First of all, spoilers.
I am in such deep, fantastical, heartbreaking love with Looking for Alaska. I've never fallen so hard for a book. I was sixteen when I first read it. It was a case of right book, right time. There is no better period in my life that I could have fallen for something.
I read Paper Towns and Will Grayson, Will Grayson and An Abundance of Katherines and never fell as hard. I still carry a lot of admiration for Margo Roth Spiegelman who I'd like to revisit as a feminist and explore just exactly how much of a female enigma she really is.
Two months ago I found the time to really get my teeth into The Fault in Our Stars. I devoured it in two sittings over the course of 48 hours.
It's hard to objectively analyse a text once you're aware of its reputation and enamoured with the author's previous work. It's hard not to let your expectations get in the way of your reading.
With those ideas in mind: my overwhelming feeling is one of disappointment.
It felt like a carbon copy of LfA.
The protagonist is a loner struggling with the social interaction required of teenagers. A character dies (arguably unexpectedly) midway through the narrative. It ends on a letter.
I felt like the parallels are too much. Is this some kind of teen fiction formula? Is it Nicholas Sparks for 11-19 year olds? I just couldn't buy it.
The "okay" thing was cheesy and forced and I didn't like Augustus. I can't make up my mind if he's genuinely supposed to be this strange asshole or actually doesn't work as a character. I liked Alaska. She's destructive but she's so human. Augustus has this dumbass "metaphor" which has been ripped the shit out of by memes across the internet. Either proving its impressive transcendence or that thousands of teenagers didn't feel "okay" about it.
If the selling point of this new work of Green's is a female protagonist then count me out. Making a protagonist female just to sell more books is counterproductive to feminism. Females are not there to sell your novels. I can fit myself into any protagonist. Man, woman, time travelling gender altering Orlando, if a text is written by a human about humans there will be a kind of human connection. The sex of the protagonist does not necessarily determine my desire to read the narrative.
Ultimately, LfA is the better version of this text; why would I want a slightly less believable copy?
And, nothing pissed me off more than the fact that it didn't end in the middle of a
23 April 2014
04 April 2014
The condition of education
At a very young age I realised I had a much furthered interest in academic study than my parents ever had the opportunity or the desire to pursue.
When I was in primary school, this wasn't an issue; however when I entered secondary school, they very quickly became aware that they were getting out of their depth. They couldn't help me with quadratic equations or tell me the number of electrons in a carbon atom and had no idea who Lenny was or just how much he loved that rabbit.
At the age of 12, I was on my own. There would be no further academic help offered to me at home. Not because they didn't want to of course but because they couldn't. This didn't strike me as strange. People's parents worked and some were smarter than others and some weren't.
When I came to university though, I discovered that people's parents were more academically educated and had even been to university. And not only that but they had an actual vested interest in what their kids studied. My friend studies the same English degree as me and goes home to her both graduated parents and has full conversations, discussions, lengthy, heated arguments about the likes of Brontë and Dickens. How fantastic! To be greeted with enthusiasm and questions and opinions rather than a blank stare, a passing comment and a change of subject.
I don't know how many people educated above their parents feel like their skills aren't appreciated, or worse, felt like their education is perhaps useless, a waste of money and time, when one could be earning money and moving out and "having a life".
In July I will become the first female to graduate on my father's side and the only person to ever go to university, let alone graduate, on my mother's. It's new for them; the opportunities to study are much greater now and the social factors of generation and location mean that this is the first time lots of young people have ventured into further study rather than stretching to a vocational course at college.
Disclaimer: this is not a post slating those who chose not to go into further study. In fact, coming out the other side of university in a few months has given me a fresh, tired perspective that casts a hefty £17,000 debt over my last three years. Maybe I didn't need a degree. Maybe I didn't need to study the Renaissance period or Samuel Beckett or what makes a good preface. I too am weighing up whether it was worth it.
Regardless, it doesn't mean that the potential to further myself academically wasn't there. Perhaps I'm being a brat. I was supported financially to do this. Perhaps, intellectually, I should have realised that I am still on my own.
When I was in primary school, this wasn't an issue; however when I entered secondary school, they very quickly became aware that they were getting out of their depth. They couldn't help me with quadratic equations or tell me the number of electrons in a carbon atom and had no idea who Lenny was or just how much he loved that rabbit.
At the age of 12, I was on my own. There would be no further academic help offered to me at home. Not because they didn't want to of course but because they couldn't. This didn't strike me as strange. People's parents worked and some were smarter than others and some weren't.
When I came to university though, I discovered that people's parents were more academically educated and had even been to university. And not only that but they had an actual vested interest in what their kids studied. My friend studies the same English degree as me and goes home to her both graduated parents and has full conversations, discussions, lengthy, heated arguments about the likes of Brontë and Dickens. How fantastic! To be greeted with enthusiasm and questions and opinions rather than a blank stare, a passing comment and a change of subject.
I don't know how many people educated above their parents feel like their skills aren't appreciated, or worse, felt like their education is perhaps useless, a waste of money and time, when one could be earning money and moving out and "having a life".
In July I will become the first female to graduate on my father's side and the only person to ever go to university, let alone graduate, on my mother's. It's new for them; the opportunities to study are much greater now and the social factors of generation and location mean that this is the first time lots of young people have ventured into further study rather than stretching to a vocational course at college.
Disclaimer: this is not a post slating those who chose not to go into further study. In fact, coming out the other side of university in a few months has given me a fresh, tired perspective that casts a hefty £17,000 debt over my last three years. Maybe I didn't need a degree. Maybe I didn't need to study the Renaissance period or Samuel Beckett or what makes a good preface. I too am weighing up whether it was worth it.
Regardless, it doesn't mean that the potential to further myself academically wasn't there. Perhaps I'm being a brat. I was supported financially to do this. Perhaps, intellectually, I should have realised that I am still on my own.
06 August 2013
A short history of disappointment in English
A short history of tractors in Ukranian: a novel with a short-lived buzz about it. For a quick period it won prizes and it’s cover was everywhere from shops to shelves. And somehow I couldn’t get my hands on it. It was an enigma - the cover art remained imprinted in my mind.
But when I finally smuggled the unattainable novel into my suitcase I realised the cover held an image I'd never actually seen before. The colours were all what I remembered but I'd never before recognised the cartoon image of a headscarf'd female aboard a ploughing tractor. I'd mistaken it for a "cool" postmodernist graphic of colours. This wasn't the only realisation I'd have.
The novel was trash. A chick-lit tale attempting to discuss "real" issues but to afraid to do anything except skim over them with quotes and careful illusions.
The fantastic talent of Marina Lewycka is swamped by petty squabbles between stereotypical female characters who refuse to push boundaries. The links between modern philosophy, the rise of tractor engineering and eastern European politics are brushed off as the rambling outlet of an increasingly senile old man (the anti-climactic ending only reinforces this theory). But these excerpts are the cataclysmic parts of the novel. The sources for the great revolutionary writing I believed I would find within the misleading cover.
Lewycka would have been better off actually writing a short history of tractors in Ukranian. It would have been an insightful and fascinating piece of literature, whether embellished with fiction or not. I was caught between mind-blowing passages of captivating non-fiction and a poor articulation of a second-generation family's issues with ageing non-natives.
Ultimately Lewycka's half-assed attempt at a border crossing, boundary pushing, genre bending novel, left me fully disappointed.
05 August 2013
Hugo Boss: from student village to Bicester Village
(Disclaimer: it's taken me four months to write this.)
Reading's indoor shopping centre, one of the most successful and well advertised in the south of England recently opened it's doors to a new kind of client with the understated opening of the chic Hugo Boss.
A little out of your typical student budget, the store is set to open the way for many more higher priced retail outlets. Bumping the Oracle up from student village to Bicester Village.
It currently only stocks menswear (talk about limiting your clientele) but I can't help but give the store an idealistic thumbs up. Alongside Pretty Green, The Oracle's menswear options are vastly expanding into higher budget and more middle-class customer based stores. I fully support this movement. It's time there was a wider range of options available for both men and women. Designer stores could very well be the cure to the "high street vs online" crisis. More options, less money.
Idealistic, aspirational and so, so tidy. Let's all cross our fingers and waste use our student loans to great effect and keep this bad boy with us.
17 April 2013
Paramore more more
I have a pretty poor taste in life experiences. If I had a bucket list there would only be one thing on it: "To see Paramore perform 'That's What You Get'" and I could cross that off. Don't say you weren't warned. Despite this obviously dumb love for something trivial I was underwhelmed by their first release from their 2013 self titled album, 'Now'. It wasn't until BBCR1's Live Lounge version of Still Into You that I decided to sit up and listen.
'Growing Up' is the punchy introduction into the "you're on your own; grow up and deal with it" theme. A message both for the band's ageing audience as well as themselves. There's a lot of speculation on how they'll do post the issues of 2011 but I'm a New Critic and dealing with autobiography is for the smaller minded. 'Ain't it Fun' is a bittersweet, gospel choir included, reiteration of this theme. The really good one.
'[One of Those] Crazy Girls' doesn't do much in feminist agenda but who am I to judge when it's been in my head since last Tuesday. Appropriate when mixed with Silver Linings Playbook.
'[One of Those] Crazy Girls' doesn't do much in feminist agenda but who am I to judge when it's been in my head since last Tuesday. Appropriate when mixed with Silver Linings Playbook.
The passive aggressive rub-it-in-your-face-I'm-so-happy (slightly Hawaiian?) interludes 'Moving On'/'Holiday'/'I'm Not Angry Anymore' break up the volumes with a vindictive smirk I am 100% on board with.
'Fast In My Car' is also very appropriate when bought on CD and rocking in a ten year old/battered Skoda Fabia. Who says you need a good stereo-system or anything that can go over 70mph anyway.
I was asked if Paramore is "better than their old stuff" and I don't really have an answer for that. I recognise that saying "it's different" is about as helpful as covering doorhandles in mashed potato but it's just that. Different. I guess any woman who can fearlessly wear her fringe like this will have my admiration no matter what.
Look at how badass that is. I believe it's this haircut which inspired the lyrics to 'Proof': "If I'm a woman with no fear just like I claim I am" - obviously you are Williams, obviously you are.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)