I’m A Window

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Originally uploaded by anoceanpearl.

The light coming through my window right now from what will soon be a sunset is leaving my bedroom in an almost serene glow. If I could freeze that light in my room forever, I definitely would.

So, who wants to come over tomorrow, and the next day, and the day after and see if we can get the same effect?

This is my favorite time of the summer

The lilacs are in bloom, and they smell fantastic.

Jokes and the Unconscious: A Graphic Novel

Jokes and the Unconscious

Originally uploaded by anoceanpearl.

“My watch stopped the day my father died. That’s too clumsy to write about with any grace. Watch: Stopped = Father: Dead. The symbols are too eager, the equation to ready, something high school poets would use.

I kill watches all the time. Something about my body magnetism, I’m told. I’ve gone through three batteries so far this year.

Mechanical appliances come with no warranties protecting against accidental ironies, against watches that keep suggestive time, recorders that warp voices, pictures that preserve wrong glances and pained expressions, pictures that our hazy and obscure. Televisioins that depict luxury, youth, fame, fortune. Every movie has a death scene. All betray.”

I’ve been a fan of Daphne Gottlieb’s poetry ever since my friend Chelsea had me read a couple of her poems one day. I ended up getting Why Things Burn and Final Girl and fell in love with them both. When I found out she was doing a graphic novel, I was both excited and skeptical. Excited because I love her work, skeptical because I’ve never been a huge fan of comics or graphic novels. In the end though, it’s become one of my favorite books. Daphne’s prose and story writing is every bit as emotional and moving as her poetry can be, and Diane DiMassa’s art style, sparse, almost underwhelming, proves a fantastic catalyst to the story of Sasha and how she copes with her fathers death from cancer. I’m not going to delve into the plot, because I believe it is definitely something to be experienced on your own, but the messages revolving life, love, death and everything in between are messges that cannot go ignored.

The thing that appeals to me most about this collaboration is how honest and human it is. The one thing I’ve always disliked about books, no matter how much I love the book, is how some parts just seem overstructured, a bit too contrived, too “Hollywood”, so to speak. You read them and go “this is not how a real person would react.” Yes, you know it’s a novel, but at the same time, you wish it was like real life, with real reactions from real people. To me, this book contains just that- a real person reacting to the real events that surround her.

Everyone will have to deal with death at various points in their lives. It’s inevitable, unavoidable, and we will all cope in different ways. This is just one story about one girl who is trying to cope, and while not everyone will like it, I think everyone will be able to draw something from it.

Jokes and the Unconscious at Amazon.com

So sick, so sick of being tired

Tired, not feeling well, not writing much due to not finding good words to put down, confused about things. That about sums up the last week.

I’m going to read Jokes and the Unconcious before bed tonight, all in one go, which I’ve not done yet. I’ve probably read it 3 or 4 times already this year, but I don’t ever put it on the books page because… I dunno, I just haven’t. I’ll probably try to write a pseudo-review tomorrow.

It’s pretty sad when you consider 7am

Sleeping in.

Working on timelines now, trying to actually make a decent story out of it. Added some characters. Need 3 male names. Audrey, I’m looking at you for this. If I didn’t have to wake up early, I’d grab a flashlight and go write on a hill, but I need some sleep.