The House of Manipulation

I’ll be perfectly honest and say that I did not feel any sympathy towards Lily when she died. I kind of felt like singing “ding dong the witch is dead.” She was manipulative and really self-centred and a character that I could in no way relate too. Her death was kind of a relief; there was no way for the character to continue on from where she was. Her death was the only real way to end the novel, and I kind of felt like she deserved. She could have been happy with Seldon but she was a money grabbing, social climbing witch who was too concerned with money to think of her own or other people’s happiness.

I realise I’m being a little harsh but as a reader I just could not find it in me to sympathise with her at all. I mentioned in my last post that I almost felt like congratulating Bertha on her outsmarting Lily. The whole dramatic plot of the novel seemed to be caused by Lily refusal to accept happiness over money. I just found the novel to be a little underwhelming and the plot seemed a little predictable. I couldn’t relate to the book or the characters at all and that kind of stunted my enjoyment of the novel as I didn’t really care what happened to the character.

I have a new found respect for naturalist novels but I wish we had read some more happy novels in the course. One happy ending would have been nice, just for a change. Although I enjoyed most of the books in class; with the exception of Moby Dick (I really didn’t like Moby Dick, there is only so much whale chasing one person can take). Overall I’ve really enjoyed this semester in the class, and have learnt a lot.

We do not have a cliche problem at this school...but you do have to watch out for frenemies

I think I would have liked House of Mirth a bit better if we had not just spent the last few weeks covering naturalist novels, I may be alone in this view but I was kind of hoping for a happy story. I’m not talking about books were the walk off into the sunshine or all live happily ever after. Just, you know something mildly happier. I think we are all at the point in the semester were something happy would have been a nice little boast in class morale to tide us over until Thanksgiving break (I’m used to started term in September, having the last week in October off, and then finishing classes at the end of November. So this has been a very long semester for me.).

That’s not to say that I don’t enjoy House of Mirth, some of it seems mildly odd but it is well written and not as tedious to read as McTeague. However, as far as Lily goes I’m not sure on how to take her. I realise that back then women weren’t allowed the same freedom as we are today and that Lily is trying to work within the constraints of her society. She annoys me as a character simply because at points in the novel I find her to be very conniving. I mean she’s great at rocking what she’s got but it feels as though she schemes a little too much for her to be an incredible likable character.  I can’t really feel sympathetic; I’m more inclined to applaud Bertha for outwitting Lily at her own game.

I think as always I will wait to see how the book plays out (although I got mildly spoiled when I looked online so I have a feeling I will not enjoy the ending) and offer my full comments next blog.

McTeague: The Ugly, The Bad, and The Downright Strange

I struggled with the narrative style of this novel; for a book that is meant to be objective the narrator is very judgmental. Wikipedia is kind enough to describe McTeague as simple minded; however, the narrator completely abuses him. He is referred to using a number of cruel adjectives. It kind of defeats the purpose of a naturalistic novel, I mean aren’t they meant to stay objective, to observe from a higher plane. In the fact the narrator of the story continually speaks as though he believes himself to be above the people he is representing in the novel.

Also some of the characterisations seem a little too harsh, call me an idealist but surely they cannot be that driven by greed. I just feel as if this is a really offensive view of the characters. Okay so Trina could have used her lottery winnings to help them out but is it not a sensible idea to save one’s money? And McTeague seems to go from okay to horrible very quickly. I realise that he becomes an alcoholic and that can change someone but the transformation lacked realism for me. Like it was too sudden, to overnight in a way. It is as of Norris wants to show the very worst of the characters and as much as I usually love characters without redeeming qualities I feel like these characters do have redeeming qualities, Norris just doesn’t want to look for them or to show them.

I’m going to hold the rest of my judgement until I have finished the reading next week because Norris may be able to convince me otherwise in the meantime

Also I really enjoyed the class discussion on literature in general; it’s nice to see everyone’s opinion on the matter and how they interpret. Although I maintained that if we are to be judged by Twilight I am going to deny being a part of this generation.