Sense memories.
Mar. 26th, 2004 09:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
offbalanceI've been reading The Bell Jar this week, for the first time. I'm very nearly done, and if I really give it 100%, I'll be done with it by the end of today. Not sure if that'll happen, but I want to be done by the time I see Carly tomorrow. She's read it a couple of times, and I love it when I can discuss books with her. (It's also a freebie I got at work, a very heavy large print edition that I'd be very happy to be done carrying around).
I have to admit that I liked the story more when the action was still in New York (quel suprise), but I find myself increasingly baffled by the main character. I understand that she's mentally ill, and I understand her feelings of depression and lonliness to a point, but some of the odder paranoias just flabbergast me. And I found the whole section on suicide attempts to be somewhat draggy. She's in the hospital now, just broke a mirror and kicked a server in the cafeteria for almost no reason. I'm just not following her, and I don't feel as connected to her as I expected to (same problem as when I read Catcher in the Rye), but I do love Plath's prose style.
I've also been on a major Tori kick lately. Tori, and Ben Folds and Joe Jackson. Now, resident Joe Jackson expert![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
quodlibetic may either agree or come after me with an axe for this, but I've been amazed after re-listening to Night and Day and then Whatever and Ever, Amen and Rockin' the Suburbs again how similar Ben and Joe are stylistically - they have similar senses of humor and can write equally strong melodies. Plus, sometimes I think their voices sound somewhat alike at times. I'd LOVE to hear them duet on something. Like "Real Men," or "Breaking Us in Two" or something.
But yeah, Tori Tori Tori. I was listening to Little Earthquakes on my way to meet mom &quasisonic last night and it felt fresh. Not new, since I still know every word of every song (I think), but it felt exciting to listen to again, which is nice. I always loved that album.
Most disturbingly, I keep having flashes of odd moments of Albany. Like walking up that stretch of gravel parking lot near the humanities building facing the campus center, in early spring, just after the rain. I smelled that place the other day somehow, and when I closed my eyes I could picture it, plain as day. Also the bus stop at the new library and Collins Circle, same time of year, on a foggy day with damp air and a light grey sky, the air permeated with a wet grass smell.
Two days ago right before I went to sleep I sat on my bed and had a very potent memory of it being finals week or reading day, and being at Kurver Kreme on Central avenue, and how the trees looked and the air smelled. How am I remembering how the air smelled? It's so strange. But it's not disturbing, it's almost peaceful.
I wish I could figure out what my brain is trying to tell me, if anything.
I have to admit that I liked the story more when the action was still in New York (quel suprise), but I find myself increasingly baffled by the main character. I understand that she's mentally ill, and I understand her feelings of depression and lonliness to a point, but some of the odder paranoias just flabbergast me. And I found the whole section on suicide attempts to be somewhat draggy. She's in the hospital now, just broke a mirror and kicked a server in the cafeteria for almost no reason. I'm just not following her, and I don't feel as connected to her as I expected to (same problem as when I read Catcher in the Rye), but I do love Plath's prose style.
I've also been on a major Tori kick lately. Tori, and Ben Folds and Joe Jackson. Now, resident Joe Jackson expert
quodlibetic may either agree or come after me with an axe for this, but I've been amazed after re-listening to Night and Day and then Whatever and Ever, Amen and Rockin' the Suburbs again how similar Ben and Joe are stylistically - they have similar senses of humor and can write equally strong melodies. Plus, sometimes I think their voices sound somewhat alike at times. I'd LOVE to hear them duet on something. Like "Real Men," or "Breaking Us in Two" or something. But yeah, Tori Tori Tori. I was listening to Little Earthquakes on my way to meet mom &
quasisonic last night and it felt fresh. Not new, since I still know every word of every song (I think), but it felt exciting to listen to again, which is nice. I always loved that album.Most disturbingly, I keep having flashes of odd moments of Albany. Like walking up that stretch of gravel parking lot near the humanities building facing the campus center, in early spring, just after the rain. I smelled that place the other day somehow, and when I closed my eyes I could picture it, plain as day. Also the bus stop at the new library and Collins Circle, same time of year, on a foggy day with damp air and a light grey sky, the air permeated with a wet grass smell.
Two days ago right before I went to sleep I sat on my bed and had a very potent memory of it being finals week or reading day, and being at Kurver Kreme on Central avenue, and how the trees looked and the air smelled. How am I remembering how the air smelled? It's so strange. But it's not disturbing, it's almost peaceful.
I wish I could figure out what my brain is trying to tell me, if anything.
