November will be awesome and sleepless
Oct. 19th, 2006 09:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
philenaI must begin by saying that I am planning to enjoy every instant of this weekend, the sleeping-in not least. That is because starting on Monday, I shall have no day off, ever, until December, unless I can get the November schedule changed tomorrow a little. The politics and finagling are too tiresome to go into here, but suffice it to say that I have been offered a part-time job at CCI to take over for a woman who is going on maternity leave very, very soon. (The HR person says it won't be too soon, because she has not yet developed the any-moment-now characteristic waddle of pregnant women, but I must say that the mother-to-be is very, very, very round. Since she's a slender woman to begin with the effect is remarkable.) It will pay quite a bit more than the bakery, and it's a really nice opportunity to become more involved at an office that I'm becoming increasingly fond of. Alas, I shall have to cut down on my translating and industry-brief-writing time, which I'm enjoying tremendously, but it's nice to have some more responsibility. I'd be really happy if it did not require me to work on Fridays, which are right now my one dependable day off, but I'm young and immortal, and after finishing a double major at the UofC I think I can handle it simple work.
I guess now I'll write a little about Henry James, whose Wings of the Dove I'm slogging my way through. I've been at it for over a month, and although I'm making noticeable progress (I passed the half-way mark this week!), I'm becoming very impatient with him. He keeps setting up characters who seem so cool and interesting, but then they become slowly reprehensible, leaving my sympathies nowhere to rest but with the person I was prepared cordially to despise throughout the entire first half of the book! Basil Ransom turned me to Olive in The Bostonians, and Kate Croy and Merton Densher (Kate more strongly, although Mr. Densher's implicit complicity in her plans doesn't leave him too far behind) are turning me to the oh-so-boring Millie. Mommy says that Millie is exquisitely subtle, and she certainly has time to get there, but right now I find it tiresome to be reading about her constant "oh dear, life is so wonderful, I'm so rich and popular, I wonder how long I'll live? I'm sure it can't be long! Yes, I'm a dying waif, fit to arouse pathos in everyone who knows about my imminent death, but of course I'm so proud I won't tell anyone except the reader, whose sympathies I will yank with heart-rending boringness until he's ready to kill me and end the book sooner." I've got to say, James's heroicly stoic deaths really should begin and end with Ralph Touchett in The Portrait of a Lady, and I'd be willing to egg on Kate and Mr. Densher with all the best wishes for their success in their plots against Millie, if not that James writes well enough to make me hate them, too.
I'm being a bit unkind, though. Late James is indeed a slog, but his dialogue is brilliant, and leaves one panting for breath with all the hidden meanings, and his approach towards predictable developments is full of double-bluffs: it appears that one thing is going to happen, (Goodness! Mr. Densher met Millie when he was in New York! Maybe some connection will be formed that will leave Kate Croy in the cold! Poor Kate!) but it's too obvious, and we see later that of course that's not what's going on, (No, Millie has all the best wishes for Kate and Mr. Densher, once she figures out that they're an item, and Kate and Mr. Densher are utterly devoted to each other) but then later still the first espied development is, in fact, what's going on, but with significant differences (Kate sees that Millie likes Mr. Densher, so she encourages the appearance that she cares nothing for him, so that Millie will be sympathetic to his plight, thus loving him and giving him money, which will enable Mr. Densher to marry Kate.). And I don't know what's going to happen now, but judging from how James doesn't like to see his characters settle down happily, I'm betting that Millie will fall for it, except Mr. Densher, who seems like a decent fellow, won't want to continue with the scheme, will ditch Kate, which will break both their hearts, and then Millie will die herself, leaving him all her money, which he'll be too bitter and unhappy to enjoy. Or something. I know everyone's going to end up dead or sad; I just can't see yet how they'll get there.
And for people who don't want the scintillating plot spoiled, I'll just mention that my other reading material right now is the annotated Sherlock Holmes, which is much lighter going and a good break when I feel that my mind is about to get squashed from the weight of the big book. You have not read Holmes until you have read William S. Baring-Gould's annotations.
I guess now I'll write a little about Henry James, whose Wings of the Dove I'm slogging my way through. I've been at it for over a month, and although I'm making noticeable progress (I passed the half-way mark this week!), I'm becoming very impatient with him. He keeps setting up characters who seem so cool and interesting, but then they become slowly reprehensible, leaving my sympathies nowhere to rest but with the person I was prepared cordially to despise throughout the entire first half of the book! Basil Ransom turned me to Olive in The Bostonians, and Kate Croy and Merton Densher (Kate more strongly, although Mr. Densher's implicit complicity in her plans doesn't leave him too far behind) are turning me to the oh-so-boring Millie. Mommy says that Millie is exquisitely subtle, and she certainly has time to get there, but right now I find it tiresome to be reading about her constant "oh dear, life is so wonderful, I'm so rich and popular, I wonder how long I'll live? I'm sure it can't be long! Yes, I'm a dying waif, fit to arouse pathos in everyone who knows about my imminent death, but of course I'm so proud I won't tell anyone except the reader, whose sympathies I will yank with heart-rending boringness until he's ready to kill me and end the book sooner." I've got to say, James's heroicly stoic deaths really should begin and end with Ralph Touchett in The Portrait of a Lady, and I'd be willing to egg on Kate and Mr. Densher with all the best wishes for their success in their plots against Millie, if not that James writes well enough to make me hate them, too.
I'm being a bit unkind, though. Late James is indeed a slog, but his dialogue is brilliant, and leaves one panting for breath with all the hidden meanings, and his approach towards predictable developments is full of double-bluffs: it appears that one thing is going to happen, (Goodness! Mr. Densher met Millie when he was in New York! Maybe some connection will be formed that will leave Kate Croy in the cold! Poor Kate!) but it's too obvious, and we see later that of course that's not what's going on, (No, Millie has all the best wishes for Kate and Mr. Densher, once she figures out that they're an item, and Kate and Mr. Densher are utterly devoted to each other) but then later still the first espied development is, in fact, what's going on, but with significant differences (Kate sees that Millie likes Mr. Densher, so she encourages the appearance that she cares nothing for him, so that Millie will be sympathetic to his plight, thus loving him and giving him money, which will enable Mr. Densher to marry Kate.). And I don't know what's going to happen now, but judging from how James doesn't like to see his characters settle down happily, I'm betting that Millie will fall for it, except Mr. Densher, who seems like a decent fellow, won't want to continue with the scheme, will ditch Kate, which will break both their hearts, and then Millie will die herself, leaving him all her money, which he'll be too bitter and unhappy to enjoy. Or something. I know everyone's going to end up dead or sad; I just can't see yet how they'll get there.
And for people who don't want the scintillating plot spoiled, I'll just mention that my other reading material right now is the annotated Sherlock Holmes, which is much lighter going and a good break when I feel that my mind is about to get squashed from the weight of the big book. You have not read Holmes until you have read William S. Baring-Gould's annotations.