The Weakness of the Inner Sanctum

              I recently finished reading the book "Picture Perfect" by Jodi Picoult. It was the first of her novel that I have read that was not a murder mystery. This reeled me in because the aspect that I usually find most appealing about her books is the fact that she integrates the technicalities of a murder trial with the heart wrenching backstory. Putting in stark contrast the emotional bloody throbbing of human nature with the cold, measured precision of courtroom proceedings. When picking up the book, I expected it to be derivative of these earlier books, but it was extremely different.
            "Picture Perfect" follows the tale of Cassie Barret. Or should I say, Cassie Rivers. Cassie is intelligent, mildly attractive, sensible and quiet in mien but what sets her apart from most women is that she is married to the most famous movie star in the United States, Alex Rivers. This is not to say that they have a perfect life. Oh no, Cassie is haunted by dreams of her childhood best friend, whom she watched die and her alcoholic mother, while Alex still cannot separate himself from the boy whose father forced him to "be a man" by spending days in snake infested bayous and earning bruises in New Orleans. In fact, the reason that Alex became an actor, as Picoult basically tells us, is to escape the person who he has become. That he does not know how to be someone decent, and this tortures him. Tortures him so much, in fact, that it leads him to brutally beat Cassie for something as benign as leaving his sneakers (of which he has many pairs as he is a star of epic proportions) outside. Cassie "escapes" by running away with her new friend (and possibly romantic interest?) Will Flying Horse to his families' reservation in South Dakota. But eventually returns to Alex, only to "leave him for good."
                If you could not tell by the tone of my summary, the book disgusted me. Its not to say that JOdi Picoult's books are the epitome of valid and layered adult fiction, but she is better than the trash I found myself reading. For one, Cassie and Alex's love story was not believable. They "got married six weeks after {they} met," and Cassie became totally integrated into his life as a movie star. They had the perfect wedding in Tanzania with all movie star trappings and moved back to Alex's mansion. There were no minute details to make it believable or even plausible. And even while I cringed at Cassie's beatings, it repulsed me how spineless she was, how SHE apologized to this man who broke her ribs for breaking a glass. How even after moving away for six months, she still returned to his side, a shadow that moved with him wherever he went. She continued to shape her form around his needs, becoming more of him than of her. I tried to understand  by comparing it to an addiction, you have to never have another drink of snort again to be completely clean, you can't let yourself slip up like Cassie did.
              But I guess I don't understand love, I can't fathom any emotion that would make Cassie come back; any gift. How can Cassie still call Alex her love? her other half? One can never fully trust someone again after they have damaged you so completely. There is an irrevocable difference between what has come before, and what life will proceed as. Cassie is spineless, and she has dug her own grave. By refusing to get out of her abusive entanglement with Alex she has sacrificed herself, her innermost sanctum to his wills and promises. And while her neck is "hung with a necklace of purple bruises" what is most violated is her soul.

Is it Logical to Love?

I was listening to "Winter Song" by Sara Boreallis and Ingrid Michealson today. It was a lovely day and I had just finished a new book, House Rules by Jody Picoult. House Rules is a book about a 18 year old boy who is charged with the murder of his social skills teacher. Now, you may as well ask, why would an 18 year old boy need a social skills tutor? The answer is that Jacob (the boy) has been diagnosed with Asbergers syndrome. Aspergers is "an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) that is characterized by significant difficulties in social interaction, alongside restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior and interests" according to Wikipedia. Aspergers, in terms of how it is presented in the book, makes Jacob take everything literally. For example, if you told Jacob that his story tore your heart up, he would respond by explaining to you that one cannot tear one's heart into pieces; because you would need a knife and you did not have one. In addition and due to this, Jacob cannot read social cues. For example, Jacob could talk for about 10 minutes about dinosaurs and if you said "oh look at the time!" in an attempt to escape the conversation, he would plough right on. He would not see that he is boring you. All of these factors add up to make him seem more than a bit odd to other people.

 Perhaps Jacob's most obvious symptoms of Asbergers, however, is the fact that he does not show any other emotion that anger when he does not get what he wants. When Jacob is informed that his tutor has died, Jacob says "Okay." Nothing more, nothing to show how if he missed her, the closest friend he had. When asked why he did not show any emotion, Jacob replies that his showing of emotions would not help anybody and that he knew he was sad so what was the point of showing it? Everyone in the book thinks that Jacob is a freak because he doesn't show emotion, however, I think that Jacob just has an overactive sense of logic. This means that he doesn't show emotion because the logic in his head tells us that there is no point. For most of us, our logic is nullified by grief and we cry and express our emotions. However, Jacob's body tells him this would be a waste of energy and would not benefit anybody. However, what his machine of a body has overlooked is that his showing of grief would have comforted his mother and brother. It would have showed them that he was a human being, something that they are always hoping for.

I compared this to Winter Song, the music I was listening to as I finished the book. In Winter Song a line says, "They say that things just cannot grow, beneath the winter snow. Or so I have been told." I took this to mean that in the coldness and hardness of winter, emotions such as love cannot thrive. I think that Jacob's Aspergers is like snow. I think that this is because he is so seemingly unfeeling- cold to love, and logical. His overactive sense of  logic, due to his Aspergers only cares about facts and measurements. Love does not play into logic, because it cannot be measured exactly and it seems he cannot feel it.  Most evidence points to the line being true, that love cannot exist under Jacob's disease, yet this is only how it seems on the outside. However, "beneath the winter snow," Jacob obviously cared about Jess, his tutor. He logically figured out that, due to his responses to Jess, he loved Jess. However, his logical body does not allow him to acknowledge this love, and therefor the grief that goes along with it. Pe

Logic vs. Love. Its such an interesting comparison. Much of the time it seems such opposites cannot be allowed to coexist in the spectrum of humanity. There are many books that deal with logic versus love, without the Aspergers element. However, in most of these books, the main character gets over his/her logical side and learns to love. What makes House Rules different is, the Aspergers element, the thing that makes it impossible for him to get over himself and love. I feel sorry for Jacob, love is a great thing. His snowy disease sounds like so much of a burden, and doesn't realize what he's missing. However, spring comes after winter. I hope that someday even though it is probably not possible, Jacob's snow will melt and spring will come.