Graham Greene

Besides Virginia Woolf, I find Graham Greene to be the most interesting author we have read this semester. Like Woolf, Greene suffered from mental illness. Graham's illness was bipolar disorder. He attempted suicide in his younger years. He was raised in a boarding house that his father ran. When he was 16 he was sent for psychoanalysis for 6 months! That is a long time to be under observation. He was interested in politics, and organized crime, which we can see with Pinkie and the Colleoni mob in Brighton Rock.

Evelyn Waugh

Evelyn Waugh was a british novelist that lived from 1903-1966. He served in the British Armed Forces during World War II. He attended Hertford College in Oxford . He was married two times. At one point he suffered from Bromide poisoning from pills he was prescribed and thought he was going insane. But once he was off the pills he went back to normal. He converted to Roman Catholicism after the failure of his first marriage.

I am interested in reading his World War II series Sword of Honour.  I have always been interested in WWII and I enjoyed A Handful of Dust, so I think that Sword of Honour will be an interesting read.

Lady Chatterly's Lover

Lady Chatterly's Lover. I wondered, when I finished this novel, why the title says Lover and not Lovers. Because Mellors was not Connie's only lover. Michaelis was her lover also. But maybe the title entails that to be a lover isn't simply engaging in sex, but being in love with a person.

This novel now surpasses Mrs.Dalloway as my favorite novel that we have read in our class. I was surprised at the in depth sexuality expressed in this novel! I was surprised, but also enjoyed it!  I felt a connection to Connie and Mellors. I feel that they both fought against the classes that they were thrown into. Oh Mellors seems like such a sweet heart. I always found myself waiting for the next page so I could find out him and Connie's next sexual endeavor. I loved how they would place flowers on each other and touch each other affectionately.

At first I thought that Lawrence was probably a woman because of his in depth writing about women's feelings. And when I found out he was a man I thought of him as sort of a pervert! LOL! Oh well, I was still entertained and I will definitely check out other novels by him.

Forster

I can not decide if a Passage to India or Mrs.Dalloway are my favorite novels from this class. I like that in both books that the main characters are atheists. I found a Passage to India to be easier to read than Mrs.Dalloway. I did not know that Forster was gay until seeing another student post in the discussion board about it. This is interesting to me because I have many homosexual friends and know their struggles in human rights in the present day. Perhaps his closeted homosexuality influenced him to explore aspects of people treating each other "unpleasantly". I recognize his title "A Room with a View" but I have not read it. When I get free time I think I will read that novel.

Mrs.Dalloway

 I actually got two days in a row off of work this week and just finished Mrs.Dalloway this evening. I like this book the most out of the texts we have read thus far. I like that Peter and Clarissa are atheists! I am an atheist and feel that I, and my atheist friends, are friendlier and more kind than most religious people I have met. I like the Doris Kilman is the religious freak and the book and Clarissa describes her as " clumsy, hot, domineering, hypocritical, eavesdropping, jealous, infinitely cruel, and unscrupulous." (126) I feel the exact same way about most religious people!

I think that Clarissa should have run away with Sally! They seem to get along better than Clarissa and Peter, or Clarissa and Richard. I think Viriginia Woolf was a progressive writer for her times!

The Good Soldier

I had to work 55 hours this last week so I barely got to skim over the book during breaks. But I did watch the movie one night when I got home. I basically got that it was about lies, deception through affairs, and how the aristocracy portrays itself to be classier than they act.

I felt really sorry for Mazzy because she was made out to be the bad one. That is why she killed herself. I got a tinge of the protestants against the catholics. I think it is a crazy story. Edward is a womanizer!

James Joyce

I like this picture of James Joyce because it has the opening lines of his book A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man.


I think that Joyce looks like an interesting man to hang out with. In A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man I got the feeling that Joyce is a sensitive man. He definitely fits the secluded writer stereotype. 

I like that he opens the book with Stephen's father telling him a story. 


I like this quote from A Portrait ;

''I will tell you what I will do and what I will not do. I will not serve that in which I no longer believe, whether it call itself my home, my fatherland, or my church: and I will try to express myself in some mode of life or art as freely as I can and as wholly as I can, using for my defence the only arms I allow myself to use—silence, exile and cunning.'' 

I identify with this quote. I do not believe in religion, and therefore I refuse to celebrate religious holidays such as Christmas. I also will not serve that in which I no longer believe. It is hard to deal with the criticism of my family, but I feel that I have integrity because I stick to my guns.