Difficult Novels

Have you read a difficult book lately?

There are lots of top ten “Hard to Read Novels' lists out there, some of which are filled with heavy content and others which are filled with heavy volumes. Following is a link to goodreads Most Difficult Novels as voted by its membership. http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/827.Most_Difficult_Novels

Most of my successful difficult reads came when I was younger and before family and career took over my priorities. Once that happened I had to become more judicious with my time. (Time is money after all.) I've had to weigh the perceived value of the content against the actual value of my time, determine its ROI. For me, the hard to read novels lose out here.

As an example I'll pick on Finnegan's Wake. I would like to read it. I have tried to read it. Can there be anything in its content worth my time and effort to extract it? For me that answer was “no” - two different times. Rightly or wrongly, I've decided the value in reading the novel is in the deed.

I think accessibility is important for a writer. As a writer, if you want to be read, you have to be readable. I also think that James Joyce would say that he is accessible to his readers.

George W Parker

Kipling and Frogs

There was an episode of PBS Nature on the other night entitled The Thin Green Line. It was about frogs and the unique position they hold in nature because they literally have a foot both in the water and on the ground. The show described the habitat encroachment, herbicide/pesticide challenges and natural attacks (a fungus called Chytrid ) that are part of their everyday battle. The images of a line of frogs fighting for their existence conjured by the title are very powerful.

Coincidentally I was reading James Jones' The Thin Red Line. This story is about a WWII US Army company on Guadalcanal. For some reason this title's imagery for me has always been a line of dying, bleeding men. Not nearly as heroic a fight as I see with the frogs.

That is what I love about literature, the way you can layer meaning on top of meaning. With a little background history on the title I now suddenly see the frogs as doomed players in a Greek tragedy.

Now, I don't know if the frog documentary writers, directors, producers were referencing Jones' novel or if they were aiming back to where Jones got his title line, Kipling's Tommy.

Yes, makin' mock o' uniforms that guard you while you sleep 

Is cheaper than them uniforms, an' they're starvation cheap;  

An' hustlin' drunken soldiers when they're goin' large a bit  

Is five times better business than paradin' in full kit.  

Then it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, 'ow's yer soul?" 

But it's "Thin red line of 'eroes" when the drums begin to roll,  

The drums begin to roll, my boys, the drums begin to roll,  

O it's "Thin red line of 'eroes" when the drums begin to roll. 

Adding the Kipling perspective brings human disrespect and unconcern to the plight of the frogs and our shared environment.

You know, I hope the documentary writers, directors, producers have never heard of Jones or Kipling. I hope they just thought it was a cute title. I prefer to think of the frogs as heroic winners in their battles.

George W. Parker