Tag: literature

A Journey to the Commonwealth of Letters

Aside from my cousin Dianne, another person who got me hooked on books is my friend Tintin. Back in college, way before my book-hoarding days, I was entranced by the rows and rows of books on her shelf in her room, and she always let me borrow great books (of course, even then, I returned them already covered in protective plastic).

with Tin at the Half Blood Prince launch in ’05

Last year, while I was trying in vain to recruit her to BookMooch, she told me she was dying to find a copy of this book called Silverlock by John Myers Myers. I was curious, and ended up adding it to my wishlist because it sounded so intriguing. I totally forgot about it until Triccie put up a copy in her inventory during a special promo for local moochers last February.

Tin wanted to borrow it the last time I saw her, so I decided to bump it up on my TBR so I could lend it to her.

I started the book around Black Saturday; I read about a third then I wasn’t able to read all last week because I was working on a book project. Then I read another third during Dianne’s graduation, and read the remaining hundred-plus pages for the 24-hour read-a-thon.

Silverlock (book #59 for 2009) , written in 1949, is an epic fantasy about A. Clarence Shandon, an American who goes off for a vacation but ends up getting shipwrecked, and finds himself in the Commonwealth of Letters, a land that challenges everything he has ever known, populated by literary characters.

Shandon is dubbed as Silverlock by his guide to the Commonwealth, Golias (who embodies Orpheus, and perhaps some other storytelling characters) due to a streak of white in his black hair.

Shandon (occasionally with Golias, but more because of his own pigheadedness) gets into a lot of adventures and misadventures in his journey throughout the Commonwealth: he is turned into a pig by Circe, gets chased down by a pack of cannibals, gets involved in a love triangle because of Puck’s tomfoolery, joins Robin Hood and his merry men, celebrates with Beowulf over his triumph with Grendel, has tea with the Mad Hatter and the March Hare; and steals Huck Finn’s raft; and runs into Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, Hester from The Scarlet Letter, and Rosalind and Orlando from As You Like It.

It’s hard to explain the plot exactly, because that would take the fun out of it. Just think of it as a richer, expanded version of Shrek with more obscure characters or a more outlandish Jasper Fforde novel — more fantasy than mystery. And with a lot of songs in between.

For the most part, it was a good read, but I ranked it my least favorite in the read-a-thon, because I was pressured to finish the book. I’m not a hardcore fantasy fan, and the story was a bit more fantastic for my taste, so it was more difficult for me to get through it. Unless books with made-up maps and strange names are normal fare for you, the book is best read at leisure, because you’ll need your concentration to keep track of the characters while attempting to identify them, or you’ll get as lost as Shandon is in this strange world.

I like the message the book leaves with the reader, about the transforming power of books and reading. Shandon Silverlock certainly doesn’t start out as hero material — cowardly, rude, chauvinistic, lecherous, and even downright annoying. But as he goes through his journey in the Commonwealth, he picks up values from the literary ideals that he meets, and in the end, he becomes a hero that deserves the title role in the story.

This is the sort of book, I think, that gets better with every reading, especially after you’ve read more literature that will allow you to identify other characters and references you weren’t able to identify before. I don’t think I even recognized a fourth of the characters discussed in the book, making succeeding readings a definite possibility. I think I’ll read this again in five years or so, to see where it takes me.

Meanwhile, I’m loaning it to Tintin later :)

***
My copy: 2005 Ace trade paperback, mooched from Triccie. I want the hardcover edition with the built-in companion.

My rating: 4/5 stars

Rashomon and Other Stories by Ryunosuke Akutagawa

Book 6 of 2009
Asian book #1 of Diversity Challenge
My first encounter with Ryunosuke Akutagawa was back in freshman English, in my Intro to Fiction Class, when we read “In a Grove.”
I remember we had small group discussions about it, and I couldn’t concentrate because this guy I was crushing on was sitting next to me (tee hee hee) but I remember someone saying that the story was the same as the Japanese film Rashomon by Akira Kurosawa (The film was based largely on In a Grove, incorporating some elements from the short story Rashomon).
I still haven’t seen the movie, but I chanced upon this Akutagawa anthology at Book Sale and it was a 1970 edition (Liveright paperback) with some notes pencilled in the margins, but it was about P40, and I knew I wouldn’t come across it again. (I googled the name pencilled in the inside cover and apparently she’s an American minister of some religious congregation… Oh, in case you’re wondering, I started doing that sort of thing — googling the names inside old books– after watching Whisper of the Heart, hee hee hee).
Ryunosuke Akutagawa was a writer in the modern period (early 20th century) who was disturbed by Japan’s industrialization, and writing was his way of response, with over a hundred works to his name, before committing suicide at the age of 35.
The book contains six medieval Japanese short stories: In a Grove, Rashomon, Yam Gruel, The Martyr, Kesa and Morito, and The Dragon, a varied collection dealing with different aspects of societal values and human psychology. Authentic illustratiions (by M. Kuwata) are interspersed throughout the text.
In a Grove is easily the frontispiece to this collection — it is a tale of crime (rape, murder and suicide) told from five different perspectives. I like the story’s philosophical exploration into the nature of truth — how it is impossible to know the absolute truth, and how easy it is to blur the lines with memory, human desires and motivations, and personal biases.
The next story features the Rashomon, the largest gate marking entry into Japan’s ancient capital, Kyoto. The gate crumbled with the decline of Kyoto, and the Rashomon soon became a nest for thieves and criminals, as well as a place to dump unclaimed corpses. A recently laid off servant vwitnesses an old hag stealing hair from corpses to make a wig, and the encounter changes his life.
Yam Gruel features a bumbling protagonist whose greatest ambition was to eat his fill of this aristocratic delicacy. When he is presented with an opportunity to fulfill his ambition, however, things do not go the way he imagined.
The Martyr was a surprise because of its Christian (and Jesuit, at that) roots – apparently Akutagawa liked dramatizing existing texts and events, and this one was based on volume two of the book Legenda Aurea. This is the story I least enjoyed — probably because it was less subtle in the moralistic aspect.
Kesa and Morito, I read somewhere, was based on a real affair. Kesa and Morito are illicit lovers, and Morito is driven to kill Kesa’s husband. Here’s the quandary — he doesn’t hate the man and he doesn’t love Kesa but he feels Kesa is compelling him to do it. Kesa doesn’t love Morito either, but is fascinated because Morito mirrors the ugliness she sees in herself. Out of guilt, Kesa switches with her husband on the night Morito comes to kill him. It’s also fascinating how the story tests the very thin line between love and hate.
The Dragon is more of a folk tale, like something out of JK Rowling’s Tales of Beedle the Bard. It was also lighter and more humorous than the rest, dealing with a fellow with a big nose who got so tired of being teased about it that he pulls the prank of the century!
I do not read many anthologies because I like meaty novels I can sink my teeth into, but I enjoyed this book, because while the stories offer a moralistic viewpoint, they pose philosophical questions that encourage the reader to ponder the situations presented and reassess his or her own values.
***
my copy: Liveright paperbound edition, 1970
my rating: 5/5 stars

Photo courtesy of: http://www.redvicmoviehouse.com/images/poster/rashomon.jpg (poster)

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