Melodrama, begone!

Hello readers (those related to me and not) (mostly related to me lbr),

I apologize for not having posted in a long time but, as you may have inferred from the title of this blog post, I have been feeling too melodramatic lately. It seems every time I open my mouth (read: type on my keyboard) the words that escape are soooooo dramatic. *Insert eye roll/hair flip/any other melodramatic gesture*

BUT!

I'm moving on. We've got one week until the end of the wor- I mean, the joyous occasion that is the inauguration and we're just gonna power through with smiles on our faces (or in protest, screaming in the streets, whichever you prefer.)

In any case, in today's post I wanted to share some positive sentiments with you all (all 3 of you). Here it is:

NETFLIX HAS COME OUT WITH THE SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS AND I LITERALLY AM FREAKING OUT.

Guys, it's seriously a miracle I haven't finished the entire season already. (It's 12:00 on Friday, the day the show was released.)

Now, I don't know about you guys but The Series of Unfortuante Events was, for me, as a kid and pre-teen a Godsend. I won't presume to speak for other peers' experiences reading these books so I'll just speak from my point-of-view. This postmodernist masterpiece made sense to eight-year-old me. It was self-conscious, experimental and absurd, allowing the series to resound with me as no other work of literature had. As many kids in our society, I grew up quite self-conscious and unsure of my place in the world. With Lemony Snicket*'s self-deprecating words of, "If writers wrote as carelessly as some people talk, then adhasdh asdglaseuyt[bn[ pasdlgkhasdfasdf." Lemony Snicket was relating to teens and kids everywhere with his odd style and absurd sense-of-humor.

I have found myself, over the years, in high school as well as college and beyond, referring back to Lemony Snicket's words when reading many postmodern classics such as Lost in the Funhouse by John Barth. I remember reading this short story in one of my many General Education classes and thinking, "Lemony Snicket could have written this so much better." I have a feeling that much of the bitterness I felt during my General Education classes had more to do with the classes/grad students that taught them than the material of the class itself because, despite my resentment, I thoroughly enjoyed Lost in the Funhouse. One passage stood out to me:

This passage screams Snicket as it points its direction at the reader and refutes the writer's authority. Barth had previously stated the sentiments felt by the "thirteen-year-old boy" and now is attempting to convince the reader of the boy's inability to make any sort of sophisticated observation that would allow him to feel the way that he does. By including the tangential note on boys' "psychological coeval" to that of girls', he attempts to converse with the reader. The passage is a conversation, rather than the monologue of standard literature. Lemony Snicket, the king of tangents and side notes would be proud.

Perhaps it is trite and immature of me to continue idolizing The Series of Unfortuante Events and referring to it in comparison to the works of great authors like John Barth. SUE is a series of junior novels, afterall. But there, I believe, lies the beauty of the series. The content and the dark humor of the author's style created a sense of maturity in me that I craved as an adolescent. I felt as though, by reading these books, I was breaking with tradition, denying society's authority that told me to read about fairy tales and happy endings. As I read about dismemberment, arson and child abuse, I understood that the words were false but I felt as though I was coming to terms with a morbid reality, albeit in an exciting fictional world. SUE allowed me to grow up in a way that made me feel in control, a sentiment desired by many (if not all) teenagers.

In summation: Apparently, melodrama had a place in my life long before I was involved in politics. Thanks, Lemony.

* I recognize that Lemony Snicket is the pen name and that the books were actually written by Daniel Handler but, for the sake of argument, I'm just going to keep use Snicket.