Lucy Snowe and Pirates

Well twinner, I’ve finished. I actually finished Thursday night, but other things kept me from getting around to actually posting until just now, nearly two days later. Those purposefully vague “other things” included, but were not limited to live blogging my first viewing of Marley & Me.

I had some issues with the last quarter of the book—that long debate between Catholicism and Protestantism, that confusing midnight fete (the proper time for fete is two in the afternoon!), the decision on Bronte’s part to stop caring about the characters of John Bretton and little Polly—but overall I kind of liked the book. I don’t think another draft would have hurt it (never before have I felt so much like I was reading a book as it came to the mind of the author), but I found the book entertaining (if not completely compelling).

This book you’ve picked next is definitely a horse of a different color. Pirates and treasures and islands…sounds like it should be a thrill a minute. I kind of think I’ve read it before, but since I can’t remember for certain I don’t think the second reading will hurt me.

I shall look forward to swashbuckling literary conversation.

Until then…SHIVER ME TIMBERS!

I had to get that out of my system…I’m ready to progress now.

Jon

Imprecise Terminology

When I am wrong, I am wrong. I freely admit and seek to correct my errors.

You rightly called me out when I referred to Lucy’s new found interest in M. Paul as a “plot twist.” You’re right, “twist” implies a certain level of subtlety, unexpectedness, or surprise. And while, I admit it did come as something of a surprise to me this could have more to do with my aforementioned half-assed reading of this book than any narrative trickery.

So, on second thought I should have referred to this narrative change of heart as a plot lurch. A sudden, violent shift in direction of the story.

Not be confused with a dramatic Lurch.

Anyway, rumor has it you’ve actually managed to find your way to the end of Charlotte Bronte’s epic tome. That being the case, I guess it is up to me to pick the next book. I was giving some thought to what might be a bit of a change of pace I feel like we’ve already done stream of conciousness (Swann’s Way), we’ve done dystopian (Brave New World, and we’ve even done turtle-like alien life forms (Lathe of Heaven.

But you know what we haven’t done?

Pirates.

This is a wrong that must be righted. So pull out your treasure chest, tricorn hats, and shoulder-jockeying parrots and find yourself a copy of Treasure Island, and I will see you the Jolly Roger. (Matey.)

Arrrgh,
Justin

The Stockholm Syndrome of Lucy Snowe

Ironic/Sarcastic positivity is not, in fact, positivity. I give that last post a D-. (Since I assigned you the task, I also get to assign you a grade–that was fun!). I should have realized that the task I set before you was as hopeless as asking Lucy Snowe to extemporaneously compose a French essay in front of the entire student body and their parents.

But I think if you had tried a little harder you should have been able to identify some truly admirable aspects of this reading experience. There are some things to like in this book, things like Charlotte Bronte’s out-of-nowhere bats*!% wacky extended similies:

As monkeys are said to have the power of speech if they would but use it, and are reported to conceal this faculty in fear of its being turned to their detriment, so to me was ascribed a fund of knowledge which I was supposed criminally and craftily to conceal.

I don’t know what to do with that sentence. Was it a commonly held belief in Victorian England that monkeys could actually talk and were just willfully silent? That simile just raises too many questions.

What I don’t like about this reading experience is the “plot twist” which you foreshadowed, but say that I still haven’t reached. (Henceforward the aforementioned “twist” is only to be referred to in ironic quotation marks). While I think I have reached (and probably passed) it. I am beginning to think that you misunderstand the term’s basic concept.

It is, to clarify, when the book takes a turn that is completely unexpected. Are we starting with the same working definition?

If yes, then my last guess to what you were referring to, is Lucy’s new-found love for M. Paul. Granted it’s a little odd…because her earlier interactions with him include him locking her in an attic and forcing her to perform in his (sick) pantomime, and because she knows that he periodically rifles through her personal things. So whatever psycho-sexual peccadillo that Lucy is exploring is, I will grant you, different. Maybe even a little bit weird (I don’t judge). But “twisty”? The jury’s still out.

Anyhow…I didn’t get as much reading done over the weekend as I had hoped, but I am giving Villette my full attention until it gets finished. So I should (hopefully) be done early this week (but by the end of the week for sure). Feel free to either justify your “plot twist” claim or reveal our next read anytime soon.

Back to the wonderful world of Victorian coincidences!
Jon

2 Things

1.) You aren’t to the narrative shift* I was describing. (Keep reading, Jonny, I know you can make it!)**

*Plot twist really doesn’t do it justice.
**I know you hate me just a little bit right now.

2.) It must be nice to be reading a version of this book that translates the French. (P.S. Poupee = doll-like? No wonder I get such strange looks from my French speaking friends–Egg on my face.)

That’s all.

Justin

Untwistiest of Twists

Color me underwhelmed.

In our face-to-face conversation you hinted that the plot “twist” was a “game changer”.  I believe you said something along the lines of “And then the story takes an enexpected turn that completely (you really stressed this, in my recollection) makes the last third of the novel almost a completely (you’re getting a thesaurus for Christmas!) different book from the first two-thirds.  Stop hogging the salsa!” (I think we were eating chips and salsa at the time).

So with much anticipation I have been veritably flying through the chapters trying to catch up with you (I’m still a little behind, but I am caught up to where you were about two weeks ago).  I kept flipping the pages thinking “What can this twist be?  Will Lucy Snowe have to solve a mystery? (with cats!!!)  Does Lucy Snowe become a jewel thief to finance a secret abortion?”

Well I get to where you were and all I find is…the return of Polly Home (which I forsaw!).

Yawn.

I’d like you to explain in your own words why you found this turn so dramatic?  I figured after Dr. John turned out (inexplicably) to be Graham Bretton that Polly was bound to rear her frighteningly precocious head once more. (Although I kept expecting Ginevra Fanshawe to turn into her). So did I miss something else (a different major plot twist) or can you explain what you were getting at?

In other (unrelated) news I did come across the most hilarious French mistranslation to date…let’s just say that “des couleurs de poupee” is not a cognate.  It translates into a most un-hilarious “doll-like colours”.

So I look forward to your explanation.

Until then,

I remain,

Your Twin,

Jon

Eddie Felson

Here I am reading away, but still pacing myself–trying not to get to far ahead of you, as I use the blog to gauge your progress in Villette.  I’ve been guessing that you were still somewhere around page 150.

Then just as I’m patting myself on the back, simultaneously reading about Lucy’s Pretty Woman-goes-to-the opera experience at the theatre (which quickly devolves into a horrific scene reminiscent of Carrie‘s denouement)–I find out from an actual person-to-person conversation with you that you are actually quite far ahead of me!  And privy to unforeseen plot developments that I know nothing about!  I call dirty pool twin brother…I’ve been hustled.

And yet with all of this knowledge we still hear nothing from you…Have you no thoughts about this novel?  Do you hate the story so much?

Oh well.

Back to that horrific scene where Topsy-Turvy meets The Towering Inferno…is the young girl rescued by Dr. Bretton and Lucy yet another of their childhood housemates?  Another “Bretton House Kid” who has  inexplicably (some might say “unbelievably”) ALSO found herself residing in Villette?  Is it, indeed, Polly Homes?  I noted that upon her arrival back at her hotel she calls out for Harriet…which was also the name of the young woman who dropped Polly off at the Bretton’s in the early chapters of this book.  (Note my sleuthing…I’m a bit of a Sherlock Holmes in regards to the Homes of Villette!)

Is the unexpected plot twist that you alluded to in our real person conversation an unforeseen love triangle?  A Victorian Something Borrowed?

I’ll pull the lead out now that I know that you’re speed racing to the end of this book…I won’t be looking at the blog until I get to Chapter 29 (where I believe you are now) so I can make sure not to have any plot points spoiled…but that’s a mere few chapters away!  So you will be hearing from me soon.

Jon

Page 222

Yes, I am still pretty sure that we are reading the same book…a slightly boring story of a girl with frighteningly (perhaps pathologically) low self-esteem who goes off to a boarding school to teach in France.  Sound familiar?  I’ve grown to quite enjoy its clunky plot-twists and glacier-paced narration.  Even it’s unfulfilled promise of a ghost nun charms me.

Wait did I just say unfulfilled promise?  Implying a narrative bait-and-switch?  Well let me correct myself…unfulfilled promise of a ghost nun UNTIL PAGE 222!  Page 222 (at least its 222 in my Everyman’s Library paperback) is rife with action.

It is on this page that the ghost nun finally shows her pallid face (actually she wears a sheet over her face…like Casper?).  There are other happenings in this chapter (“The Letter”) that makes me think that the plot has finally turned a corner.

First, of course, the ghost nun…what the hell was up with that.

But we also get this mysterious revelation from Lucy (also on page 222)

Dr. John, you pained me afterwards: forgiven be every ill–freely forgiven–for the sake of that one dear remembered good!

So before the love story even really starts Lucy let’s us, the reader, know that it is all going to end horribly.   I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to read on.

In your last post you asked whether Lucy really loved Dr. John or whether their love was instead a precursor to the awkward beach gyrations/uninspired caterwauling on display in From Justin to Kelly.  Well (once again!) on page 222 you find incontrovertible proof of Lucy’s feelings vis-a-vis Dr. Bretton in her recounting of her feelings as she read his letter to her:

This present moment had no pain, no blot, no want; full, pure, perfect, it deeply blessed me. A passing seraph seemed to have rested beside me. leaned towards my heart, and reposed on its throb a softening, cooling, healing, hallowing wing. (emphasis mine)

Pretty opaque.  Not exactly “From Me To You”

Other things that happen off of page 222, but still in chapter 22 that might be interesting to discuss:

• Madame Beck’s mother is visiting because she’s ill…she’s so ill that she has left her home, so as not to suffer this grave illness alone.  And yet Lucy still forces her to help her investigate the ghost nun sighting.  She’s not Venkman, Lucy, she’s an invalid.
• Dr. John stole the letter that he himself sent to Lucy.  Curious.
• They were going to call the police after this…because Lucy saw a ghost and lost a letter (which was returned)…do not the gendarmerie have more important tasks to see to?   Mon Dieu!

So plenty to discuss!  See you next post.

Jon

Pretty Little Liar

I spent this entire evening watching a full five-episode disc of Pretty Little Liars.  Why?  Because I wanted to send the disc back to Netflix in enough time to get the fifth and final disc to watch over the weekend.  Why am I even watching this show?  I have no idea.  But what I do know is that there damn well better be some resolution after I’ve devoted 22 episodes worth of my life to this show.  I want complete resolution–A’s identity revealed, all the girl’s cleared of murder charges, and the end of the highly inappropriate love story between Aria and Mr.Fitz (ew)–everything resolved.

But anyway to end an unnecessarily long story…after devoting such a large chunk of my evening to the aforementioned TV watching, I needed to do something different to wind down for the evening…and what could be more drastically different from watching that melodrama-laden soap opera, than revisiting our favorite snoozefest Villette. (I actually like Villette…but a compelling read, it is not.)

Unless of course you consider Lucy Snowe to be a prototype for Aria, Hanna, Spencer, and Emily.  Which, by the way, I don’t.  Sure Lucy’s a liar (at least a liar to herself–admit it Lucy, you love Dr. John!) but pretty?  Let’s take a look at Lucy’s description of her first encounter with a the mirror:

No need to dwell on the result.  It brought a jar of discord, a pang of regret; it was not flattering, yet, after all, I ought to be thankful; it might have been worse.

I can’t get a read on whether Lucy is really plain or if she just suffers from a Victorian era version of body dismorphic disorder.  She does not seem overly fond of herself. 

Also while reading I enjoyed this little exchange that occurs a little later on when Dr. John returns Lucy to Madame Beck’s pensionnat.  He says, upon leaving, “Keep up your courage, Lucy.  Think of my mother and myself as true friends.  We will not forget you.”

…um…again?  We will not forget you again.  Did you mean?  Because I’m pretty sure you completely forgot her once before.  You remember…those months when you saw here nearly every day and never put together that she was that mousy girl that used lived with you?  For years.  I say “Be sad, Lucy!  Out of sight, out of mind with this one.”

So…um…Justin.  Ah…how’s the book coming?  Haven’t heard from you in a while.

I can keep talking about Pretty Little Liars if you’d like…

Jon

Powering Through

Silence.  Lots of silence on this blog.  Silence like the relative audio tranquility produced by a geothermal heat pump (as opposed to other forms of manufacturing energy).

My excuse has been work.  Work that has been forcing me to read through reference guides on energy sources.  So my brain is afloat with interesting factual tidbits about all things energy right now.  At least I think they’re interesting…after living in those books all day, I’ll admit my frame of reference may be skewed.  I’m going to try to leave that behind as I type this post but please excuse me if I get waylaid by an extended metaphor employing switchgrass fuel as a referant for Lucy’s affection for Graham (or John or Isidore…pick a name and stick with already Currer!)–It’s a pipe dream!  Or is it?!  It’s preposterous…or not.

I have been reading more and I think I understand what you dislike about this book.  You don’t like the fact that this book has no real plot.  Or it has a plot but it moves at such a glacial pace that it may as well not exist.  Well rest assured–I feel your pain.  I was reading through and trying to decide what I could post on and I came up with nothing.  Dr. John and Lucy have a spat (yawn), Lucy would rather look at the scandalous painting of Cleopatra than at the paintings of idealized, cliched womanhood that M. Paul thinks more appropriate (I get it, she’s a Feminist)…but no huge plot developments (in fact no real plot developments at all).

I enjoy reading about Lucy subverting the paradigm, refusing to let men define who she is based purely on her secondary sexual characteristics and I think it’s still an important theme for today (some would say its importance is analogous to the head in a microhydropower system…i.e. very important).  But I go could for some dynamic plot action as well.  Maybe fisticuffs or that ghost nun…they could do some really spooky stuff with that ghost nun!

Well I should get back to my energy work…the turbine of my brain has ceased to generate new electrical ideas.  But after the energy reading it’s Villette full speed ahead!  So get reading.

Jon

Homework

Dear Twin,

I’m tired of your negative attitude towards this book…every post is “I hate this book this” or “I hate this book that”.   Come on Justin let’s focus on what’s good in this book for a change.  Let’s engage in some positivity!

Here are some things I like in my recent reading:

1. The trope of characters finding their better selves through acting as other characters in plays.  Finally Lucy shines, but only when she takes on the guise of a man in her school’s pantomime.  I saw this episode of the book as the precursor to the episode of Growing Pains where Mike Seaver stars in Our Town (my favorite episode of Growing Pains) or the Just the Ten of Us episode when Coach Lubbock directs Death of a Salesman (my third favorite episode of Just The Ten of Us).  Or indeed as a precursor to my very own teen years when I discovered the true Jon Jeffryes, only when talking into my shoe “phone” playing Maxwell Smart in our high school production of Get Smart.
2. Lucy shows her balls!  Metaphoric not hermaphroditic.  At the end of the fete when Dr. “Isidore” John tries to get Lucy to extol the virtues of her direct competition for his heart, she throws it right back at him with his competition for Ginevra.   “‘But excuse me, Dr. John, may I change the theme for one instant? What a god-like person is that De Hamal!  What a nose on his face–perfect!  Model one in putty or clay, you could not make a better or straighter, or neater; and then, such classic lips and chin — and his bearing — sublime.’”  Lucy’s got some stones!
3. The first 50 pages were not a waste.  It looks like in “Auld Lang Syne” that those characters…that family she lived with at the beginning of the book…what were there names…the Brettons!…might be returning to the story.  What a coincidence that this girl happens to end up in the same city as her estranged godmother (or god-brother).

So look I’ve got the ball rolling, that wasn’t so hard…now your assignment is to identify some things that you like about this book (it’s not all bad!) and report back to this blog.

My homework is to actually read this book.  Last week I read three chapters and felt on top of the world…but now another week has gone by and I haven’t cracked the book since last Friday.

But I’m taking this assignment to heart! (As I, indeed, hope you take yours).  We’ve been meandering through this book at a mite too leisurely of a pace.  I’m making getting through this book my new priority.

So you should be hearing from me again soon…with updates from further in the book! (And maybe an explication of the first paragraph of “La Terrasse”–I’m not quite there).

Until then,

Jon