En Francais!

It’s done! I finally finished The Sea The Sea. I know I’m making it sound like a chore, so don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed it very much, HOWEVER it was a slow read. Almost painstakingly slow. I swear the last 50 pages took me 4 hours! Which CANNOT BE RIGHT. I’m no speed reader… But I have always been on the fairly fast side (I should think anyway, it’s not like I read with a stop watch?). Anyway. Slow reading. There was a middle-ish section of the book which seemed to just kind of…drift, but things picked up and the plot thickened. By the end I was smitten. The final afterword chapter is what really made me love the book by tying everything up nicely. Sometimes it’s better to end with poetry, and sometimes it’s better to end with a proper denumont.

Still no Nobel book in sight for me. Though I’m thinking of spending a couple of hours and slogging through a Pinter play- just so I can say I’ve read more than one Nobel author at this point. Still, the purpose of this whole thing was to get me reading, keep me reading, and broaden my horizons. And that is certainly being achieved.

Next up, a bit of non-fiction to soothe my university-deprived mind.

The Great Nation: France from Louis XV to Napoleon by Colin Jones. A 580 page social, political and cultural look at 18th century France. Exciting no? Well I think it’s exciting and that’s what matters. YOU don’t have to read it.

Murdoch vs Melville

I have an admission, I’ve already started reading something different.

Moby Dick has yet to truly pique my interest, but I refuse to admit that I’ve given up on it again. It’s still sitting proudly on my bed side table.

So what distracted me? Well, I found myself in a Chapters the other day, grabbing a book for my sister when I was drawn to a cover and a title. I do, in fact, judge a book by its cover. I mean really, who doesn’t? The title was The Sea, The Sea which drew me in for the same reason as Moby Dick – a theme related to my life (or, future life). I briefly read the little blurb on the back, but not too closely, and BAM. Impulse buy. A couple of days later I cracked it open to see just what I’d spent $20.00 on.

Was I ever shocked. And pleasantly so.

The Sea, The Sea by Iris Murdoch – styled to be the memoirs of a fictitious aging theatre director/actor/playwright, who leaves the scene to live alone by the ocean. It’s another 500+ pager… and I’m finding it a slow read. I find myself lingering over the words and images – as someone well versed in theatre (the theory, the lifestyle, the world of constant creation…. the egos…) I find the book strikes certain chords with me… little inside truths and observations about what define “a life in theatre”. “A life in theatre” is a universal thing.. all lives in all theatres have a commonality which all theatre folk immediately recognize and nod knowingly at. So maybe there is something extra magical in it for me.

I don’t want to give the impression that the book is ABOUT a life in theatre. Because it’s not, not really. Theatre is more like the backdrop (a very apt one), to the main event: a man struggling to define himself, to find himself, to connect who he has become with who he was… and of course, it’s about love. Love lost, lover never found, love love love. Not in a gushy way.

Anyhow… I’m almost half way through. Then I can get back to Moby Dick. Then I can get on to a Nobel book……
…… unless A Game of Thrones sucks me in.

Not so Nobel

Have I been reading a whole lot? No. But I have been reading.. a bit. My latest book never made the Nobel cut, but it is considered a classic (or an endurance test?).

Seeing as I will eventually be going to sea for my new job (cruise ship) I thought it would be fitting to finally read Herman Melville’s epic Moby Dick. I have attempted to read this book at least 3 times before, and by attempted I mean picked it up, read the first couple famous lines, and then never looked at it again. That said, most of those attempts were made when I was much much younger. I probably first picked it up when I was like.. 13? Because I was young, foolish and thought I was finally becoming an adult. And adults read Moby Dick. right? But picking up Moby Dick at that age is a bit like a child who loves McDonald’s cheeseburgers ordering a plate of scallops with a truffles and red-wine reduction (is that even a thing? I don’t eat fish). Your palate just isn’t finely tuned enough yet to appreciate the contrasting flavors and textures. When I was 13 I’m pretty such I thought John Grisham was the greatest author alive, but, I also ate a McChicken every wednesday.

So now at the age of 25, I should be ready for this book. Because I am an adult, and no longer have to try so hard to seem mature. I’ve read “harder” books. I waded through all three of Kafka’s novels when I was 18 and, though daunting, I found that they opened a strange new world, one where books can confuse me, and it’s not a bad thing. So I’ve waded through Kafka, been trounced by Dostoevsky, been mesmerized by Kundera (not to mention I’ve ripped my hair out getting through Plato, Nietzsche, Foucault, Hobbes and the like on my way to a philosophy minor in university). So I should be ready now right? RIGHT?

My copy of Moby Dick is over a thousand pages long, thanks to a Melville biography, notes on composition, an introduction, another “note”, a 300 page commentary, an appendix and a map. I may have reached page 163 of the book, but I am only 70 pages into the ACTUAL book. So it remains to be seen how far I will really get. Will I really do it? I have to admit, I don’t find it that thrilling yet. But 70 pages is hardly enough to judge. I mean, Ishmael isn’t even on the whaling boat yet!

Saramago’s ‘Blindness’ – Response

First book down. Actually, it was down almost two weeks ago but I’ve been in Bermuda and then sick and yadda yadda. I haven’t written about it yet. So here we gooooo…

Blindness by Jose Saramago.
Overall, I liked it and I’m glad I read it. However, I don’t feel compelled to run out and buy/read everything that Saramago has ever written. That’s usually the mark of a stellar book for me, and it’s happened to me countless times. But not with Saramago… and here’s why.
The book is about, well, blindness. The whole world goes blind and what ensues is a kind of Lord-of-the-Flies-esque senario. What becomes of us when civilization is stripped away? Yes, there are the normal troubles associated with being blind, but with everyone blind, society breaks down and reverts to chaos which and its that State of Nature that is really emphasized by the book, not so much the physical blindess.

Saramago has a very interesting way of writing dialogue – it’s just stuck right in ther with the rest of the text. No paragraph breaks, no quotations, and freqently, a lot of confusion as to who is actually saying what. He doesn’t necessarily indicate when one person finishes talking and another person starts. Confusing at first, espcially before everyone goes blind, but kind of clever later on in the book – the identity of the speaker becomes less important than what is being said, which of course makes sense given that everyone is blind.

The problem, for me, is that the book kind of .. drew itself out. The ending just kept puttering along long after it perhaps could have ended, and rather than extend the story, or even be related to the story, it got kind of… well… preachy. I always feel like societal critique or philosophical theories are better intertwined sutbley within a novel than glaring and preachy (Milan Kundera is the exception to this rule). It felt weighty, but freqently in a forced way.

That said, I would still recommend it, if only to experience Saramago’s interesting writing style. Will I read another book by him? Probably not. But that’s ok… because I have to move on to another Nobel Laureate!

Pushing up Pushkin

I’ve been slow in reading this book. I know. I KNOW.
It’s not that I haven’t been reading… I have, in short spurts. Not “sitting down with a cup of tea by the window in the afternoon” kind of reading, but the “grabbing a couple of pages on the subway” kind. So I’m slow, but I am reading. Knowing myself, the speed will pick up as the habit of reading is reformed. University can ruin reading-for-fun by making you constantly read for work, thus desiring to do anything and everything with your spare time EXCEPT stare at more ink on a page.
However…..
I think part of the reason I’ve taken on this task, and start this blog, is as a method for dealing with no longer being a student. I only recently graduated from University upon earning my BFA (I’m talking weeks here), and I think part of me is longing for some sort of structured intellectual expansion.

But it might take me a while to get going.

On a slightly different note, I’ve completely forgotten that I need to read Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin before St. Pattys day when I will be watching the opera version of it. Also I took it out from the library, who-knows-when, and it’s probably overdue. Though not a nobel author, Pushkin is considered one of the great Russians, and seeing as I generally love the other Russians, I’m a little bit excited. I have no idea what it’s about, except that it is written in verse and as is the case with all translations (especially of poetry), there is a fair bit of controversy surrounding ideas of poetic form / meaning / rhythm / sound etc,. I will be reading the Douglas Hofstadter version.

So Saramago… you might have to wait a little bit longer before I finish you. Pushkin is getting “pushed” up the line.

A bit about… Jose Saramago

My first Nobel Laureate will be Jose Saramago, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1998.

who with parables sustained by imagination, compassion and irony continually enables us once again to apprehend an elusory reality (Nobelprize.org)

 

I have chosen to read Blindness — or should I say, I was already reading it when I decided to do this thing? The point is, I am reading about blind people and how society reacts and how the blind people cope when forced to live together and create their own little blind society. But I’m only half way through the book… so I will refrain from commenting too much yet.

As a side note, I think I will keep this all mostly spoiler free? Though it’s unlikely I will be dealing with any plot heavy mystery-solving-shocking-didnt-see-that-coming-endings. “THE BLIND MAN WAS A WIZARD ALL ALONG”. Yeah… generally I doubt spoilers will be a huge issue. But I will try to be mindful.

But on to Jose Saramago! Wikipedia tells me he is a proponent of libertarian communism, which is pretty cool. Perhaps I will be able to comment on how his beliefs shine through in his novels once I have finished one? Perhaps not. Either way, that’s a good kind of thing to know about someone… where they stand on the Human Nature / Ideal Society thing… especially if they write about forms of society, or society in microcosm. I find that knowing about an authors personal life and belief can make their work richer and more meaningful (sometimes anyway …if they are the kind of person who has strong beliefs or a very interesting life and that stuff influences their writing. Background information can be important! Like when reading Harold Pinter. It’s just easier when you know something about what he trying to achieve).

So potentially important: Saramago is an atheist, was a member of the Communist Party in Portugal, and believes that love is the tool through which we will improve the human condition. Also he was born in Portugal.

Other Works Of Note:

• The Gospel according to Jesus Christ
• The year of the death of Ricardo Reis
• The history of the siege of Lisbon
• All the names
• The stone raft
• Baltasar and Blimunda



Here’s the plan…

I like books. I like to read them, look at them, smell them, hold them, run my fingers down their spines… and if I ever did lick one, hell, I’d probably like the taste.

But I’m not exactly an avid reader. I read maybe 30 books a year? Sometimes whole months go by without me turning a single page. Books are left abandoned and half-read as my life gets busy. Some books are found in wonderful little used book shops, fawned over, and immediately treasured, only to sit on my shelf for years.

I love books. But I only sometimes love reading.

I also only love GOOD books. Obviously “good” is a highly subjective term. There are tons of “top” and “best” lists out there. Bestsellers, Oprah’s book club, Pulitzers, Hugos, 1001 to Read Before You Die, BBC’s top 100, “the canon”, the “classics”, and of course, personal favorites. I know what I like in book. I can pick up a book and say “this one. I know I’ll like this one.” For me, that’s typically “classics” — books written at LEAST a hundred years ago. I haven’t read Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment or Hugo’s Les Miserables yet, but I know that when I do, I’ll dig em.

I also have a lot of prejudices about what I won’t like. A bit of a snob some say. I don’t like Charles Dickens. I don’t like Harry Potter. And I don’t like Dan Brown. A lot of things get put on the no-read list and there they will remain until the end of my days. I will never read Harry Potter. It’s not my thing. Sorry.

But there are some authors I never thought I’d enjoy, but found once I got into them, I changed my tune. Jane Austen and Edith Wharton come to mind. I never thought I’d get into the lives of bustled women and proper manners… but I’m not so stuck up that I’ll deny my change of heart. I get so stuck in a little bubble of reading things I know I’ll enjoy, that I am missing out on a whole world of literature.

SO HERE’S THE PLAN

I will read something by each author to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Why the Nobel Prize? I feel like it’s probably the most international of all “lists”, and it allows me some wiggle room to still choose what I want to read by a particular author. And because hey, it’s the Nobel Prize! And I certainly trust the Swedes more than Oprah.

THE TASK: There have been 107 Nobel Laureates since 1901. I will read them all.

THE RULES:

•  no set time limit - 107 Laureates means 107 books. I will not be completing this task in a couple of months, especially since some of these books might be pretty mammoth.
• read something new - when it comes to authors I’ve read before, I must read something new. No reading Shaw’s Pygmalion for the umpteenth time.
• no set order - I’m not going chronologically or alphabetically or anything of the sort. I will likely pluck at random / at interest / based on current availability
• finish every book - even if I hate it.
• find as many as I can - I have no idea what the availability of some of these books will be. Will there be english translations available? Will I have to buy it for $50 because it’s not stocked in any library? I must make a reasonable effort to obtain the work… but if I can’t get my hands on it, I can’t read it.
• reading other things is ok too - I’m not going to be so strict as to disallow myself from reading anything else. Who knows what some of these people might inspire me to read?

So that’s that.

A complete list of winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature can be found on the Nobel Website. http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/