Saturday, June 4, 2011

Girl (Literary) Crush on Lisbeth Salander.


David Fincher, this movie looks downright brilliant. Praise.

I remember when I first got "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo." Right before it I had been reading Bill McKibben's "The End of Nature" and prior to that I was reading "The World Without Us" by Alan Weisman. At this time I was taking the train everyday from Perryville to D.C. on the MARC, so I was seriously plowing through books. Please don't ask about my commute. That is water under the bridge now. A co-worker heard about my social-life-destroying commute and my "the world is ending" reading choices and she decided to save my soul. And by save my soul I mean give me a copy of "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo." To be honest with you, I had never even heard of it. I was not aware of its popularity or its "best seller status." She began describing it to me and immediately to myself I am thinking "I am going to hate this book so badly." Mysteries aren't really my thing. Mysteries always strike me as being "sexy, dark, confusing, and bizarre." Me, I usually go for geeky kind of books. You know those ones about the world ending? Right. Or I go for non-fiction, biographies, travel tales, or of course Harry Potter (classic exception). But I took the book anyway. Why? Well, because when you are a college student working at the Department of Justice and a superior gives you a book to read you take it and you read it. Call me a brown noser or whatever, but I was trying to impress. Come on it is a recession people. I was thinking about my future by taking this book from her.

And thank goodness I did. This book and its sequels are some of the best books I have read in a long time. It was everything I thought I hated about mysteries: sexy, dark, confusing, and bizarre. But it was the twist of highlighting the very real global problem of sex trafficking that I think made me appreciate it even more. Plus, the heroin is a very bad ass woman warrior who I have a not so secret girl crush on slash I kind of want to be her in a twisted sort of way (if you read the book you know that she has some interesting characteristics that may make my desire to be her a little confusing but I still love her). I know I mentioned in my "vagina post" that I am not a feminist, but this chick is so freaking awesome that I cannot even stand it. She makes me want to be a feminist. But, when you read the book you will understand that this book actually forces you to appreciate unique and new gender roles. I am not going to discuss the book any more than that because I want you to read it. Now don't get all hipster on me and say "I don't want to read it because everyone else is (has)." Give me a break. You are going to miss out on some awesome shit if you keep trying to be cool (read: you are not cool). And just to clue you in: if you are not doing something because everyone else is doing it, you doing exactly what you are trying not to do.

Anyway, I am so pumped for the American version of the film. The Swedish version was good, but call me a patriot because I have a feeling the American version is going to kick some ass (sorry Sweden). Of course, I will be in El Salvador when the movie comes out, so I may have to wait a little longer to see it. But needless to say, I am pumped.

Post Script Bonnaroo preparation for the day: Today, in honor of Lisbeth I am going to highlight headliner Eminem, especially the song "Til I Collapse." It reminds me of her determination and will power.

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