And also, get off my lawn.

[mrissa]

I just picked up the library's copy of Sarah Dessen's This Lullaby. On page 12 is the line, "He turned it [the narrator's hand] palm up before I could even react, and pulled a pen out of his back pocket, then proceeded--I am not joking--to write a name and phone number in the space between my thumb and forefinger."

And in the margin, a very teenybopper hand has written in black ballpoint ink, "Why doesn't that happen in real life?"

1. Princess, this? IS NOT YOUR BOOK. It is the library's book. Nobody cares where you swooned.

2. You know why it doesn't happen in real life, sugar? Because you live in Minnesota, and even at your presumed age, even many of the most clueless males already know that if they go around grabbing body parts of women they have just met, they will a) happen upon one like me who will make sure they do not get back the pen or the hand they grabbed with or b) happen upon one who has a broad-shouldered relative happy to provide the same service at a moment's notice. There are lots of broad-shouldered relatives in these parts. Both sexes, or did you think the fella was kidding?

Seriously. This is my body. That out there is your body. If you get confused, I will be happy to give you a reminder that the bit that hurts is the bit that's you.

I am so glad my teenaged friends have more sense.

Comments

[sethb.livejournal.com]

If the guy is clueful enough to know that such an act would be welcomed, then there's nothing wrong with it. (Well, there theoretically might be a guy who's that clueful.)*

But the correct answer is, "It does, just not to dumbshits who write in library books."

[*] If he wants to do it, and she wants him to do it, then the rest of us can just butt out.

[marydell.livejournal.com]

I'm looking at my hand trying to figure out what the narrator means by "in the space between my thumb and forefinger." The airspace between the tips of the thumb and forefinger? On the palm in a line from the base of the thumb to the base of the forefinger? If so, why isn't she relaxing her thumb and blocking him? Or jerking her hand away while he digs in his back pocket, and smacking him upside the head with it?

[ksumnersmith.livejournal.com]

Eh, tell me about it. That book and I had issues, of which that was one example. That book went back to the library half read.

I mean, really.

[writingortyping.livejournal.com]

Yanno, this is exactly the problem I always had with that Marc Cohn song, "True Companion." For crying out loud, the whole scene starts,

"Sometimes I'm an angel
And sometimes I'm cruel
And when it comes to love
I'm just another fool
Yes, I'll climb a mountain
I'm gonna swim the sea
There ain't no act of god girl
Could keep you safe from me"

Excusemeverymuch?

Then the rest of the song is about what he's going to do to "for" her. CREEPY. And people thought this was romantic? I found it nauseating.

[talimena.livejournal.com]

Amen. I've had to point out to a classmate that it is not at all cool to come and stand one inch behind me. He was surprised!

[talimena.livejournal.com]

ETA: different from the hand grabbing, I realize, but reminiscent thereof.

[roadnotes.livejournal.com]

"This is my body. That out there is your body. If you get confused, I will be happy to give you a reminder that the bit that hurts is the bit that's you."

Yes. Very much yes.

And a small amount of pain for writing in the LIBRARY BOOK for that teenybopper. Grrrrr.