tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post1266168613289349543..comments2024-03-27T16:48:21.039-05:00Comments on Wuthering <br>Expectations: First chop! - George Eliot's extreme bijou world-nauseaAmateur Reader (Tom)http://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-78617459431833405632015-01-14T09:52:11.784-06:002015-01-14T09:52:11.784-06:00Véra Nabokov acted in the service of readers every...Véra Nabokov acted in the service of readers everywhere.<br /><br />My biggest problems with Eliot are more fundamental. I had the same struggle with <i>Middlemarch</i>, and had the hardest time here with the first couple hundred pages, the parts people like the most. As I moved into the unpopular, risky, and even irritating part of the novel, the <i>German</i> part, I had found my way in.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-6269570242818503552015-01-14T09:27:49.219-06:002015-01-14T09:27:49.219-06:00When having trouble with a book by a writer whose ...When having trouble with a book by a writer whose other works I respect, I find it useful to remember that Cervantes also wrote La Galatea and the Persiles, or that Nabokov wanted to write a novel about evil Siamese twins instead of Lolita until Vera put the kibosh on that plan. Sometimes genii choose subject matter that is extremely hard to execute well, even for them.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-33720418343026779452015-01-14T08:23:23.982-06:002015-01-14T08:23:23.982-06:00What do I mean. A real difficulty in taking the b...What do I mean. A real difficulty in taking the book on its own aesthetic terms, which is some combination of ignorance and resistance, without the creativity that can result in a good misreading.<br /><br />Maybe I was too ambitious at first, too, fighting too hard with the complexity of the book, as if a first reading were the right time for that. Well, it might be if I understood the aesthetic better.<br /><br />Barbara Hardy's introduction was a big help. I should read her book.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-4485124311182908462015-01-14T07:39:21.543-06:002015-01-14T07:39:21.543-06:00Well, you simply must define "reading badly.&...Well, you simply must define "reading badly." Methinks you are too hard on yourself. Perhaps you are being ironic and I am too dimwitted to sense your ironic deflections.R.T.https://www.blogger.com/profile/13220814349193561823noreply@blogger.com