Salutations for another issue of my youthful blog and today I'm writing this yet again trapped in an obsession, this time by the book Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow by Peter Høeg. (A MUST READ), a book bursting from the seams with intelligence, suspense and duplicity. Indeed Smilla Jaspersen is a character that we can all learn from, an obvious intellectual with a view of society that is such that you know she'll never become insane or caught up in an addiction (rather unlike me). As a keen glaciologist, Smilla teaches the reader a lot about her sole love of the world, ice. Her honest, witty, brutal and clever persona, perhaps occasionally mistaken for insolence (the line 'Greenlanders never say sorry' comes to mind), draws the reader in, the star of the book isn't in fact the narrative full of twists and turns but this beautiful piece of creation. Smilla doesn't just teach lessons, she teaches life lessons, one that I shall take heed to is how she never rushes from place to place, life is too short, you can't be so daring as to be convinced there won't be some horrific accident in your commute, thus Smilla says we should treat each journey with joy, walking slowly and drinking in our surroundings. The tale itself is a gripping murder mystery, it's been quipped 'the intellectual Miss Marple', set between mainland Denmark and Greenland. I have a mere two issues with the novel, the first being that the tale is so complex that the reader is prone to confusion and the second being the heavily unfulfilling ending. Clearly with such a clever, intellectual character one wouldn't expect the ending to be all roses and happiness, yet it felt as if I were listening to an amazing CD that abruptly cut off near the end. Usually I would also recommend the film with the book, yet sadly the rotten raspberry awards success that the film experienced perhaps indicates otherwise. Smilla Jaspersen is in many ways a Beyoncé like figure, everyone who reads the book would like to be like her, her analytical skills indisputable, which even those at the top of the psychological profession would envy . Or perhaps it's just me, for all her great attributes she's still a social outcast at 37 living alone in a place she loathes, and she's more appreciative of maths, science and numbers than she is of love and emotion. A cynic at heart, and despite her unapproachable masquerade, the reader can easily become attached to Miss Smilla.
Having read the book I've been inclined to look at myself and my perhaps excessive want to grow up quickly, since the age of six I've been looking forward to the working life. Take this for instance: my favourite song at the moment is 'Flower Child' by Nitty Scott and Kendrick Lamar (a surprisingly decent song actually once you get past the Disney princess-esque flow of Miss Scott), for the most part due to the accurate using of the term photosynthesis. I cringe at remembering my once ranting on about how I even loved the 'tube culture of London', one of sweat, despair and more sweat. My idea of a good day is one spent working 9 till 5. I've even started looking forward to going back to school! Is this a disease with the modern technological age, children no longer want to be children in the traditional sense. Gone are the games of hopscotch or football, to be replaced with a thirst for professionalism and acute IT skills. The other day I overheard a girl who having barely crawled out of the cot was instructing her parent on how to use XCell in a frighteningly authoritarian manner. One of my young cousins was visibly shocked when I suggested turning onto CBBC instead of the news. Yes, children have become in somewhat more intelligent and gripped to current affairs, but isn't there something so precious about the innocence and unawareness of a child, without a care about the heinous real world of work? Are we losing our humanity?
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