Since I have been on the same chugging thought-train for the last couple of weeks, I decided I needed to go a bit further. I have commented on the basic human need of rescue and fantasy--and well, the fantasy of being rescued. However, I think there is an underlying issue and theme here that ties a lot of my ruminations together. I think about it before I go to bed, while I sleep, while I am supposed to be listening to Patty wax annoyed with her day...this central theme to countless famous stories and is partly responsible for a major American holiday. This theme is romance.
There is actually a fully-functioning industry of paltry trade paperbacks devoted SOLEY to this idea of women being swept off their feet by strapping, diamond-in-the-rough paperboys or whatever. Since I have already addressed the idea of fantasy in a previous post, I won't repeat myself (mostly). But there is something deeper (no Jon, NOT thats what she said,) going on here. We all fantasize about something greater than what we already have, but why do romantic comedies seem to trump all other genres when it comes to women's preferences in movies and/or television shows? Most of America's adult population is married and/or settled into a relationship, so why do we find the need to stare at someone elses for 2 hours or read about one for 48-hours (ahem, Twilight).
Why, because the best writers in Los Angeles tell us that THIS is what a relationship is supposed to be like. We are apparently supposed to be meeting handsome, brooding gentlemen in bars and gyms and when they ask us out, we are supposed to say "no" and make them play hard to get. Okay, I would like to know how many quality men hang out in bars that aren't afraid to go up to a woman in a group full of OTHER women and ask her out who isn't a total douche. But I digress. I am FULLY guilty of this. Why can't my relationship be this amazing? Why doesn't he look at me the way he looks at her? Why don't I get flowers delivered to my office...yada yada yada. This leads me to my next point.
Yes, we have been sold out by the WGA as to what a normal adult relationship entails, but whats worse, is that we have been sold out by our signifigant others as well. Now there is the excuse, "this isn't a movie--this is real life." You are right, this is real life, but I don't know why the two can't coexist and blend into a new hybrid of good relationship. When did we settle?
Now, men seem to send flowers when they have done something wrong--or worse, send flowers once and assume that will be good for a century of romantic credit. Why not take a cue from Hollywood and go to town? There is litterally thousands of hours of material on how to make a woman turn to mush, so why hasn't this been tapped? What is so ironic is that men neglecting their counterparts ends up creating the cycle all over again...when we need to feel good about the state of the world, we go see a romantic movie--giving Hollywood more money and a cue to make more of them--and more movies to make women feel underappreciated and unloved.
Funny enough, a book that does not exist had a quite a piqued interest this summer when it was featured in the creme-de-la creme of chick flicks, Sex and the City this summer. Carrie reads a book called "Love Letters of Great Men" in bed whilst researching her new book. She reads Big the words of Napolean, et al and you could almost hear the sighs emitting from the women surrounding me. So, women all over the country have tried to get their hands on said book, but alas, it doesn't actually exist--and they have apparently been settling on "Love Letters of Great Men and Women: From the 18th Century to the Present Day" that has had a sky-rocketing jump in sales since it's publication in 1924.
We are so emotionally dehydrated that we are willing to buy a book that doesn't even exist to fill our void. This wasn't always the case. It used to be "cool" to be a gentleman that lavished his mate and told the world how she was the only one for him. When did it go out of fashion? Did women's lib have anything to do with it? Maybe, maybe not. I however, do not like this trend. Instead of having to pay $12 to see it on screen I would rather be living it, breathing it, feeling it.
So, American men, step it up. There is a reason Matthew McConaughy stares at us from our screen savers.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Take My Money India, For I Have Lost My Will to Live
November 18, 2007 - Sunday
Worst Birthday Eve EVER!
So, I just thought I would share a little story regarding my Saturday night--taking place on both my Birthday Eve and then finishing on my actual birthday. No, this doesn't involve drinking too much, or falling off a stage (ahem, Justin)...I could only WISH that was what my night entailed.
It all started with IKEA yesterday. I do not blame the large royal blue and yellow mecca, but I must put some of this on them because their furniture directions are nothing if not complex and thus created my mood of frustration and fury that started off my day.
After putting together a day bed--the LAST of the 3 large pieces of furniture I managed to wrangle today, I looked down on my guest room floor and saw my NETGEAR installation CD and remembered that i never encrypted my wireless network. Being the granddaughter of an incessant worrier, the daughter of a librarian and the wife of a diplomat, I realized that the guilt of having an open wireless network was just too much to bear. So, I decided to pop back in the CD and start over and try to encrypt my network...by myself. (Insert bad decision music from a horror film...dum-dum-dum!)
The CD says it cant detect my wireless network...weird since it was using it at the moment, but whatever. So, I go to the netgear website and start the troubleshooting. I type in "encrypt" into the search engine and I find out how to secure my network. I could really bore you here, but instead I will skip ahead many frustrating steps to it telling me to find my MAC address (WHAT?) so I do a google search to find it only to type it in and it tell me, gasp, it's incorrect. So, I try many times until finally the IP address 192.168.1.1--thats right, I memorized it, stopped working and I finally had to stop or me risk my computer ending up killing the poor cats that meow (loudly) on the balcony below me.
I return a few hours later and decide to try again. I realized that my MAC address need colons--not dashes! Now why wouldn't I know that! And it seems to work! YAY! Uh oh...no more wireless network--it completely shuts down...I can plug in my Internet cord directly and it will work, but the wireless will not...
So, I call NETGEAR for the second time in one week and it takes 16 minutes to connect me with a LOVELY Indian gentleman named Victor on the other side of the world--I should send Jon to go beat him up. It will only take him a day's donkey ride to invade that disgusting doppelganger of Silicon Valley.
ANYWAY, Victor decides he had to register my wireless router, so 15 minutes later we are back to where we started and he has to go through all the steps that I did--correctly may I add--and after many attempts at connecting to my encrypted "Erin" network--no dice. Windows will not let me connect--nothing. So, after 45 minutes Victor cheerfully tells me that it is not his problem, it's Gateway's and I have to call them and get the "network utility disconnected" and then call back. Click. I want to go kick his camel so he has no way to get home
So, I decided I have nothing better to do--so I call Gateway. After choosing 18 different items on the menu and almost telling the automatic customer service rep to go fuck herself--they tell me that because my serial number has a letter in it--they can't help me--I purchased the computer at a retail store....because yes, so many of us purchase $1400 computers from a website where we have neither seen nor touched anything...and they give me an ALTERNATE phone number. So, I call the alternate phone number, have to go through the same hoops from the first phone call only to finally be connected to Tammy from Salt Lake City. I tell her that I need to "disconnect my network utility" and she types some nonsense into her speak-and-say and guess what--I have to register my product with Tammy too! YAY! After 15 minutes I hear..."hmm...it looks like your product is out of warranty. To get any help from us it will cost you $39 and there is no guarantee that we can help." WHAT THE FUCK!?! This is where it gets good.....
I guess from the overall day of furniture-building, Zoie peeing in places she's not supposed to, the fact that its my birthday and I am on the phone with Tammy instead of enjoying a fun evening with friends/Jon, computer problems and just Jon not being here in general--I start BAWLING. I don't mean contain a tear and play it off as allergies...I mean death in the family, kicked of "The Bachelor" BAWLING. Poor Tammy. She doesn't know what to do. She probably hates herself for having to ask for $40 for what amounts to the worst investment in history. She puts me on hold. During my hold period--and listening to Gateway's version of Sad FM...I compose myself (a little) and decide to just pay the blood money just to get this over with. After some awkward silences whilst she is ticking away at her computer, she asks me if it's cold here....? What? I am in Texas. I realize she is actually not an IT person. She has to CALL THE TECH DEPT. Super! She basically puts me on hold for 20 minutes to come back with a solution of a system rollback recovery--wow--very creative. So we do that song and dance and roll back my computer to its configuration on Friday, and no good--wireless still doesn't work. We then try and do a "Ping"...this all the while her Tech supervisor is telling her what to do to tell me what to do. She acts as if I can't hear her lesbian Mormon supervisor...so I play dumb and wait to do all the steps until Tammy tells me to do them to save Tammy further humiliation from this God-forsaken phone call. The ping basically says that it's my modem that has the problem, but just to be sure, we do a power re-boot. I unplug everything, and guess what--no wireless. Sigh.
Tammy has hung up on me and I start bawling again. WHY GOD?!?!? I compose myself yet again and google the brand name of my modem..."Terayon" hmm, this can't be good. The Terayon site directly takes me to the Motorola site....okay....So I go to the support tab, and the only options are for cell phones. I should be furious, but I am numb to the injustices of the world at this point and I have no more tears to cry. So, I decide to call Victor back in India--I think this was all his fault (and IKEAs) but I didn't think Sweden would take my call. As I am on hold for another NETGEAR person, I decide to go to the netgear website one more time and try to troubleshoot. I scroll the page to find out if your secure network won't let you get on the Internet. Their resolution: under encryption, click "None." This is not possible--how can this be? So, I type 192.168.1.1 one more time and click "None" where I am supposed to. Just as "Bob" picks up the phone to tell me his employee number, my wireless starts to think about it, and DING--connected. I tell Bob what just happened. He cheerfully asks if I would like him to help me try and re-encrypt my wireless network. No Bob, I would not like you to do that, but thank you so much for asking.
After $40, a used box of Kleenex, endless hours I cannot reclaim, two calls to India, two MISSED calls from Jon, I am back to where I started--using an unsecure network to learn about such useful information as which movie will claim the number one spot this weekend.
I don't know why God doesn't want me to have a secure wireless network...I guess he wants that douche-bag who plays Kenny Chesney really loudly on Thursday nights to have access to my checking account. Go ahead, Kenny-lover--take my $1300.
Worst Birthday Eve EVER!
So, I just thought I would share a little story regarding my Saturday night--taking place on both my Birthday Eve and then finishing on my actual birthday. No, this doesn't involve drinking too much, or falling off a stage (ahem, Justin)...I could only WISH that was what my night entailed.
It all started with IKEA yesterday. I do not blame the large royal blue and yellow mecca, but I must put some of this on them because their furniture directions are nothing if not complex and thus created my mood of frustration and fury that started off my day.
After putting together a day bed--the LAST of the 3 large pieces of furniture I managed to wrangle today, I looked down on my guest room floor and saw my NETGEAR installation CD and remembered that i never encrypted my wireless network. Being the granddaughter of an incessant worrier, the daughter of a librarian and the wife of a diplomat, I realized that the guilt of having an open wireless network was just too much to bear. So, I decided to pop back in the CD and start over and try to encrypt my network...by myself. (Insert bad decision music from a horror film...dum-dum-dum!)
The CD says it cant detect my wireless network...weird since it was using it at the moment, but whatever. So, I go to the netgear website and start the troubleshooting. I type in "encrypt" into the search engine and I find out how to secure my network. I could really bore you here, but instead I will skip ahead many frustrating steps to it telling me to find my MAC address (WHAT?) so I do a google search to find it only to type it in and it tell me, gasp, it's incorrect. So, I try many times until finally the IP address 192.168.1.1--thats right, I memorized it, stopped working and I finally had to stop or me risk my computer ending up killing the poor cats that meow (loudly) on the balcony below me.
I return a few hours later and decide to try again. I realized that my MAC address need colons--not dashes! Now why wouldn't I know that! And it seems to work! YAY! Uh oh...no more wireless network--it completely shuts down...I can plug in my Internet cord directly and it will work, but the wireless will not...
So, I call NETGEAR for the second time in one week and it takes 16 minutes to connect me with a LOVELY Indian gentleman named Victor on the other side of the world--I should send Jon to go beat him up. It will only take him a day's donkey ride to invade that disgusting doppelganger of Silicon Valley.
ANYWAY, Victor decides he had to register my wireless router, so 15 minutes later we are back to where we started and he has to go through all the steps that I did--correctly may I add--and after many attempts at connecting to my encrypted "Erin" network--no dice. Windows will not let me connect--nothing. So, after 45 minutes Victor cheerfully tells me that it is not his problem, it's Gateway's and I have to call them and get the "network utility disconnected" and then call back. Click. I want to go kick his camel so he has no way to get home
So, I decided I have nothing better to do--so I call Gateway. After choosing 18 different items on the menu and almost telling the automatic customer service rep to go fuck herself--they tell me that because my serial number has a letter in it--they can't help me--I purchased the computer at a retail store....because yes, so many of us purchase $1400 computers from a website where we have neither seen nor touched anything...and they give me an ALTERNATE phone number. So, I call the alternate phone number, have to go through the same hoops from the first phone call only to finally be connected to Tammy from Salt Lake City. I tell her that I need to "disconnect my network utility" and she types some nonsense into her speak-and-say and guess what--I have to register my product with Tammy too! YAY! After 15 minutes I hear..."hmm...it looks like your product is out of warranty. To get any help from us it will cost you $39 and there is no guarantee that we can help." WHAT THE FUCK!?! This is where it gets good.....
I guess from the overall day of furniture-building, Zoie peeing in places she's not supposed to, the fact that its my birthday and I am on the phone with Tammy instead of enjoying a fun evening with friends/Jon, computer problems and just Jon not being here in general--I start BAWLING. I don't mean contain a tear and play it off as allergies...I mean death in the family, kicked of "The Bachelor" BAWLING. Poor Tammy. She doesn't know what to do. She probably hates herself for having to ask for $40 for what amounts to the worst investment in history. She puts me on hold. During my hold period--and listening to Gateway's version of Sad FM...I compose myself (a little) and decide to just pay the blood money just to get this over with. After some awkward silences whilst she is ticking away at her computer, she asks me if it's cold here....? What? I am in Texas. I realize she is actually not an IT person. She has to CALL THE TECH DEPT. Super! She basically puts me on hold for 20 minutes to come back with a solution of a system rollback recovery--wow--very creative. So we do that song and dance and roll back my computer to its configuration on Friday, and no good--wireless still doesn't work. We then try and do a "Ping"...this all the while her Tech supervisor is telling her what to do to tell me what to do. She acts as if I can't hear her lesbian Mormon supervisor...so I play dumb and wait to do all the steps until Tammy tells me to do them to save Tammy further humiliation from this God-forsaken phone call. The ping basically says that it's my modem that has the problem, but just to be sure, we do a power re-boot. I unplug everything, and guess what--no wireless. Sigh.
Tammy has hung up on me and I start bawling again. WHY GOD?!?!? I compose myself yet again and google the brand name of my modem..."Terayon" hmm, this can't be good. The Terayon site directly takes me to the Motorola site....okay....So I go to the support tab, and the only options are for cell phones. I should be furious, but I am numb to the injustices of the world at this point and I have no more tears to cry. So, I decide to call Victor back in India--I think this was all his fault (and IKEAs) but I didn't think Sweden would take my call. As I am on hold for another NETGEAR person, I decide to go to the netgear website one more time and try to troubleshoot. I scroll the page to find out if your secure network won't let you get on the Internet. Their resolution: under encryption, click "None." This is not possible--how can this be? So, I type 192.168.1.1 one more time and click "None" where I am supposed to. Just as "Bob" picks up the phone to tell me his employee number, my wireless starts to think about it, and DING--connected. I tell Bob what just happened. He cheerfully asks if I would like him to help me try and re-encrypt my wireless network. No Bob, I would not like you to do that, but thank you so much for asking.
After $40, a used box of Kleenex, endless hours I cannot reclaim, two calls to India, two MISSED calls from Jon, I am back to where I started--using an unsecure network to learn about such useful information as which movie will claim the number one spot this weekend.
I don't know why God doesn't want me to have a secure wireless network...I guess he wants that douche-bag who plays Kenny Chesney really loudly on Thursday nights to have access to my checking account. Go ahead, Kenny-lover--take my $1300.
Fantasy...why such a dirty word?
As I was reading my last posting--and please pardon all of my grammatical errors--I began a new subject of random musings. I used the word "fantasy" a few times to describe the genre of books, etc that make us escape. However, when did this word become a faux-pas and left only for geeks or young adults?
When I tell people I love Harry Potter--I am either welcomed into open arms by other quarter-century addicts who feel just as ostracized as I do, or laughed at and considered a social pariah. The latter happens MUCH more frequently.
What primarily drives my confusion is the fact that the word "fantasy" has a completely different connotation in the, well, bedroom. I don't think I could tell you one sitcom that hasn't breached this subject at least once. What is is that their partner truly fantasizes about? Is it doing in public? Alone on a deserted beach? A princess captured and pillaged by a pirate? What? So, if the idea of role-play and fantasy is so erotic and mesmerizing in bed, why is it so chastised and given an all-encompassing blanket of nerdiness in the real world?
We who fully admit to liking the escapism quality have nothing to hide...so this makes me think EVERYONE would really like to read what I read, but are too afraid to admit it. I call this the "American Idol" syndrome. No one likes to admit they watch such a paltry way to get Americans to buy more Coca-Cola products and watch Ryan Seacrest and Simon Cowell play "You're more gay than I am..." but it's the most-watched show on television--so SOMEONE has to be watching it. And we are not all 14-year old girls...
Those who pretend they don't like fantasy say it's because "it could never happen..." Well, that's exactly the point isn't it? Who the FUCK wants to read about the pitiful state of the world that we live in at the moment. Not that I totally erase non-fiction from my bookshelf, everyone needs balance in their life, but nothing ever makes me salivate and dream like a good fantasy book. Even women who love their Harlequin Romance novels are reading fantasy...just because there are no elves and fairy dust doesn't mean it's not a fantasy...no stable boy is THAT good-looking.
So, America--stop hating on me. You fantasize too, just take it out of the bedroom and put it all out there...no one will judge you (or at least I won't.)
When I tell people I love Harry Potter--I am either welcomed into open arms by other quarter-century addicts who feel just as ostracized as I do, or laughed at and considered a social pariah. The latter happens MUCH more frequently.
What primarily drives my confusion is the fact that the word "fantasy" has a completely different connotation in the, well, bedroom. I don't think I could tell you one sitcom that hasn't breached this subject at least once. What is is that their partner truly fantasizes about? Is it doing in public? Alone on a deserted beach? A princess captured and pillaged by a pirate? What? So, if the idea of role-play and fantasy is so erotic and mesmerizing in bed, why is it so chastised and given an all-encompassing blanket of nerdiness in the real world?
We who fully admit to liking the escapism quality have nothing to hide...so this makes me think EVERYONE would really like to read what I read, but are too afraid to admit it. I call this the "American Idol" syndrome. No one likes to admit they watch such a paltry way to get Americans to buy more Coca-Cola products and watch Ryan Seacrest and Simon Cowell play "You're more gay than I am..." but it's the most-watched show on television--so SOMEONE has to be watching it. And we are not all 14-year old girls...
Those who pretend they don't like fantasy say it's because "it could never happen..." Well, that's exactly the point isn't it? Who the FUCK wants to read about the pitiful state of the world that we live in at the moment. Not that I totally erase non-fiction from my bookshelf, everyone needs balance in their life, but nothing ever makes me salivate and dream like a good fantasy book. Even women who love their Harlequin Romance novels are reading fantasy...just because there are no elves and fairy dust doesn't mean it's not a fantasy...no stable boy is THAT good-looking.
So, America--stop hating on me. You fantasize too, just take it out of the bedroom and put it all out there...no one will judge you (or at least I won't.)
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Rescue You or Rescue Me?
As I lay into approximately the 5th straight day of reading non stop Vampire lore, I am beginning to wonder about my reasons and my mental state.
As someone who loves fantasy and loves to escape, I am prone to becoming a bit obsessed when I find something I can really, pardon the pun, sink my teeth into. I have become a recent fan of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Series and am now half-way through the third and penultimate book in the series. The irony of my choice to start reading this series NOW, when I have seen the enigmatic high-gloss black novels on the stands next to my beloved HP series for the last couple of years is laughable.
I too started dabbling in the occult at exactly the same point in the Harry Potter series. I started in the summer, just after school was released for the year (although I laugh at that considering I am WAY beyond graduation age,) when there were only 3 HPs at the time, and the 4th was due out in merely a month....odd. However, Stephenie Meyer's choice to only have 4 novels instead of lucky number seven will bring on my impending depression that much sooner. However, one could argue that HP #4, The Goblet of Fire was the beginning of the end of the series, so there are more similarities again...another time another place.
So, I began to wonder...why am I so drawn to Twilight just as I was to HP? I know other people are obsessed too--I am by no means THAT vain to think that I alone share my obsession. Once I put down the Deathly Hallows I honestly didn't think I would ever find anything else ever again to pique my interest even a fraction of what I held in my heart for the Trio.
When I read something, I escape into it's aura and the mileu that is surrounding the story...to a degree. However, when I started reading Sorcerer's Stone all those many years ago, I had a feeling of just not escape, but of actual jealousy that this was a world that I would never belong to--no matter how ambitious I chose to be. I love books, I read as much as I can. I love Jane Green, Chuck Klosterman, David Sedaris--they help me escape my mundane existance...but nothing enchanted me the way Hogwarts did. Until now. When I say I enchant--I mean I actually bleed into the books that enthrall me. I can't stop thinking them--when I have to answer the phone, I get angry--when I have to eat I read while I chew. When I shower I am thinking about what I have just read. I dream about it--I actually want to be a part of it. When I picked up Twilight four days ago...I got the same rush of adrenaline and the inability to put it down. However, this was not some hidden magic kingdom in the middle of England...this was Washington State--WHAT? For arguments sake however, the same hidden world inside our mortal boring world holds the same for both the former and the latter.
In Twilight, I was introduced to Bella Swan--a boring, somewhat nondescript 17 year old who moved away from her mother to live with her father in the small town of Forks, Washington. However, I didn't really care that much until I met Edward Cullen (insert sigh) The uncharacteristically beautiful "vegetarian" vampire who was bewitched by Bella's every move. He was attracted to her scent (she would have been the ideal victim--my beef fajitas and cheese enchiladas) if he still hunted humans. But it was the idea that this perfect man could fall for such a boring female that was so mesmerizing: every woman's fantasy.
However, HP has a love story--but it is a far third place thematically as compared to Good vs. Evil and the power of friendship. So, what made it so similar in my desire? I started mulling out comparisons in my head (THIS is why it is difficult to be my friend.) There are quite a few similarities in the fantasy aspect--but that is just a section in a bookstore in my opinion. So, let my wax Carrie Bradshaw for a moment and ponder what made my head spin so much...I think it was the dark romantic notion of being rescued.
In a normal world, ie the one that we are all a part of--unless JK Rowling, Stephenie Meyer, Philip Pullman, et al truely know something we dont...man and woman or in some instances, man and man or woman and woman, meet, have dinner, see a movie, have sex eventually, and fall in love--in no particular order....They get married, have babies and cease to exist as enigmatic beings and just become "mom and dad", or again, my two mommies." There generically is not a knight on a white horse whisking away his immortal beloved and living in pure entrancement of eachother for the rest of their lives.
But this is not a typical story of rescue--no Rapunzel (sp?) or hooker with a heart of gold pulled of Hollywood and Vine in a Lotus. These are both stories where two typically normal characters (Harry and Bella) are torn from monotony--yes, Harry's life was much worse, being tormented by the Dursley's, but he was in for a few more years of indentured servitude before he would start living off the Dole like the rest of Great Britain. I am begining to think that there is an innate, deep desire in all of us that all we want to be is rescued from whatever life we may lead and be drawn into a new one. Harry was rescued into wizardry, Bella was rescued by her ideal mate (albeit the bloodsucking part) into a life of pure true love. Although Harry's rescue is more desireable on the forefront--Bellas's is so enticing because she is being fought for, wanted, lusted-after and adored. Even Edward's fatal flaw--the fact that his deep carnal desire is to kill her actually makes it that much more interesting and, well...hot. Can any human relationship compete? Will any of us be happy knowing that some people are happier than us?
I guess since I live on Earth in 2008, I will just have to rescue myself--and go back to reading again.
As someone who loves fantasy and loves to escape, I am prone to becoming a bit obsessed when I find something I can really, pardon the pun, sink my teeth into. I have become a recent fan of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Series and am now half-way through the third and penultimate book in the series. The irony of my choice to start reading this series NOW, when I have seen the enigmatic high-gloss black novels on the stands next to my beloved HP series for the last couple of years is laughable.
I too started dabbling in the occult at exactly the same point in the Harry Potter series. I started in the summer, just after school was released for the year (although I laugh at that considering I am WAY beyond graduation age,) when there were only 3 HPs at the time, and the 4th was due out in merely a month....odd. However, Stephenie Meyer's choice to only have 4 novels instead of lucky number seven will bring on my impending depression that much sooner. However, one could argue that HP #4, The Goblet of Fire was the beginning of the end of the series, so there are more similarities again...another time another place.
So, I began to wonder...why am I so drawn to Twilight just as I was to HP? I know other people are obsessed too--I am by no means THAT vain to think that I alone share my obsession. Once I put down the Deathly Hallows I honestly didn't think I would ever find anything else ever again to pique my interest even a fraction of what I held in my heart for the Trio.
When I read something, I escape into it's aura and the mileu that is surrounding the story...to a degree. However, when I started reading Sorcerer's Stone all those many years ago, I had a feeling of just not escape, but of actual jealousy that this was a world that I would never belong to--no matter how ambitious I chose to be. I love books, I read as much as I can. I love Jane Green, Chuck Klosterman, David Sedaris--they help me escape my mundane existance...but nothing enchanted me the way Hogwarts did. Until now. When I say I enchant--I mean I actually bleed into the books that enthrall me. I can't stop thinking them--when I have to answer the phone, I get angry--when I have to eat I read while I chew. When I shower I am thinking about what I have just read. I dream about it--I actually want to be a part of it. When I picked up Twilight four days ago...I got the same rush of adrenaline and the inability to put it down. However, this was not some hidden magic kingdom in the middle of England...this was Washington State--WHAT? For arguments sake however, the same hidden world inside our mortal boring world holds the same for both the former and the latter.
In Twilight, I was introduced to Bella Swan--a boring, somewhat nondescript 17 year old who moved away from her mother to live with her father in the small town of Forks, Washington. However, I didn't really care that much until I met Edward Cullen (insert sigh) The uncharacteristically beautiful "vegetarian" vampire who was bewitched by Bella's every move. He was attracted to her scent (she would have been the ideal victim--my beef fajitas and cheese enchiladas) if he still hunted humans. But it was the idea that this perfect man could fall for such a boring female that was so mesmerizing: every woman's fantasy.
However, HP has a love story--but it is a far third place thematically as compared to Good vs. Evil and the power of friendship. So, what made it so similar in my desire? I started mulling out comparisons in my head (THIS is why it is difficult to be my friend.) There are quite a few similarities in the fantasy aspect--but that is just a section in a bookstore in my opinion. So, let my wax Carrie Bradshaw for a moment and ponder what made my head spin so much...I think it was the dark romantic notion of being rescued.
In a normal world, ie the one that we are all a part of--unless JK Rowling, Stephenie Meyer, Philip Pullman, et al truely know something we dont...man and woman or in some instances, man and man or woman and woman, meet, have dinner, see a movie, have sex eventually, and fall in love--in no particular order....They get married, have babies and cease to exist as enigmatic beings and just become "mom and dad", or again, my two mommies." There generically is not a knight on a white horse whisking away his immortal beloved and living in pure entrancement of eachother for the rest of their lives.
But this is not a typical story of rescue--no Rapunzel (sp?) or hooker with a heart of gold pulled of Hollywood and Vine in a Lotus. These are both stories where two typically normal characters (Harry and Bella) are torn from monotony--yes, Harry's life was much worse, being tormented by the Dursley's, but he was in for a few more years of indentured servitude before he would start living off the Dole like the rest of Great Britain. I am begining to think that there is an innate, deep desire in all of us that all we want to be is rescued from whatever life we may lead and be drawn into a new one. Harry was rescued into wizardry, Bella was rescued by her ideal mate (albeit the bloodsucking part) into a life of pure true love. Although Harry's rescue is more desireable on the forefront--Bellas's is so enticing because she is being fought for, wanted, lusted-after and adored. Even Edward's fatal flaw--the fact that his deep carnal desire is to kill her actually makes it that much more interesting and, well...hot. Can any human relationship compete? Will any of us be happy knowing that some people are happier than us?
I guess since I live on Earth in 2008, I will just have to rescue myself--and go back to reading again.
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