Beauty in Words: The Ground Beneath Her Feet

I am reading Salman Rushdie's The Ground Beneath Her Feet and I cannot recommend it highly enough. It's beautiful. It's cynical and romantic at once, and so gorgeously written I want to read whole paragraphs out loud.

It's a reimagining of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, set in the world of modern pop music, and it follows Ormus Cama, a Bombay-born Parsi musician and song-writer and his love for Vina Apsara, a singer. The narrator, Rai, is a photographer who is a close friend of Ormus and is in love with Vina, so there is a gorgeous duality of intimacy and 'outsider'ness in it.

I can almost taste and smell and touch everything, it's so vivid.

Here is a quote from it:

"We find ground on which to make out stand. In India, that place obsessed by place, belonging-to-your-place, knowing-your-place, we are mostly given that territory, and that's that, no arguments, get on with it. But Ormus and Vina and I, we couldn't accept that, we came loose. Among the great struggles of man - good/evil, reason/unreason, etc. - there is also this mighty conflict between the fantasy of Home and the fantasy of Away, the dream of roots and the mirage of the journey. And if you are Ormus Came, if you are Vina Apsara, whose songs could cross all frontiers, even the frontiers of people's hearts, then perhaps you believed all ground could be skipped over, all frontiers would crumple before the sorcery of the tune. Off you'd go, off your turf, beyond family and clan and nation and race, flying untouchably over the minefields of taboo, until you stood at last at the last gateway, the most forbidden of all doors. Where you blood sings in your ears, Don't even think about it. And you think about it, you cross that final frontier, and perhaps, perhaps - we'll see how the tale works out - you have finally gone too far, and are destroyed."

Beauty in Words: The Ground Beneath Her Feet

I am reading Salman Rushdie's The Ground Beneath Her Feet and I cannot recommend it highly enough. It's beautiful. It's cynical and romantic at once, and so gorgeously written I want to read whole paragraphs out loud.

It's a reimagining of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, set in the world of modern pop music, and it follows Ormus Cama, a Bombay-born Parsi musician and song-writer and his love for Vina Apsara, a singer. The narrator, Rai, is a photographer who is a close friend of Ormus and is in love with Vina, so there is a gorgeous duality of intimacy and 'outsider'ness in it.

I can almost taste and smell and touch everything, it's so vivid.

Here is a quote from it:

"We find ground on which to make out stand. In India, that place obsessed by place, belonging-to-your-place, knowing-your-place, we are mostly given that territory, and that's that, no arguments, get on with it. But Ormus and Vina and I, we couldn't accept that, we came loose. Among the great struggles of man - good/evil, reason/unreason, etc. - there is also this mighty conflict between the fantasy of Home and the fantasy of Away, the dream of roots and the mirage of the journey. And if you are Ormus Came, if you are Vina Apsara, whose songs could cross all frontiers, even the frontiers of people's hearts, then perhaps you believed all ground could be skipped over, all frontiers would crumple before the sorcery of the tune. Off you'd go, off your turf, beyond family and clan and nation and race, flying untouchably over the minefields of taboo, until you stood at last at the last gateway, the most forbidden of all doors. Where you blood sings in your ears, Don't even think about it. And you think about it, you cross that final frontier, and perhaps, perhaps - we'll see how the tale works out - you have finally gone too far, and are destroyed."

Beauty in Words: The Ground Beneath Her Feet

I am reading Salman Rushdie's The Ground Beneath Her Feet and I cannot recommend it highly enough. It's beautiful. It's cynical and romantic at once, and so gorgeously written I want to read whole paragraphs out loud.

It's a reimagining of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, set in the world of modern pop music, and it follows Ormus Cama, a Bombay-born Parsi musician and song-writer and his love for Vina Apsara, a singer. The narrator, Rai, is a photographer who is a close friend of Ormus and is in love with Vina, so there is a gorgeous duality of intimacy and 'outsider'ness in it.

I can almost taste and smell and touch everything, it's so vivid.

Here is a quote from it:

"We find ground on which to make out stand. In India, that place obsessed by place, belonging-to-your-place, knowing-your-place, we are mostly given that territory, and that's that, no arguments, get on with it. But Ormus and Vina and I, we couldn't accept that, we came loose. Among the great struggles of man - good/evil, reason/unreason, etc. - there is also this mighty conflict between the fantasy of Home and the fantasy of Away, the dream of roots and the mirage of the journey. And if you are Ormus Came, if you are Vina Apsara, whose songs could cross all frontiers, even the frontiers of people's hearts, then perhaps you believed all ground could be skipped over, all frontiers would crumple before the sorcery of the tune. Off you'd go, off your turf, beyond family and clan and nation and race, flying untouchably over the minefields of taboo, until you stood at last at the last gateway, the most forbidden of all doors. Where you blood sings in your ears, Don't even think about it. And you think about it, you cross that final frontier, and perhaps, perhaps - we'll see how the tale works out - you have finally gone too far, and are destroyed."

What is your favorite drama OTP?

It's official. The Outsiders bumped off Mars from my Top Drama spot. I am shocked.

But Chen Ling and Qi Luo are still the drama OTP for me (if I had to pick the tragic drama OTP, Ah Hao and Yu Yen would get the spot, but as it is...).

So, this is what this post is about.

What is your favorite drama OTP?

They can be the main OTP of the story, or a secondary OTP, or even not even a couple in canon.

They can be the best thing about an awesome drama, or the only thing making a mad drama worth watching.

But.

BUT.

If you had to pick your Number Uno, your bestest-mostest-favoritest drama OTP, what/who would it be?

And for extra geekery. Why?

What is your favorite drama OTP?

It's official. The Outsiders bumped off Mars from my Top Drama spot. I am shocked.

But Chen Ling and Qi Luo are still the drama OTP for me (if I had to pick the tragic drama OTP, Ah Hao and Yu Yen would get the spot, but as it is...).

So, this is what this post is about.

What is your favorite drama OTP?

They can be the main OTP of the story, or a secondary OTP, or even not even a couple in canon.

They can be the best thing about an awesome drama, or the only thing making a mad drama worth watching.

But.

BUT.

If you had to pick your Number Uno, your bestest-mostest-favoritest drama OTP, what/who would it be?

And for extra geekery. Why?

What is your favorite drama OTP?

It's official. The Outsiders bumped off Mars from my Top Drama spot. I am shocked.

But Chen Ling and Qi Luo are still the drama OTP for me (if I had to pick the tragic drama OTP, Ah Hao and Yu Yen would get the spot, but as it is...).

So, this is what this post is about.

What is your favorite drama OTP?

They can be the main OTP of the story, or a secondary OTP, or even not even a couple in canon.

They can be the best thing about an awesome drama, or the only thing making a mad drama worth watching.

But.

BUT.

If you had to pick your Number Uno, your bestest-mostest-favoritest drama OTP, what/who would it be?

And for extra geekery. Why?

I have fallen hard. For a novel...

Here are some awesome quotes about the relationship between Ormus and Vina, the protagonists of The Ground Beneath Her Feet.

I am seriously in awe of Rushdie’s writing:

(1) [on what love means to different people] Whereas for Ormus Cama it was just a simple matter of life and death. Love was for life, and endured beyond death. Love was Vina, and beyond Vina there was nothing but the void.

(2) He loved her like an addict: the more of her he had, the more he needed. She loved him like a student, needing his good opinion, playing up to him in the hope of drawing forth the magic of his smile. But she also, from the very beginning, needed to leave him and go elsewhere to play, He was her seriousness, he was the depths of her being, but he could not also be her frivolity.

(3) OMG. There is a super-awesome scene where Ormus ‘wins’ Vina from her abusive guardian at cards (if he wins, Vina is free. And if he loses, he works for guardian until all expenses guardian spent on Vina are paid for). And the following quote made me glee again:

“You heard the man,” he grinned. “I won you fair and square. Now you belong to me.”
He was wrong. Vina belonged to no man, not even to him, though she loved him till the day she died. She reached out towards him, offering a caress of thanks. He stepped back, seriously. “No touching,” he reminded her. “Not until you are sixteen years and one day old.”
“And not then, not until you’re decently married,” said my mother, “if I have anything to do with it.”

(4) She was a rag-bag of selves, torn fragments of people she might have become. Some days she sat crumpled in a corner like a string-cut puppet, and when she jerked into life you never knew who would be there, in her skin. Sweet or savage, serene or stormy, funny or sad: she had as many moods as Old Man of the Sea, who would transform himself over and over again if you tried to grab him, for he knew that if you did capture him he would have to grant you your deepest wish. Fortunately for her, she found Ormus, who just hung on to her, held her spirit tight in his love without laying a finger on her body, until at last she stopped changing, was no longer ocean then fire then avalanche then wind, and was just herself, one day after her sixteenth birthday, in his arms. And then she kept her side of the bargain and, for one night, gave him his heart’s desire.

I have fallen hard. For a novel...

Here are some awesome quotes about the relationship between Ormus and Vina, the protagonists of The Ground Beneath Her Feet.

I am seriously in awe of Rushdie’s writing:

(1) [on what love means to different people] Whereas for Ormus Cama it was just a simple matter of life and death. Love was for life, and endured beyond death. Love was Vina, and beyond Vina there was nothing but the void.

(2) He loved her like an addict: the more of her he had, the more he needed. She loved him like a student, needing his good opinion, playing up to him in the hope of drawing forth the magic of his smile. But she also, from the very beginning, needed to leave him and go elsewhere to play, He was her seriousness, he was the depths of her being, but he could not also be her frivolity.

(3) OMG. There is a super-awesome scene where Ormus ‘wins’ Vina from her abusive guardian at cards (if he wins, Vina is free. And if he loses, he works for guardian until all expenses guardian spent on Vina are paid for). And the following quote made me glee again:

“You heard the man,” he grinned. “I won you fair and square. Now you belong to me.”
He was wrong. Vina belonged to no man, not even to him, though she loved him till the day she died. She reached out towards him, offering a caress of thanks. He stepped back, seriously. “No touching,” he reminded her. “Not until you are sixteen years and one day old.”
“And not then, not until you’re decently married,” said my mother, “if I have anything to do with it.”

(4) She was a rag-bag of selves, torn fragments of people she might have become. Some days she sat crumpled in a corner like a string-cut puppet, and when she jerked into life you never knew who would be there, in her skin. Sweet or savage, serene or stormy, funny or sad: she had as many moods as Old Man of the Sea, who would transform himself over and over again if you tried to grab him, for he knew that if you did capture him he would have to grant you your deepest wish. Fortunately for her, she found Ormus, who just hung on to her, held her spirit tight in his love without laying a finger on her body, until at last she stopped changing, was no longer ocean then fire then avalanche then wind, and was just herself, one day after her sixteenth birthday, in his arms. And then she kept her side of the bargain and, for one night, gave him his heart’s desire.

I have fallen hard. For a novel...

Here are some awesome quotes about the relationship between Ormus and Vina, the protagonists of The Ground Beneath Her Feet.

I am seriously in awe of Rushdie’s writing:

(1) [on what love means to different people] Whereas for Ormus Cama it was just a simple matter of life and death. Love was for life, and endured beyond death. Love was Vina, and beyond Vina there was nothing but the void.

(2) He loved her like an addict: the more of her he had, the more he needed. She loved him like a student, needing his good opinion, playing up to him in the hope of drawing forth the magic of his smile. But she also, from the very beginning, needed to leave him and go elsewhere to play, He was her seriousness, he was the depths of her being, but he could not also be her frivolity.

(3) OMG. There is a super-awesome scene where Ormus ‘wins’ Vina from her abusive guardian at cards (if he wins, Vina is free. And if he loses, he works for guardian until all expenses guardian spent on Vina are paid for). And the following quote made me glee again:

“You heard the man,” he grinned. “I won you fair and square. Now you belong to me.”
He was wrong. Vina belonged to no man, not even to him, though she loved him till the day she died. She reached out towards him, offering a caress of thanks. He stepped back, seriously. “No touching,” he reminded her. “Not until you are sixteen years and one day old.”
“And not then, not until you’re decently married,” said my mother, “if I have anything to do with it.”

(4) She was a rag-bag of selves, torn fragments of people she might have become. Some days she sat crumpled in a corner like a string-cut puppet, and when she jerked into life you never knew who would be there, in her skin. Sweet or savage, serene or stormy, funny or sad: she had as many moods as Old Man of the Sea, who would transform himself over and over again if you tried to grab him, for he knew that if you did capture him he would have to grant you your deepest wish. Fortunately for her, she found Ormus, who just hung on to her, held her spirit tight in his love without laying a finger on her body, until at last she stopped changing, was no longer ocean then fire then avalanche then wind, and was just herself, one day after her sixteenth birthday, in his arms. And then she kept her side of the bargain and, for one night, gave him his heart’s desire.

Largely about F.I.R. but also about The Outsiders...

One of the many things I will always love The Outsiders for is that it intorduced me to F.I.R., the band who sang the incredible theme song'Lydia.'

They are so AWESOME.

( A bunch of their MV thatprove why I think so )

Also, I was watching some of ep 19 (yeah, whatever, I was looking for shippiness) and you know? The below pic makes it all worthwhile. All the angst that this will undoubtedly end in is worth it for this. The OTP happy, sweet, planning to get married and back to joy.

The below pic is so worth all this:



And so was this:



*dies*

Largely about F.I.R. but also about The Outsiders...

One of the many things I will always love The Outsiders for is that it intorduced me to F.I.R., the band who sang the incredible theme song'Lydia.'

They are so AWESOME.

( A bunch of their MV thatprove why I think so )

Also, I was watching some of ep 19 (yeah, whatever, I was looking for shippiness) and you know? The below pic makes it all worthwhile. All the angst that this will undoubtedly end in is worth it for this. The OTP happy, sweet, planning to get married and back to joy.

The below pic is so worth all this:



And so was this:



*dies*

Largely about F.I.R. but also about The Outsiders...

One of the many things I will always love The Outsiders for is that it intorduced me to F.I.R., the band who sang the incredible theme song'Lydia.'

They are so AWESOME.

( A bunch of their MV thatprove why I think so )

Also, I was watching some of ep 19 (yeah, whatever, I was looking for shippiness) and you know? The below pic makes it all worthwhile. All the angst that this will undoubtedly end in is worth it for this. The OTP happy, sweet, planning to get married and back to joy.

The below pic is so worth all this:



And so was this:



*dies*