In my Captivity Narratives class we're now reading a book on the Holocaust and the Nazi concentration camps, which gets extremely depressing, so I REALLY needed to read a book to lift my spirits. Douglas Adams definitely fits in that category :)  I love British humor, I don't know why, but it just pokes my funny bone and I find it hysterical. I decided to re-read "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Adams, which gave me an excuse to finally buy the fancy "Penultimate Hitchhiker's Guide" from Barnes and Noble.

Anyway, I haven't read Adams in a few years now and I still love him. It's so absurd that it just makes you laugh out loud while reading; things like how the Hitchhiker's Guide recommends such things as "a towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have." I love Marvin the depressed robot, and when I eventually watched the movie they made I thought that Alan Rickman was perfect for the role. Now that's the voice in my head when I read the "trilogy."

The parallels between Adams' world and our world's absurdity is brilliant, I mean, the earth gets blown up for make way for a hyperspace express route.

There are so many wonderful quotes! The language itself is intriguing for me because it's so unique.

- "The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't"
- "Curiously enough, the only thing that went through the mind of the bowl of petunias as it fell was Oh no, not again. Many people have speculated that if we knew exactly why the bowl of petunias had thought that we would know a lot more about the nature of the Universe than we do now"
- "Life," said Marvin dolefully, "loathe it or ignore it, you can't like it."


If you don't like the series, then you may be the reason why human beings are just the third most intelligent species on earth behind mice and dolphins. So long, and thanks for all the fish!

So it took a little bit of searching but I was finally able to find, and read, "The Tenants" by William Tenn. It's been extremely busy with all of my classes right now, not to mention that I'm overloading this semester, so I've been too swamped to find the time to read a whole novel for this class.

The story, in a nut shell, is about hiring in an urban office space by otherworldly being, which seems simple enough. The main character is Sydney Blake, an employee at the real estate firm Wellington Jimm & Sons. After just a short time the story goes completely strange as two prospective tenants for the building are introduced. Tohu and Bohu are a bit odd and want to rent the 13th floor of the building, but that floor doesn't exist. They end up renting it anyway, and then the story takes yet another turn onto bizarro street; all of the movers and such don't find it odd whatsoever that "only those that have any business on the 13th floor" can even reach the office there. This is when Blake constantly attempts to reach the 13th floor, but keeps failing. I think in a way, not being able to reach the 13th floor is just driving Sydney Blake insane, which is in complete contrast to the other people who have already accepted the unusual. Curiosity killed the cat.

I really liked reading this short story, partly because it's such a simple tale that comes across so clear and interesting. Its been quite refreshing to be honest. It was also like a very subdued horror story in a way, with a little satire thrown in the mix.

I used to watch the movie The Witches of Eastwick a lot when I was little, along with other movies with witches like the infamous Hocus Pocus, or The Witches. I think that of those three films in particular, I liked The Witches the most.

I always found it odd that witches are often portrayed as being evil, and more importantly, evil women. There are two types of witchcraft, benevolent (white magic) and malevolent (black magic). The "white" witches that are often seen as good, often working against the evil witch. Some examples in films are Glenda from The Wizard of Oz, and even the queens from Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland that came out in theaters over break. The oddball is then the character of Jadis, the "White Witch," from C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia who is the villain.

Witchcraft usually involves practices that influence a person's mind, body, or materials against their will. Often you can see witches in a coven that consists of three women; sometimes sisters but usually related to one another in some way. There have been many American TV shows involving witches that have become popular like Bewitched, Tabitha, Free Spirit, Angelique, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and Charmed. The most popular witches, obviously being Samantha from Bewitched and Sabrina from Sabrina the Teenage Witch. The character of Samantha is portrayed as the good witch who is a caring wife who has to keep her identity a secret from her husband Darrin. On the other hand, there's Sabrina who is a teen that needs to cope with her new witch powers and how to deal with all of the problems that being a teenager ensues.