12.08.2009

cages

{i apologize in advance since i've been sick for the past few days and i spent all of today in bed reading/watching the below so my mind is mush.}


there always seems to be a compulsory mourning period after finishing the last book of a series. particularly, as in this case {just finished numero eight}, the series is of a substantial number of books. technically there is still one more book already published, and another coming in may, but i've been warned that the ninth leaves you at a bad place so i'm going to wait it out and read it right before it's sequel.

in the meantime, i'm a bit sheepish about how much time in the past few weeks i've spent not only reading about sookie stackhouse, but also watching the hbo television series, true blood, {where her name is pronounced as though it rhymes with cookie} and made {very loosely} in the books' image. i'm sheepish because it's so obviously poorly written {particularly the show, which is disappointing from an alan ball script--think american beauty}, pulpy, unrealistic and full of some of the worse plot decision-making that i can think of. and yet, here i am, fairly desperate to start season two of the show and/or run out and buy the ninth book and yet equally desperate to start my life again: paint, write, play piano, pick up the mess of clothing and paper that is the remnants of a week of tooth pain that was replaced by sickness, catch up on work, pay bills, the list goes on for days. emails. write emails. for crying out loud i owe so many people emails.

and i wonder at the addiction i know i'm facing. minor, yes, but one reflected in so many of the young girls these days. sookie will never have the prominence of the twilight series even though it's {slightly} better and sookie is at least trying to be an independently thinking person and never once professes to be dying without the love of her life, yadayadayada...

nathania, where is this going?

hmm....good question.
i think i'm just angry that my life is absorbed by this trash and yet i get so much enjoyment out of it. the books more so than the tv show. i tell you i laughed my hiney off at the one character they did
right on the show. right as in: they didn't just take the general idea of him, pump it with emotions, steroids and hormones and throw it on the screen, no, eric they got the heart and soul of and somehow the best writing of the season always seemed to happen when he was depicted. but i digress.

okay, so you're angry, but it's more than that, right?

yes, i think so. i guess i'm just disappointed when there are so many more beautiful stories, or even simple, obvious ways to have made this story better. i mean really simple things. in the tv show, 1. they tried to get way too many stories told so they all come out diluted. 2. they picked one of the most decent and trustworthy characters and made him sleep with sookie's best friend to conjure yet more opportunities for conflict and sex. dumb in the same way that making faramir try to go after the ring when tolkien's point was that he was immune and integrous. 3. everyone's response to everything is to get angry and they blew by all these wonderful moments to build relationships and connections between two characters and frankly i'm sick of seeing anna paquin whiney. she's better than that. they all are. they are just given bad material except for the aforementioned eric, who, i double sheepishly must admit is the stunning son of stellan skarsgard. yay swedes.

but this is more than just a rant about the books or the show.

geeze, can't you just leave me be??? okay, okay, it's more than about these two things. sheesh. why do you have to be all over my case?


because you're trying to go to sleep but you have too much weighing you down.

alright, alright, i admit it. i feel like a caged animal stuck in yet another fantasy world and not getting anywhere. and it's worse when i see stories poorly told and films poorly made.


okay, that sounds more like it. and what are you going to do about it?

i don't know. it's so much easier to just sit here and bitch and then return to normal life of bills, work, and cleaning up the clothes i have strewn about the house during the past week of hibernation.

so, for tonight why don't you just go to bed?

hmm...okay. i guess that's the only thing i can do tonight.

2 comments:

Marcus said...

"...my life is absorbed by this trash and yet i get so much enjoyment out of it.."

Made me smile, TB is the perfect example of enjoyable trash. And sometimes that's OK, at least we don't watch X Factor ;)

There's only two things I've ever watched on TV, with any commitment - Actually, unlike you I own one, but don't use it, both shows are from TV but watched on DVD - Sopranos and Dexter.

TB is certainly 'sillier' than these, but y'know... The way my weeks have been going, silly is good. I feel a bit like I do after junk food though, buzzing but wandering what real food tastes like... And as it's an Alan Ball creation, it's a shame it wasn't a little grittier, darker (I know it's about vampires and monsters and blood! But it's a very teenage girl type of 'dark' IMO).

Anyways, hope the recovery is quick... And if you want something to make you think/throw the remote at the telly/the mouse at the computer, at least start by Googling John From Cincinnati - clever, weird, deep... Possibly ;)

nathania tenwolde said...

okay, so two months late, but here's my response to your lovely comment, marcus:

there is a particular quality to this trash that sucks me in and makes me feel like that ugly worthless teenager i somewhere deep still cling to on bad days.

i know i've been ranting and raving for days on how mad i am at thom yorke for composing a song for the most recent twilight film when he's so vocal about his morals, etc, but really, all that foot stomping and fist shaking on my part is just because those movies terrify me and i haven't seen either. they terrify and attract me in the same way fashion magazines push and pull me. i look at the posters and i see this carefully constructed reality consisting of beautiful--flawless from their airbrushed faces to the designer clad feet--people and there is this overlapping message of desire that is just screaming at me how unlike them i am, either the characters or the actors they've chosen to portray them.

and that makes me feel worthless.

or rather, it's just an opportunity for all of my insecurities as a person and as an aspiring film actor to parade around with trumpets and tubas and announce their presence in my psyche.

so, i'm afraid of those movies. and also sad I'M not in a movie thom yorke is writing a song for.

sheesh. so that's the embarrassing truth about it.