Hooray for New York

[brigdh]

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO PEOPLE. PEOPLE. I have a cute girl's phone number and she writes plays and she's taking me to see the Marie Antoinette movie because I was like, "I really like it when people take old, well-known stories and retell them with a deliberately modern twist and I'm very interested in seeing how they portray her as a sympathetic character when she's so well-known as the spoiled aristocrat, and I want to see how they work in an 80's music soundtrack" and she was like "Me too!" And then we were talking about Halloween and she was like "I was thinking about dressing up as one of the three musketeers because I have a costume from this production of it I put on" and I was like "OMG no way! I'm in the middle of reading the novel right now (because people, after I read Swordspoint five times in a row I had it pretty much memorized and yet needed more swordfights), and I was thinking about dressing up as Milady!" and she was like "No way! You totally should, and then I'll be your D'Artagan!"

WHOOOOO. ♥ ♥ ♥

Also, people. People. I am drunk now. Because clearly I am such a dork that I will debate literary theory even when I can't walk straight. Also, I will probably delete this post in the morning when I recover my sense of shame.

Comments

[aoyagi.livejournal.com]

For a drunken post, you've done really well ;) Yay on the girl's phone number. Good luck on the date!!!

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Hah, thank you. I was going to delete this, but I seem to have managed to amuse several people, so I guess I'll leave it up.

[childofatlantis.livejournal.com]

*dies laughing* You are a very eloquent drunk. And I am jealous. ^_^

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Which is why I got so drunk! I kept thinking that as long as I could speak, surely I was still fine. And then I tried to stand up and walk.

[p-zeitgeist.livejournal.com]

And this is why people leave their home towns and move to New York. Also, why you need not feel any twinges over people you knew in high school who are now married to other people you'd rather die than wake up next to.

What's wrong with debating literary theory when you're drunk? I am reminded of the German tribe whose name I'm blanking on, of whom a Roman writer -- Tacitus? Or somebody else?? -- reported that they debated all important matters twice before taking a decision. Once, when drunk, in order that their analysis not lack imagination, and then again when sober, in order that it not lack prudence. It's as good a method for literary analysis as it is for statecraft, and possibly better.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

*laughs* Oh, but surely I'd be much more happy married to a guy in ROTC and bearing his child.

It sounds like a clever plan to me, or at least an entertaining one. The professor of an English course I took last year held the class in a local bar several times, and the discussion was always much more intense on those days. Besides, I'd much rather talk about books than sports or celebrity gossip or whatever it is normal people talk about in bars.

[parallactic.livejournal.com]

Woot! On getting a cute girl's number and debating literary theory while drunk. The Three Musketeers is a fun read.

You're really articulate when drunk.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

I'm enjoying the book a lot; I'd expected it to be more serious, more typically "classical literature", but it's very light.

Apparently so! I never would have guessed. I am not, however, very good at walking in straight lines.

[parallactic.livejournal.com]

There's lots of classical literature that's not so serious and deep: the Three Musketeers (which is just a chivalrous swashbuckling romance), Don Quixote, Treasure Island, Dracula, Frankenstein, Tom Sawyer, etc.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

True. There's a surprising amount of classical literature which has maintained its popularity by being fun and exciting. It's too bad that we often think of the whole category as being stuffy.

[parallactic.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's the required reading aspect of classics, or that some classics are dull to modern tastes, or that you sometimes have to struggle with the archaic language to understand what's going on. (I've also read classics that I didn't care for or hated.)

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

At a guess, I'd lay most of the blame on the required reading aspect, though whether that's because of the choice of book or simply because people have a tendency to dislike things they're forced to do more than things they do freely, I have no idea. I've certainly disliked far more of the classics I've read for schools than ones I've read myself. (I have a particular hatred for Dickens and 'The Red Badge of Courage', off the top of my head.)

[parallactic.livejournal.com]

I cannot get into Dickens for some reason, even though theoretically I can see the appeal of social issues and entertainment in another era. I just feel like he's hurtling moralistic anvils at me, and there's something about his writing style that's off-putting.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

I tend to feel that he has very interesting ideas (like 'Tale of Two Cities': French Revolution! Resurrection men! Secret identities! Crazy women knitting at the foot of the guillotine! A summary makes it sound like it should be an action novel), but the way he tells his stories, so slowly and with so many digressions, kills any of the suspense or interest for me. Which probably should mean I should hate Hugo too, since he does the exact same thing, but for whatever reason I'm more forgiving of him.

[parallactic.livejournal.com]

I also liked the idea of "Tale of Two Cities" more than the execution.

Heh, Dickens' run on sentences annoy me. Shirley Jackson does this as well, but I can get into her in ways I can't with Dickens.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Hee!