Saturday, January 31, 2009

Fear of Flying – Erica Jong

Vintage 2004, First Published 1973

I read this, about a year ago, and really quite enjoyed it. I know it’s old, it’s probably on feminism 101 reading lists, but I liked the tone- Isadora the main character is smart and reflective and wry and horny and wondering. She makes mistakes, she has phobias, and she has a patchy history in love, but I liked her heaps. Nice to read a female lead who is neither simpering nor brittle nor simple nor ‘sweet’ nor completely 2 dimensional. Isadora is a proper gutsy likeable flawed story hero. Even though I’m too lazy to write a review right now, I thought these quotes were interesting. AQsthe main character is a writer (poet) quite a bit of the book relates to this. The first quote is a character in the book speaking to Isadora Wing, the last two quotes are Isadora herself.

The writer being accused as using lovers as material:“You go through life looking for a teacher and then when you find him, you become so dependant on him that you grow to hate him. Or else you wait for him to show his weaknesses and then you despise him for being human. You sit there the whole time keeping tabs, making mental notes, imagining people as books or case histories – I know that game. You tell yourself you’re collecting material. You tell yourself you’re studying human nature. Art above life at all times. Another version of that puritanical bullshit. Only you have a new twist to it. You think you’re a hedonist because you take off and run around with me. But it’s the bloody old work ethic all the same because you’re only thinking you’ll write about me. So it’s actually work, c’est-ce pas? You can fuck me and call it poetry. Pretty clever. You deceive yourself beautifully that way.”

The voracious and open minded reader:“I had always worshipped authors. I used to kiss their pictures on the back of books when I finished reading. I regarded anything printed as a holy relic and authors as creatures of superhuman knowledge and wit. Pearl Buck, Tolstoy, or Carolyn Keene, the author of Nancy Drew. I made none of the snotty divisions you learn to make later. I could happily go from Great Expectations or the Secret Garden to Mad Magazine.”

Books as refuge:“Growing up in my chaotic household, I quickly learnt that a book carefully arranged in front of your face was a bulletproof shield, an asbestos wall, a cloak of invisibility. I learned to take refuge behind books, to become, as my mother and father called me, “the absent-minded professor.” They screamed at me, but I couldn’t hear. I was reading. I was writing. I was safe.”

Eco-spair, Eco-ire and Eco-rony

Ali has written a great review of the graphic novel As the World Burns, a book which I thoroughly enjoyed, even as it made me despair a bit as I read it. It’s really nice to be in a space where we are exploring ecoearnestness, post-incremental light bulb change and also ecovangelism, in a book that is available in big chain book stores. I agree with you Ali that they did a great job of having a go at almost everyone, but in a way that highlights the ridiculous in our behaviour and personal motivations, rather than just for cheap gags.

I guess the premise of the book is pretty clear – what the fuck are we doing toadying up to big business and mediocre government officials with strong vested interest in the status quo, what are we doing thinking that the tiny household gestures are making deep, significant cultural change from crass/mass consumerism – and why on earth do we think it is nearly enough or nearly fast enough? It portrays the voice of animals, and the tress, and climate – very ‘Council of all Beings’ style for those familiar with some of the Deep Ecology group processes – and to my mind a conspicuously absent viewpoint in all our collective posturings about environmental ‘issues’. I loved having animals as characters in this book. I love the dynamic between the idealistic and earnest dark haired character who tries hard to engage with popular rhetoric about the ‘household actions’ and do her bit; and her friend, the more radical, ‘throw down the system coz it’s intrinsically skewed towards environmental disaster’, but patient, friend. The rabbits from outer space come to suck down on the earth’s resources was a nice device to add a touch of useful exaggeration, sci fi style cultural realism once removed. The graphics were good – clear and engaging – cute even at times. Actually quite touching even in the panels without text. Despite being bleak in parts like any good satire it remains hopeful, utopian dreamy even. This would be a great book club book (for all you folk in face to face book clubs), or great coffee table/ lend to a bunch of friends book. Recommended.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

As the World Burns

As the World Burns is a wickedly funny satire on environmental policy and environmental activism, served up as a graphic novel. Three story-lines are interwoven with vignettes skewering hippies, activist groups, the media and Al Gore, culminating in a great bloody battle to save the world. Two little girls debate whether personal action is useful or a distraction from fighting institutional environmental vandalism. A one-eyed 'terrorist' rabbit saves his friends from an animal testing lab, and blows it up. And aliens that shit gold invade the planet and proceed to eat it, aided by the President of the United States.

Some of my favourite moments from this book were:

  • the little girl rocking back and forth and chanting "oh God, we will go quietly to our doom if only you allow us to believe that changing our lightbulbs will save us"
  • a hippy who refuses to join the battle to save the world, because "that would be violent" and instead stays home to plant his peace garden
  • the same hippy trying to convince a fox to become a vegan
  • a TV panel debate about terrorist rabbits, which is a perfect mirror for every TV panel debate you've ever seen about terrorism, except the word 'rabbit' is substituted for 'terrorist'
  • an activist group wildly celebrating the number of celebrities who have signed their petition while aliens devour the world around them

I really liked the way the story had a go at everyone, not just one group. Ultimately, I think the book asks you to consider why you do what you do. Do you take personal action to save the world or to save your conscience? Are you fighting the right battles? Should institutions be part of the solution or are they only part of the problem?

Anyone who's ever run an awareness campaign, worked in policy, slung a banner over a bridge, had an interest in politics and society, or thrown a copy of G Magazine across the room will find something to laugh at, and think about, in this book. Even environmental sceptics should enjoy having their prejudices confirmed with a touch of humour. I'd be interested in opinions from seagreen, fergus and amberino?

As the World Burns
Derrick Jensen (author) and Stephanie McMillan (Illustrator)

Seven Stories Press
I got my copy at Kinokuniya

Crossposted at reading|reading|reading

Thursday, January 01, 2009

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - by Mary Ann Shaffer - while on holidays. It's a quick read - those with a bit of time could knock it off in half a day. I arrived at my inlaws with nothing to read (oh no!), but luckily, my mother-in-law the school librarian had this book on hand - she had to review it to see how appropriate it was for her school library.

I loved this book. It made me giggle, and it made me cry. It transported me to a different time and place I hadn't thought of (post-war England, and War time in the Channel Islands. I seem to be a sucker for WW2 stuff - fiction or non-fiction, Pacific or Europe. Don't know why - not the most uplifting of topics, I know.

Basically, it's about a writer who has a war time column in a London paper, who has had these published as a book, and is now struggling to find a topic for her second book. By chance, she is written to by someone on Guernsey, who has come across a second-hand book that has her address written inside the cover, and given Guernsey has no book shops, the gentleman asks her to find a book about the author of this book, as he is interested in finding out more.

This kicks off a correspondence between him and her, and soon a community of people on Guernsey, who had formed a literary society during German occupation. There are also letters back and forth between her, her editor and her best friend.

Highly recommended.