Friday, May 21, 2010

An Explanation, and Other Random Thoughts, Including Twilight

Originally posted 2/16/2010 at passtheeggs.umbravita.com:
All right, what did I say I would explain in this blog?  Ah yes, the hand written thing.  My novel is hand written.  I write everything out by hand and then I type it into the computer.  That's all.  See you next time.


What?
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You're still here?
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Oh.  Well, okay.  Good for you.  I'll see you later.
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Vraiment?  Which is French for, really?  (Eggs?  Yes please, and pass the ketchup.)
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Okay fine.  I'll explain.

I hand write all of my works.  All of my poems, every short story, my novel, and all of my academic papers go into one of several notebooks before they ever make it into the computer.  There's something very organic about the act of writing in pen, in a notebook.  It's... okay, never mind, the Verizon commercial spoofing Twilight/New Moon just came on and I lost all train of thought.  HILARIOUS!!!  Hold on, I'm going to YouTube this (how's that for verbing?) and see if I can't post a link for you to enjoy.
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Okay I've got it!!  Oh my stars, I am so excited.  This is probably my favorite commercial ever.  For your enjoyment:



Ahahahahahahahahahaha-- *falls out of chair like Vizzini in The Princess Bride*  I love it!  Oh my stars.  So funny.  Now don't get me wrong, I can appreciate Twilight as much as the next fangirl.  When the movie first came out, I bought the books and read all four in four days.  I read Breaking Dawn in one day.  I enjoy the books, and the movies are fun as well.  When Twilight was still in theatres, I went to see it about once a week for something to do until I had seen it fourteen times.  Crazy, yes?  I know.  But it was fun.  I would go and see it by myself, and I had a lot of fun.  It was just a relaxing way to go and chill out for a couple of hours after school and work.  I would like to add that I have only seen New Moon once.  But I am always happy to laugh at the spoofs of the story, such as the one above.    Here's my clarification for all of this: the books and movies are great FOR WHAT THEY ARE.  They are teen romance books, they are not traditional vampire literature, they are not meant to be literature, and I will be the first person to stand up and say that they are only to be classified in the young adult category of literature and nothing else.  Now, I say this with absolutely no disrespect to Stephanie Meyer.  There's been a pretty significant overhaul in young adult books recently thanks to her (I used to work at Barnes & Noble, so I pay attention to what's on the shelves) and let's not forget the commencement of that new television series, what is it the Vampire Diaries or something like that (which, by the way, based off of another book series), and even the I <3 Vampires (the emoticon is part of their official title, I'm not an especial fan of the "less than three" emoticon, don't ask me why because I'm still not entirely sure why it aggravates my OCD) web series over at Take180.com.  And the argument always is (I've heard this said for Harry Potter as well) that at least the books get young people reading.  I have to agree, that's a great thing.  Now, here's another clarification for my enjoyment of the books and why I think they're fun whereas some people say that they're absolute crap: I read children's books anyway.  I do not enjoy many adult novels, and I'm not normally a fan of teen books either.  There's too much emotional drama, and not nearly enough imagination (as in, there's way too much reality for my taste) and I've had enough drama in that in my life.  When I sit down to read, I want an easy, relaxing escape from the ordinary.  As Dr. Seuss says, "I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells.  Fantasy is a necessary ingredient for living."  When I was younger, I started reading adult books at a fairly young age; Timothy Zahn's Star Wars novels became my favorites at age 12 (try talking about those in Book It).  As I've grown older, though, I've found that after being inundated with depressing, and often explicit (anybody else out there ever had to study Chaucer?  Or The Bluest Eye?  Then you know what I'm talking about) adult works to read and analyze in the course of my college education, I have reverted back to children's books as something of a return to innocence, an attempt to clear my mind and escape from the rest of the dreary grown-up world that I have to live in most of the time.  All of that being said, probably part of the reason that I enjoy Twilight is because I already love books written for a younger audience.  Some of my other favorites include (but are not limited to): The Secret GardenThe Mysterious Benedict SocietyA Series of Unfortunate Events, and Little Women (I include it here because I studied it in a young adult literature course) which I reread at least once every year.  Now this is not to say that I don't read grown-up books, but the ones I do pick out are more than a little off the wall.  Anthem by Ayn Rand, The Traveler by John Twelve Hawks, Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and pretty much anything Hercule Poirot by Agatha Christie, have all made it onto my list of favorite books.  My novel is not a young adult book; it is definitely in the grown-up category, full of violence, adult themes of grief, emotional trauma, and romance (not explicit, but human relationships are full of complications that I love exploring).  My poetry is of a darker turn, I'm constantly analyzing themes of grief, inadequacy, fantasy versus reality, and the like.  Is it any wonder that I want something more lighthearted to read at the end of the day?  I think not.  Now, how did I get from the funny Twilight spoof to this?  I have no idea.  And I'm not reading back through to figure it out.  Hopefully you've been able to follow my train of thought, because I certainly haven't.  Sometimes this blog is funny (which I hope you've already found in some of my other entries) and sometimes it's going to be like this entry: slightly more insightful and serious.  Or at least serious.  I've already eaten my egg for the evening:
(doesn't it look yummy?  I actually flipped it over and finished frying it, because I'm not into the whole runny yolk thing just yet, but this was the shot that was already sized down to a convenient file size.  My next egg goal is to figure out how to poach one, like Julie Powell has to in Julie & Julia.  Great film by the way.  You should all go out and watch it.  "Lobster killer!") so now you should go have some.  Don't forget the ketchup.

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