Pet Peeve
October 22nd, 2008 
Reading 
3 replies
Lately, to get into the spirit of Halloween, I’ve been trying to catch horror movies every night. Since I don’t have many in my own possession, I have to rely on television’s selection. The problem is, for some reason, there’s rarely anything scary on. Most disappointing is Halloween night itself, which apparently isn’t important enough to garner its own segment on even just a couple channels.
To avoid wasting time looking through TV listings, I decided to pick out a book from my shelf, simply named Ring by Koji Suzuki. It’s a translation, but very good. I love the story and I love its originality, but the characters make me want to destroy Japan. Asakawa, the main character, is incredibly self-centered and paranoid. His friend Ryuji is a scoundrel, very much like one of my roleplaying characters, but his alleged crimes make me want to throw him in a well (har har). But what really bothers me is that the women in the story are all very obedient and would rather let all hell break loose before they dare disappoint their husbands or ask questions about what they’re doing. Women are objectified in this story and, besides Sadako, are only mentioned when a man is hungry or someone particularly attractive walks in the room. So I guess my main problem is that, while the story is based on a female, the plot is driven solely by men with one vaguely strong female character. And even then, Sadako is portrayed as tragic and terrible simultaneously. We women just can’t get a break here!
Then again, the novel was published back in 1991 and Japan has a stricter hierarchy than the United States does, but it just struck me that women are only portrayed positively when they are beautiful and carrying a food tray in their hands. Similarly, few of the men have sparkling personalities (at least not in this section of the series) and let it all hang out. While I detest them, I thought it was awesome that they were portrayed as realistic people with negative traits. Everyone has a downfall.
After I finish the other two books in the series, I’ll go on to some Stephen King action. I’m excited to revisit The Langoliers (I have Half Past Twelve). Mom also has some Stephen King novels, and I have a feeling I’ll be eating them up for the rest of October. Yum!
Deathly Hallows
July 23rd, 2008 Entertainment, Fun, Reading 2 replies
I’ve been spending most of my time away from the computer diving into the Harry Potter books lately. I hadn’t really picked one up since July 21st, 2007 - the day Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows took the world by storm. I read it during that day so as to not be spoiled by other people, though I remember being so tempted to check out the Wikipedia article and see the spoilers. I think I rushed through the book when I was reading it because I wanted to read the final battle against Voldemort so badly. It’s also kind of hilarious, because my English teachers always used to tell us to ask questions while we read, and I thought it was kind of stupid to say something like that at the time; but now I ask myself things about the book as I read on.
At any rate, I’m amused that my obsession’s come back. I started reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix one night while it was on HBO because everything seemed very out of place in the movie and I felt ashamed that I couldn’t remember if several things were in the book or not. So I sat down and read it, and now I’m stuck in the books until the end of Deathly Hallows. I didn’t used to like J.K. Rowling’s writing style, finding it boring and slowing down the series even further, and often criticized it amongst friends, but as I reread it my opinion has changed: she’s actually very good. Granted I’m at the end of the series, so of course her style will have improved over the years, but the only thing that ever irks me is her dialogue construction. It’s nearly all he said, she said.
Right now I’m at the part where they’ve broken into Gringotts, gotten the Hufflepuff cup and jumped off the dragon into the water. It’s funny how they’ve only defeated one Horcrux by page 500, and then the end is totally rushed. 
And I still can’t help but be completely angry at Ron. Ron’s never stood out to me as a character - good for comic relief and all, but when he abandons Harry and Hermione I still agree with Harry: “Did you think you’d be home to Mummy in time for Christmas?”
In other news, it’s raining constantly here. This is the sixth day in the row it’s rained. 
I love the rain and all, but this much of it is incredibly annoying when it also happens to be muggy and the windows have to be closed. This is the wettest summer I’ve ever had.
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