Monday, August 13, 2007

Shock(ing) and Awe(ful)

There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book.
Books are either well written, or badly written. That is all.
- Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

“Khana-peena-dena.” “Boodie-doodie.” “Stroking.” “Tweaking.” “After dinner bang.” “Pre breakfast bang.” I don’t know, these words kinda jumped out of a certain book titled “Surviving Men” by a certain wanna-be-alpha-female named Shobhaa de, and tried to bite my nose. What does this woman think of herself? Consider a more disturbing question. Why does she even have an audience? Why do people read her books? Why is she treated like a celebrity??? I went to teach this individual English and her mother gushed….”Reeeetu do you have Shobhaa de book Spouse? I just finish this…(and she shoves the aforementioned atrocity at my face)…it is so wonderful. She write very well no”? Now I must admit…I was intrigued. Had never read any of her books previously, and I wanted to find out what the hype was all about. My aunt too, poor misguided lady, had told me that the writer in question was formidable with her pen. Of course she is. In a I-will-shove-this-pen-into-your-eyes-and-poke-out-your-eyeballs way. The third person to espouse the merits of this book was darling P. so I took it from her. I trusted her. Traitor. By the third chapter the inevitable happened and I was being poked in the eyeballs. I mean seriously. Marriage is equal to Khana-peena-dena? BOODIE-DOODIE????? This is writing? What kind? No wonder books written by women are not taken seriously. Unless u are Anita Desai. Or her daughter.
I used to be up in arms against the term chick lit. till I read “How Opal Mehta blah blah….” Now I am fully for it. Books like this and the one I have just ranted against deserve this extremely derogatory term.
Opal Mehta? It’s about a poor little (rich) who wants to get into Harvard, but ALAS!! She does not have a life. Her parents are so cruel. In order to get her a LIFE they make her wear designer clothes. Jimmy Choo stilettos. Carry a Blackberry. Force her to party. When all she wants to do is sit in her expensive car, alone and friendless, trying to crack the fermeculi/fermeculus/whatever formula.
Have you read the book? You should. Tears will form in your eyes. You will have severe indigestion. For two weeks.
What a crock of…..
Another book that deserves mention while I am in this mood….One night at a call centre. Call from God? What are u …eight????

4 comments:

~Moo-lah Buz!nezzz~ said...

ohh!!..i absolutely loved ur post...
I remember my mom asking me about "Spouse"....in the same fashion..heehee...some people write so bad!!!....
..and couldnt agree more on the one nite at call centre!!!

AJ said...

aaah,how i fondly recall those simpler times whn it ws just good old morning sex..as opposed to pre-breakfast "bang"..tch tch!

and errr.."bang" on about the anythin written by chetan bhagat..

the easiest way to tell whos pretentious?
favourite authours:paul coelho and chetan bhagat... scum of literature

so there...
and oh,well written overall...(cringing)

Unknown said...
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ad libber said...

Thank you. Finally someone who thinks Shobaa De is trashy. If this is the way she trying to prove she is a liberated woman, Margaret Mitchell must have been Robinson Crusoe. The term New Woman gets more ridiculous everyday.