Mockingjay

This was the final book in the Hunger Games Trilogy.  And I did actually finish it a couple of days ago; almost a week. Again, life came up. Working 22 hours in two days leaves one lacking in energy to do anything, let alone write about their thoughts and feelings on a book such as Mockingjay.

In my comments about Catching Fire, I was right that the second book was building up to a big climax for the third. This last book reminded me a lot of what caught my attention with The Hunger Games.

While reading this book, it made me realize today’s society is involved in their own sort of Hunger Games. There is no killing of children in a bloody competition, where only one can win. A major theme in the trilogy is the fact that the Games do not stop in the Arena. There is the Game of knowing each of your actions causes a cascade of results, for better or for worse. You have to watch what you say, and to whom, because who know what someone else might have hanging over your head that can be used against you.

Aside from that, this book was heart-wrenching. Until the end. I don’t know what it is about the ends of epic book series that always bothers me. ** SPOILER ALERT** It’s like, “Okay, she ended up with Peeta and never saw or heard from Gale again.” Yes, this is a young adult novel, but I felt as though Katniss only deeply cared for Peeta, not loved. And I felt as though Peeta coming back around from being Hijacked could have been developed a little more. But like I said, it is a young adult novel and it was already 400 pages. Not to mention, the love story wasn’t the point of the series, as far as I can tell. It’s a whole lot deeper than some story of “star-crossed lovers.”

I look forward to seeing what Suzanne Collins will produce next.

 

Catching Fire

I actually finished this a couple of days ago, but extenuating circumstances have kept me away from my computer for the majority of the time. I’ve managed to check my email and that’s the extent of it. But those details are for another time, another post.

After the bam-bam-bam there-it-is plot of The Hunger Games, the second book in the trilogy seemed to start off slow. Then, when the action began, it seemed to go too quickly. There was the entire book building up to the last twenty or so pages of material of particular interest. It was all good writing and all interesting, but it was only the last chunk that really drew me in, and away from my surrounding life.

In my opinion, Catching Fire, while a fantastic book in its own way, was a means to set up for the finale, the last book, which I have yet to begin reading. I am certainly looking forward to it, though.

 

The Hunger Games

After four years of doing minimal reading “for fun,” four years of being restricted to academic works, the first book I decided to read was The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Yes. Young adult fiction.

All I have to say is: What a great choice I made for the first book I really got to choose for myself.

This book is relatively new and with the movie in theaters, I don’t want to give away any spoilers. (As much as I love doing that).

I was curious. “What’s all this hype about?” And I kept seeing quotes or gifs from the movie. I grew to be intrigued.

Many times while reading, I found myself caught between two decisions. a) continue reading because it is completely gripping, or b) set the book down for a moment to grasp the enormity of what just occurred. Generally, I would gently close the cover and sit quietly, my mind whirring its way through the plot up until the point.

Aah! Dystopian novels!

The nature of the book had me questioning the validity of the actions of each character. What is truth and what is simply their motive in order to survive?

Do you know what’s great? You know how I enjoyed this so much and wish it didn’t have to end? It’s a triology.

 

Black Music in the Harlem Renaissance

Lots of good information in this one! Finally! Maybe now I won’t worry so much about getting my paper done.

It was a collection of essays edited by Samual A. Floyd, Jr, with each discussing topics related to the Harlem Renaissance.

After reading so many books (and so many more to go) on the Harlem Renaissance, I’m finding it difficult to do any real description or reaction here. It’s non-fiction, not fiction, so there’s no real plot. It’s all information. Most of the information I’ve received already.

So, instead of dragging this out, I’ll just make a comment on how many books I’ve read since the beginning of the year. There has been 13 complete weeks in 2012. So far, I’ve completed 16 books.

 

The Harlem Renaissance

For the subtitle of this book being Hub of African-American Culture, 1920-1930, it doesn’t encompass all the aspects of culture. Again, it focuses on the literary advancements made during the Harlem Renaissance. As an English major, that’s really interesting to me. But as a person trying to write about music, specifically jazz, during the Harlem Renaissance, it’s not working out for me. Thankfully my next two books are specifically about jazz during the Golden Age.

I’m learning a lot, but not a lot that can be applied to my paper. It’s discerning. I’m all for knowledge just for knowledge’s sake, but I’m also for getting this paper done with plenty of time to spare.

 

Good Bones and Simple Murders

And so we come to a close on the unit in Canadian Literature on Margaret Atwood. And what a good couple weeks it has been! This is the feeling I like about certain classes. When you come away from them and you’ve discovered something new and great, as I have with Margaret Atwood. I definitely intend to go and find more of her books (she’s been prolific).

Good Bones and Simple Murders. A title like that brings a lot to the table for expectations. It lives up to the title in the best ways imaginable.

The wit is fantastic. The cases Atwood makes for feminism equally so. It’s not just feminism, though. Something that troubles me is how some women try to make it out as the female gender getting the worst of everything. Life is rather unfair to men too. This work isn’t a representation of militant feminism. As with The Handmaid’s Tale, I feel as though it’s more about humanism. We’re all human; male, female, or other.

I have a paper coming up on Atwood’s works and I think I’ll analyze a few works connected in this book and in the selection of You Are Happy, concerning their basis in myth, folklore, and legend. Again, that’s a prevalent theme. And it’s one that intrigues me so. We started in The Circle Game with Atwood’s concern with simply Canadian legends, but as time went on, she branched out to other mythologies. And this brings us back to Leonard Cohen’s Let Us Compare Mythologies. I’ll be interested to see if Ondaatje does the same.

 

Black Culture and the Harlem Renaissance

For History of Jazz we have a research paper due at the end of April. I chose to complete mine on the Harlem Renaissance as it relates to jazz.

This book, by Cary D. Wintz would have been really good for my paper, if I was focusing on the literary aspect. I, however, am not.

The first couple chapters were helpful though because they provided a background and context for the Harlem Renaissance. This was not a wasted endeavor. Not that any book read is a wasted endeavor. I take that back. Reading the Twilight saga was a good portion of my life I’ll never get back. For me. I know there are people that like it.

Even though this book wasn’t focused on my chosen topic, I do enjoy literature, so it was interesting to learn about a portion of literature I don’t have a lot of experience with. Langston Hughes I, of course, had heard of, but many of the other writers were new names to me.

This was the first of six books I checked out from the library last Friday, so expect more to follow.

 

The Handmaid’s Tale

A year ago, I took an Utopian literature class. It was said, “One person’s utopia is another’s dystopia.” However, I hardly think the reverse is true. Especially in the case of The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood.

I have to say, I felt the closing chapter was a cop-out. I know there’s no way Offred would know the details the reader learns at the very end of the book, but the way they’re presented is irritating. “Oh, it’s this big conference with a speaker specializing in the story of the narrator, which they found through recorded tapes. And this is all years after the time the story takes place.” I’m not against frame-stories, but this wasn’t a frame-story. It was a perfectly good narration with a tacked-on afterthought.

Other than that, it was a fantastic story. That’s not to say I liked the dystopian society they characters lived in, just that it was very well written.

The world-building process was done superbly. It wasn’t a deluge of information. It leaked slowly, settling the reading into the world.

I can’t say much more without ruining the novel. Any real description will take away from how articulately put together it is.

 

West of Everything

Apparently this blog is only going to be literary comments because I seem to be ignoring the events that happen to me in real life. True story: most of the events that are happening to me in real life are classes, driving to and from classes, homework, reading, writing, and watching silly (but awesome!) youtube videos by vlogbrothers. And eating, of course. An minimal amounts of sleeping.

Way back in January, I had my thesis committee meeting. In which, one of my committee members suggested I read West of Everything by Jane Tompkins. It discusses space and westerns. What do you know, my thesis contains both of those things!

The book has two parts: Elements of the Western and Case Studies. I liked the first a lot more. Mostly because it was more related to the reason I was reading this book. My reason wasn’t to make my western better, but to read the arguments and statements others have made about westerns so that I can write my introduction. The case studies were not relevant to my thesis, but were still interesting.

So, for me, Elements of the Western was the most important part of the book. Sure, we all know what tropes make up a western. That isn’t a secret or some big surprise. Discussed in West of Everything are:

• Death
• Women and the Language of Men
• Landscape
• Horses
• Cattle

Aside from cattle, these all play a part in my own western, “Red Butte Beauty.” My point is, they’re pretty common. What West of Everything does is to extrapolate on them. Yeah, there’s death, killing, and violence. What does it mean?

I frequently found my inner commentary creatively cursing. Does “Red Butte Beauty” fall too much into the typic western? But my novella is more western-esque than straight-up western. So it’s all good.

 

Selected Poems: 1965-1975

I’m not sure why it seemed like a good idea to title a selection of poetry Selected Poems. The inclusion of the years makes sense, but it’s not like Margaret Atwood was the only writer to have a selection of poems. Little rant aside…

As a whole, I enjoyed this book. I’ve liked what I’ve read so far by Margaret Atwood (which, admittedly, isn’t much to date; there will be more). Maybe it’s the feminist vibes. Maybe it’s the Canadian aspect. Maybe it’s this. Maybe it’s that. I don’t know. There’s a lot that goes into liking a book/an author.

The selection is started with a fantastic poem; “This is a photograph of me” from The Circle Game. It’s just a poem about a lake, until a reader reaches the opening parenthesis (Atwood makes frequent use of parentheses). Suddenly, you realize why it is a photograph of the poem’s speaker. She’s in the lake. If you take the poem at face value, she drowned and her body remains in the water. Is the poem actually about drowning? Maybe, but not likely. There is a recurring theme of water in The Circle Game, which is also present in Atwood’s novel Surfacing.

For my thesis, I presented my adviser with a whole slew of haiku and he suggested I form them into a narrative story, but keep them as haiku. This recalled The Journals of Susanna Moody, which is a book of poems that tells the story of the historical namesake as a pioneer of the Canadian wilderness. The whole suggestion-connection-narration-poetry dynamic has me really excited for the haiku endeavor.

I like You Are Happy for the mythological references. I enjoy Greek mythology, so it is no surprise some of my sheep are named after figures of the myths. It makes me feel good inside to read something and to be able to pick out the allusions. I like connections.

Much of Atwood’s poetry appears to be about unrequited love or romance troubles. It’s not taxing to read all of these poems, as it is to hear all of the woes of an individual’s love-life. It’s a relief in a way. To find an order of words that says something trite and over done, but new and fresh (okay, not new. The newest of these poems was written in 1975). It’s not the same cut-and-dry cliches and tropes.

It’s all very earthy. No. Nature-oriented. Landscape exploration. Space in literature is a subject that’s been of particular interest to me of late. Which will be better explain if (when!) I write a post about my…. thesis.

 

The Poetics of Space

When I held my committee meeting for my thesis, the committee members (that were there) listed a couple of works as suggestions of what to read based on what my thesis is about. One of these books was Gaston Bachelard’s The Poetics of Space.

I went into reading this book knowing it wasn’t going to be particularly relevant to the type of space I’m exploring in my thesis. Bachelard’s work is primarily concerned with interiors, or intimate space as he calls it. Contrarily, my works have exterior and rural spaces. Real wide open places. Dialectics provide much insight, grasshopper.

86.4% of the book wasn’t directly relevant to my thesis. But reading the entire book was worth reading to obtain that other 13.6%. I would say any book read is never a waste of time, but that’s not true for all books. Some books are not very good at all. In the case of The Poetics of Space, the time spent reading it were not wasted. It was time well spent.

 

Surfacing

The first novel of Margaret Atwood’s I’ve read. I am thoroughly impressed with Atwood’s writing. Holy crap. Fantastic. Mentally stimulating. Emotionally overflowing. Surfacing has got everything I’d like to have in my own writing.

There were many quotes that made an impact on me, but the following four are the most memorable:

• “I’m trying to decide whether or not I love him. It shouldn’t matter, but there’s always a moment when curiosity becomes more important to them than peace and they need to ask; though he hasn’t yet. It’s best to have the answer worked out in advance: whether you evade it or do it the hard way and tell the truth, at least you aren’t caught of guard . . . . I’m fond of him, I’d rather have him around than not; though it would be nice if he meant something more to me. The fact that he doesn’t makes me sad: no one has since my husband. A divorce is like an amputation, you survive, but there’s less of you 39).”
• “I tried for all those years to be civilized but I’m not and I’m through pretending (173)”
• “From any rational point of view I am absurd; but there are no longer any rational points of view (173).”
• “His voice is annoyed: he won’t wait much longer. But right now he waits (199).”

The story is of a woman who travels to her childhood home in the wilderness of Canada. She is with her significant other and another couple. They believe it is just a fun trip, but the narrator is searching for news of her missing father. The relationships of the characters splinter and fragment. When the narrator finally learns her father is dead, her mind does the same. She retreats to the wilderness and abandons society and her friends.

When I read the first of my four above quotes, it really struck me. In fact, I have a personal connection with each of my above quotes. To the fourth,  must amend “How much longer until he’s done waiting?”

Excuse me as this turns into a personal rant.

Lance has been extremely patient with me. He’s pushed just enough without taking it too far. I think he knows all is not well in Rachel-world. There’s a couple cracks. I’ve always been more in touch with my animal nature. Humans are animals, after all. For the longest time, I would search his face with my eyes trying to figure him out. And he knew it. He knows the milk cows. You can work with them every day, but they never quite trust you. In the barn, in their stalls waiting to be milked, they stand steady. But in the pasture, their cautious natures come out.

So he’s waited and built and earned my trust, mostly. But how much longer can he wait? When will be too long? Everyone gives up some time. Even those who tell you otherwise. Even they’ll leave. No. Not all is well in Rachel-world at the moment. Just a temporary glitch. I was, and have been doing great as a whole. Maybe I’ll be better in the morning.