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October- What are you planning on reading?
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Amber
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Oct 02, 2014 07:06PM

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Will do! And in turn, you must let me know what you think of The Turn of T..."
I've picked up my copy and can not wait to here what you all have to say!
I may have got a bit carried away with my reading last night, and read both The Turn of the Screw and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
Turn of the Screw officially freaked me out (I don't think it helped reading it in bed, in my room, on my own), but I absolutely adored the writing, and the story. I'll definitely add more of Henry James to my read list! After doing a bit of research, I'm still undecided whether or not the Governess was mad, or the ghosts were in fact real. Handily, the book's focus from New Criticism actually will help me a bit in my Critical Theory module. Which is awesome!
Going to have to update my list to include some more books! (Casually steals ideas from other peoples lists).
This month genre seems to be really popular, or at least far more than I expected!
Turn of the Screw officially freaked me out (I don't think it helped reading it in bed, in my room, on my own), but I absolutely adored the writing, and the story. I'll definitely add more of Henry James to my read list! After doing a bit of research, I'm still undecided whether or not the Governess was mad, or the ghosts were in fact real. Handily, the book's focus from New Criticism actually will help me a bit in my Critical Theory module. Which is awesome!
Going to have to update my list to include some more books! (Casually steals ideas from other peoples lists).
This month genre seems to be really popular, or at least far more than I expected!
I read Turn of the Screw earlier this year for the first time, as well. I completely agree with everything you said. Creepy; unsure if crazy or haunted; great writing; How did I miss out on James all these years?

Oh, Mel..."
I would love to, but too many books going and I'm going to focus on this list and The Charioteer for this month. Let me know how Middlemarch is going and maybe I'll join in next month.

Turn of the Screw officially freaked me..."
Oooh, great! I was going to ask you whether you were aware of the mad governess interpretation. That will definitely be of use when you get to the "death of the author" in Literary Criticism/Theory.
As far as I'm aware, Henry James intended Turn of the Screw to be a ghost story. He didn't write the Governess to be mad. And yet, it works so well under that lens! That's the beauty of reader's interpretation, that the same book gets different readings as humanity progresses and acquires more knowledge.
That's also the basis of Women's Studies, Queer Studies, etc. While authors previous to feminism wrote women as monsters, harpies, inhuman in short (take Mr. Rochester's wife in Jane Eyre!), these new literary criticism theories allow us to see the humanity in a character that maybe just had an undiagnosed mental illness, or was in an abusive relationship according to today's parameters of an abusive relationship, and so on.
Oddly, I just read Barthe's piece on 'Death of the Author'. Super interesting!
I feel the need for a literary theory thread! :P
I feel the need for a literary theory thread! :P


Sandy-
I eyeball read it the first time. This time, I mostly listened, but tapped in on the written word periodically. Also, I'd seen the tv version several years ago, so I already had a visual idea about all the characters.
I eyeball read it the first time. This time, I mostly listened, but tapped in on the written word periodically. Also, I'd seen the tv version several years ago, so I already had a visual idea about all the characters.
Yeah. I think the writing and the intertwining stories are great. So you're better off postponing if you're not enjoying it right now. (Also, I could have done without the weird "quotations" as chapter openers. They didn't add anything and just muddled things up.)


Good to know, Melissa! White Tiger is one that I knew nothing about so wasn't sure I wanted to read. I'll definitely add it to my tbr. :)


Adding :) And my library has the audiobook!



And now unto Frankenstein...


It happens to me every month, Lucy!
At least you're still reading. I have months where I rarely read at all.
At least you're still reading. I have months where I rarely read at all.

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