Liz: Dysfunctionality of Wuth. Hts & poetry

Hi everyone!
I have just caught up on a bunch of entries. It was fun! I love reading what you all write! I have a rare moment to post a blog . . . Pat is out helping his brother Chad move some things into his new apartment, and the children are in bed. It is 9:30pm and I am very tired but I need to be up sitting near Claire's room til she goes to sleep. You know how it is!
I absolutely loved Rae's post with the four generations of poems! That is wonderful! I especially loved Grandma's. What a great idea to do that, Rae.
I wanted to say something about the dysfunctionality of Wuthering Heights. I remember thinking that it was a strange story; I think it read it in 97 or 98 at BYU. Right now I am actually reading A Room of One's Own, by Virginia Woolfe. I'd always wanted to read it and it just seemed like a good time. Well, Virginia has theories on the writing of the Bronte sisters and of women in that era. She basically says that because women were treated as inferior and had such fewer opportunities than men, and more specifically because they were scorned for writing anything or thinking that they could possibly have anything to contribute that way, the writing of women in that time is "crippled." She says that their minds were not free to write uninhibited. I find a lot of logic in that. Surely that can't always be the case, but there were definitely fewer women writers in that era, and I can't help thinking that if I had lived then and had a tendency, urge, and desire to write and love words, I would probably hide it and not discover the full gift because of the way others around me would treat me for it--or simply because the opportunities to write would not exist like they do for me today.
So I am happy that I live now!! :)
I also wanted to say that I am very excited about the March theme! I am going to enter a writing contest in May, and I wrote a poem to enter about a week ago. (I suppose I could share it--maybe in another post) Also, I just made up some new lyrics (kind of poetry, right?) to Take Me Out to the Ballgame. I'll share them here, although Rae, Abby, and Mim have already seen them:
(this is about my sweet baby Andrew, (7 1/2 months old) who hates green beans.)
Take me out of my highchair!
I'm so tired I could cry!
I don't want to be here anymore;
I just wanted to crawl on the floor
And it's oh-so-boring in here, Mom,
This is not any fun!
I ate one-two-three bites of green beans
And now I'm DONE!

I am not sure what I will choose for March yet but there are tons of options. Thanks for the ideas, and thanks everyone for this neat blog. I love you all!!
LIZ

Beccy: Good Things

Hi from sunny St. George. It was 70 degrees at 8 p.m.! We're staying in a condo that belongs to some friends, just here for the weekend. Troy and Kyle are doing a 50-mile bike ride in the morning to finish Kyle's Cycling merit badge (last one he has to finish and then he's done with his Eagle and all necessary m.b's). Once the kids were in bed, I camped out on the couch with Troy's laptop and read the entire archive of our family blog. It's great to be back! Your posts are more interesting and fun than the Sept. 2007 rerun BYU-Arizona game Troy is watching on TV. :)

I'm reading This is Your Brain on Music by Daniel Levitin. Another good addition to our list of music reads. Also Hearing the Voice of the Lord by Gerald Lund. Those are the top two books of the stack on my nightstand.

Other non-fiction: Lately I have been reading the Book of Mormon with the BYU Religion 121 manual. For some reason, I have been fascinated with Mormon himself this time. I've read the whole book rather quickly this time, trying to see it from Mormon's perspective--wondering how he was affected by what he read. He must have named his son after the earlier Moroni, since he obviously had tremendous respect for him. We know very little about his lineage, and I wonder if his parents were wicked and he might have been ashamed of them? Just a thought. The manual points out that he obviously grew up surrounded by evil, and yet he remained so pure that he received a personal visit from the Savior in his youth (in his 17th year if I'm remembering right). What an example for youth today.

For some reason, it had never caught my attention before that the Jaredites' final battle occurred at the same place as the Nephites' final battle; the base of the Hill Cumorah (the Jaredites called it Ramah I think--don't have my scriptures handy and now I've moved from couch to bed. Troy's snoring. :) Mormon wrote a letter to the Lamanite King "requesting" that they gather there for the final battle, of course knowing how it would end. That got me thinking about why Mormon requested it. Historic irony? Both civilizations annihilated in the same place, several thousand years apart. I wanted to find some place--a verse even--where Mormon comments on the record of the Jaredites. Moroni abridged the Jaredite record and obviously made many comments on it, but I couldn't find anywhere that Mormon gave his impressions of it. Anyone??

Well this is not poetry. I've been helping Jared with his 4th grade poetry notebook all week, so I'm already in that mode. Being in Tucson last week made me think about B. Kingsolver and I'd like to re-read her poetry. More when I get back home.

I was listening to Julie Beck this morning, and after reading over your posts I'm thinking that you are all "women who know." I love your educated opinions and insights, your cleverness and careful choices, your wit and wisdom. And Martha Stewart thinks she can label something a "good thing." Ha!

Abby: Politics, Romance, Poetry, and I'm back?

Well, I'm sort of back. I guess I just haven't had much to say. I'm not sure what I'll read for poetry, but I've loved the little I've read of Emily Dickinson so maybe I'll try that. I've never really read much poetry actually. So this should be fun. I loved the poetry from Grandma, Grandma Tense, Beccy, and Curt. I'm sure that Lulu will have some poetry to share. And Liz. And Kate, if we add her to here! I do have some to share, though more for laughs than anything else. I'll have to digging but I have a poem I wrote in junior high in the style of Shel Silverstein's "Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout". Here's a link for another that some of you have already seen on my blog...it's good for a laugh too. I wrote it when I was thirteen, as a response to an English prompt in class.

In January I fully intended to read something political, but it didn't happen. I especially wanted to read something that explained the way "delegates" play into the primaries. It all sounds so similar to an electoral college when you really get down to the basics of it. And this whole time I had thought primaries were purely decided on the popular vote. I think I have it figured out now, but I was hoping to find a book that explained everything without being biased. I did request some childrens' books on elections from the library (thinking the simpler the explanation, the better it might be), but they only became available to me this last week so I haven't sat down to look at them.

I have been watching the debates and keeping close tabs on what's been going on and have been more interested in things than I have for quite some time. Right now I'm not feeling very optimistic about our presidential candidates. I try not to think about how things might have been if certain (grrr...Huckabee really bugs me) candidates hadn't entered the race at a later date than others in the Republican party and I shudder to think of Hilary as President. I started out so gung-ho about these primaries but right now I'm politically frustrated.

In February, I sort of read within our topic of Romance but I didn't have enough to say about the books to give them their own post. For the last couple of months I have been reading Robert Jordan's "Wheel of Time" series and thoroughly enjoying each book. I'm reading book four right now. They're fantasy, for those of you who haven't heard of them. Sort of "Tolkienesque" but at the same time not. I love how well he develops his characters and how involved I feel in the story. I haven't wanted to read much else lately. I guess I can count them for romance since Aunt Rae said they could be books with some romance in them or relationships and these do meet that criterion.

Autumn and I are reading "The Spiderwick Chronicles" together and enjoying them.

I've also been reading a lot of homeschooling literature as I prepare for next year. (Yeah, that may come as a surprise for any of you who haven't talked to me recently or caught that little paragraph on my blog...but we're homeschooling next year and I'm REALLY excited!)

Lynness Re: March Theme

I did not know Barbara Kingsolver was a poet. Interesting you should
mention Emily Dickinson- I haven't read her since high school, but one
of my best friends is moving, possibly to Germany, and is downsizing and
gave me a collection of Emily Dickinson poems, so I may be reading
that. I think all of us should post our own poems too!! I would love to
read more of y'all's (perfect time to use that Southern ubiquity- to
coin a noun) and have a couple of my own that don't make me cringe when
I read over them a few years after they were written. Curt's poem made
us laugh outloud! :)

PS- to all of you who live in Utah, I am online at the moment looking
for plane tickets out there for the last week in March and will
definitely want to get together!

Rae: March Theme

Celebrate words! Revisit some old poem friends or discover some new ones, as you wish. Share a favorite with us if you like.

If you need direction in your discovery...here are some of my favorite poets: May Swenson, Wendell Berry, Mary Oliver, Barbara Kingsolver(!), Leslie Norris, Walt Whitman, Robert Frost, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Thomas Hardy, Ogden Nash, Robert Service, Dorothy Parker, Carl Sandburg, Elizabeth Bishop and Amy Clampitt.

Little known observation: 90 percent or so of Emily Dickinson's verses can be sung to the tune of The Yellow Rose of Texas. Try it. "There is no frigate like a book..."

Happy wording!

Rae: Four Generations of Words

January

Your face is cheerless like a lonely man's
Who longs for word from his distant son.
Your feet follow frozen, tiresome paths;
Harsh winds leave your arms stiff and numb.
You yearn for warmth of September lovers
Who planted springtime's promise, sleeping
Beneath protective patchwork covers
While first month's steel dawn came creeping.
Thawing winds squeeze tears from your eyes
To wear away winter's cape, all frozen,
And you shall hand me white hyacinths
Like a longed-for letter, newly opened.

By Beverly A. Hawkes


March

Your feet are muddy like a little boy's.
You get no more than dry--then you're half drowned.
You love to buff and swagger with your noise,
Then whine and tease, or sulk without a sound.
At first you're frozen numb, then you're half thawed.
You scuff your feet, filling your eyes with sand.
You run away, then serenely homeward plod
Bringing pussy willows in your hand.
Spring's door is closed, your childish hand unlocks it,
Bringing piping frogs in every pocket.

By Hortense Spencer Andersen (Gma Hawkes' mother)
Published in the March Improvement Era, 1943


Portrait of a Flower

One yellow dandelion
Quietly asserts herself
In a green congregation.
Vivid petals burst out bravely in an
Uncelebrated bouquet of self.

A weed of certain stem
With settled roots,
Green palms stretched wide
To collect the sun.

By Rebecca Martin



Birds can flutter.
When they fly low
It makes me shudder.
Oops! It flew into the window.

By Curt Martin
(the poem is a quatrain)

Rae: "Dysfunctional" Heights

OK, I just want to know what's the matter with those Bronte sisters? They must have had way too much time on their hands and life wasn't exciting enough! I read Wuthering Heights for my romantic read. It was kind of a warped romance, however. I think during sweeps week, Jane and Mr. Rochester, Linton, Heathcliff and Catherine should do a show with Oprah and Dr. Phil. What a hoot!

Seriously, though, I really enjoyed the writing if not the story itself so much. It's sometimes refreshing to read something written during the Victorian age. The wordiness makes you think a little harder as you read and you have to keep track of all the characters as well. Fortunately, the edition I was reading had a handy-dandy geneaological chart in the front for consulting purposes.

We have been enjoying having Miriam and Maddie here in Utah for a visit. Miriam explained to Gma Hawkes what we do here on the blog and she said to pass along that she loves all of you dear readers and that if she was capable and well she would be reading right along with us!

Happy reading!

Lynness: What have I missed?....

Well, we've been having phone problems- a buzz in the line that not
only makes it hard to hear talking, but evidently produces too much
interference to allow my caller ID to work, or to check voice mail, or
to connect to the internet. I've felt very deprived. The phone company
came out and fixed it today - yippee! I logged on, wondering what I've
missed. Turns out, not much. Oh, there were a few things I didn't hear
about that I might have if I had been online (since I rarely listen to
the radio, only watch PBS once a week - and that only recently because
of Jane Austen, and we don't get the paper). Anyway- I felt very
isolated between the lack of connection and the flu that we had a couple
of weeks ago. All in all, what would I do without my books? (Maybe I'd
clean my kitchen or work on some of my unfinished sewing/crafting
projects. Or maybe I'd finish the bathroom we started painting before
we got sick.) Isn't it nice to have a place to escape to, or a place
where you're not responsible, or a place to make contact with other
adults (even if they are fictional)!! No, really I do get out, but not
so much when it's cold and dreary and I'm sick. But that's finally
passing...and spring is nearly here.
This month I read "Mansfield Park" (Jane Austen) and "New Moon"
(Stephenie Meyer) for my romantic fiction picks. I thoroughly enjoyed
New Moon. Mansfield Park not so much. I thought I had at least started
it before, but nothing was familiar except in that I had just seen the
PBS movie before I read it, so maybe not. I felt like I was slogging
through it, waiting to get to the good part. I never really got there.
Even when the girl gets the guy, my main feeling was relief that I was
almost done with the book. It's just not as engaging a story as Emma or
S&S or P&P (my fav.). A few weeks later I read New Moon and did it in
about half a day- I just wanted to keep going. I love P&P- but it still
requires effort to read it. This requires no effort. Obviously, the
two are not even on the same plane, but sometimes a fun read is all you
want, and it satisfied me well.
If anyone is still looking for a "loverly" read that won't take too
much time, I have enjoyed Madeleine Brent's "Tregaron's Daughter" and
"Moonraker's Bride." My 8th grade English teacher recommended them
(starting with "Stranger at Wildings" which I enjoyed but not as much as
the previous 2). There are others by her- some ok, some I didn't like
at all. The best part is that these 2 are all clean- no "bodice
rippers" as I heard somebody call the men in romance novels once upon a
time.
As for my other reading, I read "Magical Moments," by Dr. somebody??
Terr, about psychotherapy changing children's lives. I don't know what
I thought (or think, still) about psychotherapy. I'd have to think
about it a lot and be sure that the therapist concurs with my beliefs
before I'd send my kid or go myself, for that matter, but there were
some pretty amazing changes made in the vignettes that the book
presented. It was interesting. In a good way.
I also browsed here and there in a book about how prosperity has
changed America and its politics (still trying to find stuff for
January!). All I could think of was the pride cycle in the Book of
Mormon and Brigham Young's quote about how he was afraid it wasn't
persecution and trials that was going to get to the Saints- it was
prosperity and how he was afraid we'd all kick ourselves out of the
Church and down to hell because of it.
Finally, I've been reading the scriptures. The Old Testament-
faster than I ever have before. I'm trying to keep ahead of what I'm
teaching every morning. So far I'm still ahead, but just barely, and
the pace is only going to get faster (until we get to Isaiah, and I
think I have 3 weeks for the whole book!) I think we have 2 days for
1st and 2nd Chronicles, a couple of days for Psalms and Proverbs (yeah,
they're short, but there's a lot of them!). Anyway...hopefully the fact
that nobody's posted much on February books means we're all enjoying a
good romance! Love, Lynness

Rae: Phyllis Whitney

...died Friday at age 104. She was a good writer of many gothics. I enjoyed her works immensely. I read her a lot in high school as did Grandma Hawkes.

Rae: Odds and Ends

First of all, thank you for your responses re non-fiction. I will try harder to make the topics more user-friendly and relevant. Because I have such a large and varied collection of non-read non-fiction (I seem to collect them), I rarely go to the library anymore. I forget sometimes that other people do not always have access to the books or the time to read that I do. I will try to keep that in mind as I choose directions for us to go in our reading.

Lynness...I really appreciated your post. I think we all, as members of the church and as Christians, face some of those same issues. In our primary, we actually voted for Obama because we are unaffiliated and wanted to vote against Hillary. I personally feel that as liberal as he is, he is the lesser of two evils. And we are so tired of the Clintons. Can you imagine Bill in the White House again...and with so much time on his hands? Scary. I would be most interested to hear your conclusions and ideas re illegal immigration. I continue to vacillate and to study the issue. I certainly haven't reached any solid conclusions. I think it's an extrememly volatile issue...not unlike the secession of southern states that led to the Civil War (I am taking a class...). We are counseled here in Utah that if we really loved Nephi then we would care about his posterity. I do, but the Gadianton robbers had posterity also!

Lulu...I started Gone With the Wind a few years ago and wasn't in the mood. I would like to know what you think about it. I should probably get back to it. After giving The English Patient a try (35 pages or so) and not enjoying the writing style or the language (and it's a Booker Prize winner), I have picked up Wuthering Heights as my February read. I have seen the movie and disliked it, but I have never read the book. Maybe I will have a different opinion of the story now that I'm an old married lady.

Mim...I'm intrigued that you are intrigued again with that pesky Wilson Poulter line. I have been thinking a lot about our family on the other side lately because of the death of Ivan's mother and the upcoming death of our own. Thinking about who they will visit with. Mom and I had a wonderful conversation about foreordination the other day. She was pondering the fact that Prez Hinckley had been reserved for this day. And she realized...so had she. It made her so grateful, she said, to be able to live here and now and know who she knows. Yesterday we talked about whether we would care (on the other side) about some of the things we care about now in this world. I was telling her about my Civil War class and how I wanted to ask Franklin Spencer so many questions about his experiences early on in the war...and how and why he ended up fighting for the Confederacy for a while. Being able to talk to someone like that would make the history so much more relevant. The conclusion we came up with was that if we care about it here we will most likely still care about it there...but with a few differences because of the thrust of our work there. It made me hopeful that I can continue my intellectual growth as well as my spiritual growth on the other side. And on another school note, I have started my intimidating math class now. It occurred to me, after reading a Joseph Smith quote (I am slowly working my way through TPJS this year in conjunction with the RS manual) about our intellects being created for enlargement, that I can pray for understanding and enlightenment re those mathematical issues. If I am to co-create with my husband one day...I better understand some math!

I also wanted to report on a book I read this past week for Maren's book group. We read A Thousand Splendid Suns by the author of The Kite Runner. My goodness. Wow. It's about two Afghani women who are thrust together by culture and marriage. It's a dark and rough read that made me so so so grateful for the blessings of living in a free land. Ivan and I had a discussion about how the gospel could possibly be taught in that culture. Very difficult. I can't say that I enjoyed the book because it was so tough to read. But I found it well worth my time. I recommend it.

Happy reading!

Lulu: My February book

Mom, I love that you compared Gore to Lockhart. The thought gave me a huge perma-grin.

I am going to read Gone With the Wind for February. I've never read it. I've seen the movie, but Abby has told me the book has a lot more "meat" to it, and, given that that seems to be the trend with books-turned-movies, I'm excited to read it.

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!

Lynness: PS

PS- Mim- your characterization of Al Gore as Gilderoy Lockhart was most
enjoyable!! :)

Lynness: Books and more books and politics

Ok, this might be long.  I think all this started coalescing in my mind when I heard that Mitt Romney was dropping out of the presidential race.  I wasn’t sure yet who I was going to vote for this coming Tuesday, and I didn’t agree with all of his stances, but I still would’ve liked to have the option open.  I guess (hope) that it will make my choice that much easier.  Why do I bring this up in the book blog?  The January assignment was one I was interested in pursuing, but it has been a lot harder to follow through with than I had anticipated.  Not for lack of trying (and I still am- I checked out two more books to try).  But let me back up.  A few weeks ago I found a website that asks multiple choice questions on current election issues and lets you weight them as to importance.  My best match candidate was not Mitt Romney, as I was kind of expecting it might be.  The website let me see where I disagreed and let me explore other candidates' opinions on the topic.  One of the survey questions asked my opinion on amending the Constitution to define marriage as between a man and a woman.  It was a simple “yes” or “no” and the answer was quite clear to me.  (For a long, but very thorough and excellent explanation on the Church’s position on homosexuality and the need for an amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman, see this interview with Elder Oaks).  But part of my trouble wass that for other issues there were as many options (or more) as there were candidates and, to me, one option sounded as good (or bad) as another.  I don’t know enough about education to know what the best course of action is.  I think I can eliminate the answer that says we should dissolve the Department of Education and let parents have full control over their children’s education.  Though I am a homeschool supporter, there are too many irresponsible parents out there to have no public education system.  But what about all the other options?  Would any of them really work?  I wanted some books that would help me understand some of the current issues- especially immigration and the electoral process in general.  I found plenty of books and tried several.  The problem I found is that the books are extremely good at getting one thing across: their point of view.  It is difficult to find one that gives any real attention and discussion to multiple perspectives.  I know how I feel and could find many books to back me up, but I also know that I feel this way in ignorance.  I want to make an educated decision.  At the same time, I don't want to waste my time reading things that oppose (and even bash) my viewpoints just for enlightenment.  I want something that gives me individual expertise and experience from diverse facets of the same issue.  And trying to get that while also trying to figure out which candidate best represents the majority (since none will be exactly like me) of what I have determined while also trying to figure out if they really mean it and will stick to it in office makes me want to just get it bed until it's over!  Maybe it's cynicism, maybe it's experience, but I have little faith that campaign promises- designed to attract people by telling them what they think they want to hear- will make much difference once the candidate is the President.
    I have learned a few things from the books I have read.  I know what I feel about immigration (whether it is plausible or would make the slightest dent in the problem, I don't know).  I will not share that here, but I will share that one of my books has opened my eyes a little to what Mexican immigration to the US does to Mexico, especially its small villages.  I plan to continue to try to wade through the junk and the extremists to find the accurate and the balanced and educate myself.  I've got until the Virginia primary this Tuesday!  After that it's just Republican vs. Democrat, and though I hate to be partisan and I'm not registered as either, marriage and abortion issues trump the war, education, immigration, etc..

Mom/Mim: Al Gore (aka Gilderoy Lockhart) vs. Jane Austen

Well, I only got a few pages into the Global Warming stuff before I was totally fed up with the whole subject and with that "veil of stupidity." It seems like it's our human nature to say the sky is falling whenever saying it will get us something we want. People believe what they want to believe! So my apologies to Lynness and Rae H who seemed most interested in what I would be learning. You both learned more about current events than I did this month. In fact, I think I've been away somewhere in the wrong century!

I did read the first several chapters of Jane Austen's Emma during January. So I thought it was interesting that Lynness watched PBS movies of Austen novels and read some Jane Austen. We're reading Austen novels for our Relief Society book group. Actually, the truth about my reading this month is that I've hardly wanted to read or do anything other than family history all of a sudden!

Now it may seem that I'm going off on a tangent with this blogpost about family history, but hang on, because it all relates. What sparked the family history was a prompting where I re-discovered a bunch of letters from our Yorkshire relatives, some of whom were living when Jane Austen wrote Emma in their own environs. Reading the letters and the novel at the same time helps me envision our ancestors as families in their own households.

For example, a cousin of ours named Jenny writes to her cousin in America, Esther Lillian Poulter Andersen, in 1900. They're both rather newly wed and she writes to Esther during the time that her husband Julius is away from his wife, serving his mission to Denmark. (I have some of the letters between Julius to Esther, too!) Jenny is excited to tell Esther how much they're enjoying the visit of her (Esther's) father, Wilson Poulter, who has finally returned to England to see the family after having emigrated to Utah about 35 years earlier. And I have a few of Wilson's letters written to his son after he arrived in England.

So it's not really the right century--the older two generations of Poulters are the ones contemporary with Jane Austen--but their activities and expressions certainly fit with Austen's gentle characters and their refined entertainments. Jenny's obviously smitten after meeting her uncle, and she describes his reception by the family: "He came to my mothers door asking her if she wanted to buy any cloth mother knew him in a minite. After that there was some kissing & loving going on mother couldnot eat any dinner for crying . . . . Uncle came to my house on Saturday & we had such a jolly evening. Aunt Sarah Ann & three of my cousins & two of their young men . . . . We had Uncle saying Pat & his Leather Britches & singing to us telling us of America."

Well, obviously global warming was irrelevant to my life this month, and I think that's a key to our dilemma over nonfiction and fiction. It seems that those of us who've commented about nonfiction just want it to be engrossing and relevant. I certainly don't want to read any less nonfiction. Maybe we could find more relevant reads if the criteria were more specific? We could read nonfiction that relates to a hobby we all share (like we did in the music month), or Rae could give us some criteria in categories of narrative nonfiction or suspense nonfiction so we wouldn't want to put the books down. Some nonfiction could be sort of practical, like humor or how-to stuff, maybe? Young adult nonfiction might be interesting . . .

I do love having this book blog/club and I love each of you. I'll see some of you soon! Warning: don't ask me about our family history if you only have five minutes to listen. Love, Mim/Mom