The Sisterhood of the YOUNG ADULT Novels

I just finished reading The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. I've seen the movie in passing, as it's been on HBO from time to time. The daughter from Gilmore Girls is in it, and there is something so blah about her (and the show!) that I can't even watch. The movie is like Now and Then or any other bad movie that WANTS to make a profound movie about girls' lives but manages to fail miserably. I saw the book in The Salvation Army, and it only cost 32 cents. Who was I to pass up such a deal? And, besides, I really missed reading Young Adult books. They are my absolute favorite.

So, I read The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. The characters were more developed and more relateable than in the movie. I have to admit that the book was as hokey as the movie, but that it was, honestly, a pleasure to read. The girls in the book go through their own turmoil of sorts, but it's nothing too heavy to deal with. And, it's nice sometimes to read a book that you can just breeze through. So, reading The Sisterhood brought me back to my own days as a young girl and the love that I had for books. I mean, it was a love that compelled me to want to be a writer when I was little. (And, no, not a reporter. A writer. There's a difference.) I'm reminded of the last line in the movie, Stand By Me (Stephen King's short story, The Body), when the writer types something like, "I never again had friends later in life like I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?" That's kind of how I feel about books. That's why Young Adult novels are close to my heart. But, it's a distant closeness because you really cannot go back in time. Twelve is gone. Forever.

The best Y.A. books, in my opinion, are by Judy Blume. She's kind of the master. (Blubber, Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great, Starring Sally J. Freedman As Herself.) She later came out with Summer Sisters, a book that one of my friends admitted to re-reading every summer as her ritual. Lurlene McDaniel was one of my junior high favorites, too. Yeah, all of her main characters had terminal illnesses. But, nothing was too intense, too desperate, or too unbearable.

Young Adult books are so important to children of a certain age because they read these books at such a critical point in their lives--right before high school and right about the time school portraits should be outlawed because everyone seems to look incredibly awkward and ugly. I still really like the Y.A. books--not because they are escorting me into my teens, but because they remind me of how free and optimistic and open I once was. And, because, you know, I still want to be a writer. And, no, not a reporter. There's a difference.

every night

You know...Sometimes people suck and they make fun of a guy and the guy happens to be a schizophrenic GENIUS.

Solaris (1972 Andrei Tarovsky)

Two weeks ago, my littler brother told me about how we might see aliens in our generation, according to stephen hawking. (my response: who is stephen hawking??) so after some you-tubing, i realized that it must seem so obvious to someone like hawking, who lives and breaths cosmology, that we should colonize other planets ASAP for their resources and that when other aliens come to us, they will want our resources  ("If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn't turn out well for the Native Americans").

And this is when I decided it's time for a good sci-fi. This one is slow-moving, moody, eerie, and emotion-building. Normally, thanks to Netflix, I like to spread out a movie in two or three days, watching a little each day. I carry it with me; it becomes a part of my week, my thoughts, my dreams, rather than a 2-hour affair. Solaris is 2 hours and 45 minutes long, but I saw it in one sitting. It didn't feel that long...others might disagree. Others might also object to the low-budget set and visual effects. But that kind of fanfare excitement was not what I was expecting when I wanted a "good sci-fi." The movie carried me in to its world; it absorbed my imagination, so I was able to believe what it was implying, hinting at, even without the special effects to spell it all out before my eyes. So even now, I can still think about Solaris, what "reality" is like on that planet, that ocean. Mysterious.

KOKORO BY NATSUME SOSEKI

when it rains it pours, right? and now, i will blog for the next three hours to reinstate my little to nonexistent presence here on this loved blog.

i'm not adding a pic because the only editions i could find online have super boring covers...and the blk/wht portrait of soseki himself won't make you wanna read him either.

let's just say, i read a third (or was it a quarter?) of norwegian wood. didn't like it. or maybe i read everything, or skimmed everything, and asked my boyfriend (the only other books i've known him to read from cover to cover is harry potter. ugh i should have known...) what happened in the end. because it's sort of like - well which one of the two girls does the main character get with in the end?? something i half-heartedly wanted to find out because i owed the book, or my one-third investment in it, at least some amount of curiosity, and to seek closure.

kokoro is NOT like norwegian wood. kokoro is SINCERE and BEAUTIFUL. it was written in the 1910s and translated into english (in the edition i read) in the 1950s. but the prose is so clean and fresh and modern. not modern in the clever syntactical, meta self referential, irony irony post modern literature kind of way. the language is simple, as is the story telling. but powerful and vivid. and the pace is cliffy-hangy. it's a page turner! a quick read, but leaves you with a good strong moral story. read it if not for the story, then for the aesthetic. after kokoro, i sampled a whole slew of novels, none of which i was able to get into because i found the language superfluous, and therefore tedious and petty.

Children of a Lesser God

Inspiring teacher. Hot romance. A young William Hurt and a smokin’ sexy Marlee Matlin. Like, what is better? William Hurt is a teacher who takes a job at a deaf school. Marlee Matlin is a reportedly brilliant former student at the school who now works as a janitor. She’s deaf, and to assert some sort of power she believes she doesn’t really possess, she sleeps with guys. Deaf guys, hearing guys. Whatever. Hurt pushes his agenda of teaching the kids to vocally speak in order to give them more independence. And, he encourages his class to perform a song. They eventually learn to talk and sing. A lot of them come out of their shells, and it’s all very inspiring. As always, I like to get to the good part of the movie: Hurt and Matlin start a relationship. She is super sexy and, of course, they begin their love affair.

He respects her and sees her potential. This is a new phenomenon to Matlin, who is used to using sex for power and does not respond well to someone who encourages her to use her smarts and to assert her own independence. She’s used to using her body for power, for sex, for assertion. Hurt urges her to use her voice, but she refuses because she’s embarrassed by its sound. The scenes of Hurt and Matlin arguing in sign language are interesting because the characters are basically screaming by way of the use of their hands. No words are exchanged (although he does speak most of the time), but the energy they convey to one another is palpable, even through the silver screen. Sometimes, it’s difficult to switch up a mentality you’ve held for so long. Matlin has mastered her body and understands the power it can yield. It’s difficult to initially grasp that type of assertion, but once you do, it can feel way too vulnerable to unclamp that grip. Hurt is really asking too much of Matlin when he wants her to have sex without an agenda, when he wants her to let go of the grip, and when he wants her to speak his vocalized language. He’s the teacher. She’s the student. But, you know, that’s not really true because when it’s all said and done, she’s still the deaf janitor. And, when she’s in bed and the lights are out, Matlin is totally in control. I mean, I’d do her.

It can be seen as fetishising to give a deaf woman this sex ability. We can ask ourselves what it means to be turned on by this deaf woman who is powerful in the bedroom, but doesn’t speak. Would she be as hot if she were talking the whole time? No. (But, in all fairness, no one is as hot in bed when he or she is talking. I mean, even I—who never can shut up—know to be quiet. Well, I mean, I get the no-talking thing.) Maybe, we’re actually taking steps forward by sexing up a person with a disability. I think that’s a dangerous rationale to follow, though. I mean, making a movie about legless prostitutes doesn’t necessarily set the women’s movement or the a.c.l.u soaring ahead. But, who am I to make those claims? Maybe, stereotypes die only when we can picture having sex with the subordinated classes. Whatever the outcome, I’d be into seeing if that actually works. Sex on screen is never a bad thing. And, while we're on the subject, legless prostitutes are pretty hot, too.

The Hurt Locker

I'll use director Kathryn Bigelow's own quote from imdb regarding The Hurt Locker, "War's dirty little secret is that some men love it. I'm trying to unpack why, to look at what it means to be a hero in the context of 21st-century combat." And, so goes The Hurt Locker. Before I watched it, I heard that there's no real commentary on the war in Iraq, that it's about a bomb detonator, and just about combat in general. Well, that sold me. I like movies about war. What I like more than movies about war, though, is a movie that does not tell me what to think about war, but shows me the most real moments without backing down. Thank you, Kathryn Bigelow. You had me at Point Break, but The Hurt Locker is an example of the best prose, the best art. It shows you and doesn't tell you.

Of course, there are lots of movies about the aftermath of war or even an inner dialogue of sorts on war (see: Born on the Fourth of July, Saving Private Ryan, or even Upon A Midnight Clear). In a way, The Hurt Locker reminded me more of In the Valley of Elah (starring Tommy Lee Jones and Charlize Theron), a film about a father who tries to figure out what happened to his son in Iraq. The footage of his m.i.a. son is clips of combat, of life in the desert among insurgents and friendly fire. The Hurt Locker blows that out and stays only in the danger zone. And, there, there's little room for reflection or even doubt.

In The Hurt Locker, we're thrust into the battle. We're in Iraq. There are bombs. The bombs need diffusing. Enter Sergeant Will James (Jeremy Renner). He's fearless in his job, and he gets it done. He's the best in the business. This movie's grittiness is its finest quality. We are totally in it with James, and--I have to say--I was on the edge of my seat. I get what the fuss is all about in regard to how some soldiers get addicted to the rush of war. They fall prey to the inevitable adrenaline rush that comes with risking life and avoiding death. Just watch this movie. Stay with it. I don't know if it will answer any questions about what we are actually doing in Baghdad or how we will ever win this unwinnable situation in which we find ourselves. I don't want to give anything away, but at one point in the movie, James is talking to his baby and he says that as we grow older, we love less and less things. I guess the world would be more satisfying if I thought that the one thing James loved was his baby. Unfortunately, the world is what it is.

The Cove

The documentary, The Cove, is about the slaughter of innocents. After seeing this, you'll recognize the slaughter of your own innocence. I know! I know! That sounds too simplistically deep to have any meaning, but trust me; I mean it. Once you see this movie, I don't think you'll be able to go back to being complacent about anything regarding our environment or our people. The Cove is a story about a secret cove (but not secret enough, as it supplies dolphins to theme parks and fish markets around the globe) in Taiji, Japan. The fishermen trap the dolphins inside this enclosed body of water and then capture them or kill them. Only two options. They are never released back into the wild.

Ric (Richard) O'Barry was the original trainer of the 1960s t.v. show, Flipper. For something like nine years, he trained and lived with four female dolphins that collectively made up Flipper. He says in the documentary that he never really understood the suffering that the dolphins experienced--the depression, the stress--until he witnessed one of the Flipper dolphins, Cathy, commit suicide in his arms. A dolphin consciously takes a breath, and Cathy, due to her depression, chose not to breathe any more. He didn't become an activist against dolphin slaughter and dolphin captivity until years later. He's been at it now for over 35 years (trying to repair the damage he created by showing the world how cute and obedient and special dolphins are in captivity), and it is his life's mission to protect and save The Dolphin, a mammal as intelligent and self-aware as any human being.

Ric and his team--assembled of free divers, adrenaline junkies, movie prop guys, and other activists--travel to Taiji to expose the slaughter of the dolphins. Interlaced in the documentation of the team's efforts is a glimpse into the politics and procedures of the International Whaling Commission (IWC). The original purpose of the IWC, as I understand it, was to put a moratorium on the institutionalized whale slaughter. That ban has since lifted, and Japan is leading the way in its revitalization of whale killing and dolphin killing. In fact, Japan pays off poorer countries, like Barbados, to form allegiances with Japan regarding its whale policies. This (the IWC) just feels like a show of how governments really function--they do nothing to support or protect the people or the environment. That job is really left to The People. We humans are not necessarily the smartest beings on the planet, but we are certainly the ones most capable of saving the planet--mostly because we are the ones most responsible for systematically destroying it.

The Cove is not preach-y and it's not even that tragic in the way you might expect. Yes, we see the actual slaughter of the dolphins, and that is difficult to watch. But, the movie is almost a thriller in that half the battle of the filmmakers is even getting the footage. They are blocked at every avenue they attempt. The fishermen and the government prohibit photography in and around the cove, and they will attempt to arrest any activist or on-looker for nonsense charges. The movie deals with the slaughter of dolphins, of course, but it brings up a lot more issues that are as troubling--if not more so. For example, the ocean waters are so polluted that the fish and dolphins are considered toxic dumps that are full of mercury. The dolphin meat is being used as whale-substitutes to ignorant consumers and even as routine lunch menus in schools. We are poisoning our children because mercury poisoning causes mental retardation as well as physical paralysis and other problems.

I've seen dolphins and whales in the wild. I've swum in the presence of dolphins. One of my favorite surf spots in San Onofre (Southern California) was frequented daily by a pod of dolphins. They fearlessly swam right by the waiting surfers and even took turns in the waves. So, to see the torture and slaughter of dolphins was really painful. I can't even look at Sea World--basically a torture chamber for marine mammals--the same way again. The Cove just really opened my eyes about how we are behaving as people and as governments. To this day--even with this documentary out winning awards and being seen by many--the slaughter continues. The poisoning of people and the earth continues. I know I sound simple or sentimental, but I feel like if we don't start to care about health and safety of ourselves and our environment, there really will come a time when we will not be able to reverse any of the damage we've caused. I just want to be more like Ric O'Barry. I want to start fighting for the health of our planet, and not mind the risk I might face. For more information about the cove and what you can do, please visit: http://www.takepart.com/thecove/