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CURRENTLY reading
Stephan King, and many other prolific authors have been quoted saying that the best research for a writer is to read. Read everything. If you do not have time to read, then you have no time to write. Nothing can improve your writing more than reading. So I do try and read often, although I am sure it is not often enough. The book here is my current read, along with my thoughts I have while I am reading it.
I love to read the source material of any movie I go to see. Once upon a time, I hated it.l I remember leaving the first few movies of Harry Potter and ranting for days about all of the little things they had missed.l The perfect little written moments that were left out of the script that I felt was absolutely dire for the story.
I realised this wasn't true while at university when I was given the opportunity to study mixed media. A movie is not a book, and a book is not a movie. Even when the movie is based on the book. That class taught be a lot about understanding why screenwriters are different to novel writers.
I am far less angry when I see movies based on books now, and my friends are generally happier for this development. I still like to read the source material before seeing a film, although I have been so busy lately I got about half way through this before I saw the film. No big loss.
My first annoyance with this book was the switching between perspective. I was thankful to see the world from a difference point of view. Four does not see the world through Tris' eyes, and I think it was good to experience parts of this book with a deeper understanding of how the world here works. However, I would forget who I was and that was distracting. I would find myself often thinking "Tris wouldn't..." and then check the beginning of the chapter and find myself as Four. So, yeah, I never really have a way to get past this
problem but thankfully not too many books need to do this style orf writing. If it came earlier in the series, I never would have bothered, but since I am already invested I will continue to struggle through this flip flopping.
My second annoyance is Four. I don't like him. I prefer the image of him that Tris has helped us build over the past few books. The scenes of him in the movie allowed us to believe he was damaged, but savable. And his love for Tris will help him through the worst of it. His mother is leading the resistance, his father is going to trial for treachery. We know his Father was an abuser, but we also know his mother left him when he was just a child and so he dealt with Marcus alone. Four is the name he gave himself. He was a self-made man and a gorgeous tragic hero.
Four is also a masochistic bastard who can not deal with strong women. it first came to me in the first few hundred pages of the book and now I just can't get over it. These new chapters from Four's point of view have shown me that he can not deal with Tris when she is in warrior mode. He likes her like this. he encourages her be brave and powerful. He isn't afraid of strong women in that kind of way. But he is never intimate with Tris until after he describes her as delicate and small. So Four is ok with a strong woman, but he isn't sexually attracted to them. He only likes meek women who bend to his will.
Hopefully I can find some time after Supanova to finish this book
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