Since I have been watching the 3rd season of The Tudors on Netflix (I love summer!), I have also been reading Alison Weir's book The Six Wives of Henry VIII. If you know me at all, you know I love history - British particularly and the monarchy specifically - so I had picked this book up off the bargain bin a while ago. I knew a good bit about Katherine of Aragon (Wifey #1), but not so much about #'s 3-6. Everybody knows about Anne Bolyen, victim...um, Wifey #2. Remember the rhyme - "Divorced, beheaded, died; divorced, beheaded, survived!" This in regards to the fates of each of Henry's spouses.
Interestingly enough, according to Weir, Wife #3, Jane Seymour, was the wife who was the most beloved of the king, particularly because she gave him a son, his only male heir, Edward. Jane suffered a long labor with Edward and died as a result of an infection. It is believed that she suffered a tear in the womb which resulted in the infection. She appeared fine immediately after the birth, but within hours she was feverish. At the time, this was called "childbirth fever" and there was obviously no effective medication for infection. The illness lasted several days wherein she rallied a couple of times, but then was obviously beyond all hope. Her death crushed Henry. However, in light of the fact that he only had one son and two daughters, he was quick to start the hunt for another wife in order to secure the "spare" to go with the "heir." At the time of Edward's birth, Henry had reinstated his daughter, Mary, by Katherine, to the line of succession, but as he now had a son, he wanted to ensure a male succession. Small children died at an alarming rate. At this time, the Lady Elizabeth had not been reinstated, I think, although he did recognize her as his daughter.
The search for a new wife actually took a couple of years. It is funny how rumors start, and once people in the world knew that Henry had buried three wives, eligible women seemed as scarce as hen's teeth. Everybody knew that he had divorced Katherine because, as Henry stated, his marriage was wrong due to the fact that Katherine had been married to his older brother, Arthur previously. The world was also aware of the fate of his second wife, Anne Boleyn, who, thanks to Henry, couldn't keep her head on straight, or at all for that matter. Jane Seymour was rumoured to have died because of neglect during childbirth. All of this information in the worldly gossip made princesses and countesses, and such run for the hills when Henry started showing interest. Eventually, he was talked into marrying the German Anne of Cleves. His Lord Privy Seal, Thomas Cromwell, was responsbile for this bit of matchmaking.
Anne of Cleves was the sister of William. Will kept his sister pretty closely guarded and didn't allow Henry's envoys much of an opportunity to get to know her. For the most part, Henry married her almost sight unseen. He had sent his court artist, Hans Holbein, to paint her, but Cromwell put a bug in Holbein's ear to make her look really pretty in the portait. Henry fell in love with a vision that didn't look much like reality. When she showed up in England with all the pomp and circumstance Henry could welcome her with, and all the world was watching, he was greatly disappointed in her looks. Henry was accustomed to petite, pretty woman and Anne was tall and very angular. What we would call "big boned" here in the South. He also said she smelled bad. Apparently, the lady had a pretty stout body odor and this was a few centuries before Secret. Once Anne arrived in England, Henry tried everything he could think of to get out of actually marrying the woman, but it was too late. The country expected a wedding, another heir, etc. so instead of humiliating himself, his counsel and his fiance, he went forward with the wedding. Unfortunately, he was too revolted by his new wife to actually manage to consummate the marriage. This time the playboy just couldn't function.
Henry was the dutiful husband in public, but in private he was quite distant. All the while, he was working with his advisors to figure out a way to divorce Anne. Divorce had been a difficult, long process with Katherine, but Anne was quite happy to be put aside. She was pretty innocent, but she knew when she wasn't wanted. However, she liked England, so she stayed in an estate after the King provided for her and was actually a favorite of the King's next wife, Katherine Howard. More on her later.
Still working on Beloved by Toni Morrison. Can't wait to talk about this one, but it will wait until it is finished. Good stuff there. My AP class will be reading it later in the year. Until next time, keep reading...
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Thursday, July 28, 2011
The Reading Stack
The last 20 days have been pretty busy for me and my reading stack is a little dusty. While admitting that a book had "beaten" me is difficult, for the time being I am leaving One Hundred Years of Solitude on the nightstand with a bookmark in it. The stream of consciousness writing and the confusion with characters has made my head hurt, so I will leave it alone for a while. In the meantime, I have read, with pleasure, "A Doll House" by Henrik Ibsen. This one is on my summer reading list for AP Lit this year, and I plan to do like a colleague of mine does and pair it with Jane Eyre. Interestingly, the play was originally named "A Doll House" (no apostrophe to make a possessive after "Doll"), but often, in translation, it is referred to as "A Doll's House." In my estimation, that little possessive makes all the difference in the world. To speak of a doll house brings to mind a child's toy available in a room for play. It is a stagnant image with no ownership attached. When the translation adds the "apostrophe + s" on the end, a character suddenly emerges - that of the doll who will inhabit the house. The doll is a plaything, a toy, nothing to be taken seriously.
Personally, I'm not sure what Ibsen's original intent was with regard to the title, but the meaning in the play is obvious. Nora is the main character. She is a wife and mother, married to Helmer. Helmer refers to her using playful titles like "lark" and "squirrel." He gently chides her for spending money and his tone is sweetly condescending - in order words, he speaks to her as if she is a child playing house. She, of course, is the doll. Dolls are supposed to be pretty and serve the purpose of entertaining the owner - nothing more. But Nora has a little secret about something she did for her husband's benefit which will ruin his reputation as a business man if it ever comes out. Spoiler Alert! The secret does come out and although Helmer's reputation is not ruined, his vision of his wife is altered. This is the point of Nora's awakening and her complete shift in personality.
"A Doll's House" (you can see which title I prefer) is most easily read through the lens of feminist criticism; however, I think a psychoanalytical criticism applies as well. Ultimately, this play is a power struggle. Those who appear to be in power never really are and those who seem to be without power secretly hold all the cards. What a character will do to maintain (1) respectibility in the eyes of the world and (2) a foothold on a higher link in the "food chain" are probably not so surprising in 2011, but in 1879, some of the actions might be considered shocking.
This play is a super quick read, but it left me puzzling for a days. I do believe there is a little Nora in all of us gals.
By the way, I'm about mid-ways of Beloved by Toni Morrison. I'm ashamed to say that I missed her during my college years. I don't have any idea how that happened, but I'm happy to have discovered her now. Beloved is heartbreaking but beautifully written prose - fiction based on things that should never have happened. She reminds me of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splended Suns for another place and time. There are so many symbolic references in Beloved that it makes my head swim and I have to put it down just to process them. Next post will have more to say.
Personally, I'm not sure what Ibsen's original intent was with regard to the title, but the meaning in the play is obvious. Nora is the main character. She is a wife and mother, married to Helmer. Helmer refers to her using playful titles like "lark" and "squirrel." He gently chides her for spending money and his tone is sweetly condescending - in order words, he speaks to her as if she is a child playing house. She, of course, is the doll. Dolls are supposed to be pretty and serve the purpose of entertaining the owner - nothing more. But Nora has a little secret about something she did for her husband's benefit which will ruin his reputation as a business man if it ever comes out. Spoiler Alert! The secret does come out and although Helmer's reputation is not ruined, his vision of his wife is altered. This is the point of Nora's awakening and her complete shift in personality.
"A Doll's House" (you can see which title I prefer) is most easily read through the lens of feminist criticism; however, I think a psychoanalytical criticism applies as well. Ultimately, this play is a power struggle. Those who appear to be in power never really are and those who seem to be without power secretly hold all the cards. What a character will do to maintain (1) respectibility in the eyes of the world and (2) a foothold on a higher link in the "food chain" are probably not so surprising in 2011, but in 1879, some of the actions might be considered shocking.
This play is a super quick read, but it left me puzzling for a days. I do believe there is a little Nora in all of us gals.
By the way, I'm about mid-ways of Beloved by Toni Morrison. I'm ashamed to say that I missed her during my college years. I don't have any idea how that happened, but I'm happy to have discovered her now. Beloved is heartbreaking but beautifully written prose - fiction based on things that should never have happened. She reminds me of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splended Suns for another place and time. There are so many symbolic references in Beloved that it makes my head swim and I have to put it down just to process them. Next post will have more to say.
Friday, July 8, 2011
Education, Mystery and Elizabeth Bennett
The title for today's post is sort of random, but it works for what I want to talk about. The reading challenge for the summer is ongoing, but I have taken a couple of detours. Let's start with my agreement to what Emily said about Anthem by Ayn Rand. This is the first book I have read by this author and while I am not sure I agree with Rand's philosophies, I do understand her theme. Emily said it best - freedom. Not just a freedom to do what a person wants to do, but to learn what he or she wants to learn. As an educator, we spend a lot of lip-service talking about making students "life-long learners." Then we serve up a curriculum and a pacing guide and facts by the boat-load when really we need to be teaching them how to learn for themselves. Students believe that education ends at graduation, whether that is high school, college or whatever. In fact, that is just the beginning of education - life is the real teacher. Instead of teaching curriculum, I, as a teacher, should be using curriculum to teach my kids how to learn when I am no longer there to guide them. The main character in Anthem was forced to live within the confines of the dictated state - within the brotherhood. Thinking for himself was criminal. Freedom was achieved when he was able to think for himself. We need to decide whether or not thinking for ourselves is worth the cost - and there is definitely a cost. (btw, truly thinking for yourself does not mirror everyone else in the culture who thinks they are thinking for themselves, while, in fact, they are just following a different crowd. Just saying...)
Moving on, after I read Anthem, I read Janet Evanovich's One for the Money. One of my co-workers has been encouraging me to read this mystery series for a while now, so I picked on up at 2nd and Charles. Loved it! It was pure fun. I laughed the whole way through it. Evanovich creates in Stephanie Plum a very believable character and a New Jersey accent that I can hear as I read. I'll be getting Two for the Dough very soon. These books are quick, fun, take-it-to-the-pool reads.
The latest book from my ambitious reading list is One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. This book may be retitled One Hundred Years of trying to Finish reading the book. I don't have any problem admitting when a book is hard and this one is hard for me. Marquez writes about the family of Jose' Arcadio Buendia and his wife Ursula who move to the fictional town of Mocando. They have a bunch of children named Jose Arcadia, Aureliano, etc. They in turn have children named Aureiano Jose, Aurelianos, Arcadio, who in turn have children with the same types of names. It is so hard trying to keep the characters straight. The book does not have a typical rhythm in the chapters, which are very long. Most books, modern or classic, quickly develop a rhythm to the chapters, and the reader can detect the rise and fall of the action within each chapter, which clues them to the end of the section. One Hundred Years is written in almost a stream-of-consciousness manner which moves from one idea or character situation to another to another, ending up nowhere near where you started at the beginning of the chapter. Flashback and flash forwards are common. I'm about halfway finished, and I will persevere. Emily, my daughter, was reading it in Spanish, and I think she had to take an extended break. I can't even imagine trying to read this difficult book in another language.
With regard to themes of the book, I notice a couple of things so far. From a gender perspective, men are visionary and women are practical. Truth does not always win the day, and the explanation of anything supernatural should be attempted. Faith does not have much of a place. Family is supreme; religion takes a backseat to family. I'll weigh in more as I go along.
In light of the heavy reading, I have decided to intersperse another fun book into the lineup. My bff (aka my Nook) has the capability to download a Free Friday selection each week. I try to download the ones that appeal to me, and I recently downloaded a piece of Jane Austin fan fiction entitled The Phantom of Pemberly. As you know, lots of fan fiction has found a market in the mainstream publishing world which follow the characters of Pride and Prejudice after the marriage of Elizabeth Bennett and Fitzwilliam Darcy. Since I love that book, this type of fiction is a guilty pleasure, and I don't mind admitting that I enjoy it. Imagination should follow the end of a book like P & P; remember what I said about thinking for yourself. Some of this fan fiction is pretty bad, but some is a lot of fun. Beware, some of it is racy, and you might see Darcy and Elizabeth in situations that you never dreamed, but The Phantom of Pemberly is harmless. It is a murder mystery which follows Elizabeth and Darcy through a snowstorm at Pemberly where they have a lot of unexpected guests and strange occurrences. I'm about a third of the way in. We'll see if Lydia did in the parlor with a revolver or if Mrs. Reynolds used poison in the drawingroom.
That's it for today. Happy reading!
Moving on, after I read Anthem, I read Janet Evanovich's One for the Money. One of my co-workers has been encouraging me to read this mystery series for a while now, so I picked on up at 2nd and Charles. Loved it! It was pure fun. I laughed the whole way through it. Evanovich creates in Stephanie Plum a very believable character and a New Jersey accent that I can hear as I read. I'll be getting Two for the Dough very soon. These books are quick, fun, take-it-to-the-pool reads.
The latest book from my ambitious reading list is One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. This book may be retitled One Hundred Years of trying to Finish reading the book. I don't have any problem admitting when a book is hard and this one is hard for me. Marquez writes about the family of Jose' Arcadio Buendia and his wife Ursula who move to the fictional town of Mocando. They have a bunch of children named Jose Arcadia, Aureliano, etc. They in turn have children named Aureiano Jose, Aurelianos, Arcadio, who in turn have children with the same types of names. It is so hard trying to keep the characters straight. The book does not have a typical rhythm in the chapters, which are very long. Most books, modern or classic, quickly develop a rhythm to the chapters, and the reader can detect the rise and fall of the action within each chapter, which clues them to the end of the section. One Hundred Years is written in almost a stream-of-consciousness manner which moves from one idea or character situation to another to another, ending up nowhere near where you started at the beginning of the chapter. Flashback and flash forwards are common. I'm about halfway finished, and I will persevere. Emily, my daughter, was reading it in Spanish, and I think she had to take an extended break. I can't even imagine trying to read this difficult book in another language.
With regard to themes of the book, I notice a couple of things so far. From a gender perspective, men are visionary and women are practical. Truth does not always win the day, and the explanation of anything supernatural should be attempted. Faith does not have much of a place. Family is supreme; religion takes a backseat to family. I'll weigh in more as I go along.
In light of the heavy reading, I have decided to intersperse another fun book into the lineup. My bff (aka my Nook) has the capability to download a Free Friday selection each week. I try to download the ones that appeal to me, and I recently downloaded a piece of Jane Austin fan fiction entitled The Phantom of Pemberly. As you know, lots of fan fiction has found a market in the mainstream publishing world which follow the characters of Pride and Prejudice after the marriage of Elizabeth Bennett and Fitzwilliam Darcy. Since I love that book, this type of fiction is a guilty pleasure, and I don't mind admitting that I enjoy it. Imagination should follow the end of a book like P & P; remember what I said about thinking for yourself. Some of this fan fiction is pretty bad, but some is a lot of fun. Beware, some of it is racy, and you might see Darcy and Elizabeth in situations that you never dreamed, but The Phantom of Pemberly is harmless. It is a murder mystery which follows Elizabeth and Darcy through a snowstorm at Pemberly where they have a lot of unexpected guests and strange occurrences. I'm about a third of the way in. We'll see if Lydia did in the parlor with a revolver or if Mrs. Reynolds used poison in the drawingroom.
That's it for today. Happy reading!
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Anthem, hooray!
For this post, I thought it would be a neat idea to bring in a guest writer (because that's what big, important blogs do...), so I asked my daughter, Emily, if she would step in and share her thoughts on Ayn Rand's Anthem. Enjoy!!
First of all, I want to thank my mom for giving me the opportunity to share what I think about one of my favorite books! Anthem is one of the first books that I recommend to people when they ask me which novels they should read.
One of the main reasons that Anthem is so interesting is that it follows a specific philosophy born out of the mind of its author, Ayn Rand. She developed a personal creed of individuality and selfdom known as "objectivism" (yes, you CAN create your own philosophy, just make stuff up!). This belief system was fostered by Rand who, as a young woman, had seen the tyranny in her homeland of Soviet Russia and who had lived through both the Kerensky and Bolshevik Revolutions. After communism won the country over, Rand began to embrace American politics, and it was from her dreams of freedom and morality that the ideas which would fuel the plot of Anthem were born.
The novelette is told from the viewpoint of Equality 7-2521 (yes, that's his name), a twenty-one-year old living in a futuristic world where the word "I" and the human soul behind it no longer exist. In spite of the oppression which is masked by words like "brotherhood" and "State", the young man recognizes himself as one who is different from his brethren and he dares to follow the curiosities of his mind until he discovers knowledge, power and-- Rand's most important declaration-- his sense of self as a free man.
Freedom is the driving theme of the book: the freedom that every man, woman, and child should have to think for themselves, to learn, to advance, to choose, and to love. Rand is careful to express, however, that this freedom cannot come from a decision of the State; liberty comes from a person's own realization that, as a human being, one is free. (I just had a flashback to Braveheart...) Equality 7-2521 does not gain his freedom by fighting for it with his brother men. He does not peacefully protest until the mob begrudgingly grants him independence. His "selfhood" comes to him by his own will, by his own conclusion of who he is. As he proclaims after discovering the sacred "I", the lost word, "Many words have been granted me, and some are wise, and some are false, but only three are holy: 'I will it!'" (pg. 95) This is definitely a powerful statement coming from a young woman who grew up in a world where everyone was told they were the same, and where no one was more than just a piece of the pie!
Along with freedom, another message found in the pages of Anthem is that of identity. Rand solidifies Equality 7-2521's identity by having him and his chosen love pick names. To make something true and identifiable, people give things and ideas names. Instead of a faceless number, the youth names his own, free identity with the title of "Prometheus", who, in Greek mythology was the bringer of fire to earthly men. Rand is encouraging her readers to understand to understand that both freedom and identity come from the human concept of self, not from one's peers, not from one's parents, and certainly not from what a government dictates. The young man in Anthem sees himself as someone who brings light to other men, and decides that this will be his identity because this is what he sees in himself.
This is an amazing read. The entire book is only 105 pages long, so you're getting bargain brain-fodder for only about a third of the time it takes to read those other mind-tinglers (c'mon, what other Russian authors can you appreciate in less than a week?). Be cautious, however: this book will probably make you want to change your name, steal a woman from a random field, and go live in the forest. Or, it could just encourage you to think for yourself. :) Happy reading!
First of all, I want to thank my mom for giving me the opportunity to share what I think about one of my favorite books! Anthem is one of the first books that I recommend to people when they ask me which novels they should read.
One of the main reasons that Anthem is so interesting is that it follows a specific philosophy born out of the mind of its author, Ayn Rand. She developed a personal creed of individuality and selfdom known as "objectivism" (yes, you CAN create your own philosophy, just make stuff up!). This belief system was fostered by Rand who, as a young woman, had seen the tyranny in her homeland of Soviet Russia and who had lived through both the Kerensky and Bolshevik Revolutions. After communism won the country over, Rand began to embrace American politics, and it was from her dreams of freedom and morality that the ideas which would fuel the plot of Anthem were born.
The novelette is told from the viewpoint of Equality 7-2521 (yes, that's his name), a twenty-one-year old living in a futuristic world where the word "I" and the human soul behind it no longer exist. In spite of the oppression which is masked by words like "brotherhood" and "State", the young man recognizes himself as one who is different from his brethren and he dares to follow the curiosities of his mind until he discovers knowledge, power and-- Rand's most important declaration-- his sense of self as a free man.
Freedom is the driving theme of the book: the freedom that every man, woman, and child should have to think for themselves, to learn, to advance, to choose, and to love. Rand is careful to express, however, that this freedom cannot come from a decision of the State; liberty comes from a person's own realization that, as a human being, one is free. (I just had a flashback to Braveheart...) Equality 7-2521 does not gain his freedom by fighting for it with his brother men. He does not peacefully protest until the mob begrudgingly grants him independence. His "selfhood" comes to him by his own will, by his own conclusion of who he is. As he proclaims after discovering the sacred "I", the lost word, "Many words have been granted me, and some are wise, and some are false, but only three are holy: 'I will it!'" (pg. 95) This is definitely a powerful statement coming from a young woman who grew up in a world where everyone was told they were the same, and where no one was more than just a piece of the pie!
Along with freedom, another message found in the pages of Anthem is that of identity. Rand solidifies Equality 7-2521's identity by having him and his chosen love pick names. To make something true and identifiable, people give things and ideas names. Instead of a faceless number, the youth names his own, free identity with the title of "Prometheus", who, in Greek mythology was the bringer of fire to earthly men. Rand is encouraging her readers to understand to understand that both freedom and identity come from the human concept of self, not from one's peers, not from one's parents, and certainly not from what a government dictates. The young man in Anthem sees himself as someone who brings light to other men, and decides that this will be his identity because this is what he sees in himself.
This is an amazing read. The entire book is only 105 pages long, so you're getting bargain brain-fodder for only about a third of the time it takes to read those other mind-tinglers (c'mon, what other Russian authors can you appreciate in less than a week?). Be cautious, however: this book will probably make you want to change your name, steal a woman from a random field, and go live in the forest. Or, it could just encourage you to think for yourself. :) Happy reading!
Friday, June 24, 2011
Eat, Pray, Love - Books 2 and 3
I have less to say about the last two parts of Liz Gilbert's book Eat, Pray, Love than I had about the first part. Just a bit of a confession here, I just don't agree with most of her thoughts on God and spirituality. Now that doesn't mean I am criticizing her beliefs - they are just very different from my own. However, I don't argue with some of the lessons that she learns during the second part of her journey, which is to India where she lives in the Ashram of her Guru for four months. One of the main lessons has to do with being still and meditating. Again, I believe that as a culture, American's are horrible at the concept of quiet and actually listening to God. Gilbert talks about how difficult it is to meditate because when she asks her mind to rest, it will quickly become, in turns, bored, angry, depressed, anxious, etc. I can totally relate to that. She says that she is burdened with what the Buddhists call the "monkey mind" which can swing from one topic to another. And I thought it was just me who was ADD. I guess not. Having this tendency to swing from thought to thought keeps a person from being present and in the moment because he or she is moving from the present to the past to the future in thought. Gilbert achieved the needed focus through a mantra. Her conversations with herself in this section are funny and so relative.
Gilbert also uses this section to talk about how sometimes in religion, humans create rituals that start out for a specific purpose but then nobody remembers what the ritual is all about and the ritual ends up driving the faith. Here is a story told to her by the Indians about a saint who was surrounded at his Ashram by his followers. For many hours a day, they would all sit around and meditate. However, the saint had a cat which was particularly annoying, so they tied the cat to a tree to keep it from distracting the meditation. This became a habit. As years passed, nobody remembered the original reason for tying the cat to a tree, and they believed that they not could find God unless they tied a cat to a tree. The moral to the story is not to get too obsessed with the repetition of ritual just for its own sake. There is more to the search for a relationship with God than ticking off the ritual.
Part 3 is Gilbert's return to Indonesia and the paradise that is Bali. Here she reunites with the medicine man who read her palm several years before. She includes some really interesting history of Bali in this section. She also meets some very important people like a medicine woman who is a real healer and good friend and teaches Liz important lessons about trust. Gilbert also meets a man and learns to love again.
I really enjoyed reading this book and got a lot out of it. It was honest and open and not at all preachy, which is great. It was simply a sharing of a woman's experience from a very dark part of her life to a new type of light.
Gilbert also uses this section to talk about how sometimes in religion, humans create rituals that start out for a specific purpose but then nobody remembers what the ritual is all about and the ritual ends up driving the faith. Here is a story told to her by the Indians about a saint who was surrounded at his Ashram by his followers. For many hours a day, they would all sit around and meditate. However, the saint had a cat which was particularly annoying, so they tied the cat to a tree to keep it from distracting the meditation. This became a habit. As years passed, nobody remembered the original reason for tying the cat to a tree, and they believed that they not could find God unless they tied a cat to a tree. The moral to the story is not to get too obsessed with the repetition of ritual just for its own sake. There is more to the search for a relationship with God than ticking off the ritual.
Part 3 is Gilbert's return to Indonesia and the paradise that is Bali. Here she reunites with the medicine man who read her palm several years before. She includes some really interesting history of Bali in this section. She also meets some very important people like a medicine woman who is a real healer and good friend and teaches Liz important lessons about trust. Gilbert also meets a man and learns to love again.
I really enjoyed reading this book and got a lot out of it. It was honest and open and not at all preachy, which is great. It was simply a sharing of a woman's experience from a very dark part of her life to a new type of light.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Eat, Pray, Love - Book 1
After I finished reading The Mayor of Casterbridge on the vacation, I immediately started reading Eat, Pray, Love by Liz Gilbert. I purchased this book for my e-reader right after I watched the movie. Now, a word about this practice... I realize that many teachers of English frown and turn their pointy noses up at the idea of "book set in film" and believe in some twisted, purist sense that true lovers of lit should never make comparisons between the books and their film versions. I have an excellent Greek word for that idea - it's "Hogwash." I really like being introduced to a book via a movie version. I am very visual, and a movie gives me a (teacher word coming - look out) "conceptual framework" for placing the book. In other words, it gives me a place in my brain upon which to hang the ideas in the book. This works well with teenagers also. When I teach Shakespeare, I show pieces of a movie along with the reading so that the kids can spend more imagination on the plot and less on setting and character because those images are already fixed in their minds.
Back to Liz Gilbert. I saw her on Oprah in 2007 when her book was published, and I thought she was moderately interesting, but didn't think I would care for her writing. The movie starring Julia Roberts was more interesting, so I Netflixed it this summer. Loved it! After a long and difficult, but perfectly pleasing year of teaching, I was intrigued by the first part of Liz Gilbert's journey in particular. Here's the summation: Gilbert was married young and later decided that she didn't want to be married any more. A falling out of love, if you will. Apparently, getting a divorce in New York is more difficult and more painful than removing a leaprous leg with nail scissors, particularly if one party is not in favor of the action. It took about 4 years to get the divorce. Yikes! During this time, Gilbert was lost, confused, ungrounded and miserable - just like any other normal human being would be. Long story short, she decided to take a year of her life to figure it all out. She started with 4 months in Italy. Actually, she had been to Bali previously for an article she was writing, met a medicine man who read her palm and was told she would eventually return. That's the end of her journey (Italy, India, Indonesia).
After all of this heartache and misery, Gilbert decides to spend 4 months in Italy to discover pleasure. Not a bad place to find pleasure. One of the ways she finds pleasure is through food, hence the first part of the title. She actually goes there to learn the language, but winds up finding a lot of pleasure in eating. But that's not the only place she finds pleasure, and I'm not talking about sex. Now, when it comes down to it, Americans are pretty horrible at enjoying themselves. According to Gilbert, we come from this uptight, Puritan, guilt-ridden background that makes us work really hard and criticize the idea of true relaxation. Imagine the executive on vacation who can't keep away from the blackberry long enough to go to the beach with his kids. I recognize this in myself. Anyway, Gilbert learns about the idea of "bel far niente" which is "the beauty of doing nothing." Here is what she says about the Italian idea of "bel far niente": "The beauty of doing nothing is the goal of all your work, the final accomplishment for which you are most highly congratulated. The more exquisitely and delightfully you can do nothing, the higher your life's achievement" (95). I love this idea. I read it (Chapter 17) to my husband and my kids. It was "food for thought" if you will.
Gilbert goes on to explain that we don't get this in American culture, and we have to be convinced that we deserve to take it easy. Think about American advertisements - "You deserve a break today" and "You've come a long way, baby!" Then we think, "Of course I deserve a break, so I'll work really hard (what!) at relaxing and overindulge in it and then experience excessive guilt because of it." This is not the way to experience "bel far niente." Experiencing this concept really comes down to asking yourself, "what would make me happy right now?" Sounds sort of selfish but it isn't because it generally incorporates the enjoyment of people you love. Long dinners around good food with good conversation and lots of laughter. Lazy afternoons of coffee and cake with your girlfriends. For me, when I think about the times that I have been most content, the scene usually incorporates my husband, my kids, my friends, yummy food, lots of laughter and great conversation. What it doesn't include is my twisted American sense of time management. How long do I have to spend here in this spot where I'm having fun before I have to get to the next task? This isn't pleasure; this isn't giving myself up to the moment.
So what I took from the first part of Gilbert's book is this - Work hard, but don't look to work as my reward. Be present in the moment of pleasure without mentally running to the next thing I "have to do." Banish guilt. This idea right here is so strong in my life that sometimes I have a hard time praying because I think I should be multi-tasking while I am spending time with God. Ridiculous! Be fully present with the people I love and give them my attention so that I can enjoy them unhindered and they can do the same. Chew! Incorporate "bel far niente" into my life and slow down enough to truly get it. Not a bad lesson for 1/3 of a book I didn't want to read in the first place.
My next post will take us to Liz's trip to India.
Gilbert, Elizabeth. Eat, pray, love: one woman's search for everything across Italy, India and Indonesia. New York: Viking, 2006.
Back to Liz Gilbert. I saw her on Oprah in 2007 when her book was published, and I thought she was moderately interesting, but didn't think I would care for her writing. The movie starring Julia Roberts was more interesting, so I Netflixed it this summer. Loved it! After a long and difficult, but perfectly pleasing year of teaching, I was intrigued by the first part of Liz Gilbert's journey in particular. Here's the summation: Gilbert was married young and later decided that she didn't want to be married any more. A falling out of love, if you will. Apparently, getting a divorce in New York is more difficult and more painful than removing a leaprous leg with nail scissors, particularly if one party is not in favor of the action. It took about 4 years to get the divorce. Yikes! During this time, Gilbert was lost, confused, ungrounded and miserable - just like any other normal human being would be. Long story short, she decided to take a year of her life to figure it all out. She started with 4 months in Italy. Actually, she had been to Bali previously for an article she was writing, met a medicine man who read her palm and was told she would eventually return. That's the end of her journey (Italy, India, Indonesia).
After all of this heartache and misery, Gilbert decides to spend 4 months in Italy to discover pleasure. Not a bad place to find pleasure. One of the ways she finds pleasure is through food, hence the first part of the title. She actually goes there to learn the language, but winds up finding a lot of pleasure in eating. But that's not the only place she finds pleasure, and I'm not talking about sex. Now, when it comes down to it, Americans are pretty horrible at enjoying themselves. According to Gilbert, we come from this uptight, Puritan, guilt-ridden background that makes us work really hard and criticize the idea of true relaxation. Imagine the executive on vacation who can't keep away from the blackberry long enough to go to the beach with his kids. I recognize this in myself. Anyway, Gilbert learns about the idea of "bel far niente" which is "the beauty of doing nothing." Here is what she says about the Italian idea of "bel far niente": "The beauty of doing nothing is the goal of all your work, the final accomplishment for which you are most highly congratulated. The more exquisitely and delightfully you can do nothing, the higher your life's achievement" (95). I love this idea. I read it (Chapter 17) to my husband and my kids. It was "food for thought" if you will.
Gilbert goes on to explain that we don't get this in American culture, and we have to be convinced that we deserve to take it easy. Think about American advertisements - "You deserve a break today" and "You've come a long way, baby!" Then we think, "Of course I deserve a break, so I'll work really hard (what!) at relaxing and overindulge in it and then experience excessive guilt because of it." This is not the way to experience "bel far niente." Experiencing this concept really comes down to asking yourself, "what would make me happy right now?" Sounds sort of selfish but it isn't because it generally incorporates the enjoyment of people you love. Long dinners around good food with good conversation and lots of laughter. Lazy afternoons of coffee and cake with your girlfriends. For me, when I think about the times that I have been most content, the scene usually incorporates my husband, my kids, my friends, yummy food, lots of laughter and great conversation. What it doesn't include is my twisted American sense of time management. How long do I have to spend here in this spot where I'm having fun before I have to get to the next task? This isn't pleasure; this isn't giving myself up to the moment.
So what I took from the first part of Gilbert's book is this - Work hard, but don't look to work as my reward. Be present in the moment of pleasure without mentally running to the next thing I "have to do." Banish guilt. This idea right here is so strong in my life that sometimes I have a hard time praying because I think I should be multi-tasking while I am spending time with God. Ridiculous! Be fully present with the people I love and give them my attention so that I can enjoy them unhindered and they can do the same. Chew! Incorporate "bel far niente" into my life and slow down enough to truly get it. Not a bad lesson for 1/3 of a book I didn't want to read in the first place.
My next post will take us to Liz's trip to India.
Gilbert, Elizabeth. Eat, pray, love: one woman's search for everything across Italy, India and Indonesia. New York: Viking, 2006.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Home again, Home again, jiggedy, jig!
After a lovely vacation with the family in which I did a lot of reading, I am home again. The house is relatively clean, so I can sit down and blog again. Let me just say that riding on trains and planes are great for reading, but I still can't read in the car.
While I was gone, I finished The Mayor of Casterbridge and I have to say that I absolutely loved that book! There is so much to say about it, but I think I will start with some of the themes. Hardy seemed to have a lot to say about marriage, respect/respectability, consequences of a person's actions (that one could branch off into half a dozen conversations). But I believe that the most intriguing concept for me was Hardy's commentary on what happens when a person tries to push bad behavior under the rug. He seems to be saying the same old thing that I have told my children and my students for years - just own the blasted mistake and move on. Let's begin: (Spoiler alert! If you plan to read the book, I might spoil a few things in the next couple of paragraphs, but I will NOT tell the ending.)
Michael Henchard sold his wife and child at an auction while in a drunken stupor. Bad mistake. So he did the right thing by falling on his knees before God and swearing off liquour for the next 21 years. He also tried to find Susan and Elizabeth Jane, but the reader gets the idea that his search was not an open one - making quiet inquiries, etc. Also, when he comes into his position as the Mayor of the city, he never discloses his past (obviously because it would have hindered getting/keeping the position - that idea of respectability) and this is his fatal flaw (or one of them). Again, when Susan and Elizabeth Jane return to him, he keeps the truth from Elizabeth Jane by covering up with a lie. He asks her to take his name - sort of an adoption situation. She doesn't buy it (out of respect for her father - Mr. Newsom) until her mother dies and Henchard finally tells her the truth. Devastating!
Susan Henchard never tells her daughter any fragment of the truth and it makes Elizabeth Jane's life extremely difficult. There are a few things she doesn't tell Michale Henchard whens she returns to Casterbridge. Namely (and here is a spoiler) that the original Elizabeth Jane - Henchard's child - died a few months after they were sold, and Susan had another daughter by Newsom, whom she named Elizabeth Jane to ease the pain of the loss of the first. Susan allowed Henchard to believe that the current EJ is the former EJ, and she never tells the current EJ that there was a former EJ. Yipes! When Henchard finds this information, his feelings for the current EJ change dramatically.
Another character tries to sweep some messy information out of the way as well. Lucetta is new to the city of Casterbridge, but an old hook-up for Henchard. In fact, they had a tryst that ruined her reputation and Michael had promised to marry her. With Lucetta, Michael straight up told the truth. He told her about his former wife, how he treated her, and there was a possibility that she might come back to the picture. The ONLY person in the book with whom Michael is completely truthful. Actually, Donald Farfrae gets a pretty accurate picture of Michael Henchard's life, but Henchard puts a bit of gloss on it for Donald to maintain a modicum of respectability. Anyway, when Lucetta enters Casterbridge, she creates a veneer of respectability and is about to "court" Michael Henchard again when she meets his friend Mr. Farfrae. Sparks start a-flying! Lucetta also befriends Elizabeth Jane and tells EJ her life story, but couches it as the story of a friend. EJ sees through that one, but doesn't realize who the male players are. Once Lucetta's story is revealed through an act of revenge on the part of a disgruntled townsman, Lucetta's veneer shatters, her life is ruined and she suffers a terrible fate.
In this book, the truth will always find you out; hiding it only leads to pain and suffering. Hardy allows his characters plenty of pain and heartbreak, but he always rewards those who try to cover up their sins in order to be more respectable with a painful unveiling - one that flings suffering farther than the character ever thought it would go. Better to own the past and live with it than try to sweep it under the rug.
So much more could be said about this book, but I'm ready to head to the pool with the next one. I'm about 2/3 of the way finished with Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. Very interesting read. More on that later on.
While I was gone, I finished The Mayor of Casterbridge and I have to say that I absolutely loved that book! There is so much to say about it, but I think I will start with some of the themes. Hardy seemed to have a lot to say about marriage, respect/respectability, consequences of a person's actions (that one could branch off into half a dozen conversations). But I believe that the most intriguing concept for me was Hardy's commentary on what happens when a person tries to push bad behavior under the rug. He seems to be saying the same old thing that I have told my children and my students for years - just own the blasted mistake and move on. Let's begin: (Spoiler alert! If you plan to read the book, I might spoil a few things in the next couple of paragraphs, but I will NOT tell the ending.)
Michael Henchard sold his wife and child at an auction while in a drunken stupor. Bad mistake. So he did the right thing by falling on his knees before God and swearing off liquour for the next 21 years. He also tried to find Susan and Elizabeth Jane, but the reader gets the idea that his search was not an open one - making quiet inquiries, etc. Also, when he comes into his position as the Mayor of the city, he never discloses his past (obviously because it would have hindered getting/keeping the position - that idea of respectability) and this is his fatal flaw (or one of them). Again, when Susan and Elizabeth Jane return to him, he keeps the truth from Elizabeth Jane by covering up with a lie. He asks her to take his name - sort of an adoption situation. She doesn't buy it (out of respect for her father - Mr. Newsom) until her mother dies and Henchard finally tells her the truth. Devastating!
Susan Henchard never tells her daughter any fragment of the truth and it makes Elizabeth Jane's life extremely difficult. There are a few things she doesn't tell Michale Henchard whens she returns to Casterbridge. Namely (and here is a spoiler) that the original Elizabeth Jane - Henchard's child - died a few months after they were sold, and Susan had another daughter by Newsom, whom she named Elizabeth Jane to ease the pain of the loss of the first. Susan allowed Henchard to believe that the current EJ is the former EJ, and she never tells the current EJ that there was a former EJ. Yipes! When Henchard finds this information, his feelings for the current EJ change dramatically.
Another character tries to sweep some messy information out of the way as well. Lucetta is new to the city of Casterbridge, but an old hook-up for Henchard. In fact, they had a tryst that ruined her reputation and Michael had promised to marry her. With Lucetta, Michael straight up told the truth. He told her about his former wife, how he treated her, and there was a possibility that she might come back to the picture. The ONLY person in the book with whom Michael is completely truthful. Actually, Donald Farfrae gets a pretty accurate picture of Michael Henchard's life, but Henchard puts a bit of gloss on it for Donald to maintain a modicum of respectability. Anyway, when Lucetta enters Casterbridge, she creates a veneer of respectability and is about to "court" Michael Henchard again when she meets his friend Mr. Farfrae. Sparks start a-flying! Lucetta also befriends Elizabeth Jane and tells EJ her life story, but couches it as the story of a friend. EJ sees through that one, but doesn't realize who the male players are. Once Lucetta's story is revealed through an act of revenge on the part of a disgruntled townsman, Lucetta's veneer shatters, her life is ruined and she suffers a terrible fate.
In this book, the truth will always find you out; hiding it only leads to pain and suffering. Hardy allows his characters plenty of pain and heartbreak, but he always rewards those who try to cover up their sins in order to be more respectable with a painful unveiling - one that flings suffering farther than the character ever thought it would go. Better to own the past and live with it than try to sweep it under the rug.
So much more could be said about this book, but I'm ready to head to the pool with the next one. I'm about 2/3 of the way finished with Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. Very interesting read. More on that later on.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
A brief departure
The day before yesterday, I realized that my Nook (a/k/a best friend since Christmas) needed charging, and I had time to read. So, I picked up another book which really should have made the summer reading list, but I forgot about it. One of several. My good friend and colleague, Rachel B. gave me a copy of Witch Child by Celia Rees. I believe she has put this book on her 10th grade summer reading list. It is always a challenge for English teachers to find summer reading books that are relevant to our curriculum, readable for our students and really good (that looks like the three R's of summer reading:) Parents and students alike find summer reading a challenge, but it is really necessary. Short story - reading is a skill that needs to be practiced and there is no way we can teach all the literature/concepts within one school year which students really need. Hence, summer reading.
Anyway, I picked up Witch Child, and it was quite good. The basic premise is that a young girl named Mary escapes England with the Puritans and winds up in a settlement close to Salem. Her grandmother was hanged in England as a witch, and Mary has a few odd quirks which make the suspicious Puritan folks turn a second glance. The writing is quite accessible for teenagers, but Rees did not lose the diction of Puritan writers. Some "period pieces" written for modern readers have diction that sounds like a contemporary sit-com. It never works. Rees does a great job with authentic diction. The thing she does even better than word choice is the inclusion of lots of historical data carefully woven into the plot. This will give students entering 10th grade American Lit the background they need to understand some of the more difficult pieces they will encounter in the fall. Also, it is really interesting. I loved the ending, which was different and quite unexpected.
So, the Nook is charged again, and I have managed to reach Casterbridge with Susan and her now grown daughter, Elizabeth-Jane. More on them later.
Anyway, I picked up Witch Child, and it was quite good. The basic premise is that a young girl named Mary escapes England with the Puritans and winds up in a settlement close to Salem. Her grandmother was hanged in England as a witch, and Mary has a few odd quirks which make the suspicious Puritan folks turn a second glance. The writing is quite accessible for teenagers, but Rees did not lose the diction of Puritan writers. Some "period pieces" written for modern readers have diction that sounds like a contemporary sit-com. It never works. Rees does a great job with authentic diction. The thing she does even better than word choice is the inclusion of lots of historical data carefully woven into the plot. This will give students entering 10th grade American Lit the background they need to understand some of the more difficult pieces they will encounter in the fall. Also, it is really interesting. I loved the ending, which was different and quite unexpected.
So, the Nook is charged again, and I have managed to reach Casterbridge with Susan and her now grown daughter, Elizabeth-Jane. More on them later.
Monday, May 30, 2011
I have to finish before I begin
Before I can get down to the nitty gritty of the book list, which some of my friends think does not look like much fun, I had to finish the book I was reading. A dear friend of mine recommended a series by Laurie R. King that starts with The Beekeeper's Apprentice. This series is about Sherlock Holmes in his "retirement" years when he actually is stumbled upon by a young girl named Mary Russell. Holmes begins training Russell, who is brilliant, and she becomes his assistant. I am several novels into the series now having just finished The Game. It was a good read, but ended abruptly. Not a smooth move, Laurie. What King did well in this book was show a strong woman, smart woman without making her witchy. Good role model for girls. I, like my friend Susan, have recommended this series to a lot of people. My daughter, for instance, just finished reading Beekeeper and really liked it.
About midnight-thirty last night, I woke up with a horrible case of indigestion. After a couple of tums, I settled into my chair and started THE LIST. The first selectio is The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy, which has a great story line. Hardy describes his characters in vivid detail; however, I will always see Ciaran Hinds as Michael Henchard from the BBC production, which I have seen a couple of times. The basic story line is that a young man, in a drunken stupor, auctions off his wife and small daughter and then lives to regret it. Just when you think you can predict Hardy, he takes a left turn and messes with your head. Obviously, the book is going to be better than the movie, because Hardy allows you into the minds of his characters whereas in the movie, you have to use their facial expressions and body language to figure out their thought process. Depending on the strength or weakness of the actor, you can lose a lot. At any rate, by the time Henchard awakens from his binge, he realizes the magnitude of his actions. Hardy also allows the reader to see the thought processes of Henchard's wife, Susan, who has been sold. Knowing the opportunities for a woman with a small child in rural England, Hardy makes Susan incredibly vulnerable when she walks out with the sailor who has purchased her. The book was published in 1886, and slavery had been abolished in England around the 1830's. The sale of a white woman and her female child in the 1880's would have been scandalous, but I believe that Hardy is making some statements about a woman's lot in society at this time. He did the same thing in Far from the Madding Crowd when he placed a woman in charge of a large sheep farm and made her the most economically important person in a small village. However, I am far from convinced that The Mayor of Casterbridge is a feminist statement - it has so much more to say than that. More thoughts later. I'm only on chapter 3.
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Getting started
Ah, the last day of school for this year is over, and I'm a free woman. So, after moving the mountain of laundry and nearly diving head first into the coffee pot, I decided to write my summer reading list. This surprises no one in my family. I teach English, so I read...alot. Last year I read voraciously in preparation for my first year of teaching Advanced Placement Literature. This year I intend to expand my list. Here it is as I posted it on facebook today:
The Mayor of Casterbridge
Anthem
Cry, the Beloved Country - This is a re-read
A Doll's House
At First Light - obscure novel by Hemingway
Eat, Pray, Love
Beloved
Things Fall Apart - An old friend from my college years
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Othello
Zorro - Isabelle Allende - because she ROCKS!
I have read some of these before, and some of them, I haven't. My intention is to post some thoughts on the experience of reading these books. Sometimes reading is like a ride at an amusement park. You get on, take the ride, feel the G-force for a short time afterwards, and then you forget it. Thoughtful reading is a huge part of learning. So, a blog seemed a great way for me to "think" about the books I have read and perhaps start a conversation. Let me know if you have read any of these. I can't wait to get started. It is going to be a great summer.
The Mayor of Casterbridge
Anthem
Cry, the Beloved Country - This is a re-read
A Doll's House
At First Light - obscure novel by Hemingway
Eat, Pray, Love
Beloved
Things Fall Apart - An old friend from my college years
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Othello
Zorro - Isabelle Allende - because she ROCKS!
I have read some of these before, and some of them, I haven't. My intention is to post some thoughts on the experience of reading these books. Sometimes reading is like a ride at an amusement park. You get on, take the ride, feel the G-force for a short time afterwards, and then you forget it. Thoughtful reading is a huge part of learning. So, a blog seemed a great way for me to "think" about the books I have read and perhaps start a conversation. Let me know if you have read any of these. I can't wait to get started. It is going to be a great summer.
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