have you ever blocked a part of a book completely out of your memory?
Spoiler for American Gods and The Perks of Being a Wallflower.
After finishing Jacqueline Carey's Agent of Hel series and being all sad because the series was finished, I decided to reread American Gods. I don't know. I guess I wanted more Norse gods in America. I had read it once a few years ago and didn't know what to think of it. For whatever reason, it failed to grip me. Maybe because the way the story was told was very different from other things I had read. The sporadic interludes of coming to America. A strange climax. A lot happening after the climax. Also, I don't have a background in much mythology, so there was a lot I missed. I think Gaiman counted on his reader being smarter than I am.
Reading it again, I think I love it. Maybe now because I know what to expect from the book. Or because I'm able to understand more.
That being said, I had totally blocked out that Hinzelmann had killed all those children. His whole story, really. I remember he killed the one girl, but I didn't remember the rest. I didn't remember that he was a god. I didn't remember that he "sacrificed" the children for the prosperity of the town. I had totally blocked this all out.
And it's not like this is a detail that was easily missed. It's not like I forgot what color the girl's braces were (blue). For several pages, Shadow confronts him and he almost kills Shadow and Chad saves Shadow and kills Hinzelmann and burns down Hindelmann's house. I forgot all of that. I just blocked it out.
When I reread The Perks of Being a Wallflower, I realized that I had also blocked out Aunt Helen's molestation of Charlie. Completely forgot about it. Again, it wasn't a minor detail. It was the climax of the book. WTF? I think my brain just can't handle reading about hurting kids.
When then reminded me of the Hunger Games. Everyone points to The Lottery as Collins's inspiration for the series, but this sort of sacrificing children has a much lengthier literary history. There is also the Minotaur and the Pied Piper. And American Gods.
After finishing Jacqueline Carey's Agent of Hel series and being all sad because the series was finished, I decided to reread American Gods. I don't know. I guess I wanted more Norse gods in America. I had read it once a few years ago and didn't know what to think of it. For whatever reason, it failed to grip me. Maybe because the way the story was told was very different from other things I had read. The sporadic interludes of coming to America. A strange climax. A lot happening after the climax. Also, I don't have a background in much mythology, so there was a lot I missed. I think Gaiman counted on his reader being smarter than I am.
Reading it again, I think I love it. Maybe now because I know what to expect from the book. Or because I'm able to understand more.
That being said, I had totally blocked out that Hinzelmann had killed all those children. His whole story, really. I remember he killed the one girl, but I didn't remember the rest. I didn't remember that he was a god. I didn't remember that he "sacrificed" the children for the prosperity of the town. I had totally blocked this all out.
And it's not like this is a detail that was easily missed. It's not like I forgot what color the girl's braces were (blue). For several pages, Shadow confronts him and he almost kills Shadow and Chad saves Shadow and kills Hinzelmann and burns down Hindelmann's house. I forgot all of that. I just blocked it out.
When I reread The Perks of Being a Wallflower, I realized that I had also blocked out Aunt Helen's molestation of Charlie. Completely forgot about it. Again, it wasn't a minor detail. It was the climax of the book. WTF? I think my brain just can't handle reading about hurting kids.
When then reminded me of the Hunger Games. Everyone points to The Lottery as Collins's inspiration for the series, but this sort of sacrificing children has a much lengthier literary history. There is also the Minotaur and the Pied Piper. And American Gods.