Story by Lillie Nhep and Breanna Burba
Illustrations by Breanna Burba
Tali Topics is a monthly series where staffers make recommendations.
Finding new media to consume has been rough this spring semester. There is so much to do, but nowhere to do it, as the Commons is occupied by students day and night. Thankfully, the spark of a good song or the inspiration from a cinematic masterpiece strikes a person now and then.
Recently, the release of Wuthering Heights has challenged how people perceive good and bad cinema. The movie was bad. However, it got us Talisman’s staff to think about what’s truly good, or what’s good to us, at least. Objectively speaking, our tastes vary.
In our first monthly series of Tali Topics, website writing editor Lillie Nhep and design editor Breanna Burba wrote about their favorite kinds of media right now.
While you read, take a listen to our playlist on Spotify!
Movie: Fried Green Tomatoes
I’m no movie geek, but the 1991 book adaptation “Fried Green Tomatoes” has got to be considered a fabulous piece of work. I am constantly chasing for a movie that hits me hard and soft. There is nothing like watching a movie and not knowing what to expect.
My first time watching it was this past winter break during WKU’s version of snowmageddon. My friends and I were in the mood for a feel-good, storytelling narrative. Our usual go-to, Sex and the City, wasn’t going to cut it for the following days we were snowed-in. So, “Fried Green Tomatoes” it was.
The movie is centered around four female leads who go through the main themes of grief, friendship, love and death. Sure, the themes of death and love in the same sentence would imply the movie has a doomed fate. Really, though, it’s more than that.
The oh-so wonderful Kathy Bates stars as southern housewife Evelyn Couch, the main protagonist of the movie. Couch visits a nursing home and befriends Ninny Threadgoode, played by the graceful Jessica Tandy.
Ninny Threadgoode’s character, soulful and whimsical at heart, shares tales of Idgie Threadgoode and Ruth Jamison, two young women who run the Whistle Stop Cafe in 1920s Alabama.
The movie reminds me of the summer, catching crawfish down by the river, hot, sticky bodies against hot summer wind and laughing until you cry.
I find myself loving the character of the wild and free-spirited Idgie Threadgoode. Everything about her screams radical. Her character embodies this kind of authenticity that grounds itself in her humbleness.
Not only that, she is sometimes referenced as “The Bee Charmer,” a nod to her fearlessness in the face of trouble.
The book has been noted to be equally good as the movie adaptation. If you’re anything like me, reading the book before the movie is always satisfying.
The movie overall is not short of its plot twists. Tears were shed as each character’s story unfolded into the next.
There is something so special about learning about oneself through the friendships of other women. Age is a scary thing to navigate. Grief is a lonely path. Friendship, however, follows us forever. This movie really does make you think.
Even better, I watched it with three particularly beautiful “Bee Charmers” who remind me every day that good friendships give you the courage to keep on keeping on.
If you and your friends are in search of a movie with some soul and heart, try “Fried Green Tomatoes.”
Book: “Babel” by R.F. Kuang
Opposite to the wholesome mood of “Fried Green Tomatoes,” “Babel” by R.F. Kuang is a dark academia fantasy novel. It’s on the longer side of book readings, but it packs a punch with each chapter.
“Babel” takes place in 1830s Oxford, London; its themes talk about the harm of colonialism, revolution against the oppressor and the influence of language. The book is set in an alternative reality in which the British global economy runs on the use of magical silver bars.
What really piqued my interest with “Babel” was the design of the front cover. Drawn in black and white is the depiction of the tower of “Babel”, which is the “Royal Institute of Translation at Oxford University”.
To summarize what I’ve read without giving too much away, the main character, Robin Swift, is “kidnapped” from his home in China and brought to the United Kingdom to work as a pawn underneath the British crown. Professor Lovell, Swift’s “father,” teaches him the power of language, ultimately pushing Swift to attend the school of Babel, where he learns how to use the magical silver bars.
Really, though, I think a lot of the book talks about the evil side of going to PWI, more formally known as a Prominently White Institution. Other parts talk about the harm of taking away a person’s language or their identity. Other parts describe dark themes of oppression and uprooting one from their home in search of commodified elements.
If you’re anything like me, you’ll be intimidated by the book’s large body of work, spanning over 500 pages. There were times I would have to take a break to digest all of the hardships that Swift had to go through to get to the end.
It’s an overall brilliantly curated and masterful piece of fiction. Even now, I’m still going back through and reading some of the pages that captured my attention. If you’re in the mood to read some dark, historical fiction, “Babel” is the book for you.
Video Game: TellTale’s The Walking Dead: Season 1
In late April of 2012, Telltale, the same gaming company responsible for producing “Batman: Shadows Edition” and “The Wolf Among Us,” would grace the gaming world with an experience so culturally impactful for gamers that it warranted three following games and two different spin-offs.
Of course, I am talking about TellTale’s “The Walking Dead.”
Similar to AMC’s TV series, Telltale’s “The Walking Dead” follows characters who are put into unimaginably tough situations that test one’s morals and ethics.
The cel-shaded visuals, along with the amazing folksy soundtrack, pave the way for a highly immersive experience. Being raised in the rural south, hearing this soundtrack always takes me back to any cloudy day in my grandma’s yard, or to walks in the woods behind my house with my sister. The violin used in most of the soundtrack just pulls something from me in a way that not many soundtracks do. It’s deep, brooding and sets the tone even better than most of the visuals do.
Despite the slightly dated graphics, the writing and the relationships between characters feel real and adrenaline-inducing. Other characters have the ability to get upset, angry or frustrated and are coded to respond to that anger with action. This game definitely teaches you how much you really have left to lose.
Unlike a lot of games, Telltale adds an interesting “remember” mechanic. With each choice your character makes, a short, chilling reminder in the top left corner of the screen reminds players that others “… will remember this.”
This game is coded to make each decision cause different outcomes, instead of having a completely linear plotline. Each choice the player makes is undeniably important. The idea of responsibility and accountability for your actions is something that I feel is ignored in most games. This function remains one of the most stressful but interesting factors of the game, as it alone is responsible for many of the twists and turns throughout the game.
From growing up in a household that didn’t have any consoles, I originally watched this game be played by others on the internet. I watched several other people play this game and saw how each person received different consequences for their actions. I fell in love with the gameplay, the audio and the little quirks in dialogue that make this game what it is.
Once I finally got a PlayStation 4, I knew this had to be one of the first games I played. I found a used copy at my local GameStop in 2019, and I immediately took it home. Despite being able to recite the final scenes by heart since 2014, the ending still brings me to tears to this day.
For those who enjoy an intense apocalyptic story, complex characters and carving your own desired path, this game is an absolute must-play.
Song: Gnaw – Alex G
While I was busy in 2009 learning how to read and count in kindergarten, a 16-year-old Alexander Giannascoli, known as Alex G, was making an auditory masterpiece to be later released on Bandcamp in 2011.
Alex G is a genre-bending indie artist known to combine folk, rock, country and other musical elements to make his own sound. According to American Songwriter, he notably uses GarageBand in a majority of his work. As a young upcoming artist, he was well known for performing many of his first live shows in his peers’ basements and garages along the East Coast.
“Gnaw” is the fourth track on Alex G’s second official album release, “Race”. The song starts with 3 distinct guitar pieces being played over each other. They blend beautifully together, yet distort back into their separate paths to make way for the starting verse.
When I hit play, I can’t help but feel a serene tranquility wash over me. Alex G’s soft vocals are played over an even softer drumline. I feel that he always seems to find a way to make something sound so unbelievably hopeless and so undeniably hopeful at the same time. The entire song is played with such intentional gentleness that it is impossible to ignore.
Fortunately, I’m also a sucker for a song with a bridge. This song’s bridge is ethereal, controlled and excels miles past any other bridge in this entire album. Starting at the 2:10 mark and lasting around 45 seconds, Alex G delivers an absolutely soul-shattering acoustic riff with reassuring lyrics that, while comforting, still manage to make me feel slightly unsettled.
“And please don’t cry
I am not your brother
I am not your lover
And there is nothing wrong”
Something is left untied here, and I almost like that I can’t quite put my finger on it. Perhaps it’s something only for him to understand. Either way, it makes me want to call my mom and sister and tell them I love them.
“Gnaw” ends with distant, playful hollering in the background and an additional uplifting bass instrumental that is not present anywhere else in the song. For people who enjoy folk and softer, imperfect instrumentals, this song, maybe even this whole album, is definitely one to add to your playlist. Listen to this song and take a walk outside.