Ode To Thanksgiving

It’s Thanksgiving Weekend. My favorite holiday. I love Thanksgiving because it offers a lengthy break at just the right point in the semester. I love Thanksgiving because it has not yet been commercialized, and perhaps never will be, since it is simply enveloped by Christmas’ commercialization. It is the internet before all the ads: lovely, uncluttered, a place to connect in unhurried, simple fashion, without harassment. Thanksgiving is family, friends and food. It is playing games, hanging out, going on bike rides, reading a good book, or playing some football.

Great Books My English Teachers Overlooked

Last week, I re-evaluated some of the classics I read in High School. They did not fare well, generally. This week, I highlight a few I missed in school that are definitely worth reading. They generally fare better. The themes are adventure and horror, a new genre for me.

Treasure Island: Great, rollicking adventure. Wonderful story for middle schoolers. Nathan liked it only OK despite the non-stop action, probably because the language is dated and the sentences are complex. I think it's the sort of story that can challenge kids his age but still reward them. There is a reason Long John Silver's name is widely known; he is one of the most memorable characters I've ever read about. He slips between good and evil as well as any double agent.

Last of the Mohicans: It's also a great adventure yarn with some military battles and history thrown in. I definitely see its attractiveness and staying power. Some of the scenes it describes are quite violent and often unexpectedly so. With the 19th-century language, one expects more Victorian sensibilities at times. Descriptions of the American wilderness are perhaps unmatched in anything I've read.

Dr. Jeckel and Mr. Hyde: A wonderful short novel, one that also strikes me as a great choice for middle schoolers or a bit older. The character's internal struggle against evil is rightly celebrated. Stevenson seems to capture well the nature of temptation and addiction's ghastly hold. The character's collapse and the inability of anyone to do anything about it are haunting and memorable.

Dracula: Somewhat disappointing. It is overly long and filled with too many Victorian niceties that sound rather ridiculous to the modern ear. I read an unabridged version; I think an abridged version would be just the ticket. In the unabridged version, the action gets bogged down in too much suffocating dialogue about how dear everyone is to everyone else and what large sacrifices they're all making for each other with their pure love. Any momentary stumbles in their perfect manners are quickly remedied by even more perfect kindnesses and soothing words of various sorts. Bluch. And it's not just that I need action; I generally love dialogue. The action, when it happens, is wonderful.

The Turn of the Screw: A brilliant evocation of possible madness, involving unresolved questions about what is real, and children in peril from both those who care too little and those who care too much. It is extremely well written.

Re-evaluating the Classics

I've been reading classics lately, the past year or two, along with other books. I'm reading classics in part because Ellen is studying to be a secondary education English teacher and so she has lots of them around and partly because I'm curious what they're like now that I'm mature enough to understand them better and more deeply. I do wonder if a lot of them are mostly lost on secondary students and if it's even worth it to slog through some of them.

I've read three authors in the past year who I also recall from High School: Dickens, Conrad, and Hemingway.

IN HIGH SCHOOL:

Dickens: I remember mostly disliking Tale of Two Cities in ninth grade as I read a bunch of it, but then really coming round to admire it in the end as I saw the whole plot and scope of the story. The romantic in me loved Sydney Carton and his sacrifice.

Conrad:I remember thinking Heart of Darkness was kind of cool in, what, 11th grade when I read it, especially as classics go.

Hemingway: I don't remember any book in particular of his, and it's quite possible we didn't read any as a class but that I read him on my own just to attain requirements for number of pages read. I remember he was popular to read because it's so easy to chew up pages in Hemingway with his style. I remember liking his simple style and wondering why others couldn't write like that.

NOW:

Dickens: Writes great, but Tale of Two Cities is too sentimental. I still have some romantic in me, but couldn't come to see Carton as a believable character. Alas, the book de-motivated me to try others. The sentimentality in Dickens is a common criticism, and, alas, all too true. It is of course possible to look beyond this, and I'm sure rewarding to do so. Perhaps I'll try another Dickens at some point.

Conrad: Heart of Darkness is fabulous. It works completely on multiple levels and is a clear work of genius. The symbolism is rich and effective and the layers of meaning are fun to think about.

Hemingway: I decided to try his first novel, The Sun Also Rises. It is absolutely wretched. I tried hard, but simply could not finish it. The characters are interchangeable, the writing is bland and dull, and the plot is slighter than in a 1950s musical. I understand the way in which the spare writing style and plot line is modern and the characters represent a world that has lost its way. I certainly agree that modern society has indeed lost its way. I just didn't realize that losing one's way could be so deathly boring. I always figured it was kind of interesting to become bitter and disenchanted with the world. Turns out I was wrong. Perhaps I remember little about Hemingway because, in the end, there is nothing worth remembering.