Last Gasp of Freedom

1. The Complete Poems, Anne Sexton
2. On the Road, Jack Kerouac
3. High Fidelity, Nick Hornby
4. Kafka on the Shore, Haruki Murakami
5. Sideways, Rex Pickett
6. The Sonnets, William Shakespeare
7. Le Morte D'Arthur, Sir Thomas Malory
8. The Shipping News, Annie Proulx

Reading freedom, that is, before classes start and I'm snowed under reading crap I don't care about.

One of this things I find fascinating about reading books that have been adapted into in movies is seeing the changes screenwriters have to make in the transition. Sometimes (when I'm intimately familiar with the books, as with LotR) the changes irritate me to no end; usually if there isn't a story-based reason for the change. Sideways has a number of changes, none of which are really positive or negative; it is a different story, however. The core remains the same, but how the characters get there is a bit different.

It's interesting; Thomas Haden Church and Paul Giamatti are so good that you forget their characters are not really all that likeable. Reading the book, it's much easier to disassociate them from human faces and impulses and judge them. They drink too much, they're cheaters, they're liars - but aren't we all?

There are a number of themes and questions the book and movie bring up that are difficult to answer. There's a connection made, but it's based on deception. And even when people are in relationships, when people get married, it never seems to last, or if it does, it's only through the sacrifice of one of the two people. Is that all there is? I mean, really. Miles (Paul Giamatti's character) is so angry, so depressed and it's painful and I look down on it - but only because I've been there and can go back with ease.

This entry is incredibly unfocused and I apologize. Don't you ever wish life came with a manual? Or that it at least wasn't so fucked up all the time. Is there really anyone who has it all figured out? Or does everyone feel this way? Ignorance is bliss and knowledge is power, but it's too bad there isn't a cliche for people who don't know what the fuck they're doing.