Friday Five

[oyceter]

1. How many houses/apartments have you lived in throughout your life?
1 house, 2 apartments, and 4 dorms.

2. Which was your favorite and why?
My Hsinchu house, because it's home.

3. Do you find moving house more exciting or stressful? Why?
I hate moving. I hope after graduating from college, I will never have to move EVER AGAIN. Having to pack up and store all your stuff every year when you live in another country is the most annoying thing ever. And I hate packing. With a vengeance. Moving every year also keeps me from accumulating all the books, clothes, and shoes I want. Especially the books.

4. What's more important, location or price?
Um. Haven't really had to look for one myself yet... My mom would say location, but that's because she's not that worried about price. Considering my iffy job situation, probably price.

5. What features does your dream house have (pool, spa bath, big yard, etc.)?
Books. Everywhere. Bookshelves. Everywhere. And a special little place for all my stuffies. And lots and lots of quilts. Also very large walk-in closets for my clothes, ample storage for all my stuff, because I'm a packrat. And shelves. Lots of shelves for books and to display things and for books.


Found out from hecatehatesthat that Phillip Pullman is writing more in his His Dark Materials world! This so very made my day. The HMD trilogy is one of the most stunning YA fantasy series I've read for quite some time, and one of the most interesting and original fantasy series in general for me as well. And now he's going back to that world! I love those books so much that I'm trying to foist my old copies of the first two off on my sister, who owns the last book in hardcover, just so I can buy a special pretty set. Hee.

*sigh* Had another argument with the boy about stupid things like why I think Microsoft is evil. I think the problem is we have extremely different views of the world, and now I'm just starting to wonder how much it will work like this. I live in a little utopian fantasy world in which I troll around online, read fanfics, read fantasy, watch fantasy, think about fantasy, write fantasy (hopefully), etc. In other words, I'm involved with a world that is very different from the everyday world in which I live. And in general, I find my other world much more interesting. The boy, on the other hand, is one of those people who doesn't find fantasy and the fantastical interesting at all because it's not real. Mostly he's interested in politics, business, engineering, etc.... stuff I generally think is boring. And sometimes it seems as though the only time we ever really talk to each other is about these things -- the war, Bush's policies, business. And we have extremely polar opinions: I tend to think that large corporations are not looking out for me and are going to skin me, he mistrusts the government, I don't trust Republicans and half the time don't even trust the Democrats, I think a large part of the business world is just kind of silly, etc. And much of the time, I tend to react strongly to lots of his statements, I think in part because some part of me is always resentful that I have to be a part of the entire business thing, with a job, and etc.

I don't know. This sounds kind of silly now.

But I just refuse to believe that this concrete world is all there is. I just spent thirty minutes looking for the Gaiman quote that expresses this far more beautifully than I ever could, didn't find it, but found this other Gaiman quote instead: "Things need not have happened to be true. Tales and dreams are the shadow-truths that will endure when mere facts are dust and ashes, and forgot."

Just wasted another half hour looking for that other quote. Doh. You'd think it'd be somewhere on the internet. Anyway, in case anyone knows, it's the one about fantasy worlds, spoken by Titania in one of the Gaiman-penned Books of Magic comics. It's a little long, but wonderful... something about how fantasy worlds are in some sense more real than reality.

I think a lot of people I know (my dad and mom included) would term this as extremely escapist. But (obviously) I really believe this. Why else would I be reading fantasy and sci-fi? In a sense, I do do it to escape, because of the larger than life people, because Buffy is a hero to me, and because sometimes, I think they can say things that can't be done in "normal" fiction. I think there is a power in fiction and in non-truths that cannot always find their purest forms in the real world. They get bogged down by facts when sometimes all I want is the archetype. Anyway, I'm rambling.

Apparently no thesis is being done today. *sigh*

Comments

[rahael.livejournal.com]

Ooooo! Thanks for letting me know about Philip Pullman! I've been a fan for years and years, and have read everything he's written. The other books, the YA standalones and the Sally Lockhart series are very impressive, unsentimental and thought provoking.

As for escapism and fantasy, I've always believed that there's a difference between the stories we tell ourselves that allow us to live in delusions and self deceptions, and those fantasies, narratives and stories that lead us back to our own lives, to painful, and inspirational truths. Sometimes the answer to the problems in our lives lies iwithin our imagination. I also believe that people who never read fantasy can hold many harmful 'fantasies' in their minds about life.

Sandman and HDM seem to be excellent examples of fantasy writing that holds up a mirror to the world - or as Joss Whedon once said 'real life, but wonkier'. A creative attempt to address the crucial questions of our lives. And what's escapist about that?

[oyceter]

I just thought of it, but Storyteller is a great example of escapism in fantasy and how harmful it can sometimes be, eh? And yet, it's funny how watching Storyteller touches me and makes me think about these issues, even though it is clearly "untrue."

I have a hard time reading some fantasy books because they are too pat and they don't tell me something I don't already know. HDM, Sandman, Buffy, etc. all seem to speak to something in me and frighten me a little, just enough to push the mind. Also, the language is to die for ^_^.