Just me and books and movies
Not much to report, other than tomorrow is the last day of exams, and some of my babies are leaving me. *pouts* Speaking of babies, miladygrey is an aunt, yay! Of course, a blue blankie is in progress. (You didn't think I could resist, did you?)
Movie log: Osama - A girl disguises herself as a boy in Taliban-controlled Kabul, so she can get work and support her mother and grandmother. Doesn't that make you think, "Yes! Clever, brave girl outwits stupid, sexist men!"? Because that's what you expect from a movie like that. And, while this is very good as a film, an artistic creation intended to make a statement, it is also massively depressing. The girl isn't especially clever and only brave enough to keep from fainting in terror (which, given the fact there are angry Taliban roaming the streets, does take some courage). And then she gets caught, and you know it can't go well from there. I rejected this ending, substituted my own, and watched cartoons to recover some vague sense of pleasantness in the world at large.
Reading: The Empty Kingdom by Elizabeth E. Wein
Dear, brave Telemakos! Too-clever-by-half Athena! Oh, Medraut! (Sorry, any more would be a spoiler. Do I have to tell you again to read these books?)
Tales of a Female Nomad by Rita Golden Gelman
This one is for the public library's monthly book discussion. It sounds very interesting, and I expect I will enjoy it, even if only in a Stuff White People Like sort of way. But right now, this woman is annoying me. She's right that she needed to change her life, because in the first chapter she sets off one of my pet peeves and doesn't let up.
It's like this, ladies. If you can't go into a restaurant by yourself and eat a meal, it is time to grow up, get out of high school and get a spine. (Those girls annoyed me even in high school, but maybe that's just me.) I understand that this woman had never been forced to be independent the way some of us are, but to be so petrified of being seen alone in public that you go to bed hungry and nearly miss supper the next night too is completely juvenile. She's supposed to be on this voyage of self-discovery, stepping into the unknown, and has no problem wandering around all day talking to strangers. But as soon as a sit-down meal is involved, she is mortally shamed and doesn't even recognize that she's deliberately, willfully being the helpless creature she's come there to get rid of. I am, however, consoled by the obvious fact that she will be a very different person by the end of the book. Maybe some women will see themselves in this book and get a grip.
Movie log: Osama - A girl disguises herself as a boy in Taliban-controlled Kabul, so she can get work and support her mother and grandmother. Doesn't that make you think, "Yes! Clever, brave girl outwits stupid, sexist men!"? Because that's what you expect from a movie like that. And, while this is very good as a film, an artistic creation intended to make a statement, it is also massively depressing. The girl isn't especially clever and only brave enough to keep from fainting in terror (which, given the fact there are angry Taliban roaming the streets, does take some courage). And then she gets caught, and you know it can't go well from there. I rejected this ending, substituted my own, and watched cartoons to recover some vague sense of pleasantness in the world at large.
Reading: The Empty Kingdom by Elizabeth E. Wein
Dear, brave Telemakos! Too-clever-by-half Athena! Oh, Medraut! (Sorry, any more would be a spoiler. Do I have to tell you again to read these books?)
Tales of a Female Nomad by Rita Golden Gelman
This one is for the public library's monthly book discussion. It sounds very interesting, and I expect I will enjoy it, even if only in a Stuff White People Like sort of way. But right now, this woman is annoying me. She's right that she needed to change her life, because in the first chapter she sets off one of my pet peeves and doesn't let up.
It's like this, ladies. If you can't go into a restaurant by yourself and eat a meal, it is time to grow up, get out of high school and get a spine. (Those girls annoyed me even in high school, but maybe that's just me.) I understand that this woman had never been forced to be independent the way some of us are, but to be so petrified of being seen alone in public that you go to bed hungry and nearly miss supper the next night too is completely juvenile. She's supposed to be on this voyage of self-discovery, stepping into the unknown, and has no problem wandering around all day talking to strangers. But as soon as a sit-down meal is involved, she is mortally shamed and doesn't even recognize that she's deliberately, willfully being the helpless creature she's come there to get rid of. I am, however, consoled by the obvious fact that she will be a very different person by the end of the book. Maybe some women will see themselves in this book and get a grip.