BRAINSICK, Chapter One
BRAINSICK, Chapter Two
BRAINSICK, Chapter Three
BRAINSICK, Chapter Four: five full pages....

[ BRAINSICK Cumulative word count: 25,580 ]

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I'm recycling the previous journal, because the arts're awesome. <3 I'll try to get a new feature post up sometime soon if college work allows (read: if I'm not a dumbass and procrastinate! - I want to SUCCEED this term!).

I stopped by Powell's after my Argumentation & Research class today with my mind set on picking up J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye. I really enjoyed the book in my junior year English class, and, seeing as I'd just finished rereading Lord of the Flies, I wanted to get reacquainted with some of my high school lit. Strange to want to revisit high school assigned reading, but hey, there really are some wonderful books out there that we're made to read in high school!

I found a copy of Catcher that had belonged to the Seattle Public Library. Its covers are bent and water damaged, but that doesn't change the story; besides, it cost only $3.95. Hurray for cheapie books.

I was absolutely thrilled to discover nearly an entire shelf of versions of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame in the Blue Room of Powell's (classic lit and general fiction and such; Catcher was also in this room). See, I'd only thought that the Victor Hugo novels were up high, to the point where I needed a step stool to reach them - and previously, I'd only seen Les Miserables up there. Much to my joy, all of the copies of Hunchback were down at my feet. All this time. WOW. Way to know your shelving conventions, there, Jill. The Hugo section begins at the bottom and then continues up high. Heh!

What kicks ass about this version - the Walter Cobb translation I read junior year, complete and unabridged - is that it comes with a DVD of the 1923 film version starring Lon Chaney. FUCK YES. And it all cost $7.98. Fantastic condition, and the DVD hasn't even been opened yet.

Nathan is allowing us to pick from several topics for our first essay, and I've decided to go with the following: "How do fairy tales play into modern-day culture and its expectations and norms?" I think this will be a fun argument, because fairy tales are chock-full of ideologies that are still in play today. Dictated gender roles, representations of race, stuff like that... it's fascinating. I'd asked Nathan about writing something specifically focused on sex versus gender, because their differences also interest me greatly. Sex is your biological designation as female or male, whereas gender is a sociological phenomenon that tells others whether you behave as a female or male "should" behave. Juicy talk. Nathan suggested I tie it into the fairy tale argument, and I think it should turn out well.

I just watched Juno with Aunt Pam and Uncle Larry. Wonderful, wonderful little movie. I may not want to be in a relationship or have kids, but I'm certainly not insensitive to a story about teenage pregnancy, particularly if it's well-written, humorous, and all-around insightful and provocative. Ellen Page is an inspiring actress, for sure.

As a final note, during these first few weeks of spring term, I have added 880 words to Chapter Four of Brainsick. YAY. It's moving along, at least! New word count listed in my header. Oooh I hope I can pull off finishing the damn thing - that project that is so special to me - this year.... The upcoming break from mid-June to early July should be a prime time for writing, but more importantly, for visiting my family and friends. I look forward to that.

Until then, I am going to keep up with this term and do well. I don't ever want to face withdrawing from a class again, much less fail a class because I procrastinated with a heavy workload.

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Some artworks I'd like to share, Wave One!

I'll be culling more art from my friends in future posts, but here's a starter.

In no particular order, here are some works that have caught my attention or are floating around in my Favorites:







































Whew, goodness! I need to go to bed soon. Cammy's taking a shower, though, which means I have to wait for him to get out until I can brush my teeth. Blast!

SKETCHING TIME!

I hope you enjoy the artwork! I'm going to post more Waves of sharing in the not-too-distant future.

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