Dusting off the old brain

Hey there! So I've been seized once again by the January desire to dust off my old brain, dull from the comfortable routines of carpooling and errand running and negotiating. I found a free online class that I am here committing to finish . The one I chose, about Mark Twain and Harriet Beecher Stowe, is good for me because it doesn't involve reading tons of books (just 4 short-ish ones) but I foresee that it will push me out of my reading comfort zone and make me think a little (I can tell you that I would never normally pick up Uncle Tom's Cabin for some light reading). Here's the site if you are interested in seeing all the great free online classes that are available. The list keeps getting bigger and bigger.

So! If you, like me, need a little Huckleberry Finn in your life this winter, take the class too, and we can discuss. I'm hoping that as an adult reading these books by my own choice I might get a little more out of them than when I read them as a distracted note-writing high-schooler (although, come to think of it, constant distraction is still a main theme in my life - which I totally blame on this dude

and this lot, now)

study a bit

(this is a pretty book. the photos in this post are completely unrelated to the content of the post. this is called multi-tasking, of which I am a master.)

Dear Melissa,

Now that we have conquered Macbeth (anyone else out there want to weigh in on it? Last chance! I thought your post about the letter moment was really thought-provoking, and much deeper than my analysis, which was simply that Lady Macbeth was a complete sociopath, and you shouldn't kill people or else you will ruin your life) I think we should move on to our next book.

dum dum dum...

East of Eden, by John Steinbeck

I've started and I feel like it's the perfect book for me to read right now at the beginning of our hot California summer. I have read this book before, but I was only 19 and since then I completely forgot it, so I don't think it counts.

So far I love Steinbeck's portrait-like approach. Adam and Charles...beloved Samuel and Lee...and of course Cathy who is totally fascinating in her chalk-eating evilness. It makes me think that a good painting project to go along with this book would be a portrait of some kind. I'm really bad at painting people so I look forward to learning some new stuff.

(I wish I had a wall of family portraits like this)

(but most of all a room like this, covered in butterflies)

Love,

Lynne

Lady Macbeth alone with a letter

Dear Lynne:

The climax of Macbeth, for me, is act 1, scene V with Lady Macbeth "alone with a letter"--that cursed letter that will cause her ruin. It's still quite early on in the play. Some may feel that the climax doesn't come until later, when the murders are actually being committed. But for me, I feel the climax occurs right in this room in Macbeth's castle, in this cozy, intimate scene of Lady Macbeth reading this damning letter. This is the decisive moment. How she reacts to this will determine her fate. It seems that broad sweeping changes often occur in little quiet decisions, whose consequences become vast. Thus I see this letter as decisive, as it was for Bathsheba (whom you will recognize in these paintings, dear art historian sister-in-law Lynne.)

I think these Bathsheba paintings could easily have been of Lady Macbeth. The lack of clothing simply magnifies the starkness of her situation: she is completely denuded, detached form time and place, a human being in all her rawness exerting her force on the universe.

Rembrandt captures to perfection the look of forboding in Bathsheba's face: this small moment, this simple gesture will have monumental consequences and make her one of the femmes fatales par excellence. It's those hinge moments, upon which history turns, which are so monumental. The reading of the letter from Macbeth is one such hinge moment in this play.

Don't you find the second Bathsheba painting particularly stunning? We saw both of these paintings in our recent trip to Paris at the Louvre. The Willem Drost Bathsheba was hanging a few feet to the left of Rembrandt's painting. I think my husband (your brother) certainly liked it. I think that's what he's staring at so admiringly...

I look forward to hearing your insights on Macbeth.

Melissa

study a bit

Dear Melissa,

I hope you are having a lovely time with your house guests (give them a hug from me, please).

I finally found time last night to plunge into Macbeth. I opened up a window to hear the wind, wrapped myself in a big blanket, and read. It's awesome of course, and I can't believe how completely crazy Lady Macbeth is. And Macbeth, hello, flaky. I am thoroughly enjoying it and I am excited to hear your thoughts (and those of whoever else is reading.)

Love,

Lynne

ps - more pictures, anyone? the possibilities are endless, really...

study a bit

mental note: be jane eyre.

(my Jane Eyre-ish watercolor tree)

After I finished reading W&P last month I felt like I needed a mental break. I picked up Jane Eyre, which I last read during a summer break between junior and senior year in high school. What I remembered: Mr. Rochester - hot, mysterious and rich. Jane - poor and plain, but beguiling with her sketchbook and witty conversation. Just like Sixteen Candles minus the grandma! Totally the best kind of story for a teenage girl to read. I remembered being really into how romantic it was, but feeling disappointed at the end that Edward got disfigured when his crazy wife torched the house. My 16-year old self felt it should have ended in a more outwardly happy way.

So anyway, reading it this time around was a whole different experience. I like to think that as a 34-year old I'm bringing a little more to the table (although that sometimes feels debatable). This time, while I still found the whole Rochester/Jane dynamic wildly romantic, I loved Jane. How did I miss her on that first read? There was this scene in Mr. Rochester's study where they were talking one night, and Jane says to him, basically, right is right, and wrong is wrong. You can dress something up however you like, but at the end of the day you can't change a lie into a true thing before God. I loved Jane's refusal to compromise on what she knew to be true, even at huge cost. Man! I hope I and my girls can be brave like that. I think if you believe in God, it clarifies a lot about life that otherwise gets murky. Jane had a lot of clarity. My chosen faith is mormonism, and I've spent a lot of time and prayer figuring out what I believe, because it's hard work to really live a religion. I hope I am moving towards clarity, too - trying to act on what I feel to be right even when it's hard (work in progress).

Another thing I found myself loving about Jane was her tidiness. Kind of a small detail, but I really liked how she was always ordering up her environment - whipping little Adele into shape, putting away all of her things neatly in her room even after the ruined wedding (!), establishing a proper schoolroom for the poor factory children in the village, fixing up the house for the cousins. I must admit that I felt very lacking because on a couple of days I chose to read more Jane Eyre over (gasp!) doing and putting away another load of laundry while my baby took her nap. The irony!

Ok, this is the last one - I also loved how studious Jane was. Drawing, or learning new languages, or tackling hard books. I personally distract quite easily. I mean, seriously, when was the last time I sat down to try and learn a new language? :) I've made mental notes to try and be more Jane-ish in this general area (not really to learn a new language, just to maybe read better books, etc., and spend less time frittering). Add it to the list.

(by the way, have you seen the trailer for this coming out next week?)