I must confess.....

Much as I've read of the classics and the should-reads, I have NOT actually read To Kill a Mockingbird! I own it, I've read about it, I've learned about it, seen a play of the courtroom scene, seen part of the movie....I've walked all the way around it--but just haven't read it! Needless to say (but I'll say it anyway) I'm going to read it.

About the play I saw of the courtroom scene: It was part of the National Endowment for the Arts initiative The Big Read. (http://www.neabigread.org/) The Education Department of the Utah Shakespearean Festival (with the Cedar City Public Library) put on a play of the trial scene of To Kill a Mockingbird. Phill and I went for a date, even though he's read the book and I haven't. He received extra credit in his history class for going, and his history teacher played the part of Horace Gilmer, and another teacher of his played the part of Atticus Finch. I don't mean to sound cheesy, but I will never forget that date!! One very interesting aspect of the play was that the director simply chose people from the audience (beforehand) to play the jury. So they were watching everything unfold just as we were, and at the end, they were told to give the "guilty" verdict. You could see in their eyes and hear in their voices how hard it was for them. I was one of many in the audience who were crying. And in a way, I'm glad I had never read the book, and only knew the premise of it....I didn't really know, I guess, because I didn't expect the "guilty" verdict. I actually gasped, and so did most of the audience. The man who played Tom Robinson was one of the most beautiful black men I've ever seen--enormous hands, and very tall, and with a really resonant, deep voice. He cried while doing the part where he testifies. It just seemed so real and so relevant, and then afterwards, there was a great--REALLY great--discussion between the audience and the actors. One of the "jury" was an SUU English professor who has a very obvious love for books. He was very adamant about all his opinions and comments, and fun to watch. Afterwards, we went up to the actor who played Tom Robinson, because we just had to tell him how moving his performance was. He's a fascinating man. His dad is from somewhere in the Middle East, and his mother is African-American. I think. Phill pronounced his name correctly right off the bat. :) The actor's name is Alem Brhan Sapp. (Ah-lemm Bruh-hahn Sopp, if I remember right) Oh--Rae, the director was saying he wondered if Nelle Harper Lee didn't do another book because she didn't feel she could "do it again"--that is, live up to the first, I guess. Abby and Eric call that "perfectionist paralysis", I think. But I also wonder if it really was just a privacy issue, and the overwhelming nature of the success of the book that prevented her from diving into that kind of fame again.

I feel like I'm "wading" through my read. Not that it isn't interesting me--on the contrary, it's getting more and more fascinating for me, I'm just finding only tiny chunks of time in which to read it. (Not surprising, considering the various time-consuming aspects of my life.)I'm halfway through, though. I'm wishing I had started noting my thoughts in a notebook right when I began the book. I used to do that in tenth-grade English, at the request of our wonderful teacher. It always helped me process what I was reading. I did want to share an interesting part with everyone. A little background, just in case it's needed: Patty's been kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army. They have delusions of all kinds, and one of them is that they've declared war on the U.S., and Patty is their prisoner of war. For the first two months of her captivity, she was kept blindfolded in a closet, fed a piece of bread and some tea each day. I found this part sort of odd, and very interesting.

"As the days and nights dragged on, out of all my deprivations as a prisoner of war, I developed a powerful craving for pizza. I could taste it, see it, smell it, feel the gooey cheese on my hands--all vividly in my imagination. There was no explaining it: I had never been a pizza addict before and there were dozens of other foods I liked better. Nevertheless, it was the sharp, tangy taste of pizza that I craved. It lasted for several days and nights before the urge subsided, unfulfilled."
-pg.94, Every Secret Thing, Patricia Campbell Hearst

Also interesting: Since she was blindfolded for so long, her other senses became heightened, somewhat like a blind person. She says that she knew her captors by their voices, movements, and scents (or odors), and could identify them by name when they at last took off her blindfold.