Marian Firke: Off the Cuff

A Tale of Two Really Boring Cities

by Marian on November 6, 2011

[ED: I wrote this on the train coming back from Newark in mid-October, and then promptly lost in in the annals of my computer. I've already finished the next book and have moved on to other pastures!]

Well, the first of October came and went, and you didn’t hear from me. “Oh well,” you think. “I guess classic literature and a liberal arts education are just incompatible these days.” Ba-dum chhk.

Don’t worry. I haven’t abandoned my project. And I’m coming back today to tell you (gleefully!) that A Tale of Two Cities was, indeed, finished. More than a month ago! (I’ve been in Scotland visiting The Boy, so things like blog posts were less than a priority for me.)

I will admit that I was surprised by how difficult I found the book in comparison to Anna Karenina. After finishing something so long, I expected to fly through Tale and that just wasn’t the case. The combination of having few “normal” weekends and starting both school and work hit me hard in the month of September. (I think I was on campus one weekend the whole month.) Since my traditional free-time for things like reading always falls on weekends…well, it was a challenge! As for the book itself… I can’t say that it was my favorite. (If it had been, I would have torn through it as fast as I tore through the Tolstoy.)

A large part of my motivation for reading the book was this: I didn’t like Dickens before. But I had never read an entire Dickens. I decided that I could only make a judgment such as “I don’t like Dickens” if I had… you know… really tried reading Dickens. This is a pretty common rationale for reading a book–I’ve heard a lot of people say, “Well, I wanted to have an informed dislike for this author…” In retrospect, this was largely setting old Charlie up for a failure and a totally misguided way of deciding to read a great novel. But at least I can now say that I’ve read it, I suppose, as if I were sticking it onto a wooden plaque and hanging it over my fireplace.

And, although this might make you apprehensive about my moral compass, I far and away liked Mme. Defarge the best. Not that I would want to go out drinking with her, of course. She’s just much more interesting to read about than Lucie (who is quite possibly the second most boring character ever created, after Pollyanna) or, really, any of the male characters for that matter.

I’ve already started my next book and will hopefully be able to get back on track and finish it by the end of October finished my next book. While most people probably wouldn’t call it a “great classic,” I picked up a copy of Richard Dawkins’ The Selfish Gene in Scotland and was hooked immediately. I’m justifying the scientific intrusion by reminding myself of the book’s widespread influence and legacy for popular science writing. (Or I could just be geeking out about genetics.)

 

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Scientific Illiteracy and the Far Right

by Marian on September 15, 2011

Just a quick post today-bio test tomorrow! But if you haven’t yet read the New Yorker’s commentary on the Michele Bachmann HPV-vaccine foolishness, I highly recommend it. Although I’ve seen a growing stream of articles targeting the scientific illiteracy of most right-wing politicians, I think that this article does an excellent job of balancing public health needs, genuine concern for the position of science in contemporary politics, and the desire to write an article that is not entirely bitter in tone. (I have a lot of respect for people who can sound measured about this issue; the brevity of this post should be a signal that I get too worked up.)

Since when is ignorance anything but a barrier to human happiness and prosperity?

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Book-A-Month Update

by Marian on August 19, 2011

Hey friends!

Just wanted to give you a quick update about my goal to read 1 major book per month. You may be thinking, “Well, that’s strange, you started this less than a month ago.” But here I am. What gives?

I finished my first book, Anna Karenina, a full two weeks early. I found that the book was most enjoyable when I was able to concentrate on it deeply and for extended periods of time, and I knew that I wouldn’t be able to read it that way once I was back at college. So I finished it early–934 pages in 17 days. It may average out to only 54 pages per day, but that’s still 54 pages per day more than I read in July. ;-)

Having already finished such a major work, I feel very confident that I’ll be able to keep up with my challenge. But I was also reminded of something, as I worked my way through those pages.

We frequently encounter these kinds of books in our literature classes. We analyze them, we place them in historical and literary contexts, and we compare them to other works across subjects, eras, and regions. But rarely is there a place in that discussion for the appreciation of prose that is simply good. We become so absorbed by importance of a work that we forget how enjoyable it is to read good writing. We’re not missing the forest for the trees; we’re missing the trees for the forest! I’m really enjoying this chance to slow down, appreciate the pleasure of reading something crisp and lyrical and meaningful, and not having to supplement it with research unless I want to.

Next up: Lord of the Flies. (Contrast is good, right?)

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“Getting Around To” Classic Books

by Marian on July 24, 2011

C’mon. You know you’ve got one somewhere–a list of all of those “literary classics” that everyone is supposed to have read, but do not want to actually, well, read. I know I do.

Although it’s still only July, I can feel this summer beginning to wrap itself up already. I’m starting to have to think about packing, about classes and schedules, about move-in dates, about all those things that are not on my mind in the summer. (Summertime gives me a one-track mind. Nothing but ice cream.)

But the beginning of a new school year always fills me with so much hope, so much optimism. Yes, I will color-code my notes this year! Yes, I will maintain an elaborate system of file folders, tabs, bookmarks, organization. Yes, I will sleep eight hours a night and drink no more than sixteen ounces of coffee a day. Pfffffft.

And among these exciting plans I’m making for myself, I have a new one. It’s deceptively simple, but I know there will be a lot to it. Here it is: Tackle one of the books from that list, every month.

(No, books that I have to read for class don’t count.)

I’m already getting a jump on Anna Karenina, my choice for August. We’ll see how far this goes. I’m feeling optimistic, but isn’t there some expression about the best-laid plans of somebody-or-other? I guess I’ll have to keep this up to find out…

And in the meantime, feel free to comment with any suggestions you may have!

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Academic Technology and Research: Finding Print Sources

by Marian on March 30, 2011

I remember a lot of teachers in high school expressing frustration that the ease of internet searching made their students far less willing to find physical books to use as sources. What’s funny to me is that my favorite research strategy in college is one that uses search engines to find physical books in a way that card catalogs and Library of Congress subject headings NEVER can!

Two magic words: Google Books.

The capability to search inside millions of books allows you to find highly specialized, detailed references to topics which would never come up in a standard search of a collection.

Google books gets a bad rap because they don’t provide complete copies of all books–pages are often omitted, making them a poor choice for students who think they can get textbooks for free rather than buying print copies. I would agree that trying to squint at a truncated copy of a lit text is not the best use of this technology. What amazes me is how often I can find a text through Google Books that gives me a hit for my topic–whether that topic is cyborgs or Renaissance reliquaries–and how often those hits are books that my college library already owns. I can find the relevant pages and citations without having to scan, without checking the index–and then do the reading in the physical book itself.

Who says the internet has to drive us away from books?

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