Posts Tagged: Literature

Novel / Writing — No Comments
31
May 11

#2 The Great Gatsby

Continuing our series of reviews of the top 100 novels of the last 100 years, let’s move near the top. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby checks in at number 2 on the list. This wasn’t the first time I’ve read the novel, but it might as well be. I could remember almost nothing about it from my high school days, except for a general image of some people driving in a car towards a house. If that’s all I could remember, I figured there wasn’t much to recommend the novel and all the acclaim it received from literary critics and English teachers was mostly hype.

I’m here to admit that I was wrong.*

If you haven’t read The Great Gatsby, read it now. If you haven’t read it in a while, read it again. It is one of the most amazing pieces of fiction you’ll ever hold in your hands.

What stands out about the novel is the way it captures so perfectly a key component of human nature. Gatsby is consumed by his need to rekindle the past. He can’t let go of his memory of Daisy, and this singular obsession is what drives his entire life. He’s too overwhelmed to realize that the Daisy he loves is a figment of his imagination. It is inevitable, yet still tragic, that he learns people are who they really are, not who we wish them to be.

Fitzgerald writes:

I saw that the expression of bewilderment had come back into Gatsby’s face, as though a faint doubt had occurred to him as to the quality of his present happiness. Almost five years! There must have been moments even that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams–not through her own fault, but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion. It had gone beyond her, beyond everything. He had thrown himself into it with a creative passion, adding to it all the time, decking it out with every bright feather that drifted his way. No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man can store up in his ghostly heart.

The novel is short and simple and elegant. It so artfully expresses a feeling that we have all experienced, yet makes it seem fresh and profound while familiar at the same time.

But for all that, it is the following quote that summarizes exactly why I’ve fallen in love with the novel:

“He considered for a moment. Then, with reluctance: ‘I want to get the grass cut,’ he said.

We both looked down at the grass–there was a sharp line where my ragged lawn ended and the darker, well-kept expanse of his began. I suspected that he meant my grass.

That, dear readers, is what Mrs. Libby meant when she said in 12th grade English class, “Show, don’t tell.” One simple exchange about lawn care tells us everything we need to know about the relationship between the narrator and Jay Gatsby.

*This does not happen often. Savor it.

Please Note, If anyone wants to volunteer to cut our grass, there’s no need to stand on formality. We encourage all of our readers to help out with the chores around here.

Novel / Writing — 2 Comments
8
Mar 11

#8 Lolita

The second book in my series of reviews on the top 100 novels of the last 100 years, Lolita is perhaps the most infamous of the list. I had never read it before, as I have always been turned off by what I assumed would be a depressing story. Now that I’m finished, I can say that Lolita both was and was not the novel I was expecting.

Nabokov tells the story through the first person perspective of Humbert Humbert (not his real name), who must go down as one of literature’s least reliable narrators. As he relates his love affair with his 12-year-old step-daughter, we can never be sure of what is fact and what emanates from his skewed imagination. For many of the events he is drunk; for all of them, he does his best to hide himself from the truth of what he has done. I was fully expecting to feel nauseous at the realistic portrayal of pedophilia. I was not prepared for the mad onslaught of ecstatic prose that characterizes Nabokov’s style.

As I’m fully aware that every English major with a computer and an internet connection is blogging about the Great Books, I’ll keep this short. I have two things I want to say about Lolita. If I exceed the two, feel free to punch me in the stomach.

First, the flowery onslaught of visual language, whether in the form of metaphor, turns of speech, invented vocabulary, or descriptive wordplay, strikes me as the apotheosis of high school prose. It’s eagerness is only equaled by its earnestness, and it infiltrates the inner voice of the reader with the same determination as Catcher In The Rye. I’d hate to be the creative writing teacher who has to grade all the short fiction produced just after the class has finished reading Lolita.

But Nabokov is not simply engaging in self-congratulatory linguistic gymnastics. He lets us in on the secret almost immediately, when Mr. H allows, “If you can still stand my style…” This is Humbert Humbert’s story we’re reading, not Nabokov’s, and if he wants to weigh down his reality with affectation and an antiquated lexicon, well, it must say something about the type of person we’re dealing with.

This is not realism. Mr. H dare not face reality. His entire world is a fiction, lest he be subjected to the horrors of his grotesque malignities. HH is a romantic, and he believes he and his step-daughter are embarking on a grand love affair. Even at the end, when he can no longer entirely hide from his crimes, he still believes there were light moments and true affection. He believes he always tried to have Lolita’s best interests at heart. It’s only in the margins we understand the extent of his malevolence. The truest moment of the entire book is when he casually mentions that Lolita cries herself to sleep every night.

Second, Lolita explores the very dark question of what happens when a person is afflicted with dangerous, destructive impulses which they cannot deny. As evil and twisted, and as nausea inducing, as HH might be, I still can’t help but feel pity for him. He cannot help his desires, that much is clear. His compulsion absolutely does not absolve him of his actions, but it does require us to more closely examine the fragility of human nature. Is Mr. H doomed to his living hell, or is there some way for him to escape his pathologies without giving in to them?

We all have our damaging impulses which haunt us. We are addicted to chemicals. We gamble and we drink. We lie and steal and get into arguments with strangers. We cheat on our spouses. We know an action is wrong but something compels us to do it anyway. We have phobias and manias and neurological disorders and dysfunctions. It’s sad to think about a person who’s been afflicted by some damaging obsession they simply can’t ignore no matter how strenuously they try. It’s something I can fully sympathize with.

I’m a Kansas City Royals fan after all.

Please Note: The style of this blog post was in no way affected by having just read Lolita.

Writing — No Comments
3
Apr 10

The Movie Comes In Cinemascope

If we live in an age that will witness the death of literature, then we will experience the extinguishing of our creative life force. Literature is a record of all that makes us human, an attentive and thorough chronicling of the human condition. Without literature, we have spectacle and entertainment. We have, as Socrates says in Gorgias, pandering.

Steinback’s East of Eden is a serious novel. It traces the history of two families in his childhood home of Salinas, California. With the biblical story of Cain and Abel as its centerpiece, the novel posits on the nature of good and evil, and our fascination with sin and redemption.

Steinback writes: “And this I believe: that the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world. And this I would fight for: the freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes, undirected.”

The novel is so good, I can pretend to overlook its misogyny. Steinback wrote it after his second divorce, and his animosity and venom get directed into the monstrous character of Cathy. She is pure evil, beyond redemption. Steinback referred to her as a representative as Satan. Regrettable, but not unforgivable.

East of Eden is a novel for people that love literature, and literature for people who love life.

Please note this blog post was purchased on eBay for seven dollars and fifty seven cents.

Writing — No Comments
16
Feb 10

The Most Classic Chinese Classical Novels

In honor of Spring Festival, every list this week celebrates Chinese culture. We’ve already done Tigers and Oscar Wilde, and today we look at the best of China’s classical literature.

I have read each of the four classic novels, in translation of course, and I cannot recommend them highly enough. Start at the bottom of the list and work your way up. It always pays to save the best for last. If you thought Twilight was good, you’ll love these:

#4 Dream Of The Red Chambers (红楼梦)

Author: Cao Xueqin

Date: 1759

Why You Should Read It: Provides a detailed look at life for wealthy magistrates during the Qing Dynasty. Covers all the major art forms, including poetry, calligraphy, painting, lantern-making and riddles. One of the all time great love stories. Makes Gone With The Wind seem like a short story.

#3 Romance Of The Three Kingdoms(三国演义)

Author: Luo Guanzhong

Date: Pre-1400

Why You Should Read It: Classic military story comparable to Sun Tzu and Machiavelli. China’s Iliad and Odyssey rolled into one. You have inspiring warriors battling perfidious traitors in order to rule all of China.

#2 Outlaws Of The Marsh(水浒传)

Author:Shi Naian

Date: Pre-1400

Why You Should Read It: Rivals The Count Of Monte Cristo as the greatest action-adventure novel ever written. A group of noble outlaws strive against injustice and a corrupt system, a la The A-Team. Li Kui fights with two battle axes while drunk and completely naked.

#1 Journey To The West(西游记)

Author: Wu Cheng’en

Date: 16th Century

Why You Should Read It: The compelling tale of Monkey and his companions escorting the Tang Priest to India in order to receive the Buddhist scriptures. Laugh out loud funny, especially when Monkey invades heaven and defeats all the gods in combat. Based on a true story.

Writing — 3 Comments
5
Feb 10

The Best World War II Novels

Literature has a long tradition of producing war stories. Starting with The Iliad, every great period of literature corresponds to one of history’s great wars. War And Peace details the Napoleonic Wars. The Red Badge Of Courage takes place during the American Civil War.

But the greatest period of literature matches the greatest of all wars, World War II. To kick off our month of lists at The Chaos Factory, here are the most celebrated novels about World War II:

(Note: Each list that appears on The Chaos Factory has been exhaustively researched. Experts are consulted, comprehensive surveys conducted, and precise algorithms created, all of which insure the lists are accurate and complete. No arguments necessary.)

#6 All Quiet On The Western Front

By the German author Erich Maria Remarque, this novel tells the story of German soldiers in the Great War and their alienation from civilian life. In the same way that World War II was a sequel to the first World War, the subsequent novels on this list owe their existence to Remarque’s groundbreaking realism.

Favorite Quote: We have lost all sense of other considerations, because they are artificial. Only the facts are real and important to us. And good boots are hard to come by.

#5 The Thin Red Line

I never actually read the novel. But I did see the Terrence Malick movie, and it was almost as good as Saving Private Ryan.

Favorite Quote: War don’t ennoble men, it turns ‘em into dogs. It poisons the soul.

#4 The Quiet American

Set in the Vietnam front of the war, Graham Greene presages the cold war with his tale of a CIA operative fighting against communism. Before reading The Quiet American, I never knew that Vietnam was so central to the outcome of World War II.

Favorite Quote: Find me an uncomplicated child, Pyle. When we are young we are a jungle of complications. We simplify as we get older.

#3 The Diary Of Anne Frank

A young Jewish girl’s diary illuminates readers on what it means to retain hope in the face of oblivion. It may be possible to deny the Holocaust be what cannot be denied is that Anne Frank is the most accomplished teenage author of all time.

Favorite Quote: I don’t think of all the misery but of the beauty that still remains.

#2 Slaughterhouse 5

World War II meets science fiction in Kurt Vonnegut’s most acclaimed novel. The novel is actually pretty crazy, sometimes hard to follow, and prominently features time traveling aliens. But its rhythmic invocation of the fatalistic motto, “And so it goes,” appropriately captures the essence of both life and war.

Favorite Quote: And so it goes.

#1 Catch-22

Joseph Heller crafted not only the greatest commentary on the pointlessness of war, but also one of the funniest novels of all time. Both the movie and television show M*A*S*H were based on it, and the phrase Catch-22 has become ingrained in our language. The novel would have made Kafka proud.

Favorite Quote: He had decided to live forever or die in the attempt.

Writing — No Comments
18
Dec 09

If You Are Like Me, You Also Think Peter Jackson’s Best Movie Is The Frighteners

tender_is_the_nightIf you are like me, the only definitive knowledge of F. Scott Fitzgerald you possess was gleaned from high school English class, where you were forced to read The Great Gatsby. You most likely remember very little about it, but fancy it qualifies as great literature because Mrs. Libby insisted.

You might have a vague notion that after he wrote this great masterpiece of American literature, Fitzgerald dropped off the map. He gets mentioned at a dinner party, and, wanting to be a part of the conversation, you chime in by mentioning after he wrote his first novel, he became so wrapped up in his new-found celebrity, he took to living beyond his means, partied himself into irrelevancy, and never wrote a decent follow-up.

Fitzgerald is the 20th century’s first one-hit wonder, you propose, quite pleased with yourself.

Also, if you are like me, you have notebooks and notebooks stored in your mother’s basement with your plans to take over the world.

It turns out that you were wrong. Fitzgerald did produce a subsequent novel, Tender Is The Night, nine years after The Great Gatsby, in 1934.

Tender Is The Night, the ill-fated love affair between two wealthy expatriates flitting between the French Riviera and Switzerland, denounces the corrosive effect of too much money. No one has a firm idea of what they are supposed to be doing in life, but they insist on behaving civilly and circulating in the proper society while they figure it out.

If you are like me, you thoroughly enjoyed reading Tender Is The Night on the train from Beijing to Kunming, and you will recommend it to anyone who likes to grapple with life issues such as self-worth and sanity. Now if you could just get through chapter one of Ulysses.

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