I went to the library last night.
I am now ONE book away from my checkout limit of 30 (did I mention how I haven't been reading at all? yeah? okay), but I'm returning Cheryl Strayed's Wild today, so that'll completely solve that problem.
Speaking of that book, BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. I got as far as "It had begun before I even imagined it, precisely four years, seven months, and three days before, when I'd stood in a little room at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and learned that my mother was going to die."
THAT IS WHAT YOU WRITE WHEN YOU ARE A TERRIBLE WRITER. Or writing a book liked by moms who're shopping in the book department at Target.
And yeah. Admittedly, that's only like four pages in. But do you know how many really really good books are out there written by really really good writers? Yeah. So no.
So the opposite of that book is The Handmaid's Tale, which is teetering between pretty damn amazing, and allllso maybe mainly political sci-fi intended to scare people? So I keep going back and forth about whether I like it.
I like the writing, which surprised me because I read The Blind Assassin when I was like 16 and retained NOTHING from it, and then I read The Penelopiad because I ship Odysseus/Penelope like whoa, except then I hated The Penelopiad, because Margaret Atwood was all "Feminism! Reinterpretation! Penelope and Odysseus no!" and Penelope waited for Odysseus for 20 years and loves him because he is the BEST and yeah, maybe he slept with some sorceress ladies on his way home BUT MAYBE YOU WOULD TOO and he kept trying to GET home is the point, because PENELOPE is the best, and then you picture them as Sean Bean and maybe Dana Delany and it all becomes even better.
I super-wish I knew more about the culture when Handmaid's Tale was published, because it probably seemed way more likely to happen then than now. Roe v Wade had been 12 years ago at that point, as opposed to before we -- living, breathing, awesome human beings -- were born, and I thiiink that's when abortion clinics were being bombed? Because I have vague, vague memories of that being an Issue in the culture. Doctors being shot and clinics being bombed. Not that Handmaid's Tale is really about abortion (not at the halfway point, anyway), but it's more on the broader topic of women's autonomy over their bodies, and if their body determines them or not.
p.s. I'm on episode 8 of Orange Is the New Black, and you all need to watch it so we can talk about it omg.
I am now ONE book away from my checkout limit of 30 (did I mention how I haven't been reading at all? yeah? okay), but I'm returning Cheryl Strayed's Wild today, so that'll completely solve that problem.
Speaking of that book, BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. I got as far as "It had begun before I even imagined it, precisely four years, seven months, and three days before, when I'd stood in a little room at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and learned that my mother was going to die."
THAT IS WHAT YOU WRITE WHEN YOU ARE A TERRIBLE WRITER. Or writing a book liked by moms who're shopping in the book department at Target.
And yeah. Admittedly, that's only like four pages in. But do you know how many really really good books are out there written by really really good writers? Yeah. So no.
So the opposite of that book is The Handmaid's Tale, which is teetering between pretty damn amazing, and allllso maybe mainly political sci-fi intended to scare people? So I keep going back and forth about whether I like it.
I like the writing, which surprised me because I read The Blind Assassin when I was like 16 and retained NOTHING from it, and then I read The Penelopiad because I ship Odysseus/Penelope like whoa, except then I hated The Penelopiad, because Margaret Atwood was all "Feminism! Reinterpretation! Penelope and Odysseus no!" and Penelope waited for Odysseus for 20 years and loves him because he is the BEST and yeah, maybe he slept with some sorceress ladies on his way home BUT MAYBE YOU WOULD TOO and he kept trying to GET home is the point, because PENELOPE is the best, and then you picture them as Sean Bean and maybe Dana Delany and it all becomes even better.
I super-wish I knew more about the culture when Handmaid's Tale was published, because it probably seemed way more likely to happen then than now. Roe v Wade had been 12 years ago at that point, as opposed to before we -- living, breathing, awesome human beings -- were born, and I thiiink that's when abortion clinics were being bombed? Because I have vague, vague memories of that being an Issue in the culture. Doctors being shot and clinics being bombed. Not that Handmaid's Tale is really about abortion (not at the halfway point, anyway), but it's more on the broader topic of women's autonomy over their bodies, and if their body determines them or not.
p.s. I'm on episode 8 of Orange Is the New Black, and you all need to watch it so we can talk about it omg.
Comments
Post a Comment