Garden Spells and Wal-Mart Plus

Garden Spells and Wal-Mart Plus
7/31/08
OK this doesn’t mean you should not read the previous post. And the next post may have something to do with the system of medicine in this country. And this post does not examine the morality of locking people up for using illegal drugs, or just how well the status quo functions This post does critique a novel, and ruminate on the food goods one gets at Wal-Mart, plus reports on other stores.
Garden Spells was written by Sarah Addison Allen. I went to a book discussion group. Reading a book is a lot of work for an intelligent conversation and the chance of meeting a romance partner.

8/3/08
This novel is called by me to be an example of magical realism. From my dictionary as I remember, this is a realistic narration with elements of fantasy. Here is a story about four female relatives who have paranormal gifts. The main character is able to use plants from her garden that seems pharmacological but also magical. At the end of a book is an index of plants and their uses. Is this a kind of grimoire?
A more important point is, why does the author make the personification of evil a man? Is evil masculine? I think it is an effort by the author to segregate the genders. The women get along together just fine. I think this is to sell more books to bonbon eating female loners. Who needs a man? To be fair, two couples do pair up eventually.
One slightly negative female character is the mother of someone and is unpleasant. Surprise, surprise she also use her sexuality for advantage. This is pounding away with the theory that sex is bad (and I don’t agree.) At least in the end there is a baby born – kind of a Christmas story.
About this book Garden Spells. The title is literally describing magic, so it is controversial from the beginning. I think the mob doesn’t like magic, unless it’s doing it itself.

8/4/08
An actual character in the book turns out to be an apple tree that can throw apples to people. These apples promote dangerous precognitive visions. At the group someone mentioned a parallel to the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden. Do you think apples promote paranormal abilities?

8/5/08
Wal-Mart has sold me poisonous items. Recently it was a can of Chef Boyardee canned pasta. In the past, it was defective Diet Mountain Dew. Time and time again, their Sam’s Club generic Diet Cola has come up pain inducing. My theory is that it’s the mob trying to damage Wal-Mart’s sales because 1) they are non-union and 2) they are pro-China, which happens to be kind of a rotten country if you think about it. I feel humble in not casting stones, but if you consider pollution, human rights, censorship and their lead in wages race to the bottom, there is room for improvement. They’ve also given us cannibalism and the Death of a Thousand Cuts. So they help make Wal-Mart an easy target for the bad guys.
Other stores have sold bad milk and my gosh beer and other alcohol for reasons that I can only guess that they were too cheap and they are trying to stimulate more expensive sales. Other theories include that it’s a two part poison to spare others, and that appropriate paranoia indicate that the bad guys are plain out to get me. These stores include Walgreen’s, CVS, and Giant Eagle.
I believe physical pain is intrinsically related to our souls. Luxury is not necessary, but of things like hunger, pain, and sleep deprivation from the cold: It doesn’t take an Einstein to know that these things suck. And I’m saying again that the bad guys have delivered to me all sorts of pain that has not yet been diagnosed. I will be happy to report that I am mistaken if that is in fact the case. People who are inexpert on the situation say no one is poisoning me. How do they know how common it is or isn’t?
So that’s me whining. I am not recommending the book. In the book and at the discussion I asked if magic is always a bad thing (like as all originating with the Devil, as was told to me by a priest.) So I asked and I got a lot of No, No’s, magic isn’t all bad. The book treats it as a matter of course as it mixes the real with the surreal, and never uses the phrase white magic. And I can use some preternatural assistance in dealing against the bad guys who poison goods.