Fictional Bad Boys

Did you watch Tess Of The D'Urbervilles on ABC1? It brought back a few memories for me.

Firstly, I remember my favourite teacher, the woman who inspired me to take up the chalk, beginning a discussion in Lit about Tess, "So girls, what did you think about the rape?" And of the shocked faces in the room, "What rape?!" we cried. We had completely missed it! Now, I'm sure she set us up, and good on her. What a memorable lesson!

Also, now this is going to age me so don't judge, I remember getting the video (yes kids, before DVDs) of Nastassja Kinski in Roman Polanski's Tess. Saucy!

But all of this is leading me into a discussion of Fictional Bad Boys, because I was always of the opinion that Alec D'Urberville was MUCH more interesting than Angel Clare, who always seemed to be a bit of a milksop to me. See, the lessons of literature are not always the ones that the "Back To The Classics" brigade would like us to learn/ teach.

So, who are the top 5 bad boys of literature?

Exhibit #1 Heathcliff he'll dig you up after you're dead! That's how bad he is!

Exhibit #2 Wickham he can rock those military whites more than Darcy's foophy shirt, and he'll run off with your little sister if you're not careful.

Exhibit #3 Rhett Butler Frankly my dear, he'll whisk you up that staircase and into bed before you can say twiddle dee-dee.

Exhibit #4 now Hamlet *should* be a bad boy, but there are several Acts of poncing around, so I'm calling Othello- don't cross him mind!


Exhibit #5 Lestat the thinking person's Edward. Sexy, brooding and a little bit bitey.




Who's on your bad boy list? And can you think of an Australian bad boy character? I struggled as you can tell.

Happy tales,
Barking Owl

Non-fiction for senior students

I've been reading some non-fiction lately, partly to find something for my senior classes, and partly because I've been off the novel for a little while.

I started with Eating Animals thinking that might be a controversial but interesting read, but I think that some students would be really confronted, if awakened, by some of that information. I have taught Fast Food Nation with some success in the past. I might still come back to Safran Foer's text, even if just in part because of the beautiful writing.

Your Skirt's Too Short by Emily Maguire is a reworking of Princesses and Pornstars for young adults. I think some students would really get into the sexual politics and issues raised here. Maguire writes about her past as a slut and in doing so, questions our definition of the term. This would make the young reader think, perhaps for the first time, about power and discourse of sexuality. But, I found that she lost her way after the first few chapters, perhaps because the content wasn't new, or indeed meant, for me.



Lastly, I read Nice Work by Jana Wendt. I heard an interview with Wendt on local radio and was inspired to rush to the bookstore and snatch it up. The interview was so much better than the book.

This was disappointing, but perhaps to be expected. Wendt after all was one of Australia's better reporters, she could question an interviewee into the corner. Words are her weapons. Her writing on the other hand I found quite forced.

The objective of the book was to find out what drives people in their work. Wendt shadows a boxer, a priest, a forensic anthropologist and others in this quest. I just wish there had been more of the subject and less of Wendt in the overall book. The world of work is a fascinating topic, the book didn't live up to my expectations.

So, back to the drawing board. I'm waiting on my copy of Zeitoun, by Dave Eggers. This might be the one! I live in hope :)

Happy tales,

Barking Owl

H00t #25 The Book Thief

I am pleased to report that I have finally finished reading The Book Thief.

Firstly, can I say that Markus Zusak is lovely, cute and funny. I loved hearing him talk about writing at the Fremantle Children's Literature Centre last year.

So, I WANTED to like this book. I know that MANY people love it and much has been written about it, so I'm going to be brief in explaining why I don't.

• The narrative point of view, while original, didn't really do much for me. I found the foreshadowing unnecessary and disruptive.
• This was a LONG book which needed editing. Apparently it started out as a novella but ended up at 584 pages!
  
• While I loved some of the characters, Rudy and Max, I struggled with Liesel. I'm not really sure why.
  
• Another book on the holocaust? Really?
  
• The colour of the sky- WAY too many times.

So, opening myself up for all sorts of derision here, what was it about The Book Thief that you loved? I'd really like to know because I start teaching it in a little over a week :)

Until then, happy tales,

Barking Owl

Quick update

It's nearly been a month without posting, and the last one was a cop out post. I blame the world of work...

So I've been reading quite a lot, just not teen fiction. Unless you count The Book Thief beloved of many, I'm just not one of them... I'm not sure what the block is with this one, but I'll have to suck it up because I start teaching it in about a fortnight. I think it needed editing down to about a third of its size.

I've also read the latest Alexander McCall Smith The Double Comfort Safari Club which was lovely, as usual.

And Lolita which was disturbing and beautiful all at the same time.

And Ian McEwan's Solar which I really loved. A lot of the negative reviews you might be reading miss the satire, in my humble opinion.

So, there's a quick round up. I have The Ask And The Answer waiting for me, and this book promo has me wanting to get into this series too:

nature sounds site

Someone called Andris found my humble little blog and would like me to promote his website.

I've had a go and it looks legit. The sheep sounds cracked me up. Only a Kiwi might find listening to them relaxing!

He says:

Sometimes it is hard to read if surrounding environment is noisy. In such situations it helps to use earphones and listen to some kind of white noise. It is known that sounds of nature work better as white noise comparing to music because of its two factors:
* lyrics which tend to distract thoughts
* varying volume of music which makes white noise either too quiet or too loud.

So I have made a free tool http://www.naturesoundsfor.me with which you can create a composition of nature sounds, save it in WAV file and listen to it via portable audio player for example when reading in public transport or while waiting in a doctor's office.

http://www.naturesoundsfor.me

Give it a burl, or not :)

Book Hoot #24 The Knife Of Never Letting Go

Todd Hewitt is the last boy in a town of men. Prentisstown is a new settlement on a planet where because of a virus everyone can hear everyone elses thoughts and all the women have died. When Todd and his talking dog Manchee (you can hear the thoughts of every living thing in this world) stumble across some 'quiet' while out looking for apples, his world begins to change. He has discovered a girl.

The Knife Of Never Letting Go is the first in the Chaos Walking trilogy and it is an amazing beginning. I haven't been gripped by a book like this since Hunger Games. Apparently the Chicago Tribune labelled the novel as “a read-alone, stay-up-way-too-late book.” It is brimming with suspense and tension. There are moments of humour and tenderness also. Todd's relationship with Manchee in particular is lovely.

The noise is metaphorical, of course, of how many distractions there are in our everyday, how difficult it can be to stay focused and remember what's important. Todd repeats his name to himself, reminds himself of how close he is to his 13th birthday and sings a song from childhood all to block out the noise. How rare, but how important it is to find those pockets of silence and peace.

Viola, the girl with quiet from the swamp, turns out to be far from the damsel in distress. In fact she saves Todd a few times in their flight from Prentisstown. Quite the kick ass heroine!

I think if you like suspense, action packed reads, you'll like this one. The ending is open, of course because of the whole trilogy thing, but the good news is that part two is in the stores! I'm off to buy number two tomorrow!

Happy tales,

Barking Owl

Book H00t #23 The Girl Who Fell From The Sky

This novel has won the Bellwether Prize (an award for literary fiction that addresses issues of social justice and the impact of culture and politics on human relationships) but it doesn't read like a 'worthy' book. And by the way, what a great cover illustration.

I enjoyed Rachel's story. She is the sole survivor of a fall which claims her mother, brother and baby sister. How and why they fell from a rooftop is the spine of the narrative. Rachel's father, an African American GI, and her Norweigan mother's relationship is complicated by alcohol abuse. So there are issues of racial identity on top of having to come to terms with the accident and the expected trials of adolescence.

Adding more layers to the narrative are two more viewpoints; one from a boy who witnesses the fall, the other from a co-worker of Nella (Rachel's mother). We also have brief, probably too brief, comments from Nella's journal. Rachel comes to live with her grandmother, and there are a lot of humourous moments to relieve some of the tension. The story resolves sentimentally with readers wanting more from what is quite a brief novel.

Happy reading, happy tales,

Barking Owl