Drawing of Lady Jane Grey

Based on the cover of the DVD for the movie "Lady Jane" starring Helena Bonham Carter and Cary Elwes.

Vanity Fair

Vanity Fair is not a movie I would pick up off a shelf and just watch. It looks much too...suspicious...for that. But at the third recommendation of a very good friend of mine, I decided to give it a try. And I was pleasantly surprised.

The heroine of the movie is Rebecca "Becky" Sharp. She's a social climber, but not an unlikeable one. She's smart, witty, beautiful...and genuine. That was what made the movie more than just a soap opera or a tragedy...Becky is real. Her heart isn't made of stone, although she hardens as she matures. She's human though, and makes mistakes, but is forced to pay for them. And Reese Witherspoon does a fantastic job of portraying her.

The rest of the cast is fantastic as well. It is a rather large cast, though, so I'd only recommend this film to those who can follow complicated social plots and are prepared to think about things afterwards.

As I said to one of my friends, this is like Jane Austen on hormones. It is set against the backdrop of war and thus brings harsher realities than Austen's heroines deal with.

What I also enjoyed was that I couldn't predict everything. The romances are just as complicated as those in real life, with multiple triangles weaving in and out of the story. And the ending is somewhat unexpected, though not unsatisfying. Most importantly, it is realistic.

The main theme of the story is social position vs. true love. Not surprisingly it makes the strong point that our loved ones are far more important than social position. Perhaps that doesn't seem directly applicable to our lives today, and yet I think we can all understand how temperal things of the world can overshadow more important, eternal things such as faith, hope and love.

I'm pretty much just throwing out thoughts here...I don't have a concrete thesis that I'm writing this with, but I thought this movie was too interesting NOT to write something about. I think it's worth watching. However, it is rated PG-13 for good reason. It's definetely an adult movie, with the sensuality being about the same as Phantom of the Opera but the themes being more mature. Still, I will note that it wasn't as "adult contented" as I expected it to be, and if you're into period films with deeper themes, this one is a good one to watch.

DisneyWorld Adventure!

I apologize for the lengthly absance....but I hope I make up for it with this extensive photo post on my trip to Disneyworld!

The pictures are all somewhat out of order....first is the firework show at Epcot

Cinderella's Castle
Our shadows. (I went with my friend Meg, who often posts as Princess_At_Heart over at the FT Forums.)
A show at Magic Kingdom
The light parade at Magic Kingdom. (Is this Flora or Fauna?)
A London street at Epcot.
Italian pillar at Epcot
Roofs of Germany at Epcot
Florida moon.
A Bagpipe band! (At Epcot)
My Pretty dessert. ;)

Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse (which was closed for renovation. Rats.)
A Pirate Demonstration with Jack Sparrow.
Our Hotel.
The front building at the hotel.
Audrey Hepburn's handprints at Hollywood Studios.

Susan Pevensie's LWW dress at Hollywood Studios
Lucy and Edmund's costumes
Edmund's torch and chess piece
Caspian's costume!
The Crystal Palace at Magic Kingdom

Cinderella's Castle at Night
Another look at Cinderella's Castle
The Mural under the castle.
An inspiring plaque at Hollywood studios.

Layout...

I'm experimenting with layouts here. What do you think of this one? I'm pretty happy with the header...not sure about the rest of it.

Opinions?

More thoughts on written Romance

In the past two weeks I've written two posts on differant aspects of written romance. One was how I see Christ in the Twilight romance between Bella and Edward. The other was how I had discovered that romance was what I wanted to write.

But I've realized a third thing.

Romance is important, not because it makes us happy to read about it (it doesn't always, a lot of times it can make us disatisfied), but because it is a reflection of the eternal romance.

So what does that mean for me, as a writer and a Christain?

It means that I specifically want to write each of my romances to point back to Christ. That means that I won't write fluffy or cute, I'll write real. (Which might include cute moments, of course). No human (or even written) relationship can possibly show the true beauty of our love story with Christ, but it can give us one of the best pictures we can have on this earth.

Of course, it's also important to note that Christ is more than our lover. His is father, brother, king, high priest, mediator...everything. But I think at differant points in our life we can connect better with differant aspects of his character to us. And the pure romance part of it is something I want to point to in my writing.

Follow up to *Groan*

It's worth saying that maybe writing really does give you healthy blood. Because I actually had a splendid day on Friday, despite having only gotten five hours of sleep.

Caffeine helped of course, but even the two energy drinks I had early in the day can't account for how hyper and happy I was that evening. I was with my writer's group and we just had a really good time. I love that group of people so much...even making dinner is a blast with them!

(And normally I don't like cooking)

Of course, God has also been speaking to me a lot, and for the first time in a long time I think I'm actually listening. So that could have something to do with my change of mood.

How could I have missed this?

My dear friend Lady Rose gave me this award a few posts back on her blog. I don't know how I missed it but...it's acknowledged now! Thank you, Rose!

The Problem is that she's already tagged half the bloggers that I would have mentioned, so at this point I'm not going to pass it on, except to say that I do really appreciate it whenever anyone comments on my blog. It makes me feel that my writing has not been in vain, and that there are really ears out there listening. I do try to comment on others' blogs when I can to return the favor.