keeping note

Image Source: Fantastic Fiction

I’ve noticed this question appear many times in my blog stats, since I have a previous blog about the novel.

Now, I’m going to shed some light on that question.

The answer is that no one is sure and that’s why Sherman titled his book, “Indian Killer”. He wants the reader to see the title, and consider whether the murderer kills Indians or if the killer is an Indian.

Often, people tend to think the Killer is John, but to be honest that is all assumption because the book doesn’t clearly name a character as obviously guilty.

The Gum Thief
Douglas Coupland

Douglas Coupland is best known for his book jPod and while I haven’t read the popular book, I doubt I will. I’m not being harsh; I’m being honest.

The Gum Thief started out with such promise. A forty-something man with a quite downhill life is working at Staples where he meets a young twenty-something girl. The two of them write back and forth to each other about life philosophies and woes. The first forty pages had me laughing out loud and agreeing with the main character’s cynical and depressing view of society. As the book crept on, I was still enjoying it because I thought I was waiting for something to happen. Here’s where my idea of a good modern novel and Coupland’s depart.

If nothing major would have happened in the book, I still would have given it more than one little lightning bolt. Modern stories, whether they be books, movies or poetry, have a spirit (if you could call it that) of apathy. People with less than satisfactory lives are introduced to us under the pretense that there is much change in store, yet because of the character’s flaws no change occurs or the change is not the saving grace
the character anticipated. The Gum Thief was a cop out.

I don’t mind spoiling the ending (because it was lame), but if you plan on reading, I would skip down to the next paragraph. Coupland ends his book with the most cliche of all modern novels. The depressed and distraught twenty-something attempts to take her life. Though it didn’t kill the character, it killed the book.

If you’d like to read it, go ahead. It will give you a few laughs and make you want to remember some of the lines, but it’s not the ‘great book’ you were hoping for.

Image Source: Cliffnotes.com

Like most college student, sometimes I need a little help playing catch up with my reading. While making an Internet trip to cliffnotes.com for some interesting tidbits that would make me look better than everyone else during class discussion, I stumbled across a new way to read Shakespeare classics: manga style.

Anyone who has met me knows how much I love this pop culture phenomenon from the land of the rising sun. It looks like my manga collection has consumed my bookshelf! (I think my sister is secretly plotting to sell it all!) However, I’m not too excited to see Shakespeare in this form.

These versions were illustrated and abridged by Adam Sexton, a professor of writing and literature at NYU. Each book comes with a 4-page introduction to set the stage and still retains Shakespearian language in order to recognize famous passages.

I completely understand this new way of teaching Shakespeare. It’s more likely to get kids interested because they’re cashing in on a popular trend. However, I think it defeats the purpose of learning literature. It’s supposed to be challenging so a person has the chance to develop their analytical skills. Call me a purist, but I think I’ll pass on the manga Shakespeare for now. My shelf is about to collapse anyway.

The apartment I live in has a quote a day posted in its elevator.

I thought it was neat that they put up a Rita Mae Brown quote. I read her book, Rubyfruit Jungle, when I was taking Gay and Lesbian literature last semester.

The elevator quotes are really inspiring, not just because they’re inspiring words to think about, but because they prompt you to do great things, such as, research further about the person who said the quote in the first place.

For example, right now, this post was going to be about what I learned about Rita Mae Brown in the Gay and Lesbian literature class, however, I couldn’t find my old notes (it’s a damn shame too).

But it wasn’t a lost cause. As I was researching Rita Mae Brown on the internet to refresh my memory, I ran into the word “bildungsroman;” which according to Wikipedia is German for “novel of self-cultivation” or more commonly put as a “coming of age story”.

Bildungsroman stories usually involve its character having to go through a journey (physically or metaphorically) that is often arduous as a process of their maturity.

This relates to Rita Mae Brown’s novel, Rubyfruit Jungle, because many consider to be a lesbian coming of age story.

Interesting right?

I love learning new terms and concepts. Every time I learn something new, such as, bildungsroman, I feel like my mind is a little less murky. I think it’s because the ideas in my head can further develop because they’re slowly finding terms to attach themselves to.

It’s true what they say, when you give it a name it’s real or if you give it a name it’s really yours.

Concepts and puppies- it’s all the same.