Special Topics in Calamity Physics, by Marisha Pessl

     Special Topics in Calamity Physics, by Marisha Pessl, parental abandonment is a main theme and issue.

     The main character, Blue van Meer, has a scholarly father who has them in a constant state of movement and often meets with colleages during free time. He does spend an abundance of time with Blue, but during this time he'll quiz her on Nobokov, or have her recite Shakespeare. He does not have a typical relationship with his daughter; however, she loves him very much, and towards the beginning of the book, even idolizes him.  Her mother dies before when she is young, and is mentioned surreptitously (and bluntly, too) throughout the book. Though she is dead, Blue is very aware of her mother, and  her haunting memory gives Blue's life lonliness and leaves a space missing.

     The other characters have sketchy parental backrounds as well; many of the kids in the little clique that Blue is kind-of in, the Bluebloods, do not have clear and reliable parents.

     Jade, for one (the snotty ice queen that every story needs) father is a nearly nonexistant figure in her life, and her mother is a slutty has-been who's still stuck in the 70s, and Jade calls her not Mom, but Jefferson. When Blue says Jefferson looks "very nice,"  Jade's reply is "About as nice as Hitler." "Boyfriends" frequent Jade and Jeffersons' mansion, and Jade is spiteful and unhappy as a result of her home life.

     Blue never even meets the parents of the other Bluebloods, and for most of the story is deluded to think that they had all had extravagantly melodramatic pasts. She believes this as an result of a tale that Hannah, their friend and teacher, who dies later on in the book, tells her. In reality, Hannah has had a bad relationship with her parents.

     This story is, essentially, a coming of age piece (as Blue is turning 18) in which you learn about growing up and becoming independent from your parents. Blue has been pretty much independent her whole life, except for her Dad, and during the course of the book, she becomes independent of him, too. But it isn't the struggle it may be for other kids-- normal children depend more when they haven't got failure on their parents' part in their past.

     Reading this book makes me wonder what inspired Marisha Pessl to write it. Does it come from her lifeit more about the mystery or the relationships? Did she have a bad family situation?

Special Topics in Calamity Physics, by Marisha Pessl

     I am currently reading Special Topics in Calamity Physics, by Marisha Pessl. The book is brimming with both external and internal conflict.

     About a teenager named Blue van Meer, the book describes the family (herself and her father) the friends (herself and her father) and the life, of an unusual high school senior, which primarily centers around her father and herself-- until she meets Hannah Schneider.

     In the book, Blue agrees with most everything her father (Gareth) says, and, as he is the only parental influence (or any influence) she has, and is also uncommonly brilliant to boot --an accomplished and well known literature figure/ professor/ lecturer/ writer. But when they meet Hannah Schneider, and he thinks she's "commonplace," while she thinks she's "elegant, with a romantic face."

     This is the first of many clashes between the two van Meers.

     Blue evolves over the book, and gradually is illuminated to her father's (many) flaws.

     And with realizing his flaws, comes shaping her own life. She goes to a dance with a boy her father doesn't like, makes friends with kids who sneak into adult parties, and becomes part of Hannah Schneider's "group."

     Her issues with him all come to a beaming climax when it is revealed that he's having an affair with one of her teachers, Eva (she finds out when the angry Eva Brewster breaks into their house, suspicious Gareth is cheating.)
   
     In the book, Blue begins to rely on her father less, and put more trust in herself, and her views. She begins to develop her own personality, away from the sphere of influence of her influential dad. She comes into herself, and, in some parts of the book, it is astory of self discovery-- finding the Blue van Meer amongst the sea of Gareth.
    
    


    

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

     I recently read One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel García Márquez. It is a novel that describes the foundation and fall of the town Macondo, and with it its founding family, the Buendías.

     The book spans over more than a hundred years, and you get lost in the generations. It covers early technology,  a civil war, factory and civil rights issues, and plagues. There are so many characters named Aureliano, José Arcadio, Arcadio, Amaranta, Remedios and Ursula, that you get confused as to who is the son of who and if Aureliano is Meme's son or great- grandfather (he's neither.)

      However, as you read the book, you begin to understand that the characters all have the same personalities as their namesakes. You don't even need to worry about who's related to who, because as long as you know their name you understand their personality( I stopped rigorously flipping to the family tree about halfway through, when I realized this.) Aurelianos are always thoughtful and vague, José Arcadios rough and rational, Remedioses beautiful and innocent. Throughout the years, the same characters appear over and over again (only with more flaws each time).The overarching mentor character, Melquíades, even comes back from the dead so as to repeat his teachings to the younger generation.

     In the story, the characters have similiar personalities, but their flaws are not fixed.
 The same mistakes are made over and over, cousin marries cousin, and characters have children with the same prostitute their grandfather did (ew.) The town is founded, becomes a bustling city, and then falls, victim to the never ending cycle.

     You can practically feel the history go around and around, which brings us to what I've been talking about this whole time and what I think is one of Márquez's main themes: time. He is trying to point out that everything repeats itself and rarely improves.

     I got the sense from this book that Gabriel García Márquez must've been a pretty cynical guy. The Buendías eventually repeat and deteriorate until there are only two left (who have a child with a pig's tail who, ultimately, dies). The town is doomed from the start, and I think that maybe Márquez is trying to say that everything is doomed, and everything ends.

Am I Blue? Response

In “Am I Blue?” by Bruce Coville, a boy named Vince struggles with his sexuality and is bullied for what he may or may not be. His primary tormentor, Butch Carrigan, is convinced that Vince wants nothing better than to “jump his bones.” One horrid day, Butch pushes him into a particularly nasty puddle, and he picks himself up to see lo! his fairy godfather. His name is Melvin. Throughout the story, Melvin helps to guide Vince through his life being maybe- gay.
 

One of the things Melvin helps him learn is that you should stay true to yourself. When Vince makes a comment on how he walks "swishy," he replies that he gave up his life to walk that way. In this context, walking swishy is clearly a metaphor for being gay.

Melvin also helps him realize that if he realizes that he is gay, he won't be alone. He does this by telling him of Gay Fantasy #3--being blue.
 

         “We used to imagine what it would be like if every gay person in the country turned blue for a day. So all the straights would have to stop imagining that they didn’t know any gay people.”

          When Melvin gives him “gaydar,” the ability to see gays in shades of blue (for the degrees of their gayness), he finds out that the very people who proclaim to hate gays-- a republican homophobe and Butch Carrigan are both gay themselves. So is a married (to a woman) storekeeper with three kids,  while a librarian that “everybody knows is gay,” is not. Even his father is tinted blue.

           Like Melvin says, we are helpless at distinguishing between gay and straight-- we just assume that everyone they we know is straight because it hasn't been denied.  We are an ignorant, discriminatory bunch of people. In many human societies, the idea of being gay is profound and vague; a rebellious progressive disease that can be squashed as long as you stay away from them.

           In “Am I Blue?” we learn that it’s impossible.

  My Mom’s best friend is gay. His brother knows, and is unsympathetic. He (still) hasn’t told his high-school age children yet. He thinks that, somehow, keeping the fact that their uncle is gay from them will protect them. When the oldest daughter (a couple of weeks ago) was told --- at 19!!!!!--- she was shocked, but supportive. Realizing that her uncle, who she’d loved her whole life, was gay, taught her that we know and love many gay people in our lives.
 

           Bruce Coville really wants us to realize that gay people are as human as straights, and that we probably know and are rather fond of many. He wants to make us wonder if our parents are, if our friends are, if our uncles are, and if we are. He wants us to take it as one of aspects of everyday life, just like being straight is, and accept it with open arms.