Ack! You killed Sunil! You bastards!

Ahh, settle down. He's just having a nap.

I get to pick a book!

happy dancing around the room...

and realizing the terrible pressure. I no longer have many months before the moment of truth. I must choose soon. What if I choose a sucky book?! Should I choose one I've read and know is good, or one that I just really want to read? Good thing I'm not a neurosurgeon or, you know, president of the United States. I would totally crack under the pressure.

deep breath.

I'm a librarian. I can do this. When is it due again?

FYI, we've moved to a 4 week/start-on-Monday system so the next three discussion dates would be 11/8, 12/6 and 1/3/05.

Meep. Would it be easier if we went with the Monday closest to the 15th instead of four week rotation, keeping it close to the middle of the month? Or am I the only one whose confidence in my organizational skills is so low that a revolving date seems like too much to remember?

The 4 week method was my tricksy way of sneaking in a 13th book a year. But honestly, I'm good either way. That would make the next three discussion dates: 11/15, 12/13, and 1/12/05.

It would also be good if we had our next selection ASAP. Pokes libkitty gently. Sees no reaction. Goes off in search of bucket of ice water.

ION, today is discussion start for Small World. Anyone want to jump in?

ION, today is discussion start for Small World. Anyone want to jump in?

I'll throw out a little pre-amble.

One thing to know is this book is sort of a sequel to an earlier novel that Lodge wrote back in the sixties titled Changing Places.

That book (which I never read, and isn't necessary to have read to appreciate Small World) involved the characters Phillip Swallow and Morris Zapp, who both recur in Small World (though Swallow is just a walk-on, Zapp is a major character).

Another thing to note is that Small World is structured like a medieval romance. If you'll recall, Hawthorne described The Scarlet Letter as a Romance, indicating that he wanted a little more latitude than pure realism would allow. Coincidences and the ligaments of plot tend to be more fantastic in a Romance.

Brief Primer on Medieval Romance: Literature courses always make a big stinking deal about what the first novel is. The silly thing is that people read long prose narratives for hundreds of years before the ostensible advent of the novel. These were medieval Romances (capital "R" please), and they generally involved Knights and magic and evil wizards and...stuff that's not unfamiliar to the Buffista readership. The most famous of these was Orlando Furioso, but there were hundreds of Romances. On the continent there is less distinction made between "novel" and "Romance" - indeed the word for "novel" in France is "roman."

The whole point of Don Quixote is that he spends his time reading these medieval romances instead of living life. Then he goes off his rocker and acts them out. Not unlike somebody who spent all their time watching their Buffy and LoTR EEs until they went mildly bonkers and went out into the world trying to act on those nobel ideals.

So, one thing that should be pretty apparent is that all the academic travel here is presented as parallel to the the Grail quest, and even includes a pure character based on Parsifal.

No ice water is necessary, Wolfram! :wink:

Drumroll...

My selection for the next book is:

The Red Tent, by Anita Diamant.

From Library Journal: Skillfully interweaving biblical tales with events and characters of her own invention, Diamant's (Living a Jewish Life, HarperCollins, 1991) sweeping first novel re-creates the life of Dinah, daughter of Leah and Jacob, from her birth and happy childhood in Mesopotamia through her years in Canaan and death in Egypt. When Dinah reaches puberty and enters the Red Tent (the place women visit to give birth or have their monthly periods), her mother and Jacob's three other wives initiate her into the religious and sexual practices of the tribe. Diamant sympathetically describes Dinah's doomed relationship with Shalem, son of a ruler of Shechem, and his brutal death at the hands of her brothers. Following the events in Canaan, a pregnant Dinah travels to Egypt, where she becomes a noted midwife. Diamant has written a thoroughly enjoyable and illuminating portrait of a fascinating woman and the life she might have lived. Recommended for all public libraries. -Nancy Pearl, Washington Ctr. for the Book, Seattle Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

So, one thing that should be pretty apparent is that all the academic travel here is presented as parallel to the the Grail quest, and even includes a pure character based on Parsifal.

smacks forehead

I'm not sure I made the specific connection with the grail, but I got the quest aspect with all of its attendant adventures. Of course all quest stories have a grail aspect, so I probably should have just followed it through.

The structure of plots like this facinate me. The thousand little coincidences and meetings etc that have to be put together just so.

David, I'm sure you've read Confederacy of Dunces, but I'm now convinced that you must read LP&L.

I'm only about a third of the way through this month's book, and I can see that I should wait to read the discussion, because I'm totally lost. I will return.

(Yay, libkitty)

So, one thing that should be pretty apparent is that all the academic travel here is presented as parallel to the the Grail quest, and even includes a pure character based on Parsifal.

Never occurred to me either. Of course if you asked this literary heathen what Medieval Romance novels are, I'd have said gothic bodice-rippers set in the middle-ages, so it's really no surpise.

I did finish the book, but I'm so swamped right now, I'll try and post some layman thoughts tomorrow.

And no bucket for libkitty. Red Tent looks fascinating.

Whew!