Lincoln, a Vampire Hunter?

Hollywood has announced that soon one of its most "original" projects will be out: Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter based on the work by  Seth Grahame-Smith, published in 2010. 
Really, I can't understand how anyone can take the memory of someone so decent, so honorable and so relevant to the history of mankind and give it such treatment. I know it´s all fantasy but still I can´t shake this nagging feeling that there is something wrong in taking elements that are so different, put them together and then call that original. Also, there is something intrinsically valuable in the memory of certain characters that belongs not to one person or nation but to everyone. This common heritage should not be tarnished and if ever touched then it should be to compliment and not to ridicule. It is silly to take the memory of someone so noble such as Lincoln and downgrade it to a... supernatural demon slayer of sorts? Can they really not come up with a better idea?
You get to know a person for his actions and his feelings, usually better expressed in written form, and beyond the president of a nation in turmoil, there was a man who loved his land and above all his family, his children. Lincoln went through the greatest pain anyone can experience for he lost a child. His grief, his feeling of uncertainty when facing the reality of his son, Willie, now gone are better expressed through his own words: 
 "My poor boy, he was too good for this earth. God has called him home. I know that he is much better off in heaven, but then we loved him so. It is hard, hard to have him die!"
Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter? I don't think so.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How do you say MIRADOR in English?

Image
"Hmm, why do I have this nagging feeling that someone is watching me watching?" In Spanish, a MIRADOR is any place that allows a privileged view of the surroundings. In English, a MIRADOR is a VIEWPOINT or a LOOKOUT. Another possible translation is VANTAGE POINT, though in a tourist context this term is a bit less common.
Read more

The Maps of Ship-Trap Island

Image
Once I had my high school students read The Most Dangerous Game, a short story by Richard Connell. Rainsford, the main character, is a professional hunter traveling by ship to his next hunting area, accidentally ends up in an island called Ship- Trap island. When he goes into the island he finds there are two men living in a palace in the island. One of them is a Cossack general and the other, his brutish servant.  The Cossack is called general Zaroff who is also  a game hunter but has become bored of hunting regular game and now uses the island's unique position to capture sailors from shipwrecks. He lets them go first and next after some time he hunts them down. Rainford's arrival who is worldwide famous presents Zaroff with a rare opportunity to find excitement in hunting again by hunting another hunter. Little does Zaroff know that Rainsford is The Most Dangerous Game in the World and hunting him will not be easy at all. My students enjoyed themselves at reading
Read more

How do you say EXAMEN SUPLETORIO in English?

Image
Darn! I wonder if there's a Make Up exam for this Make up exam! I remember that long ago I asked my distinguished and knowledgeable colleagues of that time to enlighten me and tell me the right English word for what we know in Ecuador as EXAMEN SUPLETORIO or EXAMEN DE RECUPERACION.  After hearing Recovery exam or Supplemenary test and even Supletory exam, I was not convinced so I decided to go to a higher authority and looked up one of those encyclopedic dictionaries from Oxford or Cambridge university (these were the pre-browser times) and found the right expression is MAKE UP EXAM which is taken when an exam has been missed or when a student needs to change one score with a more favorable one. The British say RECUPERATION EXAM which is perhaps more practical since to some people the term Make Up is confusing. Make-up is the word for the wearing of cosmetics. There are Make-up tests which are oriented to future Make-up artists.
Read more