Oh, Pedestrians...

This is just one of those short rants that I considered posting on Facebook, but then decided against it. But we all, myself included, need to just rant some times, and this blog is turning out to be almost as neglected as my old livejournal is, so I thought this would be the space for it.

The subject? Pedestrians. Now, walking is great, and given that this country is known for both a highly sedentary lifestyle and pollution caused by over-dependence on vehicles, I'm glad to see people walking. But the walkers in my area (suburban PG County, MD) just don't have much sense. They ignore perfectly good, clear sidewalks to walk in the street instead. These aren't high-traffic areas, but it's still unnerving as a driver having to share road-space with people who should be utilizing the sidewalks made for them. It's for your own safety, people!!

What really brought about this rant was seeing, on the outskirts of my neighborhood, three men walking abreast right down the center of the street. I had to go illegally pass in the opposing lane to go around them. Again, this wasn't an extremely high traffic area - a semi-residential road with speed bumps and a 25 mile-per-hour speed limit. But still. There were no sidewalks, but in that case, the shoulder is perfectly appropriate walking space. The middle of the road is not.

 Aargh. It's even worse in cities. In both Baltimore and DC (where I have been a pedestrian as well as a driver), pedestrians are all too eager to ignore the signals in the cross-walks and act like the road (rather than the sidewalks) belong to them.

Just think of this as a little public service announcement. Keep on walkin', just do so in walking-appropriate spaces, and when it's your turn to walk.

In other news, it's now officially spring, and yet again there is snow (freezing rain? sleet? wintry mix?) forecasted for Tuesday. Get it together, mother nature.

Goodreads Book Review: Divergent

Divergent by Veronica Roth
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Susan Collins' enormously popular Hunger Games trilogy seems to have sparked the trend of dystopian teen novel-turned-film. I can't speak for the yet-to-be-released film version of Divergent, but Veronica Roth's novel Divergent, also the first in a trilogy, has many of the factors that made The Hunger Games so popular: a fascinating dystopian setting, a strong and courageous female protagonist, and both plenty of action (and, yes, violence) and internal turmoil.

Sixteen-year-old Beatrice lives in Chicago, where all of society is divided into 5 factions intent on cultivating a specific virtue. For the Erudite it's knowledge, for the Dauntless it is bravery, for Amity it is peacefulness, for Candor it is honesty, and for the faction in which Beatrice has grown up, Abnegation, it is selflessness. As the novel opens, Beatrice and her brother, Caleb, prepare to take a test that will help determine where they truly belong and which faction they should, after a formal initiation process, devote their life to. It is "faction over family," they are told.

But Beatrice's test results reveal something unusual: she is "divergent," and as such is considered dangerous.

Not fully understanding what her divergence means, Beatrice, who adopts the nickname Tris, decides to leave Abnegation for the Dauntless and begins a grueling initiation process in which she tests the limits of her courage, attempts to learn who to trust, and comes to realize that the society she lives in is not as perfect, or as safe, as she had though.

Divergent is written for teens, but its content makes it an engrossing read for adults as well. It may not be appropriate for younger teens, as the violence approaches Hunger Games levels. It is a quick, fast-paced read, but thematically heavier than most teen-oriented books. Roth's use of imagery makes the novel come alive for the reader; she incorporates real landmarks such as the Ferris Wheel into a crumbling, dystopian Chicago. While some of the habits of the various factions verge on stereotype (the Dauntless are all tattooed, and the Erudite wear glasses even if they don't have vision problems), these details also bring Tris' world to life.

As fast-paced as Divergent is, Roth manages to incorporate deeper themes along with the non-stop action. The novel will leave readers pondering everything from the nature of bravery to the pitfalls of cultivating certain virtues at the expense of others to the futility of trying to cultivate the "perfect" society.

The one thing I wasn't such a fan of was the budding romance between Tris and her Divergent leader, "Four." It wasn't as bad as Twilight's Bella and Edward, but Four never seems to be that...well...nice to Tris. Yes, it is largely under the guise of him being the "tough leader" trying to draw out Tris' courage, but even after he confesses his feelings for her, things like him grabbing her wrist to hold her back or calling her an idiot grated on me. Four is otherwise an admirable character in many ways, with a vision for what his faction and society could be, but his relationship with Tris bugged me. But that relationship is a relatively minor part of the book, so I can let it slide.

I'm curious to see how successfully Divergent will be adapted to the big screen. If you are interested in dystopian fiction, see the movie, but definitely read the book!

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