Blogocentric Formulations

Please Mr. Postman... watch out for Lisbeth Salander

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SONG: "Please Mr. Postman"
ARTIST: Karen Carpenter
STATUS: Deceased (anorexia-related cardiac failure, 2/4/1983)
ALBUM: [single] (1974)


Today's musical selection was pretty much a toss-up between Karen Carpenter and Bob Marley. I personally like "No Woman, No Cry" better as a song than pretty much anything The Carpenters have done, but then I saw this video from The Carpenters for their cover of "Please Mr. Postman" which is pretty much just a big 1970's advertisement for Disneyland:

I suppose I should probably show a little loyalty to The Carpenters because my alma mater build the Carpenter Performing Arts Center on their campus:

Although, come to think of it, the Carpenter Center was actually kind of a bunch of jerks while I was there. The organization that runs it petitioned to have it built on campus property, uses the campus parking lot, and then makes the university pay them to rent it out for special occasions. When I was in film school, we had to hold a fundraiser to hold our annual student film festival there, even though there were no other special events going on that weekend! Hmm... maybe I should've picked Bob Marley after all...

While her brother was a prodigy on the piano, Karen explored various musical instruments. Her Downey High School band conductor tried to get her to learn the glockenspiel (I won't lie, I had to look up what that was... it's similar to a xylophone), but she - understandably - disliked the instrument. She became interested in the drums, which she initially played while also singing lead vocals for the songs she recorded with her brother. At only 5'4", though, she couldn't be seen by the audience at live performances, so they persuaded her to sing at a microphone while they hired another drummer to man the kit during the show. In what is perhaps a prelude to this song's video, the drummer they selected was a former Disney Mouseketeer named Cubby O'Brien. She remains one of the earliest recognizable female drummers.

As far as her personal life, Karen Carpenter lived with her parents until she was 26. When The Carpenters started enjoying commercial success, she and her brother bought two apartment buildings in their adopted hometown of Downey, California, and named them "Only Just Begun" and "Close to You" after their two most popular hits. In keeping with the theme of using their own music, Karen Carpenter later bought two apartments in Century City, California, gutted and combined them, and set the doorbell to chime to the first six notes of "We've Only Just Begun." Over the years, Carpenter dated a number of then- or later-famous celebrities including Tony Danza, Mark Harmon, and Steve Martin. She eventually married a real estate developer, but the marriage only lasted fourteen months, ending when Carpenter (who desperately wanted children) realized that her husband had concealed the fact that he had previously undergone a vasectomy. Whoops.

Carpenter is probably best known, though, for her weight issues. Before compulsively dieting, she was 5'4" and 145 lbs. Her weight quickly dropped to 120 lbs. and she continued to lose weight over the next couple years until she weighed only 91 lbs. She tried to get help for her disorder, but the crash diet/weight loss regimen (including laxatives, thyroid replacement medication, and the rumored use of ipecac syrup to induce vomiting) combined with weight gaining strategies (she was hooked up to an IV drip which caused her to gain 30 lbs. in only eight weeks) put an incredible amount of stress on her heart. Her heart failed while visiting her parents home in 1983; she was rushed to the hospital where she was pronounced dead. To this day, Carpenter is credited with bringing the topic of eating disorders and the dangers of anorexic and bulimia to the public consciousness.

And just because it's the last day of the activity, I'm also going to include my alternate choice as well. Because I make my own rules and do what I want! (Right, lizco252? I mean, is that okay?)

                   

PROMPT: My favorite protagonist from a book is...


My choice for today is Lisbeth Salander from Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy (i.e., The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest), although I've always been a bit confused about whether she counts as a protagonist. On the one hand, the books are named after her and she does have a prominent role that directly impacts the narrative. On the other hand, journalist Mikael Blomkvist seems to be the central character in terms of the investigations. So is Blomkvist the protagonist? Is Salander? Are they co-protagonists? I think I'm going to call them co-protagonists because they both have incredibly important, central roles in each of the three books in the series.

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Lisbeth Salander is a fascinating character with so many different shades. It was a character that I loved reading about discovering as she evolved along the timeline of the three books. She's hard-edged, enigmatic, alternates between being emotional and dispassionate... she's one of most complex characters I've read in the last ten years. I was tempted to choose Locke Lamora from the Gentleman Bastards series for my favorite protagonist of the last decade, but I already used the book for another prompt. Thankfully, Salander is a very close second in terms of protagonists who have stayed with me long after I've finished reading. Kvothe from Patrick Rothfuss' Kingkiller Chronicle is also on that list and, as long as we're on the subject, I suppose my Top 5 of the past ten years would be rounded out by David from Brandon Sanderson's Reckoners series (Steelheart and the short story "Mitosis" are the only releases so far), and Stephanie Plum from Janet Evanovich's bestselling series.

If you haven't read The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo or seen the movie, be warned that this is not a lighthearted or feel-good series. It's dark, brutal, and troubling ... but it's also excellent writing and has some of the most compelling characterization I've read in a long time.