The specter in the room...an attempt to talk about the rape story trope in media

It's late and for a while I thought someone was exploding fireworks outside my window.
Lots of banging, but no clue where it was coming from.

Cool too, that weird half chill, where you put a sweater on and look forward to that relaxing hot shower.

I'm about to talk about something in my livejournal that...I'm not sure I should talk about, but it's been hanging in the back of my mind for a bit, festering there. And it seems to hang in the corners of the world I live in like a specter that you don't quite see, just out of reach. It's not in your life, it's beside it. In the corner. And you think if you don't look, pretend it's not there, don't think about it, it won't bother you. But it does.

I wonder sometimes if it is better not to talk about things. I remember several years back telling a woman in a job interview that I had just been robbed, I was in my bed, asleep, when it happened. Someone came into my apartment while I was asleep and stole my lap-top, leaving the windows wide open. The woman told me how she'd been raped and sought counseling and I should do the same. I said that would be focusing on it, and it was better not to. To forget. Besides two different things.

I've never know how to talk about rape. How do you? The word itself feels like an assault on the senses. And I've seen it handled in stories in multiple ways. The papers are littered with reports of sexual assaults - they avoid the word rape and use assault, molestation, attack or groping instead. After a while...you get used to it. What an odd thing.
( a lengthy musing on rape in stories, television, film, and various media - could be a major trigger for some people, if this is true of you? Best to avoid, contains spoilers for Buffy, Firefly, General Hospital, BSG. )

Gluten-Free Apple Butternut Squash Soup...

I found another tasty soup to make, via my cookbook "Get Cooking by Mollie Katzen", which has a lot of Gluten Free pureed vegetable soups.

Made the soup this afternoon, heated up the apartment nicely. And took no more than an hour maybe two. This recipe is enough to feed five people. Quite a nice twist on a seasonal favorite.

( Roasted Butternut Squash and Apple Soup )

(no subject)

Times Square has turned itself into a marketing and advertising mecca. First a flash mob dance routine from West Side Story to sell the 50th Anniversary DVD, now an Nintendo Mario Brothers Playground - advertising the release of the new DVD. And it is littered with bizarre stores like Hersheys, Pop Tarts (looks like a giant Pop Tart), M&M's (yes a store dedicated to nothing but M&Ms), amongst others. Damn place is wall to wall marketing and ads. It's like being blasted with media from all directions. Wasn't always like this - this is a new phenomena.

Finished watching the last few episodes of American Horror Story, Covert Affairs and
Secret Circle. Oddly, I enjoyed Secret Circle the most - it intrigued me the most at any rate.

American Horror Story - feels a bit too over-the-top. At one point, I was basically ticking off on my fingers all the horror tales that Murphy and Falchuck were referencing: 1) Sometimes They Come Back (about the kids who get killed, come back and hunt down the guy who kills them for revenge - a Stephen King short story and I may be wrong about that summary) meets The Breakfast Club meets Columbine...and Sixth Sense thrown into a blender. 2)Urban legends, Rosemary's Baby, the Omen, all in one episode. Add to that Eating Raol and various other tales about women being pregnant with a monster and wanting to eat raw meat. You feel a bit overwhelmed by the stories and sort of lose track of the characters or any reason to care. This is my difficulty with Murphy - he has no limits or ability to edit. This actually wouldn't be a bad show and quite scary in places - if someone would only edit him a little and get him to focus on one thing instead of throw every thing into the works.

Secret Circle - reminds me of something...that I've seen before but can't remember. I like the mystery at the center of it. ( spoilers )

Covert Affairs was fun. The characters and actors in this are likable.
And the plots interesting and fairly realistic. One of the better procedurals on at the moment.