Stephanie Meyers fans need not apply

Borders has gradually become a very depressing place. I was there today and found this to be so. Not that I've never had this experience before, mind. I get a new rush of distaste for the NY Times Bestseller List every time I walk in. But somehow it was worse today.

First of all, there was the stand of Stephanie Meyers books prominently displayed at the front of the store, along with posters for the upcoming movie. Not unexpected, and I can deal. But still. Blech.

However, was this enough copies of Twilight? No, no, no, no, of course it wasn't, because when I strolled through the Young Adult section, there they were again: almost an entire case filled with the Twilight series, except for the last shelf, which housed the Eragon books. The book-case next to this was pretty much devoted to new vampire, werewolf, or whatever-other-monster-is-popular-at-the-moment novels that are riding on the coat tails of the Twilight craze. Do you know how many solid, well-established, Newberry-Award-winning novels must have been moved to the store-room to make room for this garbage? Two-book cases full, that's how many.

Of course, by focusing on this abomination, I'm entirely ignoring the fact that there are shelves upon shelves of those insipid Clique books or TTYL (a series entirely composed of text message conversation. Isn't that clever? Answer: No. It's not.), or their copycats. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you live a sheltered life and are extremely lucky. Moreover, this is the majority of the YA section, books like these, written exclusively for girls (What? Boys don't read anymore?). And this, my good people, is why Teen Girl Squad is such a true and accurate commentary on life. It angers me that our society throws out cliches about "being an original" and "think for yourself," while practically cramming shallowness, consumerism, and boy-obsession down the throats of teenage girls. Not to mention training an entire readership to devour nothing but chick-lit for the rest of their adult life.

I fear for the youth of our nation.

Remember that quote from You've Got Mail? "I've heard him compare his bookstore to a Price Club, and the books in it to cans of olive oil." What bothers me most is that bookstores, publishing companies, and writers (I'm not sure who is the most guilty) all seem to be conspiring to push certain books on the public, to create these crazes. But books are not cans of olive oil, and I hate it that places like Borders basically tell their consumers what to buy, and that the public actually listens. For goodness' sake, Be Original. Think for Yourself. The question is, would these books be so popular if they didn't take up half the store? I guess it's possible, but I seriously doubt it. It is as if supply is creating demand, not the other way around.

So. I have a plan. Since the general public is so fond of being told what to read, can we start a literary oligarchy? Pleeeeease? Who's with me? Keep in mind that this would be a merit-based system, so you can only join if you can provide plausible evidence of good taste. Read the title of this post for the first qualification.

Cold-blooded women make me sneeze

For lack of better categorization, this blog will go under the heading of...stuff I've been into lately. Reading and music-wise apparently. I would have included movies I've watched recently, but these bullet points are turning into full-blown essays and I need to stop.

• Reading Stephen Greenblatt's first book, Renaissance Self-Fashioning (circa 1980).
  
  About the nature of identity in the Renaissance, connected to performance. Very interesting so far. In other news, Sir Thomas More is way more unpredictable and unclassifiable than anyone would have thought.
  
  (By the way, my novel has something to do with the topic of performance and identity, albeit in a much different way. As it is, I can't get my characters to stop over-philosophizing. They might as well get on a soapbox and say, "Here is what my author is currently thinking about the nature of identity." Reading Stephen Greenblatt does not help this problem any. I realized this today.)
  
  
• Re-reading Richard II for the Shakespeare class I'm teaching. I really love this play, but I have a feeling it's going to be a tough one to get my students excited about; at least, I seem to remember having this problem last time I taught this class. I'm predicting that their version will read something like: "Some random English king (one of the ones no one's ever heard of) is DEPOSED by this traitor Bolingbroke and a lot of courtiers make SPEECHES with frequent overuse of RHYMING COUPLETS. Pointless METAPHORS abound."
  
  
• Listening to:
• Fleet Foxes - self-titled album
  
  
  Mini-review: They are genius. And quite difficult to describe adequately. Which usually indicates genius (Taken to writing fragment sentences for the sake of emphasis? Guilty as charged). Anyway, they are quickly earning their place beside those Very Few bands I like who can in any respect be classified as anything close to "Country," along with Neko Case and...hm. Nope, sorry; all I can think of is Neko Case (I guess Alison Krauss is ok, too, but I don't really listen to her to be honest). But then, both Neko and Foxes are better qualified as "Indie-" or "Alternative-" Country. "Folk" is also acceptable as a non-loaded substitute for "Country." Or, you know, "Indie-folk" if you want to be picky. (This means, of course, that I need to write another blog about how all these terms are essentially meaningless, and taking such categories too seriously is probably a fundamentally poserish activity, even on the part of the innest in-crowd (for example, the editors of Paste)).
  
  Anyways.
  
  They have a certain backwoodsy charm with a gospel-ish feel to it (I'm making up words), though their lyrics have an evocative, obscurely poetic quality, which I love. They make frequent use of harmony; "White Winter Hymnal" starts out a capella with all the band members' voices gradually joining in. However, sometimes their music is just as reminiscent of some kind of Early Music monastic choir...
  
  See, I told you it was hard to describe. And it turns out this review was not-so-mini.
  
  Go here to download "White Winter Hymnal" for free (and legally...I think).
  
  Go here to have a listen to their other songs. I'd recommend "Tiger Mountain Peasant Song," "Meadowlark," and "Your Protector" for starters.
  
  
• The Fratellis - Here We Stand (their second album)
  If I were better at writing about this sort of thing, I would talk about riffs and other esoteric terminology I don't really understand. Otherwise, this is what I've otherwise lovingly termed "Brash Brit-rock" (whatever that means). Heavy on the electric guitar, but with a nice complement of acoustic and piano. A very 60's/Classic rock feel, all told. What they do couldn't really be described as original (think Frank Ferdinand and The Kaiser Chiefs), but what they do, they do really, really well. Probably one of the catchiest bands on the planet, not just in terms of their tunes (which are impossible to get out of your head) but also very creative lyrics.
  
  Ex:
  "Wont you please forgive me/ but you know cold-blooded women make me sneeze."
  (which is HILARIOUS)
  
  "You might be an embarrassment/ but I love the way your clothes are never in style."
  
  
  "Tell Desdemona that I'm ready to leave/ Well, she nothin' much to look at and she's hard to believe"
  (the girl he's singing about is named Desdemona. How great is that?)
  
  "She said, 'Don't you look ridiculous'/ He checked her out meticulously."
  (My friend Joanna is particularly impressed with this one for the rhyming of "ridiculous" and "meticulously")
  
  
  
  I'm too lazy to provide a link. Look them up on Lastfm if you're interested.
  
  

November 10

I saw someone else do this on another blog and thought it was interesting, so I'm doing it too. Look up your date of birth on Wikipedia (month & day); choose 4 events, 3 birthdays, 2 deaths, and 1 holiday. (I only chose the ones I thought were more interesting).

Events:
a) 1520 - Danish King Christian II executes dozens of people in the Stockholm Bloodbath after a successful invasion of Sweden.
b) 1619 - René Descartes has the dreams that inspire his Meditations on First Philosophy.
c) 1871 - Henry Morton Stanley locates missing explorer and missionary, Dr. David Livingstone in Ujiji, near Lake Tanganyika saying "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?"
d) 1940 - Walt Disney begins serving as an informer for the Los Angeles office of the FBI; his job is to report back information on Hollywood subversives.

Births:
a) 1483 - Martin Luther, German Protestant reformer (d. 1546)
b) 1697 - William Hogarth, English artist (d. 1764)
c) 1728 - Oliver Goldsmith, English playwright (d. 1774)

Deaths:
a) 1891 - Arthur Rimbaud, French poet, (b. 1854)
b) 2007 - Norman Mailer, American author (b. 1923)

Holiday:
Turkey - Day of Remembrance of Ataturk

P.S. Joanna, consider yourself tagged.

Writing, David Tennant, Teen Girl Squad, David Tennant...

Well, the writing on Ye Olde Novel is going a little better than it usual lately. As in, I'm actually doing some. It is still gives me an inordinate amount of trouble just to silence the little editor in my head that keeps telling me that my writing is a complete and utter waste of trees. Which is why I progress so slowly--I can't help being a perfectionist when it comes to this. Guess that just goes to show that I need to replace that internal editor voice with other voices, better voices. Such as the voice of the Ninth Doctor (Chris Eccleston) saying, "Jenny, your writing is FANTASTIC!" Other candidates might include...

C.S. Lewis: "Here are beauties which pierce like swords or burn like cold iron."

Teen Girl Squad: "SOOO good!"

Tenth Doctor (David Tennant): "I love it! I've got chills! I mean that from the heart...and by the way, count those."

Boromir: "This story is like being called home by the clear ringing of silver trumpets."

Elizabeth Bennett: "I don't think I've ever seen a novel so happily situated. I like it very much indeed."

Ahhhh...I feel better already.

Ok, so tonight, while out novelling with Joanna, I had the brilliant idea of outlining our scenes by writing the dialogue Teen-Girl-Squad style, as we were both a little stuck. And oh what hilarity ensued:

“I likee the look of this place. It exudes mythiosity!” said Mara.

“This place smells like Norse gods,” said Elsa.

“Elsa, stop being such a girl.”

“Smart stuff, smart stuff, smart stuff,” said Josh.

Loki, “Hey kids, let me charm you with my wicked ways. You’s all invited to the Council of Odin to be evaluated for coolness factors. Also, superpowers help.”

“I am SOOOO in with a chance!”

Later in Valhalla….

Odin: “Hey, other-world kids! Are you ready to get down with semi-arbitrary enforcement of a social hierarchy?”

Elsa: “Yes, ma’am…I mean, sir.”

Josh: “I’m good with numbers, and…Wisdom.”

Odin: “Josh, you can be our resident Preventer of Ragnarok.”

Elsa: “I’m good with apples, and…Beauty.”

“Elsa, you’ve been hit with a pretty stick. You can join the Aesir Goddess Cool Club. Oh, and tend our Eternal Youth and Beauty Forever Tree of …Eternal Youth.”

Mara: “Can I not get stuck on the outskirts?”

Gods and goddesses: “Noooo way!”

Well, it's funnier if you know something about my story. Or Teen Girl Squad. Anyways...

Did I mention I want to go to England right now?

I ♥ La Blogotheque

For those of us who like quirky acoustic indie music, La Blogotheque is pretty much the best thing ever. Generally speaking, it is a bunch of French guys who record semi-famous indie musicians playing/singing their own songs whilst walking through the streets of Paris...or somewhere equally European.

This one is a little different, as they capture Sufjan singing/playing on a windy rooftop in Cleveland (I think), rather than a Paris street corner. I still like the version by The Innocence Mission better, but I do wish Sufjan would record his own cover of this song. Something about playing the song outdoors is particularly appropriate to the song, and does something very nice for the acoustics. The panoramic shots are also lovely to watch.



Lyrics:
Look for me another day.
I feel that I could change,
I feel that I could change.
There's a sudden joy that's like
a fish, a moving light;
I thought I saw it
rowing on the lakes of Canada

Oh laughing man, what have you won?
Don't tell me what cannot be done.
My little mouth, my winter lungs,
don't tell me what can't be done.

Walking in the circle of a flashlight
someone starts to sing, to join in.
Talk of loneliness in quiet voices.
I am shy but you can reach me.
Rowing on the lakes of Canada,
rowing on the lakes of Canada.

Oh laughing man, what have you won?
Don't tell me what cannot be done.
My little mouth, my winter lungs,
don't tell me what can't be done.

Look for me another time
Give me another day
I feel that I could change

Rowing on the lakes of Canada