I'm going to add songs to this list gradually - songs that I think would serve well as a soundtrack for ex-patriates in Korea, preferably songs that can be found on the noraebang playlists:
"Creep" Radiohead - sang this with a group of my fellow waygooks 2 weeks ago and was surprised by the sheer amount of passion that went into it. Felt like I understood the song for the first time, cause over here, sometimes I do feel like a "creep" and a "weirdo" and I often find myself wondering "what the hell am I doing here? I don't belong here."
"Rocket Man" Elton John - one of the classics of alienation from home
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Friday, July 16, 2010
The Best Female Characters in Literature
I grew up reading literature. I started reading classics before age 11, and by age 11 was biting into Jane Austen and George Orwell while simultaneously finishing up my Babysitter's Club books. I've read and re-read extensively in the canon and especially books by female authors like Edith Wharton and Willa Cather, who deserve to have greater prominence in the canon. Of course I am not finished reading, and this list will probably revise itself 50 years from now at which point I still hope to be reading, hopefully in my own library with a comfy arm chair and a view of the sea, but here's a starter list from a well-read 33-year-old English major who loves characters above all else when it comes to reading literature.
In no Particular Order:
Alice from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Children's literature is, strangely, where many of the finest female characters are found - Mary from The Secret Garden, Anne from Anne of Green Gables, the girls of Little Women, the list goes on and on. Alice in Wonderland is often put up against The Wizard of Oz as the quintessential book for girls. But when read next to each other, the absurdity of this comparison (especially the absurdity of comparing the two heroines) becomes evident.
Whereas Dorothy is a simplistic little girl drawn in only the most basic pastel hashes, Alice is a complex, contradictory, moody and ever-thoughtful powerhouse. In herself she is as curious as the world she encounters ("Curiouser and curiouser" about the world, "Do bats eat cats? Do cats eat bats?" she wonders as she falls down the rabbit hole). But the things that happen to her in what turns out to be her dream are stranger still and emblematic of a girl approaching adolescence. She grows bigger and smaller, is nearly drowned in a pool of her own bodily fluids (tears), tries drugs (in the form of mushrooms and potions), and learns to stand up to imaginary demons in the form of the pack of cards (something that takes most of us well into our 20s to accomplish.)
So Alice is both complicated, thoughtful and in the end enormously likeable. Her very flaws (her bits of vanity and pretension) are relatable. Her affections and friendliness are idealistic. And perhaps the most charming aspect of Alice is how she clings to her British etiquette in the unlikeliest of situations, giving a curtsy to a life-sized frog or wondering what's the proper thing to do when a baby turns into a pig.
Alice was the defining female character in literature for my childhood. A self-assured, independent heroine who navigates a strange world largely on her own and comes out on top. For that reason I am always highly dubious of girls who have read the Oz books and say they prefer the timid, childlike, always led around Dorothy, so much different than the Judy Garland character in the movies.
Lolita from Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Lolita is a special case. She is the best character in literature who is never really shown as she actually is. Lolita is a character shown through the lens of an unreliable narrator's obsession. To understand her you have to choose for yourself what seems true, what seems false and what holds just a grain of truth. This is one of the appeals of this character, however, so much so that in recent years someone wrote a revision of Lolita from her perspective.
Thing is, however, I don't want to read that book. I want to envision it for myself as I read Nabokov's book. Indeed, I think that's part of the point. Nabokov didn't call the book "Humbert". He named it Lolita. She is the obsession but also the central mystery of the book.
Beyond this, however, Lolita still stands as a fascinating character. She is no ordinary 12 or 14 year old, at least not in this reader's interpretation. She shares a precocious sexuality with me, and many other teenage girls out there. A sexuality that is too often swept under the rug by a society that wants to pretend that no girl has those kinds of thoughts until later. She also possesses an extraordinary sexual power. The arc of Lolita is perhaps best expressed in how she views this power. At first gleefully and ecstatically, discovering a new country. Then drunk with power, greedily, wanting to erase the pain of her mother's death. Next, cynically and sadly. Then craftily as she plots her escape. Finally, at book's end she renounces it altogether. One way this novel could be read, in fact, is as a commentary on the real value of female sexual power. To wield it can feel intoxicating, but the drug can just as easily become a curse and a source of disgust.
Hmmmm... I've talked myself into re-reading this novel very shortly.
At any rate, Lolita is a character viewed through a plastic pane. You never quite see her in full. But that's part of the magic. It's also one of the greatest novels ever written, so hie you to a bookstore if you haven't read it.
Emma Bovary in Madame Bovary
It's interesting that thusfar my whole list is female characters by male authors, because usually when introducing this novel to people I tell them that Flaubert is one of the only male authors I know to write female characters well. I guess there are more than I think.
At any rate, Flaubert really hits the mark with Emma Bovary. She is not necessarily a likeable character, in that she makes terrible decisions which create her own downfall.
However, she is an understandable character. Emma Bovary is living a provincial dead-end life in a society where female advancement depends on men. At the book's beginning she sets out to advance herself through a marriage to Charles Bovary, a visiting doctor. She soon finds out, however, that Charles Bovary is ridiculously boring - the narrative is with her on this point, making her eventual infidelity to Bovary seem perfectly legitimate.
What is compelling about Emma Bovary is her longing. We are made to understand it, enter into it, and pull for her to the bitter end (which I will not ruin for you as it was ruined for me - hint: stay away from "introductions" in literature until after you read the book; they don't come with spoiler alerts.)
Emma Bovary gets my vote as one of the best characters in literature because her desires come to life and compel you to care and because she is such a perfectly drawn, realistic human.
The Women of Jane Austen - it is literally impossible to choose just one.
So Elizabeth Bennet of "Pride and Prejudice" is the obvious favorite; Emma Woodhouse is the dark horse that some people love to hate (and that should not be known from the films of the same name - no, no, you need to read it, please!), the girls of "Sense and Sensibility" fare better on film (and who wouldn't when played by Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet), Fanny Price grows on me as I re-read Mansfield Park (okay, her prudishness makes more sense in a Regency context), all of these heroines are well-worth reading about and they all speak sparkling dialogue and have worthy feelings.
But my personal favorite Austen heroine is Anne Elliot of "Persuasion." I like her for several reasons. First, she is the oldest Austen heroine, at the (then unmarriageable) age of 27. She is beyond hope, resigned to a life of boredom out of the limelight, when all of a sudden the love of her life (whom she rejected out of family loyalty years earlier) walks back into her life, determined not to give her the time of day.
The love story between Anne Elliot and Captain Wentworth is easily the most realistic and romantic of the Austen romances (and yes, they are all romances to some extent, although the best-written most intelligent of their kind ever - to say Austen writes a romance is the same as to say Shakespeare writes romances, only with more complexity, better female characters and less iambic pentameter).
The character of Anne Elliot is also the most normal of Austen heroines. She is not extraordinarily pretty or extraordinarily witty or outgoing. She is, however, intelligent and full of integrity and ideals. Her task is not to overcome youthful impetuosity or vanity the way Emma Woodhouse and Elizabeth Bennet and Marian Dashwood must. Her task is to reclaim youthful joy and hope.
This makes the book absolutely gorgeous, the character almost unique among literary heroines of the past (who mostly have to learn to grow up rather than to learn how to be young), and the character unforgettable.
So many people don't read Austen, especially, unfortunately, those who love literature, and especially men who read literature. It's a damn shame, and unfortunately I think it's largely a result of the misogynistic foundations of our literary canon which prioritizes "men's subjects" such as war, hunting, killing and crime heavily over the "female subects" of relationships, home, and family. Female authors are also definitely discriminated against in lit classes to this day. I've read plenty of lit by men and women and can tell you that there are female writers of extraordinary quality (Willa Cather and Jean Rhyss come immediately to mind) who are always rejected in front of merely equally talented or even less talented male authors. Why anybody reads Daniel Defoe anymore is beyond me, for one thing. Hemingway is immensely overrated for another. At any rate, if you call yourself a scholar of literature read some damn Austen already. Start with Emma or Pride and Prejudice because those are the big ones, but get around to Persuasion, because Anne Elliot is damn good company.
Lily Bart from The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
I can't talk much about Lily Bart without ruining the book for you. Suffice to say she is brilliantly drawn, totally understandable and yet simultaneously totally frustrating. She grows up rich, is bred to expect luxury and fails to adapt when she is thrust into not poverty, but what seems to her a dreary and drab level of existence, unless she can sell her beauty into marriage and acquire all the riches of her youth.
Her internal struggle with this unenviable choice are what drive this narrative - well, that and a detailed but never boring picture of the upper class of the United States at the turn of the century. Edith Wharton is a master of the society novel and one of the finest American authors. You should read her. You should read this and then read everything else by Wharton you can get your hands on.
Anne Shirley from Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
Okay, I wasn't going to, but I changed my mind. Anne Shirley is intensely likeable, well-drawn, almost too-good-to-be-true and certainly not complicated, but she's the best representation of a certain "type" in children's literature especially - the bright ray of sunshine character who alters all who come into contact with her.
She's the antidote for a cloudy day. She's the friend you wish you had and the person you want to be. As a children's character she is utter perfection. So there. :)
Anais Nin in her own journals and really as most of the characters in her fiction and erotica
Anais Nin is probably the most narcissistic author ever. But she's also fascinating and led a fascinating life. At one point she was sleeping with 5 different men, some of whom knew about the others, including her own father. She was married to two men for at least a decade, only one of whom knew about the other. She was brave enough to live the way she wanted to, without being brave enough to own up to it. She was a feminist, of sorts, but also played into a lot of female stereotypes - the weaker woman, the seductress, the dependent. Beyond her colorful personal life she also self-published her books, dabbled in film, and hung out with many of the famous artists and socialites of 1930s Paris, including, famously, Henry Miller.
Her unedited journals are like calls to step into life - they make you want to immediately travel to Paris and sit in a cafe for days on end, tangoing every night away. The erotica is some of the finest crafted available. They're not always PC, but I don't like my sexuality cleansed and modernized. The novels are more pretentious but they are beautifully written, nonetheless. All the books are probably best suited for youth - despite her contemplative nature I'm not really sure if I could say that Nin ever matured as such. But they are worth reading, they are atmospheric. They are haunting. And that's why Nin is one of the 10 authors I'd invite to dinner if ever given the chance.
In no Particular Order:
Alice from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Children's literature is, strangely, where many of the finest female characters are found - Mary from The Secret Garden, Anne from Anne of Green Gables, the girls of Little Women, the list goes on and on. Alice in Wonderland is often put up against The Wizard of Oz as the quintessential book for girls. But when read next to each other, the absurdity of this comparison (especially the absurdity of comparing the two heroines) becomes evident.
Whereas Dorothy is a simplistic little girl drawn in only the most basic pastel hashes, Alice is a complex, contradictory, moody and ever-thoughtful powerhouse. In herself she is as curious as the world she encounters ("Curiouser and curiouser" about the world, "Do bats eat cats? Do cats eat bats?" she wonders as she falls down the rabbit hole). But the things that happen to her in what turns out to be her dream are stranger still and emblematic of a girl approaching adolescence. She grows bigger and smaller, is nearly drowned in a pool of her own bodily fluids (tears), tries drugs (in the form of mushrooms and potions), and learns to stand up to imaginary demons in the form of the pack of cards (something that takes most of us well into our 20s to accomplish.)
So Alice is both complicated, thoughtful and in the end enormously likeable. Her very flaws (her bits of vanity and pretension) are relatable. Her affections and friendliness are idealistic. And perhaps the most charming aspect of Alice is how she clings to her British etiquette in the unlikeliest of situations, giving a curtsy to a life-sized frog or wondering what's the proper thing to do when a baby turns into a pig.
Alice was the defining female character in literature for my childhood. A self-assured, independent heroine who navigates a strange world largely on her own and comes out on top. For that reason I am always highly dubious of girls who have read the Oz books and say they prefer the timid, childlike, always led around Dorothy, so much different than the Judy Garland character in the movies.
Lolita from Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Lolita is a special case. She is the best character in literature who is never really shown as she actually is. Lolita is a character shown through the lens of an unreliable narrator's obsession. To understand her you have to choose for yourself what seems true, what seems false and what holds just a grain of truth. This is one of the appeals of this character, however, so much so that in recent years someone wrote a revision of Lolita from her perspective.
Thing is, however, I don't want to read that book. I want to envision it for myself as I read Nabokov's book. Indeed, I think that's part of the point. Nabokov didn't call the book "Humbert". He named it Lolita. She is the obsession but also the central mystery of the book.
Beyond this, however, Lolita still stands as a fascinating character. She is no ordinary 12 or 14 year old, at least not in this reader's interpretation. She shares a precocious sexuality with me, and many other teenage girls out there. A sexuality that is too often swept under the rug by a society that wants to pretend that no girl has those kinds of thoughts until later. She also possesses an extraordinary sexual power. The arc of Lolita is perhaps best expressed in how she views this power. At first gleefully and ecstatically, discovering a new country. Then drunk with power, greedily, wanting to erase the pain of her mother's death. Next, cynically and sadly. Then craftily as she plots her escape. Finally, at book's end she renounces it altogether. One way this novel could be read, in fact, is as a commentary on the real value of female sexual power. To wield it can feel intoxicating, but the drug can just as easily become a curse and a source of disgust.
Hmmmm... I've talked myself into re-reading this novel very shortly.
At any rate, Lolita is a character viewed through a plastic pane. You never quite see her in full. But that's part of the magic. It's also one of the greatest novels ever written, so hie you to a bookstore if you haven't read it.
Emma Bovary in Madame Bovary
It's interesting that thusfar my whole list is female characters by male authors, because usually when introducing this novel to people I tell them that Flaubert is one of the only male authors I know to write female characters well. I guess there are more than I think.
At any rate, Flaubert really hits the mark with Emma Bovary. She is not necessarily a likeable character, in that she makes terrible decisions which create her own downfall.
However, she is an understandable character. Emma Bovary is living a provincial dead-end life in a society where female advancement depends on men. At the book's beginning she sets out to advance herself through a marriage to Charles Bovary, a visiting doctor. She soon finds out, however, that Charles Bovary is ridiculously boring - the narrative is with her on this point, making her eventual infidelity to Bovary seem perfectly legitimate.
What is compelling about Emma Bovary is her longing. We are made to understand it, enter into it, and pull for her to the bitter end (which I will not ruin for you as it was ruined for me - hint: stay away from "introductions" in literature until after you read the book; they don't come with spoiler alerts.)
Emma Bovary gets my vote as one of the best characters in literature because her desires come to life and compel you to care and because she is such a perfectly drawn, realistic human.
The Women of Jane Austen - it is literally impossible to choose just one.
So Elizabeth Bennet of "Pride and Prejudice" is the obvious favorite; Emma Woodhouse is the dark horse that some people love to hate (and that should not be known from the films of the same name - no, no, you need to read it, please!), the girls of "Sense and Sensibility" fare better on film (and who wouldn't when played by Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet), Fanny Price grows on me as I re-read Mansfield Park (okay, her prudishness makes more sense in a Regency context), all of these heroines are well-worth reading about and they all speak sparkling dialogue and have worthy feelings.
But my personal favorite Austen heroine is Anne Elliot of "Persuasion." I like her for several reasons. First, she is the oldest Austen heroine, at the (then unmarriageable) age of 27. She is beyond hope, resigned to a life of boredom out of the limelight, when all of a sudden the love of her life (whom she rejected out of family loyalty years earlier) walks back into her life, determined not to give her the time of day.
The love story between Anne Elliot and Captain Wentworth is easily the most realistic and romantic of the Austen romances (and yes, they are all romances to some extent, although the best-written most intelligent of their kind ever - to say Austen writes a romance is the same as to say Shakespeare writes romances, only with more complexity, better female characters and less iambic pentameter).
The character of Anne Elliot is also the most normal of Austen heroines. She is not extraordinarily pretty or extraordinarily witty or outgoing. She is, however, intelligent and full of integrity and ideals. Her task is not to overcome youthful impetuosity or vanity the way Emma Woodhouse and Elizabeth Bennet and Marian Dashwood must. Her task is to reclaim youthful joy and hope.
This makes the book absolutely gorgeous, the character almost unique among literary heroines of the past (who mostly have to learn to grow up rather than to learn how to be young), and the character unforgettable.
So many people don't read Austen, especially, unfortunately, those who love literature, and especially men who read literature. It's a damn shame, and unfortunately I think it's largely a result of the misogynistic foundations of our literary canon which prioritizes "men's subjects" such as war, hunting, killing and crime heavily over the "female subects" of relationships, home, and family. Female authors are also definitely discriminated against in lit classes to this day. I've read plenty of lit by men and women and can tell you that there are female writers of extraordinary quality (Willa Cather and Jean Rhyss come immediately to mind) who are always rejected in front of merely equally talented or even less talented male authors. Why anybody reads Daniel Defoe anymore is beyond me, for one thing. Hemingway is immensely overrated for another. At any rate, if you call yourself a scholar of literature read some damn Austen already. Start with Emma or Pride and Prejudice because those are the big ones, but get around to Persuasion, because Anne Elliot is damn good company.
Lily Bart from The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
I can't talk much about Lily Bart without ruining the book for you. Suffice to say she is brilliantly drawn, totally understandable and yet simultaneously totally frustrating. She grows up rich, is bred to expect luxury and fails to adapt when she is thrust into not poverty, but what seems to her a dreary and drab level of existence, unless she can sell her beauty into marriage and acquire all the riches of her youth.
Her internal struggle with this unenviable choice are what drive this narrative - well, that and a detailed but never boring picture of the upper class of the United States at the turn of the century. Edith Wharton is a master of the society novel and one of the finest American authors. You should read her. You should read this and then read everything else by Wharton you can get your hands on.
Anne Shirley from Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
Okay, I wasn't going to, but I changed my mind. Anne Shirley is intensely likeable, well-drawn, almost too-good-to-be-true and certainly not complicated, but she's the best representation of a certain "type" in children's literature especially - the bright ray of sunshine character who alters all who come into contact with her.
She's the antidote for a cloudy day. She's the friend you wish you had and the person you want to be. As a children's character she is utter perfection. So there. :)
Anais Nin in her own journals and really as most of the characters in her fiction and erotica
Anais Nin is probably the most narcissistic author ever. But she's also fascinating and led a fascinating life. At one point she was sleeping with 5 different men, some of whom knew about the others, including her own father. She was married to two men for at least a decade, only one of whom knew about the other. She was brave enough to live the way she wanted to, without being brave enough to own up to it. She was a feminist, of sorts, but also played into a lot of female stereotypes - the weaker woman, the seductress, the dependent. Beyond her colorful personal life she also self-published her books, dabbled in film, and hung out with many of the famous artists and socialites of 1930s Paris, including, famously, Henry Miller.
Her unedited journals are like calls to step into life - they make you want to immediately travel to Paris and sit in a cafe for days on end, tangoing every night away. The erotica is some of the finest crafted available. They're not always PC, but I don't like my sexuality cleansed and modernized. The novels are more pretentious but they are beautifully written, nonetheless. All the books are probably best suited for youth - despite her contemplative nature I'm not really sure if I could say that Nin ever matured as such. But they are worth reading, they are atmospheric. They are haunting. And that's why Nin is one of the 10 authors I'd invite to dinner if ever given the chance.
by way of introduction
dil·et·tante/ˌdiliˈtänt/Noun
1. A person who claims an area of interest, such as the arts, without real commitment or knowledge.
2. A person with an amateur interest in the arts.I'm naming this blog "Dilettante in Korea" for several reasons. Definition 1 - I claim an interest in the art of blogging without real commitment (although I do claim some knowledge.) I have a very poor track record here on blogger, with two failed blogs behind me, despite 8 years' residence at Live Journal. It's just easier for me to blog about a variety of things, more suited to an LJ.
Definition 2 - right now my interest in the arts is still amateur. Sure, I majored in literature, I've read at spoken words, completed a screenplay and directed/produced/acted in a Shakespeare play in a foreign country. But I've yet to demonstrate solid, sustained interest and action in one area of the arts, despite a wide range of interest in all artistic fields. In some ways it's meant playfully, however. I think I'm leaving my phase as a dilettante, and entering into greater commitment to the theater and perhaps even to my long-lost love writing.
But as for blogging about any one topic in anything but an amateur way? Forget about it. This blog will never be made into a book or sold for movie rights. I have no gimmick other than my lack of a gimmick. No one topic moves me.
I will also, sometimes, inevitably, be blogging about Korea, sometimes as it intersects with the arts, other times just as it is. This is a function of me living in Korea.
If you want to read my more personal stuff at LJ - you can't. Ha ha. It's under friends-lock for a reason!
Anyway, welcome to Dilettante in Korea. My First Post - forthcoming after I have coffee with my husband - will be about the greatest female characters in literature as decided by me.
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