Chuck Grimes wrote:
"The underlying theme that unites them in my mind is the cultivation of a romantic sensibility, which isn't the same as a love story---where the love story evokes the larger world of the senses, the dreams of youth, the intense struggles with feelings that have no reality beyond the heart, the imagination, and the arts."
Funny you should say that, this is almost a precise description of Chekhov's "The Kiss" -- an extraordinarily beautiful short story about a soldier's temporary respit at a boyar's house and his being mistakenly kissed in the dark by an unknown woman...how it makes him feel, how it transforms him...how he tries to figure out who it was...how the impression fades.
When I first read it, at forty, I found it both joyous and painful to remember how powerfully we can affect others and how oblivious or vain it makes us to have that power and how, finally, we would give anything not to have caused any harm, not to have violated that which was open and which hoped...
But, for Katharine, at twelve, it would be frustrating story. She doesn't want to sublimate; she wants to savor and enjoy and to get a feel of the depth and breadth of the romantic life that awaits her.
> They are of course extremely dark but I seem to
>remember them as also extremely beautiful.
>
I don't know that she minds dark. She actually sat through "Death in
Venice" -- she's going to dance to Mahler's 5th this spring, so she
wanted to understand it...
>There is also a problem with gender in the sense that masculinity and
>femininity are merged in a diffused way that maybe only the very young
>(and lucky) experience. And, the writing even in translation is
>painfully exquisite. Gide in particular was in full mastery and
>constructed plots, themes, and characters to intertwine in an very
>precise and tight way---maybe tedious to some---but an instructive
>revelation for anyone interested in learning to write. (My hidden
>agenda is to convert everyone to the arts.)
>
Well, one of the benefits of assembling this list is that I get to read
everything....to figure out what might work.
>I don't know. Thinking about K, I wonder maybe she might like
>extremely masculine and adventurous stories, like Jack London, To
>Light a Fire... or some of Steinbeck's short stories, or
>Hemingway. Just cause she's a girl...doesn't mean everything is pink
>and ribbons. (Are there still lego trucks on the floor?) The point is
>to get her back to enjoying a good story, right?
>
Yes and no. She explicitly asked for love stories. Like I said:
hormones, boys.... what makes a good guy good, mawkish stuff, romantic
plots, romantic conflict and resolution, dreaming and scheming, giving
in, giving up, spilling over, trusting, boundaries, role models, etc.
I'm glad she's clear minded enough to see what's going on and to ask for
what she needs. She won't be twelve her whole life. She'll get back to
the good books eventually.
> I mean, O-land isn't a
>romantic's best town...
>
Now, now. My kids have travelled half the world and still love
Oakland...for its funky, quiet, unpretentious, laid back self. That's
fine too.
>Maybe science fiction, which is where I was at twelve.
>
Funny you should say that, another book I unearthed was "Shards of
Honor" -- More or less first volume of Lois McMaster Bujold's operatic
science fiction series featuring Lord Miles Vorkosigen...and many very
strong female characters.
>
>(Please imagine me smiling with sympathy...)
>
I do.
Joanna