Thing of Beauty

Thing of Beauty: The Tragedy of Supermodel Gia  by Stephen Fried
1994
Weight: 8.2 oz
Method of Disposal: Leaving at Joe's in EAV

I came to Gia, like many lesbians people of my age did, through the film in which Angelina Jolie starred.  It is the movie that made me lust for Angie above all others for years, and it is the movie that made me buy a book about a supermodel (something I never would have done).  The sexiness of Angelina and the queer love story snagged me, but the human pain and struggle would have stuck with me no matter what.  The book showed a far more disturbing underbelly to the fashion industry and the young fans of the industry than the movie but, though I hate to admit it, I mostly remember Angelina kicking in a window, desperate for someone to love her, being abusive (though I did not recognize it then as that--though I knew it wasn't good) to the beautiful Linda.  I remember Gia's pain, Linda's turmoil, the drugs, the misunderstandings, the family.

It was absolutely a movie a high schooler would love.  I say that, but I am not trying to take away from the adult pain...just recognizing the obvious.
 

Angelina and Gillian

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider Tech Manual  by Michael Jan Friedman (2001)

The Unofficial X-Files Companion II by N. E. Genge (1996)

Weight: 2 lbs

Method of Disposal: Leaving at Joe’s in EAV

 

 

There seems to be a theme for the day, with the exception of Angry Girls.  These two books would have been purchased in my early teens.  Lara Croft because I thought Angelina Jolie was the sexiest woman alive.  I still find her attractive, but I have finally reached the stage in life where I do not have the need/desire to flip through pictures of her on a semi-regular basis and am content to casually watch her movies as they come out.

Gillian, on the other hand, still gets my giddy like a school girl.  I am far too excited about the possibility of her being in a new NBC television series, but I do not need to hold onto this ridiculously boring book with a very small amount of black and white photos.  And how often am I going to write on here, “this surely must be my absolute last X-File book.”  They just keep coming.  Like the glass in my backyard that continues to work its way up to the surface through dirt and mud, no matter how much I try to clean it out.

Girl, Interrupted

Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen
1994
Weight: 6.4 oz
Method of Disposal: Donating or giving away

Here is a look into what life was like in McLean in the late 60’s. If you read the blog post about the book Gracefully Insane , you will recognize that this book is about the same hospital. Susanna Kaysen spent almost two years of her life there with other teenage girls. This memoir inspired the major motion picture starring Winona Ryder and Angelina Jolie. I would say that the book is better than the movie, as it almost always is. I found both the book and the movie to be okay but not incredible, though this is the best book I have read by Kaysen.

The history of mental institutions is frightening, and it is impossible not become absorbed in some of the stories that come out of them. The doctors and nurses often being described in a way that makes them seem far more “insane” than their patients, though not always. I am currently reading The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein, and that book opens with quite the horror story. She speaks of a young woman who went into the hospital for anxiety in the 60’s and after being tortured in the name of treatment is later labeled schizophrenic.

I am sure it will surprise no one that I bought this book sometime around the age of 16 when I was buying all sorts of Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath books. There is something about this type of memoir that attracts teenage girls. It is not totally fair because these adult women do have a story to tell that is not juvenile and that is important. It just seems to be a common theme involved in teenage angst, despite how talented, how traumatic, how brilliant, how whatever the writing may be. I guess teenage girls can relate to feeling like they do not have control of their bodies or their minds. They are empathetic to disorientation, confusion, and despair. They are growing up in a world with conflicting messages and enormous pressure.

Who knows who this book will find next. What they will be like. I hope they get something out of it.