Of A Cursed Child

Disclaimer: This post contains no spoilers. This is largely due to the fact that I haven't finished the book yet, but also because #keepthesecret, guys, it's only been a few hours.

Before I begin, allow me to say something in a language popularized by the vast community of excited fans of anything:
ASDFGHJKL;ICANTEVENWSDJKAJFAHLJ

Unless you have been living under a rock, with no internet connection, by now you would have heard about Harry Potter and The Cursed Child, the much-publicized script of the (again) much-publicized play of the same name set immediately after "Nineteen Years Later", and dubbed the "eighth Harry Potter book.

Let me repeat that. THE EIGHTH HARRY POTTER BOOK.
*sigh of pleasure*
Since I was too young to have actually followed the entire series as it came out, I cannot paraphrase Sirius and scream- I DID MY WAITING! NINE YEARS OF IT!
But certainly, as a Harry Potter fan, I can hold the book and (changing fictional worlds here) whisper myyyy preeeecioussss.
(My classmates would trip over themselves running away from me, despite the allure of the "precious". I do a creepy Gollum impression. Thanks, Andy Serkis, for teaching me too well.)

Some people have said that this is a year when the Harry Potter fandom has risen again, what with Cursed Child and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them coming to theatres in a few months. This is my response:
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHANO.

JK Rowling invites you to return to the wizarding world-
IT'S NOT LIKE WE LEFT IT.

So no, this book is not a return to the wizarding world, and no, the Harry Potter fandom has not "risen again" because we STILL talk about Harry Potter. We still argue about our favourite characters, we still write fanfic, we still draw fanart, we still defend our Hogwarts houses, we still complain about calmly (it's been like eleven years and we're still angry), we still pore through all the extra info on Pottermore and Twitter that JK Rowling releases. 

It's just that now we're seeing what happened after that scene on Platform 9 3/4, with Harry watching his sons leave on the train, a hand to the scar that had not pained in nineteen years, thinking that all was well.
(Apparently all is not well, since there's a story immediately after that thought.)

So now, on Harry's thirty-sixth birthday, and JK Rowling's fifty-first birthday (happy birthday, by the way), we catch the train with Albus and ride to Hogwarts for his first year and the story of the Cursed Child.

Because whether by page or by the big screen (or now the stage), Hogwarts will be there to welcome us home.

AQB: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

My name is Christopher John Francis Boone. I know all the countries of the world and their capital cities and every prime number up to 7,057.

When Christopher discovers his neighbour's dog dead in her yard with a gardening fork stuck through his body, he wonders what has happened. He sees it as a murder mystery- despite people telling him that most murder mysteries are about people dying. As someone who understands dogs better than people, the death of Wellington the dog is as important to him as any person's death.
He decides to investigate.

He follows the standard methods of detection, as set by his favourite detective, from the only genre of fiction he reads, Sherlock Holmes. Somewhat hindered by his difficulty in understanding human emotions and his own specific hangups, Christopher nevertheless uses his own observational skills and logic to find Wellington's killer- and in doing so, uncovers another, more personal mystery, a secret he never knew was being kept from him. (Can't tell you more without spoilers)

Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time was...interesting. The plot was fascinating and the point of view of the narrator- a boy who views the world somewhat differently from the majority of people (he has behavioural difficulties and it's implied he may have Asperger's, but this isn't confirmed or really relevant)- was intriguing. Another interesting aspect was that the chapters are numbered with successive prime numbers. However, it did sometimes drag, some exciting parts were quite blandly told (most likely because Christopher did not see it as exciting), and there were several profanities, so if you're thin-skinned to swearing, DON'T read it. If you can handle that, and you're interested in detective fiction, mathematics, dogs, or some combination of the above, then I'd recommend this book.

AQB: The Joy Luck Club

The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan, tells the stories of eight women, caught between the cultures of China and America: four Chinese immigrant mothers, Suyuan Woo, An-mei Hsu, Lindo Jong and Ying-ying "Betty" St. Clair; and their four American-born daughters, Jing-mei "June" Woo, Rose Hsu Jordan, Waverly Jong, and Lena St. Clair.

The Joy Luck Club is formed by Suyuan Woo as a club for playing mah jong and feasting, with three friends, also Chinese immigrants, who she met at church in San Francisco. It is started in memory of a Joy Luck Club Suyuan was in Kweilin, before a Japanese invasion during World War II forced her to flee.

The book is divided into four sections with four chapters each, broadly narrating different aspects of the lives of the eight women.
The first section, Feathers from a Thousand Li Away, focuses on the pasts of the four mothers when they lived in China. Suyuan Woo, at the beginning of the novel, has just passed away, so her story is told by her daughter Jing-mei. Each of the mothers had a difficult past, which eventually convinced them to move to America.
The second section, Twenty-Six Malignant Gates, has the four daughters tell the stories of significant moments in their childhoods, while in the third, American Translation, they talk about their current lives as adults. The final section, Queen Mother of the Western Skies, again focuses on the mothers, after the moments they described in the first section.

The Joy Luck Club is unlike any other book I've ever read before. It captured my interest with the unusual structuring (the division is, according to Wikipedia, like that of a mah jong game), the fascinating vignettes of the eight women's lives, the glimpses into a culture I know almost nothing about, and the way it portrayed the conflict the women feel between the two cultures they live with. I'd never before read a book with seven points-of-view, and seven storylines woven together, yet was so clear.

I was deeply intrigued by the stories in the books- stories of a search for twin daughters abandoned for their safety; of an unfortunate concubine of a rich man, who sacrifices her life to protect her children; of women with dysfunctional relationships with their husbands; of a teenage girl successfully scheming to get out of an arranged marriage; of a living ghost of a woman who sees things before they happen; of a talented woman holding herself back in fear and annoyance of her mother; of a directionless woman who realises her mother's dream.

I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in a conflict of cultures, multiple interwoven storylines, the surprisingly difficult pasts that haunt the present lives of eight women, or any combination of the above. It's totally worth reading.

AQB: The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is generally considered a literary classic. However, you may also remember it, from several years ago, when it was mentioned in the newspapers because Amitabh Bachchan had a cameo in the 2013 movie. (Although the movie starred Leonardo DiCaprio as the eponymous character, I only knew of the movie because of Big B. Leo fans, please don't get mad...)

 I was interested in The Great Gatsby because it was cited in a few sample SAT essays I read a couple of years ago. From those essays, I learned some things about the novel, and therefore when I picked it up to read it, I naturally had some... "preconceived notions".

Now, I had preconceived notions about The Hunger Games, which were dispelled the moment I realised the kids were thrown into an arena- I'd thought the Games were, like, televised gladiator-style fights, but no, it was cavepeople stuff, survive and kill. I was disturbed, yes, but I was expecting action, and that's what I got.

Where am I going with this? See, I was expecting this third-person account of the underworld of a Jazz Age New York City, and how Jay Gatsby fit into that world- so I was anticipating crime and mobster stuff, kind of a 1920s version of The Godfather. Instead I got a narrative by Gatsby's neighbour Nick Carraway about how Gatsby reconnected with Daisy (Carraway's cousin) years after they first met.

Yeah. If you're planning to read it, do not, and I repeat, DO NOT start it with the expectations I had.
Maybe I'm biased. Maybe, since I got something completely different from what I was expecting, I was disappointed. Maybe I just don't have the maturity to appreciate good literature.

Frankly, I didn't really think much of The Great Gatsby.
Set in in the fictional villages of East Egg and West Egg on Long Island, it tells the story of the mysterious Jay Gatsby, a war veteran who rose to riches in the hopes of winning the attention and, by extension, love of his ex-flame, Daisy Fay.

Nick Carraway, also a former soldier in WWI from the same division as Gatsby, moves to West Egg for his job in NYC. Invited by Daisy, his cousin, for lunch, he meets a young golfer, Jordan Baker, whom he starts dating.
Daisy is now married, to Nick's college senior Tom Buchanan, and apparently it isn't a happy marriage. Tom, in fact, has a mistress, Myrtle Wilson, and Daisy is aware of this. So when she meets Gatsby, who is obviously in love with her, again, she falls for him.

And it ends pretty quickly after that. I obviously can't tell you more without "spoiling" the plot, but let's say, with a premise like that, you'd expect an epic smackdown, or a horrifying revelation. Both happen, but nowhere near as dramatic as one would expect.

By the end of the novel, three characters are dead, and Nick quickly wraps up things and goes home, like, I am so done with this place.

To sum up my opinions of The Great Gatsby: it had far less drama than anticipated, it is not light reading, and isn't particularly absorbing.

I would recommend that anyone who reads this is a) in a philosophical state of mind, b) ready to handle the slightly confusing prose, and c) someone who harbours no delusions about the level of drama and action to be found in the novel.

AQB: The Count of Monte Cristo

The Count of Monte Cristo is the first book I've read in my reading quest (which I explained in A Quest Begins). First written as a serialized story in the Journal des Débats between 1844 and 1846, it was later compiled into a novel and is considered a literary classic that remains in print even today. I read the unabridged English translation of the original French (titled Le Comte de Monte Cristo), trying not to blitz through the 1100-odd pages in the small but fat edition I'd borrowed.

I'll try to avoid too many spoilers.

The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas, follows the story of a young sailor, Edmond Dantes. At nineteen, Dantes is happy with his life. He has a caring father, he is engaged to the woman he loves, and he is about to be made captain of his benefactor's ship, the Pharaon.
But two men are jealous of him- Danglars, his shipmate who wants Dantes' imminent position on the Pharaon, and Fernand Mondego, his fiancée Mercédès' cousin, who is in love with her.

Together they plot to get Dantes out of the way. They do this by framing Dantes as a Bonapartist. The late captain of the Pharaon (a known Bonapartist) charged the innocent Dantes to do two things: one, to deliver a packet to a general on Elba with the exiled Napoleon; and two, to hand over a letter to an unknown man in Paris. Dantes has no idea of the political importance of the packet and letter, and only does it to honour the last wishes of his superior- but Danglars and Fernand imply in an anonymous letter that he is fully aware of the contents of his deliveries, and is a fervent, violent Bonapartist.

Dantes is arrested an hour before his wedding.

The deputy procureur de roi at Marseilles, M. de Villefort, realises that Dantes is innocent and plans to acquit him. Then he finds out who the letter is addressed to- M. de Noirtier, a known Bonapartist, and Villefort's father.
Villefort, a royalist, has worked hard to reach his position and still dreams of becoming the procureur de roi of France. In order to safeguard his own career, he pretends that Dantes is, in fact, a Bonapartist, takes the information that there is a Bonapartist uprising stirring to the king, and throws Dantes in the Chateau d'If, a notorious prison, without a trial.

Mere days after Dantes' incarceration, Napoleon Bonaparte returns to France and the Hundred Days begin. M. Morrel, Dantes' patron, tries to petition for his release. Villefort stalls until Napoleon is finally exiled to St. Helena and the petition never goes through. Dantes is given up for dead.

Dantes, languishing in jail, meets the Abbé Faria, a supposedly mad Italian priest who is actually a genius. Together the two plot to escape the Chateau d'If. Faria tells him the secret of a great treasure, but dies before they can escape.
Dantes makes a daring escape after Faria's death. He has been in prison for fourteen years.
He claims the treasure Faria told him about, and proceeds to reinvent himself, as the mysterious Count of Monte Cristo, and search for his enemies.
Danglars is now a respected banker, who has been granted the title of a baron. Fernand is married to Mercédès, and having risen through the ranks of the army, is now called le Comte de Morcerf. Villefort has achieved his ambition and is the procureur de roi.
With his nearly unlimited new wealth and the knowledge Faria had imparted to him, Dantes proceeds to take his revenge on the men responsible for throwing him in prison.

Edmond Dantes' transformation from a cheerful, carefree young merchant sailor, to an enigmatic, bitter man who considers himself an instrument of divine justice is impressive to read. He is a master manipulator, pulling and slicing strings no one can see until a puppet falls and one realises what it was all about. His plans are so convoluted, even Albus Dumbledore (who, let's face it, is a majorly manipulative leader whose plans are far from straightforward) would be impressed.

I'd recommend this to anyone interested in a period thriller, who doesn't mind thick books, or wading through occasionally flowery language. If you want just the story (which is pretty awesome) and would prefer to skip the hundreds of pages and the elaborate prose, I would recommend an abridged version. Either way, it's worth it!

A Quest Begins

Gilmore Girls is an old TV show I've recently discovered. Following the lives of Lorelai Gilmore, her daughter Rory, and her mother Emily, I've spent quite some time binge-watching episodes.
Rory Gilmore, the youngest "Gilmore Girl", is a bookworm. And when I say bookworm, I mean, like, full-on bookworm - she's been seen in the show reading books by a whole range of authors, from Dr Seuss to JK Rowling to PG Wodehouse to Sylvia Plath.
Which has prompted what is known as the "Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge", a list of books Rory's read in the show.

When I tried to see how many of the books on the list I had read, I got a pretty abysmal score- 20 out of 339.
I set out to try and better it.
I'm hoping, in the next twelve months, to double that score.
And as I do so, I'm planning to post my progress, reviewing the books I read as I tick them off the list.

I hope, on the way, to discover new, interesting books. And let's face it, also to impress people by saying I've read some of the more fancy, depressing-but-considered-a-classic books on that list.
I hope, as I try to double in a year the number of books on the challenge I've read in almost sixteen, that you'll see some that maybe you've never read, and decide whether you want to give it a shot too.

And so I begin, as so many of my favourite protagonists do, on a quest. Admittedly it's not as dramatic as defeating a dark lord, or wreaking revenge- but only at face value. Because I'm doing all of that and more. As I read The Lord of the Rings series, I will walk with Frodo, and cast the One Ring into the fires of Mount Doom. As I read The Count of Monte Cristo, I will suffer with Edmond Dantes, and watch coldly as the men who unfairly cast him into prison fall in the eyes of the world. As I read The Odyssey, I will search with Telemachus for his father, and fight with Odysseus as he struggles to return home to Ithaca. As I read Emma, I will matchmake and meddle alongside Emma.

I don't need a prophecy, or a gift of a powerful object, to begin.
My quest begins now.

I Can Scare You

If you're a tenth grader, I know how to scare you. It only takes one word:

BOARDS!

Okay, that was low. Sorry. You don't have to cower behind your chairs. I'll try not to terrify you any further in this post.

Since I'm writing my board exams in March, it's naturally a topic that often crops up in conversations, at school and at home. Equally naturally, I really prefer to avoid the topic unless absolutely necessary, like when a teacher is invoking the marking scheme. Which happens only about three hundred and ninety four times a day. Yay.

Quick show of hands here: how many of you are nervous?

I'm just swooning from surprise at that response.

(Those of you who've finished tenth grade, or written engineering/medicine entrance tests- don't sneer. It's not like you guys were any better when YOU wrote tenth.)

Maybe it's because of the hype. Everyone seems to be an expert on tenth grade.

Teachers: Colleges will look for your tenth grade marks, if you don't do well now, your chances of getting into a good college are low.

Parents: You need to study more, these exams are very important. Colleges and even potential employers will ask for your tenth grade marks.

Indulgent relatives: If you get these many marks, I'll buy you something.

Older friends/cousins: Oh, you're in tenth grade now? *snicker* Poor you. You're so totally going to suffer. I hope there's cake at your funeral.

Random people you literally just met: Oh, tenth grade? *clucking noises* Very important, you have to do well. Otherwise you won't get a good job, and you won't be able to buy a posh car or go on holidays.

Hey guys- especially those last two categories- YOU'RE NOT HELPING.

There are different ways kids react to all this, and unfortunately none of them are very positive.

I'm bringing back some of the kids of When Our Boggarts Are The Same As Hermione's to show what I mean.

Kid 1: Board exams soon? That's not very nice. I don't really feel like studying. All these people talking is confusing me. I'll just go do something else- oh, this looks interesting! *rewatches Ariana Grande music videos on YouTube*

Kid 2: OH MY GOODNESS board exams are soon I need to memorise all of my textbooks, okay concentrate, concentrate, a mole is a unit of counting that represents six point two three into ten to the power of twenty three particles such as atoms or molecules- wait does that include ions? And this is just part of one small chapter in the syllabus, WHAT AM I GOING TO DO?!

Kid 5: Okay, a couple of months ago, I said that exams were "confusion's masterpiece", right? I need to add on to that, the horror that neither tongue nor heart cannot conceive nor name is...*gulp*...boards.

Kid 6: Exams are okay and all, but OH MY, boards are another thing altogether! My cousins are being horrible and completely scaring me, they're apparently super tough, my parents want to send me for tuitions, I've NEVER gone for two-hour-long tuition classes in three different subjects, I'm so scared!

Kid 7: That's it. I'm done. I thought my brain exploded a couple of months ago, but I was wrong. It just kind of collapsed. Now it's been blown up with crates of TNT. Look, if I tilt my head, you can see dust- the remains of my brain- pouring out of my ear.

Results during preboards?

Kid 1 sucks. Kid 2 messes up answers they knew because they were so panicky. Kid 5 does okay but not great because of nervousness. Kid 6 doesn't know some stuff because while studying their cousins' voices were playing on a loop and they couldn't absorb the material. Kid 7 sucks.

Basically, nobody does well. And that stresses everyone out even more.

It's a vicious cycle that nobody comes out happy in- not the teachers, not the parents, and certainly not the kids themselves.

Sometimes I imagine the people on the curriculum boards clad in black robes, sitting around a conference table in a darkened room, plotting difficult exam questions and formats as the leader of the board committee sits at the head of the table, laughing manically and encouraging the others while sipping blood-red liquid from a crystal champagne glass.

Which means that I picture them as the Death Eaters and Voldemort drinking some creepy dark wizard drink (probably invented by Grindelwald) that I don't even want to know about.

Such a cheery daydream.

I'm sorry. I have no advice whatsoever because I have not "been there done that" like dealing with homesickness.

So just, I guess...good luck. We can do this.

MAY THE FORCE BE WITH US.