Facing Dorian Gray

The Picture Of Dorian Gray was written by Oscar Wilde in 1890. I read it for the first time a couple of days ago.  I had assumed that I knew the story. It’s considered one of the classics so bits of it have been paraded around for years in cartoons, movies, and even comic books.  I thought I knew the story, just like everyone thinks they know the story of Frankenstein until they actually read Mary Shelley.

The very first surprise I got was that Dorian was blond.  Not a big deal right? But in most of the depictions I have seen, Dorian Gray was always portrayed as a brunette. (I am guessing this is because Oscar Wilde was a brunette and often the character Dorian Gray is mirrored after the author and not the book.  (I mean the man unfortunately did live in “interesting times”, and was put in prison for being gay.)  So surprise Dorian is a blond. (By the way so was Dorthy in the Wizard of Oz.)

Another surprise, Dorian didn’t have his portrait painted but was talked into it by Basil, the artist. Always thought the book was about this really vain guy who, like Faust,made a deal with the devil to live forever and unblemished. In actuality Dorian is an okay young man at first, pretty and no doubt doted on for it by others but generally okay, until he meets Basil’s friend Lord Henry.   (AKA the devil on his shoulder.)  Needless to say things don’t end well.  I am not going to spoil the book.  If you would like, you can read it yourself. (The first link up there at the top leads to a free ebook version. …and if your lazy…here it is again.)

The whole point of this post is that this book made me think.  (Warning: I don’t usually think in straight lines.)  As I thought about the book it reminded me of the first time I read Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.  It gave me that same stomach churning feeling. (As well as nightmares.)  I found myself in places wanting to take Dorian to the side and tell him ‘not to do it’, just like someone talking to the characters in a horror movie.  (You know bad things are going to happen if everyone splits up. Yet they do it anyway, no matter how much you yell at the screen.)

I don’t think I particular liked The Picture of Dorian Gray…I didn’t like Frankenstein either…but I can honestly say they are both good books and worth reading.  I think some books need to be experienced. I think sometimes a book can be very good even if you don’t care for the type of book it is.  Books like these tend to force us to look inward and take a peak at the ugly sides of ourselves.  It’s uncomfortable, but if you can manage it, it can possibly lead you to make choices that make you a better person.

…a tale gone cold

The house was cool despite the sun shining through the window. By late afternoon it was usually warm enough to turn on the air conditioning but today I sat at my computer bundled in jeans and a sweatshirt with a cup of coffee to warm my hands.

My fingers felt numb, but that could be because they had been posed in the same position for almost an hour and my screen was still blank.  Ideas flashed through my head in a never ending kaleidoscope yet I hadn’t written a single word.  I had my current book to finish before I could give in to the temptation of new untarnished ideas.   Sadly, finishing my novel was proving more difficult that it should be.       My inner perfectionist was getting in the way again. I had already wasted days trying to fix the mess I had made of the plot and now that I had a clear view of where the story was going I was having trouble putting the words down. What if I was mistaken?  I didn’t want to spend another week untangling story threads.  I wanted to get it done, but I also wanted to get it done right.

With a sigh I picked up my coffee cup, gulped a mouth full of caffeine, and frowned.  It had gone cold.

Pantser's Guide to Getting Unstuck

Reblogged from madgeniusclub:

So, you’re a pantser. If you’re really lucky, you’re an extreme pantser like me, where your characters tell you things on a “need to know” basis – and you don’t need to know. And you’re stuck. Hard. You don’t know what should happen next in your story, and your characters won’t tell you.

The methods I use aren’t a guarantee, but they work for me, and they’ve worked for other pantsers.

Read more… 709 more words

I thought this was helpful and that I would share. :)

Reading too much candy

I have been reading too simple.  It’s good every now and again to read something just for the heck of it and not worry about redeeming value but the key phrase is “every now and again.”   Just like your body craves healthy food the mind craves a challenge, and the books I’ve read lately have been far from challenging.  

Of course it may just seem that way because I have stumbled on more bad books since I received my Kindle at Christmas.  (And boy have some of them been truly awful.)  Regardless, I need to clean my pallet. The easiest way to do that is to go back to the classics. I see Dickens and Twain in my immediate future…and possibly some Tolkien as well.

My trip, part two : Orlando

I made it to Orlando about the same time as Alicia did but she beat me to the hotel.  Mostly because she had a cab driver who knew where he was going…sort of…and I drove by the place three times before I found it.  (I stopped at a gas station and asked a cab driver for directions.)

I had been awake more than 24hrs.  I was hot and coated in an uncomfortable layer of sweat.  But there was no time for naps or showers or even a change of clothes.   We had exactly enough time to toss our suit cases in our room and rush back down to the car.  We had dinner reservations to make.  (As in get there on time.)     Fortunately I knew exactly where I was going this time. (I passed the building during my quest to find the hotel.)

Medieval Times. Though it would have been nice to freshen up before dinner, (and nap) if there was one place we could feel okay about it this was it. I mean in actual medieval times most people only bathed around four times a year, unless you were rich.  (After the black plague people began to bath more.)

I was also starving by the time we got there.  If you’ve never been you Medieval Times they serve you a lot of food while you watch knights and horses perform for your amusement, and you eat with your hands.  By the time food was set in front of me I don’t think I would have cared if there were utensils. I probably would have eaten with my hands anyway.

It was a great show.  I loved the horses. We were supposed to be cheering for the black and white knight, but my favorite was the green knight. You could tell that he got along well with his horse and the horse enjoyed what they were doing.

I ended up buying the sound track too because I loved the music and thought it would be good to write to.   After dinner we returned to the hotel and I kind of don’t remember much more of that night.  At some point I must have showered and changed clothes but all I remember is laying down on the nearest flat surface. (Which was fortunately my bed and not the floor.)

My trip… part 1

So I guess I am going to write this in chronological order…but don’t be surprised if my train of though skips track and ends up elsewhere…(Also I apologize if this bores anyone…I am getting my thoughts in order as I write.  …it’s kinda more for me rather than anyone else…like free writing.)

Last Tuesday April 23, I left work and went home to drag my suit case into the living room before going to bed.   (…okay I actually finished up a lot of last minute preparations before I hit the pillows….)   I awoke late in the afternoon, spent sometime with the kids, ate dinner, then finally hauled my suitcase outside and tossed it into the trunk of my car.  I stalled and piddled around as long as I could because I was nervous about my current undertaking.

I didn’t want to leave my kids, even though I knew they would be in good hands and I had back up plans for my back up plans just in case anything went wrong while I was gone.  Finally I forced myself into the driver’s seat and turned the ignition.  I was on my way. The first miles of a ten hour trip, driving by myself (at night) to Florida.

The traffic was reasonable and the road construction not too bad.  The sky was beautiful.  The moon was so bright that it seemed more like driving on an overcast day rather than the middle of the night.  It made me miss my old Camero. I would have loved to be able to look up through the glass of the T-top to see the stars.

Wednesday morning I had made it passed Ocala and was nearing my first destination.  My cousin Michelle had lost her father to cancer back in February. (On Valentine’s day to be exact.)

She is one of the strongest and bravest people I know.  She had been living in my Uncle’s house since the beginning of the year to take care of him as his health declined.  She was still there to sort out his estate and the leftover business that comes when a loved one dies.

My plan was to stop in, check on her, and have a nap on her couch.  She’s been having a rough time lately.  (Family drama, a divorce, and finishing the last few credits for her degree…among other things)  We went to breakfast and enjoyed decent conversation before she offered me a guest room and the chance to nap on the softest bed known to man.  (It reminded me of the bed in the guest room of our grandmother’s house when we were kids.)  I couldn’t sleep though.  I tried but my brain would not shut off long enough.  So after a couple of hours I got back up and my cousin decided we should go take a walk on the beach at Pine Island.  It was nice and relaxing. There were dozens of other people there too but walking in the surf and breathing in the salt air made them fade into the background.

I had planned on getting back on the road again soon because I had to make it to Orlando. (A couple of hours away) My friend Alicia was flying in from D.C.  and was my accomplice and co-adventurer for the trip.  In fact she planned almost all of it. (requesting input from me when needed of course)

Unfortunately, she made it as far as the air port before she realized she had left her passport at home.  She called me to let me know our plans would have to be delayed if she couldn’t make her flight in time and would have to take a later one.  We had dinner reservations for Medieval Times and since I had never been it was a little disappointing.   However, it gave me more time to spend with my cousin.  Michelle is eleven years older than me so we never really had any one on one time growing up.  Her baby sister Samantha (who died from Cystic fibrosis in 2000)  was my best friend.

We talked and drove to a couple of spots she knew in search of manatees.  I saw new fish and a crab, a squirrel and a bunch of birds but no manatees.  It was too early in the day.   Soon, I received another phone call from Alicia saying she had gotten her neighbor to meet her half way with her passport and so she would make the flight after all.  I said good bye to my cousin, and headed toward Orlando with various plans to come visit her again running through my head.

 

 

Back Again

Well I had a successful adventure and have returned home none the worse for wear….well a little sunburned but that was from the car drive home so I don’t really count it.   I had grand visions of frantically scribbling down notes during my trip in a journal.  It didn’t happen.  I did have a wonderful time though.

Right now images from my trip are crowded together in my head and I am not sure which to examine in word form first.  I had a lovely visit with my cousin, stayed awake for about twenty seven hours, went to Medieval Times, finally slept, ate breakfast twice the next day before heading off to Universal Studios Islands of Adventure, had an amazing lunch at the three broomsticks, followed by a horrible dinner at our hotel, jumped on a ship and left the country…..there is just too much and truly I am to tired to pick just one piece of my “vacation” to write about at the moment.   There will be a long post later, probably filled with dozens of minor things no one but me cares about.