Some Rant

You may or may not know that I recently watched Atonement and really liked it. I originally hated it (before watching it) because a) I hated Keira Knightley, b) I watched Becoming Jane the other day (which I hated) which contained James McAvoy who wasn't actually bad but I just associated him with bad things after that. But I watched it and it was great. I liked how it transitioned from the dulcet tones of a hot day in upper class Britain to the sexual escapades of two crazy kids (James McAvoy pinning Keira Knightley on a bookshelf, having le sex, use of word "cunt" etc. etc.) to the controversy of a misdirected accusation of rape to WWII to etc. etc. You get the idea.

As you can imagine, I was very pumped. Very pumped to read Atonement and any other crap I could get from writer Ian McEwan. So I reserved practically all his books from the library and went to pick them up the next morning (reservations come in incredibly quickly, even from other libraries). I went home, picked up Saturday with the highest expectations. I just imagined this incredible, beautiful, moving book that would lift my soul blah blah etc. etc.

The main character was a neurosurgeon. The first few pages were filled with medical jargon and the most boring description of a plane on fire. Plane on fire; should be exhilirating/terrifying/exciting, right? WRONG. Fucking boring, wanted to claw my eyes out. "Shut up, McEwan, you boring fucker," I thought to myself. I was so sad, I really wanted to get hooked onto a great new author.

As for the medical jargon; WHY. Fucking why, you fucker. It is so unnecessary. These bitches (Ian McEwan is considered one of the finest British authors) get to follow neurosurgeons around for two years and have them consult them with all the medical jargon to include in the book. What did it add to the story? NOTHING, I skimmed over those parts whilst simultaneously forking my eyeballs out.

Needless to say, I didn't get very far and now I have three turd-books sitting on my bedroom floor to be returned to the library. I borrowed It (Stephen King) from Little Mishelle today and managed to plow through a fair bit this afternoon. Critics often call Stephen King a "popular" writer, a "mainstream" writer like some kind of insult. Like he doesn't have the intellectual stamina to write a book that could be considered decent by them.

But riddle me this: if you can't even hold the attention of a reader for more than few pages then what's the point in writing an "intellectual" book? I would rather read about child-eating demons disguised as clowns over boring people thinking/talking about how they have no place in the world, how they have no real power in the world, how their life is meaningless any day.

You are dismissed.

J