State of the Madness, Books of the Year

I haven't consulted a doctor or anything, but I may be dying from boredom. The last two months have reminded me why I don't like being in Redlands. There isn't really anything to do, not really any people in the 20-30 set (for the most part) and I pretty much have no friends. There hasn't been any circus practice to entertain me for the last couple weeks and I am snapping from the boredom and restlessnes.

Otherwise, I have applied to be a language analyst at the NSA, and I hope they get back to me soon. This would involve moving to Maryland, which I am, at this point, pretty okay with. To this end, i've been brushing up on Persian; I claimed to know it (they have a scale for self-reporting, but I still said I know some), so I don't want to make a total fool of myself. And I've made a head start on learning some more media arabic vocab.

I really wish I had some New Year's plans, but I don't. I know I want to drink myself into oblivion, to symbolicly obliterate the shithole that this past year has been. My current conundrum: wine or vodka? I'll have to decide soon, in any case.

And the moment you have all been waiting for, the list of Books I Read in 2009. I'm assuming I won't read anymore between now and the New Year. (listed is the title, author and date that I finished it)

1. Lost in a Good Book - Jasper Fforde
2. The Well of Lost Plots - Jasper Fforde 1/11
3. Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman 1/18
4. Islamic Historiagraphy - Chase Robinson 1/18
5. Something Rotten - Jasper Fforde 1/30
6. First Among Sequels - Jasper Fforde 2/9
7. Coraline - Neil Gaiman 2/11
8. New Reference Grammar of Modern Spanish 2/26
9. The Princess Bride - WIlliam Goldman 2/27
10. The Stepford Wives - Ira Levin3/9
11. A Room with a View - E.M. Forster 3/14
12. One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest -Ken Kesey 3/22
13. The Golden Trade of the Moors - E.W. Bovil 4/5
14. Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood 4/7
15. The Scandals of Translation: Towards and Ethics of Difference - Lawrence Venuti 4/19
16. Malinche (Spanish edition) -Laura Esquivel 5/11
17. Stardust (Spanish edition) -Neil Gaiman 5/27
18. Empires of the World: a Language History of the World -Nicholas Ostler 5/28
19. This Side of Paradise -F. Scott Fitzgerald 5/31
20. The Purity Myth: How America's Obsession with Virginity is Hurting Young Women -Jessica Valenti 6/1
21. The Robber Bride - Margaret Atwood 6/7
22. Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement -Kathyrn Joyce 6/22
23. Anansi Boys: A novel -Neil Gaimna 6/25
24. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Ston (Arabic edition) 6/25
25. American Gods -Neil Gaiman 7/11
26. Female Chauvinist Pigs -Ariel Levy 7/15
27. Assassin's Apprentice -Robin Hobb 7/22
28. Royal Assassin -Robin Hobb 7/30
29. Assassin's Quest -Robin Hob 8/9
30. The Mystery of Edwin Drood -Charles Dickens 8/13
31. Ship of Magic -Robin Hobb 8/31
32. Mad Ship -Robin Hobb 9/16
33. El Laberinto de la Soledad y Otras Obras -Octavio Paz 9/22
34. Ship of Destiny -Robin Hobb 9/27
35. The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power -Jeff Sharlet 10/3
36. Fool's Errand -Robin Hobb 10/17
37. Golden Fool -Robin Hobb 10/24
38. Fool's Fate -Robin Hobb 10/27
39. The Magicians -Lev Grossman 11/16
40. From Eve to Dawn, a History of Women in the World Volume I: Origins: from Prehistory to the First Millennium -Marilyn French 11/7
41. Lost Boy -Brent Jeffs 11/8
42. Favorite Wife -Susan Ray Schmidt 11/14
43. Interworld -Neil Gaiman 11/16
44. Year of the Flood: A Novel -Margaret Atwood 11/21
45. Shattered Dreams -Irene Spencer 11/24
46. A History of Iran: Empire of the Mind -Michael Axworthy 12/7
47. The Shia Revival: How Conflicts within Islam Will Shape the Future -Vali Nasr 12/12
48. Harry Potter and the chamber of Secrets (Arabic Editionh) 12/14
49. Hidden Iran: Paradox and Power in the Islamic Republic -Ray Takeyh 12/21
50. The Blind Assassin: A Novel -Margaret Atwood 12/28
    

So these were the goals I set at the beginning of the year:
* 5 books in Spanish
* 4 banned books
* 4 books in Arabic
* 3 linguistics books
* 3 history books
* Read fiction from 3 authors that I haven't read before

In the end, I read 3 books in Spanish (and I'm halfway through Wicked: Memorias de una Bruja Mala), 2 in Arabic, I think one or two banned books, 2--arguably 3--linguistics books and 3 (4 depending on how you count) history books. That is better than I thought I did compared to my goals, so yay.

Trends: There was a lot of fantasy, largely in thanks to the Realm of the Elderlings series (all that Robin hobb). That is a testament to great marketing. I downloaded the first book for my Kindle because it was free, and then I bought EIGHT MORE books. So, good job, publishing house. I also took a pretty big interest in feminism, which is pretty new. A lot of books about fringe religious shit, both from a journalistic/research standpoint and in memoirs (FLDS memoirs, got kind of on a streak there).

What It Is

So I've been in California sunshine-land for a week now, which is pretty weird since it seems like I've done kind of a lot for it just being a week. One of the first things I did was paint my room; it's now a honeydew green sort of color. I have been meaning to take a picture, but I have to do it at night, otherwise my room is backlit like so much amateur photography.

I went to circus practice all week and I was surprised by the number of people who remembered me. Juggling has been the most fun so far, but I've also been to teeterboard, which has been overrun by young people. When I was in teeterboard, it was mostly adults, so I don't really know what happened, but it's one of many things letting me know that I am now old (in circus at least). Also, the kids in teeterboard keep texting and shit between turns, which I find objectionable. You can't tell me texting is more interesting than fucking teeterboard. I've also been showing up to cradle, but have so far been unable to do much. I lack the strength to even climb up to the damn thing, so I've mostly just been spotting.

On Friday I went to a cake decorating class. It's a four week class, but this first one was pretty boring. It had an infomercial-like quality to it, since you have to get all of your own decorating tools. This explained why it was so cheap to sign up for the class (only $22!). Naturally, I decided that I should just go all out and I bought the biggest, most absurd cake decorating kit I could find. So now I have about 18 tips, a number of bags, spatulas and more fondant tools than I know what to do with, but I figure now I'm set for a lifetime of decorating. For each of the other 3 classes, it's a bring-your-own-cake (BYOC) affair. You have to bring your own icing as well. Fortunately, I fucking love baking cakes, and have already picked out a bunch of recipies I want to do. I think this week I'll be starting with a sour cream poppy seed cake with white chocolate buttercream. I'll hopefully post a picture of it one I decorate it.

Being unemployed as I am, I've been reading a lot. This week I read The Magicians by Lev Grossman, which is about a 17 year old boy who ends up going to a 5 year magic college and then he and his friends find the secret to travelling between worlds and end up in Narnia Fillory. I read a few reviews about it after the fact and there seems to be some contention about whether Grossman was lampooning the genre or what. I, however, doubt that is was necessarily satirical. At this point, it's basically impossible to write a fantasy book without taking some cues from current fantasy lit, so I think he's just providing a nod to the exisiting works. I'd also argue that it's a more adult take on some of those themes. I just started reading Lost Boy by Brent Jeffs, to feed my voyeuristic obsession with the FLDS. I have like 5 books on my Amazon wishlist that are FLDS memoirs, and I'm not really sure why it's so fascinating, but it is.

Literature, Atheists, and Jesus-lovers

Browsing around the Intertubes, as I do, I've come upon more than one discussion lately about Christians going crazy over the new movie adaptation of Pullman's The Golden Compass. What boggles the mind is not that the Jesus-lovers feel that their feet are being stopmed on, since it seems to me that no amount of room is enough as long as there are people who disagree with them (that's another story), but that they're going bat-shit crazy over it now. I understand that a movie can call attention to a story in a bigger way than most books can, but this book was first published in 1995. It was winning awards at least by 1997, which is when my copy is from and it heralds some awards. This conclusion that I want to draw is that Christians don't actually read.* Just to be inflammatory I could go ahead and say that it seems they don't even read their bible that closely, but I think I'll skip that argument. Anyway, here's the description from some facebook group telling us about why we shouldn't see this movie:

Name: "Do NOT support "The Golden Compass"
Type: Entertainment & Arts - Movies
Description:
THE GOLDEN COMPASS, a new movie targeted at children, will be released
December 7, 2007. This movie is based on a the first book of a trilogy
by atheist Philip Pullman. In the final book a boy and girl kill God
so they can do as they please. Pullman left little doubt about his
intentions when he said in a 2003 interview that "My books are about
killing God."
The movie is a watered down version of the first book and is designed
to be very attractive in the hope unsuspecting parents will take their
children to see the the movie and that the children will want the
books for Christmas.
The movie has a well known cast, including Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig,
and Sam Elliott. It will probably b advertised extensively, so it is
crucial that we get the word out to warn people to avoid this movie.

Having read this series twice, and the second time was just earlier this year, I feel pretty safe in saying that whoever wrote this just heard a few tidbits about the movie and then wrote this. Let's disect it

Pullman is an atheist: true, but to be honest this has little bearing on the actual story. In fact, even though the main characters, Lyra and Will, set out to "kill god," or The Authority as he's called in the books, they actually end up playing the roles of Adam and Eve later. There's even some speculation on the afterlife, so it's obviously not interfering with his fiction. Asimov was essentially an atheist but I don't see anyone going "Don't ever read Nemesis because Asimov was an atheist and scientist!"

Spoiler Alert***
Will and Lyra "kill God so they can do as they please:" Again, whoever wrote this either hasn't read the story or read it and didn't get it at all. Lyra hears bits and pieces about her father working on some way to kill The Authority and later her best friend dies and so she decides to find some way to save him from it. After an arduous quest, she makes her way to the land of the dead and finds him. She and Will create a way for the souls to become part of the flow of the universe, and, if I recall correctly, inadvertently kill The Authority at another point in the story.

"My books are about killing god:" Yeah, I mean on one level they are, but Pullman says that they're also very much a coming of age tale in this interview, and I would expect that quote had some context with it. I get the feeling that Christians don't read, and then someone brings up some "god hating book [they] heard about" and everyone goes "oh no! I must hide my eyes and protect my childruns!"

This story is "designed to be very attractive in the hope unsuspecting parents will take their children to see the the movie and that the children will want the books for Christmas:" If you're not going to let your children read this or see the movie then you might as well bar them from Harry Potter (which I don't like, but at least I've read it and have an informed opinion), A Wrinkle in Time, Wicked, Dune (because Bene Gesserits and Mentants are probably just as bad as witches and atheists!), The Crucible, and many other good books in existence.

I can understand wanting to shelter your kid from drugs, foul language, unpleasant experiences and maybe even sex, but not exposing children to literature and alternate viewpoints is just asking for them to grow up to be ignorant, intolerant tools. And if you're going to criticize something at least do a little research.

*disclaimer: I know that not christians are the same, some of them probably read and are educated.