Uzumaki

Amazon Used

I was actually really excited to read this graphic novel. I've been seeking it out since it first dropped in America around 2002. I know - 12 years seems like a long time to wait to read a comic book, but understand that the nature of manga in the early aughts was that it was an expensive hobby for a teenager. Finally, the stars aligned and I was able to find it as an omnibus for a great price - also, I'm an adult with a job and I can actually afford that kind of hobby.

So, we've already talked about how difficult it is for horror stories to scare me. I'm not much of a sucker for the genre - in fact most attempts to scare me, I can't take seriously. It's a rare novel that will actually get under my skin, so to speak. Uzumaki did that. Because a lot of themes in horror are actually absurd, sometimes the line between stupid and scary can be easy to cross. But count on the Japanese to remove the line entirely. I mean, it's a combination of stupid and scary. There's no picking sides, there's no side to pick. And full disclosure, I don't mean "so stupid it's scary," like, you know, real life can sometimes be. I mean, the Japanese are so completely "odd-ball" by our Western standards that a lot of what is actually really scary about this manga could also be just complete weirdness.

This was weird at times, but I got the feeling that Junji Ito started off with this one crazy idea - for a man to become obsessed with the swirl pattern to the point of grotesqueness (he kills himself by forcing his body to become a swirl) - and had to apply swirls and spirals into the ongoing comic in whatever creative way he could manage. Mangaka are on such a demanding work schedule, they aren't ever given a lot of time to plan out their ideas, so sometimes the stories seem forced and don't work out very well, and sometimes they're really successful. This isn't dissimilar to the way Stephen King (in particular) works, actually.
Because this was a complete collection of the series, there were a few subtle details you notice when looking at the work as a whole instead of having collected the series book by book. For instance, early on, the series starts slow, but steady. Our heroine, Kirie, watches as her boyfriend's family is driven insane by any natural occurrence of spirals. When he loses both parents, natural spirals steadily begin effecting other people. Curls in your hair, snails, metal springs, ect. - all these become unlikely, yet all the more horrifying, killers. Though it's clear that when Junji Ito had his ending in sight, he knew exactly what he wanted to do with it. On a whole, it became creepier and creepier as the series progressed. It may be *gasp* my new favorite horror book!

Besides the story, it also had beautiful illustrations - in manga, it's unusual to see characters that are actually distinctive in ways besides haircuts and gender (sometimes, not even that!). But that wasn't the case here. Also, Kirie is one of those great feminist characters you don't get to see much in comic books. She's girly and loyal - in fact, her loyalty is her real strength. I disagree that feminist heroes can't have love, and must be bombastic. They can be, you know, regular, realistic girls too! They can be pretty, but don't have to be sexy. Kirie is all that!

Uzumaki might be my new favorite horror!!

February is "Bad Romance" Month

This is something I'm planning for February that I'm too excited to keep to myself! So I really love doing monthly-themed reading lists. February is a good time for some romance novels, right? I totally agree. But Valentine's day always brought out the worst in me, so I don't necessarily want a sweet, cutesy, swoony romance novel. Nope! Not I.
I've been saving these titles all year to do this - because this year I want to read some BAD Romances! I don't just mean trashy, or badly written. I mean "WTF were they thinking?!" I mean, the romance novels that are so horrid that I've been told they've marked some of the readers for life. Even better? Some of them are considered classics today: incest, rape, even Christmas, She's My Sister, She's My Daughter, She's My Sister AND My Daughter!!

I don't usually like Romance Novels because there's this stigma around them, right? No one with good taste should read Romances! But that's totally false - you're allowed to read whatever you want. I've been picking apart Chick-Lit and Chick-Flicks lately - in a purely academical way. (Riiiiiight.) Just what makes them so supposedly bad? They always follow a distinct formula, even when they're original. But how is that any different from Action movies? Are movies marketed for men any better? What could make a movie or novel that is marketed towards one gender still appeal to the other? And what about classic "chick-flicks" like When Harry Met Sally, Annie Hall, and Steel Magnolias that even men profess to love? What makes those special when certainly there are others that aren't as well known that could be even better than those examples I just gave. Those answers are tricky to find, and probably differ from person to person - but I think we can mostly agree when something is just balls to the walls crazy (sometimes crazy good, sometimes crazy bad?)
When I say these are "Bad Romances," I want everyone to understand that they're just especially out there - even if they are well liked and fan favorites. These are no Jane Austen novels. They're not even Danielle Steele. They are in a category all of their own.
Can't want to show you what I've picked out for us - until next month!

H.P. Lovecraft's "The Re-Animator"

Super Adorable Art from here 

One thing remains consistent with this tradition I have, and it is that pretty much every year I try to read one of H.P. Lovecraft's stories in October. This year, I read his serial classic Hebert West: The Re-Animator.
But first, something I've observed over time about H.P. Lovecraft's cultish following - There are a lot of people who say adore Lovecraft buuuut I doubt that many have really read any of his works: Lovecraft definitely has a bandwagon following. This may not even be true, but I have a few reasons for my suspicions. For one thing, Lovecraft is pretty blatantly racist. In fact, it's not at all subtle. You could pish-posh it away as a sign of the times, but the proof exists in many of his stories, as well as in his personal letters, etc. Another reason is that... well... I'm sorry to piss in anyone's Cheerios, but Lovecraft isn't great writer. He's a tremendously important influence on the modern Horror genre, but at the end of the day, he wrote pulp fictions and that was all. 
Actually, Lovecraft is a fascinating dude who lived a truly bleak life. His father was carted away to a mental institution when he was just 3 years old, where he would die. Lovecraft was in fact mislead as to how his father died. He was raised by this aunts, mother, and very wealthy grandfather. When his grandfather died, he and his mother lived under difficulty together in what was described as a "love/hate relationship." Eventually, she would end up in a mental institution and die there as well, but this time, rather, during surgical complications. Lovecraft went on to marry a woman a few years older than he, but the relationship would dissolve into an odd, passive split when he decided he was homesick, and just... left her. She filed for a divorce which he never signed. It's important to note here that he hated minorities - even White minorities. Including his own wife.
He would become a sort-of hermit for a few years, writing for pulp magazines and passing on career advancements, etc. All-in-all, he was just a weird dude. A lot of people like to talk about him, but not many people know very much about his personal life.

ANYWAY - you can here for "The Re-Animator." Perhaps you've seen the movie - which I haven't, though I understand it's really popular. The Re-Animator is a serialized fiction about two young doctors - one being Hebert West, an unassuming gentleman obsessed with creating a formula for bringing the dead back to life (the other - the unnamed narrator who is Hebert's Best Bud). In each chapter, we're told how Hebert get's his human corpses to experiment on. I guess what makes it especially scary is that he doesn't dispose of them (at least, not intelligently) - so these reanimated corpses could be... anywhere. Even NOW. Ooooohhh... Spooookyyyy. But seriously.
Because it was a magazine serial story, it got repetitive and predictable. It is my understanding, for instance, that Hebert West was "Fair haired and bespectacled." But, for what it's worth, something that I enjoyed about Lovecraft's writing style is that though it may have been written in the early century, it doesn't feel that way. Maybe this is because his casual style is more heavily indebted in our modern style than I realized - in which case, if Lovecraft is a bad writer, than that's what's really scary about his work.

The Tiger's Wife

It's been about a year since I've actually read this book, but interestingly and despite the fact that I live in Louisiana, every time I see a tiger's image I think of this book. (Louisiana's state university has a tiger as it's mascot)
I remember having mixed feelings for this novel, leaning heavily towards "awe." This is Obreht's first novel, and it is amazing in that regard. She's only a few years older than I am and writes like a master, so in a sense I'm very jealous of her success and raw talent. However, it's pretty clear that despite these things, she's still a young writer. She makes some almost unavoidable "mistakes" with the story that could have made the book better. I think some readers might not have minded those choices, but I didn't like it.
Let me explain. She's really telling two stories in one book, but they sometimes dissolve into more than that. That's pretty normal, but a device I've always found a little frustrating because the chapters are played out like a game of leap frog, flip-flopping from cliff hanger to cliff hanger, repeatedly, over and over again. As is often the case with books arranged this was, there will always be one story line I'm far more interested in. The Tiger's Wife was a great example of this. There was one story line that I really cared about. I would have liked the other story lines not to have existed at all, but I understand that the entire novel would have suffered without it. I just wish, in a perfect world, it wouldn't have had to work that way.
The Tiger's Wife is about a young Balkan doctor named Natalia, as her country is on the mend. Following her beloved grandfather's mysterious death, she ignores her work responsibilities to try to find answers, which leads her to memories of her grandfather's stories... her grandfather's childhood in a distant village and the Frankenstein-ish story of the tiger that terrorized everyone, and his encounters with the deathless man.
Can you guess which parts I loved the best? If you'd guessed her grandfather's stories, then that's the answer. If I'd met someone like Natalia in real life, I'd be tempted to punch her in the nose. I don't think she's a very likable character. But her grandfather's stories are dark and magical and beautiful. They're the reason why tigers just give me this hushed feeling in my heart... If you're looking for something to take to the beach or read on a plane this summer, consider this book. It's flawed, but it's still beautiful.

A Game of Thrones: Book 1 of A Song of Ice and Fire

(Or, "Lauren is a day late and a dollar short on a world-wide phenomena, but 
not for the first time.")

So, I guess you've all been wondering what I've been up to? Well, my friends, the short answer is This. The long answer is, "So help me, if you spoil this series I will find you and I will kill you, because I have little to no faith in Nerd Culture. You're all horrible. Shut your mouths and go breathe on some other poor girl."
There now. In my defense - not that I need one - when this book was published I was in the 3rd grade, and this isn't the sort of book you would just hand over to a 9 year old girl to read. Further more, when the series was released on HBO how was I supposed to know it was actually going to be good, despite the fact that I also do not have HBO. Further-further more, the series is tremendous and the truth of the matter is I was always kind of saving it for when I would have a long stretch of "too much time." Like, say I would find myself bedridden. Realistically, I've always assumed that if I ever found myself pregnant, I would be the kind of pregnant woman - like this one cousin I have - who spent her last trimester in bed due to complications. That's the perfect amount of time to spend on reading gargantuan fantasy novels! Then suddenly, I realized I shouldn't bank on any of these things. For one thing, waiting until early motherhood is possibly the worst time to read big books. Because you will never read another book again. I have it on pretty good authority. And, well, there really isn't any time like the present after-all. So I did it anyway.

What is there to say about this book that hasn't already been said? Answer: nothing. I'm just going to be agreeing with a bunch of people no matter what side they're on.
But I did enjoy it. A lot. I would be lying if I said I hadn't had make-out dreams with dear old Jon Snow (Yes, I know he's 14. Cut me some slack though. Even at 14, he's more of a man than most of you - so, suck it!) I realized that all of my girl friends and I are Arya Stark in our own way, and that's a good way to be. No one likes Sansa. I wanted very badly not to hate Sansa, but seriously she made it impossible at times, though I do pity her tremendously and sympathize with her. I can see there will (hopefully) be a lot of character growth where she is concerned. I dare say, Sansa may be the only character Martin wrote (so far as I can tell) that you have conflicted feelings about. He's really good at manipulating how you'll feel about his characters. If he wants you to hate someone, you will damn well hate them. No excuses. You will be tempted to throw the book or remote or whatever nearby object in disgust because of them. But the characters are complicated - in fact there are a lot of aspects of this series that'sthat's a really beautiful thing. I'm really happy to see a series like this become this popular. It's got something for everyone, and that's really neat. Now I have to get my hands on the TV show, maybe. Yeah, you guys haven't heard the last from this series.

Can We All Agree Banning Books Is Ridiculous?

Earlier this week, the ALA updated it's banned books list. Before I give you the break down (the entire list from 2001-2012 is in the link), may I just say how much I hate the idea of banning books? Okay. This is a whole can of worms best left un-opened for me. It's just so unnecessarily aggressive. Avoid books covering topics you know will trigger you. We don't all have to love the same things, but you don't have to ruin them for everyone else. You don't have to take a vendetta out against, I'll say it again and again, a heap of paper and ink or ideas. And yeah, we've all read books we expected to love, but found that we HATED them (I'm looking at you, House of Leaves). But would I burn every copy I found of that book? .... okay, I probably would. (I really, really, really hated that book. I know it has a lot of fans, so whenever people bring it up I just leave the room. I haven't actually set it ablaze. Though I may yet.)
Anyway. I digress. I've noticed that this list, and many others from the previous years, have a majority of YA books and children's books. I understand a parent's right to restrict what their children are exposed to, but I really feel that something like this is sending children the wrong message. It's not just that kids are exposed to violence and sexuality literally everywhere, though most notably on TV anyway, so why does reading about it make it any worse? It's because every parent I know and have ever met wants their kids to like reading books. The message you could be sending children is that "books that describe violence and sex are worse than watching it outright on TV." But the books that make these lists? SERIOUSLY. Their only crimes are that they're popular. There is literally nothing offensive about them - especially if you hold them up to the shit your kids are watching with you on TV.

I've gone on too long. I knew that would happen. Follow the cut to see the list.

Eat, Pray, Love

There comes a time in every young woman's* life, as I have found, where for better or for worse, they cannot avoid reading certain books. Even if they don't especially like to read. This is one of those books. I can't think of the others off hand.
I managed to avoid it for long enough, though. It wasn't until as I call it "All The Stuff Started to Happen," and I sat down with a consular to discuss how I should deal with it. Now, I don't know if many of you have therapists or groups or consulars, but I have a revolving door of consulars who always tell me the same thing: "There's nothing wrong with you." And the prescription is always a book. I bet you can guess which book my consular prescribed me.
I went straight home and ordered a used copy from Amazon for a penny (together with the shipping, it rounded off to $4 - a steal). What I received was a hard cover ex-library book with a bit magenta nail polish on the cover. This was excellent, because it meant that I could highlight and "deface" my copy guilt free. I have no qualms about scribbling and adding annotations into my own personal copies - though I understand that many people absolutely hate that idea. One last personal remark: I cannot say the title of this book. I have to sing it.

Eating, Praying... She's just a woman!

I know I missed the bus on this book - and I haven't even seen the movie (because when it's Julia Roberts, I go in the opposite direction). Before I read it, I got mixed reviews on this book. Most of my friends (including my Mom) didn't speak very highly of it, but there's no denying that it's a very popular and well received book no matter what my friends say. Also, the reviews on Good Reads practically rip it to shreds (as usual with Good Reads reviews, I'm not sure if we even read the same book...).

The Alchemist

I'm extremely excited to talk about this novel. Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist is one of those books everyone hears about, and maybe some of us have actually read: like War & Peace. I know most people just adore it, while others can't understand why people adore it. I'm with fans on this one, but for my own personal reasons. I believe this book is most impactful to it's readers when it comes at just the right time, somewhat like the story. The story is very simple. There's not much "flower" in the prose, it's blunt and frank. It says what it's got to say, and it doesn't run on and on talking about how magnificent mud puddles are. And I know how some of you hate that sort of thing.
It reminds me very, very, very, very much of Le Petit Prince in many ways. Because it's just a simple parable, it teaches a lesson, and it's an important one at that. That's what makes this book so important. Everyone must read this book. I recommend it as a gift to anyone recently graduated, or someone who is trying to find their purpose in their life. I only graduated a month ago, after experiencing a rather sudden, surprising break-up.
Needless to say, this is a book I needed to read, and right away. But I'd had the book for over a year before I picked it up - last Christmas, my "Identical Cousin" gave me a copy of my own after she finished it. Neither she or I would know at the time how important this book would be for me to read... later. Because, let's be real here, if I would have read it immediately after it was given to me, I would have been like everyone else who read it and didn't like it. I would have been irritated with the simple language, I would would have barely been able to appreciate the point of the story, I would have read it in a breeze and then put it aside and said "now what?" For some reason (also understand when I did eventually pick it up to read, I didn't know what it was really about. I didn't even have the focus or energy to read it, I just grabbed it and started reading) I read it now, while I was halfway through reading 3 other books and had no intention to start another until the rest were done.