Romance Novels Are Literary Junk Food But I Is Loves 'Em

There's something about romance novels that call out to me.

As a Literature student, steeped for semesters in a broth of feminist principles, I should be the one who condemns the shameless participation of romance novels in supporting existing gender stereotypes. 

It's a bit hard to do when I'm devouring said novels in a manner not unlike a starving wolf, though.

I love reading about women who are strong, yes, but also about delightfully and - dare I say it? - erotically domineering men.

By domineering I don't mean assholes. I mean..

Gah, go read any book by Lisa Kleypas. You'd get a good idea of what I mean.

Yes, characters in romance novels usually fit a certain mould, and I should be ashamed of telling people that I secretly want to be seduced behind some bushes, since lots of things that seem awesome in books don't really translate well into real-life situations. But still. When life is hard and fraught with complications, it's nice to snuggle in bed with a book where all problems eventually get ironed out, there's hot sex, and boatloads of warm, melty love to hold everything together.

*blissful sigh*

Look at that! T____T how to resist

P/S: I've also come to the conclusion that it's masochistic to sigh over happy endings and then confront a boyfriend-less reality. Even more so when it's my own commitment-phobia that makes me run screaming at the thought of settling down. 

Oh well. Enough talking. Time to start the next book!

Nerd Porn

Some people escape into alcohol, drugs, shopping or sex.

For me, escapism happens within the pages of a book.

I love books, and I'm pretty sure it's apparent!

When life is hard, when I'm tired, when I just don't like what's going on around me, my usual course of action is to pick up a book and delve right in. Opening a book is akin to opening a portal into another world, another situation, another life.

Those who know me, know I love books with a passion (understatement).

I've been introduced to another awesome site, courtesy of Yu Jeat: Bookshelf Porn

Get your minds out of the gutter, people (haha I got pretty excited too, myself)! It's a site with pictures of books. Books on crazy shelves, books arranged into sculptures, desks made of books, stacks and stacks of books (omg heaven!!).. you name it, they have it!

If heaven doesn't contain any library like this, I will be severely disappointed.

 Hello, perfect Sunday activity!

(I am super afraid of  the sun, so also Hello, empty bottle of sunscreen)

Phwoar.

Okay, so looking at bookshelves is sort of like watching porn, I guess (hence the name). Looking at other people's fun and not being able to touch.. But it's super awesome to look, no?

*glazed eyes and frantic clicking*

I am a porn addict *malu*

Review: Life of Pi

I finally finished reading Life of Pi, an incredible book that somehow COMPLETELY escaped my notice until recently when a friend told me about it. It's one of those books that just suck you in, and bombard you with imagery, emotions, and messages that make you wish your brain had a higher processing power so you can take it all in.

Or maybe it's just me, and I have a slow brain. I don't know.

The story goes like this: Piscine Molitor Patel starts his life story with a bit of background information - born in Pondicherry, calls himself 'Pi' because 'Piscine' is a French word that sounds like 'Pissing', the son of zoo owner, discovered religion at the age of 14 (he discovered Christianity and Islam, and practiced both in addition to his original religion of Hinduism), was supposed to emigrate to Canada with his family. On the ship, tragedy struck, and he ended up on a lifeboat ALONE with a bunch of animals, most notably a 450-pound Royal Bengal Tiger. Now, I don't know about you, but I definitely would not want to be anywhere near a tiger, especially if there are no solid steel bars between the both of us.

I don't want to give too much away, but it took Pi 227 days of aimlessly drifting to reach Mexico (he tells us this right at the beginning, so we don't have to suffer the agony of wondering if he's going to get eaten by the tiger), during which time he acted as zookeeper to the incongruously-named tiger, Richard Parker. A skinny little boy, it took all his mental, physical and spiritual strength to survive. 

A vegetarian, he became an expert butcher.

A devoted Hindu, Christian and Muslim, his faith was continually tested but he persevered, managing to perform holy rites.

Someone who used to get picked on by his older brother, he summoned the balls to act as alpha male on that boat (the other male being a FRICKIN BENGAL TIGER).

It is the narration of an amazing journey, not just in terms of physical distance as travelled by this boy in a lifeboat, but also in terms of life.

Reading it, I was continually amazed at man's capacity for adaptation and change, and what humans will resort to in times of intense need and desperation.

What makes me really go 'wow!' is the fact that for the most part of the book, there is only one human character. It is not a book to throw you off by introducing a whole host of characters in the hopes that you will not notice the deficiencies of the protagonist. In this book, there is one boy and one tiger, on a sea. There is nowhere to hide, and in this case, no NEED to hide.

Is it any wonder that it won the Man Booker Prize for Fiction in 2002? I think not.

Women With Balls

Are awesome!

No, I'm not a bra-burning feminist, and I don't think that all men are male chauvinist pigs; but women who have guts and who take risks (balls, in short) are sexy AND just as feminine as their more docile counterparts, only way more awesome.

The reason for this randomness:

Empress Orchid - a fictionalised (but mostly based on historical events) account of the rise to power of the last Empress of China. Now, THAT was a woman! Rising from the depths of the country, as the daughter of a minor Manchu official, and reaching the pinnacle of success as the Empress of China, second only to the Emperor's first wife, Cixi or Lady Yehonala was really a force to be reckoned with. Let's face it, she achieved so much in a time women were nothing more than chattel and had to wear these

(taken from http://martinliewphotography.blogspot.com)

in order to be considered beautiful. Even in these modern days - where if a man so much as hits a woman, women all over the world would rise up and howl in outrage - how many women overcome massive odds and sabotaging in order to stamp their names in indelible ink upon the history books of the world?

Not that many, to be honest.

Lots of people grew up with the idea that Empress Cixi was some evil monster who wanted to control China, but I personally think that she's an awesome woman with balls of steel who clawed her way up, learned a lot of stuff along the way, and ruled the place a damn sight better than the men available at the time.

Another woman with balls bigger than her head (incidentally, her head got chopped off) is

Anne Boleyn, the most infamous of King Henry the VIII's wives. This pic is from the Showtime series The Tudors, a massively awesome show that shows Anne as a more 3-dimensional character, instead of the HORRENDOUS movie based on Philippa Gregory's fallacy-ridden book The Other Boleyn Girl. When I read that book I almost exploded and if I did, I would've waited til I could take that Gregory woman with me! Anne Boleyn is very much maligned in popular re-tellings, but a lot of historians are quite sympathetic (not Catholic ones though, generally) towards a woman who had the chance to advance her fortune as well as her family's fortunes (her father encouraged her to be the King's mistress), which she grabbed with both hands. A lot of the killing and bloodshed was done by the King, but noooo.. she was the criminal mastermind, as far as everybody is concerned. Bah. 

Dear Anne Boleyn haters,

Wait til you have a child and have to survive possibly getting sabo-ed by backstabbers, and are always running the risk of getting killed; or worse, abandoned by your protector. Then we'll see whether you'd sit around and be all like 'oh woe is meeeeee', or would you grow some hair on your chest and possibly some ling-longs down there and take control of your life?

Love, 

May Lee

P/S Google Anne Boleyn and then tell me if she's not a victim of circumstances who was making the most profit possible out of a bad deal.

Uh,

I guess it's kinda obvious that I like women with guts and who also use whatever they have (brains, sexuality, money) to get what they want. Moral of the story is: If you have it, use it! (But don't be a skank. ESPECIALLY not a cheap one)

Another public service message from May Lee <3