Blood in the Water

 

"The essence of human blood is closest to water. 

Therefore, people instinctively look for love in the sea."

Book Report: Why We Broke Up

Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler

Even if you don't recognize the name of the author, you've probably heard of The Series of Unfortunate Events, which he wrote under the nom de plume of Lemony Snicket, what a decade ago? Time flies, eyyy.

Whenever I see a book on the Kindle Daily Deals that remotely interests me, I tend to browse through a couple reviews on Goodreads just to get a sense of whether or not I'm willing to spend two or three dollars on the e-book. I'd heard of Why We Broke Up before--it created some stir in the industry when it first came out and eventually received a Printz Honor. Some of the complaints I read in the reviews were that the heroine was not very relatable or kind of annoying, or that the writing style was hard to adjust to. I was somewhat concerned about that first factor--it can definitely make or break how much I enjoy a book (experimental writing style is something I'm more open to)--but in the end, I decided I was curious enough about this book to give it a go.

The premise of the book is straightforward. Min (short for Minerva) is a movie aficionado; Ed is the star basketball player at their high school. The book is essentially a Dear John letter from Min to Ed in which she returns all her mementos of him, recalling key moments from their whirlwind relationship through each object. 

I'll start off by saying that there were some negative things that I ended up agreeing with. Min's narrative voice often raves on and on about some of her favorite fictional movies. I would instantly skip over those--they bored me, and I think I would have perked up more if they'd been about actual movies that I'd heard of or seen before. Min was someone that felt quite real to me (especially impressive, given that a man is writing in the voice of a teenage girl), but I could imagine that this wasn't a girl I would have befriended in high school.

Yet despite this, the end of her story gutted me. And I think it gutted a lot of other readers out there, because most people can relate to getting their heart broken, especially by first loves. You hate someone with all your heart--maybe they cheated on you, maybe they rejected you, or maybe they just never truly looked your way. Falling for this person left you defenseless and vulnerable. You hate how pathetic you have become. And yet in despite of it all, you still senselessly and maddeningly cannot let go.

Everyone knows how the story ends--it's in the title of the book, after all. But knowing what's coming doesn't make the journey less suspenseful. Yes, Ed does something very Grade A asshole-y that prompts the end of their relationship. This was a minor issue I also had with the book -- perhaps it's because I was never super close to guy friends in high school, but I was dumbfounded that Ed thought he could get away with something so inanely jerkish and stupid. Maybe I'm giving high school boys too much credit. I guess I had been expecting a different reason for "Why We Broke Up" and what Ed did to Min didn't quite cut it for me. But regardless, Min's anger and pain registers quite sharply. What I do have to applaud Daniel Handler for is that despite Ed's flaws, I could understand why Min loved him in the first place. Maybe if they had met years down the road when they were less immature, it might have worked between them.

I don't think I would recommend this book to everybody--stylistically, it's not everyone's cup of tea. But I was thoroughly impressed by a number of things Daniel Handler managed to accomplish with this book. Aside from some negative points, I ended up liking Why We Broke Up, even though it left me feeling melancholy for the rest of the day.

Doom Da Da

These past two months have basically been TOP-mas. The Commitment was released, which led to a whole bunch of photo shoots and magazine interviews that I devoured like mad. And now, we have the Badass One's first solo single since "Turn It Up" back in 2010.

Everyone has ever been on my now-deactivated Facebook account likely has seen the barrage of TOP-related links and photos that certain friends of mine have constantly posted on my timeline, hence presenting the image that I am a crazy TOP stan. Though I am fiercely loyal to the Badass One, I must also make clear that I am not one of those fans who blindly loves everything that their beloved artist churns out. I've made fun of the Badass One's wardrobe choices and hairstyles in past blog posts (see: Idol Worship). And though I was fond of songs like "Blue" and "Bad Boy" during the ALIVE era, I was underwhelmed by the Badass One's performance during that period overall. Granted, he was shooting a movie during the weekdays and touring all over the world on weekends (meanwhile, I got tired from traveling merely states away for interviews last month), so it's understandable that he must have been exhausted. But that doesn't mean I have to like his performances during that time, which felt almost detached and bored to me. In fact, I found myself going back to a lot of the group's older songs, where he was younger, cockier, and just more emotional.

Meanwhile, my affection for YG has declined somewhat over time. I was largely unimpressed by CL's solo and 2NE1's two singles over the summer. G-Dragon has always been a mixed bag for me, and so far the only song on COUP D'ETAT that I've liked enough to listen regularly is "Black." Taeyang came out with "Ringa Linga" not too long ago, and though I loved the dance choreography, I was fairly unmoved by the song. For better or worse, GD's fingerprints were all over that track, and frankly the electro-dance style seen in songs like "Fantastic Baby" is generally not my cup of tea.

So when the news began to leak that not only was the Badass One planning to release a new solo, but also that he would have total control over the artistic direction (with the warning that some might love it, but some might hate it), I felt conflicted. On one hand, the idea that he would be putting out something artistically polarizing made me hopeful that there wouldn't be another GD-styled song. On the other hand, TOP's musical sensibilities had become such a mystery to me that I honestly had no clue what he could possibly be scheming. The fact that the song was titled Doom Da Da just made me even more puzzled. Dadaism-inspired music? What on earth was gonna happen?

I wish I'd done a live blog of my reaction to listening to "Doom Da Da" last night, because I can't remember the last time I reacted so viscerally to a song.

The first time around, my reaction throughout the whole song could be summed up in three letters. It wasn't even a matter of like or dislike. At that point, I couldn't even process what I had heard, because my ears had never encountered anything like it. It was like the lovechild of a Bollywood soundtrack and American hip-hop with an explosion of rapidfire rapping at the end. It was, quite literally: W. T. F.

And here's the thing--after that first listen, I didn't think I liked it. I was like, Whoa there. Too far out for me. But then I listened to it a second time after I saw the English translation of the lyrics. Then, I was like, Hey the DOOM DA DA is actually kind of catchy. Then before you knew it, I found myself playing the track on repeat.

There isn't much I want to say specifically about the MV, which was very much reminiscent of "Turn It Up" and was a delightfully weird and artistic counterpart to the song. I feel like I would grasp the imagery better if I understood the lyrics as a native speaker. Rather than dissect the video, I'm going talk about why I've grown rather fond of this track concept overall.

As a solo, this is very much a song characteristic of the Badass One. It's weird in a restrained way that distinguishes it from some of GD's crazier tracks. I am not a K-pop guru by any means at all, but I can't imagine any other idol out there who would release a song of this flavor. To me, this was a complete breath of fresh air. It actually reminded me of two other artists whose off-kilter musical styles wowed me in high school--OLIVIA and Bjork. By the same token, I grew to love this song because for the first time in a long while, I saw a glimpse of what drew me to His Royal Badassness in the first place. The heavy hip-hop bass line, that wicked third verse where he raps with a ferocity reminiscent of his emotional live performances of "Act Like Nothing's Wrong."

In sum: Welcome back, O Badass One.

White Suburban

‘Cause the first won’t happen twice
Won’t happen twice
It won’t happen twice

-- "White Suburban" by Skylar Grey

Woot

Got my first medical school acceptance yesterday :]

Progress Report No. 3

It's been a while since my last progress report. My progress slowed down a lot this past month, mainly due to all the traveling for interviews in October. Things have settled down a bit, so I've been trying to get back into the writing. After bumbling around, I've decided that I am definitely not a pantser, but an ultra-plotter who needs to outline everything before I feel comfortable about writing. So I've gone back to the drawing board and literally mapped out scene by scene on post-it notes. I thought I'd challenge myself with NaNoWriMo for the first time in my life this year, but it's already the fifth day and I'm still outlining. We'll see what happens. In the meantime, I just finished reading Phantom Variations -- a literary criticism book on all the incarnations and retellings of the Phantom of the Opera in literature, film, and theater. It gave me a great deal of insight on the themes I'm trying to layer throughout the story.

Rory's storyline is completely mapped scene-by-scene. Sometimes when I write vignettes or short stories, there's a moment when all the pieces seem to click together into something beautifully coherent. I got the same feeling when I finished Rory's part this weekend, so I think it's crystal for the time being. Charlotte's storyline is still being patched up, given that I've encountered a bunch of holes I have yet to figure out how to cover. I'm hoping that will be finished up by the end of this week, so I have no more excuses to actually start churning out the darned thing.

In other news about my life -- something very K-drama-esque occurred during my trip to New York two weekends ago, and I was originally planning to write a funny post about it, but I've lost interest in the idea. I did see Phantom on Broadway in the orchestra section that weekend, which was AWESOME. TOP-mas was yesterday (heh heh), and I am psyched about his new solo album coming out this month. Other dramatic things are still happening around me, but I really just want to filter all of it out, live an ascetic life in my little apartment, and focus on my pet project. In regards to my previous rant, the issue is still not resolved, but at this point I've adopted a "kill-them-with-kindness" mentality, and if they're still throwing a hissy fit, I'm honestly all out of fucks to give.

Toodleloo.