When you become jealous of a fictional rat. Why you ask? Because he is better read than I am. I have been reading Firmin: A Tale of Exile, Unrequited Love, and the Redemptive Power of Literature, by Sam Savage over the past week. A book about how -"In the basement of a Boston bookstore, Firmin is born in a shredded copy
Finnegans Wake, nurtured on a diet of Zane Grey, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, and
Jane Eyre (which tastes a lot like lettuce). While his twelve siblings gnaw
these books obliviously, for Firmin the words, thoughts, deeds, and hopes—all
the literature he consumes—soon consume him. Emboldened by reading, intoxicated
by curiosity, foraging for food, Firmin ventures out of his bookstore sanctuary,
carrying with him all the yearnings and failings of humanity itself. It’s a lot
to ask of a rat—especially when his home is on the verge of annihilation."
Strange, you say, a book about a rat who not only eats books but can read. Oh wait didn't i see this movie??? you ask "Tale of Despereaux"? No, this is not a child's book, not at all, this is not some heroic mouse bent on saving the princess, this rat has some serious social and behavioral issues, even for a rat. But that's all well and good, (you know what I mean), what caused me problems was that within the first year of this rats life, he had read more of the classics then I had in all of my *mumble mumble* years! He has 'devoured' books such as"Oliver Twist. Huckleberry Finn. The Great Gatsby. Dead Souls. Middlemarch. Alice in Wonderland. Fathers and Sons. The Grapes of Wrath. The Way of All Flesh. And American Tragedy. Peter Pan. The Red and the Black. Lady Chatterley's Lover" (p. 20). Not to mention"...the Bible, The Koran, the Bhagavad Gita, the Book of the Dead...Kant, Hegel, Swedenborg..."(p.18). I WAS JEALOUS OF A FREAKIN FICTIONAL CHARACTER....AND IT WAS A RAT!!!!
So, after coming to grips with this I have decided I really need to read more classics and maybe less books about animals who read faster than I do.
4 comments:
awsome blog, keep up the good work :)
Ha ha ha! I know the feeling JoAnna. I'm only a couple chapters in and I feel inadequate compared to a fictional rat's literacy level. Don't worry, next month is classic month again :)
Desperaux didn't eat books. He read them. And he wasn't a rat, he was a mouse. You really aren't well read.... :)
umm, hate to break it to you but reading The Tale of Desperaux does not make one well read:)
I was going with the theme of reading rodents.
This Rat reads also, to the point where his head is so full he cant hold it up staight on his skinny neck for all the knowlege it contains, but he is a dirty, socially awkward rodent, not noble like a certain mouse. DIRTY!! PG-13
Post a Comment