I'm Not Dead

It's just been pretty busy around here. Since I last posted I bought a condo and now I am preparing for a move. I hate moving. Anyway, all my books are packed away in boxes and therefore I am unable to thrill y'all with the prospect of literary adventures. Right now all I can really offer is a quick do and don't of hot weather. Do: drink cucumber-lemon water. Yum. Don't: eat chips and salsa. Self-explanatory.

It's looking like the next book I'll be reading is Anne of Green Gables. I have, shockingly, never read this. But I'm taking a trip to Halifax soon and am hoping to go to P.E.I., and I hear they don't let you in if you haven't read the full works of L.M. Montgomery. So I'll work on it, and keep you posted.

Until then, enjoy the summer!

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory post-read

Before we begin, let me just make it clear that I strongly dislike when educated people decide to impose critical interpretations on something that I believe should not be altered. Maybe I just want to remain ignorant in my original readings of a text, but that’s just the way I feel. (A perfect example of this: I once read a poem in which Jughead angstily lamented his unrequited love for Archie. NO. Just no.)

Having said that, I am finding it really difficult not to do a post-colonial reading of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I mean, come on! Willy Wonka “rescuing” the Oompa-Loompas from an “uncivilized” existence of living in trees and eating…well, eating green caterpillars, which they admitted themselves were disgusting. So maybe, in that respect, they’re better off in the chocolate factory. Anyway, the point is that there are a LOT of things in this book that make an adult reader think twice.

That is, of course, the whole point. This book is aimed at a younger audience than any of the others I’ve covered so far. (The inscription in this particular used copy, for example, says “For David Freeman, Happy birthday #8, Love, Aunt Wendy and Uncle Ted.”) It’s not for me now, it was for me when I was eight, or nine, or ten. I remember loving, and probably not thinking twice about, many of the plot points that I got stuck on this time around.

Willy Wonka is delightfully insane, and one of the best recurring gags is the way the children frequently question him, at which point he claims to be unable to hear them or not to have time. This highlights the way kids in children’s literature are often smarter than adults, even in this book, where most of the kids are quite stupid. Dahl walks the fine line between blaming parents for children’s bad behavior and making kids take responsibility for their actions. In the end, Charlie proves himself to be the smartest of all and is rewarded with a chocolate factory for his efforts.

I am sure there is more to say, but it’s been a long day and I’m sleepy. So I’ll leave you with this: this book is almost but not quite as great now as it was when I was younger. Sometimes your reading skills don’t improve with age.

Thursday night link and mini-rant

Justine Larbalestier, author of, among other books, Liar, (an interesting read about which I'll likely post sometime in the future), has started a discussion on her blog about the common argument that anything that gets teens reading is good for their minds.

The discussion largely revolves around the most popular teen series of the moment, Twilight. I have read all four books and have mixed feelings on them--there are so, so many problematic themes going on there it makes my head spin, including the rarely discussed racism, yet I got totally sucked (ha!) in, in the manner of impressionable young women everywhere, much to my embarrassment. But after reading it, I talked about it. Actually, I talk about it a lot, which anyone who's ever mentioned Twilight in my presence will already know. And, yeah, I discuss it as an older person with an English degree, someone who has become used to deconstructing and analyzing books. But do people really think teenagers are reading these books blindly? You don't become obsessed with something to the degree that these Twilight fans are obsessed without thinking about it. A lot. These girls (and boys, but mostly girls, I'm guessing) might be dazzled by the sparkly vampire, but that doesn't make them stupid, and it doesn't give adults (or anyone) the right to tell them what is "good" for them and what isn't.

How you read is important. But reading things that you might later deem as "bad" (see my previously mentioned Sweet Valley High obsession) isn't the end of the world, and it might actually, one day, help you to further develop your reading tastes.

Certain people will always critique your taste in books, whether you love Meyer or Proust. Believe me, I have seen some skeptical looks when I reveal how much I love young adult fiction; I've done a fair share of judging people's tastes myself. But I don't let people deter me from reading what I want to read, and I hope I haven't deterred anyone from reading what they love. If you, as an adult, wouldn't appreciate someone saying that it's okay that you read "trash" because "at least you're reading something," you poor, unfortunate, barely literate soul, then why is it okay to say this to teenagers?

FYI

You can find me over at the Word Blog this week. Check it out!

Interlude: Paper Towns by John Green

I first discovered John Green a few years ago when someone somewhere linked to his brother Hank's video/song about Harry Potter. This led me to the Brotherhood 2.0 project, an amazing YouTube experiment. The Green brothers decided that for one year they would outlaw text messaging and e-mail, communicating through video instead. In addition to being hilarious and bringing me hours of nerdy amusement (if you clicked on that link you know it's a nerd-licious time over there), this project introduced me to John Green the Fabulous YA Author.

Since then, I've read three of his novels: Looking for Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines and Paper Towns. All have similar themes ("coming-of-age adventures" doesn't do the books justice at all, but it's all I seem to have right now), but Paper Towns is definitely my favourite. To give you a quick synopsis, here is a quick synopsis from the back cover copy:

Who is the real Margo? Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs into his life--dressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revenge--he follows. After their all-nighter ends, and a new day breaks, Q arrives at school to discover that Margo, always an enigma, has now become a mystery. But Q soon learns that there are clues--and they're for him. Urged down a disconnected path, the closer he gets, the less Q sees the girl he thought he knew....
(Speak, an imprint of Penguin Group.)

Sounds good, n'est pas? There are a few things I really love about this book. First of all, reading a realist YA novel in the midst of a market enthralled with vampires (sorry! [I'm not sorry. I love puns.]) and werewolves, et cetera, is extremely refreshing. Although I love paranormal books, in the midst of all these biting and clawing metaphors for the human condition it can be easy to forget how refreshing and moving well-written realism can be. A protagonist doesn't have to be threatened by monsters for me to care about him/her. This book reminded me of that.

One of the main themes of Paper Towns is the way we tend to idealize those we love. Quentin has been obsessed (not in a stalkery way) with Margo for years, and because they are not particularly close as teenagers, his knowledge of her is based on a combination of observation and speculation that is particularly heavy on the speculation. We have all done this at some point(s) in our lives, likely when we were in high school, as Quentin is, but also likely not limited to that time. According to Quentin, Margo is a perfect girl. She is absent for most of the book, essentially existing only through what Quentin thinks about her and the assumptions he makes about her. Absolutely my favourite part of the book is towards the end, when Quentin meets Margo again and she completely debunks all of his theories about her, asserting her status as an individual existing outside of Quentin's perceptions of her. It is impossible for anyone to live up to Q's idea of Margo Roth Spiegelman, and by calling him out, Margo shows Quentin, and us, that a real person, flaws and all, is always better than an imaginary ideal.

I could go on, especially about Green's portrayal of suburbia, but instead you should read the book yourself. If you need further convincing, check out the Brotherhood 2.0 project (start at the beginning or check out the most popular), the vlogbrothers YouTube channel, or John Green's website.

P.S. I didn't mention that all the YouTube action above led to an incredible fanbase calling themselves nerdfighters. They follow John and Hank on twitter, YouTube and the general internet and, as far as I can tell, are amazing. It's a great example of author publicity, but more importantly, a great example of people being awesome and creating communities full of other awesome people.

That's all for now! Read some books!

Sweet Valley High quiz

Though I haven't gotten around to a Sweet Valley High book yet, fret not. I love them. I only scored 7/11 on this quiz, though, bringing shame to my ancestors. Or something.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory pre-read

My memories of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory are connected very specifically to one person from my childhood: my fifth-grade teacher, Mr. Potter.

I was in Mr. Potter's first class at our school. I remember the gossip about him the summer before fifth grade: none of us had had a male teacher before, and we were all nervous and excited to hear that the new guy used to play football for the Edmonton Oilers. I am from a small town. This was big news. Visions of a huge, scary guy loomed over us all summer. I remember especially that the boys were very excited, speculating that the new teacher would just want to talk football all day, and that we girls were worried that the new teacher would be scary. Gender stereotypes were clearly alive and well.

Mr. Potter turned out to be one of the best teachers I've ever had. He did a lot of great things with our class, and was particularly good at seeing what other teachers, who had known us all for years, had gotten used to and therefore overlooked. For me specifically this included singling me out to model school clothing (something usually reserved for the more popular kids) and nicknaming me Trillium, after the modeling agency, an action that caused me endless embarrassment but in the end was pretty good for my self-esteem. But the most remarkable thing he did that year was read to us from Roald Dahl books.

Every afternoon, about half an hour before the day ended, Mr. Potter would take out a book and read. And when I say read, I mean read. He is probably to this day one of the best readers I have ever heard. He had different voices for every character, and an enthusiasm that drew in even the most anti-book kids in the class. He moved across the room while reading, and most importantly, he didn't hold back. When Matilda's father yelled at her and called her stupid, Mr. Potter yelled louder than I think anyone had dared to yell within the walls of an elementary school before, to the point where once my mother, who volunteered in the school library, ran halfway down the hallway terrified that he had snapped and was shouting at the top of his lungs to some poor student.

Other teachers had read to us, of course, but by the time we got to grade five that had mostly tapered off, probably because of the belief that once kids learn to read on their own there is no longer a need for others to read to them. We were reluctant at first, thinking it was babyish to be read to. But I remember missing it once I got to grade six.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory should be an interesting read because, although I feel I have a good recollection of the plotline, this is almost entirely because I've seen the movie version many times. Dahl's prose style and sense of humour are legendary, and I am really excited to reacquaint myself with this book.

This is going to be fun. See you soon!




P.S. Speaking of reading aloud, here is one of my favourite videos on the subject. Enjoy!