In Which We Discuss Divergence

I quite liked the Divergent series.  Well, in all candor (which would be my faction) I liked 2/3s of it.  The last third, ie, the final book, was a bit of a let down.

Here Be Spoilers for Allegiant, book 3 of the Divergent Series

Veronica Roth knew exactly how she wanted the series to end and that isn't a bad thing, necessarily.  Rowling did the same thing with great success, and other authors have done something similar.  The mistake Roth made was in railroading her characters to her desired outcome.  She forced people to act in nonsensical ways, and to carry out plans which could have been greatly improved with a moment's thought.  She forced it.

Stories are like clockwork.  You wind them up and let them go.  Roth failed to grasp that, resulting in a failure of a third novel.

I'm currently in the process of watching the first movie of what will undoubtedly be a trilogy.  For once, I hope that the films do not follow the books, that they instead create a much better and more in-character and realistic ending.  I hope they diverge from the source material right at the point where it went wrong.

Here Spoilers for Allegiant, book 3 of the Divergent Series End 
Spoilers for Book 1 & Movie Continue

When I say I'm in the process of watching the movie, I mean I have it paused at 32:11 in another tab.  Blinkbox offered me a free movie because Tesco's TV site or whatever it was is ending, and I'd been meaning to get to it so...

Oh, and I also realised that I still had just over £3 left of a gift voucher someone gave me, so I got Lovelace as well.  Two rented movie for under 50p, bargain.  I am celebrating with popcorn and gummy cherries.

Anyway, back to the movie.  So far, I'm enjoying it.  I like Shailene Woodley and Theo James as Tris and Four, particularly the latter.  He looks exactly as Four is described in the books.  I think we can forgive the fact that Tris is wearing an awful lot of make-up for a Stiff, since that comes under the same law that explains how Emma and Snow White's false eyelashes stayed on while wandering through the enchanted forest of Once Upon a Time.  I'm not so sure I like Caleb, but he won't really come into play until much later.  Very happy to see Ashley Judd as Natalie, since I loved her in Where the Heart Is and Divine Secrets of the YaYa Sisterhood (both also adapted from books!).

I quite liked the way the test played out, though I'm sure they skipped some bits and took a bit of visual artistic license with it.  I've also liked seeing the Dauntless so far; all very pulse-raising.  I am genuinely concerned for Tris' well-being despite knowing how this book ends.

Ooh, I like the futuristic tattooing style, though I miss the explanation of why Tris chose it.  I suppose it isn't important, and since the film is over two hours long anyway, it was easy to cut.  But still.

I'm also disappointed that they cut out Four taunting Tris when he threw knives at her, though the capture-the-flag sequence is a lot more dramatic than I remember it being.

I'm not a big fan of Miles Teller as Peter.  He seems impactless, to me.  Doesn't really make any impression.

Oh, here's a key bit of divergence.  Tris and Christina grabbed the flag together, Tris first, rather than Christina taking all of the glory.  I'm pretty sure the bit in the hospital didn't happen that way either.

I should reread the book to verify this stuff.

Oh, the fear landscape is different.  They only did one.  That disappoints me.

We're carrying on with this reflection thing?  Okay, that's interesting. 

A few subtle changes in Four's fear landscape.  Not sure how I feel about those yet.

Ha!  They left the hilarious bit of Tris' landscape the same.  I enjoyed that.

Is it just me or does Shailene Woodley have a voice almost identical to a young Lindsay Lohan?

I'm 90% sure that the dagger through the hand thing is new!


Why on earth would you let go when you knew you needed to grab her again a second later?

The ending seems different.  It doesn't seem to lead into an obvious sequel.  Maybe they weren't sure if they were going to be able to make the next one?

In Which We Discuss Danse Macabre

As part of my quest to read all of Stephen King's novels, I've just finished Danse Macabre and I loved it.  It's a non-fiction account of King's favourite horror movies and novels throughout the fifties to the eighties, and his thoughts on the horror genre as a whole.  There's a long list of recommendations at the back, which I certainly intend to look at.  I'm quite sold on Ira Levin - I've already read Stepford Wives, and King did a great job of pushing Rosemary's Baby.

King also devoted a brief paragraph to his wife's first novel, Small World which was newly released at the time of writing.  He didn't say more, as he felt he would be slightly biased.  However, that did remind me of the idea I had of reading his wife and childrens' novels at the appropriate points in the time line.  So, here is Tabitha King's bibliography;

• (1981) Small World
• (1983) Caretakers 
• (1985) The Trap (also published as Wolves at the Door)
• (1988) Pearl
• (1993) One on One
•  (1994) The Book of Reuben
•  (1997) Survivor
•  (2006) Candles Burning (with Michael McDowell) 

That isn't including short stories, non-fiction or poetry.

Considering what an effort this is turning out to be - I didn't expect it to take a year to get 10% through! - I don't think I will make the effort to seek out all of Tabitha, Joe or Owen King's novels, though I may read the first one of each when they appear. 

I actually am reading Small World at the moment.  It's pretty interesting.  I'll give it its own post when I'm done.  Oh, and I've got Rosemary's Baby and Cujo reserved at the library.

The other thing I wanted to mention is that King frequently mentioned his son Joe Hill in Danse Macabre.  Joe Hill was born in 1972, so he would have been nine-years-old when this was published.  Naomi King and Owen King were born in 1970 and 1977 respectively, so they were eleven and four at the time.  When Carrie was first published in 1973 Naomi would have been three while Joe was a year old.  Owen would have been born a month before The Shining was published, a he would have been a months old when Rage was released.

In Which We Discuss Books I Read in my 26th Year, Week 4/52

Wow.  I've been twenty-six for a month already.  That's gone quite fast.

Most of these books were new to me, though some had been sitting in my unread pile for quite a while.  Feather Boy has been in there for about a year, and I'm so glad I left it in there.  I considered donating it to a charity shop so many times.  It's aimed at either children or young adults, and I really liked it.

Everyday Bento is a nice beginners guide to creating pretty bentoes for children, although there's no reason not to scale up.  It includes specific directions for making a few designs which is nice, although it doesn't tend to reuse things like picks very often, so if you wanted to make them as specified there'd be quite a huge initial outlay.  Good for ideas though.  It goes more into modern bento designs rather than bento theory.

Bad Science is a book I've read before.  It's basically a long rant by Ben Goldacre over common mistakes in how science is reported in the media, along with calling out specific people who spread inaccurate information along with why exactly it's inaccurate.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is another one that's been on my unread pile for over a year.  I bought it for my kobo ages ago, and I'm quite pleased to have gotten round to reading it now.  It reminded me a lot of Shanghai Girls which was the first book of Lisa See's that I read, and which I really enjoyed.  It continued the theme of two women who are close, and yet who misunderstand each other.  I also liked learning about Nu Shu, which was a secret script used by and known only to women.

Finally, Danse Macabre.  I read it as part of my Chronological Reading Project, and I loved it.  It's non-fiction, and covers horror through the fifties, sixties and seventies.  King discusses his favourite films and novels, and how he felt they contributed to the genre, as well as his thoughts on the genre itself.  It includes recommended reading/watching lists at the end, and I'm pretty sold on them.

This was a good week!

In Which We Discuss Integral Ameretat

There is an art to putting a meal together.  You need a balance of flavour, of lightness and heaviness, of nutrition, of crunchiness and softness, and so on.  You need contrast amongst dishes which should also complement each other - they complete each other.

There isn't a word for this.  At least, not as far as google can tell me.  But when I googled, I found two words I liked.  Integral stands alone, obviously, but I also liked this sentence, from here;

The word integral is used in Spanish to describe wholeness (as in wholemeal bread or whole wheat).

Ameretat I got from here, and this was the quote I liked;

...in the Yasna, the great liturgical text of Zoroastrian ritual, Haurvatat and Ameretat are repeatedly honored: one as the divine guardian of the water and other liquids used in the libations of the ritual, the other as the guardian of the plant materials used in the ritual such as wood for the Fire, and the plants, fruits, and flour that make up the foods consecrated at Zoroastrian ceremonies.

So there we go.  Integral Ameretat refers to the completeness and wholeness of a meal, and how the dishes interact and complement and contrast with one another.  I made it up.  Let's use it!

In Which We Discuss Books I Read in my 26th Year, Week 3/52

I didn't think I'd read so much this week.  I thought I'd only finished one or two books!

Fire & Hemlock is one I first read years ago.  It's a little longer than most of Diana Wynne Jones' books, and a little bit harder to follow. In fact, the ending is a lot more satisfying and makes more sense once you have someone else talk you through it.  Or it was for me, anyway.

I've also read The High Lord before.  I do enjoy the series, but this one I listened to as an audiobook.  I started it months ago, then started listening to Firestarter and found it a bit tricky to get back in to.  On the bright side, I found that it only takes about a minute to get used to listening to audiobooks at 3x speed, which got me through it a lot faster!  It's not that I wanted it to be over - it's that I consume books like popcorn.


Songwriting for Dummies was new to me.  I bought myself a keyboard for my birthday, and it's quite fun making up songs.  I found some of the book useful, but, to be honest, I prefer this Songwriting course on coursera.  It's run by Pat Pattison of Berklee, and his lectures are absolutely fascinating.

One thing the book goes into that Pat doesn't is selling your songs, but I mostly skimmed those chapters since it's not the area I'm particularly interested in right now.

Finally, I don't even know why I had a copy of How Not to Be a Perfect Mother.  It's an informal parenting guide covering the ages 0-3.  I have no children.  I have a mirena which is not due to be removed until next March, and which will likely be replaced with another one at that time.  I have no close friends or relatives with small children whom I am expected to know things about.  In short, the subject matter of this book has no relevance to my life.  Especially not because Purves is almost offensively middleclass and was a complete idiot over the MMR issue.  Paraphrased; there is no evidence whatsoever linking MMR to autism.  "Yes, but lots of parents still feel that there is, and feelings are just as important as evidence and truth!".  Sigh.

In Which We Discuss Books I Read in my 26th Year, Week 2/52

I've been reading bits of lots of books, so I haven't finished many recently.

Throne of Glass has been sitting in my unread pile for a while (which is now down to 126 - I need to get a move on to get it below 100 before the end of the year!).  It was okay; a fantasy story about assassins competing to be the top assassin, and ancient magic and a love triangle and whatnot.  It's part of a trilogy, but I don't feel particularly inclined to read the other parts.  Think I gave it a two or three out of five.

Disney Hits is sheet music for Disney songs.  It's a good book for beginners; it includes the vocal line and some basic chords - in essence, the melody someone would normally sing and a bit underneath it to give it depth.  It's not what you'd play if you wanted to sing it, but it's simple and recognisable.  Easy to Play the Nineties is another book of sheet music, which includes things like Always, Words and Un-Break my Heart.  Again, vocal lines and chords.

Roadwork I read as part of my challenge to read Stephen King's novels in order.  I wrote a slightly longer post about it here.

Finally, Use Your Loaf is a book on bread-making.  It's very in depth, explaining things like how yeast works, proper kneading technique, etc etc.  The first half or so is all about technique, and there's a couple of recipes at the end.  I've made some bread rolls from it already, which were delicious.  I might have a go at the actual recipes, but it's more fun to work with the formula and techniques given and try to perfect those than to use it as a recipe book.  I had a lot of fun with it - it's one of my favourite food books now!

In Which We Discuss Tattoos

I have two tattoos so far; a red butterfly on my ribcage, and ivy on my inner thigh.  I got them both done at the same time, a few years ago, and I adore them.  I'm planning to get another soon.

My red butterfly - nicknamed Patrick - was inspired by the Project Zero/Fatal Frame games, particularly the second one, Crimson Butterfly.  It was really anything to do with the game itself - it was the end song, Chou or Butterfly.  There's a line in which I first saw translated as "See, I can flutter better than you thought".  I liked the song, and I liked that sentiment.  Other parts of the song - particularly the start of the chorus which loosely translates to "burned down/burn on" also appealed to me.  I've struggled with depression since my early teens, so this idea of burning, destruction, etc, followed immediately by the idea of "see, I can flutter better than you thought" spoke to me.  It spoke of recovery and hope.

I started using the red butterfly as a custom smilie to sign off forum posts.  I was about seventeen then.  When I was twenty-one or twenty-two and getting my ivy tattoo, I asked them to take five minutes to put my butterfly on me. It was a spur of the moment decision which was exactly right.

My ivy was a little less straightforward.  I started planning that tattoo out in early 2007 when I was eighteen.  I knew I wanted it to be a twining ivy design on my left inner thigh.  I liked the idea of it being slightly seductive; you'd see the edge of it below a miniskirt and wonder how high it went.  I also wanted my tattoos to be somewhere I could see them, and I preferred them to be somewhere that was hidden by default.  Not because I'm ashamed of them; because I like to customise my look with wigs and different outfits and make-up, so I didn't want anything permanent on display.

Ivy as a symbol had been in my head for a while.  I associate it with my maternal line; my great-grandmother's cottage was covered in it, and there are paintings of ivy in my grandmother's current home.  It was always around when I was a child.  I also like that it's tenacious and stubborn.  That appealed to me too.

I decided to have my tattoos done after I was raped for the second time.  It was part of recovering; I wanted to reclaim my body as mine and I wanted it to hurt so the knowledge really burnt into me.  The tattoos I'd been planning for years seemed the best way to do that.  I'm glad I didn't try to be too 'deep' or referential with them; I could so easily have gone for a relevant quote or something more objectively symbolic which was easier to explain, but also less personal.  That wouldn't have been right for me.

I've often thought that the way I feel about my tattoos is the way I'd like to feel about anyone I marry.  The voice in your head should say "YES THAT ONE" as loudly as possible.  When they ask "I do", the response should be "You're damn right I do".

Since I've been struggling with another bout of depression recently, I've been thinking of getting another tattoo if I reach a certain date.  I'm thinking November.

I want a castle on a hillside.  The hillside will be my right hip, and will follow the curves of my body.  The castle will be a rook, ie, the chess piece.  It's a castle imitation.

The main idea comes from the song Castle Imitation, which appears at the end of the game Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter.  You see, in that game, there's a bonus dungeon.  Fifty floors of battles, no saving, limited inventory, starting with a level 1 party.  Takes about eight hours.  I completed it over a weekend; the first time, I died on the fiftieth floor, so I tried again the next day and finally made it through.  Then I defeated the final boss - which was MUCH easier - and finished the entire game.

The basic premise of Dragon Quarter is that the entire society lives underground.  Your party are trying to reach the surface and the mythical 'sky'.  You start 1000 metres below ground and work your way up. 

So, the end of the game; the combination of my having spent sixteen hours over two days finishing that damn dungeon and the fact that my characters finally got out of the darkness and felt the sunlight for the first time in their lives...it was a good moment.  I had a sense of complete and utter relief when I heard that ending song, Castle Imitation.   I still feel that when I hear the song now.  Just a sense of...it's over, it's done, you did it, you can rest now.  I've felt relief on other occasions, of course, but this was the most distilled version.  Every other time, it was tempered with something else, and it was more complicated, and it wasn't really over.  This was a game; it was a discrete experience that wasn't connected to anything but itself.  That's why that feeling wasn't diluted, and that's why that's the memory I want to commemorate.

It reminds me of my favourite line from A Streetcar named Desire; "Sometimes, there's God, so quickly". I've used that on occasions when I've felt that feeling of relief; on suddenly having a job offer, or receiving money when you didn't know how you were going to pay all the bills that month.  I'm an atheist and I'm not a huge fan of the play otherwise, so I don't want to ink anything more strongly connected onto me.  It's just a nice little bonus in this case.

The song has a line in it; "Ikite, ikite, ikite, ikite, ikite...".  It translate to "I live, live, live, live live...".  I like that.  It reminds me of other things, most notably my favourite line in my favourite novel, Jinian Footseer.  Jinian is depressed, and is suffering from total emotional numbness.  Bartelmy shocks her back into feeling, and asks if she would rather be alive than dead, even if it hurts.  Jinian replies;  "I would rather be alive.  Even if it hurts".

I would rather be alive.  Even if it hurts.  That's the other thing I want my tattoo to say.  I'm alive, and I'm okay, and I got through it, and when bad things happen sometimes there will be god so quickly, and I would rather be alive even if it hurts.