Updates

Summer is at an end; Fall is here.  Or so they say.  But this week's weather is absolutely perfect, almost too perfect for Chicagoland in early October.  And once again, I have been neglecting this blog.  I figure it's time for a few updates...

BBC Book Challenge
I've read several book from the BBC list since my last post:

The Remains of the Day, by Kazuo Ishiguro, is a fabulous book -- a deceptively peaceful bit of prose.  Taking place in England post-world-wars, narrated by an aging butler who is reflecting on his career and the changes he has seen, as well as struggling to belief in the worth of his lived profession, this is a perfect book for those who enjoy films such as Gosford Park and the recent BBC series Downton Abbey.

Jude the Obscure wasn't as depressing as the other Thomas Hardy novel I had read, Tess.  It was an interesting novel -- an interesting commentary on marriage and relationships.  I imagine it was quite scandalous in its day, though in this era of Jerry Springer and Grey's Anatomy, not so much.

After Thomas Hardy, I needed something lighter -- and The Wind in the Willows (Kenneth Graham) was the perfect something!

I may have read these stories when I was little, and I have CERTAINLY experienced Mr. Toad's Wild Ride multiple times at Disneyland... but the stories were charming and kept me captivated despite my "background knowledge".  One disadvantage of reading on my iPhone: I missed out on the book illustrations which were probably just as much a part of the original story as the words.

After that, I decided to tick the last Thomas Hardy novel off the list: Far from the Madding Crowd.  I really enjoyed this one, the most of the Thomas Hardy novels I've read.  Probably that's because it's one of his earlier novels, and thus much more cheerful.  It even has a fairly happy ending!

I'm still not sure why in the world any parents would name their daughter Bathsheba, but apparently Hardy didn't think it was too crazy.

On a side note, there are some pretty funny Google images that pop up when you search for "Far from the Madding Crowd" -- they must have made a movie about it in the 60s or something.




And currently, I am enthralled with a series of books that are NOT on the BBC list -- The Hunger Games and its two sequels.  I have this problem where I can carry around the mood I absorb from the books I read for days and days... and these books have particularly affected me!  But I love them just the same.  Although we'll see how much I love them once I actually finish the last book, which Erik told me doesn't end the way I want it to end...

Other Things
I've been thinking a lot about things like:

- Sustainable patterns of living and eating.  I joined a CSA, found the iPhone app and website "Better World Shopper," and am in general trying to be more conscious of what I eat and buy.  More about that later, I hope...

- Living with an "outward" focus, and helping my church develop more of an outward focus as well.  Social justice, reconciliation, the CCDA conference, tutoring at the Nuestro Center in Highwood (and using my rusty Spanish too!), exploring books like Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger -- these are new developments and mental preoccupations for me.  And I like it!

- Ways to use the vegetables we receive in our CSA box.  Last night I ate Roasted Beets with Swiss Chard, toasted almonds, and goat cheese.  It was yummy!  I'm so weird.

So there you go.  Now if I don't post again for another couple of months, at least I'll have slightly less to  fill in!

Reflections Upon Losing My iPhone

As I mentioned in my previous post, recently I lost my iPhone -- or had it stolen.  Or both.  I think dropped it (or set it down) in the courtyard (or the foyer) of the condo building where we live, and when I went back to look for it, it was gone.  So, either: 1) the phone is somewhere in our condo where neither my husband nor I have been able to find it, or 2) somebody took it and doesn't intend to give it back (I called and texted the phone multiple times in an attempt to retrieve it).

Yes, I've now suspended the AT&T account and changed all the passwords I could think to change.
No, I did not have the "find my iPhone" application installed.
Yes, I've searched the grounds, foyer, and condo multiple times.
Yes, I've posted signs and contacted the condo board.
Yes, I've done my share of Craigslist stalking to see if someone puts my phone up for sale.
No, I'm not yet "over" the loss of the phone.

Which brings me to the point of my post -- I'm conflicted about my reaction to the loss of my phone (which I had named Alice McNess, by the way -- Alice because the case was "Alice blue" and McNess for my husband's middle name because he surprised me with the phone in the first place).

When I was first looking for the phone and realized it was nowhere to be found, I burst into tears -- and cried for a long, long time.  Now, I'm not someone who enjoys crying.  In fact, I normally resist it with all my might.  But losing my iPhone made me lose my emotional control.  Why?

When I woke up the next day, I still felt upset and on the verge of tears, and I continued to feel upset for the rest of the day.  I kept going back over my actions, desperately checking my email and looking outside our front door to see if someone had responded to the posted signs and/or returned the phone.  I felt depressed, and I continued to feel upset and depressed off and on for most of this week -- even though my husband and I are in vacation this week!

When the internet connection at the lake house where we're staying was spotty, I kept thinking, "if only I had my iPhone, I could connect to this website in no time."  When I went on a run/walk and ended up a lot further away than I anticipated, I couldn't help but think, "I don't even have my phone with me in case I get lost or mugged!"  When Erik and I were in the car and needed to Google something, I would blurt out, "if I had my iPhone I could look it up!"  Pathetic, right?

Why do I feel so upset about losing that phone?  After all, it's just a THING, right?  Is it... ok that losing that phone made me go through all the phases of grief (except for acceptance - still waiting on that one)?

Does this mean that I've grown too attached to "earthly, material pleasures"? Did God "cause" me to lose my phone in order to show me that my priorities are skewed away from the things of His kingdom?  In fact, would it be wrong for me to replace my phone because that money could be better spent as a donation to compassion ministries, etc.?

What about the other ministers I know who have iPhones, and even iPads?  Are these things luxuries that an unselfish, responsible Christian should forgo, or are they more... neutral items?

I don't have a lot of nice things, and I didn't grow up having the latest, greatest technological marvels.  When I was little, my brother and I got excited when we went to the doctor because they would give us coupons for McDonalds hamburgers -- and that was the only time we got to eat at McDonalds because of the expense (that was before dollar menus).  I drooled over iPhones from when they first came out, but I didn't think I'd ever be able to have one.  So, when my husband surprised me with an iPhone before I had surgery last January, I was ECSTATIC!!!  I love surprises anyway, and this one was SO FUN!!!  The iPhone quickly integrated itself into my life, enabling me to check email wherever I was, browse Twitter while walking the dog, get discounts through "checking in" on Yelp, etc.  Did I mention that I loved it?

Having an iPhone always felt like a privilege, one that I don't think I ever took for granted.  And then all of a sudden, just when I was happy and energized from spending a few days with my parents in California, it was gone.  Not just lost at an airport or in a taxi cab -- lost on my home turf, and snatched out from under my nose.

So I feel terribly disappointed -- something I valued a lot, something that brought me a lot of enjoyment, is gone, and we can't afford to replace it right now.  And I feel angry, angry that someone would keep my one indulgent toy.  And I feel helpless, helpless because there's nothing I can do to turn back the clock and get it back.  And I feel guilty -- guilty that I feel so upset about losing a silly phone!  And I want to pray that it will be returned, but isn't that prayer... shallow at best, materialistic and selfish at worst?  I don't know.  I only know that I miss my phone, and I still hope that when I return from vacation, it will magically be waiting for me.

A Mixed Start

Well, I am midway through my two weeks of vacation, and so far the highlights have been:

• Visiting my parents in California for a few days
• Eating at my favorite seafood restaurant in CA, "The Crab Cooker"
• Spending a day at the beach (the real, ocean-rimming beach -- not the pathetic thing that lake-goers call the beach)
• A monstrous sunburn on certain parts of my formerly pasty Midwest body
• Visiting my brother in Santa Barbara and meeting his girlfriend (thankfully, I liked her -- unlike his ex!)
• Being the 6th person to hear and see the score for a new choral/orchestral work that one of my dad's friends wrote -- based on the 1st chapter of Job!!  Fascinating and moving.

Unfortunately, immediately after I returned to Illinois, my vacation took a turn for the worst -- my iPhone disappeared.  I think I dropped it somewhere in the courtyard or foyer of our apartment complex, and someone picked it up... and decided not to return it.  I'm still holding onto a little bit of hope that it will still be returned, but in the meantime I am grieving this little loss.

However, I've been making good progress on my book quest, and since I still have a week left of vacation (at my in-laws' lake house), there might be more progress to come!

In my last post, I mentioned that I was not impressed, thus far, with Wilkie Collins' The Woman in White.  Well, I ended up really enjoying the book!  During the first part of the book, I thought it was going to be a bunch of sentimental nonsense, but it turned out to be a bit of a mystery story, with wonderful twists and turns!  I can imagine that in its day it would have been an on-the-edge-of-your-seat thriller.  I loved the way Wilkie Collins experimented with different narrative voices, and I especially loved the way he took his time unfolding the "answers" to the many mysteries raised in the plot.  It's still a bit melodramatic in parts for my taste, but all-in-all a very enjoyable read.  I *think* I understand why it's on the list -- if Wilkie Collins had lived to see movies, he would have written a darn good thriller flick.

I finished another book too (The Remains of the Day), but I'll save my reflections on that for tomorrow.

David Copperfield

And once again, the iPhone Kindle format comes through -- I finished a major Dickens novel without any major difficulties!  I'm not sure whether I just found David Copperfield more readable than Bleak House, or my tastes have improved, or the iPhone format really does help me focus and feel like I'm making progress in the novel.   

[Side note: I keep forgetting that a Google search of "David Copperfield images" tends to pull up pictures of the magician.]

One way or another, I actually enjoyed David Copperfield.  Other than the fact that I hated Dora.  HATED that character.  Part of my ambivalence over Dickens in general is due to his sentimentality -- it really gets to me.  And Dora has to be one of his most sentimentalized (and inane) characters!  I realize that that's the point -- David doesn't end up calling her his "child-wife" for no reason -- but she drove me crazy!  And I just plain hate having my heartstrings yanked by Dickens in saccharine sentences like,

 "I wondered what she was thinking about, as I glanced in admiring silence at the little soft hand travelling up the row of buttons on my coat, and at the clustering hair that lay against my breast, and at the lashes of her downcast eyes, slightly rising as they followed her idle fingers.  At length her eyes were lifted up to mine, and she stood on tiptoe to give me, more thoughtfully than usual, that precious little kiss -- once, twice, three times -- and went out of the room."

I guess that isn't SO bad... but it's the best/worst example I could find quickly on my iPhone [one disadvantage of the Kindle thing -- you can't "flip through" the pages].

After prose that cloying, I feel like I should go read some Hemingway.

On the other hand, I loved David's aunt, Betsy Trotwood -- what a character!  I especially love how that tough old bird has such a tender, compassionate heart -- it was quite a relief when David (I keep wanting to call him Pip!) ends up in her care after all the travails of his miserable childhood.

Now I'm on to The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins.  Honestly, it's not my favorite so far.  I'd better read something non-Victorian after this one... 

Miscellany

1) If you are at all an Anglophile or at least a fan of BBC productions and British authors (Jane Austen comes to mind), the series "Downton Abbey" is a must see

2) I am reading David Copperfield, and I hate Dora. I hope Dickens kills her off soon, or makes her elope or something.

3) I am currently thinking through some ways in which my congregation might get more involved in serving the poor and "needy" in the Greater Chicago area. Anyone out there have some suggestions about what sort of things have worked for you (or not), people to talk to, organizations to investigate, etc,?

Crime and Punishment

I did it!  I finished a really really long Russian novel without major glitches!!

Some background:  I have tried (and failed) to finish The Brothers Karamazov at least four different times. One time, I was really making progress... and then my grad school classes resumed.  Try focusing on Brothers K while your mind is trying to juggle 10 different theological texts at once... yeah, didn't happen.  The only other Russian novel that I remember reading is Demons (also by Dostoevsky) in my senior seminar with Dr. Roger Lundin (Wheaton College).  It was a great class, but I still had a hard time connecting with that particular novel.  I had assumed that enjoyment of the great Russian classics would simply not come naturally to me.

Crime and Punishment changed all of that.  I loved it!  I genuinely loved it and loved the experience of reading it.  I'd like to read some critical essays on the novel so that I can delve deeper into some of the major themes of the novel -- I don't think this is a novel that you read once and say, "Ok, I've mastered that one."

I found myself mesmerized by the characters in the book, particularly the protagonist, Raskolnikov, and the magistrate, Porfiry Petrovitch. (Side note -- one advantage of my undergraduate foray into Dostoevsky is that I was prepared for each character to have a zillion names and nicknames that would be difficult to remember...).  I also found it brilliant the way D. crafted the relationship between Sonya, a young girl who is forced into prostitution to support her family, and Raskolnikov.  And to make Sonya the most "Christian" of the characters -- also brilliant.  The ending of the novel was perfect -- if you haven't read it, I'm not going to spoil it for you here.  Just read it.  (But don't read it first -- allow the book to build as D. intended!)

On a separate note, I read this entire book on my iPhone, using the Kindle app.  I actually found it easier to read the book this way -- I'm not sure why.  Perhaps the fact that the text was broken up into shorter pages because of the small size of the iPhone screen helped encourage me that I was making progress -- helped make it seem to go faster.  Perhaps it was the fact that I could read the book in bed while my husband falls asleep without needing a light on...

So my next project is David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, another author whose works I sometimes struggle to finish.  I am also reading this one on my iPhone, since I found I could download a free copy! So far I'm loving this book too -- I'm on a roll!

Catching up (again...)

And once again, it's time to catch up.  This is why I will never be an excellent blogger. :)

1) I finished The Grapes of Wrath and really liked it, even though I didn't really enjoy reading it (does that make sense?  I think I just wasn't in the reading mood).  I can see why it's a classic, and I especially enjoyed the style in which Steinbeck wrote the book -- particularly the intermediary chapters that were more abstract and poetic than the actual storyline.  The book is sad, that's for sure.  I hate that the dog got killed.  And I hate the system Steinbeck describes, where the ginormous farms exploit the workers.  It made me understand the importance of unions, at least in a situation like that!  It also made me think about how far removed most Americans are from "the land" today, and how hard it is to make a living as a farmer -- and it seems to me that it just shouldn't be that way.  Should it?

On a lighter note, the name Rosasharn (the way the Joad family pronounces "Rose of Sharon") never fails to crack me up!  For all of you currently in the "family way," I recommend that you seriously consider naming your baby girl Rose of Sharon.  Come on, it's unique, right?

2) I am currently reading Crime and Punishment, and, much to my surprise, loving it!  I usually have a hard time connecting with Russian literature, but this time around I actually look forward to reading it.   I started out reading a hard copy of the book, but as an experiment I downloaded a free copy into the Kindle app on my iPhone, and now I'm reading the book on my iPhone exclusively.  This is my first foray into the world of e-reading.  So far, I'm enjoying it more than I thought I would.  Maybe it's due to the fact that with my iPhone I can read in bed while Erik is sleeping without using a flashlight...

3) On a non-literary note, a few weeks ago I was ordained as a deacon in the Anglican Mission!  Woohoo!  Here I am in my new duds with my bishop, my rector, a fellow deacon, and Erik:

Here I am with my parents, who came out from SoCal for the event:

And here is Melvin, my MIL's party flamingo, dressed up for the occasion:

And now, back to what I am actually supposed to be doing with my day...

A Confession

I'm going to begin this Holy Week with a confession: I really, really enjoy watching TV.  Or more specifically, TV shows on Netflix and/or Hulu, without all the annoyance of commercials and with all the convenience of being able to choose what and when I want to watch.  For example, I am currently really into Doctor Who (the updated BBC version).  I like having the TV on during my day off, when I relax by messing around on my computer, or when I'm putting away the dishes, cleaning, etc.  TV is enjoyable to me -- I love a good story, and it allows me to disengage my mind (which is surprisingly helpful sometimes).

But is it really ok to enjoy watching these shows so much?  I've known Christians who feel strongly that TV is a big waste of time, that Christians would be much better off reading and not owning a TV.  There are a very limited number of things I truly enjoy right now: spending time with my husband at home, watching TV while multitasking, eating...  those are the main things I enjoy.  I do enjoy time with friends, but most often (if I'm honest) I would rather be home than out with friends.  I worry that I'm turning into a hermit...  and a lazy hermit at that!  I do enjoy reading, but not as much (right now) as watching "Doctor Who."

As I approach ordination (two weeks!), I'm wrestling with this issue more and more, and I wish that I found "nourishing" activities as enjoyable and relaxing as the combination of internet + Netflix.  So I don't know...  I don't know how to evaluate the fact that I truly enjoy watching TV shows.  I don't know how to evaluate the fact that there aren't a lot of things I truly enjoy right now -- and several of the things I truly enjoy make me feel guilty (eating being a prime example).

I'm sure it's not as simple as a matter of what's "right" and what's "wrong".  Lord, give me wisdom about how to spend my time.  Release me from false guilt and fill me with hunger for GOOD things.

Catching up

Ok, it's been awhile...  So here's a bit of catch-up since my last post.

I read and finished One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.  I didn't like it very much. Not at all.  But I think that if I had studied this book in school, I might have liked it better.  There were moments in the book where the eloquence of the writing swept me away, even in translation.  However, the story is just too sordid and depressing!  I think that's part of the point -- this particular family spirals down and down -- but still, it seemed senseless to me.  I would not have wanted to live in this book, that's for sure!

So after that depressing story, I decided I needed to find something a bit lighter from the BBC list.  So I read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which was a lot of fun -- although I was reading out of a collection of the whole series (by Douglas Adams), and all of a sudden, the first book was over!  And I wasn't prepared for it.  My husband is a big fan of the book, and I enjoyed it too -- although not enough to join the fan cult or anything.  Adams is clever, no doubt!  And there are some awesome quotes -- my husband's favorite is, "Curiously the only thing that went through the mind of the bowl of petunias, as it fell, was, 'Oh no, not again.' "  I also have the tiniest bit of insight into the mind of a friend of mine who alludes to this book in his email address -- via the number 42.  Read the book if you don't get that.


I'm now in the throes of The Grapes of Wrath, and I'm really enjoying it -- although I'm not really enjoying reading as much right now as I did a couple of months back.  I'm "slightly" addicted to Grey's Anatomy...  But anyway, I totally get why The Grapes of Wrath is a classic.  But more on that to come...


In other news, I have given up alcohol for Lent... well, mostly.  I've indulged a few times here and there -- like tonight (Saturday night almost counts as Sunday, right?) -- but mostly in the company of other people.  Tonight I'm sipping bliss Yellow Tail Cabernet -- cheap but delicious.  Wine can truly be salve for the soul!  The other thing I'm *trying* to give up (with the Lord's help) is self-hatred.  Slightly more difficult.


But in a month, I'm going to be ordained as a deacon in the Anglican Mission!!  Crazy!  I would never have guessed that this would be the path I'd end up walking -- but I'm excited.  I ordered my first clerical collars the other day -- weird!  But I can't wait to try them on!


So that's the latest, I think.  My copy of The Grapes of Wrath is already overdue at the library, so I guess I have incentive to finish it soon!

Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth;
break forth, O mountains, into singing! 

For the LORD has comforted his people,
and will have compassion on his suffering ones. 

But Zion said, "The LORD has forsaken me,
my Lord has forgotten me." 

Can a woman forget her nursing child,
or show no compassion for the child of her womb? 

Even these may forget,
yet I will not forget you.
See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands. 

Isaiah 49:13-16a

... Power offers an easy substitute for the hard task of love.  It seems easier to be God than to love God, easier to control people than to love people, easier to own life than to love life.

~ Henri Nouwen, In the Name of Jesus, 77.

"The Secret History"

I probably would never have read The Secret History if it weren't on the BBC list.  In fact, the only reason I read it at this stage in my quest is because the library didn't have some of the other books I was looking for, and I didn't want to have to add more time to my parking meter.  

But I'm glad I had the chance to read this novel by Donna Tartt (yes, that really is the correct spelling of her last name).  The Secret History is part mystery novel, part thriller, set in the world of a small East coast college.  The main characters are all members of an exclusive classical Greek class, and much of the novel reads like a Greek tragedy -- which made me realize that a working knowledge of Koine Greek still leaves one lacking in knowledge of the classical world.

In the Prologue to the book, the reader learns that one of the main characters is murdered by the others in his group of friends.  The rest of the book unravels the mystery of how this murder came about, and what effects that act had on this group of people.  Fascinating characters, interesting plot, engagingly told -- that's my summary of The Secret History.  Now if only I had time to brush up my knowledge of the Aeneid...

Thank Heaven for Border Collies

"Chewy" is ready to play!

I finished Atonement this morning.  It was very, very sad... After I finished, I lay on the couch for a few minutes with my arm draped over the edge, petting our border collie, Chewy.  Dogs are great comfort sometimes, although Chewy is much better at accepting attention than administering comfort.  I was still glad to have a cuddly, furry animal close by when I finished the book.

My experience reading Atonement was heavily colored by my experience seeing the movie -- which is one of the reasons I generally don't like seeing a movie version until after I've read the book.  I enjoyed the movie -- but I'm not sure whether or not I "liked" the book.  It is certainly well-written and beautifully evocative, even powerful at times.  It definitely evoked strong emotions in me as I read it, particularly at the very end.

My favorite part of the book was Part I, which is the part that occurs before the tragic event for which Briony, one of the main characters, later tries to atone.  The first part of the novel is set in a British estate in the 1930s, and the description drips with sunshine and sultry days.  Much of this part is spent developing characters -- which helped me understand the story much better than I understood it after watching the movie.

Side note: it bothers me when someone tries to make a movie out of a book that relies heavily on psychology and description of inner thoughts and motivations.  I think that usually in these cases the movie fails to convey aspects of character and "action" that are crucial to the storyline -- it just doesn't work!  That's my opinion about movies made from Henry James or Edith Wharton novels, and to some extent about the movie version of Atonement.  I didn't really understand why Briony acts the way she does towards Robbie until I read the book.  Ok, rant over.

I got a bit bored in the second part of the book, which focuses on Robbie and the infantry's retreat in France.  Maybe I just don't like reading about war.  Maybe I just get tired of reading about atrocities, or feel a bit emotionally manipulated.  I don't know.  But after finishing the book, I understand why the author spends so much time on this section -- and it breaks my heart.

Ok, SPOILER alert in this paragraph.  You have now been warned.  I think the main reason I'm not sure if I "liked" this book is because I found it so heartbreaking.  Basically, in the very last chapter, the narrator (whom we discover is an elderly Briony) reveals that the "happy ending" to Robbie and Cecelia's relationship, which we read about in the previous chapter, was her own narrative invention.   Robbie died in France.  Cecelia died, heartbroken, in a bombing.  And Briony lacked the courage to go see her sister.  And so, at the end of the book we discover that everything we've read up to that point is actually Briony's own narrative, her attempt to atone for the wrong she caused.  Even as I write that summary, I'm tearing up -- it's so tragic.  Tragic to think of Cecelia and Robbie, their lives ruined just when their hopes were highest, just when they had found each other.  Tragic to think of Briony carrying the weight of her error/lies with her for the rest of her life, with no real hope for atonement, only an endless attempt through her writing.  This tragedy is too heavy for me.

Perhaps that's why I cannot say that I "like" Atonement -- reading it hurts too much. There is too much tragedy here -- and, paradoxically, too much beauty.

When you're recovering from surgery...

... you finish books quickly!

Image from a movie adaptation of George Orwell's 1984

I feel a bit like I flew through 1984 -- which surprised me, since I didn't really expect to like it.  But I loved it.  And I hated it, at the same time.  As you can probably tell, 1984 provoked strong emotions in me.  I got caught up into Winston's life as he struggled to control his every flicker of emotion and thought so as not to be found out by Big Brother, and went about his job of basically changing the past all the while struggling to conceal his knowledge that he knew on some level the whole thing was a fraud.  I loved the opening to the novel -- Winston's purchase of the journal with creamy white pages, an act of treason.

I was captivated by the middle part of the novel, Winston's relationship with Julia.  Few books have evoked for me such a sense of paradise in the midst of ugliness and danger.  I, like Winston, wished that period could have lasted forever.

But why, Winston!  Why couldn't you have just let well enough alone and kept on hiding your vibrant life with Julia from Big Brother for as long as you could!  It was inevitable, I suppose -- that in this world of 1984, no true human happiness -- no true humanness -- is allowed to last for long.

The last part of the book, I hated.  I hated it because I was meant to hate it -- it was ugly and painful and dehumanizing.  And yet, it was the right ending for this disutopia.  And the ending of the book -- absolutely brilliant!  If you haven't read the book yet, I won't spoil it for you.

One thing that struck me as I read the book was the concept of being able to change the past by changing all historical documents.  In 1984, the party is able to make it as if a person had never existed, simply by going back and erasing any written record of them having existed.  One of the running motifs of the book is that Oceania (the country in which Winston lives) is always at war with either Eastasia or Eurasia, and an ally with the other superpower.  However, every few years, they switch -- if they had been at war with Eastasia, now they're at war with Eurasia.  AND they're supposed to have always been at war with so-and-so, because the party cannot admit of change or mistake.  That would be weakness.  So, every few years they literally go back and reprint newspapers, books, etc. that refer to the war in order to reflect the current state of things.  They destroy all the old copies and print new copies.  In such a world, it's hard to know what is "true" and what is "historical."

Imagine if George Orwell had been writing these days, after the rise of the internet!  Talk about easy to eradicate the past!  It makes me really, really glad that 1984 is fictional...

On a side note, apparently my subconscious was quite taken with this book as well: a few nights ago I had a dream in which I was trying to maintain a relationship with someone without Big Brother finding out!

Surgery and Cold Comfort Farm

A few days ago, I had surgery: nasal septoplasty and turbinate resection, to be exact.  I know, very glamorous.  It went well -- I ended up not even having to stay in the hospital overnight -- although I am definitely feeling wiped out!  Too wiped out to do much other than watch TV, sleep, and read a bit.

Photo courtesy of Erik Rosengren

I did, however, finish another book on the List: Cold Comfort Farm.  I'd been looking forward to this one, having seen the movie with some good friends.  It's one of their favorite movies, and I liked it too.

The upstanding citizens of Cold Comfort Farm...

I enjoyed the book even more than the movie (surprise, surprise).  It is hilarious!  It's intended as a parody of some popular books at the time (1930s), as well as classics such as Wuthering Heights.

Stella Gibbons' style is not exactly subtle -- which is part of the book's charm.  A character named Aunt Ada Doom?  The Starkadder clan in general?  Cattle named Graceless, Feckless, Aimless, and Pointless, and a bull named Big Business?  Hilarious.

So in case you couldn't tell, I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of Cold Comfort Farm, every overwrought metaphor, every paragraph dripping with cloying prose... Get the picture?

Next up: 1984 by George Orwell.  Apparently Big Brother is watching...

Back from vacation with another book in the can...

Erik and I joined my family for a post-Christmas vacation in Arizona.  Now if you're like most people, hearing "Arizona" conjures up images of cactus, desert, rattlesnakes, etc.  Well, where we go in Arizona is in the mountains, with pine forest, creeks, and elk --  Christopher Creek, Arizona, to be exact.  Population approximately 100.  Elevation around 6000 ft.

The first full day we were at our cabin, it started snowing... and it kept snowing.  And kept snowing.  And two feet of snow later, we were officially snowed in!  Unlike Chicago, queen of snow-plowed cities, Christopher Creek is not exactly equipped to handle massive amounts of snow.  So, our plans for hiking were foiled for a few days, replaced by some sledding, raiding my grandparents' house for proper snow gear, and lots of reading by the fire.

As a result, I finished another book from my list: A Prayer for Owen Meany, by John Irving.  It was an interesting book, and I'm glad I read it -- although I feel no urgent need to read it again.  I ended up almost hating the title character by the time I was half-way through the book.  I'm not entirely sure why it's considered a classic -- although there are definitely some unforgettable characters.  I also found the running theological themes interesting... although I'm not sure Irving actually broke new ground in that area.

I ran out of reading material up at the cabin, so I mooched from Erik (read and finished Gang Leader for a Day -- very interesting read) and from the cabin stock (reread part of Wuthering Heights).  Yesterday, I went to the library and got three books from the list.  I'm starting with Cold Comfort Farm, and so far I'm loving it!