Some Random Thoughts

 A lot of things have been going through my mind lately that I wish I had the time or the energy to write. But I don't so I'll just concentrate on two topics that have got me particularly angry. (Just a little note this is not book-related at all).

So, I'm a fan of Taylor Swift. Yeah, go ahead and mock me or whatever. But, I think she's actually a really talented singer/songwriter who has really honed her skills at a very young age. I also think it's quite a feat that she accomplished writing so convincingly and honestly about her teen years and even about her young adult life. As someone who reads YA, I don't think it's easy at all to portray those awkward and difficult years in a really accurate way. A lot of times when someone writes a story about a teen girl or sings songs about teen life, they fall into the trap of making it cliche'd and incredibly dumbed-down. That's probably the reason why so many people just look at Taylor Swift and know that she writes her own songs and dismiss her songs as typical "puppy love" or just mindless, spineless girl wanting a random boy. But I think it's a crime to dismiss T.Swift so casually.

She writes with pure emotion and to skim over her songs as just cutesy music or to label her as someone who can't sing about any real things, would be dismissing a lot of what young kids go through in high school as unimportant. It may be unimportant to YOU but to them, it's real life. And sometimes adults forget that. They forget that those intense emotions we feel during our teens IS real life. It's a part of our life. Dismissing them as unimportant is what leads to issues like teen suicide. We don't think that what happens during high school affects us because we've grown up and moved past it. But a lot of kids don't move past it and take their own lives. Was it not important for someone to recognize their emotions as authentic and help them? It definitely is.

What role does Taylor Swift play in all this? She created a new genre that was never accurately portrayed in music (at least not in my generation). Usually, teen artists are just puppets that sing someone else's songs or can only write about certain topics that are purely "fun" and mindless. Music that you can dance to, not music you can actually listen to or relate to. But Taylor's songs touch on bullying, cheating, growing up, being naive, and of course, falling in love. And she does it in a way that makes these emotions authentic and not just silly girls being silly. To just say that her music is all "rainbows and butterflies" without any substance is not only offensive to her as an artist but to all the girls around the world who can relate to it.

What also bothers me is when Taylor gets the "anti-feminist" label. Yes, she sings about boys and love. Yes, she wears flowery dresses and makes heart signs. That makes her a weak woman? What about the fact that she writes all her own songs? That she empowers girls to take control of their lives and reach for their dreams? That she basically organizes and controls almost every aspect of her life at the tender age of 20? And that she beat out almost every male artist (besides MJ) the past year on the charts? If that doesn't describe a strong woman, I don't know what does. It's just because she sings about love and wanting boys that makes her anti-feminist? I'm sorry that she can't conform to the stereotypes of feminism. I'm sorry that she finds ways to be strong by sticking to her personality. I'm just kidding, I'm not really sorry about that. Look, I'm not saying Taylor Swift is the most perfect artist, the most talented person ever. I'm simply analyzing the critiques she usually gets and a lot of them just completely ignore reality.

ANYWAY. I also wanted to shift your attention to this article:   http://dft.ba/-1D9. Take some time to read that but also take some time to read some of the absolutely horrendous comments underneath it. But, if you're too lazy, basically the article is addressing some German politician who said that "multiculturalism" just isn't working out in Germany because immigrants are just uncivilized people who can't be a functioning or helpful part of society. Now, she doesn't phrase it like that, but that is basically what she is saying. The article argues that either the multiculturalism isn't working because immigrants are not acclimating into the society, are not making efforts to fit in, or that Germany isn't doing a very good job at giving these immigrants a fighting chance. Look, if you treat these people with disrespect and prejudice, of course they're not going to find good jobs or vote or feel welcome. As a result, they'll retreat back into their own cultures and make neighborhoods that are secluded from the rest of the community. How do you stop people from isolating themselves from society? Well, for starters you can stop isolating them. Stop discriminating. Stop judging. Just stop being so hateful.

Then, there are these lovely, absolutely intelligent commentators who say things like "ship Muslims back to their own countries." Yeah, forget the fact that many muslims are actually U.S. citizens. Forget that they vote, go to school, start businesses in the U.S. Just ship them back because a minority amongst them abuse their religion. Send them all back. (Obviously being sarcastic).

There are also people saying that immigrants should submit to "American culture." I'm sorry, what exactly IS American culture? What is a unifying thing that we all Americans have in common? Well, if we go back to the pilgrims' time, it was escaping religious persecution, finding freedom and liberty. Huh. Doesn't that "American" ideal contradict the sentiment that all people of a certain belief should be shipped away? America was founded on freedom from religious persecution, people. Other than those basic American values, there really is no unifying American culture. Other than the fact that we all want freedom and happiness and a safe place to live, away from discrimination and hatred, there is no one culture. And that's how it should be. Freedom from persecution and discrimination. THAT should be the unifying culture. THAT should define us as a people.

Anyway, that was just my rant about the absolute bigotry in the world. I'm not sure if this is coherent at all. Probably isn't.

Review: The Six Rules of Maybe by Deb Caletti

I have an exam tomorrow for my poetry class so OF COURSE I would be updating my blog. That's what I call dedication (or procrastination, same thing). Anyway, before I get into the nitty gritty details of this book and my analyzation of it, let me give you guys a little preface. Okay. So, I love Sarah Dessen and Elizabeth Scott. And Deb Caletti gets thrown in with those authors quite a bit. When I first picked up a book by this author (Honey, Baby, Sweetheart), I was so excited because I thought I'd love it. It was the kind of book that is RIGHT UP my alley. When I finished it, I was left really disappointed because I didn't like it all that much. Next Deb Caletti book I picked up gave me the same results. So, you can see the apprehension I had before picking up this particular book. But the cover was so gorgeous and the premise sounded so good that I just had to read this.

The story revolves around a seventeen-year-old girl, Scarlet, and her family and neighbors. But mostly Scarlet. It starts off with her older (and quite obnoxious) sister coming home married and pregnant. Surprise, surprise. Where this book gets oh-so-interesting is the part where Scarlet finds herself falling deeply in love with her sister's husband and figuring out that her sister doesn't really love him all that much. A lot of the story deals with this particular complication but it also deals with other things. Like, Scarlet's need to help EVERYONE around her, whether they ask for her assistance or not.

All in all, I liked this book. It was okay. But I wish I had liked it more because I so badly want to love Deb Caletti's books. And it is this want that makes me analyze her more closely than I would others. I have narrowed down two specific reasons why I liked this book but also two reasons that prevent me from REALLY liking it. So here they are.

I liked:
1. The secondary characters. They were so colorful and interesting that I felt pulled to their storylines and found myself empathizing with them, rooting for them, or scolding them in the short periods that I did see them. The surrounding characters are what make Deb Caletti's books comparable to Sarah Dessen's or Elizabeth Scotts. They're definitely not stereotypes...they seem like actual people that pull on your heartstrings just as much as (or even more than) the main characters. My favorites were Clive Weaver and Fiona Saint George. I found myself really wondering what was going in their lives.

2. The overall theme of the book. I love that Deb Caletti writes books for girls that have great messages to them. This is no exception. You'll find lots of introspection and ideas that really make you think about your own life. This is something that I find missing in a lot of other YA contemporary novels targeted at girls--they sorely lack a significant theme that explicitly relate to the average girl. Deb Caletti always has that in her books and that's why I view her as a respectable YA author.

However, that being said...

I disliked:
1. Oh my gosh, the similes. Too. Many. Similes. Don't get me wrong, I love figurative language. It adds beauty, depth, style. But this book just took it too far. Every other sentence was a simile or a metaphor for something else. It was annoying because I would be caught up in the story and then find myself being pulled out of it because of these similes and/or metaphors. I understand that an author wants to paint as clear a picture as they can but, honestly, when they put too many similes in their books they risk TELLING instead of SHOWING which is a major problem. This isn't to say that there weren't some beautiful comparisons and poetic language--there definitely were. Some of them left me in awe. But I felt like it got to the point where it was becoming separate from the novel instead of being a part of the novel. She could have cut a lot of those things out.

2. The judgmental main character. I've had this problem with quite a few of Deb Caletti's books, I always find it irksome that the main character seems to mercilessly judge everyone around her. And every time her negative response to someone turns out to always be RIGHT. I mean, she is the narrator of the story, and we are seeing the world through her eyes, so when she makes a generalization about someone (example: bad boys don't belong in libraries) it makes me laugh at first. But then, I realize that she's being COMPLETELY SERIOUS and that it's not just the character but the writer that's holding this view. And that just throws me off. I don't know about you but I definitely don't want the voice of the main character to switch to the voice of the author. Ever. Unless I'm reading an autobiography. But, you see what I'm getting at? We know that the main character is flawed because she holds views like this but her views are treated as the RIGHT views of the book and not just a character flaw. This kind of makes the book a little preachy because we keep getting hit by what the character believes is right but it automatically translates into what the author believes is right. This takes away all the subtlety in regards to theme that novels should always have.

Anyway. Bottom line is that this book was good and fairly enjoyable. Deb Caletti has talent as a writer and I really respect her as one of the major authors of the genre. But, I just wish she'd tweak some things so that I could REALLY enjoy her books.

I give it a: 3.5/5 stars