So both Emma Bovary and Blanche Dubois believe they deserve lives they can never have. Charles loves Emma unequivocally; Stella loved Stanley unequivocally – both even when faced with evidence that would allow them abandon their love. And as both stories near their denouement, a blind person appears.
Thus ends my Madame Bovary/Streetcar Named Desire medley. Lessons: some themes, symbols, devices transcend time, nation, even art form; and the line between aspiration and illusion, between dreams and delusion, can be a very fine line. The Rock Island Line is a mighty fine line ….oops, stream of consciousness.
Streetcar remains one of my favorite plays, after all of Shakespeare, about as favorite as West Side Story and Camelot and some Greek extravaganzas, more favorite than The Iceman Cometh, which is much too long. I also like Waiting For Godot, Ghosts, Threepenny Opera. I haven’t read many plays lately – a book of Sophocles a year or so ago is all, and thigs that old are difficult to imagine as stage productions.
But Madame Bovary has cracked my Top 3 books, joining To Kill A Mockingbird and The Bell Jar. I would mention that Bovary and Jar are in there mainly for the artful writing itself; I was not particularly enraptured by The Bell Jar’s plot, not uplifted by the fate of the Bovary family. But man, are they all genius, or what?
Yes, they are.
Found a collection of Dame Agatha at Goodwill. Will be resting from Great Literature for a while, relaxing as if at the beach with a book a cut (but just a cut) above a beach book.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Saturday, July 18, 2009
A Lucky Guy On The Bus
Oh, Madame Bovary! Oh, you, you . . . you French woman, you!
I don't know exactly what I expected when I started reading Madame Bovary and A Streetcar Names Desire at the same time. I thought, though, for some reason, that Emma Bovary was a nice lady. How wrong i was! I don't know if she's evil, or just crazy. At the moment -- about 30 pages left to read -- she seems certainly to be descending into madness. She has had a hard time facing reality, accepting it; and her impression of the green grass on the other side of the fence is quite delusional. So I guess she's always been a little nuts.
I have this ongoing problem, though, with stories in which children are abused or neglected or hurt: that becomes the theme for me, the defining plot element. This is one of the best books I've ever read, and maybe Emma has just tricked herself into madness -- but, because of her treatment (or more accurately, non-treatment) of her daughter, she will always be, to me, a rotten person.
In the context of the book, that is, by far, not her biggest sin. I'm just saying.
She seems to want to live a life as intense as Stanley Kowalski. She wants a life that fills any room it walks into, as Stanley personality forces itself to the center. The Kowalskis are lower middle class, I guess, which Madame Bovary would never accept. But Stanley's intensity matches the intensity of the life she thinks she deserves, in which there is a thrill a minute (so to speak).
Whether evil or nuts, she is definitely not a victim. She, and she alone, has taken herself to where she had arrived. It's like she assumes rich people do nothing but party and so, having convinced herself she should be rich, she parties, expecting no consequences because that's what people like her (the illusory her) do. I'm at the point where the consequences are starting to intrude.
At the point I've reached in Streetcar, by the way, Stella and Stanley are back together and still in love, much to Blanche's horror.
Meanwhile, the bus has been taking detours due to some invisible construction around the hospital: really, cars are going down the road, but the buses are skipping a mile out of the way for no apparent reason. Some guy got off on the detour Thursday, and the bus driver even asked if he was sure, and he said yes. I had to admire his fortune at getting on a bus that he couldn't possibly have known was going to deposit him exactly where he wanted to go, saving him a long walk from the normal bus stop.
I don't know exactly what I expected when I started reading Madame Bovary and A Streetcar Names Desire at the same time. I thought, though, for some reason, that Emma Bovary was a nice lady. How wrong i was! I don't know if she's evil, or just crazy. At the moment -- about 30 pages left to read -- she seems certainly to be descending into madness. She has had a hard time facing reality, accepting it; and her impression of the green grass on the other side of the fence is quite delusional. So I guess she's always been a little nuts.
I have this ongoing problem, though, with stories in which children are abused or neglected or hurt: that becomes the theme for me, the defining plot element. This is one of the best books I've ever read, and maybe Emma has just tricked herself into madness -- but, because of her treatment (or more accurately, non-treatment) of her daughter, she will always be, to me, a rotten person.
In the context of the book, that is, by far, not her biggest sin. I'm just saying.
She seems to want to live a life as intense as Stanley Kowalski. She wants a life that fills any room it walks into, as Stanley personality forces itself to the center. The Kowalskis are lower middle class, I guess, which Madame Bovary would never accept. But Stanley's intensity matches the intensity of the life she thinks she deserves, in which there is a thrill a minute (so to speak).
Whether evil or nuts, she is definitely not a victim. She, and she alone, has taken herself to where she had arrived. It's like she assumes rich people do nothing but party and so, having convinced herself she should be rich, she parties, expecting no consequences because that's what people like her (the illusory her) do. I'm at the point where the consequences are starting to intrude.
At the point I've reached in Streetcar, by the way, Stella and Stanley are back together and still in love, much to Blanche's horror.
Meanwhile, the bus has been taking detours due to some invisible construction around the hospital: really, cars are going down the road, but the buses are skipping a mile out of the way for no apparent reason. Some guy got off on the detour Thursday, and the bus driver even asked if he was sure, and he said yes. I had to admire his fortune at getting on a bus that he couldn't possibly have known was going to deposit him exactly where he wanted to go, saving him a long walk from the normal bus stop.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Group Participation
I've gotten to the scene of Stanley yelling for his wife. Everyone knows it, and you know you're dying to say it. So come one, everybody, let's get it out of our systems:
"STELLA! STELLA!"
Nice scene with Karl Malden. I mean, Mitch. Isn't this the role for which Malden won his Oscar?
Meanwhile, Madame Bovary has had her affair. The guy seems slimy to me -- kind of like the Matt Dillon character in Something About Mary. I imagine that if radios had been invented by 1850, he would have been eavesdropping on Emma's conversations, for info with which to seduce her.
"STELLA! STELLA!"
Nice scene with Karl Malden. I mean, Mitch. Isn't this the role for which Malden won his Oscar?
Meanwhile, Madame Bovary has had her affair. The guy seems slimy to me -- kind of like the Matt Dillon character in Something About Mary. I imagine that if radios had been invented by 1850, he would have been eavesdropping on Emma's conversations, for info with which to seduce her.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Rock n' Books
Just saw a list of "the 100 best books ever", on which War and Peace was Number 1 and 1984 was Number 2. Madame Bovary was 46.
On a previous list, Anna Karenina was Number 1 and Madame Bovary Number 2. I didn't even see AK on the new list (I admit I didn't scroll all the way to the end).
Which just goes to show. Literary consensus must be much harder to reach than, say rock music consensus. On any Top 100 Albums list, Revolver, Pet Sounds, Sgt. Pepper and Bringing It All Back Home are all hovering near the top, in whatever order. Reading, one might conclude, is a more subjective experience than listening. Or, the rules of rock are more dogmatic than the rules of literature (and if that's true, how ironic!).
Anyway: Madame has flirted with the idea n an affair, and avoided it only because the prospective pigeon moved away. But, she seems ready to fall into the arms of Rudolpho at the moment.
Meanwhile, I've slowed down Streetcar, because I was going to finish it way before MB. Best lines contest entry:
BLANCHE: Please, don't get up.
STANLEY: Nobody's going to get up, so don't be worried.
In the annals of subtle, yet devastating, put downs, that's right there with Mr Dylan: "You just sort of wasted all my precious time. Don't think twice, it;s all right."
Haven't been on the bus, or at work, for 4 days: 4th of July, plus a day off (today) for a medical procedure. Although, the preparation of said procedure has me doing a lot of sitting and, thus, reading.
On a previous list, Anna Karenina was Number 1 and Madame Bovary Number 2. I didn't even see AK on the new list (I admit I didn't scroll all the way to the end).
Which just goes to show. Literary consensus must be much harder to reach than, say rock music consensus. On any Top 100 Albums list, Revolver, Pet Sounds, Sgt. Pepper and Bringing It All Back Home are all hovering near the top, in whatever order. Reading, one might conclude, is a more subjective experience than listening. Or, the rules of rock are more dogmatic than the rules of literature (and if that's true, how ironic!).
Anyway: Madame has flirted with the idea n an affair, and avoided it only because the prospective pigeon moved away. But, she seems ready to fall into the arms of Rudolpho at the moment.
Meanwhile, I've slowed down Streetcar, because I was going to finish it way before MB. Best lines contest entry:
BLANCHE: Please, don't get up.
STANLEY: Nobody's going to get up, so don't be worried.
In the annals of subtle, yet devastating, put downs, that's right there with Mr Dylan: "You just sort of wasted all my precious time. Don't think twice, it;s all right."
Haven't been on the bus, or at work, for 4 days: 4th of July, plus a day off (today) for a medical procedure. Although, the preparation of said procedure has me doing a lot of sitting and, thus, reading.
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