Reading mixes

[tarigwaemir]

Blair Hall Apts., on the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin

For obakesan's reading mixes challenge. On no account are these to be taken as authoritative lists. Most were compiled while staring intently at my bookshelves last week--luckily I'm at home--and looking for interesting patterns. (At one point during my scrutiny, Father walked by and asked me in a puzzled tone of voice what was taking me so long to pick out a book. I told him I was just thinking.)

Scrambled Stories: nonlinear narratives
The Dispossessed, by Ursula K. Le Guin

Alternation between past and present. The book tells the life story of Shevek, a physicist who grows up on the planet Anarres, an anarchic utopia founded on the precepts of Odo. He is the first to leave his planet and travel to the neighboring planet, Urras, which with its materialistic, cosmopolitan culture is the complete antithesis of everything he's ever known. The novel begins in the middle with the beginning of Shevek's journey and alternates between his past life on Anarres and his present experiences in Urras, such that the last two chapters respectively compose his departure and his return. It's loosely connected to the Hainish universe, and Le Guin explores her usual themes of cultural conflict as well as the dialectic between communalism and individualism with a careful sense for ambiguity and without becoming didactic. The narrative structure is not at all difficult to follow but it is especially appropriate to its thematic content, which I felt was a sophisticated choice on the author's part.

Kafka on the Shore, by Haruki Murakami

Alternation between two separate but colliding narratives. The main character is Kafka Tamura, who runs away from home to live in a town library, but it's also the story of Nakaya, the old man who speaks to cats. (A horrible summary but it'll have to do. Describing Murakami's novels is never easy, and I think this one is particularly incoherent, although it's certainly compelling.) Kafka's narrative is told in first person, while Nakaya's narrative is in third person, with a telescoping perspective (initially we read documents about the incident that left Nakaya unable to read and write then it narrows down to follow Nakaya contemporaneously with Kafka). The two narratives reference each other and then finally intersect at the end.

The Solitaire Mystery, by Jostein Gaarder

Story within a story. If you didn't like Sophie's World, you won't like this book either, since it uses the same sort of devices without the history of philosophy. Although the external narrative is set in the present-day, the tone is still more reminiscent of an older children's classic (that may be a function of the translation more than anything else, though). The story is told from the perspective of Hans Thomas, who goes on a road trip with his father to find his missing mother, who ran away to Athens several years ago to become a model. Along the way, he finds a book inside a sticky-bun that he buys from a baker, and although the story within the book seems to be a fantastic tale about playing cards coming alive, it in fact not only seems to reflect his family in strange and peculiar ways but also predict the "future" that is his present. A charming book, but more complex than it initially appears: many of the usual meta-level manipulations that Gaarder seems fond of show up here.

Hexwood, by Diana Wynne Jones

Seemingly random temporal and spatial shifts. Anyone who has read Diana Wynne Jones knows that she likes to thrust the protagonist (not to mention the reader) in media res and leave them to puzzle through the situation until the resolution. But I think Hexwood is probably the best example of just how adept she can be at writing mixed-up storylines. Initially, it seems to be the typical ordinary-girl-enters-alternate-dimension setup so common in YA literature, then it seems to morph into an odd version of Arthurian and medieval fantasy, only to mix itself up with a galactic SF narrative. In the meanwhile, nothing seems to proceed linearly: the characters seem to jump back and forth in time, and the first time the genre switch occurred, I thought the publishers had accidentally put in parts of the wrong novel. But never fear, all is explained at the end, and it even makes perfect sense.

Notes: The progression is towards increasingly chaotic storylines although the definition of "chaotic" might be a bit subjective. David Foster Wallace probably would have fit very well into this list but I've only read his short story collections, not his novels, and I thought it would be easier to restrict myself to whole books.

Before and After Waterloo: Continental perspectives on the Napoleonic Wars
War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy

Russia. Clearly, this novel is too epic to be summarized in a few sentences so I shan't even attempt it. The eponymous war in question becomes a turning point for all the characters, from Prince Alexei Bolkonsky who serves as an officer and comes back irreversibly changed, to Pierre Bezukhov who undergoes a transformation when he witnesses war firsthand during Napoleon's invasion of Russia. I think Tolstoy's descriptions of the battlefront were some of the most compelling scenes in the book, although the book's scope is much larger than just war (Tolstoy comments on nearly every aspect of Russian society at the time).

The Charterhouse of Parma, by Stendhal

Italy. I recently read this book on worldserpent's recommendation. The actual Napoleonic Wars feature early on in the novel, when Fabrizio runs away from home to fight for Napoleon. He catches up with the French army at Waterloo and wanders around lost, bewildered and barely able to speak the language, which results in rather comedic situations (well, I thought so, in any case). Actually, most of the novel takes place afterwards at the court of Parma, but in between Fabrizio's many romantic foibles and escapades, it presents a rather interesting picture of the political landscape in Europe, post-Napoleon.

Les Misérables, by Victor Hugo

France. Not entirely appropriate since, well, most of the book takes place a generation afterwards. I know though that most people who have essayed this novel often drop the book in disgust at the extended description of the Battle of Waterloo in the middle of the novel. (Actually, it's not completely irrelevant but a necessary plot point, and in my admittedly biased opinion, still an interesting scene on its own merits.) But there's still a thematic context as well, since it paints a portrait of France after Napoleon, and the name is still invoked by Marius, as well as his fellow student revolutionaries, whose ranks Valjean joins in the climactic point of the story.

Notes: A temporal and geographic progression, although largely unintentional. With all the recent enthusiasm about Temeraire on the friends list these days (as well as the usual fondness for Regency novels), I thought it would be interesting to compile a list of not-British novels set roughly around the same time. By not-British, I mean they do not take place in Britain, nor do they feature British characters, and most of all they are decidedly of a non-British sensibility. I also wish I had a German or Spanish novel to round off the list, but I couldn't remember any. Besides, all three books are long enough as it is.

On Virtuosos: musical protagonists
Songmaster, by Orson Scott Card

Science fiction. About a young boy with a voice so beautiful and powerful that it can control his listeners' emotions. He becomes a "Songbird" to the most powerful man in the universe, the Emperor Mikal, and loses his innocence in the process. Rather like Ender's Game in that it is about a child who becomes broken due to the manipulations of the adults in his life and has to learn to piece himself back together again. One of Orson Scott Card's older books and hence less dogmatic than his more recent works.

Soul Music, by Terry Pratchett

Humor/fantasy. About the arrival of rock music to Discworld. Imp y Celyn or Buddy, along with Glod (a dwarf) and Lias (a troll) form a band and invent "Music with Rocks in", while Death is going through yet another crisis, leaving his granddaughter Susan Sto Helit to pick up the slack. Pratchett is always brimming with references but this one has more puns than most and has a lot of clever references to many of the early figures in rock'n'roll.

The Devil in Music, by Kate Ross

Historical fiction/mystery. Julian Kestrel, a dandy turned detective (forgive the glibness), is on holiday in Europe when he hears of the recent discovery of a decade-old murder. The victim: Lodovico Malvezzi, a conservative Italian aristocrat well-known for his love of opera. The principal suspect: a young English tenor only known by the name of Orfeo, who was under Lodovico's patronage and disappeared at the time of the murder. Naturally, Julian goes to Italy to solve the crime.

The Glass Bead Game, by Hermann Hesse

Postapocalyptic fiction. The life of Joseph Knecht and how he came to live and finally leave Castalia, a country in a futuristic Europe that serves as a haven and refuge for the intellectual elite. Knecht begins as a talented young violinist; as a boy, he is selected to enter the Castalian schools by the Magister Musicae. Later he becomes the Magister Ludi or the Master of the Glass Bead Game, a synthesis of all human thought and art, which forms the major occupation of the Castalian schools. Although the book is not specifically about music, Knecht as a character is firstmost a musician.

Jean-Christophe, by Romain Rolland

Bildungsroman. I'm reasonably certain the link doesn't point to a full edition of the novel because the book I have on my shelf is considerably longer than 504 pages. One of the drawbacks of searching for an out-of-print book (I found my own copy at a used bookstore). The book traces the life of Jean-Christophe starting from his birth and his development as a musician and composer. It draws unabashedly from the life of Beethoveen and for me at least is the quintessential portrait of the Romantic artist. I think most parts of the book can be found on Project Gutenberg as well, although I'll have to check it against my table of contents.

Notes: I chose books from a variety of genres that had particularly made an impression on me for their portrayal of the experience of music from the perspective of the performer or composer, reaching a culmination in the last book, which is entirely and only about music.

Science Made Easy: interesting presentations of theory
Alice in Quantumland, by Robert Gilmore

Physics. A creative introduction to the mindbending principles of quantum theory presented metaphorically as a spinoff of Alice in Wonderland. Really clever, and one of my favorite science books to this day.

Everything and More, by David Foster Wallace

Mathematics. A history of infinity, covering mathematical concepts as complex as transfinite numbers, as written by a postmodern fiction writer. What more can you ask for? Complete with Wallace's characteristic love of footnoting footnotes and other metatextual flourishes.

The Beak of the Finch, by Jonathan Weiner

Biology. Explaining evolution through the lens of Darwin's very own Galapagos finches. Weiner focuses on the research by Peter and Rosemary Grant, who have demonstrated that the finches are evolving rapidly, showing measurable changes in beak morphology over time. In short, speciation in action.

Notes: I need a chemistry and geology book to round off this list. Anyone have suggestions? I wanted to choose popular science books that used a novel means of presenting abstract concepts in science (or mathematics) that would not be too familiar to the average lay reader. Some books I considered for this mix but rejected for various reasons: James Watson's The Double Helix, Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time, Jonathan Weiner's Time, Love and Memory, among others.

I've returned to reading The Magic Mountain. Maybe I'll actually finish the book this week, although that's unlikely given that I'm also distracted by Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel, which my parents bought me on Sunday. I'm...actually supposed to have already read most of Guns, Germs and Steel, since it was discussed frequently in my freshman seminar two years ago, but since the readings were technically "optional" and on reserve, I never actually did get around to reading it (until now, anyway). But it's a fascinating book and a fascinating topic. Reminds me of the highlights of Professor McCormick's course on Charlemagne last year, where he presented the process of studying history as an integrative field.

The problem with my reading habits these days is that if I break momentum, it takes me months and months before I get around to picking up the book again. Often because I leave the book at home and don't bring it to Cambridge with me. A good example is The Magic Mountain, which I've been reading off and on for over two years now. It doesn't help that I keep pausing to think about the book; once I read a page, stopped, then wrote nearly five pages worth of rambling thoughts about the passage I just read. But I've returned to a more regular pace now that the debates and ruminations are occurring less in Castorp's head and more between Settembrini and Naphta, so I hope I can finish it soon. I've decided to reread the book immediately afterwards as per Mann's recommendation (despite the pomposity, I think I will need to reread it just to get a more holistic sense of the book instead of the fragmentary perception I have now) although maybe with a different translation. -_-

Yours &c.

Comments

[ladydaera.livejournal.com]

Ooh, the science ones sound interesting. I'm going to have to look them up at the library once I get home...

[ramble-corner.livejournal.com]

cool ^^
so many new books for me to check out XD

[sub-divided.livejournal.com]

Musical protagonists, whee! I can think of some really terrible books that fit into this category, but here's an okay one:

Bedlam's Bard (http://www.mercedeslackey.com/books/bedlam3.shtml), only Mercedes Lackey I can still read and enjoy. This is basically an Ode to Renfaire with a threesome and some elves thrown in, the main character is a street musician dating a high-strung soprano.

Can't name any more/better books because they're all still at home.

I love your scrambled stories list, those are going on my to-read list.

[worldserpent.livejournal.com]

Oooh, you included the Charterhouse of Parma! <3

BTW, a book with a nonlinear narrative that your list made me think of, the Use of Weapons, by Iain M. Banks. This is a Culture novel, but it is completely accessible even if you haven't read the other books (shared-world), and it features two storylines, one going forwards in time, and the other backwards, with the same main character, a mercenary for the benevolent utopia known as the Culture. Also, be careful for looking for info about this novel, because there is a stunning, devastating twist within the story.