Very long overdue SOS

[lavivi]

I've been meaning to do this for ages.

• Pigs in Heaven by Barbara Kingsolver: This is a sequel to The Bean Trees.  I think it's as brilliant as that.  Taylor's mother, Alice was very much present, from the introductory scene even, which was different - also, I realized, a good way into the book, that it was written in present tense. 
  The best part of it was the character Jax - I fell in love with this boy.  And I have many excerpts, from the first introduction:
  
  A baritone voice says, "Yo."
  That would be Jax. ... "Oh, well, hi," she says.  "It's me, Alice."
  "Hey, pretty Alice.  How's your life?"
  "It'll do," she says.  She never knows what she ought to say to Jax.  She hasn't met him and finds him hard to picture.  For one thing, he plays in a rock and roll band.  He comes from New Orleans, and according to Taylor he is tall and lanky and wears a little gold earring, but his voice sounds like Clark Gable in Gone With the Wind.
  "Your daughter has fled the premises," Jax reports.  "She took the second generation and went to see the Grand Canyon.  How do you like that?"
  
  Now there is only a skinny man in black jeans sitting on the porch steps.  He's staring at his hands, which seem to be dozing on his knees, a pair of colossal, torpid spiders.
  
  "Where are my manners?" he says finally in a voice deep with despair, or the South.
  
  She's surprised to find him so serene and obliging, though she knows she may be mistaken.  He may simply be in a coma.
  
  Annawake's mouth forms a tight, upside-down smile.  "Some of my best friends are white people."
  Jax goes limp, as if he's been shot.
  
  "I miss you both.  I'm radioactive with despair."
  
  I love that last line.  And he's just an awesome guy.  Taylor's boyfriend, but he loves her more than she loves him.  When she left (not him, she was scared Turtle, her daughter, would be taken away), he became so depressed.  See third and last quote. 
  The worst part was when he slept with Gundi, his landlord.  It made me so sad.  Before he actually did it, while they were sitting in a jacuzzi together, I cried out again and again, "No, Jax!  Don't sleep with Gundi!  Please don't sleep with Gundi!  You love Taylor, Jax!"  It ended happily, though...he did tell her, of his own volition, she forgave him, and at the end of the book, they decided they were probably going to get married.  YAY.  I wish we had seen more of him, though.
• The Lord of the Rings.  I re-read it for the second time.  I started actually re-reading it about a year ago, but only got about halfway, to around the Falls of Rauros.  But I figured it out during the holidays - if I read two hundred pages a day, I would finish it in six days, just before the holidays ended.  So it all worked out.
  Was much impressed again, just by everything.  Have a few notes I want to make:
  
  1.  I have never seen anything so canon in my life as Frodo/Sam.
  2.  I think what happened to me just recently in my writing nightmare-story happend to Tolkien.  Around the time Frodo and Sam split off alone, he realized Sam was the real main character.  Seriously.  Frodo fades into a secondary position.
  3.  I remember when I first read it, the only part that made tears come to my eyes is right after Shelob stabs Frodo, and Sam thinks he's dead, and he cries, "Don't go where I can't follow, Mr. Frodo!"  That was very sad.  But then Sam kinda ruined it by running around Frodo's body, waving his sword and shouting, until he passed out.
  4.  I really like Saruman's death.  He kicks Wormtailtongue in the face - the latter finally snaps and slits his throat.  Perhaps there could be a Harry Potter parallel?  *envisions Voldemort kicking Wormtail in the face, then Wormtail slitting his throat*
• Characters & Viewpoint by Orson Scott Card.  First of all, I've read Ender's Game, Ender's Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon, and Enchanted by him.  All were most brilliant, though I love the first two the most.  As any Ravenclaw should.  He's a brilliant writer.  So this book on writing was good too.  It was a little over 170 pages, but it just took me forever to finish it.  I had to read so slowly, making sure I knew what he was talking about, thinking of examples.  And I have an excerpt - he's discussing heros, and mentions the "anti-hero":
  
  At times, of course, you'll want to violate that general principle and tell a story whose main character is pretty repulsive.  Even then, however, with almost no exceptions, the writer who brings off such a story successfully in a really not making hte main character completely unlikeable.  Instead, the character is given several major negative traits early in the story, and the traits remain prominent throughout, so that readers don't notice that the writer is using three dozen other techniques to create sympathy for the "unsympathetic" hero.  The true "anti-hero" is rare in fiction.  Most seeming anti-hero is rare in fiction. Most seeming anti-heros are really heroes who need, metaphorically speaking, a bath.
  
  As I read that, I had no idea what he meant - couldn't think of any example.  Until I came to the last sentence, even the last words, and then it clicked - "Oh, you mean Severus!"
• Wuthering Heights: I love Jane Eyre from start to finish, but this was surprisingly disappointing.  It was conclusive, I suppose - told a story, the villian died in the end, but it just wasn't really satisfying.  I didn't really enjoy it.  Only praise is that the housekeeper, Ms. Dean, seemed like such a minor character when she first appeared, and then turned out to be so important to everything.  But no excerpts.

Comments

[lavinialavender.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I knew the relationship. Was sorta/kinda implying it.