I recently acquired a pair of glasses, mainly for when my eyes are tired and for use in front of the computer screen, as I have them perched on my nose at this moment, or for when doing large amounts of the reading I should probably be doing for uni but rarely seem to get to. I spent a long amount of time in a little boutique on Smith St finding the perfect glasses: small enough for my face that they don't look ridiculous and classic tortoise shell that fades to clear at the bottom. And it's only right that I should spend so long finding such glasses; after all, like a haircut, glasses do frame your face.
And your personality it seems.
Indeed, it has only been since wearing my glasses that I feel the representation I've been giving of myself to others may well have changed in some way.
My sister, a pretty, blonde, blue-eyed dietician working in a hospital, insists upon wearing her glasses upon her head at all times at work, though she only really needs them for the computer. Yet, to avoid being seen as a pretty girl who has no idea what she's doing, wearing a pair of glasses on her head helps her to present herself as knowledgable and professional.
I, too, must admit to wearing my glasses on my head when I'm at work; working at a bookstore, I simply look more bookish with glasses on, and this seems to instil a sense of confidence within our customers. Maybe they'll actually take my recommendation! Maybe they'll take me more seriously! I do look like a small, 12-year-old child, so anything that will help make me look more experienced and intelligent I'll take!
So, it seems I can not help but ask: do stereotypes govern our society? Are we so easily persuaded by little details that we see in others? If a girl is blonde and blue-eyed, does that mean she's simply a pretty girl? If I wear glasses, am I bookish?
Turns out, I am somewhat bookish, so I guess my little experiment hasn't quite worked out as planned. However, in my sister's case, of course, she is an intelligent and successful dietician, glasses or no glasses.
But, I can not help but add: I did like books before the glasses.
Sarah
It took me all of first year to get used to uni, and, my goodness, is it different to school.
But, unfortunately, my first year of uni clearly had no real effect upon my study habits and ability to read any large amount of pages among pages of articles and books.
As you may remember, I was sort-of-attempting to read Poe last week.
Fail.
Read 50 pages - 50 fantastic pages that I thoroughly enjoyed - and then stopped.
Bam.
Sorry, Edgar.
Now, since I promised posts about books, here we are: a post about the literature I'm currently attempting to read or should be reading or at least attempting this semester.
Well, Poe failed, and this saddens me. This was a novel I was so looking forward to reading: where is my motivation? Goodness knows.
However, I'm excited to announce, I'm currently reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
Mark Twain, you are fabulous. Seriously.
Beginning to read this novel was just like beginning to read The Catcher in the Rye, my all-time favourite novel - don't even get me started on this one. Actually, maybe I should prepare you now by saying, at some point, I will probably dedicate an entire post to the analysis of this wonderful, wonderful piece of literature. So, be ready: I will be getting into depth and getting way too enthusiastic discussing youth and innocence and adolescence and so on.
Anyway.
As I was saying, beginning to read this novel reminded me of reading Salinger. The voice of Huck Finn gets you right from the start, for want of a more eloquent expression. I can hear him in my head just as I can hear Holden complain about the goddamn phonies in New York.
Obviously, it's a classic, so I don't even need to tell you how fantastic it is and that you should all read it as there is clearly something about this novel that has made it a classic and thus still accessible to audiences today.
But, truly, Mark Twain knew what he was doing.
Sarah.
