All I want for Christmas...

As its December first, I thought it was high time I got my Christmas list organised. Hopefully I'm just freakishly organised (five down, five to go) when it comes to gifts and that!

With two front teeth intact, unfortunately my list is rather boring and practical this year (though, lets be honest, so is wanting two front teeth), probably after my complete frivolity in England and the fact that I'm moving into The Teacup in about six weeks (hopefully! Don't quote me. But the faster I get out of this shocking bakery job, the better!).

Edit: I just searched for ages on Gin in a Teacup (not exactly a waste, the posts are still fabulous the second (or third) time around) for where she references the new apartment as "The Teacup", but maybe I just made that up or it was a conversation we had once? Anyway, I'm moving in with my delightful big sister!

Sexy Stationary and other organisational needs
I have a massive obsession with stationary. In fact, I was rather devastated when I didn't get a callback interview from Officeworks, and now I'm determined to work at kikki.k when I move up. It actually pains me somewhat that I haven't found a 2010 diary yet (A5, week to view if you please!), but I did buy a weekly planner yesterday to ease the hurt :)

I also discovered a delightful etsy store called BoyGirlParty, which has some cute, quirky organisational things like to-do lists, notepads and recipe cards adorned with gorgeous original illustrations. And I am told they have a stockist in Perth, but where exactly is being withheld until Best Friend has done his Christmas shoppping! How exciting.


Bunny and Squirrell recipe cards and Octopus To-Do list from boygirlparty on etsy

I also really want this Personal Library Kit by Knock Knock... it would be very helpful remembering where I've lent all my books out to! I found it on FredFlare, one of my favourite lust-after-everything sites.




More books!

When I was virtually unemployed for about three weeks, I read a considerable amount of books and forgot how much I enjoy it (oh hello, internet! Our long and prosperous relationship has taken a backseat for the moment). My friend Louise and I have a shared dream of owning every single Popular Penguin (wouldn't it just look excellent on your bookshelf, all those orange spines in a row!), and at the moment I only have On The Road in that edition.



I'm also jonesing for some more Bukowski after I read Factotum and found it a lot more hilarious than I'd originally anticipated. And very easy to read, especially after the stream-of-consciousness in On The Road!

Some cute jewellery

I'm actually not a big jewellery wearer, but I do enjoy quirky little pieces like the Charlie Chaplain necklace I got for my birthday and pretty much everything I got at Anna Lou of London. My favourite (that I own already) is this sushi brooch:


but they had some other awesome things that I didn't buy (I think £100 was more than enough to spend!) like these necklaces.

fear and loathing of gatsby

Often the work of one prolific writer will influence others throughout their lifetime and after. This is especially true of F. Scott Fitzgerald and his work The Great Gatsby, which is revered as one of the best representations of the Jazz Age and a brilliant novel. A snapshot of an era, Gatsby deals with the decline of the American Dream and critiques the values of the upper class. These themes are also evident within Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, a piece of 'gonzo' journalism that has been hailed as a modern literary classic. Thompson’s admiration for Fitzgerald’s work seems to have influenced his writing considerably, as many correlations can be made between the two pieces that are each hailed as classics of their time. While working, Thompson would copy out Gatsby on a typewriter to try and learn the literary style of Fitzgerald that made him such a revered author (he would also copy out Ernest Hemmingway's A Farewell to Arms). As such, he has been largely influenced by Fitzgerald's work and the themes of the novel have seemed to permeate Fear and Loathing.

Both novels concentrate largely around the decline of the American Dream. In Gatsby, the characters that aim for the stereotypical American Dream of wealth, possessions and freedom (Gatsby and Myrtle) are killed. Gatsby and Myrtle both aspire to have the material possessions and the privileges of the upper class, a dream that neither of them are able to realise. Fear and Loathing, meanwhile, is concerned primarily with an (albeit drug-hazed) search for the American Dream. This novel ends with them not having found the American Dream, just as Gatsby ends without Gatsby and Myrtle having achieved their American Dream. Coincidence? Possibly.

However, there seems to be too much correlation thematically between the two texts. And given Thompson's admiration for Fitzgerald's work, it seems too coincidental that the texts are similar. Fear and Loathing, while a revolutionary piece of work and groundbreaking in terms of publicising 'gonzo' journalism, seems to be highly influenced by Fitzgerald and another attempt, although arguably more successful than any others, at recreating Fitzgerald's iconicism.

That being said, I should also add that Fitzgerald had a lot more to work with. The 1920s did produce some rather awesome music and fashion, and I doubt you have any taste in either whilst on drugs.

All flapper, no slapper!

Not a fan of the unfinished lip, but gosh darn it, I love to be able to pull of that smoky eye!