I've been reading
This semester, I have been pleasantly surprised by books.
I'm not sure if you have had the same experience as I did growing up, but I lived in a small, hick town and went to a small, narrow-minded high school where philosophy and Advanced Placement classes were literally non-existent. As such, growing up I had little exposure to good books. Fortunately, I did manage to read some Camus, Hardy and Hemingway, but writers such as Dostoevsky, Sheila Watson, Kierkegaard, Flaubert - never heard of them.
What is more, some good writers that I had heard of - such as Margaret Atwood and J.D. Sallinger - were condemned as heretics because of their non-Conservative-Christian worldviews or because of "bad" content (ie. swearing or sex) in their books.
What began last year with my reading "Madame Bovary" has blossomed into "The Journals of Susanna Moodie," "Catcher in the Rye," "The Double Hook," and "Fifth Business."
And I love it.
"The Journals of Susanna Moodie," for example: excellent collection of poetry examining the struggle between culture and nature, as well as illuminating the struggle for survival as a foundational part of the Canadian identity.
So what if the author is an atheist?
The themes resonate. They reveal truth.
I think that's good literature.
I'm not sure if you have had the same experience as I did growing up, but I lived in a small, hick town and went to a small, narrow-minded high school where philosophy and Advanced Placement classes were literally non-existent. As such, growing up I had little exposure to good books. Fortunately, I did manage to read some Camus, Hardy and Hemingway, but writers such as Dostoevsky, Sheila Watson, Kierkegaard, Flaubert - never heard of them.
What is more, some good writers that I had heard of - such as Margaret Atwood and J.D. Sallinger - were condemned as heretics because of their non-Conservative-Christian worldviews or because of "bad" content (ie. swearing or sex) in their books.
What began last year with my reading "Madame Bovary" has blossomed into "The Journals of Susanna Moodie," "Catcher in the Rye," "The Double Hook," and "Fifth Business."
And I love it.
"The Journals of Susanna Moodie," for example: excellent collection of poetry examining the struggle between culture and nature, as well as illuminating the struggle for survival as a foundational part of the Canadian identity.
So what if the author is an atheist?
The themes resonate. They reveal truth.
I think that's good literature.
posted by kris @ 7:19 p.m.
3 Comments:
At 9:43 p.m., February 15, 2005,
mick said…
I agree!
At 12:44 p.m., February 18, 2005,
Anonymous said…
Sorry Kris I can't agree with anything you say... It's good, but you implied Hardy was a good writer and that just makes you automatically wrong. :P (Sorry, bad Grade 12 experience reading a 12 page description of lint or some other thing that I may get over one day)
Seriously though, good on you. Keep reading.
Drea: Are you sure you're dealing with Conservative Christians? Or just unintelligent Christians? They're not the same thing. Don't worry though, you're already writing heresy. /tease
At 9:11 p.m., February 18, 2005,
kris said…
andrew: have you read "The Mayor of Casterbridge" or some of his poetry ("The Darkling Thrush," for example).
It could change your mind :)
Comment on Drea: I think by Conservative-Christian, she means Closed-Minded-Christian. The two seem to go hand in hand a lot of the time.
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