Geography (5) - Carlos Ruiz Zafón

About Carlos Ruiz Zafón:

Carlos Ruiz Zafón was born in Barcelona, Spain in 1964.

His first novel published was a thriller for young adults called "El Príncipe de la Niebla". It was hugely acclaimed in Spain and won the Edebé literary award for young adult fiction. This novel was recently translated into English in 2010 under the title of "The Prince of Mist". Carlos also wrote three other novels for young adults before trying his hand at adult fiction.

His first adult novel was "El Sombre del Viento" or "The Shadow of the Wind" in English. This book became critically acclaimed worldwide and won many international prizes for literature  It has subsequently been translated into over 35 languages.  

His novel "El Juego del Angel" ("The Angel's Game") was released a few years later as a prequel to "The Shadow of the Wind". It became the fastest selling book in Spanish history. 

Both of these novels are set in Barcelona around the time of the Spanish Civil War and focus on the lives of two young men who have an affinity for books.

Carlos Ruiz Zafón now lives in Los Angeles but visits Barcelona regularly.

Barcelona:

"The Shadow of the Wind" and "The Angel's Game" are both set in Carlos Ruiz Zafón's home city of Barcelona. 

The city is situated on the north-eastern coast of Spain. It has a big harbour which is the ninth largest port in Europe. This means that the city is a main centre of trade and commerce. 

Barcelona is also a beautiful city full of art and culture. The city is dotted with old cathedrals and pieces of Antonio Guadí's architecture.

Geography (4) - J.K Rowling

About J.K Rowling:


J.K Rowling was born in Yate, Gloucestershire in 1965. As a child she wrote fantasy stories which she told to her younger sister, Di.

She studied French and Classics at the University of Exeter and spent some time studying in Paris.

She came up with the idea for Harry Potter while on a train trip from Manchester to London.

Her stories centre around a teenage boy, Harry, who finds out that he is a wizard and heads off to study magic at a school called Hogwarts. Each book in the series follows Harry and his friends, Ron and Hermione, as they encounter new adventures in the wizarding world.


She uses a lot of her own experiences to help her with her writing. The first and most prominent of these was her own mother's death. Her descriptions in her novels of coping with loss and its affects are very real and profound. She also uses happier memories as inspiration in her books, such as the turquoise Ford Anglia that the Weasleys have. She based this on her best friend from school's car, which she used to drive around in a lot as a teenager.

Her books soon became a worldwide phenomenon. The last four books in the Harry Potter series consecutively broke records, both in the UK and the USA, as the fastest-selling books in history.

She now owns a house in Edinburgh, the city where she spent a lot of her time writing the Harry Potter series.


Edinburgh:

Edinburgh the beautiful capital city of Scotland, situated roughly in the centre of the country.


It is surrounded by a ring of extinct volcanic hills.The most famous of these is Arthur's Seat, a hill covered in rocky crags, that at 220m above sea level is the highest point of the city. Arthur's seat is a very popular tourist attraction in Edinburgh since it is very close to the city and relatively easy to climb. The formation itself resembles a crouched lion with the head and body made up of two extinct volcanoes. It was formed by volcanic activity millions of years ago and was eroded down into its current shape by glaciation during the ice age. In terms of geology, the hill is made up largely of basalt.

Geography (3) - Christopher Paolini

About Christopher Paolini:

Christopher Paolini was raised in Paradise Valley, Montana. After graduating from High School at the age of 15, Paolini began work on his first novel in the Inheritance Cycle, "Eragon".

Paolini set his stories in a mythical land of his own creation called Alegasia. The stories follow a young boy called Eragon, who discovers a dragon egg and grows up to become a key figure in the liberation of the country from the evil king, Galbatorix.
Paolini based one of the characters in the series on his own sister. This character was Angela the herbalist, who is a very smart and sarcastic person, but also slightly crazy.

Eragon was published by Christopher's parents' publishing company in 2002. Paolini designed the cover and drew the maps for the first edition of this book. He then spent the next year travelling around the United States promoting his novel in libraries, schools and book shops.

The step-son of a famous author, Carl Hiassen, found the novel in a book shop and fell in love with it. He brought it to the attention of the publishing house, Alfred A Knopf, who offered to publish the rest of the books in the series.

The Inheritance Cycle has become a worldwide best selling series. The last book in the series is due to be released in November after much anticipation from fans.

Montana:

The world of the text, Alegasia, is largely based on the geography of Paolini's home in Montana. He even named certain geographical features, such as rivers and mountain ranges, after the places he experienced in his childhood. For example, the Beartooth River in "Eragon" is named after the Beartooth Mountains that surround Paradise Valley.


Paradise Valley is in the upper section of the Yellowstone basin and is a beautifully scenic place. It is surrounded by snow capped mountains with large grass lands and rivers in the centre. The valley has lots of hot springs since it is situated very near to the Yellowstone caldera. A caldera is a huge bowl shaped depression formed when land collapsed after a volcanic eruption. The Yellowstone caldera is one of the largest in the world. 

Geography (2) - J.R.R Tolkien

About J.R.R Tolkien:

J.R.R Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa in 1892. At the age of three he, along with his mother and younger brother, returned to England. Shortly afterwards, Tolkien’s father died in South Africa, so the rest of the family remained in England.

Tolkien went on to study in Exeter Collage, Oxford where he received first class honours in his English degree.

At the age of sixteen he met Edith Mary Bratt, and fell in love with her. But their relationship was not approved of by her parents due to the fact that Tolkien was Catholic and Edith’s family were Protestant. As a result, Edith was sent to a country house and forbidden to see Tolkien. They became reacquainted in later years and were married just before Tolkien was sent off to fight in World War I.  

He fought at the Battle of the Somme during the First World War and his experiences of the war strongly influenced his writing. His works were also influenced by European mythology and legends and his strong Christian faith.

His most famous works include "The Hobbit", "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Silmarillion". These are all set in the fantasy world of Middle Earth and centre around the story of the One Ring. In "The Silmarillion", Tolkien tells the story of the creation of Middle Earth and how the Dark Lord Sauron forged the One Ring as a way of binding all the other races of Middle Earth to his will. "The Hobbit" is the story of a hobbit called Bilbo and his journey to the Lonely Mountain with a group of dwarves and how he discovers the ring along the way. "The Lord of the Rings" then focuses on his nephew, Frodo, and his quest to destroy the ring in the mountain of fire.

Bloemfontein and The Orange Free State:

At the time Bloemfontein was the capital of the Orange Free State. This was an independent Boer republic that had been settled by the Dutch. 

The Orange Free State was at the time a popular mining area for diamonds. Diamonds need specific conditions to form and these are only met in the mantle and at meteoric crater sites. There is a large meteor crater near the town of Vredefort, which used to be part of the Orange Free State. For this reason the area was very rich in diamonds in the late 1800s.

Geography (1) - C.S Lewis

About C.S Lewis:

C.S Lewis was born in Belfast, Ireland in 1898. His mother died in 1908 from a severe case of bone cancer. This had a huge impact on Lewis, who was only a young child at the time. This event also deeply influenced his writing in "The Magician's Nephew" where the main character, a young boy called Digory, grapples with the sickness of his mother.

As a child he developed a love of nature and later on in life became very interested in Greek and Norse mythology. This love of mythology comes through a lot in his writing as he uses many mythical creatures as characters. For example, Minotaurs, Satyrs, Fauns, Dwarves, Dragons, Giants and Centaurs all feature in "The Chronicles of Narnia". 

He studied at University College, Oxford. While there he became close friends with J.R.R Tolkien and both became prominent members of the literary group known as "The Inklings". Tolkien had a huge religious influence on C.S Lewis and because of this Lewis converted to Christianity, when he had previously been a very passionate atheist.  

C.S Lewis is best known for his works of fiction. These include; “The Chronicles of Narnia", "The Space Trilogy" and "The Screwtape Letters".

"The Chronicles of Narnia" are perhaps his most loved stories. They are a children's fantasy series consisting of seven books, all of which are set in the mythical world of Narnia. They centre around children who travel by magic from our world into Narnia and have amazing adventures with the animals and creatures there. The series has been made into a film franchise in the last few years and these have been successful box-office hits.

"The Chronicles of Narnia" have very strong Christian symbolism within the stories. For example, in "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" he uses the lion, Aslan's death as a symbol of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross and in "The Last Battle" he describes the end of the world and the Last Judgment. 

Tourism in Belfast:

Belfast has made quite a large tourist industry from CS Lewis. For example; "The Linen Hall Library", which is the oldest library in Belfast, houses a large collection of books by and about CS Lewis. There is also a large statue, "The Searcher", depicting the character of Digory Kirke and the magical wardrobe from "The Magician’s Nephew". The artist modeled Digory on how CS Lewis himself looked in 1919. His childhood home is also greatly visited by fans of his work and some tourist companies in the area give special C.S Lewis tours of the city.

Belfast is a major tourist attraction for other reasons as well. The biggest of these is probably the Titanic. Many people flood to Belfast each year to visit the "birthplace" of the famous liner. The Harland and Wolff Shipyards are the most popular place to visit in relation to the Titanic. There you can visit the Titanic's Dock and Pump-House and also see the two huge cranes, nicknamed "Samson" and "Goliath", that were used to build her. C.S Lewis would have been living in Belfast during the time in which the Titanic was being built and would have witnessed its progress.

Sci-Fest Competition

On Tuesday the annual Sci-Fest competition was held in Tallagh IT. All of the TYs had prepared projects to enter in the competition and I, allong with Saidhbh and Oriana, entered our project on light pollution. The title of our project was "Our Vanishing Night Sky: A Study of Light Pollution.

Light pollution is not often considered a serious issue by the Irish population, but it is in fact a major problem for society today. Due to the sky glow caused by excess artificial light used at night, we are now no longer able to see the milky way in many parts of the country. Light pollution also disrupts nocturnal animals' sleeping patterns and has been linked to breast cancer in female night-shift workers. For these reasons, we considered this a very valid issue to research. We wanted to look at the severity of light pollution in our local area and to also raise awareness about the issue. In order to do this, we decided to conduct a visual survey of the night sky through photography. We went out on two different nights and took photographs at seven locations, ranging from Dublin city centre to the Kildare countryside. We then processed the pictures on a computer programme called ImageJ. This programme created histograms of the amount of sky glow in each picture and from these we could then compare the severity of the light pollution in each location.

We ended up winning the "Discovering Space Award" at the competition and as a result the school will receive some equipment from the European Space Education Resource Office. We also won 30euro in One-For-All vouchers each. So it was overall a very fun and productive day!

Book Review: 1984

I found 1984 an absolutely wonderful read. It had an intelligent plot, the ideas and concepts it played with were fascinating and the author's vision of a futuristic world was intriguing. The two main themes that I picked up on while reading the book were power and hopelessness.

George Orwell creates a vision of a totally controlled society where your every move is closely watched and your every thought is picked up on. This oppressed society is ruled by the "Party". The Party is not in control for the good of the people or because they believe that they can make the world a better place. No. It is in control simply for power. This theme crops up throughout the book and shows us how scathing the author is about the ruling powers and their lust for self gain.

The second theme that is evident in the novel is that of hopelessness. No matter what you do or where you go, you are never free of the party. In the end, no matter what you try you can never defeat it. This means that there is a great feeling of hopelessness in the main character, Winston, throughout the course of the story. He knows that if he rebels, it won't make the slightest difference and that there is no hope for the future of mankind. Because of this weight on Winston's shoulders, we can feel the ever present feeling of despair and hopelessness all the way through the book.

The world of the text is certainly not a very pleasant one. It is set in an authoritarian state ruled by a ruthless, power hungry, government who keep close tabs on every member of the population. Orwell has taken the oppression enforced under communism and doubled it twofold. Everyone is controlled, body and mind, by the party. No one is free.

This would be a horrible society to live in. There is no freedom of speech, expression or thought. This kind of a world scares me because it implies that you are never in control of your own being but that outside powers are. I like having the ever present safety of my own mind and a culture in which that is taken away from me would be unbearable.

I really liked Orwell's style of writing. Firstly, it was very descriptive. He uses very lush, rich language that really brings the world of the text to life. This is always one of my favourite aspects of a writer's technique because they can use their words to make the images in the book tangible and alive.

He also uses the flashback technique to great affect. Throughout the novel, Winston has flashbacks about his life as a child and about other significant events that occurred in his past. This technique helps to give the reader a greater insight into Winston's character and into his relationships with other people. For this reason, I thought it very effective in the novel.

In conclusion, I found the novel a very intelligent and mind whirring book that is definitely worth a read for all Sci-fi and Fantasy fans.