There was something in the air that night...

The stars were bright Fernando Orlando!!!!!

I just finished reading Virginia Woolf's Orlando. And yes, every time I say Orlando, it makes me want to start singing made up versions of Abba songs.

Highbrow taste in literature. Questionable taste in music?

I actually thought this wasn't so bad for a Woolf novel. I understood what was going on most of the time. There was some decent action and a few funnies scattered among the internal monologue bits (although of course, there were tons of internal monologue bits). And I didn't fall asleep every time I tried to finish it the way that I did with Mrs. Dalloway. Seriously, I don't even think I can tell you how Mrs. Dalloway ends, despite reading it all the way through. Perhaps best of all, it was later made into a movie with Billy Zane (this may only best if you've seen Zoolander).

The story centers on the life of a young Elizabethan nobleman named Orlando. Midway through the book, Orlando magically becomes a woman. Oh, and the book doesn't end until the 1920s, when Orlando is said to be 36. As an examination of gender roles and sexual identities, this all works fine. Of course, part of me wondered why Orlando's servants kept dying, while Orlando remains in her mid-thirties and occasionally runs into old comrades from Elizabethan days. Like a good Millennial, I'll just assume that maybe they are all vampires.

The good kind. No sparkles here.

And just for the gossipy juiciness of it, I'll go ahead and add that this novel was dedicated to Woolf's lover Vita Sackville-West. Vita pursued an alternative lifestyle back before it was the cool thing to do, and you can read more about her here.

Overall, the novel was fine. It held my interest mostly, and I would definitely recommend it as a starting point for anyone who wants to read Woolf. Oh, and it wasn't depressing, which is a HUGE WIN for me when it comes to this little project.

And now, off to catch some Abba on my Pandora station.

My, my, how can I resist you?

Buffy image found here.

Only connect!

So it would probably be a useful exercise for me to post more frequently here so I don't have to cram so many thoughts into one small space, but I get too involved in the story and forget to write. Oops.

I thoroughly enjoyed Howard's End. Even though dear old Eddie pulled the "I'm including characters to represent lofty ideas" ruse, I didn't find that as bothersome or obvious as I have in other works (*cough* The Jungle *cough* Lady Chatterley's Lover). The Schlegels, representing liberal intellectualism, unite with the Wilcoxes, conservative, practical businesspeople, through the marriage of Margaret Schlegel and Henry Wilcox.

And let's be honest here, if I wasn't imagining Henry Wilcox as Anthony Hopkins, I would think he was pretty much a giant jerk. Sometimes even the imagined Hopkins charm couldn't salvage his remarks. Upon learning he'd caused Leonard Bast to lose his job, Henry's response was pretty much "There will always be poor people. Not my problem!" And some of the terribly chauvinistic remarks he would make to Margaret made me seriously question how someone as awesomely smart, practical, and loving as Meg could have fallen for a guy who is more or less an arse. Women's expectations were a lot lower in 1910? I wanted to like Henry because Margaret loved him so much, but never could quite make myself do it.


.

But she crossed out "I do understand"; it struck a ... false note. Henry could not bear to be understood. She also crossed out, "It is everything or nothing." Henry would resent so strong a grasp of the situation. She must not comment; comment is unfeminine. (28.3)

Through a series of events too complicated to relay in their entirety here (but including such juicy tidbits as a former mistress, an unexpected pregnancy, and a possible murder), everything works out in the end. Meg's mantra of "Only connect!" not only helps her love all the very different personalities in her new family, it indeed helps Henry and her sister Helen learn how to better love and "connect" with others. Forster leaves us with the idea that the different English classes will soon intermingle and learn to respect one another. As I am not British, I can't really say whether I think his prediction came to pass, but it's certainly an optimistic way to end the novel. And if there's anything I really treasure on this list, it's an optimistic ending. Trust me, there are plenty of dire endings to balance this one out. And bonus - Meg gets Howard's End after all!

I'm really excited to watch the movie some time this week to see how it compares to the novel, as this seems to be one of only a handful of cases where the book and the movie receive favorable reviews.

Want to read Howard's End yourself? Download the ebook from Project Gutenberg here.

Bonus question - what do you think is the best movie adaptation of a novel? What's the worst?


Anthony Hopkins image found here

Final Thoughts: My Antonia

So I finally finished My Antonia last night. And if you guessed from the dearth of posts that I didn't find it overly interesting, you'd be right!

I'm still debating why I think this book made the 100 Best list. Willa Cather's writing was fine. The story was fine. Characters were fine. I guess when I'm reading something that makes the final cut of 100 from the many thousands (millions?) of books in print, I expect a little more than fine.

The nostalgically written story basically followed Antonia and Jim Burden, the story's narrator, from childhood into young adulthood, covering all the triumphs and mistakes along the way. Perhaps the story was lackluster to me because it was almost too normal. Some of the kids go to school, others go into business, Antonia gets pregnant out of wedlock but ends up finding a kind man and having a large family with him. These things happen in life.


That's why we have Teen Mom.

I try to imagine reading the story at the time it was written, when gender roles were much different, and how that experience might change my perspective on the narrative. Cather's women are predominantly strong characters, capable of handling hardships that the men in the tale seem to buckle under. In 1918, I'm sure the inverted gender roles made My Antonia much more intriguing to the reader. Today, I found the female characters relatable but just...not that interesting.

Too, I think Antonia was supposed to symbolize the earth/Nebraska/the country lifestyle. I'm not sure about you, but I often have trouble with symbol characters and find them difficult to care about.


Is it me, or does this Earth Mother look suspiciously like the gal from My Big Fat Greek Wedding?

Of course, had I read this immediately following A Room with a View or something by Edith Wharton, maybe I would have been in a better mindset for a sweet story of times gone by.  A Clockwork Orange doesn't really prepare you for that. :)

Overall rating: Meh.

Teen Mom photo found here and Earth Mother image found here.