15 - Harry Potter Should Have Died

Harry Potter Should Have Died by Emerson Spartz and Ben Schoen
Ulysses Press, 2009
205 pages
Date completed: November 22, 2009


So someone got this for me as a fun thing, because I have been so into rereading Harry Potter this term (often foregoing sleep and homework to do so). And while it was definitely a fun and interesting little read, several things about it bothered me.

The format of the book was that it addressed specific questions about the series. Some were serious, some were funny. For example: "Which character is most surprising?" Underneath the question, different opinions were addressed in long format (possible choices: Barty Crouch, Jr., Severus Snape, Draco Malfoy, Narcissa Malfoy, Dudley Dursley) and at the end there was a verdict (Barty Crouch, Jr.).

So it seemed, like I said above, like a fun, light read for pure entertainment. For the most part, it fulfilled my expectations in that respect. However, a lot bothered me in terms of the book's approach to the arguments.

It was often hard for me to choose one argument over another because of the way the authors formulated the arguments. In almost every single instance, defending one opinion meant completely dissing and putting down the opposing opinion, which I totally disagree with! The point of these questions seemed to be that it was very difficult to choose between answers, and the authors often paid absolutely no respect to any other side of the argument in their defense of one side. This often resulted in sentences that made absolutely no sense and were completely incorrect.

One aspect that bothered me was probably when the authors discussed whether the Harry Potter books should be considered among the classics of literature. The opposing argument was ok (though I don't really buy the statement that "Harry is an orphan, which is a cliche of children's stories. That proves that there are no new plots in the world, but tugging at the heartstrings is a great way to sell books" (Spartz & Schoen, 2009). Uh, okay? So just because some books have orphans in them means that there is no originality in the rest of the book?). But the argument that said the HP books should be classics made me want to claw my eyes out. Instead of proving valid points, it went on for two and a half pages attempting to relate Harry Potter to any classic it could possibly think of. It's a coming-of-age story? Oh, so it MUST be just like Tom Sawyer and Anne of Green Gables! Tom Riddle was raised in an orphanage? Must be David Copperfield all over again! Snape somehow resembles The Little Prince?! Purebloods "arrange" marriages (though there is no evidence of this, just that they CHOOSE to marry into other pureblood families), so they must be like the families in Pride and Prejudice! Honestly? I mean, seriously? A classic doesn't become a classic because it has elements of other classics embedded within. And all of those things listed above could have been found in about a million other books that AREN'T "classics" as well.

As an avid HP fan, I really don't think this book did the issues within the series any justice. There were no gray areas; the authors merely tried to sort the issues into black and white, which is not always possible. It didn't work for them. I'm sure it would have satisfied little teeny-boppers who don't delve deeper into these issues, but I was a little disappointed. Yeah, it was ok. Yeah, it was pretty entertaining at times. No, I don't really think it was successful. Especially when the authors made the arguments sound like little kids on a playground. "You're wrong because I'm right!" "No, YOU'RE wrong!" Ugh.

14 - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
Vintage, 2003
226 pages
Date completed: November 21, 2009


So much of this book made me feel for the narrator. Christopher is an autistic boy who strikes out to write a mystery novel about a dog who was killed in his neighborhood. However, in the process, his world just becomes more and more complex and saddening; often Christopher himself finds it overwhelming.

This was such a good insight into the mind of an autistic child. When I did fieldwork in a first-grade classroom there was a child similar to Christopher, though obviously much younger. But that was another reason I felt drawn to the story.

At first, it took awhile for me to really get into this book. I thought the beginning was all right, but I wasn't captivated until a bit farther on, when the plot starts to pick up. Though Christopher's insights were truly interesting, I needed something else to keep me into it. But this is one of the few books that actually caused me to gasp out loud-- more than once!-- and also was one of the few lately that I got so lost in that I was honestly surprised to see that it two hours had passed by the time I finished it.

So overall...an insightful, captivating book that drew me in and became a very, very quick read. It probably took me three hours total. But like I said, it made me react physically, which I don't usually do. Occasionally I giggle at things in books, and I've cried once or twice, but I usually keep the story confined in my head and don't outwardly react. Read it.

13 - The Blithedale Romance

The Blithedale Romance by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Norton, 1978
418 pages (228)
Date completed: November 18, 2009


So this wasn't one of my favorite books, but it had its redeeming qualities. Basically my favorite part was that there's a very strong female character, Zenobia. Besides that...well, there's a lot that bothers me.

First of all, the narrator, Coverdale, is an absolute creeper. He practically wets himself at the opportunity to hide and observe other people. He has this special tree in the woods that he calls his "hermitage" and he hangs out in it and watches the other people who live on Blithedale farm, and they have no idea that he's watching. At another point, he hides in his hotel room and stares out the window at his friends in another room; then he hides behind a tree in the forest outside where other characters are having a bonfire so he can watch them. Creepiest of all, though, is when at one point he wishes he could just arrive at the farm unbeknownst to everyone else and watch them through the windows from outside.

So yeah. The narrator is, among other things, basically a sneaky stalker. He doesn't ever form real relationships with other characters because he's always judging them and imposing his own idea of their personality on them.

The other character who bothered me a great deal was Priscilla, Zenobia's long-lost sister who is always likened to a "leaf" or an "airy breeze" or something. Basically, she shows up at Blithedale and throws herself prostrate at her sister's feet, gazing up at her in admiration until it makes everyone else sick. She won't talk, she won't defend herself, she just worships everyone and acts like a little mouse. If she does anything at all, it's always something domestic-- particularly sitting off in a corner and making little purses. And of course, Coverdale the idiot makes stupid observations, the most insane being that he believes that Priscilla will grow up to be a fine young woman because she is so capable of sublimating herself. Uh, ack.

So there isn't much to redeem this novel for me...I think Hawthorne is mocking the idea of a bunch of upper-class people getting together and starting a utopian society for fun. It's impossible t0 be utopian--everyone on the farm is pushing his or her own agenda. Therefore it's satirizing the transcendentalist movement. Also, Zenobia is supposed to represent Margaret Fuller, which I thought was pretty cool. Fuller was also a strong female. Creepy though that Hawthorne has Zenobia meet the same watery end as Fuller did in real life.

Overall, I'm pretty glad to be done with this one.

12 - The Tales of Beedle the Bard

The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling
Arthur A. Levine, 2008
111 pages
Date completed: November 17, 2009


I could hardly dislike anything from the Harry Potter series, so therefore, it's safe to assume that I enjoyed this little collection of wizarding tales. Much like fairy tales in the "Muggle" world, these stories are the ones told to children before bedtime in the wizarding world.

Because I just finished rereading the entire Harry Potter series, this was a great way to end it. One of these tales plays a huge role in Deathly Hallows, so it was nice to be able to reread it and also read commentary from the perspective of Albus Dumbledore.

It's kind of a sad moment for me, though. I am now completely done with the Harry Potter books, which I first started reading at the age of 11 (the very same age at which Harry Potter receives his letter from Hogwarts). It's been such an amazing experience growing up with Harry, and now I've finally closed the final final book. I never read Beedle when it was first published because I had already basically forgotten the plot of the Deathly Hallows by the time of Beedle's release, so I wanted to wait to reread it. So it's been sitting on my bookshelf for eleven lonely months, but at last it's finished. Not to be melodramatic. I'll never get too old for Harry Potter.

11 - Wide Sargasso Sea

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
Norton, 1982
171 pages

Date completed: November 16, 2009


What really spoke to me about this book was that it addressed something that I was aware of, but hadn't really given much thought to: the concept of unhomeliness. Rather than try to explain it, I'll relate it to the book: the narrator, Antoinette, was born and raised in Jamaica. She is white, and therefore she and her family have never been accepted by the indigenous people of Jamaica because whites on the island have always dominated the native people. On the other hand, Antoinette is also not accepted in British culture because of her humble beginnings and the fact that her ideas and culture are so different. Therefore, she has no true home and is suspended instead between two worlds, which is fascinating and heartbreaking.

This reimagining of the story of Antoinette (also known as Bertha, the "mad woman in the attic" from Jane Eyre) is very powerful. It's so interesting to see an explanation for why Antoinette might have gone mad, rather than just distancing her and seeing her as that crazy woman who is locked away. It also made me want to reread Jane Eyre through a new lens. There is a great emphasis upon cultural relativism and the fact that to the English in the early 19th century, people of other cultures were considered "savage." Despite the fact that Antoinette looks just like the English, her background is still capable of tainting her in the eyes of the British.

It was also interesting that not only is Antoinette suspended between two cultures, but she is also suspended between two different personas in Rochester's perspective. He is lustfully drawn to her beauty, but at the same time he hates her and is repulsed by her connotations with "barbaric" raw nature. The oppositions set up throughout the novel were excellent.

Overall, it was a really quick read that I enjoyed delving into. Parts of it didn't make a lot of sense to me at first, but I think upon a second reading (which I'll have to do before I write a paper about it), I'll be able to smooth out my misunderstanding.

10 - The Fall of the House of Usher

"The Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar Allan Poe
Book Sales, 2004
842 pages (14)
Date completed: November 7, 2009


I won't write too much about this, because technically it's a short story. But the 1001 books to read before you die list counts it as a book, and so do I! haha.

This is one of the less creepy Poe stories I've read. The narrator seems pretty reliable, too, compared to other Poe narrators. It was packed with the usual creepy elements-- the house with windows that looked like vacant eyes, the stormy nights, the tortured souls within, and of course the fact that the Usher woman is buried alive and then comes out of the crypt to die on top of her brother.

So yeah. Creepy. The house is alive, the brother and sister are incestuous (as depicted by the way they die), and the title is both literal and figurative. There is a very quick sketch of what I got out of it.

9 - Written on the Body

Written on the Body by Jeanette Winterson
Vintage, 1992
190 pages
Date completed: November 5, 2009

Wow, this novel was absolutely captivating. Every single page was chocked full of lines and passages that I'd love to underline (except that then the whole novel would be underlined). So much insight and passion packed into so few pages.

So the narrator of this novel is androgynous and bisexual. How interesting. At times I felt myself needing to categorize the narrator: I often read her as female, although the text itself is careful never to give ANY indication of the narrator's sex. What does that say about me and the way I've been taught to read? Why do I feel the need to categorize the narrator? In life things aren't certain. A person's sex can be fluid in a way. But this narrator spoke to me, and he or she definitely seemed female when I was reading. Maybe that's because I'm female. Maybe it's because I know that Jeanette Winterson is a lesbian. Maybe it's because the language was so subtle that it used more feminine word choice and I didn't even notice. So forgive me if I accidentally refer to the narrator as a female...I'll try to stick with "he or she" although it pains me to do so. I just finished the novel and I'm feeling really attached to the narrator at the moment.

So here we have a novel of the deepest love and the deepest loss. A lot of the novel feels like one long love letter (but not in a corny way at all-- in the most genuine way I've ever seen in a text). This passage about death tugged at my heartstrings the most, though. It's about letting a mortician prepare your loved one's body for burial:

"What would you do? Pass the body into the hands of strangers? The body that has lain beside you in sickness and in health. The body your arms still long for dead or not. You were intimate with every muscle, privy to the eyelids moving in sleep. This is the body where your name is written, passing into the hands of strangers."

Winterson is a fabulous author. This is the second book I've read by her, and it's just as powerful as the first. When this challenge is over I'll definitely be seeking out more of her novels. Wow.

8 - Walden

Walden by Henry David Thoreau
Norton, 2008
672 pages (224)
Date completed: November 2, 2009

In a series of meticulous observations, Thoreau chronicles his years living alone in the forest on the shore of Walden Pond. I found the whole premise of this interesting...although I value my alone time, I could never build myself a home and live there alone for years. However, it's more interesting that Thoreau himself continually claims that he didn't do this to get away from people. In fact, he says exactly the opposite: he loves company, whether in the form of humans or animals.

So Thoreau is basically pretty badass. How many people do you know who are comfortable enough in their own skins to just go off and live by themselves for 2 years? And on top of it, he doesn't develop any bitterness toward the rest of humanity and doesn't preach against society.

This isn't to say that Thoreau doesn't have plenty of radical individualistic views. He is also vehemently opposed to the accumulation of material possessions (which is a great premise, but is practically impossible to relate to in this country and century. If he could resurrect himself and just walk into my (or any) dorm room, I'm pretty sure he'd be shellshocked). I really like a lot of his ideas because they're thoughtful and insightful and meant (at least on some level) to improve society as a whole.

What I love most about Thoreau, however, is his complete loyalty to his own beliefs. This crops up in his essay "Civil Disobedience" quite frequently, and to me, it's what makes Thoreau COMPLETELY outstrip Emerson when it comes to transcendentalism. Sure, Emerson's ideas were more complex at times. But Thoreau believes that if you don't like your government, then you shouldn't support it. So what does he do? He refuses to pay his poll tax, gets thrown into jail, and exalts in it! He's actually happy to be in jail because it means that he's in the society of others who are anti-government. Whereas Emerson preaches about solitude yet is this social butterfly in Concord (cough. hypocrite!), Thoreau actually practices what he preaches. So yeah.

To sum this all up...the ending of Walden makes it even more amazing. Basically, Thoreau is like, "Ok, I'm done. I learned shit. Time to move on." He moves out of the forest simply because he has "several more lives to live" (p. 217). Not because he has a particular agenda, but because he wants to explore and live as fully as he possibly can. I adore the man.