Just put down: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

I finished reading The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay last night, and like another review I read said, it's hard to thing of reading anything else for a bit. I need some time to decompress. The book is about so many different things, with so many themes running through it.

One of the ones I found most affecting was how it dealt with war, and showing the aftereffects it has on every single person, however tangentially involved. The story starts around the beginning of World War II in Europe, and ends sometime after the Korean War. Each character in turn wades into this minefield of years, and each is the worse for wear. It is truly heart wrenching, no matter how clearly it's prefigured, each blow that befalls Joe Kavalier in the twenty years we know him. In a time before PTSD had entered our lexicon, the evident transformation in Joe from a shy though eager 18-year-old to an almost agoroaphobic man plagued by events he could never have controlled. It's hard to discuss the extent of this because it gives away far too much of the plot, but it's safe to say that the place he finds himself post-war is, though a product of his own control, so far removed from his actual desires that only someone so far outside of themselves could have maneuvered into it.

Sam Clay's own journey mirrors that of Joe's, but his war is cultural. Though the comic book world that Sam and Joe were wrapped up in was already on the fringe of society, there were some ways of life in the 1940's that were just too far out there. And because of that, Sam chose to live fully in the shadows for every bit of his adult life. When he's finally forced out, though you feel relief for him, you can't help also feeling the immense burden of what's been lost, of the time utterly wasted and the heart possibly so walled off that it won't ever really be useful again. What minimal hope the book ends with is tainted completely by what's already transpired, for for Sam and for Joe, and Rosa as well, the reader knows that maybe the scars are too deep.

A date with Kate

If you're like most of the rest of the western world, you'll be watching the series finale of Lost tonight. In preparation, hop on over the Bitch Media to read this interesting, spot-on article about the extreme disappointment Kate's character turned out to be. Another loss for feminism, another win for ABC. Boo team.

Amfar's 2010 Gala

What an ideal chance for a bunch of celebrities to overdress! A few stood out from the pack though.


Michelle Rodriguez is wearing my wedding shoes! I knew we had a connection.


Rachel Bilson's dress almost works for me, except the placement of those embellishments are just a little too spot on for me to see them as anything other then nipple covers.


Marion Cotillard's dress is maybe just a little too voluminous, but her clean face and hair help her pull it off. Her makeup is amazing here, and the lips look fantastic.


And on the other end of the spectrum we have Carine Roitfeld, with the empitome of stink face. Your outfit is interesting Carine, so just smile a tad and brush the hair out of your face.

Sainthood

I'm super excited to check out the new All Saints store opening in Soho this weekend. They style their clothing amazingly on their website, in the way that you actually feel like you want to wear each piece of the outfit. So damn them!





At least I'll be able to try the clothes on in person, since the prices are a little high for impulse purchases.

Zero Maria Cornejo Swim

With the abundance of diffusion lines saturating the fashion world these days, it makes you think about the designers you wish would venture into that territory. Zero Maria Cornejo is one that springs to mind for me immediately. Her clothes are unique and always have something extra going on, making them ideal pieces to add to your wardrobe, but her prices are just way too high.



So until she decides to bless us mere mortals with designs in our budget, we can at least enjoy her new ventures, like this swimsuit line that just debuted. No word yet on pricing, so I'm sure it'll be out of my range, but at least I can dream of lounging about in one of these, on an extended vacation from my extremely rewarding and accomodating job, on some vast expanse of beach and gorgeous blue ocean.

Killing in the name of

"Before you judge, listen to their stories." - from the promo for Women Behind Bars on WE TV.

Yes, I watch WE TV, but only because it's running Golden Girls almost without fail. Unfortunately, when that beautiful, classy, and light years ahead of its time show isn't on, WE is showing some truly reprehensible programming. From the show's website:

Women are supposed to be the gentler sex, the softer side of humanity. But some women do kill, and when they do, we want to know why. What drove them to kill? Was it an abusive husband? Was it drugs? Was it envy…fear…lust? In this original series, WE take us behind the killings to try and answer all of the burning questions of why they did what they did.

I really chafe at the insinuation here that when a woman kills, it's different from when a man does. Also, what terrible, stereotypical examples they throw out there for reasons - basically: a man, emotions stemming from men/sex/the competition for these two things, or drugs. Is that the extent of how complex our society perceives women's thoughts and motives to be? On top of that, WE TV is clearly geared towards woman - and this is what all their testing and polls show them that we want, and that we identify with.

The Oxygen network, also a women-centric network, has it's own show called Snapped, and their description sounds very similiar, if not more obnoxious:

Whether the motivation was revenge against a cheating husband, the promise of a hefty insurance payoff, or putting an end to years of abuse, the reasons are as varied as the women themselves. From socialites to secretaries, female killers share one thing in common: at some point, they all snapped. These shocking but true stories turn common assumptions about crime and criminals upside down, and prove that even the most unlikely suspects can be capable of murder.

Wow, so you're saying all kinds of women kill, from socialites to secretaries? How about using a different "s" word, like scientists? Oh, that probably doesn't sound enough like a lady-profession. And Oxygen would like you to know that we ladies are of course the MOST unlikely suspect in a murder case. Because ladies don't fart and ladies don't like sex and ladies certainly, without a doubt, do not kill.

Guess what WE and Oxygen? We're humans too. And while I'm not super stoked about fighting for the right to be recognized as capable of taking a life, for the same range of reasons men do, these are the paths a modern feminist finds herself on. So please do your part, and just don't watch this crap.

E.M. Purse Charms

How cute is this charm from Japanese brand E.M.



I wouldn't use it as a purse charm, because that's not really my style. However, I do think it'd look great as a quirky necklace.