Pages

Monday, August 3, 2009

First Person and Zombies

After utilizing a gallon of shampoos and conditioners, a rake, a hoe and a grenade, I've finally deflated my hair. It was a complicated process, but all in a day's work for a girl with hair thicker than a fertilized Chia pet. 

Other than that, though, the past day has been uneventful. Sebastian came over last night and we watched half of Twilight, before he couldn't handle it anymore and skillfully guided me away with a ruse involving microwaved cheese. During the part of the movie we did see, Sebastian snarkily asked if the books are written in first person, then laughed when I said yes. I gaped at him. "What's wrong with first person? First person is wonderful! What do you have against first person?!"

"Besides Catcher in the Rye," he said, "the last book I read in first person was in, like--"
"The Great Gatsby," I provided.
"--fifth grade," he finished.
"No. The last book you read in first person was Looking For Alaska."
At that, Sebastian giggled, considering, and moved his eyes a little bit as if to say, "Yes. Well. You're right." 

I meditated on that conversation for a bit, making a mental list over the course of a few hours. Wuthering Heights, I thought. Huck Finn. Heart of Darkness. All brilliant (even though the latter makes me groan and sigh), revered, first person novels. I don't know what made me fight so valiantly for narrative in the first person. Perhaps my devotion to Megan McCafferty, or because a fourth of my first novel is told through letters. Either way, let it be known that I think highly of first person, and that it works well for both character development and comedy, which are the two areas I plan to focus on for my entire life and living. /rant

Speak of the devil. It's now much later in the day, and I'm on the couch with Sebastian to my left and my sister to the right. We've shared this month's Cosmopolitan, chips and salsa, Oreos, pizza rolls, and chocolate chip cookies with milk. We're watching a favorite film of mine, Sebastian's, Jess's and Graham's: a zombie movie called Dance of the Dead that was made on After Effects. We rented it months ago thinking it would be a hilarious joke that took itself seriously... but in reality, it realizes it's funny. And it's really, really funny! Highly recommended. Plus, one of the characters has my video camera.

Anyway, in youtubely news, I wrote and recorded part of a new hayleyghoover video today. It will probably take a few days to finish, and it's kind of melodramatic, but I think you might like it. I know it will be fun to make. Also, this week on fiveawesomegirls, we're having our boyfriends make the videos. I'm looking forward to Matt's and Denis's a lot; they're two fantastic people. It's good to see 5AG up and running again. I miss back when I could anticipate a video every weekday.

Oh, goodness. Zombies are currently attacking the character who looks like meekakitty. What a great movie. It's also making me think of Kristina, what with ALL CAPS and everything. Speaking of Kristina? I miss that girl. We had a really long real-time email conversation today about life, love, London and southern Ohio. I knew when we started fiveawesomegirls that the other members were interesting and pretty, but I could never have imagined how close we would grow. And the awkwardly personal text conversations we would have. I miss them madly.

Sexy: Having a guy around who appreciates amazing movies, understands my need to blog, and isn't offended when I sit with my laptop during a hangout.
Unsexy: The living dead. Man, I hate, hate freakin' zombies.

Chipotle burritos this year: 25
S'mores this summer: 6
Economy-sized bags of pizza rolls this past two weeks: 3 1/2
Subscribers: 18,917

Bye, guys! Hopefully I'll see you tomorrow. <3

41 comments:

Anonymous said...

first person books are the ones that make me happiest. paper towns & looking for alaska are first person. and they can cheer me up no matter what. katherines i enjoyed less, simply due to the fact that it was in third person and it irritated me.
all of my favorite books are first person. esp, the lovely bones.

third person can get irritating.

Janelle said...

Sebastian sounds really lovely. I'm so glad you've found someone you really enjoy spending time with and that he understands you. You deserve it Hayley.

=)

lindsey said...

Oh gosh, I've been unhealthily obsessed with meekakitty lately. Do you know something else? I'm starting to associate hayleyghoover with every day objects/food/people, i.e. chipotle, Justin Timberlake, pizza rolls, and others. Kudos.

Katy said...

I prefer the omnipresent view of third person, and I'm gonna have to side with your boyfriend on the first vs. third POV's.

I mean, yeah I love Catcher, and I haven't read Gatsby but I'm sure it's great, but 1st always strikes me as a bit more juvenile. Or maybe, like I said, I just prefer the omnipresent view. Who knows.

"Maybe I should start talking in the third person," she then said, itching her bugbite and hitting the "publish your comment" button on Hayley G. Hoover's blog...

Anonymous said...

I love zombies. And Pizza Rolls. :)

seurat2 said...

A grenade is definitely overkill when it comes to hair conditioner. Even the hoe is a bit of a reach. Ah Hoover, you crack me up. And we've moved into bags of pizza rolls now have we on the listing? Be careful or the list will be longer than the blog!

Emily said...

I just asst directed a zombie movie, and one of the only days I didn't make it on set, the rest of the cast and crew watched Dance of the Dead. Now I'm even more upset I didn't get to see it. Sounds like I missed out on something awesome. I guess I have to go rent it now...

Faith said...

Today I found out my town is getting a Chipotle- I immediately freaked out and thought of you.

I'm extremely jealous of your boyfriend. My boyfriendthing (yes, I now use that term thanks also to you) would never watch Twilight or really any chick flick with me

And I love first person! I actually find that that is the easiest way to write for me and I also like being in the characters head and finding out things as the protagonist does. It makes me get less mad at the protagonist. I was one of two people in my second grade class that did a project where we had to write as story about our grandparents in first person. Everyone else did it in third person.

Sorry this comment is so long and full of grammatical errors; I've been in Ukraine all summer so I'm making up for not commenting. I'm also jet lagged, which accounts for the grammar.

A.J. James said...

You are on Blogtv at the moment, and you and Sebastian are adorable. I hope you have a great week. looking forward to the rest of the FAboyfriends...

-___- said...

First person is awesome; I actually just wrote an email saying how much I love it. Just diving into the character is an amazing experience. As a writer, I feel like I could tell a better story if I wrote like I was someone else. But, I write everything but science/historical fiction in a range of LOL to haunting. And sometimes its more affective in certain situations to write from 3rd person.

What I'm rambling is that first person can fail really badly (Twilight) or soar epically (Catcher in the Rye)

'babyjustrun' I agree- katherines in 3rd person irritated me, too.

traderbob11 said...

SEBASTIN is hosting HAYLEYGHOOVER DAY? WHAT THE HELL? Now Thursday will be known as Thursday once again. It was bad enough that you forgot about HAYLEYGHOOVER DAY, but now you've gone and turned it into just plain old Thursday again. Wow, I'm just....I mean Thursday...I'm depressed....
Hayley you're the star-don't forget!!
Oh what? Me-jealous---WHATEVER :)

Kayley said...

I LOVE YOU. LOVE YOU. SO MUCH.
And that's very sexy, indeed :)
xx

Anonymous said...

Currently I am watching your blogtv post and talking about Harry Potter. I quited a Legally Blonde line and you sang it. Hmmm.

I was wondering, of all of John's books, which one would you recommend reading first?

Jordiekins said...

How can someone not love Twilight? It was the best comedy of 2008, even if the books were written in first person. I love a good first person book. Heck, I love any book.

I think I might check out Dance of the Dead. I just hope it's not like Shaun of the Dead, I really didn't like that.

I can't wait for your next HGH video!


Eat more s'mores,

<3 Jordan.

Scott said...

You're on blogtv right now, and I'm watching it, but I cannot for the life of me get my blogtv chat to load. Considering dubbing this the worst day of my life... Please broadcast again soon. :(

PS. I agree about first person, it's almost attractive to read.

comelygrace said...

I got to catch a lot of the end of your blogtv stuff and you both are awesome. Wished I could have chatted but I don't have an account thing and couldn't figure out how to sign up. I must be dumb, but I'm going to blame it on exhaustion. It's like 2am now. Come chill on the east coast so I don't have to stay up ridiculously late to participate in realtime endeavors you put on. Am I making sense? Prob not. Going to pass out now.

p.s. Most adorable thing was when you kissed his cheek and he turned his face to you and grabbed your face and planted one right on the kisser! Cuuuuties. ;D

kthx night.

Melody said...

Your BlogTV show with Sebastian tonight was wonderful and fun! This is whitefluffyhat, and I fangirl you, like, a lot. Okay. ...That's all. :D

VicMorrowsGhost said...

That was some epic blog tv.
Sebastian doesn't know Mrs Nerimon? WTF?

Mass Chaos In Arizona said...

I'm in agreeance with the two people who said Looking for Alaska and Paper Towns are better due to being written in first-person, rather than third like Katherines.

Also, I hate to admit this, but I actually enjoy Twilight as a whole. Being a guy, I take so much crap for that, but personal taste I guess.

Ben Cracknell said...

Hey Hayley!
I thought the 5ag didn't like Twilight? When I was talking to Kayley yesterday, she said that all of you have been hating on if for the past year?
Maybe It's just me, maybe I'm getting confused.

Also, do you know if Kristina will be making any videos in the duration of her London trip?
No one else has replied, and I'm really going to miss her.

Arden said...

When I was younger, I refused to read books that weren't in first person. Then I read Harry Potter, and realized that third person can be good too. I still love books in first person ^^

Elizabeth... said...

I love how you could turn and say what the last book Sebastian read in first person was.

That's the type of relationship I want, no wonder he was in "Sexy" today.

I don't discriminate about 1st/3rd person authorship... it's more about the story/characters I think.

Zombie said...

*sobs*





p.s.
I'm SUPER EXCITED to see Sebastian's video.


*gags from crying so hard*

Hello there! said...

The whole movie became so much better because of that zombie attacking that girl who looks like meekakitty? Don't you think so? Am I not right?






Obviously you have some grudge on her... Or maybe not:P

VTBurninator said...

Meekakitty is everywhere lol! I had a freaking dream about her the other night, she helped murder this lady (by strategically placing pins in veins in her body creating clots and restricting blood flow) however, my girlfriend somehow was framed. I had to use my invisibility cloak to eavesdrop on Tessa, catching her talking to herself about what she had done. By the time I got to the courthouse, my boss had already gotten a confession out of another girl which got my girlfriend off the hook, but Meekakitty sat laughing in the audience, leaving me the only person knowing the truth.

PS- I got an e-mail about your BlogTV...did I miss it?? ::pout::

John said...

I love first person narrative!!

I can't wait for Dennis' and Sebastians vlog! From Sebastians stint as your fill in i can't wait to see what he'll have to say in the vlog

SarahKeeler said...

First person is only as melodramatic, corny and lame as the narrator. Enter Bella and a host of other YA novels with terribly boring and self-indulgent narrators. This is also why many memoirs suck. The narrator must be somewhat self-deprecating to make me care at all, specifically in creative non-fiction first person.

The only tense that absolutely can't be redeemed is third-person present," Sarah says as she pounds the keys of her laptop with all the strength her small fingers possess.

Joanne said...

you have a blog tv?
how has this information remained unknown to me??

Anonymous said...

first person is obviously the best. Third person can get seriously confusing at times.

Nokorola said...

It's good that you got your hair deflated.
Where did you get a hair grenade?
First paragraph = Amazing.
Microwaved Cheese is always a good decision.
I'm looking forward to the new video.

Have a Hayley day.

asdaSKLJDSJK said...

I can want to say is that Heart of Darkness makes me groan as well. Worst book I had to read in high school. Ughhhh.


I don't have a problem with first person either as long as it's executed well!

Anonymous said...

Just let me put in there that I love first person stories. Maybe it's just optimism because that's the POV in which I write.

Conditioner is the best thing in the world for hair. I'll be honest: it's pretty much all I use. What with curly hair. And it's down to my waist so I can go through a bottle a week if I don't ration it...eats up whatever I give it. :sigh:

Melanie said...

Here's the thing. You're my new friend. Wait? Do I have to wait for you to agree? I have no patience for that. Hi new friend! :P

Anonymous said...

Groansigh @ Heart of Darkness? Heresy! It's true, though, that first person can be done fantastically well by talented authors. I prefer books that switch between first and third, however - I like the feeling of omniscience.

Incidentally, if you can withstand numerous perspective jumps, you should really read House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. Then again, you have to tolerate the constantly shifting page layout and type, as well as the mind-bending complexity of the plot, but if you can get through it all without going insane, you'll find it to be a very fulfilling read.

Also zombies woo!

Eddy said...

Sunday's Jump Start comic reminds me of Hayley. I'll change the name so it makes more sense.

Marcy: Hayley confirmed me as a friend on Facebook!

Joe: Don't be Hayley's friend on Facebook!

Marcy: Joe! Why would you say such a thing?!

Joe: Cause Hayley is the Grammar Police! She's always been a bit annoying... But with Facebook, she's having a field day! Whatever you write is gonna come back with stuff crossed out and corrected!

Marcy: Well, I'm good at writing. I got straight A's in English.

Later...

Marcy: Joe was right! Hayley just gave me a B+!!

Eddy said...

Ok, I posted too quick! Hayley, you are not annoying! Keep posting your videos and your blog!

It's what I check first after email. (I know, I should check your stuff out first) That didn't sound right, but you know what I mean. Don't give me a C!!

realist. said...

may i ask which joke google yelled at you for?

Anonymous said...

You guys are awesome. =]
And I enjoy first person books. Often they are harder to write than third.
I love your blog. I just spent the time I was going to spend on MY blog, reading yours.
-alex

Ellie said...

I just had the first person argument with one of my friends today. She refuses to read anything in first person. It makes me sad. Then again the fact that she has only read one book in the past three years is what is truly tragic.

Tamsin said...

You seemed way too happy about the zombies attacking someone who looks like MeekaKitty lol

nicoleeeyyynyquil09 said...

I personally like first person, it allows the author to become more like the character.