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Tuesday, February 21, 2012

The Madame Bovary Cultural Vegetables Canon Fatigue Blues

These past few weeks I've got the "Madame Bovary Cultural Vegetables Canon Fatigue Blues".

I decided when I retired I was going to read at least one book by all authors often cited as part of the literary canon. For the two years since, I've done pretty well - tackled Dickens, Tolstoy, Joyce, Dostoyevsky, etc. But I was discouraged late last year when Flaubert's "Madame Bovary" fell flat for me - blues, part 1.

Then, one of my book clubs picked EM Forster's "Howards End" for March. Initially, I was pleased. Aside from Forster's inclusion in most versions of the canon, I loved the film of the same name. But, the fact that the book was chosen for me began to (irrationally) annoy me. Somehow it felt as if I was being force fed cultural vegetables - like high school. Yeah, I know I could just skip the book club meeting but anyway - blues, part 2.

So, even though I borrowed "Howards End" a few weeks ago, somehow several other books (all contemporary/nothing from the canon), have since usurped it in my queue - blues, part 3.

Think I've got the beginnings of a good three verse blues here. What key should I pick for that blues ? Has to be "D" for dumb.

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