delphipsmith | Entries tagged with pregnancy

115 reasons we love Buffy

Men who have stayed beautiful - #1 is Alan Rickman, yessssss!

More men who have stayed beautiful

25 bands that wisely changed their original name - The Golliwogs => Creedence Clearwater Revival; who knew?? but thank goodness...

5 ways the movies totally get pregnancy wrong

In other news, Spike Lee is an idiot.

How am I? entertained
What's that noise? Jon Stewart

A strange plague has emerged that strikes pregnant women. By the time it's identified, the virus (MDS, or Maternal Death Syndrome) has already spread around the globe and is latent in everyone on the planet, potentially spelling death to the human race. Triggered upon pregnancy, it causes rapid progressive brain degeneration and is invariably fatal to both mother and child. Research suggests it was genetically engineered deliberately, by combining Creutzfeldt-Jacob Syndrome with a virus, but no one knows why or by whom. A few scientists have come up with a theoretical solution but it's highly controversial and no one knows if it will work. Sixteen-year-old Jessie Lamb's father is involved with the research while Jessie herself struggles to deal with the strange new world she lives in, and to find a way that she can make a difference.

This is a highly unusual take on apocalypse fiction. Jessie's ethical and personal internal struggles, and the way they affect and are affected by her relationships with her friends and parents, are believable and detailed. While it's true that a lot of otherwise important issues -- women's rights, environmentalism, the role of science, etc. -- are glossed over, to me that seems appropriate since Jessie's battle is an internal, purely personal one. The other issues are backdrops for what she's going through; they give texture to but don't define Jessie's choices.

The book doesn't offer easy answers and although in one sense the ending is clear and definite, in another sense it's left very open to interpretation. It left me disturbed and uneasy on several levels which, I suppose, is a mark of its power and thoughtfulness. I recommend it, but with the caveat that it's not by any means an easy or comfortable book. Jessie's choice is one that isn't easily absorbed or comprehended. Is she a heroine or a victim? If anyone else has read it I'd love to hear what you think.

How am I? disturbed
Where am I? sofa o'cushiness
What's that noise? Simple Minds, "Don't you forget about me"

This week I got to do the following:

* Spend several many hours with my six-year-old nephew (he can spot a police car six blocks away and says very firmly that we are not allowed to manipulate (!) his words -- such the vocab!)

* Play "I spy with my little eye" with

nursedarry's six-year-old twins (Me: "I spy with my little eye something yellow." Twin 1: "Is it [twin 2]'s bogeys?")

* Hang out with my supremely smart/talented/interesting brother and introduce him to the movie District 9 (in exchange he introduced me to Dead Silence, which cements my belief that clowns and ventriloquist's dummies are CREEPY AS HELL)

* Go to my half-sister's wedding (she's six months pregnant, so when the minister got to the part about "Will you accept any children God sends you?" somebody shouted, "It's a bit late for that, isn't it?" and we all fell about laughing)

* Have lunch with a friend from high school whom I have not laid eyes on in about 30 years (we're, um, wider and grayer than we used to be, but still had lots to talk about)

* Spend a couple of hours with my 92-year-old grandmother (who still goes to her French Club and walks every single day, I should be so lucky when I'm 92)

* Do happy hour with a guy who was my boss at Domino's Pizza about 25 years ago (the day I walked in to apply he and one of the cooks were quoting Monty Python; I dropped the next line of dialog and he said, "Excellent, you're hired!)

and finally...

* Take to lunch and get to know

cassie_black12 and

alovelycupoftea, brought here by

nursedarry from across the pond, who are delightful and interesting women, just as nice in person as they are here on LJ

* Adventure to the house of

lijahlover, who was kind enough (THANK YOU!!!) to have

nursedarry and the rest of us all over along with

veritas03 who is not from across the pond but who adventured from the wilds of the American South to be there and who is also lovely in person :) We were highly amused because as we drove up we could see the males fleeing the premises ("Aaaaaagh! Mum's crazy online smut-writing friends are here -- run, run, run!!!")

(Alas, I did have to miss out on Sunday lunch at

ladyoneill's house, where I'm sure A Good Time Was Had By All!)

So yeah, week made of awesome :) I could not have crammed in more excellence if I'd bribed the aliens who run the universe personally.

How am I? jubilant
Where am I? en route

I would not marry James Mason, I don't care how much money he has. And I would have belted Charlotte Rampling right in the chops if she'd been MY roommate (probably sustaining severe injuries from her spectacular knife-edged cheekbones in the process). Bits of this movie (which let me take a moment to emphasize is the 1966 flick with Lynne Redgrave and miniskirts, not the 2001 movie about the Maori transsexual) were screamingly funny -- for example: "I'll tell you what this pregnancy's taught me, it's taught me to look like the back end of a bus!" But Georgy's so inconsistent! Spineless one moment, spitting like a cat the next. Desperately sorry for her that she caves at the end, I do not foresee Happy Ever After. Clearly she wants to be a mother, but Jos is a complete lackwit (Georgy, why?) and Mason's just an old goat (Georgy, WHY WHY WHY?!?). She'd have been much better off on her own. Something like 40% of births last year were to single mothers, quite a few of them by choice, not by accident; I know this was forty years ago but it's still hard to believe that a city girl of the madcap 1960s would think she was nothing without a man.

How am I? aggravated

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
				1	2	3
4	5	6	7	8	9	10
11	12	13	14	15	16	17
18	19	20	21	22	23	24
25	26	27	28	29	30	31

HSU IT Department

#!/usr/bin/girl

Entries tagged with pregnancy

Random yet awesome lists

Would I do this? Would you?

Week made of awesome!

Hey there, Georgy girl

Profile

December 2022

Links

Syndicate

Page Summary

Active Entries

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags