Girl With a Pearl Earring-Tracy Chevalier
How I found this book: I really only found out about this book because I have this unreasonable attraction to Colin Firth. When I found out the movie was a book, I thought, hey, why not give it a whirl, it might explain a lot that the movie…well just doesn’t. But damn, I like Colin Firth.
Setting: Delft, the Netherlands, the same time period and place practically as Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister. I swear, it’s a complete coincidence.
Main Characters:
Griet: A wide-eyed, sixteen year old Protestant girl who is sent to work for the Vermeer household after her family falls on hard times. She has an eye for color, for the sensual, and for placement, all the makings of a great lover of art. She sees it as more than pictures, but has a hard time expressing or understanding it, something she learns while working with the Master. She is painfully shy, very naïve, and very attracted to Vermeer. She is the model for Girl with a Pearl Earring.
Johannes Vermeer: He is a real-life Dutch painter, famous for his Girl with a Pearl Earring, he is a complex man, with a particular view of the world that doesn’t allow him to see much else. He is in love with art, and it seems he’s very much absorbed in it, which draws a large divide between himself and his wife and ever-growing family.
Maria Thins: Vermeer’s wily and capable mother-in-law, she seems to be the true ‘lady’ of the house and helps him run his business interests. While not unkind, she is shrewd and pays attention to the bottom line. She is the calm, capable foil to her excitable daughter, Catharina.
Catharina Vermeer: Vermeer’s excitable, shrewish wife, she is not allowed into the world of her husband, both because her personality doesn’t suite for it, and because she doesn’t see the world as he does. This leads to jealousy and suspicion on her part. She is particularly resentful of Griet from the start, and seems to occupy her time playing at being the lady of the house and producing a large amount of children.
Cornelia Vermeer: One of the many Vermeer daughter’s, she is mean-spirited and very watchful. She too takes a dislike to Griet.
Pieter the son: The son of the Vermeer’s butcher, he is in love with Griet and is actively looking to court her.
Van Riujven: Vermeer’s patron, a lecherous, rich man who desires Griet, and wants Vermeer to paint her.
Plot: In this supposition on the inspiration of the famous Girl with a Pearl Earring, Tracy Chevalier tells us the story of Griet, a simple Protestant Dutch girl who goes to work in the Catholic home of the Vermeer’s. A family tragedy sends her across town, and while it isn’t far from her childhood home, it might as well have been across the world. Becoming a maid, she must deal with the querulous demands put on her by the mistress of the house, Catharina, and maneuver between her and her much more sage and shrewd mother, Maria. However, Griet learns the most from her experience as she begins assisting the Master himself, and begins to see the world through newly opened and changed eyes. But her broken and dependent family still waits for her outside of the Vermeer household, and a young man promises to gives her the key to assisting them and return her to her simple, Calvinist roots. Torn between the world she admires, and the world she belongs to, Griet becomes the subject of one of the Master’s most famous paintings, knowing that it could be her ruin.
Themes:
Discovering how to ‘see’ the world: One of the things that Griet learns at the hands of Vermeer is how to see the world, not just with the eyes, but with all the senses. He shows her not just to see a simple cloud, but to see the all the colors that make up that cloud. This opens the whole palette his paintings up to Griet, and she can see his talent and what he brings to the art. But she has trouble describing the transcendent quality to her very solid, Protestant family. It is as if she’s been given the key to a private paradise that she can not share with those she cares for.
Admiration/love: There is a lot of mixing of the ideas of admiration, in the sense of admiring someone’s skills, admiring how someone looks, and love. Vermeer’s lecherous patron, Vermeer, and Griet herself seem to suffer from the mixture of the ideas. Griet in particular allows herself to fall in love with her Master, knowing that he’s above her, and knowing that it would be scandalous, but harbors a private admiration for him all the same. It is perhaps common for the young and the artistic to do so, but it comes out looking very naïve and shallow.
The vision of the artist: Vermeer sees the world in ways that differ from most people, especially that of his wife. While his mother-in-law perhaps understands it best, she is a raw businesswoman, seeking to take care of her daughter’s growing and expanding family. She tries to be as understanding as possible without pushing, seeing the talent in her son-in-law, but even she grows impatient with him. Catharina, his wife, seems to see or understand little if anything of his talent or his work. For her, her world is confined to the house and children, something he takes little to no part in. She resents Griet who moves from the sphere of her domain to that of her husbands, a world that she is strictly barred from. Only Griet in the story seems to fully understand the way that Vermeer looks at the world, and even she can’t really bring herself to totally be a part of it. Her sensibilities and cultural moirés stand in the way for her, as they do not do for him, (in one particular passage when she brings up her Protestant distrust of paintings, he mentions that he himself was raised Protestant). In the end, it seems that only Vermeer himself can fully understand the way he sees the world.
Every book sucks somewhere: I had hoped this book would give greater insight into the movie…it turns out not so much. In fact, the book only left me asking myself “What’s the point?” Honestly, yes, it’s a story of a girl coming of age, about learning about the sensuality of the world and how to see it, and I get the whole forbidden, secret romance thing. But other than that, really, what is the point. Yes, I can see Chevalier building up a character that, if you are an art historian you could totally see as being the inspiration for Girl with a Pearl Earring. But otherwise, we are stuck with two-hundred pages of Griet being nervous, curious, and terrified…and by the strangest things.
That was my other problem with the book, I felt no connection or understanding with the main character. She gets worked up over things I don’t understand, she is worried by the idea of Pieter the son being interested in her, when most girls should be thrilled. I am sure there is a reason for it, but Chevalier never goes into it and sort of glosses it over with Griet’s stand-offishness and lukewarm allowances of a couple of copped feels. And she never explains Griet’s weirdness about her hair sufficiently, save to say that Griet feels it’s perhaps wicked. I’m sure there’s a good, strong Protestant reason for this, (being raised Southern Baptist, I know we are kooky!), but it’s never explained, and I’m left to ask myself, umm…so what?
And then there is Catharina, Vermeer’s excitable, bitchy wife. God, the woman should have just been slapped, if I were her mother I would have. But no one sees fit to do it, leaving her to pop out kids and act like a hoyden whenever it suites her. Perhaps it was to give a foil to the dreamy, artistic Vermeer? See how he suffers for his art? Course, he could have just stopped aiding her in the popping out kids business. It’s called post-partum depression man, honestly. In any case, I found Catharina more of an irritant than a plot device, and kept wishing something would just fall on either her or her equally delightful daughter, Cornelia. And it’s never explained why they are bitchy or what their justification is, just that they are.
Long and the short, the book is painfully thin, (both literally and figuratively), on any character or story development. This may be because Chevalier is attempting to tell the story through Griet’s limited vision, but because of that, I got to the end of the book and asked myself repeatedly, “OK, so what was the point of this again?”
I am beginning to distrust New York Times bestsellers. Gah.
What did I like: Well, I did like the premise. I thought the idea of seeing the inspiration behind the famous painting would be fun. And I like Griet’s perceptions of Vermeer and his approach to work. Really though, those were my only likes, I was a bit disappointed in it.
How would I rate this wormy book: I would rate this book a LITTLE WORM, it has a very interesting premise, but very little interesting beyond that, and it does little more than tell a story with no real point. It’s little better than sitting in an art history lecture and hearing an interesting anecdote on the story, the only different being that it is an anecdote from the perspective of the model for the painting. But then, last time I looked on my degree, I have a history degree and not an art history degree, so perhaps I wouldn’t know. Either way, I was very disappointed with this book. Still, it’s work a read on a lazy afternoon, but not really worth more than that.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Friday, March 28, 2008
Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister
Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister- Gregory Maguire
How I found this book: I noticed this book actually before I connected it back to Wicked. I thought the premise of it sounded intriguing, and have always wanted to try it.
Setting: Haarlem, The Netherlands, in the 16th century
Main Characters:
Iris Fisher Van de Meer: The character by whose eyes we see the major part of the story, she is a plain girl who is forced to keep an eye on her sister Ruth and to abide by the wishes of her ambitious mother Margarethe. Born in England, her head is filled with all sorts of fairy-tale fancies as she arrives in this strange new land, but she has eyes that see and watch everything, and soon she is growing up and discovering that the real ‘monsters’ in the world can be seen with her own eyes, and not with her imagination. While sharp tongued and witty, Iris is also sensitive and caring, and really does try to do the right thing, even at the expense of her mother’s wishes.
Ruth Fisher Van de Meer: The narrator of the first and last chapters, Ruth is considered mute and mentally inferior through much of the story. A large girl, described as an ‘ugly, stupid ox’, she is much more watchful than the reader is led to believe. We are never explained why she acts the way she does, though in the last chapter she does give us a bit of an explanation surrounding her own fear and jealousy of her sisters.
Magarethe Fisher Van de Meer: The scheming, ambitious mother of Iris and Ruth, she is driven from England back to her father’s home in Haarlem, only to find that she must somehow eek an existence for herself and her daughters. While Margarethe highlights the harsh existence of women in a time when they were dependent on men for both their moral honor as well as their survival, she also highlights their ambition in terms of security. Seeking to live both a comfortable life and gain a good position in society for her daughters, Margarethe comes to extreme ends to ensure that she comes out on top, and damn anyone else who gets in her way.
Cornelius Van de Meer: A wealthy tulip merchant, Cornelius plays heavily in the high-risk, tumultuous business of the tulip trade. He has little involvement with his household, save to use it as a way of displaying both his wealth and his tulips to potential investors. He is a very easy going man, easily hen-pecked by his wives, and often thoughtless with his observations, even to the point of hurting the feelings of those around him.
Henrika Van de Meer: The first wife of Cornelius Van de Meer, she is the source for much of his wealth as she herself is a wealthy heiress. She keeps her husband on a tight leash, particularly in terms of money, and their only daughter, Clara. She is very proud of her house and her position, and her personality tends to conflict with the scheming Margarethe.
Clara Van de Meer: The unearthly beautiful daughter of Cornelius and Henrika, she is trapped in her home unwilling to go past the door or the garden. She is a very self-centered girl, unable to deal with the changes around her, though she isn’t unfeeling or uncaring. Plagued by a childhood trauma, she is convinced that she is a changeling, and will be taken off by others of her kind at some point to live with them. She has a bond to Iris and to Ruth, but is close to few others, feeling that most people only see her beauty and never her true self.
Master Luykas Schoonmaker: One of the many painters in Holland at the time period, (he’s said to be a contemporary of Rembrandt von Rijn.) He takes Margarethe and her daughters in when they first arrive in Haarlem, and he teaches Iris how to see the world through a painters eyes. He seems to have some regard for the grasping Margarethe, and a fondness for both the girls despite his gruff manner. He is hoping that his latest and greatest work, Girl with Tulips will help launch his career.
Casper: Master Schoonmaker’s apprentice, Capser is a lively, fun boy, who has a true affection for the Master and his work, and a growing affection for Iris. While he plans to become a painter himself, he is eager to help Iris learn how to see the world.
Plot: In this retelling of the familiar ‘Cindarella Story’ from the viewpoint of the ugly stepsister, Iris Fisher and her family flee England to Haarlem seeking to start a new life. Little do they know how hard it will be in Holland, where the cities fortunes rise and fall on the popularity of the tulip, a new flower variety that is taking the area by storm. Iris’s mother Margarethe plots and schemes to help her struggling family survive, eventually finding a position with the wealth Van de Meer family, and their strangely and ethereally beautiful daughter, Clara. As Iris tries to understand the beautiful girl, she also begins to learn how to paint, and thus to see the world that she had viewed through her own imagination through the realistic eyes of a painter. What she sees is a family being rocked by change, an impossibly beautiful girl who is locked up in the tragedy of her own life, and a grasping mother willing to stop at nothing to see to her own families well being. When Maria de Medici, the Dowager Queen of France comes to Haarlem in the midst of a downturn in the tulip market, Margarethe sees yet another change for her to advance her own cause. But a strange turn of events causes everything to change once again, and unbeknownst to the Van de Meers, their own, hard life becomes the pretext for a fairy tale.
Themes:
Incredible beauty can be as troublesome as incredible ugliness: Throughout the story, Iris is fascinated by what she calls ‘God’s mistakes’, those who have been afflicted with age, disease, or handicaps. She sees herself and Ruth in this light, ugly people who pale in comparison to her beautiful step-sister, Clara. But like the ugly and forsaken of Haarlem who are trapped by their outer appearance in the worlds they live in, Clara herself is trapped as well. She complains that she is never seen for who she is, but rather is seen only for her beauty. She is in many ways just as limited by her looks as any of God’s mistakes. Unlike Iris, whose plain looks allow her the freedom to run about the city or to do as she wishes, Clara feels she will always be defined by how she appears, when her beauty fades, there will be little else to define her.
It isn’t just in the general populace that Clara feels this frustration, but with her own family as well. Clara, an only and much beloved child, is very spoiled, and used to having her own way and not being required to do much beyond occasional lessons. Household chores in the kitchen are not her domain, though it appears her mother, Henrika, does participate. Clara is forever seen as a beautiful child in the eyes of her parents, kept in childish clothes and never being asked or required to do much beyond sitting around and looking beautiful. This limited perception leaves Clara at a loss when her mother dies, and she is left to fend with Margarethe, whose own daughters have learned how to be useful about a house. Clara comes off as being spoiled or willfull, when in reality she has been placed in her cubby hold and has no way of knowing how to get out of it.
Metamorphosis: The Cinderella story is a story about a young girl who goes through a miraculous change from a dirty maid to a princess all in one night. While there are no pumpkins or fairy god mothers in this story, there is a great deal in the way of changes going on, and change is a massive aspect of the story. Margarethe, one of the driving forces of the story, changes herself from a homeless, poor Englishwoman, to a housekeeper, to a proper Dutch, middle-class wife seeking to marry off her eligible daughters. Cornelius Van de Meer changes from a jovial and well-to-do merchant to a depressed, broken man overnight. Iris changes from a fanciful young girl who sees the world in stories and fairy tales to a serious, thoughtful young woman who sees the world through the realistic eyes of a painter. As the novel continues she grows, and despite her plainness comes to see herself as a girl of merit, with more to herself than just a face, but a mind, a heart, and great wit and talent, so much so that a French Prince found her interesting. Iris begins to see herself less through the eyes of others, and more through the eyes of a woman coming into herself.
Two of the greatest changes in the story are that of Ruth and Clara. Clara, the exquisite young girl who is trapped by her own fear and her own beauty handles her issues by changing herself again and again to fit her needs. As a child who was abducted, she convinces herself she was a changeling, going from the fussy young toddler to a prim, well-behaved child, the real Clara being whisked away by fairies. Not only is this symbolic of her own changing from toddler to child, but it also helps the traumatized Clara deal with an event she was too young to understand or to cope with. However, this event would define her as her parents were too afraid of losing their treasure, and she was too afraid of the outside world to deal with it. Clara would change again with the death of her mother, Henrika. She would be forced to face the reality of her existence, and that she was pretty and pampered but not fit for much else useful, and was hampered by her own beauty to be nothing more than ‘pretty’. She takes to the kitchens, learning to cook, sleeping by the fire, wearing soot and ash, and becoming the ‘Cinderella’ we know from the stories, not because she is being abused, but because she can’t understand the changes going on around her and wants to hide even further. She refuses to play the part of the beautiful, changeling child anymore, and seeks to retreat even further from the world that she fears. It is only with Iris’s help she comes out of her shell and takes on another role, that of princess, that Clara comes into her own, even though her experience is harsh. But out of this she does grow and in the end it is beautiful, selfish, spoiled Clara who stands up for her family and ensures that no harm is done to them.
Ruth herself also changes, she is only every seen as the dumb, stupid ox of a girl who can barely talk and is barely manageable. But Ruth is growing up as well. Not only are she and Iris becoming women, (as backhandedly mentioned as their menstrual cycles start), but she is growing aware of her family. She sees clearly that her mother is bound to bring ruin on them all with her endless scheming, that Iris is in love with Casper and wants to become a painter, and that Clara wants nothing more than to escape her life and never be the Girl with Tulips. But she is also a girl who, like Clara, has been pigeon-holed her entire life as the stupid, mute, ugly one. It turns out in the end that like Clara, Ruth is so much more, a girl who truly feels and things, and who is so much more perceptive than anyone ever gives her credit for, especially her own family.
Beauty and youth fade, but stories last forever: Like the tulips that are a major theme in the story, beauty is dazzling at first, but then wilts and dies, only to be reborn again in anther generation and another time. Maria di Medici was once a young girl, but is now an obese old woman, Henrika was a beautiful and rich burgher’s wife, she dies relatively young, as does Iris we discover in the end. And even Clara in her exquisite glory eventually has her looks pass away, and she too dies after her final transformation into a colonist in New Amsterdam, (modern day New York). They all fade away into obscurity. But the story of Cinderella, of the ash girl who rose up to become a princess, and her family who abused her has lived on, even if it isn’t completely the truth. We find much of the same thing today, with our own legends, how figures become mythological and are only remembered as two-dimensional characters, and we forget the depth to them, their faults, the trials, and the tribulations. Cinderella is never seen with the emotional scars, the ugly stepsisters are never seen as loving their sister, the evil stepmother’s motivations are never given beyond her own selfishness. It isn’t that the legend doesn’t have some truth in it, all legends have some basis of truth, but the rough edges are smoothed out and the crooked paths made straight in our minds, else the story wouldn’t be nearly as interesting.
Every book sucks somewhere: I have to say this, compared to Wicked, this book was so much better. That being said, Confessions still suffers from a lot of confusion in the way the story is written. At this point, I can only assume that it is the way that Maguire writes, in a manner in which he doesn’t clearly let you into the why of things. Why are these things happening, where did this start, how did we get from point a-b. While it isn’t as pronounced as it was in Wicked, (I believe that this novel came after and suffers less from that sort of writing), there are certain points where I’m wondering why it is that Iris is acting waspish with her mother, or why it is she is sad. It’s never explained why she sees the fanciful visions she sees, or why it is that Ruth is the way she is. These are things that tend to leave me a bit confused and irritated.
The characterization for many of the characters, save Iris, Ruth, and Clara, is very flat. This could be mostly because the story is told from the third person vantage point of Iris, and like other third person stories, might suffer from the fact that it’s Iris’s perceptions of what is going on, rather than what is actually happening. But I have a hard time understanding Margarethe outside of the obvious, or Henrika, or any of the other characters. Why is it that Caspar is so angry at the entire Van de Meer family, Iris in particular, at the end? What in the world possessed Van de Meer to want to marry Margarethe so soon after his wife’s death, no matter if she was a widowed woman in his household? None of this is handled very smoothly.
What did I like: First of all, I loved that this book wasn’t as bad as Wicked. I could actually read it all the way through and stay engaged. I loved the metaphors and the subtle references to the Cinderella story. I love how Iris is seen both as a sympathetic character, but also as a character you can see believably turned into the ‘ugly stepsister’. I love that Clara is so much more complex than just being ‘good’ or ‘bad’. And I absolutely adored the historical setting of this book. It made it so much more realistic and relatable than Wicked was as you had something concrete to build your perceptions on.
I also liked the fact that if you didn’t know better, and save the allusions, you would never know that this had anything to do with Cinderella. Gone are the fairy godmother and pumpkins, and in its place is something that is realistic, but just as wonderful in its own way. This is a much more grown up story than the Cinderella tale itself, even than Wicked, which I think makes it so much more fun to read.
How would I rate this wormy book: I would rate this as a FAT worm, though it is perhaps on the low end of the FAT worm scale. I really do not like Maguire’s writing style, I feel it is rough and disjointed, but that is just me. I think however the story is much more engaging than Wicked was, and much more interesting, with a very unique take on a very old story that I both found compelling and sympathetic as well. It’s great for a lazy afternoon read.
How I found this book: I noticed this book actually before I connected it back to Wicked. I thought the premise of it sounded intriguing, and have always wanted to try it.
Setting: Haarlem, The Netherlands, in the 16th century
Main Characters:
Iris Fisher Van de Meer: The character by whose eyes we see the major part of the story, she is a plain girl who is forced to keep an eye on her sister Ruth and to abide by the wishes of her ambitious mother Margarethe. Born in England, her head is filled with all sorts of fairy-tale fancies as she arrives in this strange new land, but she has eyes that see and watch everything, and soon she is growing up and discovering that the real ‘monsters’ in the world can be seen with her own eyes, and not with her imagination. While sharp tongued and witty, Iris is also sensitive and caring, and really does try to do the right thing, even at the expense of her mother’s wishes.
Ruth Fisher Van de Meer: The narrator of the first and last chapters, Ruth is considered mute and mentally inferior through much of the story. A large girl, described as an ‘ugly, stupid ox’, she is much more watchful than the reader is led to believe. We are never explained why she acts the way she does, though in the last chapter she does give us a bit of an explanation surrounding her own fear and jealousy of her sisters.
Magarethe Fisher Van de Meer: The scheming, ambitious mother of Iris and Ruth, she is driven from England back to her father’s home in Haarlem, only to find that she must somehow eek an existence for herself and her daughters. While Margarethe highlights the harsh existence of women in a time when they were dependent on men for both their moral honor as well as their survival, she also highlights their ambition in terms of security. Seeking to live both a comfortable life and gain a good position in society for her daughters, Margarethe comes to extreme ends to ensure that she comes out on top, and damn anyone else who gets in her way.
Cornelius Van de Meer: A wealthy tulip merchant, Cornelius plays heavily in the high-risk, tumultuous business of the tulip trade. He has little involvement with his household, save to use it as a way of displaying both his wealth and his tulips to potential investors. He is a very easy going man, easily hen-pecked by his wives, and often thoughtless with his observations, even to the point of hurting the feelings of those around him.
Henrika Van de Meer: The first wife of Cornelius Van de Meer, she is the source for much of his wealth as she herself is a wealthy heiress. She keeps her husband on a tight leash, particularly in terms of money, and their only daughter, Clara. She is very proud of her house and her position, and her personality tends to conflict with the scheming Margarethe.
Clara Van de Meer: The unearthly beautiful daughter of Cornelius and Henrika, she is trapped in her home unwilling to go past the door or the garden. She is a very self-centered girl, unable to deal with the changes around her, though she isn’t unfeeling or uncaring. Plagued by a childhood trauma, she is convinced that she is a changeling, and will be taken off by others of her kind at some point to live with them. She has a bond to Iris and to Ruth, but is close to few others, feeling that most people only see her beauty and never her true self.
Master Luykas Schoonmaker: One of the many painters in Holland at the time period, (he’s said to be a contemporary of Rembrandt von Rijn.) He takes Margarethe and her daughters in when they first arrive in Haarlem, and he teaches Iris how to see the world through a painters eyes. He seems to have some regard for the grasping Margarethe, and a fondness for both the girls despite his gruff manner. He is hoping that his latest and greatest work, Girl with Tulips will help launch his career.
Casper: Master Schoonmaker’s apprentice, Capser is a lively, fun boy, who has a true affection for the Master and his work, and a growing affection for Iris. While he plans to become a painter himself, he is eager to help Iris learn how to see the world.
Plot: In this retelling of the familiar ‘Cindarella Story’ from the viewpoint of the ugly stepsister, Iris Fisher and her family flee England to Haarlem seeking to start a new life. Little do they know how hard it will be in Holland, where the cities fortunes rise and fall on the popularity of the tulip, a new flower variety that is taking the area by storm. Iris’s mother Margarethe plots and schemes to help her struggling family survive, eventually finding a position with the wealth Van de Meer family, and their strangely and ethereally beautiful daughter, Clara. As Iris tries to understand the beautiful girl, she also begins to learn how to paint, and thus to see the world that she had viewed through her own imagination through the realistic eyes of a painter. What she sees is a family being rocked by change, an impossibly beautiful girl who is locked up in the tragedy of her own life, and a grasping mother willing to stop at nothing to see to her own families well being. When Maria de Medici, the Dowager Queen of France comes to Haarlem in the midst of a downturn in the tulip market, Margarethe sees yet another change for her to advance her own cause. But a strange turn of events causes everything to change once again, and unbeknownst to the Van de Meers, their own, hard life becomes the pretext for a fairy tale.
Themes:
Incredible beauty can be as troublesome as incredible ugliness: Throughout the story, Iris is fascinated by what she calls ‘God’s mistakes’, those who have been afflicted with age, disease, or handicaps. She sees herself and Ruth in this light, ugly people who pale in comparison to her beautiful step-sister, Clara. But like the ugly and forsaken of Haarlem who are trapped by their outer appearance in the worlds they live in, Clara herself is trapped as well. She complains that she is never seen for who she is, but rather is seen only for her beauty. She is in many ways just as limited by her looks as any of God’s mistakes. Unlike Iris, whose plain looks allow her the freedom to run about the city or to do as she wishes, Clara feels she will always be defined by how she appears, when her beauty fades, there will be little else to define her.
It isn’t just in the general populace that Clara feels this frustration, but with her own family as well. Clara, an only and much beloved child, is very spoiled, and used to having her own way and not being required to do much beyond occasional lessons. Household chores in the kitchen are not her domain, though it appears her mother, Henrika, does participate. Clara is forever seen as a beautiful child in the eyes of her parents, kept in childish clothes and never being asked or required to do much beyond sitting around and looking beautiful. This limited perception leaves Clara at a loss when her mother dies, and she is left to fend with Margarethe, whose own daughters have learned how to be useful about a house. Clara comes off as being spoiled or willfull, when in reality she has been placed in her cubby hold and has no way of knowing how to get out of it.
Metamorphosis: The Cinderella story is a story about a young girl who goes through a miraculous change from a dirty maid to a princess all in one night. While there are no pumpkins or fairy god mothers in this story, there is a great deal in the way of changes going on, and change is a massive aspect of the story. Margarethe, one of the driving forces of the story, changes herself from a homeless, poor Englishwoman, to a housekeeper, to a proper Dutch, middle-class wife seeking to marry off her eligible daughters. Cornelius Van de Meer changes from a jovial and well-to-do merchant to a depressed, broken man overnight. Iris changes from a fanciful young girl who sees the world in stories and fairy tales to a serious, thoughtful young woman who sees the world through the realistic eyes of a painter. As the novel continues she grows, and despite her plainness comes to see herself as a girl of merit, with more to herself than just a face, but a mind, a heart, and great wit and talent, so much so that a French Prince found her interesting. Iris begins to see herself less through the eyes of others, and more through the eyes of a woman coming into herself.
Two of the greatest changes in the story are that of Ruth and Clara. Clara, the exquisite young girl who is trapped by her own fear and her own beauty handles her issues by changing herself again and again to fit her needs. As a child who was abducted, she convinces herself she was a changeling, going from the fussy young toddler to a prim, well-behaved child, the real Clara being whisked away by fairies. Not only is this symbolic of her own changing from toddler to child, but it also helps the traumatized Clara deal with an event she was too young to understand or to cope with. However, this event would define her as her parents were too afraid of losing their treasure, and she was too afraid of the outside world to deal with it. Clara would change again with the death of her mother, Henrika. She would be forced to face the reality of her existence, and that she was pretty and pampered but not fit for much else useful, and was hampered by her own beauty to be nothing more than ‘pretty’. She takes to the kitchens, learning to cook, sleeping by the fire, wearing soot and ash, and becoming the ‘Cinderella’ we know from the stories, not because she is being abused, but because she can’t understand the changes going on around her and wants to hide even further. She refuses to play the part of the beautiful, changeling child anymore, and seeks to retreat even further from the world that she fears. It is only with Iris’s help she comes out of her shell and takes on another role, that of princess, that Clara comes into her own, even though her experience is harsh. But out of this she does grow and in the end it is beautiful, selfish, spoiled Clara who stands up for her family and ensures that no harm is done to them.
Ruth herself also changes, she is only every seen as the dumb, stupid ox of a girl who can barely talk and is barely manageable. But Ruth is growing up as well. Not only are she and Iris becoming women, (as backhandedly mentioned as their menstrual cycles start), but she is growing aware of her family. She sees clearly that her mother is bound to bring ruin on them all with her endless scheming, that Iris is in love with Casper and wants to become a painter, and that Clara wants nothing more than to escape her life and never be the Girl with Tulips. But she is also a girl who, like Clara, has been pigeon-holed her entire life as the stupid, mute, ugly one. It turns out in the end that like Clara, Ruth is so much more, a girl who truly feels and things, and who is so much more perceptive than anyone ever gives her credit for, especially her own family.
Beauty and youth fade, but stories last forever: Like the tulips that are a major theme in the story, beauty is dazzling at first, but then wilts and dies, only to be reborn again in anther generation and another time. Maria di Medici was once a young girl, but is now an obese old woman, Henrika was a beautiful and rich burgher’s wife, she dies relatively young, as does Iris we discover in the end. And even Clara in her exquisite glory eventually has her looks pass away, and she too dies after her final transformation into a colonist in New Amsterdam, (modern day New York). They all fade away into obscurity. But the story of Cinderella, of the ash girl who rose up to become a princess, and her family who abused her has lived on, even if it isn’t completely the truth. We find much of the same thing today, with our own legends, how figures become mythological and are only remembered as two-dimensional characters, and we forget the depth to them, their faults, the trials, and the tribulations. Cinderella is never seen with the emotional scars, the ugly stepsisters are never seen as loving their sister, the evil stepmother’s motivations are never given beyond her own selfishness. It isn’t that the legend doesn’t have some truth in it, all legends have some basis of truth, but the rough edges are smoothed out and the crooked paths made straight in our minds, else the story wouldn’t be nearly as interesting.
Every book sucks somewhere: I have to say this, compared to Wicked, this book was so much better. That being said, Confessions still suffers from a lot of confusion in the way the story is written. At this point, I can only assume that it is the way that Maguire writes, in a manner in which he doesn’t clearly let you into the why of things. Why are these things happening, where did this start, how did we get from point a-b. While it isn’t as pronounced as it was in Wicked, (I believe that this novel came after and suffers less from that sort of writing), there are certain points where I’m wondering why it is that Iris is acting waspish with her mother, or why it is she is sad. It’s never explained why she sees the fanciful visions she sees, or why it is that Ruth is the way she is. These are things that tend to leave me a bit confused and irritated.
The characterization for many of the characters, save Iris, Ruth, and Clara, is very flat. This could be mostly because the story is told from the third person vantage point of Iris, and like other third person stories, might suffer from the fact that it’s Iris’s perceptions of what is going on, rather than what is actually happening. But I have a hard time understanding Margarethe outside of the obvious, or Henrika, or any of the other characters. Why is it that Caspar is so angry at the entire Van de Meer family, Iris in particular, at the end? What in the world possessed Van de Meer to want to marry Margarethe so soon after his wife’s death, no matter if she was a widowed woman in his household? None of this is handled very smoothly.
What did I like: First of all, I loved that this book wasn’t as bad as Wicked. I could actually read it all the way through and stay engaged. I loved the metaphors and the subtle references to the Cinderella story. I love how Iris is seen both as a sympathetic character, but also as a character you can see believably turned into the ‘ugly stepsister’. I love that Clara is so much more complex than just being ‘good’ or ‘bad’. And I absolutely adored the historical setting of this book. It made it so much more realistic and relatable than Wicked was as you had something concrete to build your perceptions on.
I also liked the fact that if you didn’t know better, and save the allusions, you would never know that this had anything to do with Cinderella. Gone are the fairy godmother and pumpkins, and in its place is something that is realistic, but just as wonderful in its own way. This is a much more grown up story than the Cinderella tale itself, even than Wicked, which I think makes it so much more fun to read.
How would I rate this wormy book: I would rate this as a FAT worm, though it is perhaps on the low end of the FAT worm scale. I really do not like Maguire’s writing style, I feel it is rough and disjointed, but that is just me. I think however the story is much more engaging than Wicked was, and much more interesting, with a very unique take on a very old story that I both found compelling and sympathetic as well. It’s great for a lazy afternoon read.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Kushiel's Dart
Kushiel’s Dart- Jacqueline Carey
How I found this book: My friend Caron began reading this book after a late-night Hy-Vee run, (a grocery store in the Midwest), and because she is into cool tattoos, she thought the cover was interesting. It turns out the stuff inside the book was pretty cool too.
Setting: In the alternative history of our Earth, about what I’d consider the 13th-14th century. In this alternative history, Christianity did not take over Europe, and France instead of being settled by the Franks is settled instead by a bastard divinity and seven angels. They settle into the populace and teach them both to love and to live, giving them art, culture, and science, as well as beautiful offspring. The descendants call their land Terre D’Ange, the land of the Angels. And here I thought the French had a snooty enough story behind their own culture….
Main Characters:
Phedre no Delauney: The daughter of poor merchant and his former courtesan wife, Phedre is sold into the Night Court, (a group of courtesan houses all dedicated to the angel/goddess Naamah). But she is flawed; she was born with a dark mote in her left eye that leaves her useless to the Night Court. It is a minor noble, Anafiel Delauney who recognizes that Phedre is marked by the angel/god Kushiel to experience pain as pleasure, an anguisette. Phedre’s bond (marque) is purchased by Delauney, and she is raised in his household as both a courtesan and a spy. While pretty and unique thanks to her ‘gift’, she is also highly intelligent and determined. When tragedy falls on her lord due to his allegiance to the Dauphine of Terre D’Ange, Phedre is caught up in a plot that might cost the Dauphine her throne and the D’Angeline’s their freedom. And Phedre is one of the few people who have the knowledge and courage to prevent it from happening.
Anafiel Delauney: A minor nobleman’s son, Anafiel was once the lover of the Dauphin, Roland de la Courcel. He was disgraced when he publicly called the Prince’s wife a murderess. However, he swore to Roland that he would always ensure that Roland’s daughter would attain the throne, and despite his disgrace he seeks out as best he can to ensure this. This is accomplished mostly through Delauney’s network of spies and allies, which he uses both to get at the princess and to attain his goals. As part of his network he raises two children, Alcuin and Phedre, to serve as his eyes and ears amongst the scheming nobility of Terre D’Ange. However, proud as he is, it is his pride that gets the better of him when one of his allies, Melisande Shahrizai, has her own games she is playing, and they are at cross-purposes to his own. It ends badly for Delauney and his household, as she is the last person Delauney suspects.
Alcuin no Delauney: The illegitimate offspring of a noble in service to Prince Rolande de la Courcel, Alcuin’s mother was a D’Angeline girl from one of the border areas next to the Skaldic barbarian lands. He was rescued by Delauney just as Skaldic raiders stormed his village, and went with his new adopted father to live. Adoring his rescuer, Alcuin agrees to be trained as a courtesan and spy, though he has no love for Naamah’s service. He feels he must do this out of his love for Delauney. Highly prized as a noble plaything, Alcuin seeks to get the most information out of his patrons at the highest price so that he might pay off his debt to Delauney, both because he hates what he does, but because he wants to approach his patron as a free man. While it nearly gets Alcuin killed, eventually he does attain his freedom, and briefly becomes Delauney’s lover. Their happiness is short-lived, however, when the machinations of Melisande Shahrizai betray Delauney’s house.
Joscelin Verreuil: The middle son of a minor noble house who followed the old traditions, Joscelin was sent as a child to study with the strict Cassiline Brotherhood. The whole of his training was for the purpose that one day he would act as a personal bodyguard to the members of the Royal House, House Courcel. He had barely completed his training when he was assigned by the head of the order to work for Anafiel Delauney, who had just recently lost his own bodyguard. Being raised by the Order to a strict code of conduct, which included chastity, he is askance at the idea of guarding Phedre, a courtesan with tastes that horrify him. While his skills with his daggers are without question, Joscelin’s lack of world experience and his hidebound view of the world often leave him at a loss where Phedre is concerned. But when they are both thrown into peril, it is Joscelin’s skills and his vow to protect her at all costs which allow them both to manage the impossible.
Hyacinthe: The son of a Tsingano princess and an unnamed D’Angeline noble, Hyacinthe is Phedre’s oldest friend, having met her when the two were still children. The two developed a close bond, as Hyacinthe provided the willful Phedre with an escape from her situation into the dark and exotic Night’s Doorstep, where Hyacinthe moved about freely. As he grew older, he took over the inn where his mother took in laundry, and began running it and a stable, becoming well known amongst some of the more disreputable members of the City of Elua. But Phedre is his one true, best friend, and for her he would do anything, even assist her in her hour of greatest need. When Phedre is called upon to do something most think is impossible, Hyacinthe willingly goes to her aid, but pays a heavy price for his choice.
Melisande Shahrizai: A noblewoman from one of the oldest and most powerful houses in Terre D’Ange, Melisande is a descendant of Kushiel, and like her forefather has a taste for sadism and punishment. Marked by Kushiel’s Dart, Phedre is naturally highly drawn to and attracted to Melisande, something the other woman knows and teases the girl with. But Melisande is also highly intelligent and very scheming. She has her own plots and plans whirling, ones that speak danger for the throne of Terre D’Ange and for the people as a whole, and only Phedre knows her secret.
Ysandre de la Courcel, Dauphine of Terre de Ange: The daughter of the Dauphin, Prince Roland de la Courcel, and his wife Isabel L’Envers, her father died when she was still just a baby, her mother when she was a child. Ysandre is raised by her grandfather, the King as his heir, teaching her statecraft, and he plans to have her installed on the throne when he dies. There are those, however, who do not like the idea of a young girl taking over the throne, and there are those who would stop at nothing to see that she finally sits on it. However, Ysandre has her own plans and dreams for her kingdom, all of which are threatened by the threat of invasion from a long-time enemy to Terre D’Ange, and Ysandre must use all her wits and skills as an untried leader, as well as calling upon Phedre, to prevent her kingdom from falling within weeks of her reign.
Drustan mab Necthana, Heir to the Cruarch of Alba: Drustan is the son of Necthana, the sister of the Cruarch, (king), of Alba, and by their custom their legitimate heir. But he is ousted from his rightful place by his ambitious cousin and scheming aunt, who have made their own plans for the throne of Alba. Drustan sits, bidding his time, knowing that across the straits from Alba lays Terre D’Ange and a woman who promised to one day be his equal and his partner. When word reaches him that she and her homeland is in trouble, Drustan must act to both claim his throne and to aid the woman he loves.
The Master of the Straits: A strange, mystical character who lives in the islands between Alba and Terre D’Ange and controls all weather and contact between the two nations. It is only on his word that any passage can happen between the two, and he must deal with his own curse that is entwined into the fates of the two nations as well.
Plot: Phedre no Delauney, a beautiful courtesan, serves as her master’s eyes and ears amongst the nobles of Terre D’Ange. As D’Angelines they love their beauty and their sexual games, but they love their Byzantine politics as well, and Phedre uses her skills both in the art of sex as well as in the art of covertcy to find out their secrets. But when her master is betrayed and her kingdom is in peril, Phedre, along with her trusted friends must pull off the impossible in order to warn her ruler and to help save her people.
Themes:
Love as Thou Wilt: In Terre D’Ange they worship their angelic forefathers as well as Blessed Elua, the bastard grandchild of the One God. Elua had one precept, “Love as thou wilt,” and it is something the D’Angelines take with all seriousness. They love everything and with abandon, beauty, art, culture, the sciences, even in some cases the love of the game of houses. But most of all no form of love is ever frowned upon, not the love between man and woman, people of the same sex, of opposite political spectrums, or different cultural groups. Love rules everything the D’Angeline do.
Keep your enemies closer and your friends closer: Yes, that is turning the phrase around, but in this book it is true. Betrayal in literature often doesn’t come from the enemy, but from the friend, and for those who know how to play the game REALLY well that’s exactly how they like to do it. The game of politics is complex, and no one can ever really be considered a true friend, especially since everyone has a secret. It’s simply knowing how get them to confess what that secret is, which is a game Phedre has to learn to play.
Strength in bending: Perhaps one of the key’s to the series and a very important clue into Phedre’s nature is in knowing that she can bend, but not break. As she is struck by Kushiel’s Dart, she has the gift of being able to withstand great amounts of pain, both in the physical sense, but also in the mental and spiritual sense as well. Unlike many others, even Joscelin at times with his strict code of honor, Phedre is able to adapt to the situation presented to her and find a way for her to handle it as effectively as possible. Often this means sacrificing herself in ways she had never expected. While there is courage in standing against all odds and fighting, there is also courage in waiting and making the best of a situation till you are able to overcome it, and it takes a strength of will that not even the most harden warriors sometimes display.
Choosing what is right over what is easy: This sounds like a Harry Potter reference, (it is), but it is often hard to choose what is right rather than what is easy. Several characters over the course of this book are presented this challenge, and all have different reactions to it. Those who chose what is right often do so at the expense of themselves and their long-cherished beliefs. They do so because they follow the precepts they know in their heart are correct, rather than the traditions or customs that have come in place after centuries. While these choices are not easy, in the end they prove to be the right ones.
Love can conquer most anything: I won’t say love can conquer all, but love is a powerful force indeed. It can rally someone to the aid of another, or it can cause someone to give up all they love and know for the greater good. Perhaps that is why Elua commands to “love as thou wilt.”
Every book sucks somewhere: If there is a sucky part to this book, is that it starts out really slow. I tried to read this book several years ago, but it was hard for me to get into it at first. When I picked this book up again recently, I got into it much better, I think partly because I had gone through stacks of dryer reading material in my college history courses. That being said, it’s not the length that bothers me, but sometimes the pacing in this novel. When it does pick up, though, boy does it ever.
What did I like: I love that this is a world that is our world, but not. Carey takes our world and twists it in a totally believable way. The historical background to the book is completely plausible, and if you are a student of Late Antique and Medieval Europe and the Middle East, (which I am), you eat this stuff up with a spoon. Her world is complex and very detailed, everything from D’Angeline society with its excesses and pleasures, to the Skaldic tribesmen living in their villages in the wilds of Central Europe, to the Alban clans fighting amongst themselves in what we could call England. It’s all relatable, it isn’t some made up, far distant world, but it is all something that really did happen, just differently in our world.
I also loved her characters. Phedre is a very different heroine, yes she is a woman, but she isn’t a hard, tough, ‘fight-like-the-boys’ type of hero, but neither is she a cold, distant politico. While she has to use her wits and her skills to get out of many situations, (often that includes her skills as a courtesan), she can be just as frail or frightened as anyone else. And because she is so very human in her foibles, she is also very real. She doesn’t come off as being a super-hero, rather a woman who is a product of her society placed in very trying situations and making do with what abilities and skills she herself has. We see her making mistakes, being frightened, being willful and stubborn, but most of all being herself.
How would I rate this wormy book: This book rates a FAT worm from me, but I quantify that with a warning, this book is not abashed about sex. It’s a part of the culture of Terre D’Ange, in all of its wonderful and many different positions and forms. If you are bothered by the idea of a little kinkiness going on, than this isn’t the book for you. However, I think this book is absolutely amazing, and if it weren’t for the warning to the prudish amongst you I’d rate it MONSTER and command you all to read it! It’s a rich, wonderful fantasy, full of mystery, intrigue, and a world so realistic you almost think that is how history SHOULD have been.
How I found this book: My friend Caron began reading this book after a late-night Hy-Vee run, (a grocery store in the Midwest), and because she is into cool tattoos, she thought the cover was interesting. It turns out the stuff inside the book was pretty cool too.
Setting: In the alternative history of our Earth, about what I’d consider the 13th-14th century. In this alternative history, Christianity did not take over Europe, and France instead of being settled by the Franks is settled instead by a bastard divinity and seven angels. They settle into the populace and teach them both to love and to live, giving them art, culture, and science, as well as beautiful offspring. The descendants call their land Terre D’Ange, the land of the Angels. And here I thought the French had a snooty enough story behind their own culture….
Main Characters:
Phedre no Delauney: The daughter of poor merchant and his former courtesan wife, Phedre is sold into the Night Court, (a group of courtesan houses all dedicated to the angel/goddess Naamah). But she is flawed; she was born with a dark mote in her left eye that leaves her useless to the Night Court. It is a minor noble, Anafiel Delauney who recognizes that Phedre is marked by the angel/god Kushiel to experience pain as pleasure, an anguisette. Phedre’s bond (marque) is purchased by Delauney, and she is raised in his household as both a courtesan and a spy. While pretty and unique thanks to her ‘gift’, she is also highly intelligent and determined. When tragedy falls on her lord due to his allegiance to the Dauphine of Terre D’Ange, Phedre is caught up in a plot that might cost the Dauphine her throne and the D’Angeline’s their freedom. And Phedre is one of the few people who have the knowledge and courage to prevent it from happening.
Anafiel Delauney: A minor nobleman’s son, Anafiel was once the lover of the Dauphin, Roland de la Courcel. He was disgraced when he publicly called the Prince’s wife a murderess. However, he swore to Roland that he would always ensure that Roland’s daughter would attain the throne, and despite his disgrace he seeks out as best he can to ensure this. This is accomplished mostly through Delauney’s network of spies and allies, which he uses both to get at the princess and to attain his goals. As part of his network he raises two children, Alcuin and Phedre, to serve as his eyes and ears amongst the scheming nobility of Terre D’Ange. However, proud as he is, it is his pride that gets the better of him when one of his allies, Melisande Shahrizai, has her own games she is playing, and they are at cross-purposes to his own. It ends badly for Delauney and his household, as she is the last person Delauney suspects.
Alcuin no Delauney: The illegitimate offspring of a noble in service to Prince Rolande de la Courcel, Alcuin’s mother was a D’Angeline girl from one of the border areas next to the Skaldic barbarian lands. He was rescued by Delauney just as Skaldic raiders stormed his village, and went with his new adopted father to live. Adoring his rescuer, Alcuin agrees to be trained as a courtesan and spy, though he has no love for Naamah’s service. He feels he must do this out of his love for Delauney. Highly prized as a noble plaything, Alcuin seeks to get the most information out of his patrons at the highest price so that he might pay off his debt to Delauney, both because he hates what he does, but because he wants to approach his patron as a free man. While it nearly gets Alcuin killed, eventually he does attain his freedom, and briefly becomes Delauney’s lover. Their happiness is short-lived, however, when the machinations of Melisande Shahrizai betray Delauney’s house.
Joscelin Verreuil: The middle son of a minor noble house who followed the old traditions, Joscelin was sent as a child to study with the strict Cassiline Brotherhood. The whole of his training was for the purpose that one day he would act as a personal bodyguard to the members of the Royal House, House Courcel. He had barely completed his training when he was assigned by the head of the order to work for Anafiel Delauney, who had just recently lost his own bodyguard. Being raised by the Order to a strict code of conduct, which included chastity, he is askance at the idea of guarding Phedre, a courtesan with tastes that horrify him. While his skills with his daggers are without question, Joscelin’s lack of world experience and his hidebound view of the world often leave him at a loss where Phedre is concerned. But when they are both thrown into peril, it is Joscelin’s skills and his vow to protect her at all costs which allow them both to manage the impossible.
Hyacinthe: The son of a Tsingano princess and an unnamed D’Angeline noble, Hyacinthe is Phedre’s oldest friend, having met her when the two were still children. The two developed a close bond, as Hyacinthe provided the willful Phedre with an escape from her situation into the dark and exotic Night’s Doorstep, where Hyacinthe moved about freely. As he grew older, he took over the inn where his mother took in laundry, and began running it and a stable, becoming well known amongst some of the more disreputable members of the City of Elua. But Phedre is his one true, best friend, and for her he would do anything, even assist her in her hour of greatest need. When Phedre is called upon to do something most think is impossible, Hyacinthe willingly goes to her aid, but pays a heavy price for his choice.
Melisande Shahrizai: A noblewoman from one of the oldest and most powerful houses in Terre D’Ange, Melisande is a descendant of Kushiel, and like her forefather has a taste for sadism and punishment. Marked by Kushiel’s Dart, Phedre is naturally highly drawn to and attracted to Melisande, something the other woman knows and teases the girl with. But Melisande is also highly intelligent and very scheming. She has her own plots and plans whirling, ones that speak danger for the throne of Terre D’Ange and for the people as a whole, and only Phedre knows her secret.
Ysandre de la Courcel, Dauphine of Terre de Ange: The daughter of the Dauphin, Prince Roland de la Courcel, and his wife Isabel L’Envers, her father died when she was still just a baby, her mother when she was a child. Ysandre is raised by her grandfather, the King as his heir, teaching her statecraft, and he plans to have her installed on the throne when he dies. There are those, however, who do not like the idea of a young girl taking over the throne, and there are those who would stop at nothing to see that she finally sits on it. However, Ysandre has her own plans and dreams for her kingdom, all of which are threatened by the threat of invasion from a long-time enemy to Terre D’Ange, and Ysandre must use all her wits and skills as an untried leader, as well as calling upon Phedre, to prevent her kingdom from falling within weeks of her reign.
Drustan mab Necthana, Heir to the Cruarch of Alba: Drustan is the son of Necthana, the sister of the Cruarch, (king), of Alba, and by their custom their legitimate heir. But he is ousted from his rightful place by his ambitious cousin and scheming aunt, who have made their own plans for the throne of Alba. Drustan sits, bidding his time, knowing that across the straits from Alba lays Terre D’Ange and a woman who promised to one day be his equal and his partner. When word reaches him that she and her homeland is in trouble, Drustan must act to both claim his throne and to aid the woman he loves.
The Master of the Straits: A strange, mystical character who lives in the islands between Alba and Terre D’Ange and controls all weather and contact between the two nations. It is only on his word that any passage can happen between the two, and he must deal with his own curse that is entwined into the fates of the two nations as well.
Plot: Phedre no Delauney, a beautiful courtesan, serves as her master’s eyes and ears amongst the nobles of Terre D’Ange. As D’Angelines they love their beauty and their sexual games, but they love their Byzantine politics as well, and Phedre uses her skills both in the art of sex as well as in the art of covertcy to find out their secrets. But when her master is betrayed and her kingdom is in peril, Phedre, along with her trusted friends must pull off the impossible in order to warn her ruler and to help save her people.
Themes:
Love as Thou Wilt: In Terre D’Ange they worship their angelic forefathers as well as Blessed Elua, the bastard grandchild of the One God. Elua had one precept, “Love as thou wilt,” and it is something the D’Angelines take with all seriousness. They love everything and with abandon, beauty, art, culture, the sciences, even in some cases the love of the game of houses. But most of all no form of love is ever frowned upon, not the love between man and woman, people of the same sex, of opposite political spectrums, or different cultural groups. Love rules everything the D’Angeline do.
Keep your enemies closer and your friends closer: Yes, that is turning the phrase around, but in this book it is true. Betrayal in literature often doesn’t come from the enemy, but from the friend, and for those who know how to play the game REALLY well that’s exactly how they like to do it. The game of politics is complex, and no one can ever really be considered a true friend, especially since everyone has a secret. It’s simply knowing how get them to confess what that secret is, which is a game Phedre has to learn to play.
Strength in bending: Perhaps one of the key’s to the series and a very important clue into Phedre’s nature is in knowing that she can bend, but not break. As she is struck by Kushiel’s Dart, she has the gift of being able to withstand great amounts of pain, both in the physical sense, but also in the mental and spiritual sense as well. Unlike many others, even Joscelin at times with his strict code of honor, Phedre is able to adapt to the situation presented to her and find a way for her to handle it as effectively as possible. Often this means sacrificing herself in ways she had never expected. While there is courage in standing against all odds and fighting, there is also courage in waiting and making the best of a situation till you are able to overcome it, and it takes a strength of will that not even the most harden warriors sometimes display.
Choosing what is right over what is easy: This sounds like a Harry Potter reference, (it is), but it is often hard to choose what is right rather than what is easy. Several characters over the course of this book are presented this challenge, and all have different reactions to it. Those who chose what is right often do so at the expense of themselves and their long-cherished beliefs. They do so because they follow the precepts they know in their heart are correct, rather than the traditions or customs that have come in place after centuries. While these choices are not easy, in the end they prove to be the right ones.
Love can conquer most anything: I won’t say love can conquer all, but love is a powerful force indeed. It can rally someone to the aid of another, or it can cause someone to give up all they love and know for the greater good. Perhaps that is why Elua commands to “love as thou wilt.”
Every book sucks somewhere: If there is a sucky part to this book, is that it starts out really slow. I tried to read this book several years ago, but it was hard for me to get into it at first. When I picked this book up again recently, I got into it much better, I think partly because I had gone through stacks of dryer reading material in my college history courses. That being said, it’s not the length that bothers me, but sometimes the pacing in this novel. When it does pick up, though, boy does it ever.
What did I like: I love that this is a world that is our world, but not. Carey takes our world and twists it in a totally believable way. The historical background to the book is completely plausible, and if you are a student of Late Antique and Medieval Europe and the Middle East, (which I am), you eat this stuff up with a spoon. Her world is complex and very detailed, everything from D’Angeline society with its excesses and pleasures, to the Skaldic tribesmen living in their villages in the wilds of Central Europe, to the Alban clans fighting amongst themselves in what we could call England. It’s all relatable, it isn’t some made up, far distant world, but it is all something that really did happen, just differently in our world.
I also loved her characters. Phedre is a very different heroine, yes she is a woman, but she isn’t a hard, tough, ‘fight-like-the-boys’ type of hero, but neither is she a cold, distant politico. While she has to use her wits and her skills to get out of many situations, (often that includes her skills as a courtesan), she can be just as frail or frightened as anyone else. And because she is so very human in her foibles, she is also very real. She doesn’t come off as being a super-hero, rather a woman who is a product of her society placed in very trying situations and making do with what abilities and skills she herself has. We see her making mistakes, being frightened, being willful and stubborn, but most of all being herself.
How would I rate this wormy book: This book rates a FAT worm from me, but I quantify that with a warning, this book is not abashed about sex. It’s a part of the culture of Terre D’Ange, in all of its wonderful and many different positions and forms. If you are bothered by the idea of a little kinkiness going on, than this isn’t the book for you. However, I think this book is absolutely amazing, and if it weren’t for the warning to the prudish amongst you I’d rate it MONSTER and command you all to read it! It’s a rich, wonderful fantasy, full of mystery, intrigue, and a world so realistic you almost think that is how history SHOULD have been.
Monday, March 24, 2008
Jane Eyre
Jane Eyre-Charlotte Bronte
How I heard about this book: In the one and only English class I took at William Jewell I was required to read it. It was the only time I ever wrote a decent paper while at William Jewell, all about comparing Jane's life to the physical buildings she was living in. It was, I must say, one of my most brilliant papers. Not as brilliant as my paper on the life of St. Anthony and monasticism in the Early Church I wrote while at UCLA, but right up there. *snerk*
Setting: mid-19th century England, the places outside of that are left specifically vague. Most of the action takes place at Thornfield Hall, a large, rambling manor house in the English countryside.
Main Characters:
Jane Eyre: A young girl/woman who is orphaned at a young age and left to be raised by her mother's brother's wife. She is a passionate girl who is trying to find the balance between her emotions and reason, but most of all is trying to stay true to herself. She eventually takes up as a governess for the rich Mr. Rochester's ward, and finds that finding that balance becomes increasingly difficult as she is more and more attracted to her employer, even as the mystery behind him and his strange house grows.
Mrs. Reed: Jane's resentful aunt, it's never fully explained why she hates Jane so, just that she does. She prevents Jane from any knowledge of or connection to any of the Eyre members of her family.
Adele: Jane's student, she is perhaps the illegitimate daughter of Rochester and an opera performer, though he isn't certain on her parentage. Now orphaned, she lives in Thornfield Hall as Rochester's ward. Mrs. Fairfax: A distant relation by marriage to Rochester, and his housekeeper at Thornfield Hall.
Edward Fairfax Rochester: The owner of Thornfield, he is a passionate, troubled, brooding man, who has spent much of his adult life in anger and pursuit of his own pleasure. Despite this he is a highly intelligent man who is attracted to Jane's own passionate nature, as well as her good and quiet spirit.
Blanche Ingram: A beautiful, rich girl from nearby Thornfield Hall, she has set her sights on Mr. Rochester and Jane supposes that the two will soon marry.
Grace Poole: A mysterious figure in the house, she is said to be a servant, but Jane doesn't know what she actually does in the house. Many of the mysterious and terrifying things that occur in Thornfield are blamed on her.
St. John Rivers: One of Jane's Eyre's cousins, he is a cold, icy person who wishes to become a missionary in India.
Diana Rivers: St. John's sister, she is as commanding a personality as her brother, but very warm and kind.
Mary Rivers: The quietest of the Rivers children, she takes lessons from Jane on drawing.
Plot: Jane Eyre is a poor, orphaned girl who lives as a dependent on her resentful aunt. She is shipped off to boarding school, where conditions are hard, but eventually Jane thrives and becomes a quiet, thoughtful, but passionate young woman. Seeking to find her fortune elsewhere, she takes up a position at Thornfield Hall as a governess to a little, French girl, Adele. It is months before she meets the actual owner of the hall and her employer, Mr. Rochester, a brooding figure who is as attracted to Jane as she to him. But strange events begin happening in Thornfield, one's that threaten Jane's new existence. When the truth comes out about Mr. Rochester's past, Jane is forced to flee the master that she loves, and finds that not only is there unexpected help in corners she never new, but family and perhaps true love and happiness after all.
Themes:
The situation of women in early Victorian society: Jane Eyre position in the books perhaps displays most clearly the situation of women in early-Victorian society in England. Women of a middle-class upbringing, who had no means of managing for themselves and no wealth by which to do it with were often, as was Jane and Mrs. Fairfax, left to take employment elsewhere, most often as governesses and housekeepers. Those of lesser means worked as servants, or in the case of Grace Poole, tending those who needed looking after. Their lives were precarious, as they had to deal with the whims and whimsies of the rich people they served. Jane, who has been in this place all her life as an orphan, is keenly aware of the precarious situation she finds herself in, and how she must act and appear so as not to lose her station and her income. While she isn't a part of the household, she is expected to dance attendance as wanted, even if she doesn't particularly want to participate or is shunned and excluded by the other 'better company' there. As a highly-placed servant, it is her duty to do as she is told.
This existence isn't an easy one. Jane hears the stories of Blanche Ingram and her siblings and how they tormented other governesses, and thinks it horrible that these poor women were held responsible for these ill-behaved children. Often this was the lo of many good women, who were responsible for the pampered and spoiled scions of the elite. Diana and Mary, Jane's cousins, must both suffer for it as well. But there is little that ladies of their education and background to do to make do if they have to independent wealth by which to live. It is either live as a dependent of another and hope that something doesn't go horribly wrong to endanger your place, or marry well to someone who can provide for you, or starve.
Equality between men and women: In a time and society where women's roles were most certainly NOT equal, Jane struggles to be treated at least like a human being with feelings, passions, and sensibilities. In particular the men in her life seem to have a deploring lack of consideration for this. Mr. Rochester, who she loves and adores, and who seems to feel the same for her, believes he can force upon Jane that which he wishes only because he wants it. Everything from expensive clothing and jewels to the manner of their relationship is set by him with little leeway for Jane to argue on the matter. She does, on certain occasions when she knows she can leverage herself, do so, and I think it's her ability to never back down from him that does attract him the most, whether he realizes it or not. But his insistence on his way and what he wants drives Jane from him, and it's a hard lesson for him to learn that he can't just control everything as he wishes.
St. John, in his own way, is no better. Edward, while being horribly selfish and amoral, loved Jane beyond reason. St. John is very giving and moral, a good man, but has no love to give to Jane. He has his own ambitions and goals, and in that is also very selfish, but has no room for the feelings and considerations of others. It never occurs to him that Jane would not make a good fit for him because he doesn't love her, nor she him, only that Jane would be good to take with him on his mission trip. In fact, Jane wouldn't, and even Diana River's sees that, but St. John is blind to anything but his own goals, and will not consider alternatives. And if Jane turns him down, it is because she is not concerned with heavenly things, and thus is a sinner. Well gee, with arguments like that, I wonder why it is she turned St. John down.
In the end, Jane strives for equality with a partner as well as love. She doesn't want to be forced to anything because she is the woman in the relationship and must submit, she wants to be able to make her own decisions based on her own intelligence and feeling. And she wants to be loved, not tolerated because she is 'appropriate'. Jane sticks to her guns, and in the end she gets her reward, the man she has always loved in a close, equal, and loving relationship, and is happy at last.
There isn't a pot so bent that there isn't a lid to fit it: A favorite phrase of someone I know, in Jane's case this is true. While Jane herself states she is very plain, beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, and Mr. Rochester finds Jane beautiful not because of her physical appearance but because of her mind and her personality as well. He is drawn to something deeper in Jane that few other people ever get beyond to see, even later St. John. Mr. Rochester himself recognizes he is no looker, and Jane is honest to him about it, but despite the fact he isn't conventionally handsome, Jane loves him all the same. She finds in him other qualities to love, and even his features are attractive to her, not because they are beautiful, but because they are part of who he is, and she loves him just as that. While St. John, her cousin, is much more handsome, there is so much less of him for Jane to love than her beloved Edward.
The play of opposites: Charlotte Bronte in this novel cleverly plays opposites around Jane to show the extremities of life that Jane is trying to avoid. Jane herself is a character who is pulled many ways, but tries to find a happy equilibrium between what society expects and what she wants, between what she is and what she should be. There are many opposites portrayed in the novel. There is the family she grew up in, that of the Reeds, uncaring, cruel, petty, and mean, who neither loved or cared for Jane and saw her as little more than a nuisance. This is in stark contrast to he Rivers, (Reed, River, I thought it was funny), who are Jane's other cousins. They are caring and giving, and outside of St. John are warm and concerned about Jane. They love her unconditionally, even before they know that she is their cousin or her sharing her inheritance with them. They give Jane the sense of family and belonging that she has never had her entire life, and begin a life-long friendship with her and her husband. The Reeds she never speaks of or hears from again.
There is the contrast between Helen, her friend from childhood, who was almost martyr-like in not letting her passions and her anger rule her, and Bertha Mason who was consumed by her emotions. Now, I know now at days we'd recognize that Bertha had a serious condition, a mental illness, I'm charitably placing this in Victorian sensibilities where they would have assumed it was a personality fault with her. Helen becomes almost a saint in Jane's eyes, while Bertha is described as little better than a demon, a strange, animalistic creature who terrifies Jane and most everyone else. While Jane recognizes she will never be the saint that Helen was, she recoils from what Bertha is, and it is that nature of standing in between that causes Mr. Rochester to fall in love with her.
Edward and St. John are again another set of opposites, one who feels passionately and acts rashly, and one is as cool as a glacier in an Antartic winter, who does nothing he would like save that which feeds his ambition. And don't be fooled, he does have ambition, even if it is on 'godly things'. Jane finds that she can't love St. John because he is unable to love anything or anyone save for his own ambition and what it means to fulfill that. While he is a good man, goodness isn't what Jane needs, happiness is. In a life where she has known to little of happiness, Jane wisely choses to side what she knows she wants and desires. And while Edward has made many an unwise decision, the fact is he loves her, and she loves him. While the concept is foreign to St. John, to Jane it is the right decision, and in the end it proves to be a good one.
Oh, the go-thi-que horror: Well, it's not as bad as in Bronte's sister Emily's famous Gothic book, Wuthering Heights, (shoot me now, but I believe that one is in the list), it still has elements of it in there, (I think Emily was rubbing off). The creepy noises in the room, the imagined apparitions in the stairs, the crazy lady in the top of the house, the references to all sorts of ghosties, goblins, and all things that go BUMP in the night. But Charlotte I must say weaves them well into the story, making it something that seems realistic for practical, level-headed Jane to reference, rather than making her a hysterical, insensible character. I think this makes Jane very relatable as she is at once a common-sense type of girl, who like many of us has moments when she lets her imagination sometimes get the better of her. (OK, so crazy lady in the top of the house wasn't her imagination...)
Every book sucks somewhere: I adore this book...but it does have some sucky things about it. First, being that it was written in the mid-19th century, it is very dull and dry in spots, and the conversation to our modern ears sounds very unrealistic. That's because it is, but it was the style of writing at the time. Still, it is the reason many a high school and college kid has ever given up on reading this book, and while I think it's a silly reason, even I got bogged down by it a bit and it made it difficult to read.
Also, I have to say that either it is 19th century writing, or the honest position of orphans in the time period, but what is it with people then that they couldn't treat a kid who had no parents with any decency. I wondered about this literary trope, because it isn't like it comes up once or twice, especially in English literature. Is there a history of abuse towards the orphaned in England? I mean, I know it wasn't till the 20th century in Western society we started to stop sending the poor children to workhouses, but even the no-so-poor ones get a raw deal with no real explanation given except they were 'inconvenient'. Perhaps it's something I just don't get.
What did I like: I adore this book, especially the romance between Jane and Mr. Rochester. I think Jane as a heroine is wonderful, she doesn't bow to the wishes of the men around her just because they try to force the issue, but she is levelheaded about it and doesn't play coy or silly. She stays true to herself in a time period when that wasn't encouraged in women. And she doesn't let life kick her down or force her into place. She is very much a maverick in her time, but a wonderful one, and in the end you find yourself thrilled at the outcome of life for her.
Rate this wormy book: This book gets a MONSTER worm from me, you must read it. Jane Eyre is a great book for any woman to read, but men too, to remember that just because you are men doesn't make you the masters of everything, especially us. But it is also, in it's own way, a Cinderella story, though with a much smarter and more resourceful Cinderella than we normally see in those sort of stories. It's a wonderful coming of age story for a young girl who in the end gets her froggy prince after many trials and many self-discoveries. How in the world can you go wrong with that?
How I heard about this book: In the one and only English class I took at William Jewell I was required to read it. It was the only time I ever wrote a decent paper while at William Jewell, all about comparing Jane's life to the physical buildings she was living in. It was, I must say, one of my most brilliant papers. Not as brilliant as my paper on the life of St. Anthony and monasticism in the Early Church I wrote while at UCLA, but right up there. *snerk*
Setting: mid-19th century England, the places outside of that are left specifically vague. Most of the action takes place at Thornfield Hall, a large, rambling manor house in the English countryside.
Main Characters:
Jane Eyre: A young girl/woman who is orphaned at a young age and left to be raised by her mother's brother's wife. She is a passionate girl who is trying to find the balance between her emotions and reason, but most of all is trying to stay true to herself. She eventually takes up as a governess for the rich Mr. Rochester's ward, and finds that finding that balance becomes increasingly difficult as she is more and more attracted to her employer, even as the mystery behind him and his strange house grows.
Mrs. Reed: Jane's resentful aunt, it's never fully explained why she hates Jane so, just that she does. She prevents Jane from any knowledge of or connection to any of the Eyre members of her family.
Adele: Jane's student, she is perhaps the illegitimate daughter of Rochester and an opera performer, though he isn't certain on her parentage. Now orphaned, she lives in Thornfield Hall as Rochester's ward. Mrs. Fairfax: A distant relation by marriage to Rochester, and his housekeeper at Thornfield Hall.
Edward Fairfax Rochester: The owner of Thornfield, he is a passionate, troubled, brooding man, who has spent much of his adult life in anger and pursuit of his own pleasure. Despite this he is a highly intelligent man who is attracted to Jane's own passionate nature, as well as her good and quiet spirit.
Blanche Ingram: A beautiful, rich girl from nearby Thornfield Hall, she has set her sights on Mr. Rochester and Jane supposes that the two will soon marry.
Grace Poole: A mysterious figure in the house, she is said to be a servant, but Jane doesn't know what she actually does in the house. Many of the mysterious and terrifying things that occur in Thornfield are blamed on her.
St. John Rivers: One of Jane's Eyre's cousins, he is a cold, icy person who wishes to become a missionary in India.
Diana Rivers: St. John's sister, she is as commanding a personality as her brother, but very warm and kind.
Mary Rivers: The quietest of the Rivers children, she takes lessons from Jane on drawing.
Plot: Jane Eyre is a poor, orphaned girl who lives as a dependent on her resentful aunt. She is shipped off to boarding school, where conditions are hard, but eventually Jane thrives and becomes a quiet, thoughtful, but passionate young woman. Seeking to find her fortune elsewhere, she takes up a position at Thornfield Hall as a governess to a little, French girl, Adele. It is months before she meets the actual owner of the hall and her employer, Mr. Rochester, a brooding figure who is as attracted to Jane as she to him. But strange events begin happening in Thornfield, one's that threaten Jane's new existence. When the truth comes out about Mr. Rochester's past, Jane is forced to flee the master that she loves, and finds that not only is there unexpected help in corners she never new, but family and perhaps true love and happiness after all.
Themes:
The situation of women in early Victorian society: Jane Eyre position in the books perhaps displays most clearly the situation of women in early-Victorian society in England. Women of a middle-class upbringing, who had no means of managing for themselves and no wealth by which to do it with were often, as was Jane and Mrs. Fairfax, left to take employment elsewhere, most often as governesses and housekeepers. Those of lesser means worked as servants, or in the case of Grace Poole, tending those who needed looking after. Their lives were precarious, as they had to deal with the whims and whimsies of the rich people they served. Jane, who has been in this place all her life as an orphan, is keenly aware of the precarious situation she finds herself in, and how she must act and appear so as not to lose her station and her income. While she isn't a part of the household, she is expected to dance attendance as wanted, even if she doesn't particularly want to participate or is shunned and excluded by the other 'better company' there. As a highly-placed servant, it is her duty to do as she is told.
This existence isn't an easy one. Jane hears the stories of Blanche Ingram and her siblings and how they tormented other governesses, and thinks it horrible that these poor women were held responsible for these ill-behaved children. Often this was the lo of many good women, who were responsible for the pampered and spoiled scions of the elite. Diana and Mary, Jane's cousins, must both suffer for it as well. But there is little that ladies of their education and background to do to make do if they have to independent wealth by which to live. It is either live as a dependent of another and hope that something doesn't go horribly wrong to endanger your place, or marry well to someone who can provide for you, or starve.
Equality between men and women: In a time and society where women's roles were most certainly NOT equal, Jane struggles to be treated at least like a human being with feelings, passions, and sensibilities. In particular the men in her life seem to have a deploring lack of consideration for this. Mr. Rochester, who she loves and adores, and who seems to feel the same for her, believes he can force upon Jane that which he wishes only because he wants it. Everything from expensive clothing and jewels to the manner of their relationship is set by him with little leeway for Jane to argue on the matter. She does, on certain occasions when she knows she can leverage herself, do so, and I think it's her ability to never back down from him that does attract him the most, whether he realizes it or not. But his insistence on his way and what he wants drives Jane from him, and it's a hard lesson for him to learn that he can't just control everything as he wishes.
St. John, in his own way, is no better. Edward, while being horribly selfish and amoral, loved Jane beyond reason. St. John is very giving and moral, a good man, but has no love to give to Jane. He has his own ambitions and goals, and in that is also very selfish, but has no room for the feelings and considerations of others. It never occurs to him that Jane would not make a good fit for him because he doesn't love her, nor she him, only that Jane would be good to take with him on his mission trip. In fact, Jane wouldn't, and even Diana River's sees that, but St. John is blind to anything but his own goals, and will not consider alternatives. And if Jane turns him down, it is because she is not concerned with heavenly things, and thus is a sinner. Well gee, with arguments like that, I wonder why it is she turned St. John down.
In the end, Jane strives for equality with a partner as well as love. She doesn't want to be forced to anything because she is the woman in the relationship and must submit, she wants to be able to make her own decisions based on her own intelligence and feeling. And she wants to be loved, not tolerated because she is 'appropriate'. Jane sticks to her guns, and in the end she gets her reward, the man she has always loved in a close, equal, and loving relationship, and is happy at last.
There isn't a pot so bent that there isn't a lid to fit it: A favorite phrase of someone I know, in Jane's case this is true. While Jane herself states she is very plain, beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, and Mr. Rochester finds Jane beautiful not because of her physical appearance but because of her mind and her personality as well. He is drawn to something deeper in Jane that few other people ever get beyond to see, even later St. John. Mr. Rochester himself recognizes he is no looker, and Jane is honest to him about it, but despite the fact he isn't conventionally handsome, Jane loves him all the same. She finds in him other qualities to love, and even his features are attractive to her, not because they are beautiful, but because they are part of who he is, and she loves him just as that. While St. John, her cousin, is much more handsome, there is so much less of him for Jane to love than her beloved Edward.
The play of opposites: Charlotte Bronte in this novel cleverly plays opposites around Jane to show the extremities of life that Jane is trying to avoid. Jane herself is a character who is pulled many ways, but tries to find a happy equilibrium between what society expects and what she wants, between what she is and what she should be. There are many opposites portrayed in the novel. There is the family she grew up in, that of the Reeds, uncaring, cruel, petty, and mean, who neither loved or cared for Jane and saw her as little more than a nuisance. This is in stark contrast to he Rivers, (Reed, River, I thought it was funny), who are Jane's other cousins. They are caring and giving, and outside of St. John are warm and concerned about Jane. They love her unconditionally, even before they know that she is their cousin or her sharing her inheritance with them. They give Jane the sense of family and belonging that she has never had her entire life, and begin a life-long friendship with her and her husband. The Reeds she never speaks of or hears from again.
There is the contrast between Helen, her friend from childhood, who was almost martyr-like in not letting her passions and her anger rule her, and Bertha Mason who was consumed by her emotions. Now, I know now at days we'd recognize that Bertha had a serious condition, a mental illness, I'm charitably placing this in Victorian sensibilities where they would have assumed it was a personality fault with her. Helen becomes almost a saint in Jane's eyes, while Bertha is described as little better than a demon, a strange, animalistic creature who terrifies Jane and most everyone else. While Jane recognizes she will never be the saint that Helen was, she recoils from what Bertha is, and it is that nature of standing in between that causes Mr. Rochester to fall in love with her.
Edward and St. John are again another set of opposites, one who feels passionately and acts rashly, and one is as cool as a glacier in an Antartic winter, who does nothing he would like save that which feeds his ambition. And don't be fooled, he does have ambition, even if it is on 'godly things'. Jane finds that she can't love St. John because he is unable to love anything or anyone save for his own ambition and what it means to fulfill that. While he is a good man, goodness isn't what Jane needs, happiness is. In a life where she has known to little of happiness, Jane wisely choses to side what she knows she wants and desires. And while Edward has made many an unwise decision, the fact is he loves her, and she loves him. While the concept is foreign to St. John, to Jane it is the right decision, and in the end it proves to be a good one.
Oh, the go-thi-que horror: Well, it's not as bad as in Bronte's sister Emily's famous Gothic book, Wuthering Heights, (shoot me now, but I believe that one is in the list), it still has elements of it in there, (I think Emily was rubbing off). The creepy noises in the room, the imagined apparitions in the stairs, the crazy lady in the top of the house, the references to all sorts of ghosties, goblins, and all things that go BUMP in the night. But Charlotte I must say weaves them well into the story, making it something that seems realistic for practical, level-headed Jane to reference, rather than making her a hysterical, insensible character. I think this makes Jane very relatable as she is at once a common-sense type of girl, who like many of us has moments when she lets her imagination sometimes get the better of her. (OK, so crazy lady in the top of the house wasn't her imagination...)
Every book sucks somewhere: I adore this book...but it does have some sucky things about it. First, being that it was written in the mid-19th century, it is very dull and dry in spots, and the conversation to our modern ears sounds very unrealistic. That's because it is, but it was the style of writing at the time. Still, it is the reason many a high school and college kid has ever given up on reading this book, and while I think it's a silly reason, even I got bogged down by it a bit and it made it difficult to read.
Also, I have to say that either it is 19th century writing, or the honest position of orphans in the time period, but what is it with people then that they couldn't treat a kid who had no parents with any decency. I wondered about this literary trope, because it isn't like it comes up once or twice, especially in English literature. Is there a history of abuse towards the orphaned in England? I mean, I know it wasn't till the 20th century in Western society we started to stop sending the poor children to workhouses, but even the no-so-poor ones get a raw deal with no real explanation given except they were 'inconvenient'. Perhaps it's something I just don't get.
What did I like: I adore this book, especially the romance between Jane and Mr. Rochester. I think Jane as a heroine is wonderful, she doesn't bow to the wishes of the men around her just because they try to force the issue, but she is levelheaded about it and doesn't play coy or silly. She stays true to herself in a time period when that wasn't encouraged in women. And she doesn't let life kick her down or force her into place. She is very much a maverick in her time, but a wonderful one, and in the end you find yourself thrilled at the outcome of life for her.
Rate this wormy book: This book gets a MONSTER worm from me, you must read it. Jane Eyre is a great book for any woman to read, but men too, to remember that just because you are men doesn't make you the masters of everything, especially us. But it is also, in it's own way, a Cinderella story, though with a much smarter and more resourceful Cinderella than we normally see in those sort of stories. It's a wonderful coming of age story for a young girl who in the end gets her froggy prince after many trials and many self-discoveries. How in the world can you go wrong with that?
Friday, March 21, 2008
Anne of Green Gables
Anne of Green Gables- Lucy Maude Montgomery
How I found this book: My mother, actually, without whom I would never have gotten the chance to read the wonderful literature out there for girls as a child. Not that my father didn’t throw literature at me left and right, he did, but Mom knew the types of things girls liked best. Also, my old college roomie, Faith, without whom I wouldn’t have lazed away Saturday afternoons when I was 19 watching the Canadian production of the book sighing longingly every time Gilbert Blythe came on screen.
Setting: Late 19th century Prince Edward Island, Canada.
Main Characters:
Anne Shirley: The heroine of the story, she is a 12-year-old orphan girl who has been kicked about from home to home since her parents death, but hasn’t let her hard life put down her fanciful and indomitable spirit. Anne is a dreamer, who despairs of her red hair and thin features, and who only seeks to do the right and good thing, even though her romantic spirit tends to get her into many, many scrapes.
Matthew Cuthbert: The elder of the middle-aged Cuthbert siblings, he is a bachelor. He falls in love with Anne almost at once, (though he is notoriously shy around females). He is Anne’s champion and confidant, and becomes the father figure in Anne’s life.
Marilla Cuthbert: Matthew’s younger, spinster sister, she is horrified that they received a girl instead of the boy they requested to help out at Green Gables, their farm. She agrees to let Anne stay to raise her properly, and though she is practical, brusque, and sometimes insensitive, she too falls to Anne’s charms, and becomes the mother figure for Anne as she grows up.
Rachel Lind: The Cuthbert’s nosey neighbor, she is both puzzled by Anne and delighted by her. She insults Anne on their first meeting, but the two patch things up. She often serves as the softening agent to Marilla’s strict, taciturn take on raising a child.
Diana Barry: Anne’s ‘bosom friend’, she lives next door to Green Gables. She is not as bright or romantic as Anne at times, but is a practical, sensible girl, often as a foil to Anne’s heights of imaginary ecstasy, (though not always, she can be just as prone to Anne’s fancies as anyone). She is dark haired and dark eyed, which causes Anne to think her much more the beauty than Anne is, and is not quite the scholar of her friend.
Gilbert Blythe: Anne’s nemesis at school, he made an enemy of Anne when he dared to call her ‘carrots’ in class, causing Anne, (who was always sensitive about her hair), to crack a slate board over his head. The two are competitors all through school, eventually graduating the tops of their class both in elementary school and at Queens College, (the equivalent of high school). Towards the end of the book the two begin to patch up their feelings when Gilbert offers to allow Anne to teach in Avonlea School so she can be close to home.
Plot: Anne Shirley is a wide-eyed orphan girl who is taken in by the middle-aged Cuthberts. A romantic dreamer, Anne struggles to be conventionally ‘good’ as the farming town of Avonlea would see it, but this often backfires on her when her imagination or thoughtlessness gets the better of her. However, Anne has a good-heart which quickly wins her over to those around her, and as she grows into a serious, scholarly young woman, she dares to dream of a whole world beyond the small home she’s made for herself in Avonlea. But a tragedy will cause Anne to reflect on all that has been given to her by her beloved Cuthbert’s, and opens the door to new and perhaps just as wonderful possibilities for her down the road.
Themes:
Kindred Spirits: Anne, who has been unwanted for nearly all of her life, yearns for ‘kindred spirits’, those who she can both love and accept and who love and accept her in return. In a world that is ruled by the Victorian sensibilities of the 19th century, Anne is a fanciful creature and hard to understand by some. But those who take the time to see beyond her dreams and see the girl underneath come to love her despite her stories and her interesting mistakes, and it is that love that helps nurture the unwanted waif into a strong and loving young woman.
Taking joy in the simple things: Anne falls easily in love with the world around her, and doesn’t require anything fancy or extravagant to please her, (well, except for poofy-sleeved dresses). She can be just as entranced by a drive through a beautiful wood as by a thousand jewels. Her imagination does the rest for her. For Anne, the world and her own mind is enough for her to make her happy, and every corner reveals to her a new wonder as she enjoys everything for what it is.
Learning from your mistakes: Anne makes plenty of those, mistakes that is. Being both an orphan and a child of fancy make her a little careless at times. Marilla’s patience helps teach and to learn from the many mistakes she makes, it isn’t often that Anne makes the same mistake twice. What’s more, it teaches Anne how to balance her nature and what she needs to do. As she grows older, she is no less romantic, but it is tempered by a patience and calm manner she never displayed as a child
Every book sucks somewhere: I totally believe this book doesn’t have a ‘sucky’ part in it. However, if I had to pick a flaw if it were, I’d say that the shining, happy display of childhood from L. M. Montgomery in her book perhaps clashes with the childhoods of many orphans in the 19th century; particularly many that Anne would have grown up with. This coupled with the occasional derogatory references to French Canadians tend to stick the book in a sort of LaLa-land of Montgomery’s own devising. She doesn’t seem to address the afore mentioned derogatory statements against the French Canadians, acting as if it were a matter of course, and seems to ignore some of the harsh realities of Anne’s situation, something other writers of the time period wouldn’t have shied away from.
What did I like: I LOVE this story. I love the impetuous Anne, as I think every little girl was Anne as some point. I love how she views her entire world and the joy she takes in it. I love how she feels so passionately about everything. And I love how she learns from the many mistakes she makes and mends them, even so far as forgiving Gilbert in the end.
How would I rate this wormy book: This is by all means a MONSTER book, I can’t imagine a life without Anne Shirley in it. It isn’t just because she’s a red head, (being one myself, I’m partial to those heroines), it is because she adds something to it as a character, something few other characters in literature have done for me. The story is wonderful and endearing, and something I highly recommend for any young girl who has ever dreamed up stories or lived in her own imagination.
How I found this book: My mother, actually, without whom I would never have gotten the chance to read the wonderful literature out there for girls as a child. Not that my father didn’t throw literature at me left and right, he did, but Mom knew the types of things girls liked best. Also, my old college roomie, Faith, without whom I wouldn’t have lazed away Saturday afternoons when I was 19 watching the Canadian production of the book sighing longingly every time Gilbert Blythe came on screen.
Setting: Late 19th century Prince Edward Island, Canada.
Main Characters:
Anne Shirley: The heroine of the story, she is a 12-year-old orphan girl who has been kicked about from home to home since her parents death, but hasn’t let her hard life put down her fanciful and indomitable spirit. Anne is a dreamer, who despairs of her red hair and thin features, and who only seeks to do the right and good thing, even though her romantic spirit tends to get her into many, many scrapes.
Matthew Cuthbert: The elder of the middle-aged Cuthbert siblings, he is a bachelor. He falls in love with Anne almost at once, (though he is notoriously shy around females). He is Anne’s champion and confidant, and becomes the father figure in Anne’s life.
Marilla Cuthbert: Matthew’s younger, spinster sister, she is horrified that they received a girl instead of the boy they requested to help out at Green Gables, their farm. She agrees to let Anne stay to raise her properly, and though she is practical, brusque, and sometimes insensitive, she too falls to Anne’s charms, and becomes the mother figure for Anne as she grows up.
Rachel Lind: The Cuthbert’s nosey neighbor, she is both puzzled by Anne and delighted by her. She insults Anne on their first meeting, but the two patch things up. She often serves as the softening agent to Marilla’s strict, taciturn take on raising a child.
Diana Barry: Anne’s ‘bosom friend’, she lives next door to Green Gables. She is not as bright or romantic as Anne at times, but is a practical, sensible girl, often as a foil to Anne’s heights of imaginary ecstasy, (though not always, she can be just as prone to Anne’s fancies as anyone). She is dark haired and dark eyed, which causes Anne to think her much more the beauty than Anne is, and is not quite the scholar of her friend.
Gilbert Blythe: Anne’s nemesis at school, he made an enemy of Anne when he dared to call her ‘carrots’ in class, causing Anne, (who was always sensitive about her hair), to crack a slate board over his head. The two are competitors all through school, eventually graduating the tops of their class both in elementary school and at Queens College, (the equivalent of high school). Towards the end of the book the two begin to patch up their feelings when Gilbert offers to allow Anne to teach in Avonlea School so she can be close to home.
Plot: Anne Shirley is a wide-eyed orphan girl who is taken in by the middle-aged Cuthberts. A romantic dreamer, Anne struggles to be conventionally ‘good’ as the farming town of Avonlea would see it, but this often backfires on her when her imagination or thoughtlessness gets the better of her. However, Anne has a good-heart which quickly wins her over to those around her, and as she grows into a serious, scholarly young woman, she dares to dream of a whole world beyond the small home she’s made for herself in Avonlea. But a tragedy will cause Anne to reflect on all that has been given to her by her beloved Cuthbert’s, and opens the door to new and perhaps just as wonderful possibilities for her down the road.
Themes:
Kindred Spirits: Anne, who has been unwanted for nearly all of her life, yearns for ‘kindred spirits’, those who she can both love and accept and who love and accept her in return. In a world that is ruled by the Victorian sensibilities of the 19th century, Anne is a fanciful creature and hard to understand by some. But those who take the time to see beyond her dreams and see the girl underneath come to love her despite her stories and her interesting mistakes, and it is that love that helps nurture the unwanted waif into a strong and loving young woman.
Taking joy in the simple things: Anne falls easily in love with the world around her, and doesn’t require anything fancy or extravagant to please her, (well, except for poofy-sleeved dresses). She can be just as entranced by a drive through a beautiful wood as by a thousand jewels. Her imagination does the rest for her. For Anne, the world and her own mind is enough for her to make her happy, and every corner reveals to her a new wonder as she enjoys everything for what it is.
Learning from your mistakes: Anne makes plenty of those, mistakes that is. Being both an orphan and a child of fancy make her a little careless at times. Marilla’s patience helps teach and to learn from the many mistakes she makes, it isn’t often that Anne makes the same mistake twice. What’s more, it teaches Anne how to balance her nature and what she needs to do. As she grows older, she is no less romantic, but it is tempered by a patience and calm manner she never displayed as a child
Every book sucks somewhere: I totally believe this book doesn’t have a ‘sucky’ part in it. However, if I had to pick a flaw if it were, I’d say that the shining, happy display of childhood from L. M. Montgomery in her book perhaps clashes with the childhoods of many orphans in the 19th century; particularly many that Anne would have grown up with. This coupled with the occasional derogatory references to French Canadians tend to stick the book in a sort of LaLa-land of Montgomery’s own devising. She doesn’t seem to address the afore mentioned derogatory statements against the French Canadians, acting as if it were a matter of course, and seems to ignore some of the harsh realities of Anne’s situation, something other writers of the time period wouldn’t have shied away from.
What did I like: I LOVE this story. I love the impetuous Anne, as I think every little girl was Anne as some point. I love how she views her entire world and the joy she takes in it. I love how she feels so passionately about everything. And I love how she learns from the many mistakes she makes and mends them, even so far as forgiving Gilbert in the end.
How would I rate this wormy book: This is by all means a MONSTER book, I can’t imagine a life without Anne Shirley in it. It isn’t just because she’s a red head, (being one myself, I’m partial to those heroines), it is because she adds something to it as a character, something few other characters in literature have done for me. The story is wonderful and endearing, and something I highly recommend for any young girl who has ever dreamed up stories or lived in her own imagination.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
The Celestina
The Celestina- Fernando de Rojas
How I found this book: When you take classes such as “Culture and Crises in Late Medieval Spain”, you get to read some interesting books. This was one of them, and I thank Teofilo Ruiz for making me read it for class. It’s think enough, I actually did get a chance to read it! It is one of the oldest books in Spanish literature, and I believe it is considered one of the oldest ‘novels’ in Western literature.
Setting: Late 15th century Spain, in a small town.
Main Characters:
Celestina: A caricature of the ‘old woman’ of the town, she specializes both in herbal and traditional medicines as well as ‘fixing’ women who have perhaps not been quite as chaste as they would have liked to be thought of. She is wily and irascible, and quite astute to the faults of all the classes, and plays those faults well. Full of life and not ashamed of who she is or what she does, Celestina is perhaps the most honest and fun character in the entire novel.
Calisto: A minor noble, he is madly in love with Melibea, and is willing to use his wealth to hire Celestina to have her. He seems to care little about the virtue of wooing a well-bred young lady and seducing her, but cares instead that he is infatuated with her and desires her. His self-centered actions have dire effects on all of those involved.
Melibea: A young daughter of another minor noble, she sticks to her class’s concepts of morality. While she worries about her honor, she also wishes to strike out against those moirés which bind her to her father’s house and do not allow her to enjoy the attentions of someone like Calisto. While it is Celestina’s ‘spell’ that allows her to rebel against those convictions, the shock and shame that she has in the end when all is discovered force her to commit the unthinkable.
Sempronio: One of Calisto’s man-servants, he is self-serving and conniving, and able to play his master well. Like many characters in picaresque novels from the period, Sempronio is looking out for himself first and foremost, knowing that the nobility can turn on him at any moment and he will be left out. He is the one who convinces Celestina to work with Calisto in the hopes that the two can swindle his master out of some of his fortune.
Parmeno: The second of Calisto’s man-servants, he is at first loyal to Calisto and tries to urge his master against trusting Sempronio so implicitly. When Calisto turns on him in one of his egotistical moods, Permeno decides that perhaps Sempronio has the right of it, and aids his fellow and Celestina in their plot. There is some sort of connection between Celestina and Paremeno, as his mother was a partner to Celestina. Parmeno seems to appear to be the person who tried to advance himself above the state he was, only to be pushed down again by nobility.
Elicia and Areusa: Two prostitutes who live with and work for Celestina. They are both interested in Sempronio and Parmeno
Plot: Calisto, a member of the lower nobility, falls in love with Melibea and seeks to have her, though she will have nothing to do with him. To do so, he enlists the aid of his somewhat dubious servants and an old crone named Celestina to beguile Melibea into his…mmmm…arms, yes that’s it. The plan goes horribly awry at the end, with Celestina being killed for keeping all of Calisto’s money to herself and giving none to his servants who helped in the conspiracy. The servants are killed for killing Celestina when her murder was witnessed by one of her prostitutes. Calisto dies when he falls from a ladder in an attempt to see Melibea. Melibea dies after her love, confessing to her father her affair and throwing herself off a tower.
Themes:
Greed: Greed seems to be the motivating factor of many of the characters, and perhaps speaks to part of the culture of late Medieval Spain at the time. The noble Calisto is greedy for Melibea, and is eager to part with his money to the equally greedy Celestina and Sempronio in exchange for his lady’s affections. He doesn’t who is hurt in this, but that he gets what he wants.
Equally Celestina, Sempronio, and Parmeno are affected by this as well. Celestina is a wily character, willing to do and act however she needs to get a few coins to get buy. Her life is a desperate one, where she sometimes has famine, sometimes fortune, and she knows a good opportunity when it presents itself. She represents the poor class of people in Spanish society at the time. Just above her are the two man-servants, both of whom have fairly decent positions working the home of their noble lord, but who are dependent on him and his whims for their own livelihood. Any extra they can get to be OK despite what he does is a chance they will take. It’s a cruel world that is run by the whims of those who have power, and they will take what they can to make sure they at least remain on top.
The clash between middle class morals and accesses: We think that this is a modern phenomenon, but in reality the clash between the morals of the middle class and the access has been going on since such a class existed. Melibea has been raised to follow the morals of her class unquestioningly, and fears more the damage to her personal honor than any religious repercussions. Yet she yearns for the forbidden fruit of Calisto and what he offers. In a time when chivalric romances flourished with all sorts of tantalizing tales, Melibea struggles to remain chaste, but desires to acquiesce to her ardent suitor because it is different, unique, and dangerous compared to the quiet, sequestered life as a noble daughter that she has always known. However, when she does finally go along with Calisto’s advances, when the truth is discovered she can not live with the shame to her honor and she kills herself, rather than face the shame she has brought on her family. This extreme action speaks to the high emphasis placed on such things in late-medieval Spanish culture, and to the struggle between the two sides of the argument.
The disparity between rich and poor: There had always been a divide between serf and noble in Spain, but in the towns, the gulf between rich and poor was becoming more and more evident as Spain began to enter into the Renaissance. The nobility, who had long been used to their own vice and decadence in the Middle Ages, cared little for the peasantry and their lives which were so intertwined with those of the class above them. We see in Calisto’s relationship to his own servants, and to that with Celestina, that he cares little about what effect this endeavor has on them. They are there to do his bidding. In the meantime, they are wise enough to understand their master and to make out of the situation what they can. While they never think to rebel against the system, that isn’t to say that they don’t know how to play it. Just because they are peasants doesn’t make them stupid. While the nobles are consumed with their own worries, such as their honor or their passions, the peasantry is concerned with what they must do to keep themselves afloat and to make themselves happy, no matter what their ‘masters’ do. This complex interaction will grow and develop as the centuries go on in Europe, and as the nobles become fewer but their ‘peasants’ become more.
Every book sucks somewhere: Perhaps the only ‘sucky’ thing about the book really is that it isn’t written in what we’ve come to think of as ‘traditional’ novel form. Being that the story is 500-years-old, it can perhaps be forgiven, but to those who have trouble reading Shakespeare you will have a hard time with this. I didn’t mind the play-script format because it made the book quicker to read. But it didn’t add a lot of definition to the story or the characters or the setting. However, it did draw the reader in quite a bit as you felt as if the people were really talking around you or to you.
What did I like: I loved the complex relationships between all the characters. This isn’t a simple, farcical story about nobles and servants in Medieval Spain, but a story about the relationships of people in that culture and society at the time period it was written. To a historian this is an invaluable tool, giving us a window into how contemporaries of that society saw the world in which they lived. To the casual reader it is still highly relatable, and gives someone who perhaps isn’t looking for social insights the ability to understand that yes, people in the past weren’t so very different from us now. It gives the reader the ability to see and understand how it is that people in the past dealt with situations that many in today’s world only have book-knowledge of.
How would I rate this wormy book: I would rate this as a FAT worm, I’d love to make it MONSTER, but I think the style perhaps will be difficult for just the casual reader unless your idea of casual reading is Shakespeare. Should I mention I usually read Shakespeare casually? Anyway, not everyone is me, so if you aren’t prepared for that type of style, than you will get easily confused and bored by the story. But it is still a good read, full of lively, interesting characters and a story that is easily relatable to, even in our modern times. In some ways I think kids in high school would love Celestina better than some Shakespeare, but then I suppose that Shakespeare, being English, is read much more for the English classes in school rather than history classes. *sigh*
How I found this book: When you take classes such as “Culture and Crises in Late Medieval Spain”, you get to read some interesting books. This was one of them, and I thank Teofilo Ruiz for making me read it for class. It’s think enough, I actually did get a chance to read it! It is one of the oldest books in Spanish literature, and I believe it is considered one of the oldest ‘novels’ in Western literature.
Setting: Late 15th century Spain, in a small town.
Main Characters:
Celestina: A caricature of the ‘old woman’ of the town, she specializes both in herbal and traditional medicines as well as ‘fixing’ women who have perhaps not been quite as chaste as they would have liked to be thought of. She is wily and irascible, and quite astute to the faults of all the classes, and plays those faults well. Full of life and not ashamed of who she is or what she does, Celestina is perhaps the most honest and fun character in the entire novel.
Calisto: A minor noble, he is madly in love with Melibea, and is willing to use his wealth to hire Celestina to have her. He seems to care little about the virtue of wooing a well-bred young lady and seducing her, but cares instead that he is infatuated with her and desires her. His self-centered actions have dire effects on all of those involved.
Melibea: A young daughter of another minor noble, she sticks to her class’s concepts of morality. While she worries about her honor, she also wishes to strike out against those moirés which bind her to her father’s house and do not allow her to enjoy the attentions of someone like Calisto. While it is Celestina’s ‘spell’ that allows her to rebel against those convictions, the shock and shame that she has in the end when all is discovered force her to commit the unthinkable.
Sempronio: One of Calisto’s man-servants, he is self-serving and conniving, and able to play his master well. Like many characters in picaresque novels from the period, Sempronio is looking out for himself first and foremost, knowing that the nobility can turn on him at any moment and he will be left out. He is the one who convinces Celestina to work with Calisto in the hopes that the two can swindle his master out of some of his fortune.
Parmeno: The second of Calisto’s man-servants, he is at first loyal to Calisto and tries to urge his master against trusting Sempronio so implicitly. When Calisto turns on him in one of his egotistical moods, Permeno decides that perhaps Sempronio has the right of it, and aids his fellow and Celestina in their plot. There is some sort of connection between Celestina and Paremeno, as his mother was a partner to Celestina. Parmeno seems to appear to be the person who tried to advance himself above the state he was, only to be pushed down again by nobility.
Elicia and Areusa: Two prostitutes who live with and work for Celestina. They are both interested in Sempronio and Parmeno
Plot: Calisto, a member of the lower nobility, falls in love with Melibea and seeks to have her, though she will have nothing to do with him. To do so, he enlists the aid of his somewhat dubious servants and an old crone named Celestina to beguile Melibea into his…mmmm…arms, yes that’s it. The plan goes horribly awry at the end, with Celestina being killed for keeping all of Calisto’s money to herself and giving none to his servants who helped in the conspiracy. The servants are killed for killing Celestina when her murder was witnessed by one of her prostitutes. Calisto dies when he falls from a ladder in an attempt to see Melibea. Melibea dies after her love, confessing to her father her affair and throwing herself off a tower.
Themes:
Greed: Greed seems to be the motivating factor of many of the characters, and perhaps speaks to part of the culture of late Medieval Spain at the time. The noble Calisto is greedy for Melibea, and is eager to part with his money to the equally greedy Celestina and Sempronio in exchange for his lady’s affections. He doesn’t who is hurt in this, but that he gets what he wants.
Equally Celestina, Sempronio, and Parmeno are affected by this as well. Celestina is a wily character, willing to do and act however she needs to get a few coins to get buy. Her life is a desperate one, where she sometimes has famine, sometimes fortune, and she knows a good opportunity when it presents itself. She represents the poor class of people in Spanish society at the time. Just above her are the two man-servants, both of whom have fairly decent positions working the home of their noble lord, but who are dependent on him and his whims for their own livelihood. Any extra they can get to be OK despite what he does is a chance they will take. It’s a cruel world that is run by the whims of those who have power, and they will take what they can to make sure they at least remain on top.
The clash between middle class morals and accesses: We think that this is a modern phenomenon, but in reality the clash between the morals of the middle class and the access has been going on since such a class existed. Melibea has been raised to follow the morals of her class unquestioningly, and fears more the damage to her personal honor than any religious repercussions. Yet she yearns for the forbidden fruit of Calisto and what he offers. In a time when chivalric romances flourished with all sorts of tantalizing tales, Melibea struggles to remain chaste, but desires to acquiesce to her ardent suitor because it is different, unique, and dangerous compared to the quiet, sequestered life as a noble daughter that she has always known. However, when she does finally go along with Calisto’s advances, when the truth is discovered she can not live with the shame to her honor and she kills herself, rather than face the shame she has brought on her family. This extreme action speaks to the high emphasis placed on such things in late-medieval Spanish culture, and to the struggle between the two sides of the argument.
The disparity between rich and poor: There had always been a divide between serf and noble in Spain, but in the towns, the gulf between rich and poor was becoming more and more evident as Spain began to enter into the Renaissance. The nobility, who had long been used to their own vice and decadence in the Middle Ages, cared little for the peasantry and their lives which were so intertwined with those of the class above them. We see in Calisto’s relationship to his own servants, and to that with Celestina, that he cares little about what effect this endeavor has on them. They are there to do his bidding. In the meantime, they are wise enough to understand their master and to make out of the situation what they can. While they never think to rebel against the system, that isn’t to say that they don’t know how to play it. Just because they are peasants doesn’t make them stupid. While the nobles are consumed with their own worries, such as their honor or their passions, the peasantry is concerned with what they must do to keep themselves afloat and to make themselves happy, no matter what their ‘masters’ do. This complex interaction will grow and develop as the centuries go on in Europe, and as the nobles become fewer but their ‘peasants’ become more.
Every book sucks somewhere: Perhaps the only ‘sucky’ thing about the book really is that it isn’t written in what we’ve come to think of as ‘traditional’ novel form. Being that the story is 500-years-old, it can perhaps be forgiven, but to those who have trouble reading Shakespeare you will have a hard time with this. I didn’t mind the play-script format because it made the book quicker to read. But it didn’t add a lot of definition to the story or the characters or the setting. However, it did draw the reader in quite a bit as you felt as if the people were really talking around you or to you.
What did I like: I loved the complex relationships between all the characters. This isn’t a simple, farcical story about nobles and servants in Medieval Spain, but a story about the relationships of people in that culture and society at the time period it was written. To a historian this is an invaluable tool, giving us a window into how contemporaries of that society saw the world in which they lived. To the casual reader it is still highly relatable, and gives someone who perhaps isn’t looking for social insights the ability to understand that yes, people in the past weren’t so very different from us now. It gives the reader the ability to see and understand how it is that people in the past dealt with situations that many in today’s world only have book-knowledge of.
How would I rate this wormy book: I would rate this as a FAT worm, I’d love to make it MONSTER, but I think the style perhaps will be difficult for just the casual reader unless your idea of casual reading is Shakespeare. Should I mention I usually read Shakespeare casually? Anyway, not everyone is me, so if you aren’t prepared for that type of style, than you will get easily confused and bored by the story. But it is still a good read, full of lively, interesting characters and a story that is easily relatable to, even in our modern times. In some ways I think kids in high school would love Celestina better than some Shakespeare, but then I suppose that Shakespeare, being English, is read much more for the English classes in school rather than history classes. *sigh*
Monday, March 17, 2008
In Cold Blood
In Cold Blood- Truman Capote
How I found this book: I knew about this book because of the movie, part of which I caught on TCM one day, (Turner Classic Movies on US cable). I happened to be at Barnes and Noble last year looking at a discount table, and they had this and several other books on sale, several for like $20, so I got it thinking it might be interesting to read.
Setting: 19th Late 50’s, early 60’s Holcomb, Kansas. One of my friends actually grew up in the town of Garden City, which is where the family actually did attend church.
Main Characters:
Herbert Clutter: A wealthy rancher in Western Kansas, he is the patriarch of the Clutter family. He appears to be a good, honest man who people like working for and with, and who has built up a modest empire for himself.
Bonnie Clutter: Herbert’s wife, she suffers from severe depression.
Nancy Clutter: 16-years-old, she is a vivacious teenager with a steady boyfriend, who likes to ride horses. She’s good with housework and cooking, and seems excited about one of her older sister’s weddings in a few weeks.
Kenyon Clutter: 15-years-old, he likes to drive his vehicle out on the dunes of Western Kansas.
Dick Hickock: An ex-con who served time in the Kansas State Penitentiary for check writing, he hears about the Clutters from one of his cell mates, and convinces Perry Smith to go with him to the Clutter’s home because he’s convinced the Clutter’s are rich. He was once a promising athlete, but at the time of the murders worked as a mechanic and lived with his aging parents. He had been married, but divorced his wife.
Perry Smith: Another ex-con, Perry Smith led a roust-about. He meets Hickock in prison, but it’s after they both get out that Hickock hatches the plan to kill the Clutters. Smith helped Hickock kill the family, and the pair escaped to Mexico, then to Miami, before going to Las Vegas.
Plot: This is a real life story. The Clutters, a successful ranching family in Western Kansas, are brutally murdered by two-ex cons who were attempting to steal from the family. When it is discovered that the family doesn’t have money at the house, they steal what they can and return to Kansas City to pass off checks and sell their goods before high tailing it to Mexico. While the police are searching for every possible clue to find who could have murdered this respected family in cold blood, Perry Smith and Dick Hickock stay as far away as possible, until the law finally catches up to the pair in Las Vegas. After what is a sensational trial for the small, sleepy farming communities around Garden City, the pair is sentenced to Death Row, where they try to appeal the process. They eventually are executed by hanging in April 1965.
Themes:
A senseless murder: Truman Capote broke from his usual mold in writing what could be called the first ‘true crime’ novel written, differing from his purely fictional fair previously. Here he documents a senseless murder and seeks to find out why the men committed the acts that they did. There seems to be no clear reason for the murders, outside of greed, but Truman Capote goes into detail about why and how the men hatched the plot, what each of them thought about committing the crime, and what their remorse, if any was.
Crime in a small town: Those of us who live in big cities know that we tend to get de-sensitized to crime and murder all around us. But I grew up in a small town, and I remember what it was like to have anything happen out of the ordinary. Imagine what a brutal, quadruple murder will do to a town. It causes neighbor to start looking suspiciously at another neighbor, for people to clamor for justice to be done. Gossip flies fast and free. In small-town America these things are so rare it is shocking to the psyche there, and is less easily forgotten than in big cities. My friend who grew up there says they still talk about the murders now fifty years since they happened.
The ‘disenfranchised and disillusioned’: Smith and Hickock represent a growing number of people in the 50’s and 60’s that were becoming disillusioned and disenfranchised by the post-World War II society. Both of these young men are very different, Perry was raised in foster homes and by a reclusive father, while Dick actually grew up in a very normal, if poor home-life, resenting the fact that he wasn’t given all the things he thought he should get in life. Both men suffered from feeling outside of the mainstream, of feeling the need to strike back and take what they want, which they did in the most violent of ways.
The psychology of a killer: Both the psychologists who worked with Smith and Hickock and Truman Capote himself tried to discover WHY it was that two men would so willingly commit a completely senseless murder that turned up very little for them in the end. Capote shows for us the chilling details of their planning of the murder and their flight, and how neither shows any remorse really for what they have done, or what little is shown is very distant and doesn’t appear to be emotionally linked to them at all. We see here the murderers as sociopaths who have little to no understanding of the true ramifications of their actions outside of the ramifications to themselves.
Every book sucks somewhere: I have to say there is very little about this book that sucked for me. I think the suckiest part was that the murders had to happen at all.
What did I like: Truman Capote made this story engaging. Often with these ‘true crime’ stories either in book form or on television I become bored very quickly. By humanizing both the family and the murderers, he made you realize the true depth and scope of the tragedy, and that you saw that these were real people. Even Smith and Hickock came off as painfully human; taking away a lot of the ‘monster’ quality we associate with murderers in our society, and making them people that we can relate to. I think this aspect shows us how something like this happens, and how anyone could commit a crime just like this, given the circumstances and choices made.
How would I rate this wormy book: I would rate this as a MONSTER book, if nothing else to show how Truman Capote took his masterful story-telling technique and applied it to a real-life situation. Its pain and gut-wrenching at times, but it is a good read and it is interesting to see the anatomy of a murder displayed in such a manner.
How I found this book: I knew about this book because of the movie, part of which I caught on TCM one day, (Turner Classic Movies on US cable). I happened to be at Barnes and Noble last year looking at a discount table, and they had this and several other books on sale, several for like $20, so I got it thinking it might be interesting to read.
Setting: 19th Late 50’s, early 60’s Holcomb, Kansas. One of my friends actually grew up in the town of Garden City, which is where the family actually did attend church.
Main Characters:
Herbert Clutter: A wealthy rancher in Western Kansas, he is the patriarch of the Clutter family. He appears to be a good, honest man who people like working for and with, and who has built up a modest empire for himself.
Bonnie Clutter: Herbert’s wife, she suffers from severe depression.
Nancy Clutter: 16-years-old, she is a vivacious teenager with a steady boyfriend, who likes to ride horses. She’s good with housework and cooking, and seems excited about one of her older sister’s weddings in a few weeks.
Kenyon Clutter: 15-years-old, he likes to drive his vehicle out on the dunes of Western Kansas.
Dick Hickock: An ex-con who served time in the Kansas State Penitentiary for check writing, he hears about the Clutters from one of his cell mates, and convinces Perry Smith to go with him to the Clutter’s home because he’s convinced the Clutter’s are rich. He was once a promising athlete, but at the time of the murders worked as a mechanic and lived with his aging parents. He had been married, but divorced his wife.
Perry Smith: Another ex-con, Perry Smith led a roust-about. He meets Hickock in prison, but it’s after they both get out that Hickock hatches the plan to kill the Clutters. Smith helped Hickock kill the family, and the pair escaped to Mexico, then to Miami, before going to Las Vegas.
Plot: This is a real life story. The Clutters, a successful ranching family in Western Kansas, are brutally murdered by two-ex cons who were attempting to steal from the family. When it is discovered that the family doesn’t have money at the house, they steal what they can and return to Kansas City to pass off checks and sell their goods before high tailing it to Mexico. While the police are searching for every possible clue to find who could have murdered this respected family in cold blood, Perry Smith and Dick Hickock stay as far away as possible, until the law finally catches up to the pair in Las Vegas. After what is a sensational trial for the small, sleepy farming communities around Garden City, the pair is sentenced to Death Row, where they try to appeal the process. They eventually are executed by hanging in April 1965.
Themes:
A senseless murder: Truman Capote broke from his usual mold in writing what could be called the first ‘true crime’ novel written, differing from his purely fictional fair previously. Here he documents a senseless murder and seeks to find out why the men committed the acts that they did. There seems to be no clear reason for the murders, outside of greed, but Truman Capote goes into detail about why and how the men hatched the plot, what each of them thought about committing the crime, and what their remorse, if any was.
Crime in a small town: Those of us who live in big cities know that we tend to get de-sensitized to crime and murder all around us. But I grew up in a small town, and I remember what it was like to have anything happen out of the ordinary. Imagine what a brutal, quadruple murder will do to a town. It causes neighbor to start looking suspiciously at another neighbor, for people to clamor for justice to be done. Gossip flies fast and free. In small-town America these things are so rare it is shocking to the psyche there, and is less easily forgotten than in big cities. My friend who grew up there says they still talk about the murders now fifty years since they happened.
The ‘disenfranchised and disillusioned’: Smith and Hickock represent a growing number of people in the 50’s and 60’s that were becoming disillusioned and disenfranchised by the post-World War II society. Both of these young men are very different, Perry was raised in foster homes and by a reclusive father, while Dick actually grew up in a very normal, if poor home-life, resenting the fact that he wasn’t given all the things he thought he should get in life. Both men suffered from feeling outside of the mainstream, of feeling the need to strike back and take what they want, which they did in the most violent of ways.
The psychology of a killer: Both the psychologists who worked with Smith and Hickock and Truman Capote himself tried to discover WHY it was that two men would so willingly commit a completely senseless murder that turned up very little for them in the end. Capote shows for us the chilling details of their planning of the murder and their flight, and how neither shows any remorse really for what they have done, or what little is shown is very distant and doesn’t appear to be emotionally linked to them at all. We see here the murderers as sociopaths who have little to no understanding of the true ramifications of their actions outside of the ramifications to themselves.
Every book sucks somewhere: I have to say there is very little about this book that sucked for me. I think the suckiest part was that the murders had to happen at all.
What did I like: Truman Capote made this story engaging. Often with these ‘true crime’ stories either in book form or on television I become bored very quickly. By humanizing both the family and the murderers, he made you realize the true depth and scope of the tragedy, and that you saw that these were real people. Even Smith and Hickock came off as painfully human; taking away a lot of the ‘monster’ quality we associate with murderers in our society, and making them people that we can relate to. I think this aspect shows us how something like this happens, and how anyone could commit a crime just like this, given the circumstances and choices made.
How would I rate this wormy book: I would rate this as a MONSTER book, if nothing else to show how Truman Capote took his masterful story-telling technique and applied it to a real-life situation. Its pain and gut-wrenching at times, but it is a good read and it is interesting to see the anatomy of a murder displayed in such a manner.
Friday, March 14, 2008
Love in the Time of Cholera
Love in the Time of Cholera- Gabriel García Márquez
How I found this book: It’s mentioned by every chic-lit person I know who says, “OH MY GOD, it’s SUCH a great book.” But really my friend Megan convinced me because she was curious as well.
Setting: 19th century-20th century, I believe it is supposed to be Columbia.
Main Characters:
Florentino Ariza: a romantic youth who loves poetry and Fermina Diaz, he has an idealistic conceptualization of love. He falls for Fermina when they are both young, but when she marries another, he spends the rest of his adult life reserving his heart for her, while engaging in one love affair after another. He is, in a twisted sense, carrying on the ideals of ‘chivalric love’, bearing out the sincerity of his love, even if he is a cad.
Fermina Daza: as a young girl she falls in love with Florentino Ariza, attracted by his romantic ardor. She begins wonder about the true nature of their romance, and rejects Florentino to marry the more established Juvenal, and helps to create a long marriage.
Juvenal Urbino: Fermina’s husband, ten years her senior, he is a well-respected and established doctor who is devoted to the notion of eradicating cholera. He is a good husband to Fermina for the most part. The book opens with his death, but as you flashback you see the rich and idealistic Juvenal, his nobel aspirations, and the relationship he has with Fermina.
Plot: Juvenal Urbino discovers after the death of one of his close friends that he had been having a secret affair with a woman he loved for years. For whatever reason this unsettles the venerable doctor, who dies himself just days later in an accident. This leaves his wife of many years, Fermina, now widowed. But after his funeral her former lover, Florentino, arrives to state he ahs always loved her. Angry, she kicks him out, but this starts a flashback series where we see a young, poetic Florentino wooing a teenaged Fermina. Like most chivalric romances, most of this one is from a far, with many romantic promises. But reality finally hits Fermina, who eventually marries the far more certain and stable Juvenal, with whom she builds a life. He too has his own dreams and ambitions like Florentino, and seems to offer Fermina a good life. Florentino, wounded that the woman he loved chose another vows to never love another woman till he dies unless he can have Fermina. This doesn't stop the passionate Florentino from taking on hundreds of lovers, but his heart remains only for Fermina. In the end, it is only after Juvenal's death that the two rekindle their friendship and later their love for one another, now shaped and changed by 50 years of seperation.
Themes:
Romantic vs. Steadfast love: Believe it or not there is a difference between romantic, all-consuming passion and steadfast love. I think on many levels Marquez shows us this notion of steadfast love, both in the fact that after all these years Florentino still loves Fermina, and in Fermina and Juvenal's devotion to each other despite the hardships of marriage and life. It differs markedly from the all-consuming love that Florentino and Fermina first display for each other, or that Florentino wallows in as a spurned man. That love is almost paralytic and causes people to act rashly or without thinking. With age it seems also comes wisdom, as the steadfast sort of love displayed by the characters comes only with much experience. While they are markedly different in the forms they take, they seem to be much more stable and less disasterous than the more romantic passions displayed in their youths, particularly Fermina and Florentino.
Scientific vs. Romantic: This is best displayed between Juvenal and Florentino, the two loves of Fermina's life, and seem to display the two sides of her own nature. Juvenal is a man of science, out to cure his nation of cholera if he can, who uses this as the standard by which he can measure his life. Florentino is passionate and often lost in fancies. His entire life is run by the way he feels at that exact moment. The two are opposites in many ways, and Fermina stands in between the two, anchoring them both. She both softens Juvenal and grounds Florentino. Perhaps that is why she can find love with both men so equally.
Cholera: Both literally and metaphorically this disease is all consuming. It hits the country with regularity taking many with it. It is the consuming passion of Juvenal, who wishes to stomp it out. And love in this book can often be much like it, burst into life and ravage everything, sweeping all up in its path.
Every book sucks somewhere: I have to admit it...I didn't get this book. I know it's won prizes, I know people LOVE it. I didn't get it. Perhaps because of the translation from Spanish to English it loses something in translation. Perhaps it's just the style, long, drug out, heavily metaphorical, and thick to read. At the time I read the book, I had just gotten back from Italy, and was tired of having to think, so the style might just have hit me at the wrong time. But
I didn't appreciate Florentino, I saw him as nothing more than a cad who bewailed how he loved Fermina alone, and then slept with anything that moved. Maybe it's just me, but a part of me wanted to beat him like a red-headed stepchild, (I phrase I can get away with saying as I am both red-headed and a stepchild, but rarely ever beat). Honestly, how silly and immature is acting like that? I think at least by the end he had learned most of his lessons, but the scene at Juvenal's funeral was, at best, inappropriate.
What did I like: While the story seems to climax with Fermina and Florentino, the actual love story I empathized with was Juvenals. Sure, perhaps he wasn't as romantic, and he did cheat on her once, but it seemed to be such a more real, solid, tangible thing to me. Something that is much more comfortable than what Florentino offered.
How would I rate this wormy book: I'd rate this a LITTLE worm. I was so not enthralled with this book, a bit disappointing since I had heard rave reviews about it. It held little interest for me. I won't say it's a horrible book, especially not a prize winning one, but it wasn't really all that great either. It was a rather big disappointment.
How I found this book: It’s mentioned by every chic-lit person I know who says, “OH MY GOD, it’s SUCH a great book.” But really my friend Megan convinced me because she was curious as well.
Setting: 19th century-20th century, I believe it is supposed to be Columbia.
Main Characters:
Florentino Ariza: a romantic youth who loves poetry and Fermina Diaz, he has an idealistic conceptualization of love. He falls for Fermina when they are both young, but when she marries another, he spends the rest of his adult life reserving his heart for her, while engaging in one love affair after another. He is, in a twisted sense, carrying on the ideals of ‘chivalric love’, bearing out the sincerity of his love, even if he is a cad.
Fermina Daza: as a young girl she falls in love with Florentino Ariza, attracted by his romantic ardor. She begins wonder about the true nature of their romance, and rejects Florentino to marry the more established Juvenal, and helps to create a long marriage.
Juvenal Urbino: Fermina’s husband, ten years her senior, he is a well-respected and established doctor who is devoted to the notion of eradicating cholera. He is a good husband to Fermina for the most part. The book opens with his death, but as you flashback you see the rich and idealistic Juvenal, his nobel aspirations, and the relationship he has with Fermina.
Plot: Juvenal Urbino discovers after the death of one of his close friends that he had been having a secret affair with a woman he loved for years. For whatever reason this unsettles the venerable doctor, who dies himself just days later in an accident. This leaves his wife of many years, Fermina, now widowed. But after his funeral her former lover, Florentino, arrives to state he ahs always loved her. Angry, she kicks him out, but this starts a flashback series where we see a young, poetic Florentino wooing a teenaged Fermina. Like most chivalric romances, most of this one is from a far, with many romantic promises. But reality finally hits Fermina, who eventually marries the far more certain and stable Juvenal, with whom she builds a life. He too has his own dreams and ambitions like Florentino, and seems to offer Fermina a good life. Florentino, wounded that the woman he loved chose another vows to never love another woman till he dies unless he can have Fermina. This doesn't stop the passionate Florentino from taking on hundreds of lovers, but his heart remains only for Fermina. In the end, it is only after Juvenal's death that the two rekindle their friendship and later their love for one another, now shaped and changed by 50 years of seperation.
Themes:
Romantic vs. Steadfast love: Believe it or not there is a difference between romantic, all-consuming passion and steadfast love. I think on many levels Marquez shows us this notion of steadfast love, both in the fact that after all these years Florentino still loves Fermina, and in Fermina and Juvenal's devotion to each other despite the hardships of marriage and life. It differs markedly from the all-consuming love that Florentino and Fermina first display for each other, or that Florentino wallows in as a spurned man. That love is almost paralytic and causes people to act rashly or without thinking. With age it seems also comes wisdom, as the steadfast sort of love displayed by the characters comes only with much experience. While they are markedly different in the forms they take, they seem to be much more stable and less disasterous than the more romantic passions displayed in their youths, particularly Fermina and Florentino.
Scientific vs. Romantic: This is best displayed between Juvenal and Florentino, the two loves of Fermina's life, and seem to display the two sides of her own nature. Juvenal is a man of science, out to cure his nation of cholera if he can, who uses this as the standard by which he can measure his life. Florentino is passionate and often lost in fancies. His entire life is run by the way he feels at that exact moment. The two are opposites in many ways, and Fermina stands in between the two, anchoring them both. She both softens Juvenal and grounds Florentino. Perhaps that is why she can find love with both men so equally.
Cholera: Both literally and metaphorically this disease is all consuming. It hits the country with regularity taking many with it. It is the consuming passion of Juvenal, who wishes to stomp it out. And love in this book can often be much like it, burst into life and ravage everything, sweeping all up in its path.
Every book sucks somewhere: I have to admit it...I didn't get this book. I know it's won prizes, I know people LOVE it. I didn't get it. Perhaps because of the translation from Spanish to English it loses something in translation. Perhaps it's just the style, long, drug out, heavily metaphorical, and thick to read. At the time I read the book, I had just gotten back from Italy, and was tired of having to think, so the style might just have hit me at the wrong time. But
I didn't appreciate Florentino, I saw him as nothing more than a cad who bewailed how he loved Fermina alone, and then slept with anything that moved. Maybe it's just me, but a part of me wanted to beat him like a red-headed stepchild, (I phrase I can get away with saying as I am both red-headed and a stepchild, but rarely ever beat). Honestly, how silly and immature is acting like that? I think at least by the end he had learned most of his lessons, but the scene at Juvenal's funeral was, at best, inappropriate.
What did I like: While the story seems to climax with Fermina and Florentino, the actual love story I empathized with was Juvenals. Sure, perhaps he wasn't as romantic, and he did cheat on her once, but it seemed to be such a more real, solid, tangible thing to me. Something that is much more comfortable than what Florentino offered.
How would I rate this wormy book: I'd rate this a LITTLE worm. I was so not enthralled with this book, a bit disappointing since I had heard rave reviews about it. It held little interest for me. I won't say it's a horrible book, especially not a prize winning one, but it wasn't really all that great either. It was a rather big disappointment.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
The Silmarillion
The Silmarillion-J.R.R. Tolkien
How I found this book: I was born, and my father placed it in my hand, and said, “Daughter, you shall loveth thy Tolkien, and it shall be good in thy sight.” This sentence is only funny if you know my father’s a Southern Baptist Minister and a Tolkien freak. I’m surprised he doesn’t speak Elvish.
Setting: In the First and Second Ages of Middle-Earth, in other words, EONS before the happenings of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
Plot:
Main Characters:
There are many, but to highlight some of the more important ones….
Illuvatar: The ‘one god’ of this piece, if you wish you can call him/her/it God, Goddess, Allah, whatever, it’s never made clear, but it is supposed to be the originator of Middle-earth.
The Valar: A sort of pantheon of gods, they are more like angelic beings who went about creating the world in Illuvatar’s image, and now guide it. They are the beings whom the Elves seem to worship.
The Maiar: A lesser group of divine beings, also somewhat angelic in nature, who assist the Valar in the running of the world. One of note, Melian, wed an Elvish king, and is the mother of Luthien, one of the heroines of the stories. The wizards, such as Gandalf, are also Maiar.
Melkor: A rogue Valar, he has always wanted to work the world in his own way, and works against Illuvatar and the Valar. He’s the sort of Lucifer of the stories.
Sauron: One of the Maiar who is enlisted into Melkor’s service, he is perhaps the greatest of Melkor’s assistants, and helps bring the fall of Numenor. He is later the great evil of The Lord of the Rings stories.
Elves: They are the ‘first born’ of Illuvatar, and are immune to death by old age or disease, (though they can die by injury). They are brought to the land of the Valar from Middle Earth to be taught by the godlike beings, though not all of the Elves follow. This leads to the many nations of Elves that we find in the later stories. Of note are the Noldor, those who were craftsmen. It is they who create the Silmaril, gems that capture the light of the gold and silver trees that lit the world. When the Silmaril are stolen by Melkor, the Noldor swear an oath of revenge that is the running theme of the Silmarillion, and brings both glory and tragedy to the land of Middle-Earth.
Men: They are the ‘second born’ of Illuvatar, and are not as beautiful or as immortal as the Elves, but die of sickness and old age. They are initially not as advanced as the Elves either, technologically inferior, and banded together in tribal and family units. Some, however, link themselves to the Elvish kingdoms that spring up in Middle-earth and become allies of the Elves in their fight against Melkor. Others, such as Beren, even marry into the Elvish nobility, co-mingling the race of Men and the Race of Elves.
Dwarves: They are the sort of bastard race, created by one of the Valar, Illuvatar lets them live. They don’t seem to have much going on, except some brief contact with the Elves and Men, and their love of creating and of mining.
Plot: The Silmarillion is Tolkien’s REAL story; it is the story of how his world came to be and what shaped it. From the first creation story to the long and epic struggle of the Noldor Elves against Melkor and his minions for the Silmaril, it explains how things ended up the way they were at the beginning of The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings.
Themes: There are many, but a few include…
The Heroes Quest: Several characters within the stories must suffer the pangs of the hero’s quest, highlighted I think by Berin and Luthien’s story. Tolkien was trying to create a new mythos, and part of mythology is that struggle by a man, woman, or group to overcome great adversity to achieve something great. He does this again and again in his stories.
The Pull of Darkness: Many characters, from Elves to Humans, are sucked in by the allure of Melkor and great evil. These stories are always very tragic, with the person or persons finding out only later what the price is for their folly, sometimes with repercussions to be felt for generations to come. I think not only was this a theme borrowed from epic storytelling, but it was also a comment of Tolkien’s on what effect evil acts and deeds have on the generations that follow.
The Folly of War and Revenge: Remembering that Tolkien served in World War I, you see through all his stories, and especially the Silmarillion, that Tolkien has a distinct distaste for war. While it may be a glorious thing at time, and brave acts are committed, war is also the most destructive force on earth. Even the gods themselves had to get a higher power to intercede for them finally. The vicious cycle leaves everyone touched in the wake, and nothing is the same again.
Every book sucks somewhere: I have to say it, and I know there are those who hate hearing it, but there are some sucky parts to this book…I know. It’s tantamount to blasphemy in some quarters. But the book really is heavily bogged down. It lacks the smooth flow of The Hobbit in terms of storytelling, and it doesn’t clean up its massive amount of information, like in The Lord of the Rings. Part of this might be due in part to the fact that it is a bunch of different stories collected together by Christopher Tolkien after his father’s death, and wasn’t edited by JRR Tolkien himself. This leads the reader to get quickly confused and bored by the amount of stuff going on with no clear thread on which to settle on.
Also, Tolkien always does have the tendency of being quite heavy and English in his writings. I fell like I’m reading 19th century historical writings on the life of the Duke of Marlborough at times, (well, if the Duke of Marlborough was a Noldor Elf). Again, this could be due to the fact that the stories were in a constant state of shaping by Tolkien, but they lack the charm and humor of The Hobbit, and the gallantry of The Lord of the Rings.
It could just be that he was trying to mimic the folk-story voice used by many of the same tales he was trying to emulate in his works.
I also had a harder time connecting with any of these lovely characters he made in these stories. Perhaps because they aren’t as well known to me as Bilbo and Frodo, Gandalph, Aragorn and the rest, I felt a distinct disconnect from them. It was like being an American reading about some Central Asian empire in the Middle Ages, it’s a bunch of really neat sounding events, names, and places, but…well what do they all mean, really, and how does this connect back to me again. Self-centered as that thought might be, it made the book a bit less interesting.
What did I like: I love the world that Tolkien created to accompany his languages. This was the man who MADE fantasy what it is today. But unlike everyone else where he tried to create a world to fit a story, he was telling a story about a world he created. That world was every bit as real and vivid to him as ours is to us. There are very few other worlds that have been created like that, and it shows. Those that have, those are the ones that stick with us.
How would I rate this wormy book: I’d rate this book as a FAT worm. It’s a great book to read if you are a Tolkien fan and want to know more about his work and the background behind his more famous stories, (more like the more famous stories are extensions of this, as this was his real story). But a warning, if you aren’t prepared to be peppered with incomprehensible names and plot threads, don’t start with The Silmarillion. Read The Hobbit first and work from there.
How I found this book: I was born, and my father placed it in my hand, and said, “Daughter, you shall loveth thy Tolkien, and it shall be good in thy sight.” This sentence is only funny if you know my father’s a Southern Baptist Minister and a Tolkien freak. I’m surprised he doesn’t speak Elvish.
Setting: In the First and Second Ages of Middle-Earth, in other words, EONS before the happenings of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
Plot:
Main Characters:
There are many, but to highlight some of the more important ones….
Illuvatar: The ‘one god’ of this piece, if you wish you can call him/her/it God, Goddess, Allah, whatever, it’s never made clear, but it is supposed to be the originator of Middle-earth.
The Valar: A sort of pantheon of gods, they are more like angelic beings who went about creating the world in Illuvatar’s image, and now guide it. They are the beings whom the Elves seem to worship.
The Maiar: A lesser group of divine beings, also somewhat angelic in nature, who assist the Valar in the running of the world. One of note, Melian, wed an Elvish king, and is the mother of Luthien, one of the heroines of the stories. The wizards, such as Gandalf, are also Maiar.
Melkor: A rogue Valar, he has always wanted to work the world in his own way, and works against Illuvatar and the Valar. He’s the sort of Lucifer of the stories.
Sauron: One of the Maiar who is enlisted into Melkor’s service, he is perhaps the greatest of Melkor’s assistants, and helps bring the fall of Numenor. He is later the great evil of The Lord of the Rings stories.
Elves: They are the ‘first born’ of Illuvatar, and are immune to death by old age or disease, (though they can die by injury). They are brought to the land of the Valar from Middle Earth to be taught by the godlike beings, though not all of the Elves follow. This leads to the many nations of Elves that we find in the later stories. Of note are the Noldor, those who were craftsmen. It is they who create the Silmaril, gems that capture the light of the gold and silver trees that lit the world. When the Silmaril are stolen by Melkor, the Noldor swear an oath of revenge that is the running theme of the Silmarillion, and brings both glory and tragedy to the land of Middle-Earth.
Men: They are the ‘second born’ of Illuvatar, and are not as beautiful or as immortal as the Elves, but die of sickness and old age. They are initially not as advanced as the Elves either, technologically inferior, and banded together in tribal and family units. Some, however, link themselves to the Elvish kingdoms that spring up in Middle-earth and become allies of the Elves in their fight against Melkor. Others, such as Beren, even marry into the Elvish nobility, co-mingling the race of Men and the Race of Elves.
Dwarves: They are the sort of bastard race, created by one of the Valar, Illuvatar lets them live. They don’t seem to have much going on, except some brief contact with the Elves and Men, and their love of creating and of mining.
Plot: The Silmarillion is Tolkien’s REAL story; it is the story of how his world came to be and what shaped it. From the first creation story to the long and epic struggle of the Noldor Elves against Melkor and his minions for the Silmaril, it explains how things ended up the way they were at the beginning of The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings.
Themes: There are many, but a few include…
The Heroes Quest: Several characters within the stories must suffer the pangs of the hero’s quest, highlighted I think by Berin and Luthien’s story. Tolkien was trying to create a new mythos, and part of mythology is that struggle by a man, woman, or group to overcome great adversity to achieve something great. He does this again and again in his stories.
The Pull of Darkness: Many characters, from Elves to Humans, are sucked in by the allure of Melkor and great evil. These stories are always very tragic, with the person or persons finding out only later what the price is for their folly, sometimes with repercussions to be felt for generations to come. I think not only was this a theme borrowed from epic storytelling, but it was also a comment of Tolkien’s on what effect evil acts and deeds have on the generations that follow.
The Folly of War and Revenge: Remembering that Tolkien served in World War I, you see through all his stories, and especially the Silmarillion, that Tolkien has a distinct distaste for war. While it may be a glorious thing at time, and brave acts are committed, war is also the most destructive force on earth. Even the gods themselves had to get a higher power to intercede for them finally. The vicious cycle leaves everyone touched in the wake, and nothing is the same again.
Every book sucks somewhere: I have to say it, and I know there are those who hate hearing it, but there are some sucky parts to this book…I know. It’s tantamount to blasphemy in some quarters. But the book really is heavily bogged down. It lacks the smooth flow of The Hobbit in terms of storytelling, and it doesn’t clean up its massive amount of information, like in The Lord of the Rings. Part of this might be due in part to the fact that it is a bunch of different stories collected together by Christopher Tolkien after his father’s death, and wasn’t edited by JRR Tolkien himself. This leads the reader to get quickly confused and bored by the amount of stuff going on with no clear thread on which to settle on.
Also, Tolkien always does have the tendency of being quite heavy and English in his writings. I fell like I’m reading 19th century historical writings on the life of the Duke of Marlborough at times, (well, if the Duke of Marlborough was a Noldor Elf). Again, this could be due to the fact that the stories were in a constant state of shaping by Tolkien, but they lack the charm and humor of The Hobbit, and the gallantry of The Lord of the Rings.
It could just be that he was trying to mimic the folk-story voice used by many of the same tales he was trying to emulate in his works.
I also had a harder time connecting with any of these lovely characters he made in these stories. Perhaps because they aren’t as well known to me as Bilbo and Frodo, Gandalph, Aragorn and the rest, I felt a distinct disconnect from them. It was like being an American reading about some Central Asian empire in the Middle Ages, it’s a bunch of really neat sounding events, names, and places, but…well what do they all mean, really, and how does this connect back to me again. Self-centered as that thought might be, it made the book a bit less interesting.
What did I like: I love the world that Tolkien created to accompany his languages. This was the man who MADE fantasy what it is today. But unlike everyone else where he tried to create a world to fit a story, he was telling a story about a world he created. That world was every bit as real and vivid to him as ours is to us. There are very few other worlds that have been created like that, and it shows. Those that have, those are the ones that stick with us.
How would I rate this wormy book: I’d rate this book as a FAT worm. It’s a great book to read if you are a Tolkien fan and want to know more about his work and the background behind his more famous stories, (more like the more famous stories are extensions of this, as this was his real story). But a warning, if you aren’t prepared to be peppered with incomprehensible names and plot threads, don’t start with The Silmarillion. Read The Hobbit first and work from there.
Monday, March 10, 2008
The Parable of Miriam the Camel Driver
The Parable of Miriam the Camel Driver-Elizabeth (Murphy) Horner
How did I hear about this book: It was written by my friend Murphy, that's how I heard about it!
Setting: Ambigious desert-like area that is supposed to analagous to our own world and corporate setting.
Main Characters:
Miriam: A master lute player who works as a camel driver to survive
The overseer: Miriam's initial boss as a camel driver, he is cruel and lazy
The noble friend: Miriam's aid against the overseer, he helps her move to a different overseer.
The new overseer: Miriam's second boss, he proves to be false and as unwilling as the first boss to help her.
Plot: Miriam is a Master lute player who loves her art, but must survive somehow. She becomes an outstanding camel driver, and makes her living at it. But at the cost of losing herself, she drives at her work in a world that little appreciates the value of her efforts, nor cares to assist her in them.
Themes:
Slavery/Corporate America: Having known the backstory behind this book, this wasn't hard to see. Miriam lives in a world where her hard work, dedication, and perseverence are either scorned or ignored by those around her. She works harder, thinking somehow it will get better, but it never does. Corporate America, with all it's bureacracies fosters this idea of working hard with little to no reward for your efforts.
Staying true to yourself: Miriam is a Master Lute player, but finds herself giving up her lovely instrument more and more because of the demands of her job as a camel driver. She must learn the importance of staying true to yourself and what you love, and not let your job define every aspect of who you are.
Learning to let go: Miriam stays in her thankless position as a slave because of her fear of what letting go might mean. As a slave, she has everything provided for her, and has little in the way of needs. But if she leaves slavery, that means nothing is for sure in her life. Does one give that up? And at what price does security come?
The perfididy of your bosses: Miriam deals with some sleazy bosses, and every job has some. She learns to deal with them as she can, using her brains and wits to work out situations that benefit her work and herself, but in the end she realizes that sometimes, you just can't fight the system, no matter how noble your intentions.
Every book has to suck somewhere: The only sucky thing I found about the book really only comes from my personal knowledge of the author and some of the crap she's gone through. It's a veiled reference to her own sucky experiences at a particular company, and knowing that sort of detracted a bit from the 'parable' quality of it for me. But, for those who do not know the author personally, this book will I think carry a lot of meaning for them.
What did I like about the book: I think the author has a particular voice, especially when telling a parable like this, that draws you into the story and keeps you very engaged. Her voice is warm, friendly, and draws you in. It's so easy for stories like these to get either preachy or childish, and she refrains from doing either.
Rate this wormy book: I would rate this book as a MONSTER worm, a must read. For anyone whose ever had a bad job, or is stuck in corporate hell, you should read this book. This book reminds you that you don't have to be stuck in these positions, and that it's up to you to make your life worthwhile. Do not be defined by the drudgery that you are forced to do everyday! Remember you are a Master Lute Player as well as a camel driver, and that when you are consumed by your work over your life, perhaps it is time to stop.
How did I hear about this book: It was written by my friend Murphy, that's how I heard about it!
Setting: Ambigious desert-like area that is supposed to analagous to our own world and corporate setting.
Main Characters:
Miriam: A master lute player who works as a camel driver to survive
The overseer: Miriam's initial boss as a camel driver, he is cruel and lazy
The noble friend: Miriam's aid against the overseer, he helps her move to a different overseer.
The new overseer: Miriam's second boss, he proves to be false and as unwilling as the first boss to help her.
Plot: Miriam is a Master lute player who loves her art, but must survive somehow. She becomes an outstanding camel driver, and makes her living at it. But at the cost of losing herself, she drives at her work in a world that little appreciates the value of her efforts, nor cares to assist her in them.
Themes:
Slavery/Corporate America: Having known the backstory behind this book, this wasn't hard to see. Miriam lives in a world where her hard work, dedication, and perseverence are either scorned or ignored by those around her. She works harder, thinking somehow it will get better, but it never does. Corporate America, with all it's bureacracies fosters this idea of working hard with little to no reward for your efforts.
Staying true to yourself: Miriam is a Master Lute player, but finds herself giving up her lovely instrument more and more because of the demands of her job as a camel driver. She must learn the importance of staying true to yourself and what you love, and not let your job define every aspect of who you are.
Learning to let go: Miriam stays in her thankless position as a slave because of her fear of what letting go might mean. As a slave, she has everything provided for her, and has little in the way of needs. But if she leaves slavery, that means nothing is for sure in her life. Does one give that up? And at what price does security come?
The perfididy of your bosses: Miriam deals with some sleazy bosses, and every job has some. She learns to deal with them as she can, using her brains and wits to work out situations that benefit her work and herself, but in the end she realizes that sometimes, you just can't fight the system, no matter how noble your intentions.
Every book has to suck somewhere: The only sucky thing I found about the book really only comes from my personal knowledge of the author and some of the crap she's gone through. It's a veiled reference to her own sucky experiences at a particular company, and knowing that sort of detracted a bit from the 'parable' quality of it for me. But, for those who do not know the author personally, this book will I think carry a lot of meaning for them.
What did I like about the book: I think the author has a particular voice, especially when telling a parable like this, that draws you into the story and keeps you very engaged. Her voice is warm, friendly, and draws you in. It's so easy for stories like these to get either preachy or childish, and she refrains from doing either.
Rate this wormy book: I would rate this book as a MONSTER worm, a must read. For anyone whose ever had a bad job, or is stuck in corporate hell, you should read this book. This book reminds you that you don't have to be stuck in these positions, and that it's up to you to make your life worthwhile. Do not be defined by the drudgery that you are forced to do everyday! Remember you are a Master Lute Player as well as a camel driver, and that when you are consumed by your work over your life, perhaps it is time to stop.
Friday, March 7, 2008
Dry
Dry-Augustus Burroughs
How I found this book: One of my friend Megan’s suggestions, I found out about it shortly after hearing about the movie Running With Scissors.
Setting: New York City
Main Characters:
The Author: This is a memoir of Augustus Burroughs; so much of the action is scene through his eyes. He is an alcoholic who is self-centered, shallow, and needy, but who also has a troubled past and a humorous streak.
Pighead: Augustus’s one time lover, now his best friend, he is suffering from AIDS.
Foster: A fellow alcoholic Augustus meets at Alcoholic’s Anonymous, handsome, attractive, and self-destructive, Augustus finds himself attracted to him and ultimately gets drawn down because of it.
Hayden: One of Augustus’s friends from rehab, a Brit who is illegally in the US, he tries to keep himself and Augustus sober, even while August is playing with fire in the form of Foster.
Jim: Augustus’s drinking buddy.
Plot: Augustus Burroughs hates his job in advertising and is refusing to accept that his best friend and former lover is dying of AIDS. So like any rational human being, he decides to get piss drunk, all the time. When his co-workers call him on it, he ships himself off to rehab, where he gets sober all right. But once out, he lacks the emotional securities that rehab granted him, and it’s a much different and bigger world back in New York sober than it was drunk. When Foster enters his life, he is drawn to the self-destructive, yet devastatingly handsome man, thinking it is something that he can handle. But Augustus’s world comes crashing down on him when his best friend succumbs to his disease, and the staying ‘dry’ just doesn’t offer him enough of a comfort when things are falling apart.
Themes:
Addiction and the emotionally broken: Augustus in his previous memoir makes no bones about how messed up he is emotionally, and in Dry, he uses it to explain how his alcoholism is his crutch to prop up the bits of him that are barely hanging together as it is. But rather than using it to control his life, Augustus finds that his addiction is controlling him, and he doesn’t particularly care much until he hits rock bottom.
Denial of death: Augustus relationships in his life with his mother and others have been, in the technical terminology, ‘fucked up’. It’s not very surprising he has a hard time with losing people in his life, and an even harder time coming to terms with the death of someone he was afraid to admit he loved so dearly. What seems self-centered and shallow, (and is, in its way), is his coping mechanism for the fact that he is terrified and heartbroken at the thought of loving someone who he cared for so deeply and who didn’t try to fuck him over.
Obsession and love: Part of addiction is your obsession for something to fill a need. Obsession isn’t limited to a drug or an emotional rush for an addict, but can be obsession with someone who you are attracted to as well. It’s hard to tell the different between love for that person and obsession, and often times the two are mixed. You don’t realize till too late, in Augustus’s case only when he realized that this person was self-destructive and was dragging Augustus along for the ride.
Recovery isn’t an easy fix: Addiction is something that people will suffer from their entire lives; it doesn’t go away with a quick stint in rehab and a pill. It’s an everyday, conscious process that allows a person to function, though they will never approach their particular addiction in anything like a normal fashion. You have to just keep picking up the pieces and keep on going, living life day by day, and setting your expectations so high you set yourself up for failure.
Every book sucks somewhere: If I had to find a sucky bit in the book, it would be that Augustus is so wonderfully, but totally, self-centered. I think it’s actually part of the point of the books, to show the author for how he sees himself. While it did make me laugh a lot, it was also, I feel, coming off a bit stereo-typical for both a New Yorker and a homosexual. It just could be that way cause the author is both, but it was nearly campy in some spots.
What did I like: Everything! I found this book to be humorous, sad, and touching at the same time. While it could be really easy to hate Augustus for being a callous, selfish bitch, he comes off with a vulnerability that makes you understand the underlying neuroses that make him who he is. He does this with a wit and self-deprecating humor that cuts through most of the harshness of his character, and makes him a very relatable person.
How would I rate this wormy book: I’d give it a FAT WORM, I want to give it a MONSTER worm, but I think that for some, less-open minded readers, frank discussion about alcoholism, homosexuality, drug use, or even AIDS might get them too worked up, so if you have any issues with any of that, (and frankly I don’t), then this isn’t the book for you. I know too many people who get caught up in all of that with Augustus Burroughs work, so if it's something you aren't comfortable with, don't read it. But if you like a dry, witty, humorous look at a person’s personal fight with his own addiction, that brings it home as both very sad and heart wrenching, but so very human, read this book. I loved it.
How I found this book: One of my friend Megan’s suggestions, I found out about it shortly after hearing about the movie Running With Scissors.
Setting: New York City
Main Characters:
The Author: This is a memoir of Augustus Burroughs; so much of the action is scene through his eyes. He is an alcoholic who is self-centered, shallow, and needy, but who also has a troubled past and a humorous streak.
Pighead: Augustus’s one time lover, now his best friend, he is suffering from AIDS.
Foster: A fellow alcoholic Augustus meets at Alcoholic’s Anonymous, handsome, attractive, and self-destructive, Augustus finds himself attracted to him and ultimately gets drawn down because of it.
Hayden: One of Augustus’s friends from rehab, a Brit who is illegally in the US, he tries to keep himself and Augustus sober, even while August is playing with fire in the form of Foster.
Jim: Augustus’s drinking buddy.
Plot: Augustus Burroughs hates his job in advertising and is refusing to accept that his best friend and former lover is dying of AIDS. So like any rational human being, he decides to get piss drunk, all the time. When his co-workers call him on it, he ships himself off to rehab, where he gets sober all right. But once out, he lacks the emotional securities that rehab granted him, and it’s a much different and bigger world back in New York sober than it was drunk. When Foster enters his life, he is drawn to the self-destructive, yet devastatingly handsome man, thinking it is something that he can handle. But Augustus’s world comes crashing down on him when his best friend succumbs to his disease, and the staying ‘dry’ just doesn’t offer him enough of a comfort when things are falling apart.
Themes:
Addiction and the emotionally broken: Augustus in his previous memoir makes no bones about how messed up he is emotionally, and in Dry, he uses it to explain how his alcoholism is his crutch to prop up the bits of him that are barely hanging together as it is. But rather than using it to control his life, Augustus finds that his addiction is controlling him, and he doesn’t particularly care much until he hits rock bottom.
Denial of death: Augustus relationships in his life with his mother and others have been, in the technical terminology, ‘fucked up’. It’s not very surprising he has a hard time with losing people in his life, and an even harder time coming to terms with the death of someone he was afraid to admit he loved so dearly. What seems self-centered and shallow, (and is, in its way), is his coping mechanism for the fact that he is terrified and heartbroken at the thought of loving someone who he cared for so deeply and who didn’t try to fuck him over.
Obsession and love: Part of addiction is your obsession for something to fill a need. Obsession isn’t limited to a drug or an emotional rush for an addict, but can be obsession with someone who you are attracted to as well. It’s hard to tell the different between love for that person and obsession, and often times the two are mixed. You don’t realize till too late, in Augustus’s case only when he realized that this person was self-destructive and was dragging Augustus along for the ride.
Recovery isn’t an easy fix: Addiction is something that people will suffer from their entire lives; it doesn’t go away with a quick stint in rehab and a pill. It’s an everyday, conscious process that allows a person to function, though they will never approach their particular addiction in anything like a normal fashion. You have to just keep picking up the pieces and keep on going, living life day by day, and setting your expectations so high you set yourself up for failure.
Every book sucks somewhere: If I had to find a sucky bit in the book, it would be that Augustus is so wonderfully, but totally, self-centered. I think it’s actually part of the point of the books, to show the author for how he sees himself. While it did make me laugh a lot, it was also, I feel, coming off a bit stereo-typical for both a New Yorker and a homosexual. It just could be that way cause the author is both, but it was nearly campy in some spots.
What did I like: Everything! I found this book to be humorous, sad, and touching at the same time. While it could be really easy to hate Augustus for being a callous, selfish bitch, he comes off with a vulnerability that makes you understand the underlying neuroses that make him who he is. He does this with a wit and self-deprecating humor that cuts through most of the harshness of his character, and makes him a very relatable person.
How would I rate this wormy book: I’d give it a FAT WORM, I want to give it a MONSTER worm, but I think that for some, less-open minded readers, frank discussion about alcoholism, homosexuality, drug use, or even AIDS might get them too worked up, so if you have any issues with any of that, (and frankly I don’t), then this isn’t the book for you. I know too many people who get caught up in all of that with Augustus Burroughs work, so if it's something you aren't comfortable with, don't read it. But if you like a dry, witty, humorous look at a person’s personal fight with his own addiction, that brings it home as both very sad and heart wrenching, but so very human, read this book. I loved it.
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