Experiencing the Olympics in England
Hey Americans! Chat about The Olympics with my friend who is over there, right now, in the thick of it!
The ceremony may be old news, but the items director Danny Boyle chose as illustrations of Britishness could easily be a blueprint for a blog like mine, celebrating the differences between US and UK life. This is the intro to a series of posts treating items in the opening ceremony that foreigners might not have understood.
It’s ironic that the Olympics turns so many people into couch potatoes for the duration, sitting on sofas watching the fittest people in sports (UK English: in sport) leap and twist and run and throw. And it’s also ironic that an event that everyone is at pains to say promotes harmony between nations should be so overtly nationalistic, not least at the opening ceremonies, where the trick is to balance two human impulses: to celebrate the characteristics of your own tribe and to welcome visitors from other tribes.
This time last week British newspaper…
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Gloriously Symmetrical
As beautiful as The Time Traveler’s Wife is, Audrey Niffenegger’s Her Fearful Symmetry is awful. Every moment, every line is filled with mystery, sadness, and the terrible selfishness of humanity. I loved it.
People have described this second novel as disappointing. I feel as though it was done on purpose. I cried on page one, knowing that the rest of the book could not be even remotely as beautiful or as happy; and by the end I had been disappointed by every character so often, I merely settled into a sigh of understanding. Of course it ends this way, of course. The novel was gloriously backwards, in comparison to Niffenegger’s first book, just as Valentina is a backward version of Julia.
If you read it, I think you’ll understand my meaning.
If you liked it, I also recommend:
The Lovely Bones
The Mercy of Thin Air
Swan
Anakalian Whims 