Princess Mononoke - What is a Kodama? What is a mononoke?

Prince Ashitaka

In ancient times, the land lay covered in forests, where, from ages long past, dwelt the spirits of the gods. Back then, man and beast lived in harmony, but as time went by, most of the great forests were destroyed. Those that remained were guarded by gigantic beasts who owed their allegiances to the Great Forest Spirit, for those were the days of gods and of demons.

I have watched this movie time and time again to see if I could understand why it was called Princess Mononoke....but since the phrase was only refereed to once in Iron Town by the lady and the prince. I decided I would do some investigating to try and learn the whole story. First question for me to find was what in the world was a mononoke?

Mononoke - apparently a mononoke is a general term used to describe "a spirit of a thing" any sort of thing...an object or a monster or even a dead person. Usually the prisit of a bad or unfortunate unexplainable thing...so naturally the people of Iron town would consider San a spirit of something bad. The wolf girl is continuously trying to ambush and destroy Lady Eboshi, because the lady is trying to destroy the forest where the great forest spirit lives...so basically anything bad that happens is caused by malicious mononoke.
If you keep up with a Studio Ghibli you will notice that a Totoro is also a sort of a mononoke.

Forest God

 The Forest God may be considered a Mononoke...this god has the ability to give life and take life as he chooses.

Forest God

As he walks plants grow, but when he leaves
the plants wilt and die.

Kodama

Kodama -actually means "echo" but a literal meaning for the word is "tree spirit"...but because of the language it was written in could possibly translate into small ball or small spirit. If a kodama appears in front of you it is a sign of good luck and that the forest is healthy. In the movie Princess Mononoke there are literally thousands of these little spirits hanging around a great big tree. Kodama have the ability to turn transparent at will.
However some believe the kodama will lead the real forest spirit, a huge deer with a human face, right to them...

Princess Mononoke - Kodama

Princess Mononoke - kodama

Kodama

Forest Spirits

Prince Ashitaka and Kodama

Stranger in a strange land by Heinlein

Robert A Heinlein - Stranger in a Strange Land

This novel was said to be Heinlein's masterpiece. "The most famous science fiction novel ever written" the front page boasts...well I just finished the four hundred and thirty eight page novel and I am left with many mixed feelings. This story is most surely a must read for any science fiction fan, and if you have an open mind about the world around you...you may just learn something about yourself.

I have only read one other of Heinlein's novels, "Have Spacesuit - Will Travel" so I had some idea of the authors writing style...but this novel was something else entirely. All of the main characters are well developed which allows the reader to fully "grok" every character in their fullness. This term is used over and over and over again however there is nothing like it in the English language. The entire book is about human trying to understand what it means to "grok" something...which simply means to "comprehend it in its fullness"...but not just that simple, you must develop an understanding on a intimate and molecular level before something is "grokked to fullness".

The novel starts with a team of scientists and physicists traveling to Mars. There are six married couples on the voyage and each has a particular skill set to ensure the success of the exploration party. The ship never makes the trip home and the Federation sends a larger ship to investigate.

The Champion send Earth three messages:

"Rocket Ship Envoy located...no survivors"

second was "Mars is inhabited" and third

"Correction to dispatch 23-105: One survivor of Envoy located."

And that is where the plot begins to unfold. The survivor was not of the original crew, but a child that was conceived from two of the parents from Envoy...however the parents were not married. The child grew up with the Martians and he learned the way of the Martians. Their race is much more patient and tolerant than humans could ever dream. They also have great ability to have total control over their mind and body to the point where no one ever dies or get killed...they simply "discorporate"...not a sad happening but a joyous occasion, for once discorporate the Martian joins the "Old Ones"...the ancestors/ghosts of the civilization.

Valentine Michael Smith aka the Man from Mars has, because of his family and some odd government laws, inherited everything from all of the members of Envoy. Several businesses, a large fortune, and the rights to colonize Mars....unfortunately he has no idea what any of this means and can't even stand on Earth by himself. The government has his held up in a hospital where no one can see or speak with him. Eventually the Federation says the Man from Mars is on retreat somewhere else, but a nurse happens to find him in the same room of the hospital. Gillian decides to rescue the man from Mars before it is too late....however she does not really know where to go so she takes the Martian Man to her friends place to get him in proper clothes and make an escape.

Unfortunately some men show up from the Federation to take her and the Man from Mars into custody however when one of the men in a suit pulls a gun he disappears...and then the other man disappears. Apparently Martians have a few skills humans cannot begin to comprehend. Valentine Michael Smith has the ability to rotate anything he "groks" as badness 90 degrees from everything else...

It took me a while to understand exactly...but if you think about it something perpendicular to everything else does not exist in this dimension at all...so in effect Michael can make this disappear, but that is only the beginning to what he can do.

And I stop there to hopefully keep the plot twists a secret and entice you to read the novel yourself...

Water for Elephants - a book review

Water for Elephants 6/10

 

I was in need of a book to read and I happened upon water for elephants. The girlfriend explained how it was suppose to be a good read and since I was short on time I decided to give it a read. I will have to admit it was a pretty decent read...like any other book at first it seems boring, but after you get a few bites the book is difficult to put down.

This book gets a lower rating mostly because it is simply not my genera...no magic, dragons, knights, war...etc etc

At first the reader is confused because we get the viewpoint from a senior citizen for a while...this person, even though he has trouble remembering who he is, is the main character present day. He keeps retelling the tale of his life through flashbacks...so the whole time

It is about a young man in the early 1900's he is out of high school and about to get into a college when his folks die...he is very distraught and runs away.

Every so often the reader will return to the viewpoint of the old man, stuck in a home, who is losing his grip on reality. It just happened to be the time of year the circus came to town. The narrator started working for the circus after he jumped a train...which happened to be one for a traveling circus. One day at lunch he is at a table and someone was getting too much attention talking about the circus. This other old guy was telling all the old ladies that he used to work for a circus. This irritates the narrator, because he had actually worked for a circus, so he started to question the other older man.

"What did you do in the circus" asks the main character

"Carried water for Elephants" replies the other old man

and all the old hens "oohed" and "aaahed" however since the narrator had come to be the traveling veterinary for the circus he had a great deal of experience with elephants. Elephants drink an enormous amount of water. His day would be consumed by carrying buckets upon buckets day and night for a single elephant.

We jump back and forth in time every other chapter until a plot begins to develop and we see there is going to be a conflict between the main character and....imagine it, a woman. The woman is obviously already taken by someone else so nothing should be happening between the main character and her, however push comes to shove...and a conflict develops.

The end is pretty good...If you like the circus or like reading stuff from early 1900's then I certainly recommend reading water for elephants