BOOK: X-Men – The Dark Phoenix Saga (1980)

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X-Men: The Dark Phoenix Saga Year: 1980 Author: Chris Claremont Length: 200 pages It’s interesting how many comic book fans cite the Dark Phoenix Saga from the X-Men series as such a good plot when it’s been so difficult to adapt in other media. Having now read this set of comics from the 1960s, I get the feeling that part of the reason is that the ‘90s animated show was the only one to truly get the aesthetic feel right, and that’s the one part that I definitely would cut out from any adaptation because of how cringey it is. There were definitely some choices made here that don’t translate well to modern times. The core of my problem with this saga is how Jean Grey fused with this all-powerful interstellar being, and yet was so easily tricked with psychic mind illusions that caused her to go down the path of villainy. This is on top of the fact that the whole subterfuge is set...
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BOOK: Housekeeping (1980)

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HousekeepingYear: 1980Author: Marilynne RobinsonLength: 332 minutes / 5.53 hours As I'm working my way through Pulitzer winners and finalists, I approached Housekeeping with skepticism. I knew nothing about this book other than its inclusion on these lists for "high literature." Having now read it, this book completely underwhelmed me. I'm going to include this with other books of literature like One Hundred Years of Solitude or Ulysses, both of which I found extremely boring and lacking of any kind of plot that I could latch onto. At least this was short and had some occasionally flowery prose. Even now, thinking back on what I read, I can't pick out anything significant that happened in this book. That I'm having trouble remembering what it was about should indicate how little impact it had on me. I vaguely remember there being something about an aunt who was a drifter and the bigger metaphor of "home is where the heart is." And, of course, extrapolating...
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MOVIE: The Shining (1980)

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The Shining Year: 1980 Rating: R Length: 146 minutes / 2.43 hours Stanley Kubrick is one of those directors who can make a great movie in any genre. From science fiction like 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) to political satire in Dr. Strangelove (1964) to historic epics in Spartacus (1960), it's no wonder that he could excel in horror with The Shining (1980). The descent into madness in an isolated mountain hotel was done with such expert craft that this film stands as a pinnacle of the genre even today. It might not be an exact representation of the Stephen King novel, but it works well for the big screen. Kubrick succeeds in the emotions of unease here through clever application of cinematography and sound design. The audience gets the full experience. We're along for the ride down at Danny's (Danny Lloyd) level. We feel small and insignificant in the vast open spaces of the hotel and its nearby hedge maze. The building insanity in...
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