Black and white as portrayed by Jim and Huck. And one more needlework project done! September 17, 2012

I find combining my needlework with audio reading is not only a lot of fun, but I'm able to finish the latter a lot more quickly! I've already got my materials set for the next embroidery project.

But before I go into those details I thought I jot down some of my thoughts on The Adventurs of Huckleberry Finn so far. I am currently in the middle of chapter 17, which means I'm still a way off from completing half the book. However, I have been given some food for thought…or questioning, rather.

I recall reading a few reviews and comments on Margaret Mitchell's depiction of the black slaves in Gone with the Wind. She is accused of showing them of as child-like, innocent, and very dependent. I've read how readers feel she should have been sensitive to the whole issue considering the time she herself wrote in. Many have argued back saying that her portrayal of the blacks during the Civil War and/or just about it is accurate to the era in which the story is set.

All this was brought to mind when reading how Twain portrays Jim. This man is portrayed as child-like too. His entire conversation with Huck about how king Solomon could not possibly have been a wise man because he meant to cut a child in half, is proof of that. I mean he reasons with the reasoning of a child — plain and simple. Huck seems to play the role of the ever-suffering adult having to keep quiet because there is simply no reasoning with a child. The roles, therefore, of adult and child seem reversed in this situation because of the black and white dynamics. While Huck obviously cares for and respects Jim for all the superstitions the latter knows, Huck unconsciously treats Jim like a thing. This becomes very obvious when he begins to feel guilty about having been the cause of perhaps setting Jim free. Jim is thrilled about landing on Cairo which means freedom for him, and the possibility of earning money to buy his wife and his children from owners other than his own. Huck begins to hyperventilate, thinking he has done wrong by his widowed protector and by all those white people who own Jim's family. He does not seem to realise that Jim has a right to his freedom and his family.

The point I'm trying to make, though, is that Mitchell seems to be spot on with her portrayal of the blacks as viewed by the whites in those times. I don't know how far the blacks really were child-like since I don't know anything about African-American history, but I suspect that lack of education could be the reason, if it were so. It sure was the same case for women when they were not allowed to be educated!

Well, I'll stop here. My head is a bit fuzzy with lack of sleep and my son's trying to get me to play some games with him. I'll just quickly leave you folk with my latest needle work.

It's called Blue Flower and I found the free chart at The Workbasket.

From the same site I downloaded another chart to what is called Berthi's Birdbath.

I love the pastel shades. Unfortunately, I definitely won't be able to replicate these colours. I don't have these threads (for the most part) and I've yet to discover a place where I can buy whatever colour thread I need. Actually, I'm currently dipping into my mother's old stock of threads. So the following image shows a glimpse of the colours I will be using. I apologise for the rather raw photography, but then it's something I've never been very good at since I've always taken pictures only out of necessity and not out of any artistic temperament. :-/

 

The colours are a bit bright, aren't they? I'm doing this on a creamy cloth, so I hope the colours stand out well and subtly at the same time!

That's it for now!

How are you folk getting along with your current reads and other projects?

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Getting drawn into the whale! September 17, 2012

Since last year I came across quite a few bloggers attempting to read Herman Melville's epic novel, Moby Dick. I can't say I was in the least tempted to try it. I recall my mom (she, brave soul, tackled this whale of a book in her college days, determinedly reading 30 pages a day) telling me that there were pages and pages dedicated to the harpooning of the whale alone. That was enough to put me off this book for ever. I didn't care about the philosophies that this book expounded. If I was going to read pages dedicated to shipping and the like I didn't think the struggle was worth it.

Now…I believe I've changed my mind.

Really? How come?!

Blame this post right here. That actually leads to this event right here. 135 chapters in 135 days doesn't sound too bad, does it? Add to that audio readings by the likes of Tilda Swinton and Stephen Fry and a host of other famous names, and you just have to give this a try!

I admit, it was the promise of an audio reading every day that made me check out this event. But, the introduction, at Moby Dick Big Read, blew me away so completely that on listening to the first chapter I felt this restless certainity that I was not grasping everything. So, I immediately downloaded myself a free ebook and began reading it again.

You know? I like Melville's style. I wonder I was so afraid to try! I think I can handle reading a book of many layers with such an engaging style of writing. No. 'Engaging' is too feeble a word. I think I could positively love the way this author writes (wrote?).

The very first paragraph:

Call me Ishmael. Some years ago–never mind how long precisely– having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off–then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball. With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship. There is nothing surprising in this. If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the ocean with me.

The first paragraph of the powerful introduction to Moby Dick at the Moby Dick Big Read site:

Moby-Dick is the great American novel. But it is also the great unread American novel. Sprawling, magnificent, deliriously digressive, it stands over and above all other works of fiction, since it is barely a work of fiction itself. Rather, it is an explosive exposition of one man’s investigation into the world of the whale, and the way humans have related to it. Yet it is so much more than that. It is a representation of evil incarnate in an animal – and the utter perfidy of that notion. Of a nature transgressed and transgressive – and of one man’s demonic pursuit, a metaphorical crusade that even now is a shorthand for overweening ambition and delusion.

Having begun from 16 September 2012, the 135 chapters will be read one a day up till the end of January 2013.

I am not sure how much I am going to be able to stick to this schedule. But I think, even if I manage about half the book I will have gained something. I've also decided to go ahead and read the chapters for myself so that I don't miss anything (which I tend to do when listening to an audio).

So, do any of you think this book worth a tackle? Especially when you get to read it/follow it in this novel way? Are you going to try giving Moby Dick a chance?

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