Blasted Book Bouncing
I have a tendency to bounce from book to book. I read a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Many times I sit and read one book in one sitting, but all the books that don’t get read with such vigor are subject to months on end of a chapter here and a chapter there.
Today, I polished off Cassandra Clare’s City of Lost Souls, and while the kiddo napped sat down with a pile of my ‘bouncing’ books. I started by picking up Susan Wise Bauer’s The History of the Ancient World. I read a few chapters of this throughout the week, and plan to have it completed by the end of the year so that I can spend 2013 reading the sequel The History of the Medieval World. Bauer provides excellent histories, educational guides, and other lovely lists, and at any given time there is something written by her sitting on my coffee table with a bookmark or post it note precariously shoved in its pages.
After 30 minutes or so with Bauer, I meandered over to my lit crit shelf and plucked up a copy of The Bookaholics’ Guide to Book Blogs
The Bookaholics’ Guide is lovely and when I am finished reading it, I shall post a full review worthy of a book dedicated to praising book reviewers. But for now, though entirely riveted and already 50 pages in – I am also distracted. Why? Because while reading about all these wonderful blogs and their dedication to their reading and writing and reviewing, there is a portion entirely devoted to the discussion of how tragedies always seem to win over comedies. That got my brain thinking back to the lovely Susan Wise Bauer and the list of novels she provides in The Well-Educated Mind
So of course, in my blasted book bouncing fashion, I pick up the book I am currently reading on the list: Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. I read Chapter One the other day and immediately texted my kindergarten best friend who was an African-American Studies major during her undergrad years, that so far I loved it. (Because unfortunately, I hated reading Native Son by Richard Wright, despite the great skill involved in his story telling, and have been feeling incredibly guilty about it.) Of course, in the midst of being made painfully aware of the sad fact that as a human race we are enraptured by tragedies, I became engrossed in Chapter Two of Invisible Man and nearly died of the overwhelming coincidence.
*SPOILERS*
If you have not read Invisible Man, I suggest you read no further. Unless, you are of the variety of readers who don’t care about spoilers, and then I may cheerfully say, read on.
Chapter Two includes the lengthy tale of Jim Trueblood, a man who has fathered a child with his wife as well as his own grandchild with his daughter in roughly the same time period. I have not yet read beyond Chapter Two, therefore cannot share with you the relevance to the Invisible Man’s story, or the book as a whole, but I can say that I felt ill after reading it.
Poor, oh poor Jim Trueblood (I say with intense sarcasm), who rolled over on his daughter while sleeping and having an odd dream, inserting his penis into her and *accidentally* fathered her child – to everyone’s horror.
Really?! Really!?
Of course, I must read on to discover the significance of it all. But I really don’t want to.
1. If your daughter is that old, she should not be sleeping between her two parents. I don’t care how poor you are. Put the child on the other side of the mother. That’s just common sense. What teenaged daughter wants to sleep between her two parents anyway?
2. I don’t know if I’m supposed to believe Jim Trueblood at this point or not, but I’m with the protagonist on this one – why the hell did Jim Trueblood get a hundred-dollar bill for knocking up his own daughter!? Its absurd. I have a hard time believing that people behave(d) this way.
3. I have a hard time buying this story in the light of the symbolism it supposedly represents: http://students.cis.uab.edu/archived/dlam/Jim%20Trueblood.html, but I look forward to seeing if the rest of the novel makes these proposals more clear. I’ve a huge soft spot for The Great Gatsby and The Natural, so you can imagine how much I adore symbolism.
4. So far, the only African-American/ Black (depending on your version of what is politically correct) fiction that I have ever truly appreciated in my entire life has been the young adult Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
You see, the thing is, I hate reading a book and feeling like the sole purpose is to make me pity the protagonist. Mostly, because I think pity is the ultimate form of disrespect. Why would I want to read a character that I have no respect for? No matter how under the dog, one should not pity the protagonist nor hate them. One shouldn’t see them as less than themselves. I want to read about a fight for equality with some umph. I want to see them prevail over adversity, not wallow in their plight. The things I disliked about Native Son are the same things I disliked about Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love
These are the views the politically correct call me racist over, but I assure you that I have great respect for people of every color, culture, generation, and walk of life. Sometimes, I wish they had a little more respect for themselves. Just remember, never fight the good fight with a plea for pity – its a huge turn off.
Granted, I have only just finished Chapter Two… there is yet more to the story to discover. I hope it lives up to its classic reputation. I don’t want my distaste for unrelated titles to taint my views as I read this work.
Anakalian Whims 
rosecothren said,
September 3, 2012 at 12:50 pm
Unfortunately, your criticism of the Jim Trueblood tale seems to smack of what C. S. Lewis called chronological snobbery. Also, I’m curious about how much African-American fiction you have read and not appreciated. Have you read Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston? Any Toni Morrison? I can’t imagine not appreciating those works. And I think that Invisible Man is AMAZING!
rosecothren said,
September 3, 2012 at 1:00 pm
Well, maybe not chronological snobbery exactly, but some kind of closely related cultural/historical snobbery.
Stephanie said,
September 3, 2012 at 2:02 pm
I haven’t read The Invisible Man, so I can’t pick a side here, but I get where you’re coming from. Sometimes you just hate the protagonist because he’s dumb — and you’re perfectly entitled to that.
But you bring up a good point about something else: Pity is not what should drive your main character. It’s like people who write memoirs — they shouldn’t pity themselves. They shouldn’t whine. They should deal with what comes and have the hindsight to know how they bettered from it. Everyone goes through crap in their lives.
Anakalian Whims said,
September 3, 2012 at 2:33 pm
Exactly. My favorite ‘crap happens but don’t pity me’ memoir is Jeanette Walls’ The Glass Castle. She had crap by the beaucoups but proceeded to deal with everything with love and kindness and the appropriate level of moving on. Its fascinating.
Stephanie said,
September 3, 2012 at 8:50 pm
Agreed. 🙂
rosecothren said,
September 3, 2012 at 2:55 pm
Jim Trueblood is not a main character. And it’s Invisible Man, not The Invisible Man. The lack of definite article is significant. The main character/protagonist is unnamed.
Stephanie said,
September 3, 2012 at 8:50 pm
I think you’re missing the disclaimer where I said I hadn’t read it?
rosecothren said,
September 3, 2012 at 9:02 pm
I didn’t miss it. I just wanted to correct the mistaken impression that Jim Trueblood is a main character/protagonist as well as note the importance of referring to titles correctly–both, I believe, prerogatives of college English professors.
Anakalian Whims said,
September 3, 2012 at 9:49 pm
Haha! I probably am suffering from Chronological Snobbery! I don’t doubt it. That’s why I still plan to read the book. Also, I’m reading off a list of novels that are in chronological order of history.
I admit I have not read much, which is why I requested suggestions. I have a stack of Toni Morrison as well as Zora Neale Hurston (but more than her work, I’m looking forward to her biography, also sitting on my coffee table) that I have yet to tackle, but so far have only read my “required readings” from school which (based on my general distaste for them and the fact that I don’t remember the titles) I think have been poorly selected.
I am glad if Jim Trueblood is not a main character. He took up most of Chapter Two and he irritated me. I look forward to him not being in more of the book. Did I mis-type the title Invisible Man somewhere? I don’t see it. Whether you are a college professor or not, you may always make notes on my blog!
Rose Cothren said,
September 3, 2012 at 11:18 pm
I enjoy following your blog and your eclectic reading adventures.
Rose Cothren said,
September 3, 2012 at 11:20 pm
PS I still think you’re being too hard on Jim Trueblood. Consider his being rewarded with $100 as ironic.
My Classical Re-Education « Anakalian Whims said,
February 14, 2013 at 5:43 am
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