If a man don't treat you good...

The experience of reading Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea was like that of going into a time machine.  First, I had heard of the book years ago from my dear friend Emily Childress-Campbell way back when she was just just Emily Childress and we lived in a cramped dorm where she kept illegal hamsters (or something like that...maybe they were gerbils? Anyway...), so memories of our Jane Eyre-esque conversations and the first time I ever watched the film, with her, came flooding back.  Second, the book has not been released on Kindle yet, so I had to order it from Amazon, and I found myself reading a real paper book again.  Although I love my kindle, I do find a few things frustrating: like having to click a million buttons to flip back to a passage that was half the book ago, or not being able to see all of the cover art.  Well, none of those technology fueled frustrations with which my grandchildren won't sympathize!  I was able to flip back to reread certain passages to clarify something in the book as I read with ease, and the cover art was exotic and saturated, just like the world of the book into which I entered.

Wide Sargasso Sea was certainly the "tour de force" that the quote on the cover promises it will be.  A neat 171 pages, including the introduction by Francis Wyndham, I read it in an evening.  Being a Harry Potter generation-er who takes it seriously, I think that I have been indoctrinated into that kind of 3rd person narrative where we experience the events as if from over the shoulder of the main character, only sometimes going outside of the world of Harry's experience to get an outside perspective.  My ride through Wide Sargasso Sea was therefore, at times, a difficult journey because the first person prose could catch me off guard or make me feel a little lost.  But never, I believe, was this without purpose, as I will later describe.  Rhys takes us on a first person journey first from the perspective of Antoinette Cosway, a white Creole girl who has been in raised in the Caribbean and is, at the beginning of the novella, under the care of her widowed mother, Annette, and her nurse maid, Christophine, just after the Emancipation Act has been passed on her island.  The family, now being the descendants of former planters and slave owners, is shunned by the village they are near as well as isolated from other whites on the island due to the political climate and Antoinette's mother, who has a less than reputable history and soon is interred as a "madwoman."  Later we see the story through the eyes of Mr. Rochester, who is never named but whom we recognize from Charlotte Bronte's famous Jane Eyre.  He is there to marry our heroine and gain her wealthy dowry.  Finally we are returned to the story as it is in the hands of Antoinette during her final days locked away in an English manor under the same accusations as we saw befall her mother.

Through the first person narrative I was admitted into the world of the book not through detail of place and action, but through thought and emotion.  The place descriptions were lurid and lush, giving me also the hazy feel of the heat, the saturated quality of the island.  Much was often left unsaid until a character chanced to mention it, giving the storytelling a mysterious edge, which mirrored the mystery of the culture on the island.  Sometimes I caught myself feeling frustrated by the inaction of the characters to defend themselves, only finding that this was probably how Rhys expected the reader to feel; as in the end I found that this kind of lethargic prose helped to illustrate the inability of some of the characters to express their desires or, once they had, the inability of the other character to comprehend.  They were stuck in their own dreamlike perceptions of the world, captured in the dream like quality of the passages the write had given to us.

The book certainly makes me frown on the handsome and romantic figure of Mr. Rochester as he in cut in Jane Eyre's cloth.  The Bronte novel makes a sympathetic case for him, in which he is not without sin but repents and is worthy of the honorable Jane's love.  However, seeing the sad case of his "Bertha," the nickname he gives Antoinette, one cannot help but feel sorry for the madwoman from Jane Eyre, because the books gives us such a compelling glimpse into the world of a lost and confused little girl who lived in between worlds and only hoped for happiness.

It is not that I like Antoinette better than I like Jane.  I find both to be compelling heroines and that each book, both Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea, gives us interesting insights into how society thinks that women should behave in regards to love and relationships.  Both Antoinette and Jane overcome their fair share of obstacles.  Jane is mistreated by her foster family, whereas Antoinette is cutoff emotionally from her mother and witnesses a mob burn down her own home.  Jane is sent away to a horrid boarding school where she is starved and abused both mentally and physically, whereas Antoinette is sent to a nunnery where the people there confuse her and she is tormented on her walks through town.  Jane, described as plan once reaching adulthood, persists through her circumstances and becomes both educated and independent, although guarded and unsure, whereas Antoinette, described by all as being beautiful, attempts to further please her step family by marrying a stranger, whom she readily begins to love.  Whatever her abilities, Jane makes choices that are good and not wholly selfish but not too simperingly selfless either.  She is a woman of dignity.  Antoinette is just the opposite, a woman of fire and passion and full of love to give.

When Rochester does them wrong they each react in their own distinct ways.  Jane runs, runs, runs.  Meanwhile, Antoinette runs, but only to her nurse maid Christophine, to whom she begs to make Rochester fall back in love with her.  Antoinette screams and cries for Rochester's love, and is never rational.  The triumph of the novella comes only from Christophine's speech to Rochester at the book's climax.  In the most champion moment of the book, Christophine berates Rochester for his ill treatment of Antoinette and says, "I tell her so.  I warn her.  I say this is not a man who will help you when he sees you break up.  Only the best can do that."  By "break up" she means become heartbroken.  Rochester could have been as patient as Jane, as forgiving as Jane will be to him in later years when the next part of the story unfolds for him, but rather we see him become the cruel Mr. Rochester that we recognize from the beginning of Jane Eyre.  Antoinette is lost to him, becoming his mad little "Bertha," a wife to be hidden away.

So here is the moral of the story as I take it from Wide Sargasso Sea, especially as it relates to Jane Eyre:

We should all be free to love as passionately and as unrestrainedly as Antoinette, but we all have to try to be like Jane, lest we be labeled madwomen.

Or we could all be more like Christophine, who holds my favorite quote in the whole book:

"A man don't treat you good, pick up your skirt and walk out."

Amen, sister.

Stranger than [fan]Fiction

I entered the reading experience of Fifty Shades of Grey like that of a seasoned fanfiction connoisseur.*  My canon (the original published work, in this case Twilight by Stephanie Meyer) knowledge was brushed up on, I had read the appropriate “warnings,” and was ready to discern for myself whether or not this new thing by E L James was a good read.  When beginning a fanfiction, I notice a couple of things in the first few paragraphs that determine whether or not I keep reading: one, is the narrative crisp, clear and descriptive, and two, am I reading this author’s perspectives on a character, or are the characters merely caricatures of canon characters?  Right off the bat, Fifty Shades of Grey reminded me of those well done fanfictions that I choose to “favorite;” that is, the author was threading together a story with grace while building anticipation for what comes next, and so I was excited to keep reading.  There were also lemons* promised, and every fanfiction reader knows that sometimes a good fanfiction can be brought to the next level by a good old-fashioned lemon or two.

I was impressed with the character work.  In the beginning, it seemed a bit bumpy.  I could see “Bella” and “Edward” isms throughout, and had to stop myself from guessing which of the other characters matched up with which (i.e. “Jose” for Jacob…good one, E L James, good one).  By the end of the book, however, Anastasia, this book’s Bella, had surpassed the heroine from which she was derived by… well…by actually being something of a heroine for herself.  I won’t spoil the ending, but let’s just say that in this case, Anastasia fights for what she wants out of the relationship, and that doesn’t include begging to be turned into a Vampire so that she can spend all of her eternity in soppy awe of Christian Grey (the books older, cooler and more disturbed version of Edward Cullen).  Sadly (I will spoil this for you), Mr. Grey never does reveal himself to be a Vampire, and we are left with the impression that his fucked-upped-ness actually stems from real human trauma.  This I appreciated in multitudes.

By the end of the book, I declared to myself that the grasshopper had truly exceeded the master (although...how hard was it?).  Fifty Shades of Grey author E L James took a difficult subject matter for a mass audience, a BDSM* romance, and related it easily to the masses.  As the main character Anastasia puts it herself, “The BDSM is a distraction from the real issue.”  The real issue is compromise, and what two people from seemingly opposite worlds must do in order to share a meaningful relationship with one another.  I found myself personally moved by the trials that our main duo struggle through:  not just what each individual wants out of a relationship, but what they are willing to give.  The BDSM component actually forced me to see this more clearly; I was jolted, out of my comfort zone, and therefore able to look at the text with a more critical eye (a distancing affect Bertolt Brecht would be proud of…maybe). 

Of course, the book is not without faults.  It is no work of literary genius, and often the prose becomes repetitive and a mere means to move the story along.  If I saw one more character say “Jeez” one more time, I might’ve flipped a table.  However, faults aside, if you want to read this for pleasure and maybe also to learn a little bit more about yourself, go for it.

Oh, and the sex is smokin’.

Treat yourself.

*see one post prior for an explanation of how Fifty Shades of Grey came to stand as a novel on its own after originally being posted as a work of fanfiction, or go here

*smutty scenes, often described as lemons on fanfiction sites

*I'll let you look that one up

The (Working) Hit List

Welcome to my summer of reading women authors and playwrights.  This happened (mostly) by chance.

Novels/Novellas/Essays
The Witching Hour (Anne Rice)
A Room of One's Own, Mrs. Dalloway (Virginia Woolf)
The Robber Bridegroom, The Optimist's Daughter (Eudora Welty)
Beautiful Creatures (Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl)
Beloved (Toni Morrison)
Wide Sargasso Sea (Jean Rhys)
The Namesake (Jhumpa Lahiri)
Fifty Shades of Grey (E. L. James)*
The History of Love (Nicole Krauss)

Nonfiction
Let's Pretend This Never Happened (Jenny Lawson)

Plays
The Verge (Susan Glaspell)
Demon Baby (Erin Courtney)
Stoning Mary (Debbie Tucker Green)
The Maids (Jean Genet)
Far Away (Caryl Churchill)
Execution of Justice (Emily Mann)
Shakara: Dance-Hall Queen (Osonye Tess Onwueme)
The Well of Horniness (Holly Hughes)


*This book was recommended by a friend, and upon further research I discovered that this book series began as Twilight fan fiction.  Because of articles like these, and my own first hand experience with it, I am a public supporter of both the fan fiction universe and of all interactive reader experiences (like my BFF Pottermore).  This book may mark just another step in legitimizing the controversial genre.  We'll see how the series holds up; I am simultaneously tantalized and made anxious by the reviews and summaries available.

A BRIEF UPDATE

Dear All:

I have decided this summer that I am going to officially have this blog up and running as a book review site. I'd like to go with a theme, and I think I want that theme to be reader-driven (like, you guys pick the next book I read out of three choices every week). Since that pool is very limited (hi, friends!), I'll try and expand it over the next two months.

Until May hits us, however, please be satiated with a short list of must reads as I have found them over the past year and a half:

Series:
The Stieg Larsson Trilogy (Girl with the Drago Tattoo, etc)
A Song of Ice and Fire (favorite book in series: Storm of Swords)

Classic Literature:
Jane Eyre (finally. love.)
Wuthering Heights (finally. love.)

Plays:
Glengarry Glen Ross by David Mamet
Two Trains Running by August Wilson
Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl (I have a newfound devotion to Sarah Ruhl)

Nonfiction Award:
Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff

Vampire Novels Worth Reading:
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith
Dracula by Bram Stoker
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
The Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice

I'm about to start The Hunger Games. Would have read them this week but left my Kindle at home :( and I hate computer screen glare.

That being said,

Happy Reading!
Clellan

An Adults-Only PS:
The Risque Reader might enjoy "The Taking of Sleeping Beauty" by Anne Rice. A classic among Anne Rice followers, it is artfully done and perfectly scandalous and I enjoyed every minute.

Fun with the Undead.

I just finished the dazzling 2005 novel by Elizabeth Kostova entitled "The Historian." A true gem of a Vampire novel, in the sea of fairy tale worthy vampire hunks. This novel will reintroduce you to the dark side of the lore and legend of the Vampire. It draws heavily from Bram Stoker's "Dracula" and also several actual (and some fictional) historical documents chronicling the history of the folklore of Vampires.

The book is also sexy. It's sexy, not only because it takes you back in time a little, spanning from the 1930s-1970s, but into these particular scholars worlds, who have not yet felt the wild impulses of the sexual revolution. The girl who dates herself as having been a teenager in the 70s even lets us know how particular odd this was for her, even if it isn't so odd for the older characters. The desire is palpable but the intellectual respect and outright innocence of assumption is startling. There is one passage where Paul, a main character, is staying at a monastery with his female traveling companion and fellow scholar, Helen, and he has just proposed to her the night before. He hesitates before entering her cell, but then says that he suddenly remembered that she was his fiancee, and he felt that it was right to go in and kiss her good morning. For God's sake, how sexy is that? The innocent hesitation at one's own fiancee? His love for her surpassed a sexual habit. He knew her enough to ask her to be his wife; he did not need to sleep with her to know that.

And there's a lot of good old fashioned eerie tomb digging, ancient artifact finding, bloodsucking/ demon creating, silver stake in the heart driving, Vampire fun.

A fun question for those who have read or plan to read the book: Who exactly do you think Kostova is referring to in the title? Or is she referring to anyone particularly at all? I have my thoughts, tell me yours!

A Quick Note

I just found out that I am going to be listed as the co-author of a text book. I figured that Facebook was too immature of a place to go shouting about it, so I'd just write about it here. I was hired for the summer to help Dr. Susan Kattwinkel edit and prepare her textbook that is basically an "Introduction to College" textbook for freshman in First Year programs at the College of Charleston. For 3-ish months I sent out e-mails to various CofC representatives to ensure that we could use certain material, searched the Kendall-Hunt website for non-offensive Health sections (I will tangent on this in a second), and, most importantly, wrote small sections and created exercises/ worksheets. These exercises included scavenger hunts, money management, time management, and my favorite, how to write a paper for college. I assumed that I would be listed as an editing assistant or intern, but an e-mail from Susan a couple of days ago informed me that I would be listed as the co-author and that she would send me the information for my resume. I thought that this was pretty swell, and wanted to share. Huzzah!

*Health Sections that generally screamed NO SEX EVER multiple times. They argued that having sex could add stress to your college workload. I think that healthy relationships lend themselves to healthy, stress relieving sex. Maybe they should have told the kids about building healthy relationships, and then having as much sex as possible.

Gone with the Wind

I didn't like Pride and Prejudice one bit. I know, I know, heads are turning. It was...charming. And also boring. Lizzy Bennet is not unlike many girls. A good person, a loving daughter and sister, albeit a bit quirky and a little too argumentative. She generally follows the rules of society, at least, as I see it. I think that the time period in which it was written may affect my perception of the novel itself. Austen assumes that her audience understands the strict societal constraints placed upon Lizzy, and therefore that Lizzy is particular and special...whereas I just see her as a women who won't be considered an object of trade. But if she has the support of her family in that aspect (for the most part), what's so special about it? The novel didn't capture me, in any case. And I apologize to my Austen fanatic friends. Maybe you can explain what I'm missing.

You know what book did capture me, completely? The book I read directly after, Gone with the Wind. When they call this a "sweeping novel" they mean it...that's the only two word phrase that I could think of that actually describes the book. Scarlett O'Hara may have been a selfish bitch and Melly may have been a little too simpering, but they were both revolutionary women. They weren't revolutionary because they were attention whores or particularly hated the restrictions that society placed upon them. They were revolutionary because they had to be, because a war broke out around them and the men that they so often deferred to were gone and they were left to forge new paths for themselves...to survive fire and theft, disease and hunger, the assault of their person and their land. They were survivors. The novel is about two women who are essentially preservationists (upholding the Survival of the Fittest theory) and come out of their topsy-turvy world on top again. Scarlett not only fights her position in society, she uses it to gain status and ensure the health and survival of not only herself, but of her family. It's very human, and quite captivating. I highly recommend it.

It also made me feel closer to my late Granny, who kept a copy of Gone with the Wind and the Bible in her living room at all times, it seems like. Funny enough, Pat Conroy, in his introduction the the paperback version I read, cites this as one of the tenants of our grandparent's generation (well, mine, they were a bit older. Grandfather born 1917, Granny born 1921)...that is, a generation almost forgotten now, a generation gone with the wind.