book: tender morsels

In response to the question, "...[W]hat message would you like readers to take away after reading [your book]? The author, Margo Lanagan responds, "No message. I'd like to think that they'd look up from the last page, shake themselves, and find it hard to come back to the real world. I'd like to think for the next several days, questions that were touched off by the novel would keep being brought back to their mind...."(1)

Well, I think she accomplished that.

This book is the story of Liga, her early life that is heavily tainted by sexual violence, her two girls that come as a result, and their life in Liga's personal heaven. To keep this review from going off into tangents, I will restate what I wrote in my journal last night after finishing:

What I got from it [the book] is that sometimes, after bad things happen to us, we go to our own personal heavens to keep out the hurt. But without hurt, there is an absence of joy, as well. And as hard as it is [for Liga and her daughters] to return to the real world, it is necessary; [they were] unable to progress in [Liga's] 'personal heaven.'

I'm not sure if I would recommend the book heartily - no - I would recommend it. However, it deals very bluntly with violence agains women, mainly sexual violence. Specifically incest and rape. As the author says, the acts are never "on-screen"(2), [but] you definitely know what is going on. The author becomes/is quite adept with her euphemisms.

An interesting point is that in Australia, the book is marketed for adults, and in the USA the book is marketed to Young Adults.(3) The back contains a Q&A with the author. 

I would only add that it is the author's reaction to the Brother's Grimm, Snow-White and Red Rose. And the "super-nice"(4) women in that version "to be passively accepting and reliably amiable...." Lanagan much prefers Caroline Stahl's earlier tale, "The Ungrateful Dwarf."(5)


All quotes are from the author's interview, found in the back of the 2008 paperback version of the book.
1- 14
2- 6
3- 12
4- 10
5- 6

find the kitty

Okay, I'm a bit slow today. And since I didn't post the HIGHLY anticipated recurring post last week, I felt an extra push to follow through this week.

Well, it was this, or Fainting Goats.

Enjoy.



More here.

new member of the family

I would like to introduce the newest member of my family:

Manny, the Mandolin. 

Okay, that's really not his name, but I thought it was punny.

But look at his beeyootiful backside.

I thought he was purty, too.

I forget what the guy said the wood was, but I think the style of the back is not very common. I will say that the model is one of a kind - a prototype that will be downgraded in materials to meet a certain price point. Which of course appealed to my 'I-like-to-be-different'-ness.

But, besides all the nice aesthetic appeal, it has quite a lovely, resonant sound. Including the one I played last semester, I've only really played four mandolins in my life. There was a nice rich toned mahagony, and a super lacquered one; this was a nice balance between the two styles.

I'm currently playing scales, and working on getting the individual notes to sound. This whole string, well, let's just say I prefer holes to strings. So much more intuitive!

And for those concerned about my oboe-ing, I have a standing rule that I cannot practice mandolin till I have practiced the oboe. I only broke that rule once, when my new strap came in the mail.

find the kitty

And now for something a little different.

excuses excuses

So, its been over five weeks since I posted anything.

First, it was because I was finishing classes.
And then I said it was because I was packing. I moved out of my apartment, and into a friend's sister's house. (Yay! for a real house!)
Then, I travelled cross country with a kitty. Thankfully he was quite good, and I didn't have to go to jail for animal cruelty.
After I hiked through the Grand Canyon.
Then I did laundry because I don't like luggage-y smelling clothes.
Now, I'm slowly putting the Utah house in order post-renters. My room and bathroom and the wash area are done.
Yesterday I helped the wee-one, Alejandro, learn to like grass.
I've now started on the books and the dishes.

And that's today's status.

As I write there's a little black kitty snuggled up against me.


Later you will here about the books I've read, and the canyons I've hiked.

Until then, adieu.