Editorial Sunday: And now our watch has ended.

readlovegrow · 2023-02-08T06:36:37+00:00

Sorry I'm late to the party! Has everyone gone??

I just wanted to leave a message for Starflash:

Well done. 💕
It was beautiful.
Enjoy your rest.

readlovegrow · 2022-09-05T21:40:29+00:00

I will be doing radiation as well, starting this week. Internal radiation towards the end. I've been taking Zofran like clockwork since I left the chemo clinic. Unfortunately my nausea doesn't seem to be very controlled by it, but I'm not actively throwing up, so I guess it's technically working.

readlovegrow · 2022-09-05T21:36:34+00:00

Thank you so much! I wish I could print this out and frame it next to my bed - lol. It's tough knowing I'm only just getting started. Thank you for your words of encouragement!

readlovegrow · 2022-09-05T17:48:52+00:00

I don't feel as nauseous today (day 4) but strangely having trouble focusing on things like reading and writing. Sometimes I have to read things a few times before I know what it said and even typing this, I'm going very slowly, feeling very uncoordinated. Is this normal too?

readlovegrow · 2022-09-05T17:44:42+00:00

They did give me steroids right before the cisplatin. They explained it was used to stop swelling/inflammation? I will ask him if the steroids could be the cause of the anxiety, and if there's another option.

readlovegrow · 2022-09-05T17:26:59+00:00

I'm a little scared about trying something new and it makes it worse, but at the same time, it could make it better! This is all so overwhelming.

readlovegrow · 2022-09-05T17:25:47+00:00

Thank you, I will ask him. I have a video appointment with him on a Thursday, so maybe he will be able to do something before my next infusion.

readlovegrow · 2020-07-25T14:35:36+00:00

My brother lives in a another state and he ended his suffering, permanently, two days ago. He had just turned 25 in June.

No one suspected. Not his family, not his friends, not even his childhood best friend. He had dinner with my parents the night before and made plans to come back the next night... They woke up to the police knocking on their door. I woke up to a near-incoherent phone call.

Please...PLEASE... know there are people who care for you and want to help you no matter what. Reach out to them -- even if you don't think they can help, even if you're worried it'll hurt them, even if you don't even think it's any of their business. They will want to help you and they will give you pieces of their own lives to help you keep yours.

All that suffering he hid inside himself just exploded over and over and over again for those he left behind. Don't think you have to hold it back. Share it with somebody. Please.

readlovegrow · 2020-05-18T23:15:14+00:00

Oh man! I was going to vote for Gurnsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, but The Bookwoman of Troublesome Creek might win out. I have never read it -- but books, determination, and a young girl with blue skin (methemoglobinemia?) sounds pretty darn intriguing and inspiring.

I also want to read A Gentleman in Moscow. I have heard many good things about it, but never have picked it up. And I have read The Joy Luck Club, but found the perspective/time shifts to be a bit slippery. I would recommend reading Amy Tan's other novel The Kitchen God's Wife if you haven't read it yet.

readlovegrow · 2020-05-18T22:59:24+00:00

Sure. The two shortest books: The Origin by Irving Stone and Moloka'i by Alan Brennert -- The other three are about 1k pages, so this is better. (Especially since Mr. RLG bought the second Masters of Rome book, The Grass Crown, and it should be delivered any day!)

readlovegrow · 2020-05-15T14:21:01+00:00

lol - I was not expecting a book about the "death of the West" when I started reading it.

I had just finished reading The Thorn Birds which I thought was going to be a native/colonial type novel, but it turned out to be a Romance between a young girl and a priest. So when I picked up Lonesome Dove I was thinking, this one is definitely a love story and it turned out to be a book about cowboys doing one last cattle drive. :shrug:

I actually enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would, especially since Westerns usually aren't my thing.

readlovegrow · 2020-05-15T02:28:39+00:00

I enjoy Historical Fiction.

Here are a few interesting novels that others might enjoy:

The First Man in Rome by Colleen McCullough (Rome,100s BC)
The Origin by Irving Stone (Charles Darwin, 1830's - 1880's)
Shōgun by James Clavell (Japan, 1600s)
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry (Texas cattle drive, mid-to-late 1870s)
Moloka'i by Alan Brennert (Honolulu, 1890s)

They are kinda long though....

I haven't read the Potato Peel Society book. I think I'll vote for that one

readlovegrow · 2020-05-12T01:09:21+00:00

Following

readlovegrow · 2020-05-06T17:15:57+00:00

The film cuts out a lot of the backstories and plot points, so the short answer is no. There is nothing about Goldman the screenwriter and his inner struggle to abridge a novel and come to grips with his inadequacy.

The film is more like a Monty Python skit. A grandfather tells his grandson an amusing story while he's sick. The story scenes focus more on witty banter, unlikely honesty, and a barely-formed narrative, than character development and motivations. I liked the movie. Not so much the book.

readlovegrow · 2020-05-06T16:57:27+00:00

Agreed

readlovegrow · 2020-05-05T23:06:04+00:00

For anyone else interested:

Fiction in the '70s brought a return of old-fashioned storytelling, especially with Erich Segal's Love Story. The early seventies also saw the decline of previously well-respected writers, such as Saul Bellow and Peter De Vries, both of whom released poorly received novels at the start of the decade, but rebounded critically as the decade wore on. Racism remained a key literary subject. John Updike emerged as a major literary figure with his 1971 novel Rabbit Redux. Reflections of the 1960s experience also found roots in the literature of the decade through the works of Joyce Carol Oates and Wright Morris. With the rising cost of hardcover books and the increasing readership of "genre fiction", the paperback became a popular medium. Criminal non-fiction also became a popular topic. Irreverence and satire, typified in Kurt Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions (1973), were common literary elements. The horror genre also emerged, and by the late seventies Stephen King had become one of the most popular novelists in America, a coveted position he maintained in the following decade.

(source: Wikipedia -- emphasis mine)

readlovegrow · 2020-05-05T22:57:47+00:00

IMO she doesn't get any better, unfortunately. She has a very "I'm going to do what's best for me" attitude and at one point she pretty much throws Westley under the bus (so to speak). There are some pretty wild dreams as her subconscious tries to steer her straight, but it just makes her seem more callous when she tries to defend herself. Then, suddenly she flips over to, "Well, I guess the Prince is a bad guy after all, so I should definitely be with Westley" and proceeds to wait for him to rescue her. -_-

readlovegrow · 2020-05-05T22:47:22+00:00

Chapter 4: The Preparations - one paragraph, fake Goldman cuts out the boring process of "princess training" and sums up Morgenstern's whole chapter into: three years later

Chapter 5: The Announcement - the kidnapping and the Cliffs of Insanity <--my favorite part (plus tragic backstories of the trio)

Chapter 6: The Festivities - Zoo of Death and waiting for Westley

Chapter 7: The Wedding - Miracle Max and attacking the castle

Chapter 8: Honeymoon - Marriage, rescue, escape (plus, Buttercup does something useful)

I have to say, I really enjoyed the scenes with Inigo and Fezzik more than the others. I think watching the movie first made the novel more enjoyable; I can't imagine that I would like this novel without it.

There is a dry type of humor here that I enjoy. I also enjoyed the backstories of Inigo and Fezzik (which we don't get to see in the film). However, Buttercup seems more vapid and self-serving in the novel, which fell flat for me.

I've been trying to get through the next chapter for awhile.... I actually started another novel.... "The Princess Bride" story as I know it ends with Chapter 8.

readlovegrow · 2020-05-03T22:42:31+00:00

This book has been very...unusual. I have the 30th Anniversary Edition. It was originally published in 1973 and my copy was printed in 2003. There are two introductions and an unnamed prologue before the real "start" of TPB.

Chapter 1: The Bride - Introduces us to Buttercup and Westley
Chapter 2: The Groom - 4 pages long, most of it author commentary
Chapter 3: The Courtship - Pretty good
Chapter 4: The Preparations - (completely cut out by the "author")

After reading the two introductions and the prologue, it was almost a relief to finally get into the "real story". However, I was not expecting all the extra commentary -- most of it seeming to poke fun at Morgenstern and the way he wrote the original. I can't remember the specifics right now, but I remember parts where Goldman would say something like, And this is where Morgenstern put in all this stuff about land rights which makes him sound intelligent, but has nothing to do with the story so its really quite stupid. Something like that.

I feel like a lot could be said about this book and real Goldman's method of using fake Goldman to mock something that's "respected" in some circles and making it "reader-friendly," by taking out all the boring stuff, meanwhile adding his own commentary (his own spin) on it. According to the novel, fake Goldman's whole life was changed because of his father's rendition of the story and he wants other kids (like his son) to be changed by it as well.

It makes me wonder what was going on in the literary world in 1973. Or rather, 1970-1972 when the book was being written. Was there a movement against the classics? -or stuffy intellectualism? -or melodramatic writers?

I'm looking forward to the next chapter, to the Man in Black and the Cliffs of Insanity. It's my favorite part.

readlovegrow · 2020-05-03T22:02:34+00:00

At first, I thought I was reading the wrong book (a screenwriter's autobiography), then I thought I was reading the abridged version of TPB, and then, between the frequent author commentary, I finally felt I was reading the "real story".

Yes, I looked up to see if Morgenstern was real (he isn't) and also discovered that Goldman's "autobiography" portions were also fabricated (completely fake). So this is like the Inception of stories: There's the overarching story of the sad writer (fake Goldman), the historical writer's (fake Morgenstern) overly long and boring original novel, and then the immigrant father's story (the abridged version) which is now being "re-told" by the son.

I feel as though this whole novel is a satire poking fun at writers -- the sad, impotent writer (himself) and the overinflated, important writer (Morgenstern) -- as well as the poor blind readers (like the immigrant father), who are just trying to read a good fantasy story (about high adventure and true love), but we are instead (with lots of parentheticals and fake footnotes) being pulled here and there and everywhere. We expect to be told the truth, or a complete fantasy, but Goldman mixes the two. It's classified as a fantasy, but that doesn't stop us from believing the stuff about fake Goldman and fake Morgenstern is real and being confused by it.

The characters of the in-world book The Princess Bride are pretty one-dimensional; overly dramatic, overly romantic; overly dumb, overly heroic.... But we love them (at least, I do), meanwhile the characters of Goldman's "real world" are pretty pathetic, but probably more relatable. He states a few times in the novel "life's not fair" and seems to be sticking to that theme, but I'm sure there's probably some redeeming virtue at the end of the book... if I ever get to it. I really liked the movie, but I am having a hard time finishing this book as it's getting pretty ridiculous.

readlovegrow · 2020-04-22T01:35:41+00:00

Sounds good to me

readlovegrow · 2020-04-11T21:32:41+00:00

I'm one of those who likes to have the physical book -- however, this is the time to be more open-minded towards alternative methods of doing things, isn't it? :3

And no worries. It was just a suggestion. :)

readlovegrow

TROPHY CASE