T=Time Travel=Bookish Confession#20

Time travel, anyone? If you can get the chance to travel in time, will you? I know I won’t, and this is my big confession of today. I am fascinated by time travel. I love to read the stories where the experiences are bring forth from the time. One of the book that has haunted me for quite sometime is Time Traveller’s Wife.

I enjoy the hijinks of traveling in the time as covered in different novels, and even the serious issues that the time travel can create, but the science of it which fascinates me the most. When I get a book about time travel, either fantasy, sci-fi or even mythological one, I just am lost in the rules. I will turn page after page to understand the logic and the rules of time travel. They vary so much. In some, no conversation will be allowed with the past self, while in some advice will be handed out by the future self. Some of these rely on time traveling machine, some of the will of gods and faeries, and then there are some in which time travel has no reason. It just is there.

The time travel is one of my favorite tropes, after letters. I can read any book on the time travel and be lost in it. But yet, no time travel for me. I am afraid what will I do if I meet my past or future self–afraid of both the scenarios. This proves that I am not really an adventurous type of person.

S= Second Chances=Bookish Confession#19

I am running so behind the schedule that I wonder if I will reach Z by 30th April or not. But that’s me– the last minute person. At least I am feeling better (mentally) after all shocks of last week.

For S, I wish to talk about second chances. As I said in my last post, there was a time when I was a romance novel junkie. My tastes have diversified since then, but a good romance is still one of my getaway kind of book. The romances very usually showcase the second-chances. And I do not mean the second chances with other people. I am talking about second chances with the same person.

It might be my personal perception, but again it is a thing that I cannot relate with. You know once a relationship goes sour for one or the other reason, there is this bitterness that comes in, which is quite difficult to forget. I have seen people forgetting those bad moments in real life too, but I just cannot comprehend how the trust develops in such cases.

I guess I have talked about this story earlier. I have a friend who reconciled with her domestically-abusive husband. It has been 3-4 years now I guess. The guy promised to improve, and he did improve(or so my friend tells me). Their life looks happy.

I am so glad for my friend, but at the same time I am perplexed also. Won’t the doubt and fear creep in everytime? I wonder if sleeping in same room with such a person won’t become difficult? I asked my friend this, but she shrugged this off. I guess there is no reply for this curiousity of mine.

But I get this similar niggling feeling when I read about the second chances happening with the same people. I think I am too sceptical, but I have been in that boat once. I decided to walk away rather than take a chance. Perhaps it is just that I am not brave enough! I  have no regrets as such, but this burning curiosity  of knowing how the second chance thing works. How can someone have such strong motivation to forego all the negative things and take a plunge in dark again?

 

Rape, Force, and Consent

This is actually not a rant because I believe that the difference is on how things are perceived, but for R I want to talk a bit about rape, force, and consent. There was a time when I used to devour romance novels. So I guess I can now half-guess the plot already. One thing that bothered me then and now is how the sex is treated in the books. One can find so many books where forced intercourse and lack of consent is treated lightly. It is all considered as the way to bring women closer to the men.

And in these stories, the seduction and intercourse end up appearing like rape. It is supposed to give the tingly feeling to the readers, but instead end up being so disgusting. The worst part is that the writer wants us to believe that such scenes are okay, that such instances are okay. In fact, in one of the authors that I like, Lisa Kleypas, confronted the issue in her interviews. She confessed that she has used such forced seductions in past, but now she is more in the favor of both male and female characters being on equal footing.

But that is still true in many of scenes that are shown. They practically border on being rapes(Gone with the Wind movie scene, ahem!), but they are never dissected or questioned because they are in the “flow of the story”(True words someone once quoted). But Love is all about respect, even if it is a no. Love does not allow anybody to forego consent. Period. 

It is the duty of the writer to understand this and readers to let not these scenes color their perception. And probably it is the duty of readers to visualize the scene right.

Q=Queen Bees= Bookish Confession#17

We have talked about this earlier as well, I guess, but in a different way. This confession is again associated with the YA novels. In fact, this gripe is more about the stories that are penned down by teens.

Queen Bees are the most popular girls of the high schools. Seriously, these high school stories (and dramas as well) give me a sense of being alien to the world. I don’t recall there was a queen bee in my school. Probably, I had been too much of a nerd to even notice them.

But let us move from my life to the topic of Queen Bee. There is a line in the Netflix show of 13 Reasons Why: The popular people become popular because they treat other students badly. (I am not quoting verbatim but just recollecting). This is what is shown in the YA novels. There is a Queen Bee with a nature, and she is 90% of the time showcased as someone who is mean, cares only about her beauty, and who does not have any loyalty for her “bee-hive friends” a bit.

Now after reading such stories, I really am left to wonder about the popularity of these people. There is a difference between popularity and notoriety. Why will people want to be friends with someone who is that bad of a nature? How does such a mean person, the kind who is not even loyal to their friends, become someone’s envy? Popularity goes beyond the looks. Looks can get you noticed once, but it is the character and the nature that gets you popular. Then how did the concept of Queen Bee really came  up?

If we go to Wattpad and pull out the stories of teens(They are mostly written by teens too), most of them will feature a bad queen bee. I am actually planning to undertake a quantitative research on this—to understand why there are so many such characters.

Like I expressed about Cheerleaders, I have no idea where this comes from. Even though I have not met queen bees, I do believe there has to be some redeeming quality in the people to be that popular. The meanness and bullying does not make anyone stronger, instead these are the signs of the weakness of a character. Why would anybody want to be friends with them is beyond me.