Beowulf

Beowulf
Begin: 11/27/07
End: 11/29/07
Quality: Eight out of Ten.
Reason: Unread.
Genre: Epics. World Literature. Saxon Literature.
Original Language: Old English.
Date of Publication: 1010.
Fog Index: 11.5/63% are harder.
Flesch Index: 59.9/66% are harder.
Flesch-Kincaid Index: 10.2/52% are harder.
Complex Words: 7%/87% have more.
Number: Third?
Synopsis: King Hroogar builds this great hall but unfortunately the noise that he and his people make irritate the monster Grendel, who then comes and decimates many of them. Beowulf hears of this and comes to slay Grendel. Once this is accomplished, Grendel’s mother comes seeking vengeance. Once Beowulf kills her, he is hailed as a hero and returns to his own land. He eventually becomes King there and dies fighting a dragon.
Thoughts: Well, I bought this when I discovered that Neil Gaiman was working on the screenplay for a Beowulf movie. I didn’t actually read it until after seeing the movie. I remember watching the movie and remember the plot when I read it in college and then they completely alter it. I wanted to see exactly what the text said. And so I read it.

I thought it was very good. I got the Seamus Heaney translation. It was a very quick read. The only real issue that I had with it, due to my very modern sentiments, was that I wish that there was more descriptions of the monsters. I don’t really know what else to say about it so I guess I’ll end here.

Lillian Hellman's The Children's Hour

Lilian Hellman’s The Children’s Hour
Begin: 11/26/07
End: 11/27/07
Quality: Nine out of Ten.
Reason: Unread. Modern Drama.
Genre: Drama.
Original Language: English.
Date of Publication: 1934.
Fog Index: 6.2/94% are harder.
Flesch Index: 78.8%/94% are harder.
Flesch-Kincaid Index: 4.8/94% are harder.
Complex Words: 5%/94% have more.
Number: First.
Synopsis: Two women run a school for girls. A disgruntled student run away from school to her grandmother and concots a story about the two women having a lesbian affair. The story destroys the lives of the women.
Thoughts: It was really good! I kept thinking that some homophobia was going to creep it but it was strangely absent. It was a very sad play and I just wanted to beat the crap out of Mary and thinking that perhaps she would redeem herself at some point. A very good play, I must say.

Katharine Dunn's Geek Love

Katherine Dunn’s Geek Love
Begin: 11/19/07
End: 11/27/07
Quality: Eight out of Ten.
Reason: Unread. Jeremy Recommended.
Genre: Fiction. Contemporary Fiction.
Original Language: English.
Date of Publication: 1989.
Fog Index: 7.6/88% are harder.
Flesch Index: 74.9%/89% are harder.
Flesch-Kincaid Index: 5.9/87% are harder.
Complex Words: 7%/89% have more.
Number: First.
Synopsis: It is basically two stories. We have the story of our narrator’s childhood, growing up in a traveling circus where her parents have attempted to create freaks in their children by using drugs and radiation. The second story takes place in the present time with the narrator and her taking care of both her daughter and her mother, unbeknownst to them.
Thoughts: I really liked it overall. I mean it was pretty perverse and bizarre but that is the kind of shit that I really like. I thought that the story that takes place in the modern day was weak. It was not at all what I expected it to be. When I first had heard about it, I thought it was going to be the story of two geeks falling in love rather than about a family carnival business. Then when I started reading it, I was not at all prepared for the deviousness of Arturo or the love that Oly seemed to have for him despite all of the bullshit that he was doing. Overall, though, a really good story.

Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson's Sandworms of Dune

Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson’s Sandworms of Dune
Begin: 11/16/07
End: 11/18/07
Quality: Two out of Ten.
Reason: Dune Cycle.
Genre: Science Fiction. Pop Fiction.
Original Language: English.
Date of Publication: 2007.
Fog Index: 10.4/71% are harder.
Flesch Index: 60.6%/67 are harder.
Flesch-Kincaid Index: 7.9/73% are harder.
Complex Words: 13/55% have more.
Number: First.
Synopsis: This is basically the conclusion of the dune sage. Drama on the no-ship. Murbella is trying to band humanity together to defeat the thinking machines. The Face dancers under Khrone have some conspiracy in the works. And Omninus is relentless is his pursuit of humanity.
Thoughts: Basically, it sucked. It’s your standard pop science fiction pile of dribble. I read it because it’s the finishing book of the dune cycle but I can’t believe that this was the plot that Frank Herbert, my beloved Frank Herbert, wrote. It was so bad and contrived and stupid.

Toni Morrison's Paradise
Begin: 11/8/07
End: 11/16/07
Quality: Nine out of Ten.
Reason: Reading Plan.
Genre: Fiction.
Original Language: English.
Date of Publication: 1989.
Fog Index: 9.4/78% are harder.
Flesch Index: 69.8%/82% are harder.
Flesch-Kincaid Index: 7.4/77% are harder.
Complex Words: 8%/82% have more.
Number: First.
Synopsis: Dual stories going on in this book. We have the story of Ruby, Oklahoma, a all black town which is starting to have various issues. Then there is the story of the Convent, which is a few miles outside of town and while once a convent school is now a refuge for various women.
Thoughts:


Why does Toni Morrison mesmerize me like she does? Hmm? I am not sure why or how but I find myself so completely and utterly swept away by her lyricism and the magical quality of the worlds which she creates. Paradise is no exception to this. It is not the easiest book in the world to read. The first time that I read it, I was pretty lost. I think I have a better grasp on it but I know that there is still a lot in that book that I still need to discover and reflect on. And maybe that is why I am so into Toni Morrison because she writes books that have to be grappled, like Jacob and the Angel and afterwards you are granted a boon of wisdom. Her books aren’t just mindless entertainment. They are mysteries to be unraveled, they are to be marinated in your mind for weeks and months and years and to go back to again and again.

Paradise is her hardest novel, at least for me, and it is the one that reminds me the most of Faulkner. The amount of characters, the way in which she describes the action of the novel, the mystery of who exactly is the white girl in the convent who dies, the sheer size and complexity which she creates, it all combines to make this not a tough book to get through but just one that is very difficult to get your mind around.

I guess I should start by talking about that white girl. This is how the novel opens…“They shoot the white girl first. With the rest they can take their time. No need to hurry out here. They are seventeen miles from a town which has ninety miles between it and any other. Hiding places will be plentiful in the Convent, but there is time and the day has just begun. (3) The first time that I read this book, I spend too much time trying to figure out who exactly the white girl is but I believe that Toni Morrison does not want us to know. And she is very good about avoiding mention of race. And I think one of the main points of this novel is that it really does not matter. We get to know these women inside and out so dos it even matter what color their skin is? Does it really matter at all after their full stories are revealed?

My main problem with the novel was just the sheer complexity of it. I felt like it needed to come with it’s own genealogy chart so I could get a handle on the people of Ruby. Maybe that will be the project for the next time that I read this book.

Another problem that I have is that I see so much in this novel that I cannot fully articulate. It is going to have to marinate for a while longer, maybe the next time that I read it, I will be able to talk about it more.

I did love this book. I can say that without a doubt. It may not be my favorite by Morrison but its still pretty fucking good, even though it is a mind-fuck. It’s the kind of book I want to suck the nectar out of, that I want to ingest and contemplate for a long time.

“She had to stop nursing resentment at the townspeople’s refusal of her services; stop stealing penny revenge by ignoring what was going on and letting evil has its way. Playing blind was to avoid the language God spoke in. He did not thunder instructions or whisper messages into ears. Oh, no. He was a liberating God. A teacher who taught you how to learn, to see for yourself. His signs were clear, abundantly so, if you stopped steeping in vanity’s sour juice and paid attention to His world.” (273)

I saw a lot of patriarchal vs. matriarchal issues in this novel. This might be due to my own beliefs and ideology.

“They shoot the white girl first. With the rest they can take their time. No need to hurry out here. They are seventeen miles from a town which has ninety miles between it and any other. Hiding places will be plentiful in the Convent, but there is time and the day has just begun. (3)

That is how this novel opens up. The “New Fathers” of Ruby, an all black town in Oklahoma, go to the convent because they feel that somehow the woman at the covent are causing the decay they see occurring in Ruby.

“The chill intensifies as the men spread deeper into the mansion, taking their time, looking, listening, alert to the female malice that hides here and the yeast-and-butter smell of rising dough.” (4)

“How exquisitely human was the wish for permanent happiness, and how thin human imagination became trying to achieve it. Soon Ruby will be like ant other country town: the young thinking of elsewhere; the old full of regret. The sermons will be eloquent but fewer and fewer will pay attention or connect them to everyday life. How they can hold it together, he wondered, this hard-won heaven defined only by the absence of the unsaved, the unworthy and the strange? Who will protect them from their leaders?” (306)

William Shakespeare's Love's Labour Lost

William Shakespeare’s Love Labour’s Lost
Begin: 11/06/07
End: 11/13/07
Quality: Four out of Ten.
Reason: Reading Plan.
Genre: Classics. Drama. Shakespeare’s Comedies.
Original Language: English.
Date of Publication: 1623.
Fog Index: N/A
Flesch Index: N/A
Flesch-Kincaid Index: N/A
Complex Words: N/A
Number: First?
Synopsis: Well, it starts with the King and his men vowing to study for three years and not see any woman at all. He is reminded that the princess and her ladies are coming soon. The king has them live in a field outside the castle. Of course, the king and his men fall in love with the princess and he ladies and comedy ensues.
Thoughts: Well, I was kinda lost with this play. I had a hard time getting a hang of it. I don’t even know what to say about it. The ending was also very odd, indeed, with the king dying and the women running off without marriage.

Our wooing doth not end like an old play;/ Jack hath not Jill: these ladies' courtesy/ Might well have made our sport a comedy" (V.ii.867-9).

Dana Gioia's Can Poetry Matter?

Dana Gioia’s Can Poetry Matter?
Begin: 11/06/07
End: 11/09/07
Quality: Four out of Ten.
Reason: Unread.
Genre: Non-Fiction, Literary Criticism. Essays.
Original Language: English.
Date of Publication: 1992.
Fog Index: N/A
Flesch Index: N/A
Flesch-Kincaid Index: N/A
Complex Words: N/A
Number: First
Synopsis: This is actually a collection of essays concerning poetry and the state of poetry today.
Thoughts: Well, I really liked the first essay, “Can Poetry Matter?” quite a bit. I thought it was well written, engaging and productive. Gioia not only critics the state of modern poetry but he comes up with solutions to work out the problems. I also liked some of the other essays but towards the end, I found myself really not giving a damn. I am not sure if it was because I was tired or what but there you have it.

Dorothy Allison's Trash

Dorothy Allison’s Trash:Stories
Begin: 11/06/07
End: 11/08/07
Quality: Six out of Ten.
Reason: Unread.
Genre: Fiction. Short Stories. Southern Literature.
Original Language: English.
Date of Publication: 1988.
Fog Index: 7.4/87% are harder.
Flesch Index: 76.5/92% are harder.
Flesch-Kincaid Index: 5.9/86% are harder.
Complex Words: 5%/91% are harder.
Number: First
Synopsis: This is a collection of short stories by Dorothy Allison which span from stories of growing up in the south to her relationships with various lovers.
Thoughts: The first story of this collection, “River of Names”, was so horrifyingly depressing, so morbid and morose, that it even made me uncomfortable and that is a feat, ladies and gentlemen, that not many people can accomplish. Let’s not forget how much time I spend reading Toni Morrison. Something about the constant litany of cousins who had been beaten, killed, raped, ect just overwhelmed me a little bit.

I ended up really enjoying the work. I always have a hard time with short stories. I am just not that into them. This was easier since they all seemed to be connected by the same and/or similar narrator. The stories that I especially liked were “A lesbian appetite”, “Muscles of the Mind” and “Don’t tell me you don’t know”.

The first portion of the stories are mainly about growing up, Allison then seems to mainly concentrate of being a young lesbian. I did like the lesbian stories quite a bit. I really started to like the stories with “Don’t tell me you don’t know.”



“The problem is…”I told them, checking first to be sure the door was locked. “The proble is that I don’t love her. I want to love her. I want to love somebody. I want to go crazy with love, eat myself up with love. Starve myself, strangle and die with love, like everybody else. Like the rest of the whole goddamned world. I want to be like the rest of the world.” (90)

Marion Zimmer Bradley's Mists of Avalon

Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Mists of Avalon
Begin: 10/26/07
End: 11/05/07
Quality: Ten out of Ten.
Reason: Reading Plan.
Genre: Fiction. Fantasy. Feminist Retellings. Arthurian Literature. Women Studies.
Original Language: English.
Date of Publication: 1979.
Fog Index: 10.2/71% are harder.
Flesch Index: 72.2/86% are harder.
Flesch-Kincaid Index: 8.1/70% are harder.
Complex Words: 6%/91% are harder.
Number: Fourth?
Synopsis: Well, this is simply a feminist retelling of the Arthurian saga. It’s main points of reference are the women around Arthur but mainly Morgaine, his sister.
Thoughts: Fucking brilliant, just simply brilliant. I love this story. I mean it’s definitely Wiccan and feminist propaganda but I still love it, despite that. It’s such a heart breaking story as you watch these character do what is in their nature to do and watch as it makes them suffer. Brilliant. And I can’t tell you how much I would love to sit down and have tea and conversations with Talisien or Vivienne or Morgaine. I am just so in love. Or go and be schooled in Avalon. I thought it was weird that it seemed that both Igraine and Vivienne had been lovers of Uther in the past. And I guess that’s all I have to say. Oh, that and this is a perfect book for the Halloween season.