No Love Lost

From the week of September 16 I'm feeling a bit sympathetic for Tess tonight. I also feel like I am beating a dead horse by saying this, or even bringing Tess up for that matter, but its literature and it relates to my feelings at this very moment. That poor dead horse. And I'm not talking about Prince. I used to think Tess just needed to get over herself. Now, however, I'm starting to wonder if things would have been different for her if she had done something about her predicament sooner. What if she had stood up for herself when Alec kept hitting on her? What if she had never gotten involved with him, knowing what a player he is? Oh the things we think about after the fact. Why do girls always fall for the bad boys first? Its a classic theme in life. Girl meets boy, boy is bad for girl, girl is stupid and falls for boy, and then boy is stupid and doesn't fall for girl. So then when the girl tries to get herself back on track, other boys are like "Psht, no.". Like in The Princess Diaries (the books, not the movie), Mia falls for Josh (Josh is the bad boy), but when she figures out that she really should be with Michael, Michael is already going out with fruit-fly girl (she has a name, I just fail to remember it). The Lars, Mia’s bodyguard, has to drag Michael out to the dance and be all “Dance with her. NOW” and Lilly (still Michael’s sister and Mia’s best friend) has to help Lars, and after multiple trials and tribulations, Michael breaks up with Judith (that was her name!) and goes out with Mia. Yeah, I’m lost too and I’ve read the books about 10 times each. Why can't people just fall in love and be happy? Does everything really have to be the trial that we put ourselves through each time? Or is it just girls that are this insanely complicated?

If love was not so tragic and confusing, however, many of the greatest novels would never have been written. Tuck Everlasting, Ella Enchanted, Tess of the d’Urbervilles, Romeo and Juliet, and Candide would not be around for us to read. We would not be able to enjoy the satisfaction in the end of the novel when the hero and heroin finally get to be together, or the burning disappointment and dissatisfaction we feel when we realize that they will never be together. Its disappointing, frustrating, aggravating, and irksome. But at the same time, that nagging feeling reminds us that loss is ok and that there must be someone out there that is better for us or them (depending on whether the situation applies to your real life or you are reading about it in a novel). I think tragic love in novels prepares us for real life in a way by letting us know that its all going to be ok in the end.

That and its good angst reading if you happen to be feeling that way in real life.

Vampires, Statistics, and Copyright Infringement.

From the Week of September 10th 15 minutes into the series premier of "The Vampire Diaries" and I have Thomas Foster ringing in my head. All I can think of is how this rip off of Twilight CAN'T be copyright infringement. Boy vampire comes upon girl he cannot resist and puts himself and everyone around him in danger so that he may get to know her. She is clumsy and eventually falls, cutting open her leg. He flips out and disappears. Stephan Salvatore (boy vampire's name) lives with his uncle, and the girl (name to be determined) lives with her slightly erratic and irresponsible aunt. They all live in a small town. Is this town called Forks? And does mystery girl have a friend/ potential love interest that just so happens to be a werewolf? I bet $20 I know how this soap opera turns out. According to Thomas Foster (who I keep calling Thomas Hardy, much to the amusement of others), there is no such thing as an original story. I, for one, have a very hard time believing this. If there is no such thing as an original story, the wouldn't that mean that there is no story to begin with? This concept makes no sense to me. There has to be at least one original story in order for there to be any story. Where did the Greek myths that we base our stories come from? Where did the Bible come from? If these things are not original stories, where are the stories that inspired these, and why have we not heard any of them? This concept of no story being original when there is no original story absolutely baffles me every time I think about it.
I do agree that most stories are based off of others, however. A perfect example of this is Harry Potter (alright, you got me, I just really wanted to write about Harry Potter). Really though, Harry Potter is one of the best examples of a most unoriginal writing EVER. The maze that J.K. Rowling comes up with for the Triwizard Tournament? Reminds us of the Labyrinth, as does the last few chapters of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone where Harry navigates the deep undergrounds of the Hogwarts Castle. I think she ended the series because she could not find any more myths to twist into her own.
This all brings me back to my question of how there can not be an original story. If there is one, I would like to know what it is. Imagine how epic that would be- reading the story that started all stories. Wow. Now THAT would be a story to remember.
A story free of possible copyright infringement- I never though I would see the day.