A Year and Three Days

[sub_divided]

Still no internet connection. My fault, I keep forgetting to call the installers to make an appointment.

The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath
pinkpuruu recommended this book. Except for the middle third, I liked it. In that part Plath (why did she even bother giving the main character a different name?) attempts suicide, repeatedly, and I…was a little bored. Couldn’t sympathize because I couldn’t empathize because I couldn’t relate.

I’m reading at such a perfect time, too! Esther is a twenty-year old with a summer scholarship who is suffering from premature end-of-college anxiety, which is exactly where I am right now. In every other way we're different. The most striking thing about this book is that it isn’t coy at all. Most authors hide behind their own cleverness--on the one hand they're revealing themselves through their writing (especially in veiled autobiographies like this one), and on the other hand they protect themselves by only eluding to the embarrassing part of their personalities, or toning them down, or criticizing themselves before the reader has a chance to. Syvia Plath does none of this, is in fact more honest than is societally acceptable. I'm with puruu, good book.

The Tale of Genji, Lady Murasaki
I’m reading the first book (of six) right now, the 1955 reprint of Arthur Waley’s 1925 translation. It does weird things with the typesetting like not setting off quotations, but my only real complaint is ARG FOOTNOTES. Most of them are cultural notes necessary for understanding; others are reminders that this character X is the same X who was obliquely referred to as Y in one sentence a hundred pages ago.

But a lot of them are about future chapters, e.g. “this character’s name, purposefully obscured in the original, is Such. We learn in chapter eight that she is the wife of And-So, who is introduced in chapter six.” And meanwhile *I* am on chapter five, the introduction of Murasaki (the character, not the author; apparently this is my week for author insertions), and I’ve just read another one of those spoilering footnotes about her being the niece of Fujitsubo whoever that is wait, I remember. That’s sort of disturbing, even on top of Murasaki being ten. You like her because she looks like someone you've heard resembles the dead mother you no longer remember?

Oh well, it could always be worse. (Genji likes that she’s ten because it means he’ll have more time to train her to his tastes, but we should love him anyway because he’s beautiful. Am I imagining that the author has a sense of humor about this?)

Something ronoken posted reminded me, Wednesday was my one-year livejournal anniversary. Go me! Have some music!

Theme is "US Geography" because I was trying for songs with specific place-name references. Then I remembered I have only 6 gigs of music and no internet connection. I FAIL.

01. Good Charlotte – East Coast Anthem (Washington D.C., general East)
02. Billy Joel – Downeaster Alexa (Long Island Sound and environs)
03. Olu Dara – Neighborhoods (NYC, all three of the tri-borough boroughs)
04. Squirrel Nut Zippers – Memphis Exorcism (wordless song. you see how I fail.)
05. Presidents of the USA – Cleveland Rocks (Cleveland, Ohio)
06. Jayhawks – Wichita (Wichita, Kansas)
07. Fastball – Sweetwater, Texas (not really)
08. REM – Texarcana (Texas again? As seen from California)
09. Red Hot Chili Peppers – Parallel Universe (California doesn’t really exist, though. Why else would I not have even *one* song about it?)

Bonus song for a bonus state:
Pati – Island Girls (the “local girls” are Hawaiian, but the singer does not discriminate.)

08 and 09 are from fst, 01 and 05 are from kaitoucheckers. Judging only by those songs, approximately where am I from? XD