Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Recollections of a Word Slut
By Scuttlebutt Stone a.k.a. J Perry.I’m sure it comes as no surprise I consider myself a bibliophile. I like the way books smell, the way they mute noise in a room better than any soundproofing, the way those crinkly plastic covers from libraries show every fingerprint—as though we readers have joined an anonymous club with our most personal signature.
And then there are the insides: the verbal ballet, the shock of recognition, the titillation of some siren author’s pen making my nerves throb. To me, there is no greater artist than s/he whose paints, clay and notes are in fact words. Graceful words. Tough words. Melancholic, flowery, and gritty words. I’m seduced by them all--from McCarthy's and Hemingway's, to Nin's and *moment of silence* Keats'. In essence, I am a word slut, opening for the promise of printed bliss.
In every word slut’s background, however, there is one moment heralding future biblio-whoredom. Mine came at three years of age (and yes, I realize it is rather creepy to connect the words "slut," "whoredom" and "three years of age").
I could already read, thanks to my mother, but it was a visit from my grandfather that made me realize just how much I adored books. Papa always came to our house bearing gifts. Assuming I couldn’t read, he brought me a small white radio and my older sister a book. The book was called MILK and had a salmon-colored price tag showing he'd paid a whopping .69 cents for it.
He probably bought it at an airport gift shop, but it was AMAZING, exploring a variety of mammals, as well as the journey milk takes from udder to shelf. It also detailed the history of milk, spotlighting a queen who bathed in it. God, I loved that. She actually bathed in creamy white milk, reposing in her stone pool as handmaidens poured urns-full over the side. So at three, I convinced my seven year old sister to trade her cheap little milk book for my expensive radio.
And here she thought she got the bargain.
I still treasure that little book while the radio is long gone.
So what about you? What was the moment you realized you were a word slut (or were biblio-phallic, as the case may be)?
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96 comments:
Like you, I really don't remember not being able to read. My whole family read voraciously. Dad read science fiction. Mom read novels. Big bro read most anything. One sis read literature, another sis read teenage mysteries. I read all of it.
When did I fall in love? Irving Stone, The Agony and the Ecstacy. The story of Michelangelo and the eventual painting of the Sistene Chapel.
Why this book? I was working as a telephone directory assistance operator. I hated my job. But it paid well... And I was on a break, reading...
I struck some brilliant combination of words, some exsquisite melding of description and faith and art and... I sighed, laid the book down for a moment and looked around the break room, wanting someone to share this moment with.
No one there. But I knew. I read the passage again and looked at the clock. Break time over...but, oh! What a vision he'd set in my head...
I love that, Chance. You know, I've never read AatE. I will now. And you can be damn sure, had I been in your break room, I would have been more than willing to take part in your moment.
What a fabulous memory. Love it.
It wasn't a book but a story I wrote.
Picture this very small girl, big front teeth, glasses and loves to read. (read: nerd)
It was 5th grade, right when girls are getting social. The assignment was to write a story.
I wrote about an old lady and her cats. Based it on a house at the end of the block.
I was asked to read in front of the class. When I finished, everyone was silent. They were all impressed with what I had written. I thought how cool that they all looked at me in a different light because of something I wrote.
Mine was when I read Jane Eyre for the first time. It was the late 1970's and I was either a freshman or sophmore in high school. I was sitting on my floral print couch in my olive green living room... and then all of the sudden I was in England in the 1800's inside this awesome mansion with dark wood, candlelight, creepy characters and creepier occurances and best of all - a hero that I wanted to know more about. I was Jane and right along with her I was experiencing Mr. Rochester and all the muddled up emotions being near him stirred. It was very, very exciting... and I didn't even have to leave my house!
Great blog, JPerry!
I lived around the corner from a candy/newspaper/stationery/tobacco store that had an ice-cream counter, too. Probably stores don't exist like that anymore. They had comic books (the total shock when I discovered Mad Magazine) and children's books for about 59 cents, I think. I bought Black Beauty with my own money and that was it.
JP, this is a fabulous post. :)
I was actually pretty shy as a kid (not sure what happened there, I'm definitely not shy now) and I remember books helped me hide, helped me get out of the sometimes painful embarrassment I felt when others looked at me too closely. That feeling of escape, that's what hooked me on books.
I remember reading everything, but I don't remember when it became that I would pick up just anything. There is a book, I think I still have it, called Sweetheart's Valentine. I remember it being one of my first favorites.
Someone bought my older sister a box of condensed classics and she wasn't interested in them, so I took them. I read Little Women, The Wizard of Oz (trippy!), and The Hound of The Baskervilles. It was all over from there. I think I must have been 9.
And you early readers always give me a complex. I wanted to read so badly but had to wait until 2nd grade when we really got going. We did phonics in 1st grade, but diving into books stuff didn't happen until 2nd grade. I loved it immediately.
I forgot Dr. Seuss! My mother must have read GREEN EGGS & HAM to me a million times. I think I may have loved Dr. Seuss first.
Oh Irish. Didn't we all have a Jane Eyre moment? To be honest with you, I've always loved JE more than--dare I admit it--P and P. It's true. I died a little when I read that book. I still die when I think of/reread it. Great choice.
Maggie, Black Beauty! Did every little girl have a horse phase? I loved that book. And the fact that you bought it yourself...
That's your moment, for sure.
Marn,
"That feeling of escape, that’s what hooked me on books."
I understand this completely. I still have to have a book in my purse in case, you know, I'm stuck somewhere and there are people I don't know.
A security book.
Hellie, it sounds like you and I had similar experiences. Does your older sister read now? Mine does, but not quite as ... easily as I do. She'll read, but it isn't quite the reverent experience I have.
And don't talk to me about wishing you could have read earlier. You read Little Women and Hounds of B at 9, for God's sake.
Oops. More coffee, Ter. But answer my questions. Does your sister read?
When did I become Hellie? LOL!
It's me darling, you're faithful blog post-er.
Oh, sorry. Yes, she reads. When I was reading the classics, she was barreling through the Little House on the Prairie books. But she didn't read non-stop like I did. It took until maybe her late HS or college years for me to hook her on Romances. Now she's always reading something. Even joined one of those book clubs where you get the hardbacks. I don't know what she's thinking there.
Her fav is Nora Roberts.
Apparently, today will be typo hell for me.
Wonderful question!
The first book that wowed me so much that I knew I had a love affair for life with Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nihm. I checked it out of the school library when I was 9 years old and kept checkign it out that whole school year. I think I read it about 10 times that year.
I was the little girl who loved the library and our school librarian was like a goddess to me. That Christmas she pulled me aside from the other kids and handed me a wrapped package. It was a copy of that book. She told me how happy it had made her that I loved the book so she wanted me to have my very own copy.
I credit her (Mrs. Salisbury) and that book for my love of reading and books. Mrs. Salisbury even came to my High School graduation and I would visit with her when I made trips home from college.
About two years after that book, I discovered the Anne of Green Gables series and there was no getting my nose out of a book ever again.
Oh, J, what a wonderful blog!
No one knows when I learned to read. My parents read to me, and I was the pet of a passel of teenage cousins, aunts, and one uncle, who also read to me. One day they just realized I could read, and reading became my accomplishment. Other kids might be called upon to sing or dance or display marvels of art, but I could READ.
When I was five, my mother took me to the library to get my own library card. Since I wasn't in school yet, I had to prove to the librarian that I could read and write my name. The book she chose for me to demonstrate my proficiency was Maud Hart Lovelace's Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill. More years later than I care to admit, I can still remember the experience of reading the first pages about those turn-of-the-century girls in Deep Valley, Minnesota, whose world seemed both familiar and exotic to me. Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill was the first book I checked out of the library. Reading it began a love affair with Lovelace's books that persists to this day. Reading it also began a life-long delight in discovering worlds built of words in which I would feel strangely at home even as I thrilled to their newness and difference.
Sabrina, I never read that book, but while I was reading your memory, I kept thinking, *that sounds like me, Mrs. Griswold, and the Anne books*.
And then you wrote "Anne" ...
I think there is a special bond between bibliophiles. We all understand it, acknowledge it and revel in our connection. Your librarian knew it as did mine.
Wonderful.
Off to look up Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nihm.
Wow. It got the Newbery Medal.
Janga always classes up the joint, doesn't she?
"...discovering worlds built of words in which I would feel strangely at home even as I thrilled to their newness and difference."
*sigh* I'm having another moment.
I <3 you, Janga.
Ter, she really does. I honestly feel filthy for mentioning "slut" and "biblio-phallic" in her presence.
I'm sure it was a book with horses in it. Though when in 1st or 2nd grade when I really started reading on my own (I wasn't as smart as you), I was a huge fan of the "Frances the Badger" series. Frances eats bread and jam, et al. I also loved the Ramona the Brave books and Amelia Bedelia (sp?) books.
I remember getting a library card when I was 5. I still have it and use it. It's been taped repeatedly. It even has a PACC sticker on it for saying I passed a computer test and was allowed to use the library computers, back when you had to do that sort of thing to use the 10 computers available. *LOL* Where patrons usually played Oregon Trail. *LOL*
Bridge to Terabithia was the book where I decided I wanted to write when I grew up. And although Where the Redfern Grows is a great book and I remember reading it in class and watching the movie, I cannot to this day read that book all the way through. I get to the part right before the cougar stuff, then put it back on the shelf unfinished.
The Laura Ingalls Wilder series got me through several grades. I loved rereading even then. *LOL* And I loved Black Beauty.
(I've never read Little Women though. I've got to add that to my must-read list.)
Around 5th and 6th, I was into Sweet Valley High, and by 7th, I was reading thick lurid romances. *LOL* Horribly age inappropriate!
It's funny, there are so many early memory books, I can't even recall the titles. The AatE was the first real "aha" moment with books. I read the same as every breath I took...so natural it wasn't remarkable at all.
When younger, it was the dog books, not the horses for me. Big Red, Lassie Come Home...
But, oh yes, the AatE made me want to write.
I can't decide if I have been complimented or put down. LOL! If it's the first, thank you. If it's the latter, I can only say I really am not a prude. And, J, no need to feel "filthy." I assure you that my eyes and ears are not virginal either. ;)
I would have responded sooner, but I fainted when I read that Hellion had never read Little Women.
I remember my frst books too (still have many of them). I don't know exactly what age it was that I was reading on my own, but very early. By the time I was 8 I was stealing my dad's Stephen King books and before I hit puberty I was stealing my mom's romance novels :)
It IS a travesty, Janga, I agree. But you have to put into perspective that when Little Women would have been appropriate for me, I was simultaneously horse-mad and boy-mad, so if the book did not focus on a horse OR a boy OR preferably both, I wasn't interested per se. (Laura Ingalls had a whole Daddy-Daughter relationship I could relate to.)
My sister is 15 years older than me, so I don't get the sibling relationship thing so much...or much care about it. Now I love Eloisa's books, which feature a lot of relationship stuff with women, so to me Eloisa is like the romance writer of "Little Women for Adults".
I think I've only seen the movie once or twice.
Again, I know. Travesty.
I haven't read the Narnia series either. It's honestly a miracle I even read Harry Potter. I'm with Dolores Umbridge: "I don't like children." *LOL* (Maybe that's why I love the Harry Potter books so much. So many of them are so awful. *LOL* Even the good ones like Hermione are awful. My favorite character is Snape, who doesn't like children...)
Janga, complimented, of course. I don't spread my <3 indiscriminately. That line though made me breathless.
And we know you're not a prude, but I do feel as though my language is a little steerage, particularly when compared to your pen. :)
Hellie, smart my ass (see Janga?). It was all my mother's doing.
And I adored Ramona books. I thought I was Ramona.
Wait a minute. How old are you? You had library computers when you were little? And you were in 7th grade when you cracked open the lurid reads?
Man. We grew up so religious, I couldn't get my hands on them till I was 15 or so.
Chance, I suppose it was a rather open-ended question. I'm just interested in that moment when you knew your life wouldn't be complete without books--that moment when you realized you worshiped at the word alter. I think you answered it right.
*snicker
I remember putting a plain brown wrapper on the Angelique books at the Catholic school I went to so the nuns wouldn't see the covers!
JK, you read Stephen King at 8?
I can't read Stephen King now ('cept for his writing book). Too scary. Too many images locked in my head. I can't get rid of them if they spring from there.
How the hell did you do that?
I'm in my 30s, Miss Tactful Questions. The computers came to the library probably around 1988 or 1990, that I remember, and they were requiring we pass a test to use them. I remember playing on them when I was about 14 or 15.
I got the romances from my sister, who didn't censor, and I hid them from my mother, who would have had a heart attack. In fact, after I'd been reading them for about 2 years, she popped one open and tried to ban me from reading them. It did not work. People addicted to crack are always able to find new dealers and hide the good stuff from the cops.
So if she couldn't keep me from reading it, she mostly spent her lectures telling me how sex was sinful and I would burn in hell. That kept it in check far longer than you'd think.
*snort* re: tact.
Helloooo, Hellie. I'm calling everyone who loves books, "word sluts."
And you describe a reality I know very well (not from my folks specifically, but from many in our community). Swear to goodness, it makes my insides clench.
They have no idea how much their general disapproval exacerbated outrageous behavior on my part. I'm sure you can relate as obviously we're both headed for a fiery end.
I was always a freak even then. I loved being scared as a kid and that's probably why the very first short story I can remember writing in high school was about a girl's radio being posessed by the spirit of her dead boyfriend :) (but I could never watch scary movies)
And Hellion, you've never read Little Women OR Narnia?
JK, let me make this even more hilarious and mind-boggling for you. I haven't read either Little Women OR Narnia--and I was an English major in college. My degree is in literature, of which I clearly read so little. I also haven't really read Pride & Prejudice word for word. I skimmed it for a class once though.
I only recently read 2 of the 3 LOTR books, and only because of a boyfriend I wanted to impress.
Wonderful blog, J! I really don't remember when I started to read and, sadly, the people who would know the answer to that question are no longer alive. I do remember loving books from a very early age though. My mom subscribed to a "Classics for Children" book club when I was a kid so I grew up reading Kipling, Robert Louis Stevenson and the like.
My "magic moment" (and I do remember this) was at the age of 7. A family friend who we considered a "Bonus" grandma gave me a book she thought I might enjoy that had been illustrated by one of her late husband's relatives. The book was 1001 NIGHTS by Gertrude Chandler Warner (perhaps best known for creating the Boxcar Children series) ~ a collection of Middle-Eastern and South Asian tales such as "Scheherazade", "Sinbad the Sailor", "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" and "Aladdin." As I began reading the stories, I was entranced by the exotic worlds the words depicted. It fed a hunger I never knew I had and left me eager to discover more. My love of books was born.
I've long since lost count of the number of times I've read 1001 NIGHTS or the number of children who have listened to me read it aloud. I still enjoy it today, 51 years later. One of these years I'll pass the book along to another little girl or boy who I hope will read the stories and discover the same love of words that I did.
Don't worry, Hellie. There are huge gaps in my lit ed also.
Thomas Hardy among them; DH Lawrence a close second.
Ooo, that would be a good blog: Fess UP: Books you should have read but haven't.
I also have terrible music gaps since our religion frowned upon rock. I don't know one Beetles song, don't get the obsession, and don't care enough to remedy the situation.
You?
Run, Chance, RUN!
I'm putting 1001 NIGHTS on my Amazon wish list right now, PJ.
Considering my children's bloodlines, they should know those stories, eh? :)
It is always that magical transport, isn't it? For me it was the Cleopatra bathing in milk story.
We're travelers, I think. Robert Bowles once described a tourist as someone who went places but always expected to return home, and a tourist as someone who went places and was already home.
As bibliophiles, we're travelers. It's that transport to someplace new that makes us feel at home ... as Janga put so eloquently.
Man, there are huge gaps in my reading list! I never read Jane Austen.
*ducking now
Had to repost what Janga said:
"…discovering worlds built of words in which I would feel strangely at home even as I thrilled to their newness and difference.”
I ... pant, pant...know!
I haven't read an Austen book either, though I own a few. But then, I haven't read Lord of Scoundrels either and that seems to be a criminal offense for a romance reader. :)
I do own it now, so that's a start.
What are the Lord of Scoundrels?
Do I need to run again?
I've seen the movie adaptations...
“…discovering worlds built of words in which I would feel strangely at home even as I thrilled to their newness and difference.”
So eloquent, but I'd expect nothing less from our Janga.
Yeah, I haven't read Lord of Scoundrels either. Tried, finally decided I should just read something else.
Also didn't get into Mr. Impossible either. Which apparently is also a crime.
But since this is my fault for skewing the blog to discuss books we couldn't get into but are beloved favorites by everyone else: most of Lisa Kleypas' books are pretty universal. Esp Blue Eyed Devil or the Hathaway books.
Those books make me really glad I'm old enough to read whatever I want. And that there are authors out there that write so brilliantly for my pleasure. Not me specifically, of course.
Damn. Screwed up my Bowles quote.
Tourist: someone who goes places but always expects to return home
TRAVELER: someone who goes places and is already home.
Really, Ter? I won't rag you on Austen, but you should read Lord of Scoundrels when you crave a historical again.
Run, Chance, RUN!
Hellie, I have to admit struggling through one Chase book (might have been Mr. Impossible), but it definitely wasn't LOS.
Sometimes I wonder if it's just me, though. I've begun so many books to throw them in the corner, only to pick them up again and slobber all over them.
This happened to me with Judith Ivory, whom I adore.
Also adore Lisa Kleypas. She's a master of chemistry.
Chance, I remember those Angelique books! In fact, I seem to remember reading one by flashlight at night and hiding it under by mattress by day...along with "Fanny Hill." I don't remember how I managed to snag a copy of that one.
" ... aN historical again."
No edit button? Why, why would you do that to me?
And did I just call Ter to task for not reading Lord of Scoundrels, but gave her a pass for not reading Austen?
Yes, yes you did.
Ironically, I have read Dickens.
And I hate to admit, but I'm not a fan of Jane Eyre. *ducks rum bottles* Or Wuthering Heights, though Heathcliff had his good points. Mostly when portrayed by Olivier.
Okay, NOW I'm grabbing torch and pitch fork, Ter.
I love this blog, J! I can't remember NOT reading! Beginning with everything from The Little House books, The Boxcar Children and everything Judy Blume wrote. Are You There God, It's Me, Margaret, anyone? :)
My most vivid memory is reading my first romance. I was in the 7th grade and looking for a book to choose for a book report, and my English teacher, Mrs. Parker, recommended Victoria Holt. I chose The Pride of the Peacock and I was immediately transported to England and Australia and lived all the exotic mystery of the heroine. God bless Mrs. Parker for introducing me to the world of romance. It's been quite a journey both on the page and off!
I love this conversation. :)
Let's see, first, I <3 Janga too. Wonderful quote.
Second, Stephen King scares me too but like JK, I was pilfering my mom's romance books before puberty. It was that or stereo instructions in my house.
Should have reads, huh? (Keep in mine, I'm also a literature major and I taught for a few years). No DH Lawrence for me yet, though I did just buy Lady Chatterley's Lover.
I love love Austen, have read them all. And I love Dickens, but Bleak House got a little long. (snicker snicker).
Wasn't a huge fan of Jane Eyre or Wuthering Heights. Those fellows passed alpha and hit ass hole quick in my book.
Haven't read LOTR. I should though.
Sorry I'm late moderating comments. *waves at Chris Redding above*
Bless you, Hellie. I totally missed your post, Chris. :-( Must have been answering when you entered it.
And silence is one of the most powerful reactions any writer can get. Wow.
It's easy to see why you went the author route.
No, if someone posts that hasn't posted before, I have to approve the comment...and I approved her late...so it's me, not you or Chris.
Someone knows the Angelique books!? See! I told the rest of you there was this scandalously risque series out there! Recently discovered my sis still has them... Evidenly the area in France where they are based is a real tourist destination!
I didn't read Dickens... Did read Wuthering Heights... No Narnia, no chidren's classics. I think I just skipped right over them... I wanted to read what the big sibs were reading... So, I went from Trixie Beldon to Lord of the Rings.
Hel? You read 2 of the 3 LotR? How could you stop? Didn't you want to know how it turned out?
Hel? You read 2 of the 3 LotR? How could you stop? Didn’t you want to know how it turned out?
I'm sorry, but I just didn't care. Plus I'd seen the movies. I knew how it turned out. Also, I've studied the Hero's Journey like a billion times, so I knew he was going to toss the damn thing in the volcano.
Plus I’d seen the movies. I knew how it turned out. Also, I’ve studied the Hero’s Journey like a billion times, so I knew he was going to toss the damn thing in the volcano.
LOL, Hellion. I'm with you on that one. :)
Gannon, I adored the Judy Blume books. I really don't know how I got through puberty without them.
And you too with the romance in 7th grade? Your teacher recommended them? Would that we all had such forward-thinking teachers.
Marn, as lit teachers, isn't there an especially heavy burden of guilt at not having read all the biggies?
Oh, the shame.
You didn't adore Jane Eyre? WHAT? I actually thought Jane handled Rochester in such a way so that he never knew what hit him. Plus, you know, the Gothic feel completely tapped into my teen-age angst.
Phew, Hellie (re: Chris). I was afraid you weren't going to invite me back.
J, Mrs. Parker was this very proper Southern lady, who obviously had wonderful taste in books! I'm grateful she was part of my life.
Ha! HE didn't throw the ring in the volcano! So, there!
Hurrumph.
Whatever. Gollum bit off his finger and his hand flung backward, and Gollum and the ring fell in.
The point is: Good had to triumph evil, therefore the ring had to fall into the volcano, period. That is how we, as humans, prefer to tell our stories of heroes.
Stories where the heroes aren't heroic--they're having extramarital affairs or enjoying sex--then those end by throwing them in front of a train or drowning them. But even in that way "good triumphs evil", according to the standard of the day in which it was written.
To be honest with you, I always had a problem with the way the ring ended up in Mt. Doom.
Based on your def of heroism, Hellie, can we really call Frodo a hero then? After all, "at the end of all things," it was by accident he did the right thing.
Going to die now.
Geez. And that sounded so good until I typo-ed all the glory out of it!
Yup, but he got it there...
I could say the same thing about Harry, ya know. Why read the books, it was all going to end with the bad guy toast anyway.
Which would be true of all books. Why read? We all know how things will end...
It's the journey there, not the destination.
OK, I know I'm going to die know. It's been good knowing everyone! Don't get between me and Hel, she's gonna wallop me...
Typo-ing/misspelling is like a fart at the ball, isn't it, Chance? And I should know.
Well, she let get away with leading a raid on Hogwarts last week, so I figure she'll smack me good on this one...
It's OK, I'm ready. Save yourself J Perry!
Because Harry was interesting and talked about more than boy relationships.
Basically LOTR was an insider's guide to things that really matter to men, which was noticably absent of women, romantic love, and feelings. What I learned is that "I really don't care to know what men are thinking because they're not thinking of anything I value anyway." And if I bring it up, I'm told what I value is extremely shallow, which makes me even less inclined to participate in their novels.
The most interesting thing about the LOTR movie was the Arwen and Aragorn relationship, which was a short story not included in the books. Thank you, Peter Jackson, I love you for including it anyway.
We read books that we know--usually--which are going to fulfill some need in us. I read romance novels because they fulfill my need of romance which my life is so clearly lacking. Some people read Nicholas Sparks novels because their life is lacking sob fests generated by erroneously killing off a character because you're incapable of writing any other way. Some people read Stephen King because they like to have their head messed with. I don't know why people read sci-fi/fantasy--I really don't. I assume it's because those people want to believe in a world that's bigger, more interesting, and less self-involved than our own. You can't say saving the world from total evil and darkness while protecting the last dragon, isn't more interesting and self-involved than our world, which features Paris Hilton.
But I still don't care.
Oh, and I found the creation of Elvish language (in LOTR) to be the sort of pompous, pretentious, and ostentatious thing you could only expect of someone who majored in English. I didn't care for the folk songs either. (And I didn't much care for this trend in the Rowling books either, and was glad this was mostly dropped in later books.)
Uh huh. Tolkien wrote when he wrote and was influenced by society at that time. So was Rowling.
You didn't think Harry was all about boy issues?
The language, the visuals, the magnitude that Tolkien created...dismissed because you felt there wasn't enough romance involved?
I am so dead.
But tell us how you really feel, Hel.
No, Harry dealt with more than boy issues. There was relationships issues across the board that were bitched about--probably by boy readers--that the adolescents were too obsessed with sex.
And every writer is influenced by society and writes from it. I wasn't suggesting she wasn't.
But Tolkien was a boy and Rowling was a girl--and the things that are important to women are usually not the first things that comes up as important to men. And even if they are, they're addressed by the limits of their gender.
Yeah, but to pipe up here....
The most heroic thing Harry does isn't beating Voldemort/"the bad guys". I think the most heroic thing he does is sacrifice himself for those he loves. When he's walking into that forest to his death, he thinks about how he's left his work undone, how the best choice he has to save his friends is not finishing what he started. He thinks he's going to leave killing Voldemort to Ron and Hermione, even gets Neville involved by telling him the snake needs to die.
In that way, he doesn't think he's going to "save the day" or kill the bad guy. But at that moment, he's by far a greater hero than many other archetypical heroes in literature.
Of course, it all works out and he does kill the bad guy in the end, but that's because Rowling is a literary genius IMO.
I don't think HP is all boy issues.... I think it's all adolescent issues. The plots and themes of the books get progressively more complex as the protagonists get older, showing the increasing complexity of thought we deal with as adolescents. How we learn to look outside ourselves, to move from selfish beings to being part of a collective.
Yes, Harry is much more heroic than Frodo in this regard because he does go to face his death and doesn't shirk it...where as Frodo has to have the ring bitten off by Gollum in order to fulfill his duty to save the world.
Thank you, Marn. Good point! *LOL*
As an aside, I started the LOTR books myself and couldn't get far into them either. The language was tedious to me and I couldn't empathize with the characters. :(
Sorry Chance....
Which is like rule number 1: don't be TEDIOUS or readers will put your book down.
At least all the shallow, impatient, and narrow-minded ones will, of course.
*raises hand* Me me! Shallow, impatient, and narrow-minded right here. LOL!!
I think impatient was it.
And Marn, if you ever decide to lead a class at a Harry Potter Convention, I'm so there!
Not disgusted! DisCUSSed! LOL!!
Frodo leaves the fellowship to save them from the pursuit! He leaves the shire and everyone he knows to save it! He tries to leave Sam behind to save him... He walks into Mordor knowing he's walking to his death. At the very, bitter end, he is overwhelmed by the very evil he carries...and saved by what he might have become...
Sorry, cannot see Harry as the bigger hero. I'm not saying Harry wasn't a hero.
Not going to find much middle ground on this one.
And Diane Duane did it better...
...leaving now!
:) I'll keep you posted Hellie. When I was teaching English, I lead a book club where we just read the HP books and disgusted them. One every other week. It was awesome. The kids did a great job. Three boys and four girls.
One of the boys who runs Mugglenet went to the HS I taught at and he came to talk about it once too. :) Very cool....
Don't worry. I know plenty of LOTR fans who'd disagree with Marn and me.
Can we say Harry is the more readable hero? *LOL*
LOL! More readable is cool with me.
:) I like your argument, Chance. But then it raises the question of whether it's more heroic to try to accomplish a goal on your own or ask for help when you need it.
I think that while Frodo's intentions were good, that he wanted to bear the burden by himself, in the end if he hadn't had a good streak of luck he would have failed. One of Harry's big lessons is that he knows he can't do it all by himself.
Harry does get a bit of a lucky break--or at least benefits from some excellent planning by Dumbledore.
Maybe that's the key too, that sometimes no matter what you do, if the "fates" or whatever don't favor you, you're screwed anyway.
Now that I'm thinking about it, the whole "fates better favor you" is very Grecian mythology, yes? None of those shmoe heroes never accomplished anything without a little godlike favoring.
Too much with the Grecian mythology today? Ok... I'm done.
Well, that's the point of mythology--those people who denied God were toast.
And even the publishing industry will point out that no matter of how heroic you are as a writer, you still need a bit of luck--a break--in order to get published.
You still need luck even if you're making your own luck.
I see LOTR and the Harry Potter books both as being about power and choice, and I think both men and women are concerned with power and choice.
I don't read horror either. I was forever traumatized by Village of the Damned when I was very young. But I do read Stephen King's non-fiction, and years ago he wrote a great essay "Why We Crave Horror Movies." (I think it was orginally published in Playboy.) The wonderful opening sentence says, "I think that we’re all mentally ill; those of us outside the asylums only hide it a little better – and maybe not all that much better, after all." He goes on to analyze what readers/viewers get from horror. I wonder if anyone has ever done a similar analysis of romance readers.
Here's a link to a copy of the King essay for anyone who's interested:
http://iws.ccccd.edu/jdoleh/English%201301/Why%20We%20Crave%20Horror%20Movies.pdf
That's probably why I don't read Stephen King. I'm already well aware I'm mentally ill. I don't need his help.
King is a genius at articles. (I loved his writing book.) And this article does make you think about it. I love the "anticivilization emotions"--where we get rewarded for fawning over the baby, but punished if we don't.
And the bit about horror films are our version of a modern lynching! (This might be why I go to so few horror flicks--because I've never understood why people would go to public hangings for entertainment. Nor why they would go to the insane asylum for entertainment.)
It's like he's saying horror films are like a steam cap on society, lets the steam out so we don't blow our collective steam and explode from being forced to be civilized all the live long day.
Very good points, Chance. Of course, I would agree with you since I'm a total Tolkien geek, and have been so since a very young age. I even love the Tolkien wannabes--Brooks, among my favorites.
That said, do you think it safe to admit I could never get into the Harry Potter books? For me, it was the melding of two worlds that jarred me. I know that was the invitation most young readers needed, but for me, it was a wall I couldn't get over.
Fascinating article, Janga. When I get back in the classroom, I'm going to use it.
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