Room

I spent last night and early morning reading Emma Donoghue’s novel, Room. The protagonist is a 5-year old boy and it’s written from his point of view. I thought if I couldn’t do much in the way of writing, I may as well read/research for my novel. Since I have some young characters in my story, I thought this book would help give me ideas on how language is used in the mouth of a young child. But this novel doesn’t seem to work for me for that purpose. Wait, that’s not quite right. On the one hand, the fact that this child has a limited world view works really well. So there is some leeway in the way words and language are manipulated. However, this heavy-handed version of child’s point of view is difficult on this reader. I found myself trying to skim through parts to get past the very young introverted portion of the character. It’s a difficult balance. At times, the language is ballooned but those are the times that I am pulled out of the story.

I am a big fan of Emma Donoghue and this is not a review of her book…I am looking at the craft of this particular novel in relationship to the science fiction story that I am trying to write. My mind is circling around the “what next?” of my story and the answer right now is “I don’t know.” At times, I really want to give it up and just move on to work on some poetry or a short story just to get me writing again. In fact, this blog entry is helpful to understand the way I’m thinking about this story that I’m trying to develop.

This week, I worked on some loose sketches for some painting projects down the line. Playing with some color helped to chill out this frustrated mood I’ve been in. It’s not completely gone but the bad mood is not the only thing I see now. The last couple of days have been bittery cold here in New York City. The wind burns the edges of my face but the cold feels good. It reminds me that I am alive and awake and I can move forward with my novel. 


All artwork, photos, and text © Copyright 2008-2011 Liliana Almendarez unless indicated otherwise. All Rights Reserved. Any downloading, copying or use of images on this website is strictly prohibited without express written consent by Liliana Almendarez.

The Piano Teacher

So over the weekend in my quest for rest and recovery time I watched a french movie called The Piano Teacher.  This was a dark twisted movie and in my current state of mind appropriate.

There is a moment when the protagonist Erika begins to crack open to let another human being in and I was rooting for her to find love and get her happily ever after but it went terribly terribly wrong. (I should have know, it is a french film after all.) And the moment it goes wrong it was heartbreaking to watch.  She is this broken creature too damaged to let love in.  And when the young love interest tries to fulfill her desires, he in turn is tainted with the damage he causes.  It's absolutely devastating.  The story has stayed with me for the past couple of days now.  It hasn't let go, there are scenes that replay in my head and I want her to make another choice.  It's a long film, close to three hours, and at the very end...I still wanted her to be well enough to reach for what she craved most.  The ending is brutal for a hopeless romantic like myself.

The movie made such a deep impression that I wanted to share it.

Lily~


All artwork, photos, and text © Copyright 2008-2011 Liliana Almendarez unless indicated otherwise. All Rights Reserved. Any downloading, copying or use of images on this website is strictly prohibited without express written consent by Liliana Almendarez.

Lousy week

I really thought after having such an excellent time with the MOMA visit that it would be all butterflies and daffodils the rest of the week.  Boy was I wrong!!  I've had the lousiest week ever.  Where do I begin?

Well, first off, I didn't write this week (with the exception of that one blog entry, nothing else.) That alone has left me in a foul mood.  I've allowed life distractions to get in the way and now I'm feeling irked at myself.  I had some real momentum going a couple of weeks ago with the story and since then I haven't written a thing.  Ergh!   What crap!! Then I lost my monthly metrocard (which I just bought)...and I'm one of those people that really really really hates losing things.  I felt myself going a little mental over it...even turning my bag inside out and still not coming to terms with the fact that it was gone.

Then on another morning, I actually got stopped by cops and had my bag inspected...I hate that!!  Fascist pigs!!...on a day that I was running late for work, which made me miss my train and I got to the office almost twenty minutes late.  Again, what crap!!  I feel hollowed out...like someone scooped my insides and left a shell of a person standing on my stoop.  To top everything off I've come down with another chest cold...which has left me feverish, with body aches and a rattling cough...so much so that I can't sleep.  Which explains why I'm up at 1:44 am writing this blog entry.

I did manage to take a sick day from work yesterday...just couldn't get myself out of bed after a hacking cough the night before.  This morning, I reached out to a friend needing some sympathy only to have the conversation start to go down on a rant about incompetent people.  Not really what I wanted to hear and left me hanging up pretty quickly and hiding under my duvet.  So now I can't sleep.  I'm tossing and turning and coughing and there is no Nyquil to be found in the medicine cabinet.  Mental note to buy a bottle in the morning and some Lipton chicken noodle soup.  I'm really glad this week is over.



All artwork, photos, and text © Copyright 2008-2011 Liliana Almendarez unless indicated otherwise. All Rights Reserved. Any downloading, copying or use of images on this website is strictly prohibited without express written consent by Liliana Almendarez.