Persuasion

Persuasion is the last novel written by Jane Austen. Like all of her books it is a story about love, constancy, and the intricacies of the white upper-class in merry old England.

Now these were the good days...meaning that if your family was rich, or even just prestigious, you were set up to do a whole lot of nothing. This is cool because it gave people a lot of time for discussion and made them pay close attention to the implications of even the smallest thing done by their neighbor. It was shitty for the same reason. Nothing went unnoticed or undisclosed. So, in a day filled with nothing but gossip, walks, weather-watching, or knitting you had only your close friends/associates to rely on for real entertainment. Or advice. Or suggests. Or - dare I say it? - Persuasions.

Our main character, Anne, was persuaded that her man wasn't good enough for her by the indifference of her father and sister (who were douchebags, anyway - I've never read about a man who was so concerned with how other men look!) and the negative opinion of her close friend. So, clearly lots of fodder for storytelling there. Time passing. Time passing. Time passing. 8 years later, enter a new love interest: her cousin (I know. That's gross). He likes her, but she doesn't like him, cuz she's like totes into the original guy still, who is all, like, not into her right now because he's still upset that she was, like, persuaded to not be into him before. Gosh.

Anyway, Anne eventually ends up back with the original guy (who made a name for himself and accrued some wealth) after he slips her a note about still being in love with her. Austen loves that bit - having the main man write a note explaining himself. FYI: this almost never happens in real life, ladies. Birds sing happy melodies. Flowers bloom. People spontaneously jump up and down while applauding. In other words - happy ending. Thanks, Jane

I don't want to say 'I told you so' but...

Okay, short tidbit in regards to my post titled "The Trilogy"...The Red Eye said today that this year there are 23 sequels coming out...breaking the former record set in 2003. Moral of the story? They're outdoing themselves this year and I spotted it first. What?! Oh...yeah...that's the sound of triumph.


*Disclaimer: These numbers may be partially fabricated, as I'm writing this from memory and not actually looking at the article.

Song Suggestions

So I did say that this blog would also incorporate music, but I've been a little remiss in getting started on that portion. In part, this is because I love music so much and it's hard to pick just one or two things that I'm listening to at any one time...and in part (let's face it, the BIGGER part) because I simply dropped the ball. lol

Songs to listen to while reading:

1.) The Arcade Fire cover of Maps by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

2.) Hearing Damage by Thom Yorke

3.) Anything by Iron and Wine because it won't interrupt you while reading.

4.) Soundtrack to my Life by Kid Cudi

5.) Naturally by Slow Train Soul

Boom! Enjoy.

I Could Write If I Was Rich.

The Picture of Dorian Gray...reading it. Loving it. But there are some things you should know going in.

1.) Skip Chapter 11 altogether. Apparently Oscar Wilde didn't know how to show the passage of time without boring everyone to tears. It's simply an account of all the things that Dorian became interested in while he was aging (or, not aging, as it were) and it is too tedious to even go into in this short description.

2.) Even today this book may test some of your ideals. There is a character named Lord Henry who is pretty much evil incarnate. He espouses these outlandish ideas that he doesn't really believe fully himself, but that he can argue extraordinarily well. So these ideas take hold with our young Dorian Gray, who is both very naive and very impressionable and he actually lives them...which does not turn out well.

3.) Basically, you are reading the slow demise of morality in a formerly neutral person. And there's not much else to say about that.

4.) The title of this post is a mixture of the book and what I realized when I was on vacation. In the book, the only reason Dorian is able to do any of the bad things he does(like opium addiction, ruining of women (ooo-lala), and eventually murder) is because he has the means to do it. He's very wealthy. Not everyone could sustain themselves on completely idle pastimes like jewel collecting or fashion obsession because not everyone is rich beyond belief. It's easy to be creative when there's not pressure for your creations to sustain your living.

The Trilogy

Okay, so today is part rant, part review. As we know, I was reading Shiver. I have now begun the sequel, Linger which is good, too. I'm only a few chapters in, but the author has already incorporated some new characters and the plot line is just different enough to not annoy me.

Shiver concluded well. I liked the wrap up the author gave it and the fact that it could have been (should have been?) a book standing on it's own because it didn't give any clues into what the sequel would be about.

Now for the rant...ever since the movie Lord of the Rings came out, everyone has been a little trilogy-happy, don't we think? Right around that time, Pirates of the Caribbean came out and the Spider Man franchise was plugging along, and myriad of other books and movies were jumping blindly onto the bandwagon. Unfortunately for them, many of the 2nd and 3rd movies in these trilogies missed the bandwagon and landed in the mud...covered in shit and cliches.

I don't envy anyone trying to write a good sequel or threequel (yes, this is a made-up word for today's purposes)...it's hard. And I love watching/reading well-written series, but we have to come to a point where we put our foots down. At some point, I'd like a story to just be over. When do we come to the point where it's okay to say, "Yes, I DO still know what you did last summer...but I just don't CARE."

What are we going to do with this space?

Great question. Here's the answer: I've decided to turn this space into a place where I talk about my favorite subjects (books and music). I will keep you updated on the music I'm listening to and the books I'm reading and you will be inspired and become giddy with excitement at the mere thought of reading my superb blog.

Today - If I was thinking, I probably would've decided to do this when I was just starting a book...but clearly advanced planning is something I'm not a HUGE fan of. Sooo, instead, I will tell you that I am currently devouring Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater. I'm big into this genre of romantic teen novels and I'm waiting with baited breathe for the rest of the books in the Fallen, Infernal Devices, and Need series'. However, I try to pepper these with classic writings that I've always wanted to read. So I made up a book club wherein I can flex my reading muscles. On the docket for February are The Picture of Dorian Gray, Persuasion, Entice, Linger, A Tale of Two Cities and Hush, Hush. I know. Very exciting.

Anyway, so I'm about half-way into Shiver which I began by being utterly indifferent to. Actually, that's being kind...I wasn't amused and didn't feel like it had much promise. Now that I'm half-way through, my opinion has changed. My initial qualm was that these two people appeared to be connected by, well, nothing. And I hate when they do that in novels...beg us to believe there's a connection there that just doesn't make sense and that no one bothers to explain. Anyway, the book has gotten steadily better and the descriptions the author uses are inventive and well-constructed.

I'll add more here when I'm finished reading it...but as for right now I'm overwhelmed by trying to catch you up on the whole book. Stroke of genius! Pros and Cons list

Pros
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1.) An artistic eye and an equally artful description of what is seen through both the author's and the character's eyes.

2.) Characters that are a bit different and experimentation with the classic roles of men and women. The main female character is hardly the damsel in distress and the main male character is actually...gasp!...sensitive? This is one for the Emos.

3.) The author does great perspective work in this book by rotating whose perspective we are hearing the story from without rehashing the same thing over and over again.

Cons
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1.) If you don't consider yourself an artist, this could be a little rough on you at times...it can get a bit pretentious.

2.) It's darker than your average teen romance...although this could also be considered a pro.

3.) This book takes "how it would feel to be a werewolf" a bit too seriously for the genre. Do we really need to be reminded that animals mark their territory and live by scent every twenty seconds? Probably not.

I Like You, I Like You Not

Okay, so I was talking to my friend the other day. We were discussing this one girl that we both know and don't particularly like. My friend was talking about how annoying she was and how she had done something stupid recently and we were laughing. He then turned to me and asked, "You don't like her, huh?" to which I replied, "No. Why? Do you?" I was incredulous. Shouldn't it be obvious from our former conversation that I was no fan of hers? He then said, "Well, I don't know, it's not that I don't like her, it's just that I wouldn't hang out with her." I gaped, mouth-open, dumbfounded expression slapped onto my face...

How is it that we are so delusional? Is no one honest anymore? What is so wrong about saying that you don't like someone. I mean, it's not like they don't know. It's not like they can't tell. Wouldn't it be nicer just to tell the truth? I've noticed that saying "I don't like you." or "I don't like them." has become extremely taboo. We say all kinds of things instead, and ceaselessly jabber on and on...talking in circles and doing almost anything to avoid simply stating that you don't like them. If you can say, "I wouldn't hang out with them", "She/He is soooo annoying", or "Why won't they just go away?" then what is so very wrong with just saying the truth...even if it's just to yourself.

There's way too much pressure on everyone to "get along" and people will sit there and pretend to like someone, to their own possible detriment (some people really are in danger of driving you crazy.) Sometimes...wait for it...it's really okay to not get along with someone. This is revolutionary stuff, here: We don't all have to be friends. Sometimes you just won't get along with someone...for good reason, and just because you don't like them doesn't mean you have to hate them. There's lots of grey area here to be embraced. You can be aquaintences. You can be collegues. You can just be two people who don't talk to each other. However, if you are tired of struggling to keep your will to live around a certain someone...here are some good ways to let them know that you simply can't stand them:

5.) "I can't stand you. Let's not be friends."

4.) "I don't like you."

3.) "If you are here for one more second, I may cause one of us physical harm."

2.) "I'm too busy to pretend to like you right now...let's not."

1.) "I don't like you."

Okay. So maybe that was kind of mean. But that's just me... I'm sure YOU can come up with a much nicer way to tell that boring, obnoxious, or know-it-all person that you just aren't interested in breathing the same air as them...ever.