love and death

I shan't apologize for my absence. We all know that life happens. Kids get sick. Cars break down. Snowmaggedon hits. Life happens. All we can do is muddle through with as much grace, aplomb, friends, family, and distractions enough to get us
through the rough patch until we have once again re-entered the dance in full splendor.

Let's just say I have about three or four posts in varying stages of completion.

While in the chaos that was the past week, granted it's been chaotic long before that, I finally caught a chance to watch a film I purchased ages ago on a Wal Mart Whim - Heavens protect us from the Wal-Mart Whim, much more so the Target-ed Trendy Clearance Sales!



The Painted Veil stars Naomi Watts, and Edward Norton who are both stunning in this tale of infidelity, rediscovering love, redemption, and each other. Watts stars as vain, self absorbed Kitty who married Norton's character Walter Fain a bacteriologist. He loves her. She doesn't love him, but does it anyway just to get away from her parents. And off they go to Shanghai. Which is where things get complicated. Walter is busy, Kitty is faithless and i soon involved with a married man named Charlie Townsend, a member of the British Consulate. Walter confronts her about the affair and gives her an ultimatum: come with him to a tiny town currently undergoing a horrendous cholera epidemic or he will publicly divorce her and name her and her lover for their infidelities and risk a huge scandal.
Kitty runs to Charlie and he refuses to divorce his wife for her, (such is the tale of the other woman isn't it? so it seems sometimes at least.) and so off they go to Interior China.

I'm afraid I'm going to spoil it for you. Just a little. Sorry. But it's the reason I'm posting. So, tehre you go.
Walter and Kitty find out they actually do love each other. She discovers she's pregnant (not sure who's the father but it doesn't matter because Walter and her love each other so ther eyou go) and Walter dies in the cholera epidemic. Kitty returns to London to raise her son. And in chance passing, bumps into Charlie and gives him the polite never in your wildest dreams speech. Just very concise, veiled and very polite.

Which leads me to my question.

Why do so many great love stories involve death? Is it only in death that we appreciate that which we have? How fair is it that just at the moment people find joy, find love, find happiness, then the other half dies? Are we all masochists??

You think i'm crazy, don't you? You wouldn't be the first to say that.

So let's review then shall we?

Romeo and Juliet needs no introduction. Everyone dies. It's Shakespare. And yet it is still deemed one of the best and most romantic love stories ever. A romantic love story that ends in one faked death, a real death because the guy dind't know the death was faked, and then she wakes up to find him dead, almost still warm on her lap. Then she kills herself. Death, death, and more death.

The Painted Vail: already mentioned. Not famous. But GORGEOUS. and a fantastic love story. Centers around cholera. And all the time we're thinking of course they'll get out of it. They have to. They have to. There's a baby. They have the chance to be truly happy. Nope. Not a chance. Bring on the cholera!



The Note Book: If this doesn't rip the tears out of your eyes, you have no heart. This ia slower death. A death tha first involves the loss of memory, and complete recognition of who it is you love, and then death. It's also watching that person you love, slip completely away, and then to have to remind them daily who you are, but not so completely. There is a death there. And then of course, they both die in the end. Sorry if you didn't know. But yeah. They die.



Beaches: While yes this ia platonic, best friend love, it's still a love. Two best friends, different worlds. Grow up, grow apart, grow back together, just like best friends do. Barbara Hersehy has a little Girl, Bette Midler has a set of pipes. Oh and Hershey has cancer. So the three girls go on an extended vacation to the Beach, and eventually Hershey dies and leaves her daughter in her best friend's care. Enter the sob fest. Again, if you don't cry or atleast get a little choked up, you are heartless.



don't forget Meet Joe Black. Oh please don't forget Meet Joe Black. Brad Pitt plays Death, the Grim Reaper himself who decides to take a holiday. He inhabits the body of a newly deceased man, who happened to meet the daughter of Anthony Hopkin's character Mr. Parrish a wealthy powerful man who is next slated for death. He says, entertain me, for a time and I'll give you more time. Or if you don't, we'll go right now. In the meantime, Joe Black (Brad Pitt) falls in love with Susan Parrish ( the daughter) and she with him, which ultimately iinfuriates Anthony Hopkins as it would any self respecting father, but then add to it that the man of your daughter's dreams is DEATH, the fury level goes up a bit.
A gorgeous film, and while the trailer makes this out to be a bit more comedic, this is just pure dead sexy. And revolves around DEATH.



While we're on a Brad Pitt moment (there could be many Brad Pitt Moments couldn't there?) let's make sure we include Legends of the Fall. Another pairing of Anthony Hopkins and Brad Pitt, this time joined by Aidan Quinn, Julia Ormond, and the kid whose face is in everything whoturns out is named Henry Thomas.
This is the poster that was in every College girl's dorm room. One woman. Three brothers. and all of them in love with her.




Of course there's also Love Story. Preppie and the musician who keeps saying "Love means never having to say you're sorry." they get married, and then once again bring on the terminal disease.



Titanic
"I wont let go."
Instead of just killing one person, let's just kill everyone.
need i say more.


A Walk to Remember.

Another Nicholas Sparks. Another bring on the teerminal disease, just like Autumn in New York,


and even the garish pre-Glee Moulin Rouge


or perhaps even the beautifully tender Truly Madly Deeply with an Amazing Alan Rickman? if you only know himm as Severus Snape, you're going ot be stunned. I was. he completely steals the show. and he's supposed to be dead??



my fave scene of the entire film. beware - she cant sing. at all.



either way, for good or for bad or for lack of storylines... there are still some great stories. great films. and i think our library has most of them in the collection. :)

It seems we put too much credibility into an overgrown rodent who is pulled out of his hole bleary eyed and confused, in front of foreign lights, strange creatures, and probably wants one thing: to go back into its hole.

While Phil may have predicted an early Spring, we have since been clobbered with another formidable snow storm that ground us to a halt, and is currently raining on us. I dont know which is worse some days. The winter snow, or the winter rain. the snow you can shake off, dust off, or shed with your coat, hat and mittens. The rain on the other hand gets into everything. It's like sand but with no promise of sunshine, ocean, or even warmth.

So while we suffer here, here's a little happy slideshow for you. If you lean under your desk lamp, you might even be able to imagine the sunshine. Unless you're using CFL, and then it's a cold sun.....

Professor Doctorow's Required Reading List

E.L. Doctorow on Outlaw Writers and the Novel Form
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When I was in graduate school, I had the chance to take a Craft of Fiction course taught by E.L. Doctorow. It was like sitting at the feet of the Buddha. For almost three horus a week, I sat and listened, and discussed books, while this pillar of literary reputation presided, and guided us in our attempts to take apart books such as Moby Dick, and Mrs. Dalloway.

In our last meeting, he gave us his Required Reading List for Writers. In addition tot he books listed, he said, make sure you're reading, make sure you're reading what's current and you're staying up to date.

So below is Professor Doctorow's Required Reading List, with a few of my own additions.


Below is the Read Before you Die list from Professor Doctorow. I had the chance to take his Craft of Fiction class my final year at grad school, and it was briliant. His biggest thing was for us to push the envelope of writing, to not be afraid of the classics, to make us read, and to get us actively reading and writing.

We read a book a week. I didn't love every book we read, or every book on the list, but I have learned to appreciate them for what they are doing. Does this mean I want to go back and read Moby Dick again? Not really. But do I realize now that Melville was stalling for time and experimenting with form, to again buy time? Yes, that I do.

Something else interesting Professor Doctorow said: when asked what craft book he would recommend to writers, he said that, "I have not read a craft of fiction book that does not make me want to vomit. Tell them to go read. Chekov. Especially Chekov."

Essentially, if you want to write, you have to read. If you want to write good stuff, you have to read good stuff.

So in the interest of sharing, here's the list. If there's any of the MFA people out there who remember books I've forgotten off the list or things we read or should read, feel free to post them.

E.L. Doctorows Read Before You Die List - read them several times if at all possible.
martin ing - london
sea wolf- london
people of the abyss - london (great book.)
tom jones - fielding
tristan shandie - im not sure
bleak house - dickens
tale of two cities - dickens
david copperfield - dickens
two more dickens for good measure
chester tower series - trollop
lord jim - conrad
tess dubervilles - hardy
far from the madding crowd - hardy
the rainbow - lawrence
sons and lovers - lawrence
sentimental education - flaubert
madame bovary - flaubert
red and black - stendahl
les miserables - hugo
49 - hugo
hunchback of notre dame - hugo
dead souls
anna karenina
war and peace
death...sonata
ALL of chekov
crime and punishment - doestevsky
diary of a madman - doestevsky
brothers karamazov - doestevsky
house of the 7 gables - hawethorne
scarlet letter - hawthorn
short stories - hawthorn
tai pei - melville
moby dick - melville
billy budd - melville
prince and the pauper - twain
ct yankee in king arthurs court - twain
life in the city - twain
washington square - henry james
daisy miller - henry james (avoid later work as a writer. he can trap you in his voice. only his early work, until you have established your own voice.)
american tragedy - dreiser (came 28 yrs after his first book sister carrie)
middle march - george elliott
daniel - george elliott
mrs dalloway - virginia woolf
to the lighthouse - virginia woolf
frankenstein - mary shelley
house of mirth - edith wharton
age of innocence - edith wharton
pride and prejudice - jane austen (doctorow said this was probably the most perfect book ever written)
emma - jane austen

that's the list he gave us to read after our class.
the books we read in class: moby dick;
sister carrie;
tom sawyer;
mrs dalloway;
journey to the end of the night by celine (very cool book with a very unreliable narrator)
lots and lots of Poe,
metamorphosis by kafka;
the trial by kafka;
marquis of O and other short stories - by kleist;
dantes inferno;
the emigrants by sebald;

I'm missing about five books. we read a book a week.

He also said to be reading what is being written now. Always be reading.

To add my own to that list:
jhumpa lahiri
bharti mukherjee
jonathan safran foer
of course! e.l. doctorow
sherman alexie
chuck wachtel (of course again!)

of course Doctorow's work - the March; Ragtime; Book of Daniel.. anything he writes is brilliant. and I mean BRILLIANT WITH A CAPTIAL B. (doctorow was also all about pushing the envelope. making you work as a reader. these aren't pop fiction books. this is a course in literary fiction. so intellectual writing. it will require some work on your half. he raved about woolf because there you see someone who got bored with plot and just eliminiated it from her books. and then you see what happens... He pushes the envelope in his books. beautiful, brilliant writer. i need to read more of him.)

Sherman Alexie - The Lone Ranger and tonto fistfight in Heaven; anything else by sherman alexie. he is beautiful. he was one of the first native americans to write about life as a native american. as a real one, not as a romaticized thing. but really. his work from the lone ranger and tonto fistfight in heaven is the basis of the movie Smoke Signals.

Bharti Mukherjee - The Middle Man and other stories ; Desirable Daughters... anything else you can get of her.. love her voice.

Willa Cather

Katherine Anne Porter

Jhumpa Lahari

Chuck Wachtel - I love this man. He is a prof and writer from my grad program. He taught me more about life and writing than he will ever know. His work is hard to find, but it is worth it. I love the Gates; and Because We Are Here; and What Happens to Me.. I love his voice, and I love him.

Aldous Huxley - Brave New World blew my mind

Ray Bradbury - I always love him. and as a writer I love him more as he ages. I just re read farneheit 451 and was still blown away by it. Ilove his short stories from One More of the road; I love From the Dust Returned. and of course Something Wicked This Way Comes.. and if you can find the short story There Will Come Soft Rains. you will not be disappointed. i think it's in the Martian Chronicles. Unlike some writers - dean koontz for example - they recycle their work. They get comfortable. Ray is in his upper 80s, still writing, new stuff, and it is beautiful. Definitely definitely DEFINITELY read One More For The Road. GORGEOUS. It is beautiful, tragic, funny. It's gorgeous. (Not Science Fiction if you're worried.) When he dies, I will go into mourning.

Terry Pratchett - he's lighter, but still a fun writer. when he dies, i will also go into semi mourning - he has alzheimers, a very rare and mild case of it (if there is a mild form of it..)

I also LOVED Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi - not fiction. but still amazing and beautiful and tragic and upsetting and just amazing. i highly recommend it. blew my mind.

Always read some Shakespeare.

Milton. If you have the patience and a good dictionary, read Paradise Lost, and then read Paradise Regained. it's told from Satan's point of view - from being kicked ot of heaven throgh the fall of Adam. it is beautiful, complex and challenging. If I hadn't had the prof I had in college to read it, i wouldn't have made it through. But it is to this day, one of my favorite stories, and it is just beautiful. When you think about this man who wrote this, he had to find words to describe some things that didn't exist yet. Legend goes, he wrote it 20 lines at a time; he would think about the 20 lines he wanted to write, take a nap, then wake up and recite them to his daughter, and that would be it. He was blind so he was unable to write. Just brilliant..

I love Beuwolf.

I loved The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins. Collins was a contemporary of Dickens. They were actually good friends. I don't know why we aren't told about this book more often.

I love the Brontes - I just re- read Wuthering Heights again and still fell in love with it. I also love the pbs verion this year... sigh..Heathcliff....

CS Lewis and Tolkien, thuogh the latter can be rather complex especially with all the names sounding alike. (I had to rename them in my head and notes so I could keep them all straight.)

I love Barrie - Peter Pan, and Farewell Miss Julie Logan (which is going to be VERY hard to find here in the States. Good luck. It's worth the read.)

Dracula by stoker is a great book..

Brideshead Revisted by evelyn waugh.

Water For Elephants - Sara Gruen

The idea is to become aware of good writing, and develop a taste for good, literary writing, and be able to tell the difference between what is popular and what is good. Don't be afraid to go against the grain. It's like eating McDonalds. Every once in a while is fine. But you need to eat something a little more complex and hearty with more nutrients to truly survive. The same for reading especially reading to write. I need to read Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer, and Everything Asian by Sung Woo.

The Magicians Review

The Magicians by Lev Grossman
Adult Fiction

I thought this book was a Harry Potter knock off with a lot of veiled Narnian references. I was prepared to scorn it from the get go. I even put it down, and was ready to move on to the next book in my stack. But then I gave it another chance. What I discovered was that it was not a Harry Potter/Narnia knock off, but it was a thick darkly textured story that gave homage and tribute to those who came before it, especially Potter and Narnia. While giving homage to those worlds, it also twisted them, developed whole new elements of magical culture, gossip, rumors and danger.

(Both HP and The Magicians have magical games; they have striped elements in their uniforms; there's a trio of main character two boys and a girl who is too smart for her own good.... There are similarities, but like I said, it's not a knock off. I thought it was, and then it stunned me.)

Remember, back in the Never Ending Story movies? The very first one, where Bastion goes to the book seller and lists all the books he's read, and the book seller says something about those books being 'safe,' and the book he (the book seller) was reading (of course the one that Bastion ands up borrowing and reading in the school attic) dangerous?



The Magicians is a Dangerous book. Harry Potter, Narnia, as much as I love them, and trust me, I had a gold fish named Gandalf as a child, they are safe books. Good wins. There are deaths. (I yelled when Dumbledore died. Sorry if you didn't know about that death already. I figure it's in a film already on DVD, it's fair game.)
The Magicians is dark. It is haunting. It is beautifully woven. It will keep you up at night. There is the feeling that the characters you have grown so attached to really may not get out of here alive.

This is fantasy with a great set of incisors, wings, and a lot of fire.