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.
Thursday, July 28, 2011
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!
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