How to Talk to the Moon at Parties

This week, I read a couple of things. I read 'The Distance of the Moon,' by Italo
Calvino, in addition to 'How to Talk to Girls at Parties' by Neil Gaiman, because
I saw the movie trailer and got very excited. This semester has really shaped
a love of Neil Gaiman's writing as one of my primary influences, especially as
I'm finding my footing as a wannabe writer. Written in 2006, my one minor
criticism is that Stella is a bit of the 'Born Sexy Yesterday' trope. I'm also worried
it'll be a little too much 'manic pixie dream girl.' Other then that the world was
very fun, like 70's Skins but with more sci-fi, which was a very appealing concept
to me. The Itty-Bitty hints of non-humanism were just enough to make Stella a
believable alien, but not enough to make it un-realistic or kitchey. The character
descriptions were still very endearing, I loved the line:

"He looked from her back to me, and he smiled his white smile: roguish, lovable,

a little bit Artful Dodger, a little bit wide- boy Prince Charming."

I found Stella much more interesting then any of the other characters, but that could
also just be my personal taste in characters. I could read her talk about outer-space
and her travels forever. Since the text is fairly short, I'm very curious to see how it will
be expanded into a full length feature film. I also loved the section where she's compared
to a poem. Including some illustrations from a comic that was made on the text,

illustrations by Gabriel Ba and Fabio Moon.

"The Distance of the Moon" was also enjoyable. I tend to love text written about the
moon, but this was definatley different then what I'm used to. Climbing up to the moon
with a latter reminded me of that pixar short that came out a few years ago, 'La Luna.'
It was very surreal, and left a very 'melancholy achey' feeling. It was whymsical and
magical, so (shocker,) I was all in. I also really enjoyed this animated short that I found
based on it, including here.