Yarn Along

Jan. 8, Christmas weekday.

Crocheting my first hat after practicing with rounds and granny squares throughout the holiday.  I like the color, shape, and texture of this yarn, though it's nothing fancy--a cheap, acrylic off-brand.  Good for a beginner making mistakes.  I tend to do several of one pattern or item before moving on to a new, more complex one.  I learn by repetition and rhythm.

I finally finished Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card last week.  War books are easier reading for me than things like Jane Austen.  I attribute it to my Germanic and mythological interests.  I'm guessing most thirteen-year-old girls wouldn't read the Odyssey over Pride and Prejudice.  I still haven't read Pride and Prejudice.  I should just turn in my lit. degrees now, right?

Ender's Game was interesting, and hard to place.  I thought it pretty graphic, though no more than A Clockwork Orange, 1984, and other negative utopian classics.  I'm guessing the reason why I noted the violence in Ender's Game is because of its association as a young adult novel, my fore-knowledge of the author as a practicing Mormon, and, most importantly, the fact that the main characters are all children.  It resonated with a similar uneasiness as The Lord of the Flies, that children should be exposed to and capable of such evils, even genius children.

I think I liked it.

One of its strengths is that it's very straightforward and doesn't try any of this fancy modernist framing or unreliable narration.  I was caught off guard over and over by how non-complex the complicated motivations and characterizations were--and no, that wasn't a stutter.  Ender's Game is probably the first novel I've read that has genuinely complex and intricate depictions of human nature and the psyche portrayed with deliberate clarity rather than confusion.  I'm betting that's why it's so popular, because it's accessible.  One could even say there's a clear moral order.  While not directly depicted in the novel, it's there like a light from the outside, casting shadows and coloring the whole of the story.  My only complaint is that the tone and plot revelations in the end were jarring and gave me the impression that it was tacked on after the fact to smooth the way for sequels.

Had my latest doctor's visit today, and tests came back positive for lingering mycoplasma, which explains the constant illness.  It's like mono in that way, but you might have heard of it as walking pneumonia.  The doctor prescribed a special antibiotic because the typical ones aren't effective for treating mycoplasma.  I'm still convinced in my bones that there is a deeper problem going on here, because this kind of infection attacks the very young, the very old, or those with weakened immune systems.  Which is basically what I've been saying all along.  I feel the wake of it almost every day.  Thanks for your continued prayers.   xx