Finished my second fiction read suggested in The Well Educated Mind by Susan Wise Bauer. As you know I've been following (to some extent) her method and reading list. Possession by A.S. Byatt was one of the more recent titles Bauer suggested and I have finished it now. While I couldn't mark it up since it was a library copy I did make notes along the way as she recommended. Notes help.
How did note taking help me? First off, they kept me devouring the book in giant bites. Slow down and chew well isn't just good advice for food enjoyment I discovered. Works well for books like this Byatt one. She wrote a romance that wasn't just boy meets girl stuff. The boy and girl in her work are more complex persons than I had met in other romance novels. The usual fare had soured me on that genre totally. She also used different forms of literature throughout the book to tell her story. Notes there helped me see how poetry can work even if it's written in the old Victorian or even earlier ways. It communicates more deeply than saying something like, "She was overwhelmed with emotion." A stormy sea, or light reflections playing off grotto walls are more expressive.
Then wrapped around the romance center Byatt created a modern day group that interacted among themselves as well. Academics competing to be the first to reveal a new bit of information. A collector driven to possess everything related to a person. Protectors of a written legacy and a personal mystique. All interesting in their own way. Lastly, peripheral characters that orbit the academics in various other ways with their own agenda.
Notes from the modern day action led to the consideration of how much of a private life of a famous or nearly famous person should be revealed and to whom. Letters and diaries that had been destined to the flame by the wish of the author survived. Should they be made public? A recent example of that question had to do with some of Samuel Becket's work.
Bauer leads her readers through a second and even a third look at the work with questions that require some time to answer. Or they did me. All of which helped me get beyond my usual stopping point. Considering point of view and the why of that, for instance. Or even looking for a theme beyond current political issues that underwrote the book.
But, I've bored you enough with this. I intend to continue with this new found self education program.
How did note taking help me? First off, they kept me devouring the book in giant bites. Slow down and chew well isn't just good advice for food enjoyment I discovered. Works well for books like this Byatt one. She wrote a romance that wasn't just boy meets girl stuff. The boy and girl in her work are more complex persons than I had met in other romance novels. The usual fare had soured me on that genre totally. She also used different forms of literature throughout the book to tell her story. Notes there helped me see how poetry can work even if it's written in the old Victorian or even earlier ways. It communicates more deeply than saying something like, "She was overwhelmed with emotion." A stormy sea, or light reflections playing off grotto walls are more expressive.
Then wrapped around the romance center Byatt created a modern day group that interacted among themselves as well. Academics competing to be the first to reveal a new bit of information. A collector driven to possess everything related to a person. Protectors of a written legacy and a personal mystique. All interesting in their own way. Lastly, peripheral characters that orbit the academics in various other ways with their own agenda.
Notes from the modern day action led to the consideration of how much of a private life of a famous or nearly famous person should be revealed and to whom. Letters and diaries that had been destined to the flame by the wish of the author survived. Should they be made public? A recent example of that question had to do with some of Samuel Becket's work.
Bauer leads her readers through a second and even a third look at the work with questions that require some time to answer. Or they did me. All of which helped me get beyond my usual stopping point. Considering point of view and the why of that, for instance. Or even looking for a theme beyond current political issues that underwrote the book.
But, I've bored you enough with this. I intend to continue with this new found self education program.
Comments
Post a Comment