Letters from the Laundry Room

Classes are in full swing, and finding time to write gets progressively harder these days. I have not made a New Year's resolution yet, but I will make one now. I resolve to update my blog twice a week, barring any extreme circumstances. If you are wondering about the title of this post, I am actually typing this from inside my floor's laundry room while my clothes are in the dryer. The laundry rooms here are relatively secluded; and, while I am really starting to doubt this counter's ability to hold my weight, they are pretty good places to write.

I have not yet mentioned what books I am reading for my classes this semester, so I am designating my discussion of these works "Letters from the Laundry Room." I will try to write these only from a laundry room (though probably not from this counter...).

I have actually finished one of the books early. I do not usually like to read ahead for class because I have to refrain from mentioning those things in discussion. Most of the other students in the class will not know what I am talking about, and this particular professor does not like it. I did not mention anything from the sections we were not supposed to read yet (I swear!), but my professor still seems to know I am ahead.

I finished this particular book because, in some ways, I just wanted it to be over. Another part of me was strangely fascinated with the characters. I will not go into a review of the book until we have discussed it in its entirety in class because I find there are some parts I would really like to talk out.

The book is The Corrections by Jonathon Franzen. If you have read it, I think you will understand why this book makes me so uncomfortable. It has some very intense situations, and the plot centers around this family whose patriarch has Parkinson's disease. It became pretty apparent to me in the beginning that Alfred, the man with Parkinson's, also had some variation of dementia. A lot of the quirks in Alfred's behavior just could not be explained away through the diagnosis of Parkinson's alone nor through the side effects of his medication.

My great-grandmother had Alzheimer's, and so a lot of the behaviors were painfully familiar to me. I think what bothered me the most, other than Chip's rampant obsession with breasts and Gary's domineering behavior, was that none of them appeared to be concerned with the possibility of having the disease. I give them props because they were, in the end, concerned about Alfred (which they all should have been from the very beginning), but I just cannot understand that lack of concern for the genetic implications. Gary seems only to be worried about being depressed like his father.

It is something I will definitely be bringing up again in class discussion.

I was once told that books that make us uncomfortable can usually tell us a lot about ourselves and the society around us. What do you think? Have you read any books that make you uncomfortable? Have you learned something about yourself because of this discomfort?

On Publishing: It's the Little Things, Really

Several people have asked for me to go into more detail on my experience as an intern in publishing based on my last post on the subject (you can find it here). I learned a lot of things during my semester there, but there is one thing that really stands out above the others. It is also an aspect of publishing people really tend to overlook!

Re-jacketing.

I am only partially kidding. Re-jacketing books is not the most exciting part of publishing; but, as an intern, it is a huge part of your time in a publishing house (at least it was where I interned). Lots of books will be sent back to a publisher because there is a tiny crinkle in the very tip of the corner of the back of the book. Of course, there are some legitimately messed up covers that need to be replaced. When you have 15-25 books in one box, if not more, things can get torn or bent in transit. These books really do need new jackets.

If you have ever re-jacketed a book, you have an idea of what horror this can entail. You have to examine each and every book in the returned box for damage. Chances are, the majority of the books in the box will have something wrong with the jackets. You would be surprised at how critical you become of book jackets after this experience.

Next, you have to take these completely flat covers, and you have to fold them perfectly over the book so the jacket cradles the book just so when it is open and hugs it snugly when it is closed. You would not believe how tense you get when you spend an hour or more hunched over books trying to get this just right.

I think hell is being trapped alone in an intern office with unending stacks of books to re-jacket with your favorite  cold drink and a delicious yogurt parfait that you can never touch sitting next to you. You really cannot drink or eat anything while re-jacketing books because even slightly damp fingers can warp the jackets.

... Or that could just be me being neurotic about it.

This was not what I did with the majority of my time as an intern there, but it was my least favorite thing about the internship. One time, I got three paper cuts right next to each other all within five minutes. I think it is a good experience, though, to do at least one thing you do not enjoy at an internship. No job will be perfect. That internship came pretty close.

Casual Friday: Philosophy of Pizza

So I have this thing about pizza. My favorite topping? Green olives. The problem? Whenever I get green olives on my pizza, I pick them off and eat them instead of the pizza once I'm full. I'm basically left with a dissected pizza and a desire for more olives. I'm actually eating green olives off of a pizza as I type this. I regret nothing.

I know some people say you can tell a lot about someone by the way they do certain things. I wonder sometimes what the way I eat my pizza says about me. That I have impulse control? Only sometimes. That I'm gluttonous? My tummy says I'm not, but I could be getting there. That I need to just buy a jar of green olives? Well, probably, but I like them when they're warm (like on my pizza). Funny story, green olives shoot off sparks in the microwave when they touch each other.

My mom salts her pizza slices individually, and my sister only puts two slices of pizza on her plate at a time. My dad just takes the box with him. If these things indicate that my mom is pretty meticulous, my sister likes order, and my dad is just really hungry by the time the pizza gets there, then they'd be right.

What about you? How do you eat your pizza? I'd love to try to analyze it!

The Transformation of Fairy Tales into Disney Classics

Yesterday, I went to a theater with some friends to see Beauty and the Beast in 3-D. I was really excited about it because Beauty and the Beast was the first movie I saw in theaters ever, and it is now the first movie I have ever seen in 3-D. A lot of things have changed since when I was little (like this time I will actually remember seeing the movie), one of them being in my knowledge of fairy tales. I started thinking about the original tale during the Gaston scene in the tavern (by the way, there is a cat head mounted on the wall at one point). A lot of things, actually, have changed in fairy tales after Disney got a hold of them.

Being a child who grew up in the nineties, I love Disney movies. I adore them. That aside, I also love the original fairy tales. Just ask anyone who knows me... I can be pretty annoying about it. Yes, the original tales are rather morbid compared to the Disney versions. After all, the little mermaid dies, Cinderella's stepsisters cut off parts of their feet, and Rapunzel's prince is blinded. These are not exactly things we want to expose to children on the big screen.

But there are a lot of little, less traumatizing things left out from the Disney tales. What happened to the little ring the Beast gives to Beauty so she can return to him? Or the tree Cinderella planted at her mother's grave that helps take care of her? Why was there no little gold ball lost in The Princess and the Frog? In my opinion, this was the tale they altered the most. Why are these the things we have lost in the translation from a classic story to a treasured children's movie?

When Disney does keep some of these things in its movies, I get really excited. The magic mirror is still in Beauty and the Beast, after all. I understand there are time constraints with movies, but was there really no time to reference the poisoned comb and cursed corset in Snow White? 


Disney has announced they will be producing a new version of The Snow Queen tale under the title of Frozen. I am looking forward to it because it is one of my favorite stories from when I was little, and I do still love what Disney does with these tales. I think I will be disappointed, however, if Disney decides not to keep in more elements of the original story in Frozen than they did in The Princess and the Frog. 

Leisure Reading Lockdown

The semester is starting up again this week, and I find the thing I will miss the most (after sleep) is being able to read any book just for fun.

As any college student knows, leisure reading becomes a thing of the past when classes start for a multitude of reasons. I am an English major, so I usually have about 150 pages to read a night... And sometimes, that is just for one class! Then there are classes with homework, part-time jobs, greek life, and other organizations that students are a part of that take up their time. Reading the latest Sarah Dessen or John Green book, sadly, does not really become a priority during this time.

I am really hoping this changes once I enter the Real Adult World of Being a Responsible Adult. People have assured me it does, but sometimes you lose a little hope when midterms and essays loom on the horizon.

My older sister was also an English major (which is a little funny because our parents are both engineers), and she used to read manga during the semester as a way to unwind. She found them to be really quick reads, and she used to reward herself for completing papers early by going to Barnes and Noble to pick up a few of them.  I think this is a great idea, but I prefer to read them online to avoid city traffic. Not even a cup of tea and an Agatha Christie novel will calm me down from the mess of it.

While I may not have time to choose my own readings this semester, I am looking forward to my literature classes. I am taking a class with my favorite professor on contemporary fiction, and I am pretty sure I have not read most of the books for the class yet. I am pretty excited about it, but I know I will miss reading less heavy things while I am knee deep in The Painted Drum.

Do any of you have any tricks to get in some leisure reading when your schedule is hectic? I would love to hear them!

On Forums and Publishing

This past semester, I worked as a publicity intern at a small book publisher. The experience was extremely rewarding, and I really enjoyed going in every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from noon until three in the afternoon. I learned a lot about publishing, especially the ins-and-outs of what comes after the book is complete.

The biggest thing I learned was that going into book publishing outside of academia is a labor of love. Most people do not go into it to make money because, to be honest, it is not exactly the most lucrative business. The people I met there are all wonderful, caring people who work very hard to help authors get their books out to the public. Even working for an hour in the warehouse each week was a treat. I had a lot of fun talking with the woman who manages the warehouse and spends her days making sure all of the mailings go smoothly and all of the books arrive in perfect condition. Believe me, working in a warehouse was not something I anticipated to be enjoyable.

The woman I worked with the majority of my time is one of the best bosses I have ever encountered. She was very encouraging when I had an idea, and she was always willing to stop and help me whenever I had a question. Mailings, especially on the publicity side, are very time-consuming, and they can be rather tedious. I really did not mind them because my boss and I talked while we folded press releases and stuffed envelopes. The conversations I had in that building taught me a lot and meant just as much to me as class discussions with my favorite professors.

The one thing I find disheartening is that a good deal of people view publishers as the elite sitting up in their lofty offices coming up with new ways to put thinly-veiled condescension in their rejection letters. As a writer, I fully sympathize with how much it can sting when you receive one of those. Most publishers, however, are not sitting around a conference table mocking your manuscript or tossing it to the side because they cannot be bothered with plebeian dribble. From what I see in forums, I feel like a lot of people have that image, or one like it, in their heads. What is worse is when people allow this to affect the way they treat people in publishing.

When you do not hear back from a publisher within two months of submitting your manuscript when you sent in your submission with a stamp, self-addressed envelope, it is not because they sent it straight to the paper shredder to make scraps to scatter on the floors of the cages for their hell-hounds. A lot of publishing companies are understaffed, and they do not always have interns helping, so the submission pile can become backed up by several months, sometimes even by a year or so, depending on the amount of submissions.

These people work hard to bring well-written books out into the public for others to enjoy. Please give them the respect they deserve, and stop bashing them for rejecting a manuscript or not having gotten back to you yet. They put a lot of thought and effort into each book they handle, and they do look carefully through submissions. The next time you are on a forum, keep this in mind before you post a rant about how horrible they are. Just keep writing and submitting, and maybe you will have a chance to find out for yourself just how wonderful these people really are.