Northanger Abbey

Upon reflection, I realized I haven't written about Northanger Abbey and how much I thoroughly enjoyed Jane Austen's first written novel, thought it was published after she died in 1817 alongside Persuasion.

Catherine Morland was not born to be a heroine. That is how Jane Austen starts it. She isn't particularly pretty. She isn't super accomplished. As she grew, she started to love novels and reading. But being born out in the country, she didn't have much in the way of possible social interactions which is what a young girl in her station needed in order to find a good husband to marry. So, joining a family friend in Bath in hopes of finding that social interaction, she runs into a boy--well, man--who seems shrouded in supernatural mystery. Or maybe she's reading too much into his family secrets. Mr. Tilney isn't the only one looking to become better acquainted with the somewhat naive Miss. Morland as well. Love and potential Gothic encounters are in the air. Or maybe she's reading too much into all interactions.

This is one of my favorite Jane Austen books, so much so that I wrote my under-graduate thesis on it in college. Jane has her satirical fingers all over this book as she's poking fun of the Gothic novels that were circulating around her in her teenage years, when she started to write. Catherine reads these types of books and when presented with Northanger Abbey, which is Mr. Tilney's family home, she can't help but imagine secret passageways, diabolical schemes, ghosts, even vampires that reside behind each fluttering curtain. Jane Austen was critiquing The Monk, The Castle of Otranto, The Mysteries of Uldolpho (which she names specifically) and many others (none of which I've read). She pokes fun of them all because, in her opinion, they are kind of ridiculous.

I love the fact that Catherine isn't really the heroine of her own story. It says she is and it is her story but she doesn't save the day, she didn't solve a mystery (maybe I could give that one to her, but I probably wouldn't), she wasn't taken captive by a roving spirit where Mr. Tilney had to come and save her from a fire that the ghost started. No fainting spells, no vampires, no vindictive vendettas she needed to evade, or whatever. In part, she nearly lost it all because her imagination was wild and got the better of her.

Catherine and the rest of the characters are fun. Jane Austen is really good at making her characters human and realistic. Even though her writing style is older it works and stands well against time. Honestly, not many can do that well. They are human with fault and problems, with family who are sometimes the problem, with tempers, and schemes for marriages, for wealth, for love, for stability and survival. Jane Austen took the situations, and sometimes the people, around her and gave them to us to see. One could say she gave a big portion of the truth of Society to Society. (It kind of make me think of The Help by Kathryn Stockett. Such a great book.)

I think the biggest hang up that people have for this is the older writing style of Jane Austen's books. Modern minds have to take a second and slow down to actually think about what is being said instead of having the language be as simple as it is today. It's like they have to adjust their eyes and minds to the colorful words.

Herding Cats

Herding Cats is a from the "Sarah's Scribbles" collection, a comic series online that I find very funny. Her other books Adulthood is a Myth and Big Mushy Happy Lump and their reviews can be found here. I enjoyed them very much.

Much like her other books, these are full of one page comics about life. Sarah Andersen, I would assume, is an introvert and draws comics about her life as a human being. To me, many of her comics are relatible, not wanting to go outside, introverted-ness, artsy/creative-ish, a love of animals, slightly afraid of other people's children, etc. They are humorous and shed light on topics that are every day for her/us that others might just not get. I find them very accurate.

The particular thing I like about her books though is the writing at the end. In this book, she talks about drawing on the internet and how the internet has changed since she first started her career. She gives advice for young artists, but not only those who use paints or pen tablets. All artists, writers, and creators of any sort who are trying their craft will probably go through the things she discussing, I know I have. Your old stuff is probably crap and that's okay, knowing when to take it to heart and when to throw it in the trash, remember your human and feel things while taking criticism can be hard, you can get away from the interwebs and go outside to hear yourself think instead of getting bombarded by others opinions (that is probably healthy for everyone), and as always "Never give up. Never surrender" (from Galaxy Quest, not Sarah's Scribbles. Check it out anyway; it's a great movie.) keep going, you are doing great and always getting better. Sarah Anderson says more things, but these, I feel, are important.

I just really like her comics and hope she continues drawing.

Stitches

Stitches: A Memoir is a graphic novel of David Small and his time growing up, his hardships growing up.

David Small is a Caldecott Award winner for his illustrations for The Gardener, one of my favorite picture books while I was growing up. Everyone should read and enjoy it. He has gotten many other awards for the work that he has done over his 73 years.

Stitches begins with his experiences in hospitals. His father was a radiologist and his mother always seemed to be cranky. He was often sick as a child and because his father worked in the radiology department, he was able to have x-rays done to see what the problem was. As the years went on, as he grew alongside his brother, he found he had a growth on his neck. It grew until his family was finally able to do the surgery. However when he woke up, he found he was unable to speak. The surgeons cut out his thyroid and half of his vocal cords. As, again, years passed he was able to gain a raspy whisper, but his voice, of course, was never the same. He found solace in drawing and later illustrating children's books.

There is far more to the story than simply his voice, though it is a major part. But there are trials when it comes to the crazies of families. Deciding whether or not to continue on in family traditions and conditions or not. His story makes me even more grateful for my own mother. The way he drew his mother and grandmother reminds me of one of my grandmothers, not the temperament but the style. The round glasses and uppy hair. But the way he drew her instantly made her instantly one of those scary old ladies that I was afraid of when I was little. So to have her as a mom, I'd be almost scared my whole life.

I very much enjoyed the book. Very well done.

Letters to a Young Poet

Ten simple letters with quite a bit of wisdom behind them. This is one of the few books that I would here. Please read it.
want to keep sticky notes in so then I could refer back to them later. The whole text can be found online

Rainer Maria Rilke was a poet in the early 20th Century who wrote letters to a fellow poet who went to the same military school he had--though a few years different.

There are many things that happen throughout the course of these letters. They are in response to an inquiry of critique on poetry. We only get one side of the letters, but they are full of inspiration, not only for writers (young and more experienced) but in almost any avenues of life. He asks his reader to look into himself and ask "Must I write?" You can ask yourself, "Must I ______ <insert what you most enjoy doing--reading, math, accounting, look at the stars, etc>?" When faced with that question myself, I found that I didn't need to write. It wasn't a must. Reading, devouring knowledge, is what I must. (This blog has helped that, which is awesome especially considering how much I disliked reading when I was little.) But you can ask yourself, what must you do?

There are many other things which Rilke discusses with his pen pal. Not only suggested books that he says has wisdom in them, but he discusses critiques (not to read them), solitude, the passion of writing, taking on anxieties and sadness, taking on what is difficult whilst in sadness, that your doubts can be a "good quality if you school them."

It seems Mr. Kappas, the pen pal to which Rilke is writing, had some dramatic changes in his life that kept him depressed and Rilke was one of the people who tried to assist and give advice as to how to overcome them. His advice was profound and from what I've been able to see in my own life, very accurate.

Some of my favorite quotes are these:

"The only sorrows which are harmful and bad are those one takes among people in order to drown them out."

"You shouldn't be dismayed if a sadness rises up in front of your, greater than any you have ever seen before; ...Why should you want to exclude from your life all unsettling, all pain, all depression of spirit, when you don't know what work it is these states are performing within you? ... You know well you are in a period of transformation and want nothing more than to be transformed. ... You must be patient as an invalid and trusting as a convalescent, for you are perhaps both. And more than that: you are also the doctor responsible for looking after himself. But with all illnesses there are many days when the doctor can do nothing but wait. And inasfar as you are your own doctor, this is above all is what you must do now."

"And your doubts can become a good quality if you school them. They must grow to be knowledgeable, they must learn to be critical. As soon as they begin to spoil something for you ask them why a thing is ugly, demand hard evidence, test them, and you will perhaps find them at a loss and short of an answer, or perhaps mutinous. But do not give in, request arguments, and act with this kind of attentiveness and consistency every single time, and the day will come when instead of behind demolishers they will be among your best workers--perhaps of all those at work on the building of your life."