Thursday, August 19, 2010
The Secret History
This is just a test post, never blogged before. But for something to say, I've finished reading Donna Tartt's The Secret History and absolutely loved it. Such a contrast in both style and matter to Henry James. A haunting and highly intelligent story, especially it's dealing with lost languages and the mysticism of the ancient world. Am now very inspired to learn Ancient Greek.
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Hey Jess, Me neither! I read 'The Secret History' on holiday and absolutely loved it as well. I found this article in Jstor:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.jstor.org.ezproxy1.library.usyd.edu.au/stable/1315380?&Search=yes&term=Tartt&term=Donna&list=hide&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3DDonna%2BTartt%26gw%3Djtx%26prq%3DDonna%2BTartt%2527s%2Bthe%2Bsecret%2Bhistory%26Search%3DSearch%26hp%3D25%26wc%3Don&item=3&ttl=22&returnArticleService=showArticle
There is only a brief mention of Donna Tartt's novel but its useful in considering the genre of the 'Campus Novel'. In particular, Scott cites David Lodge:
"The university is a kind of microcosm of society at large, in which the principles, drives, and conflicts that govern collective are displayed and may be studied in a clear light and on a manageable scale."
I was thinking of this comment in terms of how everything starts to fall apart for the characters when they attend the funeral out of campus and before this when Bunny and Henry go overseas...it's like the campus itself holds everything together and external forces are what threaten to disable to group/narrative.
Hi Victoria, thanks for the link to the article, I'll be sure to check that out.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with your point about the importance of any scene off campus. I think your point about Bunny and Henry in Italy holds particularly true for the microcosm/macrocosm idea. I was also thinking about how when they have the Bacchic ritual, they run for miles and don't know where they've ended up. It's like to "lose oneself" completely is closely tied up with location and that they only truly let go of their conscious selves in an unfamilar environment. Again, a very clever novel. Thanks again for the post, and good luck with this strange new world of blogging... :)