the swing of things, soup and ontology
A little over a week ago, I finished my first two classes at UB. While I didn’t do as well as I had hoped to, I still learned a great deal and passed with good grades. Having a week off to recover a little bit was excellent and I was glad to have it. And it was nice to be able to see folks from my classes in a non-class situation at the orientation. To say that Alissa and I misbehaved a little during the speeches is a bit of an understatement. But, that’s what you get for letting people who know each other sit together.
Tuesday will kick off my first full semester at UB. My schedule, as of right now, looks like this:
Tuesdays: LIS518- Reference Searches and Services, LIS519-Selection and Acquisition of Non-Book Materials
Wednesday: LIS571-Organization of Recorded Information 1, LIS517-Information Services in the Humanities
Thursday: LIS513-Records Management
From what I understand, the LIS571 with Soergel is nigh on scary and impossible. But, to be honest, I chose to do it this semester for only one reason: most of the folks I became friends with over the course of the summer are taking this section, with a few more in the Monday evening section. I would rather suffer with friends than take an easier version of the class next semester by myself.
(Note: I retrieved this information off of the Google calendar on my phone, and it seems that the times have been bumped up on Tuesday, as I removed another class from earlier on. Thanks for trying to think for me, Google, but it was unnecessary.)
I am really excited for the semester to start. I have put in an application to the Genesee Country Village for an internship in their museum and special library with some work going on with cataloging. I am also getting together all the materials for my George Eastman House application. I am putting this one in a bit later with the idea that I might work there between semesters, as they are going to be having students through the Selznic program there. And since, you know, they’re paying to be there, they get priority. Perfectly fair. Along with all this experience-related stuff, I will hopefully be able to get a work study position for a few hours a week in the LIS department. That would help a lot.
Going back to school has made me remember why I loved being a student so much: I have so many things to occupy my time. I can’t just veg on a Sunday with the multitude of Netflix before me… well, I can, but there is more guilt attached to it than if I weren’t in school. I have to think again. And I love it.
Here’s to hoping it is all I want it to be.
top 10 books
So, I was glancing over twitter and notice that Neil Gaiman has posted a list of his top ten books for World Book Day (http://www.worldbooknight.org/wbn-blog/neil-gaimans-top-10.html). Looking through, I haven’t read a lot of them and, trusting the wonderful man’s taste, I will probably give quite a few of them a go.
This also inspired me to think about my ten favorites. It’s hard to think about: part of me wants to only pick ‘academic’ books to show off, the rest of me is just geeking out about one book or another. So, here we go, in no particular order:
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (full text: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1342) As many people know, my love of Austen runs strong and deep. It was as if she had written letters only for me to read and discover. The first time I read P&P felt like a revelation: I wish I could read it for the first time again, just to experience the joy of it.
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card (Please, buy it used: http://www.amazon.com/Enders-Game-Ender-Book-1/dp/0812550706) This book is an excellent piece of science fiction, with the brilliance of being painfully human. The reason why I say ‘buy it used’ is for political reasons: If you support marriage equality and are against homophobia, do not support Orson Scott Card in any way. He is involved with the National Organization for Marriage (NOM: http://www.nationformarriage.org/site/c.omL2KeN0LzH/b.3836955/k.BEC6/Home.htm), which is against everything I believe in. He is a great writer, but that doesn’t make his politics less disgusting.
The Book Thief by Markus Zusack (Please, buy new: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-book-thief-markus-zusak/1007362106) If I could express what this book does to me, it would be with tears. The tattoo on my ankle is from this book, to show just how much it has effected me. Zusack’s style is just as important as what he says through a thief, a Jewish fist-fighter and a lemon-headed boy.
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas (full text: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1184) This book is pure, unadulterated fun. If ever you have suppressed the urge to revenge, this will be a completely cathartic read.
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (full text: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1260) Jane Eyre is one of the most kick-ass heroines of the 19th century. She stuck by her guns and did what she knew to be right and this novel shows just how painful that decision can be.
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell (full text: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4276) This book is a brilliant look at gender roles within an industrial society: a young woman, moving about in public without restrain and no interest in love, and a powerful factory owner who is completely taken with her. It is shockingly harsh and tender at the same time.
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis (for sale: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/American-Psycho/Bret-Easton-Ellis/e/9780679735779) This is a book that should be read only once. I had to walk away from it a number of times, and I have a strong stomach for violence and depravity. But it is worth watching the author take a truly despicable person and make him pitiable.
House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski (this edition: http://www.amazon.com/House-Leaves-Mark-Z-Danielewski/dp/0375703764) This isn’t a book, this is an experience. And it is one of the most terrifying experiences I’ve ever encountered on so many levels. I lost sleep, I felt my heart drop into my feet… and I can’t explain the euphoria I felt when it was all over.
The Oedipus Trilogy by Sophocles (full text: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/31) Oedipus is, by far, one of my favorite heroes in all of literature. He is dealt the worst hand, but is capable of taking responsibility for it: he doesn’t pass the blame, he takes it. And, while his life is cursed, his death is blessed and he is finally allowed choice in the end. It’s beautiful.
Going Bovine by Libba Bray (http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/going-bovine-libba-bray/1015305567) Take a ride with a teenager who has just contracted Mad Cow Disease, along with his hyperchondriac, OCD dwarf roommate and a talking lawn-gnome-who-is-actually-a-Norse-god and a pink, punker angel to save the world from the evil scientist who wants the whole universe to end. Yep.
PS: Amanda Palmer’s cover of Polly for the 20th anniversary of Nirvana’s Nevermind isn’t something that will let you sleep.
first day of school
Let’s talk about this from the beginning:
As I mentioned in a previous post (probably months ago at this point), I didn’t get into any of the doctorate programs I applied to. After receiving the first rejection from the University of Rochester, I pretty much knew that it was over (side note: It is worth mentioning that not two days after getting the rejection letter, I received a call from UR asking if I would like to donate money to the school. Classy, I know.). Week after week, I received another rejection letter, with nothing more than a “You’re a great candidate, but we’re not taking you.” It was pretty depressing.
So I began casting around for ideas of what to do with myself. Obviously, I had experience as an office drone (first at the law office, now at a real estate marketing office) but nothing else practical. I could make a mean sandwich, I could usually interpret what customers meant when they came up to me at Barnes and Noble and said, “Uh, yeah. I’m looking for a book? It has a blue cover?” but that didn’t really lend itself to a profession.
Then I looked into the University of Buffalo (UB) and their Library Science program (MLIS). It sounded pretty awesome: a program that would prepare me to be a librarian in pretty much any field I could think of, with two years of schooling. I’m cool with that. It would get me thinking again, and it had a definite end-game and a goal. So I applied, and after many panicked emails to professors for recommendations, things getting lost in the mail, and having to physically drive to Fredonia to get my transcripts sent, I was accepted to UB. It was pretty exciting and somewhat scary: I was making a pretty big decision on relatively short notice (I pretty much did everything in about a two week period).
But since the middle of April to now, I have done research and I have looked at message board threads where professionals talk about what the field looks like now and how things are going, and I feel pretty good about it. The funding situations are kind of bleak, but what academic/humanities-based area isn’t having that kind of problem? I found out that my first MA is going to be worth something in this field, as well as the importance of joining organizations. As soon as I have the cash, there is going to be an application and fees in the mail to the New York Librarian Association (NYLA) and to the American Librarian Association (ALA).
I just started classes this past week. In all of the time I spent at UR, working my ass off in those classes, I didn’t get as much out of it as I have this week in two sessions. This is where I am supposed to be. The value placed on information, the questions being asked about documents, documentation, preservation, worth, and aesthetics has made my head spin in an extremely pleasant way. I have been thinking about all of it for the past week, when I received my first syllabus and started researching library organizations (something for my first assignment). I am so thoroughly in love with this field already and everything I find out about it makes me more and more interested: the expanse of information, the collection of everything and anything… it makes my hoarder heart flutter. I’m sure that there will be a number of things to come along and break this impression I have, but I’m enjoying the puppy-love phase of my relationship to it as long as possible.
I think part of the reason I’m enjoying it so much is that it took my by surprise. I went into this with a very utilitarian mind-set: I would get the degree, then I would go out and get a job. But there is a lot more to it than that. Without an interest, a true interest in the field, there is no way someone could just get along. There is a lot of crap to be dealt with and there are a lot of bumps in the road that mostly are out of the hands of the librarians and are on the desks of fiscal managers and bureaucrats. But there are an immense number of amazing things that go with it.
I am taking the basic intro to Library Science class as well as the information and technology class. The tech class is pretty concrete and basic as far as information dealing with digital info, websites and databases, but the teacher is funny and is really knowledgeable. The other intro class so far is amazing: the discussions we’ve had and the things we’ve read have been amazing. There is so much significance being placed on truly defining what we, as librarians, will be doing and where our values lie. The five things laid out by Raganathan really sum it up:
1. Books are for use.
2. Every book its reader.
3. Every reader his book.
4. Save the time of the reader.
5. The library is a growing organism.
As always, I am going to say the weary phrase “I am going to try and keep up with this more often.” But now, with classes, I just think I might. I’ll have more to talk about.
And to cap it off, here’s an awesome video our teacher showed us in the intro class:
HOBY and why
Tomorrow, I am going to be training high school juniors to be staff members of the Central New York conference of the Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership program. I am in for year number two as the head of staff and I am far more excited about it than I was last year. Since it was the first time I was going to be doing what I did, I was nervous more so than anything else.
As an explanation: HOBY is a program with the tag line: We teach you how to think, not what to think. It is a way for students to explore leadership and outside-of-the-box thinking that a high school environment isn’t completely friendly to (socially as well as academically, given the desire for standardize testing). We encourage these tenth graders to look at the world as a place that they can influence in any number of ways, through service to the community. We place a huge emphasis on volunteerism, for working towards the greater good by helping wherever we can.
For my own part, I have been returning to the conference since 2002, when I was an ambassador (the scared-pantsless tenth grader attending). To say that it was one of the most influential moments in my life would be an understatement. Graduating from high school, earning my master’s degree and moving out had less of a profound effect on my life than HOBY did. It fundamentally changed me. I am who I am because of what I learned there and the people that I met. My confidence and my desire to help others, while present before, were coaxed into the open after one weekend that showed me that there are other people like me, who care about more than the present.
Over the last nine years, I have attended 11 conferences (eight in Central New York and three in Maine) and have gone to Houston for training. I have been a junior facilitator, senior facilitator, a general go-for staff, the head photographer and now the head of staff. I have donated hours and days of my time for this program, all for the love of it. All for the chance to give another scared-pantsless tenth grader to have the same experience that I did. And I hope there have been a few over the years.
I am going to be asking these returning staff a few questions tomorrow, and I figured, why not answer them myself? I already answered why I’m coming back, so here are the answers to the other questions:
What was your favorite moment last year? I have quite a few. There are the revelation moments, like short meetings, people going to bed without argument, having serious conversations with a man with a clapping chicken on his head and conference being over without any major difficulties. My greatest fear was that something awful was going to happen that I wouldn’t be able to handle and that it would be my fault… but that shoe never dropped. But for a singular moment: sitting in the lodge at Camp Hollis, laughing with Erica, John, Danielle, Kristen, Ashley and Sara.
What are you hoping to gain this year? This sounds like a selfish question, but it is valid. I hope that the staff benefits just as much from the conference as the ambassadors they’re trying to help. For me, I hope to gain new ideas from the staff on how to better run the conference and to make as many people happy as possible. I want everyone to have the best possible environment to expand their leadership abilities and to feel like they can take the instruction we give them and run with it. I want to find better ways for people to air complaints and to make it so that small annoyances don’t become reasons for disagreements or discontent. I want to learn something from our ambassadors, something I didn’t know before or a different perspective on an issue or idea.
What do you expect this year? I am half expecting that all the things I thought were going to go wrong last year are going to go wrong this year. But, thinking from a more positive perspective, I am expecting to have an enthusiastic staff that will overcome any of the doubts and fears that the ambassadors have. Having spoken to quite a few people on staff already, and knowing how excited the returning juniors are, I think that even the most resistant ambassadors will come over to the cheerin
g, ridiculous and happy HOBY spirit.
HOBY has become such a fixture in my life that I cannot really remember a time without it. The people I have met there are as much my family as they are my friends. I don’t think I’ve ever fell in love with such a wonderful group of people so quickly in my life. They have been so influential to me, I wish I could truly do something to thank them for all they have given me over the years.
I'm the one in the orange hat and glasses
for the love of radio
Over the last eight months or so, I have made it a habit to listen to podcasts while I work. Whether I was printing something or working mindlessly on the computer, I would plug myself into these stories that were being told on the radio. Granted, I wasn’t listening to anything live, as most of these programs aren’t available locally, but in essence, I was tapping into a nearly-extinct way to communicate.
All of these months, all of these stories that I have heard now… the hours upon hours of information I have been able to consume while my hands were busy with something else have shown me how valuable the old ways of telling stories are. Before anything else, before writing, even, people listened to stories. Poets memorized whole epic poems, reciting The Iliad before an audience. An entire work, with thousands and thousands of verses, recited night after night. That was their job.
It is amazing to think about this now. The only way for people to understand a story was to listen to it. There was no other way. And now, having experienced this, I am realizing the value in it. Listening forces one to hold on to multiple lines of thought, giving no convenient way to look back. Without the visuals, one is allowed to visualize what they want and forces one to really think for themselves.
Some of the programs are really informative. RadioLab, with Jad Abamunrad and Robert Krulwich, deals with science issues in a social way. They interview people who are involved with the issues they’re covering, as well as weave a story with natural progression throughout the episode. I have learned about diseases, peoples, places and scientific concepts I never knew existed before. Another information-based program is Stuff You Should Know. They take a topic and explain it in plain language in around 40 minutes. From the Black Plague to Munchausen Syndrom, Art Theft to the Mob, these guys cover anything and everything they’re curious about.
My particular favorite programs to listen to are the storytelling shows. Here are a few:
The Moth: This is a long-running live program that has the audience place their names into a hat to tell ‘stories without notes’ to an audience. The winner of a weekly show is chosen to be broadcast on the podcast. Sometimes they’re hilarious, sometimes I cry. But all are brilliantly told and are stories I can’t forget.
Risk!: Take The Moth, make it a themed hour-long episode with multiple stories and crank the rating up to NC-17 and you have Risk!. This show is hosted by Kevin Allison, a member of The State, a sketch comedy group out of New York City. From the looks of the first episode, it seemed like it was just an idea among friends to ‘tell stories you never thought you’d dare to share.’ Most of the stories are laden with swearing, sex and drugs, but they’re brilliantly told and the music is well-chosen. It feels like you’re sitting around with friends, trying to one-up one another with a funnier, weirder story.
Snap Judgment: ‘It’s that left, that right, jump! Or don’t… Storytelling with a beat.’ This is a newer NPR show hosted by the smooth-voiced Glynn Washington. These stories deal with a moment’s decision that changed the course of the person’s life, whether briefly or forever. They’re remixed with beats in the background, sound effects and commentary from the hosts. The stories, while not fall-over hilarious or soul-crushing sad, are completely engaging. They’re fantastic adventures that you can barely believe are real. Some of them have supernatural elements to them, those strange occurrences you can’t explain.
Standing boldly between storytelling and research-based is the long-running This American Life. Ira Glass presents two to 20 acts, with stories and documentaries researching specific subjects. There is a reason this show has been on WBEZ since 1995. It is thorough, indelicate and informative in the way it goes about looking for answers to specific questions. One of the first episodes was about gay men in straight marriages who cheat on their wives and never tell their children. Glass thew hard questions at the gentleman he was questioning and didn’t let him off the hook. It is a brilliant show that, while being an older show, doesn’t sell out for being popular.
I feel like these shows have helped me to continue learning while I am still out of school. I am able to listen for a long period of time without interruption and comprehend all of what was told to me as well as make connections in a way that I had some difficulty with before. I would often drift off and stop listening at certain points during lectures or conversations and I feel like it’s become easier to stay present.
a reminder of how it was
I know I stopped posting a long time ago, but this is important.
But first, a small review: I did not get into Binghamton, my trip did not happen. But I retook the GREs and currently have applications out to Notre Dame, Tufts, Rochester, Syracuse and Albany. I want to get into Notre Dame and I will not find out until the end of next month.
And now, the important part:
I just found my old iPod from college. It was one of the original little clip-on shuffles. It looks like this:
It was only 1g of music, not even completely full. I plugged it into my computer and didn’t let the computer completely clear it. I opened it and paused for a moment. Something I don’t often think about is that this laptop that I’m using right now is not the computer I used while I was at Fredonia. While I have been able to save all of my information, the number of times I played a particular song was not saved.
It was always something I looked at with great interest. I could see the trends my listening was following by looking at this count. Existentialism on Prom Night by Straylight Run always had the most plays, with Set the Fire to the Third Bar by Snow Patrol came in a pretty distant second. I know why: Existentialism always help a special meaning to me from my freshman year of college and Set became an obsession for some reason my junior year.
Unfortunately, with the new computer, I don’t have record of this. I only have new counts, new obsessions recorded. The most played song on my iTunes right now is April and May by David Fridlund with 82. Existentialism only has 40. Set only has 19. I have lost that record of my favorite songs from that time in my life because I switched computers. I didn’t think it would make me as sad as I am now, but there it is. Who knew?
But this little ipod… there is still a record of plays on it. It’s like looking at a photograph or painting. It’s a small piece of my history on a piece of technology. I know this all sounds so post-modern, but I guess that’s just where I am now. I look through it and I see that Existentialism was played 121 times. Set has 107. Such Great Heights by The Postal Service has 101. I Will Follow You Into The Dark by Death Cab for Cutie has 90.
This is a look into who I was and what I loved. It was what I listened to walking between classes, working out in the gym, writing in the library… it was always with me. Music has been and always be essential to me and how I remember. It is a way to interact. I remember listening to Lux Aterna by the Kronos Quartet (21 plays) on repeat one night after a frustrating evening with my thesis. I remember blinding light on the snow as I walked across campus in time with the down beat in The District Sleeps Alone Tonight by The Postal Service (88 plays) which actually made me think of a different evening in Fredonia my freshman year that had me and three friends walking all over Fredonia proper. I remember bouncing my head along to Supermassive Black Hole by Muse (61 plays) and imagining the people around me dancing along. I remember finishing my thesis while listening to I Found A Reason by Cat Powers (65 plays) at 3am.
I don’t think I will erase this ipod. It would be like burning a journal. There is so much that I can remember from simple song counts on a four-year-old ipod.
the first step
I finally took the first step towards this little trip of mine: I started getting everything ready to apply to graduate school.
It seems odd that this would be the first step, but let me explain: if I weren’t attending graduate school in the fall, I would not have the opportunity to run off for two weeks. I wouldn’t have enough vacation time, nor would it ever be approved by the managers. So, by having graduate school at the end of August, I would know where I was going to be and I can plan out my money accordingly.
Basically, it comes down to this: I will have eight months to save up money, not only for this trip, but to move into an apartment in Binghamton. I also have to balance student loans, my car loan and rent, along with car insurance and, you know, food.
The temptation I’m facing is to save up the money to pay off my car instead of going on the trip. That would be the practical thing to do. It is something to consider: without a $100 payment each month for another year, I could save up money for the trip and possibly be not-quite-so strapped for cash in the long run. The problem is if I don’t do it now, there is no guarantee I will ever do it, especially not by myself.
It’s not that I wouldn’t want to go with Vince or anyone else for that matter. I would love to go on a long trip with Vince, just the two of us. But this is something I want to do on my own. The more that I’ve thought about it, the more attractive the idea becomes. It would be amazing to be responsible to no one else; to stop where I want to stop and do what I want to do. It would be something I would have for myself. It would be hard, since no one else would know what I was talking about or understand what I went through, but I think it would be worth it to show that I would be able to survive on my own for two weeks.
The other problem is that I need to seriously chart a course across the US that would be do-able in the time-table I figure out. Much like anything else I do, I try to take on too much all at once. I need to know exactly what I want to see and prioritize it based on what is feasible. Then I need to plan it out and have an idea of when I want to get to each place and know how much time I have in between stops.
The only thing I know I want to do is to drive south from Portland to San Francisco. It’s cheesy, but the song California One/Youth and Beauty by The Decemberists makes me want to make that drive. It sounds amazing… to drive down the west coast. To think: me, on the west coast. It seems impossible right now, with Rochester buried under a few feet of snow and the temperatures hovering in the teens.
To watch the Pacific rise and fall…
2,724 miles
I know, I know. I said I was going to post, but that didn’t end up happening. Oops… heh.
Things have been going pretty well considering I’m not where I thought I was going to be. I am still working for the law office, which is boring but necessary. I was able to purchase a car, which is phenomenal. It’s a 1998 Saab 900s convertible in green with a black cloth top. I truly love it. It runs great and I had to learn how to drive stick. I’m doing quite well with it and I was able to go home a few times driving my car.
I am also applying to go to school at Binghamton in the fall. I really miss school, even though the University of Rochester definitely wasn’t the place for me. I think a state school, where I can do my thing and go on to teach, as teaching is all I really want to do.
Now, I come to the title of the journal entry.
Rochester, NY to San Francisco, CA
This is a map of what kind of drive it would be from my front door here in Rochester to the city limits of San Francisco. It is 2, 724 miles. One day and 18 hours. Nine states between California and New York. Further west than I have ever gone before.
I want to do it.
I want to take two weeks and go there and stop a few places along the way. Here are some of them:
- Yellowstone National Park
- Black Hills
- Mount Rushmore
- Grand Canyon
- Arizona/desert
I also want to see a few cities, aside from San Francisco:
- Chicago
- Salt Lake City
- Denver
- Portland
- Reno
- Phoenix
What I think I want to do with my journal for the next few months is to try and figure this out. To see whether or not I would have enough money to do something like this, how long it would take to get to each place and just the general logistics of a trip of this scale.
All I know is that I want to think it out and see what I can do. I know that I want to go by myself, which is all I know for sure. This is a risk that I am willing to take because there isn’t any one else I want to go to that could go. It would have to be someone who would have the perfect combination of the time, the money and the ability to not annoy the piss out of me/not get annoyed with me.
What I need to figure out:
- how much it will cost
- route
- what I want to see
- showering/places to stay
- wireless internet to update
I have to know whether or not my car can take a well-over 7,000 mile journey. I have to know whether or not I could take a trip that long. So this is now going to become my think-tank.
The Resistance by Muse, a review
The Resistance, Muse
This past Tuesday, Muse released their newest album, The Resistance. After their phenomenal outing with Black Holes and Revelations, I my expectations were very high. With songs like Supermassive Black Hole, Knights of Cydonia and Map of the Problematique, how could they top that?
Quote me: they topped it.
The Resistance is a pseudo-concept album using protest, love and space. Yes, you read that correctly: space. The album uses synths, screaming guitars and falsetto that hasn’t been heard in such a rockin’ atmosphere since Freddy Mercury was belting out Bohemian Rhapsody. In their liner notes, Muse leading man Matt Belamy references Tchaikovsky, The Beatles, Pink Floyd, David Bowie and “1980s cheesy stadium rock” (The Resistance). In the same note on the song Guiding Light, “There is a guitar solo with a deliberate screaming harmonic. These types of harmonics have been banned from rock music for at least 18 years, possibly longer” (The Resistance).
The album has eight singles, where the themes of public uprising against the government through violence, using love and sexuality as a form of resistance (a la 1984‘s Julia and Winston). It’s heavy in its concepts and vacillates smoothly between catchy tunes and beautiful classical-inspired piano solos. The song “The United States of Eurasia” features a portion of Chopin’s Nocturne in E Flat Major, while while “I Belong to You (Mon Coeur S’Ouvre A Ta Voix)” features parts of Mon Coeur S’Ouvre A Ta Voix from the opera Samson and Delilah.
The final three songs are a three part symphony titled Exogenesis. It tells the story of humanity, having destroyed earth and in need of a new place to live, sending astronauts into space to fine somewhere else. The astronauts realize, in the third and final part, that unless humanity changes their ways this cycle will repeat itself. It is, quite simply, beautiful. The conclusion has such a hopeful sadness… It makes your heart clench.
There are few albums in my adult life that I have did the proverbial rewind and listen again thing with. The Crane Wife by The Decemberists and Amaterasu by David Fridlund are the only two before The Resistance. There is a great deal to it and I felt like I missed things the first few listens. There were things I became focused on each time: the eastern flavor to The United States of Eurasia, the love story of Resistance and Undisclosed Desires and the political tones of Unnatural Selection. You can at the same time casually listen to this album and pick apart every word.
Overall, I would highly recommend this album. I’m still listening to it, in full, over and over.
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, a review
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
With all of my new-found time (aka, I am back to having only one job) and a book that I haven’t read (aka, I got bored in the Houston airport back in August and needed something to keep me entertained), I picked up The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. I purchased it in mass market paperback, which means its been out for at least two years, so I know that I’m more than a little behind on the craze.
Here’s some history on this book for your pleasure:
The author, Steig Larsson, wrote three manuscripts: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest. He turned these into a publisher in 2004 and shortly afterward was found dead in his apartment from a myocardial infarction. The first, Tattoo, was published in Sweden in 2005 and Fire was published immediately after in 2006. The first novel was released as a movie in Sweden just this past February, with plans for each of the novels to be split into two episodes for television.
Something I have found very interesting is the change in titles between Swedish and English. The first novel was originally titled Men Who Hate Women, the second book is the same and the third was originally titled The Castle in the Sky That Blew Up. That makes me wonder what was changed as far as content for the English translation.
Now, for a review:
Normally, I’m not usually for mystery novels. They’re pretty typical, with the answers obvious from the beginning or the author leaves one minuscule detail at the beginning and then it gets pointed to at the end as the tipping point or evidence of the logical progression of the story. This isn’t that kind of story. The reveal is slow, methodical and with thorough evidence. It’s very obvious that the writer was a journalist.
The book opens with Henrik Vanger, a former CEO of the Vanger Corporation, receiving dried flowers in a frame and calling a former police officer to let him know another one has arrived. It then switches over to the completion of the trial of Mikael Blomkvist, a journalist convicted of libel for publishing an article about a head of business by the name of Hans-Erik Wennerstrom. Blomkvist is then approached by Dirch Frode to work for Vanger. Vanger wants Blomkvist to write a biography and specifically, to solve the disappearance of his niece, Harriet Vanger.
Before Frode approached Blomkvist, he had the journalist followed by Milton Security to get more information about his life and what kind of person he is. The employee who followed and gathered information is a young woman named Lisbeth Salander. She dresses like a goth punk, with a nose ring and tattoos. She’s brilliant at gaining information for money and is unwilling to share anything with anyone.
The two eventually come together in order to solve the mystery of Harriet’s disappearance. The development of the two characters is enjoyable and natural, though how natural Salander can be is up to debate. She’s an interesting character, whose thoughts are pretty hidden from the reader in order to create distance. It is very well-done, actually. As little as you know about Salander as a person, I couldn’t help but care about her.
Without revealing too much, I have to say that the original title should have remained; it was fantastically accurate. Each split of the section listed facts about Swedish society: a certain percentage of women have been assaulted by men, most won’t tell the police and on and on. The atrocities that are committed against women in this novel are impressive. Larsson uses the worst possible situations that a man could put a woman (or anyone, for that matter) in; there is torture, rape and horrible deaths. But their good deeds don’t go unpunished. There is a particularly violent scene of revenge on an attacker.
It was cathartic to see a woman take control of her own life in such a way. She so thoroughly and decidedly took care of her attacker that one could not help but cheer for her.
Granted, Blomkvist proves to be a bit of a man-whore. He sleeps with three women in the novel, has an ex-wife and a daughter who make an appearance. It seems like an unnecessary detail, but there it is. Salander pokes fun at it at one point. It seems more like a requirement of an adult novel than a part of the plot.
Overall, I really enjoyed the book. It took a great deal to get into, though I blame that mostly on being tired and traveling at the time. But once Salander and Blomkvist were established, they were great. I particularly liked Salander, though I think that’s because Blomkvist was completely immersed in research and that wasn’t as interesting as Salander’s interactions with her legal guardian. I would recommend it if you’re looking to be challenged as far as your views on society and women.
Grade: B
