source: Wikipedia (link)

Introductory passage

It was on Sunday, the 24th of May, 1863, that my uncle, Professor Lidenbrock, came rushing suddenly to his little house in the old part of Hamburg, No. 19, Königstrasse.

Our good Martha could not but think she was very much behindhand with the dinner, for the pot was scarcely beginning to simmer, and I said to myself:

”Now, then, we’ll have a fine outcry if my uncle is hungry, for he is the most impatient of mortals.”

***

This was my first read by Jules Verne – someone I’ve been meaning to read for quite a few years but never really got around to. A journey to the center of the earth is a story of Axel and his uncle, Professor Lidenbrock, as they stumble upon a piece of paper that takes them on a breathtaking story under the earths’ crust.

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I found Jules’ way of writing sometimes dry, especially when it comes to describing the mineralogy and other scientific areas. At the same time, it is rejuvinating to see that Jules Verne was one of the very first Science Fiction writers, and thus started a whole new genre of books – combining novels with science. To sum it up I liked very much the first half of the book… but then it felt like he cramped too much into too little space, one didn’t really have time to breath and process one event before the next… which in the end, made my impression less than it might have been.

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One thing, that you can’t deny, is with what enthusiasm he writes – and also puts into his protagnist Axel – who is also the storyteller:

”How well I knew all these bits of mineralogical science! How many times, instead of enjoying the company of boys my own age, had I enjoyed dusting these graphites, anthracites, coals, lignites, and peats! And the bitumens, resins, organic salts that needed to be protected from the least atom of dust! And these metals, from iron to gold, whose current value disappeared in the absolute equality of scientific specimens! And all these stones ,enough to rebuild the house in Königstrasse, even with a handsome addional room, which would have suited me admirably!”

This, passage, to me, says a lot of my perception of early writers of novels and science both. The era where people were multi-knowledgeable in many different areas, and not just single-focused like many of us today.

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Notable passages

• Armed with his hammer, his steel pointer, his magnetic needles, his blowpipe, and his bottle of nitric acid, he was a very powerful man.

• But that man was unable to wait, and nature herself was too slow for him.

• Was I to believe him in earnest in his intention to penetrate to the center of this massive globe? Had I been listening to the mad speculations of a lunatic, or to the scientific conclusions of a great genius? In all this, were did truth stop? Where did error begin?

• Ah! women, girls, how incomprehensible are your feminine hearts!

• ”Science, my boy, is built on errors, but errors which it’s good to commit because they gradually lead to the truth.”

source: Wikipedia (link)

Introductory passage

Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, ‘and what is the use of a book,’ thought Alice ‘without pictures or conversation?’

***

I never read Alice in Wonderland when I was young. Perhaps because it is not such a well known childrens’ story in my home country. Therefore, this read was quite interesting – and heavily biased – upon the Walt Disney animation of Lewis Carrolls’ classic childrens’ story.

***

I can easily say that it was not as I expected. I found the book quite different, and, surprisingly, more psychologically undertoned. To me, the following passage says very much of how I felt about the books’ focus:

[...] for this curious child was very fond of pretending to be two people. ‘But it’s no use now,’ thought poor Alice, ‘to pretend to be two people! Why, there’s hardly enough of me left to make ONE respectable person!’

Subtle notions like this, throughout the book, to me, made it less a childrens’ book and more a book of contemplation of the mind… and perception of imagination. Sometimes I felt as if she was arguing with herself as if she really had two personalities… All in all though, I found it, at times, difficult to follow – and at places, extremely surreal. I have no idea how I would have thought about it at a younger age, but I’m not sure I like it very much at this moment in time.

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Notable passages

• She took down a jar from one of the shelves as she passed; it was labelled ‘ORANGE MARMALADE’, but to her great disappointment it was empty: she did not like to drop the jar for fear of killing somebody, so managed to put it into one of the cupboards as she fell past it.

• Let me see: four times five is twelve, and four times six is thirteen, and four times seven is–oh dear! I shall never get to twenty at that rate!

Introductive passage:

Ours is essentially a tragic age, so we refuse to take it tragically. The cataclysm has happened, we are among the ruins, we start to build up new little habitats, to have new little hopes. It is rather hard work: there is now no smooth road into the future: but we go round, or scramble over the obstacles. We’ve got to live, no matter how many skies have fallen.

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Lade Chatterley’s Lover is a book about adultery, and in some way also lost love… and the search for happiness in a post war era. It is one of the classics that you have to read, but to me, it didn’t quite fulfil my expectations… I’m not even sure what my expectations were.

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Even though it was banned due to supposed obscenity, I found myself more intrigued by the surroundings of the story and the in some way the sub plots of subject discussions happening in-between Lady Chatterley’s (in this age) rather lame escapades. To be frank.

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What I think D.H. Lawrence successfully captured, was the culture and society’s view on class distinctions. Clifford were painted like a “true” high class society person, and his prejudices shine through in the many interactions with servants and town folks. This is also evident in his relationship with Lady Chatterley… and it comes very evident how important it is, for example, for a man of his standard to have an heir. This is a key point in this novel, I think. Perhaps the novel broke for me when, a few chapters in, the stand point for Lady Chatterley’s choices changed from the goal of acquiring love and intimacy to having a child. I can well understand why some might want a child very much, but I can’t see how anyone would have that as their goal over a loving relationship. It all reminded me of today… and it is not all different. I remember seeing an American talk show about young teenagers having sex with various guys with the only goal of raising their children together… childish behaviour in a way, how one always wanted to do everything with ones’ best friend. Coming to think of it, I also believe I saw a Bones episode with this plot. Anyway, it left me with no satisfaction of really finishing the novel – though I ultimately did, as part of the Read-A-Thon last Saturday.

***

The parts that grabbed me most were more the historical retelling of the culture and subject matters that were discussed between Clifford and his acquaintances.

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Notable passages

Connie and he were attached to one another, in the aloof modern way.  He was much too hurt in himself, the great shock of his maiming, to be easy and flippant. He was a hurt thing. And as such Connie stuck to him passionately.

For Connie had adopted the standard of the young: what there was in the moment was everything.

The bitch-goddess, as she is called, of Success roamed, snarling and protective, round the half-humble, half-defiant Michaelis’s heels, and intimidated Clifford completely: for he wanted to prostitute himself to the bitch-goddess Success also, if only she would have him.

There’s lots of good fish in the sea… maybe… but the vast masses seem to be mackerel and herring, and if you’re not mackerel or herring yourself, you are likely to find very few good fish in the sea.

It was fun. Instead of men kissing you, and touching you with their bodies, they revealed their minds to you.

We think we’re gods… men like gods! It’s just the same as Bolshevism. One has to be human, and have a heart and a penis, if one is going to escape being either god or a Bolshevist…for they are the same thing: they’re both too good to be true.

Connie thought, how extremely like all the rest of the classes the lower classes sounded. Just the same thing over again, Tevershall or Mayfair or Kensington. There was only one class nowadays: moneyboys. The moneyboy and moneygirl, the only difference was how much you’d got, and how much you wanted.

All vulnerable things must perish under the rolling and running of iron.

Douglas Adams is perhaps one of the most famous science-fiction authors in the modern era. What first started out as a radio show, turned out to be no less than five books in a series, a movie adaption and television series. So what is this all about? A few years ago, I started to read The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy but put it back on the shelf just a few pages in. Because really, it’s nothing logical about it all. In some way I’m not surprised that it sprung out of a radio show in the way it is written.

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Introductive passage:

Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun.

Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-eight million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue-green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat thing.

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An Indian Classic. Perhaps even the most famous one, although probably more for its subjet matter more than its literary content. The Kama Sutra was not originally on my Classics list, but what is a girl to do when her fiance comes home with a present from the bookstore? (even though it was on sale).

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The edition he found

…is a new translation built mainly upon Vatsyayana’s writings and commentaries on those writings. To be perfectly honest, I’m not sure what I was expecting from this book – the ”book of love”, supposedly filled with descriptions of things far too complicated for an everyday human being… (except if you are an athlete and perhaps also an olympian medalist). But imagine my genuine surprise.

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It handles things quite ”scientifically”

…and is in no way erotic. In fact, only one out of seven parts discusses ”Sexual Union” while the rest focuses on more cultural issues and etiquette. Most of which are clearly outdated, but hence I have a great general historical interest – I found it both fascinating and, at times, comical to read about how you were supposed to behave around, and treat a woman 2000 or so years ago – also how a woman herself is to treat males of various castes and social standing. In a way, it is not so different from those classic 19th-20th century ”house wife” books – and when taking time to reflect, it is not so much different from our woman world view before 20th century. The only difference is that in India, it’s been written down in, perhaps you might say, pure scientific matter of fact.

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The Kama Sutra

…handles subjects of marriage, hetero- and homosexuality, monogami and polygami alike, how to steal a woman from another man – as well as the life of courtesans, and last mot not least, how to attract a woman by extra ”medicines”. A large part tells of how to act a wife, how to treat family and friends and so on, but in the mist of outdated views, there were a few gems worth quoting.

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Notable passages

The man who is ingenious and wise, who is accompanied by a friend, and who knows the intentions of others, and the proper time and place for doing everything, can win over even a woman who is hard to be obtained.

Men and women, being of the same nature, feel the same kind of pleasure, and therefore a man should marry such a woman as will love him ever afterwards.

[...] though a man loves a girl ever so much, he never succeeds in winning her without a great deal of talking.

It is said that a man does not care for what is easily gained, and desires a thing which can only be obtained with difficulty.

The extent of the love of women is not known, even to those who are the objects of their affection, on account of its subtlety, and on account of the avarice and natural intelligence of womankind.

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Final thoughts…

I don’t know if this is a book I would recommend to anyone ”out of the blue”, but it definitely is a worthwhile read, not so much for the tips of ”congress”, as for its historical account of the culture of India.