I'd rather read than write today. I just finished reading The Picture of Dorian Gray, and am trying to start The Pickwick Papers. All of the Charles Dickens I have read up to this point has been on the dark and depressing or serious end (Great Expectations, the beginning of Oliver Twist, A Tale of Two Cities, A Christmas Carol) and so I'm looking forward to experiencing something a little different. I expect to encounter something along the lines of P.G. Wodehouse. It will be interesting to see what I actually find, and how it compares to my expectation.
When I first read about Dickens last novel Martin Chuzzelwit in a Jasper Fforde novel, I thought it was some sort of literary joke (it's such a funny sounding title), like so many of Fforde's jokes are. That's how up on the Victorian era I am. I've enjoyed Wilkie Collins since just before Parker was born. Robertson Davies identifies him (Collins) as a second-rate author, but also says that it took a great amount of skill to be even a second-rate author in those days. Flannery O'Connor once said that if you could only learn to write poorly enough, you could stand to make a great deal of money.
There are so many books I want to read--I can never seem to focus on just one at a time. I have to have at least three going at any given moment. I've recently had to give up one of my favorite authors, though: Steven King. Having a child makes it increasingly difficult to read horror fiction. I started reading Cell (rhymes with Hell, the books jacket tells us) last weekend and found that I simply couldn't do it. I can no longer read about such a world without imagining my own son in it, therefore I can no longer read about such a world. It is just too terrifying. It's funny that I never really found his books to be particularly frightening before.
And Parker's awake now. That means it will be a while before I get to pick Dickens up again.
4 comments:
Sister,
I would be interested in reading what you thought about The Picture of Dorian Gray.
I picked it up the unabridged audio book for one of my many trips to and from Huntsville back when I was interviewing for jobs. I don't think I had the historical or cultural background to enjoy it very much, though.
But isn't it technically horror? Though, I guess it would be a little more difficult imagining Parker in that sort of situation.
Yes, indeed, *The Picture of Dorian Gray* is horror fiction, but like you said, I don't worry too much about Parker in the nineteenth century, nor do I expect him to wish away his soul. If he even considered it, I don't think *Dorian Gray* would be much of a deterrant.
I'll try to publish something on this soon.
Ha! Becoming a parent changes so much of who were are/how we look at things. Your literary tolerances may be just the tip of the iceberg.
Try watching the Mel Gibson movie, Ransom, now. I watched it when my son was about Parker's age, and it took me several hours to calm down afterward, whereas normally I'm pretty much unaffected by movies.
I have never seen the movie *Ransom* and, frankly I never intended to even before Parker was born. Now it would be too, too intolerable. I've never liked scenes where children or elderly people were threatened. What was that movie that so got to me? Oh yes, *The Bone Collector*.
Post a Comment