Reading is not for the faint of heart
Last week I finished reading "The Watchmen", the graphic novel that will soon be a movie that, unless it has a happy Hollywood ending tacked onto it, will spread its message of bleakness to many more millions of people than have read the book. When I closed the back cover of "The Watchmen" I decided that whatever I read next would have to a bit, well, brighter. So I picked up "Tess of the d' Urbervilles". Oops.
In college I took a class that was called something along the lines of "The 19th Century Novel". One of the first books we read was a Jane Austen novel, and every class discussion involved some sort of swooning and face-fanning on the part of the professor. I ended up dropping the class because good grief, but one of the things she said has stuck with me to this day. She said that a reader can figure out pretty quickly how a Jane Austen novel is going to end, and that the joy of her novels are in the telling of the journey that the characters take to get to that end. I felt the same applied to "Tess of the d' Urbervilles", except you knew that there wasn't going to be happy ending and you wondered why you were torturing yourself with 400+ pages of misery. The upside was that Tess was one of the best characters I've ever encountered in a novel. The downside is what Thomas Hardy puts her through. Poor Tess.
Earlier this week I got two surprise packages in the mail. One was from Mel who sent along the first three volumes of "Sugar Sugar Rune". The other was from my parents who sent me volume 2 of the Complete Little Orphan Annie collection. The literary forecast in this house shows sunny weather in the near future thanks to my friends and family who have taken *very* good care of me this week.
Comments
I found it funny that we were both blogging about the endings of books today...you're discussing serious adult books like Tess of the d'Urbervilles and the Watchmen. And me...The House on Pooh Corner;) I've got to start reading for real again...
Posted by: elizabeth | January 25, 2009 01:45 PM
I started reading The Watchmen but I couldn't get into it. It's that brand of male cynicism that guys think is really cool and I think is pointless.
Like I said, I haven't finished the book so I can't judge that particular work. Generally though I prefer that my unrealistic fiction be silly.
Posted by: Mel | January 25, 2009 03:57 PM
Male cynicism... I like that (because I'm male?). Is THAT what was bugging Dickens?
Watchmen reminded me a lot of certain anime (most things do for some reason) that delve into the social de-evolution of a metropolis, usually ending in some sort of cataclysm with an uncertain future.
Saw an interview with the director who commented that Watchmen was wondering what a society would look like if average people put on costumes and fought crime. Apparently the die-hard fans are cautiously optimistic at signs that the film-makers are interested in exploring the darker themes and the social criticism of the graphic novel. Curious to see the final product.
Posted by: david | January 25, 2009 04:51 PM
Now I'm going to have go back and finish the book.
Fortunately I have plenty of silly stuff to read afterwards. And then I'll make cupcakes with pink icing.
Posted by: Mel | January 27, 2009 05:44 PM