#elaic

[vole-mon-amour]

This book is insane & I still feel it deeply.

"As it was coming out of my mouth, I wished it was going into my mouth. She said she was sorry, which I thought was weird."

[scottsummer]

so now - charles bukowski / eternal sunshine of the spotless mind - michel gondry / the bell jar - sylvia plath / extremely loud and incredibly close - jonathan safran foer 

[corsilentium]

I observe, I write, I try not to remember the life that I didn't want to lose but lost and have to remember,

Jonathan Safran Foer, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

[vole-mon-amour]

'... there's no irrefutable evidence. There's nothing that could convince someone who doesn't want to be convinced. But there is an abundance of clues that would give the wanting believer something to hold on to.'

— Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Johnathan Safran Foer

[vole-mon-amour]

I mean... He does read autistic to me.

[nessanooska]

gang i wanna shift to the book im reading in english class

[shmreduplication]

It's funny getting a handful of "ELAIC mention!" notes on that long polls post because it was my favorite book at the time that i read it (~2010) I've never seen the movie and i can't bring myself to reread the book because my reading is 99% audiobook and I'm not gonna skip the pictures but also haven't committed to sitting down to read a text version

but yeah fuck the movie, the absence of the father was critical to the tone so that the audience would miss him along with Oskar. Casting Tom Fucking Hanks as the dad and giving him to the audience thru flashbacks undermines the theme+moral+ending+reveal

my dad died when i was a kid, also in 2001 (but not from that) and VERY OFTEN when i told people thru my whole childhood, they would get very sad because they were imagining what their grief might be if they lost their dads and then I'd have to console them and be like "I'm ok now! It was a long time ago!" and it seems like the movie was deliberately leaning into that and turning it into a whole big "imagine if Tom Hanks was your dad and then imagine him dying and then feel non-imaginary sadness" rather than it being about the star of the book, Oskar

if anyone has read it as an ebook, please tell me if it still has the pictures. I need to reread it and doing it on my phone will be easier than a book but I'm serious about needing the pics

[vole-mon-amour]

Mom was still on the sofa. She wasn't reading, or listening to music, or doing anything.

She said, 'You're awake.'

I started crying.

She opened her arms and said, 'What is it?'

I ran to her and said, 'I don't want to be hospitalized.'

She pulled me into her so my head was against the soft part of her shoulder, and she squeezed me.

'You're not going to be hospitalized.'

I told her, 'I promise I'm going to be better soon.'

She said, 'There's nothing wrong with you.'

'I'll be happy and normal.'

She put her fingers around the back of my neck.

I told her, 'I tried incredibly hard. I don't know how I could have tried harder.'

She said, 'Dad would have been very proud of you.'

'Do you think so?'

'I know so.'

I cried some more.

— 'Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close' by Jonathan Safran Foer