Deeper Understanding

I read 'The Great Gatsby' by F. Scott Fitzgerald for the second time yesterday, and I have to say that I enjoyed it much more the second time around.

Quick digression: THE KEYBOARD/MOUSE IS BEING SO UNHELPFUL TODAY.

Anyway, I think the only reason I disliked it upon first reading was because I was young, and speed reading. Never a good combination. For example, I didn't realise that Jay Gatsby was in a criminal syndicate. Obviously I cannot speed read.

This time however, it was very enjoyable, although I still wanted to slap Daisy. But it's a lovely little book all the same. I would have to disagree that it's one of the 'three perfect examples of American Literature.

Here in Northern Ireland we study 'The Great Gatsby' in English Literature during Year 14, but not everybody in this country does. I've heard that every single student in America is forced to read it, though. That sounds fun.

The enthusiasm/grammar isn't flowing today.

Boring Update

Since my last post I have finished ‘Tess of the d’Urbervilles’ by Thomas Hardy, and ‘The Catcher in the Rye’ by J.D. Salinger. Unfortunately, I really don’t feel like writing a review D:

I suppose this is just a quick little post to make sure everything’s up to date. I went shopping in the capital of Northern Ireland today! I made that sound rather grandiose; Belfast is a nice place, though. I bought a pair of shorts and a t-shirt. Cool.

I’m dong the GCSEs (uh…General Certificate of Standard Education) at the moment. They’re the first serious exams I’ve ever done in my life. It means that I don’t have to go to school unless I’m sitting an exam! It’s wonderful – lots of reading, sleeping and laptop-ing.

Those damned novelists are being clever for the sake of it

Hello Blog. I'm sorry I was away for so long. I'm only using you now as a procrastinating tool. I hope you don't mind.

I have heard bad things about 'Tess of the d'Urbervilles' by Thomas Hardy. One such quote is "That's an awful book", coming from my absurdly knowledgeable librarian as I took it out. I just finished the first 'phase' this morning and so far I don't really see what they're complaining about. So far my only qualm is that the narrative is a bit jumpy and hard to follow: lots of really important things seem to happen in the time between chapters. Another irksome thing is that damned 19th century prudishness. It is really very difficult to discern when anything of a sexual nature is happening in the book, despite it dealing centrally with the theme of sexuality! Humbug.

Since my last post I also finished 'The Sea, The Sea' by Iris Murdoch. It took me so very long to read.

'The Sea, The Sea' is very much a novel of the brain. First and foremost, it is written in the first person - diary entries; you can never trust diaries - you learn about the protagonist by reading between the lines, and learn nothing about other characters because they're coloured by the protagonist! Standard first-person isn't quite so bad, even when it's heavy on the interior monologue - you can understand other characters by dialogue, movement. In a diary, however, the only things you can pick up on are the central character, and themes.

We'll start with character. That's a bit easier. 'The Sea, The Sea' begins with ninety pages of uninterrupted musings. That might sound awful, but it really was fascinating. Charles Arrowby, the protagonist, is a playwright who retires to the sea for peace and solitude. For a while he revels, playing the part of the hermit with obvious grandeur. His writing is lavish and descriptive, incredibly romantic. However, in complete contrast with his writing, his actions show discontent - hallucinations, injuries etc. It seemed to me that he was searching for a kind of solitude he was never going to find. Furthermore, he was trying to deceive himself with romantic imagery and endless philosophy.

As the novel progresses so too does Arrowby's view of the sea. Things become chaotic, people come to visit him, and the sea once again becomes an effigy of peace. I thought it was a rather cyclical novel, but that would give away a lot of the plot.

Oh! It's important to not that Arrowby is a horrible, horrible person and if you can't get past that you won't enjoy the book.

This review is horrible. It has no structure.

THEMES. Actually, I should go do some proper work. Themes will come later.