Sick day and K. Stockett's "The Help"

I had to take a sick day as my neck has been bothering me, and I seem to be hovering on the edge of a major flu attack. I'm immobilized in bed with my laptop and Totoro, who, through some arcane instinctual reflex, always stays a good 15 inches away from me. Perhaps he doesn't want whatever bug I'm harboring?

The only way to get him to cuddle up next to me (and with "cuddle" used in the loosest way possible here) is by putting his thick blue fleece blanket near my leg. Totoro goes into his zen state, kneading the life out of blanket, purring ever so loudly, content with the feel of fluff beneath his paws. It's such a funny sight, especially when his eyes turn to slits, and he seems caught in some transcendental, almost religious, experience. I always wonder what goes through his mind.

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Just learned from Time magazine that a movie version of "The Help" by K. Stockett will be released this summer. Hmm. I am very ambivalent about the novel. I loved the characters, though, but the writing did not do it for me. I felt it was extending its reach too much, trying too hard to be the novel (of what?). But while it was lackluster in that aspect, her characters (especially Minny, of the chocolate pie incident, and Aibileen) were infinitely endearing. 

Once it's on Netflix, I will probably watch it, perhaps in conjunction with "Driving Miss Daisy," "Downton Abbey," "Remains of the Day" and of course, "Upstairs, Downstairs" - the seminal work that has inspired these studies on master-help relations. If anything, "The Help" has had me thinking aboutt exploring this relation from a Filipino-Chinese context (which I feel, from experience, partly mirrors that of the American South experience.) Hmm.

"Purr."