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What started out as a pastime soon turned into a hobby that turned into a passion until it eventually became a necessity. Reading is a need so beautiful that I feel I must write about it every day.

Thursday 12 September 2013

My terrible first line

I've had an extremely unproductive summer and I'll admit I did absolutely nothing worthwhile with my time but hey, I'm back home and here nobody expects me to put myself to any good use when I'm off for vacations.Since I wouldn't want to break my lazy spell by actually writing something, here's a list of the funniest first lines ever written that made my morning! 33 Of The Most Hilariously Terrible First Sentences In Literature History

I'm also down with a terrible flu but this made me feel SO much better! Its just Horrilarious! (a term used to define something which is equal parts horrifying and hilarious). Thank me later for giving you a new word. 

This list actually inspired me to write something myself.  Here's my attempt at a terrible first line: 
As she lay in a pool of crumpled tissues each one lined with snot, she looked up to her computer screen, the blank whiteness tingled her senses like nose hair right before a sneeze and in that sudden moment of epiphany, she knew. Her writing the greatest novel was as inevitable as a colony of bacteria on a beef steak at room temperature! 
How do you like me now!? 

P.S. Please ignore me. It's the meds talking

Wednesday 31 July 2013

The 'Before' Trilogy- Reaffirming faith in true love since 1995

I picked up a couple of books over the past month..Moth smoke, Of love and other demons, To the lighthouse... only to lose my interest and put them back. I figured I'll just take them back to Istanbul and read them there. I have however, been watching many movies lately and tonight I watched the third and probably the last installment in the 'Before' trilogy- Before Midnight. Now I know not many people have seen it or liked it but for me, each movie resonates exactly what love is- a feeling that cements over time and lasts with us as long as we live.

The first part of the movie came out 18 years ago. Some of the interesting parts that drew me to this series are the unconventional actors: Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, both rendering undeniably charming performances in all three films, the fact that they co-wrote the movies and that the story evolves as they age; each part coming out after a whopping nine years.

I'm a major romantic drama junkie but that's not the only reason why I love this series. Not only is every movie accentuated with thoughtful dialogues and masterful direction, but it also succeeds in being real and convincing, so much so that its almost painful to watch sometimes. It's about witnessing a couple's evolution from twenty-somethings into their forties; each movie depicting one day in their lives and the unrelenting love that binds them together. Every conversation in those movies leaves you craving for more and wondering if you'd ever find someone who you could talk to that way.

The first one makes you believe in simple, true love. The second makes you believe in destiny and pure luck while the third makes you question everything you've come to believe along the way.

Before sunrise (1995)
"I like to feel his eyes on me when I look away."
"Isn't everything we do in life a way to be loved a little more?"
Before Sunset (2004)
"Jes: In the months leading up to my wedding, I was thinking about you all the time. I mean, even on my way there; I'm in the car, a buddy of mine is driving me downtown and I'm staring out the window, and I think I see you, not far from the church, right? Folding up an umbrella and walking into a deli on the corner of 13th and Broadway. And I thought I was going crazy, but now I think it probably was you.
Celine: I lived on 11th and Broadway.
Jesse: You see?"
Before Midnight (2013)
"I fucked up my whole life because of the way you sing."
"Like sunlight, sunset, we appear, we disappear. We are so important to some, but we are just passing through." 


Wednesday 19 June 2013

Summertime sadness and Gatsby

Once you leave and come back, people expect you to be the same but you're not nearly the same person who left. This is why coming back is hard. I came back home after a year in Turkey and it surprises me when people ask me about my time there. I have so little to say. When you're out there on your own, there is a strange air of solitude that takes holds of you. Nobody to come home to, nobody to ask about your day and even if they did, nothing you say can explain to them the change you feel in yourself. They still see you as the same person who left but you know better. 

How do you explain to someone the longing you felt looking at hazy islands drawn on a horizon smudged by the receding light of the sun from a ferry boat? How do you tell them of the freedom you feel walking home with a friend at 4 in the morning with your head up, marveling at the white birds circling a brightly lit building? Nothing you say can make them understand the euphoria of joining a protest in a foreign city, along with hundreds of roaring civilians, all the while knowing it has nothing to do with you. Heck! You don't even know what they are chanting. How do you tell someone of the inexplicable peace you felt 2..300ft up in the air, attached to a parachute, looking down at the sea, feeling bigger than the world? The answer is, you can't because they weren't there with you. So I don't even try. But I hope I'm more articulate at writing about the books that I took along with me than I am at talking about my experiences.  

Up in the air!
What am I itching to write about? The Great Gatsby! We readers have had the misfortune of watching our favorite novels being turned into horrible movies time and again but that wasn't the case with Gatsby (at least not for me).Never before has contemporary music been featured in a period film and I think it worked extremely well, especially because it was in a movie like this. I went to watch it three times! And every time my heart broke a little when Daisy, with her perfectly coquettish accent said: 'I'm glad it's a girl. And I hope she'll be a fool – that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.' 'Cant repeat the past? Well, of course you can', I murmured with Gatsby trying to say it just like him. And every time, I left the theatre satisfied after hearing that iconic line: 'So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.'

Somewhere, Fitzgerald sitting among teary-eyed authors with unfaithful adaptions is looking down at us with a glass of champagne and a smug smile because Baz Luhrmann did complete justice to his work. I imagine he looks like this-



Do I want to watch the movie a 4th time? Will I sever all relations with you if you speak ill of the movie? Will I throw a brick at the critics who gave the movie a bad review if I ever see them? The answer to all those questions is a big YES :) 

To Mr. Luhrmann, I have only one thing to say (and here I assume Nick Carraway's awe struck voice): "They're a rotten crowd. You're worth the whole damn bunch put together." 




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