SHE by H. Rider Haggard

SHE by H. Rider Haggard.

I’d read King Solomon’s Mines when I was 12 and first moved back to England and I didn’t like it at all. But decided I would give Haggard another go as sahra_patroness had recommended this one VERY highly and she and I have very similar taste in books so I thought I’d give it a try. It starts with a very interesting beginning; a young man is given an ancient text telling of a unique family history. The text itself is reprinted in two types of Greek and Latin and English. This was very impressively done. I have to say that after that I was rather disappointed. The author’s style is not really one I appreciate. He doesn’t have the charm of Scott or the emotional depth of Wells. The first half seemed a rather dull typical adventure story. When She finally did arrive it took me awhile to warm up to her. But about half way through the book I did get thoroughly hooked and found myself enjoying it greatly and longing to read the sequel. The old dead civilisation, the people buried beneath the mountain, the quest for immortality, the shades of grey morality, all added together to form a fascinating world and tragedy. It is slow going but worth reading for the last half. (Note to those who’ve already read it the torches were what finally convinced me what I was reading was pretty fantastic and not your every day fare!)

The English Governess at the Siamese Court. by Anna Leonowens

The English Governess at the Siamese Court. by Anna Leonowens

In 2004 I read Siamese Harem Life, the second book written by Anna Leonowens about her life in Siam and loved it. That book, which is largely considered to be almost entirely fictional, nevertheless told a story focusing entirely on the role of women in the court. Leonowens was able to focus on issues that were interesting, whether or not her examples were real or not. I enjoyed it greatly. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for this book. It’s the first book in a long time that I decided not to bother finishing. I read about two thirds and just couldn’t bring myself to finish it with so many other books waiting to be read on my bookshelf.

I’m not sure why I enjoyed one so much and didn’t care for this one at all. In the intervening three years I have learned a great deal about travel writing but I think the difference is greater than this. The issues in Siamese Harem Life seemed more real, the stories more cohesive and the author a lot less judgemental. In this book the chapters were very short and jumped all over the place. The author came across as terribly judgemental, and I found myself not liking her at all. I felt like I was wasting my time reading it, learning nothing much about Siam or the colonisers. So I stopped. I may go back to it at some point. But not for a while, it was very disappointing.

Lolita by Nabrokov and Laura Palmer's Secret Diary by Jennifer Lynch

One of these books is considered a classic of the English language and the other is not but I felt I wasn’t able to write about one without talking about the other, as they seem to me to be two sides of the same story.

Laura Palmer’s Secret Diary

This was a novelisation written when Twin Peaks was being aired to give the back-story of Laura Palmer and her dealings with BOB. It was written by Lynch's daughter. I read it when I was 17 and found it more full of sex and drugs, polyamoury and bondage than any book I’d read up till that point. Then I found it a truly tragic story about a girl who’d been abused by her father and the effects this had on her, and how she struggled and failed to be “normal”. What shocked me the most was what she was doing at such a young age. I didn’t consider myself to be particularly sheltered, but my life was a million times removed from anything like that.

A few months ago I started watching Twin Peaks again, and found myself once more obsessing over Laura Palmer. So I was able to track down an electronic copy of the book and read it again. This time I found it much less shocking, being much older and having led a reasonably decedent life, but it was still very much a tragic tale. Tragic because Laura felt that she was such a freak because she had been so victimised and was unable to cope with that as the abuse was continual. (I think the story works with either her father, or her father possessed by BOB either way it’s terrifying). But once again I felt well and truly dragged into the story and great compassion and sympathy for Laura.

Lolita

On the other hand, perhaps because of my background in child psychology and internship with Child Protective Services, or from having recently read Laura Palmer’s Diary, or perhaps because it simply was, I didn’t not find Lolita to be a great love story. I found it to be rather hideous paedophilia. I tend to be incredibly open minded about sex and most form of kink, even when not my thing. But this crossed the line for me. It was strange as for the first time I could almost understand why some people try and ban works they consider pornography that will lead people to “sin”. I found this book, in the intensely sexual descriptions of prepubescent girls to be quite grooming and enabling for paedophiles. And I felt very uncomfortable with it being available for them. These feelings made me doubly uncomfortable!

The book was incredibly well written, and I did read it through. For me the horrid justification of his lust, for it never seemed to me for a minute that anything he felt for Lo was anything but lust, he certainly didn’t love her, was twisted beyond belief. Much more so than I was expecting, especially having seen the Kubrick film and finding it unobjectionable. (Though I think the increase of the age from 12 to 16 made it much more acceptable in my mind).

I decided to read this book having just finished “On the Road” and wanting to look at another book blowing the lid of 50s America. They ended up being very similar, in that Lo and Hubert spent a great deal of time travelling back and forth across the states, however their travels seemed terribly artificial and dry. (Especially having just read Kerouac).

I think it is good to read books that challenge you, and challenge your beliefs and make you think again about how you really view yourself. And I am glad to have read Lolita, but I can’t say that I enjoyed it.

Photos from Florence part 2

Bill has posted the 2 more entries of pictures from our trip.

http://beluosus.livejournal.com/194121.html#cutid1

http://beluosus.livejournal.com/194543.html#cutid1

The last one includes the porta potty with Boticelli's venus on!