the pan

i probably should've waited to read peter pan until i was "in the mood" for a kid's book, which i inevitably am every few months. however this time i was not. i can definitely appreciate it as a great story and a story that has become immortal. it has all the elements of a great adventure story: imagination, flying, fairies, pirates, battles, mermaids, etc. there are also more tender themes, like the desire everyone has to be cared for by someone. one thing i did not expect (or remember perhaps from what i knew of the story) is that peter is quite the little brat. he is cocky, opinionated, and intolerant of anyone who knows more of him. he shows his softer side many times, but he is still pretty mischievous most of the time. on top of that, tinker bell is extremely tempestuous and fiery, though at the same time, giving and self-sacrificing. all in all, i liked it, but would have enjoyed more if i wasn't looking forward to other books that i'm more inclined to right now. that's the way it always is with my reading. i have to be in the right mood for a certain genre or theme.

next, i am taking a slight derivation from the classics road to read fair and tender ladies by lee smith. it's a contemporary book, given to me by my sister-in-law, sara, and comes highly recommended. technically, it still fits in with my literary journey because i've never read anything by lee smith.

well, this post is boring even me, so i'm signing off.

the undead

when i first started reading dracula, i was pleasantly surprised. i thought it was all going to be about the vampire and his victims, and it is in sort, but the way stoker forms the story is, in my opinion, interesting and unique. the entire drama is told through letters, journal entries, newspaper clippings (though less than the former two), and sometimes telegrams. for the first half of the book, the characters do not really know who or what count dracula is or what he may be doing, although any reader familiar with stoker's famous creation does know. however, there is still a shroud of mystery surrounding the first part of the book. the second half is more what i expected. though still told through journal entries, it is about a group's quest to find and kill--or really kill--the undead count dracula. as a sensational novel, there really isn't much character development, but it is wildly entertaining. one think i did not enjoy, however, was the sheer amount of masculine angst and show of heroics. there is much talk of "manly bravery" and "he's all man, that one," while the female characters are "sweet", "delicate", and "fragile." we may be the two former, but the latter, i think not. still, i have to applaud stoker in that, in the end, the character of mina harker, one of the delicates, emerged as a very heroic and strong person.

all in all, i liked dracula. it was entertaining and, despite the well-known aspects of the story such as stakes through the heart, garlic, and crucifixes, it was still an interesting read.

for my next classic, i choose one a bit lighter in tone: peter pan.

friends

craig said to me last night: "lately i've felt like i want to move...to a new house or a new city. either one. i think it's because i've moved every year for a long time. it could also be that i don't have any good friends here." that got me thinking. besides being true that we have both moved every year for the past several years, it is also true that neither he nor i have a close friend here in savannah yet. we have some friends, yes, but none that i would call when i'm feeling down. none that craig can really just watch sports with and confide in. there are potential close friends; friendships that could be cultivated into something great and hopefully they will be, but when it comes down to it, craig and i are all we've got. and benjamin of course, who is a good listener, but doesn't add much to the conversation yet. part of our lack of bosom buddies is our own fault. we are both fairly introverted and can function just fine with only each other for quite some time. moreover, we are new(ish) parents and are still adjusting to putting benjamin's needs first. our son goes to bed at night between 6:30 and 7, so we can't even have dinner over at another couple's house really. i should've joined a mother's group a while ago but i still haven't done it (but i hope to), and craig spends all his time at his church and with church people, who, great as they may be, just can't be your best friends.

i have such wonderful friends from my college days. from that hodge-podge of people at berry college, i found myself linked with the most extraordinary men and women. many of them i became closer too after graduation. my best friend and the funniest person i know, rachel, was a freshmen and i a senior when we met. not the best recipe for continuing a friendship considering i was about to graduate, but eight, count e'm, eight years later, i still talk to her more than any other friend and still consider her my best friend. my singing partner for five years, erin, is one of the most original people i've ever known and i learned about being true to oneself and sincerity in friendships from her. there's shannon, who, as she talks with you, does her own commercials, and is probably the smartest woman i've met so far. alyssa, with her quiet strength and despite her questions and doubts, is the first person i want to talk to when i feel i'm having faith issues. emily with her surety and beauty, intelligence and empathy, is the girl who pulled me through the first rough months in nashville and i am so sad we rarely talk anymore, but i still love and think of her. bethany with her consistency, humor, empathy, and talent, reminds me of the simple joys of friends and family. i've always loved the way she loves her friends and family. many of you may not know these great women, but i do and i count myself blessed and lucky to know them still. i hope you all know, despite our scattered communication, how much you have meant and still mean to me in my life.

despite my possibly lonely current state, i have hope. hope that my friends of old will forever be my friends. hope that new friends may come my way. and thankfulness for the friends i have known and the family i have, many of whom are my friends too. sara, you were my sanity during those first months of motherhood, literally. i can't think you enough for always listening to me and giving me comfort. brandon, i look up to you more than you probably know. i admire, respect and love you. as a true little sister, i can gladly regard my big brother as someone i want to be like when i grow up. mom, thanks for always being there for me. despite the common, mother-daughter angst that can sometimes creep up, i'm glad you are my friend and i think you are a strong, interesting and capable woman. thanks to all of craig's family who have accepted me as one of their own with open arms.

and to craig, my love, my best friend, my partner: life with you is half as hard, and twice as good.

the quest for more

last night i finished madame bovary, and i must say, it is quite a tragic novel. it's about a woman who wants more and is never satisfied. married to a "dull" provincial doctor, she longs for the adventures of love and culture, and so falls into a life of adultery, lies, bankruptcy, and an end that none would wish on anyone. the book is an interesting look into the normal human longing for more, for adventure, for something amazing, and a poignant lesson of what happens when we look for those things through less than noble pursuits. emma, the main character, is extremely unlikeable, at least to me, after about the first fifty pages. one understands that she does not and cannot love her husband, but he is such a good fellow and loves her so dearly, her actions are abominable and selfish even to someone who might relate to her unhappiness in marriage (to which i do not). she has a little daughter who is basically raised by the maid and emma's relentless pursuit of her own pleasure leads to an unhappy life for all her family. still, emma represents that tendency in us all to want more than we have. in her case, she was unhappy, but even for the happiest of us, there is always that internal nag for more. call it the product of a consumerist society, but i tend to believe it is a touch of the eternal in us all. the hope that beyond our bodies and what we can see, there is, in fact, more.

my next venture: dracula by bram stoker. oh yeah.

and i quote...(flaubert)

as i was reading madame bovary, i came across a passage where two characters (monsieur leon and madame bovary herself) were discussing their love of books. i really love what leon says about the adventures of reading and so i thought i'd quote it hear as an appendix to my last post.

"you empty your mind...and the hours fly past. without stirring from your chair, you wander through countries you can see in your mind's eye, and your consciousness threads itself into the fiction, playing about with the details or following the ups and downs of the plot. you identify with the characters; you feel as if it's your own heart that's beating beneath their costumes."

monsieur flaubert himself. handsome bloke, eh?

a journey into the classics

everyone who knows me knows that i'm a bibliophile. i love books. i love reading them, obviously, but i also love the smell, the feel, the look of books. when i was a kid i used to dump my book into water to make them look "old". my mother still tells that little funny fact about me to her friends. well, i'm beyond dunking books into the bathtub, but i'm still pretty compulsive of how my books look. it's one of my quirky little tendencies. luckily i also love the stories the books contain. while i occasionally run across some modern fiction that is really great, i am a deep lover of the classics. i enjoy the opportunity they provide to experience a different time, a different place, different lives. in these gems of the past, i can live in nineteenth century russia, smell the smells of old london, empathize with poverty without going hungry (to some extent), feel the limitations women experienced years ago as well as their liberation. i can be french, british, asian, male, female, child. this is true of all literature, but what i appreciate about the classics is the culture so unlike my own, yet still similiar in many ways. c.s. lewis said, "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." books and the stories they contain not only let us experience a different reality, they alter our own. and that's what i love about reading.

that being said, there are a few great authors i have never read; authors who, as a lover of the classic tales, i should have already read. i know they are great authors because they are timeless and their stories famous. only the really great stories affect history for so long. so, before i wade through anymore of my beloved kid books (my love of those i'll save for another post), or reread any books or read any unread books by an author i've already read, i'm taking a journey through these unknown (to me) and famous writers and update here on my blog what i think of them. i do not flatter myself that many will really care what i think of a great book, but i'll enjoy writing about it. some of the authors i plan to visit on this tour are gustave flaubert, thomas hardy, henry james, mary shelley, bram stoker, j.m. barrie, dawn powell, graham greene, george eliot, george sand, rudyard kipling, robert louis stevenson (i think i did read treasure island long ago, but i count him as still unread as i remember little), daniel defoe, elizabeth gaskell, mark twain (if i read huckleberry finn in high school, i don't recall it), anne bronte, herman melville, nikolai gogol, lewis carroll, mary elizabeth braddon, d.h. lawrence, fanny burney, nathaniel hawthorne (i did read the scarlet letter in high school), l. frank baum,  gabriel garcia marquez, and i'm sure some others i can't think of right now. join me on the journey if you will.

my first endeavor: madame bovary by gustave flaubert.