Does it seem odd that I've posted three times now today? It does. But it's not.
I only had a short bit of class this morning, and had nothing to do for a good while. So, I've been sipping coffee and reading/talking about Stephen King. What fun.
But now it's night time, and I'm winding down at that favorite coffee shop, and adding one more post to this here blog. I can almost assuredly say that it will be my last tonight.
First off, I'd like to say that you shouldn't get in the habit of expecting a post a chapter. That would get dreadfully exhausting, for both of us. Also, I realized this afternoon, that it has drastically slowed down my reading pace. The notes themselves don't; it doesn't take to much time to scribble a few cryptic words on a piece of paper after finishing a paragraph, just enough words to manipulate all the mental pins and unlock the idea in my mind when I read over the notes later and attempt to write these. It doesn't really take away from the pace of the reading either. What does is the blogging itself.
The pattern of read for 20 minutes, blog for an hour, etc. is just not working. It takes me nearly as long to get wrapped back up into the story as it does to finish a chapter, usually. It's like falling asleep, and just when you get down into that deep, unconscious, restful state, you jerk awake to write about what you felt. Sure, by the end of the night you've got a good description of the sleep-feelings, but you sure as hell aren't rested. Furthermore, I don't get to really enjoy and savor the book, which is really the whole point in the first place.
So, after this, my blogs will most likely lapse into no more than one a day, unless I have a particularly open day (like today, for instance; it's pure happenstance that I pretty much started my blog on a day in which I had much too much time to devote to it). It just doesn't seem like a very practical pattern. This also means that some days, not all, but some, will have more than one chapter per post. If I have a bit of free time between classes, I very well might get through several chapters, and then write it all down later that night. Likewise, on some days my posts will have only a chapter, because I didn't have too much time to read. Some days, there wont be any posts at all (not necessarily because I didn't have time to read, I almost always have time to read, but because I didn't have time to post, and on those days, the stuff I read will come the next day or something similar).
Not that there's necessarily anyone out there, I suppose it's really just myself I'm talking to.
But, for now, on to the book.
Chapter two is interesting, in that it really seems to just span a few minutes after she wakes up form passing out after her altercation with Gerry. I suppose the first one is that short, too, as far as the chronology of the story goes. She wakes up, gradually, and come to realize all over again that she has killed her husband, and is still indeed bound, alone, in a cabin in the woods, and it's rapidly getting toward sundown. The Legendary slamming door is still slamming away. The dog still exists as well. This chapter seems to cover an internal dialogue where she sort of assesses the situation she's in. Both voices pipe up, offering differing views on the whole situation. She strains and leans to try to see her husband lying on the floor, and only catches a glimpse of part of his head, a shoulder, and an arm (and the attached hand, that didn't go anywhere). She mulls over the idea that it was indeed Gerald who brought this on himself. We get another idea of the 'dark day' on pages 28-9.
We also find out who the stern voice is, her old roommate Ruth Neary. We, again, get a very clear idea of who this character is from the get go. Surely we've all met a girl/woman who is very independent and self-reliant, who tells it like she sees it and is forward about nearly everything. There's something about this kind of girl that I can't quite put my finger on, but whatever it is, I'm just as unsurprised as Jessie when she mentions that Ruth joined a lesbian commune. Not that all self-reliant and independent women are lesbian, that's not what I'm saying. What I am saying (and what I've said), is that there is another trait about her that I can't quite explain. It's just something that you can feel, but when you try to put it to words you might as well by trying to hold a greased balloon (filled with air) underwater. You can touch it, sure, observe it, but when you try to force it to do what you want it to (in this case be bound by the limitations of words), good luck. Whatever that feeling is, though, it fits into this characteristic 'Ruth Neary' I'm sure we've met before.
There's not too much more to say about this chapter. It's good, of course it is, but it doesn't introduce too much information that's not in the first chapter.
Sip.
So, on completely unrelated note, and in defiance of at least two claims made in earlier posts, I think I might post something(s) I've written. A few months ago, this would have been December, I had to turn in a journal of free-written stuff, a page a day, every day of class, to my English Teacher. Of course, being the wonderful student that I am, I had saved nearly 30 pages worth of stuff for the end of term. Now, some of this I tried to write as typical journal entries ("This is what happened today, this is how I felt, blah blah blah"). However, I soon found that by writing stuff I could get into, the time passed much more quickly and I got more done in that time. I'm sure many budding writers (not that I'm one) have discovered their knack for it in this way.
The results from this were something like a dozen pieces, some only a page long, some a couple, one ten or eleven pages. Double spaced, of course. Now, I'm going to flesh out, revise (probably rewrite then revise), and edit the hell out of what I've got, but I thought it might be appropriate to put them up here. Posting them would surely give me motivation to actually work on them. But I do feel that at least half of them have some kind of potential. Some benefit. The reason I'd be posting them up here, wait for it, is that a good many of them have a very evident Stephen King influence. Not imitation, emulation, or anything else like that, but influence. So, I believe that I'll be doing that.
And that's that for the night, friends, because this little piggy has to get up relatively early tomorrow morning, and am about to hear the last call at this particular beverage establishment.
So, again, and above all, have a good night.
'Til next time.
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