At long last, it appears that Amazon Studios’ highly anticipated television adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings will make it to our living rooms within the next year. Details about the plot and cast are still sparse and often speculative. One of the things we know for certain is that…
Read More "What to Expect From Sauron in Amazon’s New Adaptation of The Lord of the Rings"
The first time I read Romeo and Juliet, I was a freshman in high school. And, like many other high school freshmen, I hated every minute of it. When I was first introduced to Shakespeare’s classic tragedy, I was already exhausted by the oversaturation of Romeo and Juliet in pop culture—everything from Leo DiCaprio’s 90s…
Read More "How I Learned to (Finally) Appreciate Romeo and Juliet"
The hustle and bustle of the holiday season are in full swing. While some of us may be roasting chestnuts on an open fire, others are feeling overwhelmed by the chaos. Winter is the perfect reading season, so why not avoid the mall mayhem and indulge in some light reading? Here are seven holiday reads…
We're all familiar with at least some aspects of most fairy tales. After all, who hasn't seen a Disney movie complete with singing princesses and their trusty dancing spoons? To some, these stories are perfection and you don't mess with perfection. But alas, the original creators of these beloved tales weren't thinking about singing teacups…
Read More "The Good, the Bad, and the Gross: Dark Origins of Our Favorite Fairy Tales"
In honor of the Mr. Holmes movie release this weekend, starring Gandalf Sir Ian McKellen, we wanted to look back at the various faces of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's infamous detective. The original text describes Holmes as “over six feet” tall and “excessively lean”, with sharp, piercing eyes and a “hawk-like nose” (A Study in…
1. The Lion King (and its sequels) Don’t be fooled by the fur—Disney only superficially disguised Shakespeare’s Hamlet with adorable lion cubs. Scar, a.k.a. Claudius, murders his brother on the sly and takes his throne, leaving young Hamlet—er, Simba—to travel the circle of life alone and conflicted. Fortunately for Simba, Walt apparently didn’t make it…
Read More "Nine Movies You Didn’t Know Had Literary Origins"
eNoters! We are so close to springtime! Birds, bees, apple trees, and sunscreen. It’s almost in our reach. But when the sun comes back, we lose our (completely viable) excuse to stay in after school/work... with our fuzzy slippers & snowflake jammies, bingeing on Netflix or absorbed in a book all night. Let’s be clear: coming…
Halloween is just around the corner! If you're looking for a costume idea, we've collected our top 10 literature-inspired outfits here by level of difficulty, so you can look bookishly awesome no matter how much time you have on your hands. 1. Ishmael, from Moby Dick You're just one name tag away from "Call me…
