Why I Like Professional Conferences

I will attend two professional conferences soon, and I am very much looking forward to them. This topic may seem unconnected to the focus of this blog – books and reading – but for me, conferences are seamlessly intertwined with my reading and writing life. Conferences provide an opportunity to meet with and hear from writers of articles and books I have read, and to share my own ideas that I am writing about. Almost everyone who reads – a solitary occupation – likes to discuss what she or he reads with others, whether it be with family, friends, book groups, people at independent bookstore readings, or colleagues at conferences. The act of sharing and discussing what one has read helps us to clarify our understanding and share our pleasure in new ideas and creative ways of expressing them. Below are some reasons that I enjoy conferences:
1. I learn from my colleagues at academic sessions, in hallway conversations, and over coffee and meals.
2. I am able to share my own ideas and research with others, both by giving papers and by talking informally with various people.
3. I am happy to be part of a community of scholars, and am reminded of how fortunate I am to be part of it.
4. I am happy to be with colleagues from all over the world whom I have gotten to know over years of attending conferences, and to meet new colleagues as well.
5. I like to roam the Book Exhibits hall, browse, see what new books are out, and buy a few to take home.
6. I enjoy visiting or re-visiting interesting cities, and experiencing the pleasure and invigoration of being in a different place.
7. I am away from my regular routine; as much as I really love my regular routine at home and work, a change of pace is always good. And I always come back energized (tired, yes, but energized!)
8. Once each day’s sessions are finished, I love the camaraderie of going out to dinner with colleagues/friends, and sharing our ideas and lives in a more informal way.
9. I always come back with new ideas for my teaching and research.
10. And one more way conferences connect to my reading life: I have several hours on the plane each way to read!

"I Love a Man in Uniform"

The title "I Love a Man in Uniform: A Memoir of Love, War, and Other Battles" (Weinstein, 2009) perhaps sounds a bit flip and humorous, and that is certainly author Lily Burana's tone for much of the book. But it soon becomes obvious that humor is her way of dealing with her deep insecurities and fears. This tell-all writer (she earlier wrote a memoir about being a former stripper) and now army officer's wife becomes paralyzed by her childhood traumas, which are now exacerbated by adapting to the new customs and fears that a military wife has to endure. Not only does she fear for her husband's safety, but she initially also finds life in the military confining and claustrophobic. It is a huge contrast to her former life as a sophisticated, liberal writer, used to living in New York and other havens for artists and nonconformists. However, she gradually seeks help, deals with her fears, becomes mentally and emotionally healthier, saves her marriage, and becomes appreciative of what the military does. In other words, she learns to live her life, seeing and taking advantage of the positive aspects, and finding ways to deal with the negative aspects. As she comes to know and be supported by many other military wives, she particularly praises these quietly courageous women for their strengths and adaptability, and the way they bravely keep everything going behind the scenes. There is a certain dissonance throughout this book between the cynical, flip tone the author sporadically maintains and, on the other hand, the darkness she struggles with. But Burana comes across, ultimately, as a strong woman who faces down her fears, and doesn't hide who she is; I came to admire her. I also came to admire her husband. In addition,I found the portrait of military life, especially the depictions of living on the grounds of West Point, very interesting; the book provides a window into a life many of know little about.

The Power of Poetry

The Palestinian-American poet/novelist/essayist/anthologist Naomi Shihab Nye, who has done so much to broaden and diversify the world of America poetry, beautifully describes the power of poetry as follows (Thanks to The Writer's Almanac, 3/12/11, for this quotation):

"To me the world of poetry is a house with thousands of glittering windows. Our words and images, land to land, era to era, shed light on one another. Our words dissolve the shadows we imagine fall between."

Memorable Settings of Novels

On 3/6/11, I wrote about memorable characters in novels; today I write of memorable settings, whether fictional or real, in novels. Some are houses or estates; some are cities. Most have positive connotations, some do not. But all linger in my mind even many years after reading the novels in which the settings are portrayed. Below are some examples:

-Barton Cottage (in Sense and Sensibility)
-Longbourn, Netherfield Park, Pemberley (in Pride and Prejudice)
-Mansfield Park (in Mansfield Park)
-Hartfield, Donwell Abbey, Highbury (in Emma)
-Bath, Northanger Abbey (in Northanger Abbey)
-Lyme, Bath (in Persuasion)
-Lowood School, Thornfield, the moors (in Jane Eyre)
-Wuthering Heights, Thrushcross Grange, the moors in Yorkshire (in Wuthering Heights)
-Cranford (in Cranford)
-Wessex (in Hardy's novels)
-Dublin (in Ulysses, The Dubliners)
-New York City (in Wharton's novels)
-Long Island (in The Great Gatsby)
-Nebraska (in My Antonia)
-The Dakotas (in Giants in the Earth)
-Prince Edward Island (in Anne of Green Gables)
-The March family house, the Lawrence family house next door (in Little Women)
-London (in Mrs. Dalloway)
-Howards End (in Howards End)
-the Marabar Caves (in A Passage to India)
-Paris cafes and bars (in The Sun Also Rises)
-Yoknapatawpha County (in Faulkner's novels)
-Malgudi (in R. K. Narayan's novels)
-Los Angeles (in The Day of the Locust)
-Los Angeles (in Joan Didion's work)
-Salinas, Monterey (in Steinbeck's novels)
-San Francisco (in Alice Adams' novels and stories)
-San Francisco (in Armistead Maupin's novels)

International Women's Day

As today is the 100th anniversary of the founding of International Women's Day, I want to acknowledge and thank all the brave pioneer women in many different fields who took risks and broke barriers, leading the way for the rest of us in ensuing generations. I especially want to give tribute to the great women writers over the years who wrote and published despite all the obstacles put in their way.

Guest Blog: Movie Versions of Books

My friend Mary and I were emailing about the new movie version of "Jane Eyre" that has just come out. We were thinking about why we do or don't like movie versions of books. In my case, even though I know I may well be disappointed, I usually can't resist a movie based on one of my favorite books. So, for example, you will find me watching every single movie or TV version of Austen's novels. I liked Mary's comments on the topic, so I persuaded her to let me publish them here as a guest blog post. Thanks, Mary!

Mary's comments:
I find that in general, if I have read the book I am less likely to like a movie made from it than if I have not read the book. There is usually just so much in a book that a movie can't possibly include it all. Especially hard I think is translating the "voice" of the narrator or the inner thoughts of characters. It can be irritating to have nuanced characters (of whom I have formed pictures in my mind) come clunkily to life in a movie. Occasionally the movie maker will change the plot or at least ending of a popular book--maybe so moviegoers who've read the book will be motivated to see it if it might offer something new? Having said that, there are a few movies that capture the book so perfectly--somehow getting in enough of the essence of the movie--that the book and movie become almost seamless in my memory. One that always comes to mind is To Kill a Mockingbird. I read and loved the book before I saw the movie, yet in my mind Atticus Finch looks and sounds exactly like Gregory Peck! And sometimes a very good movie can be made out of a not great book--The Godfather comes to mind.

Characters Lodged in My Mind

Certain characters from often-read and well-loved novels are so vivid and fully-formed, as if they are people I know personally, that they seem to have taken up long-term residence in my mind, and I often find myself thinking of them. Below is a list of some such characters.

-Elizabeth Bennet, Emma Woodhouse, Anne Elliot, Fanny Price, and Elinor and Marianne Dashwood (all from Austen’s novels)
-Jane Eyre (from Jane Eyre)
-Dorothea Brooke Casaubon (from Middlemarch)
-Becky Sharp (from Vanity Fair)
-Miss Matty Jenkyns (from Cranford)
-Tess Durbeyfield/D’Urberville (from Tess of the D'Urbervilles)
-Anna Karenina (from Anna Karenina)
-Emma Bovary (from Madame Bovary)
-Jo, Meg, Beth, and Amy March (from Little Women)
-Lily Bart (from House of Mirth)
-Countess Ellen Olenska (from The Age of Innocence)
-Isabel Archer (from The Portrait of a Lady)
-Antonia Shimerda (from My Antonia)
-Clarissa Dalloway (from Mrs. Dalloway)
-Dr. Aziz (from A Passage to India)
-Margaret Schlegel Wilcox (from Howard’s End)
-Lucy Honeychurch (from A Room With a View)
-Edna Pontellier (from The Awakening)
-Kurtz (from The Heart of Darkness)
-Anne Shirley (from Anne of Green Gables)
-Jake Barnes (from The Sun Also Rises)
-Benjy Compton (from The Sound and the Fury)
-Rose of Sharon Joad Rivers (from The Grapes of Wrath)
-Emmeline “Lucia” Lucas (from the Mapp and Lucia novels)
-Holden Caulfield (from The Catcher in the Rye)
-Dean Moriarty (from On the Road)
-Moses Herzog (from Herzog)
-Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom (from Rabbit, Run)
-Celie (from The Color Purple)
-Mira (from The Women’s Room)
-Sula (from Sula)