No homework + grey weather =

Juggling!

I suddenly found myself with a lot of spare time on my hands as the summer holiday is drawing ever nearer and homework is as good as non-existent. I have tried several methods of making my day as interesting as possible. Yesterday I made an experiment watching Doctor Who and reading Sandman. It was highly successful, but soon my head ached and I felt all soggy after watching Doctor Who

for two hours

in my tiny bedroom.

(A friend of mine claims that it’s not that small, it’s only me that’s filled it with books and  … books. Maybe this is true.)

Which lead me to feverishly trying to find other entertainment.

Then!

It fell into my head like an exploding light bulb.

Juggling. Of course it had to be juggling. As a result, I’m now on my way to becoming a juggler. It will take time.

I have time.

Tags: doctor who, homework, juggling, sandman, summer

“Brute, Glob. Hello.”

Over the years, my dad has, from time to time, forced me to read books that did not include magic, which I thank him for. I am not a very fantasy-reading person, to me there’s no such thing as fantasy. They are just books including magic. Point is, I never fail to finish one. Ever. With books of a more “real” kind this has actually happened once or twice.

I remember trying to read a book called Juniper when I was younger. I’d got it for christmas. I never found out if it was any good because half-way into the second chapter they started talking about racism and I fell asleep before I’d even finished the word.

So I returned to fairy-tales.

I am not one of those who solely read fantasy and SF. I’m not. Thus I felt disgusted and guilty by being bored by a book that was actually pretty well written. The truth is that books concerning politics of any kind bore me to death. Apartheid, racism, critical view of modern society, I’m asleep already.

Politics have nothing to do marching into the world of fiction. Not in the obvious way, anyway. If they are lurking behind the story and not showing themselves, then that’s fine. It is when they take out a megaphone and starts yelling “Listen up! Blah blah blah” that they ruin everything. Everything

Funny thing is, I’m not bored by books like Jane Eyre or Sense and Sensibility. Neither by Poirot or Ruby in the Smoke (a fantastically exciting detectiveish novel by Mr Philip Pullman). Because politics don’t interfere in the obvious way.

Also, people who analyze every book they read to be about McCarthy or global warming or apartheid. This is over-analysis, no matter what the author intends. Let fiction be fiction and keep reality out of it (let it at least seem so). We read for a reason, that reason isn’t always wanting to stop global warming or getting depressed by oppressed kids in Somalia.

———–

This post is dedicated to my cousin Henrik, who didn’t believe I’d be able to post twice in two days. Hah!

Tags: apartheid, book, fantasy, fiction, henrik, over-analysis, politics, racism, reading, sandman, SF

Just words in a certain order, really.

Whenever I start to write something I either a) have no idea where I’m gonna end up or b) never end up where I intended to, which I like. It adds spiciness to my life.

I’ve also started to read the comic, Sandman, by Neil Gaiman and various cartoonists. I absolutely love it even though I was never a cartoon kind of person.

And I’m writing again!

Tags: Dream, neil gaiman, reading, recommend, sandman, spices, surprise, Writing