Practically Alice

If money was no object then the job I'd want to do is be a writer. It's a little dream I've had in the back of my mind since I can remember but I've never been serious about it. Why? Because of doubts and money and talent and the competitiveness of it. I'm pretty much set on wanting to be an editor in a book publishing company now. If that means I have to spend hours on end making cups of coffee and tea and running errands and proofing articles and what have you, I'll do it. I don't aspire to be an editor because I want 'a way into the publishing business' - I'm pretty sure publishing houses will have policies where they cannot publish their own editors novels  - I want to be an editor because I want to work with writers, I want to immerse myself in the world books and the people that write them. I don't know how the heck I'm going to get there, but I hope I can. I'm going to give it a try anyway. Aspirations can span from the...

Last summer I read a book called "What does it all mean?" by Thomas Nagel and I highly recommend reading it. It's a philosophical discussion about life and everything and though, yes, it hurt my head it was also really, really good! One of the points it discussed has stuck with me: I could be imagining - inventing the book as I read it. It could all be in my head. A pretty famous guy (I think his name was Descard or something - I'm kidding, Descartes is to whom I am referring) once said cogito ergo sum or more commonly known as "I think therefore I am". His fundamental argument was that the only thing that he couldn't doubt was the fact that he was doubting, thus his mind or his 'thinking being' must exist. My point here is that I could be the only thing that exists (yay idealism!). We're reading Der Besuch der alten Dame in German. The antagonist is Claire Zachanassian (we have the pleasure of sharing first names) and she is MEAN. She...

I'm on a roller coaster that only goes up, my friend. These words uttered by Augustus Waters in John Green's The Fault in Our Stars  have been hugely misunderstood by me. I guess I've always regarded them as... as a positive thing - the notion of going up brings ideas of going up in the world and that sort of thing but  now I see it differently. What fun would a roller coaster be if it only went up? As well as being entirely dysfunctional, kind of bad and rubbishly impossible it would be... suspenseful. It would be a way of living filled with dissatisfaction and waiting and would just be so... hopeless. I don't know why but it's just changed for me tonight, I've seen it in a completely different way; life can sometimes be like this stupidly suspenseful, waiting-around, false-hope filled thing and it's only when you realise that the suspense isn't going to lead to anything, the waiting around won't either and the hope is entirely, one-hundred pe...

This summer I had the pleasure of reading  The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern whilst I was on holiday. It was also on this holiday that, since I couldn't do anything that involved physical-ness, I wrote an essay using one of the Richard and Judy Book Club discussion question things. Please bare in mind that this is  an essay and does involve spoilers.  "The Night Circus" has been described as a fairytale. Do you see echos of other fairytales in this novel? THE idea of a circus appearing seemingly out of nowhere is a motif that runs through many fairytales. An element of surprise or something happening "without warning" is something that can be seen in fairytales such as Little Red Riding Hood - whereby the wolf is an unexpected and enigmatic character. Not only this but the theme of magic runs strong throughout the novel. MORGENSTERN'S characters all have striking resemblances to typical fairytale characters. Prospero the Enchanter, as well as alludi...

Tears are the soul’s blood Sliding down a person's face, Until they are lost.