I hate bandwagons. I'm so anti "following the crowd" that sometimes, unknowingly I still let the crowd dictate my behavior...I'll almost always do the opposite. When The Passion of the Christ came out, every Christian said I HAD to see it. I needed to SEE Christ's sacrifice to really understand it. I mean, isn't it the least we could do to watch His agony on the cross, when he actually suffered it for us? How could you say no?
I still haven't seen the movie. Partly because I refuse to believe that my faith in Christ will reach a pinnacle because of the film, and partly because I am intensely disturbed by blood and gore (just ask my Mom about my childhood trauma of watching Watership Down...yes it's a cartoon, but bunnies clawing each other is SO disturbing).
That being said, I just finished the Hunger Games trilogy. Shhh. Don't tell anyone, it might ruin my non-conformist persona. I was sure I would never read them because everyone was, but then someone in my respected circle recommended them, and, what can I say, I'm a sucker for a good story plot. And just like that I was hooked. I finished them in about 4 days, and while my husband insisted that I was "addicted" I maintained that they are easy, fast-paced books that make for an intense and quick read.
Between you and me, I was a little addicted. But then, that's nothing new when it comes to books.
There is almost nothing I love more than getting lost in a book. I find myself entering a new world and making new friends. Story expands beyond my natural horizons. As Introverts, we understand that the expanse of our minds holds limitless potential. I feel free inside my head, like anything is possible. I can, for example, take a journey into a futuristic, post-American culture, and experience the tragedies of war, the confusion and hope of love and be inside a character's head as she steps into an arena where she knows she will have a fight to the death. That's not exactly my daily experience!
When I come to the end of a good story, I know it has had an impact when I feel parting sorrows. Maybe you can relate. At first I feel a sort of grief. Like a rejected lover, my thoughts keep flitting back to the story, wishing there was still something to be said. Then, a day or two or a week later, I start to process the impact of my most recent love affair and I realize what an influence the seductive world of words has on me.
I used to think that a book could only mean one thing. I thought there was a right or wrong interpretation and only the author could really tell us what that was. But, my years as an English major and a reader have made me realize that the true power of literature is that it can say almost anything. A good story says what the author intended it to say, but woven into the language, the characters, the plot, there are truths about the world that allow for it to speak almost infinitely. The story, then, doesn't just live in type but in my mind and yours, in the way we uniquely identify with characters and in the symbols that imbue meaning into our lives.
That is why I love books. Not only because I can lose myself in imagination, but also because I can make sense of myself and the world by looking through different lenses, always seeing new things.
My affair with The Hunger Games was brief and intense, and I was sad to see it go. As a story it has a lot to say about war and oppression and human loss. Hardly literary classics, but, the story, embedded in a world of pink hair and futuristic weapons, still spoke to me about our limitations as people and how sometimes character development is realizing how little you have to offer without the strengths of others filling in the gaps. The story has lingered in my mind, bitter sweetly.
The movie comes out soon. I'm sure it won't be as good as the book but I can't help but want to spend just a little more time with my love. But, I'm going to pretend like I'm seeing it for very separate reasons from the rest of you, that way I can still feel good about my status as a non-conformist. If you see me there on opening weekend I might avert my eyes and pretend that you don't know me...for the sake of my pride just go along with it.
In the mean time, I'm searching for a new love.
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