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Sunday, February 19, 2012

Great balls of fire!


I attended a rock concert today! Well, um, almost :P Let me say that, will you? It sounds so much cooler that way :D One of my closest friends in college and his band gave a public performance today. This was their first show outside our college and I was so, so proud of them. They mostly sang Rockstar songs and the crowd went crazy cheering and hooting during ‘Naadaan Parindey’. (It is a beautiful song with stunning lyrics and if you tell me you don’t listen to Hindi music because you’re too cool for it, I’ll box your face and smash your nose)

I can imagine how they’d have felt, up there on the stage, performing, witnessing so many people, friends, familiar faces, strangers, clapping and screaming for them. It was an amazing experience. We went in a big group and hollered their names out aloud! Nothing like a group of friends getting together to motivate another set of friends!

Oh, I have finally finished reading Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind! God's nightgown! I now realize why it is a classic and a massive hit. I can’t believe this book was written in the 1930's. It sounds so modern, so young and fresh. Books like these increase your perspective about historical events on a whole new level. I had very little knowledge about the Civil War; but only after reading this did I realize the pain, terror, consternation people had to go through. How African Americans were slaves and were so content with being just that. How people killed and massacred and sacrificed so many lives fighting over something that seems so insignificant once the war is over and the dead bodies are counted.

Although the story wasn’t about the Civil war; it was about the mean-spirited, hypocritical Scarlett O’Hara! Oh, what a lovable little hateful creature! :D Never have I read a book where the protagonist is so terribly flawed and yet she manages to convince the readers that her actions were justified. That she was only human, and that all of us have all these character flaws within us and sometimes we have to be horrid and insensitive just to get by. She was so fussy and immature that she was hilarious at times; with her tantrums and outbursts. Guess what my new favourite expressions are? Without a doubt, “Fiddle dee dee!”, “God’s nightgown!” and “Great balls of fire”. I love them so much, that I have even started using them in my daily conversation! (with people looking at me with amused bewilderment, passing it off as another one of my quirks)

And.. Rhett Butler. Oh, my my my. Rhett Bulter. What an incredible name! *swoon* He is easily the dream man for every woman. He is delightfully sarcastic, evidently masculine, dangerously charming and just the right about of mockful and witty. The sophisticated manner with which he carries himself, the fact that he doesn’t care about what anyone says about him, and the fact that he reads Scarlett like a book.. make him one of the most intriguing characters I’ve ever come across in any work of fiction so far. He comes almost at par with Darcy and Roark. Though, Roark was a little too weird for my taste. It's not just like a regular love story set in disturbing war times. It is highly convoluted, with conflicting, raw human emotions and a lot of twisting complications. It even ends realistically, leaving you with a not-so-happy feeling; and wondering what would happen next.

I saw the movie as well. It is very well made, with Vivien Leigh playing the snooty Scarlett almost perfectly.  I love the way she goes “Oh Rhett, Ohhh Rhett!” :P I’ve been imitating that all day. Damn, I can be so amazing at theatre. I just know it. I feel that Edith Piaf's 'La Vie en Rose' would have gone perfectly for the theme of the movie. But I’m sorry, the book is infinitely better than the movie; even though they tried to include all the details in it. The book is always, always better and if you give me a 100 mark essay to write on why movies are better than the books, I won’t be able to squeeze out a word.


(I think it's a remarkable poster of Scarlet and Rhett amidst the burning city of Atlanta. You? :))


You will scream if I tell you what the time is. Er, at least my mom would. She is going to skin me alive. Oh fiddle dee dee, it’s okay, tomorrow is a holiday! Good times! :)

14 comments:

  1. Now you wont believe this,but I did read through 3/4 th of this book once!:)when I was 16,this along with a certain Madame bovary was my only foray into the M&B type,for good!

    I agree that books and movies increase your perspective about so many things that happened in the past.Most of what I know about WW2 is coloured by holocaust movies,though I am not too sure if I can maintain an accurate and objective view,given the dramatization.

    Books are way better than the movies that are based on them...but for one notable exception.Guess?

    The Novella's title is "Rita hayworth and the shawshank redemption".The rest as they say is history:-)

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  2. Why won't I believe that Arumugam? :P
    I don't think Gone with the Wind is M&B type! I've read M&B and I never really liked them :\
    I know what you mean about WW2. There are so many brilliant movies about that time.
    I can't say about the Novella because I've only seen the movie. And it was wonderful. Hmm, maybe the movie was better in this case then. I'll take your word for it :)

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  3. I actually started reading Gone with the Wind but I never finished it for some reason. Or truthfully speaking, I didn't read all of it. I just skipped ahead to the part where Rhett shows up and then they dance and then they fight and then they marry and then they have kids and then she becomes ill and he is devastated because he thinks it's his fault and then he leaves and then she determines to get him back.

    Apart from this, I think I just skimmed over the rest of the story which was a little unfair to the book which was sprawling really. However, I thought the writing was a little too affected like a southern American version of Jane Austen wrote it. Maybe that's what Margaret Mitchell was but for all her soap operatic machinations, all is forgiven simply because she came up with that perfect name - Rhett Butler - how it rolls of the tongue so delightfully! :D

    Also, Clark Gable, whether smoldering or smirking, is the absolute perfect incarnation of Rhett Butler on screen.

    And Vivien Leigh, too, she is so perfect as Scarlett - even their descriptions match, that her face was not truly beautiful but people became so enamoured by the force of her personality that they never really noticed. :)

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  4. Gone with the Wind is my all time favorite! I fell in love with Rhett Butler in the very start. The story is so intriguing, Scarlett's personality so strong! i loved every part of it!

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  5. Karishma, why did you skip and read? :P Because it was too long?
    And um, hello! Spoiler alert! There might be people here who might want to read this book you know. You just wrote the entire story down here! hahahaa! It's okay :P
    Oh god I've said 'Rhett Butler' aloud like five times now. Delicious. And yes, Clark Gable was good, but in my head I had imagined Rhett to be so handsome that maybe Clark couldn't cut it. He needs to be utterly, eye-popping, jaw-dropping handsome!
    And Scarlett wasn't particularly beautiful, if you remember her description in the book. She was too lively and strong and knew how to flirt, that was the main reason why boys were drawn towards her. What a lady! :D

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    1. No, because that book took too long getting to the juicy Rhett parts! :D And come on, is there anyone who really doesn't know that story! It is truly iconic man! But if some folks have been living under a rock, I do apologise! :D

      And oh, I saw the movie before I got the book - so I was stuck with Clark Gable in my head as Rhett Butler. :) Not that I mind.

      Have you seen A Streetcar Named Desire? You'll see quite a different Vivien Leigh in it. It really makes you appreciate what a brilliant actress she was! Oh, and Marlon Brando is almost as jaw-droppingly gorgeous as Stanley in that film as Clark Gable was as Rhett Butler in this one!

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  6. Diksha, Me too! The book got so interesting when Rhett was introduced. I would look forwards to their conversations and the way he insulted her all the time :P

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  7. I've been wanting to read Gone with the Wind for soooo long, but never got the chance :/

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  8. PurpleMist, You should! Now is the chance! :)

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  9. i downloaded this 'gone with the wind' for my mom, don't know whether i should watch it or not.

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  10. it is like i'm drunk tonight. itni daer se bakwaas karei jaa raha hu.

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  11. Varun, :D I can see that :D
    And you might now like the movie so much if you don't read the book!

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  12. I knew this book was a huuuge hit but never bothered reading it though it's been rotting my shelf from the past 3 years!! :|

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  13. Jen, well let this post be a sign for you to pick it off your shelf, brush the dust off and read it! :D

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