Quiet first few days back in Southampton, I'm trying my best to get my scary workload to a managable level. Why must all the deadlines and exams be in the same two weeks? As ever, my refrain with writing stuff about books I don't completely understand is "Well, I've done it in German!". Even then 1,500 words in German still seems an easier task than 3,000 in English right now. English students are probably supposed to 'get' literature in general, but I think it says something about me that the only book I've related to on a level beyond thinking it was quite a good read is Helen Oyeyemi's The Icarus Girl, about a socially awkward and mentally disturbed 9-year old. To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf? Totally got the wrong of the stick there. Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson? Sure, I enjoyed it, but it didn't knock me flat (which I had been led to believe it would do). I find it difficult to minutely dissect novels I can't muster up much feeling for. Perhaps it's just my state of mind at the moment; I'd like to be enjoying them more than I am, but my brain just ain't playing ball. In the grand scheme of things, exactly how important are these essays anyway.
4 comments:
this makes me tear up! oranges and lighthouse are my two favourite books of all time! both merit re reading though, cerTAINNNly
trouble is having extremely boring lectures on them DEADENS the experience! i wanted to love them. i think i read lighthouse in the wrong way, i was expecting resolutions that didn't come. perhaps the same with oranges. i will re-read them ;)
xx
god if i had to analyse them it would kill me. probably why i'm not going to uni, even though i'm a little jealous of everyone who's doing english lit
i read dalloway and was completely bowled over, totally disappointed when to the lighthouse didn't do the same thing. sigh. maybe it's a little inaccessible on some level or other.
Post a Comment