Failing on diverse points

[wiseheart]

Today I took another bag of books to the book saver wagon - only to find it closed. The lady from the greengrocer's next to it said they packed up and left an hour previously. Probably because the promised rain, as they are always there when I walk by on my way to choir practice. Well, I didn't haul all those books home again - they weighed a ton! I put them into a plastic bag and shoved the bag under the wagon. If they find it tomorrow morning, more power to them. If somebody steals them and sells them for the weight of the paper, they're welcome to it.


I hope the book savers will find them, though. Those were the books of a Hungarian author I used to admire very much because of his incredible world-building talent. Until I realized what a disgusting misogynist he really was. But the quality of his writing is still superb. I kept two of the books that were free of his usual misogynist tendencies but got rid of the rest - with a heartache. Such unique talent, spoiled that way! A real shame.

As a consolation prize, I bought us a Babka at the nearby bakery, then went to school to collect the small jars my friend Evie set out for me on her desk at the teachers' room. I left two young adult books for her planned classroom library (she's an English teacher) and took some of the free apples laid out at the entrance. Not for jam, I've had enough of that, but for eating. I can grate them for Mum, so she'd have some other fresh fruit than just raspberries and bananas.

I then went to the Telekom customer service because my phone (the simple one with the buttons, not the smartass one) was acting up, refusing to show who's calling. I hoped they could do something about it. They couldn't. Ah, well, our landline doesn't show the caller, either. I won't waste my time hunting for special services for a phone that cost what? Five Euros? The weird part is, this whole thing started two days ago, and it still shows the caller when it's called from the landline, just not when called from another mobile. *shakes head*

And I waited for their two-minute failure for more than half an hour!!!

By then I was properly frustrated, so I went to the Lindt shop (which happens to be in the same small shopping centre) and made good use of the -50% action. Bought some really yummy, small chocolate quadrants, with caramel and orange-flavoured fillings, respectively. Mum approved very much.


After all this, I decided to skip choir practice and came home to catch the last third of the Great Australian Bake-Off. Priorities must be respected. *g*

Comments

[meathiel]

Skipping choir practice ... tsk ...

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

It was for the sake of my own sanity!

[adafrog.livejournal.com]

That's too bad about that author.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it is a real shame. Such a wonderful imagination — and used for that!

[red-day-dawning.livejournal.com]

I think i know what you mean regarding your favourite author. Guy Gavriel Kay is my favourite author, but his depiction of women is… problematic. They’re either very grey, with very mixed motivations but that’s ok because they’re so beautiful, or they are quite flat. A plot device, but that’s ok because they’re so beautiful. Ironically, one main character, Dannica from A Brightness Long Ago (or All The Seas of the World, can’t remember right now) is great. I think he can do main character women well, but female minor characters are disturbing. It is like their beauty and their gender is all that matters. And given the complexity of other character, it is really noticeable. Very disappointing. Anyway, rant over now!
I love that you call your smart phone a smartass phone! And Babka and Lindt chocolate both sound delicious.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Smartass phone is a word I've come up on the spot, but I think I'll keep it. *g*

[elwenlj.livejournal.com]

I like the sound of your consolation prizes.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Sometimes you have to do nice things for yourself — nobody else would do!

[just-jenni.livejournal.com]

Bad luck having to carry the books to the wagon only to find it closed. I think you did the right thing by leaving them underneath because I'm sure the right people will find them.

Isn't it awful when you find out a favourite author is in fact, a terrible person? I felt that way about Neil Gaiman when I found out what he had done, and luckily it was in Kelowna, where I lived at the time, so I was able to leave his books that I owned in the book exchange box. Good riddance, even though I had enjoyed reading them.

I love having reasons to buy sweets!

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

The problem with toxic authors is that their venom slowly, secretly sickers into their writing and poisons something that would be otherwise so great. :(

[noadvertising.livejournal.com]

Sorry, but I won´t give books away I like but others think inappropriate. I do love the literature, the story telling. Not the man or woman behind the story! But Lindt chocolate as a consolation for what you had to endure in the Telkom shop- I heartily approve!

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

It is not the others who think those books inappropriate — it is me! And I did keep two of the novels that were free of the author's venom. The rest — good riddance! I needed years and several re-reading to realize why they made me uncomfortable, despite the fantastic writing.

[noadvertising.livejournal.com]

Now I need to read one of those books and decide for myself- can you give me a hint?

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

I don't think they exist in any other language than Hungarian, but the author is called János Kodolányi. Most of his works are history- or mythology-related — novels settled in the original, Sumerian legend of the Great Flood, in the time of Moses and Jesus and 13rd century Hungary. He has — well, had, he's been dead for half a century or more — an incredible talent for world-building and creating atmosphere; he even created some kind of language for the stories set in medieval Hungary, based on old language finds. I think he was a linguist by trade, but I can't swear that it was so.

[noadvertising.livejournal.com]

Never heard of the author. But history-related works often have a bland variety of female characters- its either mother or whore (in simplistic terms), throw in a female heroine now and then. Kind of sad...