#95: The Historian, Elizabeth Kostova

Before there was Twilight, there were hundreds of vampire tales that caught the attention of readers.   Books like The Vampire Chronicles by Ann Rice, reminded us that vampires were evil creatures who preyed on humankind. Of course, the most famous of these tales in modern history is Dracula by Bram Stoker. Stoker told us how cruel and unscrupulous vampires were:  He told us they thrived on human blood, lived in the dark, crawled up walls over castles, and stole our beautiful women through slow, painful transformation to vampire forms themselves.

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova used Stoker's well-known description of vampire lore and created a modern story of a young woman and her father.  Kostova explains, "Dracula is a metaphor for the evil that is so hard to undo in history" (Jane Sullivan, "Dracula and the Human Factor", The Age (3 June 2006).   With this in mind, Kostova created this novel.   Told from multiple perspectives, that of a professor named Paul, his un-named daughter, and Paul's mentor, the story weaves together various lives intercepted by the history of Vlad the Impaler, Stoker's inspiration for his fictional Dracula (for those not familiar, here is a brief History Channel bio).

Most of the story takes the form of letters and oral histories, but the main narrator is a young, unnamed daughter of a college professor.   It is never completely clear if this narrator is unbiased, or reliable; she is sharing with us, the reader, stories told to her over time and to which she is emotionally invested.  Still, the tale is true to the grotesqueness of Stoker's story.  There is mystery and murder, it isn't clear who is helping Paul (spoiler!) learn more about the death of his mentor, Bartholomew Rossi
and who is trying to prevent him from solving this mystery.  While reading the details, it can be difficult to decipher what is really happening, and what is speculation of the character who is telling the story at the time.  It's an interesting mix of potentially unreliable narrators and hyperbolic storytelling.

I read this book a few years ago - I believe I found it while browsing in Borders Books - and thought of it recently when my sister, parents, and I were emailing about our Irish family history on St. Patrick's Day.  I loved how, in The Historian, the reader isn't really sure if what is being told to us has really happened - are vampires really real? - and I think a lot of that happens with family histories.  We know so little about what our great-great-great grandparents were like, and have to speculate and put the pieces together.  My family is really lucky because my father has a passion for ancestry and can find out all sorts of details.  It's tempting to write it all down, like the narrator in The Historian, and elaborate on all the little details until we have a historical account of family vampires.  What can you find Old Man?

Packing Things Away

While packing things to put in storage while we prepare to move to a larger home, the most difficult part is storing my books.  I remember the stories.  I remember bits and pieces of those other parts of my life - some recent, some so, so long ago.  Three times my husband reminded me to put them in the storage bins... I selected a few favorites and "hid" them on my dresser.  Then he reminded me to put those away, too.  I did... except the ten or so now hidden in the basket next to the bed that usually contains the books I am currently reading.

Why is to so hard to put these pieces of paper away?

#40: Neverwhere, Neil Gaiman

I always try to stay away from those things that are built up to mounds of hype.  It is always a great pleasure to find them later in life when everyone is no longer chattering about those things, so I can enjoy them on my own without exponentially built-up expectations.

That is what happened with the writing of Neil Gaiman. A few years ago, everyone on the train I was taking read American Gods.  I began it and, I suppose because of the hype, could not finish.  I was quite disappointed with the chronology; I was confused.  I kept having to go back and re-read pages because I couldn't believe what I had just read.  Fortunately, I re-began it in my quest to read the top 100 fantasy novels and was thrilled.  Because of my love for this novel, I have begun reading as many of his books as possible.  Here, we'll talk about Neverwhere, number 40 on my list.

Neverwhere reminded me a little of "The Wizard of Oz" (movie).  The main character, Richard, a boring ol' chap, finds himself caught in a world between the worlds after saving the life of a young woman named Door, who he finds bleeding in the street.  In this strange land, called Under London, he finds a floating market and an underground home of an angel.  Along with new acquaintances, he has to pass certain tests with the hope to save Under London and get back home.  The story is fraught with mysteries and puzzles to solve.  Oh, and I just love when authors use names as a way to tell the reader something about the character.  Here, the name Door is an obvious representation of that character's ability to open things.  Little secrets, even when so obvious, make me wonder what else I might miss and keep me quite engaged.

Gaiman's ability to take boring young male characters on adventures is spot-on.  All three of his novels I have read (Anansi Boys is the other, and I'll review that soon!) use the same premise (boring guy meets some crazy person, goes on an adventure, saves the world - you know, the usual) but not to the point of feeling formulaic.  The characters are different guys, with different interests.

This novel first began as a television show in London and was not highly regarded. There is a comic book, and soon a radio version of the work to be released as well.  It is especially interesting, while reading this novel, to imagine the book having not been written first.  As Gaiman wrote the story, he would have had to imagine the characters in a similar sense to the television portrayal.  It'd be interesting to know whether people who enjoy the television show enjoyed the book.

What a clever, modern author Gaiman is.  Incorporating his writing into television shows, radio shows, and comic books (Sandman is amazing, more on that later).  He must have no fear of being irrelevant too soon.  Reading his Tweets daily keeps him, as an author, in my mind, and makes me curious about reading more of his work.  I'm excited for his newest novel, The Ocean at the End of the Lane to be released here in the United States in 14 weeks, 1 day, 9 hours, 13 minutes from right now.

Here's an excerpt from the Neverwhere television show in case you're interested; this part takes place early in the novel so no surprises will be ruined if you decide to pick up this book.

Baby G

Anyone reading knows I'm pop-culture-ly obsessed with fairy tales - the books I read and the television I enjoy are mostly fantasy or fairy tale related.  If only at trivia night there was a category in this subject so I could share my knowledge with someone.

Well, soon there will be.  Little Baby G is on his or her way to meet us.  In about 6 months (early September) we'll have a little baby with whom I'll (hopefully) be able to share my passion these stories. Honestly I can't believe it.  A little munchkin who may have interest in princesses (Grimm's or Disney's, whatever)?  A little monster who might want to know more about why Jack climbed a beanstalk?  This is unreal.

PSA: Carl Sagan

Newtown

Today in church we sang, "It Came Upon a Midnight Clearing" in honor of all the angels who were brutally murdered last Friday.   This song, written by a man who was distraught about a recent American war with Mexico, describes a group of angels singing.  He also describes how we people do not take the time to slow down and listen - we are so caught up in war, hate, (etc.), that we don't take the time to listen to the angels singing.

How appropriate, right?

A mentally ill man with access to three semi-automatic weapons takes those weapons into an elementary school and kills twenty angels.

And yet, most of what we hear in the media (and from our acquaintances on Facebook) is about whose fault this is.  Is it the gun makers?  The government?  The mental health community?  I have many strong opinions on this matter, but this blog is about something a little different than just that.

Our modern society is far removed from nature.   We hardly take time outside to enjoy the trees and dirt.  We spend a majority of our days attached to electronic devices "being social" or working.   NPR recently reported that lobsters are over-populating certain areas causing them to begin to attack their young through cannibalism.   Studies have also recently shown that praying mantises are actually only cannibalistic in laboratories, and not in natural settings.   I think we sometimes forget that we are actually animals - we have a "god" complex because of our past abilities to overcome every single other species on our Earth, and we substitue natural interaction with electronic obsession.  I can't help but think that these murders are some sort of self-mutilation, just like these other animals have expressed in stressful environments.  Our obsession with being so important, so much better than all other creatures on our planet, has caused us to forget that, sometimes, community, friendship, love, and compassion are the most important things we need.

Because I feel this way, I can't help but think about so many "what ifs."  What if that young man's inner-circle loved him more.  What if that young man expressed his frustration for life through discussions with friends or even a counsellor.  What if our ability to become so important through the existence of guns was not a top priority for so many people in our country and this young man couldn't get his hands on a semi-automatic weapon.  What if.

I also can't help but think of all of the fairy tales I read as a little girl.  Stay away from wolves.  Witches who live in candy houses are dangerous.  Don't have too many children because you'll have to live in a shoe and won't know what to do.   Whatever happened to our societal lessons?  Is our world really so interconnected that we don't need lessons like these anymore?  Do we really have to teach our children that going to school isn't safe because a many might show up one day with a semi-automatic weapon and kill you?  No.  The answer is "no."  We need to come back to being a community, a society who cares for one another.
 
Hopefully you don't read this and think I'm just another someone trying to come up with some reason for this having happened, someone trying to rationalize a terrible situation   I hope your read this and it causes you to stop debating the Second Amendment for a minute and call a friend for a cup of coffee.  Or, I hope you read this and call your mom to see how her day is going.  Or, I hope you read this and snuggle with your child or your dog or cat just a little longer than normal.

Please stop fighting with each other for a few minutes and think about what is really, really right.

"Yet with the woes of sin and strife
The world has suffered long;
Beneath the angel strain have rolled
Two thousand years of wrong;
And man, at war with man, hears not
The love-song which they bring;
O hush the noise, ye men of strife
And hear the angels sing."

#21: American Gods, Neil Gaiman

Alright, alright. I was mistaken.  This book is awesome.

I've shared with some friends in the past that I hated this book.  I couldn't undersand the mythology.  The characters (i.e., Shadow...) were boring and I only could get through 20 or so pages before giving up.

I was wrong.

American Gods was spectacular.  Shadow's dull nature became quite fascinating throughout the book.  His confusion between what was real and what was happening in his imagination could not have been so realistic had he been more thoughtful or boastful.   There were a few parts I wished for a better background in mythology - I won't spoil it here, but if you've read it you know there is a big reveal at the end about two people who are friends - so I could have followed some of the foreshadowing a little better.   Other than that, I put this book down happily knowing that my previous disdain for it was uncalled for.

Without ruining the details for those who haven't read it... my most favorite part of this novel was toward the end when Shadow and Wednesday find themselves in a diner chatting with Eoster.  Her characterization - passion, love, rebirth - is so beautiful.  Her misunderstanding about how people actually feel about her is so real.   When she returns later, I had an "aha!" moment and laughed to myself a little.

If you read this, do so on an e-reader so you have easy access to Wiki... not knowing who the characters are can be a little confusing sometimes and having access to that resource will enhance the experience if you're not already familiar with them.

Just for Fun: Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Biography, Arthur Hobson Quinn

While reading this on the train one day, a man sitting next to me leaned over and said, "Isn't that the guy who married his cousin?"  I wasn't sure how to answer that because I had passed the part of Quinn's biography explaining that Poe only married his cousin because he cared for her and his aunt, and not because he was mentally deranged.  They were married and loved each other, but were not "in love" in a romantic sense of the word, according to my interpretation of Quinn's analysis.

How does one explain that to a stranger on the train without first highlighting Poe's extremely complicated relationship with his foster family who adopted him after both of his parents died?

I said, "Yes."

Poe's writings have fascinated me since middle school.  I had a teacher in fifth grade English who had our class read several of Poe's short stories.  She realized immediately that I had fallen in "book love" and gave me a paperback copy of some of her favorites.  I have that book around here somewhere, and have pulled it out every few years to remind myself of those first favorites.  The Tell Tale Heart and The Black Cat were two in that collection.  I remember drawing in pencil a picture of a man with a "tell tale brain" as part of some follow-up activity for the former.  I spent hours drawing his brain and the plants surrounding the walking man, and ran out of time so only had time to color in the brain, red of course.   As for the later, I vividly remember the teacher saying, "I hate cats" and (as an animal lover) being extraordinarily alarmed.  Only after reading the story several times through did I understand she had a sense of humor.

Quinn seemed to feel obligated to defend Poe's every move.  In his mind, Poe was a wonderful person who the world destroyed with its hateful, unfair ways.   I do agree that in many of the circumstances portrayed in the biography, that Poe had an unfortunate lot; I do not agree, though, that there weren't things he could have done to help himself out of those situations.  Poe was apparently a very intelligent, bitter man who did not know how to keep his thoughts and opinions to himself.  That doesn't make him a terrible person, he doesn't need defending.  If it weren't for his ruminative thoughts and his anger we never would have experienced his writings.  He doesn't need to be sorry for his "sins" and we do not need to pretend he was some sort of hero in his personal life.

I loved reading about one of my favorite authors, and the collections of letters to and from Poe included in this biography were extraordinarily interesting.   It'll be a short time before I need to get my hands on another biography of Poe so I can read more of those.

"American Gods" - second time around

Recently I joined a book club on Goodreads called "She Geeks." It is a book club for ladies who like comic books, fantasy, and books (I'm in!), and I am so excited. The book for this month is "American Gods," one I tried to read about a year ago and hated. I'm going to give it another shot with hopes that the help from the club to understand references with which I am unfamiliar will help me appreciate it more.

So far, so good. I understand that Shadow was in jail, and is now released. His wife died unexpectedly and he's not sure what to do next. A mysterious, unnamed character keeps showing up out I the blue... And that's it so far.

I rarely try again with books I don't like once the decision is made to let them go. Feels appropriate to give a second chance to "American Gods" in the month of an election. In a hyperbolic sense, we have all dedicated so much time to learning about two people we already knew so much about. We watched so many campaign ads, laughed at so many terrible, accidental comments, and debated with our friends and families about what is right for three hundred million people we have never met. Politicians aren't gods, of course sometimes it seems we get caught up in their lives and forget that.

Wish me luck with this adventure in mythology with Neil Gaiman. I'll let you know how it goes.

Geology of Middle Earth

When I was an undergrad, I took a required Geology course.  The professor told me that he was impressed with my passion for maps, and asked whether I might be interested in switching majors.   At the time, I was not.  Little did I know, geologists also make maps of incredible places like Middle Earth and Oz.

Had I known then what I know now, perhaps I would have made a super fast skip and a jump in the change of major.

Source: Facebook

Source: Oz Central