TheOriginalTiki
Well-Known Member
I read "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow" by Gabrielle Zevin for a book club last month and it absolutely blew me away. It's a very recent book released only a couple years ago, but it's up there with some of the most powerful things I've read. The book has some amazing asexual representation which I really responded to as well as an extremely well fleshed out and complex male/female platonic friendship at the center of the story which is something I very much advocate that we need more of when it comes to modern fiction.
The prose in itself was extremely well done with some really thought provoking and memorable passages as well as a narrative that occasionally changed up the writing style. We get sections that go back and forth between the two main characters perspectives, a chapter focusing on a supporting character written in second person, a chapter that entirely takes place within a video game, and more. It feels like every section had some kind of cool twist like that to change things up. The narrative revolving around video game designers is also something that I'm sure will resonate with a modern audience, and the depiction of gaming culture as a whole is basically everything Ready Player One wishes it was. I cannot recommend enough.
Other than that I mostly have stuck to the classics. Watership Down is perhaps the most satisfying "epic" I've ever read, completely unironically for it being a book about rabbits. When I was in college I was a total "Gatsby Bro" who would try to spread the gospel of The Great Gatsby being essentially the perfect book, and as cringe as that behavior was I still kind of hold that opinion when it comes to the novel's pure prose. I'll also advocate for "Bridge to Terrabithia" being another excellent example of a male/female friendship and a super hard hitting first encounter with the concept of death for young readers. It's a super important book that I feel lucky to have been exposed to at the age I was.
I mean, it's gotta be the Tiki Room, but specifically the Disneyland version. While the WDW version might be slightly larger scale, the abrupt edits to cut down on the show length along with the obviously inferior preshow area really go a long way towards hurting its impact. The Disneyland version is a stone cold classic, with so much great history. Even though at this point I'm honestly a bit sick of the actual show itself, I still make a point to do it as many times as I can while I'm in the park.
I love the vibe, I love being in the building and literally surrounded by the history, I love that you can take food into the theater unlike WDW, I love just hanging out in the Tiki Gardens which might be my single favorite spot in all the park. I use it less as an attraction and more as a safe haven and probably THE only reliable place to actually get away from the crowds for the most part. The show itself does function incredibly well as being essentially a Silly Symphony that you walk into and surrounds you on all sides. As much as I love the Country Bears, this will always be the superior show to me because of its stronger emphasis on individual characters and rising action leading to the thunderstorm climax. It's just perfect theme park storytelling from beginning to end.
