I started 'The Road' in 2009. a friend lent this to me for my long trip back to Manila from Hawaii. I finally FORCED myself to finish it, just to see how it ends. And the oc-oc in me couldn't live with myself if i just left it unfinished.
i honestly got quite bored. of course, his carefully described scenes of a post-apocalyptic world is haunting (and his vocabulary quite extensive!), it was getting pointless after a while. story picks up towards the end. and becomes both sad and redemptive as i finished it. it's not really my cup of tea.
pc told me about the story of this, a book i've long heard of. he loved it so that he wrote his collegiate thesis around it! so i decided to buy the book and read for myself. lola oscar gets very lyrical and vivid. and he wanders off to so many other things about the 'rich and famous' in merry ole england. but i was drawn to it. to the mystery. and to all the gay references! lol
and because of this trip to bali, i brought my first murakami. i say that with the pride of a nouveau literati (with all the pretense!), feeling i have 'arrived' after reading this buzz-worthy author. hehe. again, upon pc's recomm. he adores murakami. now this one i couldn't put down. i now understand where pc's coming from. as it is contemporary, it is also philosophical and thought-provoking. i love the metaphors, the allusions. and it's abrupt ending. beautiful.
blogging has made me wonder why i couldn't be like those writers. how is it that they could string together such words and make them form these images in my mind? where do they start? why is their view of the world, their perspective so different from what i see?
but beyond this useless questioning of my mediocrity, i really love it that pc has reminded me of the beauty of the written word. of how exquisite the experience is, of seeing with my mind's eye rather than just watching on hd.
long live the pen!
2 comments:
if you enjoyed dorian gray the book, then you would even love dorian gray the movie. imagine ben barnes (prince caspian) as dorian gray!!!
me too ayaw ko din yung ending ng the road, but i liked the character of the mother (though she's not much of a major character).
talaga gay references? mabasa nga yang the picture of dorian gray, hmm and it seems I must finally give up my snobbish attitude towards murakami (but more like towards his "hipster" readers) and pick up one of his novels since many of my friends whose taste I can trust like him too. cheers to friends (or lover, hey pc!) who keep inspiring us to read hehe.
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