listening:: "clock" - coal chamber
I'm supposed to be reading this one punkass book, but instead I rebelled today by going to the library and getting my own damn books, dammit. I decided to corrupt my mind with some delicious Bruce Sterling and, of course, William Gisbon.
But one of the books I checked out was merely a book that caught my eye as I was looking for "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" (which I never found, by the way. >_<).
It's the second book that I've checked out that I wasn't actually looking for this year. The first one was called "How to Cook a Tart," which I thoroughly enjoyed, but I forget the author's name. This one is called "One Pill Makes You Smaller," by Lisa Dierbeck, and it's marvelous, for those of you who don't mind excessive drug use, strong language, and some graphic sexual depictions. It's inspired by Alice in Wonderland, which is my favorite fairy tale, (second favorite is, of course, Peter Pan) so that was the major attraction factor for me. Eerily, I realized that I knew it was related to Alice in Wonderland before I ever opened the book.
The main character, Alice, is an eleven year old whose body has grown at an electrifying pace. She already has the body of a woman twice her age, and the book follows her "perilous crossing into adulthood." She's basically thrown into a nonsense reality, with creative and often, unsettling and unusual characters, just like the original Alice tumbling down the rabbit hole, expect this Alice's rabbit hole is an adulthood she's not quite ready for. It's set in the seventies, and it's really a fascinating read.
And now, I shall regale you with some of my favorite quotes! (In order of appearance, of course ^_^):
"Oh, she'd have her arms open wide, like the boy in the book, to catch the girls when they fell. Because the naked children would fall. Alice wished they wouldn't, but they always did fall, they'd been falling forever and they always would."
-pg. 27 (I'm reading the hardcover), Alice's thoughts, after studying the cover of Led Zepplin's Houses of the Holy album
Alice was entirely disoriented by the nonsensical conversation. She felt she'd arrived in the middle of a play and didn't know her lines.-pg. 73, Alice's thoughts while meeting J.D.
Alice knew from her observations of Aunt Esme that this sort of behavior meant a person was drugged out. Now he was tipping his head from one side to the other, making faces at her. She couldn't tell if he was sticking out his tongue and rolling his eyes to amuse her, or himself.
To be polite, she laughed a little.
"That's better," he said. "I wanted to see you smile. When you're happy, you're much prettier."
Alice stopped smiling. She found him a bit frightening. He wasn't like a regular person at all.
-pg. 76, Alice and J.D.
"You're not as old as you were a minute ago," was all he said. "You look younger without that crap. You don't need that. Leave it off. What made you put it on? Did you want to grow up real fast?"
-pg. 82, J.D., after removing Alice's makeup.
"I'm what's known, historically, as a bad influence."
-pg. 119, J.D. in the tree with Alice
"What I would like to say," said J.D., "is that if you tell me to go away, I will. You know?"
"Sort of," said Alice.
"And if you don't tell me to get lost, I'll probably hang around and bug you, Alice. And corrupt you. And stuff. I'm playing fair, I think, by explaning this to you. Do you get that?"
"Yes," said Alice. Whatever was bad about him, she found him honest. "I don't want to get rid of you," she said.
"Oh," said J.D. He sounded suprised. "Uh-oh. I didn't think of that. Well, we're fucked then. Aren't we?" He scratched his chin. "I wasn't counting on your liking me," he added.
"Does that make it bad?" asked Alice, who felt they were together trying to avoid badness somehow.
"I really don't know, honey. I long ago lost the ability to distinguish right from wrong. Ah, Alice. Alice."
"What?"
"Nothing. I just like the sound of your name."
-pg. 120-121, my favorite conversation between J.D. and Alice up in the tree.
She couldn't help but feel glad that such a person existed, a man who would catch her when she fell from trees, a man who wore rings with skulls and nymphs on them, a man who talked of fantastic things.
-pg. 133, Alice thinking about J.D., after he caught her falling from the tree.
F-U-C-K, thought Alice. Four letters. R-A-P-E. Four letters. L-O-V-E. Four letters. They might as well have been the same words, Alice believed, or different words in the same category.
-pg. 219-220, Alice's poor, confused thoughts her young mind tries to sort.
If you couldn't tell, J.D. is my second favorite character, next to Alice. Or was, up until the ending. But I ain't tellin. You can go find out for yourself! Yes, go read, my little internet-obssessed junkies! ^_^