Book Blog: European Geeks From A Small Town Go To Harvard Prom

This week's book blog post is a little late. But it does have five books to go with it! Plus a video from a new YouTube Collaboration I'm a part of that's just starting. We started it off the Nerfighters forum Your Pants which is why it has allusions to VlogBrothers. Enjoy :)

Nerdtastica Introduction Post

Deivos

Oh and that thing that seems to be a V is actually an N. Because today I'm talking about my favorite word in Greek: δεινος. This word does not actually mean book, which is usually the meaning of my favorite word in a language (favorite word in French will always be livre). Yes, that's right, this word beat out book. You know that means it has to be good.

Anyone who's ever tried their hand at translating things from another language will tell you that things don't always translate neatly. Sometimes, no word exists in the language your translating to that encapsulates the word you want. I mean, even in English we're missing things. Like, we have no word for people who are no longer virgins (although the Nerdfighter community has proposed Virg-out, which I rather like).

So, this word that is my favorite actually means a few things. But basically δεινος means the terrible, clever, dangerous, wonderful thing. Which is really awesome in my opinion. It's like you are terrible but that terribleness is caused by the cleverness exhibited and this makes you dangerous. And that terrible cleverness leaves others slightly in awe. There's a kind of wonder with that danger and wit.

One of the best examples of this word is The Sphinx. In class readings the Sphinx was described as being δεινος (well, δεινη since she's feminine). And it's not just that she's terrible (which she is. Hello, she eats people who can't answer her riddle) but that she's terrible in her cleverness. It is her clever mind that makes her formidable and horrifying and awe-inspiring. How cool is that?

I know this is short, but I wanted to share my new favorite word with you. And because it's hard to translate to English, I think we just need to steal the word and make it part of our lexicon. Because it is freakin' awesome. And I love it. And we steal words from other languages all the time. What's your favorite foreign word?

From Imagination to Reality

I am of the opinion that one of the most rewarding things about being an author is probably seeing people take your words and create something corporeal (I just happen to like the world corporeal right now). Seeing an idea made into something tangible is just amazing to me. And I may not be published, but I for one love seeing something I've written in a real life form.

For the purposes of this discussion, we're going to leave out the slightly murky waters of fanfiction (which I kind of love and can see it having it's place. But some authors think it's evil so we're just going to leave it alone. No! Back! We'll talk about you another time, Fanfiction. Go wait over there *points and waits as fanfiction grumbles away). Okay, now that we've established that, what the heck am I actually talking about?

Well fan art, for one thing. I mean, there are some spectacular artists out there. And some of them are fan girls who get giddy about things and draw their favorite scenes or characters from books (or movies I suppose, but movies are kind of outside the bringing to life dynamic I'm talking about here). And these people draw stuff like this:

Sweet James and Lily taking a rest from Harry. Who they love but who I'm sure was a handful. Hello, he had Sirius as a godfather (credit to julvett on DeviantArt.com)

Or this:

A stunning Hermione. Who looks both smart and beautiful. There's a reason she was my rolemodel as a kid. (credit to alicexz on DeviantArt.com)

Or even this:

Numair resting. Probably worn out from doing some impressive feat of magic. And some well-meaning child has lent him a teddy bear. Or that belongs to Sarralyn or Rikash. (credit to waterysilver on DeviantArt.com. Oh, and I want a Numair.)

Aren't these amazing? Wouldn't you absolutely love to be a writer and have someone take the people in your head and bring them to life? I know I do. That's why I always comb the NaNoWriMo boards with huge puppy eyes for people to draw my characters. Because when I draw them, it's not quite the same effect as this:

This is Isabelle, who is the main heroine in my trilogy. And this artist has made her beautiful, with a look like she's casing the room and yet a little nervous (at least that's what I see and what she's feeling at this scene in the novel. Which I need to be finishing. Damn. Credit to NaNoWriMo user Ankhesenamun)

These people are amazing. Fan art in general is just such a wonderful expansion of the creative power of books. Fan art says, "You have inspired me. In some small way you have encouraged my talents and I hope you are happy with the result." Isn't that freakin' amazing? And with the internet, you can create communities where you share these amazing things and then someone else is inspired and so on and so forth. It's a chain of creative encouragement.

And then there are the people who write music. Based on writing! Sometimes the lyrics are beautiful and poignant and encompass the feeling you get when you read the book. Like End of an Era by Oliver Boyd and the Remembralls.

A beautiful song about how sad it is that Harry Potter is ending, but the fans will never forget how it changed them. (By the way, Oliver Boyd and the Remembralls is just a fantastic group. The lyrics are beautiful in this song and Open at the Close (which you should only listen to if you want to cry. It focuses on the Forest Scene in Deathly Hallows))

Or the song Sun's Lament by Mitch Hansen Band

Yes, the song is Twilight related. That doesn't make it any less of a great song. It's sad and wonderful. Besides, I like Twilight under the conditions of treating it as brain cotton candy.

And then you have the songs on the more amusing end of things.

(Why no, this isn't an excuse to post more VlogBrothers. Why would you think that? :)) Still love this song. And he predicted Hedwig's death!

An entire genre of music popped up around Harry Potter: Wrock. How amazing would that be? To have your idea so loved that people create music about it? That there seems like it would be a reward beyond your dreams.

And then you have just the fun fan project of when you make up foods in your book and then people go out and create these foods. My biggest example is again Harry Potter. There is an actual Harry Potter Cookbook, with recipes for Pumpkin Pasties (which I can actually make and not screw up! (well, as long as I don't try to make my own pastry dough)) and Treacle Tart. And people have created recipes for Butterbeer! I like this one. It sounds delicious.

I know a lot of this was Harry Potter, but that's because the fandom exploded so much it made it easy to find Harry Potter stuff. There is definitely a lot of other fandoms with art and projects and amazing out there. So go and google your favorite fandom. You make be surprised what you come up with.

Initialisms Are Not Acronyms

I am a little late starting this, but I just heard about Blog Every Day in April (BEDA) and I thought it sounded like a cool project. To make up for missing Friday and yesterday, you get three blog posts today (or you'll get two today and two tomorrow depending on how well my brain comes up with stuff). Isn't that exciting?

And since the reason I heard about this was Nerdfighteria and the Vlog Brothers, I've decided this post will be about that. Because they are awesome. And hilarious. And are obsessed with Harry Potter and making the world suck less.

Okay, so for the people who don't know who or what I'm talking about, Vlogbrothers is a YouTube channel created by John Green (who wrote An Abundance of Katherines and Paper Towns and looking for Alaska and co-wrote Will Grayson, Will Grayson (which is reviewed here if you just go back far enough. I promise, my next project is getting some proper tags on this stuff)) and his brother Hank Green (who writes awesome songs. Like Accio Deathly Hallows). And they send each other vlogs, back and forth, every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

Nerdfighteria is the awesome community that's been built with the people who watch their videos and who want to decrease World Suck. To learn more about Nerdfighters and Nerdfighteria (such as, what the heck it is) watch this video:

(I agree that puppy-sized elephants would be adorable.)

I've spent a lot of time watching this guys in the past couple of days (and posting their videos to Facebook because someone won't just watch stuff on YouTube). So I have a collection of their videos to show and talk about. So here we go!

Don't you wish you could learn all of your history this way? I mean, that's all very interesting and at the same time is told in a very entertaining way. "Never be a Russian and named Anastasia." It's true. Anastasias in Russia just meet very bad ends generally. Also "I get very upset when people screw around with libraries!" So do I John. So do I. The destruction of the Library at Alexandria is one of the worst crimes in history in my mind. Maybe not worse than the Holocaust but it's up there.

For every space nerd out there (and even the not space nerds) this is pretty freakin' cool. Plus it's fun to see how excited Hank gets about the space telescope. So think about the awesome people! (and also, I have no idea why his points are all out of order. There is no explanation).

This video isn't actually particularly hilarious, but it makes a good point. The truth resists simplicity. There is no black and white in our world for the most part. Because there's no easy or correct answer 100% of the time. Seriously, ask me a question and I will find you an answer that is correct and yet makes your answer wrong. (Challenge accepted!) The sooner we accept that there is always a margin of error, the sooner we can make the world more awesome. And be more open-minded.

So many of these things get on my nerves as well. Especially "I could care less." That is not what you are trying to convey. Listen to your words. Although I have no place to throw stones at mispronunciation. Because the first time I ever saw the word phlegm actually printed as opposed to simply hearing it audibly was in the sixth Harry Potter book. And it looked like nothing I thought it should have been spelled (I always imagined it would look like this: Flem. Doesn't that make more sense?) So I pronounced it f-leg-um. All I can say is that English is confusing.

I love just getting answers to random questions (some of which are actually real questions that I may have wondered about at one point. or random facts like the Clue thing. And Queue (which has a freakish amount of vowels for such a short word)). And yes, we all need Ester Bracelets. Because they are awesome ways of boosting your self-esteem. And I too am with the bakers.

I would totally go see The Dandy Lions. They could open for Scurvy Wench (aaaaaand only like three people will get this. If you really want to know, all you have to do is ask). I feel John's pain on the whole coming up with a title thing. Because I had to ask the NaNoWriMo community for help with my novel titles. Oh, and because John said he couldn't say the alphabet backwards, I made a video response in which I prove that I can say both the French and English backwards.

I think I can do this because I see words as letter patterns rather than seeing letters as their own entity. They're pattern blocks. Really you can put them in any order you want.

Hank writes many awesome songs (quite a few that actually deal with Harry Potter, which of course makes me grin). I think that it would be awesome if JK Rowling just wrote any of the ideas suggested. Marauders, Harry's kids, Voldemort's son (how big a twist would that be?) Dumbledore and Grindelwald. I really just want more Harry Potter.

Okay, I promise, this is the last video. Because I agree with all these rules. Especially rule 6, because I have come to love my name, but every time someone asks me what my name is and goes to write it down I have to wave my hands and say "Wait, wait wait, it's not spelled how you think." And then they start trying to guess how it's spelled and most people don't guess there is a g and two hs in it. On the plus side, I have become very proficient at spelling my name for people so that they understand what I'm saying. And anyone associated with Hollywood should never be allowed to name children. Here's a moment of silence for Quathyryn, Hi-ho Silva, and Apple. I love you Gwyneth Paltrow, but seriously? Apple?

So yes, being a nerdfighter is awesome because a) you help make the world suck less b) you get to watch John and Hank being hilarious and c) you get to know awesome people who also want to make the world suck less. And give you ideas on how to do so. And if you want to get more involved than just watching the videos, you can join the site Your Pants. Have fun!