Teodora's Blog

Reading Charlotte’s Web as a child can only leave you with the impression that a friendship between a pig and a spider is not only possible, but also incredibly touching and meant to break time boundaries. You seek to find a close friend like Wilbur (the pig) or Charlotte (the spider). If you are creative enough, you may even pay more attention to the next animal you come across, for they may have something to share. But as time passes by and you happen to return to E. B. White’s novel, your developed spidey sense (excuse the pun) may alert you there is more to the story itself – and it is a good tingle coming up your spine. I re-encountered the main characters with certain ideas in my mind, which I’ll share with you from the very beginning, so as to follow the same path as I did. Recently, I have come across an unusual representation of the spider, to be found in Jonathan Swift’s Battle of the Books , a satire about the quarrel between Ancients and Moderns, occurring in the Age of...

Before launching into details, the title itself should be justified. The one-shot technique may come across as self-explanatory, in part. There are not many productions taking on this unusual art form and yet, most people may probably be familiarized with the notion of “one-shot movies” or, in other words, movies which are filmed in a single take. Surely, since one such attempt is an enormous challenge, plenty of directors go for the more accessible “twist”: the illusion that their film has been shot in one take. The accessibility does not necessarily mean that the strategy is instantly much easier. There are still various elements which make the whole process more demanding, but, proportionally, more rewarding. This post will look at the multiple different mediums where this technique can be found, along with its purposes: the 2019 movie entitled 1917 (directed by Sam Mendes), episode 5 from the third season of the TV show called Mr. Robot (directed by Sam Esmail) and Justin Timbe...

Quite right, a decade of blogging comes off as something major. So why the postponement of talking about it? I could easily come up with the excuse that around the 2nd of February (the anniversary date), I was still amid exams at university. However, I am aware there has been an additional element bugging me at the back of my mind: a certain fear of writing. More precisely, a fear of writing something incoherent and useless which won’t be given enough attention anyway. This seems to hugely set me apart from my 10-year-old self. And yet… As a recap, the 10-year-old me – up until 12-13 – would focus on any little event and openly share it, perhaps with certitude that she had grand adventures. And they were grand, after all, due to heartfelt friendships, lively holidays and exciting challenges which I was more bold to take on, for sure. Plus, the 10-year-old me thought it was an ingenious idea to borrow favorite characters from books or even websites and use them in her own stories, wi...

“ ‘He’s writing his name in water,’ I said. ‘What’s that?’ It was the half-regretful term – borrowed from the headstone of John Keats – that Crabtree used to describe his own and others’ failure to express a literary gift through any actual writing on paper. Some of them, he said, just told lies; others wove plots out of the gnarls and elf knots of their lives and then followed them through to resolution. That had always been Crabtree’s chosen genre – thinking his way into an attractive disaster and then attempting to talk his way out, leaving no record and nothing to show for his efforts but a reckless reputation…” (page 93) With that being said, we are subtly introduced to the entire notion of being a “wonder boy”, a person who achieves success effortlessly and doesn’t have the ability to either analyze their talent or replicate it. Wonder Boys ’ author, Michael Chabon, presents one such unfolding path through the eyes of a writer who has just passed his own experience onto the ...

„Ține, Iov, robul meu preaiubit, ia-ți toată bucuria înapoi, zice Domnul, și-acesta se însănătoșește, întinerește, își clădește din nou casele, soția îl așteaptă și copiii îi aduc cinste pe lume. Cum m-a încercat Domnul pe mine? Ce nu mi-a dat încă, adică îndurare, e crusta mea tivită cu spini.” (pag. 189-190) Cititorii sunt atenționați că vor întâlni un Iov feminin în Cartea Reghinei , ultimul roman al scriitoarei Ioana Nicolaie. Vor (re)cunoaște spațiul nord-transilvan în care se desfășoară acțiunea, un spațiu cu o tentă mistică, destul de familiară. S-ar putea spune că misticismul reiese și din soarta femeii, pecetluită pe nedrept în subconștientul tuturor. Se susține faptul că femeia, ca ființă inferioară, va avea de suferit cel mai mult de-a lungul vieții. Într-o astfel de situație, care e abordarea corectă? Este necesară o rebeliune, o răzbunare față de indiferența predominantă? Sau se poate descoperi rostul din spatele unor injustiții, într-o lume plină de neastâmpăr? Prin pă...

„În timp ce unii dintre voi bricolează la becul-fortăreață-protector-de-examen-și-furnizor-de-cereale-cu-lapte, am să vă spun adevăratele tehnici de supraviețuire în clasa a opta. Mai exact, vă propun un ghid, Examenofobia , făcut chiar de o războinică determinată să-și învingă frica. Acest ghid cuprinde cinci pași și, nu vreau să mă laud, dar după ce o să-mi treacă lenea și-l voi scrie pe hârtie, va fi cel mai util, popular și cunoscut ghid din toată lumea.” (pag. 22) Și, într-adevăr, cinci pași sunt oferiți, pe un ton ghiduș menit să stârnească interesul cititorilor. Însă trebuie luat în considerare faptul că instructajul nu se rezumă sub nicio formă la împărtășirea unor sfaturi utile și eventuala demonstrare a practicabilității lor. Cum am supraviețuit clasei a VIII-a nu este un ghid scris „ca la carte”, ci o colecție de trăiri și impresii, notate ca într-un jurnal și povestite din cinci perspective, aparținând unui grup de prieteni, Clara, Dora, Filip, Luca și Raul. Această ini...

*Spoilers will be discussed* Keep going only if you watched the movie “No matter how many hits I take, I always find a way to come back.” Amid exams and decision-making processes, I managed to squeeze in some time for the latest Marvel production, Spider-Man: Far From Home . Coming to a rather peaceful ending, I can finally concentrate on the dwelling thoughts from the past few weeks and also reconsider the quote mentioned in the beginning. Surely that must ring a bell. It is indeed Spider-Man’s mantra in 2018’s Into the Spider-Verse . I cannot help but think of the dazzling animation being closely connected to Marvel Studios’ recent movies, Endgame and Far From Home . The audience first learned that there was only one Spider-Man ruling the neighborhood. But in the meantime, a growing multiverse demonstrated that there would always be a bit of Spider-Man in each one of us, most likely due to his relatable personality. “Anyone can wear the mask. You could wear the mask. If you...