Newtown

Today in church we sang, "It Came Upon a Midnight Clearing" in honor of all the angels who were brutally murdered last Friday.   This song, written by a man who was distraught about a recent American war with Mexico, describes a group of angels singing.  He also describes how we people do not take the time to slow down and listen - we are so caught up in war, hate, (etc.), that we don't take the time to listen to the angels singing.

How appropriate, right?

A mentally ill man with access to three semi-automatic weapons takes those weapons into an elementary school and kills twenty angels.

And yet, most of what we hear in the media (and from our acquaintances on Facebook) is about whose fault this is.  Is it the gun makers?  The government?  The mental health community?  I have many strong opinions on this matter, but this blog is about something a little different than just that.

Our modern society is far removed from nature.   We hardly take time outside to enjoy the trees and dirt.  We spend a majority of our days attached to electronic devices "being social" or working.   NPR recently reported that lobsters are over-populating certain areas causing them to begin to attack their young through cannibalism.   Studies have also recently shown that praying mantises are actually only cannibalistic in laboratories, and not in natural settings.   I think we sometimes forget that we are actually animals - we have a "god" complex because of our past abilities to overcome every single other species on our Earth, and we substitue natural interaction with electronic obsession.  I can't help but think that these murders are some sort of self-mutilation, just like these other animals have expressed in stressful environments.  Our obsession with being so important, so much better than all other creatures on our planet, has caused us to forget that, sometimes, community, friendship, love, and compassion are the most important things we need.

Because I feel this way, I can't help but think about so many "what ifs."  What if that young man's inner-circle loved him more.  What if that young man expressed his frustration for life through discussions with friends or even a counsellor.  What if our ability to become so important through the existence of guns was not a top priority for so many people in our country and this young man couldn't get his hands on a semi-automatic weapon.  What if.

I also can't help but think of all of the fairy tales I read as a little girl.  Stay away from wolves.  Witches who live in candy houses are dangerous.  Don't have too many children because you'll have to live in a shoe and won't know what to do.   Whatever happened to our societal lessons?  Is our world really so interconnected that we don't need lessons like these anymore?  Do we really have to teach our children that going to school isn't safe because a many might show up one day with a semi-automatic weapon and kill you?  No.  The answer is "no."  We need to come back to being a community, a society who cares for one another.
 
Hopefully you don't read this and think I'm just another someone trying to come up with some reason for this having happened, someone trying to rationalize a terrible situation   I hope your read this and it causes you to stop debating the Second Amendment for a minute and call a friend for a cup of coffee.  Or, I hope you read this and call your mom to see how her day is going.  Or, I hope you read this and snuggle with your child or your dog or cat just a little longer than normal.

Please stop fighting with each other for a few minutes and think about what is really, really right.

"Yet with the woes of sin and strife
The world has suffered long;
Beneath the angel strain have rolled
Two thousand years of wrong;
And man, at war with man, hears not
The love-song which they bring;
O hush the noise, ye men of strife
And hear the angels sing."

#21: American Gods, Neil Gaiman

Alright, alright. I was mistaken.  This book is awesome.

I've shared with some friends in the past that I hated this book.  I couldn't undersand the mythology.  The characters (i.e., Shadow...) were boring and I only could get through 20 or so pages before giving up.

I was wrong.

American Gods was spectacular.  Shadow's dull nature became quite fascinating throughout the book.  His confusion between what was real and what was happening in his imagination could not have been so realistic had he been more thoughtful or boastful.   There were a few parts I wished for a better background in mythology - I won't spoil it here, but if you've read it you know there is a big reveal at the end about two people who are friends - so I could have followed some of the foreshadowing a little better.   Other than that, I put this book down happily knowing that my previous disdain for it was uncalled for.

Without ruining the details for those who haven't read it... my most favorite part of this novel was toward the end when Shadow and Wednesday find themselves in a diner chatting with Eoster.  Her characterization - passion, love, rebirth - is so beautiful.  Her misunderstanding about how people actually feel about her is so real.   When she returns later, I had an "aha!" moment and laughed to myself a little.

If you read this, do so on an e-reader so you have easy access to Wiki... not knowing who the characters are can be a little confusing sometimes and having access to that resource will enhance the experience if you're not already familiar with them.

Just for Fun: Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Biography, Arthur Hobson Quinn

While reading this on the train one day, a man sitting next to me leaned over and said, "Isn't that the guy who married his cousin?"  I wasn't sure how to answer that because I had passed the part of Quinn's biography explaining that Poe only married his cousin because he cared for her and his aunt, and not because he was mentally deranged.  They were married and loved each other, but were not "in love" in a romantic sense of the word, according to my interpretation of Quinn's analysis.

How does one explain that to a stranger on the train without first highlighting Poe's extremely complicated relationship with his foster family who adopted him after both of his parents died?

I said, "Yes."

Poe's writings have fascinated me since middle school.  I had a teacher in fifth grade English who had our class read several of Poe's short stories.  She realized immediately that I had fallen in "book love" and gave me a paperback copy of some of her favorites.  I have that book around here somewhere, and have pulled it out every few years to remind myself of those first favorites.  The Tell Tale Heart and The Black Cat were two in that collection.  I remember drawing in pencil a picture of a man with a "tell tale brain" as part of some follow-up activity for the former.  I spent hours drawing his brain and the plants surrounding the walking man, and ran out of time so only had time to color in the brain, red of course.   As for the later, I vividly remember the teacher saying, "I hate cats" and (as an animal lover) being extraordinarily alarmed.  Only after reading the story several times through did I understand she had a sense of humor.

Quinn seemed to feel obligated to defend Poe's every move.  In his mind, Poe was a wonderful person who the world destroyed with its hateful, unfair ways.   I do agree that in many of the circumstances portrayed in the biography, that Poe had an unfortunate lot; I do not agree, though, that there weren't things he could have done to help himself out of those situations.  Poe was apparently a very intelligent, bitter man who did not know how to keep his thoughts and opinions to himself.  That doesn't make him a terrible person, he doesn't need defending.  If it weren't for his ruminative thoughts and his anger we never would have experienced his writings.  He doesn't need to be sorry for his "sins" and we do not need to pretend he was some sort of hero in his personal life.

I loved reading about one of my favorite authors, and the collections of letters to and from Poe included in this biography were extraordinarily interesting.   It'll be a short time before I need to get my hands on another biography of Poe so I can read more of those.

"American Gods" - second time around

Recently I joined a book club on Goodreads called "She Geeks." It is a book club for ladies who like comic books, fantasy, and books (I'm in!), and I am so excited. The book for this month is "American Gods," one I tried to read about a year ago and hated. I'm going to give it another shot with hopes that the help from the club to understand references with which I am unfamiliar will help me appreciate it more.

So far, so good. I understand that Shadow was in jail, and is now released. His wife died unexpectedly and he's not sure what to do next. A mysterious, unnamed character keeps showing up out I the blue... And that's it so far.

I rarely try again with books I don't like once the decision is made to let them go. Feels appropriate to give a second chance to "American Gods" in the month of an election. In a hyperbolic sense, we have all dedicated so much time to learning about two people we already knew so much about. We watched so many campaign ads, laughed at so many terrible, accidental comments, and debated with our friends and families about what is right for three hundred million people we have never met. Politicians aren't gods, of course sometimes it seems we get caught up in their lives and forget that.

Wish me luck with this adventure in mythology with Neil Gaiman. I'll let you know how it goes.

Geology of Middle Earth

When I was an undergrad, I took a required Geology course.  The professor told me that he was impressed with my passion for maps, and asked whether I might be interested in switching majors.   At the time, I was not.  Little did I know, geologists also make maps of incredible places like Middle Earth and Oz.

Had I known then what I know now, perhaps I would have made a super fast skip and a jump in the change of major.

Source: Facebook

Source: Oz Central 

Can't.Stop.

Ain't that the truth...

Old Books: Hiawatha

Although she passed away before I was born, I have so many wonderful "memories" of my Grama Mary.  My mother has always told my sister and me many stories about her.  We are much like her, in fact.  We have a curiosity about ghosts and all things psychic.  We love animals and flowers.  We believe that family is very important.  In sixth grade English class I was asked to write a letter to a "famous" person I wish I could have met;  I chose to write to my Grama Mary.

When my mom was a little girl, she and her mother sometimes visited the childhood home of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow(1807 - 1882). For some reason, when my mother told me this story, I imagined the house in the woods, on a lake, sort of like Walden's small house in Concord/Lincoln, Massachusetts, which I visited several years ago with my husband. The house, is actually, on Congress Street in Portland, a busy street in a busy city. A city, in fact, that during Longfellow's life, was still part of Massachusetts, and not yet Maine.


My parents recently acquired an antique copy of Longfellow's lyric poem, Hiawatha (original publish date:  1855) to add to my newly began old book collection.   This copy, printed in 1898, is amazing.  It appears to be hand bound and has a leather cover.  The pages are ragged on the sides and all of the pages are in tact.  There are illustrations on some pages that appear to have been stamped on.   I am so excited to have this new memory of my Grama Mary attached to my new/old book.

Batman Tragedy.

Tragedy.

News corporations across the world are reporting terrible news today.  A deranged man, dressed in costume, murdered at least twelve people at a midnight showing of one of my favorite series, Batman.    I can not believe this happened.  The reports say he was a normal, quiet Ph D student and that he was "easy going."  Why, then, did he bust into a movie theatre late at night killing people?  

We will probably never really know.

Some calls for ending the use of video games and violent movies have started to become prevalent on social media and in the news.  It is unfortunate that this is the case; of course video games are too violent and I make a point to not play certain games, and I refuse to watch movies that are extraordinarily violent.  That said, Batman's whole "M.O." is that he is a hero in disguise.   When he was a child, his parents were murdered in front of him by criminals, causing him to pledge to protect those who can not help themselves.   He was a superhero who fought terrorism and fear.  His government is corrupt, his city is under siege.  Even with the temptations of his wealthy lifestyle, all he wishes to do is make his small world a better place for those around him.  He gives up love and marriage, he gives up his sleep and risks his life.   He often does not kill those evil-doers around him, out of compassion.  Does that make him weak? Or even more so a hero?

The criminals in the Batman series are hyperboles of real criminals in our lives, and are often conflicted in their deeds.  Take Poison Ivy, as an example; she is my favorite Batman villain.  As an environmentalist, she fights for plants and animals in her life; she believes in her cause so greatly, she goes to such great lengths that she becomes an eco-terrorist.   Totally conflicted.  

Let's not blame Batman for this one.

Let's blame our socially accepted purchase of guns by any individual without education about their use, or training for their use (i.e., don't shoot your friends and neighbors).  Let's blame the man who completed the murders.  Let's blame our hatred for those things that are different.  Let's blame society for not helping a man who one day wakes up and decides to kill many innocent people.

Let's blame... something other than a caped crusader who wants to make his world a better place.

My thoughts are with the murderer's family, and the families of those who were murdered or hurt.   In the words of the wonderful George Takei, "... As a community of dreamers, we mourn this terrible tragedy and this senseless taking of innocent life."  

Moment of Happiness: Good vs Evil

Each morning when I come to work, I read a Moment of Happiness email from The Happiness Project.  Some days, like today, the quotes are so perfect and wonderful I can't help but share.  Today's, about the excitement of real "good" struck me.  It's true, isn't it?  In real life when things are "good" we are so happy and can handle the day to day.  In books, movies, and even some parts of real-life, though, we become absorbed with the evil.  The plot line of good vs. evil is so embedded in everything we know.  Yesterday I went to the beach for a few hours with some friends; in my bug-bitten, sunburned state I spent much of the rest of the 4th watching movies with my huz, and two situations arose in these movies that are perfectly reminiscent of those quote:

I honestly believe we are innately good, and that we sometimes make poor choices.  Of course, there are some jerks out there who make more poor choices than the rest of us, but for some part even those who make mistakes do so with some type of good intention.  I thought of this while watching "Glory" for a few minutes with my husband yesterday afternoon.  When I was a girl my honors US History teacher shared this movie with us, and it has always stuck with me.  Descriptions of the movie tell us it is about a white man dealing with prejudices of his troops during the Civil War.  It is much more than that, though.  It is about one man's struggle with making decisions about what is right, what is "good."  In one scene he has to make a decision about whether to flog a deserter.  He makes the wrong decision, but realizes it immediately and takes action to make it right.  Does his decision, then, make him "evil"?  Probably not, but it was certainly "exciting" entertainment for a movie.  We also watched a quirky indie movie called "The Perfect Family" yesterday.  In this movie, a mom's internal struggle with accepting her family for who they are, and her desire to be a perfect Catholic woman are witnessed.  She finds conflicts with her imagined reality, and her real reality.   Her actions to become a more religious, "perfect" mom almost destroy her family.
 
I wonder sometimes if because we have so many of these exciting, imagined examples in our lives, if it causes people to make more bad decisions.  I mean, since we watch so many movies, so many TV shows, read so many books... that are so exciting due to the nature of their "evil" characters conflicting with the "good characters," do some of us attempt those evil behaviors in order to gain more excitement in our lives?  And since, in the movies, the Nintendo effect takes over and we can start over without many repercussions from those actions, is there less understanding about consequences?
 
So, I'll leave you with this for today:  Try to make today a "good" day.  Let the that excitement take over, and let today be new, marvelous and intoxicating. 
 

#96: Daughter of Blood, Anne Bishop (again)

Gasp!

I while ago, I wrote about the book "Daughter of Blood" by Anne Bishop.  I wrote about how I wanted to love it and compared it slightly to Harry Potter - A comment for which I offended a reader.

Well, reader, here is an article you might enjoy: http://www.npr.org/2012/07/02/155708777/unicorns-and-witches-and-wild-mood-swings-oh-my.  An NPR writer loves this series.  She almost had me convinced to read the second and third of the series until she reminded me of the male characters.  Spit, ugh, gross.  They are so weak and childish it still makes me angry!

PSA

Book 'tiquing

Recently my sister gave me an early copy of The Wizard of Oz as a gift. This copy was published in 1903, just three years after the original was released.   This book is now one of my most prized items.  I love it immensely.  I keep thinking about the almost-missing binding, the torn cover...  about all of the hands that turned those pages over the years.  Was there some other little girl out there whose life this story was such an important part of?  How many times did she flip through the pages to glance again at the pictures?  Did she stay up late at night reading hoping her parents didn't find out?  

A friend once shared an experience purchasing an antique copy of one of her favorite books with me.  I remember sharing in her thrill - the incredible feeling of having a unique item in one's hands. I keep wondering if perhaps I should start collecting old books.  I don't mean to buy and sell, or to profit from.  I just mean to have.  I would greatly enjoy having old Poe books, maybe Winnie the Pooh... or other childhood favorites.  

A trip to local book stores is in order for sure.  I hope to make a stop at one of the antique stores here in Salem soon, and maybe a stop at the Brattle Street Bookstore in Cambridge.  I hope I can find some of these treasures! 

That feeling when...

Books = Life

My husband and I checked out Life Alive, a new vegan food and juice bar here in Salem.   The wraps are pretty delish!  They also have an incredible little corner with wooden tables and chairs and tons of books!  I can't wait to go back and have a blueberry smoothie while doing some homework this fall.

Hey! Lenore!

"Hey! Lenore!"

Dark Fay, Light Fay: Musings on Good and Evil

As an introduction to this post, I would like to share with you something terrible that happened to me just yesterday:  Someone broke into my home and stole things.  My television, my computers, my Kindle, a necklace that had lots of meaning to me.  Things that belonged to me.  I earned them, I had them locked up safely in my home.  Someone else decided I did not deserve them and took them.   Of course, there are millions of thoughts racing through my mind:  Why would someone do this?  What in the world did he/she/they do with my stuff?  Why doesn't he/she/the group bring my things back to me?  I'm sad and angry and frustrated because I know there is very little that can be done.

That said, I am also very fortunate.  Although these thoughtless people entered my home unwelcome and took things that belonged to me, and left the door wide open because they rushed out, they did think to put our dog gate up so the dogs couldn't get out.   The two most important creatures in my life are still here, snoozing away on their dog beds.  The thieves also did not destroy what they left behind:  Sure, things were a little messy, but it only took me an hour or so to clean it up.  I wasn't here to "surprise them" so I am safe and sound.  This could have been much worse.

You are probably wondering by now what this has to do with my 100 books.  In case you don't know me very well, I have friends who I make jokes with about what goes on in my mind - these jokes usually have to do with unicorns, vampires, Edgar Allan Poe...  My world is full of fantasy - a world of good versus evil.  That is, in part, why I decided to begin writing this blog in the first place.  I want to think about and consider all things good and evil.  I want to ponder how allegorical and metaphorical creatures reflect our real lives.

While driving back to Salem this past Saturday, after visiting with family in the Berkshires, I listened to a Poe audio book I love.  This excursion's topic of the hour:  Island of the Fay.   Poe's story tells a tale of a man viewing a tiny island.  This island, the man tells us, homes fairies and on this particular day the man witnesses the life and death of one such fairy.  He watches her change from light to dark, and finally to a shadow.   This tale considers the "grayness" of light and dark and the confusion that can arise when it is not clear what is good and what is evil:

*... She floated again from out the light and into the gloom (which deepened momently) and again her shadow fell from her into the ebony water, and became absorbed into its blackness. And again and again she made the circuit of the island, (while the sun rushed down to his slumbers), and at each issuing into the light there was more sorrow about her person, while it grew feebler and far fainter and more indistinct, and at each passage into the gloom there fell from her a darker shade, which became whelmed in a shadow more black. But at length when the sun had utterly departed, the Fay, now the mere ghost of her former self, went disconsolately with her boat into the region of the ebony flood, and that she issued thence at all I cannot say, for darkness fell over an things and I beheld her magical figure no more. *

So, with this in mind, let us consider, for a moment, Metamorphosis by Kafka.   A young man - a "good" young man - finds himself, one day, transformed into an evil bug.  A giant, awful, smelly beetle.  At first, his thoughts are still there.  He thinks about his family and how awful it will be for them since his income will no longer be able to support them.  He worries about his sister and her studies.  Eventually, though, because his family can no longer understand him, he loses this part of himself.  He becomes, on the inside, too, an evil, disgusting beetle with no love or passion.   This is so true of many circumstances in life.   Imagine the abandoned dog who turns violent because he is hungry and lonely.  Or the awkward child on the playground who lashes out when he finally gets fed up with being made fun of.

Perhaps, also, we can think a bit about the fairy tale princesses: Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella.  These young ladies, legend says, were murdered, put to sleep for centuries, and locked up as maids because of some one's jealousy over things they had.   Their beauty (I like to think of this as inner and skin deep beauty - imagine Snow White the dwarfs home singing to animals) was more than anyone else's in the land so someone else came along - in the Grimm versions, their own step-mothers - and tried to take that away from them.  Modern versions of the tales, with their happy endings, show, though, that this theft was impossible.  The princess' beauty won out every time.

Finally, let's ponder a bit about the Wizard of Oz.  I'm sticking with the movie version here, since that is the most familiar to many of you.  When I was a very little girl, my Grampa Knights had a laser disk player.   For those not familiar, this was pre-VHS;  it was sort of like CD meets vinyl.  Whenever we visited, he would play the Wizard of Oz for us.  Eventually he made a copy of it on VHS for us (boo SOPA!).  I will never forget watching this taped version and know it by heart: In the nature of CDs, at the scene where the Scarecrow joins Dorothy's journey the VHS even "skipped" a little.  So instead of saying "To Oz!", it said "To... we're off to see the Wizard!"  The whole movie, as you know, is about a little girl who wants more out of her quiet, black and white life.  She wants to fly over a rainbow and visit distant lands.  She wants to meet interesting people and enjoy snacks of hotdogs with a traveling 'professor.'  Along the way she finds magic shoes.  Red. Shiny. Sparkly.  And someone else wants them.  That someone else, the evil witch, does everything in her power to take them back.  At the end of the journey, though, Dorothy learns she does not even need the magic powers of the shoes.  All she needs is her family.   Those fancy expensive shoes, the traveling... it is meaningless without her family and friends.    Good wins again.

So, although this awful, terrible, no good thing happened to us it certainly is not the worst most awful terrible no good thing that could have happened.  These people who stole my things because they could not earn them on their own - whether out of inability, or laziness, or jerkiness - were not able to steal the things most important to me.   I won't let them take that away.  So, while I sit here typing away at my new laptop, drinking delicious coffee with a Greyhound at my feet, I can't stop but think about my amazing family and friends and all of the love in which I am surrounded.

Just for Fun: Snow White, a Modern Fairy Tale

This particular blog is not about a book I have recently read, per se, but instead about an article I read online today. Some stories, fairy tales in particular, are such important parts of our lives, and this particular article got me thinkin'...


NPR recently shared some opinions about why "Snow White" is so popular right now. I remember watching the Disney version as a little girl and - though I loved it - not really understanding why the evil queen hated that sweet little girl. Later, when I read the Grimm version, the final line has always stayed with me: "Then they put a pair of iron shoes into burning coals. They were brought forth with tongs and placed before her. She was forced to step into the red-hot shoes and dance until she fell down dead..." Eek! Payback! There is the message that was missing from the Disney version! (A live-action version of this tale scared me a bit in the late 80s... ) The message of this story when written down so many years ago, was that vanity will only harm us in the end. Those who are beautiful and who do not hate those more beautiful will thrive in society (ahem... become a queen?).... and those who are vain and evil will not.


As of late, I love watching the ABC show "Once Upon a Time" - a modern take on all of Grimm's fairy tales (and some other stories - "Alice" for one) all mushed together. In this show, Snow White's evil doing is actually explained. As a little girl she inadvertently helps the Evil Queen's mother murder the Evil Queen's love. The Evil Queen's mother tricks the young girl into telling her lover's name.


After reading NPR's take on this, I keep wondering, have we finally settled on a reason for Snow to be so hated by her step-mother? Could it finally be that we've decided that a hatred for someone because she is beautiful is not sufficient, and perhaps - albeit she is evil - the Evil Queen might need to have a reason to want to tear out a little girl's heart, her stepdaughter's heart? In our world of constant attention - I am thinking of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube... - perhaps we are so constantly reminded that there is someone better looking, better talented, better smart, better, better, better... that the type of vanity first mentioned in the written versions of this tale no longer have so much meaning. I am not sure the author of this article, Neda Ulaby, or the producers of Mirror Mirror, the new movie referred to within, quite understand our modern need for an Evil Queen with more depth. I will not likely see this version, and will instead wait for "Snow White and the Huntsman" due out later this year. In this rendition, the Huntsman trains Snow to become a great warrior. Look out Evil Queen!


You can read the NPR article here:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2012/03/31/149691236/snow-white-rising-why-this-princess-and-why-this-moment

Moment of Happiness

Just for Fun: War of the Worlds

Violent sparkly monsters from Mars come to England.  They bomb the heck out of London and the suburbs with a mysterious black cloud.  And the bacteria killed them.  The End.  Or is it?

As you may know, I spend most of my Wednesday nights at a local pub called the Old Spot.   A small group of us get together to show off our awesome knowledge of all things trivial.  Several weeks ago, H.G. Wells' classic, War of the Worlds was part of one of the questions.  It took me several moments to realize (GASP), I had never read it!  How could that have been?

I loaded it onto my Nook and began reading.  What struck me most- right from the start - was how curious the characters were.  They learned that dreadful monsters from a planet that is not our own landed in a ditch.  Instead of running for the hills, they went to that ditch to check out what was happening.  Expectations that the military could destroy whatever terrible force the martians used overcame the people's sanity, causing them to become lunch for these atrocious creatures.   Soon, they learned that our most deadly weapons were no match for the Martians.  Fortunately, bacteria is practically non-destructible and killed off these demons - but only after they killed most of the population of England.

Wells' world was so different from ours.  We are surrounded by aliens, monsters, spaceships, "black clouds" - at least on TV.  How frightened Wells' readers must have been!  I wonder whether a novel such as this would have the same following in today's entertainment world.   I understand a movie was created a few years back, but that it was all about a dysfunctional family - a radical change from Wells' main character whose fight to survive was due to his hope to find his missing wife.

Could a movie about human relationships during a national disaster survive?

Read

Reading Tag

Every so often I end up in a book slump.  I have a stack of partially read books and I can't decide which one to finish, which one to give up on, and which one to keep saving.  I do this when there is a lot going on in "real life" - my reading life becomes reflective of my state of mind.  If work is crazy, school is crazy, and everything else is crazy, then my reading selection becomes... well, crazy.

Right now I have two scientific animal books, a current events book, a sci-fi book, and a fanstasy novel all with various styles of bookmarks in various places.  Each night before bed I try to read a few pages at least, but sometimes by the time I have taken the dog out, filled my glass of water, and tucked myself in deciding between the various authors, styles and bookmarks makes me so exhausted I can't decide. 

A friend told me he uses his partially read books as coasters.  I met a woman once whose husband was into gardening - he had piles of partially read gardening books all over their house in neat stacks.  My mom told me when she's in a book slump she just keeps reading but skips the boring parts.   Me?  I just keep collecting partials and reading a page or two here or there.   I would love to take a book-cation and just read for three days straight.  Tea. Books. Dogs.

#37: Dracula, Bram Stoker

I loved the epistolary format of Dracula.  It is always so interesting to get inside someone's head while they encounter strange things, like elderly men who are actually creatures of the night and crawl up and down stone walls.   For its time, I can not even imagine what people's thoughts were.  A story about a country many had never visited, about a man who lives off human blood? GASP!

What is unfortunate, though, is how "Dracula" is portrayed in America today.  Stoker's creature was evil and, bluntly, disgusting.  I was honestly surprised.  He ate people and kept witches for company.  Stoker's Dracula would never have avoided his urges.  He had no feelings, except to feed his hunger for blood, and maybe a little feeling of lust for pretty ladies.  Today's Dracula, and vampires in general, somehow (should we blame or thank Bela Lugosi?) became romantic creatures - drawn by love and able to fight their natural instincts to eat what they like to eat (us). 

Is there something to be said about people's fears in the late 1890s compared to today?  A friend commented on another post that "maybe the reason some readers (me...) found the story (Daughter of Blood) lacking is because their imagination in reading is lacking..." Have we really lost our sense of imagination?  Are we (me included...) so lost in real life that it's almost impossible to imagine those "outstanding worlds" of imagination?  I like to think not, but the more I consider what has happened to Dracula, I wonder if she's right.  Are we so obsessed with controlling our lives with iPads and GPSs that we think we can control vampires and convince them to not want to eat our blood?  

What do you think? 

Oh, and for those who are wondering: I loved True Blood.  I love Being Human.  I even couldn't put down most of the Twilight series.  I don't see why we can't appreciate both.