Brian's Book Blog!

brianthebard

Hurrah for alliteration!

I used to read lots of books, and I was doing a BA in Maynooth until last year so obviously lots of reading involved in that (English and History), but since then I've been unemployed and kinda lot interest for a while (as you often do with a lot of things when you are unemployed and feeling sorry for yourself). so I'm going to use this log to motivate myself to read more and start writing more frequently.

Aspects of the novel by E.M. Forster, Pelican books, 1964.

Intro;This book is based on a series of lectures by Forster given in 1927 at Cambridge. Forster takes a light hearted tone in the book/lectures, and although he doesn't go into the detail one might expect from a university course these days, this book could be seen as an early example of Structuralism. (maybe).

Main points; Forster leaves aside conventional means of criticism sucha as historical background, periods and influences, and instead thinks about novelists as if they were all in the same room, writing at the same time. He does this because he believes that "through history writers...have felt more or less the same". His motto is "History develops, Art stands still".

He then goes through te elements of a novel; story, (narrative of events), plot (narrative of events with emphasis on causation), people (flat or round), fantasy and prophecy (not genres, but a style of writing and looking at the world), and pattern and rhythm. Forster makes a number of interesting points throughout the book but does little more than catalogue the different aspects of the novel, rather than questioning their purpose or what they contribute to the novel, etc.

Personal response: I bought the book on a whim from a second hand bookshop, Forster, though part of the modernist period is nowhere near as radical as a Joyce others of the period, and this shows in his thoughts on the novel. What is intersting is his motto; this gives us a new way of looking at novels-unfortunately not enough emphasis is put on this. Still criticism of this sort was probably quite new at the time of his lectures, and from it we can see where criticism (and english studies) developed from.

brianthebard

Elizabeth Costello by J.M. Coetzee

Intro; The first author to win the booker prize twice, plus he has a nobel for literature, so you know his work is either going to be fantastic or nearly unreadable. Fortunately its the former. He has a flowing style, very easy to read and even though he dispenses with stuff conventions like a clear plot or character descriptions he makes everyhting seem very believeable.

Main points;Elizabeth Costello is a character which Coetzee has written about more than once, but here we learn about her life and what is expected of a novelist who has past middle age. Ther eis more than a hint that Coetzee is writing about his life, or a life that he wants to avoid, but that is just the tip of the iceberg. Coetzee is a busy man and must deal with a number of themes and issues at once (often unrelated). The usual suspects like Australia, the shadow of history, old age, post colonialism are all here as well as others like animal welfare or cruelty, censorship, nazism (and its spector), death, the mind of the novelist, family and others are all here at various points.
This novel takes the form of a series of lectures, made in different places across the globe. there is no real sense of time although we do realise that Elizabeth is ageing. there is a very Joyce-like feel to the book, especially in the allusion to numerous other texts, especially Joyce and Kafka. If you are better read than me you could have good "fun" picking out the literary in-jokes. I got a few but I suspect there are many more. The first and last chapters are the more enjoyable stylistically. The first, "realism" is anything but, and the last, "at the gates" is a development of the Kafka story of the same name. It is an authors meditation on what their life was spent doing. It is quite a surreal piece in the true sense of the word. In between there are lectures on different topics.

Personal reaction; I had read Slow Man before and was very impressed, and was glad to see that the same high standards are repeated here. As a post colonial writer Coetzee shares the same head space as Rushdie but is infinitely more readable while still managing to deal with just as many ideas in a shorter book. I will definitely be returning to Coetzee's work again.

Currently reading; Shambhala guide to Taoism and Art-Impressionism to the internet.