Bloom's Literary Themes

After reading and enjoying The Grotesque from "Bloom's Literary Themes", I decided to order a second one, Alienation. I received it yesterday and after thumbing through it, I'm just as excited about this one as I was about the first! Once again, all the essays look like they will add not only to my personal knowledge about literature but also to my TBR. There are currently eight volumes in this series, and I'm thinking I will be collecting them all. I better get moving on that, because eight more come out in the first quarter next year! The volumes currently available are on the widget at the top of this post if you want to check them out. The ones coming next year will be:

Civil Disobedience
Taboo
Enslavement & Emancipation
Dark Humor
Sublime
Trickster
Colonization & Exploration
Sin & Redemption

Yeah. I want all the those, too. Especially Dark Humor! Do any of them look tempting to you?

Go Wolves!

And the 2009-10 NBA Season has begun! For my new readers, this is when I start spouting about my Minnesota Timberwolves and how much I adore them. I'll try to keep it to a minimum as the season rolls on, but I won't be able to stop myself on occasion. Tonight is the season opener for us, and I'm thrilled!! GO WOLVES!

Now that I got that out of my system, Peter and I are almost finished with The Teaching Company DVD course "The Art of Reading." I cannot recommend this course highly enough for anyone yearning to get more out of his or her reading. The instructor, Dr. Timothy Spurgin, is great. In twenty-four half-hour lectures he gives tons of usable, understandable advice for "unpacking" and analyzing even the most complicated literature, and he makes every book and story he discusses sound irresistible. After last night's lecture on War & Peace, even Peter, who is an avid reader but not much interested in classic literature, was thinking he should give Tolstoy a try! I felt all kinds of brilliant when the translation the instructor recommended was the very one I had chosen and read a couple years ago. :-)

We only have one lecture left in which all the "tools" we have been given will be summed up, and I'm sad to be finished. I'm going to have to purchase another course Dr. Spurgin teaches. But the knowledge I have taken away from "The Art of Reading" has readied me for the next stage in my reading life. I'm ready to go back to Proust and Faulkner (much to the dismay of A Readers' Respite) and all the other books and authors that intimidate me. I'm ready to stock up on note-taking materials and spend my winter making wonderful literary discoveries!

And going to basketball games, of course. ;-)

SENSE AND SENSIBILITY AND SEA MONSTERS

by Jane Austen and Ben H. White



"Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters expands the original text of the beloved Jane Austen novel with all-new scenes of giant lobsters, rampaging octopi, two-headed sea serpents, and other biological monstrosities. As our story opens, the Dashwood sisters are evicted from their childhood home and sent to live on a mysterious island full of savage creatures and dark secrets. While sensible Elinor falls in love with Edward Ferrars, her romantic sister Marianne is courted by both the handsome Willoughby and the hideous man-monster Colonel Brandon. Can the Dashwood sisters triumph over meddlesome matriarchs and unscrupulous rogues to find true love? Or will they fall prey to the tentacles that are forever snapping at their heels? This masterful portrait of Regency England blends Jane Austen’s biting social commentary with ultraviolent depictions of sea monsters biting. It’s survival of the fittest-and only the swiftest swimmers will find true love!" (From Quirk Books official website.)

I had a good time with this. The genteel writing of Jane Austen periodically interrupted by wild sea monster attacks is a sight to behold! So to speak. :-) The essentials of the original Sense and Sensibility story are intact and identifiable, but my understanding is that Ben Winters has taken more liberty with this one than Seth Grahame-Smith did with Pride & Prejudice in his zombie smash-up. Jackie from My Ever Expanding Library tells me the split is about 60/40 between classic and "re-imagined" content for Sea Monsters. That sounds about right. Winters runs amok on occasion, but it works.

In addition to the story itself being entertaining, the included illustrations are great and the Reader's Guide is hilarious! Here are a couple of examples from the Guide:

"2. In Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, painful personal setbacks often occur at the same moment as sea-monster attacks, suggesting a metaphorical linkage of 'monsters' with the pains of romantic disappointment; for example, Marianne is rebuffed by Willoughby at Hydra-Z precisely as the giant mutant lobsters are staging their mutiny. Have you ever been 'attacked by giant lobsters,' either literally or figuratively?"

"8. Have you ever been romantically involved with someone who turned out to be a sea witch?"

The entire Reader's Guide is a hoot! When I initially read the questions, I laughed out loud. Then I realized that most of them could actually be answered quite seriously if one so chose. Very clever!

My ultimate prediction: While this is a great gimmick, I think it will be a short lived one. It's a lot of fun, but it's so over the top that one does tire of it fairly quickly. I will be reading Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, but I don't think my curiosity will extend much beyond that. In the meantime, I think Quirk Books is going to clean up nicely with the two current offerings.



Thank you to Quirk Books for sending me a copy to review.

Other bloggers' thoughts:

My Ever Expanding Library

THE PRAISE SINGER

by Mary Renault



"Stranger, tell the Spartans that we lie here, obedient to their words."
-- Simonides of Keos (Epitaph of the Spartans who fell at the Battle of Thermopylae)

"Born into a stern farming family on the island of Keos, Simonides escapes his harsh childhood through a lucky apprenticeship with a renowned Ionian singer. As they travel through fifth-century B.C. Greece, Simonides learns not only how to play the kithara and compose poetry, but also how to navigate the shifting alliances surrounding his rich patrons. He is witness to the Persian invasion of Ionia the decadent reign of the Samian pirate king Polykrates, and the fall of the Pisistratids in the Athenian court. Along the way, he encounters artists, statesmen, athletes, thinkers, and lovers, including the likes of Pythagoras and Aischylos. Using the singer's unique perspective, [author Mary] Renault combines her vibrant imagination and her formidable knowledge of history to establish a sweeping, resilient vision of a golden century." (From the back of the Vintage Books edition.)

As much as I love Steven Pressfield's novels of ancient war, the first name that comes to my mind when I think of fiction set in Ancient Greece is Mary Renault. The Praise Singer is not a thrilling, edge-of-your-seat page turner, but it is elegant prose that shows life in fifth-century Greece from an outside-in perspective. Simonides' patron and friend is a ruler of Athens, but Simonides himself is only an observer of the politics of the day, not a participant. Much information is received via conversation. Therefore, while a lot happens in the course of the story, there is not a significant amount of action. I tell you this only because readers who prefer action will be disappointed.

I very much enjoyed The Praise Singer. While I can't speak to Renault's absolute accuracy as far as historical facts or detail, I always feel transported to the setting when I read her work. From the quiet life in the countryside to the private parties of the affluent to the excitement of the Olympic games, I can see them clearly. Her characters are not usually well-rounded, but they serve their purpose in giving the reader a feel for the times and the people who lived them.

THE GROTESQUE

Bloom's Literary Themes
edited by Harold Bloom



After completing my read of The Grotesque I'm still not sure I could give you an acceptable definition of what qualifies as "literary grotesque". Each essayist seemed to have his or her own twist on what it was that made a certain book, story, poem or play fit the bill. Some I heartily agreed with, some I couldn't understand their reasoning at all or even their purpose. Not surprising in a work of this kind, I suppose. Not all of us can easily follow the scholarly mind at work. The examples used in this book range from Shakespeare's Hamlet and King Lear to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Poe's short stories to the work of Franz Kafka and Flannery O'Connor. In other words, it has been around a long time and there is a lot of it out there.

There are essays included that are very informative and easy to follow whether or not you have read the specific work that is being discussed, others (the one on Nikolai Gogol's "The Overcoat" comes to mind) which appear to require the reader to be quite familiar with the story or novel. Either way, The Grotesque added significantly to my TBR. Just what we need, right? :-)

Anyway, when I first made this purchase, I posed a question wondering if books by Clare Clark, Cormac McCarthy and Chuck Palahniuk would be considered "grotesque". As I stated earlier, it is difficult to pin down a specific definition, but three qualities that seem to be fairly well agreed upon are the following: humor, astonishment and disgust/horror. Holding strictly to these, only one of the three authors I suggested fits solidly into "grotesque" and that would be Palahniuk. Clark and McCarthy contain vast amounts of astonishment and disgust, but I would have to go back over some of it to see if I could identify any humor. However, the examples of humor in some of the essays are not anything I would have defined as such, so maybe if I adopted a different, looser definition I would find it. I would need to work under the assumption that "humor" is not just comic or funny, but it includes things like the sadly absurd. It's something to consider. And another author I have recently discovered, Patrick McGrath, may also be described as grotesque. I believe the ending of Dr. Haggard's Disease could nudge it into line.

Considering my adoration for dark and disturbing reads, I will be on the lookout for more of the grotesque as I read in the coming months and report what I find. In the meantime, do you have any suggestions that fit the three factors of humor, astonishment and disgust/horror?

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE

by Jane Austen



"Pride and Prejudice -- Austen's own 'darling child' -- tells the story of fiercely independent Elizabeth Bennet, one of five sisters who must marry rich, as she confounds the arrogant, wealthy Mr. Darcy. What ensues is one of the most delightful and engrossingly readable courtships known to literature, written by a precocious Austen when she was just twenty-one years old." (From the back of the Barnes & Noble Classics edition.)

I surrender! I wanted to be cool and ambivalent, to declare it a "good 'girl' book", but I just can't. I am a believer. Pride and Prejudice is just plain fabulous! I loved it! I'm joining the ranks of women who want to be Elizabeth Bennet when they grow up, and, unlike Heathcliff, I completely understand Mr. Darcy sending legions of hearts aflutter. I don't even remember that last time I developed a crush on a fictional character. It may have been Nicholas Nickleby. But I think his position has now been usurped.

Aside from the obvious suspects, my favorite character was Elizabeth's father, Mr. Bennet. He had me giggling every time he bothered to put in his two cents. But Austen breathes life into every single character she creates here, and it is no longer any wonder to me why we are witnessing the recent deluge of sequels and adaptations based on them and this marvelous story. It is very difficult to let them go once they have entered your life. I must have one of those silly sequels around here somewhere, don't I??

Remember Those REALLY Big Boots I Bought?

I was finally brave enough to wear them for a show and were they ever cool!! They also generated a lot of conversation. :-) If you click on the photo, you can see a bigger version and get a better idea of just how tall they are. The heel is 7" and the front platform is 5". I felt like a member of KISS! It took about a half of a set to get used to moving around in them, but after that I was able to maneuver in them for the rest of the show just as well as in my usual boots.

Very fun!

The Joy of Reading Challenges

As the year winds down, even the most dedicated of Reading Challenge fanatics find it hard to push forward with those promises we made ourselves when our New Year's Resolutions were fresh and those challenges were so irresistible. With this in mind, I thought I would take a look back and share with you some of the things reading challenges have done for me.

I stumbled upon the world of book blogs in January of 2008 when I was looking for material to supplement my reading of classics. Searching randomly online, I started coming across various blogs and I was thrilled to find a community filled with people as passionate as I was about books and reading. Then I started seeing the posts about reading challenges. From blog to blog I followed links showing me the wonderful opportunities to join with others in an effort to work through our to-be-read piles, tackle intimidating classics, progress through lists of award winners or recommended reading, and stretch our reading boundaries beyond our comfort zones. I discovered that every reader had his or her own reasons for joining challenges. Some challenges assist in reaching specific goals such as reading the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die or exploring Japanese or Jewish Literature. Some are just plain fun to try to complete, such as the What's In a Name Challenge or the A-Z Challenge. There are readers who diligently plan their reading to complete the challenges for which they've signed up. There are readers who mostly enjoy making the lists for the challenges and actually completing them is entirely optional. No matter the goals or the level of commitment to finishing, everyone seemed to be having such a good time! I was hooked. My own blog, Books 'N Border Collies, was created within days so I could join in the fun.

I learned a lot in that first year about myself and my reading habits. First was that I can't follow a predetermined list of reading for more than a couple of weeks at most. After signing up for a number of challenges and gleefully creating my book lists for them, I found I had my entire year mapped out. It wasn't long before I was altering those lists almost daily. I learned I operate more efficiently when I have goal, but I need flexibility to reach it.

Second, I learned that even the broadest reader has boundaries and comfort levels that can and should be challenged. I stuck to challenges that first year which I was fairly certain I would finish and within whose rules I knew I would find books that suited my tastes. Even so, I made discoveries that urged me to test myself the second year. The Art History, War Through the Generations, and Essay Challenges all ended up including books I loved that I would never have even looked at much less read if it had not been for the reading challenges. And the Dewey Decimal System Challenge opened my eyes to literary explorations that have made trips to the library an entirely new experience. Who knew I was capable of spending an entertaining hour in the Math and Technology sections? Certainly not me! And just try to pry me away from the Philosophy and Religion shelves. Go ahead. Try.

Third, I learned through the New Author Challenge that I have no problems at all picking up new-to-me writers. In fact, I have more issues trying to get through all the works of favorite authors because there are always dozens more on the horizon I can't wait to pick up. And since I am not a traveler, I've learned that writers from other countries and cultures are essential to assisting me in my understanding of the wider world.

Fourth, I learned that not reaching my reading goals is in no way a failure. Sometimes I'm not learning what I meant to learn, but I'm finding new and fascinating topics that I didn't know I was interested in. Or I'm discovering that a big project I had mapped out isn't nearly as easy to conduct as it sounded when I started. As long as I'm reading and learning, I'm bettering myself which helps me to better the world around me.

Reading challenges have made me a better reader and a more well-rounded person. They've helped me to understand the past, live in the present and think more productively about the future. They've made me more aware of the world beyond my personal experience. And if I never do another reading challenge again, I can take my new knowledge wherever my literary endeavors take me, face new authors, books and subjects boldly, and think to myself, "Cool! I could have used this for the Book Awards Challenge!"

Happy Reading, Everyone!

JUNKY

by William S. Burroughs



Junky is William S. Burroughs' first novel and a semi-autobiographical account of his experiences as a narcotics addict. It is disarmingly honest and compulsively readable.

Burroughs talks about starting to shoot up, slowly building an addiction, robbing drunks on the subway and "pushing" to get money for his habit. He talks intimately about people he has known, mostly other users, and how they existed. Or didn't. He talks about multiple efforts to get cured of his addiction, leaving the country to avoid incarceration and living an addict's life in another country. One would expect Junky to be fairly depressing, but the candid and matter-of-fact tone of the writing somehow manages to avert that particular emotion. In fact, it is oddly unemotional but completely engrossing. I could not put this book down once I started reading.

The particular edition I read, the Penguin 50th Anniversary Definitive Edition, has a wonderful introduction and a series of Appendices discussing Borroughs' life, the history of the book, changes that were made in various editions and Burroughs' reactions to some of it that added a lot to my appreciation for this work. I understand it's quite different from his more famous novels, but it has made me much less apprehensive about attempting them. This is my first book by Burroughs, but I will be reading more soon. I can hear Queer, Naked Lunch and The Wild Boys calling my name.

ROUGH COUNTY

by John Sandford



"While competing in a fishing tournament in a remote area of northern Minnesota, [Virgil Flowers] gets a call from Lucas Davenport to investigate a murder at a nearby resort, where a woman has been shot while kayaking. . . . [A]s he begins investigating, he finds a web of connections between the people at the resort, the victim, and some local women, notably a talented country singer. The more he digs, the more he discovers the arrows of suspicion that point in many directions, encompassing a multitude of motivations: jealousy, blackmail, greed, anger, fear." (From Amazon.com)

I understand that this is terribly judgemental of me, but it bothers me that an male author who has created notoriously womanizing characters for his two series (Lucas Davenport, Virgil Flowers), has decided to write a book for one of them that features a whole bunch of lesbians, complete with bi-sexual swingers and cat fights in the bar. There is something icky about the feel of it, the undercurrent of crude "guy fantasy" and cartoonish stereotyping, and it severely tainted my enjoyment of the book. Don't get me wrong. I've got no problem with the topic, just the ridiculous and seemingly gratuitous way it was presented.

That little rant aside, once Sandford gets done attempting to shock the reader with his "edginess" and starts doing what he does best, writing an actual mystery, Rough Country turns out to be pretty good. The second half of the book is much more enjoyable than the first. If you've never read Sandford before, I would not start here, but for fans of his it will hold you over until the next one.

DR. HAGGARD'S DISEASE

by Patrick McGrath



"For you, passion is a disease. It causes suffering, comes to a crisis, and dies." Fanny Vaughan in Dr. Haggard's Disease (p. 33)

"The setting is a cliffside manor on the English coast in the early years of the Second World War. The narrator is Dr. Edward Haggard, a mysteriously wounded figure racked by morphine addiction and tormented by the memories of his intense affair with Fanny, the wife of his former chief pathologist. Fanny is dead, but when her son, a young fighter pilot, appears in Dr. Haggard's life, the aging doctor finds out how an old passion can turn into a strange -- and dangerous -- obsession." (From the back cover of the Vintage Contemporaries edition.)

A perfect book for a crisp fall evening, a fireplace, and a reader looking for an eerie tale with which to pass the time. Dr. Haggard's Disease moves slowly but deliberately, both literally and figuratively. It's not a book to be rushed though. It's not heavy on plot, but the character of Dr. Haggard is unsettling and foreboding enough to pull the reader through to the end. The story is never frightening or shocking, but it continually keeps uneasy balance on the line of disturbing. Dr. Haggard has not yet lost his mind, but it could happen at any moment.

I love dark, creepy books and while Dr. Haggard's Disease is not as dark and creepy as I had hoped, it has left me more than curious about Patrick McGrath's other books. His writing has a delicately alarming quality that never crosses into the fanciful or melodramatic. I think that style is very difficult to maintain throughout an entire novel, much less an entire body of work. I will be returning to his books to find out if McGrath can do it, or even tries.

GIRL IN HYACINTH BLUE

by Susan Vreeland



"A professor invites a colleague from the art department to his home to see a painting that he has kept secret for decades. The professor swears it is a Vermeer -- why has he hidden this important work for so long? The reasons unfold in a series of stories that trace ownership of the painting back to World War II and Amsterdam, and still further back to the moment of the work's inspiration. As the painting moves through each owner's hands, what was long hidden quietly surfaces, illuminating poignant moments in human lives. Vreeland's characters remind us, through their love of the mysterious painting, how beauty transforms and why we reach for it, what lasts, and what in our lives is singular and unforgettable." (From the back of the Penguin edition.)

Thanks to the Art History Reading Challenge, Johannes Vermeer and I meet again. Girl in Hyacinth Blue would be a perfect book for a reading group. I loved the way the stories followed the painting back in time and the reader is shown glimpses of the various lives it had touched. To compare and contrast those lives and the part the painting played in them would be a remarkable discussion! I thought it was an ingenious way of tying together a series of short stories. It could be my lack of experience in this type of sub-genre, but there is always something that feels unique about the way Vreeland approaches her subjects. This was my second of her books for this challenge, and she is a writer that believe I will continue to explore.

MICHELANGELO AND THE POPE'S CEILING

by Ross King



"[T]he extraordinary story of the four years during which Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Although the artist considered himself a sculptor, Pope Julius II commissioned Michelangelo as a painter. With only scant knowledge of the art of fresco, Michelangelo created figures so beautiful that when they were unveiled in 1512, they stunned the onlookers. Ross King chronicles what went into this monumental project: not only Michelangelo's experiments with the composition of pigment and plaster, but also his ill health, financial difficulties, domestic problems, and bitter rivalry with Raphael, who was working on the neighboring Papal Apartments." (From the CD container.)

As much as I love history, I find it difficult to find non-fiction history books that capture and hold my attention. So many of them are so very dry. The problem is exacerbated when the historical topic is not something in which I've had anything beyond a vague curious interest. The ceiling of Sistine Chapel is one of those topics. When I see pictures of it, I'm astounded. Take the pictures away, I forget all about it.

With that confession out of the way, why did I choose Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling? I chose it because I am committed to finishing all of my reading challenges for this year and I had two books left to go for the Art History Reading Challenge. I wanted an audiobook, and the day I went to the library this was the only one that fit the bill. Thank the library gods! What a great book!!

I not only learned more than I ever thought I wanted to know about Michelangelo, his life and his amazing frescoes, but I learned about other prominent artists like Da Vinci, Raphael, and too many others for me to remember all their names, and about familiar classic authors like Erasmus and Machiavelli. I learned about European history generally and Italian history specifically, history of the papacy, more about the Borgias and tons about Pope Julian II. I learned about art and how frescoes and paintings were done. I learned about famous works I immediately looked up on the Internet so I could see them and about amazing pieces that are lost to us forever. And I was so engrossed in the presentation that I often forgot it was non-fiction.

So, I've gone from vaguely curious to scoping out Amazon for Michelangelo's Selected Poems and Letters. If that is not the mark of a wonderful non-fiction book, I don't know what is. Aren't reading challenges great? :-)

How Cool Is This??

For the last three years Peter and I have been reading the various annual editions of The Intellectual Devotional, which we have loved. The various topics are always interesting, but I inevitably look forward to Literature day every week. What would be my 2010 Edition is going to be all about health and wellness. Intriguing, but I think it may get bumped because I found this: The Bibliophile's Devotional: 365 Days of Literary Classics!! I mean seriously. Does it get any better than that? I think not! Yes. I bought it. Score!! It's on my nightstand waiting impatiently for New Year's Day.

WISHFUL DRINKING

by Carrie Fisher



I took one look at the cover and knew I had to read this. Peter and I recently re-watched all the original Star Wars movies, because I turned him on to the X-Wing: Rogue Squadron series and we wanted to reacquaint ourselves with some of the lesser known characters. (If you are a Star Wars fan, I highly recommend that series of books. They are wonderful!) Anyway, Princess Leia passed out with her martini glass was too good to pass up. :-)

Wishful Drinking is Carrie Fisher's first memoir. As a Star Wars fan, I guess what I really wanted was a book all about her time making those movies, because like so many other narrow-minded fans I believe that her life began and ended with the Star Wars trilogy. This is not that book, because I'm a dolt and there is much more to Carrie Fisher than silly hairdos, awesome metal bikinis, and dating "scruffy looking nerf-herders". This is about her addiction and mental illness, but it's not your typical "woe-is-me, popular-celebrity-brought-low" memoir. It is written in the self-deprecating, humorous style that has made Carrie Fisher a very popular fiction writer. (Remember Postcards from the Edge?) And she is very, very funny!

The book is short, easy to breeze through, but loaded with detailed anecdotes about her strange life, from her famous parents (Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher) and their various marriages/affairs to Star Wars and becoming a Pez dispenser to her own marriages, accidental overdose, AA meetings, bipolar diagnosis and continuing road to recovery. It is all told in bits and pieces, each section not necessarily having anything to do with the others, and made me smile and giggle even when all I really wanted to know was how cool it was to work with Harrison Ford. (Though she tells a great story about when they filmed the scene in the trash compactor!)

Fisher apparently performs Wishful Drinking as a comedy show, and I could completely envision that as I read. But my brain still lurches wildly whenever I try to picture my idolized Princess Leia with such a potty mouth. And I think it is exactly that kind of type-cast thinking that helped send her *over* that non-fictional edge. In her honor, I promise I will try to separate "Carrie Fisher" from "Princess Leia" in the future, but it won't be easy!

And Then Tonight I Picked Up These . . .

All Art Is Propaganda and Facing Unpleasant Facts, both books of essays by George Orwell. And now I must stop. At least for this week. :-)

New Purchases

Yeah, I'm still at it. Someone's gotta keep the bookstores in business. It might as well be me. :-)


First up, the geek in me had to have Wishful Drinking by Princess Leia . . . I mean, Carrie Fisher. Love the cover!! This is Carrie Fisher's memoir and I'll be suspending all other reading this weekend for it.


Carrie Fisher's book was part of the "Buy One, Get One 50% Off" promotion, so I had to pick a second one from the table. Bummer, huh? :-) I opted for the paperback edition of 2666 by Roberto Bolano. I have no idea when I'll actually get to this but it's one I've been wanting to purchase, so there you go. Excuse provided!


I picked up Marcel Proust's Search for Lost Time: A Reader's Guide to The Remembrance of Things Past by Patrick Alexander because I do plan to finish The Remembrance of Things Past someday. I read Swann's Way back when I first started this blog and enjoyed it quite a bit, but I've been intimidated to continue with the series. This is supposed to be informative and funny, and that's a great combination. I'll take that, thank you!

And last but not least I picked up a little hardcover called The 100 Greatest Poems of All Time because it was only $5.99 and why not, right? We could all use a little more poetry in our lives even if we don't really get it. ;-)

Have a great weekend, everyone!