Annie Kapur
Bio
200K+ Reads on Vocal.
English Lecturer
đLiterature & Writing (B.A)
đFilm & Writing (M.A)
đSecondary English Education (PgDipEd) (QTS)
đBirmingham, UK
Stories (1968/0)
"The Shadow in the Corner" by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
The first time I discovered this story I was about fifteen yearsâ old and Iâm not going to lie, I had never even heard of Mary Elizabeth Braddon before. I had no idea when she lived, but I guessed by her name she might either be old by now or she was living in the 19th century and therefore, not alive anymore. I didnât really bother to do any research on the author from when I discovered the story because of the way in which I discovered the story. It was a very rainy day at school and so, I took a usual trip to the library and there were other people there. Someone had read the Braddon story and placed it back on the shelf in the entirely incorrect place - near nonfiction. I picked it up to move it only to notice that the cover was a bit odd. I flipped the book, which was very thin, around to notice the blurb. I read the blurb only to scrunch up my face and wonder what it was all about. I took the book out later that day, read the whole thing during lunch and returned it to the library before the day was out. It was a short read. Thatâs why it was pretty much impossible for me to research the author before reading the text - it was during lunch and we were stuck indoors because of the rain. After I read it, however, I really did forget about it for some time until I encountered it in an anthology that same summer. Thatâs when I started to pay more attention to what the story was actually about.
By Annie Kapur4 years ago in Geeks
A Filmmaker's Guide to: 20 Films of the 1960s
The 1960s was the beginning of truly modernised cinema. Things were happening, stars were becoming superstars, cinema was getting bigger budgets by the minute and equipment was surely modernising with nearly all films of larger budget being made entirely in colour now. Things were looking up for film and Hollywood in an age where it was considered that the Golden Era was dead and gone with the 50s. The era of peace and love was here and the music of the psychedelic Beach Boys, the death of Buddy Holly and the crooning harmonica folk rock of Bob Dylan were about the set the world on fire. Hollywood was about to take the biggest u-turn this world had ever seen and film would never be the same again.
By Annie Kapur4 years ago in Geeks
A Filmmaker's Guide to: 20 Films of the 1950s
The 1950s are probably my personal favourite decade because of the fact there is such brilliant music from the era. Another thing about the 50s is that it is considered the true beginning of the Modern West. The Second World War is over, Hitler is dead and gone, American Production is up ten-fold and more and there are reparations all over the world. Peace and Love would come along in the form of the 1960s as a result of the Cold War (it isn't really a war, but it is a war - just nobody's fighting and just collecting random weapons).
By Annie Kapur4 years ago in Geeks
"American Notes" by Charles Dickens
Charles Dickensâ âAmerican Notesâ is a travelogue detailing a trip Dickens took to North America between the months of January and June in 1842. This was also part of the inspiration for his later writing of âMartin Chuzzlewitâ. Charles Dickens and his wife sailed for North America just a month before Dickensâ 30th birthday and even though he was initially in good spirits, the journey on sea was no so positive. He would travel America by coach, by steamboat, and even writing a whole chapter on his journey on the American Railroad. Dickens could not forgive America for it having a continued use for slavery and comments about the treatment of black people in America as being incredibly horrid. He gives reasons and observations for major flaws in the society of the USA and makes analyses on everything from violence to prisons, hospitals and schools. Often enjoying the picturesque of the country, he comments on liking Boston the most in terms of sight and New York, it seems, the least.
By Annie Kapur4 years ago in Geeks
A Filmmaker's Guide to: 20 Films of the 1940s
By the 1940s, The Golden Age of Cinema was certainly well underway with the previous decade having done so well. During the Second World War, Hollywood would concentrate its efforts on making films to suit the darkness of the situation. Even Charlie Chaplin would go for dark humour this time.
By Annie Kapur4 years ago in Geeks
"Collected Maxims and Other Writings" by La Rochefoucauld
La Rochefoucauld was a French author and nobleman most famous for his memoirs and his maxims. Part of the literary movement of classicism, his maxims often dealt with very human struggles that can be related back to philosophies found in aspects of Plato, Socrates and even Xenophon and Zeno. There are three parts to his writings that are split accordingly and all include some sort of philosophical enquiry into his own times: there are the memoirs in which he details his own life alongside its importance or lack thereof, there are his maxims which are the most famous and famed for being existentialist questions interpreted as double edged swords of the human experience - relating both good and bad actions to the passion and the reason of human nature. Finally, there are the letters in which he corresponds often using aspects of his own philosophy to either rationalise or complicate his own feelings in a way that often only he can comprehend, leaving the correspondent imaginably quite baffled and introspective. Within the writing of the âMaximsâ there has been frequent alterations made by the author during his life, a few made after his death and in translation and editing, the text has been again corrupted from its original source.
By Annie Kapur4 years ago in Geeks
A Filmmaker's Guide to: 20 Films of the 1930s
The Golden Age of cinema is synonymous with names such as Charlie Chaplin, Katharine Hepburn, Clark Gable and many more. The rise of Universal Studios through its Dark Universe of Horror films during the 30s resurgence was one of the greatest moments in horror film history. But, apart from horror, we had bigger budget films, bigger names being formed and some of the most memorable and loveable storylines in all of cinema history.
By Annie Kapur4 years ago in Geeks
The Filmmaker's Guide: The Classic and the Epic
Various films fall into the title 'classic' and yet when we look at the epic, there are only certain films that fall into it. When we talk about classic movies, normally we talk about the films of the Golden Age of Cinema. However, if we were to narrow it down to talking about epics of the time, we would be looking for some very rigid criteria. Be that as it may, the films we find within these two tick-boxes could not actually be more different. So how do we put a definition on it and what are we really looking for in this strange and vague set of categories?
By Annie Kapur4 years ago in Geeks
A Filmmaker's Guide to: 20 Films of 1920s
The Jazz Age - as it is dubbed - was a decade of change in history. From the reparations in Europe for the end of the First World War to the decline and fall of the stock market in 1929 with the Wall Street Market Crash. Throughout the decade, we had entertainers such as Bing Crosby, Al Jolson, the orchestras of Artie Shaw and films of the strange and wild that were brewing in a new expressionist movement in Germany as a reaction towards the aching political regime in their country. Things were making it big. Cinema gained sound, the talkies were born and with one film - the whole scene would change forever.
By Annie Kapur4 years ago in Geeks
"The Complete Stories" by Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway was an author that, when I was growing up, I wasnât overly interested in. By the time I had first read his short stories, I had already read the books âFor Whom the Bell Tollsâ and âA Farewell to Armsâ and I didnât particular enjoy either of them. At the age of about thirteen, Hemingwayâs writing can seem bland, dry and almost dull but, as I grew up and re-read the short stories, I noticed that I was very wrong indeed. In fact, it is the dry nature of the stories that make them so interesting and fulfilling to read. I first read the short stories at the age of thirteen and yet, I couldnât make head or tail of them.
By Annie Kapur4 years ago in Geeks
A Filmmakerâs Review: âUnabomber: In His Own Wordsâ (Netflix, 2020)
I am pretty sure that anyone who hears the term âUnabomberâ has this weird chill that goes down them. You donât really know why you have a certain chill but itâs there. Itâs not really because of the man himself but more about the strangeness surrounding his situation - especially the odd three years he spent under the influence of a psychologist at Harvard University, apparently subjected to CIA style mind-altering torture techniques. Though the man himself maintains it did not change him, is it really that or is that just what he believes? This documentary investigates the years between 1978 and 1995 in which a Mathematics PhD killed three people and injured more than twenty by sending homemade bombs in the post to key locations, concentrating on the urgency for his capture and how ultimately - he was found. It is an incredible look into the life of a man who, since his capture, was shrouded in so much mystery that you practically could not learn anything about him apart from his stubbornly academic manifesto. In this documentary we also get to see his brother, his sister-in-law, a woman who interviewed him after he sent for her by name. We get to see that from the very start of his life there is a sense of withdrawal because of his vast intellect. This intellect that becomes used and abused by the wrong people for the wrong reasons.
By Annie Kapur4 years ago in Criminal
"The Poems" by Propertius
The poet Propertius was an Latin Elegiac of the Augustan Period and his only surviving works are those of his four books of âElegiesâ. This totals around 92 surviving poems and his more romantic side of poetry is dominated by a character named âCynthiaâ. The romantic affair between Propertius and Cynthia takes wild turns and often turns either violent and turbulent or graphic and passionate. Common themes in the poems include: passion, romance, jealousy, violence, standards of love and courtship, lament, death and the afterlife, mythology, religion and ghosts. Propertiusâs unconventional use of the Latin language have often made his texts and allusions within texts difficult to translate and edit. The surviving manuscripts of his poetry have led translators to often alter the texts and therefore corrupting them before the editing stage. Propertiusâs boldness has often been said to exacerbate the problem of translation due to the way in which the syntax of the poetry is often incorrect. Be that as it may, themes, symbols and motifs are still clearly visible throughout the anthology. Propertius, being popular within his own lifetime but also a poet considered to be a scandal was also not really enjoyed by the other poets of his time and period. Horace had once stated a veiled attack on him and Callimachus as did Quintilian who states that the poet was not as popular as he made himself out to be.
By Annie Kapur4 years ago in Poets