Sense and Sensibility - A Matter of Head and Heart

 Jane Austen

First Published in 1811

Published by Penguin Classics in 1995

409 pages

Meet the Dashwood sisters. Elinor, the eldest of all three daughters, is considerate, reserved and very sensible, while Marianne, the second daughter of the Dashwoods, carries a set of characteristics completely opposite of those of her older sister. She is wildly romantic, outspoken and emotional. In the pursuit of love, neither sister was successful at finding happiness by solely relying on their natural instinct, be it Elinor’s sensible reasoning or Marianne’s uninhibited passion. Marianne falls head-over-heels in love with deceitful Willoughby who, in the end, confesses that he’s never had the intention of returning her affection. At the same time, Elinor finds out that the man that she has become attached to, Edward Ferrars, was already engaged to someone else.

Early on in the story, Jane Austen established the parallel progression of both sisters’ love lives. The obvious contrast between Marianne’s and Elinor’s different ways of dealing with the pain caused by every turn of event allows readers to identify and compare the mental capacity and behaviors produced by each disposition – sense and sensibility. Austen has chosen Elinor as the person who delivers most of the important scenes in the story. It is not hard to detect that Austen favors the cool-headed and thoughtful Elinor over the romantic Marianne who is still too young and stubborn to compromise her emotions outburst for the consideration for others and circumstances. The main contrast between Elinor and Marianne codes of conduct lies in Marianne’s romantic insistence that desires be spoken, whereas Elinor requires that they be silenced. When Marianne learns that Elinor has silently suffered just as much as she has, if not more, she is ashamed by comparison with the virtues of her sister Elinor. But is this to say that sense is a superior form of disposition than sensibility?

If we define Elinor and Marianne’s temperament with our modern-day psychology jargons, Elinor would certainly be labeled as someone with a high EQ, whereas Marrianne a not so high one. The ability of reserving one’s emotions and thoughts and directing them to an appropriate outlet at an appropriate time is a derivate action of delayed gratification which is the most important sign for high EQ. Elinor possesses exactly this ability. It is unfortunate that women in Jane Austen’s time could only bestow this power in tasks that are no more impressive than the task of searching for a good husband. However, when Elinor puts her high emotional quotient to use in the matter of love, she fails miserably. Her cautiousness and emphasis on form have delayed her from getting to the truth that would have made her suffer much less by lessening her attachment to Edward Ferrars.

While reading texts from the beginning part of the book where the sisters are excitedly speculating of the verity of affection from their prospective lovers, I was fondly reminded of the scenes from movie “He is just not that into you”.  Throughout time, women have waited by either their door or their phone for their lovers to call. It is undeniable that women have disposed to be emotional, and they have been in the passive and submissive position during courtship for as long as time. What Jane Austen is trying to tell us with Sense and Sensibility is that neither being highly sensible and logical nor being crazily romantic and emotional guarantees the success of love. Sometimes, women have to love with their heart, just as much as with their head.

The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett

Title: The Secret Garden

Author: Frances Hogdson Burnett

Genre: Children

Publisher: Geddes & Grosset 2004

Length: 222 pages

When Mary Lennox was sent to Misselthwaite Manor to live with her uncle, everybody said she was the most disagreeable-looking child ever seen.

10-year-old Mary loses her parents to epidemic cholera. She is sent away to her uncle who lives at Misselthwaite Manor in England. Mary's life begins to change after she discovers a secret garden next to her uncle's house. While she tries her best to revive the dead garden, she realizes that there is so much more to life than just feeling lonely and getting everything her way. Like the roses and lilies that sprout to life in the secret garden, Mary becomes healthier and happier. However, Mary is soon to realize that she is not the only person whose life has changed because of the secret garden.

"The Secret Garden" is essentially about the power of positive thinking, a classic children book where something valuable is to be learned. The young characters are all very lovable. The beauty of their innocence is hard to find in many children/YA books nowadays. Although the story is enjoyable, I can imagine that this book could be too wordy for young children who lack of long attention span. Parents could instead read this book to the kids before bedtime. 

Now why did I read this book? Well, I read it because I wanted to see if this book would be suitable for translation and brought to China's children book market which lacks of quality books. I have to admit that this is the first time in a long time since I've read a children book. I am glad that I picked "The Secret Garden" to jump start my memories because this book is awfully sweet and refreshing. I decide not to translate this book in the end due to various reasons, but I do not regret reading it.

Illusion - Edmond Cheng

 

About a few weeks ago, I was contacted by a local Hong Kong writer named Edmond Cheng who asked me if I'd like to review his new novella "Illusion". I was quite excited at the opportunity of reviewing and supporting a local writer's work, so I happily agreed.

"Illusion" is a story of riveting mystery. The protagonist - a happily married young man named Thomas - has a bizarre encounter with his best friend's mother Aunt Wai Ha who informs Thomas that her daughter-in-law, Helen, is having an affair and urges Thomas to warn her son Jonathan.  Thomas doesn't think much of this incident until when he finds out from his wife Karen that Aunt Wai Ha has been dead for months. From this point on, Thomas' life is forever changed. He is haunted by an unknown spirit that repetitively infuses unusual images into Thomas' mind. After a failed attempt to warn his Johnathan about Helen's evil deception, Thomas receives a strange phone call which leads him to Johnathan's dead body. At the same time, his wife has gone missing. In order to get his wife back, Thomas has to summit all courage and goes head on with the two people behind this tragedy: Helen and her lover Brian. After several thrilling chase scenes, Helen and Brian are finally caught by the police. However, Johnathan's journey does not stop here. Another truth of the mystery is revealed to him, and he realize he is the master of his own illusion.

This is Mr. Cheng's first attempt at writing a mystery novel, the effort is worth applauding for as mystery is one of the most difficult genres in literature. The story is a good one, although there are a few imperfections. While the ending the story is suspenseful and surprising, it has taken quite a sudden U-turn and left me a bit bewildered. I feel that somehow it lacks a close connection to the previous development of the plot. As a reader, part of the fun of reading a mystery novel is the constant guessing of what the ending will be, and the success of a great mystery often lies in the writer's ability to end the story at a place that is just inches away from most reader's guess but still within the sensible realm. As for "Illusion", I'd say that the ending has just stepped out of sensible realm, thus the shock has become too far-fetched to have a substantial effect.

I assume that English is not Mr. Cheng's first language, since the writing comes off a bit stiff and even awkward in a few places. I strongly recommend Mr. Cheng engage in intensive reading in English literature so that he can bring color and emotion in his narration.

This novella is included in the book "Unearthed" which is published by Midnight Showcase. Mr. Cheng is an English teacher in Hong Kong. He is currently working on a new sci-fi mystery named "Prison". I wish Mr. Cheng the best of luck on his writing career!

The Pursuit of Reading

How do you decide what book to read next? How often do you refer to Amazon's best seller list to make your decision? Do you pick the book that everyone else is reading, or do you choose instead a book that satisfies your own intellectual need?

These are the questions that should be addressed after reading New York Times article titled "The Book Club With Just One Member". In the article, author Motoko Rich pointed out that, in the era of Facebook, Goodreads, Shelfari or book clubs, people's attitudes toward reading have changed drastically. Long ago, Virginia Woolf once said, "The pursuit of reading is carried on by private people." Nowadays, however, there is no longer any privacy left in reading. The act of reading has turned into a "relentless social pursuit". When people read a good book, their natural and immediate instinct is to share it on Facebook, Twitter, blogs (guilty as charged myself) or whatnot.

Long before the age of internet, the relationship between books and readers are much more intimate. Books were private possessions. The bookshelf reflected the reader's taste, intellectual altitude and even personality. Back then people decided on what books to read without much social noise. They spent more time indulging in books that piqued their interest and quietly savored the great moments in reading.

The act of private reading can be soul-enriching albeit a bit lonely. In our fast-paced society, loneliness is something we frown upon. Loneliness is not tolerated. But, think about all these book clubs where people get together once every two weeks to sip champagne and discuss the latest Oprah selection. How many people do you think are really there for a heated discussion on how well crafted chapter 15 is? How many people are there because they are hoping to reach out to someone else who could share their thoughts? Better yet, how many people do you think are reading a book that they don't care at all just so that they can use it as an ice-breaker at a social setting in order to meet people? Maybe we are all lonelier (and shallower) than we'd like to admit. Nonetheless, it is a fact that book reading has become a great tool of communication and connection among people (and the lonely souls). As much as it is digressing from what reading is really about, it is benefiting the society a great deal.

What I like to see is that each one of us indulges in a bit of private reading. Forget about the best sellers. Forget about Oprah. Forget about what you are told to read. Go to the bookstore and pick a book that is entirely "you". Get absorbed into the book! Soak up all of its wonder and glory. Preserve the experience for reflection. Put the book at the end of your bookshelf, and never utter a word to a soul. And that is the book that you will not forget for a long time. Mark my word.

Book Fail

I stumbled upon this website called Awful Library Books. It's run by two librarians Mary and Holly. The site contains an amusing collection of public library holdings that are too ancient to be useful for modern readers. The concept is to showcase (and poke fun at) how irrelevant some of the library collections have become and how these books are in a dire need to be "weeded".

Some of the titles are awfully funny. On the first page, you can see scanned book covers that are titled "Talking to Children about Nuclear Wars", "Goat Husbandry", "Cyborg: Evelution of Superman", "How to Make Beautiful Food in Mold" and etc. I couldn't help bursting out laughing while checking out some of these titles.

It's definitely a great website that's worth stopping by to have a few chuckles. Sort of like a Fail blog for books.

Click here to check it out!

Eleven Kinds of Loneliness - Richard Yates

Title: Eleven Kinds of Loneliness
Author: Richard Yates
Genre: Fiction/Short Stories
Publisher: Vintage 2008
Length: 221 pages

Short Stories Included:
Doctor Jack-o'-Lantern
The Best of Everything
Jody Rolled the Bones
No Pain Whatsoever
A Glutton for Punishment
A Wrestler with Sharks
Fun with a Stranger
The B.A.R. Man
A Really Good Jazz Piano
Out with the Old
Builders



If you are not familiar with the name Richard Yates, I am sure you know of his first novel Revolutionary Road which was adapted into a popular movie in 2008. The movie was nominated for 3 Oscar awards.

This book contains 11 short stories in which Richard Yates explored various forms of "loneliness" that can be found in marriage, friendship or workplace. I have to say that Yates has an ingenious crafting skill. His stories are extremely well-written and leave no room for even the tiny bit of disappointment.

More often than not, the success of a story is not dependent on the story itself but rather on the characters in the story. Characters are hard to develop, and sometimes they take pages and pages of building before the readers fall in love with them. To a short story writer, this task is even more challenging. How do you make your readers like your characters in just a few pages? I am not exaggerating when I say Yates is the master of short stories because, to my surprise, he wasted no words at defining and building his characters who, in most cases, are outcasts, loners or people who are simply unable to connect with another person. With precise and powerful depiction, Yates skillfully showcased their innermost raw emotions which readers can easily relate to, thus making these characters less pathetic but more lovable.

Yates reminds me a lot of Fitzgerald in the way where Yates' stories are also quite grim and often filled with a sense of lost identity and an inner-struggle to connect with the outside world. However, Yates' writing is much more emotional and sarcastic, which adds a bit of an edge to his style.

I always feel that short stories is where writers reveal the most about themselves. After 11 stories, it is not hard to see that Yates is not a believer in marriage. He is rather a pessimist when it comes to love, frequently alluding to the fact that marriage is what kills passion. He even wrote a rather melancholy story about love starting to change in the most subtle ways just two days before a young couple's wedding day. It is not a surprise when I flipped to the first page and read in his biography that he was divorced twice in his lifetime.

My personal favorite is the 4th story No Pain Whatsoever, in which Yates described a young woman riding a friend's car to visit her husband who was checked into the TB ward of a hospital. The story was quite flat and uneventful until we almost approached the end when the woman finished yet another dull visit where she barely conversed with her sick husband. She came out and stood in front of the hospital, in the freezing cold weather of Christmastime, and cried quietly. Yates never mentioned what she was crying for, but it was exactly this kind of crafting that subtly touched the hearts of many.

I am definitely putting Revolutionary Road back on the reading list, and I'm definitely a fan of Richard Yates now.

Have you read any short story collection lately? What are your thoughts?

国境之南 太阳之西

故事其实很普通。主人公始是一个普通中产阶级家庭的独生子。在无人陪伴的童年里，他很孤独，同时也对独生子这个身份感到莫名的自卑。在十二岁那年，他认识了也是独生女的岛本。虽然岛本走路的时候脚有点破，这并没有妨碍他们两人培养出两小无猜的感情。小学毕业后，他们升入了不同的中学。在不同的环境下成长的两个人渐渐疏远，最终成为互不往来的陌路人。始在高二那年交了女朋友，她的名字叫泉。始是喜欢泉的，虽然他说不出为什么。那是典型的十六岁恋爱心情。对于一个少年来说，在前途一片渺茫的时候去爱一个人，必将爱得轻浮而单薄。懵懂的始犯下了不可饶恕的错误，深深地伤害了泉。大学毕业后，始找了一份自己并不热爱的工作。三十岁的时候他结婚了。妻子是一个他很喜欢的女人。之后，他辞去工作，开了两个酒吧。妻子生了两个女儿，全家人生活得安逸舒适。但是，始依旧思念着岛本。可以说，他自始至终都没有停止对岛本的思念。一次偶然的机会，他们再一次相遇了……

这是一本关于初恋的书。一个平凡的男子安静地叙述他从十二岁以来对一个女孩挥之不去的的思慕与爱恋。在书中，始在岳父的鼓动之下，无奈地做出一些违背良心的事情。与此同时，他对岛本的眷恋之情却一发不可收拾。岛本不仅仅是始的初恋，她是始的生命之中一切美好事物的化身。始的生命就像一场穿越繁茂森林的冒险，前方的路越走越阴暗。没有岛本，他会迷路。这个晶莹剔透的女孩，满载着是始对人生最原始最纯洁的向往。

我很喜欢故事的结局，温暖中带着刺痛。美好的东西总会离我们而去，无论我们如何去挽留。也许，这并不是最美丽的结局，但是这个结局却是最真实的。也许在另一场梦中，在一个阳光明媚的周日午后，始和岛本会又一次坐在沙发上，一起聆听“国境之南”那首歌。也许，国境之南的地方不再是荒凉的墨西哥，而是一片没有遗憾的净土。男孩牵着脚有些破的女孩的手，从此再没有松开。