Posted August 17, 2014 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Education / 4 Comments
While writing a review for Ms. Marvel: No Normal I came to the burning realisation that I don’t know how to review art work. As a result of this realisation, I had to leave out any thoughts of the art. This got me thinking, I have a book blog that has been a great tool for developing my skills in reviewing and talking about literature. This blog sadly still gets neglected a little too much but I think I can make use of it for developing my skills.
Knowledge Lost was created to allow me to talk about what I have learnt and I can apply them into a blog post. So I have to wonder why I am not trying to socially critique all things pop-culture. Thanks to two recent books I’m starting to see issues relating to feminism (The Fictional Woman by Tara Moss) and sexuality (Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith) in everything I see. I’ve decided to practice these skills and start critiquing movies, TV shows and obviously art. The goal is to improve my writing skills in these areas and gives me an excuse to look more into pop-culture.
I have plans to talk about a few topics already, so I’m hoping that this blog is going to be neglected less. If you read my book blog you may have seen my manifesto where I have decided to write every day. So stay turned, it might not be as educational as before but this blog is now my new playground to practice and develop my abilities. I think the term for this is cultural studies, it is very similar to literary criticism but it applies to all things related to pop-culture.
Posted April 19, 2014 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Literature / 2 Comments
One thing that annoys me about reading a crime series is the lack of an overall story arc. I’m not saying that this is the case with all book series but it seems to be for the majority of them. Within crime fiction especially, the overall story arc is often very basic and often feels like a crime of the week format. This isn’t the case with romance, science fiction and fantasy they are more likely to have a continuous story line and have huge success with it.
When I read a series it is more than often a crime series and I wish the ‘new novel, new crime’ wasn’t the norm. When I watch TV, I often enjoy a series with an ongoing story; Veronica Mars is a prime example on television of what I want in a crime novel. A case that needs to be solved in every book but a bigger mystery that lasts over a couple of novels. Why can’t they do that in a novel series? I know a book is a bigger investment but I often read one book in a series and never continue because there is nothing to keep me reading.
The problem is that everything seems to be a series at the moment; I like the idea of returning to a great character but I need more. I like hard-boiled and noir crime novels but I find myself reading them less and less. I don’t want to read a series if there is nothing to keep me reading. A character has to be amazing to keep me reading, or they could just give me an unanswered mystery. Does anyone know of a good crime series that develops characters over a long period of time and also has an overall story arc? Let me know. I wish I could write, I have been developing a concept in my head but I have no idea how to put it onto a page.
While writing a review for Ms. Marvel: No Normal I came to the burning realisation that I don’t know how to review art work. As a result of this realisation, I had to leave out any thoughts of the art. This got me thinking, I have a book blog that has been a great tool for developing my skills in reviewing and talking about literature. This blog sadly still gets neglected a little too much but I think I can make use of it for developing my skills.