Definitely Not Jumping on the Bandwagon

Do you ever want to like something just because people that you respect do? I had a weekend full of those moments. I rented Ratatouille, despite having seen it a few years ago and remembering it as lackluster. My friends and family like it. Roger Ebert gave it 4 stars! Maybe on that initial viewing several years ago I was tired/worried/not in the mood for animation? Nope. I still think it's the most boring of the Pixar films (I know, I know, this is almost as bad as admitting that I didn't like Inception).

To be fair, the rat that we just caught in our garage may be influencing me negatively.

After turning off Ratatouille right in the middle, I told myself that I'd plow through the remainder of Cat's Cradle. Several readers whose taste I respect have told me that they loved Vonnegut, so perhaps upon finishing the novel I, too, would find this love.


Nope.


I can't put my finger on what it is specifically that I just can't connect with in Vonnegut's work, because I've certainly read more off-the-wall satire and more bizarre science fiction. Something about him is just not for me. And here I am applauding myself publicly for giving writers a second chance and finding other works that I liked. Maybe I jinxed myself?


Cat's Cradle is an apocalyptic tale that examines the role of technology, science, and religion in our lives. It definitely has funny moments, and it's a quick read. Other people like this book (actual people I know, not just random reviewers on amazon.com). The University of Chicago liked it so much they awarded Vonnegut his Master's Thesis for it. So maybe you will, too.


As for me, I'm moving on to Bonfire of the Vanities, and trying not to feel ridiculous that the only version I could track down has GIANT large type and weighs almost as much as I do.


What's something popular that doesn't do much for you - books, movies, etc.?

Cuter rat than the one in my garage image found here.

The Power of Choice

I have emerged! Somehow between planning our family reunion, hosting out-of-town guests, and doing more business at work in two months than we did all of last year, I've barely been able to read. Or blog. Or really even think straight.

I abandoned The Satanic Verses shortly after my last post, in favor of plunging in to Sophie's Choice. Back in the days of yore 7th grade, I performed a dramatic monologue piece from the novel, so I was familiar with the basic premise of the book and thought I might find it a little more compelling than slogging through Rushdie (Sorry Salman...sure loved your cameo in Bridget Jones though!).

I really enjoyed Styron's writing style and found myself eagerly reading chapter after chapter, despite the sometimes overbearing use of ominous foreshadowing. For those unfamiliar, the story is narrated by Stingo, a young would-be writer living in NY just after WW2 who develops a relationship with Sophie, an Auschwitz survivor, and Nathan, her lover. Stingo is from the South, and Styron often uses his character to draw parallels between Southern racial inequality and Nazi genocide.

This book is the second on the list to deal with the Holocaust (the other was Schindler's List, also very good), but where that story focused on the actual events that took place during the war, Styron spends an equal amount of time looking at how Sophie's life is altered afterwards. It is not an easy read. Even though I knew the outcome of the titular choice made by Sophie, I couldn't keep the tears from welling up as I read that passage.

As as adult, what has become truly frightening to me about the entire concentration camp system is realizing the sheer manpower needed to create and implement the systematic destruction of so many lives. I often wonder what the Nazi participants were thinking, how they could live with themselves after behaving so cruelly, and how could there have been so many of them. I think it's easy with the benefit of hindsight to say things like "Oh, I would never have supported slavery. I would never have been a participant in something like the Holocaust." Yet we constantly see headlines proclaiming that bullying is on the rise, bitter rancor increasing in American politics, and we can use all the various channels at our disposal to mock those that see/act/look differently than we do, ostracize them, make them the unimportant, inhuman "other." Consider that there is danger in doing so. Of course it's a huge leap to go from mockery to actually trying to exterminate a group of people, but those Nazi ideas started somewhere. At some point, tiny seeds of contempt and discomfort grew into full blown hatred, not just from a few, but from a shocking, terrifying, normal everyday many.

Okay, off my soapbox.

If you have the chance, read Sophie's Choice. And more importantly, if you have the chance, choose to be kind to someone else today.