Are there any particular worlds in books where you’d like to live?
Or where you certainly would NOT want to live?
What about authors? If you were a character, who would you trust to write your life?
(This came to me when reviewing a Jonathan Carroll book - I’m not sure I’d like to live in the worlds of his books.)
Oh, if ever a batch of questions cried out for caveats. . .
I spend more time reading about situations, experiences, worlds that I'd rather not experience on my own. (Or at least not if I were to remain female humbly born in my new incarnation. Do I have any control over that? ) Not that I'm a plot-hound by any means, but there's just not enough narrative drive in Eden to keep me sniffing around there for very long.
Although it might not be so bad to be one of Connie Willis's historians and get to dip in and out of different time periods without having to be stuck in any particular one.
And for worlds I wouldn't want to live in but suspect many others would: I would never want to inhabit Jane Austen's world. It's only Austen's sensibility that keeps those lives from sounding as tedious as they really are.
Who would I trust to write my life? Lorrie Moore. Clyde Edgerton. Anne Tyler. Although I would love to see what Virginia Woolf or Flannery O'Connor could make out of it.
Booking Through Thursday
Frankly, I like the world I am living in!
ReplyDeleteHere is my BTT post
Very true about Austen's world. I wouldn't mind visiting, but I wouldn't want to live there. Especially not if I had to live there as one of the servants.
ReplyDeleteI would definitely be stuck in a servant's role. No thanks.
ReplyDeleteAusten's world is not for me either.
ReplyDeleteBut, Flannery O'Connor--then you'd be a short story!
No, she wrote a couple novels. I could be full-length (although a story's about all I'm probably worth!).
ReplyDeleteI completely agree about Jane Austen's world, particularly because it would be hell to be a woman then and to have so much expected of you. I've been surprised that so many people have responded positively about her today. I'll take a nice hobbit hole, thankyouverymuch!
ReplyDeleteIf you were a bible salesman, you could be the subject of Clyde's new novel, now on its way to me from Amazon. :)
ReplyDeleteI'd want Stephen King to write my Yankee childhood and Ellen Gilchrist to pen the story of my southern adult life.
. . . so much expected of you and even if you lucked out and say, got to be Emma, you'd be stuck dealing with the likes of Mr. Woodhouse. My brain would explode.
ReplyDeleteLet me know what you think when you've finished the Edgerton, will you, John? And King and Gilchrist? Now that would make a story for sure. :)
I agree with you about Austen. I love her books but women have it so much better now!
ReplyDelete