Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro - Chapters 1-6 Reliving Childhood

I know it's been a while since I last posted anything... and that I haven't done any more about The Aeneid - I ran out of time to read it so haven't really read much more of it, but that's no great loss! I HAVE been reading Never Let Me Go (hense the title to this post) by Kazuo Ishiguro in my spare time though, and I'm really enjoying it. I don't have any connections with other books for this one, just my general thoughts for the book and the little things I enjoyed.

So if you don't know already, this book is set in a sort of alternate world and, although we don't know that much about it yet, some of the characters (including the narrator, Kathy) seem to have been 'made' for a specific purpose. It mentions something about "donations", so I think that maybe they'll have to donate blood/body parts or something like that when they're older. They don't seem to have any parents, suggesting that they are all test-tube babies, and they're all brought up together in a type of boarding school run by 'guardians' (basically teachers). Nothing's really clear yet: i'm guessing more will be revealed...

I think the strongest point so far is the narrative style: it's written from the point of view of Kathy, one of these 'special' people who is currently working as a carer (I assume to the people who are donating) and who reminisces about her days at Hailsham (her school). The way it's written, as though she's speaking directly to you is especially effective, as it includes and yet also excludes us. I'll try to explain better, that doesn't really make sense does it? She says things straight to us like, "I don't know what it was like for you, but for me..." therefore including us in her story, relating to us and almost showing an interest in us. We're obviously expected to be the same as her, sharing similar experiences. However because of this we are in a way excluded from the key information of what she is exactly and what is going to happen to her: she assumes we know, as we are like her. This is particularly intriguing as we feel attached to Kathy because she 'talks' to us, but then we don't actually know the most important thing about her. I think this style of witholding information is very clever and definitelt makes me want to read more.

Another thing that I think Ishiguro does effectively is describe the feelings of children. Kathy recounts her school days frequently and there are stories she tells that I feel I can relate to when I think back to being that age. Allowing the audience to relate to Kathy in this way shows that she and the people like her are still human and pretty much the same as us: something that a lot of people in the novel seem not to understand. So here are some of the things that Kathy mentions that I particularly relate to. There's a bit where a girl asks one of the guardians an awkward question about something they're not really supposed to talk about, and the rest of the class seem to squirm with embarrassment. I remember when people asked personal questions to teachers I would feel so embarrassed for both of them and I couldn't even help it even though it had nothing to do with me. Another bit was when her friend Ruth (who it seems will come to be more important in the rest of the story) lied about where she got a pencil case to make her seem better, hinting that one of the guardians had given it to her as a present. Kathy, who is used to Ruth doing things like this, decides to challenge her about it because she's fed up with the lies. Ok what I was reminded of isn't exactly the same, but it spurred the same feeling of disgust and annoyance in me. When I was in secondary school there was a girl who used to lie all the time - not always about anything major, sometimes just to get out of PE - and everyone knew she lied but no one ever challenged her about it. One day she announced that she was going to the Premiere for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire that night. Ok, you know how I feel about Harry Potter and I just couldn't let this one slide. So I calmly pointed out to her that the premiere had been 2 days ago and she obviously wasn't going. She got all flustered and said that she was going to one in another city, and when I told her that the whole point was that there was only one premiere I think I became her worst enemy. She never forgave me. Ruth's reaction wasn't at all as violent as this, but I was just reminded of that awful person by reading this bit.

Wow, so this has been an incredibly long review! Well it feels long. I will continue with reading NLMG and maybe read some more of The Aeneid if I really have to... Thrilling!

The Aeneid - Books 1-3 - Harry Potter Galore

Ok, JK Rowling MUST have read this book. I'm not even a third of the way through and already there are so many names that appear in the Harry Potter series. Was this book her naming guide or something?

I initially thought this book was about the Trojan war too, but that's just at the beginning. It follows Aeneas, a Trojan warrior who survived the war and is following a path set out by the Fates to found Rome. He appeared occassionally in The Iliad, but whereas that poem flits from character to character, this one focuses on Aeneas. So far it's not too bad - again it's not difficult to read, but it's just slow-paced. Ok, let's get to the good bit: the Harry Potter stuff :D

• Book 1 has a huuuge amount of names found in HP, for example Amycus (as in the Death Eater Amycus Carrow), Remus (Lupin <3) and Arcturus (as in Sirius' brother Regulus Arcturus Black). These made me excited each time I saw one!
• Book 3 mentions someone called Phineas (as in Phineas Nigellus, one of Sirius' ancestors, and the mot unpopular headmaster Hogwarts ever had).
• Book 1 has a line that reminded me of a Paradise Lost quote. It said, "they were like bees at the beginning of summer, busy in the sunshine..." it goes on for a while, but there was a very similar simile (lol similar simile!) towards the end of PL books 1, where  it said "brushed with the hiss of rustling wings like bees in springtime..." which also goes on for a while.
• Book 3 also mentions Hermione, Helen and Menelaus' daughter, and a goddess called Minerva.

So in just 68 pages there are at least seven names that also appear in the Harry Potter books. I think we know how JKR found her names.

There's not really much else to say about it, I'm not that far into the poem, but I thought, as there were so many HP connections I'd do a post now. I've just started reading Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro - the one that's just been made into a film starring Kiera Knightley, Carey Mulligan and Andrew Garfield. It's not on my course, just for fun so I'll be able to talk about something modern for a change! I'll do another post in a few days - Toodles!

The Iliad - Books 11-24 - Thank Goodness!

Wow. I finished it. That's SUCH a relief! I never have to read it (in full) again! Not a huge amount happens in the second half - main points are that Achilles' BFF gets killed by Hector (the Trojan leader) so Achilles is really ragey and RAAAH... so he decides to fight Hector and manages to kill him and the Trojans get depressed and then that's it. Exciting. As I have nothing else to say about the general content of the poem, I shall get straight on to my random musings on it...

• Firstly, the fight scenes are incredibly violent. If this was done as a film it could easily be an 18. Here is a particularly graphic quote: "clean through the heavy metal and bone the point burst / and the brains splattered all inside the casque". Charming. (Don't ask me what a casque is, I have no idea).
• Book 11, line 452 - this dude called Diomedes has a pole stuck through his foot which goes through into the ground, but he is "never flinching". This made me think about a bit in the third Ergaon book called Brisingr by Christopher Paolini when a load of soldiers have been enchanted to not feel pain, instead they feel like they're being tickled... Yeah I just thought of that because it's quite a creepy, inhuman image, of someone just ignoring a crippling pain like that.
• Book 11 AGAIN, line 579 - just a throwaway line about "wounded Lysander", but I was very concerned that it might be the same Lysander from A Midsummer Night's Dream and I felt very sorry for Hermia :(
• Book 12, line 29 - this reminded me of Paradise Lost again. Here it says "nine days hurled their flood against the wall", and in PL, Satan and his pals are "hurled headlong" for "nine times the space that measures day and night". I think Milton liked this poem... strange man.
• Book 18, line 690 - they mentioned someone called Daedalus and I was like OMG Diggle!! (as in Daedalus Diggle, a minor character in the Harry Potter series. Get with it guys).

So yeah those are my thoughts on The Iliad.

I also had to read a critcal essay on Homer by some ancient Trojan guy, and there was one bit which I thought was very interesting and can be applied to modern day life. He said,

"Most men are so completelty corrupted at heart by opinion that they would rather be notorious for the greatest calamities than suffer no ill and be unknown".

I thought that this kind of fits in with modern day celebrities - we see so many who will do anything to be famous *coughjordancough*, and they don't care why people know about them, just so long as everyone does. We should take after HazzaP who didn't want to be famous but made the best of it and came out pretty awesome in the end :]

The Iliad - Books 1-10 - Why is it so hard to concentrate??

Well hello again! I've been reading The Iliad like I said, and well... I'm finding it difficult to pay attention so far, hopefully it'll get better. The first time I perked up was in Book 2 when it mentioned someone called Hermione and I was like, OMG Granger! But of course it wasn't referring to the loveable brainbox.

Maybe I should explain what The Iliad is about to those lucky people who haven't read it: it's basically about a short period in the Greek/Trojan War - you know the one with Helen of Troy, Achilles and the legendary Wooden Horse thing. It seems to be written in favour of the Achaeans (Greeks), but I always preferred the Trojans... not sure why. I know the poem is renouned and considered great literature, and I do appreciate the genius of Homer - I mean to create a poem that long (614 pages in my copy) and with all the wonderful metaphors and poetic language is amazing - but it's not exactly my favourite book. I got really annoyed with the treatment and objectification of women by pretty much all the male charcaters and took an instant dislike to Agamemnon because he's so angry, selfish and mean, however I like all the interactions between the gods and godesses - the poet seems sometimes to have shown them in a petty, childlike way: especially the resentment of Hera and Athena to Zeus.

Ok so here are a few things that I thought of when reading so far:

• Book 4 line 50 and Book 8 lines 238-41 - the system of the gods seems pretty autocratic: Zeus is always reinforcing his power over the others, in Books 2 he says, "give me my way", and various times in Book 8 he brags how much stronger than the others he is, and how there's no way they can defeat him or rise against him. I don't know, it doesn't seem a very fair system.
• Book 8 again - there is a point where they Trojans and Argives are fighting and the Trogans are winning so the Argives get scared. So they run to their ships to escape and a leader yells at them to run back and fight, then they get scared and run away again, and this keeps going on for mulitple times, and it was just like, SERIOUSLY GUYS?? Make your minds up! Good Grief.
• Book 8 again, line 654 - There was a really good line here that went, "stallions waited for Dawn to mount her glowing throne". I just thought the imagery here was lovely, and the personification of dawn made me think of Fantasia - you know that Disney animation to classical music? Yeah there was a bit in there where Night glided over the sky as a woman, and I always loved that bit, so I thought about that here.
• There's a heck of a lot of connections I found to Paradise Lost which I studied last year, and I'm not surprised because Milton was pretty into his classics.

I also had to read a chapter of a different books for another of my modules about the Theory of English, and there was a line that instantly made me think about Harry Potter. It was from something that Dante wrote (man, I sound so intellectual here!) saying, "in matters of great secrecy we should have few companions". OK is this not EXACTLY what Dumbledore was saying to Harry in Half Blood Prince when he told him to confide only in Ron and Hermione about the Horcrux mission? That's the whole reason the trio had to work it all out alone, because the more people who knew what they were up to, the more likely it was that Voldemort would find out. So Dante was right.

So I will continue to read The Iliad -I need to finish it by Thursday morning so I'll probably do a new post sometime around then... The next book is, unfortunately, The Aeneid which is apparently pretty much the same as this one but from the Trojans' point of view... oh the joys of English. Hopefully I'll get time to read something more light-hearted soon!

Well this is new...

Hello to whoever might be reading this charming blog! I'm finding it strange not knowing who will be reading this, but also quite cool. I should probably start by saying why I'm doing this.

I'm currently studying English Literature in University and so read an insane amount of books. Seriously. I've read like 12 in the last 3 months and that's a lot even for me! Lots of the time when reading I suddenly think of a link to another book I've read which doesn't relate at all to what I should be thinking about, and often I forget these as I progress through the novel. This is a way for me to say what I think about the books in a personal rather than 'literary' way, and also if I'm lucky to entertain people with my wierd ways and often far-fetched theories and connections.

One thing I should mention: I am an INSANE Harry Potter fan. It is one of the most prominent features of my life and I have long held a desire to meet JK Rowling. Because of this, probably the majority of my connections and links will be related to the Harry Potter series... mainly because I can't really say that Paradise Lost can be compared to Harry Potter in my seminars as all the literary types might eat me. But I can prove that the series is actually good literature rather than just popular children's fiction here. So yeah, you will soon see how slightly obsessed I am with Harry Potter and maybe even come to love it too if you don't already (and if you don't, what is wrong with you??)

I don't really know how often I'll do new posts... just go with the flooow... But yeah, I'm starting with The Iliad by Homer - heavy going I know, and not my own choice of book, but I'll power through and find something interesting to comment about here!