if you haven't read this book, and you are one of those people who don't like to have the ending of a book spoiled, you might want to stop reading. because here be spoilers!
i need to write about the end of this novel first. i am teaching this book in my class this fall semester, and one of the questions i intend to ask them to think about is: how can this novel be viewed as a farewell to the past century and a welcome to the new century? in other words, how can we see this novel doing in a literary sense what Clive's symphony is attempting to do in a musical sense? i know, this question does not make sense to you if you haven't read the book. sorry about that! but onwards. in clive and vernon, mcewan has given us to complex characters, but both seem to be drawn to a "higher" authority or ideal. for clive, it's art and music, in the sense of both of those being what we consider the "fine arts". for vernon, it's political ideology and the kind of people who should hold political office and what kinds of aims they should try to achieve while in office. both men pursue these ideals at a high cost--clive fails to help a woman in need who we eventually learn narrowly escapes a rapist, but only days later that same rapist attacks another victim; while vernon makes the decision to publish pictures of a cabinet minister dressed in drag without taking into consideration the personal costs to said cabinet minister or his family in doing so, and at the same time his choice demonstrates that it is not the minister or his politics that we have to fear, but men like vernon who show their very intolerance and narrow thinking in the choices they make in regard to exposing the "sins" of others. so at the end of the novel, mcewan makes the authorial choice to have clive and vernon take each other's lives. the fulfillment of an euthanasia pact between the men. there's an interesting line in the novel before this happens: "This was the comic nature of their fate; a first-class stamp would have served both men well. On the other hand, perhaps no other outcomes were available to them, and this was the nature of their tragedy." (161) here i am then, at the end of the novel, wondering what to make of the ending as well as this glance toward the comic and tragic aspects of the fates of clive and vernon. and i'm also wondering what mcewan might be saying about the state of literature (british literature?) at the end of the 20th century and what awaits british literature and the novel in the 21st century. is it something akin to the characteristics of Frank Dibben, Vernon's successor at the newspaper that he is forced to resign from in disgrace? Dibben, a man who is wily, who knows how to 'play the game' in order to get what he wants and is willing to do what he has to do to get it, a man who is able to gain his boss' trust and then betray that trust easily, casually, and without regret? are clive and vernon stand-ins for the "old guard" who must inevitably die because they are not capable of surviving all that awaits them in the new century? or is it because of their ideology that they must die before the new century begins? must we break ties with their ways of thinking and doing before the end of the century so that we can step into the new century unencumbered by outdated ways of thinking and seeing? is the story of clive's and vernon's lives ultimately a comedy? or is it a tragedy?
another thing that pops up frequently in the last two parts of the novel is the idea of a cancer eating away at the body (either the physical body or the body politic) and how that cancer must be stopped before it completely destroys the body. this once again makes me return to clive and vernon--are they the cancers? or have they been destroyed by a cancer that they didn't understand and didn't know how to fight?
and also, what am i to make of the fact that garmony and lane end up with a kind of "happily ever after"? i say a "kind" because no one, i think, would read it as a true happily ever after, and yet in the end george lane gets what he wants--two of his late wife's lovers are dead, while a third is politically disgraced. and though garmony doesn't lose everything (he seems to still have his family and public opinion is in his favor in terms of his right to enjoy his sexual proclivities which harm none), he is no longer in a position to have the one thing we can theorize he wanted most--the position of british prime minister. again, are these kind of people who are equipped to handle life in the 21st century?
i'm really looking forward to reading what my students think about this novel and how they respond to it. i can totally understand why it won the booker prize. it's tightly written and i had a hard time putting it down (i actually read it in two sittings). the characters are complex and the prose is fluid and beautiful and yet simple in its elegance. and the emotional investment that i had in the novel as a reader is one it seems i haven't had in a very long time. and it deals with weighty issues: euthanasia, privacy issues, politics, the value of the arts and the role of newspapers in particular as well as the news media in general and the power they are able to wield in the 21st century, and there's also the portrayal of women. mcewan's treatment of women in this novel is...what word should i use here? it's fraught with difficulty. on the one hand we have molly, who is portrayed as a temptress and often alluded to as an Eve figure; then on the other hand we have rose garmony, who is the woman behind the man but also a successful pediatric surgeon who stands firmly by her husband's side and willingly participates in the attempt to keep her husband's political image from being completely damaged. and so they are stereotypical in nature, stock characters who do what the story needs for them to do in order to move forward, but i can't help wondering if their depiction in the story is meant to be taken at face value.
in the final analysis, i would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a really good read.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Friday, July 16, 2010
restart
if you know anything about me, you now that one of my favorite TV shows is "house" with hugh laurie. though, if you talk to my friends, you will discover that i have yet to finish watching season 6. this has nothing to do with the show, or the fact that [spoiler alert] cameron has left chase and princeton-plainsboro (that was the last episode that i saw). it's more a matter of time and priorities as well as my own self-awareness when it comes to my TV watching habits. if i start, i won't be able to just stop at one episode. i can't play the carrot-and-stick reward game with my favorite television shows. when i start, i want to watch three or four episodes at a time, and right now, i just don't have that kind of time. well, let me make an amendment to that--i shouldn't spend that much time to watching television.
so while i have yet to finish season 6, "house" is still the one television show that i think about when progress on the dissertation comes to a standstill and when the will to work on my dissertation is low. in fact, it's the one show that inspires me the most when it comes to actually working on my dissertation, setting high goals and expectations for myself, and encourages me to get myself into my writing space (which is my office on campus) each day. believe me, i understand just how odd that statement is. how can a fictional television show inspire anyone to want to write their dissertation? it's house himself--the character, not the actor who portrays him.
in a blog post far far away and in a time long long ago, i wrote about my impressions of house. ever since i started writing my dissertation, but particularly in the last couple of months, i find myself going back to that blog post. in short--house may be socially appalling and ethically reprehensible, but he's damn good at what he does, he has an amazing ability to concentrate and focus on a problem and look at it from all angles, and he devotes an incredible amount of time and energy, heart and soul into the one thing that he values most--medicine, or maybe it's solving a medical mystery (it could be argued that he really does care about saving lives, but nah, i'm not going for it. it's the puzzle that he loves, the thrill of victory and being the one to figure out a puzzle that others couldn't decipher. in another life he probably would have been a codebreaker. but i digress...). it's these qualities that i admire most in gregory house, md, and they are the qualities that i try to emulate when it comes to working on my dissertation.
if house's one thing is medicine and an unmatched ability to solve whatever medical puzzle you throw at him, my one thing is finishing this dissertation. it is the one thing around which everything in my life revolves. i made some major life changes to get here, to this point where i'm a ph.d. candidate and ABD, and finishing the dissertation is going to be the pinnacle of so many of the dreams i've always dreamt but wasn't ever sure i would reach. it's also the one thing on which i am building so many of my hopes for the future. so if the dissertation is my one thing, then i tell myself i should be a lot more focused on it and devoting much more time and energy, heart and soul into it. if i want to have house-like success i have to work like house.
and so oddly here i am on a friday re-committing (for what, the tenth time now?) to working harder and more consistently on the dissertation. i'm going to work even when i don't want to work and i'm going to have to get a lot more serious about setting daily goals and holding my own feet to the fire in terms of meeting those goals before going home and making a fantastic dinner, or sleeping, or playing fallen london... everyone knows that writing a dissertation is hard, that's why not everyone does it. but what only dissertation writers know is that the hardest part about writing the dissertation is motivating yourself to work on a consistent basis. i imagine that i will continue to struggle with this for the next nine months, but when i seem to be going nowhere fast on my project, i'll just ask myself "what would house do?" and i'll have the answer i need.
so while i have yet to finish season 6, "house" is still the one television show that i think about when progress on the dissertation comes to a standstill and when the will to work on my dissertation is low. in fact, it's the one show that inspires me the most when it comes to actually working on my dissertation, setting high goals and expectations for myself, and encourages me to get myself into my writing space (which is my office on campus) each day. believe me, i understand just how odd that statement is. how can a fictional television show inspire anyone to want to write their dissertation? it's house himself--the character, not the actor who portrays him.
in a blog post far far away and in a time long long ago, i wrote about my impressions of house. ever since i started writing my dissertation, but particularly in the last couple of months, i find myself going back to that blog post. in short--house may be socially appalling and ethically reprehensible, but he's damn good at what he does, he has an amazing ability to concentrate and focus on a problem and look at it from all angles, and he devotes an incredible amount of time and energy, heart and soul into the one thing that he values most--medicine, or maybe it's solving a medical mystery (it could be argued that he really does care about saving lives, but nah, i'm not going for it. it's the puzzle that he loves, the thrill of victory and being the one to figure out a puzzle that others couldn't decipher. in another life he probably would have been a codebreaker. but i digress...). it's these qualities that i admire most in gregory house, md, and they are the qualities that i try to emulate when it comes to working on my dissertation.
if house's one thing is medicine and an unmatched ability to solve whatever medical puzzle you throw at him, my one thing is finishing this dissertation. it is the one thing around which everything in my life revolves. i made some major life changes to get here, to this point where i'm a ph.d. candidate and ABD, and finishing the dissertation is going to be the pinnacle of so many of the dreams i've always dreamt but wasn't ever sure i would reach. it's also the one thing on which i am building so many of my hopes for the future. so if the dissertation is my one thing, then i tell myself i should be a lot more focused on it and devoting much more time and energy, heart and soul into it. if i want to have house-like success i have to work like house.
and so oddly here i am on a friday re-committing (for what, the tenth time now?) to working harder and more consistently on the dissertation. i'm going to work even when i don't want to work and i'm going to have to get a lot more serious about setting daily goals and holding my own feet to the fire in terms of meeting those goals before going home and making a fantastic dinner, or sleeping, or playing fallen london... everyone knows that writing a dissertation is hard, that's why not everyone does it. but what only dissertation writers know is that the hardest part about writing the dissertation is motivating yourself to work on a consistent basis. i imagine that i will continue to struggle with this for the next nine months, but when i seem to be going nowhere fast on my project, i'll just ask myself "what would house do?" and i'll have the answer i need.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
doctor who: the lodger
do you want to know what i think? doctor who is really a fine form of escapism.
so last night's episode--the lodger--was brilliant. why? one of my favorite things about it was that the emphasis was on the doctor and all his quirkiness. i'm not saying that i don't like amy pond. i do. but she can get on my nerves sometimes, and i think sometimes there isn't enough focus placed upon the character of the doctor and developing this particular incarnation of the time lord. that's why last night's episode was so fantastic (read: bloody brilliant - i wanted to write that but then thought hey, i'm not british! but man do i love that phrase). the recaps i've read about last night's episodes all emphasized the fact that you got to see the doctor doing normal human things--cooking, playing football (read: soccer), working in an office, showering. but one thing that wasn't answered that i wish they would have answered is this: how did he get the 3000 pounds that he hands over to craig in the first place? i love that he has no concept of money but i just couldn't stop wondering how he got the money in the first place. and the way he hands it to craig and says "here, have some rent" was just classic. and apparently the doctor can talk to animals too, which i don't think i knew until last night. oh other alien life forms, sure, but he can also communicate with cats. excellent.
to be honest, i think i'm the only person that i know who watches doctor who, and i have to wonder why that is. sure, it's a british TV import, but it's a fantastic british TV import that is so much more entertaining than most american TV shows. i mean, i know a lot of people are turned off by science fiction, in fact cringe when you even say the two words together. and granted, the show can be uneven from episode to episode. lots of people didn't find the previous episode, "vincent and the doctor", very good but i think it's my favorite single episode of the season, apart from the premiere. the point is, if you're sitting on the fence about whether or not to give the show a try, jump off the fence by going to your nearest netflix website and watching it for free online. but start with the 2005 season (or series, as they call them across the pond). i made the mistake of starting to watch the show during the current season airing, but it was only when i went back and starting watching from the beginning of the 2005 season (which is when the series went back into production) that a lot of what was happening in this current season made sense. for instance, i started watching with episode #3, and so the daleks meant nothing to me, i didn't understand the whole regeneration thing, and river song was just another character whose connection to the doctor i wasn't fully aware of. it was only when i watched the previous seasons that things started to make sense, and honestly, that my addiction to the show was truly born.
this summer has been a little difficult to get through in terms of television distractions while i waited for the season premieres of eureka and warehouse 13, but once i got hooked on doctor who, it made the wait a lot more bearable. each saturday i've looked forward to the next episode, and yes, i'll be sad when the season ends in two weeks and it'll be nearly a year before the new one arrives. but when you watch as little television as i do, what one watches should be entertaining and yes, truly escapist in nature. doctor who definitely fits the bill.
Saturday, July 10, 2010
to watch or not to watch...
i've started reading this blog called "To Do: Dissertation" (located at tododissertation.wordpress.com if you're interested in reading it too) and one of the most recent posts is about whether or not a person should have a TV while he or she is writing a dissertation. i must admit, i'm a little bit on the fence on this one.
here's the thing: personally, i have been trying to watch less TV, and I've been a lot more conscious about not turning on the TV unless i am intending to really watch something specific. i've stopped wanting to have it on just to have it on. several of the blogs that TD:D listed within its post said that television was a waste of time and that it prevents you from doing other things that are, quite frankly, more enjoyable. i find myself agreeing wholeheartedly with these opinions. case in point: over the 4th of july weekend, i didn't turn on the TV much, and do you know what i got accomplished? i finished a piece of fiction writing that i've been working on for a long time. and when i say that i've been working on it for a long time, i know that the reason for that is that there were times that i could have been writing, or possibly even wanted to write, but i watched TV instead because i convinced myself i was "blocked" and so i walked away from it to occupy my mind with something else. if i had indulged in one of the many marathons that were being shown over the weekend, i wouldn't have finished that story. i wouldn't have that wonderful, exhilarating feeling of happiness and accomplishment. instead i would have been able to say that i watched season five of NCIS for the 12th time, and who really needs that? and who really thinks, honestly thinks, that that is some kind of badge of honor? no one, i'm sure. at least, not if they are honest with themselves.
another thing i have to admit to is the fact that i can't do any work at home, mostly because there are two many distractions, the biggest of which is the television. so when i want to work on my dissertation, i always force myself to leave the apartment and these days, the place i go is my office on campus. and honestly, i am so much more productive because i'm not distracted by the TV. even the distraction of the internet, which i still have access to at the office, is minimal compared to the television. and so there's another point in the "yes" column on whether or not a dissertating writer should give up their TVs.
BUT, i can't. or perhaps the more proper thing to say is that i won't. why? sporting events for one. after i read the blog post on TD:D, i thought to myself, well, maybe i should turn off my cable. i could really do it. there are only a handful of shows that i watch on a regular, committed basis. i even wrote them down--house, the vampire diaries, bones, and fringe during the regular TV season and then in the summer, warehouse 13, eureka, haven ( a new pickup), doctor who and being human. so i could just take the money i spend on cable and use that to buy the season pass of my favorite shows on iTunes (and yes, i'm willing to do that instead of pay hulu $9.95/month for the same access because i'm willing to pay to not have to watch the commercials. i spend enough of my life being advertised to thank you very much). but i soon realized that even if i were to take the iTunes route to get my favorite TV fare, i still wouldn't be able to watch the u.s. open. and what would i do during the baseball playoffs and the world series? so i though okay, i'll just wait until after the world series to turn it off. by then it'll be almost thanksgiving and most shows take an eight week break now it seems so that there are no new episodes from thanksgiving to well after the new year. but then i thought, what about the NCAA tournament? so you see, even though i have no problem getting my scripted series from iTunes (and in fact, i do this quite often anyway), i'm not willing to give up easy access to the sporting events that i find the most viewing pleasure in. i can completely agree that watching such sporting events is a waste of time, but watching them makes me happy, and how can you dismiss that so easily? i guess you could say that being productive also makes me happy, that it fulfills a need, and well, you'd be right. but in the final analysis, i'm still not willing to give up the tube, dissertating or not.
so until i move away from pullman, or have to move into a new apartment, i'll be keeping my cable TV and paying for it, while at the same time i'll keep trying to turn the TV on less and less. to be honest, not watching TV to just be watching whatever is on has definitely made me excited and appreciative about what i do watch, and in the end, that's a really good thing.
here's the thing: personally, i have been trying to watch less TV, and I've been a lot more conscious about not turning on the TV unless i am intending to really watch something specific. i've stopped wanting to have it on just to have it on. several of the blogs that TD:D listed within its post said that television was a waste of time and that it prevents you from doing other things that are, quite frankly, more enjoyable. i find myself agreeing wholeheartedly with these opinions. case in point: over the 4th of july weekend, i didn't turn on the TV much, and do you know what i got accomplished? i finished a piece of fiction writing that i've been working on for a long time. and when i say that i've been working on it for a long time, i know that the reason for that is that there were times that i could have been writing, or possibly even wanted to write, but i watched TV instead because i convinced myself i was "blocked" and so i walked away from it to occupy my mind with something else. if i had indulged in one of the many marathons that were being shown over the weekend, i wouldn't have finished that story. i wouldn't have that wonderful, exhilarating feeling of happiness and accomplishment. instead i would have been able to say that i watched season five of NCIS for the 12th time, and who really needs that? and who really thinks, honestly thinks, that that is some kind of badge of honor? no one, i'm sure. at least, not if they are honest with themselves.
another thing i have to admit to is the fact that i can't do any work at home, mostly because there are two many distractions, the biggest of which is the television. so when i want to work on my dissertation, i always force myself to leave the apartment and these days, the place i go is my office on campus. and honestly, i am so much more productive because i'm not distracted by the TV. even the distraction of the internet, which i still have access to at the office, is minimal compared to the television. and so there's another point in the "yes" column on whether or not a dissertating writer should give up their TVs.
BUT, i can't. or perhaps the more proper thing to say is that i won't. why? sporting events for one. after i read the blog post on TD:D, i thought to myself, well, maybe i should turn off my cable. i could really do it. there are only a handful of shows that i watch on a regular, committed basis. i even wrote them down--house, the vampire diaries, bones, and fringe during the regular TV season and then in the summer, warehouse 13, eureka, haven ( a new pickup), doctor who and being human. so i could just take the money i spend on cable and use that to buy the season pass of my favorite shows on iTunes (and yes, i'm willing to do that instead of pay hulu $9.95/month for the same access because i'm willing to pay to not have to watch the commercials. i spend enough of my life being advertised to thank you very much). but i soon realized that even if i were to take the iTunes route to get my favorite TV fare, i still wouldn't be able to watch the u.s. open. and what would i do during the baseball playoffs and the world series? so i though okay, i'll just wait until after the world series to turn it off. by then it'll be almost thanksgiving and most shows take an eight week break now it seems so that there are no new episodes from thanksgiving to well after the new year. but then i thought, what about the NCAA tournament? so you see, even though i have no problem getting my scripted series from iTunes (and in fact, i do this quite often anyway), i'm not willing to give up easy access to the sporting events that i find the most viewing pleasure in. i can completely agree that watching such sporting events is a waste of time, but watching them makes me happy, and how can you dismiss that so easily? i guess you could say that being productive also makes me happy, that it fulfills a need, and well, you'd be right. but in the final analysis, i'm still not willing to give up the tube, dissertating or not.
so until i move away from pullman, or have to move into a new apartment, i'll be keeping my cable TV and paying for it, while at the same time i'll keep trying to turn the TV on less and less. to be honest, not watching TV to just be watching whatever is on has definitely made me excited and appreciative about what i do watch, and in the end, that's a really good thing.
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