Yes, Your Humble Blogger has gone off the deep end about Bleak House. I sought out a “Reader’s Companion”, Bleak House: A Novel of Connections (Boston: Twayne 1990), by Norman Page. I assume the author isn’t the Norman Page who played Mr. Guppy in the 1920 silent film of the novel, but I’m not sure. Anyway, this is sort of a high-rent Cliff’s Notes, pointing out a few things of interest, some themes, some points that scholars write about and so on. Not very taxing. It’s like a one-hour lecture in an intro class; it assumes that if you are really interested, you’ll get more, but at any rate it’ll probably open up a few windows for you.
To my surprise, I am really interested. I’ve read a few essays of more serious lit-crit, which have at least reminded me why I don’t like lit-crit very much (more on that later). What I have is the Swarthmore attitude, which requires that I talk with somebody else about the thing before I can claim to start understanding it.
So, any Gentle Reader interested in closely reading Bleak House with me? If there are a few, I’ll start over again (I will anyway, I think) and we’ll take it together. I’m imagining a weekly or maybe twice-a-week session, either using the comments on this Tohu Bohu, or email (or possibly some sort of instant message thing for real-time discussions, if people really want to do that), where we talk about two or three chapters at a time. I’d be inclined to read at the rate the original issues came out, but then it would take a year and a half, so perhaps we’ll read one monthly episode a week (or, if we can’t keep up with that, every two weeks). I’m not particularly looking to impose a particular frame on it myself. I’m curious to know what other people like and dislike, what connections they make, and whether the things I think I see in it are in other people’s sight as well. Something more than a one-evening book club discussion, but less than a symposium.
So, Gentle Readers, please consider this. If I can come up with half-a-dozen people to read with me, I’d be thrilled. Let me know. If it works, I’ll let somebody else pick the next book.
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-Vardibidian.
Is it speculative fiction? There’s been a resurgence in SFDT lately, I bet you could find fellow readers there… :^)
I don’t want to spoil the plot, so I won’t mention the robots, the spaceship, or the brain-eaters.
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-Vardibidian.
I think a Tohu Bohu Book Club sounds like a delightful thing, especially if you take it a few chapters at a time instead of the usual book club format (read the whole book, then try to cope with it all in one sitting).
Sadly, I don’t think I’m going to get much reading time in the next couple of months, and I’m sure you’d like to get on with Bleak House.
Can I get on board for the next one?
Well, since I didn’t have any takers for this one, I could just wait until, say, September and start Bleak House with the school year. Or take a different book, I suppose. I’ll throw it open to Gentle Readers at some point. Thanks for the interest, though.
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-Vardibidian.