Unwed Human Female

Part of the surprisingly illuminating “A Very Short Introduction” series, Helen Morales’ Classical Mythology might not be what one would expect. Rather than a run down of myth (which would be impossible in 144 mini pages) she discusses the often-invisible impact of “classical” (a term which she questions) myth on modern-day western society.

I should start by saying that I’m no stranger to classical mythology, I’ve read a ton of it, from Homer to Ovid to Aeschylus and from Edith Hamilton to Helene Cixous - when it comes to myth I’m no slouch. Regardless of this, Morales “introduction” helped me look at myth with a broader perspective, she points out ways in which myth continues to surface and the attitudes towards it (which are continually changing). Discussing everything from Freudian psychoanalytic theory (which I felt was the most fascinating part of the book) to astrology and modern-day goddess worship, Morales really covers a wide variety of topics. She also touches on the problematic role of women in mythology (addressing homoeroticism and the muse, among others) as well as the divided feminist response to those roles.

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Samuel Richardson’s 1748 Clarissa, or, The History of a Young Lady is just a diffacult thing to write about, it’s one of the longest novels in the English language, for one, but the plot is remarkably simple. How I managed to get through it I’m not even sure, I read 150 pages a week (they’re double pages, mind you) for 10 weeks and every week I was amazed that I had done it again. At some points I hated it, at some points I hated Richardson, but at some points I loved it, perhaps I fell prey to a sort of literary Stockholm Syndrome. The huge book came with me everywhere I went, including New York, and it suffered a heavy beating in the process. Needless to say, had I not taken an 18th century novel class with a particularly optimistic professor I doubt I would have ever read the thing, but having done it, I have no regrets, since that’s not my bag.

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Landscapes of a New Land: Short Stories by Latin American Women Writers, edited by Marjorie Agosin, was published in 1989. Divided into three sections, the book features twenty-two stories from ten Latin American countries. The stories themselves are peppered with magical realism and themes such as religion, family, and the grotesque. Not all of these stories are great though, in fact some of them I think are downright bad, but the ones I like I really like and I think the collection is definitely worth picking up. Below are my summaries of my favorite stories from the collection appearing in the order they do in the book.

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For my birthday Matt gave me The Complete Persepolis, a graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi published (in the complete form) in October of this year. I left it on the coffee table and told him that I would read it once the semester was over (I had an unusually large amount of reading this semester). I’m sure he thought I would try to get around to it, but I think he half-doubted that I ever would. Imagine his surprise when I read the entire thing yesterday! It took me two two-hour sittings but I devoured it, it completely blew me away!

One of my “big things” literature-wise is how it enables you to gain a perspective that you didn’t have before, I think it’s one of the most valuable things that literature has to offer, and Persepolis is amazing for that. It’s the author’s own story of growing up (a woman) in modern-day Iran, which experienced wars, killings, and the introduction of the headscarf (to name a very few). Her family is leftist and goes to demonstrations, many family friends are jailed and/or killed, or end up going into hiding. This comprises the first half of the novel which lead to me crying a lot; I put it down about halfway through and cleared my head for a few hours, but I couldn’t stay away for long.

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