Not So Great Expectations

[changeling67]

I have come to the end of my study of Great Expectations for the time being. I must admit to skimming it and I think if it is a book I will be studying, then I will revisit and take notes with the exact essay title in mind. No spoilers, but every Gothic novel has its sinister setting and Satis House is no exception.  Throw in a token mad woman and her brainwashed mini me and bingo - Gothic Central.  Some critics would say that both lead females eventually become sympathetic characters in their own way.  Sometimes I wonder what I am missing, because I think they are both monsters.

There's Mrs Joe, the sadistic husband/nephew beater; Havisham as the rotting Rapunzel, with her virago-in-waiting Estella (another automaton - what IS it with this specific Dickens archetypes?) honed to drive men to make masochistic fools of themselves.  Lots of themes here - social class, sexual inequality and Dickens own deep psyche needs exploring.  Or does it? I think he was a product of his time and he reflects the prejudices and presumptions across the scale.

I am preferring Brick Lane, which is quite a thick book to get through - I am chipping away with it night after night before I go to sleep.  A review on that book another time.

Comments

[koshien.livejournal.com]

I can't really sympathise with the Miss H and Estella either. Miss H is nasty, but Estella is aware of what she is doing and is no mindless tool even though some argue she does keep putting Pip off and discourages him.

Been a while since I read the book though. I was always confused with Pip's obsession with gaining rank/wealth, but then again poverty vs wealth is a big theme in Dickens so I guess it is this books manifestation of that.

How many books do you have to read for your fda this year? Is the workload heavy for coursework and write-ups?

[calico-pye.livejournal.com]

My modules next year are as follows:

Integrative Applied Study - haven't figured out what that entails yet.

The Victorians - Self-explanatory really, hence the Dickens list.

Contextual Study of Film - I have had some media experience, some of this is about tearing apart the filming process and other observations.

Integrative Literary Study - Again, I haven't the foggiest re the criteria - I presume it is the same as Introduction to Literature level 5.

Romanticism - Blake, Keats, Byron et al.

New Technology & Writing - Basically, understanding where the market is going re literature, writing for Kindle etc.

I think they are all project based and will be 5,000-7,000 words per project.

Book List:

Arthur Conan-Doyle: The Lost World; The Poison World
Charles Dickens: Bleak House; Hard Times; Great Expectations; Little Dorrit.
George Eliot: Middlemarch
H.G.Wells: The Time Machine
Hardy: Jude the Obscure
Tennyson: Charge of the Light Brigade; Maud
Evelyn Waugh: Brideshead Revisited

Brontes - Jane Eyre (read it last academic year); Wuthering Heights (read that the year before that)

_____________________________________________________________

Because we are studying The Victorians, it will be all about rank/social class, Marxism, Sexism etc - more of a history/anthropology lesson than purely English.

[bluegerl.livejournal.com]

Oh dear, sorry you didn't feel sorry for Miss H... (I spelt her wrong - tis years since I read GE..) cos I always thought she went all crabby and nasty cos she was --- hehe like I was - unloved and unwanted and deserted and.... so over the years she just got all bitter and twisted!!!

He's not my favourite author tho. I always got a feeling of dark unhealthiness from Dickens. Everyone was miserable. EVERYONE.

Am having a ball with the Existentialists tho right now... laughing me head off at their 'reasonings' and trying to find the answers to ... some damfool questions they don't really know!

And if you want terrific tense twisting writing for pleasure and excitement...I can recommend Robert Little. Honest. he's brilliant wth his characterisations.

[calico-pye.livejournal.com]

|I think that Dickens was the main chronicler for the times, or at least his work has held up the longest. I suppose in some ways he DID aptly portray what Victorian life was like, pretty grim for most. The thing is, I listen to Radio 4xtra on DAB radio - they run a spoof comedy called 'Bleak Expectations' and unfortunately I tend to refer back to that and laugh.

Link to spoof ----------> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdyYQeLR1kA

I think I have had my fill for Dickens, at least for now - I think I will plunder 'Brideshead Revisited' instead, to give myself a break for now.

[bluegerl.livejournal.com]

I think you'll enjoy this new read. Much the 'brighter richer side of life!'

Oh bloody gorgeous... Bleak Expec... oh my goodness and I DO LOVE this sort of damnfool nonsense. Very Monty Python. AND alongside is Old Harry's Game!!!! he was a MUST listen!!

Thanks so MUCH for these.. I just didn't know all this stuff existed. Youtube seems a bottomless pit of gorgeous gunge!!! Music, fun, and corridors of overbrimming laughter and merriment...ahahah ahahah hahahah ahahah - right off to the sitting room......

Thanks AGAIN for your treasures. you really are an Aladdin's Cave!!!

[calico-pye.livejournal.com]

Can you access the BBC website from where you are? If you can, you can hear many podcasts. Radio 4Extra is my favourite because it has comedy on at 10pm. I loved 'Old Harry's Game' and also 'The Museum of Everything.'

Link -------> http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4extra/programmes/schedules/this_week

If you are successful,'Old Harry's Game' is on tonight and the podcast will be available then :-)

[bluegerl.livejournal.com]

I can only get Radio 4... and sometimes... Radio 5 hahaha. (shoots self in head!) so I have to go to the BBC on my PC ... but since I've no idea what is on when as they advertise stuff about a week ahead on the World Service or such places - I miss so much. RIGHT!!

Thanks for the link. I shall use it cos I've found it difficult to get the right programmes to come up. They keep changing the layout too...aaahhh I just was to FIND STUFF...not play hunt the thimble!!! Bless you again.

OOOh hoho Old Harry eh! DO love him. I think I shall ask in Purgatory if I can go to Harry's Hell please.... and watch the Popes and Cardinals all being pregnant all the time! hahaha. what a punishment!