The Bloody Chamber

Tonight I finished reading The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter.



It's a very slim (150 pages) collection of short stories, that are kind of retellings of classic fairy tales, such as Bluebeard, Beauty and the Beast, Puss in Boots and Little Red Riding Hood, as well as stories about vampires and werewolves. However, all the violence and sexuality which are hinted at in the original stories are the main theme here, and given a strong feminist slant. In fact the main linking themes throughout the stories are sex and transformation. The stories are very beautifully written and range from Gothic horror, comedy, to complete surrealism, with holes in snow filled with blood and flowers with biting teeth. One of the stories was turned into a film Company of Wolves, directed by Neil Jordan, which is a film that I like a lot and I've seen it a number of times. If you have any interest in horror or fantasy, or very macabre fairy tales, it's well worth checking out.

Work and Holidays

Today was another pretty quiet and pretty dull day at work. I didn't go out after work today, but just went straight back home. There's never really much to say about work because it is more or less the same thing day after day. One thing that I will definitely have to do sometime next year is to go somewhere on holiday. I've not really been anywhere on holiday for a few years.