their eyes were watching god. zora neale hurston.

this has been on my list to read ever since high school. i "borrowed" it from my friend samantha's older sister's amy's book shelf. (amy, if you are reading this, sorry i stole your copy, send me your address so i can mail it to you, also your notes were helpful!)

so a while back flavorpill listed "30 books to read before you are 30" (link:  http://www.flavorwire.com/298020/30-books-everyone-should-read-before-turning-30?onswipe_redirect=never) and since i am turning 30, figured i should start sorting out life and read that list. (in addition to this, since i am turning 30, i have decided to create my own 30 list.)

then the library of congress came out with "88 books that shaped america" (link:  http://www.loc.gov/bookfest/books-that-shaped-america/) and i decided to check out some of the books on that list. and so lucky me because "their eyes" is on both.

i will start by saying that i had no idea that "their eyes were watching god" was the original "how stella got her groove back." and though i always admired angela bassett for her youthfulness and beauty in that movie, she is nothing compares to janie crawford. after reading, "their eyes" janie crawford was added to my canon of amazingly strong women.

when first introduced to janie, what i admired most was her self-assurance. she had just returned home and was the talk of the town but she didn't let the gossip faze her. she had gone out and lived life and all the small town-ness meant nothing in contrast because as she tells her friend pheoby, "ah been a delegate to de big 'association of life. yessuh! de grande lodge, de big convention of living' is just where ah been . . .". growing up in a small town i admire her outlook. i don't know if anyone talks trash about me but i have encountered some people who talk down to me. however, i remind myself that in the large scope of life, it doesn't matter because i have experienced things in life that they never will, so should not be insulted by their negativity.

interestingly enough, janie's self-assurance is a due to her sexuality. sexuality is a major theme of the book, especially the oppression of female sexuality. janie discovers her sexuality under a pear tree at the age of 16 and spends the rest of her life searching for the feeling she experienced under that tree. her nanny instantly recognizes and represses it by forcing janie into marriage with mist' killicks. janie then runs away from her husband with a man, joe who sparks something in her, but ends up extinguishing her flame by keeping her as a trophy wife. then joe dies and janie meets tea cake and he awakens life inside of her. but the issue is that tea cake is half her age! but janie decides that she has lived her life doing what was others expected of her but now she was going to live life for herself!

however, before you assume this is all about sex (there isn't really actual sex in it). let me explain that janie's sexuality is not simply sexual desires but a symbol for freedom. janie's search for freedom of sexual expression is actually a search for freedom from gender roles. it is like the free love movement, where sex is a means of female empowerment. where by taking ownership of our bodies, we take ownership of ourselves. and by having sex on our own terms, we redefine life for ourselves. janie discovers how to life once she learns how to truly love. this discovery of love than leads to the discovery of happiness because janie now has the power to recognize what she wants out of life.

in addition to sex, race is also a major theme. this work is a reminder of all the injustice that african-americans (esp women) have encountered in the past and still experience today. i could not help but think of hurricane katrina and kanye west's "george bush doesn't care for black people" remark while reading about the tea cake's experience with hurricane clean up. and at the risk of sounding like a pessimist, even with the progress that has been made in terms of race relations, some things stay the same.

i will add that i was surprised by the outcome of janie's trial. (spoiler alert) i had no faith in the court, well the white court to be exact. it was interesting that the remark "well, you know whut dey say 'uh white man and uh nigger woman is the freest thing on earth.' dey do as dey please" was made at the end of her trial. especially since it contradicts a remark made earlier in the book by nanny that "de nigger woman is de mule uh de world so fur as ah can see." however this change in perspectives is based upon the change in janie. she went from being a mule to being free all by seeking what made her happy in life.

so should you read this before 30? yes, especially if you are a woman, janie is an excellent role model. in fact, this has a spot on my 30 before 30 list.

and did this shape america? yes it's an important narrative of america from the perspective of a african-american woman.

quotations:

“when God had made The Man, he made him out of stuff that sung all the time and glittered all over. then after that some angels got jealous and chopped him into millions of pieces, but still he glittered and hummed. so they beat him down to nothing but sparks but each little spark had a shine and a song. so they covered each one over with mud. and the lonesomeness in the sparks make them hunt for one another, but the mud is dead and dumb.”

“love is lak de sea. it's uh movin' thing, but still and all, it takes its shape from de shore it meets, and it's different with every shore. ”

romeo and juliet. william shakespeare. (57)

again flavorpill's "30 before 30" list is the motivation behind another book. shakespeare's "much ado about nothing" is on list but the description explains:

We expect that by the time you’re 30 you’ll have read several Shakespeare plays — we recommend one per year at least, starting at age 12 — but this one is our favorite.

i sadly realized that i have never read a complete shakespeare play. "romeo and juliet" was assigned my freshman year, and i only read 3/4 of it. we were assigned "othello" my senior year which i never read though i do remember this hilarious satire we created about race and sexual orientation for a class assignment.

however what makes my relationship with shakespeare even sadder is the fact that our drama teacher was a shakespeare fanatic and i was cast as a member of the chorus for at least 2 plays . . . and still have never read a play.

so i decided to redeem myself and read them all (hopefully before 30). so i decided to start with "romeo and juliet" because it's where my relations with shakespeare should have started 15 years ago.

the funny thing while reading it, images from the 1968 movie (with a young michael york. swoon) and the lurhmann version (no swoon for leo, i have never found him sexy) were both in my head. though 68 beat out leo and claire, in the end.

finally reading shakespeare and not relying upon cliffnotes. i learned:

a. tybalt and mercutio were cousins to the prince (missed that my freshman year and sadly didn't realize it while watching endless rehearsal of my high school's production of it.)
b. consummating marriages was a top priority back then.
c. shakespeare sure did love his sexual innuendoes. (the nurse's jokes about juliet being on her back?!?!)
c. he sure knew how to write about love:

My bounty is as boundless as the sea,
My love as deep; the more I give to thee,
The more I have, for both are infinite.

or

How silver-sweet sound lovers’ tongues by night,
Like softest music to attending ears.

i also appreciated (though not about love):

True, I talk of dreams,
Which are the children of an idle brain,
Begot of nothing but vain fantasy

one reason that i never gave shakespeare a chance was, i could not follow his flow (i know, this makes him sound like kanye) but now that i am older, his words make more sense. or maybe i am just paying attention for the first time. nonetheless, i look forward to reading the rest of his works.

ps i would also just like to add though i may not have paid attention to our high school production of "romeo and juliet" like i should have. i did create a magic moment in the play. i suggested that our drama teacher play the foo fighters' "doll" as juliet drinks the poison. in my own humble opinion it was beautiful.

perfect huh?

lord of the flies. william golding.

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surprisingly i was never assigned to read "lord of the flies" in jr. high or high school. (in my defense, i was an honors kids so not sure why i never had to read it.) but being on the flavorpill's "30 list" (see: "their eyes" entry for the list) and june being my 29th birthday month, i was inspired to read it. also it was on my list of children's/young adult books to read from rebecca makkai's "the borrower" (see that entry for that list).

plus my sister's copy is constantly around asking me to read it so i finally did.

i have also never seen the movie. i have a memory of seeing the opening scene in a classroom but i think i left early and didn't see it. i have seen "the simpsons" episode based on it, so kinda knew what to expect. but even then i had no idea that this novel was so intense.

i think what made me most nervous was when i first met piggy. as soon as i discovered he was fat, wore glasses and had asthma, i knew the rest of the boys would eat him alive. as i read the book, i worried about him and was fearful that he would die at any moment. (spoiler alert) and when it eventually happened, i was devastated, i was hoping that the boys would prove me wrong. but like they say boys will be boys.

when i was done reading, i realized that i am extremely grateful i am a girl. sure we can be catty, back-stabbing and cruel (see: "mean girls", "heathers") but our gender expectations are more manageable than that of boys. in addition to this we are not constantly required to prove our "womanhood" as boys their "manhood." rarely do we hear as child growing up, "be a woman!" but "be a man" is a taunt we are all familiar with. also its easier to become a "woman" than it is to become a "man." for girls, we simply get our periods and then hear from everyone "you're a woman now." whereas boys, aside from physical markers via puberty, are required to demonstrate traits to prove their manliness.

this requirement of "manly" appearance, reminded me of something said on oprah after the columbine shootings, "boys don't cry tears, they cry bullets." meaning that the demands to appear masculine results in boys suppressing their true feelings which then becomes manifested through violence. this need to appear brave and strong versus admitting their fear is what unleashes the savage in all of the boys in "lord of the flies". their need to kill and dominate is a result of their need to exert power over something since they feel powerless. and when the boys becomes savages they do turn ruthless, however i don't recognize this as a demonstration that man is innately evil, but instead it shows how in a society where being scared is not consider a masculine trait, man will resort to violence as a means to express his repressed fears.      

this is demonstrated best in ralph.  ralph at first views the island as a place for adventure and fun minus adult supervision.  he is too preoccupied with having fun and is essentially in denial about them being stranded.  (he holds onto hope that is father will save them.) however, when he spots a ship and realizes that the fire (which was to be constantly burning as a help signal) was not being maintain, he finally confronts his fears that they might not be recused.  once he accepts that he is scared and  accepts the facts that a) they may never be saved and b) that he longs for home, then he becomes a rational thinker.  ralph then becomes the leader they need, but by that time it is too late for the boys have turned into a savage tribe with jack.  (by the way, i really wish someone would have killed jack.  if they were grown-ups, jack would have been shot instantly for his selfishness and desire for power.)

i understand that "lord of the flies" has many overaching themes like civilization vs savagry, war, evil vs good, rational thinking vs natural instinct.  however, i saw it more as a warning as to how we are raising our sons.  as i was reading it, i kept thinking to myself, i hope i never raise a boy that would be that cruel or insensitive.  and maybe it is unfair to say that only males can fall prey to these dangers.  but we women have our own burderns to shoulder like the pressure to be sexy or beautiful and have to suffer the cycle of menustration.  however, i still feel it is easier to be a girl in our society.  though i am not one, i can't imagine how tough it must be growing up as a boy.

so should it be read before you are 30?  yes, i am sad that i did not read it earlier.  and i am glad that our kids today read it in school.  i also hope that they recongize in piggy that bullying is inacceptable and cruel

pride and prejudice and zombies. jane austen and seth grahame-smith.

this book has been on my bookshelves for a couple of years. i attempted to read it before but couldn't focus because my mind was constantly wondering how much of jane's original work was in it. (i hadn't read "pride and prejudice" at the time). so i put the book down and picked it up after i read the original. (ps there are some spoilers in this post.)

initially, i was impressed with grahame-smith's giving zombies killings and burnings as the reason for the militia being stationed in meryton. austen had them there just for kitty and lydia's amusement and i guess to introduce the wicked wickham.

when reading the original, i couldn't stomach wickham and lydia's return to netherfield after their marriage. lydia was so obnoxious and wickham a phony. i absolutely hated lydia; showing off her ring, taking jane's spot, and talks of helping her sisters marry (i will start a list of characters i dislike and lydia will be number 1). we all knew wickham was a sleazeball cos he had a gambling problem, but lydia was horrible simply by nature. i was upset with austen for not giving them an unhappy ending (i mean darcy did need a labor of love and sorting out lydia and wickham was a challenge). and i guess wickham having to spend the rest of his life with lydia is punishment enough. but i needed more . . .

so i absolutely loved it when grahame-smith had darcy give wickham a good ass whooping in his version. in my eyes justice (or karma) was served when wickham ending up an impotent cripple and lydia having to spend the rest of her life with him. those twos got the ending their horrible scandal deserved.

i also enjoyed the showdown between lady catherine and elizabeth. though i would have been happier if she "finished her", to steal a phrase from mortal kombat. but lady catherine did get her just desserts in austen's version.

at first i didn't like the charlotte-turns-into-a-zombie storyline. it was too far fetch that no one noticed her change. however her marriage to mr. collins made sense given her illness and his oblivion to life would have caused him not to notice. so given that text, her illness made sense. though it was sad she had to die.

i will say that i could have done without all of the ball and intercourse jokes. i mean it was clever cos they were words austen used but grahame-smith gave them their modern slang definitions. but it was out of place, i was too frat-boy humor for my tastes.

it was a fun read. and a nice twist on everyone's beloved classic. so check it out, but don't expect too much. it is still a great work but that is because he didn't butcher austen's story and kept majority of the story intact.

ps i would love to see a movie adaptation but then colin firth may be too old to be karate-chopping zombies.

pride and prejudice. jane austen. (56)

before i start, this is not the bookcover i checked out. the one i checked out was old, blue and plain. i choose this cover because it shows my newest obsession thanks to "pride and prejudice" . . . colin firth.

i have to say that at first i didn't care for "pride and prejudice." maybe i was blinded by my pride, there were times when i found darcy's and elizabeth's conversation hard to follow, were they flirting with each other?!?!
or maybe i was unjustly prejudice against it, the brönte sisters didn't win me over with their "great" romances, so jane austen didn't stand a chance. i wasn't completely invested in elizabeth and darcy's romance, maybe because i knew it would sort out from. so my anticipation resulted in impatience and so the book moved too slowly for me. i mean it was like get on with it already. and stop with the weird stares, darcy!

however, like elizabeth's feelings toward darcy did a 180. so did mine. i read "pride and prejudice and zombies" immediately after and found mr. darcy, oh so more romantic on my second reading. (the zombies didn't help, but the re-reading of austen's text did.) then i checked out the BBC mini-series and of course after watching colin firth in that bathtub and diving into the lake, i was smitten, with firth and "pride and prejudice".

that lake scene is not in the book. but it sure is in the mini-series. and i mean he doesn't even get close to naked but watching him walk around wet afterward, sure is sexy!

prior to reading the book, i had never seen the mini-series, only knew colin firth played darcy. yet as i read, i visualized firth as darcy, even more random it was firth as mark darcy from bridget jones' fame that i actually imagined.

nonetheless, it resulted in me being obsessed with colin firth afterward. the embarrassing kind of obsessed. i.e.:

a. watching "what a girl wants" (yes, starring amanda bynes) not only once but twice (abc family and MTV randomly aired it)
b. watching "love actually" (it's the only firth film i own) and fast forwarding to watch his scenes
c. watching the mini-series twice in 1 week (i wanted to get my viewing worth before returning it to the library)
d. buying "fever pitch" on ebay (i had no idea it existed until i amazoned "colin firth dvd", okay maybe amazoning "colin firth dvd" is the embarrassing part)
e. borrowing "a single man" from friend (though this isn't that bad)
f. buying the pride and prejudice BBC companion novel cos he was on cover
g. buying "the king's speech" book cos he was on the cover (in my defense it was only $1)
h. contemplating buying the episode where he proposes in the mini-series so i can have it on my kindle to watch whenever i want

sad, i know. i realize that i am not actually in love with the colin firth but it's the lloyd dobler effect that chuck klostermann writes about in "sex, drugs, and cocoa puffs". (women love john cusack because we are in love with his character lloyd dobler from "say anything".) colin firth has the mr. darcy effect. and i know, he is 20 years my senior and happily married with a family but in a perfect world, we would have a "lost in translation" friendship. we'd meet in some hotel bar (maybe at the four seasons), i'd take him karaoke-ing (in k-town) and wear a pink wig. we'd end the night at some random taco truck and when we'd part, he'd whisper something in my ear that only i could hear and would never share with anyone . . . okay, i'll add:

i. making up fantasy about hanging out with him in LA ala "lost in translation"

oh and i have to share one last "pride and prejudice" purchase! this adorable tank that i got at uniqueLA. i was a little tipsy when i bought it and had this longest discussion about "pride and prejudice", colin firth, the bbc version, the keira knightly version and the zombie novel. ps this doesn't get a letter cos its not embarrassing.

sorry i know this a book blog, so some thoughts on the actual book. i had seen bits and pieces of "becoming jane" so got that storyline confused with the book. but i guess if austen wrote about her life than this makes sense. i now want to read her memoir.

this too was on flavorpill's 30 before 30. though i am not sure if it would make my list. i did admire elizabeth for her boldness and unconventionality; not accepting mr. collins' proposal, standing up to lady catherine (at dinners and the proposal inquiry) and of course landing darcy. and she does have a great cinderella story, a girl without strong social relations marrying a man having ten thousand a year! and it is a reasonable love story. although i love romances (and romantic comedies), i am also very skeptical of them. (i have also never been in love so that is probably where my doubts spring from.) however, with this romance, elizabeth's love for darcy grew throughout the book so their love was "real" because it wasn't based on an instant attraction but something that strengthen as elizabeth learned more about the real darcy. (though austen still has a place for love at first sight with jane and mr. bingsley). so i take that back. maybe it will make my 30. i need to read more of her works to decide.

ps i also hated how lydia and wickham were saved from their mess. but will get to that in my "pride and prejudice and zombies" entry.

richard yates. tao lin. (55)

as mentioned in my previous post "richard yates" was my second attempt to get tao lin. [i hate to admit this but for the longest time i thought this was an allusion to yeats, though i physically saw yates, my mind processed it as yeats]. another disclaimer i have never read any of richard yates' work. "revolutionary road" has been sitting on my bookshelf for a couple of years now. i bought it after watching the film. tried to read it once but couldn't get into it. (ps found "revolutionary road" for $1 at the samo friends' of the library bookstore. so support that too.)

"richard yates" is about the relationship between a teenage girl, dakota fanning (but not the dakota fanning) and her twenty-two year old boyfriend haley joel osment (but not the haley joel osment). i am not fond of either of their acting but found their name usage clever. while reading my mind once again did as it pleased versus believing my eyes. instead of haley joel osment, who i could only visualize as an 8 year old that sees dead people, i visualized elijah wood but as his character in "eternal sunshine of the spotless mind" kinda needy and creepy but sappily in love. which i feel made for a better read. i did see dakota fanning as dakota fanning but as a grown up version of herself from that doll photo she did as a kid:

so the novel is pretty much the story of their relationship. they met on the internet which kinda creeped me out but only cos dakota fanning is still in high school. i have always been grossed out by guys in their early twenties that date high school girls, even when i was a high school girl. their story is told through texts, gmail chat, and in person convos (it's a long distance relationship, she is in jersey and he in nyc). they also had to hide their relationship from her mother because of his age but her mom is eventually cool with it, which is odd.  (or maybe i just had strict parent/relatives).  they are both self-loathing and depressed. joel osment becomes abusive and controlling which leads to her lying and with an eating disorder.  i always find it so odd how men who date younger girls become controlling but then again they are dating young girls, not exactly the greatest self esteem to begin with. they also deal with being poor, dakota fanning eventually steals clothes from american apparel and sells them on ebay, clever, especially since american apparel is so overpriced yet kids somehow afford it. there was also a pregnancy scare in there somewhere and i was glad that child didn't happen. it all reads like some bad mtv soap opera, the east coast version of the hills. and though i have never read his works, i am assuming are an updated version of yates' works? his works were about relationships that become unhealthy? (see: revolutionary road, the movie version).

so in my google searching, i noticed that tao lin is always cited as being the voice of my generation. and at first i thought to myself "seriously? are we that whiny of a generation?" and after some more thought i realized yes. we are. throughout the novel, haley joel and dakota are constantly saying "i want to kill myself". which i found annoying. but after a glance at my twitter realized "hey, i am guilty of that shit too." i am constantly saying "omg, i am going to slit my wrist" and "fml" (which is like a motto of my generation.) so i guess tao lin is the voice of my generation. and maybe i couldn't see because his work is so accurate that i am in denial of my generation being that sad.

quotations:

"i think obese people are assholes, they take up more room." 

(if you think this quote is mean that you have never sat next to a fat person on a bus, a plane, a movie theater or at the hollywood bowl.  like seriously it is extremely unextremely unfair that your roll of fat crossed over to my seat.  get your fat in line!)

dandelion wine. ray bradbury. (52)

believe it or not, my source for the latest news on celebrity death is twitter. it's almost like a game, who can tweet that someone has died first but it also resourceful because i end up being one of the first to know. when ray bradbury passed away, i found out on twitter. i also noticed that majority of the tweets included some type reference to dandelion wine. i racked my brain, did guy montag drink this? but i found my answer when i checked out his books at the library. "dandelion wine" is one of his works.

before i go on, i have to gush. i love love love love love this book. if you haven't read it, please pick up a copy. i have no idea why "dandelion wine" isn't forced upon high schoolers instead of "fahrenheit 451". "dandelion wine" has so many great life lessons. and due to these lessons, it is on my list of 30 to read before you are 30.

to be honest i didn't expect to love this book . i think of bradbury as a sci-fi writer so i wasn't too sure what this novel would be about. would everyone turn out to be aliens? but i was wrong and silly because it turned out to be a whimsical and wonderful story of a boy, douglas, and his adventures one summer in the small town of green town, illinois.

i hate to be judge-y but i always assume that sci-fi novels will be a little dorky and dry. but bradbury is not a sci-fi writer but a poet as i discovered in the foreword to "the martian chronicles". and it's especially true for "dandelion wine" which was based on bradbury's childhood but also makes any reader nostalgic for their own childhood.

there was so much beauty in this book. it is filled with valuable lessons on life, death, growing old, growing up, and of course, how to be happy. there are also many memorable characters, one of my favorites was the time machine, colonel freeleigh. i was delighted when i discovered that the time machine the boys had discovered was the colonel and how he was able to transport him with his memories. i also adored miss helen loomis not only for her unconventional romance with william forrester. but her bravery when it came to death for as she explained:

"i'm not afraid. when you love as long as i've lived you lose that, too. i never liked lobster in my life, and mainly because i'd never tried it. on my eightieth birthday i tried it. i can't say i'm greatly excited over lobster still, but i have no doubt as to it's taste now, and i don't fear it. i dare say death will be a lobster, too, and i can come to terms with it."

it is true nobody likes death but we all have to try it once.

bradbury filled this book with clever little lessons like this, some sad yet true and others happy and promising. and it feels one with joy, nostalgia and whimsy as they read. just writing this i am filled with that warmth, the kind that one would assume that can only be found in a bottle of "dandelion wine." so go pick up a copy and fill your glass!*

ps i feel like i didn't go into too deep analyze on this one especially cos i love it but there is something about it that is indescrible and you just have to read it for yourself.





*sorry that cheesy but i really love this book so please forgive me.

fahrenheit 451. ray bradbury. (51)

i actually read ray bradbury's "fahrenheit 451" when it was assigned to me in high school. shocking i know. i even read it without the aid of cliffnotes and i loved. i remember thinking the premise was very clever, a firefighter that burned books and admiring clarisse for her wisdom. and since back than i was a bookworm, i appreciated its endorsement of reading books.

so when ray bradbury passed away in june, i decided to reread this classic in addition to his other books. sadly, this was the only one i read prior to his death.

and re-reading it as an adult, i still found clarisse wise beyond her years. i admired her family for still reading books. and i hoped that if bradbury's dystopia ever came to life, my future family would know the wonder that is books.

since it has been 10 years since i read it, there were two things that were different for me the second time around. one is due to the way the world has changed and the other because i have changed.

the first thing that stood out to me was how our current society is sadly on its way to being the pill-popping wall parlor-watching population of guy montag's world. i was a teenager when i first read this and therefore, mass media was everything. growing up in middle of nowhere, california, it was the only access to the outside world. as a result, i wasn't too critical of guy's wife and her friends. in fact, this aspect of the book did not make an impact on me, i just assumed that big televisions were simply the way of the future. the future in movies, shows and cartoons id always depicted with large tv screens. also back in 2000 when i read this, reality tv was just coming into play, and i was obsessed with mtv's real world, so i was okay with where the future was headed. fast forward twelve years to today and i am now worried about the extremes of tv, really folks a 3D tvs?!?! today with reality tv shows being the main source of entertainment and twitter giving us access to celebrities 24 hours a day, we are about two seasons away from the dialogued tv days of mildred montag. and don't get me wrong, i do my fair share of bravo watching and tweeting but i also average about 4 books a month so i think i am excused. but tv watching is extreme now we watch it everywhere, like seriously everywhere thanks to tablet and smartphones. and with the decline of bookstores (hopefully due to the rise of ereaders versus lack of reading), i worry that reading is out of fashion. (with the exception of nyc, people actually read there so kudos to them.). and i think that is scarier than censorship. society censoring books is a lot less dangerous than them simply not reading, the burning of books is at least a recognition of their power.

the other thing that changed was my perspective of guy montag. which i took as an indication of my maturity, thank goodness i am not still the same snot-nosed teen.) he wasn't the hero of my youth, in fact, i found myself frustrated and appalled by his reaction in situations. there were so many errors he made because he let his emotions get the best of him. what i saw as passion as a teen, i now saw as hotheadedness as an adult. guy reacted emotionally in situations when he needed to be rational. guy had a lot of heart but sadly he lacked the brains to make a difference in the world. he had the right ideals for the world but he did not have the means to put them into action. as a result, he ended up causing more harm to the cause than helping it flourish. and so what i once saw as a tale of doing what you believe in regardless of the consequences, is actually a warning that in order to start a revolution you need heart and brains. it's sad because i guess i lost my fiery spirit but with it also my naïveté about how the world works. passion can only take you so far in changing the world you also have to rely on intelligence and selflessness, you need to work for the greater good versus your own satisfaction.

the copy i read also had a great afterword or maybe a foreword (?) written by bradbury. in which he shared how he wrote "fahrenheit 451" in the basement of powell. he also wrote a wonderful mini manifesto about censorship that made me regret never seeing him in person. the afterword also gave me a new found respect for "fahrenheit 451." and if "dandelion wine" wasn't on my 30 before 30, this would be on it like flavorpill's list.

and if you are reading this, for the love of ray bradbury, please continue to read!!! feast upon them like the fire chief (cue gasp!), "i ate them like salad, books were my sandwich for lunch, my tiffin and dinner and midnight munch."

eeeee ee eeee. tao lin. (48)

i came across tao lin's "eeeee eee eeee" in a flavorpill post, the most cryptic titles in literature (and what they mean).  the description mentioned domino's (their thin crust makes it my favorite of the major pizza chains), bears, and dolphins.  the title is the sound that dolphins make.  when i explained this to my little brother, he surprisingly did a great dolphin sound.  (i wonder if anyone has ever asked for it by dolphin sound at a bookstore.)  trying to find more info about it, i amazoned it and discovered that elijah wood is mentioned in it as well.  with that cute little hobbit in it, i had to read it.

i might not be cool enough for this book.  the book is either super brillant or super bad.  i can't sort it out.  when i started it, i couldn't focus while reading it because it was all over the place.  and andrew was violent.  i kinda felt like i was on drugs.  but not a good drug trip.  but the kind where you come to and realize that you ice picked the family dog or hamster.

after the first half of it, i didn't find it provocative or interesting.  but keep on reading because i wanted to see how it all ended.  i spent most of the book waiting for elijah wood to show up and once he did, he instantly died.  womp, womp.

the book left me without an opinion, i mean i was just confused.  i googled to see what others thought of it. and read reviews on amazon.  and people were thinking it was brilliant.  plus flavorpill did recommend it, so maybe i wasn't cool enough to get it?  maybe i should have smoked pot to get it?  i don't know.

as i was googling i came across articles theorizing that lin was behind hipster runoff. so my not getting "eeeee eee eeee" made me feel even lamer. not that i want to be a hipster but i thought i was cool enough to get the thinks they like ironically. so i decided to give lin a second chance with his novel, "richard yates", i wanted to read "shoplifting from american apparel" but couldn't find that at the library.