John Umland
February 13, 2017 11:59 PM
Just another Book Club meeting. by John Umland
When John had first taken over the book club, he had had thoughts about creating his own little society within the school which read only the best things and promoted right thinking to the masses and constantly had fascinating conversations, rather like what little he remembered about pre-Revolutionary French intellectual salons but without the scandalous undertones. It had not taken him very long at all to realize that if he did this, he would very soon be president of a club which consisted pretty much only of himself and Clark, and Clark only part-time. Most people who read did so for pleasure, and it seemed that in books, as in so many other things, most people did not derive pleasure from the same things John did.Unable to have what he really wanted, he had settled for compromise and trying to balance it out. Julian and Joe had forbidden him from asking the club to read straight philosophical texts, but he did sometimes ask them to read stuff which had something interesting worked into it, and sometimes he gritted his teeth and dealt with stuff that seemed pointless to him, too. Recently the club had been working through a book of that sort, something about some sort of upper middle class pureblood guy who met some fallen princess of a pureblood girl, someone from one of the upper classes whose family had had a scandal, and also a normal girl, and to John’s surprise, there was actually a little decent social analysis and an acceptable mystery worked into the boringness that was a love triangle. The mystery bit he had enjoyed, but the social analysis was something he thought he might even find useful; he thought it was something that might help him understand what in the world his sister was getting herself into by marrying Billy Boy.
As the meeting approached, though, John was not really focused on the book. He had another matter, another piece of writing, on his mind. His stalker had not done anything else stalker-ish, leading him to think it had been someone’s idea of a joke, and Aislinn…continued to exist, though she had managed to avoid him most of the year. Admittedly, John had not made as much of an effort as he possibly could have to initiate contact with her, but he was still pretty sure he was being avoided, which at first had been something of a relief. As time had passed, though, he had begun to think more and more about the future, where his company was composed entirely of him, a werewolf, and the people he corresponded with by post. Lenore and Joanie were, admittedly, pretty good company even that way and he expected Clark would join his list of penfriends, but still. If he didn’t do something, his list of people he interacted with in a non-official capacity would probably largely shrink to…Louis. Louis was great, of course, great guy, but not the first person John thought of for really intellectually stimulating discussion. That was Clark, who was going away. In second year, though, he had thought of Aislinn only slightly less than Clark, and it had occurred to him after his initial horror at the whole situation wore off that he might have an opportunity here, if he could catch her sometime and conduct a coherent conversation.
After the meeting, he’d decided, he was going to make an attempt. Right now, though, he had to focus on said meeting. John used his wand to move the desks into a circle and greeted people as they came in. When it was time for the meeting to begin, he took an empty desk and took the book out of his bag and put it on the desk in front of him.
“So, I hope everyone enjoyed this one,” he said. “There’s something for everyone. I know the mystery story was my favorite part.” He opened his notebook to jot down notes. “Anyone care to start the conversation about what they liked or didn’t like?” he asked.
OOC: Feel free to make up whatever you like about the fictional book – the crazier the plot ends up looking, the better! Stick to the site rules and have fun!
Subthreads: Just another akward interaction by Gia Donovan
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Just another Book Club meeting.
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Gia Donovan
February 18, 2017 3:42 PM
Just another akward interaction by Gia Donovan
Gia had been at odds with their current book selection and she wasn't really sure why that was. The plot was fine and not the first book she had read to showcase such a thing but the romance aspect of the plot bothered her. She felt that someone who felt as strongly about two very different women probably had no real understanding of love to begin with. She did not understand how a heart could be so torn if it really did love.She was a bit surprised that John had picked this book for the club to read as felt... too mainstream for someone like him to find interesting. Gia guessed that he decided on this to peak the interest of Laila whose werewolf/vampire saga felt a bit like this. She had not disliked the book in its entirety, only the romance part of it.
Gia walked in wearing one of her handmade dresses that fit perfectly to her body, black mary Jane's on her feet, light makeup on her face, and her black waves held back by a headband. It was an easy to put together outfit when Gia was low on time but not so causal where it looked as though she didn't care.
She took a seat a few chairs away from John. Ever sense Jax had told her that John knew about his illness, Gia was uncertain as to how to interact with the older Aladren. Jax said that John hadn't seemed all that concerned over it but Gia feared she might say or do something that might cause him to change his mind. Right after all of that had happened, Gia had missed the following Book Club meeting and only returned to the subsequent meetings at Jax's request. She loved being part of the club but her nerves couldn't take much more.
"I also enjoyed the mystery." Gia said, speaking up for the first time in awhile. "I also enjoyed the play on social status as I feel that it is still something that is prevalent in society today for various reasons." She did not agree with such caste systems but such things did exist. "I wasn't, however, fond of the love triangle. I believe it lessens the emotion of love and shows the women as entertainment rather than worthy individuals of someone's full attention and heart." Gia admitted. "But, sometimes reading English I misunderstand context, so I may have interpreted the relationships incorrectly." She added in case she was wrong.
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