Skip to main content

Madame Bovary

A few posts back for "Mara and Dann" I mentioned that Madame Bovary makes it to the end of the world and I was sad about that since I think it's a terrible novel, then I realized I shouldn't make that statement since I haven't actually read the book--I believe in as much as one is able, one shouldn't criticize things one has not investigated, within reason. I don't need to see child porn or commit murder to know it's wrong, but in the case of art one should give oneself at least one to five minutes of contemplation before turning it off or shutting the book. So I read Madame Bovary this week. It's a beautifully written novel (well, the translation is--I wasn't brave enough to read it in French, and it would take the next two years). I suspect the original is beautiful as well, full of delicate descriptions of clothing and furnishings (he seemed quite fascinated by hats for instance). I enjoyed the contrast between French novels and British novels of the same period. You wouldn't find women having men to their rooms in Austen or Dickens or Trollope. My fundamental problem with M. Bovary has nothing to do with Flaubert but with the interpretation that has been placed upon the novel today. Flaubert has written a tragedy--a deeply flawed character surrounded by other weak people makes an inevitable descent into tragic action ending in death--think Othello, Lear, Hamlet, Oedipus. Death is the only possible conclusion. She is a warning. What she seems to have become in lit. studies is a feminist heroine. Woman trapped by society in loveless marriage uses the only power she has, her sex, to make herself free. Which might be true if she was pushed into marriage, she isn't, she has every choice she just chooses a dull man. Then looking for romance she finds sex, and when the initial passion dies she blames the lover, never seeing that love takes work. Just as she is mislead by the stories that she reads of happy ever after into thinking that such love is possible in life, so are women of today misled by the mini-series of Bovary (I suspect very few people are actually reading the novel).
I realize within myself that I am misogynistic. I forgive men far more than I forgive women and so I do not forgive M. Bovary. I do feel sorry for her, but she is incapable of feeling anything for the people around her--her husband, her child, even really her lovers because they are just illusions--in fact she likes them less the more they are present and that I cannot forgive. Because of certain events in my own life I cannot and will not believe that "LOVE" excuses everything. We always have minds, clothing does not just melt away, there is always a moment to think of other people. Not that I believe that one should stay in a miserable marriage, but if you are leaving, have the courage to say that you are leaving.
Beyond that, along with my own misogyny I know that I sometimes am like her--never to her extent, but I have spent too much to console myself, I have resented others because they are unable to give me what I am missing, but I believe that these are traits I should be trying to overcome, not worshiping.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Adapting a book--The Prestige

I was completely blown away by the movie of The Prestige , and I thought then about reading the novel, but it seemed too soon. So I carried the author's name around with me for over a year (Christopher Priest) and then, finally remembered to buy it through an odd sequence of events. We watched The Painted Veil based on the novel by Maugham starring Edward Norton, and while I decided I didn't want to read The Painted Veil because of it's differences from the film (which was more romantic and tragic) it reminded me that I had wanted to read Fight Club (the movie version of which starred Edward Norton) and that reminded me that I had wanted to read The Prestige (which did not star Edward Norton, but was up against The Illusionist which did). Whew...so it's all Edward Norton's fault. The Prestige is a very good novel, and yet, the movie differs from it considerably. And I am still trying to figure out what exactly that means. The central premise is the same, AND HE...
Post a Comment
Read more

Putting my money (read time) where my mouth is

Some Duran Duran with some songs that I believe prove their musical merit. eSnips gives me the power and I'm going to use it. ( Bwahaha ) Get this widget Share Track details This is one of my all time favorite songs. I have it on a B-Side Collection, although I can't find any mention of what it was B-Side of, just that it came out in 1988. The words are quite haunting, as is the melody. But, I can hear you say, this is not at all a standard D2 song. Well, no, but what is a standard song by any band? How do you average that? Thomas Dolby's singles were always abnormal compared to the rest of their respective albums. Same with Barenaked Ladies. I think the B-Sides are often truer to what the band wants to be without the pressure of the labels for commercial success. Get this widget Share Track details This is probably more like Duran Duran you're thinking of, right? It's from Pop Trash , released 2000. The words are based on the true story of a boy who was building ...
8 comments
Read more

The end of Cloud Atlas

Feel I must write this--promised it to myself, can I finish before midnight (when I said I would go to bed at 11)? Where was I? Oh, yes, section 5, where it gets interesting--because it's the future, at least 25 years, hopefully more. I say hopefully, because I don't want to be living in this future. The section is called "An Orison of Sonmi-451." An Orison (I had to look it up, proving I don't remember my Shakespeare) is a prayer, but in this future world where language has taken as many turns as in Orwell's 1984, it is more a confession or final statement. Sonmi-451 is a clone (as the name might suggest). The section is not entirely original. It owes much to Brave New World and Phillip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (made into the film Bladerunner ). I find it interesting that 40 or so years ago--when Dick wrote his book he believed that future slaves would be Androids, replicants. Now we are much more likely to presume they will be clo...
5 comments
Read more