This sci-fi novel is set in the future, when the US has become the state of Gilead, a religious dictatorship. The repressive regime is born out of the fact that only a small minority of women remain fertile. These women are the Handmaids, and are basically hired out to important men in order to procreate. If they fail to do this, or break the strict rules governing their lives, they can become Unwomen and be sent to the radioactive colonies, be hanged and displayed as an example, or maybe even be torn to pieces by fellow humans.
The novel is told from the point of view of the Handmaid Offred (literally, the woman Of Fred). She recounts details of her former life and family, which intertwine with the story of her present. Offred is manipulated by the wife of her Commander, the Commander himself, and finds herself drawn towards his chauffeur/butler/servant, Nick, all of which puts her life in danger. The structure of the book revolves between the past and present, and Offred's encounters with other characters, and there is a reflective section at the end of the book told from many years after the events of the book.
I enjoyed the book, although it's a disturbing story and one that describes certain events in grisly detail. Atwood writes in an unfussy, almost conversational tone, but paints her characters very persuasively and uses symbolism as if it were going out of fashion. I felt that some elements were rather anachronistic - the Compucheck, Compubank, etc. It was Compu-everything - and that some elements were quite obviously borrowed from 1984. Also the 'Historical Notes', the last and reflective part of the book, didn't, I feel, add anything to the story. In fact it detracted from it, in that the deliciously tantalising cliff-hanger at the end of Offred's story is explained away. I think this was added to explain how Offred's internal monologue could have been recorded, but to be honest this part was unnecessary and surperfluous.
In all, however, Atwood's characters and scenario were uniquely presented and uniquely uncomfortable to read. Definitely a book that makes the reader think, and one that, though disturbing, I thoroughly enjoyed. I will certainly return to this book. It has really freaked me out, but I couldn't put it down.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Friday, May 13, 2011
1984 by George Orwell
I know this is a 20th C classic but I have never read it before, nor any of Orwell's work for matter, and the only other science fiction book I have ever read is Never Let Me Go. So here are my thoughts about 1984, and maybe it will convince even those who have read it before to pick up this book again and reread it!
For those who do not know the story: Winston Smith lives in a totalitarian state ruled by the Party. Free thought, human emotion and even love are utterly forbidden, and history and truth denied and warped. Winston embarks on a dangerous love affair with the seemingly regime-loyal Julia, whilst attempting in his own small way to undermine the oppressive powers that govern every aspect of his life. Without giving too much away...it lands him in all sorts of trouble in a plot full of twists but also driven by a haunting inevitability.
I absolutely loved this book, and it amazes me how something written 63 years ago is still so terrifyingly relevant. Goldstein, the hate figure, is currently (or until recently) incarnate in Osama bin Laden. Telescreens are everywhere these days - in fact I am typing on one right now, and what's more, it has an undisguised camera facing me - and we even have portable ones that we carry round with us all the time. The News of the World phone hacking scandal show how these telescreens can be used to spy on us. I'm not a conspiracy theorist - well, ok, a bit, but hey, I'm young and revolutionary - but Orwell's vision of an utterly totalitarian future has so many frightening parallels to today. Even the world divided into the three superstates of Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia is not unrecogniseable. The UK is the only pro-American country in Europe, Europe and the US are terrified of China, India and Russia, and countries as varied as China, the US and Arab states seem to almost fight one another for control of Africa - which is kept impoverished and oppressed. The constant, ever-shifting war? Surely it has several parallels with the War on Terror. It's amazing that Orwell had such foresight back in 1948, and the fact that he was writing just after the Second World War - and had already seen a totalitarian Europe and a whole world at war - and could see no improvement in the future...it's astounding, it really is.
But apart from the continued relevance and frightening foresight of the book, Orwell just writes absolutely compellingly. The ominous inevitability of Winston's end, right from the beginning of the book - 'it would end in the Ministery of Love' - had me gripped. I read the book in stolen snatches, desperate to read on. The portrait of the word imagined by Orwell is beautifully and shockingly painted. The invented world - Thought Crime, Doublethink, Newspeak, the Telescreen, Ingsoc - is horrifyingly believable. Characters are complex and Winston's inner battles are pitched just right. The plot is a real driving force (its only digression is The Book, something which although a bit of a drag compared to the rest of it, but still fascinating). But even Orwell's use of language is absolutely brilliant. My favourite line, the one that stays with me, is when Winston is described as 'gelatinous with fatigue'. Gelatinous! Perfect, glorious description! It's thoughtfully, inventively, bizarrely written, the language straightforward and unfussy but also perfectly judged and wonderfully precise and descriptive.
In short, I loved this book. I haven't been made to think so deeply by a book since I don't know when. But as well as being a thought-provoker, and a political statement, 1984 has beautiful language and perfectly-paced plot to add to its list. And the ending - so inevitable, but utterly surprising. I'd give it 9.99999999999999999 recurring out of 10. The tiny decimal knocked off only because although I admire Orwell's vision, I hope it never becomes true.
For those who do not know the story: Winston Smith lives in a totalitarian state ruled by the Party. Free thought, human emotion and even love are utterly forbidden, and history and truth denied and warped. Winston embarks on a dangerous love affair with the seemingly regime-loyal Julia, whilst attempting in his own small way to undermine the oppressive powers that govern every aspect of his life. Without giving too much away...it lands him in all sorts of trouble in a plot full of twists but also driven by a haunting inevitability.
I absolutely loved this book, and it amazes me how something written 63 years ago is still so terrifyingly relevant. Goldstein, the hate figure, is currently (or until recently) incarnate in Osama bin Laden. Telescreens are everywhere these days - in fact I am typing on one right now, and what's more, it has an undisguised camera facing me - and we even have portable ones that we carry round with us all the time. The News of the World phone hacking scandal show how these telescreens can be used to spy on us. I'm not a conspiracy theorist - well, ok, a bit, but hey, I'm young and revolutionary - but Orwell's vision of an utterly totalitarian future has so many frightening parallels to today. Even the world divided into the three superstates of Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia is not unrecogniseable. The UK is the only pro-American country in Europe, Europe and the US are terrified of China, India and Russia, and countries as varied as China, the US and Arab states seem to almost fight one another for control of Africa - which is kept impoverished and oppressed. The constant, ever-shifting war? Surely it has several parallels with the War on Terror. It's amazing that Orwell had such foresight back in 1948, and the fact that he was writing just after the Second World War - and had already seen a totalitarian Europe and a whole world at war - and could see no improvement in the future...it's astounding, it really is.
But apart from the continued relevance and frightening foresight of the book, Orwell just writes absolutely compellingly. The ominous inevitability of Winston's end, right from the beginning of the book - 'it would end in the Ministery of Love' - had me gripped. I read the book in stolen snatches, desperate to read on. The portrait of the word imagined by Orwell is beautifully and shockingly painted. The invented world - Thought Crime, Doublethink, Newspeak, the Telescreen, Ingsoc - is horrifyingly believable. Characters are complex and Winston's inner battles are pitched just right. The plot is a real driving force (its only digression is The Book, something which although a bit of a drag compared to the rest of it, but still fascinating). But even Orwell's use of language is absolutely brilliant. My favourite line, the one that stays with me, is when Winston is described as 'gelatinous with fatigue'. Gelatinous! Perfect, glorious description! It's thoughtfully, inventively, bizarrely written, the language straightforward and unfussy but also perfectly judged and wonderfully precise and descriptive.
In short, I loved this book. I haven't been made to think so deeply by a book since I don't know when. But as well as being a thought-provoker, and a political statement, 1984 has beautiful language and perfectly-paced plot to add to its list. And the ending - so inevitable, but utterly surprising. I'd give it 9.99999999999999999 recurring out of 10. The tiny decimal knocked off only because although I admire Orwell's vision, I hope it never becomes true.
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Flo's Own...Poetry: Portrait of the Escapologist, in Macroscopic Quantum State
This poem came to me as a combination of Francis Bacon's painting, and a scene from The Terminator 2 when the Terminator melts, and the drops of liquid start trembling, moving and reamalgamating.
This led to some research into superfluids, photoisomerisation and macroscopic quantum state. All very scientific and I don't understand any of it, but it says what I want it to - 'superfluid' is full of soft slippery sounds, and is perfect for the movement of drops of liquid that I wanted to convey.
First draft, took 30 mins to write after research.
Portrait of the Escapologist, in Macroscopic Quantum State
(After Francis Bacon's 'Seated Figure')
straightjacketed in skin (on a camel's back) i am an acrobat
hulahooping, melting, superfluiding
into the corner, and crawling up the wall...
(c) stays with me, 2011
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
The Thing in the Gap-Stone Stile, by Alice Oswald
Alice Oswald: successful British poet. Her most recent collection is 'A Sleepwalk on the Severn', I think published earlier this year or late 2010. Gap-Stone Stile was her first collection, from years ago. I know she's a well-respected poet but this was the first of her work I have read.
I quite enjoyed it actually. Some of the stuff just didn't do it for me - some of the Sea Sonnets, for example, to my poetic ear just didn't 'sing', and there were aspects of certain poems that irritated me a little - some just didn't ring true, sounded a bit pretentious. But in all I really liked the collection and I can understand why Oswald is as well-respected as she is. I'm sure her later collections are much more fully-formed.
My favourite poems were The Melon Grower, about a man who neglects his family as he cares for his melon plants (I have grown melons myself, and became quite attached to them, so I could sympathise with his predicament!), one about owls in which there was the lovely line 'an owl about the size of a vicar' - loved it. That line really stood out for me, the incongruity of its humour in a poem with a more serious tone - and a couple of poems addressed to the only-just tolerated nextdoor neighbour. For me it was the flashes of humour in the collection, and the human stories that shone, rather than the soliloquising about water and gardens and nature, which is what Oswald is particularly known for. No - those weren't bad, but they didn't move me. Personally, I feel that a nature poem has to absolutely convey a sense of sheer wonder, and the ones in this collection didn't communicate that to me. However, Oswald's softly-spoken but sharp observations of humanity were brilliant.
At the end of the collection is a long poem about three men from the village of Gotham who go to try and catch the moon in a net (and its title is similarly self-explanatory). Strange. Some of the language was interesting, but it didn't speak to me. The poet's message or whatever it was she wanted to communicate went over my head. It seemed to be long and pretentious for the sake of being long and pretentious, and mostly lacked Oswald's otherwise frequent and clever use of half-rhyme. Didn't get it, although I found the explanation of the ideas behind the poem very entertaining and interesting, and intend to research Gotham - and its strange antic disposition - a little further.
In all, an interesting collection, but one that I sometimes found too serious, and occasionally a little obscure and pretentious. However, there were some lovely lyrical lines and the flashes of human lives and humour were a joy to read. I will read this collection again at some point, and I definitely want to read some of Alice Oswald's later works. A 5 or 6 out of 10 for me, but an intriguing and encouraging one.
I quite enjoyed it actually. Some of the stuff just didn't do it for me - some of the Sea Sonnets, for example, to my poetic ear just didn't 'sing', and there were aspects of certain poems that irritated me a little - some just didn't ring true, sounded a bit pretentious. But in all I really liked the collection and I can understand why Oswald is as well-respected as she is. I'm sure her later collections are much more fully-formed.
My favourite poems were The Melon Grower, about a man who neglects his family as he cares for his melon plants (I have grown melons myself, and became quite attached to them, so I could sympathise with his predicament!), one about owls in which there was the lovely line 'an owl about the size of a vicar' - loved it. That line really stood out for me, the incongruity of its humour in a poem with a more serious tone - and a couple of poems addressed to the only-just tolerated nextdoor neighbour. For me it was the flashes of humour in the collection, and the human stories that shone, rather than the soliloquising about water and gardens and nature, which is what Oswald is particularly known for. No - those weren't bad, but they didn't move me. Personally, I feel that a nature poem has to absolutely convey a sense of sheer wonder, and the ones in this collection didn't communicate that to me. However, Oswald's softly-spoken but sharp observations of humanity were brilliant.
At the end of the collection is a long poem about three men from the village of Gotham who go to try and catch the moon in a net (and its title is similarly self-explanatory). Strange. Some of the language was interesting, but it didn't speak to me. The poet's message or whatever it was she wanted to communicate went over my head. It seemed to be long and pretentious for the sake of being long and pretentious, and mostly lacked Oswald's otherwise frequent and clever use of half-rhyme. Didn't get it, although I found the explanation of the ideas behind the poem very entertaining and interesting, and intend to research Gotham - and its strange antic disposition - a little further.
In all, an interesting collection, but one that I sometimes found too serious, and occasionally a little obscure and pretentious. However, there were some lovely lyrical lines and the flashes of human lives and humour were a joy to read. I will read this collection again at some point, and I definitely want to read some of Alice Oswald's later works. A 5 or 6 out of 10 for me, but an intriguing and encouraging one.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Charity Shop Books
I have been charity shopping today and found some real treasures! So often I think of books in charity shops as limited to the Maeve Binchies, Clive Cusslers and Good Housekeepings of this world. I forget that I have got some of my most treasured books second hand and many of them from charity shops.
Once I found The Vogue Sewing Book - a massive doorstep of a book - for the princely sum of £1. I was well chuffed. Another best buy is a Haruki Murakami with the most beautifully illustrated cover. Charity shopping can be so satisfying when you strike gold, like I did today.
I wandered into the British Heart Foundation shop in my local town, looking for clothes I could cut up and resew. Nothing that I particularly liked or would wear even once I'd dismantled it. So I wandered to the back of the shop and looked at the books.
It's a miracle I kept on looking. The first things I was confronted with were diets and loads of strange Christian books that rather freaked me out...but soon I realised that just above my head was a poetry and drama section, bigger even than that in the local Waterstones!! (Waterstones' near me is appalling for poetry and drama). There was everything. Donne. Betjeman. Shakespeare. Seamus Heaney's new translation of Beowulf. Emily Dickinson. Loads more that I can't remember but that had my eyes agog. And some literary fiction among the Maeve Binchies and Clive Cusslers. So many of them were brand new, as well. I couldn't believe it! Beautiful books!!
So I came out with a battered but very lovely Penguin Book of Italian Verse (I speak a bit, but luckily there are translations, and anyway, I just want the rhythms of the language, rather than the meaning if I'm honest), Mohsin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist and The Thing in the Gap-Stone Stile by Alice Oswald, as well as book on myths for my mum. All cost me £8. That's £2 a book. The Alice Oswald on its own would have cost £8.99 new. Major bargain!!!
So my tip for today is not to dismiss charity shops! They're getting trendy (and ridiculously priced, yes, I am talking about you Cancer Research) for clothes and things but they are also a potential haven for bookworms!
(And thanks so much Crafty Green Poet for the paragraphing solution!)
Once I found The Vogue Sewing Book - a massive doorstep of a book - for the princely sum of £1. I was well chuffed. Another best buy is a Haruki Murakami with the most beautifully illustrated cover. Charity shopping can be so satisfying when you strike gold, like I did today.
I wandered into the British Heart Foundation shop in my local town, looking for clothes I could cut up and resew. Nothing that I particularly liked or would wear even once I'd dismantled it. So I wandered to the back of the shop and looked at the books.
It's a miracle I kept on looking. The first things I was confronted with were diets and loads of strange Christian books that rather freaked me out...but soon I realised that just above my head was a poetry and drama section, bigger even than that in the local Waterstones!! (Waterstones' near me is appalling for poetry and drama). There was everything. Donne. Betjeman. Shakespeare. Seamus Heaney's new translation of Beowulf. Emily Dickinson. Loads more that I can't remember but that had my eyes agog. And some literary fiction among the Maeve Binchies and Clive Cusslers. So many of them were brand new, as well. I couldn't believe it! Beautiful books!!
So I came out with a battered but very lovely Penguin Book of Italian Verse (I speak a bit, but luckily there are translations, and anyway, I just want the rhythms of the language, rather than the meaning if I'm honest), Mohsin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist and The Thing in the Gap-Stone Stile by Alice Oswald, as well as book on myths for my mum. All cost me £8. That's £2 a book. The Alice Oswald on its own would have cost £8.99 new. Major bargain!!!
So my tip for today is not to dismiss charity shops! They're getting trendy (and ridiculously priced, yes, I am talking about you Cancer Research) for clothes and things but they are also a potential haven for bookworms!
(And thanks so much Crafty Green Poet for the paragraphing solution!)
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Sorry
Sorry about the last two posts. For some reason Blogger won't let me paragraph. I will try and sort it out.
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Another classic that I haven't read before, this time an American one. The Great Gatsby is set in the wild, whimsical 20's in New York, and tells the story of Daisy Buchanan and Jay Gatsby in their attempt to restart an old romance. Themes include obsession, reality & dreams, hope, love, memory and the complexity of human relationships.
I really enjoyed this book. It's short and sweet, and despite the fact that it's approaching 100 years old (!) it's modern, easy reading and still relevant to today's society. The presentation of the hedonistic, artificial and wild social scene are particularly memorable and relevant.
But to the book. Scott Fitzgerald was clearly a very talented writer. The book is full of descriptions that virtually made my mouth water - 'frosted wedding cake of the ceiling' is one that particularly sticks in my mind. The conjuring of the heat, business and atmosphere of Long Island was beautiful to read.
I liked the characterisation. From the first chapter you have most of the characters pinned down - Daisy is selfish, carefree, seductive, teasing; Tom is possessive and always wants more; Nick Carraway is an interferer and a user, but not unpleasant. Fitzgerald writes his characters perfectly - from their physical description to their speech, they are presented as full, well-rounded and complete entities.
However, despite the mouth-watering descriptions and skilled characterisations having finished the book it does feel a little...unfinished. I don't mean that the reader is left with questions once the book is finished. Everything wraps up rather messily for the characters, but is very neatly explained. Rather, I feel as if it never got going. The plot...well, was that it? Admittedly towards the end there were a couple of twists which I hadn't been expecting, but mostly it was clear that nothing was going to happen, and then it didn't. And the central and crucially important Gatsby as a character? He was the one character that I felt I didn't know and couldn't sympathise with, undoubtedly due to the mystery he holds for other characters in the book, but in the first chapter Nick says how Gatsby turned out to be a good sort...and I don't think he did. He was just some bloke that turns up, gets in a bit of an emotional muddle, and that's that. It's not that I think the story is shallow or uninteresting or anything like that. It just feels a bit of an anticlimax - a gentle stroll through all the parties etc., a couple of promising revelations and then...diddlysquat. End of book.
Somehow it just never rang true for me. It's the kind of book that I know I will understand differently the next time I read it, the kind that reveals more of itself the more you get to know it. Skilled, beautiful writing, with a wonderful use of unique descriptive language. But lacking something - a bit of zing, some spice. Nowhere near my top 20. But possibly in the top 100 for the descriptions. We shall see.
I really enjoyed this book. It's short and sweet, and despite the fact that it's approaching 100 years old (!) it's modern, easy reading and still relevant to today's society. The presentation of the hedonistic, artificial and wild social scene are particularly memorable and relevant.
But to the book. Scott Fitzgerald was clearly a very talented writer. The book is full of descriptions that virtually made my mouth water - 'frosted wedding cake of the ceiling' is one that particularly sticks in my mind. The conjuring of the heat, business and atmosphere of Long Island was beautiful to read.
I liked the characterisation. From the first chapter you have most of the characters pinned down - Daisy is selfish, carefree, seductive, teasing; Tom is possessive and always wants more; Nick Carraway is an interferer and a user, but not unpleasant. Fitzgerald writes his characters perfectly - from their physical description to their speech, they are presented as full, well-rounded and complete entities.
However, despite the mouth-watering descriptions and skilled characterisations having finished the book it does feel a little...unfinished. I don't mean that the reader is left with questions once the book is finished. Everything wraps up rather messily for the characters, but is very neatly explained. Rather, I feel as if it never got going. The plot...well, was that it? Admittedly towards the end there were a couple of twists which I hadn't been expecting, but mostly it was clear that nothing was going to happen, and then it didn't. And the central and crucially important Gatsby as a character? He was the one character that I felt I didn't know and couldn't sympathise with, undoubtedly due to the mystery he holds for other characters in the book, but in the first chapter Nick says how Gatsby turned out to be a good sort...and I don't think he did. He was just some bloke that turns up, gets in a bit of an emotional muddle, and that's that. It's not that I think the story is shallow or uninteresting or anything like that. It just feels a bit of an anticlimax - a gentle stroll through all the parties etc., a couple of promising revelations and then...diddlysquat. End of book.
Somehow it just never rang true for me. It's the kind of book that I know I will understand differently the next time I read it, the kind that reveals more of itself the more you get to know it. Skilled, beautiful writing, with a wonderful use of unique descriptive language. But lacking something - a bit of zing, some spice. Nowhere near my top 20. But possibly in the top 100 for the descriptions. We shall see.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)