Will someone PLEASE explain to me the vast appeal of Jane Eyre? I tried to read it, I tried to have it "read" to me ( book on CD) Nope. I hated Jane. Didn't care. Maybe because all of the characters are now somewhat cliche. I suppose Brontè INVENTED those cliches. I also suppose I hate it because to me, it's the ultimate Regency Romance and no offense to those who love them, but I HATE Regency Romances. Just not for me.
My latest foray into Jane-land came as a result of my reading (on CD) a collection of stories based on the line "Reader, I married him". It was interesting, some of the stories were awful but some were quite entertaining and I wondered, again, why so many people who are well read seem to love Jane Eyre. I loved the Jasper Ffode book "The Eyre Affair" which begins the "Thursday Next" series. The book I am reading now "The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend" also has the heroine wax rhapsodic about the book. She is seen weeping openly in her shop window, clutching the book after she finishes it. The male protagonist doesn't get why she is weeping. I'm with him.
In Readers of Broken Wheel, the author makes a point, though, about "Classic" novels and the fact that the enforced reading of them makes them a chore rather than a pleasure. As an English major, I was taught to look for themes and recurring images as if I were solving some sort of puzzle, rather than reading for the pleasure of the story and the use of language. "Having" to read something rather than "wanting" to read something takes the fun out of it. Now, I'm not saying I am going to go back and re-read Moby Dick ( those whaling chapters aren't any less boring in pleasure reading.) I remember trying to read "The Princess Bride" at some point in my life. It starts out with a man buying the book that he was read as a child, only to discover that his - father ... grandfather... whoever had read it to him had edited it down when he was reading it to him so he got the "good parts version" I suppose that's what really GOOD film-making is, the "good parts version" although sometimes they leave out MY favorite parts. I don't know if I would actually sit through an complete version of Lord of the Rings ( Maybe if they just skimmed over "The Two Towers" and did everything in " Return of the King". hmmmm)
Still I ponder Jane Eyre. I am not much of a fan of that period in Literature anyway. I struggled through most of the novels I was forced to read. Maybe I will try to revisit them with an eye to actually enjoying the story and NOT trying to write a paper about it. I'm NOT reading Jane Eyre OR Moby Dick however. Any suggestions?
Wednesday, November 30, 2016
Thursday, November 24, 2016
Thankfuls
Well it's Thanksgiving Day already and I neglected to post ANYTHING this month about things I am thankful for. It's been a hellish month already so I am going through my "list" in no particular order:
Naturally I am thankful for friends and family. That goes without saying but I have to say it anyway. This year has been like a terror train funhouse ride. Just when you think it is over and you can see daylight, some ax-wielding clown pops out of the darkness. I have clung to my friends my family and what is left of my faith. I am not sure I should even pray anymore, every time I do God seems to answer me with the exact opposite of what I pray about. I am not asking for money or anything ridiculous but this year God has tested my resolve. Maybe I should just back off asking and see what He has for me.
I am thankful for the doctors and nurses who helped our Mom this past month. She has a hard road to go, but she is one feisty chick!
I am thankful for my mentor, who is leaving the job far too soon. I am angry that he is, but grateful for his tutelage and the way he changed how I look at things. As the song goes "because I knew you I have been changed for good"
I am thankful that MY doctors talked me into making a few drastic changes in my life. I also have a long way until I am better, but I AM better than I was this time last year. I am off a LOT of the meds and have lost 30 pounds. It's been a hard year, but I am fighting back.
I am thankful for my colleagues at the Library. Recently, in a General Meeting, they spoke to my General Manager about me and gave me a standing ovation. I cannot tell you how that made me feel, to know that they realize the job I am trying to do and appreciate it. It was a real love-fest and it made me feel better about the job. Just that day, I had been feeling quite discouraged. My angels must have conspired to make me see that I am making a difference and for that I am truly grateful.
I am thankful for food on the table, a roof over my head, the love of my soulmate and the opportunity to show that love can make a difference in this world. The hateful rhetoric of "That" man that now flows freely from people who think they are empowered to hate has made me realize that those of us who do not believe in that sort of thing have a struggle before us. We can make this a better place, one person at a time. If you believe that one man can't make a difference, ( whatever your faith) I can tell you a story about a Jewish Carpenter.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Naturally I am thankful for friends and family. That goes without saying but I have to say it anyway. This year has been like a terror train funhouse ride. Just when you think it is over and you can see daylight, some ax-wielding clown pops out of the darkness. I have clung to my friends my family and what is left of my faith. I am not sure I should even pray anymore, every time I do God seems to answer me with the exact opposite of what I pray about. I am not asking for money or anything ridiculous but this year God has tested my resolve. Maybe I should just back off asking and see what He has for me.
I am thankful for the doctors and nurses who helped our Mom this past month. She has a hard road to go, but she is one feisty chick!
I am thankful for my mentor, who is leaving the job far too soon. I am angry that he is, but grateful for his tutelage and the way he changed how I look at things. As the song goes "because I knew you I have been changed for good"
I am thankful that MY doctors talked me into making a few drastic changes in my life. I also have a long way until I am better, but I AM better than I was this time last year. I am off a LOT of the meds and have lost 30 pounds. It's been a hard year, but I am fighting back.
I am thankful for my colleagues at the Library. Recently, in a General Meeting, they spoke to my General Manager about me and gave me a standing ovation. I cannot tell you how that made me feel, to know that they realize the job I am trying to do and appreciate it. It was a real love-fest and it made me feel better about the job. Just that day, I had been feeling quite discouraged. My angels must have conspired to make me see that I am making a difference and for that I am truly grateful.
I am thankful for food on the table, a roof over my head, the love of my soulmate and the opportunity to show that love can make a difference in this world. The hateful rhetoric of "That" man that now flows freely from people who think they are empowered to hate has made me realize that those of us who do not believe in that sort of thing have a struggle before us. We can make this a better place, one person at a time. If you believe that one man can't make a difference, ( whatever your faith) I can tell you a story about a Jewish Carpenter.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Tuesday, November 22, 2016
Dallas 1963
Where were you, this day in 1963, when you heard the news that changed our world and forever took away our innocence?
Each generation has that defining moment, Pearl Harbor for my parents, 911 for my daughter, but for us, the assassination of JFK was OUR defining moment. I was in the back seat of my parent's Green Bellaire. My mom heard the news on the radio and pulled the car over at the corner of Bartee and Van Nuys. She kept sobbing "oh that young man" over and over. I was five and coming home from morning kindergarten classes. 53 years later, I can still feel myself, frightened for a reason I did not really understand- what five year old back then knew anything about death? My family mourned him, grieved for his widow and his children. I suppose it was the fact that he had children who were our age that made his death more tragic to us. We saw him laughing with them and we saw what death and grief were, in their faces.
They say the nation looked to Jackie, to teach them how to mourn. What an incredible sad duty being First Lady must have been for her. Her obvious sorrow, held together with such stately grace is something I remember, probably not from the events, but the photos taken of her. How terrible to be forced to bear your unimaginable grief in public, not to be allowed to sob or break down. She was an amazing woman. She understood her part in history. When she began her life as first lady, I recall that people didn't think much of her and said so. They mocked her efforts to remodel the White House, but she was a student of history and architecture and was able to call on the greatest minds to assist her in the task of making the White House a showplace after the war years. Yet when our country was at our most hopeless point, we put all our grief and pain on her slim shoulders; and she rose to the task. She was always trying to get away from that personae, I think, which is probably one of the reasons she married Onassis; she could escape and he could protect her. We thought we knew her and thought we owned her. This was never the case. I hope she had a marvelous life, despite it all. But as I think of this day in Dallas in 1963, I see her in that pink suit, splattered with his blood, bravely leading the nation for a brief moment of absolute shock and grief.
Each generation has that defining moment, Pearl Harbor for my parents, 911 for my daughter, but for us, the assassination of JFK was OUR defining moment. I was in the back seat of my parent's Green Bellaire. My mom heard the news on the radio and pulled the car over at the corner of Bartee and Van Nuys. She kept sobbing "oh that young man" over and over. I was five and coming home from morning kindergarten classes. 53 years later, I can still feel myself, frightened for a reason I did not really understand- what five year old back then knew anything about death? My family mourned him, grieved for his widow and his children. I suppose it was the fact that he had children who were our age that made his death more tragic to us. We saw him laughing with them and we saw what death and grief were, in their faces.
They say the nation looked to Jackie, to teach them how to mourn. What an incredible sad duty being First Lady must have been for her. Her obvious sorrow, held together with such stately grace is something I remember, probably not from the events, but the photos taken of her. How terrible to be forced to bear your unimaginable grief in public, not to be allowed to sob or break down. She was an amazing woman. She understood her part in history. When she began her life as first lady, I recall that people didn't think much of her and said so. They mocked her efforts to remodel the White House, but she was a student of history and architecture and was able to call on the greatest minds to assist her in the task of making the White House a showplace after the war years. Yet when our country was at our most hopeless point, we put all our grief and pain on her slim shoulders; and she rose to the task. She was always trying to get away from that personae, I think, which is probably one of the reasons she married Onassis; she could escape and he could protect her. We thought we knew her and thought we owned her. This was never the case. I hope she had a marvelous life, despite it all. But as I think of this day in Dallas in 1963, I see her in that pink suit, splattered with his blood, bravely leading the nation for a brief moment of absolute shock and grief.
Sunday, November 13, 2016
Where to begin
I have not written anything since the election happened on Tuesday November 8. I am still in shock. I have stated before and I will say again. Donald Trump and his followers SCARE me. I don't think people get it. This is a man who said he has never HEARD of the KKK, who encouraged his followers to beat up people who disagreed with them and from all accounts, asked why we couldn't just USE the Nukes.
What is WORSE to me is that I am seeing all kinds of backlash toward me form BOTH sides. For the Record, not all white people voted for Trump and when I woke up in a world where he had been chosen, my fears about him became real. I am afraid for women who will have LESS access to adequate reproductive health care and will be subjected to MORE harassment as the Republican leader believes that we should be"grabbed by the pussy" to keep us in line. I am afraid for the poor living on the poverty line as taxes rise in order to balance a budget that most experts say will send us into another Recession. I am afraid for those who will lose their health care coverage ( it appears he lied to them about repealing it- so I have SOME hope) I am afraid for my LGBT friends, as the Republican Platform actually singled them out by stating that they wanted to appoint a Supreme Court Justice who would overturn the Marriage Equality Act. THEY WANT TO TAKE AWAY RIGHTS, They must believe that LGBT people are less deserving of basic AMERICAN rights.
I am wearing a safety pin on my necklace in a small act of comfort and protest. YES, I am prepared to help someone in distress. I am a 58 year old white female, but I will do what I can. HOWEVER I am taking heat from people of color who are mocking me. One person claimed the distress of "white folks" is fake and we can't know real distress unless we are people of color. She went on to say that we will never understand what it is like to be a person of color. I will never experience the things that people of color do every day because of the color of their skin, but to assume that I do not have compassion simply because of the color of my skin is just as wrong, isn't it? No, I can never really know how you feel, but can you ever truly know how I feel? You take one look at my pale skin and make a snap judgement about me. Isn't this the thing you complain that I do? I can not experience what you are feeling, but you can help me to understand . Those of us feeling pain for this country must unite against a common problem, not splinter further because of it.
Mostly, I am tired but trying to find a glimmer of hope in all of this. The day after the election, I was talking to a young man in this twenties. We consoled each other and I told him "we worked for change and we did it once, we can do it again, but we are counting on YOUR generation to stand with us in the fire" He smiled and said that he was sure his generation would step up and that he was considering getting much more involved in politics because of this. It gave me a bit of hope for our future, that seeing this victory is ready and willing to work for our own.
What is WORSE to me is that I am seeing all kinds of backlash toward me form BOTH sides. For the Record, not all white people voted for Trump and when I woke up in a world where he had been chosen, my fears about him became real. I am afraid for women who will have LESS access to adequate reproductive health care and will be subjected to MORE harassment as the Republican leader believes that we should be"grabbed by the pussy" to keep us in line. I am afraid for the poor living on the poverty line as taxes rise in order to balance a budget that most experts say will send us into another Recession. I am afraid for those who will lose their health care coverage ( it appears he lied to them about repealing it- so I have SOME hope) I am afraid for my LGBT friends, as the Republican Platform actually singled them out by stating that they wanted to appoint a Supreme Court Justice who would overturn the Marriage Equality Act. THEY WANT TO TAKE AWAY RIGHTS, They must believe that LGBT people are less deserving of basic AMERICAN rights.
I am wearing a safety pin on my necklace in a small act of comfort and protest. YES, I am prepared to help someone in distress. I am a 58 year old white female, but I will do what I can. HOWEVER I am taking heat from people of color who are mocking me. One person claimed the distress of "white folks" is fake and we can't know real distress unless we are people of color. She went on to say that we will never understand what it is like to be a person of color. I will never experience the things that people of color do every day because of the color of their skin, but to assume that I do not have compassion simply because of the color of my skin is just as wrong, isn't it? No, I can never really know how you feel, but can you ever truly know how I feel? You take one look at my pale skin and make a snap judgement about me. Isn't this the thing you complain that I do? I can not experience what you are feeling, but you can help me to understand . Those of us feeling pain for this country must unite against a common problem, not splinter further because of it.
Mostly, I am tired but trying to find a glimmer of hope in all of this. The day after the election, I was talking to a young man in this twenties. We consoled each other and I told him "we worked for change and we did it once, we can do it again, but we are counting on YOUR generation to stand with us in the fire" He smiled and said that he was sure his generation would step up and that he was considering getting much more involved in politics because of this. It gave me a bit of hope for our future, that seeing this victory is ready and willing to work for our own.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)