Why Everyone Should See Neil Gaiman's Movie "Stardust"

The Day the Saucers Came

By Neil Gaiman

That day, the saucers landed. Hundreds of them, golden,

Silent, coming down from the sky like great snowflakes,

And the people of Earth stood and stared as they descended,

Waiting, dry-mouthed to find what waited inside for us

And none of us knowing if we would be here tomorrow

But you didn't notice it because

That day, the day the saucers came, by some coincidence,

Was the day that the graves gave up their dead

And the zombies pushed up through soft earth

or erupted, shambling and dull-eyed, unstoppable,

Came towards us, the living, and we screamed and ran,

But you did not notice this because

On the saucer day, which was the zombie day, it was

Ragnarok also, and the television screens showed us

A ship built of dead-man's nails, a serpent, a wolf,

All bigger than the mind could hold, and the cameraman could

Not get far enough away, and then the Gods came out

But you did not see them coming because

On the saucer-zombie-battling gods day the floodgates broke

And each of us was engulfed by genies and sprites

Offering us wishes and wonders and eternities

And charm and cleverness and true brave hearts and pots of gold

While giants feefofummed across the land, and killer bees,

But you had no idea of any of this because

That day, the saucer day the zombie day

The Ragnarok and fairies day, the day the great winds came

And snows, and the cities turned to crystal, the day

All plants died, plastics dissolved, the day the

Computers turned, the screens telling us we would obey, the day

Angels, drunk and muddled, stumbled from the bars,

And all the bells of London were sounded, the day

Animals spoke to us in Assyrian, the Yeti day,

The fluttering capes and arrival of the Time Machine day,

You didn't notice any of this because

you were sitting in your room, not doing anything

not even reading, not really, just

looking at your telephone,

wondering if I was going to call.

Citation:

Gaiman, Neil. "The Day the Saucers Came." SpiderWords Magazine 2.1 (2006) 28 Nov 2007

Analysis:

The Day the Saucers Came, by Neil Gaiman, is about a day when all sorts of amazing things happen, but "you" do not notice, because you are sitting in your room, waiting for the narrator to call. Every paragraph, a new event is added, until the last paragraph when everything piles on each other, then zooms in on "you" in your room. An allusion is made in this poem is to Ragnarok, which in Scandinavian mythology is the final battle between the gods and the forces of evil.

I enjoy Gaiman's descriptions of the supernatural events. It probably is partly because I'm a fantasy geek, but also, as he writes, I can totally picture these bizarre things happening in real life, like when he describes Ragnarok, he says "...and the cameraman could/not get far enough away..." (16-17). I can imagine the headline "Breaking News: Giant Wolf Tramples IDS Tower" on a TV screen. I also find the idea of "Angels, drunk and muddled, stumbled from the bars" (30) rather interesting. He words this semi-disturbing picture very ordinarily and realistically.

The other reason this is one of my favorite poems is that the ending never fails to make me think, Aww.... This poem communicates so effectively the person's devotion to the teller of the poem; natural laws are being broken and myths vindicated left and right and it's all over the media, yet still this one person is still just sitting alone in his/her room, doing nothing but wait for his/her love to call.

EE10: Quarter One in Review

If you'd asked me at the end of ninth grade how good I was at writing, I probably would have said, "Oh, pretty good. Not perfect, or anything, but not bad, either." And my expectations for next year? "Well, it'll be different, harder, I guess, but I doubt it'll be a problem."

My first-quarter-tenth-grader response to these naïve statements? Essentially, rolling on the floor with laughter.

At the start of the year, Ms. Froehlich said that this was a writing-intensive course; she did not lie. I have discovered just how mediocre a writer I am (at least compared to where I'm expected to be at the end of the year). At the same time, I'm probably twice as good a writer now than I was at the end of ninth grade, in terms of thesis statements, attention-getters, cappers, quote lead-ins, and more. If I continue to learn at this rate (hard to guarantee, but...), I think I might actually have a shot at earning an 'A' on the last paper in fourth quarter. Also, as we've studied rebellion the entire quarter, EE10 has started to make me want to take on the middle school Language Arts curriculum. Honestly, they could have at least taught us how to write a proper outline. Outlines are so helpful, even if they are moderately labor-intensive.

Some specific goals I have for second quarter are to stop procrastinating on blog assignments; to get better at attention-getters, cappers, transitions, and ideas; and to force myself to work on a paper every day until it is due.

In short, Enriched English is a challenge, but for me it's an inspiring challenge, as nerdy as that sounds. Don't ask me about that when I'm up to my neck in English homework, though.

The Kite Runner: Post Five

To wrap up this wonderful novel, it seems proper to reflect over the book as a whole and link it to other novels and events.

Like Black Boy, this story has several characters who do not follow the norms of society. In Black Boy, Richard rebels against his family's commands and the unspoken rules of relations between whites and blacks. In The Kite Runner, Amir crosses the gap between Hazaras and Pashtuns in Afghanistan, by playing with Hassan. However, Amir is still partially swayed by his society's bias, as shown in his feelings of superiority over Hassan, and his sacrifice of Hassan's well-being for a kite. Also, both leave their homes due to their abnormal beliefs. Richard travels to Memphis, then to the North in an attempt to escape the limits placed on him by his family and Southern society. Amir leaves his home and security in America and returns to war-ravaged Afghanistan for the sake of Hassan's son, regardless of his cultural background. Indeed, many people are surprised by Amir's action:
[Amir said,] "I'm going to Kabul to find a boy."
"A boy," Wahid repeated.
"Yes." I fished the Polaroid from the pocket of my shirt... He studied the photo. Looked from me to the photo and back again. "This boy?"
I nodded.
"This Hazara boy." (Hosseini 237)
It is very unusual for a Pashtun to care about a Hazara at all, much less venture into Afghanistan for one.

In both On the Waterfront and The Kite Runner, the protagonist attempts to atone for past mistakes. In On the Waterfront, Terry helps the bosses of the corrupt union murder Joey Doyle, then testifies against the union to make up for his misdeed. In The Kite Runner, Amir allows a bully to rape Hassan, and falsely implicates Hassan in stealing money and a watch. Many years later, Amir is finally able to make up for his wrongdoing by rescuing Hassan's son from Afghanistan.

The 400 Blows and The Kite Runner are similar in that neither of their endings are certain. At the end of The 400 Blows, Antoine has escaped from the detention center and accomplished his goal of seeing the sea, but the movie ends there, without any hint of what Antoine's fate will be. At the end of The Kite Runner, Sohrab is depressed and has not smiled or spoken to anyone for months. But when Amir flies a kite for him, and is able to cut down another kite, he smiles a bit. Amir thinks, "It was only a smile, nothing more. It didn't make everything all right. It didn't make anything all right... But I'll take it" (Hosseini 371). There is no way to know if Sohrab will ever stop being depressed, and so the book leaves us stranded here, hopeful, but without certainty.