Wednesday Reading Meme

[osprey_archer]

What I’ve Just Finished Reading

Arthur Ransome’s Swallows and Amazons. I’ve meant to read Swallows and Amazons for literally decades, so finishing this book has given me a feeling like the literary version of taking a long drink of water when you are thoroughly parched. It helps of course that it’s a thoroughly entertaining yarn about four children (the Swallows, later joined by the two Amazons) messing about in boats and living on an island without adult supervision.

If I had read it as a child, though, I probably would have spent way less time going “Gosh, this books is really steeped in British imperialism, isn’t it?”

I also finished Thanhha Lai’s Butterfly Yellow, which I ended up really enjoying, although I remain on the fence about Lai’s decision to spell her heroine’s English-language dialogue phonetically using the Vietnamese spelling system. Is it brilliant, or an idea that sounded brilliant but doesn’t quite work?

On the one hand, it gives a strong visual understanding of her difficulties with American pronunciation, and also Americans’ difficulties understanding her speech… but on the other hand, by “difficulties” I mean “a lot of her dialogue is basically unreadable,” although Lai usually restates the dialogue afterward in standard English: another character repeats what she said, or something like that. Maybe it was a good idea that went a little too far?

What I’m Reading Now

I’m halfway through one of the Newbery books from 1922: William Bowen’s The Old Tobacco Shop: A True Account of What Befell a Little Boy in Search of Adventure. So far this book is Peak 1922, and involves a small boy smoking magical Chinese tobacco that summons a sailor man who speaks in rhyme, and takes the boy and a lot of companions on a sea-faring adventure to find Correction Island, which sounds like a prison but actually is an island that will fix whatever ails you.

Although honestly it would not surprise me at this point if they arrive on the island and it turns out it IS a prison, because it seems like that kind of book. To date, they have been shipwrecked, set afloat on a raft made a mattresses, which got hooked on the back of a whale, which towed them to an island where they went over a waterfall and found themselves in a cave full of treasure, which unfortunately turns out to be guarded by seven pirates who have been lurking under the surface of the water in rubber diving suits, waiting to kill anyone who tries to steal their gold.

And that’s where I’m at right now. How will they get out of this one? Who knows! Presumably a completely bonkers plot twist will be involved.

What I Plan to Read Next

My interlibrary loan on Bodies in Blue: Disability in the Civil War North has come in!!!

Comments

[troisoiseaux]

I remain on the fence about Lai’s decision to spell her heroine’s English-language dialogue phonetically using the Vietnamese spelling system.

I was curious about what that would look like, so I looked for a sample of the novel on Google Books; the only example I could find in the couple of chapters available was in reference to “[the narrator’s] cousin En-Di (illogically spelled Angie)”. It seems like a cool idea, especially in small doses like that, but.... entire chunks of dialogue would be bewildering. Of course, it’s probably meant to be bewildering, and replicate the frustrations of trying to communicate in a language you’re still learning, but that might be a better idea in theory than in practice.

[osprey_archer]

Yes, "a better idea in theory than in practice" pretty much sums up my feelings toward it. Because it really is an intriguing idea! But frustrating to read. Maybe if she hadn't gone quite so hard with the phonetic spelling and compromised more between the Vietnamese and English spellings, or something.

[rachelmanija]

a small boy smoking magical Chinese tobacco that summons a sailor man who speaks in rhyme, and takes the boy and a lot of companions on a sea-faring adventure to find Correction Island, which sounds like a prison but actually is an island that will fix whatever ails you.

That is indeed Peak 1922. Can't wait to find out what happens next; please report.

Lai’s decision to spell her heroine’s English-language dialogue phonetically using the Vietnamese spelling system.

Can you give a small snippet? I'm really curious what this looks like.

[osprey_archer]

They have just realized that the pirates are actually evil spirits (on account of the fact that they keep blathering on about King James and are therefore at least 200 years old) and banished them with Odour of Sanctity. Which is a perfume that the churchwarden who is accompanying them on this voyage keeps in a little bottle and uses to banish imps and evil spirits.

The Vietnamese spellings are very, very heavy with diacritical marks (you may have noticed in the entry that I cunningly didn't use the heroine's name, because it's Hang, except with a little hat on the a, and I don't know how to make DW do that). But troisoiseaux quotes a snippet about H's cousin, "En-Di (illogically spelled Angie)", which is pretty representative of the gap between how H spells things and how your average English reader would pronounce them.

[evelyn_b]

I am SO INTRIGUED by Thanhha Lai right now (it was the words "basically unreadable" that did it). Seconding the request for a brief example, if you still have the book around.

Please do continue to report back on The Old Tobacco Shop; this book is clearly a lot.

[thisbluespirit]

(it was the words "basically unreadable" that did it).

LOL, now why am I not surprised?

(Admittedly, it is true that I read and enjoyed the whole of Udolpho because someone told me it was tedious and unreadable, so I suppose I can' talk...)



Most of the main Swallows and Amazons merge into one in my head, but they were all pretty good, even if child!me didn't agree and I had to try again when I was pretty much grown up to appreciate them. (I wanted more excitement than that, thanks.)

[osprey_archer]

I'm trying to imagine how child!me would have felt about them, and I really don't know. My parents had the first four books on the shelves for years and I always vaguely meant to read them, but somehow they never got to the point of actually being read. Perhaps the plain covers put me off?

I do remember that in third grade or so I named a character in a story I was writing "Tittie," so I must have at least read the back of Swallows and Amazons and the name stuck in my mind.

[thisbluespirit]

As it would, really!

[osprey_archer]

Secondly the lack of surprise that "basically unreadable" reeled you in! And actually it could be far worse; Lai generally provides a paraphrase after each section with Vietnamese spelling, so by the end of the book I just sort of skipped the phonetically spelled dialogue and went right to that.

I've already turned the book in and also I don't know how to reproduce the MANY different diacritic marks used in Vietnamese on DW, so I'm afraid you might be forced to read the book in order to get the full Thanhha Lai experience.

[evelyn_b]

Forced to read a book, how sad! I'll put it on my list of New Year's Recs. :D

[littlerhymes]

If I had read it as a child, though, I probably would have spent way less time going “Gosh, this books is really steeped in British imperialism, isn’t it?”

What could possibly be imperial about a bunch of children sailing to an uninhabited island, finding it is actually inhabited, and claiming the island anyway? HELLO, I am finally free of Yuletide and this is the part I am up to in the book!

[osprey_archer]

Also the fact that they have decided that they are explorers and thus refer to everyone else as natives. The whole book is a big mixture of Stuff I Like (children living alone on an island!) and Arthur Ransome, Why?