Kristin Lavransdatter- discussion
woodnymph2_gw
17 years ago
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woodnymph2_gw
16 years agolaceyvail 6A, WV
16 years agoRelated Discussions
MARCH: What are you reading?
Comments (143)Finished War and Peace. He does go on a bit about history and historians....tends to repeat himself. Nowadays, I think the book would have been severely edited. There is an abridged version being released in the UK (along with several other classics) in June. In general, I don't approve of this sort of thing. But, it has to be admitted, it would probably do no serious harm for most people to War and Peace to take the scissors to it...!! (Blasphemy, I know.) Now I need something a little lighter. So, being reminded of this book by another thread about a quote, I'm re-reading A History of the World in 10½ Chapters by Julian Barnes - one of my favourite books - particularly the first and last chapters....See MoreKristin Lavransdatter reopened
Comments (12)I was thrilled to discover this discussion was recently reopened. I'm 56, the daughter of first generation Norwegians (maternal and paternal grandparents immigrated to U.S. in early 1900s), and am a first time reader of KL. (I plan to read it again within the next 12-18 months, this time to savor the story as I read it.) I devoured the book in three weeks and was not ready to let the characters go. I wanted to find people to discuss it with. Googling KL brought me to this discussion group. I read every entry in the first discussion and was saddened to see it occurred in 2007. But then I saw the May 2009 post and my heart soared. Interestingly, the book was recommended to me by a man whose book club read it. He loved the book but virtually everyone else did not. The chief complaint from those who did not like it was that it was difficult to read. They eventually ended up comparing a few sections and concluded that the translation was probably a major factor in their dislike of the book. This novel opened my eyes to the role Catholicism played in the daily lives of people living in Christian countries in the 14th century. (I followed KL with "The Other Boleyn Girl" and found the same to be true in 14th century England.) With their limited knowledge of how the world works (be it genetics, health, or environmental phenomena), it's understandable they would attribute less than perfect results to sin. Questioning that belief system and/or operating outside it resulted in excommunication, banishment, being branded a witch or heretic, so there was no alternate, accepted belief system one could hold and remain in community. I was saddened, dismayed, and sometimes angered at how fear was used to control behavior. At the same time, I admired the faith of Lavrans, which seemed more spiritually pure and consistent with the one central commandment of Judaism and Christianity: love your neighbor as yourself. He did not practice it to be admired by others. He lived the creed, and I think Simon had a similar heart. The religious sensibility of others seemed driven by fear, superstition, the need to control and/or showmanship. The reference to Lavrans' practice of self-flagellation brought visions of Mel Gibson to my head, yet its mention gave me more insight into Lavrans spirituality. I could go on about many other topics, but I'll stop here. I'd love to hear other thoughts and reactions to the religious aspect of the book....See MoreJane Austen Book Discussion: Pride & Prejudice
Comments (15)Yes, I suppose Mary might not have been quite pliable enough for Mr. Collin's purposes. But I mean is that she would have been good as a preachers wife because she WAS moralizing and followed her 'duty'. She would have been a good schoolmarm or missionary. She probably just ended up a spinster though. Do you think she could ever make a living for herself (such as the main character did in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall?). I wonder how many of us would have been considered 'blue-stockings' back then? I do remember, in the last chapter of the book, Austen mentioning the fates of the two unwed sisters. Let me see if I can find it.... It says that "Kitty, to her very material advantage, spent the chief of her time with her two elder sisters. In society so superior to that she had generally known, her improvement was great. She was not of so ungovernable a temper as Lydia; and, removed from the influence of Lydia's example, she became by proper attention and management, less irritable, less ignorant, and less insipid." And it also says this "Mary was the only daughter who remained at home; and she was neccissarilly drawn from the pursuit of accomplishments by Mrs. Bennet's being quite unable to sit alone. Mary was obliged to mix more with the world, but she could still moralise over every morning visit; and as she was no longer mortified by comparisons between her sisters' beauty and her own, it was suspected by her father that she submitted to the change without much reluctance." That would be terrible to be constantly told that you were not pretty in comparison to your sisters and that you were not an interesting person to be around. CMK...See MoreWhat would you choose?
Comments (25)How to describe why Faulkner knocks me out. First of all, he's depicted the angst and deeply complex race relations of the deep rural south in a way that I don't think anyone else has, though of course what he writes about lies now in the past. Second, his style, though it seems impenetrable at first, strikes me as something like the way people think-- one thought brings you to another then to another then to another--there's a whole world there. And once you get him, you find that there is great humor in some of his work and characters. I was in high school when I first started to read Faulkner, and began with The Sound and the Fury. It took me several tries--and I finally bought a reader's guide to Faulkner which helped a great deal, especially realizing that there were two characters named Quentin, one a young girl and the other a much older man. I've always thought that Faulkner was THE great American novelist because he captured his piece of America and its inhabitants better than any other writer has captured his chosen place and time. The novella The Bear is probably the best story about hunting ever written, and the last part of it, often omitted, contains, according to Malcolm Cowley (the editor of my collection) "the longest sentence in American fiction, and longer than any in English or Irish fiction, except for Molly Bloom's soliloquy. This very complex and difficult to disentangle sentence contains "one of Faulkner's most impressive themes: the belief in [the character's] heart that the land itself had been cursed by slavery, and that the only way for him to escape the curse was to relinquish the land."...See Morerosefolly
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