Buffalo Reading Invasion Finishes Up For Season

Readers gather around Symphony Circle for the final installment of this years Buffalo Reading Invasion. 

   
        The Buffalo Reading Invasion ended its fourth summer today at Symphony Circle, a completely new location for the grassroots event.
       Founded in July 2012, by Geoff Schutte, the monthly invasion invites readers of all ages to gather in parks and other public spaces to sit and read together. It's a weird concept. "Let's all gather together but not socialize." However as much of a skeptic as I was I have to admit this worked for me, very well in fact.
      For months I've been struggling with Mark Z. Danielewski's "House of Leaves" and honestly I was about to give up until this event. I guess forcing myself to sit there with a hundred or so other people engrossed in their books wasn't as much of a distraction as I thought it would be for extremely social me. It really helped me bring my focus into the book I've been struggling with.

Anti-social socializing. 

      The crowd was mostly older, though there was a scattering of parents reading to children and thirty something couples making me feel vaguely jealous, and very dedicated despite several distractions. A few passersby had honest, curious questions about what was going on, but we did have to deal with a few people screaming out of cars or the guy screaming from his bicycle dressed as Freddy Krueger.
      All in all it wasn't any more distracting than being at home surrounded by my biggest weakness, Facebook. It was also empowering to have the courage to read in public, something I absolutely hate. Allentown is full of weirdos day and night, especially the park areas surrounding Symphony Circle.
      All good things must come to an end and as the crickets sang in the grasses in Charlotte's Web, "Summer is over and gone, over and gone, over and gone. Summer is dying, dying." We'll have to catch up with the invasion in 2016.

Magical Realism And The Black Hole I've Been In Since 2013

Funny how things work. This thing is always here no matter how distracted I get with my many slew of personal life crisis’ or bitter I get towards writing. So Adrienne, what have you been up to since 2013? Well, I’m glad you asked, assuming you did. If you haven’t I assure you that has never stopped me before. noteworthy

Since 2013 I have been inadvertently focusing on magical realism literature. Sure with some scatterings of romance and bestsellers in-between but for the most part I have been drawn to that specific genre. I’ve always went through life hoping, wishing and believing there was more to this miserable real-world existence. I think the way this genre molds fantasy together convincingly with reality really hits home with me. How have I never realized all of this before? It’s fantasy but less desperate, with less dragons and more ominous decay. The streets are cracking, the paint is fading and the secondary characters are so gray and perfect. The fantastical elements pinned against a real world setting made me feel like I had discovered a more grown-up, relatable version of fantasy. A less cheesy answer to dystopian novels and pure fantasy. 

At the time, I wasn’t really realizing what attracted me to all of these novels. Only earlier in this year, as I read 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami, did it hit me that all of these sorts of books and authors I was loving all reminded me of Gaiman. The multi-dimensional story telling, dividing the real world and the spiritual or fantastical, makes me ache for adventure that probably doesn’t exist. The mysterious characters meeting up with unquestioning protagonists ready to plummet into something dangerous and magical pumped me up. And instead of me ending up LARPing at UBCon or something dressed as a warrior princess, this is my release for that yearning. Isn’t it sweet to think that I could enter London Below like in Neverwhere or avoid a dangerous, magical cult in 1Q84 Tokyo like in Murakami’s work? Maybe I hate living so much that I prefer to think there’s an option to leave it all behind for something cooler, a different world. Sure we all want to be special but maybe I’m just bored. Who knows what my deal is, this isn't about me. 

I blew through Isabelle Allende’s books and let her take me to Latin America, the Caribbean and New Orleans for some feminist, latina perspective. As someone constantly telling stories to others Eva Luna lit a spark in me that I loved and could not shake and I quickly devoured several of Allende’s other books. In her books magic, spirits and hoodoo come alive casually, weaving a way through violent revolutions to help ease the oppression of the people who believed in it and depended on it. She often switches narrative POV and jumps around chronologically in a more fluid style than Murakami’s more rigid approach, but the comparison is there. 

All of these works and authors I’ve mentioned share so much in common despite being from different parts of the globe. Gaiman, Murakami and Allende, from England, Japan and Chile respectively, all write these heavy, unnerving books. They make you walk through a dangerous fog and fight to see the whole picture. The dark mood of them lure me in, the strange mysteries keep me reading, and all of these have kept me up at night nervously wondering if that sound outside is really just the wind or if maybe something bad has finally come for me. Am I allowed to be excited about this? Yes, it’s about damn time I’m excited about anything and coherent enough to type words to share with whoever on earth would read this. 

       I have so many more thoughts on Haruki that I would like to share, especially a great comparison of his themes to objectivism. However that is for another night when I don't have to wake up extra early to clean out all the airpots at work with Cafeiza. Also-from now on I'm using Helvetica in this thing. We all make mistakes when we we.re young, but really....TNR?