Why should a "medley" only refer to music?
(And in some cases, vegetables?)
New experiment: I am reading two books at once to see if they sync up: Madame Bovary and A Streetcar Named Desire. The latter, of course, is a play, and I have read it before. Madame Bovary -- never read, but I'm aware of its reputation.
I'm thinking of it as the literary equivalent of listening to a medley, in this case maybe something elegant and something bluesy, maybe "Hey Jude/Giant Steps". Or for the more wacky, "Mozart's 40th/Beethoven's 5th". Hoo boy - can you imagine those together? That's incongruity!
Not sure how to handle it. Bovary in the morning and Streetcar on the way home? But Bovary is much longer. Hard nut to crack. I mean, I want to enjoy the synergy, the synthesis, anything else that starts with "sy" that applies; so there has to be a method that allows synthesis, not just some random "feel like Tennessee right now" thing. I read a little today, MB first, then SND, then back to MB. I'm surprised there's a first person narrator, and it's neither the Madame nor her husband, but a little kid (whom I'm sure will grow up before the dirty parts, heh heh). So far, Mr. Bovary's been teased in school and his dad has proven to be a scoundrel. Meanwhile, Blanch has shown up at the Kowalski's and is condemning the house.
Cruelty! Drunken cruelty, as (I think) the Kinks once said.
Speaking of drunken cruelty, I still have to review Isn't It Romantic by Ron Hansen. Or maybe I just did.
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