Day 21--21/501General Musings: Just a reminder that tomorrow I am leaving for three weeks in Victoria for my residency at Royal Roads University. I will be taking a respite from blogging but will return to my sisyphean task once I am home.
My addled arithmetic tells me that I am 5% done my project--okay a fraction of a percent under but allow me a whole number. Just 480 more books and days to go--is it just me or does that seem like a big number?
Back at work and I am very excited by the pace and challenges of being an Assistant Deputy Chief. I'm also back into the physical fitness scheme of things. By mistake (or my wife's insidious design) I am watching a Zip.ca offering, Julie and Julia. It has just started and the characters are talking about blogging--very apropos. The husband of the blogging protagonist seems very supportive--I should be so lucky. Cooking a meal or two a day--what a joke--I think my challenge is better. I wonder if Meryl Streep will play me in the film--I bet she'll get my voice dead-on--if she can do Thatcher she can do McAsey.
Recently, the reading is going well although my commute home is not allowing me to get my full reading time in. I need to get up in the night for an hour and read--I'll let you know if it works.
Okay, sorry to prattle on but this movie is the most inspirational movie on blogging ever! Maybe I should plan on writing a book on my blog about Julie Powell's blog cum film about Julia Child's life.
Running Page Count: 5,689
Today's Title (Classic Fiction): Jonathon Swift's Gulliver's Travels
Preface: "One of the keystones of English literature...an exceedingly odd book" says 501 Must Read Books' entry on the novel. Swift was an Irishman (word to the brothers of Erin) and a satirist, poet, pamphleteer, clerk, essayist and alligator wrestler--okay his alligator wrestling is purely my conjecture, but feel free to cite me on it.
Swift's humour was timeless and a little more potent than battery acid. In A Modest Proposal Swift suggests (on the square) the Irish eat their children as a solution to the famine--he was the Stephen Colbert of the 18th century (you can quote me on that too). He was also a grammarian of unequaled snobbery and wanted to establish an English Academy to safeguard the deteriating language--I fear what he would do if he saw my blog!
Gulliver's Travels is a treatise within a satire posing as a travel book--confused? Excellent. Allow me to muddy the waters some more.
The Book: Lemuel Gulliver is a traveller extraordinaire and we are treated to four of his adventures. There are small minded little people who try to blind him, large people who keep him as a novelty in a cage, a kingdom dedicated to music and math that bores him, and a race of horses that are superior in character to humanity. Sound silly--well stupid, it is allegorical--it is supposed to be silly.
Grade: A-
Observations: I think Swift is my new favorite 18th century writer. The book is very funny--my favorite section is with the Lilliputians. When Gulliver needs to pee he causes a flood I found downright hysterical--you've got to love the corporeal humor. The second adventure needed an editor and the closing of the book is sobering but it is rock solid besides.
Segues: When I was a kid I read a book (entirely inappropriate for my age) in which a character referenced a game in which boys were tied to trees by girls and stripped naked and excited by precocious nymphets. The game was called Gulliver, the novel's title alas is lost in my memory but I remember the plot of two families on a volcanic island that becomes active while three relationships develop. It was my first introduction to sex and it no doubt is partially responsible for some of my neuroses. It has been cathartic to write this but wholly inappropriate and I fear trying any Google search about it. Something Explosion--if you know the book I'd love to read it again as an adult.
Segue update: After some Googling I believe the book I read at age 12 was authored by Robert Rimmer entitled The Love Explosion (out of print). Maddeningly, I can't find a synopsis or image of the book [so much for decoding my sexual programming].
There are films--more than a dozen-- including a Tamil film from 2007. I haven't seen one that I'm crazy about.
On my return the next book (Classic Fiction): Mary Shelley's Frankenstein 22/501
