I follow “A Chapter of Loving” and we are both part of a book on emotions and feelings. The book has a soft cover with a weird bit of artwork on the front which is in all the colours of the rainbow. The book is ten years old and the pages are dog eared and in some cases even torn. We are owned by a healer who lives up in the Nepalese mountains.
But, back to me, I get really jealous of “Loving”. I mean loathing is a bit of a yuck topic. Loving makes me feel warm, comfortable and safe. Loathing, well is just yuck. As you can imagine, I seriously have to entice readers to my section of the book. My colour helps. My pages are yellow and the other chapters have a different colour, red of course is for loving.
Yellow. If I think of loathing, this could be the colour of vomit or jaundice. Or it could be the colour of the sun or the beach. So I’ve painted a large smiling sun at the top of my first page; that always has people stop, and hopefully read me.
Strange though it may seem some people loathe the sun. Treat it with disrespect and it will burn like hell. To avoid this loathsome feeling, people wear silly floppy hats, long pants and soft floaty long sleeve shirts and then they feel so claustrophobic in their clothes that they feel loathsome again. And what they hate most is the endless traipse around to find the right designer sunglasses with wrap around and funky polarized lenses.
My chapter is not all bad. For each loathsome habit, I suggest alternative ways to survive. I mean I am part of a healing book. So for sunburn I suggest you get a parasol. It would have to be very gorgeous in maybe a silk, and it would have to match the new look designer layered clothes that believe it or not can become a love rather than a loathe.
Next I talk about the beach. How can you loathe the beach? Well you do get grains of sand in your sandwich and of course the sand sticks to your greasy skin. It’s impossible to read on the beach without getting back ache and your bum goes to sleep if you sit too long.
So here’s the recipe for loving. Make up a fruit and nut mix so you don’t notice the grit. And, this is the best bit. Have someone read to you.
Sooner or later, I get to the yuck bits. Vomit really is pretty loathsome. It smells, it splatters down your trousers and it makes your mouth taste revolting. It is possible to have another perspective. By vomiting you are getting rid of all the poison. Now you can acknowledge and love your body.
And to finish off, jaundice. You look pale and ill and your eyes are sunken and dark. Aaah, but did you know that the new season’s look is just that? Add a pair of silver dangly earrings and you will look just the part.
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5 comments:
I get the chapter(s) but I am struggling with the point of view of a 'chapter' and the mixing of loving and loathing. They are counter points but seem so entwined that the story gets lost.
I did like the way the chapter talks but you might have had the two chapters talking to each other and their emotional reactions. It has a one-sided feel given that you have introduced the idea of two chapters.
Gordon
Heather says:
I've read this 3 times and had a totally different reaction each time!
Where I'm finally left is that this is a funny, spunky little piece written from the perspective of Loathing. Your Loathing is not the deep, dark and dangerous Loathing the rest of us painted, but rather a pop-boppy Loathing who paints Smileys at the top of his pages in the hope that people will read him. What can you do if you're cast as a creepy character in the Book of Life but really you just want to be liked and appreciated? He reminds me of a Devil I encountered in some movie lately - you just had to laugh.
I gotta say, you ARE quirky, Sue!!!
Kerry said:
Unbelievable Sue. So rambly and strange and peculiar.
First the idea of a chapter in a book being a character blows my mind. And then the idea that the chapter is responsible in some way for what's written on his pages and is somehow trying to seduce his readers despite being such a loathsome topic is very quirky.
I was a bit bamboozled by the fruit and nut mix paragraph. Did you mean a recipe for loving or loathing here?
What an imagination!! You certainly keep your reader entertained.
From Rick
What an imaginative approach! I would never have thought of writing anything from the pov of a chapter in a book.
I love the honesty and creativity of "loathing", being jealous of "loving". "Loathing" loathes having to be "loathing" and is so straight about it.
But "loathing" has a positive side too, so there is contribution there.
Loved it. (This was Sue wasn't it?)
Jenny said:
A really creative approach. I like the opening, and bit throughout, but I missed the feeling of an overall structure.
This was almost a poetic rather than a narrative piece, but there wasn't a clear flow, or point-counterpoint, so it was easy to feel a bit lost in the text.
The personification worked really well, but would have liked to see the notion that there is a positive in things we loathe, like vomit, being introduced earlier and developed consistently, rather than making its first appearance so far into the piece.
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