reading under the table

this week was relatively leger because all the profs were having a headache what with the third years going off to stage. so we, in turn had a day and a half off (sorta) to watch our seniors present their PFE (projet fin d'etudes). Man, you think sitting in an amphi all day isn't tiring? It strangely is even if we don't pay attention.

So, activity : read. Or at least attempt to, and with the meagre selections from La Mediatheque de Limoges.

A Thing (or two) about Curtis and Camilla

It starts off beautifully, there was this conversation at the start where Curtis talks to Little Green (a precocious little girl in his apartment building). And then he meets Camilla - also lovely. Where they asks each other quirky questions and fills out intellectual questionnaires and she writes her email backwards on his forehead so that "no other girl will talk to you before you get to your bathroom mirror."

Then it all unravels from there. Too intellectual. Definitely trying too hard and Curtis, from my imaginary cool guys desintegrates into this insecure, needy, sad guy.

Damn. I'll have to own up to the fact that i didn't finish the book.

Animal Farm

Ahh.. George Orwell's classic. I approached it with some apprehension. Like i do all classics. Just getting through the introduction was a headache. Too political, too literary. Then i discovered Chapter 1. And that this is actually a very short book with big fonts. I loved it!

Okay, it's political. And to think that Orwel wrote it in the 1940's is mind-boggling. I will now attempt to summarize for.....okay, my own benefit.

It's starts off with a farm where there's animals and humans. Then the animals decided to revolt and chase away the humans after realizing that they are being used by humans who produce nothing and yet take whatever they produce. They succeeded easily, revolution achieved. And so you have all the characters that you'd have in a society among the animals assuming their natural roles. The charismatic pig, the silent but cunning boar, the hardworking but stupid horse etc. They start a socialist environment, filled with good intentions (equality, happiness, sharing).

The story progressed with the pigs gaining more and more power, a coup d'etat, the leader casting a villain to shift attention from his shortcomings, all the other animals naively following orders. Bref, like in a society lah jugak.

In the end, the pigs start to become more humanized to the point of learning to walk on 2 hind legs while the other animals are being misled to work for them. And that's how to story end, the animals realizing that the revolution, while paved with good intentions, have gone full circle. The pigs, with too much power starts to become more like the humans before them. They have substituted a master for another.