Voicelessness and Emotional Survival > Voicelessness and Emotional Survival Message Board

Books with no redeeming healing value! :)

(1/5) > >>

sKePTiKal:
I've been reading a lot again, recently. It's the only effective "tool" I have to work with, to allow my body time to rest and recover from over-work (which is sort of my compulsive way of dealing with difficult life periods). I need to have a good "story" in the book, plot that is!, character development and vivid details to capture my attention and hold it. I need to connect with or identify with at least one of the characters, some way. TV and movies simply don't engage me the same way, though movies are usually better, depending on the movie.

With my brain currently looking for new solutions to "solve" the lifelong FOO issues that have flared recently, reading also helps feeds the brain new perspectives, inputs, and even my vocabulary for talking about them; coherently. And only fiction will do - because fiction is art imitating life and the author is able to take those flights of fancy and pursue them, that most of us are too pragmatic, practical or simply afraid to pursue because of the risk involved. A lot of you are also readers, I know... so I thought I'd start a thread to talk about books/authors... but also the insights we gain from this kind of reading that can be applied to healing (which is just my predilection for using something for another purpose than it was intended).

How many here are fans of the Jean Auel "Clan of the Cave Bear" series?? I started reading these back when the first came out; I've missed a couple during my only non-reading period... and am now immersed in what is supposed to be the last one. I can relate to epic sagas.... and their mother-worship culture so reminds me of our "amazons" here.

I just finished another novel by Isabel Allende and am so reminded why she is one of my favorite authors. She is fluent in female emotional language... knows all the right nuances, emphasis, and particular cadences regardless of the setting of the novel in place or time... she distills that language down to the "universal" female/mother character. I simply enjoy reading her books for this reason. These are stories that help me appreciate the value of "just being" too. Whoever, whenever, however.

Tom Robbins - I haven't read anything of his in a while. Master of the absurd, he always makes me laugh... so when I need to laugh more, I reach for one his books. Carl Hiasson, too - though his stories have sort of a detective, mystery-thrilled farce to them and always involve the environmental theme of saving Florida from overbuilding, etc.

------------------------------
Reading is how I survived, I think. From the time I could read I was described as always having my nose in a book. I have learned how to build a house - from reading. I have learned how to negotiate in business - which I applied to how I negotiate my personal boundaries with others, too. I learned about different cultures, philosophy, religion, folktales and myths, science, the earth, the great heros of the world..... and adventure. I have bemoaned the fact that there's absolutely nothing to read about women-over-a-certain age fashion and beauty (some of us grandma's aren't cut out for flour-y aprons and long hair in buns) and even proposed starting a magazine/website with another longtime artist friend. Maybe I'll suggest that to my hairdresser - he's entrepreneurial.

I think I've learned how to be "me" - and how humans beings are (good, bad, indifferent and ideally) - from fiction. And I can't forget the fairy tales... lord, how those came back & shook me up during the Twiggy part of healing!!

Guest:
'Another roadside attraction'
- if you find the body of Jesus, for God's sake don't let anyone know. Made sense to me.

I haven't read books that i would call female emotional (not that I noticed anyway). Unless you count Atwood or Fay Weldon. Not sure about 'female' emotions in novels. Maybe I read them but didn't recognise them. Maybe i don't distinguish between men and women that much.

What you get out of any book is what you understand and my understanding has been severely stunted. I understood 'Cat's eye' pretty well I think and that says a lot about women.

I enjoyed the poisonwood bible but the term 'epic saga' puts me off. I look for entertainment and an occasional glimpse of something interesting i hadn't thought about. I look for ideas well-presented, accessible. I've read some novels that were a real waste of my time and I wish i hadn't. I mean, I have 'Ugly' sitting there unread. I know the story, i've heard the person speak and I don't like her and I have already summed up her life in my mind. I imagine the book will be very very boring. One day I'll have a look, just to see if i was correct!

Hopalong:
I'm enjoying The 19th Wife a LOT, at the moment.

Wonderful interspersion of history of polygamy from insider perspectives, with a fascinating current mystery involving the protagonist's mother and the murder of his father.

It is ALL about women, historical and current sexism, homophobia, and all sorts of power issues.
And a page-turner.

Hops

sKePTiKal:
I've read Margaret Atwood; I think it was Cat's Eye - I can't remember! But if I started the first chapter, and had read it... my crazy brain would tell me so. Drives hubs crazy with movies - coz he likes to watch movies he's seen many times - but most movies are "disposable" for me; I remember so much of the details it seems pointless although there are a few I want to re-watch or like to watch repeatedly. Independence Day and Twister are two I can watch over & over and still enjoy. "Inception" is the latest one I would like to watch again - illusions within illusions; dreams within dreams... it's impossible to keep it all straight the first time through.

Ann Tyler is another novelist, along the same vein as Atwood... not what I'd call "womens lit"; she's more "people lit" than that.

I wonder - how much what we read really says about us or doesn't? It might be a stretch to say that it's indicative of our inner selves or thwarted "wannabees" or anything significant at all, really. But I do think we're affected by certain books - we assimilate the book into our "set" of inner experiences maybe.

And then there were books that fit with outer personalities that we grow out of ... they were significant at that point in our lives, and later on... we're almost embarassed to admit we once thought they were important!! I'm trying to think of one in that category for me... maybe "Be Here Now".

teartracks:






--- Quote ---How many here are fans of the Jean Auel "Clan of the Cave Bear" series??
--- End quote ---

I read several of the series.   Loved them!

tt


 

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page