This is very interesting to me, even a subject close to my heart, for
why have I spent my life among books. I have to say I can't think of
any one author where I'm at home; I feel kindred spirits with a woman
writer now and again or imagined woman character, but there are too
many real differences. Woolf says, what country, when she is a woman.
Yes women have not been regarded as part of the body politic; they are
to connect through men and their families, but I've known lots of
women who will assert a country, or tribal, or religious or place
identity. If I used to have the latter (NYC), it's gone with time and
change. No woman until the 20th century could live a life like mine;
then this is a possibility. I share real attitudes with a very few,
otherwise it's like women in an imagined past, analogous.
I have no idea who my ancestors were; the furthest I go back is
grandparents and a couple of great-grand. Immigrants in my parents'
generation assimilated; Jews were exterminated
Nonetheless I do bond and, as Matthew Arnold said of many European
people of the later 19th century, literature replaces religion; you
belong to and with worlds of readers and writers. Now some more
closely resemble in what personally counts for me or they do or say
something which I know dismisses or despises such as I. So there's
where I begin to get antagonistic towards Hawthorne, and why I'm a
feminist reader (reading against the grain or for the subtext.
There is no recognizable woman character for me in Lampedusa; they are
recognizable in Trollope but oh so different, or caricature,
condescending. I bond with Austen's heroines, with Catriona Balfe as
Clare, Angharad Rees as Demelza. The woman poet herself :) Janeites
bond with an imagined Jane :)
It's far more than meeting friends, but more lightly it is often that
too. But I know these are worlds of words
Ellen
On Thu, Nov 7, 2024 at 10:03?AM Tyler Tichelaar via groups.io
<tyler@...> wrote:
I agree that Trollope is more likeable than Hawthorne. I feel I would have really liked Trollope, despite his foxhunting. I think he is an author whose best part of himself is displayed in his novels, despite his other faults.
But Hawthorne I feel is a kindred spirit since I have a lot of that Puritan background that he has. His ancestor hung witches, and my ancestors were among the hung. His ancestors came over on the same ship as mine to found the Massachusetts Bay colony. He was obsessed with the past and spent time in libraries and government buildings digging up old records rather than living in the present, and I have often done the same, and his characters repeatedly try to break from the past that wants to possess them. I feel like I like Trollope but I am Hawthorne. I identify with him more than any other author though I do find several other authors more enjoyable to read, but with Hawthorne, I feel like I'm home, dysfunctional as home may be.
Ellen Moody