When I was a kid, I was fascinated with ancient mythology. My favorite myths were those from ancient Greece, Rome, and Egypt, but I tried to read everything I could get my grubby little hands on. I thought that myths provide a deeper understanding of a particular culture, specifically their understanding of self, their environment, and their place in the universe. For example, isn’t it interesting that the “great flood” is a recurrent theme in myths cross-culturally? And what about the common theme of resurrection, […]
Game Over
Sigh… this book. After having finished Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One, I finally understand why it’s so divisive. I believe that if you are a white, male with nerdy inclinations who came of age in the 1980’s, you’d love this book. Since I am pretty much none of those things (with the exception of having lived through some of the 80’s), this book is not that relatable to me (and my disinterest doesn’t even account for its thematic troubles). Ready Player One begins with its adolescent […]
You’ve Got (E)Mail… I’m secretly reading
I decided to continue exploring Rainbow Rowell’s oeuvre, this time with one of her earlier books, Attachments. One of the unique things about this book includes its narrative structure, which includes traditional third-person perspective interspersed with email correspondence between two additional, central characters. Specifically, the book focuses on Lincoln, a 28-year old IT guy at a newspaper company whose sole job consists of reading email correspondence and flagging them for profanity and company violations. (The story occurs in 1999, a simpler technological time where the threat […]
Scared, Potter?
When some people hear the genre “Young Adult Fiction,” they may assume literary fluff, sugar-coated stories lacking any real substance. Well-written young adult fiction is anything but, and explores themes that are relevant not only to adolescents, but speaks to the general human condition. As such, I’ve decided to delve deeper into the genre starting with one of my favorite authors, Rainbow Rowell. Her books Eleanor and Park and Fangirl are lovely, bittersweet odes to growing up, friendship, love and developing into the person you’re meant to […]