dappled shade

I Capture the Castle

I fell head over heels in love with I Capture the Castle the first time I read it.

When I was a kid I used to fall in love with books all the time. I read and re-read A Little Princess (which is a painfully soppy book to read as an adult) and swallowed Down a Dark Hall in one day when I was 13.

Books have changed, though, or I have changed. Perhaps books written for adults can get away with being more intellectual and less entertaining (though the books I've read as an adult which are supposed to be just entertaining are generally fairly repulsive). Whatever the case, I don't really fall in love with books anymore.

I Capture the Castle is an exception, and, in truth, I'm not sure why. A large part of it is that it's so funny; it makes me laugh out loud. The heroine, Cassandra, is also very attractive and very believable.

Dodie Smith wrote this book in the '30s. I think what she wanted to do was to reference Jane Austen and the Brontes but have a modern setting that allows her characters to reject some of the assumptions and plot conclusions in the Austen/Bronte books. In one passage, the two sisters start to talk about whether it would be better to live in an Austen world with a bit of Bronte, or a Bronte world with a bit of Austen. Cassandra also refers to herself and her sister as "two Bronte-Austen girls, poor but spirited." In the end, though, Smith puts her own spin on things and doesn't follow the old, worn models.

This is a very clever book with a lot more going on in it than is apparent at a casual read. While I Capture the Castle is undoubtedly a bit dated, it is very entertaining and a book you can fall in love with.

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Marriage, a History

A friend lent me her copy of Marriage, a History with the advice "try not to throw it across the room."

In this non-fiction book, Stephanie Coontz reviews marriage with a strong emphasis on Western Europe and America, and does talk about the legal and social inequalities that have existed in marriage between men and women (presumably the bit that would cause me to throw the book across the room).

The crux of the book, though, is her claim that the institution has transformed radically, especially in the last 150 years or so. The very rough outline of the argument runs like this:

Coontz traces marriage to about 5000 years ago. At this time, a nuclear family simply did not have the resources to survive in the hunter-gatherer society that existed then. So people got married to acquire in-laws, i.e. human resources that would ensure survival and the survival of children.

Families gained more and more power over who married who when and both men and women were in effect married off to better ensure group survival.

The details of this changed over time, but ultimately it was the social networks and the economic benefits that mattered in marriage, not feelings of personal attachment.

(Incidentally, I discussed this book with my father and, trying to get a rise out me, he claimed that it was a completely reasonable set up. People got married for economic reasons and then the man had several mistresses. Equally straight faced, I agreed and said that the wife was probably glad to get the husband out of the house so long as it didn't impact her or her children's economic well-being.)

Coontz goes on to note that marriages started to become emotionally based about 150 years ago. She spends most of the second half of the book examining the last 100-odd years and what people's perceptions of a "good" marriage are, and how these perceptions impact the stability of the institution.

One of her most interesting ideas is that the modern perception of a "traditional" marriage (the male breadwinner and stay-at-home housewife) was actually a very short-lived phenomenon most strongly displayed in the 1950s (though the idea that this is the "ideal" arrangement had been around since the Victorian era).

When I started Marriage, a History, I found it a little disconcerting. Any book that rationally examines human social institutions and reveals their weaknesses and inconsistencies is always going to produce a feeling of unease. However, this feeling is a small price to pay for a better understanding of history and where society might head in the future.

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Coraline

Neil Gaiman's Coraline is a wonderful, creepy little children's story which is clever enough to be read with pleasure even by adults. It's so clever and nuanced that some of it will be completely missed or misunderstood by children. (If you don't believe that this can happen, re-read a book you loved as a child; it will seem like a whole new story.)

As with all good children's books, Neil Gaiman lavishes long descriptions on food. (Though the best children's book for descriptions about food is undoubtedly The Hobbit. It's impossible to come away from that book without craving new butter on fresh, white bread.)

Even though it's a children's book, I find Coraline a difficult book to keep a firm grasp on. I don't mean that the plot is hard to follow; the outlines of the story are very straightforward. Rather Gaiman leaves parts of the story hazy and not quite filled in. The otherworldly creatures are never fully explained. I think it's part of what makes this story so creepy.

The ideas he brings up are also fairly sophisticated. The book explores a dark version of reality that is recognizable, but twisted. In one fantastic scene, Coraline acknowledges that in her own way her "other mother" (the dark, predatory version of her mother) loves her. This love takes the form of possession, and would result in Coraline's heart and soul being stolen away if she gives in to it.

For Neil Gaiman fans, this story is definitely worth a read, and clever enough to hold an adult's attention.

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Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

My first introduction to the King Arthur legends was a slim volume based on Malory. The editors had carefully removed everything inappropriate for children (i.e. all the interesting bits) and for years I believed the King Arthur legends were pompous and boring and that people who read them did so out of a kind of snobbery.

In college, I read Sir Gawain and the Green Knight for the first time, and the Arthurian legends took on a whole new life. Like many of the early tales, the story has obvious pagan roots, but a Christian moral has been laid over the original framework. The writing is strongly evocative and ranges from scenes of court life and courtly love to the cold and blasted wilderness.

During the course of the poem, Sir Gawain (the original hero of Arthur's court) is tempted almost beyond his strength (and certainly beyond the strength of any soul less heroic). The nature of evil in the poem is ambiguous, though.

I didn't spot the devil in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; rather a supernatural being who was intent upon causing mischief propelled the story forward. (I have heard of a conception of the devil as an ally of God. God controls the devil and uses him as an instrument to test humanity. Therefore, even where there is apparent contradiction the two are actually working in harmony. Villains in this poem seem to be much like that; their purpose is to test the heroic soul rather than to be truly evil.)

The popular view of the Arthurian legends is knights on white horses beating each other up, saving damsels in distress, and above all fretting about their honor. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, though, is much more sophisticated than this. Sir Gawain's perplexities about maintaining his honor are convincing, and the story is gripping. For the new or old reader of Arthurian legends, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is certainly worthwhile.

For those who are curious, this poem is a translation. While the poet was contemporary with Chaucer (whose works can still be read in the original with a large glossary and a flexible attitude about sentence structure), the English in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is foreign to the modern reader. The version I have was translated by Brian Stone in 1959 (and as with so many of my more interesting books, this copy was acquired in a Berkeley secondhand bookstore).

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