The Ruins by Scott Smith, aka You Wish It Was Just Poison Ivy

My first literary endeavor of the summer began when I spotted a hardcover copy of The Ruins at Bookstock, the annual book sale at Laurel Park Mall. I was perusing the hardcover fiction after lunch with my friends when I saw it. I immediately snatched it up and purchased it for three dollars. I originally tried reading this in the fall when I borrowed it on inter-library loan at CMU. Alas, I was so busy and tired at the end of the day that I never made it past the first three pages. This time around, I picked it up around 11 pm on Monday night and finished all of its 319 pages sometime in the wee hours of Wednesday morning.

Why did I want to read this book? Liz, Monica, and I rented the 2008 film adaptation (screenplay also by Scott Smith), and when I saw it was also a book, I couldn't resist.

Amy and Stacy are best friends, and they decide to go on a trip to Mexico the August after they graduate from college. They each convince their boyfriends to come along. Jeff, Amy's beau, is going to medical school in the fall, and Stacy's Eric will be teaching at a prep school come September. Lord knows why they went to Mexico in August, but whatever. While staying at their hotel they befriend a group of Greeks who speak neither English nor Spanish, but give themselves Spanish names such as Pablo and Don Quixote.

During the last week or so of the trip, the TACS (Typical American College Students) meet Mathias, a German whose brother ran off to follow a woman on an archeological dig of some ruins. The TACS decide to accompany Mathias on his mission to find his Brüder, and Pablo unwittingly tags along.

The TACS & Co. find the incredibly isolated ruins covered in vines, and the Mayan locals start freaking out. When Amy accidentally steps into the vines, the locals threaten to kill the TACS & Co. if they don't immediately get their butts up to the top of those ruins, no buts about it young man. Over the next few days the flowering vine creeps into their wounds, ensnares them on several occasions, turns them against each other, drives them insane, and devours their bodies. Who will survive? Will the Greeks ever come to rescue them? Will Pablo ever wipe that inspid grin off his face? Can your stomach handle graphic descriptions of amputations and vines playing puppets with dead bodies, or will your stomach just wish you'd been taking ipecac?

Find out by reading Scott Smith's The Ruins!

Before my Final Recommendations, I present the first installment of:

1. Did you like it better than the movie? Why? - L

In my opinion, the book and the movie are both good in their own ways. The film adaptation thrives on building suspense and on realistic effects (almost none of which are CG, by the way). You don't get to know the characters quite as well as in the book, but I think they are still easy to relate to. The book may possibly be scarier for two reasons: partially because one's imagination can come up with innumerable horrible scenarios, but mostly because you can't look away from the page if you want to get through the double amputation, the grisly death scenes, and the self-mutilation.

Yeah...you didn't want to see the amputation.

As far as changes go, I understand the major changes they made in the movie: the Greek (Demetri in the movie) doesn't make it to the top of the ruins to begin with, so Mathias ends up the invalid. Fewer characters to deal with. Also, in the book Eric gets hysterical and is driven insane, while in the movie it's Stacy. I can live with the stereotypical hysterical woman scenario only because in the book the girls didn't do that much except watch in horror.


2. What, if anything, would you change to make the story more frightening? - Monica
Honestly, it was scary enough. I'll get to my most disturbing scene later, but right from the beginning what made it all unsettling was the fact that these characters are 21 and 22 years old. If I wasn't a music ed major, I'd be graduated just like them. Somehow it felt all the more disturbing when I realized they were my age. If they'd all been music majors, that probably would have been the most unnerving thing of all, and I would have thrown the book down and run away screaming and rending my garments. Oh I know: if I hadn't seen the movie first, I would have flipped out completely and probably thrown the book down at several key graphically described points.

3. What would have been the least frightening alternative? - J
Probably the ruins opening its gaping maw and bellowing a maniacal laugh before gobbling everyone up and burping out some bones...and that flipping cell phone. Also the ruins would make this face:
4. What was your favorite line? - N
Mathias to Jeff after Jeff suggests putting up a sign to warn possible rescuers not to touch the ruins:
"You sound like a German."
"What do you mean?"
"Always doing the practical thing, even when it's pointless."

5. Who was the character you most identified with? - H
While I identified with Eric, who not only became hysterically obsessed with the vine inside him, but also had doubts about teaching, I felt the biggest connection to Amy. She's the "good girl" of the group, but she can still be a brat sometimes, and all she wants to do is go home. She tries to be the voice of extra-sincere reason when she thinks Jeff's ideas are crazy. In short, she's the horror story brunette.

6. Who was your favorite character? - J
Mathias was probably my favorite character. I'm sad they did away with his playful banter and level-headedness in the movie version by making him sub in for Pablo. Mathias seemed the most laid back, open-minded, and reasonable character, knowing what's useful and what's not (see the above quote). You don't get to know him very well at all, but perhaps that's why I liked him so much: since I only saw part of his personality, I liked that part better than the whole of any of the other characters.

7. Who was the most annoying character? - M
Stacy. Stacy Stacy Stacy. Oh my goodness Stacy. She tries so very hard, but to me she was unspeakably obnoxious.

8. What was the most disturbing scene, in your opinion? - D
Probably when one of the TACS' bodies gets "re-animated" in a sense by the vines. I hesitate to describe it further. I was so glad it wasn't included in the movie.
Also, did I mention how hard it was to read the amputation scene? I don't know if I mentioned that like eight times up there, but there's a reason for it.

9. What did you think of the narrative style? - E
The narrative style is in third person, but it goes back and forth between the viewpoints of all the TACS, never leaving an event until the reader gets all four viewpoints. Yes, it usually leaves out Mathias's POV, but I don't think it has a big impact on the story. I think it was incredibly effective as it allowed the reader tremendous insight into the reasonings, processes, and backgrounds of the TACS. Also there are no chapters, which is oddly refreshing. You can really put it down anywhere there's a break, but you won't want to.

10. Did this book scare you away from visiting Mexico and any ruins therein? - K
ABSOLUTELY.

11. Which of the human characters would win in a cage match?
If the vine was in there it would win hands down, so as for a battle royale cage match between the six human characters, Pablo wins. He gets forgotten off to the side, and since he doesn't speak English, he doesn't understand he wasn't supposed to bring a gun.


FINAL RECOMMENDATIONS
If you enjoy a good scare, pick up this book. If you saw the movie, pick up this book. If you like Stephen King, but don't like the dry buildup in his stories, read this book. If you were disappointed by The Happening, read this book.

I dare you.


Tune in next time for my review of Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte

To In[Plath]ity and Beyond!

I sat in Java City on Friday morning, reading the last five pages of Infinite Jest. As I read the final sentence, I leaned back in my chair and heaved a tremendous sigh, like a stale breath that had been kept inside of me since September 13, 2009. I looked at the page, then looked up at the coffee shop before me. My first words upon finishing Jest were:

"What the hell?"

The rest of the day I was simultaneously proud of myself and uncomfortable. I couldn't get it out of my head that I didn't understand the ending, I felt no sense of completion, and I just felt like David Foster Wallace was laughing at me from beyond the grave.

A few hours later, I returned to the apartment and immediately went online to see if I could find some sense of closure. I found a few sites, and finally ended up at a website that I will not link here (you'll find it if you need it, I will not be a spoiler enabler!). It brought together details from the written beginning and end of the book, which happen to all be the chronological ending. Some bits I'd pieced together myself, but as far as who had been sending the tapes of the samizdat, I was floored. Once that was revealed, everything from the chronological end seemed to make sense! I leaned back and heaved a sigh of relief. My roommates asked me what was up, and I replied mistily:

"I just got the ending of Infinite Jest."

My brain is at rest.

I started Plath's The Bell Jar last night, and almost couldn't put it down. If I'd really, really wanted to, it probably would have been finished in the wee hours of the morning. However, we're having a party tonight, and I was getting up at 8 to go to Midland with Josh, so that was out of the question. I did get about 100 pages in, though. At one point I texted Sarah and said "I just reached page 20. This was a major feat in Jest." Basically, I've decided that any book after this will be considerably easier to get through (I was going to make an "infinitely easier" pun, but...well I suppose I just did), regardless of its average level of difficulty.

I plan on finishing Bell Jar by Monday evening, seeing as I'll be busy tonight and tomorrow. So far it's really intense. Plath's voice is so distinct and real; I can understand why the author of the foreword said so many writers and readers hear her voice as a contemporary one.

I hope everyone has a lovely weekend!

Life After "Jest"

I've decided I need to be more well-read. I'm compiling a list of books to read when I'm done with Infinite Jest in September--because I WILL FINISH IT by September 13, darn it.

This is what I have so far in the vein of classics (EDIT: though not in this order):

Life of Pi - Yann Martel
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen, because it's been far, far too long
Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
1984 - George Orwell (so I can compare the two)
The Unbearable Lightness of Being - Milan Kundera
Everything is Illuminated - Jonathan Safran Foer
Something by Gogol
Something by Dostoevsky
House of Leaves - Mark Danielewski (a project I started twice and never finished)

Other books:
A Song of Love and Death - Peter Conrad
Mozart's Sister - Nancy Moser
Under the Dome - Stephen King

That's my list as it stands right now, and I am fully aware that there are others I want or need to read, but I'm kind of distracted by the organ music emanating from my neighbors' house. It's a strange combination of sprightly and unsettling.

EDIT: I've decided to follow Sarah's example and write up an actual written list of books I want to read. It will be easier for me to keep track of, and I do so love actually crossing things off of lists. Also, my list is continually growing, but I think this is a good place to start. Sarah threw The Bell Jar at me today and I think that will be my first read after Jest. Also Animal Farm and The Giver are in there, since I haven't read them in ten years and I feel I'd understand them better now.

QUESTION: So far I have two requests to do buddy reading. Monica and I are going to read Everything is Illuminated together up at school, and Sarah and I want to read 1984 and Brave New World together and discuss them. Anyone else want to pair up for a specific book? After Bell Jar I plan on doing the buddy books first, so let me know!

Lolloping lolloping lolloping

While sorting through toys, games, and books in our basement tonight, Linden and I stumbled upon our parents' Poldark books. We knew they had read them and a few years ago they re-read them, so we asked mum how they were. She gushed about them, and we knew our father would just do the same.

"Oh they're very dramatic and romantic," was the phrase that made my decision for me.

"You know what? I'm going to read these this summer. Yes. That is what I am going to do." So I found the first book in the lot and glanced at the first page of the prologue.

I first noticed the word "lolloping" and decided I was going to enjoy this. Then I noticed the first dialogue:

"Well, Joshua."
"Well, Charles."
"This is a bad business."
"Bad indeed."

Then I decided I was going to enjoy this quite a lot. [Not to be confused with "Quite, alot."]

I'm a little daunted by the prospect of reading an entire saga in addition to Infinite Jest this summer, but it'll be a little easier because it makes for good bedtime reading!

Also, "lolloping" is a very silly word, and deserves to be used far more often.

"Susie! Stop lolloping down the hallway! You're going to fall and break your coccyx!"
"The deer went lolloping through the forest, singing about how happy they were to be alive."
"A semi came lolloping down the freeway, splattering any singing deer who lolloped into its way."
"The models came lolloping down the runway."

Okay, maybe that last one doesn't quite work. I've been watching too much America's Next Top Tahhruhh's BFF.

Suck. On. That.

I hate going to the doctor's office. Actually, I loathe going to the dentist, so I guess it could be worse. I used to hate going because I went to a pediatrician until I was 19 or so. I haven't been to the doctor at home in a couple of years; last winter I went to a few docs up at school and the otolaryngologist (ear/nose/throat doctor) for my tonsils. Between me turning 21, not being sure if what I had is allergies or a cold, and my mom wanting to get me checked out since I'm more genetically prone to be bi-polar or depressed, we decided it was time to get me to a "real" doctor.

I also hated going to the doctor because of the whole part where they weigh you. That was the main reason why I was terrified of going to the doctor this time, largely because I'd checked myself on our home scale and it was some impossible number that I knew couldn't be right because I can fit into last year's clothes but oh no what if it's right the doctor is going to freak out at me and tell me I need to change my lifestyle which I do and I should get on that right now and ASLDKGJADFGKLJSDFGLKJ was how that thought process went.So I go in, and the nurse says "Alright, now I'm going to weigh you," to which I reply, "Wonderful." I get on the scale, ready to cry, when all of a sudden she goes all the way to the end of the one section and I'm sure she'll have to continue on up the scale

...but she pulls the little mini weight back about halfway to what I can safely say is my lowest weight of 2009 (sometime in the fall), the year I eventually lost about 15 pounds.

I think to myself, if I lost 15 pounds and I basically kept off that weight, then that means I can lose another 15 this summer. Losing about 20 would put me back at my ending high school weight, which would make me feel FANTASTIC. I went through the rest of my day with a bit more spring in my step, knowing that our home scale is a good 25 pounds off.[above: my general attitude for the rest of Friday]

Saturday, on the other hand, was a weird day. I started off feeling exhausted but optimistic, thinking I would be just content to stay at home and do a lot of reading in Infinite Jest. My mother said, "Go to the drugstore first and get your prescription." So off I went on my merry way, only to find out that the doctor didn't call in my prescription to any CVS on Friday, and I would have to wait until Monday to get it. Already feeling a bit overwhelmed by not being able to sleep the night before and overthinking myself into kind of an existential crisis, I started crying on the way home from the drugstore, and didn't stop until about two-and-a-half hours later.
That was when Kelsey came over and we watched the first four episodes ever of Star Trek on dvd, and we talked a little and I started feeling better in general. Campy sci-fi makes everything better. Jon showed up for the last episode and stayed after Kelsey left, and later helped me through an existential crisis, but that's not important right now.

What is important is that the fourth episode of season 1 of Star Trek is called "The Naked Time," and is absolutely ridiculous. An alien virus starts infecting the crew, spreading via perspiration, and removes the crew's inhibitions. One would think that this implies lots and lots of trysts, given the title (there was some discrepancy over whether it was "The Naked Time" or "The Naked Time!"). What it means, however, is that everyone's facade is stripped away, revealing their desires and secret feelings. As far as we know, the virus only made one man suicidal, and he killed himself with a butter knife. It makes most of them act very silly, like Sulu ("who longs to be a swashbuckler out of your 18th Century) some of them relentlessly irritating, (like this fellow who hijacked Scotty's position and kept singing "Kathleen" over the intercom)or in Spock's case, incredibly, heartwrenchingly emotional. [below: a very poor rendering of Kelsey dying a little over Spock]Remember that part where I can't draw? I'm sorry, Kelsey.