Manly Months Humor

Time to start Manly Months!  Best to start these things with some fun.

Like many people do on a Friday night, I was looking up Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor, and came across this video.  Then I saw the size of this organ and said, "Holy Cow, look at the size of that organ!".

And then the response popped in my head.  You score 3 extra Rambler points for guessing the correct response.

Book Review: Bartleby, The Scrivener, by Herman Melville (1853)

This was a strange little short story.  Remember Moby Dick?  Remember it's depth and symbolism and all that yada yada?  Well, this was written by the same person.  People have come up in arms to defend this short story and explain all its depth and symbolism and yada yada.

It's about a Wall Street lawyer who hires a copyist (scrivener) who doesn't want to do anything.  There. Done.  Finis.

But wait, there's more!  We are drawn into this character and want to understand him.  His name is Bartleby.  And whenever he is asked to do anything, he replies with the simple phrase, "I would prefer not to."

Book Review: The Death of Ivan Ilych, by Leo Tolstoy (1886)

The anger and frustration and confusion and pain of a dying man, surrounded by people who have little or no concern for him at all.  His entire life has boiled down to a few friends who are nothing more than coworkers interested in his position, and a family that does not love him but thinks of him as a burden.  That's this book in a nutshell.  It's famous as one of Leo Tolstoy's great achievements, a mastery of the mind.

Depending on which version you have, his name might be Ilych or Ilyich or even Ilyitch.  The first chapter is interesting, the next few chapters are pretty dull.  Then you find yourself drawn back in as Ivan Ilych slowly becomes aware of his illness, is then stymied by it, then the slow downfall as it controls him, and then as it ultimately consumes him.

Grab a Can of Manly!

Okay men, listen up.  We're going to start having more manly books on this review site.  After reading Cranford I thought I was going to grow boobs.

So put on your mad faces.  That's right.  Now give me a GRRRRR!

Yes!  Let that testosterone flow.

Starting in April, we're going to read King Solomon's Mines.  You heard me right, maggots!  Allan Quatermain.  The original Indiana Jones.  Adventure, murder, travel through Africa, treasure, intrigue.  You got it!

Book Review: Cranford, by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell (1851)

Let me start by saying I had no idea this was mid-1800s chick lit when I started reading it.  I plead ignorance.  But I will try to give it an honest review, although I hold the "man card" in reserve to say something "ignernt" as we go on.

Elizabeth Gaskell is a fine writer.  When I pick up a modern novel, half the time it leaves me wondering how the author got through high school.  But with older novels I never see that.  Most published 19th century authors knew how to write.  They knew their grammar, they understood sentence structure, and they were familiar with style.  I don't think my own writing stacks up to most of the 19th century writers I've read.

Book Review: Tess of the d'Urbervilles, by Thomas Hardy (1891) - Society and End Game

Now I want to talk about society at large, and how this book was accepted.  When I read this I kept thinking how crazy it was that people would really treat Tess so badly.  Hardy seemed to be overdoing it.  But then it turns out that this book was actually turned down by several publishers "on the grounds that it was immoral in its sympathetic depiction of a fallen woman."  What?  I double checked that source and its true.  That was a quote by Professor Patrick Allitt, Historian at Emory University.

Book Review: Tess of the d'Urbervilles, by Thomas Hardy (1891) - Tess's Parents

Tess's parents were classic white trash.  They, more than anyone, were responsible for Tess's downfall.  I would blame her family far more than Alec because her family allowed her to go in harm's way - actually placed her there - and then blamed her for the consequences.  They were awful parents.  After Tess got pregnant, they thought of her as a blight on their family name, when she was actually the best of the bunch.  The father rarely worked, and Hardy gave a comical description of him.

Durbeyfield was what was locally called a slack-twisted fellow; he had good strength to work at times; but the times could not be relied on to coincide with the hours of requirement; and, having been unaccustomed to the regular toil of the day-labourer, he was not particularly persistent when they did so coincide.

Book Review: Tess of the d'Urbervilles, by Thomas Hardy (1891) - Angel vs Alec

I finally finished this book.  I won't say it was an enjoyable task, probably because this book is just a single story, a straight shot at a predetermined end that the readers guess very soon into the novel.

It was a story of a young woman, not much more than a girl, with two men who "love" her.  Both are villains.  Now wait, hold on.  Let me explain, before the mob masses with their pitchforks.  This is what I mean when I say I "tear down the idols of literature".

Book Review: Tess of the d'Urbervilles, by Thomas Hardy (1891) - Quaint Traditions and Culture Shock

Something Thomas Hardy gives us in this novel is a look at the culture of the outlying villages.  It reminded me a bit of how some modern books give you that weird glimpse of a backwoods culture.  Andy of Mayberry gone bad.  The Waltons meet the Deliverance rednecks.  But occasionally, that old culture will have a brush with the new.

Dance, You Crazy Daddy-O

We used to hang out in Buckhead - club central of Atlanta.  We'd go to the clubs, go dancing with friends.  Chillin', lookin' hot. We had it going on.

Then we got married.  And moved to the suburbs.  Kids.  Cub Scouts.  Soccer practice.  Bake sales.

My 10 year old daughter put Just Dance 4 into the Wii, and I figured this is a good chance to show her my old moves.

Book Review: Tess of the d'Urbervilles, by Thomas Hardy (1891) - Rural England

Thomas Hardy is a master of bringing rural England to life in literature.  He is one of the best writers of agrarian culture found in Victorian literature.  When I read Tess, or Jude, or Far From the Madding Crowd, there are parts of it that flow smooth as silk, giving beautiful descriptions of everyday rural life.