tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7863746.post4586826787945899922..comments2023-11-13T12:20:06.565-08:00Comments on California Writer: Best Novel I Read in 2007: Bleak HouseCalifornia Writerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01215264068422830371noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7863746.post-37210885722411215742009-03-18T02:49:00.000-07:002009-03-18T02:49:00.000-07:00Hi Julia,I love Bleak House too. One of my favouri...Hi Julia,<BR/>I love Bleak House too. One of my favourite characters is Richard Carstone. Although he is a tragic figure, he does have more insight into his situation than Esther has about her own. I'm also a fan of Little Dorrit and Our Mutual Friend, two other wonderful books about society, but also great love stories, just like Bleak House.<BR/>Do you have a favorite Dickens novel?<BR/>PeterPeterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07952802832128489220noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7863746.post-76371298871943381982008-01-01T16:58:00.000-08:002008-01-01T16:58:00.000-08:00Yeah, you're right the fog in the beginning of Ble...Yeah, you're right the fog in the beginning of Bleak House symbolizes the blindness of the corrupt society. I like your Elliot quote which seems apt to Bleak House, but it would be funny if Elliot that arch-modernist would be influenced by oh my god the great sentimental moralist Dickens.<BR/><BR/>Also, I like your suggestion to rethink Cormac McCarthy's novel as satire maybe of Bush's America or taking certain important tendencies of Bush's America and pushing them to extreme. Maybe.<BR/><BR/>What I'm reacting against is certain tendencies of modernism such as L.A. noir to just present how brutal or corrupt society is without any alternative. I like dickens because yes, he gives us the corruption of society but also<BR/>gives us characters who stand opposed to society's brutality.California Writerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01215264068422830371noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7863746.post-20536399779589359452007-12-30T04:51:00.000-08:002007-12-30T04:51:00.000-08:00I read Cormanc McCarthy's quite strange - symbolis...I read Cormanc McCarthy's quite strange - symboliste? - book also - in fact I have first(British eition of it for sale) - I think we need the McCarthys and the Faulkners, and the Dickensenes - but your summation here is refreshing and it is a good, and inspiring, synopsis of the novel - reminded me of a it - we certainly need humanity - indeed the world is still much as in Dickens time but we need some of Dickens's humanity. <BR/><BR/>That said, we need also - the "wicked" cynicism - in reality most great writing is actually satirical rather than accepting of this ultimate cynicism - alhthough e.g. "The Sound and the Fury" seems perhaps too dark ('..a tale told by an idiot, signifying nothing/..' Macbeth (Shakesepear the Nihilist?) at times..but McCarthy and Faulkner as indeed Dickens are writing in the satirical tradition of Dickens (who is also satirist but one of corruption etc - but perhaps even style at times) and indeed Joyce also writes in that tradition (his is less perhaps social satire -if it is that -than a brilliant pastiche/satire in the deep sense of Swift and Pertronius etc ("sartura").<BR/>It is question also of focus for writer. But all of them (I feel) - humanity or not - are primarily artists - not essentially socialists or reformers as such.<BR/><BR/>But again - this is a good postRichardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10272507198753290435noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7863746.post-26603474889659611042007-12-30T04:29:00.000-08:002007-12-30T04:29:00.000-08:00I read all (or almost all) of Dickens books - whe...I read all (or almost all) of Dickens books - when I was about 12! But I re-read Bleak House again in 1968 <BR/>(it was being taught at Auckland Unversity)<BR/>- I must tackle Dickens again as an adult. <BR/><BR/>I remember I started with The Pickwick Papers - as a boy I loved the mysterious words and the fascinating characters and the atmosphere; the higgeldy piggeldy streets of London. <BR/><BR/>I often wondered (later) if Eliot got his image of 'yellow fog' in Prufrock from the opening of Bleakhouse - the fog is metaphorical or symbolic of the corruption of the law and the the interminable lawsuits and other devious matters* - I remember Jarndyce and Jarndyce - the endless law case.<BR/><BR/>*Recall "Streets that lead like a tedious argument of insidious intent..."Richardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10272507198753290435noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7863746.post-72046702805283291122007-12-26T17:42:00.000-08:002007-12-26T17:42:00.000-08:00I love Dickens too. I've never read Bleak House, b...I love Dickens too. I've never read Bleak House, but once I did open a copy on a bookstore shelf, stood reading the first couple of pages, just to get a little feel of the book. I remember indelibly his description of the muddy streets, mud everywhere, an empire of mud. This just from the first two or three pages of the book.<BR/><BR/>Now you've got my interest going again. Maybe I'll need to go find the book and read it.<BR/><BR/>Thanks for posting this.Lyle Daggetthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10731915540520704368noreply@blogger.com