----Having been cornered in a Paris alley by Javert and his cronies (who have figured out that Valjean is alive), Valjean scales a building with Cosette and lands in the back garden of a convent. The problem is, the nuns in this convent are super discriminated against men, are sticklers for ritual and self-denial, and are so extreme in their beliefs they are almost a cult. (If anyone's read Percy Jackson, these nuns are like the Hunters of Artemis, only older and more extreme.) So Valjean and the illegitimate child aren't welcome.
----But here to save the day is Fauchelevant, an elderly gardener whose life Valjean once saved. He tells the Mother Superior that his brother, aka Valjean, and his niece are coming to help with the garden work, and she reluctantly agrees to let them stay. However, Valjean is stuck in the back garden, and needs to come in through the front door to be believed. He can't sneak through the building, so he and Fauchelevant hatch a plan.
----Cosette will hide in a basket and be delivered by the gardener to a safe place until she is needed. Valjean, being six foot something, is harder, and ends up hiding in an empty coffin during a funeral parade. Fauchelevant distracts the gravedigger, but only after several shovelfuls of earth have already been dug. He opens the coffin; Jean Valjean is pale and his eyes are closed, causing Fauchelevant to launch into a two page monologue about the briefness of life.
----But then he looks down, and... Valjean's eyes are open! " To behold death is terrifying, and to see a sudden restoration is nearly as much so. Fauchelevant became cold and white[...] not knowing whether he had the living or the dead to deal with, stared down at Jean Valjean, who in turn stared at him.
----"I was falling asleep," said Jean Valjean."
----Understatement of the year! Valjean, you scared me!
----Although, I guess I should know better than to panic. Heroes are given epic deaths; no one cares about a character who dies quietly without dialogue or thoughts divulged to the reader. We didn't read his mind, so he wouldn't have died. Still.... yikes!
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
I Love That Word, Ponder
----"The best of a book is not the thought which it contains, but the thought which it suggests; just as the charm of music dwells not in the tones but in the echoes of our hearts."- Oliver Wendell Holmes.
----I once read in a writer's manual that theme is very rarely stated implicitly, except in fables. You have to think, and reread, and ponder, (I love that word, ponder) to divine the meaning, and even then, it isn't a sharp clean sentence with capitals and punctuation. The meaning of a story is an idea, and a feeling associated with it, like Crime-anger. The "angry" tag accompanying the image of a burglar can be taken several different ways: is the criminal angry? Is the victim angry? Are the passersby angry? Theme, and the meaning of a book, are often vague, cloudy images with feeling tags like you get when awaking from a fast-fading dream. This goes with the quote because the contained thoughts are usually semipermanent, but the implied things which you have to think about are forever. I can't remember any names or even the plot of Fahrenheit 451, but I can still wrap myself in the terror and clear messages which are intensified by passing through the mind. After an idea goes through your own mind, translates into your vernacular, and becomes relevant to you, it's so much more potent that a series of smeary small print.
----This quote is relevant to Les Miserables because honestly, some of the things that happen are totally irrelevant to my life. I will never do time in a French prison for stealing a loaf of bread (knock on wood), and I won't escape into a secluded convent to care for a little girl. But the themes are the same. What the righteous priest told Valjean about redemption and second chances is absolutely, one hundred percent useful to 21st century teens. The sacrifices Valjean made to care for Cosette and Fantine are examples to any father or parent today. It doesn't matter what the characters did or where they went, it matters why. These people we are allowed to see transparently are test cases and experiments for us; they show us why we do what we do and what happens if we do so.
----I once read in a writer's manual that theme is very rarely stated implicitly, except in fables. You have to think, and reread, and ponder, (I love that word, ponder) to divine the meaning, and even then, it isn't a sharp clean sentence with capitals and punctuation. The meaning of a story is an idea, and a feeling associated with it, like Crime-anger. The "angry" tag accompanying the image of a burglar can be taken several different ways: is the criminal angry? Is the victim angry? Are the passersby angry? Theme, and the meaning of a book, are often vague, cloudy images with feeling tags like you get when awaking from a fast-fading dream. This goes with the quote because the contained thoughts are usually semipermanent, but the implied things which you have to think about are forever. I can't remember any names or even the plot of Fahrenheit 451, but I can still wrap myself in the terror and clear messages which are intensified by passing through the mind. After an idea goes through your own mind, translates into your vernacular, and becomes relevant to you, it's so much more potent that a series of smeary small print.
----This quote is relevant to Les Miserables because honestly, some of the things that happen are totally irrelevant to my life. I will never do time in a French prison for stealing a loaf of bread (knock on wood), and I won't escape into a secluded convent to care for a little girl. But the themes are the same. What the righteous priest told Valjean about redemption and second chances is absolutely, one hundred percent useful to 21st century teens. The sacrifices Valjean made to care for Cosette and Fantine are examples to any father or parent today. It doesn't matter what the characters did or where they went, it matters why. These people we are allowed to see transparently are test cases and experiments for us; they show us why we do what we do and what happens if we do so.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
The Thernardiers
----Valjean escapes from prison! Ha! And this time, he's presumed dead, so he won't be pursued.
----Anyway, he still feels like he owes Fantine, so he goes to pick up her daughter, Cosette. When he arrives in Paris at the inn where she lives, he changes into a tramp's outfit. He always pretends to be a tramp, but is way too generous with money. Way to blow your cover!
----Once inside, he meets M. and Mme. Thernardier, who should be addressed independently.
----Monsieur Thernardier is a short, thin, sickly, brilliant, conniving, greedy little man. He reminds me of Vizzini from the Princess Bride. He is deep in debt and charges the inn's patrons for every little thing to try to pay it off.
----Madame Thernardier is an ogre: square, red, beefy, bossy, abusive, and masculine. She lavishes money on her two daughters, Eponine and Azelma, but completely ignores the bawling of her baby son. What a nice woman.
----And finally, Cosette. She's eight years old, but looks no more than six. She is made to do all the chores, Cinderella-style, is dressed in rags, and goes barefoot, even in winter. In short, she's completely miserable.
----Valjean is in the inn, pretending to nibble some bread and cheese while really (and quite obviously) watching Cosette. After paying Madame Thernardier for Cosette to play (yeah!), he watches her pick up a cast-off doll of Eponine's. Of course, Mme. Thernardier is outraged and orders the child to put down the doll and beats her soundly. Without a word, Valjean leaves. All hope seems to be lost.
----Until he walks back in, holding a doll! A beautiful lifelike doll, clothed in a pink linen dress, with real auburn hair and green glass eyes! "Here, this is for you," he says, presenting the ridiculously expensive doll delicately to the incredulous Cosette. He sits back and watches lovingly as she hesitantly begins to play with her new and only friend, who she names Catharine. The Thernardier family is stunned and watches jealously; the doll is worth about half of M. Thernardier's debt. Yes!
----Later, Valjean is wandering the house while everyone else is asleep. He finds Cosette's tiny form sleeping in the even tinier space under the stairs (like all child heroes, Harry Potter for one.) She's so sad, lying there with the spiders, he feels compelled to do something.
----I would also like to add that the last time Valjean watched someone sleep, his life changed dramatically. He was contemplating the bishop and how holy and childlike he looked in sleep. A very old man, gentle and kind, looks even older, gentler, and kinder unconscious. This was when Valjean first became intent on good. He was a good person all his life and didn't go looking for trouble, but after meeting the bishop, he had to be proactively good too. This time, as he watches Cosette, he changes again. He realizes he needs desperately to guard this tiny angel, and that she will in turn help him. He still loves Fantine as a sister, and not just wants, but needs to take care of her child, as a fatherly instinct. It's so sweet, because he's never, ever had love before, and it feels amazing.
----So, to get his peaceful vengeance on the Thernardiers for their inhuman treatment of the butterfly Cosette, Jean Valjean creeps into the main room, where in front of the hearth are three small pairs of shoes, for it is Christmas eve. In France, the children put their shoes out to be filled by Perre Noel as we put out stockings for Santa Claus. In Eponine and Azelma's fancy white shoes are each a silver coin, one franc. Cosette's shoe, however, is empty. Valjean stealthily draws out from the depths of his threadbare jacket a gold louie piece and drops it into her muddy clog. He has just given her the family's income for a month. Ha! Poetic justice strikes again!
----In the morning, Valjean negotiates with M. Thernardier to take Cosette, finally presenting a signed letter from her mother. He takes the oblivious child and they set out, walking in the cold, with Cosette clutching Catharine. We watch them go, two backs shrinking in the distance. The book could even end here; both of them are at peace, and heading towards a new, happy life.
----But if we turn around, back to the Thernardier's grimy window, we see M. Thernardier himself, scowling as they go. He knows more money is there for the taking, more than enough to settle his urgent debts and support the family for life. He takes it upon himself to keep an eye on the pair, who are his key to the gates of Easy Street. Duhn duhn duhn...
----Anyway, he still feels like he owes Fantine, so he goes to pick up her daughter, Cosette. When he arrives in Paris at the inn where she lives, he changes into a tramp's outfit. He always pretends to be a tramp, but is way too generous with money. Way to blow your cover!
----Once inside, he meets M. and Mme. Thernardier, who should be addressed independently.
----Monsieur Thernardier is a short, thin, sickly, brilliant, conniving, greedy little man. He reminds me of Vizzini from the Princess Bride. He is deep in debt and charges the inn's patrons for every little thing to try to pay it off.
----Madame Thernardier is an ogre: square, red, beefy, bossy, abusive, and masculine. She lavishes money on her two daughters, Eponine and Azelma, but completely ignores the bawling of her baby son. What a nice woman.
----And finally, Cosette. She's eight years old, but looks no more than six. She is made to do all the chores, Cinderella-style, is dressed in rags, and goes barefoot, even in winter. In short, she's completely miserable.
----Valjean is in the inn, pretending to nibble some bread and cheese while really (and quite obviously) watching Cosette. After paying Madame Thernardier for Cosette to play (yeah!), he watches her pick up a cast-off doll of Eponine's. Of course, Mme. Thernardier is outraged and orders the child to put down the doll and beats her soundly. Without a word, Valjean leaves. All hope seems to be lost.
----Until he walks back in, holding a doll! A beautiful lifelike doll, clothed in a pink linen dress, with real auburn hair and green glass eyes! "Here, this is for you," he says, presenting the ridiculously expensive doll delicately to the incredulous Cosette. He sits back and watches lovingly as she hesitantly begins to play with her new and only friend, who she names Catharine. The Thernardier family is stunned and watches jealously; the doll is worth about half of M. Thernardier's debt. Yes!
----Later, Valjean is wandering the house while everyone else is asleep. He finds Cosette's tiny form sleeping in the even tinier space under the stairs (like all child heroes, Harry Potter for one.) She's so sad, lying there with the spiders, he feels compelled to do something.
----I would also like to add that the last time Valjean watched someone sleep, his life changed dramatically. He was contemplating the bishop and how holy and childlike he looked in sleep. A very old man, gentle and kind, looks even older, gentler, and kinder unconscious. This was when Valjean first became intent on good. He was a good person all his life and didn't go looking for trouble, but after meeting the bishop, he had to be proactively good too. This time, as he watches Cosette, he changes again. He realizes he needs desperately to guard this tiny angel, and that she will in turn help him. He still loves Fantine as a sister, and not just wants, but needs to take care of her child, as a fatherly instinct. It's so sweet, because he's never, ever had love before, and it feels amazing.
----So, to get his peaceful vengeance on the Thernardiers for their inhuman treatment of the butterfly Cosette, Jean Valjean creeps into the main room, where in front of the hearth are three small pairs of shoes, for it is Christmas eve. In France, the children put their shoes out to be filled by Perre Noel as we put out stockings for Santa Claus. In Eponine and Azelma's fancy white shoes are each a silver coin, one franc. Cosette's shoe, however, is empty. Valjean stealthily draws out from the depths of his threadbare jacket a gold louie piece and drops it into her muddy clog. He has just given her the family's income for a month. Ha! Poetic justice strikes again!
----In the morning, Valjean negotiates with M. Thernardier to take Cosette, finally presenting a signed letter from her mother. He takes the oblivious child and they set out, walking in the cold, with Cosette clutching Catharine. We watch them go, two backs shrinking in the distance. The book could even end here; both of them are at peace, and heading towards a new, happy life.
----But if we turn around, back to the Thernardier's grimy window, we see M. Thernardier himself, scowling as they go. He knows more money is there for the taking, more than enough to settle his urgent debts and support the family for life. He takes it upon himself to keep an eye on the pair, who are his key to the gates of Easy Street. Duhn duhn duhn...
Friday, April 23, 2010
* "I didn't MEAN to kill her..."
----Jean Valjean, the esteemed mayor, rushes to Arras, knowing only that the trial for the other Valjean is sometime in the evening. Despite all odds, he arrives.
----He stands in the front of the room, just behind the judge, with all the other government officials. He has been so stressed this past twenty-four hours, his hair has turned from grey to white, matching his complexion of terror. He hasn't eaten or slept since leaving his town, which might have contributed to his reasoning. He had planned, since leaving home, to give himself away and announce his identity as Jean Valjean. But I wonder if he might not have gone through with that plan had he been fully functioning. Anyway, he betrays himself, causes a tremendous ruckus, and tells the judge where to find him before returning home.
----The crazy thing was, all during this first trip, things kept going wrong. The cart wheel broke, the horse was exhausted, the repairman couldn't fix the wagon before morning. And every time, Valjean thinks, "It's okay now. I don't have to go to Arras, this was just a test to see if I actually would. I tried, so I passed the test, and this is just a sign that it's all over." But then something happens to fix it, and Valjean pretends to be happy. He's racing the horse towards his torture.
----Back at home, Fantine thinks Valjean has gone to fetch Cosette. When Valjean visits her, she is thrilled that her daughter is here, but Valjean hasn't given either of them a thought since before he departed. Now she's hours away from death and demanding to see her daughter when....
----Javert walks in. Oh, the irony.
----He's intent on arresting Valjean, who, now that he's outed, knew it was only a matter of time. But Jean doesn't want this drama in front of someone so fragile as Fantine. But Javert barges in anyway, yelling horrible things at Jean, only Fantine thinks he's come to arrest her, since she doesn't know the mayor is an ex-convict. She's so terrified by this that she suddenly starts twitching and convulsing and writhing, paper white, on the hospital bed...
----And she dies believing her beloved long-lost daughter is waiting in the next room.
----Jean is furious that Javert killed her (although in the inspector's defense, she had only hours to go, anyway) and insists on saying a prayer over her before he leaves, threatening the reluctant inspector with a metal bar to get his way. He kneels by the virtually empty bed, kisses the pure in heart criminal woman's waxy hand, and then stands up, ready to accompany Javert back to the place he wanted most to leave.
----Emotion overload. A smile comes through the tears like a sun through rain, projecting a beautiful rainbow.
----He stands in the front of the room, just behind the judge, with all the other government officials. He has been so stressed this past twenty-four hours, his hair has turned from grey to white, matching his complexion of terror. He hasn't eaten or slept since leaving his town, which might have contributed to his reasoning. He had planned, since leaving home, to give himself away and announce his identity as Jean Valjean. But I wonder if he might not have gone through with that plan had he been fully functioning. Anyway, he betrays himself, causes a tremendous ruckus, and tells the judge where to find him before returning home.
----The crazy thing was, all during this first trip, things kept going wrong. The cart wheel broke, the horse was exhausted, the repairman couldn't fix the wagon before morning. And every time, Valjean thinks, "It's okay now. I don't have to go to Arras, this was just a test to see if I actually would. I tried, so I passed the test, and this is just a sign that it's all over." But then something happens to fix it, and Valjean pretends to be happy. He's racing the horse towards his torture.
----Back at home, Fantine thinks Valjean has gone to fetch Cosette. When Valjean visits her, she is thrilled that her daughter is here, but Valjean hasn't given either of them a thought since before he departed. Now she's hours away from death and demanding to see her daughter when....
----Javert walks in. Oh, the irony.
----He's intent on arresting Valjean, who, now that he's outed, knew it was only a matter of time. But Jean doesn't want this drama in front of someone so fragile as Fantine. But Javert barges in anyway, yelling horrible things at Jean, only Fantine thinks he's come to arrest her, since she doesn't know the mayor is an ex-convict. She's so terrified by this that she suddenly starts twitching and convulsing and writhing, paper white, on the hospital bed...
----And she dies believing her beloved long-lost daughter is waiting in the next room.
----Jean is furious that Javert killed her (although in the inspector's defense, she had only hours to go, anyway) and insists on saying a prayer over her before he leaves, threatening the reluctant inspector with a metal bar to get his way. He kneels by the virtually empty bed, kisses the pure in heart criminal woman's waxy hand, and then stands up, ready to accompany Javert back to the place he wanted most to leave.
----Emotion overload. A smile comes through the tears like a sun through rain, projecting a beautiful rainbow.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Now What?
----It's two a.m. Valjean, not the mayor, is awake, pacing his bedroom.
----Should he go to Arras, to the trial of the man accused of bearing Valjean's name? As a repeat offender, Jean would be sentenced to the galleys for life. The galleys, I should mention, are the place he hates most in this world- and Valjean, having met the bishop, doesn't hate easily. That's where he suffered the most abuse, the most pain, the most hopelessness. He doesn't want to go back.
----But leaving the other man to suffer is robbery- the theft of a life. Going himself would mean staying innocent. All he has wanted, since his prison sentence ended, was to be a new man, and he has accomplished that. Everyone but Javert loves him and doesn't want to believe their mayor was once a criminal. He had cleared the old life, left it all behind... and now some old prisoners had to recognize the criminal as Jean Valjean. Come on, is there any fairness here?
----So Valjean waits. The trial isn't for a few more days; he has time to make up his mind. He takes "precautionary measures:" checking maps, asking if there is a horse fast enough to take him. But he doesn't actually do anything.
----Stay or go? Stay or go? Now what?
----Should he go to Arras, to the trial of the man accused of bearing Valjean's name? As a repeat offender, Jean would be sentenced to the galleys for life. The galleys, I should mention, are the place he hates most in this world- and Valjean, having met the bishop, doesn't hate easily. That's where he suffered the most abuse, the most pain, the most hopelessness. He doesn't want to go back.
----But leaving the other man to suffer is robbery- the theft of a life. Going himself would mean staying innocent. All he has wanted, since his prison sentence ended, was to be a new man, and he has accomplished that. Everyone but Javert loves him and doesn't want to believe their mayor was once a criminal. He had cleared the old life, left it all behind... and now some old prisoners had to recognize the criminal as Jean Valjean. Come on, is there any fairness here?
----So Valjean waits. The trial isn't for a few more days; he has time to make up his mind. He takes "precautionary measures:" checking maps, asking if there is a horse fast enough to take him. But he doesn't actually do anything.
----Stay or go? Stay or go? Now what?
Javert
----We have met Inspector Javert once before, but he deserves a better introduction. So:
----Javert is the chief of police, obsessed with "justice," except his version of justice goes by the letter of the law, which quite harsh at the time. As Portia from The Merchant of Venice put it, "And earthly powers doth then show likest God's when mercy seasons justice."[emphasis mine]. He is so wrapped up in justice that he forgets to imitate divine justice, which includes quite a bit of mercy. We are only creatures of soil, after all. We cannot be punished as if we know better.
----After the incident with Fantine and Mayor Madeleine, Javert is outraged and humiliated. The mayor had encroached on his domain and embarrassed him. So he writes a letter to the Chief Inspector in Paris.
----In this letter, he outlines a suspicion he has been incubating for years- that Monsieur Madeleine is Jean Valjean. He has seen the way the mayor lifted a full cart off a man, a feat only one man could do- a convict in prison, years ago. The limp, the way of speaking, the timeline- everything matches up.
----But then Javert receives a reply. The Chief Inspector says Jean Valjean has been caught stealing apples and claims his name is Champmathieu, not knowing anything about this "Jean."
----Javert outlines all this to Mayor Madeleine, the real Valjean, who feigns indifference until Javert, only following his policy of perpetual justice, asks to be dismissed. Fired. Relieved of his post. His hypercritical justice before isn't so bad as long as it applies also to himself.
----The mayor refuses, claiming Javert's intended unfounded libel was 'only human.' Finally, Javert agrees to stay in his post until a replacement can be found.
----I love and hate this character. He tries so hard for perfectly exact justice, it's funny. He's obsessed with it, day and night. I can see where he comes from; Law is in place for a reason. But sometimes there comes along someone who is a special case. Fantine's illegal occupation had a motive, just as Valjean's did. They were both selfless crimes. So blindly sentencing is a bad idea.
----But then, how can you know for certain the motives? How can you know if the person regrets their actions and has made a profound commitment to act for good? Things like that are so easy to fake, part of every acting student's curriculum, just some tears and blubbering about eternity and the greater good... (sigh.) Yes. It's better to be Javert than to be taken advantage of.
----Javert is the chief of police, obsessed with "justice," except his version of justice goes by the letter of the law, which quite harsh at the time. As Portia from The Merchant of Venice put it, "And earthly powers doth then show likest God's when mercy seasons justice."[emphasis mine]. He is so wrapped up in justice that he forgets to imitate divine justice, which includes quite a bit of mercy. We are only creatures of soil, after all. We cannot be punished as if we know better.
----After the incident with Fantine and Mayor Madeleine, Javert is outraged and humiliated. The mayor had encroached on his domain and embarrassed him. So he writes a letter to the Chief Inspector in Paris.
----In this letter, he outlines a suspicion he has been incubating for years- that Monsieur Madeleine is Jean Valjean. He has seen the way the mayor lifted a full cart off a man, a feat only one man could do- a convict in prison, years ago. The limp, the way of speaking, the timeline- everything matches up.
----But then Javert receives a reply. The Chief Inspector says Jean Valjean has been caught stealing apples and claims his name is Champmathieu, not knowing anything about this "Jean."
----Javert outlines all this to Mayor Madeleine, the real Valjean, who feigns indifference until Javert, only following his policy of perpetual justice, asks to be dismissed. Fired. Relieved of his post. His hypercritical justice before isn't so bad as long as it applies also to himself.
----The mayor refuses, claiming Javert's intended unfounded libel was 'only human.' Finally, Javert agrees to stay in his post until a replacement can be found.
----I love and hate this character. He tries so hard for perfectly exact justice, it's funny. He's obsessed with it, day and night. I can see where he comes from; Law is in place for a reason. But sometimes there comes along someone who is a special case. Fantine's illegal occupation had a motive, just as Valjean's did. They were both selfless crimes. So blindly sentencing is a bad idea.
----But then, how can you know for certain the motives? How can you know if the person regrets their actions and has made a profound commitment to act for good? Things like that are so easy to fake, part of every acting student's curriculum, just some tears and blubbering about eternity and the greater good... (sigh.) Yes. It's better to be Javert than to be taken advantage of.
Fantine
----We're in downtown Paris, several years before. A frazzled young mother, Fantine, is holding a beautiful child by the hand. She passes an inn, where two equally cute children are being cuddled by their mother. Fantine, sick and tired of trying to care for a child, promptly drops her daughter, Cosette, off with the woman- Madame Thernardier. She sends money every so often to care for her, like child support.
----Unknown to Fantine, Cosette is treated like Cinderella. She is made to do all the chores, treated like a slave, blah blah blah.
----Meanwhile, Fantine moves into Jean Valjean's town. (He is acting under a different name, Monsieur Madeleine, to keep from the prejudice against ex-convicts.) She works at the jewelry factory until someone realizes she has had a child out of wedlock, and she is fired. Fantine is bitter towards the mayor, Valjean, because she thinks he is responsible for her financial ruin.
----She goes downtown, racks up a debt, sells her hair and front teeth, and becomes a woman of ill repute all for her darling Cosette, who she hasn't seen in years. The Thernardiers are sending letters asking for more money, falsely claiming that her daughter is sick and needs expensive medicines.
----Unknown to Fantine, Cosette is treated like Cinderella. She is made to do all the chores, treated like a slave, blah blah blah.
----Meanwhile, Fantine moves into Jean Valjean's town. (He is acting under a different name, Monsieur Madeleine, to keep from the prejudice against ex-convicts.) She works at the jewelry factory until someone realizes she has had a child out of wedlock, and she is fired. Fantine is bitter towards the mayor, Valjean, because she thinks he is responsible for her financial ruin.
----She goes downtown, racks up a debt, sells her hair and front teeth, and becomes a woman of ill repute all for her darling Cosette, who she hasn't seen in years. The Thernardiers are sending letters asking for more money, falsely claiming that her daughter is sick and needs expensive medicines.
----After a flailing altercation outside a tavern, Fantine is wrongly arrested for assault. The chief of police, Javert, lives to the letter of the law, and although he is fair, allows no mercy. He sentences her to prison for six months, which would probably kill her and Cosette, because the Thernardiers only keep her because of the money she brings. She grovels at his feet, trying to plead her case. All hope seems lost...
----And in a moment of trumpet fanfare and sunshine, in steps Mayor Madeleine, saying he saw the whole thing and politely demanding Fantine's release. Javert is forced to obey but is extremely annoyed, starting a domino reaction to be discussed in a later post. Fantine is infinitely relieved and thrilled. She brings the Mayor's hand to her lips in gratitude... and promptly passes out. That's gotta be embarrassing.
----She is rushed to the hospital (aka Valjean's basement) where she recieves around-the-clock care from some nuns. According to the doctor, her condition is deteriorating rapidly. She has always been frail, but ever since losing Cosette, her health has been bad. Mayor Madeleine (aka Jean Valjean, for those of you who didn't read the previous posts- go back and read them or nothing will make sense!) well, Mayor Madeleine stays constantly at her side, feeling responsible for her ruin- it was his factory that turned her away, after all. Throughout the illness, she keeps asking for Cosette, her darling. Valjean takes him upon himself to be her Make-A-Wish and let the mother see her daughter before she dies.
Jean Valjean
----Welcome to 1790's France. Zoom in on a small village, where a scruffy, shifty looking tramp is stumbling around, banging on doors. No one lets him in, although there are several open rooms. They have seen his yellow passport, meaning he is an ex-convict.
----This man is Jean Valjean. He was born to a poor family and orphaned very young. His older sister adopted him into her large family, but forced to the brink of starvation, Jean took on odd jobs to pay the bills. He eventually stole a loaf of bread- one measly loaf that would only feed about half of the wailing children in the house. He was arrested and sentenced to prison for five years. FIVE YEARS! For a stupid hunk of bread!
----Time passes. Jean's heart hardens. He tries to escape so many times his sentence is extended to nineteen years. His strength is legendary and superhuman.
----Fast forward. Back in the village, a kind woman points the beastly Jean Valjean to the bishop's house, the bishop, the one we read about earlier. He is welcomed into the holy man's house and spends the night.
----But, oops. Jean is still kind of a kleptomaniac and in considerable psychological distress, because he's used to being shunned, so he steals the priest's most prized possessions- silver plates and a pair of silver candlesticks, the only things of value in the entire house.
----And get this! When Valjean is forcefully returned to the bishop the next morning by a pair of police officers, the bishop officially gives the silver to him! These are his only treasures, so he tells Jean to use the money from these to become an honest man.
----Jean certainly does that. He arrives in another city (the name of which, like most places in the book, is undisclosed) and makes a fortune in the jewelry industry. He becomes mayor, is adored by his populace, and basically is kind and amazing. The end, right? Not exactly...
----This man is Jean Valjean. He was born to a poor family and orphaned very young. His older sister adopted him into her large family, but forced to the brink of starvation, Jean took on odd jobs to pay the bills. He eventually stole a loaf of bread- one measly loaf that would only feed about half of the wailing children in the house. He was arrested and sentenced to prison for five years. FIVE YEARS! For a stupid hunk of bread!
----Time passes. Jean's heart hardens. He tries to escape so many times his sentence is extended to nineteen years. His strength is legendary and superhuman.
----Fast forward. Back in the village, a kind woman points the beastly Jean Valjean to the bishop's house, the bishop, the one we read about earlier. He is welcomed into the holy man's house and spends the night.
----But, oops. Jean is still kind of a kleptomaniac and in considerable psychological distress, because he's used to being shunned, so he steals the priest's most prized possessions- silver plates and a pair of silver candlesticks, the only things of value in the entire house.
----And get this! When Valjean is forcefully returned to the bishop the next morning by a pair of police officers, the bishop officially gives the silver to him! These are his only treasures, so he tells Jean to use the money from these to become an honest man.
----Jean certainly does that. He arrives in another city (the name of which, like most places in the book, is undisclosed) and makes a fortune in the jewelry industry. He becomes mayor, is adored by his populace, and basically is kind and amazing. The end, right? Not exactly...
Monday, April 19, 2010
Les Miserables
----Well, time for another book. My choice for now is Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo. Judging by length, (1222 pages, ouch) it's highly unlikely I'll be able to finish this by the end of the project, but whatever. I can always renew it.
----The main reasons I chose this book are because the movie was amazing, and because there's a musical, the soundtrack of which I am listening to as I type this. It's entirely in French, however, so my Francophone friends are going to have to help me.
----Enough talk. I have spent the past twenty pages listening to a detailed account of a priest, Monsieur Bienvenu (whose name means Mr. Welcome, by the way). He appears to be perfect in all regards, giving most of his modest income to the poor, saving the world, and being respected by all at the same time. Actually, he reminds me of Kim's lama because he's so benevolent. He lives with his sister, who is like a very holy ghost, and his housekeeper, who is a moody white-haired grandmother. There. Twenty pages of fine print in one paragraph.
----To be honest, something's better happen soon, or I'm just abandoning this. But I have hope- the movie was good.
----The main reasons I chose this book are because the movie was amazing, and because there's a musical, the soundtrack of which I am listening to as I type this. It's entirely in French, however, so my Francophone friends are going to have to help me.
----Enough talk. I have spent the past twenty pages listening to a detailed account of a priest, Monsieur Bienvenu (whose name means Mr. Welcome, by the way). He appears to be perfect in all regards, giving most of his modest income to the poor, saving the world, and being respected by all at the same time. Actually, he reminds me of Kim's lama because he's so benevolent. He lives with his sister, who is like a very holy ghost, and his housekeeper, who is a moody white-haired grandmother. There. Twenty pages of fine print in one paragraph.
----To be honest, something's better happen soon, or I'm just abandoning this. But I have hope- the movie was good.
Soundtrack
----Right. Seeing as how my current book (yeah, more on that later) is kind of dragging right now, I'll be doing my pseudo-soundtrack for "1984". Scrolling through my iPod...aha!
- "Hero"- Skillet. This is heavy rock about waiting for a hero to save you and feeling helpless, but knowing that sooner or later, help will come. This is Winston's predicament to a T.
- "I Heard Someone Crying"- Secret Garden Cast. Granted, this is from the musical version of "The Secret Garden," so there's some of that story contained in the lyrics, but it's mostly about wandering hopelessly, imagining you feel a flicker of life from someone else. There's also a ghost in this song rather like Winston's wife, who disappeared a few years ago. It reminds me of how no one in the 1984 world is certain anyone else is really conscious.
- "The Aquarium"- Saint-Saens. This is one of those ubiquitous pieces of classical music, kind of creepy and haunting. It's what plays in "Beauty and the Beast" when Belle visits the West Wing. It really exemplifies the "haunted ghost town" feeling of the book.
- "As Long As You're Mine"- Wicked Cast. Again, this is from an excellent musical, and is quite relevant once the storyline is put aside. It's about the witch and her boyfriend falling in love without caring what people say or what comes out of the relationship- the same kind of reckless deep love as Winston and Julia.
- "Hallelujah"- The Canadian Tenors. This is about how love can hurt when it doesn't work out. This is also what is going through Winston's mind when he is in the basement of the Ministry of Love, awaiting processing. The emotions are of reminiscence for things once great that have since fallen.
- "Ignorance"- Paramore. Check out the words: "Ignorance is your new best friend..." They're really close to "Ignorance is strength," the Party slogan. Ignorance, in this world, saves your life hourly.
- "Close Every Door"- Bill Hutton. It's from "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat," and Joseph says in Winston's general mood, especially in the prison, "Close every door to me, hide all the world from me, bar all the windows and shut out the light. Do what you want with me, hate me and laugh at me, darken my daytime and torture my night. If my life were important I would ask will I live or die but I know the answers lie far from this world."
- "The Last Night"- Skillet. The words remind of when Julia and Winston first realize their love is mutual. "This is the last night you'll spend alone...I'll wrap you in my arms and I won't let go...I'm everywhere you need me to be." How sweet!
- "We're Not Gonna Take It"- Twisted Sister. This song summarizes the reckless high that comes with rebellion, even a small one, which is just what Winston and a few others have done. 80's music rocks!
- "Castle on a Cloud"- Les Miserables cast. The fourth song from a musical on this list, this is sung by the slave girl Cosette, describing her perfect "Castle on a Cloud" where she goes in her dreams. It reminds me of how Winston dreams and wishes so hard for perfection, knowing that it will change nothing (unlike Cosette, who, at eight, is naive enough to have hope. But that's getting ahead of myself!).
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Picking Up The Pieces
----To start with, I'm not forgetting this or getting over it anytime soon. A week of reading just gave me years of emotional baggage.
----So I don't recommend this book if you are squeamish, emotionally fragile, or a perpetual optimist. I said about the optimists because you need to take this book seriously for full impact. Also, it doesn't help if you already got the play-by-play from me (sorry).
----But at some point in your life, you have to read this. It made me think and it made me cry (and mind you, I don't cry over books. The last time that happened was when Dumbledore died.). Plus, it shows just how easily our lives can become...um, whatever the opposite of paradise is. It's simultaneously terrifying and beautiful. But if you're going to read this, take it seriously. You need to focus completely to follow what's happening.
----Oh yeah, and needless to say, don't be expecting this to be a happy book. Don't read it after dark, on vacation, or while home alone. Seriously. I don't scare easily, but this is psychological, fate-of-mankind scary. Remember, it's called "1984", written by George Orwell. His other book, "Animal Farm," is excellent as well.
----Now go read something happy. This blog is kind of a downer.
----So I don't recommend this book if you are squeamish, emotionally fragile, or a perpetual optimist. I said about the optimists because you need to take this book seriously for full impact. Also, it doesn't help if you already got the play-by-play from me (sorry).
----But at some point in your life, you have to read this. It made me think and it made me cry (and mind you, I don't cry over books. The last time that happened was when Dumbledore died.). Plus, it shows just how easily our lives can become...um, whatever the opposite of paradise is. It's simultaneously terrifying and beautiful. But if you're going to read this, take it seriously. You need to focus completely to follow what's happening.
----Oh yeah, and needless to say, don't be expecting this to be a happy book. Don't read it after dark, on vacation, or while home alone. Seriously. I don't scare easily, but this is psychological, fate-of-mankind scary. Remember, it's called "1984", written by George Orwell. His other book, "Animal Farm," is excellent as well.
----Now go read something happy. This blog is kind of a downer.
* No More Martyrs
----O'Brien makes it clear that the Party doesn't want martyrs. Martyrs further their cause because they die heroes, still believing in their cause. The Party's theory is that you should only kill the people after they come to your side- no more martyrs who give publicity. And the scariest thing is that everything O'Brien says, every sentence that goes against a universal truth is completely supported. He argues his point so well I can't help but agree. Like Winston, my arguments are reduced to stammering quivering childish pride.
----O'Brien seems to read Winston's mind and combats every defense he has. Winston has been there so long, he's fallen apart. He's hideous, he can circle his thigh between thumb and forefinger, his teeth can be instantly ripped out by O'Brien. He's desperate, losing his grip. And he believes O'Brien in everything!
----For example, Winston once wrote in his forbidden diary that "Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four." The Party found his diary and now O'Brien is holding up four fingers, asking how many there are and zapping Winston with pain every time he says four. Winston wants to see five. He knows his tormentor will see right through any lie he attempts to tell. But just as he's giving up, he does see five. Even later, when he only sees four fingers, he knows that he once saw five, and that's enough for him and O'Brien.
----Then, once Winston is totally at ease with the Doublethink and believes O'Brien's blatant lies(although they are immaculately, irrefutably explained) he is told that the final obstacle is loving Big Brother, who, as near as I can figure out, isn't a tangible person but an embodiment of the Party. He is sent to Room 101, the place the other prisoners were so terrified of.
----O'Brien says everyone has their worst fear, which sometimes isn't something fatal. But Winston's is- rats. Somehow the Party has found this out, and they bring in a cage, and a mask, and two gigantic grey rats. Use your imagination and think of ancient China.
----But just as saying "something's gotta give or I'm putting down this book, I can't stand it," Winston realizes the only way out of his worst fear is by giving up the only thing he hasn't betrayed this whole time-
----"Do it to Julia! Do it to Julia! Not me! Julia! I don't care what you do to her. Tear her face off, strip her to the bones. Not me! Julia! Not me!"
----Alone in my room, tied to his plight, I cry "NO!"
----But this is one fiction piece without a happy ending. Winston is released, allowed to live, and given a useless job. He wastes his time drinking and shutting out the old memories that apparently never happened. His Doublethink is successful.
----Later he runs into Julia at a park. There's a stiffness, a coldness between them now. They sit in silence on a bench in the frigid winter wind, not knowing what to say. It is implied that during her own Room 101 experience, Julia betrayed him.
----In the last scene, Winston is sitting alone in a cafe, staring at his never-ending glass of gin. He's just blocked out a particularly painful memory of his childhood when from the telescreen comes a trumpet fanfare, announcing good news. Oceania, his country, has conquered Africa. Winston is overjoyed by this and by the mere fact that he is overjoyed, because it means that he loves the Party and Big Brother- the only reason he was allowed to go free in the first place. But he wasn't sure he wasn't pretending until now.
----My heart breaks, reading that. Wasn't this the determined rebel who realized that freedom was dying hating the Party? It was victory because it meant you had fooled them; they wouldn't kill you otherwise. But he didn't die, and he doesn't hate the party, and he lost his grip on everything he once knew was true. He lost his love, his job, his life.
----There are some books written so skillfully that you can feel your life force tied to the main character. You feel the hatred and confusion and evil they feel, and inexplicably mourn them when they lose their fight. Except you're part of them, so you're mourning yourself and all of mankind. This is one of those books.
----O'Brien seems to read Winston's mind and combats every defense he has. Winston has been there so long, he's fallen apart. He's hideous, he can circle his thigh between thumb and forefinger, his teeth can be instantly ripped out by O'Brien. He's desperate, losing his grip. And he believes O'Brien in everything!
----For example, Winston once wrote in his forbidden diary that "Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four." The Party found his diary and now O'Brien is holding up four fingers, asking how many there are and zapping Winston with pain every time he says four. Winston wants to see five. He knows his tormentor will see right through any lie he attempts to tell. But just as he's giving up, he does see five. Even later, when he only sees four fingers, he knows that he once saw five, and that's enough for him and O'Brien.
----Then, once Winston is totally at ease with the Doublethink and believes O'Brien's blatant lies(although they are immaculately, irrefutably explained) he is told that the final obstacle is loving Big Brother, who, as near as I can figure out, isn't a tangible person but an embodiment of the Party. He is sent to Room 101, the place the other prisoners were so terrified of.
----O'Brien says everyone has their worst fear, which sometimes isn't something fatal. But Winston's is- rats. Somehow the Party has found this out, and they bring in a cage, and a mask, and two gigantic grey rats. Use your imagination and think of ancient China.
----But just as saying "something's gotta give or I'm putting down this book, I can't stand it," Winston realizes the only way out of his worst fear is by giving up the only thing he hasn't betrayed this whole time-
----"Do it to Julia! Do it to Julia! Not me! Julia! I don't care what you do to her. Tear her face off, strip her to the bones. Not me! Julia! Not me!"
----Alone in my room, tied to his plight, I cry "NO!"
----But this is one fiction piece without a happy ending. Winston is released, allowed to live, and given a useless job. He wastes his time drinking and shutting out the old memories that apparently never happened. His Doublethink is successful.
----Later he runs into Julia at a park. There's a stiffness, a coldness between them now. They sit in silence on a bench in the frigid winter wind, not knowing what to say. It is implied that during her own Room 101 experience, Julia betrayed him.
----In the last scene, Winston is sitting alone in a cafe, staring at his never-ending glass of gin. He's just blocked out a particularly painful memory of his childhood when from the telescreen comes a trumpet fanfare, announcing good news. Oceania, his country, has conquered Africa. Winston is overjoyed by this and by the mere fact that he is overjoyed, because it means that he loves the Party and Big Brother- the only reason he was allowed to go free in the first place. But he wasn't sure he wasn't pretending until now.
----My heart breaks, reading that. Wasn't this the determined rebel who realized that freedom was dying hating the Party? It was victory because it meant you had fooled them; they wouldn't kill you otherwise. But he didn't die, and he doesn't hate the party, and he lost his grip on everything he once knew was true. He lost his love, his job, his life.
----There are some books written so skillfully that you can feel your life force tied to the main character. You feel the hatred and confusion and evil they feel, and inexplicably mourn them when they lose their fight. Except you're part of them, so you're mourning yourself and all of mankind. This is one of those books.
* "No!"
----So Winston Smith, right, he's in his thirties, works at the Ministry of Truth, has no life, and is really sort of a loser. He has a crush on this dark-haired girl who would denounce him to the Party as soon as she had evidence. He also has this coworker known simply as O'Brien, who he knows doesn't agree with this Party propaganda. But due to the ubiquitous telescreens, which can transmit all they see and hear to the Party, he can't do a thing.
----Finally, things start looking up. The dark-haired girl, whose name is Julia, slips him a note saying she loves him and wouldn't betray him. They sneak around, steal moments together, and pretty soon end up in a full-blown affair. Julia says she's pretended to be an avid Party supporter because it's good cover for when she breaks the rules-which is quite often. It's a much better plan than Winston's moping around. They rent a room above an antique shop in the slums, which has no telescreens and is the only place they're perfectly safe.
----Winston, aided by Julia, musters his courage and confronts O'Brien about how neither of them support the Party. O'Brien promptly admits he and Julia into this secret society, the Brotherhood, whose task is to undermine the Party by any means they can-even the blatantly unethical and mean. O'Brien also has this uber-cool monologue about how the life they're undertaking has no rewards, no rest, and is always overshadowed by the inevitable end. An agent cannot hope to withhold information during the certain torture and it's often best to commit suicide beforehand. He says that sometimes a razor blade can be smuggled in for this purpose. Winston, intent on worsening my mental horror, spends considerable time contemplating whether or not he would actually use the razor blade. I wince and turn off the mental picture.
----But then I reach the part of the book that makes me gasp "No!" Winston and Julia are in their wonderful safe room above the antique shop, where they have shared so many happy times and Brotherhood secrets, discussing the hopelessness of their work when...
" "We are the dead, " he said.
"We are the dead," echoed Julia dutifully.
"You are the dead," said an iron voice behind them.
They sprang apart. Winston's entrails seemed to have turned into ice. He could see the white all round the irises of Julia's eyes. Her face had turned a milky yellow. The smear of rouge that was still on each cheekbone stood out sharply, almost as though unconnected with the skin beneath.
"You are the dead," repeated the iron voice." (Orwell, 182)
----The voice goes on, repeating what they say and reciting a fragment of a children's poem from long ago about killing, which Winston was investigating because he loves the old times. Men in black come in, beating Julia, humiliating Winston. And as he lies on the floor, trying not to cry out in pain, in walks a man- the trusty one who owns the store! But he looks different, younger, triumphant. He's a member of the Thought Police, betraying them, sending Winston and Julia off to torture and certain death.
----I don't know about you, but that passage gives me chills.
----They are separated. After spending time in various holding tanks, Winston is beaten and tortured physically and mentally. He loses the will to live and has six thoughts only- his stomachache, food, the screaming, the razor blade, Julia, and O'Brien, who he believes will swoop in and save the day. People he knows come in and out- almost every character from earlier in the book. He fades in and out of consciousness, imagining, remembering, fearing. And then, when things can't possibly get any worse...
----In walks O'Brien.
----He straps Winston into a torture chair and begins his work.
----"NO!" I cry.
----He starts asking Winston questions, as have so many before him. The prisoner tries to use his earlier strategy of blindly confessing to everything they want and then some, but O'Brien says he will turn the pain back on if Winston lies or even seems less intelligent than usual. Then O'Brien begins to calmly explain that Winston is mentally delusional, that the past Winston perceives and is against the Party is all wrong. He says Winston fooled himself into believing his own lies. Winston's sanity is slipping. Living along with him, my sanity is slipping. O'Brien? Betray Winston?
----"No!" I gasp, hoping desperately that I'm right.
----Finally, things start looking up. The dark-haired girl, whose name is Julia, slips him a note saying she loves him and wouldn't betray him. They sneak around, steal moments together, and pretty soon end up in a full-blown affair. Julia says she's pretended to be an avid Party supporter because it's good cover for when she breaks the rules-which is quite often. It's a much better plan than Winston's moping around. They rent a room above an antique shop in the slums, which has no telescreens and is the only place they're perfectly safe.
----Winston, aided by Julia, musters his courage and confronts O'Brien about how neither of them support the Party. O'Brien promptly admits he and Julia into this secret society, the Brotherhood, whose task is to undermine the Party by any means they can-even the blatantly unethical and mean. O'Brien also has this uber-cool monologue about how the life they're undertaking has no rewards, no rest, and is always overshadowed by the inevitable end. An agent cannot hope to withhold information during the certain torture and it's often best to commit suicide beforehand. He says that sometimes a razor blade can be smuggled in for this purpose. Winston, intent on worsening my mental horror, spends considerable time contemplating whether or not he would actually use the razor blade. I wince and turn off the mental picture.
----But then I reach the part of the book that makes me gasp "No!" Winston and Julia are in their wonderful safe room above the antique shop, where they have shared so many happy times and Brotherhood secrets, discussing the hopelessness of their work when...
" "We are the dead, " he said.
"We are the dead," echoed Julia dutifully.
"You are the dead," said an iron voice behind them.
They sprang apart. Winston's entrails seemed to have turned into ice. He could see the white all round the irises of Julia's eyes. Her face had turned a milky yellow. The smear of rouge that was still on each cheekbone stood out sharply, almost as though unconnected with the skin beneath.
"You are the dead," repeated the iron voice." (Orwell, 182)
----The voice goes on, repeating what they say and reciting a fragment of a children's poem from long ago about killing, which Winston was investigating because he loves the old times. Men in black come in, beating Julia, humiliating Winston. And as he lies on the floor, trying not to cry out in pain, in walks a man- the trusty one who owns the store! But he looks different, younger, triumphant. He's a member of the Thought Police, betraying them, sending Winston and Julia off to torture and certain death.
----I don't know about you, but that passage gives me chills.
----They are separated. After spending time in various holding tanks, Winston is beaten and tortured physically and mentally. He loses the will to live and has six thoughts only- his stomachache, food, the screaming, the razor blade, Julia, and O'Brien, who he believes will swoop in and save the day. People he knows come in and out- almost every character from earlier in the book. He fades in and out of consciousness, imagining, remembering, fearing. And then, when things can't possibly get any worse...
----In walks O'Brien.
----He straps Winston into a torture chair and begins his work.
----"NO!" I cry.
----He starts asking Winston questions, as have so many before him. The prisoner tries to use his earlier strategy of blindly confessing to everything they want and then some, but O'Brien says he will turn the pain back on if Winston lies or even seems less intelligent than usual. Then O'Brien begins to calmly explain that Winston is mentally delusional, that the past Winston perceives and is against the Party is all wrong. He says Winston fooled himself into believing his own lies. Winston's sanity is slipping. Living along with him, my sanity is slipping. O'Brien? Betray Winston?
----"No!" I gasp, hoping desperately that I'm right.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Choose Your Own Reality
----"Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it. It enriches the necessary competencies that daily life requires and provides; and in this respect, it irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become."- C. S. Lewis
----I believe that in this quote, Mr. Lewis is explaining how quite often literature becomes our reality, rather than a block of recycled tree fiber. Like I said before, reality is what you make it. You can choose what is real. And if you decide that a particular book is real, why then, it feels just as real as George Washington- constantly referenced but never actually seen, met, or lived. The world is a lot more pleasant if it's colorful and enriched.
----To put this in a more concrete perspective, the book 1984, by George Orwell, being literature, can add a whole other layer to your world, like discovering your eyes can do heat-sensing views. Every time I gripe about looking up words in the dictionary, that's starting the Newspeak. Each day I argue for stronger government involvement in our everyday lives, that's screwing the telescreen into my living room wall. Whenever I'm too lazy to pay attention to current events, that's allowing the Party to spoonfeed me glaring lies. How C. S. Lewis said literature "irrigates the deserts of our lives," that's true, because this book shows us what could happen, is happening, and preventing isn't enough, we have to actively fight this.
----Don't be a 1984 zombie. Fight it. Keep your emotions alive and strong. Remember what it felt like to be small and learn for the first time what was on the news and in the back of the paper. Read poetry, feel each image melting on your tongue and recall how exactly it felt to be in love for the first time. Remember what it is like to be human.
----I believe that in this quote, Mr. Lewis is explaining how quite often literature becomes our reality, rather than a block of recycled tree fiber. Like I said before, reality is what you make it. You can choose what is real. And if you decide that a particular book is real, why then, it feels just as real as George Washington- constantly referenced but never actually seen, met, or lived. The world is a lot more pleasant if it's colorful and enriched.
----To put this in a more concrete perspective, the book 1984, by George Orwell, being literature, can add a whole other layer to your world, like discovering your eyes can do heat-sensing views. Every time I gripe about looking up words in the dictionary, that's starting the Newspeak. Each day I argue for stronger government involvement in our everyday lives, that's screwing the telescreen into my living room wall. Whenever I'm too lazy to pay attention to current events, that's allowing the Party to spoonfeed me glaring lies. How C. S. Lewis said literature "irrigates the deserts of our lives," that's true, because this book shows us what could happen, is happening, and preventing isn't enough, we have to actively fight this.
----Don't be a 1984 zombie. Fight it. Keep your emotions alive and strong. Remember what it felt like to be small and learn for the first time what was on the news and in the back of the paper. Read poetry, feel each image melting on your tongue and recall how exactly it felt to be in love for the first time. Remember what it is like to be human.
Panic
----I'm on page forty-seven and already terrified. In the confused dusky world, Winston Smith (the main character) has a job at the so-called Ministry of Truth. He gets paid to rewrite history to make the government seem more accurate and the disappeared people seem like they never existed. All the edited newspapers replace the old ones on file, which are destroyed. "...minute by minute, the past was brought up to date." No one can prove what did and didn't happen, and they're okay with that. They're conditioned to be.
----And Newspeak, their language. It feels like slang at first, but then we realize that's their official tongue. So many of the words as we know them have been eliminated- "excellent" and "malevolent." They've all become variants of a root- good can become "ungood", "plusgood", and "doubleplusgood." The language is deteriorating, rather like the digest-digest-digests of "Fahrenheit 451."
----And suddenly I'm breathing hard, because this book is about to happen, it's poised to begin, and it starts with me. I intentionally use bad grammar and spelling, I don't use advanced words when I can. I'm starting the Newspeak. I chose to begin this dead man's spiral. And chances are you helped too. We all brought Big Brother into power, we all made our choice. Now I sit in the bubblegum-pink library, terrified to turn the page.
----Reality control is another cherished Ingsoc belief. The Newspeak word for it is doublethink, and it means convincing yourself to forget something, then bringing it back when necessary, editing the truth for yourself, creating your own reality. The author put it best: "consciously to induce unconsciousness, and then, once again, to become unconscious to the act of hypnosis you had just performed." Reality is moldable, editable and optional.
----Feelings are dulled in the imagined 1984. The psychology term "learned helplessness" seems to describe it best; each person knows their efforts are futile, so they don't even try. Their emotions have become faded over time from tolerance. I cringe at this, remembering being ten and crying when I learned what abortion was. Now I dimly register that this is bad, but do nothing. Sadness, even, is gone. "Tragedy, he perceived, belonged to the ancient time, when there was still privacy, love, and friendship..." Gone.
----And Newspeak, their language. It feels like slang at first, but then we realize that's their official tongue. So many of the words as we know them have been eliminated- "excellent" and "malevolent." They've all become variants of a root- good can become "ungood", "plusgood", and "doubleplusgood." The language is deteriorating, rather like the digest-digest-digests of "Fahrenheit 451."
----And suddenly I'm breathing hard, because this book is about to happen, it's poised to begin, and it starts with me. I intentionally use bad grammar and spelling, I don't use advanced words when I can. I'm starting the Newspeak. I chose to begin this dead man's spiral. And chances are you helped too. We all brought Big Brother into power, we all made our choice. Now I sit in the bubblegum-pink library, terrified to turn the page.
----Reality control is another cherished Ingsoc belief. The Newspeak word for it is doublethink, and it means convincing yourself to forget something, then bringing it back when necessary, editing the truth for yourself, creating your own reality. The author put it best: "consciously to induce unconsciousness, and then, once again, to become unconscious to the act of hypnosis you had just performed." Reality is moldable, editable and optional.
----Feelings are dulled in the imagined 1984. The psychology term "learned helplessness" seems to describe it best; each person knows their efforts are futile, so they don't even try. Their emotions have become faded over time from tolerance. I cringe at this, remembering being ten and crying when I learned what abortion was. Now I dimly register that this is bad, but do nothing. Sadness, even, is gone. "Tragedy, he perceived, belonged to the ancient time, when there was still privacy, love, and friendship..." Gone.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
1984
----For my next book, I am reading 1984, by George Orwell, the same author who wrote Animal Farm. The cool thing is that it was written in 1949 as an apocolyptic prediction of the year 1984. In the real world that year, according to Wikipedia, the space shuttle Discovery took off for the first time, Ronald Reagan was president, and John McCain's daughter was born. Nothing especially depressing (except the standard middle east crisis, economic trouble, political turmoil, and several bombings.) So it's interesting to see how much the estimate was off.
----However, even in the first twenty pages, I can see how elements of the world in this book are similar to modern real life. For example, the controlling Party's slogans are as follows:
----However, even in the first twenty pages, I can see how elements of the world in this book are similar to modern real life. For example, the controlling Party's slogans are as follows:
- War is peace.
- Freedom is slavery.
- Ignorance is strength.
----If you're like me, you took one look at those mantras and guessed that someone had forgotten the colons in an analogy. Then you realize, wait, there are people living like that? It's scary because... I can understand why those people believe what they do. I can see how you could convince someone that those slogans make sense.
----For example, ignorance is strength. Ignorance, according to Merriam-Webster's, is "the lack of knowledge, education, or awareness". Focus on that last word- awareness. So the slogan reads "Not knowing is helpful." Helpful to the government, that is.
----The knowledge in this world is suppressed. No one really knows what's going on, which is the first thing to cause panic, usually. But they've lived this way for a while, so no one thinks it's odd that they have telescreens in each one-room apartment, telescreens that can see and hear everything above whisper and transmit to The Party, who rules the world, and, worse, Big Brother, who is their leader and almost deity, he is so untouchable.
----So if you don't know anything, you don't know what the government doesn't want you to know. You can't get in trouble, so you stay alive. Seriously. In this world, keeping a journal is punishable by death.
----Also, the people in the book seem so normal- the burnout guy with the crummy apartment, the lady down the hall with too many kids calling him to fix her sink, the girl at work who's playing hard to get. They could all so easily be the person waiting for the traffic light to change. But they're not. They were lucky enough to be born in the crumbling shadowy squalor where there are such things as "Thought Police" and "Thoughtcrimes," which are when you think something traitorous and disappear a few nights later. It's scary.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
* Daily Greek Lesson, or My Daily Therapy
----To make a long story short, Charles Wallace gets his mind possessed by this writhing brain known simply as IT, which remotely controls everyone's brain and forces him to relax, stop making decisions, and succumb to it.
----Very emotional scene, flashing lights, screaming. Charles Wallace is freed, everyone goes home, and the world is saved. Altogether a very clean and tidy ending, but that's not what I wanted to talk about. I'm confused about why they say the brain, IT, cannot love. Not to belabor a cliche, but... what is this love, anyway?
----Very emotional scene, flashing lights, screaming. Charles Wallace is freed, everyone goes home, and the world is saved. Altogether a very clean and tidy ending, but that's not what I wanted to talk about. I'm confused about why they say the brain, IT, cannot love. Not to belabor a cliche, but... what is this love, anyway?
----I think the best place to start is with the Greek. This information is from "The Four Loves", by C.S. Lewis. In biblical Greek, there are several words for love:
- storge- the love of parents to children and vice versa
- philio- brotherly love
- eros- "in love" love
- agape- a decisional love of someone to a higher-up, like a disciple to his master.
----What can't the brain feel? IT has and likes his perfect world in which, literally, everything moves to the same beat- balls bounce, hearts beat, people talk (which is why some dialogue feels like a sonnet). IT is mentally superior and knows it, so I guess it doesn't do agape. There's nothing that he feels deserves respect, let alone love. Eros is out of the question, too. This kind of love is totally irrational, which is precisely what IT hates.
----I'm wondering about storge, though. This is the parent-to-child love. Isn't he fond of the people under his control? Once someone submits to his mind powers, he likes them and gives them a place to live. And it doesn't seem like puny humans can give something to this excellent creature, so it's not getting anything out of the relationship. But then, why does he bother? So storge is possible with IT.
----Finally, philio. IT doesn't respect anyone, with reason, because no one is as perfect as he is. No one is as intelligent or unbiased. And no one is less subject to the flaws of being human. It doesn't treat anyone with respect, let alone as an equal. Not philio.
----So, I have argued with Meg's claim and Mrs. Whatsit's hint that IT cannot love. He loves his people like a king because that's really what he is. Granted, he controls his subjects differently than most rulers, but he still loves.
----Wow, though. If a disembodied brain, squishy and pulsing on a table, is capable of loving, anyone is. That guy picking his nose the next table over, the bag lady scowling at the sidewalk, the goatee dude taking orders at McDonalds- they can all love. They have loves, secrets, think they're outsiders. Just like me.
----Could it be that someone else has consciousness? Someone else is the same species as I am?
----I sigh and listen to the dishwasher beep. Unnatural artificial lights burn my eyes when I look naively upward, still dazed from the psychology of six billion people at once. But my name is Dorothea. I'm going to school tomorrow, and I have an established life with no room for philosophy. Choose your world: Earth, with broken cameras, smog and all things comfortingly tangible, or the mind, versatile, dark, and nowhere near under your control. Make a choice. You can't live in two places at once.
----I'm scared to make that choice. Maybe everyone is. Could be, now that we're all humans.
My Off-Topic Mind Contortions
----Believe it or not, this is relevant. At one point in my book, Meg is trying to describe vision and light to creatures who don't have eyes. They just sense everything, like radar. And I read this and said, "she's failing pathetically." But then I realized I can do no better. Here goes.
----Sight is a sense, like hearing or taste. Like those, it's hard to crack open the definition because it's a closed system your brain needs specialized cells to handle. If you aren't born with the capacity to see, you physically can't do it or understand it, no matter who tries to help. Seeing is when a person turns their eyes toward something and knows of its presence and many physical attributes, including color, shape, and size. It's usually the only way people can tell these qualities and register the presence of threats.
----Light. Light is not a substance to be counted or put in a jar. Instead, it is spread over an area, like heat. Without it, humans cannot see (see previous definition) and the more there is, the better you can see. That is, the farther you can see and in more hidden places.
----And, since I used the term before, color. With a wink to whoever's reading "The Giver," I should probably define this one too. Color is a physical characteristic of objects and is independent of size and shape. It cannot be detected except through sight and can be used to inform- this color means stop, and this color means go (a rather odd system, if you ponder it. Why trust your life to something you can't touch?) In addition, some humans can't see all or certain colors. Yeah, there are different colors. Like tastes, colors can be mistaken for one another and often remind the viewer of each other. Sometimes a color carries a memory or emotion, e.g. this shade reminds me of those flowers in the garden where I first met my best friend.
----Now stop laughing at my childish attempts, pick up the chewed-up pencil next to the monitor and try for yourself. Good luck.
----Sight is a sense, like hearing or taste. Like those, it's hard to crack open the definition because it's a closed system your brain needs specialized cells to handle. If you aren't born with the capacity to see, you physically can't do it or understand it, no matter who tries to help. Seeing is when a person turns their eyes toward something and knows of its presence and many physical attributes, including color, shape, and size. It's usually the only way people can tell these qualities and register the presence of threats.
----Light. Light is not a substance to be counted or put in a jar. Instead, it is spread over an area, like heat. Without it, humans cannot see (see previous definition) and the more there is, the better you can see. That is, the farther you can see and in more hidden places.
----And, since I used the term before, color. With a wink to whoever's reading "The Giver," I should probably define this one too. Color is a physical characteristic of objects and is independent of size and shape. It cannot be detected except through sight and can be used to inform- this color means stop, and this color means go (a rather odd system, if you ponder it. Why trust your life to something you can't touch?) In addition, some humans can't see all or certain colors. Yeah, there are different colors. Like tastes, colors can be mistaken for one another and often remind the viewer of each other. Sometimes a color carries a memory or emotion, e.g. this shade reminds me of those flowers in the garden where I first met my best friend.
----Now stop laughing at my childish attempts, pick up the chewed-up pencil next to the monitor and try for yourself. Good luck.
Monday, April 12, 2010
Uriel, Fear, and Pegasi-Centaurs
----Meg and her party are whisked away by the three women to a new place- "Uriel, the third planet of the star Malak in the spiral nebula Messier 101." Everyone is skeptical until Mrs. Whatsit shows them her true form, which is something like a powerful, sleek, ivory centaur, radiating beauty and joy, calming Meg's frenzy. She has wings too, "wings made of rainbows, of light upon water, of poetry." She is a perfect, majestic creature, so much so that Calvin falls to his knees, which she promptly reprimands in a different voice "with the warmth of a woodwind, the clarity of a trumpet, the mystery of an English horn." I'm assuming Mrs. Which and Mrs. Who are the same species as her. (Sorry I'm quoting so much. It's just that the author manages to capture in ten words what would take me an entire paragraph.)
----They fly around on her back a while, listening to other creatures like her singing. Charles Wallace says he can understand only a little bit of what they're saying, which is in a different language. Mrs. Whatsit translates, but says it doesn't do the song justice because it doesn't go into human words. It's actually just a generic hymn, like a psalm sung in church.
----The important thing about this episode is that it illustrates Charles Wallace's non-human qualities. It feels like he's still technically human, but is endowed with certain supernatural gifts belonging to Mrs. Whatsit's world; he can understand their language, read minds, and he knows about their world.
----Let me explain. I don't know where he gets the information, but he seems to know quite a bit about how their world works- "their" being Mrs. Who's and her companions'. Perhaps he can just go with the flow, or guess, or read their minds to figure out what's happening. Charles Wallace is perfectly fine with the inter-world travel- I think the term is tessering- and knows the problems involved. That particular process scared Meg and I because for a while, it looked like she was trapped in limbo between the two worlds.
----And finally, what appears to be the main villain. While watching the sunrise, Meg, Calvin, Charles Wallace, and Mrs. Whatsit witness a being which looks like a shadow, less tangible than a cloud, but still quite formidable because it is terrifying. Sheer terror, desperation, and calamity without any hope of comfort. It doesn't even look particularly ominous, which makes me think it has a supernatural aura of fear, because it managed to terrify the entire group, including Mrs. Whatsit, who knew what was coming.
----At the very end of the chapter, Meg says one sentence that rocks my world, partly because it's the first intelligent thing she says, but also because of the possibilities of the answer. She asks Mrs. Who "Is that [shadow thing] what my father is fighting?"
----Um, yikes.
----They fly around on her back a while, listening to other creatures like her singing. Charles Wallace says he can understand only a little bit of what they're saying, which is in a different language. Mrs. Whatsit translates, but says it doesn't do the song justice because it doesn't go into human words. It's actually just a generic hymn, like a psalm sung in church.
----The important thing about this episode is that it illustrates Charles Wallace's non-human qualities. It feels like he's still technically human, but is endowed with certain supernatural gifts belonging to Mrs. Whatsit's world; he can understand their language, read minds, and he knows about their world.
----Let me explain. I don't know where he gets the information, but he seems to know quite a bit about how their world works- "their" being Mrs. Who's and her companions'. Perhaps he can just go with the flow, or guess, or read their minds to figure out what's happening. Charles Wallace is perfectly fine with the inter-world travel- I think the term is tessering- and knows the problems involved. That particular process scared Meg and I because for a while, it looked like she was trapped in limbo between the two worlds.
----And finally, what appears to be the main villain. While watching the sunrise, Meg, Calvin, Charles Wallace, and Mrs. Whatsit witness a being which looks like a shadow, less tangible than a cloud, but still quite formidable because it is terrifying. Sheer terror, desperation, and calamity without any hope of comfort. It doesn't even look particularly ominous, which makes me think it has a supernatural aura of fear, because it managed to terrify the entire group, including Mrs. Whatsit, who knew what was coming.
----At the very end of the chapter, Meg says one sentence that rocks my world, partly because it's the first intelligent thing she says, but also because of the possibilities of the answer. She asks Mrs. Who "Is that [shadow thing] what my father is fighting?"
----Um, yikes.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
A Dark and Stormy Night
----A Wrinkle In Time begins "on a dark and stormy night", which is an opening I usually loathe, but there's enough originality in this story to pull off a cliche here or there. Meg is in her room, panicked because she thinks it might be a hurricane. She goes downstairs and sees little Charles Wallace sitting calmly at the kitchen table, eating a liverwurst and cream cheese sandwich. He says "I've been waiting for you," which is kind of creepy in itself, until he says he's put on water for cocoa for her too. Meg checks the kettle, points out that there's far too much there, Charles Wallace says he made extra for Mom, and the Mom, just that minute plods down the stairs and goes, "I think I want some cocoa." Yeah, this five-year-old is not normal.
----Skimming the next forty pages or so, Charles Wallace, Meg, and their new friend Calvin, a fourteen year old eleventh grader, meet these weird three old ladies living in an abandoned house. Their names are- no kidding- Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which, who refuses to materialize completely. They are at least a few billion years old, keep quoting random languages, and seem to read minds. Charles Wallace is perfectly okay with this and appears to already know and is friends with Mrs. Whatsit- stranger danger! Meg is creeped out and Calvin is skeptical of the whole thing.
----All of a sudden, Charles Wallace announces they are going to find his father. Like, right now. At night, when they are supposed to be getting home soon.
----So, the whole thing's pretty creepy so far, but as a sucker for scary stories, I'm totally eager to keep reading. Enough blabbering, now what page was I on?
----Skimming the next forty pages or so, Charles Wallace, Meg, and their new friend Calvin, a fourteen year old eleventh grader, meet these weird three old ladies living in an abandoned house. Their names are- no kidding- Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which, who refuses to materialize completely. They are at least a few billion years old, keep quoting random languages, and seem to read minds. Charles Wallace is perfectly okay with this and appears to already know and is friends with Mrs. Whatsit- stranger danger! Meg is creeped out and Calvin is skeptical of the whole thing.
----All of a sudden, Charles Wallace announces they are going to find his father. Like, right now. At night, when they are supposed to be getting home soon.
----So, the whole thing's pretty creepy so far, but as a sucker for scary stories, I'm totally eager to keep reading. Enough blabbering, now what page was I on?
A Wrinkle In Time
----My next book is A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L'Engle. I chose this book mostly because I'm looking for something easy to read after Kim. The pages go quickly in this book, which is a fantasy/science fiction Newbery Award winner.
----So far, everything's going pretty well. The main character is a girl named Meg Murray, who is about a freshman. She's a series of paradoxes really: failing every class including math, but brilliant with numbers, thinks she's a wimp but gets into fights, and she loves her family but considers herself unwanted. Meg is one of those characters to whom I say "suck it up, get a life, and move on." I seem to encounter these people very often.
----Meg's little brother, Charles Wallace, is five years old, hasn't started kindergarten, can't read, but uses words like "inadvertantly" in normal conversation. He's very calm and still, his dialogue is ridiculously intelligent, and you could read the whole book thinking he was an eighty-year-old monk. Also, he's a little unnerving because he can sort of read minds. It seems like he gets emotional readings and fragmented images from your mind, then strings the story together. Altogether, a darling but creepy little brother.
----Meg has two other brothers, Sandy and Dennis, who are twins. They play lots of sports, make B's in school, and seem to be the most normal of the children. Although they are only ten, they seem to have taken on the "man of the house" role, due to their father's absence.
----Ah, their father. Mr. Murry has been gone for a while-I want to say three years, but can't find the page to confirm it. According to Meg, he worked for the government on a Top Secret mission and had to travel a lot. He used to write to the family every day until suddenly, the letters stopped coming. Despite Mrs. Murry's best efforts, the government refuses to reveal his condition or location, only saying "you can be proud of him."
----Mrs. Murry, the mother, is amazingly beautiful, kind, and charismatic. She dwarfs Meg and would be quite the society lady if she acknowledged her husband's absence. Apparently everyone in the small town thinks the dad is either dead or off with another woman. She, Meg and the rest of the family, however, refuse to believe this.
----That's the Murry family portrait. The people on my mind are Charles Wallace, because he's creepy, mysterious and cute, and Mrs. Murry, because she believes in her husband even though she's normally so practical.
----So far, everything's going pretty well. The main character is a girl named Meg Murray, who is about a freshman. She's a series of paradoxes really: failing every class including math, but brilliant with numbers, thinks she's a wimp but gets into fights, and she loves her family but considers herself unwanted. Meg is one of those characters to whom I say "suck it up, get a life, and move on." I seem to encounter these people very often.
----Meg's little brother, Charles Wallace, is five years old, hasn't started kindergarten, can't read, but uses words like "inadvertantly" in normal conversation. He's very calm and still, his dialogue is ridiculously intelligent, and you could read the whole book thinking he was an eighty-year-old monk. Also, he's a little unnerving because he can sort of read minds. It seems like he gets emotional readings and fragmented images from your mind, then strings the story together. Altogether, a darling but creepy little brother.
----Meg has two other brothers, Sandy and Dennis, who are twins. They play lots of sports, make B's in school, and seem to be the most normal of the children. Although they are only ten, they seem to have taken on the "man of the house" role, due to their father's absence.
----Ah, their father. Mr. Murry has been gone for a while-I want to say three years, but can't find the page to confirm it. According to Meg, he worked for the government on a Top Secret mission and had to travel a lot. He used to write to the family every day until suddenly, the letters stopped coming. Despite Mrs. Murry's best efforts, the government refuses to reveal his condition or location, only saying "you can be proud of him."
----Mrs. Murry, the mother, is amazingly beautiful, kind, and charismatic. She dwarfs Meg and would be quite the society lady if she acknowledged her husband's absence. Apparently everyone in the small town thinks the dad is either dead or off with another woman. She, Meg and the rest of the family, however, refuse to believe this.
----That's the Murry family portrait. The people on my mind are Charles Wallace, because he's creepy, mysterious and cute, and Mrs. Murry, because she believes in her husband even though she's normally so practical.
Saturday, April 10, 2010
In Summary
----"Kim", by Rudyard Kipling, was an excellent book. It was thought provoking and uses just the right words to describe things. In addition, it really teaches you a lot about India when it was occupied by the British.
----However, like any book, there were downsides. Whole pages could have been deleted and no one would have cared. Sometimes the story drags and the characters seem like idiots.
----But it was still ridiculously better that the trash in the teen section of the bookstore. Even not compared to trash, it was good.
----I would recommend this book to anyone who likes historical fiction and spy movies. If anyone has read the Alex Rider series written by Anthony Horowitz, this is very similar. Just be prepared to ignore the words you don't know- which for me was about one word in fifteen.
----I would NOT recommend this book to someone who couldn't care less about history or world religions. There's a lot of cultures and belief systems swirled through this book, some of which are demonic. If you take offense to that or just aren't interested, don't read it.
----Oh yeah, and don't read it if you've already read my posts that give everything away. Sorry.
----Well, that's a wrap, I guess. Who knows what the next book will be?
----However, like any book, there were downsides. Whole pages could have been deleted and no one would have cared. Sometimes the story drags and the characters seem like idiots.
----But it was still ridiculously better that the trash in the teen section of the bookstore. Even not compared to trash, it was good.
----I would recommend this book to anyone who likes historical fiction and spy movies. If anyone has read the Alex Rider series written by Anthony Horowitz, this is very similar. Just be prepared to ignore the words you don't know- which for me was about one word in fifteen.
----I would NOT recommend this book to someone who couldn't care less about history or world religions. There's a lot of cultures and belief systems swirled through this book, some of which are demonic. If you take offense to that or just aren't interested, don't read it.
----Oh yeah, and don't read it if you've already read my posts that give everything away. Sorry.
----Well, that's a wrap, I guess. Who knows what the next book will be?
* In Which I Spoil the Ending and Go All Philosophic
----To begin: I take back all the cynical stuff I said earlier about Kim having no morals. He is so dedicated, almost mindlessly devoted, to the lama. He left his home to follow a man he had only known for three hours. He washed his feet, found him food and places to sleep, and gave himself up to be a slave to the holy man.
----Kim is assigned a mission by Mahbub Ali. Fairly routine- something goes wrong as usual, but everything is eventually worked out. The mission is completed. But then we realize all is not well. The lama has been in pain lately, achy and weak. And Kim slips into this desperate unfeeling depression, where everything is last ditch, like on survival TV shows, just before the contestants give up and call for outside help. It's depressing to read because the two coolest people in the universe appear to be dying.
----But this is fiction, right? We've loved these characters too long for the ending not to be at least a little satisfying. Kim, Mahbub, and the lama reach their old friend Sahiba, a bossy old lady who takes very good care of them. Kim is in a coma and it takes a massage therapist, some fakirs, and the lama's fervent prayers to bring him out of it. The lama refuses to eat or drink anything for at least fourty-eight hours, which is about the limit humans can physically do. Instead, he meditates under this tree by a brook, intent on healing Kim, fixing the world, and acheiving union with the "Great Soul," as he calls it. I think the condition he's looking for is called Nirvana.
----Whatever it is, he suddenly finds it. He says he feels his soul depart from the foolish body, and soar up, where he can see everything on the earth at once. He finally, finally is united with the "Great Soul," which is all he has ever wanted.
----And then- get this. He breaks the connection, causing himself infinite pain. And the lama goes back to our world to get Kim. Whoa.
Kim wakes up, feeling completely refreshed and vibrant. He's still weak, but his spirit is restored. He says hi to Mahbub, who has been loitering around, unwelcome, worried sick about his fellow spy and adopted little brother. Then Kim sees the lama, and immediately asks who washed the lama's feet while he was asleep- now that's devotion. The lama, however, explains his experience, and how the river by where he was sitting must have been The River, the one he was searching for all along. He says he and Kim are now both free from the "Wheel of Things," his term for the trivialities and sin of life, and are able to go back to Nirvana whenever they want, permanently.
----But this is where the text of the book ends: the lama completely at peace and the reader with no clue as to Kim's response. Personally, I think the boy would have said no, that he wants to stay here with the people he loves. He's just cut out for adventure and fellowship. He loves the Great Game (his term for espionage) and is exceptionally good at it. He has so many friends here on earth who are willing to do anything for him. The lama came back from Nirvana for him, Mahbub Ali went on a mission for him... Although it's a bad trait for a spy, everyone he interacts with remembers and likes him.
----Where would that leave the lama? If Kim insisted on staying here, what would he do? He loves his chela (disciple), he's already proven that by coming back. But his life's goal was to be there in Nirvana. He's talked of nothing else the entire book.
----Or, what would I do? What would you do? If someone came to me just now and told me that state, that paradise, was mine for the taking if I would go permanently, would I go? Do I want to leave this pain and heartbreak behind and be happy forever? Do I want to be alone tomorrow, and the whole week after that, and so on, without the evil in the world making me feel superior?
I don't know.
I don't know if I'll ever know.
Think about it.
----Kim is assigned a mission by Mahbub Ali. Fairly routine- something goes wrong as usual, but everything is eventually worked out. The mission is completed. But then we realize all is not well. The lama has been in pain lately, achy and weak. And Kim slips into this desperate unfeeling depression, where everything is last ditch, like on survival TV shows, just before the contestants give up and call for outside help. It's depressing to read because the two coolest people in the universe appear to be dying.
----But this is fiction, right? We've loved these characters too long for the ending not to be at least a little satisfying. Kim, Mahbub, and the lama reach their old friend Sahiba, a bossy old lady who takes very good care of them. Kim is in a coma and it takes a massage therapist, some fakirs, and the lama's fervent prayers to bring him out of it. The lama refuses to eat or drink anything for at least fourty-eight hours, which is about the limit humans can physically do. Instead, he meditates under this tree by a brook, intent on healing Kim, fixing the world, and acheiving union with the "Great Soul," as he calls it. I think the condition he's looking for is called Nirvana.
----Whatever it is, he suddenly finds it. He says he feels his soul depart from the foolish body, and soar up, where he can see everything on the earth at once. He finally, finally is united with the "Great Soul," which is all he has ever wanted.
----And then- get this. He breaks the connection, causing himself infinite pain. And the lama goes back to our world to get Kim. Whoa.
Kim wakes up, feeling completely refreshed and vibrant. He's still weak, but his spirit is restored. He says hi to Mahbub, who has been loitering around, unwelcome, worried sick about his fellow spy and adopted little brother. Then Kim sees the lama, and immediately asks who washed the lama's feet while he was asleep- now that's devotion. The lama, however, explains his experience, and how the river by where he was sitting must have been The River, the one he was searching for all along. He says he and Kim are now both free from the "Wheel of Things," his term for the trivialities and sin of life, and are able to go back to Nirvana whenever they want, permanently.
----But this is where the text of the book ends: the lama completely at peace and the reader with no clue as to Kim's response. Personally, I think the boy would have said no, that he wants to stay here with the people he loves. He's just cut out for adventure and fellowship. He loves the Great Game (his term for espionage) and is exceptionally good at it. He has so many friends here on earth who are willing to do anything for him. The lama came back from Nirvana for him, Mahbub Ali went on a mission for him... Although it's a bad trait for a spy, everyone he interacts with remembers and likes him.
----Where would that leave the lama? If Kim insisted on staying here, what would he do? He loves his chela (disciple), he's already proven that by coming back. But his life's goal was to be there in Nirvana. He's talked of nothing else the entire book.
----Or, what would I do? What would you do? If someone came to me just now and told me that state, that paradise, was mine for the taking if I would go permanently, would I go? Do I want to leave this pain and heartbreak behind and be happy forever? Do I want to be alone tomorrow, and the whole week after that, and so on, without the evil in the world making me feel superior?
I don't know.
I don't know if I'll ever know.
Think about it.
Son of the Charm
So Kim drops out of St. Xavier's, the elite boarding school the lama paid for, and is like "oh, I'm bored with life, I think I'll try to get myself assigned a mission!" The Babu, who is essentially Kim's handler, refuses to assign a fifteen year old kid to something potentially fatal and tells him to hang out with the lama for six months and come back then. But before he sends him off, the Babu takes Kim to this woman named Huneefa, who does all sorts of weird charms, calling down protection from every deity in India, and then some. That whole scene is creepy, eerie, and sick. Meanwhile, Babu watches, claiming this ritual is necessary to protect Kim during his assignment of doing nothing. I guess he's realized that the boy can't stay out of trouble. Then they change his appearance yet again with demi-permanent dyes, new clothes, and they give him a revolver. Brilliant, people!
Kim finds the lama, who has gotten sidetracked from his search for the River and has settled down in a temple that's not even his religion. I guess during this time in India, a temple is a temple and a priest, by whatever title is still a priest. But then they meet this guy with a sick child who has malaria. Kim pretends to cure the child, which backfires, because they end up tagging along.
Then Kim is accompanying the lama on a train to Benares, which the lama has decided might now have the River, even though they already checked it. He's pretty desperate. Kim meets this other spy, (in this group an agent is called a Son of the Charm) who is being pursued by seemingly every policeman in the country. Then Kim, showcasing his legendary intelligence (or idiocy, depending on how you look at it), tells E.23 (because that's the spy's code name) to strip down in the moving train, takes some cooking stuff from the father with the malaria child, and rubs it all over E.23. Apparently this changes his appearance sufficiently enough not to get caught.
And the father is convinced that Kim worked some sort of spell to bring in a different man! Honestly, the villagers in this book are so superstitious and gullible. Kim, of course, outlives his "favor" to the man and tells him not to tell what he has seen. And the lama is convinced that his disciple is a saint! Most of the people in this book are laughably dumb.
As you may have guessed, Kim's "vacation" is neither relaxing, nor out of the world of spies.
Kim finds the lama, who has gotten sidetracked from his search for the River and has settled down in a temple that's not even his religion. I guess during this time in India, a temple is a temple and a priest, by whatever title is still a priest. But then they meet this guy with a sick child who has malaria. Kim pretends to cure the child, which backfires, because they end up tagging along.
Then Kim is accompanying the lama on a train to Benares, which the lama has decided might now have the River, even though they already checked it. He's pretty desperate. Kim meets this other spy, (in this group an agent is called a Son of the Charm) who is being pursued by seemingly every policeman in the country. Then Kim, showcasing his legendary intelligence (or idiocy, depending on how you look at it), tells E.23 (because that's the spy's code name) to strip down in the moving train, takes some cooking stuff from the father with the malaria child, and rubs it all over E.23. Apparently this changes his appearance sufficiently enough not to get caught.
And the father is convinced that Kim worked some sort of spell to bring in a different man! Honestly, the villagers in this book are so superstitious and gullible. Kim, of course, outlives his "favor" to the man and tells him not to tell what he has seen. And the lama is convinced that his disciple is a saint! Most of the people in this book are laughably dumb.
As you may have guessed, Kim's "vacation" is neither relaxing, nor out of the world of spies.
Kim Couldn't Work for the CIA
He's so self-centered! He runs around lying, sneaking, and cheating his way into whatever he wants, takes advantage of people, and pretends to have skills where he doesn't. Granted, some lying is necessary as a spy, but he's pretending to be a qualified doctor here! He literally digs around in a box, pulls out a few important-looking bottles, chants some nonsense, and pronounces the child with malaria "cured"! Honestly, he's despicable sometimes! He's not just secretive, he can be downright mean.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Espionage in India?!
WHOA! Kim is training to be a spy!
He's about thirteen at this point, and his friends in high places(Mahbub Ali, his friend the Colonel, and another guy called Babu),who are all spies, finally realize Kim was made to be a spy. So he goes to stay with Babu, who teaches him basic cartography, hones his memory, and, Kim's favorite, plays "dress-up." This game is where they dress in the clothes of different types of people, use makeup to look completely different, and then practice acting like those people. It sounds really fun. Having lived in the city all his life, Kim excels at this.
Kim is enrolled in the most prestigious boarding school in India, courtesy of the lama, who is wandering the country on his own. At least on the outside, the boy is well on his way to becoming a sahib, a refined English-speaking gentleman. Oh, yeah, and Kim speaks at least three languages well.
I also love this line from Mahbub Ali, explaining about espionage. "From time to time, God causes men to be born- and [Kim is] one of them- who have a lust to go abroad at the risk of their lives and discover news[...] These souls are very few; and of these few, not more than ten are of the best." (Kipling, 228). It's impossible not to read this part of the book and think of the CIA.
He's about thirteen at this point, and his friends in high places(Mahbub Ali, his friend the Colonel, and another guy called Babu),who are all spies, finally realize Kim was made to be a spy. So he goes to stay with Babu, who teaches him basic cartography, hones his memory, and, Kim's favorite, plays "dress-up." This game is where they dress in the clothes of different types of people, use makeup to look completely different, and then practice acting like those people. It sounds really fun. Having lived in the city all his life, Kim excels at this.
Kim is enrolled in the most prestigious boarding school in India, courtesy of the lama, who is wandering the country on his own. At least on the outside, the boy is well on his way to becoming a sahib, a refined English-speaking gentleman. Oh, yeah, and Kim speaks at least three languages well.
I also love this line from Mahbub Ali, explaining about espionage. "From time to time, God causes men to be born- and [Kim is] one of them- who have a lust to go abroad at the risk of their lives and discover news[...] These souls are very few; and of these few, not more than ten are of the best." (Kipling, 228). It's impossible not to read this part of the book and think of the CIA.
Aladdin vs. Kim
In answer to Ms. K.'s request to elaborate on my Aladdin vs. Kim reference earlier on, the characters are similar, although the stories are nothing alike. Namely, the only woman in Kim's story was a bossy ex-queen. Both boys can be cocky and do whatever is necessary to survive. They live in the same colorful, multicultural, tough love world. Both of them are clever and persuasive to get what they want.
However, Aladdin only steals what he needs and although he knows everyone, is friends with none. Kim is referred to as "Little Friend of All the World" and sometimes takes advantage of people. He will lie to get what he wants, and like Aladdin, is not afraid to use a disguise.
I hope that clears everything up.
However, Aladdin only steals what he needs and although he knows everyone, is friends with none. Kim is referred to as "Little Friend of All the World" and sometimes takes advantage of people. He will lie to get what he wants, and like Aladdin, is not afraid to use a disguise.
I hope that clears everything up.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Plot Update, part two
After a series of misadventures(usually involving Kim sneaking around under various disguises), Kim is caught by a group of soldiers, the Mavericks, who used to include Kim Sr. Seeing Kim's birth certificate and his father's discharge papers, they immediately take him in, leaving the lama out on his own. We don't see much of him for several chapters after he agrees to pay Kim's expensive boarding school tuition. I haven't yet found out where a priest who literally sleeps on the street and begs for his food can scrounge up three hundred rupees in two days- something like a hundred thousand dollars today.
Kim goes to school, hates it, and writes to his old friend Mahbub Ali, a horse trader back home who once sent Kim to deliver a covert, cryptic message to a colonel in the army. Mahbub, a jolly middle-aged man, comes to Kim's aid and more or less enlists him to help in whatever espionage he does. It's hard to figure out what specifically goes on with them, because they talk to each other in code and this book is almost a bare script at times, with very little explanation of dialogue.
Anyway, Mahbub Ali sends Kim back to school once he promises to let Kim wander the country when he's off school, which sounds really unsafe but, knowing Kim, isn't that much of a risk. He's a savvy kid who knows what he's doing. There- two hundred pages in two posts.
Kim goes to school, hates it, and writes to his old friend Mahbub Ali, a horse trader back home who once sent Kim to deliver a covert, cryptic message to a colonel in the army. Mahbub, a jolly middle-aged man, comes to Kim's aid and more or less enlists him to help in whatever espionage he does. It's hard to figure out what specifically goes on with them, because they talk to each other in code and this book is almost a bare script at times, with very little explanation of dialogue.
Anyway, Mahbub Ali sends Kim back to school once he promises to let Kim wander the country when he's off school, which sounds really unsafe but, knowing Kim, isn't that much of a risk. He's a savvy kid who knows what he's doing. There- two hundred pages in two posts.
Plot Update
At the official halfway point of my book, I figured I should probably stop and tell you guys what's going on.
Kim (see my last post)is bouncing around Lahore (a city in India) when he meets this Tibetan Buddhist monk, also called a lama. The lama doesn't seem to have a name, but is obsessed with his religion and is respected by all he meets. Also, he is always clicking his rosary, which I'm confused about. Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't rosaries Catholic?
The lama is looking for a sacred river, which Kim could care less about. The boy just wants to find a "Red Bull." Actually, this whole piece of the story is pretty confusing. It sounds like Kim's late father, a well-to-do soldier, had some sort of dream about a red bull in a green field and passed this idea on to Kim, who seems to think it's a prophecy. I think Kim was reading way too much into the dreams of his opium-addicted father.
So Kim and the lama set off, with no plan except to wander around India looking for the sacred river they're not sure even exists. Yeah, sometimes they lack intelligence majorly.
Kim (see my last post)is bouncing around Lahore (a city in India) when he meets this Tibetan Buddhist monk, also called a lama. The lama doesn't seem to have a name, but is obsessed with his religion and is respected by all he meets. Also, he is always clicking his rosary, which I'm confused about. Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't rosaries Catholic?
The lama is looking for a sacred river, which Kim could care less about. The boy just wants to find a "Red Bull." Actually, this whole piece of the story is pretty confusing. It sounds like Kim's late father, a well-to-do soldier, had some sort of dream about a red bull in a green field and passed this idea on to Kim, who seems to think it's a prophecy. I think Kim was reading way too much into the dreams of his opium-addicted father.
So Kim and the lama set off, with no plan except to wander around India looking for the sacred river they're not sure even exists. Yeah, sometimes they lack intelligence majorly.
All About Kim
Okay. I sort of already started my book (Sorry Ms. K.!). So... here's my update.
The main character in my book is a boy named Kim (short for Kimball) and he's an orphan somewhere around ten years old. He lives on the streets of India and is called the "friend of all the world" because everyone knows him. Although he's mischievous and a troublemaker, he doesn't intend to cause hurt. In fact, he's a lot like Aladdin.
He's innocent, brilliant,street smart, proud, clever and often adorable. Also, he often quotes these Indian proverbs- my personal favorite is "Never speak to a white man till he is fed." In fact, my dad quotes this one when he's grumpy and hungry and we are pestering him.
Anyway, that's Kim. More on the plot soon.
The main character in my book is a boy named Kim (short for Kimball) and he's an orphan somewhere around ten years old. He lives on the streets of India and is called the "friend of all the world" because everyone knows him. Although he's mischievous and a troublemaker, he doesn't intend to cause hurt. In fact, he's a lot like Aladdin.
He's innocent, brilliant,street smart, proud, clever and often adorable. Also, he often quotes these Indian proverbs- my personal favorite is "Never speak to a white man till he is fed." In fact, my dad quotes this one when he's grumpy and hungry and we are pestering him.
Anyway, that's Kim. More on the plot soon.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Week One, Part Two
I have looked through Kim already, and realized that because of the setting in India, there are a lot of culture-specific words and phrases taken directly from the Urdu language. Although most of these can be deciphered using context clues or just ignored, Googling would be a good way to find definitions.
Week One
For my independent reading project, I have chosen the book "Kim" by Rudyard Kipling. I have chosen this book because of numerous recommendations from family and friends. Also, I have enjoyed other works by this author, namely "Just So Stories."
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