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- Location:Holy Saturday
- Mood:
cheerful - Music:Johnny Flynn
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
What's it about?
Previous books: In the future, Katniss 'wins' a lottery where she (along with other children) are put into the Hunger Games. The rules are simple: only one child can survive. She finds a loop hole and makes the government see her as a threat. Eventually she winds them up so much, they smoke her whole village, killing almost everyone.
This book: Katniss is living in a rebel military base now. The rebels want to use Katniss to help them bring down the Capitol, and meanwhile she's still having boy trouble.
Any good?
I'm not sure it stands up to the initial intrigue of the first two because the 'game' in this Hunger Games isn't really a game. It's real life that they turn into something like a game by making real life about killing and surviving. I do like that they keep getting more political and even that it gets a little darker, but there was a point in one of the last chapters where I felt maybe it went too...not necessarily too dark, just too depressing. You just get too many characters dying off to the point where it doesn't have much of an impact anymore. Maybe I was just a bit cross that the character who I thought was going to turn out not to be dead was in fact dead.
It's certainly interesting to see Gale's transformation. He used to be a teenager who used to say he wanted to kill everyone in the Capitol. But now that he's actually allowed to do it, he does attempt to do it, and suddenly he goes from fairly innocent to being a murderer even though the sentiment was the same--he just never had the opportunity before.
I think there could have been much less fantasy elements. It's science fiction because it takes place in the future, and genetics and hybrids are science, but when you've got half-man half giant lizards running around killing people, it's a bit over the top and too silly.
If there was one thing that annoyed me, it was the author's frequent cop out where if a scene is getting too hectic, she makes the character pass out and wake up somewhere else. She's always passing out in the heat of battle and waking up in a hospital. It didn't both me until the last time when we spend a fourth of the book just trying to get to the capitol so she can kill the president, and right as she's getting close, a bomb goes off and she wakes up in bed again, the president captured by somebody else. The character has to move the plot, not the other way around.
But enough complaining. I did actually enjoy the book. All three books really draw you through with emotion and cliff hangers. She really nails some things that are just not embraced by a lot of sci-fi writers today (I don't think). You could tell what the 50s were like by reading 50s sci-fi because it often enhanced the values (especially the bad ones) of the society. This series will do for our generation what the 50s sci-fi books did for the 50s. There's a lot of stress on media and entertainment. Makeup and clothing is very important. Camera crews follow Katniss everywhere, including into battle. The person who probably saves her the most, even more than the two boys she's supposedly in love with, is her stylist. It also highlights the distribution of wealth problem in our world when you've got poor people like Katniss interacting with people who used to be rich and are now poor. A lot of it is commentary on war, as well.
All in all, I can see why people didn't have as much to say about it. It wasn't like the first two books, but it still draws you through and stays pretty true to the themes of the first ones, and especially true to the writing style. Maybe it meanders too much, but still a gripping book . I'm curious to see what they do with the movie. Bet it won't be as good as this.
The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry by Jon Ronson
http://jonronson.com/
275 pages
non-fiction
What's it about?
Journalist Jon Ronson is fascinated one day when he discovers that a man, who he determines must be crazy, has stirred a whole slew of people by sending them secret message through the mail, when in fact the messages, in the form of handcrafted books, appear to not have any solution to the riddle and only be the result of one man's craziness. This sparks Ronson's interest in madness and how it influences not only people but also politics, medicine, and culture. At one point, he takes a course in psychopath spotting from the creator of the official psychopath checklist, Bob Hare.
Any good?
Absolutely. Ronson puts you in the scenes and makes himself out to be a sympathetic though flawed protagonist/narrator. The book is funny, and asks a lot of really important questions.
There is some dramatic irony (that is, distance) between the Ronson writing the story after the adventures are over and the character in the book who is experiencing these things. I think it's because he writes in absolutes that the reader can pick up on that distance. For example, he takes Bob Hare's psychopath spotting course and realizes that Bob Hare is a genius and now that Ronson has taken this course, he can spot psychopaths with the best of them. A statement like that (paraphrased) will make the reader skeptical, as they should be, because eventually he does come to wonder if maybe taking one course doesn't make him an expert and maybe this checklist of Hare's is misguided anyway. This is what causes a lot of the subtle humor.
Research indicates that psychopaths can't feel empathy because their amygdalas aren't working right. Even though through the whole book Ronson is spotting things from the checklist that apply to himself, he also serves as the psychopaths' foil because his amygdala is over-active. He has above average anxiety, he learns from a doctor, and it doesn't help that he's rubbing shoulders with so many dangerous people.
I read a lot of comments about this book before reading it. People said that now they can't help but diagnose people in their lives as psychopaths based on the 20 question checklist printed in the book. And while I'm guilty of the same, the book isn't unveiling this perfect checklist as the way to know if someone is a psychopath. It's pointing it out as one of the tools used that may not be the best determining factor, as demonstrated by the character of Tony who was locked up for years because he fit some of the items on the checklist, but eventually they realized that even though he scored high on the checklist, he wasn't actually dangerous and let him out. It questions the DSM book that gives checklists for all mental illnesses. It questions bi-polar disorder in children (for example, an increase in diagnoses could mean that the diagnosing process has changed, not that more kids are having problems).
And if you're looking for some adventure like one of his previous books, The Men Who Stare at Goats (also highly recommend), Ronson interviews a death squad leader, goes into Ron L. Hubbard's house, and recounts some fascinating stories like those of David Shayler who went from conspiracy theorist to messiah, a treatment program that tried to fix psychopaths by putting them on LSD, and reality television and how we only put crazy people on TV (which I think is what makes people struggle with what is 'normal').
If I have one criticism, it's that he sets up a lot of great questions (if statistically more psychopaths are in high power, is our society dysfunctional because it's run by people with no empathy?) but doesn't answer them. But then again, the best of books don't have answers. They just need to ask the right questions.
Favorite line: "There is no evidence that we've been placed on this planet to be especially happy or especially normal. And in fact our unhappiness and our strangeness, our anxieties and compulsions, those least fashionable aspects of our personalities, are quite often what lead us to do rather interesting things."
Protagonist Development
The main character needs to be more interesting than just the observer. I've decided to take one aspect of her and highlight it. She's foreign, we know that, but it's not a huge issue. I've put it now in the first paragraph. Her being a little out of place makes her relatable for a lot of people, and also explains why she acts the way she does and why people act a certain way around her.
Tian looked over her shoulder to see if anyone was following. A small boy, stretching to keep hold of his mother’s hand, stared at her unblinking, but they always stared, didn’t they? Children were always drawn to the foreign shape of her eyes and nose, the exotic patterns of her clothing. He couldn’t know what she’d done, what she’d stolen.
Second Draft Strategy
What I'm doing is retyping the entire novel, but what I do first is read draft one of the section I'm about to write and keep a list of phrases I like and also things that are important to put in there because of foreshadowing or backstory or whatever. Then, just using that list, I rewrite the scene how I think it should go this time.
Hey, That Didn't Suck
I was surprised to find that I actually wanted to keep the dream sequence in almost word for word. Dream sequences are cliche, especially premonition ones, but I really feel this dream is powerful and brings up a lot of important questions, and leads nicely into some background information. It is cliche, but what the heck.
Word Count
The second draft of chapter one has way less words and not just because I'm getting rid of the first scene. It's being tightened all the way around. That's a good sign.
The Struggle
I'm finally faltering when I hit the party scene, which is one of my favorite scenes, but it just sort of meanders all over the place and I'm finding that I'm adding unnecessary things rather than taking them out. I'll have to do it again, probably. I need to figure out what my goal is for this scene and not try to take it in too many directions.
Backstory
Another challenge is to develop the world without getting into backstory. That should come through action and dialogue, but not so late into the story that people will have been confused long before that. In chopping down words, I'm finding I'm cutting back on some possibly essential background informantion.
Favorite Turns of Phrases (c)me
- lozenge-yellow page
- whispering of jungles and libraries
- scent of coconuts and cobwebs
- bringing the past on a slow journey through time, picking up smoke of old wars, dinner oils of housewives, tobacco of professors, sneezes of children, rain of a different sky
- letter receded into browns where the once-white jacket had been toasted into old age. White webs of paper fibers cracked through the title like varicose veins. The spine was the same--deep grooves slicing across title and author where the book had been bent back on itself time and time again.
- What was that sweet smell? Decay? Or was that th smell of 1953? Perhaps the whole world smelled of sugar and dust before the climate change.
- There were still pieces of trees in those grains. Wooden fingernails of the dead.
- The earth remembered when its trees were shaved, pulped, and pressed together for storytelling
- His hair didn't so much look like a badger's nest as it did a badger.
- Location:Labor Day Weekend!
- Mood:
creative - Music:Henry David, Young Thoreau
Objective: in the first scene, try to find a way to create a balance between tension and setting the scene (description). It needs to be tense. But we need to know where we are.
| The descriptions of the other people are too vaugue, too familiar. There's no judgement or suspicion on them, but also we can't see them. They are just people in general.
The people are more specific, but now it's slowed to a calm pace. Still no judgement from the protagonist. We've completely lost all the tension by the end of the paragraph.
Getting better. Introduces doubt: didn't he? She's wary of him. Introduces her as a theif in the first paragraph. | First try: Tian looked over her shoulder to see if anyone was following her. They weren't, of course. The people walking the streets were watching their feet, or holding conversations, or hurrying down the sidewalk to get home from work. Second try: Tian looked over her shoulder to see if anyone was following. Two lovers, hooked at the elbows, didn't make eye contact with her. A man ran out of a building and kicked dust up across the lawn. A late night at the office, late for dinner? The street lamps were already attracting moths. The sky was already the color of the universe. Third try: Tian looked over her shoulder to see if anyone was following. The homeless man stared at her with his one good eye, but he always stared, didn't he? He couldn't know what she'd done, what she had stolen. |
| The problem with beginnings is knowing where the story begins. I've been struggling with the beginning of my NaNoWriMo novel for a long time. (Back then I called the novel "Luddites" knowing it was a terrible name. Now I'm calling it "paperbook.") The story beings, or began rather, in the breakroom at Tian's job in the lab where she finds a book and makes the decision to take it home with her. It's important for me to start a novel with the main character by herself because I think people need to learn who the character is before they learn who the personality is (character is who you are in the dark). But this scene is just so sterile. There's some tension, and you learn quickly that books are rare, but it's not very exciting. And if there's any doubt in my mind that this is the right beginning, it isn't the right beginning. So I did what I often do when my openers don't work (and it works every time): I skip forward to the next scene and start there. Now the story begins after she's stolen the book and is hurrying home, paranoid that people know she has it. There are references to the moment she took it, why she took it, where it was, without having to make us live through that scene. The action starts sooner. The tension is already at its peak. |
- Location:morning
- Mood:
awake - Music:Sept. mix
| What have I been up to? 1. Tumblr account, as seen above 2. This is the reason I came to look at this blog. As you can see, it has the EXACT same plot as my novel Riff that was entirely documented here. I'm not saying he stole it, for heaven's sake. I'm saying I wasn't that original. But, this book was sent out in Publisher's Weekly, which is the biggest praise you can get in the book world, which means that my idea was an A PLUS idea! How flattering is that? I'm not all "it should have been me." It shouldn't have. I was too lazy to write the forth draft. This guy deserves it--he actually wrote the dang thing all the way through to the last draft. I always said I wasn't afraid of putting my work on the internet because if my work is good enough to be stolen and published, that's all I need to know--that it was good. Authors don't really make any money--it's not like it's a missed opportunity there. The point is, my idea was good. Really good, apparently (Publisher's Weekly, dude!) 3. Which brings me to wonder if I should stop sitting on the draft of that NaNoWriMo novel I wrote two years ago. I looked at it again last November and was startled at how bad the writing was but how good the story and characters are. I tried doing a re-write and I just couldn't. Part of the reason was because I was trying to get advice from my writers group AS I was writing draft two, which turned out to be a bad idea, and I have since then left the group. I may go back when my work is ready for critiquing. It just wasn't ready at that point. Then I set it aside again. Maybe this whole thing with Riff is a sign that I should stop being lazy and do another draft of this novel before someone else comes up with the same idea. 4. I've been writing short stories--flash fiction--all inspired by quotes from Henry David Thoreau. I haven't typed any of the stories yet. I don't think they're for public eye yet. I was to finalize them before showing them. So you may not see them for a long time. I've written one draft of 20 stories now, and not read any of them. I don't remember them, though I remember the powerful emotions pooring out as I wrote them. I'll let them sit a little and then come back and read them again later and try to figure out what the theme was, then rewrite the theme, but better. You can, though, at least read the quotes for each of the stories here. |
- Location:Joisey
- Mood: laughing
- Music:Ryanhood
 | Robin Ince's Bad Book Club Robin Ince Nonfiction 335 pages |
About the author Robin Ince is one of my favorite comedians. His standup, his podcast, and of course his Book Club. The Book Club is what I can only describe as performance art that combines standup comedy, literature, and sometimes interpretive dance and accordion playing. So when I heard he was doing a book, I had to buy it. What's it about? Robin has an obsession with buying and reading very strange books. His disclaimer in the beginning points out that he's not actually calling the books bad, despite the title, just different. This is very apparent as he writes about each of these books. When he describes their plots, he does so with tongue-in-cheek but rarely rips into them. He celebrates their strangeness--the fact that they should have never been published but were. Style I am a style snob. A style and voice can make or break a book for me regardless of characters. The underlying voice in this book kept me wanting to read on. It's the subtle humor, the ironic tone, and the funny references that really hold it together for me. ("If Jeremy Clarkson wrote thrillers..." page 294) Focus The focus of this book is the books in Robin's collection, and it doesn't really deviate from there. He often tells how he acquired the books, a little about the authors, a lot about the genre (both facts and opinions), and then of course the plots, usually quoting the most ridiculous lines that force you to shake your head and wonder if he's making all this up. The one book that could have been made up is The Secrets of Picking Up Sexy Girls, which someone stole from him on his Book Club tour and there seems to be no record of it anywhere, probably because it wasn't produced in the traditional route, like with an ISBN number. This is a hilarious an unironic guidebook that starts with Chapter One: What is a Girl? Other favorites of mine mentioned here include:
It's funny to be a little choked up at the conclusion of a light-hearted book, but he does make a point for the possible death of the secondhand book shops with the progression of the digital age. The "traditional page-turners" may never completely go away, but that doesn't mean that the little charity shops are going to be able to afford to be in business forever. I don't know where Robin Ince will get his fix if that happens, but at the moment, he has more books than he can possibly read in a lifetime. He's started reading just the first chapter of books and deciding whether to keep them or donate them based on that, because counting up how long it takes to read a book and the average lifespan, he can look at his books and know which shelf he will have gotten to when he dies, and there would still be loads extra. It's a great book. Took me a long time to read because I'm no longer commuting to work, so I only have time to read when I go in and out of New York, but it did keep me distracted through frustrating train delays.
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- Location:New Jersey
- Mood: chipper
- Music:Kate Nash
This is based on a true story.
Trash Day
( Read TRASH DAY )
- Location:Cold November
- Mood: cheerful
- Music:REM
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