Carl > Recent Status Updates

A bit of Truman show?

(Totally unnecessary rant: Why can’t people get the difference between “nauseous” and “nauseated”? She gets it right once and wrong twice—I’d be less surprised if at least it were consistent, but this is a highly educated author with professional editors. And no, it’s not an aspect of the unreliable narrator device. Okay, rant over. Sorry.)

Thought #1: Is it Kindred + Christianity + unreliable narrator?

Thought #2: The writing, which is energetic and smooth, reminds me of Lessons in Chemistry.

Thought #3: I know it’s satire, which requires hyperbole, but the depiction of Harvard has almost nothing in common with what I remember from the ‘80s. I guess college was wildly different 25 years later…or my experience was just weird.

The villains: “frightened,” “tame,” undeservedly-sainted historians

If the Bible is among the banned items, why is there so much using of the names of God and Jesus and Christ? Are the residents of Montag’s dystopia religious or not?

Ch.37 — Charles’ interview with Mr. Freeman — epitomizes what is so enticing about this book. It casts a delicate psychological drama within a creatively drawn context of history, class awareness, and science. The narrator’s position in the characters’ minds has rarely been used to greater effect, even if the moves on the chessboard are subtle ones.

I continue to enjoy Romney’s book immensely: analysis, history, digressions on collecting, personal stories.

I’m less convinced by her literary evaluations. Her effusive praise of Lennox’s output inspired me to start to read The Female Quixote. I’m not such a philistine as to condemn it after having read only four chapters, but comparisons to Cervantes seem (so far) wildly excessive.

Romney has inspired me to read The Female Quixote. I admit I start out skeptical, given my love of Don Quixote, but I’ll try to be objective. Romney’s praise for it does strike me as appearing hyperbolic. We shall see!

I’m loving Romney’s own book, however. Now that I’m teaching a new Women in Literature course, I’m finding dozens of passages ripe for inclusion for my students.

Such catholicity in its intelligence!

149: Charles’ critique of Victorian conventions
151: yearning for “a world without the tyranny of specialization”
152: “You do not bring the happiness of the many by making them run before they can walk.” (A lesson modern schooling is learning painfully, thanks to inundations of technology.)