I‘ve never done this whole book-club discussion thing, and even though I vaguely remember English class, it’s been a while. I'm just going to get this ball rolling, and probably add another post soon, when I'm not crazed at work (i.e. this weekend).
Feel free to respond to my initial reactions/thoughts, and if you want to pose your own specific questions, adulations, or rants, go for it.
At first, I really loved the book. Her voice is entirely unique and quirky.
But then at some point, I began to liken the experience of reading her book to eating a big bag of cookies in one sitting. It was too much of a good thing. Her insights and quaint descriptions, and wackyness kept me reading, but also got on my nerves.
What were other people's overall opinions?
I also was a little disturbed by the amount of sexual absurdity in the book. It wasn’t the sex, that’s fine. It was that the “sex scenes” were so surreal. It felt a little like she was trying too hard to be subversive and sexual, and instead of actually being that, all the sex-related stuff seemed trite and forced. It made me think that in her real life she’s a big prude. Whether or not that’s even remotely true, that’s how it came across to me. Like a form of overcompensation.
I'm curious as to whether you felt that the stories function well as a collection? (I'm on the fence about this)
Below is a music video she did with Blonde Redhead. She's an indy princess.
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6 comments:
It felt a little like she was trying too hard to be subversive and sexual.
I completely agreed with this statement. I actually got to a point where I stopped reading the book (a little more than half-way through). Tonally, the stories all felt the same to me, and I had trouble sticking with it because it felt repetitive.
- Amy
i agree with sonya. the first two stories were interesting and different and, yes, quirky. by the third one, 'majesty', i thought i was going to throw up. and things really went wonky with 'the sister'. it reminded me of the whole 'shut up, little man' phenomenon years ago. i even put 'me you and everyone we know' on my neftlix queue and was excited to complete my miranda july festival, but, honestly, i couldn't even finish watching it. most of miranda july's thoughts i'd be happy never knowing, but i'm grateful for the exposure. and i'm more than delighted to get her out of my system.
I couldn't get through much of this one, which was disappointing. I have a rough time with things I consider "overly precious" and this book is a perfect example of that. There's being unique and there's trying to be unique, and for me, she's trying way too hard in this book to keep me interested.
As others have noted, these stories lack some essential gravity. I admired her strong writing, but each story faded away from my mind moments after reading it. I found myself reopening the book and starting another story, only to remember that I had already read it. I suppose that others enjoy the ephemeral quality of her stories, but they left me with nothing to even comment about.
-- Edie
Since no one has yet praised "No One Belongs Here More Than You," I offer another example of her work to look into: "Learning to Love You More."
This is a collaboration with Harrell Fletcher. She and Fletcher came up with a list of tasks designed to inspire the artist within, examples like "Take a picture of your parents kissing," "Record the sound that is keeping you awake," or "Write down a recent argument." Each submission reads like a piece of found art, and I am inspired to take up a few of the projects myself. You can see the list of tasks and thousands of submission at www.learningtoloveyoumore.com.
(I tried to put in pictures, but the blogger wouldn't accept the HTML, so you'll have to go to the website for a look.)
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