So I was VERY excited to hear that Margaret Atwood was coming out with a new novel. She is one of my favourite contemporary novelists and I’ve loved almost everything I’ve ever read by her. In fact, I’m pretty sure I’ve read more of her works than anyone else’s (except maybe Shakespeare).
Anyway, as I said in my last post (over a month ago, yikes!) The Year of the Flood overlaps somewhat with Oryx & Crake. It’s the same scenario but goes back a bit to reveal some of the characters that are marginally important in Oryx & Crake. I especially liked Brenda’s role, which is expanded beyond the briefest of mentions in O&K.
And like O&K, I think The Year of the Flood is brilliant. Atwood simply is a master of language and she can really weave a tale. I think I actually liked Oryx & Crake better, but I liked learning about God’s Gardeners in depth and seeing what they were like. And of course I liked how everything ties in to some of the plot line of O&K.
Really masterful.
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: atwood, dystopia, future, horror, post-apocalyptic, science fiction
October 12, 2009 · 1 Comment
To be perfectly honest, I love Margaret Atwood but had no intentions of reading Oryx and Crake until I found out her new book is somewhat related to it. I thought, “What a strange name for a book. I shan’t read it!” (Except I probably don’t use the word shan’t in my subconscious. Or outer conscious.) But I’m glad I did. The Handmaid’s Tale had always been one of my favourite books of all time, and this was even more grand. There’s something about a good post-apocalyptic science fiction that just gets me.
Oryx and Crake is about a man, Snowman, who lives as a hermit after the initially unexplained destruction of civilization. He lives among (and yet quite separate from) genetically altered docile, human-like creatures, as well as vicious gene-spliced animals which run rampant through the remains of the city. Through a series of flashbacks we begin to learn more about what exactly happened, and about Snowman’s own involvement in the destruction of mankind.
Bottom line: it’s absolutely fabulous. Atwood is so gifted and sometimes really freakin’ scary. She really explores what we’re capable of doing and pushes the boundaries to the extremes – and yet it’s even scarier because her scenarios are never quite too extreme to be impossible. That’s the thing – she calls it speculative fiction because we’re already technically capable of doing a lot of what she depicts, or at least on the direction of it. She just imagines what would happen if we did follow this exact trajectory, and if we allowed ourselves to continue on this path of unhindered consumerism and technological advancements. Basically, Snowman’s world is really our world if we don’t continually ask ourselves if what we’re doing is ethical.
Definitely read this book! I just started The Year of the Flood, which takes place in the same time frame as Oryx and Crake.
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: atwood, dystopia, future, horror, post-apocalyptic, science fiction
Now, everyone has always told me that Catch-22 is an absolute must-read and everything. But I had no idea it was so BIZARRE. I mean, it’s really outrageous. And it’s supposed to be, I can see. It’s definitely outrageous to the point that it’s hilarious, but it’s set in a context that one must never laugh about – war.
Overall I feel like the book means to make the reader uncomfortable, and Heller does this well. And he really is the master of unexpected juxtaposition. You’ll read a sentence where he tells you what the characters say or feel, and the next sentence completely contradicts that. He really keeps you on your toes the whole time just with simple tricks like that. It’s completely unnerving – and even more impressive because of that!
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: heller, war
I’m a couple of days late but it’s Banned Books Week!
I’ve always been a big supporter of Banned Books Week, partly because education and education reform have always been my biggest sticking points and frequently cause me to want SO badly to be in politics (when normally I would hate it). Literature is also the one place where, much to Kevin’s delight, I am staunchly libertarian-minded. I firmly believe that people, including (or perhaps especially) children should be able to read what they want. I grew up reading Judy Blume and Harry Potter so I guess it came as a shock to me when I got older and found out that all over the place, people were trying to prevent others from enjoying literature. I think it’s awful that people think that they can suppress art because it supposedly supports or even just depicts what they deem to be immoral.
I know the biggest argument is that we’re trying to PROTECT THE CHILDREN, but I think the best protection is education. You can tell a child that a book does contain sexually explicit material, or that there are certain values that may or may not line up with the values you want them to have. But I think that is exclusively the responsibility of the parents. I feel like banning a book is just the easy way out – it saves you from having to talk to your child about difficult issues, sure – but it’s irresponsible! I’m very attuned to the idea of poverty making it difficult for parents to keep up with everything their children read, but there’s a difference between wanting to provide for your family and lazy parenting. I think of all things parents should play an active role in a child’s relationship with literature.
And to answer the traditional BBW question, if I could save only one book from a mass burning, I’d save the Bible. Not so much because of the religious aspect (although I do think it’s important to preserve religious literature) but because you can derive so many separate stories from it.
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: bbw, politics
This is absolutely one of the best books I’ve read in a long time. I guess it just goes to show that a classic can beat out the new fad novel any day. (Ahem, Dan Brown!)
Rebecca is about a young woman who marries a widower whose late wife’s memory lingers a little too closely…
The neighbours, family, and even the servants all seem to prefer the vibrant and capable Rebecca, who died tragically in a boating accident a year before. The housekeeper Mrs. Danvers adored her and treats the new mistress as incompetent. The new wife, who remains unnamed throughout the whole novel, struggles to maintain the household and to save her marriage as she can’t seem to get rid of Rebecca.
Du Maurier’s writing style is impeccable! It’s lyrical and haunting and vivid all at the same time. And the descriptions of the Manderley estate remind me of Austen, while the unsettling Rebecca and Mrs. Danvers remind me of Poe or some other Gothic/horror writer. The main character is also so imaginative and descriptive that you can’t help but like her, or at least sympathize with her. She might seem naïve or immature but I think she represents all the feelings of incompetence and insecurity that we feel – especially in relationships and new situations. I might have had pretty bad timing in coming across this book because I’m planning my own wedding and marrying into a family that is somewhat more… well-off than mine. But I’m lucky we’re not inheriting a sprawling estate in the English country, nor do we have an evil Mrs. Danvers making me feel inferior!
I was so impressed and my mind still wanders back to that book even though I’ve finished it and begun another. I definitely want to read it again!
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: du maurier
Dan Brown has done it again! No really… He wrote basically the same exact book again to the same rousing round of applause. The Lost Symbol was basically Angels and Demons set in Washington, DC, with freemasons. I have to be honest, I still pre-ordered it to be sent to my Kindle at midnight and I still read it like a large child consuming Milky Way bars… but I also acknowledge that this book was sort of trashy because I knew that Brown had already written the same book before and was making bank on his addicting formulaic novel.
And his writing really isn’t very impressive; in fact it’s downright sloppy in parts. But the man can still weave a fairly interesting tale. He definitely can’t write another “Langdon running around the city solving symbol-clues to save the world as we know it” novel though. I like to think that we’re intelligent enough to not buy into that again. I hope.
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: brown
September 22, 2009 · 1 Comment
I finally finished Infinite Jest – and just in time for the end of the “Infinite Summer” – so I wanted to blog quickly about my basic reaction to it. I thought it was over-hyped and pretentious. The idea behind it was so interesting to me but I honestly had no patience for his writing style. I liked certain parts like the stories of some of the students at Enfield Academy but I was completely put off by his weak attempts at “urban” colloquialisms.
I feel like I wasted time reading what seemed to be an infinite book. Luckily I still read several books in the last week to make up for it.
Sorry, Wallace. I tried to like it but I just couldn’t.
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: wallace
Ok let’s just pretend that I haven’t disappeared for three weeks… I started teaching beginner’s French at my alma mater so I’ve been a bit busy getting a syllabus and course materials together but things are starting to settle in. Also Kevin is visiting with me this week so I’ve been busy.
I guess it also goes without saying that I’ve also had little time to read. I haven’t finished Infinite Jest yet but I’ve also started Buddy Holly is Alive and Well on Ganymede because I was starting to kind of lose steam with IJ and needed something lighter for a while.
So far I love Buddy Holly and think it’s a great marriage of music and scifi. I’m about halfway through and there’s still a lot of mystery but it’s also really funny too. Definitely a great read.
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: denton, wallace
I have NO idea what exponentially increased my viewership over the last few days, but a big and hearty HELLO to you all! I hope you’re not all here from googling “small rectangular objects” (because I swear most of my random hits come from that search… what sort of little quadrilaterals are you all looking for?!) because just about the only small rectangular objects I talk about here are… books. And book-reading devices.
Well… enjoy! Feel free to comment if anything I say interests you or if you want to share links or if you’d rather I talk about polygons instead.
Categories: Uncategorized
by her side (or more likely, in her hand). Reads anything, especially old free stuff. For more riveting information such as this, try the aptly named 
