Rabbit Hole #39: The Classics Book Tag

THE CLASSICS BOOK TAG: (I couldn't find the originator of this tag; if you know, please tell me!)

1. An over-hyped classic you really didn't like: Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
I went in to this thinking it was going to be solely about Anna and Vronsky and the love triangle; I should have known that being a Russian novel, it was going to have a much wider scope than that. I felt bogged down in the agricultural discussions and found myself not really caring about any of the characters. 

2. Favorite time period to read about: 1920s

American and British Modernism and the Harlem Renaissance are my favorite areas to read and study (my master's thesis was on Virginia Woolf). Even though the 1920s had a lot of faults, there is something about that era of change and decadence that appeals to me. 

3. Favorite fairy-tale: Little Red Riding Hood
There is so much more to this tale than simply warning children to not talk to "wolves." It has layers of rape culture, feminism, sexual politics and much more. It also proves that fairy tales are often not for children.

4. What is the classic you're most embarrassed about having not read
I'm not really embarrassed about books I haven't read yet. I've read a lot of classics, and it's impossible to read them all (unless that's all you're reading, and there's just too much good stuff out there!)

5. Top 5 classics you would like to read (soon): Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin, Passing by Nella Larsen, Lady Susan by Jane Austen, The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, and Middlemarch by George Eliot

6. Favorite modern book/series based on a classic: Wicked by Gregory Maguire

I love backstories to well-known characters, especially villains. No one is ever completely good or evil, and our circumstances can put us into situations that require drastic measures. And sometimes the villain is actually less evil than the hero. 

7. Favorite movie version/tv-series based on a classic: Sleepy Hollow is my current favorite. 
I love the mix of the original tale with amped up paranormal events, connections to history, and a diverse cast. I also love Once Upon a Time for its twists and connections of all types of classic stories. 

8. Worst classic to movie adaptation: Beowulf (with Ray Winstone and Angelina Jolie)
This strayed so far from the original, creating a romance between Hrothgar and Grendel's mother and then between Beowulf and Grendel's mother. I'm all for leaving details out, but when you create scenes and conflicts that weren't in the original, that bothers me. (Especially since Neil Gaiman, whom I love, wrote the screenplay.)

9. Favorite edition(s) you'd like to collect more classics from:I don't really collect editions, although I'm seeing some really beautiful ones that might tempt me to change my mind!

10. An underhyped classic you'd recommend to everyone: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte

Anne is by far the most underrated of the Bronte sisters--some people don't even know she exists--and probably the most radical. Tenant is a decidedly feminist book, and it was so far ahead of its time that even Charlotte didn't approve of its themes and "coarseness."

Rabbit Hole #1

When I read, I feel very much like Alice going down the rabbit hole. As my family can attest to, I can become lost for hours in a book, everything else falling away as I chase my characters through time and space on their adventures. It's been this way as long as I can remember.

And I read. A lot, according to some people; not enough, according to me. Right now my average is four books a month. Generally two of those are books for the book clubs I belong to, which leaves the other two for my own tastes. Sometimes I can squeeze in an extra one or two; once in a while, a book will bog me down (I'm looking at you, Tolstoy). I'm also the type of person who HAS to finish a work. I know others who can walk away, but I just don't seem to be able to do it. 

So these posts are going to hit on some of the pieces I've been reading. I won't go over all of them, so if you see a title listed off to the right that sounds interesting, and you want to know more about it, feel free to ask about it in the comments.

The Circle by Dave Eggers

I've liked Eggers' work since I read his Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, primarily because no two pieces are the same. The Circle is a modern day dystopia, centered around a tech company named, of course, The Circle. The Circle has taken over all of the current tech companies we now know--Google, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Amazon, etc.--and merged them. Their headquarters consists of several glass-walled buildings creating a "campus" for its employees. Eventually, their employees don't need to leave, and don't want to leave, the campus for anything. The Circle's ultimate goal is the complete transparency and interconnectedness of everything and everyone on the planet. It's a modern 1984, very fast-paced, and a bit unnerving to read, as most of the technology is already available. 

Murder, Mayhem, and the Invention of The Great Gatsby by Sarah Churchwell

Disclaimer: I love Gatsby. Absolutely love it. Yes, it has its flaws, but it is one of my top five books of all time and has always been my favorite book to teach. (Ask any of my students--I go a little nuts about Fitzgerald and the 20s.) I actually stumbled upon this book by accident during a Barnes and Noble venture. Churchwell connects some of the events in Gatsby (although loosely) to an actual murder that took place in New Jersey during the time Fitzgerald was living in Long Island. She also discusses a lot of the sources for some of the symbolism and characters in the novel. Of course I had heard of a lot of them, but some were new. It was a refreshing take on a topic I know fairly well. She also includes great lists on 1920s slang terms, which we should definitely bring back! If you've read Devil in the White City by Erik Larsen, this is a similar text, and worth your time.

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Ah, poor Anna. Where to begin. This is by far my least favorite work that I've read this summer, probably because it was nothing like I was expecting. I assumed that the 750 page novel would be about Anna Karenina and her tragic love affair with Count Vronsky. No...that encompassed only about 250 pages. And after her death, she only receives about another two pages of mention--50 pages after she dies! The rest of the novel deals with other characters and the state of nineteenth century Russia, Russian politics, the state of peasants in Russia, the state of religion in Russian, Russian society, etc. Even the section that deals with Anna turns her in to a horrible shrew of a woman, when she is trying to live the best she can within the circumstances she finds herself in. I know, what was I expecting from a 19th century Russian novel written by a man? Maybe Dr. Zhivago ruined me for Russian novels.

This is George Lucas' library at Skywalker ranch. Someday....