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Name a favorite literary couple and tell me why they are a favorite. If you cannot choose just one, that is okay too. Name as many as you like–sometimes narrowing down a list can be extremely difficult and painful. Or maybe that’s just me.
Since it is one of my Desert Island Books, I would have to say Winston Smith and Julia from 1984. Yet realizing that a doomed relationship might be considered a bit gloomy, there’s another one that somewhat surprisingly comes to mind.
It is Jack Gladney, the central character of Don DeLillo’s White Noise, and his wife, Babette. I say surprising because even though the book won the National Book Award in 1985, I’m not much of a fan of it. Yet the relationship Jack and his Babette struck me as down-to-earth and loving, perhaps one of the few things resembling normalcy, at least to me, in the work In fact, the seeming ordinariness of the relationship made it feel more honest and realistic. At least from my perspective, a true coupling will tend toward comforting and reassuring as opposed to being searing and quixotic (even though it will have occasional flares like that).
While I could probably come up with others, the fact these two immediately come to mind must mean they are my favorites.
I tell her I want to die first. I’ve gotten so used to her that I would feel miserably incomplete. We are two views of the same person. I would spend the rest of my life turning to speak to her. No one there, a hole in space and time.
Don DeLillo, White Noise
Do you collect any series? Do you read series books? Fantasy? Mystery? Science fiction? Religious? Other genre? Do you use the series feature in [Library Thing] to help you find new books or figure out what you might be missing from a series?
I don’t “collect” book series per se and those that I do have are not recent ones. I have the original Dune series, the original Foundation trilogy, the original Riverworld series by Philip Jose Farmer, the Space trilogy by C.S. Lewis, the Hyperion Cantos and, of course, the Lord of the Rings trilogy (plus one).
I have these largely because, from my perspective, they are classics. I have become less and less a fan of series over the years. There’s two reasons for that, both all too prevalent in the SF genre.
One is that so many books come billed as the first in a series. To me, the fact you can write more than one book involving the same characters or world does not mean they justify more than one book. In fact, I am rarely pick up any relatively new book that’s labeled as the first in a series because I know it will leave things open and I may not care enough to read the subsequent books to close out the story thread that might be of interest to me.
Second is what’s happened to the Dune series. From my perspective, the series was weakening on its own once we moved into the fifth and sixth books. But the spate of prequels and the like from Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson over the last several years simply trades on and — and damages — the original series. Even expert writers can fall into the trap of trying to extend a series only to weaken it, as Asimov did with his Foundation-related novels in the 1980s.
As a result, I have not yet used the series feature and am unlikely to.
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.
Isaac Asimov, Foundation
Sometimes it’s nice to bask in the light, even if it’s reflected light.
That’s just what a weekend trip to visit our oldest daughter at grad school in Missouri felt like. Not only is it a nice campus and city, her unmistakable enjoyment of where she’s at, the friends she’s made and life in general couldn’t do anything but make it a wonderful weekend.
Granted, there’s an emotional toll when kids leave and start striking out on their own. Yet for both my wife and I there is an even greater emotional thrill in seeing the young adult we raised so happy, dedicated and full of life. It’s got to be hard going to a new school in a state you’ve never been to and where you don’t know a soul. Yet in the short span of seven weeks she has not only settled it, the look on her face and the friends of hers we met indicate this was a perfect fit and the perfect place.
The hardcore cynic in me might say it’s only after your early 20s that your altruism and idealism are crushed. But this certainly isn’t a woman with blinders on so her enthusiasm and excitement for where she is, what she’s doing and the people she’s come to know is highly infectious. And seeing a daughter emanating “happy happy joy joy” can only make a parent feel the same.
The good father does not have to be perfect. Rather, he has to be good enough to help his daughter to become a woman who is reasonably self-confident, self-sufficient, and free of crippling self-doubt, and to feel at ease in the company of men.
Victoria Secunda, Women and Their Fathers
I recently read an article (here), that I found through BiblioAddict’s blog, that talked of “why women read more than men”. In it, author Ian McEwan is quoted saying:
“When women stop reading, the novel will be dead.”
Do you believe this to be true? Why, or why not?
My personal life leaves no doubt that if women quit reading, the novel would be severely wounded. Yet because my fiction consumption has actually increased over the last few years, I doubt it would be stone cold dead.
A lot of people are surprised at the number of books I read. Yet my wife reads a lot more. I would also speculate at least 50 percent are novels. But I think both the question and the study upon which it is based are somewhat flawed.
I think it important to wonder about the type of novel we’re dealing with. A glance at most bestseller lists indicates they contain what I would term “mass market” novels, not (a term I really hate to use) “serious” literature. If anything, the latter is probably already at risk regardless of the sex of the reader.
Second, it is appalling that the survey uses the term “avid readers” for women who typically read nine books a year and men who typically read five a year. I know life is busy (and, of course, there is the great god, television) but our country should be embarrassed if someone who reads far less than a book a month is considered an avid reader.
I don’t think the question is whether novels can survive without women readers. I think a more important question is how long American literary culture and literacy can decline before the damage is irreversible.
…though we can condemn the material suppression of literature … we are powerless when it comes to its worst violation: that of not reading the books. For that crime, a person pays with his whole life.
Joseph Brodsky, 1987 Nobel Lecture
Bulletin Board
I’m happy to report that one of the South Dakota school reading projects I promoted is now fully funded. However, the other project on the Crow Creek Reservation is still in need of donors.
You don’t go into the home of the Broad Street Bullies (whose fans have been known to boo Santa Clause) and not expect this: when Sarah Palin dropped the puck at last Saturday night’s Philadelphia Flyers-New York Rangers game, “she was greeted by resounding (almost deafening) boos.” Various reporters noted that the boos had to “drowned out” by “deafening PA music.” And both regional and national hockey followers objected to political candidates using hockey for a campaign event.
Bookish Linkage
If you’ve been under a rock, the National Book Award finalists were announced. I’ve only read one. Meanwhile, Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger won the 2008 Man Booker Prize. In keeping with the NBA finalists, it is not one of the nominees I read.
NPR gets a list of the best foreign books you’ve never heard of. I’ve read one.
David Louis Edelman examines the purpose and utility of author blogging.
Nonbookish Linkage
Berkeley Breathed explains that part of the reason Opus is heading toward his “final paradise” is “cable and Web technology allowing All Snark All the Time.” Breathed is offering the chance for someone to win a $10,000 donation to the animal shelter of their choice by guessing where that is. Part of me thinks it just may be pictured here.
The Big Picture does it again. First, it gives us hot space porn and later proves life on Earth can be just as stunning.
Glass & peace alike betray proof of fragility under repeated blows.
David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas
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Additionally, some links on this blog go to Amazon.com. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. There is no additional cost to you. Contact me You can e-mail me at prairieprogressive at gmaildotcom.
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