It’s Veterans Day and I have to work. It’s not right. My ancestors didn’t give their lives for some country in some war so I’d have to commemorate their sacrifice by clicking on a mouse all day. I should be out celebrating by torturing communists and murdering Germans.
My grandmother is German, but I think she’d be hard to murder. For one thing, she watches “Murder She Wrote” all day. I figure she must be an expert on the subject. She also has become a bit dotty in her old age and tends to forget episodes right after seeing them. Every time she watches, it’s all completly fresh to her, the suspense untouched and still exciting, Angela Lansbury’s phoned-in performance as new as ever. How nice would that be? I hope I spend my days watching reruns of the Simpsons when I get closer to death, thinking that every episode is one I haven’t see before. Yes, that would be fantastic. As it is, I’ve seen every episode multiple times, thanks to TiVo and to Fox for airing it twice daily.
My great-grandmother, before she passed away a couple years ago at age 100, was hooked on “the Young and the Restless.” Don’t ask me when this all started, but for as long as I can remember she has been attached to the show. When she traveled, she took around one of those little mini televisions so she wouldn’t miss anything. Now that’s dedication. Of course we all have our media-based addictions. I think I’m becoming addicted to ABC’s “Lost.” Still, my love for Lost pales in comparison to her love for that Soap, or her “story” as she called it. I suppose a dramatic character-driven Gilligan’s Island scenario has nothing on the addictive power of So-and-So’s daughter turning out to be So-and-So’s long lost mother.
There’s nothing like a great story. I mean storytelling has been in our history since the cave man’s ancient scratchings all the way up to our modern blogging. Find something that draws you in and you soon find that there’s no escape. In fact, it doesn't even have to be good -- just engaging. As much as I make fun of lame Harry Potter fanatics, I am ashamed to say that I’ve been addicted to Robert Jordan’s “The Wheel of Time” since I was 14. The series is now totalling 10 books and over 8,000 pages. Over the years I discovered that Jordan’s writing isn’t very good and his characters are a bit stereotypical, but the story! Quite the engaging story.
There you have it. For lack of a way to give any of this meaning, I will go back to Germans. They are people too. You shouldn’t murder them.
11 comments:
you may be my lost twin brother... with blonde hair... and round eyes...
i, too, love LOST... and we already know that we have some similar tastes in music...
i used to love, love, love the robert jordan books! heh... i stopped reading them when i stopped having time for them. and if i started up again, i'd probably have to start at the beginning again. which is kind of daunting.
oh, but, shhh... don't tell anyone that i love those books....
The scary thing is, I'm on my third re-read with these books. I read them all again before book 10 came out. Now I'm reading them AGAIN in anticipation of book 11, which comes out next year. Even though it takes 2-3 years for a new book to come out, I'm okay, because there's always re-reads. It's really all "junk reading." Not alot of real substance to it, but it's nice when you just want to relax, kind of like watching TV. It's probably a good thing book 12 will be the last one.
ooh. that's good. i'm just going to wait until the last one comes out and then read the whole thing over again...
hey, have you heard of steven erikson????
Yes. He wrote "Dead House Gates" didn't he? He's someone who has been reccomended to me but I haven't gotten to him yet. I hear he's good.
yeah, the malazan series. when we went up to vancouver, i wanted to get all the books on paperback because i don't think they're out in the states yet... i don't even think all the hardcover books are out in the states yet.
unfortunately, the bookstore we went to do (which was ginormous, btw) didn't have any of them except for the first. i guess i'm waiting...
Waiting might take a while, since I've been told there are no immediate plans to use a U.S. publisher.
But why wait? You can order them from Amazon Canada (www.amazon.ca). They're all there.
because i'm stupid and the only amazons i ever go on are the us and uk versions.
also, i'm cheap and i never buy stuff for myself. i'm going to have to forward this post on to the hubby. :P
You guys read those too?!? (Hi Grace!)
I've been on haitus from those books with every intention of reading the entire series ALL OVER AGAIN after Jordan finally decides to write the LAST FREAKING BOOK. Come on Jordan! Work WITH ME not AGAINST ME. In the meantime, I checked out George R R Martin. Good stuff!
George R. R. Martin is quite good. His stories are much more graphic than Jordan's and he isn't afraid to kill off main characters. (I think he ENJOYS it actually). Problem is, like Jordan, he takes a freakishly long time to write his freakishly long books. So now I have to wait on both him and Jordan -- A Feast for Crows has been in the making for decades it feels like. Stupid epic fantasy writers...
No SHIT! Dang it he really pissed me off when he killed Rob! And his mom. And his dad. And the entire staff at their castle. And two of the wolves. Gah!
I know -- Rob and his mom was a bit of a shock...and then he brings her back as some reanimated corpse? It's definately not an "everyone-goes-on-an adventure-and-comes-back-happy" kind of story.
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