review of Grendel; work-related stuff

[edenfalling]

It is disgustingly cold here in Ithaca. When I walked to work at 6:45 this morning, it was 3 degrees Fahrenheit, and it barely reached 13 degrees in midafternoon. It's also windy. Needless to say, I am not happy about this!

Anyway, my first day of full time went pretty well, and I think I should have the opening routine down after another few times. It's mostly a matter of logistical timing and working out a rhythm. I have a closing rhythm down to an art -- I could damn near close the store in my sleep -- but opening, while mostly a reverse of closing, has its own quirks.

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I finished Grendel last night, and while I'm glad to have read it, it's not a book I feel a need to save or read again. For one thing, I vehemently disagree with the dragon, and with Grendel's nihilistic despair. So what if everything is winding down to nothing! While we're here, we're here, and there isn't any need to look for a deeper meaning. Life is, amen, the end.

Also, the book is clearly an experiment in writing styles, playing with narrative voices, epic poetry formats, playscripts, etc. It's interesting, but it keeps Grendel's 'voice' from full coherence, and I like narrative voice to reflect character, so that's a flaw for me. (In other words, there were sections of the book that I liked a lot, for various reasons, but I don't think they all make a coherent whole. Which may be part of the point -- the indifference of the universe, and the failure of all human explanations thereof -- but again, I don't agree with that point.)

Comments

Grendel

[nuclear-d-frog.livejournal.com]

Grendel was seriously one of the most annoying books I've ever read. I read it in high school for senior AP lit, and disliked almost the entire thing. I'm pretty much a cynic myself, but Grendel's pseudo-angsting was pointless and ineffectual even to me.

Re: Grendel

[edenfalling]

I have yet to find a book I dislike as much as The Catcher In the Rye -- that is my gold standard for awful books. (The awfulness is because it's actually a good book in the technical sense -- the writing, the characterization, Holden's 'voice' -- but the book IS Holden Caulfield, it glorifies his viewpoint and ideas and biases, and I wanted to strangle the smug little bastard and shake him until he bled out his ears, because he is wrong, wrong, wrong, and Not That Special, not 10 percent as special as he thinks he is.) Of course, out of 30 people in my English class that year, 27 loved the book. I think it's a teenager thing.

[elenathehun.livejournal.com]

Meh. Grendel was, as you said, nihilistic and boring and avante-garde in a really bad way. *makes face* I said so myself three months ago to my entire English class, and got scolded for not seeing the divine epiphany contained within.

*sarcastic* I feel like such a plebe.

[edenfalling]

No book will work for all readers. This is a great truth of life, too often neglected. :-)