Of books and eclipses
Jan. 21st, 2019 01:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
impyI think I figured out my book review for Everything Grows, but I admit I went a little wishy-washy on the nostalgia factor. Mostly because it's entirely possible that it's user error, or, y'know, just because it doesn't feel like '93 to me doesn't mean that it won't feel that way to everyone else who reads it.
So you get my more in-depth musings. Sorry. :P
Book blurb: Fifteen-year-old Eleanor Fromme just chopped off all of her hair. How else should she cope after hearing that her bully, James, has committed suicide? When Eleanor’s English teacher suggests students write a letter to a person who would never read it to get their feelings out, Eleanor chooses James.
More accurately: In this LGBTQ+ YA coming-of-age novel, a teenage girl grapples with the suicide of a classmate and her mother's depression, while discovering her own gender and sexual identity.
I've mentioned before that it took me an embarrassingly long time to remember this was *ahem* historical (someone else used the term and now I feel old and amused at the same time) or set in the past. I looked it up and it's about page 30 when it kicks in because Eleanor is remembering putting a mix-tape in her Walkman before heading out for a walk to clear her head. It's literally not until the word Walkman shows up that I think to look back at page 1 for the date.
Until then, I'm at a loss as to why cutting her hair very short, dying it an unnatural shade of I want to say red, and then having her best friend comment that it makes her look like *looks around, all paranoid that someone will overhear* a lesbian is even a thing. Because it's 1993, self. That's why. Am I allowed to say nothing else feels like that year if I've just pointed out things that would indicate the year? The weirdness of the haircut/dye job and the freaking out about looking more than a little butch? Because it still doesn't feel quite like the timeframe given. But let's pour bands and books and authors and poets and maybe if these are all your jam, this will make the book feel authentically (oh god, how I loathe people who call for everything to be "authentic" but the word works here so I must get over the aversion) like the early 90's. To me it doesn't.
The characters we're supposed to like and root for (Eleanor, her family, Flor, Aggie, and Helaine) all kind of treat Eleanor's coming out and dealing with her mother's suicide attempt in ways that read far more like, say, 2018, than they do the 90's. Which isn't to say that everyone would've reacted the way Dara did, and freak out and be horrible about it (while still having a point that I will get to in a bit) but also it's the way it's written and presented. The thought processes shown and given feel like someone looking back and attributing current ideals and ways of thinking even though a lot of that was hard won.
Flipside, with James' death, do we really need more "life sucks if you're different" presented on page? Eh, probably not. And all of this is before we even begin to poke the bear that is the fact that Eleanor is (most likely) trans but hasn't the word for it yet.
Mostly I kept coming back to how the book feels, nostalgia wise. It reminds me a lot of The Carrie Diaries which is a show that was set in the 80's but if you looked even a little bit closer at the sets and things, it didn't always feel like the 80's. Contrast that with Stranger Things which pretty much feels straight outta the 80's from the word go and maybe you get what I'm trying to say? I like them both (CD was criminally cut short) but they don't have the same feel to a decade they both share, even beyond the genres being different.
Oh, and Dara's point before I forget: she and Eleanor find out about James committing suicide on the same day, while El is over at Dara's house. El freaks out internally and rushes out of Dara's room, leaving Dara to wonder WTF just happened. The next time she sees Eleanor, El has cut off her hair and dyed it and is basically acting very, very strangely.
And... El never considers for a moment that maybe abandoning Dara would lead to her friend feeling kind of weird about her. And she never has to really consider it because then Dara drops the L word and we're off to the races. Dara's a shitty friend and this is one of those things I simply can't wrap my head around despite knowing it's a thing that actually happens to people because I simply don't think that way about my friends. So this one I know is on me.
Since I ultimately liked the book in almost every other respect, it didn't seem fair or right to go on a tangent about nostalgia, especially since I'm not a Nirvana devotee and perhaps if you are this has more meaning for you.
In other news, I watched the lunar eclipse last night. It was cold as fuck and I'd like to take a moment to flick off The State for saying the thing started at 9:30 because no the fuck it did not. But I did get to try out my new HK coat and once Mums adjusted the laces in the back, it fits rather nicely. I'm sure it has the not-so-added bonus of making me look short because it's a longer coat and since I'm not 99% legs, I'm pretty sure that not even my slightly taller than average height can really off-set that. Sigh. But it's blue and pretty and the lining is beautiful and I'll take a picture later.
Back to the eclipse. So I took a walk after dinner and then another once the eclipse started. The second walk was mostly to get away from the neighbors across the way who would not shut up and were very, very loud. When I came home they were at it again, but in the time it took me to check back in with Mums and then peek outside again, they'd gone inside. I'd hoped that was the end of them, so imagine my annoyance when I went out for the main event (when the red should've appeared but really, all we got was a rusty-brown) and they appeared and did not shut up for almost the entire thing. The dude kept comparing the moon to a hazelnut (I stopped counting after he did so at least three times, and not just all in a row either) and Mrs. Chatterbox, when discussing the odd times of eclipses, bemoaned the solar eclipse happening in the middle of the day. I can only hope the lady 2 doors down from us had the same expression I did (they did not invite me over to their chat so I stayed leaning against the car so my neck didn't get a crick in it) because wow. Just... wow.
Almost as wow was them all shutting up for approximately 14 seconds before the Chatterboxes solemnly said, "Silence is golden." How would you know? You haven't shut up for the last half an hour! I had to actually clench my teeth to not say something at that point because I was that annoyed. The only time they bothered to lower their voices was when they were discussing the one thing I had any interest in: the asshole down at the dock who is building a house and thus killing the dock access... and how he conveniently got waterfront land for 50K. Like that's fishy all the way around but this is the thing you choose to speak about in hushed tones? Like I'm working with him or something? Rude.
Ranty, I know. Had to dose Ozma today for her fleas and now she's hiding out in Mom's room and my jealousy knows no bounds. ;_; Why you no snuggle with me anymore, cat? I even cleaned your box out yesterday and filled it with extra litter. Sigh.
In other adulting news, I finally remembered to ask Mom if there was a reason we stopped using the dishwasher and it turns out that no, no there was not. So I'm running a test load through and we'll see how it goes.
Debating whether or not to binge the new season of Grace and Frankie...
So you get my more in-depth musings. Sorry. :P
Book blurb: Fifteen-year-old Eleanor Fromme just chopped off all of her hair. How else should she cope after hearing that her bully, James, has committed suicide? When Eleanor’s English teacher suggests students write a letter to a person who would never read it to get their feelings out, Eleanor chooses James.
More accurately: In this LGBTQ+ YA coming-of-age novel, a teenage girl grapples with the suicide of a classmate and her mother's depression, while discovering her own gender and sexual identity.
I've mentioned before that it took me an embarrassingly long time to remember this was *ahem* historical (someone else used the term and now I feel old and amused at the same time) or set in the past. I looked it up and it's about page 30 when it kicks in because Eleanor is remembering putting a mix-tape in her Walkman before heading out for a walk to clear her head. It's literally not until the word Walkman shows up that I think to look back at page 1 for the date.
Until then, I'm at a loss as to why cutting her hair very short, dying it an unnatural shade of I want to say red, and then having her best friend comment that it makes her look like *looks around, all paranoid that someone will overhear* a lesbian is even a thing. Because it's 1993, self. That's why. Am I allowed to say nothing else feels like that year if I've just pointed out things that would indicate the year? The weirdness of the haircut/dye job and the freaking out about looking more than a little butch? Because it still doesn't feel quite like the timeframe given. But let's pour bands and books and authors and poets and maybe if these are all your jam, this will make the book feel authentically (oh god, how I loathe people who call for everything to be "authentic" but the word works here so I must get over the aversion) like the early 90's. To me it doesn't.
The characters we're supposed to like and root for (Eleanor, her family, Flor, Aggie, and Helaine) all kind of treat Eleanor's coming out and dealing with her mother's suicide attempt in ways that read far more like, say, 2018, than they do the 90's. Which isn't to say that everyone would've reacted the way Dara did, and freak out and be horrible about it (while still having a point that I will get to in a bit) but also it's the way it's written and presented. The thought processes shown and given feel like someone looking back and attributing current ideals and ways of thinking even though a lot of that was hard won.
Flipside, with James' death, do we really need more "life sucks if you're different" presented on page? Eh, probably not. And all of this is before we even begin to poke the bear that is the fact that Eleanor is (most likely) trans but hasn't the word for it yet.
Mostly I kept coming back to how the book feels, nostalgia wise. It reminds me a lot of The Carrie Diaries which is a show that was set in the 80's but if you looked even a little bit closer at the sets and things, it didn't always feel like the 80's. Contrast that with Stranger Things which pretty much feels straight outta the 80's from the word go and maybe you get what I'm trying to say? I like them both (CD was criminally cut short) but they don't have the same feel to a decade they both share, even beyond the genres being different.
Oh, and Dara's point before I forget: she and Eleanor find out about James committing suicide on the same day, while El is over at Dara's house. El freaks out internally and rushes out of Dara's room, leaving Dara to wonder WTF just happened. The next time she sees Eleanor, El has cut off her hair and dyed it and is basically acting very, very strangely.
And... El never considers for a moment that maybe abandoning Dara would lead to her friend feeling kind of weird about her. And she never has to really consider it because then Dara drops the L word and we're off to the races. Dara's a shitty friend and this is one of those things I simply can't wrap my head around despite knowing it's a thing that actually happens to people because I simply don't think that way about my friends. So this one I know is on me.
Since I ultimately liked the book in almost every other respect, it didn't seem fair or right to go on a tangent about nostalgia, especially since I'm not a Nirvana devotee and perhaps if you are this has more meaning for you.
In other news, I watched the lunar eclipse last night. It was cold as fuck and I'd like to take a moment to flick off The State for saying the thing started at 9:30 because no the fuck it did not. But I did get to try out my new HK coat and once Mums adjusted the laces in the back, it fits rather nicely. I'm sure it has the not-so-added bonus of making me look short because it's a longer coat and since I'm not 99% legs, I'm pretty sure that not even my slightly taller than average height can really off-set that. Sigh. But it's blue and pretty and the lining is beautiful and I'll take a picture later.
Back to the eclipse. So I took a walk after dinner and then another once the eclipse started. The second walk was mostly to get away from the neighbors across the way who would not shut up and were very, very loud. When I came home they were at it again, but in the time it took me to check back in with Mums and then peek outside again, they'd gone inside. I'd hoped that was the end of them, so imagine my annoyance when I went out for the main event (when the red should've appeared but really, all we got was a rusty-brown) and they appeared and did not shut up for almost the entire thing. The dude kept comparing the moon to a hazelnut (I stopped counting after he did so at least three times, and not just all in a row either) and Mrs. Chatterbox, when discussing the odd times of eclipses, bemoaned the solar eclipse happening in the middle of the day. I can only hope the lady 2 doors down from us had the same expression I did (they did not invite me over to their chat so I stayed leaning against the car so my neck didn't get a crick in it) because wow. Just... wow.
Almost as wow was them all shutting up for approximately 14 seconds before the Chatterboxes solemnly said, "Silence is golden." How would you know? You haven't shut up for the last half an hour! I had to actually clench my teeth to not say something at that point because I was that annoyed. The only time they bothered to lower their voices was when they were discussing the one thing I had any interest in: the asshole down at the dock who is building a house and thus killing the dock access... and how he conveniently got waterfront land for 50K. Like that's fishy all the way around but this is the thing you choose to speak about in hushed tones? Like I'm working with him or something? Rude.
Ranty, I know. Had to dose Ozma today for her fleas and now she's hiding out in Mom's room and my jealousy knows no bounds. ;_; Why you no snuggle with me anymore, cat? I even cleaned your box out yesterday and filled it with extra litter. Sigh.
In other adulting news, I finally remembered to ask Mom if there was a reason we stopped using the dishwasher and it turns out that no, no there was not. So I'm running a test load through and we'll see how it goes.
Debating whether or not to binge the new season of Grace and Frankie...
(no subject)
Date: 2019-01-23 02:10 am (UTC)Part of the challenge of writing historical fiction is to write characters that appeal to modern-day readers, but keeping them in the context of their time. Not many writers can pull this off, unfortunately. I think you're perfectly valid in your feelings that this was sign-posted, and not very well. Some people love wallpaper history, so YMMV.