‘Hamlet’ on lockdown in new york, allusions made to Liz Gilbert

Oh, the parallels..

Former writer and NYU teaching assistant (yes, Liz’s alma mater) turned sexual predator Peter Braunstein was profiled on the Daily Intel today after a particularly bizzare interview with the press. PB was arrested on Halloween 2005 after dressing as a firemen and sexually assaulting a woman for nearly thirteen hours. His named resurfaced this week after a failed escape attempt, during which he somehow managed to assault a male doctor on the street

This morning, the daily news reported that he confessed to having had a ‘criminal mind’ since age 19. When asked about the additional years that were tacked on to his sentence because of the assault (which he’d serve in Ohio) , he stated that “There was an absurdist quality to this proceeding…because I’m never getting out of prison in New York.”

He called himself a ‘Hamlet type’, and announced plans to orchestrate his own murder behind bars. Check out the following quote from the Intel (and scathing blogger’s translation), and decide whether or not ‘Raskolnikov type’ is a more apt description.

“When I had freedom I had to make decisions. Do I become a criminal? Do I continue to let my rage build until I become a homicidal maniac? Do I commit suicide? In jail, I have peace.”
Translation: Prison is a lot like the ashram part of Eat Pray Love.

Hey Liz, looks like everyone has a special place they go to get their Zen on. Still feeling special???

Love Food?

 

Can’t help but shouting out a friend and her marvelous, inventive cooking!  Since we read about food in our Chick Lit novels, how about learning about some deliciousness in real life!  Check this out!

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/living/fooddrink/s_562962.html

Time and Time again: Me vs. chicklit woman

First, let me apologize for my late post. As this is my first time with chicklit, it is also my first time with blogging. And, as I found out today, “Save” is not the same as “Publish.” So, my post was saved, and not published. Here it is, published:

This time, I almost enjoyed the book. The story is interesting, somewhat exciting. One feels that they are also on an adventure, learning from travels while reading the book. I, as a reader, could really relate this time to the desires of Liz.

But I didn’t like her. Why? Maybe other people feel the same way, maybe other responses to the book can help me pinpoint why, while I can relate to Liz’s desires, I do not like her. So, I look them up. First one I read: A New York Times book review by Jennifer Egan.

Love to Eat (and pray?)

Finally, Fun Friday is back!  Negative Nancy has been thrown to the wayside!  Yippee!  Though I must give credit where credit’s due: thank you Miss Elizabeth Gilbert for finally offering up something bigger than the plastic wrapped story of those strong young city chicks of the past few adventures.  

 

What impressed me with Eat Pray Love  was that I was finally forced into some self-reflection.  

Sorry I’m Late!!

So I know I’m Wednesday Girl, but Thursday morning is almost the same thing…

I also agree that Liz Gilbert is very involved with men throughout the book even though this is supposed to be her personal journey, but I am not so sure if this is a bad thing. Maybe one of the essential ideas about the human condition which the reader is supposed to gather from Liz’s journey is the essential bond between humans.

The whole reason Liz takes off on this journey to start is because of her messy divorce from her ex-husband and her unstable relationship with David. In Italy she meets the brothers who help her learn Italian. In India it’s Richard from Texas who helps her on her spiritual journey and is her companion at the ashram. At the end of the novel too, Liz finds a man she loves.

Exoticising in “Eat, Pray, Love”

For all of the shit that we have given Elizabeth Gilbert and her book Eat, Pray, Love, she did have the pluck to up and leave her life and rediscover herself, and I admire her for doing such a courageous thing with her life when she could have trudged on miserably. That takes guts. She also let herself learn from those whom she met abroad. But one of her faults as a writer and a student is that she exoticizes her friends

Eat, Flirt, Self-Congratulate…

(the dude in the vid above hates Liz Gilbert more than I do!)I did a bit of preliminary research before opening up Eat, Pray, Love. Its author (Elizabeth Gilbert) is a hip thirty-something living in Manhattan. She grew up on a Christmas tree farm in Connecticut and attended NYU before establishing herself as a literary vagabond. She’s worked on a dude ranch, been a chef, and traveled the world, all the while supporting herself as a freelance writer. Liz Gilbert’s lifestyle sounded cool (I was jealous). After reading her introduction, I thought she was witty and engaging. Unlike the other authors we’ve read, she doesn’t focus upon the perils of living a glamorous lifestyle. And even though the structure of her memoir–108 tales to represent the 108 beads of a japa mala— is gimmicky, I was excited about reading her work. So why did I begin to hate her even before she arrived in Italy?