Carrie by Stephen King

I've elected to return to the blog! Not that anyone was necessarily reading about my exciting life as an MFA graduate student. I will have you know that I've sent my novel titled For My Mother Tells Me So off to an agent. We will see what she says.

I've elected to use this blog to open up discussions on books that I am reading. I have a list of 30 books I am to read, and I will have to take a comprehensive exam on them in November. I think by writing my thoughts of them down, it could be a good review for me, and I'd love to see some of your ideas on these titles. I strongly encourage comments!

I've opted to start out with Carrie by Stephen King because it is my favorite book. This is the book that got me into writing. I read it when I was 18. My gut sank at the end of the novel, as if King had ripped my heart out and threw it in the trash. I was so attached to Carrie as a character because I could relate, and I think everyone in some way has been mistreated as a youth and wanted revenge in an awful way.

In her case it isn't all about revenge. Some of the book is about overcoming an insane, religious monster (her mother).

I've been reading another book called The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories. I suggest it to all lovers or cinema and literature. Christopher Booker crams all possible stories into seven plots, and their dark versions. I would classify Carrie as a dark Rags to Riches plot. I should explain what constitutes a Rags to Riches Plot. It's a story when the protagonist has been put in a dreadful situation at the beginning of the story (example: Carrie having to live with her crazy mother and be ridiculed at school). Then the protagonist must escape that and have initial success. (She agrees to go to prom with Tommy Ross and she looks beautiful in her dress and feels more confident than ever while people treat her with more respect.) Then frustration happens. (She has the worry that it is all a joke.) Then it gets worse in what Booker calls the central crisis. (The bucket of pig's blood falls on her, and once again, she is humiliated in front of the school.)

In a normal Rags to Riches plot, the protagonist fights out of the central crisis to become a fuller, more developed person and is happily ever after (usually striking it rich too, hence the title Rags to Riches - See Jane Eyre for an example of a great Rags to Riches story). But in the dark version (Carrie), the protagonist is consumed by the central crisis and fails to come the happy conclusion (Carrie reacts at the climax by killing everyone at the dance, and she ends up killing her mother by stopping her heart. Of course, Carrie dies from the stab wound delivered by her mother.)

I latched onto this book because I could relate well to Carrie as a youth, not only in wanting revenge for being mistreated by  my peers, but for my position on religion as well. Having not seen the movie and not knowing the ending of the book, I had such high hopes for Carrie! I even felt a personal attachment to her. And when things went wrong, I was literally crushed. It was the first time I had been manipulated by an author to this degree. And having read the short novel several times, it still hits me.

Any comments about Carrie? Any comments about books that struck you in a personal way?

New essay in the works

On top of my novel and on top of my literary journalism piece on melatonin, I have added another project to the works.

I watched my first Friday the 13th movie when I was five: Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives. Ever since, I've been a huge fan of the series. Everyone around me called the films worthless and trashy and even sexist. The acting is usually pretty bad too, but you know what? I watched them anyway, and I still enjoyed them to a great degree, and I still do today. I just finished watching the original Friday the 13th.

I'm going to make a bold statement in a new essay: these films are more than what they appear to be. Call them trashy. Call them worthless. But as a writer, I can examine a lot more there, and I firmly believe the makers of these films made them this way for a reason. I'm not going to be specific yet because I do not want my idea stolen, although this topic has been touched on by people before.

Additionally, I am desperately awaiting replies to magazines. Sometimes it just seems to take forever.

Melatonin

I believe I have found another side effect of the melatonin supplement: occasional dizziness. I've noted this since I began taking melatonin, but I never thought to link the two together until I woke up this morning with heavy dizziness, enough to make me wobble as I walked down the hallway. I experienced it earlier in the week, firstly on Thursday, but also the days following and now today.

I have elected to stop taking the supplement. Between bizarre dreams, which I experienced once more last night, and dizziness, I have enough material for a nonfiction piece on the drug.

Stephen Amidon

I have just recieved exciting news: Stephen Amidon, who has co-authored a new book with his brother called THE SUBLIME ENGINE: A Biography of the Human Heart, will be on CBS Sunday Morning tomorrow.

He helped me with my book when he came to WSU and I wish the Amidon brothers the upmost success. It will be released Monday, Valentine's Day of course. Go get it!

Sweet Dreams

I recently began taking melatonin on and off to battle insomnia. It works very well from me with only one side effect: increased dream activity.

I should note that I am on 2 other medications that have been known to increase dream activity in rare cases, but I have been on them since August. My usage of melatonin has only began recently as have my bizarre dreams.

Last night there were two dreams. Both horrified me while they were in progress, but when I woke up, I was able to laugh at one of them just a little, but definitely not the other.

First, the one I can laugh at. Has anyone ever played the video game MAXIMUM CARNAGE for the Sega Genesis or Super Nintendo? I was in this game, kind of. Carnage (for those you don't know he is a red villain from the Spider-Man comic books and more info about him can be found here). The story of "Maximum Carnage" in the comic book upon which the game is based takes place over fourteen issues. A war between Spider-Man and several allies (Venom, to name one) and Carnage and several allies (Shriek, Doppleganger). Somehow my dream brought me to the side of Spider-Man. I will spare the full details, but it was bizarre and terrifying while it lasted, but amusing once I woke up at 4:30ish in the morning and had to use the restroom. Then my mind unleashed the absolute horror.

I will say the dream ended in the brutal murder of my fiance by a knife-weilding pair of goons at a casino. The brutal vividness of it shocked me awake shortly before nine 9:00 AM. I was sweating, and my arms were jittery.

There were many dreams before these, occuring every night I took the melatonin supplement; I'm sure of it.

So this has inspired me. I was originally going to do a literary journalism peice on football helmets and concussions, but this is far more interesting to me now. I want to investigate the effects of melatonin supplements on the brain and find a cause for the dream activity.

I will take more tonight just to see if any more bizarre dreams occur.
Feel free to leave comments.

George Carlin

"Why is it that most of the people who are against abortion are people you wouldn't want to fuck in the first place?"

-George Carlin

Hello

My first entry: I'm here to update you on my doings around these parts. Firstly, I got engaged. Yes, to a beautiful little four-ten Native American with an attitude. Currently I am also 1 year away from getting my graduate degree, and I am also nearing the completion of my first novel. I would tell you what it's about, but I'd fear what a publisher would say about that, and I'm trying to attract them. That's one of my big 3 efforts I'm putting out right now. I'm also trying to get some shorter work published, mostly short stories, but also 3 poems and a hopefully humorous 500 word autobiography. The third major effort is an essay on football helmets and football related concussions.

I'm thinking I will have some sort of writing contest WHEN my novel comes out. That is a confident WHEN in capital letters, note. I love this book, and I love the characters. Not sure what exactly the contest will be yet, but keep coming back. I'm thinking I may give away a few autographed copies of the book.

I just got a job at the WSU library too. Working on the SOAR project, where professors and graduate students post their scholarly works so others around the campus and nation can access them for research. I was supposed to start today, but my boss had car trouble and emailed me not to come in. So I start tomorrow.

I will keep updating you on publications and rejections and maybe just some random thoughts about the happenings around the world. Please stay in touch.

And please follow me on twitter: DougABrowning
I will be updating a lot.