Review of The Lost Continent by Bill Bryson

I finished The Lost Continent the other day.  It is an enjoyable, though not an intensely compelling read.  It is an interesting look at America through the eyes of a citizen who has been living abroad in England for quite a while.  It begins as the search for an idyllic place that Bryson later decides is an amalgam of different places.  As he visits different cities, he adds parts of them to his vision of Amalgam.  But, as the trip progresses, it becomes less of a search for something specific, and more of an exploration of the continental United States. 

Bryson's commentary is often scathing, particularly when dealing with the ubiquitous fast food joints, run down gas stations, and places that cater solely to tourists and thus lack character or soul.  I do think he must be a fan of Catch-22 though.  He comes up with some interesting (fictitious) names - there's the Battle of Lickspittle Ridge, which featured General Goober (who shot himself in the armpit) and Lieutenant-Colonel Bowlingalley, who fought against opposing forces led by Pillock.  Some other place names include Dry Gulch, Cactus City, Coma, Doldrum, Dry Well, and Sunstroke.  There are many more sprinkled throughout the book.  Sometimes it's hard to tell if he's being sarcastic or referring to an actual place.  Though, with actual cities named things like Toad Suck, that's not too surprising.  But the naming conventions are what makes me think he must be a fan of Catch-22, which has characters named Lieutenant Scheisskopf and Major Major Major Major.  (If you don't know what Scheisskopf means, you should type it into this German-English translator.)

Anyway, Bryson's ramblings regarding travel, tourists, and American towns inspire me to preserve some of my own experiences.  For your reading pleasure, I present the following:

In the spring of 2006 Michael and I moved to Boston.  We didn't last very long there; we moved there in late May/early June and left mid-December.  I generally tell people we were there for eight months, but it really wasn't even that long.

While we were there my in-laws came to visit in October.  We had a lovely visit and they took us to Camden, Maine for a weekend.  It was the last weekend before everything closed for the season, so we got discounted things from the shops and got to stay in little cabins overlooking the ocean.  We got up early one of the mornings to watch the sunrise.  This was my first experience of an Atlantic beach.  It was rocky and there were little tide pools all over.  It was late October and it was cold.  At the height of the season I'm sure Camden is overrun by tourists, but so close to the end of the season it was lovely.  The people there were all residents (we were the only guests at the resort where we stayed) and were very friendly as they were looking forward to several months off.  It was a wonderful time.

On the way back I convinced everyone that we should stop in Salem, Massachusetts.  You know, the famous one.  Home to the notorious Salem Witchcraft Trials.  In late October.  October is peak season for Salem.  It's a cute town and I would've liked to have spent more time there.  As it was, Michael had to be at work that day at 4:00 pm and we were still a couple hours outside of Boston.  There was a museum about the Salem Witchcraft Trials that looked like it would've been interesting, but you could only go as part of a guided tour and they were all full.  So we poked around the burial ground then made our way to Nathaniel Hawthorne's house, which is said to have been the inspiration for The House of the Seven Gables.  Now, I've only read (and I use the term loosely) The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and I didn't enjoy it.  I am not, by any stretch of the imagination, a Hawthorne fan.  But it was a cool old house and sounded interesting.  It, also, was only available by guided tour, and the ones available all took place after we needed to be back in Boston.

The thing that struck me as the most ironic was all of the people dressed as witches and the witch-related shops and the similarly themed convention going on at the time.  The Salem Witchcraft Trials were to stamp out witchcraft and it is now a place where it is celebrated and cashed in on.  I'm not sure, but I think the ground was moving a little while we were in the burial ground.  Perhaps a few of those people were rolling in their graves.

Simple Pleasures

I went for a walk this morning. The sun was shining through the clouds at the beginning, but was soon covered over. It was fairly chilly, and there's still snow on the ground. It's old snow, crusty and frozen. There was a light skiff of graupel on the ground. I also noticed some new green grass pushing its way through the leftovers from the fall in the swales. And the birds are out and singing. Two signs that spring is on its way.

The Bed Story

So, after Michael and I got married we purchased a bed frame for ourselves with money from our wedding. A couple years later, we sold all our furniture before moving to Boston.

In Boston we slept on an air mattress for a few months. This was because we were subletting a studio apartment and knew we weren't going to be there for very long. After we moved into our other apartment, we bought a mattress from a liquidation warehouse. It's a California king, with regular king size box springs and a metal frame. This is what we've had ever since.

For quite a while Michael has been wanting a real bed frame ever since. A few weeks ago he started looking online to see how much it would cost to buy a bed frame. Since we have a California king, it's quite expensive. Way out of our price range. So, we decided to build one. Michael looked around online and found a picture of one someone else built to get an idea and figured out a schematic for our own bed frame. We bought the lumber and hardware Presidents' Day weekend, and sanded and stained it over the next couple of days. We assembled it on Wednesday that week, and here are the results:

Book Review: Dracula

***Spoiler Alert*** I reveal the ending of the story, so if you don't know it and don't want to, don't read this post.

So, I've been a slacker again with the blogging. I have some things I'd like to record for prosperity, but just haven't gotten around to it. So, for now, we'll talk about Dracula by Bram Stoker.

As I've said before, I was pleasantly surprised by Dracula. It's written in epistolary form, which means the story is told via letters and journal entries. This device gives Stoker the ability to write the story from multiple points of view without undue confusion. I think it could be annoying if every book were written that way, but Stoker does such a good job with it that I didn't find it distracting at all.

The story begins with Jonathan Harker traveling to visit Count Dracula in his castle in Transylvania. On his way there many people warn him that he shouldn't go, give him things to ward off evil (a crucifix), and feed him garlicky food. He's travelling on business, though, and insists that he must go. At first Dracula is very cordial, but as time passes Jonathan realizes that Dracula has no intention of letting him ever leave. He does, however, make his escape and return to England, but not before Dracula has had himself shipped there. Dracula gets to England and begins to wreak havoc in the lives of Jonathan's friends.

Anyway, the opening chapters are very suspenseful, but the pace slows a bit in the middle. It's still interesting, but not quite as compelling as it was in the beginning. Nearer to the end of the book, when the main characters are hunting Dracula, things get moving again. Dracula visits Mina Harker, Jonathan's wife, and so the vampire hunters are extra motivated to kill Dracula so that Mina doesn't turn into a vampire. In the end, they catch and kill him just before sunset as Dracula has almost been returned to his castle.

I found the ending to be a bit anticlimactic. They kill Dracula, and then it's pretty much over. It's not a great battle, as Dracula is still in his coffin (or, box of earth), and so cannot fight back. Which is good for the people trying to kill him, but somewhat less exciting than a modern reader is used to. Mina is free from the influence of Dracula and she says enough to fill up a couple more pages after the account of Dracula's death and then it's over.

The other thing that struck me as dumb on the part of the male characters is their exclusion of Mina from the hunting of Dracula. She has helped them get together everyone's story of their various experiences with Dracula directly or their experience with those affected by him. At that point they leave her out of the hunt and don't tell her anything. But they leave her with no safeguards. They don't make sure she has a crucifix, or a communion wafer, or garlic flowers at her door and windowsill...none of the provisions that had been made to protect others previously. So, obviously, Dracula goes for her. I can kind of understand them wanting to leave her out of the hunting, as it was dangerous and they wanted to protect her. But, if you want to protect her, why not leave her with protections as well? Silly men.

I also thought it interesting that the stake driven through the vampire's heart doesn't have to be wooden. A metal stake or a blade works just as well. Also, the vampire's head must be cut off and the mouth filled with garlic if it is a newly made vampire (if it's an old one, it's body will turn to dust). I also thought it interesting that vampires only go for members of the opposite sex. Dracula (a man) only goes after women. The female vampires that he's made only go after men. That trend doesn't necessarily hold true through the rest of the vampire genre that I've experienced.