[Portraits from Life, David Collier & Paul Arthur, first half]

I'm really not sure what to say about this book so far. My initial impression was, Oh, wow, this is boring. I hope I can make it through. I didn't, entirely. I've got a tiny bit more to finish before class. And yeah, it's still boring. The subject material just doesn't interest me, I guess. I'm not thrilled to read about old people and the Canadian wilderness. Sorry.

I googled the book, and I found out that, yes, these are real people that he's writing about, just with his own twist or opinion. It's a shame, too, because his grandfather is what "Getting Dead" is about, and he actually sounds fascinating. If the story was all about his time in the military, I'd be interested. I wouldn't be yawning my through it at 4 in the morning.

Just. It's dull. I'm sorry. Blankets had a different structure, and the story flowed smoothly and, well, interestingly. Watchmen had superheroes. V for Vendetta had anarchy (and explosions). Portraits from Life has nothing but old men and old-school Canada. I'm not bashing either, I just don't care about either, and I doubt I'm the only one. If this were a straight-up book, I doubt I'd've made it ten pages in.


In other scholarly news, I started to expand an old idea for a "short" story I have due Wednesday. It's supposed to be 12-20 pages long. I'm happy if I get 1000 words normally (four pages). It's going to be about assassins, eventually, and I want it to be a business. Like an assassin business. It runs like a normal office building, and has a front as a publishing company (I think), but, secretly, they kill people. It'll probably be black comedy, or something like that. I'm excited about it, but it's literally causing me to lose sleep.