Stella!

The first play on the list I made for myself of plays I've never read but should is A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams.  If you googled lists of plays everyone should read, I'd bet Streetcar would be on most all of them, but for some reason it always slipped by me.  I'm not completely ignorant to Williams' work, but I might as well be.  The only thing I've read by Tennessee Williams is Glass Menagerie which is one of the best plays ever written, and I'd say definitely better than Streetcar but there's a lot of good stuff in this piece too.  I guess I just think Glass Menagerie has more interesting characters, more compelling relationships, and the story's more effectively constructed.

Streetcar Named Desire is about two sisters, Stella and Blanche, and Stella's husband Stanley.  Stanley's a drunk and a gambler and at his worst he can get really abusive.  Stella being the weak, submissive little girl she is can't bring herself to leave Stanley, but when Blanche comes into town, she ends up being a capable foil for Stanley.  This understandably drives Stanley to hate Blanche, and the longer she stays with the couple, the more Stanley is driven insane.

Honestly, through a lot of the reading of this, I couldn't help but picture The Simpsons' musical version of the play, where Marge plays Blanche and uses her fights with Homer to help her get into character.  Seriously, how good was The Simpsons before it got terrible?  Epic.

Anyway, Tennessee Williams is a master of realism, and maybe one of the best playwrights out there for creating rich and interesting characters.  Throughout the entirety of Streetcar all of the characters' actions feel completely grounded in reality; believable to where the character is at that specific moment in the play.

I put A Streetcar Named Desire on this list because I should have read it years ago, but I also wanted to read this play specifically because I'm going to be getting to the film version with Marlon Brando (Like I have to specify...) soon on my AFI Top 100 Blog.  So, keep a look out for my reactions to the film soon.

Companions, Whores, and Geisha

I was on the fence about whether or not to keep this blog, but let's face it, I do enjoy subjecting people to my thoughts about things I've read and seen, so here goes.  The first book on Jenn and my's summer reading list was Memoirs of a Geisha by some guy who was certainly never a geisha, but actually does an amazing job of creating a fictional story chronicling the life of a geisha in Japan in the years surrounding World War II.

Now, going into this book I had very little idea about what a geisha actually is.  I knew they were entertainers; dancing mostly, but had no idea that they are also engaged for long periods of time by men to keep as their mistress.  And yet, they're not prostitutes.  Sure, they sell their virginity to the highest bidder, and have affairs with married men in exchange for money and gifts, but they're not prostitutes.  Actually, they reminded me more of companions on Firefly, but with more makeup.  Obviously reading about another culture as an American can create some discomfort.  Whenever we're dealing with human trafficking, it's a dicey subject, even when it's voluntary and socially acceptable.

I did find myself wishing the story would progress faster.  Maybe it's my playwright mentality, but I think a story should start as late as possible and move efficiently through the characters' development.  Sometimes novels then feel long for the sake of being long.  However, Memoirs of a Geisha being a fake memoir has to adhere to those conventions and thus we need the whole story of Chiyo's life.  I guess it's just awkward to have so many chapters devoted to Chiyo's rebellious nature and other events preventing her from becoming a geisha because we know she's going to become one eventually.  This could have been fixed by just changing the title, but I assume they wanted to draw in an audience with the mysterious allure of geisha life.

Once Chiyo begins her serious training as a geisha, the story really takes off.  It's fascinating to get a realistic look at geisha culture while being presented with one of the most unique love stories you're ever likely to read about.  It's like Cinderella on steroids.  Scary, Japanese steroids...

If you've never seen the film version of Memoirs of a Geisha, you should know that it sucks.  A lot.  And I know everyone says that the book is always better, but I'm not everyone.  I like to appreciate a book and its film adaptation as separate entities, and not be bogged down by all the changes they made to the original story.  Changes have to be made.  Deal with it.  Memoirs of a Geisha is simply a terrible film.  Which I half expected, because there's nothing particularly cinematic about the book.  Mostly because it moves pretty slowly.  It works as a novel, letting the story unfold at a believable pace and not feel rushed, while the film version races through the plot.  I'm not sure it would be possible to create a good film version of Geisha but then again I think anything's possible.

The best laid schemes of mice and men often go awry.

Joe gave me a list of ten plays to read this summer and because I wanted to choose some readings for myself, I chose a list of three novels for each of us.  The first novel off my personal list is Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck.  I should confess how I came to choose this as my first personal novel of the summer.  I had some time to kill while Joe was seeing Cabin in the Woods and I decided I could kill two hours easily by choosing my first book.  I only chose Of Mice and Men because it was only about 120 pages and I knew a lot of people had told me how great it was.  So if you read it for no other reason, read it because you can blow through it in an afternoon.

I feel it is necessary to touch on the theme of the American dream that runs through the novel.  I love that this is the first novel I've read that really comments on how impossible the American dream can be.  Lennie and George are making money working for others while trying to save to one day buy a piece of land and be self sufficient.  It seems impossible from the beginning. You just know that something else will get in their way of Lennie's rabbits and yet I still found myself hoping that they would find a way to make it happen.

There is something so beautiful about this novel yet so foreboding of a very dark ending.  I felt myself willing George to find another way but yet I knew that his choice was the most merciful for Lennie. I'm trying to write with the least number of spoilers as possible so if you haven't read it, just get it over with so you can appreciate what I'm saying.

I definitely don't have any major criticisms of the book.  I love how short it is and yet it doesn't feel rushed.  I've never tried to write a book review before and I'm sure Joe will give me some great feedback when he isn't geeking out at an Avengers movie marathon. So that's all I have for now.  I'm about finished with our first shared book so as soon as I finish that up, Joe and I will be writing our own reviews.

"I seen hundreds of men come by on the road an’ on the ranches, with their bindles on their back an’ that same damn thing in their heads . . . every damn one of ’em’s got a little piece of land in his head. An’ never a God damn one of ’em ever gets it. Just like heaven. Ever’body wants a little piece of lan’. I read plenty of books out here. Nobody never gets to heaven, and nobody gets no land."