I tend to put Surfacing in because of the way it deals with gender and identity. In some respects, I feel it is the most "Canadian" of her novels

To me that's why Surfacing will not be the canonical Atwood book; because she was consciously trying to write the Great Canadian Novel it's not universal enough. I'd plump for Cat's Eye along with everyone else, although Alias Grace might come close.

I know I've readSurfacing, but my pick for canonical Atwood would be either Cat's Eye or The Robber Bride does. Cat's Eye is closest to the bone, but the language in The Riobber Bride sticks with me endlessly.

As for Irving, I read it all in high school. I think Owen Meaney and Garp were my favorites. (I still haven't read A Widow forOne Year, though)

Still, I could see this book, and possibly the sequels, being taught in English classes 20 years from now.

I think it's an excellent snapshot of the era, and in a way Maupin is a modern Dickens. I'm not sure it will be taught, but I hope it will be read.

And I went to the library today! Got The Things They Carried, Augusten Burrough's Dry, and The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford because the idea of a completely unreliablenarrator fascinates me.

Owen Meany and Garp are my favorite Irving books, but I also have an odd love for A Son of the Circus.

I think "The Color Purple" will be read for a long time. Not so sure about other AW.

Polter, my lamb, your long quote from Faulkner crystalized a character development point I'd been having with a long fic I'm working on and gave me the key for why the character is going to do what that character is going to do. t hugs and kisses

Part of me is horrified for using a classic author to drive a piece of vampire fanfic, the other part is patting me on the head and going "You're so smart, using all your resources, go, you." Guess which part I'm listening to.

I think I approach 'literary criticm' in an odd way-- I was an undergraduate Literature major, and about 1/2 way through I really discovered that what I loved about literature was not necessarily the language-- but what the literature of a time told me about it's people and how that compared to today's worldview.

Yeah. We did integrated studies, so lit was tied in with myth was tied in with history and politics. It meant that the one time I had a class where things weren't integrated, I was bored stiff.

Which is probably why I'm the Surfacing weirdo, because Dani's point:

To me that's why Surfacing will not be the canonical Atwood book; because she was consciously trying to write the Great Canadian Novel it's not universal enough.

while probably correct as to why it will be something like Cat's Eye instead, is exactly *why* I would put it in. Though for those of you at home, if you must read one Atwood, make it Lady Oracle, which is her most entertaining novel.

I'm hoping you don't pattern your life too closely on his....

Don't worry. I've already outlived him, anyway.

As I've noted before, the damn thing opens with a bunch of dead puppies strung over the back of a chair. Dead puppies! That'll catch your attention.

Whoa! How'd I miss the dead puppies? *looks* I can't find the bloody dead puppies. I mean, there's the living dogs with mean dispositions, but no dead puppies.

The overwhelming image from Beloved that sticks with me a so profoundly disturbing is the image of a black man in a bit (like a horses bit).

For me, it's the cow-fucking.

P-C has inspired me to give Faulkner another go, which is something that up until two days ago I would've sworn on a stack of the collected sacred texts of every culture on the planet I'd never, never do.

*beams* Awesome. I'm so inspirational. If you do Sound and the Fury, I do suggest having Cliffs Notes handy, but I was able to make sense out of Absalom, Absalom! using only the chronology and genealogy in the back. Then again, I was also four years older. I'm not sure what Faulkner is less impenetrable than those two.

I'm ashamed to admit that Handmaid's Tale is the only Atwood I've ever read, and now I feel very urgently that I need more;

JZ is me, except I've always been meaning to read more, although yes, it now feels far more urgent.

Polter, my lamb, your long quote from Faulkner crystalized a character development point I'd been having with a long fic I'm working on and gave me the key for why the character is going to do what that character is going to do.

Yay! I'm glad to have helped you. I love that passage so much, because I identify with it so strongly. I love the imagery of all people being connected like that, such that anything we do can affect someone else, and then the wish to leave a mark on the world in stone, something permanent and undying.

I'm on Chapter 8 of Wuthering Heights now, and it's actually rather interesting how it resembles Absalom, Absalom! somewhat. You have the young male protagonist being told the story of a complicated family by an older woman.

I liked reading Sound and the Fury without the Cliffs Notes. I'd read some other stream-of-consciousness books with Cliffs Notes or similar, and it made me feel like I always had to keep checking over there whenever I didn't get something. With SatF, I just kept reading, and felt much more like I was really getting Benjy and seeing everything through his eyes. (Of course, I was reading this in a class with a really great teacher, so I knew that, if something really didn't make sense, I could ask about it and discuss it later.)

Meara....

I read the latter right after reading 1984, and I liked 1984 better, though I understand they're two different books.

I read BNW right after 1984, or tried to. I found 1984 so depressing, I couldn't get more than about three pages into it before I had to give up and go read a Garfield collection. Still haven't picked it back up.

Tangentially - I did read a non-fiction book by Neil Postman called Amusing Ourselves to Death, about how TV is causing the destruction of society. In the introduction he talked about how everyone had been afraid of 1984 becomming a reality, when that was never really a danger - we'd seen fascism and its ilk, and were on guard now. What we were in serious danger of succumbing to was the willing blissful idiocy of BNW.

I didn't entirely agree with his premise, but found it to be an intruiging book anyway.

(I just recently reread Red Mars, and was left with the same impression -- the characters are believable and well-drawn, but they're not in charge.)

Yes! I still haven't finished Blue Mars, but the first two books are so sweeping and vast. The books have some great set-piece scenes, too - Green Mars features the fall of a space elevator cable.

I can't believe there's no one in here to squee with me over the antique KSM. 1893 people!!!

I'll squee over it, Heather! SQUEEE!!! You should still post those scans.

(Sean (K), if you see this, this is what amused me about my compliment to you in GWW)

Now it all makes sense.

BTW- Whenever Sean is around, I have mentioned your Hamlet theory last night at the bar and several of the patrons would like to know where they sign up to make out with you.

t packs bags to move to Texas

I found 1984 so depressing, I couldn't get more than about three pages into it before I had to give up and go read a Garfield collection. Still haven't picked it back up.

Brave New World is far less depressing, for the most part, and is much funnier. Until the last third or so, and the final image is quite the downer.