Annie Kapur
Bio
200K+ Reads on Vocal.
English Lecturer
🎓Literature & Writing (B.A)
🎓Film & Writing (M.A)
🎓Secondary English Education (PgDipEd) (QTS)
📍Birmingham, UK
Stories (1971/0)
A Filmmaker's Guide: "Winter Light" (1963)
In this chapter of ‘the filmmaker’s guide’ we’re actually going to be learning about literature and film together. I understand that many of you are sitting in university during difficult times and finding it increasingly hard to study and I understand that many of you who are not at university or not planning on it are possibly stuck of what to do, need a break or even need to catch up on learning film before you get to the next level. This guide will be brief but will also contain: new vocabulary, concepts and theories, films to watch and we will be exploring something taboo until now in the ‘filmmaker’s guide’ - academia (abyss opens). Each article will explore a different concept of film, philosophy, literature or bibliography/filmography etc. in order to give you something new to learn each time we see each other. You can use some of the words amongst family and friends to sound clever or you can get back to me (email in bio) and tell me how you’re doing. So, strap in and prepare for the filmmaker’s guide to film studies because it is going to be one wild ride.
By Annie Kapur2 years ago in Geeks
Book Review: "The Wild Boys" by William S. Burroughs
William S. Burroughs is known as one of the greatest minds of the beat generation for a reason. In the past, I have read his books "Naked Lunch", "Junkie", "Queer" and "Cities of Red Night". I am re-reading some Burroughs because at the moment, a friend of mine is getting more into the author as well. I feel like the appropriate place to begin though would be with a book by him that I haven't read before (well, before I re-read my personal favourites) - this book is "The Wild Boys".
By Annie Kapur2 years ago in Geeks
5 Beautiful Passages from Books
We have done quite a few parts to this already but, by popular demand, it has come back once again. Having already covered the following books in the previous sections: Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh, Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz, War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky, Moby-Dick by Herman Melville, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell, All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy, Lotte in Weimar by Thomas Mann, Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain and Just Above My Head by James Baldwin. (Takes a long exhaling breath).
By Annie Kapur2 years ago in Geeks
Book Review: "Dead Relatives" by Lucie McKnight Hardy
Lucie McKnight Hardy is a great writer of folk horror. Her novel "Water Shall Refuse Them" was the first book I read by her and this book entitled "Dead Relatives" is the second. As you all know, folk horror is my favourite genre ever, I love the way that stories of old and images of forests and folklore come together to create something wholly uncomfortable and frightening. Nature and animals create a terrifying premise for stories and, through beliefs and the supernatural, we see a very new and exciting way of losing control. Folk Horror to me, represents how little we humans really have control over anything. We like to believe that we are in charge when actually, it is nature, it is the animals, it is the sun and the beliefs that hold us together that guide us through life. If we turn on them, then they turn back twice as hard on to us.
By Annie Kapur2 years ago in Geeks
Book Review: "Trigger Warning" by Neil Gaiman
I have read many books by Neil Gaiman over the last decade. These include: "American Gods", "Coraline", "Neverwhere", "Anasi Boys", "Good Omens", "Stardust" and "The Sandman". The story of my reading of "The Sandman" is that I only read it whilst on my Master's Degree because one of my good friends told me to and he'd talk to me about it and where I was in the book - he loved the idea of the sandman legend, yes including the song. That same year, a few months after I finished the book, he hanged himself and I was devastated. The book, the sandman legend and the upcoming adaptation therefore have my full attention - he would have loved to see it.
By Annie Kapur2 years ago in Geeks
A Filmmaker's Guide: "Cleo from 5 to 7" (1962)
In this chapter of ‘the filmmaker’s guide’ we’re actually going to be learning about literature and film together. I understand that many of you are sitting in university during difficult times and finding it increasingly hard to study and I understand that many of you who are not at university or not planning on it are possibly stuck of what to do, need a break or even need to catch up on learning film before you get to the next level. This guide will be brief but will also contain: new vocabulary, concepts and theories, films to watch and we will be exploring something taboo until now in the ‘filmmaker’s guide’ - academia (abyss opens). Each article will explore a different concept of film, philosophy, literature or bibliography/filmography etc. in order to give you something new to learn each time we see each other. You can use some of the words amongst family and friends to sound clever or you can get back to me (email in bio) and tell me how you’re doing. So, strap in and prepare for the filmmaker’s guide to film studies because it is going to be one wild ride.
By Annie Kapur2 years ago in Geeks
Book Review: "Storyland" by Amy Jeffs
Yes, we are back here again. We are being thrust straight back into folk culture and honestly, this resurgence is the best thing ever. Books that are coming out now with an incredible amount of folkish background to them include the realms of horror and thriller, Sci-Fi and fantasy and even romance is giving it a go. Folk horror films are coming out and I am very excited about that. And finally, we have the books which we thank for compiling some of the great stories that go along with these cultures.
By Annie Kapur2 years ago in Geeks
Book Review: "Stories of Your Life and Others" by Ted Chiang
When it comes to surrealist fiction, I pick my post-modern texts carefully. I don't want them to be so out there that I can't understand what's going on. My brother told me to read the first chapter of 'Neuromancer' and I have to admit that even though I understood what was happening, I didn't particularly like it. However, authors who work in the framework of the dystopian surrealist fiction subgenre tend to get me more - it just so happens that creating something incredibly mind-twisting whilst also being dystopian works on so many levels. It shows us the possibility of what could happen, or what has happened, and then gives us the ability to think about the metaphors and plausibility of the situation.
By Annie Kapur2 years ago in Geeks
5 Beautiful Passages from Books
Previously, in 5 beautiful passages from books, we have covered: 'Brideshead Revisited' by Evelyn Waugh, 'Cloud Atlas' by David Mitchell, '100 Years of Solitude' by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, 'Anna Karenina' by Leo Tolstoy and 'Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe' by Benjamin Alire Saenz. That was in part 1, which you can find here.
By Annie Kapur2 years ago in Geeks
50th Anniversary: "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" by Hunter S. Thompson
The History Behind the Book Based on a trip to Las Vegas that he took with his friend and attorney, Oscar Zeta Acosta, the book was initially published in the music and culture magazine, Rolling Stone. Many people are already aware that the book was actually written first and foremost as a magazine article that was meant to be only 250 words, but blew into a full blown novel that then, the Sports Illustrated Magazine rejected for publication and so, Rolling Stone took up the offer. The Mint 400 Motorcycle race was the subject and before arriving at that particular point, the literary genius of Hunter S. Thompson is more than present through days of ramblings, philosophies and illegal highs.
By Annie Kapur2 years ago in Geeks
Book Review: "The Nesting" by C.J Cooke
Folk horror novels are among some of my favourite books ever. The genre is my favourite to really get stuck into because there is so much lore to understand before you actually go further into the book. When we read folktales, we must always keep an open mind as to how these were read and believed in their own countries and times of recitation. When reading "The Nesting" by C.J Cooke, I noticed that there were tons of references to these incredible Norwegian folk tales that I myself had heard of before. The one thing I adore about folktales from that part of the world is that their attention to nature is extreme and they iterate that we, as humans, appreciate but do not understand nature.
By Annie Kapur2 years ago in Geeks
Book Review: "Cloud Cuckoo Land" by Anthony Doerr
I think that there will be a couple of things that you notice when you start reading Anthony Doerr's Cloud Cuckoo Land. The first thing you will notice is how much better it is than his previous book All the Light We Cannot See. The second thing you will notice is how nice and large it is, so it will be easily curled up with a cup of coffee in the early morning, or the late dark night. The third thing you will notice is that the whole book is about the translation of a book - a book that transcends time and moves to connect each character to another in the story. The final thing you should notice is how much alike this book is to another great modern classic (and a personal favourite book of mine, yes it is in my top ten favourites of all time before you ask) - Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell.
By Annie Kapur2 years ago in Geeks