Hello, again

Wow! I haven't blogged for a LONG time!

I have been inspired by the Pineapple Princess to try blogging again. Things you may read about here in the near future (but not today) include:

1) house hunting
2) health care reform
3) gardening
4) yoga
5) books I read
6) dreams I have
7) weird shit I think of

Still wondering who "you" might be... but not really worried about it. Hey -- I'm 40. I don't care what you think!

Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars
Don't judge, this book by it's cover, but definitely BUY it for it's cover. It's f-ing brilliant. I'll be framing it and hanging it in my office next to my "I'm irrational" Lauri Apple original and my Virgen of Guadalupe calendar.



Inside, Carrie Fisher tells the story of being the product of Hollywood inbreeding. It's a funny, quick read. Borrow, don't buy.

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
For your possible amusement...

At the risk of sounding like some occult-fearing, right wing book banner (or alternatively, a prudish, puritanical, no-sense-of-adventure feminist), I gotta ask: what kind of message does this book send to young women? I'll admit, it's a page turner. I read it two sittings. I couldn't put it down.

I was able to overcome my initial condescension over the adolescent tone (it is teen fiction after all), and the repeated deployment of the same limited set of adjectives and phrases (ok, he was icy cold, she was clumsy, I get it!).

But, take it from someone who knows first hand the powerful addictive quality of sexual enthrallment, there's something unhealthy for girls (and boys) in the subtext. Beneath this exciting tale of girl meets vampire (and it's not lurking very far in the shadows -- it shimmers uncritically like Edward shimmers in the sunlight) is a glorified story of a young woman giving herself up completely to the seductive power of (in her eyes) a god-like man. He saves her from all manner of danger -- but most importantly, the danger that he himself presents to her.

Don't get me wrong -- it's a great set up for the rest of the book.

But I had problems with the romance. I know that vampire tales are always tales of seduction. And the act of feeding stands in for sex. This book frustrates on both counts, and it doesn't bode well for poor Bella. Our heroine is clearly raging with hormones, dying for the first kiss and what would follow. But her passion is too much for him -- he pushes her away for fear he might kill her. When she asks later if he thinks they might... someday ... he says that can never happen--he's much too powerful for her. He could crush her so easily.

Gag.

This really pissed me off.

Ok -- it's clear he's a vampire, and not a regular guy... but it's a fairy tale -- he stands in for the dream guy. And this one is icy cold, utterly unobtainable, emotionally volatile, extremely jealous, and the very source of the very danger that he feels compelled to "protect" her from. He's so real! It's practically a how-to for codependents! "How to live happily with your own stalker." or "Emotional vampires and the women who love them."

Ok... there's more:
We live in a time when -- according the current laws of our state (Texas) -- if sexuality education is taught in public schools, abstinence must be the focus. Kids are to be taught that sex comes with the very real danger (indeed inevitability) of emotional trauma; that if they have sex, they may become criminals, delinquents, etc. (I'm not making this up).

This story fits pretty well within that framework.

We also live in a time where the science of evoluntionary theory is being challenged for legitimacy in science classes by something called "intelligent design." This book hints at this debate, with a decided nod to creationism.

Edward explains the origins of the species: "Well, where did you come from? Evolution? Creation? Couldn't we have evolved in the same way as other species, predator or prey? Or, if you don't believe that all this world could have just happened on its own, which is hard for me to accept myself, is it so hard to believe that the same force that created the delicate angelfish with the shark, the baby seal and the killer whale, could create both our kinds together?"

In short... I got a few problems with this book!

I was a HUGE fan of the Anne Rice vampire chronicles. They were sexy and tragic. Immortality was *torture* for Louis. In Twilight, our heroes are "good" vampires, feeding on animals (and only the ones that are in abundance), "living" seemingly uncomplicated lives. They can come out in the day time, they drive fast cars and are the envy of their schoolmates. The only people who seem to have an inkling about them are -- of COURSE -- the Native Americans on the near by reservation... oooh. Don't get me started.

I figure I can't spoil this book for anyone at this point. The movie will gross more than Indiana Jones and James Bond combined this weekend alone.

So, I give it three stars -- It was not a waste of my time. I enjoyed the guilty pleasure of taking on the mindset of a teenaged girl -- and I also relished in the complete joy that I am no longer one. I may see the movie... but I won't be reading any more in the series... unless it's research to launch a full-scale critique.


View all my reviews.

This is also not about Hillary Clinton

I simply have no more energy for the effort to clarify the phenomenon behind Obama... It's more important to do everything possible to get him elected, then worry about why people love him.

This has nothing to do with Hillary Clinton

I want to be excited about Obama.

Or.... maybe I don't. I think Obama is the one thing I refuse to be in denial about. I'm not getting that little shot of happy hormones because I refuse to deny that:

Movements are not about the charismatic people who lead or rise to the "top" of them. There was no movement that encouraged the rise of Barack Obama. Yes, millions of people voted for him, and that's why he's the nominee. But he put himself out there first. He claimed to stand for something. Were these millions of people clamoring for this "change" before Obama hit the Senate?

Clamoring?

Really?

I'll give that there were probably millions of people completely bummed out by eight years of Bush, unending war, a failing economy, no health insurance, foreclosure, the price of gas, the new WalMart down the street. And I AM excited about so many people participating in the primary and hopefully the general election.

I guess I must assume that these fans believe that's the end of the work to be done. Maybe I should give them more credit than that. But I'm wary of a movement that springs up around a person.

So, more than I hope he's all that they claim for him, I hope that this movement is what it claims to be. And we will need a lot more than Obama to sustain that.

Tomorrow's hangover

I just happened to turn on PBS in time to see the end of what would have been the roll call vote in the Democratic Convention. New Mexico yielded to Illinois. Illinois yielded to New York, and then Hillary Rodham Clinton moved to suspend the rules and nominate Barack Obama by acclamation.

I don't know how she did it. She wanted that so bad.

Barack Obama better live up to all that the maniacs claim for him.

Tonight, I'm hitting the bottle for Hillary.

Conventional wisdom

Yesterday I learned that the body has a wonderful way of reinforcing denial. Whenever we successfully ignore or tamp down unpleasant thoughts (specifically, thoughts that cause cognitive dissonance, or put another way, realities that conflict with our fantasy construction of the world) our brain gets a little shot of hormones that makes it happy.

Yay!

I thought of this last night as I watched the Democratic convention. Actually I didn't pay as much attention last night as I did the first night, when I was overwhelmed by a cynicism evoke by the shinyhappypretty version of history that was being painted.

Ted Kennedy ended apartheid in South Africa? Ted Kennedy brokered the peace in Northern Ireland? (It was spoken so definitively.)

Michelle Obama's dad never complained about pain from developing MS in his thirties? (She told us twice.)

In fact, as much as I think her story was designed to make the average person identify with her, it sounded like a fairy tale to me.

Myth-making. Oprah had her bootstraps. The Obamas had supportive, sacrificing families. And "America" had Ted Kennedy (who embodies Joe, Bobby, Jack, Jackie, Camelot, sailboats, dynasty, and destiny-no wonder his brain exploded).

I had dinner Sunday night with some friends. One of them commented -- insightfully I think -- that B's recent fascination with theology reflects a deep (unacknowledged) belief that only Jesus would be a good enough candidate/representative/president. B's made (part of) a career of debunking dearly held beliefs about popular Democrats. Those who have been wrongly cannonized must be demonized. It's a logical recourse to the mythmaking--because, we get a shot of happy hormones when he reminds us, for example, that Bill Clinton's economic sanctions killed more Iraqi children than Bush's war.

How do "we" hold the good feelings we have for the Clinton era with the facts of his actual policy making?

Does the convention serve to innoculate us against the bad policies Obama will invariably enact?

I mean -- the guy is NOT a saint. And I don't want him to be. I want someone real.