The things that make me happy: books and food
Sat, Oct. 18th, 2003 10:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oyceterWas rather irked after work today because the coordinator phoned in yesterday after I left, saying she couldn't come, meaning I had to be coordinator today. Of course, I only found this out the second I walked in. Ick. I dislike coordinating... involves too much smalltalk and organizing for me. Although there are some nice people... But then there are very strange or pissy people too. We have a system in which the people have to come back to pick up the books we can't take, because we get so many that they would just pile up if we didn't. And some people are not so nice about coming back today. It's like the vegetarian option at Charter, which we were only supposed to serve to vegetarians, but all the meat-eating people would want it if it was something like lasagna.
Anyhow. So was in a rather grumpy mood after work. Plus, I had to be on my feet all day hauling books around, so I physically hurt too. But then went out for real Chinese food at one of those Hong Kong style Chinese seafood places with my mom, Lin Ah-yi and the boy. Yum. Had shrimp with heads, winter melon soup, shr ban fish, tofu in XO sauce, and bean leaves. Very good. And now I am still basking in the happiness of a good meal.
Finished Freedom and Necessity yesterday (Steven Brust and Emma Bull), which I ended up buying because I liked it so much. I begin to suspect the seemingly-generous borrowing scheme of the store is in fact a devious attempt to get me to buy more books. Of course, it's not like I'm that hard to tempt ;). Anyhow, really loved the book. Like I wrote before, it's a book written entirely in letters, set in 1849. Supposedly it's fantasy, but really, there's no magic in it at all (I think... might have missed something). It's a very dense book, in the best way, and I will need to reread it several times. Also, it's just delicious the way the various characters write. I especially love Kitty's rambling, run-on style, which resembles my thought process very closely. So many lovely or odd or funny quotes that I can't pick a single one now. I ending up falling in love with James and Susan and feeling quite fond of Kit and Richard (probably because I was reading Susan's letters most often). I do love Susan. She's feminist, yet fitting for the period (I think, don't know that much about the period) and so real. In fact, all the characters feel real to me, feel 3d instead of being people kind of stuck in a story. I don't know a better way to describe it, but thanks in part to the device of the letters, it's almost as though I know these people will go on living, even though I am no longer prey to their correspondence. They can write about their feelings, then go off into philosophical debates, or talk about how they write letters, and that makes them seem psychologically rounder to me than characters that a narrator might describe. The one thing that I didn't quite suspend disbelief enough for was how Susan supposedly could remember all the dialogue that went on. I know of no one who writes diaries or letters that way, but as a reader, I was quite grateful. Was also pulled out of the book when Susan described losing her virginity in a good amount of detail. Otherwise, it was lovely. Small things, like the descriptions of James, Susan's reactions on first killing, Kitty's style and Richard's journals entries, were much fun. And James was one of those romance style heroes if they were real people, tortured not to be tortured, withdrawn not just to be withdrawn, and with sobriquets like "The Devil's right hand" without it seeming too much a device of the author. He felt like a not-quite-hero who did things and lived and was real.
I seem to always manage to fall in love with a character in books I really love. Or with a couple, because in the end, total sap. But how can I not be when the book has an absolutely wonderful love letter in it? When I was small, I used to be disappointed in old love letters because they were so restrained, but now, the restraint makes them all the more remarkable, and the way James puts his feelings and doubts and cognitive processes about love and Susan in words feels like a real love letter, not something like, "oh I love you for ever and ever and will die without you." In fact, I think that's why I liked the book so much. The characters were obviously smart enough to think about what they were doing and about the risks they were taking. They didn't just act, like lots of characters in books. They thought about their actions and their feelings, they thought about repercussions and emotions and logic and philosophy. Ergo the three dimensional quality.
And I need to read it again to get more out of the character interactions and to figure out the truly labyrinthe plot. Quite looking forward to forgetting it enough to be delighted by the language again.
This makes me think about books and why my reviews are always so incoherent and emotional. I think, in the end, that's why I read. It's always amazed me and frustrated me and frightened me that every moment in my life is unique and that it all passes so quickly. As if: every moment, I can think and try to remember the feeling of the moment, but in the end, it will still fade into memory, and it will never be that moment again. Yet, with books, I can make it that moment again. I can turn the pages back, or forward, skip to parts, and it will always be that moment. Because of this, reading books is not simply making my brain work, since most of the time I don't look for that. Reading books, esp. rereading, is a means of evoking an emotion, and it's the most trustworthy way of doing that for me. So I read Robin McKinley and LM Montgomery when I want to feel warm and fuzzy and homey, Sandman when I want something larger, the Fionavar Tapestry for sacrifice and nobility, Daughter of the Forest for romance, etc. And no matter how well a book is written, if it doesn't evoke emotions that I want to feel again, I'm much less inclined to remember it or want to pick it up again.
So my list of favorites isn't the list of books that I think are the technically best books, but the ones that I want to visit and revisit. Of course, that doesn't mean one simply reads all sorts of dreck, because it takes skill and a certain mastery of language to get that emotional reaction. Plus, thanks to English class, I can't get into a book enough to become emotionally involved if it's too poorly done. Yet, in the end, like for most things (music, movies), I rely on the gut feeling. So while I admire movies like Shine and the artsy movie and I'll watch them in theaters, in the end, I buy Moulin Rouge and Chicken Run because they make me happy on some fundamental level.
Of course, my yardstick for happy feelings is very different than other people's, as I find Neon Genesis Evangelion and Sandman and Nightmare Before Christmas uplifting.
Links:
-![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-syndicated.gif)
rilina's Freedom and Necessity
Anyhow. So was in a rather grumpy mood after work. Plus, I had to be on my feet all day hauling books around, so I physically hurt too. But then went out for real Chinese food at one of those Hong Kong style Chinese seafood places with my mom, Lin Ah-yi and the boy. Yum. Had shrimp with heads, winter melon soup, shr ban fish, tofu in XO sauce, and bean leaves. Very good. And now I am still basking in the happiness of a good meal.
Finished Freedom and Necessity yesterday (Steven Brust and Emma Bull), which I ended up buying because I liked it so much. I begin to suspect the seemingly-generous borrowing scheme of the store is in fact a devious attempt to get me to buy more books. Of course, it's not like I'm that hard to tempt ;). Anyhow, really loved the book. Like I wrote before, it's a book written entirely in letters, set in 1849. Supposedly it's fantasy, but really, there's no magic in it at all (I think... might have missed something). It's a very dense book, in the best way, and I will need to reread it several times. Also, it's just delicious the way the various characters write. I especially love Kitty's rambling, run-on style, which resembles my thought process very closely. So many lovely or odd or funny quotes that I can't pick a single one now. I ending up falling in love with James and Susan and feeling quite fond of Kit and Richard (probably because I was reading Susan's letters most often). I do love Susan. She's feminist, yet fitting for the period (I think, don't know that much about the period) and so real. In fact, all the characters feel real to me, feel 3d instead of being people kind of stuck in a story. I don't know a better way to describe it, but thanks in part to the device of the letters, it's almost as though I know these people will go on living, even though I am no longer prey to their correspondence. They can write about their feelings, then go off into philosophical debates, or talk about how they write letters, and that makes them seem psychologically rounder to me than characters that a narrator might describe. The one thing that I didn't quite suspend disbelief enough for was how Susan supposedly could remember all the dialogue that went on. I know of no one who writes diaries or letters that way, but as a reader, I was quite grateful. Was also pulled out of the book when Susan described losing her virginity in a good amount of detail. Otherwise, it was lovely. Small things, like the descriptions of James, Susan's reactions on first killing, Kitty's style and Richard's journals entries, were much fun. And James was one of those romance style heroes if they were real people, tortured not to be tortured, withdrawn not just to be withdrawn, and with sobriquets like "The Devil's right hand" without it seeming too much a device of the author. He felt like a not-quite-hero who did things and lived and was real.
I seem to always manage to fall in love with a character in books I really love. Or with a couple, because in the end, total sap. But how can I not be when the book has an absolutely wonderful love letter in it? When I was small, I used to be disappointed in old love letters because they were so restrained, but now, the restraint makes them all the more remarkable, and the way James puts his feelings and doubts and cognitive processes about love and Susan in words feels like a real love letter, not something like, "oh I love you for ever and ever and will die without you." In fact, I think that's why I liked the book so much. The characters were obviously smart enough to think about what they were doing and about the risks they were taking. They didn't just act, like lots of characters in books. They thought about their actions and their feelings, they thought about repercussions and emotions and logic and philosophy. Ergo the three dimensional quality.
And I need to read it again to get more out of the character interactions and to figure out the truly labyrinthe plot. Quite looking forward to forgetting it enough to be delighted by the language again.
This makes me think about books and why my reviews are always so incoherent and emotional. I think, in the end, that's why I read. It's always amazed me and frustrated me and frightened me that every moment in my life is unique and that it all passes so quickly. As if: every moment, I can think and try to remember the feeling of the moment, but in the end, it will still fade into memory, and it will never be that moment again. Yet, with books, I can make it that moment again. I can turn the pages back, or forward, skip to parts, and it will always be that moment. Because of this, reading books is not simply making my brain work, since most of the time I don't look for that. Reading books, esp. rereading, is a means of evoking an emotion, and it's the most trustworthy way of doing that for me. So I read Robin McKinley and LM Montgomery when I want to feel warm and fuzzy and homey, Sandman when I want something larger, the Fionavar Tapestry for sacrifice and nobility, Daughter of the Forest for romance, etc. And no matter how well a book is written, if it doesn't evoke emotions that I want to feel again, I'm much less inclined to remember it or want to pick it up again.
So my list of favorites isn't the list of books that I think are the technically best books, but the ones that I want to visit and revisit. Of course, that doesn't mean one simply reads all sorts of dreck, because it takes skill and a certain mastery of language to get that emotional reaction. Plus, thanks to English class, I can't get into a book enough to become emotionally involved if it's too poorly done. Yet, in the end, like for most things (music, movies), I rely on the gut feeling. So while I admire movies like Shine and the artsy movie and I'll watch them in theaters, in the end, I buy Moulin Rouge and Chicken Run because they make me happy on some fundamental level.
Of course, my yardstick for happy feelings is very different than other people's, as I find Neon Genesis Evangelion and Sandman and Nightmare Before Christmas uplifting.
Links:
-
rilina's Freedom and Necessity