“One cannot be deeply responsive to the world without being saddened very often.” - Erich Fromm
“A thought, even a possibility, can shatter and transform us.” - Friedrich Nietzsche
Allow me to tell you a story. I'm sorry that it's long, but the details mean a lot to me and I have yet to put them all in one place. This actually works out surprisingly well, though, considering that I have an aunt and a great aunt who started following this blog as a result of my vacation, presumably with the intention of getting to know me better. Assuming I don't scare them off. ;)
When I was five or six, my mom began reading a certain book to me. This was not terribly easy for her, since reading in the evening tends to put her to sleep, but I was the most nagging, perseverant five-or-six year old that it is possible to be and made sure we read at least a little bit every night we could. This book was, undoubtedly, my favorite book of all time. This book was Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.
My mom continued to read the series to me until halfway through Prisoner of Azkaban when I decided we were going much too slow and decided to read it on my own. I still have the notebook in which I recorded the page numbers of the words I didn't know in order to look them up in the dictionary later. For my 7th birthday, I received a Harry Potter bedspread and pillowcase set, the former component of which I still use to this day.
Goblet of Fire was both my first audio book and the first book I stayed up far past my bedtime reading- it's harder to get caught when you don't need the lights on. Note that my first time through, I always assumed it was called the Triwizard Torture. (I read the paper copy for the first half, and I'd never seen the word "tournament" before.)
In second grade, because my school was not allowed to officially endorse the celebration of Halloween, they had "Favorite Book Character Day." Guess who I went as- Nimbus 2000 and all. That day was also the day on which we presented our book reports- in costume- to our class. Mine, rather than being a summary, was an 8-page drama complete with dialogue, voices, and everything else you could possibly want. My classmates were probably somewhat scared (I believe I shouted "KILL HIM!" rather loudly during the encounter with the Mirror of Erised). On the front of the assignment, my teacher wrote "Wow! Great enthusiasm!"
Somewhere during this time period, my mother hid my copies from me because I refused to read anything else. I found them within a day (yet consented to try out other books, since I obviously couldn't let her know I'd found them).
My dad did not go buy Order of the Phoenix for me at the midnight release party. I had to wait until Amazon delivered it later that afternoon. Monowizard Torture. This was the first book of more than two hundred pages that I read in less than 24 hours, stopping only when my mother insisted I eat or sleep. I was nearly 8 and about to enter 3rd grade.
Half Blood Prince was my first midnight release party. I dressed as Hermione, and won the contest in my category. The prize was a stuffed Crookshanks. My picture was in the paper (albeit with the most horrendously embarrassing expression on my face that I'm surprised anyone allowed it to be printed just for my sake). My mom was not in favor of her 9 year old daughter staying up past midnight just to get a book, so I was unhappily driven home at about 11. My dad, dressed as Lucius Malfoy and running one of the games, stayed behind on my behalf. Again, I read it in a day.
I was 11 the year Deathly Hallows was published. My best friend and I were at UNCG's Summer Music Camp. Between our four daily rehearsals and other scheduled activities, we rushed through a re-read of Half Blood Prince as fast as we could, one of us holding up a bunch of pages in the middle because I read faster than she does. By the time we got to Barnes and Noble after the concert and 1-2 hour drive home, all of the games and activities were over. My dad and I sat in the science fiction section and I read the newly-published 3rd Ranger's Apprentice book. As midnight came and went, we decided the line was far too long. We left the bookstore and drove to Kroger (a grocery store chain around here). The only people there were us buying two copies of what might be the most hotly-anticipated book of all time, an old lady buying fruit (at 1 in the morning?) and the cashier.
(Yes, I bought Deathly Hallows at Kroger. Deal with it.) I read chapter 1 on the way home, went to bed, finished it the next day with a ton of crying and sometimes simply staring at the pages in shock. Day 2: I finish Ranger's Apprentice and start Deathly Hallows again. Day 3: I re-finish Deathly Hallows and give it to my sister.
"Part 2: The Fandom" to be posted tomorrow.
"Common and cliche are different." - my friend Not Very Charming while we were discussing a writing project I'm working on
Hey, remember that book of poetry, short stories, and essays/blog posts I compiled called "Thoughts On Life" which I've never spoken highly of yet still wanted you to buy?
Last month I compiled a sequel, "Questions On Life" (title courtesy of my grandma), which is of self-proclaimed considerably higher quality than the first volume. I'm honestly proud of it, while I'm ashamed of a lot of the stuff in the first one. (I'm fantastic at marketing. I intend to pursue it as a career.)
Writing club people, you've read almost none of the poetry, most of the short stories, and all of the included blog posts (of which there are maybe 6) you bothered to read.
Everyone else...just the blog posts and essays, I think.
If you were so inclined so as to spend some of your money on it, here is the link.
And because I like you all so much, you can use this code: UJ39B6VQ to get $2 off the listed price.
"You lot. You spend all your time thinking about dying. Like you’re going to get killed by eggs or beef or global warming or asteroids. But you never take time to imagine the impossible- that maybe you’d survive." -The Ninth Doctor
So I guess that'll be the last time I wander in at 1 in the morning after being with a couple of college guys.
"That" being the car trip home and "couple of college guys" being my cousins, of course. What did you think I was talking about?
(segue)
On the way home it occurred to me that I might make fun of America mainly because I am under the impression that it is cool to do so. And I actually rather like America despite its abundance of flaws, so I apologize to you, USA, and I shall go back to mocking you and your constituents tomorrow (in the figurative sense).
(segue)
There's an Amish community not terribly far from my grandma's house, and we drove over there last week. (This was mainly to visit their grocery store, because they have amazing bread and peanut butter chocolate chip cookies.) It was very interesting.
Unlike the popular assumption, they (at least this group) do use electricity- just from solar panels and windmills. The labels on the food were printed, they had an electronic cash register, and there was artificial lighting inside the store. I don't know how much of that was for the sake of running a business and how much they also use inside their homes, but there you have it.
Then yesterday on the way home we saw an Amish couple inside Walmart, and I have no rationalization for that.
“There is no such thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives.” - Audre Lorde
About a month ago I wrote a post concerning Meghan Cox Gurdon's article in The Wall Street Journal on the subject of increasing darkness in YA literature. This article instigated a massive Twitter campaign lead by Maureen Johnson against some of her points, and today I listened to the two women debate the matter on NPR.
Maureen did such an excellent job that I was literally applauding at one point, and several librarians and other authors (one of which was mentioned in the WSJ article in question) called in to share their thoughts. The third special guest of the segment was Madeline Kemper, a 13 year old recruited from Figment. Let it be noted that I am very, very, very, very envious of Madeline Kemper.
One of the callers said that while some YA books are very dark and not for everyone, some teens need them- either so they don't feel so alone or to understand what their friends are going through- and that Gurdon has no right to call for those books to be taken away from them. Gurdon replied that she was doing no such thing. Because saying that such books are too dark to be on the market isn't calling for books to be taken away at all.
As I said in my first post on this subject, it is one thing to acknowledge that certain YA books contain things that not everyone would want to read, but it's quite another to say that those books shouldn't even be available in the first place. And that's something Maureen hinted at but never actually said.
What about the teens who don't cut themselves and have never been the victims of sexual abuse and don't know anyone who does/has, Gurdon asks? Aren't these books just glamorizing terrible things or jading us to the seriousness? I am one of these teens, and while I have been laughed at for apparently giving a summary of one such book with apparent casualness, I do not for one second devalue their existence nor the importance of the issues discussed. I can just talk about them more easily. How can that be considered a bad thing?
When a book is labeled YA, that yellow and red sticker does not say "This book is appropriate for 12 year olds." YA is a wide genre with protagonists ages 12-18. This does not mean that every YA book is intended for all of the ages within that range. Magic Tree House and Harry Potter are at entirely different reading levels, but they're still (at least the first few HPs) both shelved under Juvenile Fiction.
Then there's the whole argument of "parents don't want their kids reading x y and z." Gurdon mentioned something about wanting to "prolong childhood." I have no idea what that means, but keeping kids ignorant just to keep them sweet and innocent and pure is ridiculous. I'm not saying we should hand 12 year olds books full of violence, sex, or other potentially-disturbing content. I'm saying parents shouldn't limit their kids' reading just because they want them to remain their little babies forever.
However, if the reason behind the parental veto is that said parent knows their child (actually knows) well enough to know that he or she isn't ready for a given book, then that's fine. It's not a matter of "he/she has never heard of cutting before so he/she shouldn't read a book about cutting." It's a matter of "my child isn't emotionally mature enough to be able to handle this new information well." There are books I'd never recommend to my 12 year old sister that I read when I was her age because she's bothered by things I took in stride- and that's fine.
I've said it before that I read a few books in middle school that would have horrified many parents if they knew I was reading such things, and kind of disturbed me, too. But I read them and that can't be changed and after I had time to process said books, I was fine. There are things that will be shocking regardless of how old you are when you first discover them, and as much as we as a society prefer to protect our kids from anything that might make them less than happy, it's a part of life. And I'd rather have my kid read about those things in a book and then talk with him or her about it through the medium of literature than have them find out in a less "safe" or more embarrassing ("Olivia's Offspring doesn't know what ____ is hahahahahaha") way.
As for the caller who said "kids are moving straight from Spongebob to Twilight," perhaps I'm not the best counterexample to this claim considering that I started watching Spongebob after I read Twilight...but Daphne Unfeasible (Maureen Johnson's agent's alter ego) already wrote a great post about it. That caller really was just trying to promote his own book on air, which rather annoys me.
And then there's Scott Westerfeld's post about how not only do parents have a responsibility to talk to their kids about books rather than freaking out about articles such as this one, but teens have a responsibility to share their reading with their parents. To talk about books and what they mean to us.
"People don't notice whether it's winter or summer when they're happy." - Anton Chekhov
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2UENnbGGM0&feature=feedu
Not only is that video itself cool, but I think the song has an important message for us all: "It's okay to not like things, but don't be a dick about the things you don't like."
Last night, my great grandma (who will be 95 later this month and is doing fairly well other than being hard of sight and hearing) had some other relatives take her down to the local park- which is situated right on the bank of Lake Ontario- to watch the fireworks that they launch from boats.
I was busy watching a comedian at a homemade drive-in with my cousins, so I wasn't actually there, but I heard all about it this morning.
My grandma apparently especially wanted to go see them because she's not sure if she'll be around to have another chance, and because she used to go dancing down in that tiny little lake town 80 years ago. This coincides rather well with the fact that I'm reading a book in which the main character's dying grandma was born the same year I was. (Memorable quote: 'What's OMG mean?' 'I don't know. Try asking your grandma.'")
We also found said grandma's brother's English notebook, which I have enjoyed reading immensely.
"Opinions are like noses. Everybody has one, they are different, and some are quite remarkable." - A Comment I Found On A Random Article I Was Reading
Funnily enough, immediately after writing the weed post, I went out into my grandma's art studio and colored with crayons with my sisters and cousin. After drawing a picture of something resembling either a tiki head or an african mask (or as my sister said, "your picture is really cultural." Great.), I thought I'd color the wrappers of crayons different colors.
They laughed at me.
I told them I was making an artistic statement. Theoretically, the alternate colors would confuse the drawer, thereby making them unsure of what they were getting just judging by appearances. Basically, a rationalization for my art. Not that it needed one- I found it amusing.
Cut to a few minutes later, when my eldest younger sister picks up a crayon I had not touched and asks me "Is this one of the trick ones?"
So apparently pointing out examples of people crayons that don't match up with visual/label-based expectations makes people automatically put more thought into what might be on the inside.
“Writing is easy: All you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.” - Gene Fowler
Today's post comes to you at the request of my grandma. She would like me to inform you that not only is she an expert on weed, but she also feeds it to her grandchildren for lunch with the command "Alright, kids. Time to get high." Even her house itself is stoned.
Field stoned, that is. The weeds comprising our salad being pig weed and lamb's quarter, both of which grow in her garden without her having to do a thing to take care of them. I have no idea what either of those are, but I do know that they're good when she cooks them. Her exact words to me were "We're having weed for lunch. Oh, Olivia, there's something to go on your blog. Won't it be fun to freak out your friends?"
So yeah, us crazy liberals are having a fabulous time consuming weed on Canada Day, because we're ANTI-AMERICAN. Or something.
On a side note, on the drive up here I saw a sign somewhere in West Virginia that said something like "Read the Gospel. Know Jesus' love," and sitting on a hill directly behind the sign was a sex club. Great to see what good Christian gentlemen they are around there.
Cousin Count: 7 out of 12 grandchildren in town. 3 more arriving tonight, the final 2 on Sunday.
People who will be staying in this house as of Sunday night: 11.
The majority of today's quotes stolen from Thief of Words' tumblr.
"All progress is experimental." - John Jay Chapman
"Always read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it." - P.J. O'Rourke
“The greatest crimes in the world are not committed by people breaking the rules but by people following the rules. It’s people who follow orders that drop bombs and massacre villages” - Banksy (his art is awesome. Go find one of his books.)
“The first time someone shows you who they are, believe them.” - Maya Angelou
“The beauty of truth: whether it is bad or good, it is liberating.” - Paul Coelho
“You want weapons? We’re in a library. Books! Best weapons in the world. This room’s the greatest arsenal we could have. Arm yourself!” - The Doctor
“Compassion hurts. When you feel connected to everything, you also feel responsible for everything. And you cannot turn away. Your destiny is bound with the destinies of others. You must either learn to carry the Universe or be crushed by it. You must grow strong enough to love the world, yet empty enough to sit down at the same table with its worst horrors.” - Andrew Boy
As you read this, I am probably sitting in a car. Be glad you are not with me, because I have been in a car for a long time and have a long way yet to go.
“Socializing is as exhausting as giving blood. People assume we loners are misanthropes just sitting thinking, ‘Oh, people are such a bunch of assholes,’ but it’s really not like that. We just have a smaller tolerance for what it takes to be with others. It means having to perform. I get so tired of communicating.” - Anneli Rufus
A couple weeks ago I wrote a post about how I was going to be a defacto only child for awhile and generally freaked out about loneliness. Now that I'm coming to the end of that period...I'm a bit shocked to find that other than that day, I haven't missed them, and I haven't been bored or lonely any more often than I would be anyway. I feel guilty about this.
Then again, maybe I'd feel differently if they hadn't been calling every single evening since they left. Maybe I would feel differently if I haven't known I'll be seeing them soon.
Don't get me wrong- it hasn't been all freedom and not arguing with my mom at all and getting my parents to do silly things with me and and playing whatever music I want as loud as I want and the joy of not having two people pointing out every single time I fail to do a chore or whatever. I'm just having trouble putting the missing things into words. It's subtle. It's weird. I think it'd be worse if it was during the school year when things are more regular.
So now I'll be going from two and a half weeks of being alone except for going to see Deathly Hallows Part 1 in an outdoor theater with friends or having a squirt gun fight that devolves into 7 people shouting "Exterminate!" at each other... to a week of hanging out in a house with relatives whom I love pouring out of the eaves and eating some of the best food ever cooked.
And a 13 hour drive...with just me in the backseat. (Cue the sound of angels singing.) Marathon of the Lord of the Rings special edition bonus features and Doctor Who Confidential? I think so. Finally.
"Who but the mad would choose to keep on living?" - Libba Bray, Going Bovine
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFnul4k5hUM
Last night, after watching several episodes of Important Things With Demetri Martin with my dad, I ended up checking Twitter and found the great news about NY. (I'm actually going to be in NY next week, which means I'll get to listen to half of my relatives-who-care be glad and the other half rant about how it's the downfall of American values or whatever.)
Smiling, I said to myself "This is why today is awesome" and turned to reach for my journal so that I could write it down. I keep the journal in the drawer directly beneath my clock, so I happened to see the time:
11:11.
Laughing quietly to myself (which coincidentally is a Demetri Martin joke) at the coincidence, I made a wish: Let this happen in the rest of the 50 states as soon as possible, as well as the rest of the world. (Except in my haste to wish before the minute changed, I didn't phrase it nearly that well.)
Now while I don't really believe in wishing in the magical sense (yet I do it anyway), I do believe that if enough people want the same thing and that thing obeys the laws of time and space and physics and so on, they're going to make it happen.
I'm posting this with 11 minutes to spare (EST, that is). Wish with me?
