After some googling around, the verdict I distilled out of the internet's always-plentiful and often useless sea of opinions was that timelessness and universality are two major criteria for a classic. With having NEVER been out of print, it seems that East of Eden has proven itself timeless. And its heavy drawing on biblical themes may seem to be evidence that it has a universal tale of morality to tell. I'm only half way through so I'm far from drawing any useful conclusions on that front. I'm not sure it's worth blogging about a book half way through the reading process, except that I'm finding it so dark that I just want to throw this out there and get a few opinions.
I mentioned my thoughts to Kerry, who asked me why I just don't quit reading it if I don't like it. I don't know how serious she was about not finishing it (she strikes me as a book-finisher), but all I could say was that I was reading it because it is a classic and I feel like that means I should read it. And if I don't like it at the end then at least I will be able to explain why, having read from cover to cover.
But trying to explain why I will probably finish reading it even though it's an awful, awful story reminded me of a question that my first year university English professor posed to our class. She asked us: why do we read?. It was a truly awkward moment. All of us first years unwilling to speak, afraid to answer incorrectly, and dreading being called on in front of a class full of strangers. She eventually answered the question with her own answer, which was that we read to know that we are not alone. We read to know that we are not alone.
Frankly, I would rather feel alone than know any of the characters that have been introduced to me in East of Eden. In my further googling (c'mon, this is a blog for fun, I can google for sources, right?), the thing I found that seems to fit this situation the best is Italo Calvino's thoughts on what makes a classic. Apparently he wrote an essay called "Why read the classics?" in the 1980s that says "a classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say". And then he personalizes it, saying that "YOUR classic author is the one you cannot feel indifferent to, who helps you define yourself in relation to him, even in dispute with him."
Well Mr. Steinbeck, I think we are officially in dispute.
I am a book finisher, it's true. See my tortured experience with "War and Peace" for a classic example. ALSO, that means Robin Jones Gunn is a classic author for us! I think this is an appropriate type of post for Google research. Is it terrible that this, and our earlier conversation, are making me terribly curious to read "East of Eden"?
ReplyDeleteRead it! Then I won't have to be alone in this.
ReplyDeleteI've often felt the same way about classics. 7 years ago I tried reading East of Eden, but got sad as hell. I've decided that I will push myself once every 10 years to read through a book I that makes me feel I'd rather be alone than read it. I've got 3 more years before I have to read one. When you get to the end, let us know if there were any redeeming moments for you.
ReplyDeleteSometimes liking stuff is different than appreciating it. It's been my experience that the more I know about why something is considered "important" the more likely I am to appreciate it. Most of the experiences I'm thinking of involve many hours in music history with Dr. Kloppers' slide projector. I casually posture (without doing research of any kind except to ask my nerdy English degree husband for his two cents worth and then sort of dispute him) that a classic is a classic because the world changed as a result of it being created and shared. To appreciate a classic requires learning something about the world and people at that particular moment. (Apparently this view makes me a moderately Marxist literary theorist.) Here's another question: is it better to/would you rather read a classic or a hyped-up, critically acclaimed, contemporary bestseller?
ReplyDelete...or maybe I should just ask "Which would you rather be...divinely beautiful, dazzlingly clever, or angelically good?"
ReplyDeleteMarney - I think those are two very different types of reading, for very different purposes. I don't think there is a better. (And I could never be angelically good, but I would love to be divinely beautiful ... that's right, I can make a decision.)
ReplyDeleteMegan: what was your last sad book?
ReplyDeleteDivinely beautiful. Fo' Sho'.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments. I think the thing that I didn't touch on in my original post is that he has written one of the most disturbing, terrifying, evil, hateful, unredeemable characters that I have ever been introduced to. She is so awful that I absolutely do not want to relate to her in any way. I can handle tragic storylines, deep sadness, and brutal realities. But she goes way beyond that. I found a commentary that says Steinbeck intended Cathy to be a symbol of evil, not a relatable character. This suggests that her lack of believability as a real character was intentional. Apparently based on an ex-wife of Steinbeck's. The thought of her being based on a real person makes me shudder.
ReplyDeletei have no problem quitting books that have characters and events that disturb me. my tender-mother-heart can't handle a lot of brutality and evil in my everyday life. i recently quit reading fall on her knees (pedophilia) and the poison wood bible (when the young child died) because i found i couldn't process the events without weeping excessively.
ReplyDeleteyou guys just want to be divinely beautiful because you're already dazzlingly clever. (everyone knows being angelically good has gone out of fashion.)
ReplyDeleteIt was The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. The story was told from the perspective of death and it was the most interesting use of description and emotion. I sobbed, literally sobbed at the end.
ReplyDeleteoh marney, you should finish poisonwood bible. it's good. it's worth finishing, even though it's sad.
ReplyDeleteMarney, I have to agree with Kerry. It was a great, great novel. So worth it.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite quote "Frankly, I would rather feel alone than know any of the characters that have been introduced to me in East of Eden". Hilarious.
ReplyDeleteFor what it's worth I read and liked East of Eden. It was definitely super intense but also it had characters that, although awful at times, were really interesting. Cathy is a Dick though, ha.