Books: The Story of the Trapp Family Singers

I bought this book by Maria Augusta Trapp at a Scholastic Book Fair at my elementary school in the early 1970’s, because I had enjoyed the movie The Sound of Music and thought it would be great to read the book and learn even more detail of the exciting story. I was surprised and disappointed to discover that the real story wasn’t very exciting at all. It wasn’t a bad story, just not the one from the movie.

There is no dramatic disappearance from the concert hall, no hiding at the abbey, no flight on foot up into the mountains. The story of their leaving Austria is told only as a brief conversation, at the dinner table on a ship headed to America, as they recall what has happened in the past few weeks. They got permission to go to Italy and went by train, (as it turned out) a day before the borders were closed.

There is also a great deal more focus on Maria’s faith, indeed that of the whole family, who were devout Catholics. In the movie, Maria is torn between love for God and the feeling of safety in the familiar life of the abbey, and love for Captain von Trapp. After telling Maria she can love both God and the Captain, the Reverend Mother sang one of my favorite songs from the movie, “Climb Ev’ry Mountain,” encouraging Maria to persist in searching “till you find your dream.”

In real life, though, Maria is not in love with the Captain, and is devastated at giving up her dream of becoming a nun (though it never explains why that was her dream). The abbey has taught her that the most important thing in life is to find out what is the will of God and to do it, and when the captain asks her to marry him, she goes back to the abbey to have the Mistress of Novices tell her what God wants her to do. (Clearly she expects the answer to be that she should stay there and become a nun as she had planned.) The Reverend Mother gathers the community of nuns in prayer to seek the will of God, then delivers their decision to Maria, that she is to serve God by marrying the Captain.

Movies: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

The reviews of this movie didn’t impress us enough to go see it in the theater, as we did the first installment. But when we were shopping recently for a DVD player for a friend, we saw both the first two installments on DVD at a good price, and there was no question about whether we were going to want to own all three eventually.

So the question was just whether to go ahead and watch the second movie, or first watch again the one we had already seen to refresh our memories. Since I hadn’t actually seen most of the first movie (we watched in 3D and I spend most of the movie feeling nauseous, listening to the movie with my eyes shut and hoping it would be over soon), I opted to watch it first.

Movies: God’s Not Dead

I had not planned on watching God’s Not Dead with the church youth group. I was taking our younger son, and since we don’t live nearby, I was going to spend the time in another room reading a novel rather than make the trip to church twice in one evening.

But the meeting got moved from the church to someone’s home, and when I was invited in to join them, it was naturally assumed I would be joining them all to watch the movie. I decided it was probably just as well, as this way I would know what my son had seen and be better able to answer any questions he might ask.

Movies: Robot and Frank

I was waiting in line to check out books at the library when I noticed Robot and Frank on a nearby rack displaying a dozen or so DVDs. I’m not sure if their placement there means they’re popular, or recommended, or what. I often recognize the titles but rarely see any I want to watch.

As this was one I hadn’t heard of and it involved a robot, I was interested enough to pick up the box and read the description on the back. If it had been a book, that would have been enough for me to take it home to read. But since a movie would be for the whole family to watch, I first wanted to read some reviews.

The reviews were all positive, but the next time I went to the library it was checked out. I suppose it must be relatively popular, because it was weeks before I managed to find it again (back in the regular movie stacks but set apart on a display shelf).

It’s hard to sum up briefly, which is probably a large part of what I like about it. It doesn’t fit the usual categories of Hollywood movies (not surprising since it was an indie film, distributed by studios after it won a prize at the Sundance festival).

Movies: Odd Thomas

Dean Koontz is one of my favorite authors, and Odd Thomas is one of my favorite books by Koontz. I was surprised, however, to discover that it had been made into a movie. Part of what appeals to me so much about the character of Odd Thomas is his “voice” – the way he tells his story and how he talks about himself and about life. That didn’t seem like it would translate well onto the screen.

But it does, surprisingly well, because the movie allows Odd to narrate the story, rather than just trying to display it through images and action. It’s not the same as the book, of course – a movie adaptation always has to pick and choose and leave out a great deal. But on the whole I think it is very faithful to the book – and I ended up choked up at the end of the movie just as I did at the end of the book.

Movies: Ender’s Game

The problem with going to a movie made from a great book is that you know the movie will inevitably fall short, but you still want to see the story played out on the big screen. Because the author of Ender’s Game (the book) was one of the producers of Ender’s Game (the movie), I knew the movie would get the key things right. But I still had to keep reminding myself that the movie is a separate work, and that it can be good in different ways from the book, even while lacking so much that made the book great.

The first thing that surprised me was that the movie started with Ender as a preteen rather than a 6-year-old. To see a boy of around twelve use the violence necessary to keep a bully from ever attacking him again just does not have the same impact as seeing that happen with a mere 6-year-old. Still, it makes its point, while bowing to the reality that finding a much younger boy with the ability to play this role convincingly would be as hard as finding a real-life Ender Wiggin.

Just my type?

As a fan of the Harry Potter books (and movies), when I saw this on facebook I was naturally curious to see which character in the series has the same Myers-Briggs personality type as I do. I was not exactly thrilled to see that – at least according to whoever put the chart together – I share the ISTJ type with Severus Snape.

OK, so the description matches: “… Somewhat reserved and prefer to work alone … Deeply value traditions and loyalty and often put duty before pleasure.” Yes, that sounds like me. But … Snape?

My husband, an EFNJ (yes, opposites do attract), is more like Dumbledore, “the Teacher.” I have always admired Teachers (who often are in fact teachers), and wanted to be like them. I’m sure that’s why I became a Spanish teacher. I suppose there are ISTJ teachers who are much more approachable than Snape. But I decided that my ISTJ personality belonged to a computer room more than a classroom.

I discovered that people have tried to identify the Myers-Briggs personality type of a lot of characters in books and movies. This article only identifies one book for each type. I apparently share the ISTJ type with Inspector Javert in Les Misérables; not exactly the most favorable comparison either.

So I found this page, which identifies a great many characters for each type. It also lists Inspector Javert, as well as Spock from Star Trek, Agent K from Men in Black, Susan Calvin from Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot, and a lot of characters I’ve never heard of. I don’t know how accurate the identifications are, though – Hermione Granger is listed here as ISTJ, while the chart I looked at first classed her as INTP. This page doesn’t list her there, but it does have Agent K in that category as well as in ISTJ. Hmmmm.

Movies: Iron Man 3

If you like nonstop action and lots of thing blowing up, you’ll probably enjoy Iron Man 3. If you’re looking for originality, character development, and a chance to give your adrenaline glands a rest – well, you probably wouldn’t be in the theater watching it. Unless, like me, you wanted to do something together with your comic-book-action-hero-loving husband and sons.

One viewer at imdb.com calls it an average movie and says that he (I’m guessing, but could be she) was hoping for a darker story. It was plenty dark enough for me, thank you, and so filled with violence that after a while I started letting my eyes glaze over a bit. I just don’t get what’s entertaining about explosions.

Special effects are impressive, I suppose, if you like special effects. Personally I don’t like watching people’s bodies look like they’re turning into molten metal.

Movies: The Pirates! Band of Misfits

I wouldn’t want to have spent money in order to see this movie, but as a free checkout from the library, The Pirates! Band of Misfits not a bad family movie. The story is kind of wacky (actually the whole movie is kind of wacky), but there is a lot of humor, and a message about being true to your friends and to who you are (though even this last bit is saved from undue moralizing by its humorous context).

Pirates aren’t usually role models for the values of friendship and personal integrity, but these aren’t exactly your typical bloodthirsty pirates. The Pirate Captain (that is his name, not just his title) claims to enjoy running people through, but his motivation for attacking other ships is to collect enough loot to win the Pirate of the Year award.

Movies: The League of Incredible Vegetables

Our family watches a lot of superhero movies. We recently reorganized the DVDs, setting aside a rack just for superhero movies. And we like Veggie Tales. So when a new Veggie Tales movie came out with the title The League of Incredible Vegetables, well, of course we had to buy it.

Since my boys are far past the age of the target audience, it’s hard to say just how effective the video is in getting its message across. But it’s fun to watch, even for teens and adults, and of course no one is too old to need the lessons taught by Big Idea’s colorful vegetables.

The subject of dealing with fear is one Veggie Tales has addressed before. Their very first video, Where’s God When I’m S-Scared?, is still one of their best, even if the animation isn’t as good as those produced using today’s computers and software.

Both videos teach that God is bigger than the things that make us afraid. The earlier video addressed Junior Asparagus’s fear of monsters in the closet, a fear that is very real for young children even if the monsters are not. The fears cited in this new video seem a bit odd, in comparison.