Category: Literature

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Arty Awesomeness Featured Inspirational Designs Literature Movies

Hitchcock Re-Envisioned: Fantastic Posters by Laz Marquez

Graphic designer Laz Marquez was chatting to a co-worker about horror films and set out to create an alternative, modern set of posters for some of his favourite Alfred Hitchcock films. He initially started with “The Birds”, and then moved onto “Rear Window” where he played around with the typography. His choice for the third poster was decided by his Twitter and Facebook followers, and in “Vertigo” he pays homage to the iconic original poster created by Saul Bass. The series was completed with a bloody tribute to “Psycho”.

Marquez says this about his body of work:

Since I’ve started this project, I’ve had such an amazing time taking each piece of cinematic history and re-imagining it on my own terms. It’s been spontaneous, challenging and overall fulfilling. In addition, it’s been amazing to put some of the process in the hands of my followers and see what they’ve wanted the project to evolve into. Overall, I couldn’t be happier!

See Marquez’s amazing set of “Hitchcock Re-Envisioned” movie posters after the jump.

Continue reading “Hitchcock Re-Envisioned: Fantastic Posters by Laz Marquez”
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Awesomeness Hints & Tips Literature Useful/Useless Info

How to use an Apostrophe

I spend a lot of time on the interwebs, and I can’t begin to tell you how often I see the misuse of an apostrophe. I got home last night and found this amazing website in one of my RSS feeds. I’ve posted it up on facebook, twitter, and now here too. I wish I could tattoo it on my body somewhere too.

It’s all written by a genius named Matthew Inman. His other sites are fantastic as well, and The Oatmeal seams to be the center of all of them. Have a look!

Apostrophe.me

[Via Lifehacker]

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Awesomeness Literature Weirdness

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

I can’t say I have ever read a Jane Austen novel, quite frankly if a book doesn’t have photo-pictures, it takes me an age to get through it. That being said, I am totally looking forward to reading Seth Grahame-Smith’s Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, a cannibalisation of the classic 1813 novel penned by Austen. Billed as 85% Austen’s original text and 15 percent brand-new blood and guts, “Zombies” tells of a love story in an alternate universe where the stanky undead roam the English countryside.

Grahame-Smith has this to say on how the original text of the novel was well-suited for use as a zombie horror story:

You have this fiercely independent heroine, you have this dashing heroic gentleman, you have a militia camped out for seemingly no reason whatsoever nearby, and people are always walking here and there and taking carriage rides here and there,” he said. “It was just ripe for gore and senseless violence. From my perspective anyway.

Published earlier this year by Quirk Books, Zombies has already reached bestseller status with 750,000 copies in print. And it seems a feature film will be on its away, after undisclosed major film company purchased the rights earlier this year.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies can easily be imported through your local online retailer. Prices range from R109 to R139, allowing 10-15 days delivery time.

[via LA Times]

BONUS: Riding the wave of mutant offshoots, next month will see Quirk Books releasing Ben H. Winters’ Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters which adds giant lobsters and enraged octopi to another Austen love story. See the book trailer below.

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Awesomeness Literature

Read Dracula in real time

Binder of beautiful and elegant books, Whitney Sorrow, is posting each entry of Jonathan Harker’s diary (the diary entries make up the Bram Stoker novel Dracula) on her blog on the actual days that the entries are written. She started on the 3rd of May which is Jonathan’s first entry. However, I’m a bit slow on the uptake and only found it today.

It’s a pretty cool way to experience this epistolary novel whether you’ve read it before or not, as you get to experience the action at the same time as the characters do. Read your daily instalment at Dracula but I warn you, one entry a day just makes you want more!

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Arty Awesomeness Cautionary Tales Literature

My first dictionary: a contemporary lexicon

Ross Horsley, a cynic after my own dark heart has a blog called My First Dictionary which is presented just like those picture book dictionaries we used in primary school to learn vocabulary. This dictionary however probably isn’t a great one to start little Brad and Brittany on. It’s without a doubt very honest to the 21st century, and the contrast between the brightly coloured illustrations and the word definitions makes it even darker and more cynical. Some might find it disturbing, but in this “nanny-state” age of over censorship and escapist candy floss endings, I find it refreshing. Like a slice of bitter lemon after a fatty pork chop.

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Found at the ever brilliant Neatorama.

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Entertainment Featured Literature Useful/Useless Info

Shaggy dogs

Just the other day, I found myself a new and surprisingly innocent form of entertainment on the intertubes. They’re called shaggy dog tales, and are usually long involved stories that end with a pointless or plainly absurd punchline. Most of the punchlines are heavy on puns – and y’all know how I love a good pun. My most favourite to date involves some french foreign legionnaires and dessert in the desert, but it’s quite long winded, so here’s one of the shorter shaggy dogs (more of a shaggy puppy I suppose) for your entertainment:

A mother lion and father lion had gone off hunting, and had told their two cubs not to wander away. However, a couple of small wildebeests ambled by, and the young lions could not resist the temptation to try out their own hunting skills. They ran out, chased after the animals, killed them, and started eating them.

Just as the cubs were reaching the end of their meal, the parents appeared in the distance. One of the baby lions turned to the other, and said: “That is the end of the gnus. Here again are the head lions.”

If you liked that one, there are loads more here.

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Awesomeness Literature Useful/Useless Info

A snackerel of literature

corduroy-mansions

Do you wish you had the time to read something that is simultaneously intellectually-nourishing and entertaining – aside from this blog obviously? Well now you can read a novel on the internet while you’re at “work”.  And even better, it’s a novel in serial form, so those of you not accustomed to reading more than a few paragraphs at a time won’t wear yourselves out!

Many famous authors have been published in serial form in newspapers, albeit most of this crazy coolness went on in the Victorian era with writers like Charles Dickens. It was a great way for writers and readers to make the novel last years – rather like a soap opera but obviously way better. The telegraph.co.uk has published a novel by author Alexander McCall Smith whose first book #1 Ladies’ Detective Agency reached the top of best seller lists around the world. McCall Smith’s Corduroy Mansions has been published as a daily novel in 100 parts, from the comments I read, it looks like a fun book. You can read and enjoy it here.

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Arty Literature

Very short stories

I love reading short stories. I love that the essence of the story is so concentrated – everything is so much more – more gritty, more scary, more romantic, more dramatic, more hilarious – you get the picture. Well the people at One Sentence have taken it up a notch, and they tell a whole story in just one sentence. Pretty darn cool. This is one of my favourites:

    After the accident, still in a drunken stupor, he asked the cop how the police got there so fast, to which the officer replied, “You hit MY car.”

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    Photo by flickr user jasonnolan.

    Go to One Sentence where you can read other people stories and submit your own.

    Via Bored at Work.