The Reader, cont'd

In reading this book I found my self alternately compelled and uncompelled by the story. In the end I found it to be a beautiful and tragic story. I really wish I had never seen the movie. I should say more, and did in my journal, but I don't feel like writing much right now.

#96: The Reader

The Reader

by Bernhard Schlink

After reading David Copperfield, which took some time, the pages of The Reader seems half empty. I started it last night and I'm about 100 pages into it. This text makes me appreciate how many words were crammed onto the pages of the former.

I like the book so far, but I wouldn't say its anything spectacular. Sadly I saw the movie sometime last year, so I know what happens. Though the story itself isn't the most compelling as yet, there have been quite a few lines I have really liked.

pg. 16

"-a seductiveness that had nothing to do with breasts and hips and legs, but was an invitation to forget the world in the recesses of the body."

pg. 19

"If looking at someone with desire was as bad as satisfying the desire, if having an active fantasy was as bad as the act you were fantasizing--then why not the satisfaction and the act itself?"

I agree with this insight. I have never understood those who criminalize sex and thoughts of a sexual nature. If thinking about sex and masturbating are a sin, along with having sex, why not just go on and do it?

The narrator expresses a lot of feelings that are very familiar to me. If Hanna does something to upset him, his natural reaction is to confront her. In this confrontation she usually becomes hostile, getting upset at him for being upset. In the end he ends up apologizing to her for upsetting her. I can't count the times I have experience this. I am sure there is some great psycho analysis behind it, but I'm not going to go there.

pg. 49

"In the weeks that followed I didn't fight at all. If she threatened, I instantly and unconditionally surrendered. I tool all the blame. I admitted mistakes I hadn't made, intentions I'd never had."

Those of us who need closure and confront issues rather than ignoring them are powerless in the hands of a person like Hanna. We can't win. Michael is a lot like me in that he can't just accept that something hurt him and push it into the back of his mind. He needs to know why Hanna did what she did, he needs to understand her motives. Hanna is a closed book. By keeping so much hidden and shirking Michael's questions, she leaves him no other choice but to give in to her or walk away.

Wuthering Heights: second reading

Wuthering Heights

by Emily Bronte

The first time I read this book I was just barely sixteen. It was required summer reading for Ms. Sledge's American Literature class in my junior year. As I recall, I was one of the few students who really enjoyed it. I don't remember why I liked it so much. It maybe have only been because it was such a refreshing change from the dry reading I had endured the previous year.

Upon rereading it I still enjoyed it, though not as much as I remembered liking it the first time. It was just before this reading that I learned something of Bronte's upbringing. Knowing that she and her sisters were so sheltered and that she likely never experienced or witnessed great love makes her writing all the more intriguing. Her characters each have a unique fire burning in them, giving light to their respective faults and virtues. Their development is solid and their souls are complex. Some aspects of the characters and plot show her naivety, but they are genuine and tell me that she was likely very intuitive.

The character I was most drawn to was Harton. He spends much of the story in the background, but I found him to be a diamond in the rough. Or course, in the end, Catherine sees this as well. His childhood is heartbreaking and I wonder how much time Nelly spend lamenting the loss of the boy she nursed to the hands of Hindley and Heathcliff.

Every so often I find myself drawn to a character as if he were a real person. I feel I understand him and want to know more about him. This was the case with Harton. Bronte shows enough about him to understand his faults and where he cam from, but she also hints at his inner toil and yearning to be something greater than he is. In a way I feel Harton and Heathcliff are each others opposites. Heathcliff begins....

****

I guess I got interrupted on this one. Who knows where I was going with it.

#35: Jude the Obscure

Jude the Obscure

by Thomas Hardy

It is hard to know what to say about this book. It held my interest and had some very well developed characters and a down to earth sort of feel about it overall. the majority of the book did not particularly grab me, it was almost as thought I was compelled to continue reading it simply because I was compelled to read.

I found Jude to be a strange creature, so ambitious and with such a great desire to learn, yet so easy to give in, especially to women. It is hard for my to understand why Arabella affected him the way she did when they met. From my experience, the quiet bookish man comes in two varieties. The first is shy and awkward and the other is strong and capable of being social, only he generally chooses not to be so. The first may or may not think about women often, but because of his weak character he is susceptible to the charms of such a creature as Arabella. The latter is intelligent and holds a strong mind above all else and will not easily fall prey to the tricks the fairer sex can play. He cares only for his work, his books, and maybe a woman who can match his wit. For most of my reading I thought of Jude as the latter type. The fact that he is able to speak his mind to the witch shows that he is not a complete weakling; so, it strikes me as strange that he is so susceptible to her tricks and never questions her odd behavior in the beginning. His actions seem to be contradictory, at least in my eyes.

The older Jude has a much more sound character. Which I suppose makes sense. The more I write, the less I have any idea what I am talking about. ::sigh:: I guess I'll just leave that and move on.

Sue is the character I found most interesting and peculiar. In the beginning she is a free spirit, not concerned with conformity or being anyone other than who she wants to be. the games she plays with Jude's head and heart are cruel, but she never feels bad for her actions and he never turns away.

I read this book in the middle of a second reading of Wuthering Heights and I found a striking resemblance between Sue and Catherine. Both have a habit of truly cherishing a person, yet continually keeping him at arms length. Both are petty and use the effects of her own harsh words or wrong actions against her object, guilting him into letting her have her way. Both want to keep the man she loves close to herself, but neither are willing to openly return his love. The great difference in them is that Sue knows what she is doing is wrong and Catherine does not.

Catherine lacks Sue's social awareness and emotional experience. She never once considers that her words might hurt Heathcliff, or that he should be jealous of her relationship with Edgar. Sue, however, knows quite well that her relationship with Phillstone will hurt Jude and tries to hide it from him. She knows that her fickle attitude and way of toying with his emotions hurts him greatly and that he will continue to love her anyway. She treats him like a pet, playing her games and knowing that he will never be able to stay away from her.

I see Sue as a cruel, wicked character. She may not intend to be malicious in her actions, but she does not stop herself from hurting Jude time and time again. Her heart is empty; she is incapable of giving herself to another in love. She guards her heart viciously. I see Catherine as unfortunate, but innocent. Her world revolves only around herself and she is fully ignorant of how anything she does affects those around her.

I keep getting interrupted in trying to write this. I feel like I'm confusing myself and getting no where. I give up.

Update: 5/5/10

I have just transcribed this entry from my journal and can't help but adding something about Father Time. I don't remember the child's real name, but his eerie character is still vivid to me; he makes me shiver. The description of this little adult is so chilling. He is like something out of a horror movie. The events of his death and the deaths of his siblings is one of the most striking scenes I can recall ever having read. I won't go into the details or say much, but the only word I know to describe it is demented.

From my journal...

I recently got a book called 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. It is a thick book, organized by century. On each book there is a small blurb and some are accompanied by photographs or artwork. I spent hours just flipping through and reading about the books and looks at the artwork.

Two nights ago I saw and looked at the titles one by one. I used Post-it flags to mark many of them, each of the four colors having a specific meaning. In purple are the books I read long ago and found forgettable or just not to my liking. In pink are the books I have read more recently, along with the ones from school that I enjoyed the most. In yellow are the books I was supposed to read and never did, as well as books I want to read, but are not a priority. In blue are the books are the top of my priority list.

After this meticulous color coding I found that I have read 34 of the 1001 books listed. I suppose I could have counted the many books on which I read the Cliff's Notes, discussed in class and passed tests on thanks to my talent for bull-shitting my way through essays, but that would be cheating.

I should like to read all 1001 books, but it is a daunting task. Even if I read 50 books each year, it will take me nineteen years to read them all. That is quite a long project.

Many of the books included in the volume are titles I had expected to be there, but there are quite a few that surprised me. I hope to write something about the books as I read them, but knowing me I won't keep it up. I guess we'll see.