Feeling Good

Part One

Birds flying high you know how I feel – Sun in the sky you know how I feel
Reeds drifting on by you know how I feel – It’s a new dawn it’s a day it’s a new life for me
And I’m feeling good.
*Cue bad Matt Bellamy impersonation and air guitar.

Hello readers, how are you today? I don’t know if it’s down to the thoughts of Dita Von Teese strutting seductively throughout my head, the fact that the sun shone despite the persistent forecast of rain, the return of my mojo OR the valium and vodka cocktail I downed earlier. But I am feeling good.

To think that the day began badly and seemed to grow bleaker with each passing moment, so much so that I was resigned to the fact that this already prolonged spell of (I’m hesitant to say depression, but can think of no better word off hand) would continue to linger. Annoyingly I cannot place exactly what has put me in such good spirits – and I am resisting the urge to go back and analyse the day, I think I’ll enjoy having the motivation and drive back. I would break out in song, but I’m not that happy – and this ain’t no musical.

Sidenote: Greenday’s latest album is growing on me, slowly, and now on with the show.

I picked up a of really interesting looking book today, ‘At Day’s close, A history of night time’ the title is pretty intriguing, and part one ‘The Shadow of Death’ sounds like something I am going to enjoy. My fascination with darkness and death cannot be normal! It’ll be a little time before I get to it though, I’ve three on the go already. Speaking of books, I finished reading Matthew Lewis’s ‘The Monk’. A review follows.

Part Two

The Monk is an intriguing tale of love, lust, murder and hypocrisy; of temptation, obsession and the supernatural. Which makes use of many props familiar to gothic fiction, namely romantic heroic males, persecuted maidens, ghosts, demons and archetypal tyrants. At the centre of all this is the monk; Ambrosio, who is looked upon as a Saint throughout the Madrid in which the story is largely set, and whose downfall and ultimate end forms the central plot.

I really enjoyed reading this book, and found that I actually got through it quite quickly. The plot is smartly paced, but is commonly interjected by various means whether it be a short poem or tale, or of a character recounting some past experience. The relevance of some of the interjecting tales is not obvious, as they offer nothing to the main plot.

But most serve in prolonging the reader wait in learning the consequences of Ambrosio’s increasingly sinful actions; building the suspense and adding further mystery (Or allowing a revelation) to the other characters that play parts in this story, and of events unfolding around Ambrosio.

I think I will read it again. As one particular aspect of the ending jumped out on me unexpected, and I suspect I missed something first time around. A fan of gothic romance or horror would really enjoy this book.