Month: October 2008

Karen at Cornflower, when she does her Cornflower Book Group, always tries to bake something appropriate for the book in question. Inadvertently (or was it?) I did the same thing today – I spent the evening reading Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot… and then I made Carrot Cake Muffins. Those with good memories will recall that carrots feature in Waiting for Godot, along with turnips and radishes. I decided not to put turnips or radishes into the muffins…

My housemate has a rather exciting looking recipe book, which has 50 different muffin recipes (it’s called 1 Mix, 50 Muffins). She’s made Jam Doughnut Muffins, and I thought I’d give these a whirl – in fact, most of the recipes in the book look wonderful. Think I’ll give Crispy Bacon Muffins a miss, and will definitely avoid Crunchy Peanut Butter Muffins (yeuch) but plenty of other exciting ones to try.

The Carrot Cake Muffins came out very nicely, since you ask, but I’m not so sure about the icing – I followed their directions of 75g cream cheese, 40g butter, 35g icing sugar… but it still tastes rather like I just spread cheese on them. Hmm… how to improve?

Oh, and Waiting for Godot? Utterly baffling, of course, but not in an irritating way. Even as I read it and realise I understand nothing and have to give a presentation on it, still I get a feeling for the feeling of the play, as it were. Something pretty special there, and a sacred cow which I will leave happily grazing in the field.

A quick post for those who think of little other than my 50 Books You Must Read But May Not Have Heard About… well, look out for another title to be added soon, but more excitingly one of the titles (completely coincidentally, I must say) has been reprinted by one of my favourite reprint publishers – Hesperus Press. You might remember Hesperus Week taking place here a while ago, which was rather fun (you could do a search through the Year One: Book Reviews, if you like, for the titles featured that week – Simonetta Perkins by L. P. Hartely, Cousin Phillis by Elizabeth Gaskell, and The Eternal Husband by Fyodor Dosteovsky).

The book which Hesperus have recently issued is, as today’s post title suggests, Lady Into Fox by David Garnett – a link to my review can be found at no.13 in the not-in-any-particular-order list of 50 Books (22 so far, actually) on the left. Or go and buy it at the Hesperus website – www.hesperuspress.com, currently under construction but hopefully fully operable soon! Or, indeed, read it on Project Gutenberg, if you can – but the Hesperus edition is beautiful.

Yes, I know it’s not Thursday, but I saw this on Becca’s blog earlier in the week, and thought I’d wait until I couldn’t think of anything else to say… It’s been a while since I did a ‘Booking Through Thursday‘, and they’re always fun. Do feel extremely free to do this little quiz yourself on your own blog or in the comments here…
I’ve seen this series of questions floating around the ‘net the last few days, and thought it looked like a good one for us! What was the last book you bought? I bought two yesterday, which I’ll write about more soon… They are The Feminine Middlebrow Novel by Nicola Humble, and Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner.
Name a book you have read MORE than once Oo, lots. To make it more interesting, I’ll go for a book I’ve read four times, as it might be the only one – The Provincial Lady Goes Further.
Has a book ever fundamentally changed the way you see life? If yes, what was it? The Bible, of course, but aside from that… none spring to mind. Quite a few have changed the way I choose books and the type of books I read, but haven’t had fundamental effects beyond that.
How do you choose a book? eg. by cover design and summary, recommendations or reviews I usually, now, only read books I already own, or have been chosen by book groups I’m in, or if I know about the author already, or it’s linked in some way… Actually, thinking about it, most avenues of my reading started with AA Milne – after that, they’ve all somehow led from one to another and spread and spread. If I ever do a book on impulse, it will be because of the ‘feel’ of it – its age, cover, layout.
Do you prefer Fiction or Non-Fiction? Definitely fiction, but have been reading more non-fiction of late. I had a real hankering for some non-fiction when I finished my degree, and sometimes it’s just the right thing. Usually non-fiction associated with literature, though… Deceived with Kindness by Angelica Garnett springs to mind, which I STILL owe you a review of.
What’s more important in a novel – beautiful writing or a gripping plot? Has to be beautiful writing. Plot and character are great (The Time Traveler’s Wife got by on these two, for the most part) but for a novel to be truly loved by me, it has to have beautiful writing. I’ve re-read a little bit of Woolf today, and realised once more just how she’s head and shoulders above of everyone else I’ve read, for this quality.
Most loved/memorable character (character/book) Miss Hargreaves (from Miss Hargreaves by Frank Baker) always comes up here… but I do love her so. Eeyore is another. If I had to choose one to come to dinner it would be Jane Bingley.
Which book or books can be found on your nightstand at the moment? Let’s have a look… The Penguin Complete Saki (for my recent thoughts on Saki, see this post), What’s So Amazing About Grace? by Philip Yancey, and The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop by Lewis Buzbee (more here).
What was the last book you’ve read, and when was it? Orientalism by Edward Said, which I finished a couple of days ago. For class, I hasten to add… I hope to finish Alva & Irva by Edward Carey tomorrow – as book group is tomorrow evening!
Have you ever given up on a book half way in?A few times at university I had to stop because the essay was due in… aside from that, very rarely. Somehow I never got around to finishing The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy, so perhaps I should dig it out again…

Yesterday I attended the last ever service at St. Cross Church, Oxford. I say last ever – it may still be used for the occasional service, but it was more or less the last one to be held there. St. Cross was my church between 2004-6, and I’ve been back to visit a few times since then – it’s a beautiful old Anglican church (some parts 800 years old) which has a very villagesque feel to it, and a similarly rural-feeling graveyard and cemetery which (not to sound too morbid…) I quite often go and sit in. Had my lunch there today, actually. It’s one of my favourite places in Oxford.

Anyway – the area around St. Cross is now almost entirely offices and businesses, with very few residential properties, and the congregation for the church had shrunk to the point where double figures for a service was an achievement. But despite, or perhaps because, of this, it has the warmest welcome and friendliest congregation of any church I’ve ever been to – it was a very difficult decision when I moved to the larger, more student-orientated, much less attractive Oxford Community Church, but even with two years’ absence I welled up during the farewell service. It was lovely to see fifty people there, saying goodbye – and, as the vicar pointed out, the church is not a building, it is a group of people. Even so, as the small attendance numbers made the running of St. Cross unfeasible and expensive, it was sad to think that people have been meeting there to worship God for centuries, and that was coming to an end. Its next incarnation (if plans go ahead) will be as an archival space and reading room for Balliol College – who will restore the chancel and do much-needed work throughout the church.

As I sat there, I thought of all the people who had encountered Jesus and praised God in that room, some perhaps for the first time, some spending their whole lives attending St. Cross, and I was pleased that I could join them all in a long line of people who have loved St. Cross Church.

Quick question for UK-readers of this blog who might be more culturally-minded than I am… any idea how you find out about who’s doing what in the theatre? Obviously I can find the ‘what’s on’ sections on theatre’s individual websites, and there are mountains of sites advertising tickets for the perpetual musicals, but where do I find out what Felicity Kendal and Penelope Wilton and Jennifer Ehle are up to? How does one know? Nothing like imdb.com for theatre, is there?

And now I’m going to wander into filmic territory, which is something of an unusual move for this book-orientated blog. I did wander through all my literary films back in the early days of this blog, but the one I wanted to mention tonight doesn’t even come under that category – except that I came to it by route of Pride and Prejudice. More particularly, the sublime Jennifer Ehle and her unmatchable portrayal of Elizabeth Bennet – since that day I have been keeping my eye out for Jennifer Ehle’s other roles. There haven’t been many. And when they exist, she tends to get shunted to a minor role (for example, the upcoming film Pride and Glory). BUT there is a gem, one which gives Jennifer Ehle a lead role, and which is beautiful and thoughtful and delicately touching. And that film is Alpha Male.

Yes, I know. It sounds like it’s about stock-car racing, but I promise it’s not. Jennifer Ehle plays Alice, mother of Jack and Elyssa, and newly widowed. The film plays out between her first marriage and her second relationship, several years later as Jack turns 21, moving back and forth between these time periods (you do have to rather rely on Ehle’s hairstyle to work out which time period you’re watching, as Danny Huston and Patrick Valli look incredibly similar). Neither child reacts well to the changes – Elyssa gently sinking into a hallucinatory illness and Jack estranging himself from the family he blames – but it is Ehle’s sophisticated, reserved, bereaved and slightly helpless Alice who stands out. Jennifer Ehle could act a three act play with just her eyes, which are endlessly expressive, and Alpha Male gives her the scope to do more or less that – though apparently there was an even better director’s cut. The DVD I have was supposedly altered in an attempt to make it ‘more commercial’ – which I imagine failed. Not much plot happens here, it is rather about beautiful cinemtography, refined, sensitive performances and an undefinable atmospheric quality. Only one other person I know has seen this film, and she found it quite dull (be warned, I might be alone!) – it’s not packed with action, but it is one of the best films I’ve seen in the last few years. And anything with Jennifer Ehle at the helm can’t be bad, now, can it?

Once, in our GCSE English class, we did a Weakest Link style game. My question was ‘Who wrote The Time Machine’, and I said George Orwell, and felt rather stupid. The same thing happened tonight at the latest drinks to welcome English Masters students…

Well, not quite the same thing, obviously. But an eminent and doubtless redoubtable fellow of St John’s College was asking me about my dissertation topic, and I mentioned middlebrow domestic literature and got the customary recoil – but it got worse when I started talking about the use of the word ‘middlebrow’, saying that George Orwell coined the term, but Virginia Woolf refined it. Perfectly possible, I suppose, since he was born 38 years before she died. But, of course, I had made the same mistake again, and meant H.G. Wells. And then felt very stupid while the said eminent and doubtless redoubtable fellow laughed at me and started talking to someone else…

What made matters WORSE was that I was standing next to a group which included Hermione Lee, and very much wanted to go and say hello, but didn’t want to be rude… and then she left quite early. I do hope I have the chance to see her later in the year…

Also amusing quite how many of the English doctorate students recognised me from my days behind the desk in the Bodleian.

So! Another day in the world of a new Oxford graduate. Another drinks party next Monday… Please make me feel better by sharing any similar incidents from your lives.

First things first, your guesses on my book total have left me feeling quite inadequately stocked! Peter was closest with his guess – the actual total is 1347. To put that in perspective, it’s rather more than one a week since I was born. Eeps.

I’ve spent large chunks of today embroiled in Edward Said’s Orientalism… gosh.

Don’t know what to write about it, as it’s not going to be the sort of thing I’d read for pleasure, though perhaps I underestimate the stamina of my blog readers – perhaps theoretical history is your bedtime reading. All fairly interesting – the history of Orientalism as an acedemic pursuit, as a Western colonial concept, and as an Eastern voice. Lots of springboard topics for my Literature of Empire and Nation module, but also set for Week 1 of the core course for my Masters. Which apparently will look at the differences between modernity and Modernism, as well as at colonialism and so forth – seems quite a lot to handle in a two hour session, so will keep you posted. The modernity/modernism has some interesting avenues into the middlebrow area which interests me so much, and how this enormous section of literature can be studied to nuance an understanding of the period, rather than seeing it just as High Modernism.

Speaking of which, it won’t be very long before I have to start thinking about my Doctorate Application… gosh. In fact, I’ll have to submit my proposal before I’ve started my Masters dissertation… which seems quite silly, but there you go. Not reasoning why, and so forth. But I’m sure you’ll all come along for the ride (!)

I spent today getting reacquainted with the English Faculty, and having all sorts of talks about the faculty in general and my course in particular. All the people on the course (well, those I got to speak to) seem really nice, and I think we’ll get along. As before, I am hopelessly outnumbered by women (14 girls; 4 boys) and rather outnumbered as an Englishman too.

Somehow I managed to volunteer myself to open a class on Theatre and Revolution, but also managed to snare Katherine Mansfield in the Literatures of Empire and Nation 1880-1930 module. We each had to pick one or two authors from the list to open a discussion about, and whilst I could have coped with Anand or Schreiner, both mentioned here recently I think, it is Katherine Mansfield whom I’ve loved for some years now. In fact, I was the only person in Oxford to write about her in my first year, according to the examiners’ report…

So. My reading will now take a swerve away from primary and fun novels and the like, into secondary. Might be rather more prosaic, but perhaps a few gems to share with you nonetheless. Tomorrow’s tomes are both by Edward Said – Orientalism and Culture and Imperialism. I’ll have to get over my dislike of Said, which is based entirely on the fact that he (I daresay inadvertently) started the silliest and least rational school of Jane Austen criticism. But I imagine he has rather more pertinent things to say about the texts for this term… (for the full list, see this post). And I have about five weeks to think about my coursework topic here… I’m thinking something about visiting… outstaying welcome… visiting vs. occupying… visitors without hosts… I just think the concept of visitors and visiting could be fruitful. I’ll keep you posted…