Banned Books Week: Harper's Guest Post

Hi, this is Harper. As Cate said in her last post, I'm really into Banned Books Week, and suggested she blog about it (btw, I totally helped her with that post). I decided I wanted to do my own guest post.

My favourite banned books are definitely To Kill a Mockingbird and Harry Potter. I was named after TKaM's author. Both have movie adaptations, like Cate's pick, My Sister's Keeper. They're pretty well known, so I'm going to take a different kind of direction with my post.

What I find interesting is I feel like I am drawn to narratives that address racism and bigotry. Maybe that's because I grew up with a multicultural family (my dad is white and from the US state of Georgia, my mom is Berber and from Morocco), and I've lived in multiple places (Morocco, France, USA) so I'm used to things being different, and adapting to that. I love travelling because I love learning about how other people live their lives. One of my best friends, who was one of my high school teachers, practices Catholicism and I'm Muslim, yet we talk about religion all the time and really we have a lot in common. Or maybe it's because I've been a victim of bigotry because I sometimes wear a hijab when I'm going out or to school. (I don't wear it when I'm just around my friends. I guess I should get on people about not posting pictures of me when I'm not wearing it.) So I guess it frustrates me when people treat others like they are below them just because they look different or have a different religion or whatever.

To Kill a Mockingbird and Harry Potter both deal with bigotry and racism: against African Americans in the South in TKaM and against other magical species, wizards from non-magical families and muggles in Harry Potter (which is scarily similar to Nazi Germany, though that was not intended). I also find that, when I'm writing academic papers, I tend to focus on feminist or cultural issues. I was totally drawn to The Madwoman in the Attic, a founding feminist literary theory text... maybe only because I understood it right away. The authors' argument for how women had (have still?) been relegated to a lower status in literature - keeping with historical trends of feminism - was clear. But I think I just like reading and studying these issues because they resonate with me and my intolerance for intolerance.

Since my guest post was kind-of more serious than I originally intended, I'm leaving you with my transformation into 7th movie Hermione Granger. I'm an alien/curling my hair in the first picture. LOL

Also, my new favourite song. Don't talk to me about how hypocritical I feel about the grammar violation that is the title... I love it though.

PS: I'm on Cate's computer, and she set her default language to English (UK). It keeps telling me I'm spelling "mom" wrong. It should be "mum", apparently ;) Also, there are TONS of incriminating pictures on here. Not that I'm creeping, or anything. I'd be tempted to post them, if I could guarantee she'd speak to me again if she did. Haha.

You, if you were sensible...

You, if you were sensible,

When I tell you the stars flash signals, each one dreadful,

You would not turn and answer me,

'The night is wonderful.'

-DH Lawrence, "Under the Oak", featured in My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult

Harper's making me do a post about Banned Books Week because she's an English major and feels it is very important to raise awareness. Okay, honestly, I like reading too and I think banning books is wrong, so why not? (She might come guest-post herself later this week because she is Very Excited about this topic.)

First of all, I love this stanza that was featured in My Sister's Keeper. I like it in how it relates to the book (the poem as a whole changes the context, I think), in that it is kind-of a metaphor for illness. But I think it is not so much a lack of perspective so much that people on the outside might not get it; I think sometimes it's good not to be "sensible" and to find the good things in the bad. I think Picoult may be using it as an argument against romanticising illness.

Okay, so the book I'm featuring is My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult, if you haven't guessed. I LOVE this book. Here's a brief list of why:

• Medical accuracy. Sure, she can flaunt it at times (who really cares what drugs make up your daughter's chemo regimen... okay me. And Harper. That's about it. In that scene, it just seems like she's listing them off just to show off she knows what they are) but that's okay because it's refreshing to see someone who knows what she's talking about and isn't just using leukemia as a plot device. Also, I love that she cares enough to research her books because they are marketed as realistic fiction, and I do think people learn through them. I'm glad she isn't misrepresenting her subjects and really gets into depth with all the issues surrounding a problem.
• LEUKEMIA IS NOT A PLOT DEVICE. How many times have you read a book or watched a movie where a character has leukemia but it just serves as a mechanism for the other characters to grow and learn? And it's ALWAYS leukemia, because apparently everyone who ever has cancer and dies has leukemia. Because they always die even though, you know, most people do survive ALL (acute lymphoblastic leukemia, the most common childhood leukemia) today. Okay, I LOVE some of these (A Walk to Remember  is officially my favourite movie; The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants) but it's kind-of obvious and it's nice to see while... um, okay this book is kind-of doing the same thing... it's at least more developed; the plot is about leukemia but it goes so much further than that; it's not romanticised. I WOULD like to see a book about leukemia or any other disease where it's the person with the disease grows and learns, not the other way around.
• This bullet is a spoiler. Aww cute love stories, come on, who does not love Campbell/Julia? Or Kate/Taylor? The part about their hands matching, PERFECTION.
• Speaking of, who doesn't love Campbell's punch lines?
• THE ENDING. I HAVE NO WORDS. Just read the book. So good. And as Harper would say, so literary.
• The parents are realistic, and it brings up some real issues in healthcare today. Not only the obvious issue of creating an embryo to match your child, but stuff like our discomfort with death. When do you stop doing crazy things and let someone have peace? How do you deal with the what-ifs? When do you go for a very experimental treatment and when don't you? Etc.
• Jesse is a really interesting/intriguing character to me.
• I was really sick as a kid, so I can relate. Harper and Sam made me dig up an old photo for you...? Yay hospital gown. I don't know why Ribbit (my stuffed frog) is NOT in this picture at all but oh well. This was one of the few without either my family or Dave because you know, the hospital was the hot spot for socializing in 4th/5th grade.

Things I don't like about this book:

• Apparently the legal stuff isn't very accurate?
• Do we know anything about Kate? She has no personality... Again, I can appreciate that the book is about her family, but this is kind-of a major fail.

This book is banned because of the ethical issues and because Julia's sister is a lesbian. Um, I totally forgot that and had to go read it again to figure out why homosexuality was a reason the book was banned. Apparently, yeah.

Overall, I think it is worth it, and you should read it. What are some of your favourite banned books? You can leave them in the comments :)

Here's Harper and me with the book for a Banned Books Week picture:

Okay, moving on. Let's discuss the MAJOR BETRAYAL of the film adaptation. Also, major spoilers (for the movie), so this is going under a cut just in case.

Awkwardness.

Harper, Sam and I are at my house on break. It was supposed to be relaxing. Instead I opened the door to this...

And a bunch of memories started to flash through my head...

Yup. Dave McClellan. My ex-best-friend. I had hoped never to talk to him again. Unfortunately, he had decided to deliver honey while I was home. Because apparently he's home too.


It's kind-of hard to not be talking to someone when they're your neighbor, even if you're away at school for most of the year. Oh, and when your parents love him. This is why I lied to my dad and told him Dave's mom had dropped off the honey. Because my parents don't get it. Every time I come home, they beg me to call him up and make up. Um, it's not that easy... it's kind-of his fault, anyway. 


I guess I do kind-of see their side, because Dave's parents are my parents' best friends, and it must be weird if your kids aren't talking. We even had to endure Christmas Eve dinner together last year - along with Dave's new girlfriend. Definition of awkward?! And we practically lived at each others' houses growing up. I know I miss his parents, so I think my parents must miss having Dave around.


But still.


Harper and Sam know that whole story, but now they want to go around and spy on Dave and figure out what he's up to. I'd rather not.


Okay, maybe I'm a little curious.


But I DON'T want to embarrass myself. The last thing I need is for Dave to think all I do is go around stalking him and pining after him. I definitely have a life... Oh, and I don't know if he brought Buttercup Violet with him (the girlfriend), and I don't really want to find out.


You can read more here.


And since I'm still on the 30-day song challenge, albeit VERY late, I've got a few more of those too.


Day 03 - A Song that Makes You Happy
This song has been making me feel warm and fuzzy lately. For no reason other than it's really sweet, poppy, and dance-able!

Day 04 - A Song that Makes You Sad
More like bittersweet, but this is one of my new(er) favourites. It's an unreleased song by Taylor Swift, called "We Were Happy". Gotta love the boat imagery ;)
You can listen to it here - since it's unreleased, it's not available for purchase.

Trying So Hard Not to Get Caught Up...

This video is perfection... two of my favourite musical things ever. Taylor Swift + ukelele = LOVE. Plus a little Jason Mraz and Train thrown in just to make me love it even more! (Oh, and if you thought Taylor can't sing live: I normally agree, but she's really good in this video. I suspect she took voice lessons over the past year or two, because all her live videos for Speak Now seem to be a lot better than in the past. But this one is especially good!)

I hope she does this at the concert we are going to!


Moving on from my Taylor Swift obsession. A bunch of us are together this weekend for a conference. Harper, Kailey and I are going to do something fun. We're thinking of going to see a movie, or even just renting one. Unfortunately, Omaha has no oceans, so I can't start my surfing lessons with Kailey yet ;) We keep trying to invite this girl, Elizabeth, who is one of Emily's friends from school. She keeps saying she'll think about it but can't tell us for sure until then. I'm trying to be understanding, but it's kind-of hard to plan this way. I don't really know what's up with her. She seems really shy, but otherwise, I don't know why she would say that unless she is waiting on someone else's invitation (which would be pretty rude). She's also really rich... and her behaviour just seems pretty snobby to me. OK, Sam would tell me that sounds petty (since Sam is a princess and is by default also rich), but why can't she commit? Any ideas?

PS: This is Cate. I'm on Harper's computer.

Knock, Knock

Do you have anyone in your life who is always there for you? I have a few people like that. Two are my parents. I think I am closer to my parents than a lot of other people my age, because I spent a lot of time with them as a kid. I was seriously ill, so I kind-of had to. A lot of the time they were the only people available to hang out with. I was also homeschooled by my dad, so we are especially close. Another person in my life like that is my coach, Coach OH!. I have known her since I was probably 8 or 9. Well, I did before that, but that's when I started taking private lessons with her. You can't spend probably 20+ hours a week with a person every day for over 10 years and NOT be close. Well, you could, but you might go crazy. Coach OH! is probably the person I trust most of all in my life. She always has the best advice. Oh and she always has this secret pizza stash in her office. Do not tell anyone. We skaters are supposed to eat healthy ;)


Right now, the person I am closest to at school is my new friend Harper. Harper and I started out kind-of rocky. We both want to be doctors... actually we both want to be pediatric hematologist-oncologists. So we were always competing. We have a crazy amount of things in common like favorite artists, fashion style, and medical histories. It's the last part that made our friendship take so long to happen, I think, but also the thing that makes us closest. I mean, it's kind-of scary to meet someone who knows everything you've been through and open up to them when you haven't before. Before I met Harper, I didn't really have any friends who knew what my life was like first-hand. (Actually, I did at one point: kids from my unit, but I lost touch with most of them when I got back to my normal life.) It's kind-of nice to have someone who understands if you are feeling like crap one day with one of your weird problems and doesn't get mad at you for not wanting to hang out after class. I am on this medication that is very routine-dependent. Yesterday, I slept through my alarm and ended up taking it two hours late when I got back from class. My stomach was upset all day and I was really achy... I felt like I had the flu. At least I didn't forget entirely. When I was sailing, it was really hard to keep a routine and my side effects got really bad. Luckily, if it's a one-time deal, they usually do only last the one day. And I have my secret stash of pills to combat the side effects, but my doctor doesn't want me taking them unless I really need to.

One More Time with Feeling

Since so many people have gotten blogs on blogger within the past two weeks... I decided to convert. I really love the way wordpress is set up, but it will be easier for people to read my blog on blogger. For now, my old blog is locked. I tried to import the posts into here, but it doesn't seem to be working. I'm still trying to figure this out, so bear with me if stuff looks weird. But at least with a fresh start, I don't feel as guilty about not going back to fix dead/moved picture links!


Fresh starts... I needed to change the title of my blog around anyway, because I've already been to Vancouver (YAY!) and I'm no longer skating either competitively or professionally. Just for fun. My main focus these days is the MCAT. Which Kat insists is named after her... hello, CAT, just add an E. ;)