Wednesday, August 26, 2015

From My Commonplace: On Brick Wall Endings

From Dodie Smith's I Capture the Castle, about two sisters from a poor family, one of whom aspires to be a writer and the other of whom has just become engaged to a very wealthy man:
 
"What I'd really hate would be the settled feeling, with nothing but happiness to look forward to.  Of course, no life is perfectly happy – Rose's children will probably get ill, the servants may be difficult, perhaps dear Mrs. Cotton will prove to be the teeniest fly in the ointment (I should like to know what fly was originally in what ointment.)  There are hundreds of worries and even sorrows that may come along, but – I think what I really mean is that Rose won't be wanting things to happen.  She will want things to stay as they are.  She will never have the fun of hoping something wonderful and exciting may be just round the corner.
 
I daresay I am being very silly, but there it is!  I DON'T ENVY ROSE! When I imagine changing places with her I get the feeling I do on finishing a novel with a brick-wall ending – I mean the kind of ending when you never think any more about the characters…." (p.196-197)
 
~Dodie Smith, I Capture the Castle
 


My Bookbag This Week:
Devotional: Job with a commentary: Job: The Wisdom of the Cross (Ash)
Theological or Christian Living:  Spiritual Depression (Lloyd-Jones)
AO Book Discussion Group: Ivanhoe (Scott) and finishing up (finally!) How to Read a Book (Adler)
On Education: Minds More Awake (White)
Shakespeare: Hamlet (aiming to read a scene-a-day alongside my daughter's Shakespeare class at our co-op.  Don't we all need a little more Shakespeare in our lives?!)
Novel/Biography/Memoir:  The Jungle Books (Kipling) – pre-reading for AO Year 3, Term 3
Read-Alouds with the Children:  The Little White Horse (Goudge), Pilgrim's Progress (Bunyan)
 



 
  
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