Classics Club

I’m a moody reader.  I read a variety of books, at different levels, in different genres.  Because of this, I don’t join challenges.  If I feel forced to read a book, I’ll avoid it and continue to avoid it, until I grudgingly pick it up.  Joining the Classics Club, however, has been something I’ve thought about for a while.  I wasn’t sure about joining because of the pertinent question: what constitutes a classic?  I follow several bloggers who are part of the Classics Club and after reading their reviews, I think I have a good idea of what the Club considers classic.

My list consists of “Modern Classics” and “Old Classics”.  There are some genre books, some short stories, some children’s books and some poetry.  There are even a couple books that can be debated about whether they are actually classics.  There will be a few re-reads, but it will be mostly new.  These are all books I already own.  On the Classics Club website, they describe the list we submit as a living list.  While I’ve put 60 titles on this list (to make it a little more challenging, since I'm including children’s stories, short stories and novellas), I’m not guaranteeing that I’ll read all these particular books.  Like I mentioned previously, I’m a moody reader.  If I can’t finish something or another classic catches my fancy, I’ll change the list.  The only thing I plan on guaranteeing is that I’ll finish this list in five years - January 3, 2018 (I'll be so old!).

In alphabetical order, 60 classics I plan on reading by January 3, 2018:

1. Stories from Hans Christian Andersen, by Hans Christian Andersen

2. The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood

3. Alias Grace, by Margaret Atwood

4. The Big and The Little, by Isaac Asimov

5. Emma, by Jane Austen

6. Lady Susan, by Jane Austen

7. Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen

8. Northhanger Abbey, by Jane Austen

9. The Watsons, by Jane Austen

10. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum

11. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, by Anne Brontë

12. Villette, by Charlotte Brontë

13. Sonnets from the Portuguese, by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

14. Alice in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll

15. Appointment with Death, by Agatha Christie

16. Lyrical Ballads, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth

17. The Woman in White, by Wilkie Collins

18. Discourse on Method, by Rene Descartes

19. A Tale of Two Cities, by Dickens

20. Little Dorrit, by Charles Dickens

21. A Selection of Poems (1. Life), by Emily Dickinson

22. Sherlock Holmes #1: A Study In Scarlett, by Arthur Conan Doyle

23. Sherlock Holmes #2: The Sign of Four, by Arthur Conan Doyle

24. Medea, by Euripides

25. Middlemarch, by George Eliot

26. Grimm's Fairy Stories, by Jacob Grimm & Wilhelm Grimm

27. Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston

28. Daisy Miller, by Henry James

29. The Wings of the Dove, by Henry James

30. The Stone Angel, by Margaret Laurence

31. The Man Who Loved Islands, by D.H. Lawrence

32. Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller

33. Anne of Green Gables, by L.M. Montgomery

34. Anne of Avonlea, by L.M. Montgomery

35. Anne of the Island, by L.M. Montgomery

36. Anne of the Windy Poplars, by L.M. Montgomery

37. Anne’s House of Dreams, by L.M. Montgomery

38. Anne of Ingleside, by L.M. Montgomery

39. Rainbow Valley, by L.M. Montgomery

40. Rilla of Ingleside, by L.M. Montgomery

41. Lives of Girls and Women, by Alice Munro

42. Animal Farm, by George Orwell

43. Lady Lazarus, by Sylvia Plath

44. The Raven, by Edgar Allan Poe

45. The Tale of Peter Rabbit, by Beatrix Potter

46. The Cat In The Hat, by Dr. Seuss

47. Macbeth, by William Shakespeare

48. Queen Mab/The Daemon of the World, by Percy Bysshe Shelley

49. Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson

50. Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker

51. Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy

52. Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain

53. From the Earth to the Moon, by Jules Verne

54. The Weapons Shop, by A.E. van Vogt

55. The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells

56. Under The Knife, by H.G. Wells

57. The Velveteen Rabbit, by Margery Williams

58. Kew Gardens, by Virginia Woolf

59. Solid Objects, by Virginia Woolf

60. The Waves, by Virginia Woolf

I will have a page listing each of these books, with links to reviews once I finish them.

*SIDE NOTE: I’ve been considering creating some reading projects for myself.  For example, I want to read every Margaret Atwood and Stephen King book.  I also want to read more Canadian authors and more immigrant literature.  Should I create these self-imposed projects, or will my moodiness negate my success?  Thoughts?

Buffy The Vampire Slayer And Philosophy: Fear And Trembling in Sunnydale

I’ve been slowly moving through a Philosophy and Pop Culture series from Open Court Publishing. The series of books take different pop culture phenomenon and apply philosophical thoughts to it. You can find books on The Simpsons, Harry Potter, Transformers and many more. Some choices, like The Matrix I can understand its philosophical aspects. Others, like iPod, I don’t. Either way, I can definitely see myself reading many more of these books.

I really enjoyed Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Philosophy. I was a pretty big fan of Buffy The Vampire Slayer throughout high school and university. Since I’m also a fan of philosophy, when I saw the two combined, I couldn’t resist. BtVS and Philosophy was an interesting read. The various philosophers applied the philosophical thoughts of Plato, Aristotle and Kant to Buffy and her life. They discussed Morality, Ethics and Religion. Some of it was brilliant, some of it was far-fetched.

One thing that put me off the book a few times was the repetition. Almost all of the authors thought it necessary to discuss season 4 and “The Initiative”. “The Initiative” was a government run elite group of soldiers trained to fight demons. These young men weren’t like Buffy and her mystery solving friends. In contrast, they were the follow orders, shoot first types. I can see why this season would be so appealing to discuss when dealing with issues like Morality and Ethics. After a while though, I had to take a break from the book when I felt like “The Initiative” was all anyone could talk about.

Once I got to the last section of the book, my enjoyment of it returned. The last three essays were fantastic. I couldn’t wait to discover what these authors had to say. The choice of the final essay was interesting. I felt like it was inflammatory to those who read the entire collection of Buffy essays and appreciated them. It ran opposite to what pretty much all of the other authors were saying. It was almost like it was trying to undo everything. I enjoyed that I could hate it. Of the entire collection, I really enjoyed the first few essays and the final few. It was the repetition of the middle that became frustrating. Of course, because this is a collection, you don’t have to read all of them or read them in order. Skip the ones you don’t like and move on the exciting ones.

Foucault's Pendulum

I heard so much about Umberto Eco’sFoucault’s Pendulum over my academic years, when the opportunity arose to read it, I couldn’t wait. I found it rich with philosophy, supposition and dark creativity. I also found it very long. It has taken me 8 weeks to read the entire novel, versus my usual 1-2. It was a long search though Templars, Rosicrucians and Assassins to find the end; to find the meaning behind the story.

Foucault Pendulum in Paris

I’m not even sure if I’ve done that. What is the meaning behind Foucault’s Pendulum and the journey the characters take? Why is the Pendulum so important to the Plan they create? Maybe if I understood Gnosticism, Sephirot and Hermetism, I would understand more of this novel. Maybe.

Really, what I want to say is that this book is fucked. It’s brilliant and crazy and wonderful. I absolutely have to read it again. Not just because it was good, but because I’m sure I’ve missed things. It will be like a film you see for the second time and notice all sorts of new things. I’m not sure I was fully ready to read Umberto Eco’s great work. Or perhaps I was only ready to read it for the first time.

Image Via Wikimedia Commons

1984

George Orwell's 1984 is an absolutely powerful novel. It is a real vision of the future; conceivably plausible. This future can be imagined even now, 58 years after it was written. It is a horror that exists somewhere in the minds of those who've read 1984.

I hoped for rebellion. I hoped for change. I hoped for some sign that the future maybe better. Winston said repeatedly that the hope was in the proles. I kept thinking that somewhere in the story, there would be a sign that one day, his hope would be fulfilled. If you take the appendix as part of the narrative, then you can infer that Winston’s hope was realized and the world of Ingsoc and Oceania is part of the past. If you don’t, well, there is no hope for the world of 1984

Winston’s “discussion” with O’Brien is fascinating. There is a real argument regarding the nature of reality. I’m surprised this novel never came up in one of my philosophy classes. Winston clings to solipsism, the idea that if nothing else exists, your mind exists (someone correct me if I’m wrong.) “My mind is the only thing that I know exists.” It is very closely related to Descartes’ “I think therefore I am.” But after beatings and torture, Winston loses his grip on this belief and doubts his mind. If you can’t be sure of the existence of your own mind, how can you be sure of anything else?

Stranger Than Fiction

Stranger Than Fiction was so existential. It was like Descartes’s evil demon. But you eventually could hear the evil demon narrating your life. You knew things were happening to you because of the evil demon. You decide to search for the evil demon. When you find her, you realize, this demon is not evil. She’s just a writer trying to tell a story.

There’s also an essence of determinism/pre-determinism here. How many choices are your own? How many have been decided for you? Does free-will play a factor in Harold Krick’s story? Could he have changed his story if he wanted to? We could even talk about cause and effect. Harold’s appearance to Karen certainly caused her to make a change. The narrator’s voice caused Harold to change his behaviours. There is just so much to think about with this film…