infectious book blogmeme

Mags sent me this. is fun. fill in your answers, then pass it on to three fellow blogsters...and so on. a benign virus.

You’re stuck inside Fahrenheit 451, which book do you want to be?

The Fog by James Herbert. If they tried to burn me, I'd just become steam, then settle back out as vapour or water. They'd never be able to destroy me. I would rule the world (nyhahahahahahahahahahaha).

Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?

Yes. As a teenager, I had a bit of a thing for Fuchsia, the daughter of the Earl of Groan, ruler of Gormenghast. This despite her gaucheness, immaturity, and strange looks -- I identified with that whole 'romantic adolescent' thing, I guess. (I also suspect that I was influenced by Mervyn Peake's beautiful, vivid prose, and by the seductive, intoxicating atmosphere of the place.) Christ...I've just remembered that I also had a crush on Irma Prunesquallor, the skeletal, myopic, horse-faced sister of the Earl's doctor. She's very severe and strange, and rather awful, but, again, there was something heady about the vividness with which her desperation, dysfunction and austerity was drawn, and about the way that she was drawn to the teenaged Steerpike, irresistibly and quite unselfconsciously. I recall her having a very long bath, and being all soft and hot and powdered in the steamy bathroom afterwards. The weird, intoxicating magic of love and lust, which appealed to my teenaged brain and body, seeped in hormones, frustration and loneliness. (This is probably too much detail for you, right?) :-p

The last book you bought:

Authentic Happiness by Martin Seligman. I see it as a 'superior' kind of self-help book. I'm pretty interested in psychology, and especially in ways of reprogramming myself so that I'm happier, for more of the time.

The last book you read:

Four Quartets by T S Eliot. It's been on my shelf for years and years and years (it cost £1.95), and yet I've never read the whole thing. Contrary to what I remembered, the poems are mostly pretty accessible. I struggled (and still struggle) with some of the meaning/allusion/philosophical and religious contexts, but I felt I was getting the gist about rooting yourself in the now, and the human search for meaning in a meaningless world. I will reread them soon, I think. They're very cool and deep, like a slow stream deep in a forest. It's refreshing to step in, and you feel like something's happening to you.

What are you currently reading?

Amongst others -- Dresden by Frederick Taylor. It's about the devastating raid on the city at the end of World War 2, set in the historical contexts of: Dresden's long-term history; its Nazi era history (including its support for the party, its anti-semitism and its aramaments/electronics/optics industries); and the contexts of air war as it developed in WW2, and the military/political imperatives/desires at the tail-end of the war. I think it's intended as a corrective to the ideologically-charged and ahistorical interpretations of the raid, which have black- or white-washed things. I'm expecting a nuanced, troubling, morally-challenging work: such an awful event should be treated in that way.

Five books you would take to a desert island:

Opened Ground - Poems 1966-1996 by Seamus Heaney -- immense riches for mind, voice, and the senses; A la recherche du temps perdu by Marcel Proust -- I managed 1.5 (of 3) volumes in the Penguin translation a few years back, and I have so many great memories of them that I must finish it one day; Our Mutual Friend/David Copperfield by Charles Dickens -- dark, funny, atmospheric, and storytelling of great range, with wonderful use of language. The Gormenghast Trilogy by Mervyn Peake -- my comfort/nostalgia book. Cat's Eye by Margaret Attwood -- when I read this first, it just felt so true about what it is to be alive, and afraid, and in the world. Beautiful and profound.

Who are you going to pass this stick to (3 persons)? And Why?

Hmm, I'll pass this onto Taeko, RedOne and the Urban Fox. Because they're all book-lovers, and I like hearing what they think about big sacks of words.