is it just me, or...?
World Domination Status: With my culinary expertise, I shall conquer stomachs everywhere! As long as I remember to double check when it says tablespoon and when it says teaspoon...
I could give a status update on what the hell is going on with the brother, but I am not feeling in the mood to be depressed and gnashing my teeth against his idiocy. (The brother: Your logic does not apply here.)
Instead, I will talk about The Time Traveler's Wife, which I have finally read and finished!
I noted this somewhere else on the internet, but it kind of gets me that a number of the people I talk to who really enjoyed Time Traveler's Wife are also people who disparage the Twilight books. (Disclaimer: I have yet to read any of the Twilight series, though I meant to read the first one after I finished TTW. However, I need to get it from the library, which means making it to the library to do that, and the AP dangled The Valley-Westside War in front of me first, so Twilight shall have to wait a bit longer.) I realize the situation really isn't the same - Edward is a centuries-old teenager watching the teenage object of his affections in her sleep, while Henry is a thirty-something-to-forty-something-year-old who randomly pops in on random bits of his future(/current) wife's(/girlfriend/fiancée/widow's) life - but I get a bit of a creepy vibe off of the fact that Henry (unintentionally, though he straight-out says that he subconsciously fixates on people/places/times) starts stalking (to an extent) Clare when she's six. One could even make the argument that a good part of why she ends up with him is that she's known him for so long and she basically imprinted on him because of that (imprinting at a young age - another aspect of the Twilight books, I believe). To say nothing of the Electra-complex she could be said to have, seeing as how Henry is, when she's a child, at least, something of a father figure who Clare can connect to better than her own father. (I have theorized that the reason the creepy is more acceptable in TTW than in the Twilight books is that, a) TTW is better written, b) is intended for adults, c) Henry and Clare are not held up as a paragon of the perfect relationship by preteens and teenagers all over. BUT STILL.)
Speaking of Clare's father Philip, here's the bit I really didn't get in TTW: How is it that the fact that Philip and her brother, Mark, killed Henry never really addressed in the book? I mean, yeah, sure, they probably thought he was a random animal in the underbrush, not a nude, time traveling cripple, and there's always the possibility that Clare never made the connections between the time with bloody snow and Philip and Mark being dressed for hunting, and Henry dying from a gunshot wound... Except for how she makes the connection between the incident in 1984 and Henry's death before Henry even dies. Even if she thinks some other, random hunter was the one to shoot Henry in 1984, you'd think she'd confront Philip and Mark about the incident, particularly after they learn about Henry being a time traveler (which they must, if it's commonly accepted by people in 2011 that Alba is a CDP; and if nothing else, it's really the only way to explain how Henry randomly dies from a gunshot wound). Relations have always been strained between Clare and her father and brother, I can only see Henry's death as causing even more problems between them. To say nothing of the guilt Philip and Mark must feel when they realize, finally, what it was they shot that one time, oh so long ago! Mwahaha, that pleases me.
Don't get me wrong, I liked the book! I'm just really surprised that more people don't seem to be pointing out item one (or maybe they are and I'm just not looking hard enough, entirely possible), and that the book never even tries to address item two.
I could give a status update on what the hell is going on with the brother, but I am not feeling in the mood to be depressed and gnashing my teeth against his idiocy. (The brother: Your logic does not apply here.)
Instead, I will talk about The Time Traveler's Wife, which I have finally read and finished!
I noted this somewhere else on the internet, but it kind of gets me that a number of the people I talk to who really enjoyed Time Traveler's Wife are also people who disparage the Twilight books. (Disclaimer: I have yet to read any of the Twilight series, though I meant to read the first one after I finished TTW. However, I need to get it from the library, which means making it to the library to do that, and the AP dangled The Valley-Westside War in front of me first, so Twilight shall have to wait a bit longer.) I realize the situation really isn't the same - Edward is a centuries-old teenager watching the teenage object of his affections in her sleep, while Henry is a thirty-something-to-forty-something-year-old who randomly pops in on random bits of his future(/current) wife's(/girlfriend/fiancée/widow's) life - but I get a bit of a creepy vibe off of the fact that Henry (unintentionally, though he straight-out says that he subconsciously fixates on people/places/times) starts stalking (to an extent) Clare when she's six. One could even make the argument that a good part of why she ends up with him is that she's known him for so long and she basically imprinted on him because of that (imprinting at a young age - another aspect of the Twilight books, I believe). To say nothing of the Electra-complex she could be said to have, seeing as how Henry is, when she's a child, at least, something of a father figure who Clare can connect to better than her own father. (I have theorized that the reason the creepy is more acceptable in TTW than in the Twilight books is that, a) TTW is better written, b) is intended for adults, c) Henry and Clare are not held up as a paragon of the perfect relationship by preteens and teenagers all over. BUT STILL.)
Speaking of Clare's father Philip, here's the bit I really didn't get in TTW: How is it that the fact that Philip and her brother, Mark, killed Henry never really addressed in the book? I mean, yeah, sure, they probably thought he was a random animal in the underbrush, not a nude, time traveling cripple, and there's always the possibility that Clare never made the connections between the time with bloody snow and Philip and Mark being dressed for hunting, and Henry dying from a gunshot wound... Except for how she makes the connection between the incident in 1984 and Henry's death before Henry even dies. Even if she thinks some other, random hunter was the one to shoot Henry in 1984, you'd think she'd confront Philip and Mark about the incident, particularly after they learn about Henry being a time traveler (which they must, if it's commonly accepted by people in 2011 that Alba is a CDP; and if nothing else, it's really the only way to explain how Henry randomly dies from a gunshot wound). Relations have always been strained between Clare and her father and brother, I can only see Henry's death as causing even more problems between them. To say nothing of the guilt Philip and Mark must feel when they realize, finally, what it was they shot that one time, oh so long ago! Mwahaha, that pleases me.
Don't get me wrong, I liked the book! I'm just really surprised that more people don't seem to be pointing out item one (or maybe they are and I'm just not looking hard enough, entirely possible), and that the book never even tries to address item two.