Reading Hemingway

For Whom the Bell Tolls
Summary: Robert Jordan, an Professor from Montana, is fighting a guerrilla war against the Fascists in Spain. He is ordered to blow up a bridge, a difficult assignment. In a few days before his assignment, he meets the band of Pablo in the mountains, the band that is supposed to help him blow the bridge. But the band creates problems for Robert and it becomes a difficult assignment. He meets Pilar, Pablo's wife, who is quite the character, also he meets Maria, a 19 year old that was protected by Pilar in the mountains after her family was executed in her village. Maria and Robert fall in love. They have three moving days of love before the assignment to blow up the bridge. Robert eventually is killed escaping after he successfully blows the bridge.

My take:
I was moved by this book. Hemingway writes like a man, a man's man. This book was quite the departure from A Farewell To Arms, which was nihilistic and had a feeling of hopelessness. This book was the opposite. Robert Jordan was glad to have lived in this world and to have had the chance to make it a little better. He was glad to fight and to live and then die for his cause. The characters were so real and rich and I couldn't put the book down.

A Farewell to Arms
Summary:
Lt. Frederic Henry, another American fighting in a foreign war, this time World War 1 in the Italian Front, is an ambulance driver that gets in good with a set of Italians fighting the Austrians. Henry is first wounded from a mortar, is operated on, and then sent back to the front lines. During his recovery, he has a relationship with a nurse, Catherine Barkley, an English Nurse, whom he impregnates. Henry is sent back to the front after healing his knee. While in the front, the Italians have to retreat from an advance of German and Austrian fighters. The dynamics of the war change very quickly. The peasant soldiers turn on the Italian officers. The officers are picked out from the crowd of retreating Italians by the military police, who summarily execute the Italian officers for retreating. Henry gets caught with the other Italian officers and is about to be executed when he makes a dash for it and falls in the river. He eventually escapes and finds his way back to Catherine in a town in Italy. They make a brave escape to Switzerland in the middle of the night. They reach Switzerland and there they wait for the baby to come. The baby comes, but he is dead. Catherine soon dies afterwards from complications while giving birth.

My take:
An incredible book. It doesn't seem to be as well written as For Whom the Bell Tolls, but it is a great read itself. From this book, it seems the end result is nihilistic and hopeless. Henry describes a time when he was at the front and was burning a log with a bunch of ants on it. The ants would go from one side of the log to the other, but they could not escape the fire. Henry could have saved the ants, like a Messiah, but instead, he poured water on the log, which steamed the ants to death. Henry must have seen a similar sort while he was fighting the Austrians. Soldiers running from one side of the valley to the other, only to face death on each side. There was no Messiah to save them. In the end, the soldiers died the same as the ants.

The Sun Also Rises
Summary:
Jake Barns returns from World War 1 and is finding himself and his life in France and then Spain with a cadre of fellow writers and a lady, Brett Ashley. There is a love triangle going on where Barns loves Ashley, but she's always involved with other men. Barns and a group of friends find their way around Paris and France and Spain, enjoying the cafes and drinking, always drinking. Barnes eventually gets to Spain where he fishes for trout and then makes his way to the bull fights. While there enjoying the festivities, a group of his friends have a falling out, and Brett and the group disbands after enjoying the bull fighting.

My take:
I liked this book very much. It almost has the same format as A Moveable Feast, which I really enjoyed. In all the books I've read from Hemingway, there's always drinking, eating, and love. I've never read an author so concerned with what the characters were always eating, which I enjoy. The end line of the book, "isn't it pretty to think so," reminds me of the dreams we all live in, helping us make it through this life. At the end, Barns realizes the dream will never come, and it's pretty to think of it as happening, but he knows it never will, which was being in love with Brett and her loving him back and they would live happily together. He realizes this won't happen, and he's been living in a dream. This is also a similar theme in The Death of a Salesman, where they say they've been living in a dream for 10 years.

Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huck Finn

I finished Tom Sawyer this afternoon. I finished Huck Finn a couple of weeks ago.

Tom Sawyer

Tom Sawyer is a much better book than Huck Finn. Tom's character shines through the book on numerous occasions: taking the licking for his girl, coming back to his aunt to say that he was just playing pirate so not to worry her, testifying against Injun Joe to save the life of a drunkard even though Injun Joe would probably kill him, sticking up for Huck Finn and helping to make him rich with finding the buried treasure, helping his girlfriend stay alive in the caves when they were lost, etc.,

Tom is an orphan who is raised by his Aunt. He gets into all kinds of mischief. It's an interesting book that takes place in the middle 1800s. The book was published in 1876.

The book captures the seeming naiveté of a 12 year old, similar to Peter Pan, the twilight hour of childhood before the reality of the world takes hold on the mind into adulthood.

Huck Finn

This book followed Tom Sawyer. To me, it read more like a parody than a novel. While there was a certain sense of believable realism to Tom Sawyer, the story of Huck was full of frauds, people that loved to lie. So much so the book became a bit ridiculous. Huck loved to tell lies, The King and the Duke told the craziest lies, and the whole time the slave, Jim, was just trying to get to safety.

The modern framing of this book tends to weigh the friendship of Huck and the slave, Jim, as the focal of the story, but this is absurd once you read it. This book is almost nothing about Jim, except for him being a side story as an observer to Huck's misadventures. Huck is torn wether or not to help Jim free himself, and when it comes down to it, is nearly beside himself when he learns that if Jim frees himself, then Jim is going back for his wife, and god forbid, his children.

"Here was this nigger which I had as good as helped to run away, coming right out flat-footed and saying he would steal his children-children that belonged to a man I didn't even know, a man that hadn't ever done me no harm. I was sorry to hear Jim say that, it was such a lowering of him."

Unlike in Tom Sawyer, the word 'nigger' is used throughout the book, while in Tom Sawyer, maybe a couple of times. It would be very uncomfortable reading Huck Finn with African-Americans in the classroom. In fact, the book is much  more racist than Tom Sawyer. It's hard to believe people think this book is about the friendship between Huck and Jim. Have they ever read the book? 

For instance, here a line from the book showing the language throughout the book: "Sold him? I says, and begun to cry; 'why, he was my nigger, and that was my money. Where is he? I want my nigger.'
Both of these books are good reads, but I feel quite a let down to think these works are the tops of American Literature. If that's actually the case, this is a pretty sad grand oeuvre for America. 

Book Reads This Past Week

I haven't updated my reviews, and the read books keep piling up, so I'm going to do a review blast to get caught up.

These were the books I've read since my last update:

• The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Tolstoy
  
  This book by Tolstoy was first published in 1886. It was an interesting read, and it was more like a modern book about life and death than any other novel I've read. Ivan dies. The book then does a flash back and Ivan talks about his life where he did everything right for all the right reasons, and at the end when he's about to die, he realizes he made a mistake living this way:
  
  “What if my whole life has been wrong?”
  "In them he saw himself – all that for which he had lived – and saw clearly that it was not real at all, but a terrible and huge deception which had hidden both life and death."
  
  "And he had to live thus all alone on the brink of an abyss, with no one who understood or pitied him"
  This book makes me feel grateful for taking the time to read these classics. 

• The Great Gatsby
  
  This was one of the dumbest books I've read in awhile. I can't believe the culture chooses this book for students to read. It's not very deep, the characters are lusting are shallow and daft. It's almost like it's a book for those that don't like to read books. It's about big parties, college prestige, name dropping, fancy shirts and large houses.
  
  Quotes:
  
  "She vanished into her rich house, inter her rich, full life..."
  
  "Daisy gleaning like silver, safe and proud above the hot struggles of the poor."

• Clockwork Orange
  
  This book was a bit difficult to get through with the slang:
  
  So I swished with the britva at his left noga in its very tight tight and I slashed two inches of cloth and drew malenky drop of krovvy to make Dim real bezoomny.
  
  But it was an interesting book about modernism. A young man, about the age of 15, terrorizes the people in his town, rapes and beats old people, and eventually kills an old lady. Alex, the hoodlum, then gets sent into prison where he murders another inmate. Alex is then volunteered to take a new form of brainwashing that makes his body ill every time he thinks of doing violence, which is quite often. This leads him to be set free. Overall, the book is a outline of the formation of a totalitarian society, where the violent youth are allowed to roam free so the government can then come down and restrict the freedoms of the people in the name of clearing the streets. It's an excellent book on modernism and coupled with One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, it is a great combination of where we are as a society.
  
  "Does god want goodness or the choice of goodness."

• Pastures of Heaven
  
  A great series of shorts stories about the people that live in the valley of the Pastures of Heaven. This book wasn't as rich as his Cannery Row or Tortilla Flats, but it still was a great read. These were some of my favorite quotes:
  
  Quotes:
  
  "When they saw it was a beautiful baby, they did not know what to say. Those feminine exclamations of delight designed to reassure young mothers that the horrible reptilian creatures in their arms are human and will not grow up to be monstrosities, lost their meaning."
  
  "Pretty babies, Katherine said to herself, usually turn out ugly men and women."
  
  "They have seem every uncovered bit of you, have tabulated and memorized the clothes you are wearing, have noticed the color of your eyes and the shape of your nose, and, finally, Have reduced your figure and personality to three or four adjectives, and all the time you thought they were oblivious to your presence."

• Cannery Row
  
  Another great Steinbeck read. This one, to me, was about Doc and his strength of character at brining together a community, and just being a sane, reasonable man. It has the elements of the bums life, which Steinbeck does a much better job in Tortilla Flats, so the bums are just a side-show to the character of Doc.
  
  Quotes:
  
  "Mack was the Elder, leader, mentor, and to a small extent the exploiter of a little group of men who had in common no families, no money, and no ambitions beyond food, Drink, and contentment."
  
  "What can it profit a man to gain the whole world and to come to his property with the gastric ulcer, a blown prostate, and bifocals?"
  
  "Mac and the boys avoid the trap, walk around the poison, step over the noose while a generations of trapped, poisoned, and trussed-up men scream at them and call them no-goods, come-to-bad-ends, blots on the town, thieves, rascals, bums."
  
  "Hazel grew up – did four years and grammar school, four years and Reform school, and didn't learn anything in either place."
  
  "Innocent of viciousness"
  
  "His name was Francis Almones and he had a sad life, for he had always made just a fraction less than he needed to live."
  
  "Doc still loved true things but he knew it was not a general love and it could be a very dangerous mistress."
  
  "They did not measure their joy in goods sold, their egos in bank balances, nor their loves in what they cost."
  
  "In a time when people tear themselves to pieces with ambition and nervousness and covetousness, they are relaxed. All of our so called successful men are sick men, with bad stomachs, and bad souls, but Mack and the boys are healthy and curiously clean."
  
  "They can do what they want."
  
  "They can satisfy their appetites without calling them something else."
  
  "They could get it, doc said, they could ruin their lives and get money. They just know the nature of things too well to be caught in that wanting."
  
  "It is always seems strange to me said doc, the things we adore in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first they love the produce of the second."
  
  "Oh, it isn't a matter of hunger. It's something quite different. The sale of souls to gain the whole world is completely voluntary and almost unanimous - but not quite."

• Tortilla Flats by Steinbeck
  This has been one of my favorite Steinbeck books so far. No one can make the bum's life sing like Steinbeck. He basically makes saints out of the bums, and does so with such an eloquent and rich pen that you can't help but agree with him. A veteren named Danny inherits some property from his grandfather. Danny is a bum and prefers the bum life, so he is a little hesitant to take the two houses that were left to him. But he does. And he invites his friends over to stay with him, and they go on many bum adventures. The last of the book ends with a wild party where Danny gets drunk and falls of a cliff. One of my favorite books by Steinbeck.
  
  Some quotes:
  
  
  "When you have 400 pounds of beans in the house, you need have no fear of starvation. Other things delicacies such as sugar, tomatoes, peppers, coffee, fish, or meat, become sometimes miraculously, through the intercession of the Virgin, sometimes through injury or cleverness; but your beans are there, and you are safe. Been are a roof over your stomach. Beans are warm cloak against economic cold."
  
  
  "The friends slept on the floor, and their bedding was unusual. Pablo had three sheepskins stitched together. Jesus Mary had retired by putting his arms through the sleeves of one old overcoat and his legs through the sleeves of another. Pilon wrapped himself in the big strip of carpet. Most of the time big Joe simply curled up like a dog and slept in his cloths."
  
  
  "Thus do the gods speak with tiny causes."

• Treasure Island
  
  The story about a youth named Jim whose father dies in the first part of the book, and then goes on a rather large adventure with Long John Silver, a captain of the Jolly Roger, to find some buried treasure. This book was pretty incredible. An enjoyable ride in the life of a pirate. It wasn't not very deep, but the story was rich.
  
  "Fifteen men on the dead man's chest—              Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum! Drink and the devil had done for the rest—              Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!"
  "I never in my life saw men so careless of the morrow; hand to mouth is the only word that can describe their way of doing"
  "English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Georges, and Louises, doubloons and double guineas and moidores and sequins, the pictures of all the kings of Europe for the last hundred years, strange Oriental pieces stamped with what looked like wisps of string or bits of spider's web, round pieces and square pieces, and pieces bored through the middle, as if to wear them round your neck—nearly every variety of money in the world must, I think, have found a place in that collection; and for number, I am sure they were like autumn leaves, so that my back ached with stooping and my fingers with sorting them out."
  "As for Ben Gunn, he got a thousand pounds, which he spent or lost in three weeks, or to be more exact, in nineteen days, for he was back begging on the twentieth."
  
  

• Old Yeller
  
  I first watched this show as a kid. What a messed up movie to show a youth. Whenever you have to kill your own dog, that may be a lesson that doesn't need teaching. But in the end, it was a decent read on the pioneer life in early America.
  
  "She could feed the chickens compact and wood, cook cornbread, wash dishes, wash little Arliss, and sometimes even change the Prickleypear poultice on Monday."
  
• Candide
  
  I love Voltaire's writing. It's light and fun, but also deep and meaningful. Candide makes the Grapes of Wrath look like a trip to Disneyland. Candide is a young man that goes on a series of horrible adventures. The book is a question regarding the meaning of life, whether this life is the best of all possible worlds, or something else. Voltaire is on the side of something else.
  
  "What, then, must we do?" said Pangloss. "Hold your tongue," answered the Dervish. "I was in hopes," said Pangloss, "that I should reason with you a little about causes and effects, about the best of possible worlds, the origin of evil, the nature of the soul, and the pre-established harmony."
  
  Life is horrible. Voltaire said the solution, or at least the way to get through life, was to cultivate your own garden, basically tend to your own life, be productive in your own garden, and enjoy the fruit of your own labor.
  
  "with several sorts of sherbet, which they made themselves, with Kaimak enriched with the candied-peel of citrons, with oranges, lemons, pine-apples, pistachio-nuts, and Mocha coffee unadulterated with the bad coffee of Batavia or the American islands. After which the two daughters of the honest Mussulman perfumed the strangers' beards. "You must have a vast and magnificent estate," said Candide to the Turk. "I have only twenty acres," replied the old man; "I and my children cultivate them; our labour preserves us from three great evils—weariness, vice, and want."
  
  "I content myself with sending there for sale the fruits of the garden which I cultivate."

The Russian Doll Theory of Identity

How many stories do you have going on in your head right now? I think I can count ten rather quickly of my own.

The Russian Doll of Theory of Identity goes something like this: Every person has a story of their own going on right now in their minds. There are many stories. The stories are nested in bigger, larger stories, on-and-on.

For example:

The personal story of your life -> Your position in your family story -> Your family story -> Where your family lived in a certain part of neighborhood story -> Your town's story -> Your city's story -> Your story of your state -> Your state's story in the group of states around itself -> Your section of the country -> Your country's story -> Your country's story in the region -> Your country's story of the West -> Your Western heritage story -> Story of the world

Our stories create identity. Identities have to meld with the story, so that means your behaviors and actions need to be consistent with your identity and your ultimately your story.

Each one of those stories has a whole world of meaning in itself. Even your own story of who you are, what you do for work, what birth order you are in, what your relationship is to your siblings, your siblings relationship to their parents, your parents relationship to their parents, your families relationship to their house, to their neighborhood, to their part of town and their church, etc.,

It's almost an infinite amount of meaning and stories within stories. Each story you can break down and find out more about it, with each new detail, a more layered understanding of the story takes place, giving more meaning to the story.

The thing is, all these are just stories, mostly made-up. There are real things that happen in the world, but the meaning behind those facts, the story, is made-up by us. Some people are trapped in their own story, thinking and feeling as though it is more than real. Others are propelled to do great things in life by their stories.

Here's the thing about studying literature: your story changes. As you read these other stories of human beings by authors whose depth of feeling is more than anyone you have ever met in your life, the stories they tell start to leave an impression on you. The story you had before you read them start to lose some of their power, because our own stories aren't that great, really.

Like Kafka says:

"All is imaginary – family, office, friends, the street, all imaginary, far away or close at hand, the woman; the truth that lies closest, however is only this, that you are beating your head against the wall of a windowless and doorless cell."

Literature opens us up to more stories about the world, broadening and enriching the meaning we have in our own stories, and many times erasing the importance of them, but in a good way, in a relieving way that helps us to be more true to what we want out of life, and not simply going through the story of our current cultures.

Steinbeck's Bibliography

Steinbeck is one of my favorite authors. It's a pure joy reading his works. Here's a list of the books he has authored. I've crossed out the books I've already read.

Cup of Gold	1929
The Pastures of Heaven	1932
The Red Pony	1933
To a God Unknown	1933
Tortilla Flat	1935
In Dubious Battle	1936
Of Mice and Men	1937
The Long Valley	1938
The Grapes of Wrath	1939
The Forgotten Village	1941
Sea of Cortez: A Leisurely Journal of Travel and Research	1941
The Moon Is Down	1942
Bombs Away: The Story of a Bomber Team	1942
Cannery Row	1945
The Wayward Bus	1947
The Pearl	1947
A Russian Journal	1948
Burning Bright	1950
The Log from the Sea of Cortez	1951
East of Eden	1952
Sweet Thursday	1954
The Short Reign of Pippin IV: A Fabrication	1957
Once There Was A War	1958
The Winter of Our Discontent	1961
Travels with Charley: In Search of America	1962
America and Americans	1966
Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters	1969
Viva Zapata!	1975
The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights	1976

5 free classics under 150 pages

Here's my curated collection of 5 free classics to get you started in your journey of reading the classics. All of these are great books. You can read one of these beauties in one weekend. If you've wanted to get into the world of the classics, but don't know quite where to begin, this would be a good start. 

1. Frankenstein - 134 pages
   Read about Victor Frankenstein's pursuit to give life to his ambitions. In the book, the monster talks back to Victor, and is even more eloquent than the scientist. Explore the depths of the monster's feelings and see if you are not moved by his story.
   Link: http://amzn.com/B0084BN44Q
   
   
2. Red Badge of Courage - 154 pages
   Ok, this is just over 150 pages, but it's still a great read. This is a story of a young soldier that signs up to fight the entire rebel army. He's faced with his own challenge of courage, and he finds out that he might not be up to the challenge of facing the enemy. Does he find his courage? Read it and let me know what you think.
   link: http://amzn.com/B0083ZHYIU
   
   
3. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - 96 pages
   At only 96 pages, you can probably read this in one or two sittings. Dr. Jekyll lets out his darker side as he takes his magic elixirs and summons the demon within, Mr. Hyde. Do we all have an inner demon wanting to get out? Is the freedom worth it for Dr. Jekyll? Read this one to find out. link: http://amzn.com/B0083ZR7BY
   
   
4. The Pilgrim’s Progress - 136 pages
   This was the second most read book in the English language besides the bible. And it's good. If you're not a christian, the historical value alone is worth it. Follow Christian as he describes in his dream his journey from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City
   link: http://amzn.com/B0083Z665M
   
   
5. Call of the Wild - 111 pages
   This classic may not be for dog lovers (some of the dogs aren't treated that great in the book), but you'll gain tremendous insight into the primal law of the wild. Learn what Buck learns as he finds himself thrown from civilization into the primal world. Does he succeed? What does he learn in his struggle to survive about man and beast?
   link: http://amzn.com/B0083ZBW2Y
   
   
6. Bonus book!
   The Wind in the Willows - 194 pages
   At over 190 pages, it's a little longer than these other classics, but this one is definitely worth it. You may remember Toad and his love of cars, but to me, the real story is about the Water Rat that loves to be on his river messing about on boats. A classic tale of love of the land in a beautiful pastoral setting in the English countryside.
   link: http://amzn.com/B0083Z9D7U

The Pearl by John Steinbeck

This is another book, like Frankenstein, whose moral of fortune and ambition comes back with bitter friends. The book was published in 1947. In the story, there is a native Mexican, Kino, who is a pearl diver. He has a wife and a small child.

The child gets sick with a scorpion sting, where the parents take him to the doctor to get treated. But the doctor won't treat the baby unless Kino has money. Kino doesn't have money, so he dives to find a pearl to pay for the doctor.

He finds a pearl. But the pearl is so large, it attracts the attention of the entire town. Fortune at first seems benevolent, but in the end, they also taste the bitter that is attracted by Fortune.

"Luck, he said, sometimes brings bitter friends."

No sooner had he found the pearl then he was besieged by people looking to take it from him. In the end, they Kino had killed 4 people and their own child was shot in the head and was killed. The pearl had cost them the one thing they were trying to save. Kino's ambition cost him his family and a pleasant life of diving for pearls with his family.

Like Frankenstein, the ambition of Kino, like the ambition of Victor Frankenstein, ended up killing the things he loved most.

Here's another on of my favorite quotes from the book:

"But now, by saying what his future was going to be like, he had created it. A plan is a real thing, and things projected are experienced. A plan once made and visualized becomes a reality along with other realities."

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

I have to thank my friend for suggesting that I read this book. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is one of my favorites. I don't think everyone will like it, but for those of us that feel the pangs of modernism, the invisible lines that push and pull us in unseen directions, this book is a godsend.

About the book
The book describes the happenings in a mental ward in an insane assylum over a few months time. 

There's two main characters, an tall Indian, Chief Bromden, and an Irishman, Randell McMurhpy. McMurphy finds himself in the ward after some criminal mischief and begins his fun journey down the control mechanism the Chief calls, 'the combine.'

"So she works with the an eye to adjusting the outside world too. Working alongside others like her who I called the 'combine,' which is a huge organization that aims to adjust the outside as well as she has the inside, has made her a real veteran at adjusting things."

The fog descends upon all, and Chief Bromden realized that there was safety in the fog, so instead of fighting the fog, he used it as a cover, an impenetrable shield of being lost in the all-encompassing, ever-present world of the combine. He was safe there, in the system, until McMurphy, a burly, well-built IrishMAN showed up. McMurphy descended into the fog and pulled the chief out of it, made it clear to see, perhaps for the first time in decades, what life was, or what life could be, for a man. What life could be if you lived it on your own terms, in your own way, without anyone else putting limits on how you live. 

McMurphy was the last primal male. He was the last of his kind before the fog rolled in and 'civilized' him. 

"Peckin at your balls, buddy, at your ever lovin balls."

The genius in Kesey using the Indian to show the connecting fight between the last Indian males to fight the system, and losing, and how it is now the white man's turn. The last brave Irishman before the system takes out his kind, too. The age of the white male is over! 

"Papa says if you don't watch it people will force you one way or the other, into doing what they think you should do, or into just being stubborn and doing the opposite out of spite."

The prototype manly man that had the power, the balls, to fight the system, the combine, by taking on one of its head enforcers, the male impostor, Nurse Ratched. Through the total tyranny of the ward, Nurse Ratched would squeeze the pressure on the men bit-by-bit. She never let the men get to her, and she knew that she would always get her way, at least in the end. And she did. 

"wait for a little advantage, a little slack, then twist the rope and keep the pressure steady. All the time."

"It could no longer conceal the fact that she was a woman."

This book is quite the ride down modernity lane. Like Kafka, Kesey shows us the myriad of complex, invisible lines that pull and push on humanity, without ever being visible to us. The rules and policies can be maddening, but them's the rules, friend! McMurphy gets lost in the combine, picking his battles where he can to fight it. But the combine is bigger than he is. Bigger than all of us. When we are gone, it will still be here. When our children are gone, it will still be here. Rolling out and rolling over anyone that opposes it. 

"It's not just the big nurse by herself, but it's the whole combine, the nationwide combine that's the really big force, the nurse is just a high-ranking official for them."

Progress!! 

"This world belongs to the strong, my friend! The ritual of our existence is based on the strong getting stronger by devouring the week. You must face up to this. No more than right that it should be this way. We Must learn to accept it as a law of the natural world. The rabbits accept their role in the ritual and recognize the wolf as the strong. In defense, the rabbit becomes sly and frightened and elusive and he digs holes and hides when the wolf is about. And he endures, he goes on. He knows his place. He most certainly doesn't challenge the wolf to combat. Now, would that be wise? Would it?"

1 year anniversary of reading classics

I don't remember the exact date that I started reading the classics, but I know it was in February of last year. I read an article somewhere on the interwebs that challenged me to read 40 classics. I could count on my right hand how many classics I had actually read all the way through in my life up to that moment. With $100 in my paypal account, I purchased most of those 40 classics on amazon. I stacked them next to my reading chair, and I read. For a year.

I had not read many books through high school and college. There seemed to be some type of encouragement to not read any books. I'm not sure how that was the case, but in some sense, I did feel a bit of pride by not having to actually read the books and still do well on the tests.

I'm a bit conflicted. On one hand, I feel bad in not reading these books sooner, but on the other hand, being a bit older and having more life experience, these books mean much more to me than I think they ever would have in my younger days.

Experience can give you insight. Not always, but it can. I've gained more life experience, and I'm open to more possibilities than the sureties I had in my younger days. I was much like the young and naive Henry Fleming in The Red Badge of Courage, full of enthusiasm and ready to conquer the entire rebel army. And then reality hits and you realize you cannot conquer anyone at all, especially yourself.

And now, after reading my first 40 classics, I'm much more contented with this life that I live. A fire in front of me, a piece of chocolate next to me, and a very good book in my hands is all that I require, or hope to acquire, in this life.

Frankenstein taught me to be content with my lot in life and not sacrifice what I have on the alter of vain ambition. The Brave New World taught me that what is happening in the world around me has been happening for a long time, and that the ever push for progress in science and mathematics is by design. The leaving behind of history and the classics in literature in formative schooling is seen as a worthy sacrifice for the total scientific tyranny of the future.

Animal Farm taught me that some animals, even in the name of equality, were more equal than others, very similar to today's political mantra that some cultures, even though all cultures are equal, are more equal than others. The Grapes of Wrath and The Jungle taught me that life can be so much harder than it is today. Economic realities are shifting under our feet in America, but this is nothing new. An entire generation already lived through this, and some are still living today. This economic new world has already been experienced, and it is what we are experiencing now, and will experience more of in the future - a severe reduction in economic standards of living.

Dante's Inferno taught me the underlying demonic structure of life. Get into one place with a few demons whipping the underlings, only to find that the more you venture out, the worse the demons get. The Confederacy of Dunces showed me the life of helpless, institutionalized college goers where the university acted as a surrogate father to the generations of abandoned young men.

Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland and the Wizard of Oz left me in a surreal world where the laws of this earth are not ever followed, and they are happy there. A sorry existence in a world of forever ever unreality. Robinson Crusoe, probably my most favorite read, brought me back to sanity. Crusoe found himself on a deserted island, but it was more than that; he found himself, he found the first true order of life, and he found god.

Metamorphosis and the Trial by Kafka showed me the mind-numbing reality of the modern labyrinth, also known as society. Society has its own rules, its own mind, and you are invited to participate, or not. The rules are hidden and very complex, and if you don't follow these rules, then you are crazy.

The Wind in the Willows gave me hope in a quiet life full of great books, good writings, good friends and messing about on boats. Your entire life can be lived next to a river, and that is quite alright.

Thank you to all the authors that put so much of their life into their writings.

100 classics book challenge

At first my challenge was to read 40 classical books. I did it! I'm up over 40 now, so here's another list of 100.

Northanger Abbey

Wind in the Willows

Vanity Fair

Great Expectations

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

Paradise Lost

Anne of Green Gables

20,000 Leagues Under The Sea

Little Women

The Great Gatsby

Peter Pan

Emma

Pilgrim’s Progress

Huckleberry Finn

The Adventures of Pinnochio

The Age of Innocence

1984

East of Eden

In Search of Lost Time

Madame Bovary

The Good Soldier

Frankenstein

Wurthering Heights

The Inferno

Grapes of Wrath

The Importance of Being Earnest

The Red Badge of Courage

A Room with a View

Lolita

Sleepy Hollow

Silas Marner

The Arabian Nights

Dracula

Pride and Prejudice

Journey to the Center of the Earth

Wizard of Oz

Moby Dick

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

Animal Farm

Confederacy of Dunces

Tess of Durbervilles

Metamorphosis

The Time Machine

The Scarlett Letter

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

To Kill a Mockingbird

The Secret Garden

Treasure Island

Catch-22

One Hundred Years of Solitude

A Farewell to Arms

Of Mice and Men

Fahrenheit 451

Iliad

Neurmancer

Walden

Slaughterhouse 5

David Copperfield

Swiss Family Robinson

Sense and Sensibility

The Jungle Book

The Jungle

Oliver Twist

The Woman in White

Brave New World

Tale of Two Cities

Romeo and Juliet

Gulliver’s Travels

Don Quixote

Madame Bovary

Heart of Darkness

Invisible Man

Around the World in 80 Days

Ivanhoe

Rob Roy

The Picture of Dorian Gray

The Fountainhead

The Three Musketeers

Heart of Darkness

Uncle Tom’s Cabin

The Wind in the Willow

Lord of the Flies

Last of the Mohicans

Misanthrope

The House of the Seven Gables

On the Road

Cather in the Rye

Ulysses

Tom Sawyer

War and Peace

Old Man and the Sea

The Sound and the Fury

The Stranger

The Karamzov Brothers

The Count of Monte Crisco

Mansfield Park

Jane Eyre

Robinson Crusoe

Annan Karenina

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest