I've decided that as the book is split into parts I might as well do the reviews in the same parts as well... that and the fact that I DON'T WANT TO READ THIS ANY SLOWER!! I am really enjoying this book, and I really want to see the film now!
Ok so Part 2 details the couple of years spent after Hailsham. The students leave at the age of 17 and are shipped off in small groups to sort of private accommodation. Ruth, Kathy and Tommy, along with a few other people from their year, are sent off to a place called The Cottages. It was quite strange reading this, as I could really relate to their situation, having just started University last September. I can really empathise with their strange feeling of independence and dislocation. In their case, they don't come to learn or anything, but they do have to just fend for themsleves. It seemed a bit pointless really, as they literally weren't doing anything: they had nothing they had to accomplish, no job, nothing. By now we know that their lives aren't going to last long once they leave The Cottages, so maybe it's just a way for them to relax or come to terms with the future. Maybe it's something worse: maybe it's just waiting for their bodies to become fully developed so they can start donating.
Kathy describes how the group from Hailsham are viewed as being luckier than others, but in a way that they don't quite understand. It's not until later that we find out why, and I'll get to that in a bit. There is a large mix of people at The Cottages, the older ones called The Veterans (which I thought was kind of strange, as they're only like 19), and Kathy tells us how Ruth is like enamoured of them: she copies their gestures, sucks up to them, laughs at their jokes etc. You know how I feel about Ruth, so this just got me even more annoyed - especially when she would laugh at Tommy in front them. In fact I've noticed that she's actually quite mean to him - and Kathy for that matter - WHY DO THEY STAY FRIENDS WITH HER?? She seems to be a leader, she's very authoritative, and I suppose when she's nice it must be great to be around her. But is she really worth it? Maybe it's simply because they've known each other all their lives that they feel they can't ditch her.
Anyway Ruth is being all sychophantic and getting very annoying, but the most important thing that comes in Part 2 is the introduction of the "possibles". It is here that we find out that these students are in fact clones. They've known this for years, which is another example of the narrative style: Kathy assumes we know so doesn't feel the need to tell us. So these "possibles" are basically the people who could have given DNA or whatever to make the donors. They should look like them and, I thought this was intensely sad, the students seem to think that if they can find their possible they will see what their life could be like if they try. They always seem to cling onto hope, even when they know that there's no way they will be able to live normally.
Two other characters Chrissie and Rodney saw this possible for Ruth in Norfolk, and them, Ruth, Kathy and Tommy take a road trip there. Before they find the possible though, they bring up something which explains why the Veterans think Hailsham students so lucky. There's a rumour that if two donors are completely in love, they can apply to Hailsham for a deferral of their donations. If they can prove that they're truly in love, they can have a few more years together. Excuse me while I curl up in my sock drawer and cry. Seriously that is so sad. I mean, I know that it's good they can get a few more years, but for one thing how do you prove that you're in love, and for another, there'd always be a reminder, hanging over you that this wouldn't last. SOB :((. Anyway, R, K and T have never heard this rumour (which did surprise me, as there were so many flying about when they were at Hailsham) and the matter is kind of forgotten when they find Ruth's possible. It turns out that it really isn't 'Ruth', and I have to admit, I did feel really sorry for her. Her dejection afterwards suggests she thought something monumental might happen, maybe that she would be accepted as a kind of daughter, I don't know. But her upset was evident.
Everything after this seems shadow of these revelations about possibles and the rumour, however we do find something out: the possibles are not normally 'normal' people, but tramps, prostitutes, that kind of thing, and it really affected Kathy when she's confronted with this fact. Maybe it's because they've all been made from "the gutter" (I think that's what it says in the book, not 100% sure) that she feels she's not considered equal to the 'normal' people.
Anyway things carry on and Ruth's being horrible again and then Tommy reveals something that I never picked up on. When they were at Hailsham they were encouraged to do Art. Like seriously encouraged. Tommy wasn't very good and stopped, but later one guardian told him that it was incredibly important to keep it up. So he starts again at the Cottages, and reveals to Kathy that he believes this is how they decide if you're in love or not. By looking at your Artwork and comparing each persons they can see if they're compatible or not. I quite like this idea, however I'm not completely convinced that it would work. I mean, can you really tell what someone's like from their art? Yeah ok, maybe you can, but can you tell if two people are in love because of it? I don't know, but Tommy and Kathy seem to agree, and I'll admit it's certainly possible.
Eventually, after a huge argument with Ruth, Kathy decides she's finally ready to leave the Cottages and become a Carer. This is someone who looks after the donors, it's what the present Kathy, the one narrating, is still doing. Part 2 ends with Kathy's life at the Cottages, and this section seemed to be a big one for revelation and realising that what they were told at Hailsham wasn't the entire truth.
Ok I realise this was an insanely long entry - hopefully the next one will be a bit shorter! I'll do that in a few days, so ttfn :]
Monday, 21 March 2011
Sunday, 13 March 2011
Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro - Chapters 7-9 Awful revelations
I didn't mean to go this long without another blog post! I really need to do it more often, I forget how much I enjoy writing it! Ok so this 'review' is of chapters seven to nine - I have read further than that, but the book is split into parts, so chapter ten was a good place to stop this post, as the next chapter is in part 2.
You know I said last time how we didn't really know exactly what these people were? Well the beginning of Chapter Seven explains all. The explanation comes in the form of Miss Lucy: a guardian who seems passionate about treating these children properly, especially when 'normal' people seem to feel a great aversion to them. We find out through her something really awful: these children were made especially to be donors for other people when they're older. This means that whenever 'normal' people like us need an operation/transplant or something, a perfect match can be found in one of these people. Their aim in life is to die. Not only did this get me thinking about Harry Potter again (I'll get bakc to that in a bit), but it reminded me of My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult. That book (which I loved) was about a girl who was born to be the perfect match for her sister, so that she could help give the blood/kidney etc to keep the other alive. This doesn't seem exactly ethical and I'm undecided about how I feel towards it, however doing it on this scale, 'creating' masses of children just so they can die seems really horrible.
Bringing Harry Potter into it, there's been this huge debate since the last book came out, and we discovered what Harry had to do in order to truly defeat Voldemort, about whether Dumbledore raised Harry as 'a pig for slaughter': whether he knew all along that he was going to die (if you want more depthful discussions I'd suggest listening to MuggleCast, an awesome podcast). To do that to one person is bad enough but to that many? Miss Lucy tells them that they will never grow up properly, won't be able to get jobs, travel, have families or anything because their only point is to give their bodies to others. Just that thought is pretty grim: to know that your life is only going to be about 30 years long and that you can't do what you want with it must be awful.
Despite this terrible truth hanging over them, the students of Hailsham don't seem to think about it much. These chapters detail the characters between the ages of 15 and 17, and I find it strange how Kathy, our narrator and personal connection with this strange world, reveals less and less about herself. It's not like she's being secretive, more that the focus of her story is on other people: namely Ruth and Tommy. She of course tells us things about her, but not many of her feelings. For example, Ruth and Tommy get together as a couple (which, by the way, I was surprised at, I thought it would be Kathy and Tommy) and Kathy tells us all about their relationship, but very little about her actual feelings towards it. Also, she suggests that she has a thing with one of the other boys in her year, but we don't here mentin of it except for a couple of lines. This is a bit like The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford, in which we don't find out the narrator's name until very far on in the book, despite the fact that it's written from her perspective, and when he gets married it's literally a couple of lines: the whole story is focused on her cousin Linda instead of her.
Anyway, life goes on, and Kathy retains this personal relationship with us - I wonder if this is deliberate: her job is to be a carer, in which she talks a lot to her patients to comfort them, and maybe she is so in the habit of it that she does it for us too. Ruth and Tommy split up, and she mentions how people expected her to be the "natural successor" but never tells us her feelings about it. Again that's another example of her not focusing on herself.
I don't understand how Kathy puts up with Ruth - she's so controlling, stubborn and manipulative I wouldn't be able to stand her! She seems to take their friendship for granted - I might be proved wrong later but that's what it seems like to me. Something strange also happens: Miss Lucy tells Tommy that the art they do at Hailsham (there's a hige focus on art) is incerdibly important, much more so than they could imagine. I'm not sure of the significance of this yet, but I'm sure we'll find out more about it...
You know I said last time how we didn't really know exactly what these people were? Well the beginning of Chapter Seven explains all. The explanation comes in the form of Miss Lucy: a guardian who seems passionate about treating these children properly, especially when 'normal' people seem to feel a great aversion to them. We find out through her something really awful: these children were made especially to be donors for other people when they're older. This means that whenever 'normal' people like us need an operation/transplant or something, a perfect match can be found in one of these people. Their aim in life is to die. Not only did this get me thinking about Harry Potter again (I'll get bakc to that in a bit), but it reminded me of My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult. That book (which I loved) was about a girl who was born to be the perfect match for her sister, so that she could help give the blood/kidney etc to keep the other alive. This doesn't seem exactly ethical and I'm undecided about how I feel towards it, however doing it on this scale, 'creating' masses of children just so they can die seems really horrible.
Bringing Harry Potter into it, there's been this huge debate since the last book came out, and we discovered what Harry had to do in order to truly defeat Voldemort, about whether Dumbledore raised Harry as 'a pig for slaughter': whether he knew all along that he was going to die (if you want more depthful discussions I'd suggest listening to MuggleCast, an awesome podcast). To do that to one person is bad enough but to that many? Miss Lucy tells them that they will never grow up properly, won't be able to get jobs, travel, have families or anything because their only point is to give their bodies to others. Just that thought is pretty grim: to know that your life is only going to be about 30 years long and that you can't do what you want with it must be awful.
Despite this terrible truth hanging over them, the students of Hailsham don't seem to think about it much. These chapters detail the characters between the ages of 15 and 17, and I find it strange how Kathy, our narrator and personal connection with this strange world, reveals less and less about herself. It's not like she's being secretive, more that the focus of her story is on other people: namely Ruth and Tommy. She of course tells us things about her, but not many of her feelings. For example, Ruth and Tommy get together as a couple (which, by the way, I was surprised at, I thought it would be Kathy and Tommy) and Kathy tells us all about their relationship, but very little about her actual feelings towards it. Also, she suggests that she has a thing with one of the other boys in her year, but we don't here mentin of it except for a couple of lines. This is a bit like The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford, in which we don't find out the narrator's name until very far on in the book, despite the fact that it's written from her perspective, and when he gets married it's literally a couple of lines: the whole story is focused on her cousin Linda instead of her.
Anyway, life goes on, and Kathy retains this personal relationship with us - I wonder if this is deliberate: her job is to be a carer, in which she talks a lot to her patients to comfort them, and maybe she is so in the habit of it that she does it for us too. Ruth and Tommy split up, and she mentions how people expected her to be the "natural successor" but never tells us her feelings about it. Again that's another example of her not focusing on herself.
I don't understand how Kathy puts up with Ruth - she's so controlling, stubborn and manipulative I wouldn't be able to stand her! She seems to take their friendship for granted - I might be proved wrong later but that's what it seems like to me. Something strange also happens: Miss Lucy tells Tommy that the art they do at Hailsham (there's a hige focus on art) is incerdibly important, much more so than they could imagine. I'm not sure of the significance of this yet, but I'm sure we'll find out more about it...
Saturday, 26 February 2011
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!
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!
Thursday, 17 February 2011
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
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!
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!
Thursday, 10 February 2011
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...
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 :]
- 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).
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 :]
Sunday, 6 February 2011
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:
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!
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.
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!
Thursday, 3 February 2011
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!
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!
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