like all movies, they are just basically the book without any emotion or thought. Sorry if that sounded harsh, but it is true.