Weird..

[indigofan]

So- I read a lot. Most of you know this.

I'm currently plugging through The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood.. it's having a very strange effect. I'm usually pretty good at putting a book down and leaving it until I pick it back up. That is to say, I won't be thinking about it constantly, and it won't affect me while I'm not reading it. I DO

Comments

[w0lf]

I've never had that problem with books, but sometimes movies mess with my dreams. Anything about psychopaths: i.e. American Psycho will mess me up for a few days.

[indigofan]

I can imagine they would. Movies like that just make me want to hide under the bed.

[indigofan]

You know, I thought for certain that you would have read this book- but looking at it from the point of view you just gave, I can see why you wouldn't.

I mean, it is fiction, but it's certainly disturbing and if it's affecting me this way, it would probably bother you much more.

[pellechs]

Wicca?

[indigofan]

Yes, you should. In fact, you and Jack both should. I was thinking about how you would both be interested by this one.

[pellechs]

DON'T PUT IT DOWN!!! You Will Love It.
It's one of my absolute faves.

I get into just about everything I read this way. I have trouble distinguishing the novel from real life. I see places in my life in the novel-- My downstairs bathroom in NJ was featured prominently in "Handmaid" and the Maine farm is now a hippie commune called Drop City. I hear the narrator's voice in my head. I dream about it. I talk like the characters.

This is why I can't read 2 books in a row by the same author. I'm afraid they will take over my life. Movies don't have this effect on me, I think because it's only 2 hours out of my world. I live the book for weeks.

[indigofan]

Oh Erin, this is why I love you.

Actually- that is WHY I often read multiple books in a row by the same author, especially if they're set in the same world. I like being able to go away somewhere else for a while, and if I really delve into the world, it will stay with me.

But yeah, I have no intention of putting this one down, I really want to see how it ends. I just am surprised that it's giving me.. well.. nightmares, I guess. Not in the traditional sense, but I don't know what else to call them.

[pellechs]

Srsly, I get a little coo coo for cocoa puffs. I'm afraid if I get too close to an author's voice I will lose myself entirely.

As far as I can remember, I've only given up on 2 books in my life, one of which was Drop City. It was making me very anxious because I made it about a place that I knew. I just didn't want to go to the bad place in my head. I don't deal with descriptive animal deaths well either. Though it would be cool to have a pool and a tree house in Maine..

[blondeamazon]

When I was a senior in HS, we had a choice between "Handmaidens Tale" circa 450 pgs and "A Brave New World" cira 180 pgs. Only 4 of 18 people chose HMT at the beginning, me being one of them. I read fast and didn't have a life. By the time we started discussing the book(s), the ratio had switched. I loved and and have my own copy of it now. I think the reason it haunts you so is part of the reason it captivated me; plausibility. It's a future distopia, but, in light of the rape of the earth we are carrying out and the near total dependance on technology we experience as a society, I don't think it is as far-fetched as it may have been when it was written.
Hmmm, I think it might be time to read it again.

[pellechs]

What a choice!
Both are excellent and should be read for certification and induction into the human race.

[w0lf]

I'm kind of down on Brave New World, actually. I find Aldous Huxley to be very full of himself.

[w0lf]

I generally recommend Childhood's End or Imperial Earth by Arthur C. Clarke as alternatives.