Wednesday Reading Meme
Jun. 25th, 2014 06:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerWhat I’ve Just Finished Reading
Many things! Not least among them, Barbara Michaels’ The Sea-King’s Daughter, a deliciously tropey modern gothic set in Greece. Young Ariadne, the scuba-diver, goes to Greece for the summer to help her eccentrically awful archaeologist father search for an ancient Minoan fleet that he believes lies off the shore of Santorini. Naturally there are earthquakes, volcanoes, ex-Nazis and old Resistance fighters, ruins, romances, and a scene that I was almost certain was about to become canonicalaliens cultists-made-them-do-it (not with Ariadne and her father, thank God).
I am digging this whole modern gothic thing. Bring me your tired, your poor, your ridiculous tropes yearning to breathe free!
I also read Rumer Godden’s Pippa Passes, which I expected to be like A Company of Swans - young English ballet dancer goes on tour and finds herself and also possibly true love! But in fact Pippa Passes is not like that at all; it’s really more a tale of disillusionment, and I am not fond of disillusionment as a literary theme.
The ballet mistress, Angharad, falls for her student Pippa. I figured this out pretty quickly and braced myself, because I am really not a fan of teacher/student; and then I became even less a fan, because Angharad sexually assaults Pippa which makes everything I dislike about teacher/student A THOUSAND TIMES WORSE.
Pippa gets away THANK GOD, and then Angharad quits the ballet company so we the readers never have to see her again THANK GOD...and then the ballet company people are like, oh, well, I guess we’ll just leave it at that then. Let her go live her life elsewhere, that seems like the good and merciful thing to do.
Even though! Even though! The reason they are so quick to accept Angharad’s resignation is that Angharad’s previous victim (and Pippa’s roommate) Juliet, realizing Angharad’s evil designs of evilness, told the company’s higher-ups about Angharad’s assault on Juliet. And the company higher-ups are like, well, this explains why we’ve been losing a steady stream of our most promising dancers…
MAYBE IT WOULD NOT BE BEST TO JUST LET ANGHARAD GO. So what if she’s not ballet mistress anymore, I’m sure she’ll find another source of nubile girls to abuse! Maybe this is not the time for mercy, ballet company higher-ups. Maybe the world would be better off with Angharad in prison.
This is especially disturbing because Godden was Catholic, and Pippa Passes is one of the books where her Catholicism becomes prominent in-text, and the way that they justify letting Angharad go - mercy, forgiveness, theology - is just so reminiscent of the whole Catholic priest sexual abuse scandal. It’s just...ugh.
I think I may take a break from Rumer Godden’s books for a bit.
What I’m Reading Now
Eva Ibbotson’s A Song for Summer, still. I just keeping having holds coming in and interrupting! But I like what I’ve read so far.
What I Plan to Read Next
Tove Jannson’s The Summer Book. I’m pretty excited for this!
Many things! Not least among them, Barbara Michaels’ The Sea-King’s Daughter, a deliciously tropey modern gothic set in Greece. Young Ariadne, the scuba-diver, goes to Greece for the summer to help her eccentrically awful archaeologist father search for an ancient Minoan fleet that he believes lies off the shore of Santorini. Naturally there are earthquakes, volcanoes, ex-Nazis and old Resistance fighters, ruins, romances, and a scene that I was almost certain was about to become canonical
I am digging this whole modern gothic thing. Bring me your tired, your poor, your ridiculous tropes yearning to breathe free!
I also read Rumer Godden’s Pippa Passes, which I expected to be like A Company of Swans - young English ballet dancer goes on tour and finds herself and also possibly true love! But in fact Pippa Passes is not like that at all; it’s really more a tale of disillusionment, and I am not fond of disillusionment as a literary theme.
The ballet mistress, Angharad, falls for her student Pippa. I figured this out pretty quickly and braced myself, because I am really not a fan of teacher/student; and then I became even less a fan, because Angharad sexually assaults Pippa which makes everything I dislike about teacher/student A THOUSAND TIMES WORSE.
Pippa gets away THANK GOD, and then Angharad quits the ballet company so we the readers never have to see her again THANK GOD...and then the ballet company people are like, oh, well, I guess we’ll just leave it at that then. Let her go live her life elsewhere, that seems like the good and merciful thing to do.
Even though! Even though! The reason they are so quick to accept Angharad’s resignation is that Angharad’s previous victim (and Pippa’s roommate) Juliet, realizing Angharad’s evil designs of evilness, told the company’s higher-ups about Angharad’s assault on Juliet. And the company higher-ups are like, well, this explains why we’ve been losing a steady stream of our most promising dancers…
MAYBE IT WOULD NOT BE BEST TO JUST LET ANGHARAD GO. So what if she’s not ballet mistress anymore, I’m sure she’ll find another source of nubile girls to abuse! Maybe this is not the time for mercy, ballet company higher-ups. Maybe the world would be better off with Angharad in prison.
This is especially disturbing because Godden was Catholic, and Pippa Passes is one of the books where her Catholicism becomes prominent in-text, and the way that they justify letting Angharad go - mercy, forgiveness, theology - is just so reminiscent of the whole Catholic priest sexual abuse scandal. It’s just...ugh.
I think I may take a break from Rumer Godden’s books for a bit.
What I’m Reading Now
Eva Ibbotson’s A Song for Summer, still. I just keeping having holds coming in and interrupting! But I like what I’ve read so far.
What I Plan to Read Next
Tove Jannson’s The Summer Book. I’m pretty excited for this!
