I just read this blog and thought you might be interested... I know some of the books they talk about are on the Penguin Classics list!
http://readandlead.blogspot.com/2010/05/literary-monster-mashups.html
*"Monster Mashups" makes me think simultaneously of "the Monster Mash" and mashups from Glee!
Monday, May 17, 2010
Sunday, May 2, 2010
1984
Added another to my favorites from this list. From the moment I started reading it, I was hooked. But of course, I love stories like this.
If you don't know, it is about a man living in the futuristic dystopian where the Party rules. The citizens are always being watched, and people are persecuted for crimes they didn't commit.. if the party was suspicious of you, you were erased from existence.. past, present, and future.
The over-arching theme I found in this book was the fact that humans, with enough force behind it, can ignore anything and be convinced of anything.. and how terrifying that fact is. Especially with everything that's going on with this Teaparty shit and Obama is a socialist nonsense, it's timely.
Orwell's vision was epic. The idea of Newspeak was brilliant. To systematically narrow language so there is no free thinking is so obvious, but something that is completely out of reach of most minds. I never would have thought of that, though I know very well that our language forms everything around us.
I felt, largely, that this was not about the story. Normally that's not something I would be thrilled about, but Orwell did it brilliantly. He was painting the future--his vision of hell--and not the life of this man. I think if he was trying to write a story and not a snapshot of the future, he would have had Winston overcome the Party's brainwashing. I wish he would have committed suicide when he was released from the Party, but he didn't. He eventually gave in and loved Big Brother. But it's not about Winston--it's about the weakness of the human race, the nightmare our nature holds.
This is why I started this list, to encounter brilliant minds like Orwell's.
If you don't know, it is about a man living in the futuristic dystopian where the Party rules. The citizens are always being watched, and people are persecuted for crimes they didn't commit.. if the party was suspicious of you, you were erased from existence.. past, present, and future.
The over-arching theme I found in this book was the fact that humans, with enough force behind it, can ignore anything and be convinced of anything.. and how terrifying that fact is. Especially with everything that's going on with this Teaparty shit and Obama is a socialist nonsense, it's timely.
Orwell's vision was epic. The idea of Newspeak was brilliant. To systematically narrow language so there is no free thinking is so obvious, but something that is completely out of reach of most minds. I never would have thought of that, though I know very well that our language forms everything around us.
I felt, largely, that this was not about the story. Normally that's not something I would be thrilled about, but Orwell did it brilliantly. He was painting the future--his vision of hell--and not the life of this man. I think if he was trying to write a story and not a snapshot of the future, he would have had Winston overcome the Party's brainwashing. I wish he would have committed suicide when he was released from the Party, but he didn't. He eventually gave in and loved Big Brother. But it's not about Winston--it's about the weakness of the human race, the nightmare our nature holds.
This is why I started this list, to encounter brilliant minds like Orwell's.
hitopadesa
[note: I finished this a couple weeks ago, just been busy]
Hitopadesa, by Narayana, was composed from multiple Sanskrit fables and maxims some time between 800 and 950. It is the story of a king who must find a way to teach his three sons the virtues of being a king and what it means to be a good person. They will not listen to the king when he tries to teach them, and a priest volunteers to use his methods to make them listen. He tells them a series of stories about animals, and using unique situations he applies the maxims of kingship and virtue through them. The stories are separated into four books, one on gaining friends, one on splitting partners, one on war, and one on peace.
It was interesting to see how basic qualities of human relationships were expressed through the Sanskrit maxims and personified in animals. And of course, the simple fact that texts like these prove no matter how complex society gets, relationships between people stay the same. The stories were quirky, the animals believable and likable.
The structure confused me at times, because the way it was set up it would have a story within a story within a story, and sometimes I would forget what the original story was about.
Overall, it was an interesting read. I enjoyed it, but I always enjoy a peak into an ancient culture!
Hitopadesa, by Narayana, was composed from multiple Sanskrit fables and maxims some time between 800 and 950. It is the story of a king who must find a way to teach his three sons the virtues of being a king and what it means to be a good person. They will not listen to the king when he tries to teach them, and a priest volunteers to use his methods to make them listen. He tells them a series of stories about animals, and using unique situations he applies the maxims of kingship and virtue through them. The stories are separated into four books, one on gaining friends, one on splitting partners, one on war, and one on peace.
It was interesting to see how basic qualities of human relationships were expressed through the Sanskrit maxims and personified in animals. And of course, the simple fact that texts like these prove no matter how complex society gets, relationships between people stay the same. The stories were quirky, the animals believable and likable.
The structure confused me at times, because the way it was set up it would have a story within a story within a story, and sometimes I would forget what the original story was about.
Overall, it was an interesting read. I enjoyed it, but I always enjoy a peak into an ancient culture!
Thursday, April 15, 2010
halfway point: woohoo!
This point kind of caught me by surprise, but here I am--at the halfway mark to the challenge I started back in September. I thought I would do a little recap, going over some random facts about my journey.
To remind everyone, this was the first half of my list:
A : Inferno by Dante Alighieri
B : Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs
C : The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
D : A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
E : Parzival by Wolfrag von Eschenbach
F : The Beautiful and the Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald
G : Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
H : Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
I : The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories by Washington Irving
J : Dubliners by James Joyce
K : On the Road by Jack Kerouac
L : Passing by Nella Larsen
M : Moby Dick by Herman Melville
- Started on : September 3, 2009
- Ended [M] on : April 14, 2010
- Total Weeks : 25.5*
- Total Pages : 5189 (4517 Quality Paper, 672 Mass Market)
- Longest : [H] Les Miserables, Victor Hugo (1200 pages)
- Shortest : [L] Passing, Nella Larsen (160 pages)
- Favorites : [D] Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens ; [H] Les Miserables, Victor Hugo ; [K] On the Road, Jack Kerouac
- Least Favorites : [E] Parzival, Wolfrag von Eschenbach ; [M] Moby Dick, Herman Melville
- Most Surprising : [A] Inferno, Dante Alighieri ; [H] Les Miserables, Victor Hugo ; [G] Faust, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
- What I would Change:
[B] Tarzan of the Apes, Edgar Rice Burroughs --> Don Juan, Lord Byron
[E] Parzival, Wolfrag von Eschenbach
[J] Dubliners, James Joyce --> Non short story novel, James Joyce
* Time spent reading classics, excluding personal reading
Right now, I can only say I'm more than ever to get going on the second half of this challenge. I'm already thinking about what I want to read once I'm done with all this.
I've learned a lot so far, and this is a great thing.
Next up: the Hitopadesa, Narayana
moby dick (melville)
Ah.. Moby Dick. The halfway point in my series.
From what I understand, this is supposed to be one of the greatest (if not greatest) novels in the English language. An allegory for America at the time, it follows Ishmal, a sailor on a whaling ship, as he deals with his crazy captain who is hell-bent on killing the massive white whale, known as Moby Dick.
Maybe I am just dumb (which I've been told quite recently is probably true), but I just don't get it. The writing is wonderful. The base story was really great and intriguing. I really enjoyed that part of it.. but the extraneous stuff on whale lore, knowledge, and hunting was so hard to get through for me. I hated having to wade through 100+ pages of information that I felt was largely unnecessary.
I think if I were to read the abridged version I would love it. As it stands now, I'm a little disappointed. But I'm just clueless, I guess!
From what I understand, this is supposed to be one of the greatest (if not greatest) novels in the English language. An allegory for America at the time, it follows Ishmal, a sailor on a whaling ship, as he deals with his crazy captain who is hell-bent on killing the massive white whale, known as Moby Dick.
Maybe I am just dumb (which I've been told quite recently is probably true), but I just don't get it. The writing is wonderful. The base story was really great and intriguing. I really enjoyed that part of it.. but the extraneous stuff on whale lore, knowledge, and hunting was so hard to get through for me. I hated having to wade through 100+ pages of information that I felt was largely unnecessary.
I think if I were to read the abridged version I would love it. As it stands now, I'm a little disappointed. But I'm just clueless, I guess!
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Prelude to "F"
Onto "F" which I meant to pick up a while ago at the library and just now did. Ben Franklin's autiobiography and other writings is my next selection. I am excited to begin this because Ben Franklin was an interesting character.
Not only was he a founding father and invented lots of cool things, like the farmers alamanac, bifocals, etc Im sure I will be able to add to this later. He also endorsed some pretty unpopular views for the time and was pretty open about it. He was pretty open as an abolitionist (I think) and as a bit of a flirt/philanderer. He totally had a son out of wedlock and still took care of the kid and was kinda like yeah...what now? Pretty out of the box at the time.
Additionally, and this might be the part I am most excited about, the edition I found at the library, totally accidentally, has illustrations by Thomas Hart Benton! I really enjoy Thomas Hart Benton, I discovered this love from the painting I put on this post which is in the KU Spencer Art Museum gallery, one of the first things I saw on campus. And hes a Midwesterner! Represent!
Anyway, hopefully I can keep the reading public (if it exists) better updated on this book as I move along.
Happy reading all!
little r
Note: The title of this painting is "The Ballad of the Jealous Lover of Lone Green Valley"
"E" is for Electra
Hello all!
First of all, a big WOOT WOOT to allison and katie for being faithful bloggers. Yay! I always appreciate your interesting comments and passion for reading. AWESOMENESS.
So for my "E" book I chose Electra and other plays by Euripides. This collection included 4-5 plays other than Electra. However, I regret to report that I can't comment much on the other plays in this book. I started reading Andromache and it was so tragic I couldn't keep it going. I barely made it through Electra frankly, and didn't try much else in the collection (which was actually pretty short) including Hecuba, Trojan Women and some others.
Electra itself was pretty tragic. ALERT TO PLOT SPOILERS*************** Obviously, as this was a collection of tragedies but I forgot how TRAGIC and DEPRESSING those Greek tragedies are. In Electra, she is basically banished into the country (which is supposed to be shameful) by her stepfather after her mother kills (I think...oops) her father. Her brother is also exiled. And guess what....it ends tragically. Thats about all I have to say about that.
Note: I think Carmen Electra might have been more interesting. And Im not into girls.
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