Book Discussion

[btvaughn]

Let's just have a thread where we can discuss a particular book at one time. It's not really the same as any of the other threads, so.....

I guess you could say we're on Ethan Frome right now, but if you have another just say so!

But anyways, I do think the symbolism in the book was amazing, like I said in my pm. The New England setting just represents isolation. And if you think about it, so many other times just point to being alone. Like the snowstorm, sledding in the dark, and Zeena being so out of it!

 

[Victoria King]

i know you hit that right on, and yes edith wharton uses symbolism alot, which i love!im a symbolism nut! another thing that symbolizes that loneliness is zeena going to the doctors alone, and when ethan looks at the graves before mattie, just himself and trapped! i always love good symbolism!
another thing about ethan frome is was mattie as care-free and innocent as we all thought, i mean the color red is used for passion but it could also mean evil or sin as well, and dark, her teasing (whats his name i forget, that guy that wanted her.....HELP!) and with the thought of suicide, and at the end we see her critical side come out when she is stranded to that chair!and ethan to that house!they are always tethered to something never free to do as they please even though they have their own minds

 

[btvaughn]

This is what I love....none of my friends seem to ever want to just discuss books!

I guess I never really thought about the red symbolization. Love yes....but death and misery as well.
Which is what I loved about the part with Ethan at the grave.....he just seemed so lost and left in despair that I wanted to cry for him. Which in a sense is why I wanted to just pity him and not Zeena's craziness.
And to answer your question....it was Denis Eady. I was kind of surprised how he jumped out of the book so quickly. First Mattie is teasing and flirting, then she and Ethan are trying to solve the battle of love.
But I do have one question for you. Was Zeena ACTUALLY ever sick? Or was it all just a plot of whining and being annoying?

 

[Victoria King]

no she wasnt ever! she was a hypochondriac i think....which just makes you want to hurt her even more becuase thats the reason why ethan stayed to take care of her in the first place!! i loved the pickle dish breaking and the chair and the cat while mattie and ethan were alone, constantly reminding them that zeena was still alive and will always be in their minds!

and i know about ppl discussing books! im in my school's literay circle i love it! we have a meeting friday morning(AUGH! morning but we get donuts!!)

 

[btvaughn]

I wish our school had one! Sometimes I wish I could just find friends who'd be willing to just go to a coffeehouse and talk about literature!

So if Zeena wasn't sick.....why did Ethan always pick up medicine for her? Just to play along with the game? And the dish breaking was a great moment! My friend and I were quite interested at the way Mattie reacted. It was such a change from the emotional high to a panicked little girl. And then Ethan comforts her and it brings so much of the book together.

And the symbolism is great.....I liked the ones in the Scarlet Letter especially!

 

[nance]

wow this book sounds great! what is title? Ethan Frome??

 

[Victoria King]

btvaughn i know, there are soo many sides to mattie that we never see, only get glimpses of! and i loved the scarlett letter!!loved it, i love hawthorne one of my fav writers because of detail and symbolism, at the beginning of the book with the rose outside of the jail growing from nothing it was like thats pearl, a beautiful life from sin and nothing!!!

and yes this will be our coffeehouse!my mom says when i go to colleg i'll be at coffeehouses reading and talking and my boyfriend will be a guy who plays the guitar!HA!
and nance, yep, ethan frome very good!

 

[btvaughn]

You should read it nance! then come back and tell us your favorite parts....I love discussing it!

Ethan Frome was just wonderful....it was a simple book with so much depth and emotion. Everyone seemed to think it was just depressing, but it was all character. You as the reader had to figure out the end, Zeena's reasoning, and Mattie and Ethan's "illicit" love affair. But the sled ride was definitely my favorite part.

And Hawthorne....just incredible. I loved the part where Pearl is in the forest and the sunlight seems to be hiding from Hester Prynne, but seems to follow Pearl everywhere. And then the part where Dimmesdale finally "reveals" himself and the reader has to figure out what is on his chest....an A grown from guilt...

 

[nance]

ok! i'll go to the library tomorow!

 

[a.k.a.Kate_Jones]

one book I deseratly want to read and discuss is You Can't Go Home Again, by Thomas Wolfe, but I'm saving it for this summer, and I've only just begun A Room Of One's Own, by Virgina Woolf (okay, so I was hanging out in the W section of the library. )

 

[Victoria King]

LOL!i really want to read a virgina woolf story(mainly bc of the hours and the play who is afraid of virgina woolf?!LOL!)

btvaughn, i loved that scene with pearl and when pearl saw her mother with her down and the A torn off! i just loved hyster prynne's character! so strong willed yet tormented by her own pride and by the pride of others

 

[btvaughn]

I looked up You Can't Go Home Again....and it looks really good. We should all read it this summer and discuss!

Another good scene in Scarlet Letter was the one where they saw the A in the sky and I believe everyone thought it meant angel because someone had just died, but in reality it was for Dimmesdale and Hester.

 

[btvaughn]

What other books are there? We haven't had much time to read this school year, but over the summer we had to read My Antonia and All Quiet on the Western Front. I liked the latter the best, even though it was so graphic!

 

[Victoria King]

here is my list for the summer that i would like to read and then we can all vote on our favorites!(then discuss!!!)
- wuthering heights(never read it and i really want to!!!)
- the little friend(its a new one and i forget the author but it sounds really good)
-you cant go home again (i agree with you we should read this one!)
- mrs. dalloway
- getting over it(hey we need some fluff in the mix as well!!!lol)

before school is out im asking my literary circle advisor what books i should read over the summer, right now im reading daughters of fortune and i like it even though im only on the first chapter!LOL!

about the scene in scarlett letter, i know! i loved that scene, i think its how one can misinterepte symbols and signs to what they are thinking of, if their mind is set on a certain thing than you think of that one thing instead of something else as it is supposed to....thats what i got from that scene...dont know if its right!

have you guys read pride and prejudice? i loved that book! i loved all the witty comments by mr darcy! and i loved how it ended with....if you have read it then you know but if you havent i dont wont to spoil it for you!

 

[nance]

hmm... i got Pride and Prejudice from the library along with like 8 other books and didn't get a chance to get to it! i guess i'll borrow it again!

omg you guys... please read Tuesdays with Morrie! It's so sweet and sad and it's about living your life to the fullest even if you're going to die the next month. and it's theme-- LoVe. I want to type a excerpt for you but i'm at skewllll on a saturday yup yup very very sad!!!! -_-

 

[nance]

ok i'm back home now! here's a little excerpt from Tuesdays With Morrie, (this isn't illegal right?? i'm just quoting from the book!), it's one of my favortie parts of the book:

"Have I told you about the tension of opposites?" he says.
The tension of opposites?
"Life is as series of pulls back and forth. You want to do one thing, but you are bound to do something else. Something hurts you, yet you know it shouldn't. You take certain things for granted, even when you know you should never take anything for granted.
"A tension of opposites, like a pull on a rubber band. And most of us live somewhere in the middle."
Sounds like a wrestling match, I say.
"A wrestiling match." He laughs. "yes, you could describe life that way."
So which side wins, I ask?
"Which side wins?"
He smiles at me, the crinkled eyes, the crooked teeth.
"Love wins. Love always wins."
such a sweet book!

 

[btvaughn]

Wow...that sounds so sweet! I'm definitely going to have to read it! And The Little Friend does sound like a good read!

And Victoria....I read Pride and Prejudice too. I absoluely loved it! It's those scenes between Darcy and Elizabeth that make the story such a great read! We should definitely discuss it....unless someone hasn't read the end yet!

And with the Scarlet Letter....you're interpretation is exactly the way I took it. We, as a whole in society, look only for what we want. It's not always the truth, but what pleases us.

 

[Victoria King]

exactly! we only see what we want to see or if our minds are on something else, we see that in everything and everything else takes a back seat! and of course you think you are right in thinking that way when you could be competly wrong!
im glad other ppl interpet books like me!!!

and tomorrow if no one has posted that they havent read pride and prejudice we should discuss, i loved that book! soo much, i know what you mean about their interactions, most of them are just plain hilarous! then others you just want to yell at them for being soo petty and stupid!LOL

okay for our summer reading list, the little friend and the one by thomas wolfe???anymore?

 

[crazy spinster]

mmm... pride & prejudice. one of my all time favorite books!! not a surprise that bridget jones is also a favorite since it was based on p&p. i loved how helen fielding updated it.

but back to p&p. have you all seen the bbc/a&e miniseries? the BEST adaptation ever. i have the dvd.

p&p is my favorite jane austen novel. it's definitely the easiest one to get into, in my opinion. my favorite quote:

"But above all, above respect and esteem, there was a motive within her of goodwill which could not be overlooked. Gratitude not merely for having once loved her, but for loving her still well enough to forgive all the petulance and acrimony of her manner in rejecting him, and all the unjust acussations accompanying her rejection."

^_^

 

[Victoria King]

you sound like one of my best friends! which is a good thing, she is always on about bridget jones diary(the one who got me to read it, which i loved!)
and yes i have seen that a&e miniseries(i borrowed it from the above mentioned friend!LOL!) very well adapted and almost identical i thought! one of the best book adaptions as well!