Dominic Potratz | Personal Blog

Sometimes bad things happen to good people. Often enough to wonder why bad people seem to have it so good. Of course, when bad things happen to bad people it feels like it's what they deserve—we don't give it a second thought. But those good eggs in life, when they get cracked, we notice. We want to repair all the cracks and scoop up all the juices and keep it protected. And when they can't be saved, we write posts on Facebook, write in our journals, pour over old photographs and maybe find some old letters…or write a blog post. It still hurts no matter what we do, but hurting isn't always a bad thing. It hurts because it was good, because it mattered. I'm writing this as a way to deal with grief. As an amateur writer, this was the first thing that came to mind.  For privacy reasons, I won’t be using any names other than my own. I want to be respectful to all involved, especially to those we have lost and their loved ones. If you know, you know. If you don't, th...

This is the second book I've read by Emily St. John Mandel. I do have to say that the post apocalyptic stories she does are right up my alley. I've often enjoyed stories of a similar nature. I am very much looking forward to reading more of her writing. Summary A pandemic brought about by the fictitious Georgian flu, an aggressive swine flu variant, eliminates most of the world population. Twenty years later those left have started to rebuild in any way they can. We are introduced to a number of characters, spread across time in usual Emily St. John Mandel fashion. The story doesn't hesitate to jump from before the pandemic and anywhere in between the next 20 years. Oh the webs we weave, a common saying that this story takes seriously. As we join the traveling symphony on their continuous journey from town to town, and see the struggles of each character as they made their way though the post pandemic world we see the connections they all have with one another and their gro...

This is one of those rare cases, one in which I have seen the movie before reading the book. I often find seeing the movie first, takes away from the book but not the other way around. Here however, both are equally captivating, and hold their own even with differences. But I'll do my best to simply discuss the book here. Summary On a trip to visit his parents, Jake and his girlfriend are a seemingly normal couple driving through the snow covered middle of nowhere. We are told the story through the perspective of the unnamed girlfriend who expresses reservations about her relationship with Jake thinking to herself "I'm thinking of ending things". The story is told in three main parts, and with a powerful use of dialogue. Upon meeting the parents, we see a slow buildup as conversations become more and more peculiar. Though the visit was a bit odd, the couple leave Jake's parents house on their journey back home and end up at an old school, where the strange fully b...

The Whale is a beautiful, emotional, and interesting movie from start to finish. I must admit that I had some reservations about the film, be that subject matter I had little knowledge of, or a distaste for the director. But thank god for Brendan Fraser, as he was my main motivation for seeing this movie. Almost out of the gate, I was captivated, and glued to the screen. This movie is so much more than I thought, and weighed heavily (pun intended) on my mind days after leaving the theater. Summary Based on the 2012 play of the same name, The whale follows the account of an overweight English teacher named Charlie. In an unexpectedly beautiful yet heart wrenching story, we see themes of religion, relationships, and personal health. Charlie is living his day to day life, editing English papers, teaching his online class, mostly keeping himself hidden, and leaving twenty bucks in the mailbox for the pizza delivery guy. Throughout the film we see Charlie's health decline rapidly, as hi...

Because I can... ALSO... I've considered starting a blog for a long time. I've never been fond of social media, and while I have a few, I don't often post on them. I've been looking for an outlet to better help get my creative juices flowing again. Writing has been a hobby and passion of mine for as long as I can remember, so I figured that this would be a good way to practice that skill, while also being able to share that work with other people.  One of the main reasons I wanted to start a blog was to post book reviews. While I use Goodreads , mostly for tracking progress, keeping a list of books I've read and for finding new books, I wanted a space outside of that where I could express my opinions. I also find that when I review books I spend more time thinking about them, more time with the subject matter, and keep a better memory of what I read. I've often had the issue of remembering what some books are about after putting books back on the shelf and a few...

Frankenstein is by name, at least in my mind, a story that should be universally recognized at this point. It's certainly one of the many that has been put through the Hollywood shredder over and over, only to be resembled with bits and pieces of the original story with junk added in between. It's a shame that the closest representation of our beloved monster is in the magnificent casting and wonderful Showtime show Penny Dreadful. While the story isn't fully the same, we get a gimps at an accurate representation of the beautifully spoken, yellow eyed, pale skinned fiend. That being said for those unfamiliar with the story of Frankenstein, this is a classic worth reading, discussing, and ruminating on. How It Began In a preface written by Percy Shelley posing as his wife, the idea behind Frankinstein began on a trip with friends, and as a friendly competition to write a ghost story. The book was first published anonymously in 1818, and it wasn't until 1821 that the book...