Animal Farm does have animals in it and I do like Upton Sinclair. And spearmint (but not really).

I was conversing with a friend the other day about my last posting. First, let me begin by stating that we had already established earlier in the morning that I was on the struggle bus. However, as our conversation progressed, it quickly became evident that I was not, indeed, on the bus. No - a suspender for my mittens had gotten tangled in the bumper and I was being dragged behind it, unbeknownst to the struggle bus driver, who was clearly struggling, as well. (I mean really, how hard is it to look in the rearview mirror and see the poor soul stuck to the bumper amid a cloud of dust and gravel?)

One of those completely random fits of utter stupidity that I am so well known for had struck again. I mentioned that Animal Farm had also come to mind as I prepared my list of 15 books in 15 minutes, but I had left it off. I went on to state how I loved that Animal Farm didn’t have animals in it and was about American industrialism and so forth. My friend stared at me with wide eyes as if I was the dumbest person on Earth. At the moment, I probably was.

As she rightly pointed out, Animal Farm does have animals in it. She thought perhaps I had gotten Animal Farm confused with The Jungle by Upton Sinclair.

“Oh, I love Upton Sinclair!” I exclaimed. Yeah...that didn’t really help my case.

Upon looking at general summaries for both books, I found that Animal Farm (with animals) was actually about the Russian Revolution and while The Jungle did fit more in line with what I was thinking about, I couldn’t recall ever having read it. And thus began the search for the Upton Sinclair book that I had read and prompted my exclamation of love.

I couldn’t find one.

Quite a bit of ribbing ensued, which I took in good nature because I had earned it. However, on a deeper level, my confusion bugged me. I can see how one could get the two books confused, but how could it happen to someone who had vehemently gone on and on about literature this and literature that only a day or so earlier, struggle bus or not? I wondered if it was my memory playing tricks on me again or if I had read the books and just forgotten. I really wanted to figure it out. And I did.

These books weren’t discussed in any of my English or Literature classes. I’ve never read either of them.

One of my high school history teachers used them in a lesson and history was my worst subject (even though I’m very interested in history now). For whatever reason, this particular lesson stuck with me despite being buried under a mental avalanche. Upon recognizing the rubble and clearing it away, I was able to recall how much admiration I felt for the authors due to how they tackled their subject matter. Animal Farm remains fuzzy in my memory, but if I put myself back into my 16-year-old shoes, I can imagine being impressed with using a tale about animals to convey a much deeper and profound meaning. After all, I feel the same way about how Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust subtly hid a story about social classes and racism, and the harsh effects of both, beneath a façade of vampires and blood. And how there is only one constant, D. Everything else is not as it seems. (This is one case where the movie far exceeds the book. I highly recommend the movie over the book...but I digress.)

As for my proclamation regarding Mr. Sinclair...well, The Jungle stuck with me because it was more relevant to the topic and therefore discussed in more depth. (And given that it dealt with the meat packing industry, I can see where I might think of Animal Farm instead.) I remember my teacher talking about the horrid conditions described in the book and how even though it was a work of fiction, those conditions were apt and accurate depictions of life at the time, which outraged the public. The fact that the book takes place in Chicago probably also piqued my interest, since I live in Illinois and have a particular fondness for the city. More importantly is the novel’s historical relevance - and that, I believe, is why I said “Oh, I love Upton Sinclair!” He aimed for the masses and ending up grabbing the president’s attention with his words - the President of the United States. My 16-year-old self says, “That’s just awesome!”

Incidentally, the same president affected by The Jungle is the one I admired for the Panama Canal and the quote “walk softly but carry a big stick.” I know it’s Theodore Roosevelt, but every single time, the first president who comes to mind is Woodrow Wilson, another man that I greatly admired because of his involvement in creating the League of Nations, which later led to the formation of the United Nations. It’s funny, the things that stick with you and get muddled together by your brain.

Spearmint, on the other hand? No. I do not like it. No matter what I say. That little inside joke came from yet another random fit of utter stupidity that I can’t explain. It wasn’t the first and it won’t be the last, but at least I can say that I resolved one misunderstanding. I can’t take back looking like an idiot, but at least I figured it out why it happened!

Two Posts in One Day? EGAD MAN!!

I stole a Facebook status from a friend today that required me to list 15 albums in 15 minutes. Not in any particular order - just whatever came to mind first. Seeing as how everything at the forefront of my brain was anime-related, such as Bleach OSTs 1, 2, and 3, Bleach Beat Collections 1, 2, 3, etc (there are like 50 Bleach-related albums...no joke), The Jill Decoy Association from Red Garden, Yoko Kanno from just about everything (Cowboy Bebop, Ghost in the Shell, Macross Plus, etc, etc, etc), I forced myself to take a minute to think of something normal. The list I came up definitely revealed my eclectic tastes, even minus a single classical title (although I did think of Beethoven's Piano Sonatas, which I adore, and Ave Maria as sung by Christina England...which was used in the game Hitman Blood Money (which I also adore)).

This prompted me to think about what book titles would first pop into my noggin if I did the same thing. Seeing as how I like to write, I thought seeing this list might reveal my influences. So here it is, 15 books in 15 minutes:

1. The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe
2. The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
3. Ivanhoe, Sir Walter Scott
4. Green Eggs and Ham, Dr. Seuss
5. The Magic Cottage, James Herbert
6. Tales of Terror, compiled by Alfred Hitchcock
7. Dracula, Bram Stoker
8. Vampire Hunter D: Twin Shadowed Knight, Hideyuki Kikuchi
9. Of Mice and Men, Ernest Hemingway
10. Black Rainbow, Barbara Michaels
11. The Witching Hour, Anne Rice
12. Magic Elizabeth, Norma Kassirer
13. The Martian Chronicles, Ray Bradbury
14. The Illustrated Man, Ray Bradbury (Fahrenheit 451 also came to mind, but I already had two Bradburys on the list)
15. The Eyes of the Dragon, Stephen King
Honorable mention: A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry

Yes. You did see Dr. Seuss and Poe on the same list. Don't gouge your eyes out. I imagine that might hurt a bit.

I grew up reading and, in my teen years, took as many literature classes as possible, so books like The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Great Gatsby, and Of Mice and Men, and others, like The Old Man and the Sea, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and Beowulf, had a great impact on me and my perception of writing. Now that's not to say that I didn't also read Sweet Valley High, The Babysitter's Club, or any R. L. Stine book I could get my hands on. As a kid, The View From a Cherry Tree, A Wrinkle in Time, and Magic Elizabeth were my favorite books. As I got older, I began reading V.C. Andrews, which, really, once you've read one of her books, you've read them all. Just rename the characters and move them to a new locale. But I loved to read and would go through a book a night...so I read them all - at least until the writing team that was hired to continue the late Ms. Andrews' books began to lose her writing style. I digress. As much as I loved (and still love) the literary greats (back to Poe & Hemingway here, not Andrews ^_-), a lot of those books were chosen for classes and read for report writing. Even a teenager who loved to read would find that a chore. So in my down-reading-time, I selected titles by Mary Higgins Clark, Barbara Michaels, Agatha Christie, and Anne Rice. I also read Ellery Queen and other mystery compilation magazines. Heck, when Harlequin came out with their mystery romance line, I even started picking those up. I was hungry to read just about everything I could (should I note here that I worked in a library for four years?). I gravitated mostly to mysteries, with or without a romantic twist, but also sought non-fiction, reading everything I could about anything that interested me. While I may not read as much as I used to, I still carry at least one book around with me everywhere, and I can say that looking back at the my list of 15 and my life in books, I truly see how my writing style developed the way it did. If you think I'm going to explain that, sorry. That's a whole 'nother post.

If anyone is surprised by the lack of manga titles, fear not. I purposefully left them off. And before anyone cries foul that Vampire Hunter D made the list - while the series does come in graphic form, my collection, and the specific book I mentioned, is a true to life novel with words and everything. ^_^ However, should I be tasked with 15 manga titles in 15 minutes...well, I would cheat, because they are right above my head. But since the question was posed...I suppose I could oblige, and in order of preference, too...

1. Vampire Hunter D (but wait! It's a novel! Well yeah, but it does have illustrations and it sits with my manga collection, and I do have one of the graphic novels (even though I'm not a fan of them). I'm cheating anyway, so what'd you expect?)
2. Bleach
3. Vampire Knight
4. Hellsing
5. Loveless
6. Trigun Maximum
7. Trigun
8. Descendants of Darkness (please finish the series, Yoko Matsushita-san!!)
9. Sailor Moon (technically comic books, but whatever)
10. Cowboy Bebop
11. Blood +
12. Gravitation
13. Tenchi Muyo!
14. Captive Hearts
15. Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles

That's only a list from what I own. There are many titles I'm interested in reading and many of them would bump several off the preferred list (Please Save My Earth, for example - loved the DVD, but a lot of the story was lost in the transformation from paper to animation, and the story left me wanting so much more that I researched the background and fell even more in love with it. I cannot wait to add these to my collection, but that is going to take some time).

What would you come up with if asked to name 15 books in 15 minutes? I welcome anyone reading this blog to post their lists in the comments section.

Cheers!

Dun, dun-dun, DUN!!!!

‎"A black cat crossing your path signifies that the animal is going somewhere." ~ Groucho Marx

Meet Groucho Marx Pavlik! The newest addition to our clowder (which includes a dog and some fish, so I'm not sure what that turns into...a clan, maybe?). He likes lots of catnaps, shiny metal things like the cross or St. Benedict metal I wear around my neck and my cell phone charms, the tv, and my laptop. He also loves to cuddle and purr quite loudly, and to watch the other cats (I think he wishes they would play with him, but they only want to smack him around). A little on the shy side, he pretty much plops down into a ball wherever I put him, or if left to his own whim, the first thing he does is hide...behind a fake tree, under the bed, under the electronics cabinet...behind the toilet...wherever. He's little. He fits about anywhere. He was born in July...no wonder the rescue group named him Leo. I chose his new name while I watched him wrestle with his sister in the cage. All dressed up in tuxedo with a big sweep of white over his lip? How could I not say Groucho? All he needs is a pair of glasses and a cigar. ^_-