There is a big fat wasp flying around my study again. Every year there are wasps in my study in the summer. Last year I squished one in my hair, and stepped on one that was sitting on the floor. Both accidents were fatal to the wasp and left me with bites. Why are there wasps in my apartment??
I am about 90% finished school and work stuff, that once finished will leave me with a full week of not too much to do, of course, I am going to complete that last 10% with the worst cold I have had all year. It doesn't so much seem fair as it seems inevitable. I have what amounts to about 8 hours of work left to do and it's going to take me 4 days.
Anyways, the Telegraph published a list of 50 best cult books. They define cult as "books often found in the pockets of murderers; books that you take very seriously when you are 17; books whose readers can be identified to all with the formula "
I own (or have owned) approximately 4 titles because I actually got(stole from the bookshelves of)them from my parents when I was about 17. Those titles are: The prophet by Kahil Gibran, The Rubiyat of Omar Kiyam, The story of O (which I actually threw out because I was so incredibly digusted by it)Siddartha (in Dutch), and The Teachings of Don Juan. Most of those titles have conveniently disappeared.
The ones that I have actually read and enjoyed number nine: Slaughterhouse-5, catch 22, the Catcher in the Rye - Although for me, the real winners of the Salingers are; 9 stories and Franny and Zooey, and come to think of it Raise high the Roof Beams Carpenters,"A good day for Bananafish" especially is lovely. Okay you know what anything by Salinger that is *not* catcher in the rye is better and more innately cultlike. For about two years (ages 17 and 18) I wanted to open a cafe called "With Love and Squalor" so clearly the salinger thing is deep in me, I loved how all his characters were so smart and so sad and so funny. Moving on, The Master and Margarita, NOT no logo. BTW How is that a cult book?? there is a certain cult like appreciation for Naomi Klein's writing but I don't see any dog-eared underline copies of No Logo floating around. Like really, how is one's life supposed to change from No Logo: "I profoundly believe that Nike executives are avaricious, that belief has changed my life." Not going to happen. Dune, all five books - yeah that's right the whole fucking series, and I think it changed my life only inasmuch as if a giant worm came and took over the world it would seem totally conceivable. After reading +1500 pages about giant sentient worms they seem quite real. Right, speaking of big books, I seem to remember reading the Fountainhead. I don't remember much more then that, it was a big book, it was by a chick writer. I was a nascent feminist. I remember some scene where the main character crawls through the bleak snow-filled Russian landscape. I don't think I need much more from Ayn Rand than that. Don't move to Russia it's fucking cold, that's what I got from the Fountainhead.
Other appreciably cult-like books on the list that I have read include Chariots of the Gods, a copy of which was up at the family cottage. I read that in grade 5 or so, and for the summer I genuinely believed that the world was created by alien beings who crashed to earth and built the pyramids. That was a good summer, I had laid a few existential questions to rest, until my Dad caught me re-reading it and laughed at me.
Cult-books that I never finished: Zen and the art of motorcylle maintenance ( yawn..) Gravity's Rainbow (YAWWWWNNNN) A confederacy of Dunces ( OH MY GOD STAB ME IN THE EYE YAWWWNNN) anything stolen from parents shelf (see above), The Sorrows of Young Werther (German ROmantics are boring it wasn't the writing in this case, I was just really unexcited to read about some limp wristed black-forest dwelling poet getting bummed out by love.
Okay last comment all the books by lady writer's that I have read on that with maybe the exception of No Logo were dumb. The story of O as I mentioned before was disgusting. I mean I am not even remotely against erotica, (I like erotica) but reading the story of a love slave written from the perspective of a self-negating "vessel" is like forcing myself to eat lee press on nails. God also, (parental advisory) whenever "0" described performing oral sex she would write "he pressed her face into his swollen loins" Like really, what is she? A moist towelette or your sex partner??
Umm, fear of flying was a waste of my literacy, so there. The Bell Jar was just kind of boring, the Sorrows of Young Werther made all the more sad because true. I've never actually read the Female Eunach or the Beauty Myth.
Since, #1/ this list is clearly age biased, and #2/ Those chick -books are just not god examples of cult books written by ladies, I am going to offer my list of a few contemporary and tilted towards the feminist cult reads. This is good because it's summer so you all need some good beach reads. Oh yeah, lost of these books I have stupidly loaned to people, so if you happen to get your hands on a copy and your decide I am a moron who has no idea what she is talking about - just send me the books, and I will happily pay you for them.
1/ Their Eyes Were watching God - Zora Neale Hurston
I was assigned this by two activist english teachers in one of my "alternative" high schools and it changed my life. It's written in dialect, and it was my first time having to read a book in which my imagination would have to adopt the language and expressions of a totally different culture. It was also a beautiful description of female sexuality and the struggle for intimacy and for respect in a culture that is dismissive of women.
Quote:
"She was stretched on her back beneath the pear tree soaking in the alto chant of the visiting bees, the gold of the sun and the panting breath of the breeze when the inaudible voice of it all came to her. She saw a dust-bearing bee sink into the sanctum of a bloom; the thousand sister-calyxes arch to meet the love embrace and the ecstatic shiver of the tree from root to tiniest branch creaming in every blossom and frothing with delight. So this was a marriage! She had been summoned to behold a revelation. Then Janie felt a pain remorseless sweet that left her limp and languid."
2/ The Temple of My Familiar - Alice Walker. This is somewhat a sequel to the The Color Purple and actually, if you haven't read that yet, read them both. This is a story about two couples. Um, but beyond that it's story about death and forgiveness and about history and about reconciliation and also it's about healing. It's actually kind of new-agey and stuff, but when I read it I feel like someone who has my best interests at heart is telling me a story that is meant to help me understand how to behave a little better towards myself and the people around me. So bearing that in mind, I read it every so often to remind myself how I should treat my friends, family and loved ones.
3/ Adrian Mole books - Sue Townsend.
Adrian Mole is a gormless kid from Liecester which is like the Scarborough of England. Follow along as he gets older and no wiser.
4/ Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte.
I have already written at length about this book, but I'll say it again. Jane Eyre is a hero for the ages, so just read it already.
5/ Emily of New Moon or Anne of Green Gables. - Lucy Maud Montgomery
Anne and Emily books have probably been a cult favorites for Canadian-raised girls since about 1940. I know Emily of New Moon was an important one for my mother because the copy I have has her signature, and just below it in red and much messier handwriting is mine. Emily is, in my humble opinion, a bit more lovely than Anne but I think that's because she has this thing about thinking she can access the fairy world, so long as she finds a break in the "shining curtain" that separates her world from theirs. I was pretty much convinced of the same thing when I first read the book, and it was nice to know that it was not so foolish an idea.
I think that's it for now, if you have other cult books that you think shoudl be added please put them in comments, they don't have to be by women authors. Mine just happened to all be.
Also if I lent you the book ecology of Eden can you please send me an email reminding me, I don't know where it's gone.
