Reading Challenge and Recommendations

Currently Reading: The Return of the King by J. R. R. Tolkien

Hello everyone! After the success of my November challenge for myself – nine new blog posts in one month – I’ve decided to take on another one. However, this time I’m switching my focus. Instead of setting a writing goal, I’m turning my attention to my reading habits. Thus do I embark on my February challenge:

One Book a Week for this Geek! Four for February

Why yes. I am proud of that title.

And more importantly, that’s right! I’m determined to read one book for every week in February (i.e. four books for the month). I figure that was a fairly normal reading pace for me in college so it can’t be too hard an undertaking. Yet, it will hopefully help me to fulfill a personal goal, which is spending more time with my nose in a book rather than with my eyes glued to the TV. Fortunately, my favorite television shows are making it easier and beginning to endlessly suck… but that’s a rant for some other time and a different blog.

So with The Return of the King as my first book for the month (despite beginning it two days ago, in January), I will read four books in February. Furthermore, I’m holding myself accountable for this goal by proclaiming it on my blog, which, theoretically, means I’m holding myself accountable to others.

In the meantime, since this is likely to decrease my posting for the next month, I decided I’d give some more reading suggestions for you to fill the time in my absence. Again, the summaries come from the books’ back covers.

1. Life of Pi by Yann Martel

“Pi Patel, a God-loving boy and the son of a zookeeper, has a fervent love of stories and practices not only his native Hinduism, but also Christianity and Islam. When Pi is sixteen, his family and their zoo animals emigrate from India to North America aboard a Japanese cargo ship. Alas, the ship sinks – and Pi finds himself in a lifeboat, his only companions a hyena, an orangutan, a wounded zebra, and a 450-pound Bengal tiger. Soon the tiger has dispatched all but Pi. Can Pi and the tiger find their way to land? Can Pi’s fear, knowledge, and cunning keep him alive until they do?”

I’m not sure if I’ve made it clear or not from the five or six times I’ve mentioned Life of Pi in this blog, but I really love this book. It’s beautifully written and despite the lack of action, Martel does a great job of making the plot compelling. But the reason I keep mentioning this book is that it keeps me thinking and guessing after the fact. I’ve read it twice, my best friend has read it four times and we still find new nuggets of metaphor and meaning each time we read it. It’s not a great book to read over an extended period, in short intervals, but it’s a wonderful novel, especially when you have a chunk of time to dedicate to it.

2. The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje

“With ravishing beauty and unsettling intelligence, Michael Ondaatje’s Booker Prize-winning novel traces the intersection of four damaged lives in an Italian villa at the end of World War II. Hana, the exhausted nurse; the maimed thief, Caravaggio; the wary sapper, Kip: each is haunted by the riddle of the English patient, the nameless, burned man who lies in an upstairs room and whose memories of passion, betrayal, and rescue illuminate this book like flashes of heat lightning.”

It’s been a while since I’ve read this novel so the details of it are a little fuzzy. What isn’t fuzzy is how wonderful and complex the characters and stories are; how tragic and romantic the plot is. Even if you’ve seen the movie, it’s nothing compared to the book. In fact, part of what I find so frustrating about the movie is that it barely touches on the depths of the characters I loved best, Hana and Kip. Believe me, there’s a reason this novel is a prizewinner and is taught in so many English courses.

3. Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

“We hear the world will end on a Saturday. Next Saturday, in fact. Just before dinner. Unfortunately, Sister Mary Loquacious of the Chattering Order has misplaced the Antichrist. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse ride motorcycles. And the representatives from Heaven and Hell have decided they actually like the human race…”

This recommendation is partly for my friend who is reading this for her book club as encouragement. It really is awesome. If you are at all a fan of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, you will certainly enjoy Good Omens. It has the same style of humor, subverting expectations, playing with words and cleverly reworking one of the most well known stories – the story of the Apocalypse. It’s light and fun reading, despite centering on such a morbid topic. 

Here’s hoping these suggestions will entice you to also put your nose in a book this coming month.

Peter Jackso – I mean, Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring

Currently Reading: The Two Towers by J. R. R. Tolkien

I was in 7th grade when The Fellowship of the Ring movie first appeared in theaters. Beyond the tentative excitement my mother felt about it, I had very minimal interest in the release. In fact, I never actually saw The Fellowship of the Ring in theaters. The first time I watched it – with half interest – was right before I went to see The Two Towers a year later, a movie chosen by popular vote among my friends. I don’t remember any real impact from the first film because it was a rushed viewing, done only to understand what I was about to go watch in theaters.

Ahhh… how times have changed.

The Two Towers essentially rocked my middle school self’s world. I saw it three times in theaters. Since then, I have watched the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy more times than I can count – and probably more times than I should ever admit to. They have become a staple in my house; they're some of our go-to movies when we are in the mood to pop something in and we usually agree to the extended versions. While my obsession has never reached the heights of having a wall-sized poster of Orlando Bloom as Legolas in my bedroom – you know who you are – it’s certainly noteworthy.

Seriously, SO GOOD!!!!!!!!!!

The point is, I love these movies and I know them pretty much inside out and backwards.

Now here’s the shameful part in all this:

Until about two weeks ago, I had never read any of the books.

I know, Kitty. It's quite shocking.

I’d always meant to, I just had such a bad taste in my mouth from my oh-so-tragic experience reading The Hobbit – refer to my sole December post for that tear-jerking tale – that I had written off Tolkien entirely. My intense love for Peter Jackson’s movie versions couldn’t conquer my irrational hate of Tolkien.

I have now overcome my previous, rather unfounded prejudices towards the author and have finished the first installment of the trilogy, The Fellowship of the Ring. What did I think of the book version? Was it better than the movie, as is generally the rule for all books adapted for the big screen?

I honestly can’t tell you.

Because the horrible thing about reading a novel that is the basis for one of your favorite movies is that you cannot, cannot separate the two.

I literally could not get my mind to stop comparing Tolkien’s book with Jackson’s film adaptation. Instead of forming any sort of opinion about the action or the writing, my mind would think, 

“Hmmm… that’s not how that went in the movie.”

Or

“Weird. Gandalf said that line in the movie.”

Or

“That happens so much later in the movie.”

It wracked my brain the whole time!!

In some ways, it was nice having the comparison. Truthfully, I’m not sure I would have stuck it out to Bree – which truly is when the plot picks up in The Fellowship – if I hadn’t known how great the story was. It also made me enjoy some of the extra background bits of information for the characters or the lengthy decision making scenes more than I probably would have originally because it felt like finding extra bonus features on the DVD. It helped me to understand a lot of aspects of the movies I never would have gotten otherwise. Plus, as is always the case, the book allows for more depth in the characters, especially somewhat secondary characters like Legolas and Gimli. For example, I’m not sure I ever really understood that Legolas was from Mirkwood, the same place from which Bilbo had to rescue his dwarf companions in The Hobbit. It’s added a new layer to the story I thought I knew so well… which sounds kind of silly when I think about the fact that the story came from the book so they aren’t really new layers.

However, I reiterate that overall I’m not sure what my opinion of the book is. And that kind of breaks my heart. I feel as if I’ve been deprived of a reading experience and I’m saddened to know that it’s one I can never have. I can’t un-watch the movies and I can’t go back and read the books before I saw the films, or before I knew them so well. I will never know what it feels like to be surprised by the twists and turns of this novel and I’m really disappointed that that is the case.

Not as relevant as I wanted, but way too amused not to share. PS Don't type in "book heartbreak" to your Google Images. It's just depressing the titles that show up.

It’s not completely hopeless, though. I have managed to form one or two opinions of the book and Tolkien’s writing outside of the movie versions. However, I believe I’m going to hold off on voicing them until I’ve completed the whole series in case they become firmer or change entirely by the end of the trilogy.

Hopefully, in the end, I will figure out some trick for separating the book from the movie…

I'd love any helpful hints if you've got them :)

Teaching Book History Workshop Highlights and Reflections

Currently Reading: The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien

For about a month now, I’ve wanted to write a post in response to the incredible weekend workshop that my department at the Folger Shakespeare Library co-hosted for undergraduate professors from all over the world. The workshop was called Teaching Book History and during this workshop, professors gathered to debate “how print culture, physical bibliography, and textual studies might best be integrated into a curriculum; what digital humanities may offer book historians; and how faculty and librarians can teach book history without access to a large collection of rare material” (description taken from our website). In short, it was a forum for undergraduate professors to discuss the “how” and “why” behind teaching book history courses at their respective institutions.

Adding to the endless list of reasons I love my job, I got to be part of the team helping out for the weekend. It was my job to assist our curators with lecture needs ranging from setting up a projector to displaying books from the 17th century to preparing the quills and ink as part of a demonstration. While occasionally stressful, my duties were fairly simple and were usually completed before the lecture, not during. This meant that I had the privilege of being a fly on the wall at this workshop, hearing some of the smartest people in the fields of early modern literature, history, and special collections not only share the knowledge they have, but debate and discuss with each other. It was a rare look into the minds of professors and the logistics of preparing the classes they teach.

It was fascinating and eye opening! In both a negative and a positive sense actually. I was somewhat disheartened to discover just how many gaps there are in my English knowledge since I focused so exclusively on Shakespeare and creative writing during my undergraduate career. Not that I regret taking my elective classes. I just wish that I had had more time to explore all the areas of the major and I definitely wish I had taken a course in book history after our weekend workshop. I always assumed I would find the subject mind-numbingly boring, but after hearing our Curator of Rare Books and our Curator of Art and Special Collections describe all of the nuances and careful artisanship that used to go into making books before the Industrial Revolution, I discovered I found the subject stimulating rather than boring.

And I got paid to attend these talks!

I know for my non-academic minded friends, the amazing, almost unreal feeling of luck and happiness that that sentence makes me feel will never be understood. But some of you out there must appreciate that this past weekend, I essentially was paid to learn!

Besides this financial benefit, some of the highlights from the workshop, for me, included hearing a reference to both Oregon Trail and Fifty Shades of Grey in one professor’s speech, watching a room full of undergraduate professors (i.e. mostly PhD’s) struggle to figure out a folding exercise (even though my amusement was completely unfair since I was absolutely lost just listening to it), and finally the discovery that there’s an entire field dedicated to studying the notes people leave in the margins of books – marginalia.

As the granddaughter of a librarian, I’ve always viewed notes and scribbles in the margins of books to be a desecration of property on  par with graffiti on the side of a church. However, the anthropology major in me was awakened when these professors pointed out just how much there was to learn about a person or a culture from marginalia and how it could sometimes be the most fascinating part of a document. After all, it’s a look inside the person’s mind, like reading his diaries or letters but in relation to a very specific topic. It’s certainly made me rethink my anger towards my previous used book owners.

For me, though, my favorite part of the weekend had to be Professor Ian Gadd's (Bath-Spa University) lecture called, “Touching Books.” It so perfectly and eloquently explained why I have such an attachment to hard copies of books, why I find the experience of reading from a book so much more satisfying than reading from an eReader. He described how essential touch is, how it intimately connects us to a book in a way that I believe an eReader just can’t.

In fact, if you think about it, there’s a lot more individuality to books than you might realize. Professor Gadd explained how he emphasizes this point through an exercise he does with his classes in which he has his students identify the genre of a book blindfolded, making their assessments solely based on touch. You don’t normally think about it, but a cookbook has a completely different feel from a novel and a novel has a completely different feel from a textbook, which feels different from a children’s book. 

Touch is so fundamental to our experience in handling an object. Just look at what a child does when you ask him to look at something. His first instinct is to touch it. Even adults are obsessed with being able to touch objects as evidenced by all the new technologies that allow people to “handle” digital items through touch screens.

This presentation made me really think about why exactly I find touching a book so important to the experience of reading. It made me realize that turning the pages of a book creates what Professor Gadd called an “electrical intimacy” that flipping the “page” on a screen just can’t. Through an eReader, every book touch experience is the same; it removes part of the connection I create to that specific book. Yes, there are advantages to the electronic book, but Professor Gadd helped me to understand why it’s unlikely real books will ever be obsolete or at least why I believe they shouldn’t ever become so.

Of course, at the end of the workshop there was a casual closing reception during which I attempted to talk to Professor Gadd and I’m sure I humiliated myself because I was in such awe of him. Figures.

But overall, the workshop was an unbelievable success! The energy and enthusiasm of the whole weekend was inspiring and contagious, not to mention fun. I can’t wait for our next one and I hope that it too will receive a standing ovation – because yeah, that happened. 

There and Back Again... Again

Currently Reading: The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien

My first exposure to The Hobbit came when I was probably around six years old. I was somehow forced to watch this version:

Bilbo Baggins in the cartoon version of The Hobbit

Naturally, I decided that hobbits were some of the creepiest creatures ever imagined and I began to believe that Tolkien had a rather twisted mind. To this day, I find this cartoon version of The Hobbit to be one of the most disturbing things I’ve ever seen. Its on par with The Last Unicorn cartoon, an animated movie that has scarred every person of my generation.

The first time I actually read The Hobbit, it was assigned reading for my 8th grade English class. And it was one of the most miserable reading experiences of my life.

It was a Sunday in September. In fact, it was my 13th birthday. I was still floating on the high of spending my birthday weekend with my friends, giggling and having fun in the obnoxious, immature way that only 13 year-olds know how to. We’d gone to see Sweet Home Alabama and during the movie, I had successfully held hands with my crush du jour, making me silly with butterflies until that Sunday. My weekend had been one of my more perfect birthday celebrations and I had absolutely no interest in coming down from my high, especially not on my actual birthday.

My English teacher evidently had had other plans for my birthday weekend. She had piled us with homework that weekend. I don’t remember all of the specifics of the assignments, but I do remember that assignment was plural and that at the center of my suffering was – you guessed it – Mr. Tolkien’s The Hobbit. I believe we were expected to read something like ten chapters over the weekend on top of two other assignments. Again, the exact parameters of the assignment escape me now. The irrational anger and extreme agitation I felt, do not.

I’ve always been a rather slow reader and at the time I was much slower given that I was, well, 13 and my attention span for reading even slightly challenging books was not particularly high. The ten chapters took me all day. I’m pretty sure I settled into our living room couch around noon and didn’t finish the assignment until about 6 PM.

And I couldn’t even breathe a sigh of relief. I still had all the rest of my homework which to contend. Never mind all of my other classes. I still had English homework to complete. The glow of my lovely birthday weekend was extinguished entirely by the obscene amount of schoolwork I was forced to do on my actual birthday.

The injustice of it all!

In my self-centered 13-year-old brain, I was still convinced that the world should have the decency to stop and relax in observance of the holiday that was my birthday. Shouldn’t teachers know not to assign any work on my birthday? Seriously, my birthday girl rights were being violated.

Guess I was doing my best impression of this girl.

To add insult to injury, the next day I arrived in my English class, completely disgruntled, only to hear my teacher proclaim:

“I realized over the weekend that I assigned an unrealistic amount of homework, so if you didn’t get through all The Hobbit reading, it’s OK.”

My classmates exhaled a sigh of relief. “Thank God!” they whispered, “I only got through about half the reading!”

I was dumbfounded! Even more than that, I was furious. My birthday had been wasted and it didn’t have to be?? I didn’t have to suffer through all that reading??

I’m fairly certain I saw red.

At the center of my rage sat The Hobbit. If that damn Tolkien hadn’t written such a tedious, wordy book with ridiculous songs and riddles, it wouldn’t have taken me so damn long to read it and birthday bliss could have been mine!!

And for years, this has been the impression of The Hobbit that I’ve carried around. I have firmly hated it and have believed it to be long winded with uninteresting characters and a plot that dragged. In a way, this belief has kept me from reading The Lord of the Rings trilogy, despite the knowledge that they are by far my mother’s favorite and most re-read books. I just couldn’t forgive Tolkien for “ruining” my 13th birthday.

Now, 10 years later, I feel terrible about the abusive reviews I’ve given this novel.

I’m so glad I re-read this novel because the second reading has completely changed my opinion of it. In fact, I’m stunned by my previous assessments now, particularly my firm belief that the novel was incredibly slow paced. I could not disagree with this conclusion more. The story actually progresses at an extremely quick rate. This makes sense given it’s a children’s book and a fast pace is key to maintaining a child’s attention. But still, the speed of the plot floored me initially. I mean Bilbo is on the road beginning his adventure by the end of the first chapter for Pete’s sake! In an adult book, it would have taken at least twice as long! Additionally, I was somewhat surprised to discover that every chapter had a key plot point in it, another writing choice hardly ever made in adult books. In fact, every chapter almost had a stand-alone story within it, making it easier for a parent to read one chapter aloud before bed – as my sister pointed out. I guess given my choice of reading material these days, I had forgotten what it was like to read a book targeted for a much younger audience.

That wasn’t the only thing I’d forgotten.

Honestly, I had forgotten pretty much the entirety of The Hobbit’s plot. I remembered the bit with the trolls discussing the various ways to kill Bilbo and I vaguely remembered the part in which Bilbo meets Gollum, but other than that, I realized I remembered almost nothing. I’m fairly embarrassed at how new the book felt, despite the fact that I was reading it for the second time. I guess I didn’t really absorb much of the book through my indignation the first time around since the parts I remember occur in the third and fifth chapters. Apparently, I might as well have enjoyed my birthday for the amount I actually read.

But I’m glad I’ve read it again. It’s reading experiences like this one that remind just why it’s not a waste of time to re-read a novel. Yes, chances are my “to-read” stack of books will always be piling up towards the ceiling, but sometimes, it’s worth it to revisit something in the “already-read” pile. If I hadn’t, I would have continued to believe that I hate Tolkien when really, I now understand why he’s so beloved. I can’t wait to finally read The Lord of the Rings now!

Book Recommendations for Your Reading Lists

Currently (Re-) Reading: The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien

So I know I’ve overloaded everyone with blog posts in the last week, but I’m absolutely determined to meet this goal of nine posts in November! Probably because I have a bad record for following through on goals I set for myself. However, I’ve decided to use this last November post to give some recommendations and summaries of my favorite books as an easier read from which you will hopefully benefit.

Or maybe I’m just copping out because I have actually caught up with blogging on all the books I’ve read since I started Novel Ideas and I didn’t leave myself enough time to write a worthy post on another book-related topic… You can be the judge.

Here are three book recommendations for you with the summaries from their back covers.

1. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

“Barcelona, 1945: A city slowly heals from its war wounds, and Daniel, an antiquarian book dealer’s son who mourns the loss of his mother, finds solace in a mysterious book entitled The Shadow of the Wind, by one Julian Carax. But when he sets out to find the author’s other works, he makes a shocking discovery: someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book Carax has written. In fact, Daniel may have the last of Carax’s books in existence. Soon Daniel’s seemingly innocent quest opens a door into one of Barcelona’s darkest secrets – an epic story of murder, madness, and doomed love.”

Yes, I’ve mentioned this book recently and yes, it is so good it’s worth bringing up once again. Like I’ve said, it’s a gripping story that has one hell of a shock ending. Plus, Zafon’s writing is just beautiful! He has an unbelievable ability to create imagery that’s so vivid and originally described. It makes me pea green with envy because I will never be able to write that well. His writing is even more impressive because this book was originally written in Spanish. That’s right. You’re reading a translation. Makes me wish I could read Spanish just so I could get the full effect of his writing. I highly recommend this book and the other novels in the set, The Angel’s Game and The Prisoner of Heaven.

2. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

(My copy doesn’t have a summary on the back cover so this is my brief summary)

Jacob Jankowski is a student at veterinary school about to finally earn his degree when he receives the devastating news that both his parents have been killed in a car accident. His life is further turned upside down by the discovery that they left Jacob with a mountain of debt that forces him to sell his father’s veterinary practice and his childhood home. In the midst of a breakdown, Jacob drops out of school and runs away, eventually jumping on a train. He is surprised to find the train belongs to the circus troupe called Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. The ringleader, Uncle Al, learns Jacob has veterinary training and hires the dropout to treat the circus animals. While traveling with the performers, Jacob discovers that behind the colorful, fanciful and spectacular show lurks a dark and dangerous world and Jacob unwittingly places himself in the thick of it when he falls in love with Marlena, the show’s star and the wife of the hot-tempered head-trainer, August.

It’s a fascinating look into the circus culture and a beautiful love story to boot. Furthermore, Gruen’s writing is effortlessly smooth, making it easy for the audience to become thoroughly absorbed in the novel. Another excellent read to add to your own list.

3. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

“By her brother’s graveside, Liesel Meminger’s life is changed when she picks up a single object, partially hidden in the snow. It is The Grave Digger’s Handbook, left there by accident, and it is her first act of book thievery. So begins a love affair with books and words, as Liesel, with the help of her accordion-playing foster father, learns to read. Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor’s wife’s library, wherever there are books to be found.

But these are dangerous times. When Liesel’s foster family hides a Jew in their basement, Liesel’s world is both opened up and closed down.

In superbly crafted writing that burns with intensity, award-winning author Markus Zusak has given us one of the most enduring stories of out time.”

The last sentence really says a lot about what it so wonderful about this book. It truly is intense and “superbly crafted.” Zusak also makes one of the most unique writing choices I’ve ever encountered and tells the story from the perspective of Death. It sounds like it should be incredibly morbid to read a story told by Death, but he’s a surprisingly entertaining narrator. Warning, this is one of the most amazing, beautiful stories I’ve ever read, but it’s also one of the saddest. If you’re emotional at all, have a box of tissues ready while you read.

These are just three books to add to your own reading lists. Happy reading!

Big Brother is Watching! … His Facebook and Twitter Feeds Now

Currently (Re-) Reading: The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien

When my Uncle John came to visit while I was reading 1984, he commented that I might find it unsettling how close the state of our country is now to 1984’s dictatorship Oceania. However, I have to disagree with him for the most part.

I’m sure he’s right to a degree that there’s a whole seedy under belly to our government that I don’t know much about – although how he would know, I’m not really sure. It seems likely that the government, along with big commercial companies, monitors our actions and thoughts to an extent. It also seems likely that anyone exhibiting actions consistent with those of a terrorist are apprehended and dealt with probably in a manner that’s a little too similar to the way thought criminals are dealt with in Oceania.

He was also right that both societies lack a severe amount of privacy. However, I would argue that the reasons behind this lack of privacy are so vastly different from each other that it actually makes our society almost the polar opposite of Oceania.

Because instead of keeping our private lives and thoughts as closely guarded to the vest as we can, we revel in sharing everything. And I mean, everything. Between Facebook, LinkedIn, blogs, and Twitter, it is almost possible to know literally every thought and bit of personal information about a person. Sometimes, I really wish I couldn’t. I mean, really, do we need to know every single move someone makes in a day? Most likely not.

Also, I recognize that I’m just as guilty as most of my generation and that I participate in this potential over-sharing. My guilt stems more from over documenting via pictures and, of course, via this blog.

But man! Can’t you imagine the Party just drooling at the thought of everyone having a Twitter?

The significant difference between our country and Oceania, though, is the choice to share every bit of privacy with the public. While George Orwell’s characters’ privacy is forcibly taken from them, we just give ours away. We don’t keep our thoughts secret; we share them with people who are often only acquaintances. In fact, our country prides itself on the freedom to speak one’s mind, even if one’s thoughts disparage the government. I point your attention to the most recent presidential election, as evidence. Anyone with a Facebook could see free speech exercised in all its wonderful, angry glory. Statuses like the ones I saw would certainly not fly in Oceania.

The thing is, however annoyed I was with the incessant candidate trashing or the play-by-play statuses, after reading 1984 I’ve come to appreciate it a bit more. There’s a reason this country covets its right to free speech. It’s because it’s so damn important. Without it, a society like Oceania would be possible; a society in which thoughts are not only monitored, but punished and then controlled to the point that a governing force can convince a person almost completely that 2 + 2 = 5, not 4.

On this topic of thought control, the concept of doublethink and the philosophical argument of the nature of reality were some of my favorite parts of the novel – and, in my opinion, the most terrifying. After taking a few sociology and psychology courses in high school and college, this flexibility of reality was actually something I started to wonder about. After all, doesn’t a large part of reality stem from consensual agreement that it is in fact true?

This became especially clear to me in high school when we began learning about the desire to conform in my sociology class and – weirdly – color blindness in my psych class. It dawned on me just how crazy a color blind person must feel until he realizes he’s color blind. I mean, in his reality, red is green or what have you. It’s only from the agreement of everyone around him that he comes to know that his perception of the world is distorted.

But what’s to say he’s wrong about the state of reality? Technically he isn’t, because it’s what’s real for him. Yet at the same time, he is wrong because it’s not the agreed upon reality.

What’s horrifying about this – and what Orwell taps into in this novel – is just how easy it is to change reality given that it apparently exists outside of a person. Think about it. If suddenly an entire school decided to gang up on one student for some sadistic reason and unilaterally decided that 2 + 2 = 5 or that yellow is purple, how long do you think that single student could hold on to his conviction that yellow is yellow or 2 + 2 = 4 before cracking under the social pressure or simply cracking?

Messes with your head, right?

I can’t even imagine how Orwell was able to dissect the topic long enough and clearly enough to write about doublethink and the pliability of reality. It makes me officially retract every negative comment I’ve ever made about him after over-studying Animal Farm. George Orwell, you are indeed impressive.

A Real Horrorshow Post About A Clockwork Orange

Currently (Re-) Reading: The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien

The “Currently Re-Reading” section today is technically not true… I’m not sure I can say “currently” if I haven’t actually cracked the book open yet. I guess I’m in book limbo since I just finished 1984 last night and haven’t started The Hobbit yet. Either way, here’s hoping I finish re-reading it before the movie comes out.

I have a second somewhat tangential topic to discuss before diving into my A Clockwork Orange experience. Between Jane Eyre and A Clockwork Orange, I actually read two other books. These books were pseudo sequels to one of my all-time favorite novels, The Shadow of the Wind. They center on the same characters and the same mysterious library called the Cemetery of Forgotten Books in Barcelona, but supposedly they can stand alone i.e. you don’t have to read the others to understand or enjoy one of them. Following The Shadow of the Wind, the author, Carlos Ruiz Zafon, wrote The Angel’s Game and The Prisoner of Heaven. After reading all about the epic romance of the passionately moral Jane Eyre, I thus entered the mysterious, dangerous streets of Barcelona with the tormented David Martin in The Angel’s Game and then The Prisoner of Heaven.

I’ve opted not to dedicate an entire blog post to either of these Zafon novels, despite how thoroughly I enjoyed them because the topics I wanted to discuss would have revealed far too much about these keep-you-guessing, twisted stories. I’ve used spoiler alerts, but I don’t know how effective they are and frankly, most of the time I expect the people reading my blog to have already read what I’m discussing since they are classic English class reading. With The Angel’s Game and The Prisoner of Heaven, I don’t expect as high a readership and I absolutely would not want to ruin these books because if you haven’t read them or The Shadow of the Wind, you definitely should. They are gorgeously written and are intriguing, compelling, lovely, and disturbing stories with lots of surprise twists. I would hate to deprive anyone of the experience of reading them without knowing what will come next.

That being said, if you have read any or all of these books, I would love, love, love to discuss them!

Moving on…

WARNING: this post contains spoilers for A Clockwork Orange. If you haven’t read it, you should probably stop reading.

Now, there is a reason I mentioned the Carlos Ruiz Zafon novels even though I don’t intend to spend a full post on them. Besides wanting to recommend them to the world, these books definitely colored my reading of A Clockwork Orange.

Allow me to elaborate.

With most popular or classic novels, it’s hard not to hear something about them before reading them. In the case of A Clockwork Orange, everything I heard about it was how disturbing a story it was. I was actually fairly nervous about reading it because I don’t have the strongest of stomachs nor do I have nerves of steel. Therefore, I was convinced that A Clockwork Orange would be more than I could handle, pathetic a confession as that may be.

However, I was both relieved and disappointed to discover that it didn’t live up to my gruesome expectations.

I firmly believe that I wasn’t as appalled as most by the atrocious acts in A Clockwork Orange because I had just finished The Angel’s Game and The Prisoner of Heaven. Crazy as it may seem, Carlos Ruiz Zafon’s story was so twisted and messed with my head so much that Anthony Burgess could hardly top it. However, I don’t know if this was one of those instances in which the reality couldn’t possibly live up to the horrible imaginings I had envisioned or if I was somewhat robbed of the real experience of reading A Clockwork Orange.

Admittedly, A Clockwork Orange was really disturbing, even if my previous reading lessened the level of disturbance. What surprised me was that it wasn’t so much the gratuitous violence and sexual abuse that appears primarily at the start of the novel that was upsetting. I mean, it was upsetting, but the truly disturbing part of the story was the idea driving the protagonist’s “reformation.”

In some ways, the theory behind the protagonist’s tortuous process of “reform” sounds reasonable. Plus, the end result is certainly desirable. I mean, why is it so unreasonable to condition a person in such a way that they are physically ill at the sight or even the mention of violence or depravity? After all, isn’t that the “normal” reaction of a person we would consider sane? And it’s just an intense learning technique, right? Why is this so much more horrible than something like putting foul-tasting nail polish on to condition yourself to stop biting your nails? Plus, don’t the ends justify the means? The end result, in theory, is a peace-loving society that literally finds brutality and aggression revolting; everyone would behave like a “good” person in this world.

So where’s the bad?

Sure, it all sounds great… until you find out more about the means to the end. The method of “reformation” is both horrifying and dehumanizing. The reformers strap the person being reformed into a chair and restrain him entirely, including his eyelids, and then force him to watch the most awful, gruesome images available while he’s induced with a medicine that makes him physically ill to the point of torture. The reformers condition the reformed to a point where he will castrate himself at the foot of an aggressor rather than fight or even think about fighting. He’s in so much anguish that he literally throws himself out the window to escape his torment.

Is this really a solution? And more importantly, if someone simply behaves well in society out of a desire to avoid physical pain rather than out of a desire to behave well and do good things, is he really considered a good person? What makes someone good? The good actions/lack of bad actions he does or the choice he makes to do those actions? It’s a fascinating question to examine and I think Anthony Burgess does a great job looking at all the angles.

One of the most interesting and controversial components of A Clockwork Orange, though, is actually connected to this integral question. This is the final chapter of the novel.

As some may know, the final chapter of the book was not included in the American publication of it. Weirdly, the movie adaptation of the novel was based on this incomplete version despite the fact that the director was British, so many people believe that this was how the book was intended to end. The final chapter was also another aspect of the novel I’d heard about and that turned out to be quite the surprise for me. I’d always heard that the final chapter completely changes the message of the whole book and this is, in fact, true. What stunned me, though, was that I firmly expected the extra chapter to leave the novel with a depressing and dark ending and that the American version left it out because it was too awful to subject the more conservative American population to. I honestly always thought the final chapter was the reason for all the censorship of the book.

I could not have been more wrong. In fact, the final chapter was completely the opposite of what I expected. Instead of leaving the reader with a dark, gloomy feeling like A Brave New World, the final chapter proposes a more positive outlook on life. Without the final chapter, people are fundamentally evil and there’s no hope of changing them. With it, an obsession with violence and aggression is simply a childish pursuit and eventually people grow up and recognize the fundamental goodness that’s been dormant in them until then.

I was so surprised that the American editor thought the book was better without it!

Finally, I have to say that I’m surprised this whole post wasn’t mean ranting about the made up slang. Although it initially read like a MadLib gone terribly wrong, I really did get used to it and actually came to find it impressive. So don’t let it turn you off to the book!