<i>The Bell Jar</i> by Sylvia Plath

I am glad I didn't read this during high school. I think the main character's personal crisis about her education might have been a little unnerving at the time (though probably more so if I had read it after I had graduated from college and not yet found work), since as I read I identified in many respects with the main character and how she performed in high school and college.

I wonder if the "bell jar" she experienced was what we would think of today as a quarter-life crisis---a realization that all this stuff you've spent learning up to now is not how the real world works and much of the stuff you've learned you really can't apply in any meaningful way. I suppose, though that the quarter-life crisis rarely results (though could) in as extreme an action as a suicide attempt and a need to be committed.

Part of the main character's crisis may have been due to the limited opportunities for women as well. She seemed to have two options in her head: be a great writer or be a stay-at-home wife and only one was at all attractive. Once her confidence as a writer was broken there was only the wife option---to a boy she didn't much like, making the option even more unattractive. The bell jar may have been due more the loss of any other option rather than to any real "craziness" on her part.

From the post matter, much of this story was based on Plath's own experience as a young adult. She says in the book that she dreads the return of "the bell jar," which in real-life seemed to return for Plath based on her later suicide.

The narrative is very tight and believable resulting probably from Plath's intimate similarity to the main character. I like how it is told in first person, as it gives insight to why she is acting as she is. That is always fascinating to me, to see the rational side of an outwardly "crazy" person's behavior.

A very enjoyable read.

<i>Torchwood's Another Life</i>

I grabbed this out of the library in the hope that it would keep my Torchwood high going after watching Children of Earth a couple weeks ago. I overestimated the quality of TV adaptations. It wasn't absolutely horrible---the other Torchwood book I grabbed at the same time was---but it really didn't do much in terms of giving the same complex sense of wonder and fear the show does.

Maybe the key is that if a character or a set of characters developed for a TV show and therefor defied more by the actor's interpretations of them, it is difficult to convey their actions entirely as you would see the actors do on the show. Everyone in the audience sees each of the characters differently, so putting down out particular description will not satisfy every reader's interpretation. As a result, there is probably little hope of any adaptations being much good and i should stick primarily to the show and maybe the radio dramas.

Or, I guess I could write my own fan fiction...

<i>The Futurological Conference</i> by Stanislaw Lem

This is very different from Solaris in tone and topic. Solaris was brooding and rather lonely, whereas this book was frenetic and very crowded. The title---The Futurological Conference---is used as only a device to get us to a dystopia based on hallucinations.

The idea of mind control---very specific mind control---using aerosol drugs is pretty frightening. One section where the main characters were discussing the reason for over population, they noted that everyone thought progress was going well on the space bases because the information they were told included an aerosol for naivety. With no way---and with the drugs no desire---to check, the bases on Jupiter never did, and were never going to, exist.

So, instead of just the standard government pulling the wool over the eyes of the citizens, you have the corporations pulling the the wool over the eyes of the government. Not even the people in charge---or who you think are in charge---know the truth. I guess it is the ultimate in lobbying.

I enjoyed the book, especially the dystopian section, which was quite different from the others I have read. The style was tough to get into at first, but as the story started out so outlandish, I couldn't stop because I wanted to find out just where it would end up.