Bitterfig

so glad not to be on my own...

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 20:37:31 GMT

I am so glad I’m no longer living on my own any more.

Yesterday afternoon I went to the library to pick up some books for my grandmother and I must have left the lights on afterwards. When I went to start the car this morning it was dead.

If this had happened to me in Chicago I would have been shit out of luck (as they say). I don’t know what I would have done, probably had to spend a couple $100 getting someone to come from a garage to jump start the car because most of my co-workers bike and most of the other people I know worked out of town and/or were clueless about starting a car. As it was, I was able to call my father and he was able to get the car working again. Really, this is one of those things that I know would have been a horrible situation if I was on my own (thinking of January 2008 when it was really cold and I couldn’t start my car… what a nightmare).

Top 10 Jewish Comic Characters

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 18:12:29 GMT

A great link on Top 10 Jewish Comic Characters.

Sadly does not include Kate Kane aka smokin' hot lesbian Batwoman. Still, a very good post.

Inglourious Basterds (Finally)

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 20:15:20 GMT

Inglourious Basterds comes out on DVD today. Here's the review I've been fussing about with since August when I saw it in the theater--

Back in July I watched the film The Boy In the Striped Pajamas about the young son of a Nazi official who befriends a boy his own age interned at the concentration camp his father is in charge of. Reading over reviews of this movie, I found a recurrent complaint—that the Nazi’s were basically British. That is British actors, speaking English accented English. Not long after, looking up reviews of Tom Cruise’s Valkyrie I ran across similar criticism—that German characters were being played by English and American actors speaking in their native accents.

Reading these reviews I remember wondering what level of authenticity would be satisfactory. Was it enough to give German characters German accents? Realistically shouldn’t they speak German with subtitles? Wouldn’t that alienate English speaking audiences?

In its way, Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds came along and resolved these questions. Set in Nazi occupied France during the second World War, Inglourious Basterds not only portrays the different languages that are in play (German, French, English and some Italian) but shows them being wielded like Uma Thurman’s samurai sword in Kill Bill.

In many ways, Inglourious Basterds is not so much an action film as a linguistic film. Critics have called it talky, but that’s sort of the point. It’s about words, about language. The verbal interplay of the characters is as meticulously choreographed as the epic kung fu ballets of Kill Bill.

Yet ironically, the masters of the word in Inglourious Basterds are the Nazis. Christoph Waltz is absolutely stunning as Col. Hans Landa aka “The Jew Hunter”. Speaking German, French, English and Italian he dances verbal circles around all the other characters, from a French dairy farmer harboring Jews to the American commandos of the title.

Nearly as clever as Landa is Major Dieter Hellstrom (August Diehl), the Nazi officer who chances upon the covert meeting being held between German actress Bridget von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger), British film critic/spy Archie Hicox (Michael Fassbender) and the two German speaking Basterds. Although Hicox is fluent in German, Hellstrom detects something amiss with his accent and ultimately reveals him by catching him in a minute faux paus. In the meantime, Hellstrom does a bang-up job playing a twenty questions sort of guessing game. He’s quite something. Did I mention he gets his testicles blown off? And Landa, for all his smarts gets a swastika rather brutally craved into his forehead.

I think that one of the points of Inglourious Basterds, is to cut through the cerebral and linguistic mind games of the Nazis with raw bravado and brutality. Tarantino sums this up nicely with a shot of a Nazi officer’s head being lined up against a baseball bat. Swing batter swing and suddenly the supposed superiority of the Uber men isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. This seems to be what Tarantino wants to do, but I’m not quite sure that it works. The Basterds don’t seem at all heroic, just vicious. They seem to wallow in mayhem for its own sake, enjoying every minute of it. They’re a juvenile fantasy, stupid, brutal and largely incompetent when required to do anything more than bust heads. If the film had just been about them, I wouldn’t have liked it at all. Luckily the film is not so much about the Basterds as it is about a storyline that runs on a collision course with that of the title characters.

So the Basterds have the balls, the Nazi’s have the brains, but the heart and guts of Tarantino’s film belong to a young Jewish woman named Shosanna (Melanie Laurent). The last surviving member of her family (they are in hiding and discovered by Landa) Shosanna reinvents herself as the proprietor of a Paris cinema and becomes involved with Marcel, a black Frenchman.

Shosanna is a woman warrior willing to sacrifice herself for vengeance and to end the war. An amazing, blazing character. Marcel is right beside her, stoic and supporting. They are both the heart of the film, personifications of Tarantino’s love and devotion to women and blacks. Without them there is no film.

That’s the problem with Inglourious Basterds, 90% of it is bravado and theatrics and show. Only a small portion of it seems to be about what it’s about. It’s a fierce, radical film with entirely too much clever padding. As much as I love the scene in the basement bar and Christoph Waltz and his milk and cream and Dieter Hellstrom and King Kong it’s clever, it’s padding. It’s my baby Tarantino being boy rather than a man and cutting to the chase which is Shosanna and film and fire.

Thank you!

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 14:54:23 GMT

Thank you for the snowflake purplefluffycat!

Thank you!

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:16:42 GMT

Thanks so much to lawless523 for the virtual snowflake cookie!

comin' on Christmas, they're putting up trees....

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 15:41:01 GMT

I’ve got a job interview at a bank on Tuesday. I’d love it if I were to get a job because I just got a bunch of money from cashing out my Whole Foods 401K plan so if I did have a steady income on the horizon it would be an excuse to buy nice Christmas gifts for my whole family (because I’ve been working low paying McJob I haven’t been able to go all out for Christmas in several years and frankly I would love to. I delight in buying nice presents for people).

I was sick last night and did nothing but lay around and watch back episodes of Criminal Minds on A&E then I went to bed at 9:00 p.m. and slept through till 7:00 a.m. I still felt a little shaky yet this morning so I didn’t go to church for the first time since early October. I did end up helping my grandmother put up some Christmas decorations. She wanted to get it taken care of because last year one of our neighbors (who means well but doesn’t realize how tried she gets) came over and just about wore her out decorating.

This afternoon I’m going to work at putting together some homemade Christmas cards. I have these blank cards that I bought at Target that I’m going to use for the bases then add chocolate brown and pink and aqua Christmas trees.

In preparation for the holidays I’ve also been listening incessantly to Tori Amos’ Midwinter Graces and Ella Fitzgerald’s Ella Wishes You A Swinging Christmas.

Heroes and the Manchurian Candidate

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 21:06:09 GMT

Over the past month or so I’ve been getting quasi-obsessed with the television show Heroes. I watched Season 1 (very good) and Season 2 (very bad) on DVD and I’ve also been watching the current Season, 4.

On Monday night about my favorite character Nathan Petrelli (Adrian Pasdar) got killed off which I thought was a shame as it interferes with my fantasies about he and his brother Peter (Milo Ventimiglia). The lead up to his death involved a knock down drag out where Peter nailed Syler’s (Zachary Quinto’s) hands down. Oh, heavy handed Christian symbolism. I love crap like that.

My main problem with this scene is that Zachary “Spock” Quinto is about a foot taller than Milo “That guy from Gilmore Girls” Ventimiglai so I did find it hard to believe that Peter could get the upper hand on Syler in a fight. Superpowers are one thing but I just couldn’t get my suspension of disbelief around that one.

My favorite thing about the three episodes I’ve seen of Season 4 is that Robert Knepper is a featured villain. When I got into fandom several years ago it was through writing about Robert Knepper’s Prison Break character T-Bag and I love watching him on anything, especially with black nail polish and his eyes lined with kohl.

Tonight I’m going to start on Season 3. Based on reviews I’ve read it’s an improvement over Season 2 which really wasn’t very good. During the past couple days, in honor of Heroes character Angela Petrelli I rewatched the original 1964 Manchurian Candidate with Frank Sinatra and Angela Lansbury and then watched the 2004 remake for the first time. The original was definitely better but the remake wasn’t entirely bad, Merly Streep managed to bring a chilling new twist to the role of the candidate’s evil mother which is saying a lot considering how good Lansbury is in the part. Also the creepy mother/son scenes went a bit beyond the original's scandalous on the lips kiss though I was sort of disappointed that things didn’t go further (I’d read in a review that it went much further, it didn’t). Supposedly the mother and son sleep together in the 1959 novel on which both films are based. Apparently a 1950’s novel can go much further than a mainstream motion picture in 2004. Not that I think graphic portrayal of incest = good movie making. Really.

original story

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 23:52:57 GMT

I just posted an original story, The Manor House over at bitterfic . It's the first original story I've written since fall of 2006 so I'm rather pleased (of course it was based on a dream I had about Inglourious Basterds).

What's In My Bag Meme

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 18:11:50 GMT

What's In My Bag Meme from fitz_carraldo.

1. My purse. I’ve been using it for about a year and a half since I got is last spring at a “Share Your Stuff” exchange that was held at Whole Foods when I was working there.

2. A $25 Barnes & Noble giftcard—a couple of my co-workers gave it to me at my farewell party right before I left Chicago in September.

3. Chapstick from ALDI’s. Probably toxic.

4. An admissions badge from the Corning Glass Museum where my father and I stopped on our trip back from Chicago.

5. A purple Hello Kitty notepad.

6. My wallet—many years old and a bit overfilled. It’s pink and has the Sanrio character My Melody on it.

7. Bath & Body Works vanilla scented anti-bacterial hand lotion. I can’t use regular anti-bacterial gels because they dry my skin out but this works well.

8. Something my sister got for me this summer at G-Fest (a massive Godzilla collectors show). I think it’s some sort of a cell phone ornament from Japan of a Kewpie in a panda suit.

9. Condoms. Just because I haven’t had sex since 2002 doesn’t mean I shouldn’t be prepared.

10. Pens.

11. A crumpled tissue.

12. A zip-loc snack bag containing 3 quarters. Left over from when I was in an apartment and had to go out to the Laundromat to do my washing every week.

13. My leopard spotted Hello Kitty checkbook.

current and future reading

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 16:57:27 GMT

A couple of days ago I finished reading Jean Plaidy’s Rose Without a Thorn, a historical novel about Katherine Howard (5^th wife of Henry VIII—beheaded) and I’ve just started Cornelia Funke’s Inkdeath, the 3^rd and final novel in her Inkworld trilogy. Inkdeath is going to take me a while to read. It’s 663 pages long and even though it’s a young adult novel the prose is dense and rich like liqueur.

Funke’s Inkworld series is all about books and reading. One of the characters, Fenoglio, is an author who is magically transported into his own book. However another character, Orpheus, has the ability to rewrite Fenoglio’s book and alter the reality therein.

Fenoglio wonders, “…was there any worse fate than having to watch something else twist your own words, adding colorful touches—in very bad taste—to the world you’d made?” Reading this I couldn’t help but feel a twinge of guilt as a writer of fan fiction. Like Orpheus, I delight in messing about with other people’s imagined worlds and adding lurid elements to their stories. I’ve always considered it quite a creative enterprise however Fenoglio’s dilemma does make me look at it from another perspective.

One thing I can take some consolation in is the fact that nothing in the Inkworld series is clean cut. Fenoglio, with his sense of authorship towards the world around him, is a very ambiguous character not nearly so much in control of the world he created as he would like to be.

When I finish Inkdeath, I’ve decided that I’m going to reread Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. I read it for the first time back in the fall of 2004 but I really plowed through it, I’d like to go back and do a more leisurely reading taking in more of the details.

Criminal Minds

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 19:46:13 GMT

About two weeks ago I watched an episode of the television show Criminal Minds for the first time.

I usually avoid police procedural show but I was interested because rock star Gavin Rossdale was guest-starring as a sort of strung-out vampire rock star (not that I’m exactly a Gavin Rossdale fan, but I liked him well enough in Constantine).

Watching the show I ended up being pretty impressed by androgynous boy genius Spencer Reid (Matthew Gray Gubler) so yesterday when I saw there were reruns showing on several channels I ended up watching a couple episodes.

When not ogling Matthew Gray Gubler’s cheekbones, I was pleased to discover that Mandy Patinkin was on the earlier episodes of the show. I’ve had a thing for Mandy Patinkin for about 20 years—when I was in high school I listened obsessively to his recording of the musical Evita. Patinkin was gone in more recent episodes of the show, but I found myself surprised and unexpectedly pleased by another character, an FBI computer technician called Penelope Garcia (Kristen Vangsness).

Now I’ve always loved support staff type characters, from secretaries Marilyn (Northern Exposure) and Elaine (Ally McBeal) to sour techie Chloe (24) but in addition to her behind-the-scenes sort of position the thing about Garcia that really endeared her to me was that she was a female character on a mainstream television show who was not skinny. She was cute and sexy and curvy and plump and voluptuous. I don’t follow a lot of television shows but I honestly can’t think of the last time I saw a not skinny female character. Probably teenaged Sara Rue on Popular (she ended up slimming down for her own show Less Than Perfect).

I’ve watched a grand total of 3 ¾ episodes of Criminal Minds, so for all I know Garcia might be a totally stereotypical “overweight” character who does nothing but provide comic relief talk about diets but I don’t think so. It seemed to me like there was some sort of romantic thing going on between her and FBI agent, Morgan, and generally she seemed like someone who was really competent and well regarded by her peers. I’m really curious now to watch more of the show and she how she’s handled.

A couple super adorable pics of Kristen Vangsness as Penelope Garcia

Thanksgiving plans and dental visit

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 16:38:56 GMT

Tomorrow my grandmother, parents and I are going to be having Thanksgiving dinner at a neighbor’s house.

Given my food issues Thanksgiving is always a little uncomfortable for me but oddly I’m not feeling my usual degree of anxiety this year. I think it helps that I haven’t had to spend the last week dealing with the insanity of holiday crowds at an urban supermarket. Also I don’t have to work on the holiday itself so I’ll have time to relax and do anything I need to do before hand instead of rushing to work at 7:00 a.m. then having to get to a celebration right afterwards like I have the past few years.

Yesterday I went to the dentist for the first time in 12 years (I know it’s been 12 years because the last time I went was right before my little brother graduated from college which would make it 1997).

It’s almost unforgivably irresponsible to let that much time lapse between dental visits. I have lots of excuses. I hate going to the dentist. Because I was bulimic in high school I had to suffer through some extensive dental work when I was in my late teens and early 20’s. Frankly, it was traumatic. Also I haven’t had dental insurance since 1998 and I don’t like paying out of pocket to be subjected to pain.

Before I went for my appointment I was absolutely horrified that my teeth would be in such bad shape I’d need hours of expensive dental work to save them (I have recurring nightmares about losing my teeth). Luckily my teeth were in pretty good shape considering the amount of time it’s been. I’ll need a filling but that’s it. Obviously I’m not looking forward to my follow-up appointment after Christmas but it’s a huge relief to know that my teeth are more or less okay.

thankful for unemployment?

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:42:10 GMT

I went to the supermarket yesterday. There were fairly long lines with the pre-Thanksgiving crowd and the cashiers were hauling whole turkeys over the scanners.

I was very grateful not to be working in a supermarket anymore.

In fact, the market was always open on Thanksgiving and I started working there in September of 2006 so this is going to be the first Thanksgiving since 2005 where I won’t have to go to work.

inglourious dreams

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 18:29:48 GMT

Last night I had a dream that was backstory for Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds. I was a young girl in a very wealthy family and the Basterds were using our decrepit summer estate for training. My mother cautioned me very strongly against associating with the Basterds but I think I sort of had a thing for Donny (aka the Bear Jew) who I referred to as a Golem.

where do they make subtext?

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 18:05:42 GMT

I just finished watching season 1 of the television show Heroes and I can honestly say I’m a little obsessed. It’s not a great show but it is totally my kind of show, a sort of sprawling mishmash of elements from X-Men, Watchmen and the Manchurian Candidate and post 9/11 paranoia with lots of grandiose themes, moral ambiguity, family dysfunction and general angst.

I find myself particularly fascinated by the relationship between Peter and Nathan Petrelli. They’re brothers—Peter is a hospice nurse and Nathan is a lawyer running for Congress—but the intensity of their interactions makes them seem more like lovers.

I always wonder where stuff like (i.e. homoerotic and/or incestuous subtext) this comes from, is it intentional or just a quirk of chemistry? In some cases it’s conscious (on the DVD commentary for 28 Days Later for instance, Danny Boyle acknowledges that yet, Major Henry West is acting in a seductive manner towards Jim) I always wondered if while he was making Reservoir Dogs Quentin Tarantino told Tim Roth and Harvey Keitel to play Mr. Orange and Mr. White as a romance or if it just happened.

Some actors I’ve noticed just seem to have a particular gift for getting all over their male co-stars in a suggestive way. Viggo Mortensen (see him with William Hurt in A History of Violence or Vincent Cassel at the end of Eastern Promises) and Peter Stormare (Constantine, Prison Break, the Brothers Grimm) immediately come to mind but there are definitely others.

And speaking of slashy goodness…

Now that I’m done season 1 of Heroes I’ve started watching season 2 of the BBC show Merlin. Amusingly the season premiere starts off with scenes of Merlin rushing to a shirtless Arthur’s bedside and later Gwen doing the same for Morgana. In this series, I definitely think the homoerotic subtext is very conscious. There’s too much of it for it to be anything else.

I have mixed feelings about Merlin. On the one hand it feels like a rehash of the first couple seasons of Smallville in a medieval setting. Of course originality isn’t everything, but there’s a certain stagnancy to the show. It seems to tread water, never moving forward. Each episode seems to return it to a status quo. That said I do enjoy watching it because it’s so well done and beautiful to look at. The costumes and scenery and production design is wonderful. I’ve never seen a show with more vivid use of color. Katie Mcgrath and Angel Coulby, the young actresses who play Morgana and Gwen are absolutely exquisite. I could stare at Colin Morgan’s (Merlin’s) cheekbones all day and Anthony Stewart Head (Giles from Buffy the Vampire Slayer) is wonderful and magnetic as the very ambiguous King Uther.

postive things

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:37:02 GMT

I’m feeling much better than I was when I posted back on the 9^th.

My health insurance finally came through so I’m taking my medication at the proper dosage once again. I’ve also taken steps to get my daily calorie intake up to a level where I’m functioning instead of just surviving.

Other positive things—

After a couple weeks with nothing promising on the job front, about four positions have come up in the past few days that I’m going to apply for. Maybe something will work out. Not that I’m terribly eager to get back to work (because let’s face it, its work) but I’d feel a bit more secure with a steady income and some reliable health insurance coverage.

The weather is wonderfully mild for mid-November, temperatures in the 50’s and 60’s this last week.

I’m getting back into the habit of writing everyday, which is great. When I’m not writing I always feel sort of directionless. Practicing and honing my craft gives me a real sense of purpose and accomplishment.

I find taking care of my grandmother really rewarding. Since I moved in with her, I’ve taken over changing the bedding every week and yesterday she thanked me for that and was telling me what a terrible time she used to have doing it by herself and how much easier having me around made life for her. It really makes me feel good knowing I’m helping her even if it is in a very small and simple way.

"current events" meme

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:33:01 GMT

From diachrony.

Current Book: Inkspell by Conrnelia Funke

Current Playlist: Tori Amos’ “Winter Graces” album, Laura Nyro, the soundtrack to Where the Wild Things Are.

Current Guilty Pleasure: Petrellicest (fan fic about Nathan/Peter Petrelli from the TV show Heroes.)

Current Color: Pink, always.

Current Drink: Diet Mountain Dew Ultra-violet soda. Celestial Seasonings Vanilla Hazelnut tea.

Current Food: Gigantic honeycrisp apples from the Cooperstown Farmer’s Market.

Current Favorite Show: Mad Men (I just watched the season finale). Heroes (I’m watching the first season on DVD).

Current Wishlist: Books on Katherine Howard (Henry VIII’s 5^th wife), an ink cartridge for my computer.

Current Needs: A job, decent health insurance.

Current Triumphs: I started writing again after several months of writer’s block.

Current Bane of My Existence: Waiting for my health insurance plan to finally kick in, waiting to get my security deposit on my apartment back.

Current Celebrity Crush: Christina Hendricks (Joan on Mad Men, Saffron on Firefly).

Current Indulgence: I’ve been rediscovering slash these last few days.

Current Blessing: My family, weather in the 50’s and 60’s even through it’s November.

Current Slang: “Bushwackin’, scrub, alkie piece of shit.”

Current Outfit: Black yoga pants and a pink hooded sweater.

Current Excitement: I’m going into Cooperstown to ask about a couple of jobs tomorrow. Also I'm going to be stopping at the natural foods store. This constitutes excitement in my life.

Current Mood: Fine and mellow.

pumpkin scones and horror cake

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 19:09:33 GMT

After several years of not cooking, I’ve been getting back into it lately. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that I have people to cook for. In Chicago I was pretty much on my own and limited my culinary activities to making myself salads. Now however, I have my grandmother and parents in close proximity and willing to eat whatever I prepare.

My mother writes and self-publishes books about local history. She’s planning a party in about two weeks to thank the people who helped her on her latest book. Since she doesn’t like cooking and I do I’m going to be doing a lot of the food preparation. The tea I went to on Halloween gave me some great ideas (glazed pumpkin scones, walnut bread with cream cheese and apple slices, pumpkin pie meringues) and I’ve also been watching Food Network for inspiration.

Last night I was watching a Halloween themed “Horror Cake Challenge” and I was surprised to see a familiar face. One of the competing chefs was Michelle Garcia from Bleeding Heart Bakery. Bleeding Heart is a funky organic bakery in Chicago. They were originally located in the Ukrainian Village neighborhood right down the street from my sister’s place then a couple years ago they moved to Damen and Belmont, only a couple blocks from the Whole Foods where I worked. Michelle occasionally came into the market. She was easy to recognize with her pink dreadlocks and prominent tattoos of mixing bowls and egg beaters. Unfortunately Michelle didn’t win the Challenge or the $10,000 prize but I always considered her to be a local celebrity of my Chicago days so it was ever so cool to see her on national TV.

halloween tea

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 22:05:51 GMT

My parents and I went to a literary high tea with a Halloween theme yesterday.

It was held at a church in Jordanville, a small town about 45 minutes from our home. It started off with tea and a course of all different kinds of little sandwiches, and then a story was read a loud. After that there was more tea and a course of scones. This was followed by two more stories and finally a dessert course.

The first story read was “The Most Haunted House” from Spooks of the Valley edited by Louis C. Jones, a legendary folklorist in our area who put together several books of local ghost stories he collected. The second story was Shirley Jackson’s always chilling “The Lottery” and the final story was Roald Dahl’s darkly humorous “Lamb to the Slaughter”.

I admit I was a little disappointed that only the first story dealt with supernatural horror but still, it was quite an enjoyable and unusual way to celebrate one of my favorite holidays. Being me I didn’t eat anything but it was interesting to see all the different things that were served and I got some ideas for things to make for the book release party my mother holding later this month.

some interesting links

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 18:31:24 GMT

I’ve deeply drawn to the films of Lars Von Tier. There’s something about his worldview that validates the pessimism about human nature that I feel as a chronic depressive. Stephan Rylance’s review of Von Tier’s lastest movie, AntiChrist, really clarified this aspect of Von Tier’s work for me.

The Agonies of an Antichrist by Stephan Rylance

On the liter side is “Truly, Truly Outragous”, an article on Samantha Newark who was the speaking voice of Jem (Britta Phillips was her singing voice) on the 1980’s cartoon series Jem and the Holograms. Jem was a great show and the interview addresses it’s gay appeal and even mentions fan fiction.

Truly, Truly Outrageous by Noah Michelson

During August and September when I was still working at the supermarket I developed a daily after work ritual—I’d put on the soundtrack to Inglourios Basterds and polish off an entire bottle of wine while playing Farmville on Facebook. It’s only been a little more than a month but I already feel a combination of horror and deep nostalgia for that time in my life. The soundtrack however I have only enthusiasm for. It was recently posted on The American Nightmare, a music blog I sometimes follow and I would strongly recommend it.

Inglorious Basterds Soundtrack at The American Nightmare

Inkheart

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 19:24:00 GMT

I just finished reading Cornelia Funke’s Inkheart. It was really wonderful. It’s the story of a twelve year old girl named Meggie whose life with her bookbinder father, Mo, is disrupted when Dustfinger, a charming but untrustworthy figure from her father’s past appears at their house one night with a mysterious warning. Gradually, Meggie learns that her father has the power to read people and things into and out of books and that nine years before he brought the Dustfinger as well as the villainous Capricorn and his henchman Basta to this world while accidentally banishing his wife into the pages of a book titled Inkheart.

Capricorn, who has established himself as a crime lord, is after Mo hoping to use the bookbinders magical gift for his own gain. Kindhearted but deserate to return to his own world Dustfinger is sometimes helps, sometimes hinders Meggie and Mo. Their other allies are Meggie’s great-aunt Elinor, a devoted book collector, Farid a boy Mo reads out of The Arabian Nights, and Fenoglio, the author of Inkheart.

While Capricorn and his henchmen are certainly evil-- ruthless brutes who cheerfully commit arson and murder—Funke is not afraid to make her heroes deeply ambiguous. Dustfinger’s loyalties are always questionable, Farid has a fascination for fire that sometimes make it seem as though he would be more at home among Capricorn’s followers than his enemies, Elinor lives in and for books and has little use for people, Mo keeps secrets from his daughter, Meggie herself is possessive of her father to the point where she isn’t sure that she wants to see her mother returned from the pages of Inkheart and Fenoglio takes an almost megalomaniac pleasure in the face that the characters he created have come to life. Far from detracting from them, these flaws make the characters seem more human and in the end, even more heroic.

Inkheart is an exciting adventure story but it is all about books and the way stories can transform and enrich the world. Books have great power in the world of Inkheart. On the most superficial level Meggie, Mo and Elinor all love and value books, both for their content and as physical objects while Capricorn and his men are largely illiterate and actually burn books yet it is not that clean cut. Books are not without their dangers. This is illustrated by Elinor’s distain of real people and general disconnect from life as well as by the fact that the villain of the piece, Capricorn, actually comes from a book. It is not just Mo’s power but Fenoglio’s skill as a writer that allows Capricorn to come to life. The worlds that books open are far from harmless.

I felt like Funke was very brave in introducing themes that couldn’t be easily resolved. The easy way is to say “books should never be burned, books can’t harm anyone.” Funke says “books should never be burned, but books just might have the power to burn you.”

There are two more volumes in the Inkworld Trilogy as it’s called, Inkspell and Inkdeath. I’m looking forward to going to the library and devouring them.

German and English editions of Inkheart

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:56:24 GMT

Whenever I’m confronted with a situation my first instinct is to curl up and die. Luckily my second instinct is who get up, figure out what I have to do and do it so I managed to work things out so I won’t have to go off my medication.

I had enough Abilify (the most expensive of my meds) to last two weeks so ended up refilling my generic Prozac and getting then got two weeks worth of Cymbalta. It wound up costing about $145. Hopefully by the time I run out of everything my insurance company will have received and possessed my payment for October and November and I’ll be properly covered.

I have to say dealing with health insurance and trying to keep myself in meds is always good for a sleepless night.

healthcare crisis

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 22:27:14 GMT

I’ve come to expect that if something can go wrong with health insurance it will and it apparently has in the case of my COBRA plan. I found out today when I was trying to refill my antidepressant prescriptions that it’ll be about two weeks till my coverage kicks in. In the meantime I have to decide if I’m going to shell out around $800 for meds or go without.

This situation is mainly my fault—I apparently misunderstood something in the 20 page COBRA starter packet—but still it seems like a really bad state of affairs that people have to face choices like this. I’d like to see a world where you could get the medication you needed without going through huge bureaucratic hassles and/or spending a fortune. I’m lucky of course. Withdrawal from my cocktail of psycho-active drugs isn’t going to be pleasant and it’s certainly not medically advisable but I don’t know that anyone has ever died from going off Cymbalta, Prozac and Abilify. I know there are people out there who face life and death choice with regards to medication.

I know there are many people who consider socialized medicine a terrible thing and are against President Obama’s proposed Healthcare reforms (my father is of this opinion as are several of my high school friends who I communicate with through Facebook). I don’t want to belittle their views but However from my perspective, that of an individual who doesn’t have a lot of money and suffers from a chronic medical condition, healthcare reform seems necessary and socialized medicine seems like a really great thing.

picturesque and gloomy wrong

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:05:46 GMT

On Friday I went to an exhibit at the Fenimore Art Museum called “American’s Rome: Artists in the Eternal City 1800-1900 that spotlighted the Roman themed work of 19^th century American Artists. The exhibit included many painting of ruins and the commentary on these featured a quote from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Marble Faun that I really liked:

“(America is) a land where there is no shadow, no antiquity, no mystery, no picturesque and gloomy wrong, nor anything but a common-place prosperity, in broad and simple daylight… Romance and poetry need Ruin to make them grow.”

Reading this I couldn’t help but add horror to Hawthorne’s list of ideas that require Ruin to thrive. Horror often mines ancient evils. Hawthorne himself looked back to his puritan ancestors in House of the Seven Gables and The Scarlet Letter. Later H. P. Lovecraft would create a dark New England of sinister in-bred ghouls and otherworldly terrors. Stephan King’s characters stir up paranormal discord by unearthing Indian burial grounds. America then does have its picturesque and gloomy wrongs, either uncovered or created, but I can see the appeal of European settings, of the “old world” and its imagery. Though it’s been tarnished by war, murder, injustice, evil and insanity America remains comparatively shiny and new.

In Alan Moore’s graphic novel From Hell there’s an amazing chapter where William Gull gives a tour of London spanning from druid times to the present day, revealing layer upon layer of history and mystery. It’s simply not possible to give such a tour of an American city. Because Native American culture and lore was essentially erased even the oldest parts of the country only go back a few centuries. The idea of a thousand or even two thousand years of documented, known, decaying history fascinates me.

It doesn’t surprise me that many of Edger Allen Poe’s most popular short stories are set in a mythical Europe and draw on centuries old imagery of the inquisition, skeleton filled catacombs and ancient family lineages. I thought of stories like The Pit and the Pendulum, Masque of the Red Death and The Fall of the House of Usher when I read Hawthorne’s quote.

I also thought of Hostel, a film I watched a couple of weeks ago for the first time. An extremely violent tale of American’s abroad who are lured to a hostel that provides victims for those willing to pay to murder and torture, Hostel was widely criticized when it was released for exploiting post-9/11 xenophobia and paranoia. Meditating on the quote by Hawthorne however I feel like it belongs in an older, gothic tradition where the American consciousness is mesmerized and frightened by the mystery and gloomy wrongs of an older world.

Where the Wild Things Are

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 20:00:51 GMT

Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are is one of those books that I’ve loved as both a little girl and a grown woman. Visually it appeals to me enormously, the illustrations are gorgeous, but beyond that I’ve always been fascinated by the story (simple and epic all at once), by Sendak’s sly sense of humor, by the sense of joy and the edge of darkness the book contains. In a lot of ways Where the Wild Things Are has always struck me as a story that works on a primeval, Jungian level charting the child’s process of identity building in a mythic fable. Growing up is like Max’s journey. You over step boundaries, you reject authority, you play with other roles and unacceptable behavior, you run amok but then hopefully you return your parents, your home, to love and safety and order.

I felt like Spike Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are film did a really good job with the difficult task of adapting Sendak’s book. The movie is visually striking in its own right and doesn’t slight either the playfulness or the sometimes menacing edginess of the original.

Screenwriters Jonze and David Eggers stay true to the narrative outlines sketched by Sendak while fleshing out the story. We see a bit more of Max’s home life than the book shows. Nine year old Max (Max Records) is an extremely creative little boy with a rambunctious streak. His older sister can’t be bothered with him and his divorced, working mother loves and encourages him, but sometimes she kind of wants a life of her own. At school his science teacher talks about the sun dying. Wanting attention, confused, angry, sad and frightened all at once Max lashes out. First he trashes his sister’s room after her friends wreck the igloo he’s built. Then he behaves badly indeed when his mother has a (male) friend over for dinner, eventually biting her before he flees.

Max arrives in the world of the Wild Things to find one of them, Carol, in the process of breaking things. Max immediately identifies, as well he should. The Wild Things, especially Carol, are like giant, motherless children. Theirs is an id level world of joyful rough and tumble anarchy on one hand and frightening destructive violence on the other. Initially they consider eating Max but when he assures them he can do away with sadness and loneliness and make it so they’re happy all the time they make him their king. They all have wonderful, raucous fun together and Max sets them to work building the ultimate fort but the family of the Wild Things is no without it’s conflict and Max isn’t able to make them go away. Carol ultimately becomes as frustrated with Max as Max became with his mother and like Max lashes out.

The themes of the fallibility of authority figures and the currents of destructiveness that exist even in loving families are new to the film version of Where the Wild Things Are. There was a certain gleeful amorality to Sendak’s version but in the film it’s spelled out more clearly the ways Max grows through his experiences among the Wild Things—he returns because his time as king has taught him empathy for his mother.