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Book Meme, Day 7* – Most underrated book
Day 7 – Most underrated book
Seconding![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
awomanthatsblue's complaint about the superlatives. Jeez. Like, how do you even choose? I thought I'd be clever and try to find something on Goodreads that had a crazy low rating compared to what I gave it, but there are several of those, too. So I'm gonna take the same tack, and just go with an underrated book: The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood.
This may seem like an odd choice, given how ultra-famous Margaret Atwood is and all, but she's mostly famous for her later stuff, like A Handmaid's Tale or The Blind Assassin. Now, the latter also happens to be among my Favourite Books Ever (will it make another appearance in the meme?I haven't thought that far ahead! Stay tuned to find out!), but The Edible Woman was Atwood's first novel, and also happened to be the first of hers that I ever read. And it floored me.
It was written in the early/mid-'60s, some years before it was actually published (1969), and Atwood describes it in her preface as 'more pre-feminist than feminist', saying that she hadn't had so much of a feminist awakening yet when writing it, and noting that the main character's options in life remain very much the same at the end of the book as at the beginning: trapped in a dull loveless job or a dull loveless marriage.
In an odd sort of way, I feel like its more-proto-feminst-than-feminist qualities are the perfect mirror for reading it now. That is, it is rich with metaphor and all the tools and ingredients for feminist analysis laid out bare, but without having any actual analysis in it, because it doesn't quite know how -- which is kind of precisely the point I feel we're at with feminism today. Sure, it's recognized, but it's also stagnated. Things have gotten a lot better than they were, but we're told that now that we can dress like men and own property like men and have jobs like men and keep our names &c. &c. that we should be satisfied and please just be quiet already, MEN are talking, I think I heard the doorbell, ooh I think the baby's poopy, yes of course I'll help you with the housework, darling, we are a team...
There's not much you can say to people who claim to agree with you and then refuse to acknowledge how their actions belie their words.
Upcoming Days
Day 8 – Most overrated book
Day 9 – A book you thought you wouldn’t like but ended up loving
Day 10 – Favorite classic book
Day 11 – A book you hated
Day 12 – A book you used to love but don’t anymore
Day 13 – Your favorite writer
Day 14 – Favorite book of your favorite writer
Day 15 – Favorite male character
Day 16 – Favorite female character
Day 17 – Favorite quote from your favorite book
Day 18 – A book that disappointed you
Day 19 – Favorite book turned into a movie
Day 20 – Favorite romance book
Day 21 – Favorite book from your childhood
Day 22 – Favorite book you own
Day 23 – A book you wanted to read for a long time but still haven’t
Day 24 – A book that you wish more people would’ve read
Day 25 – A character who you can relate to the most
Day 26 – A book that changed your opinion about something
Day 27 – The most surprising plot twist or ending
Day 28 – Favorite title
Day 29 – A book everyone hated but you liked
Day 30 - Your favorite book of all time
*So, I guess I missed a day there -- and am right under the wire for missing a second. I wasn't even sure I had until I looked at the date on the last entry to get the list for this one, because that is how hectic my yesterday was. Really nice, but hectic. Anyway, nobody said these thirty days had to be consecutive! Right? Right?
Seconding
awomanthatsblue's complaint about the superlatives. Jeez. Like, how do you even choose? I thought I'd be clever and try to find something on Goodreads that had a crazy low rating compared to what I gave it, but there are several of those, too. So I'm gonna take the same tack, and just go with an underrated book: The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood.This may seem like an odd choice, given how ultra-famous Margaret Atwood is and all, but she's mostly famous for her later stuff, like A Handmaid's Tale or The Blind Assassin. Now, the latter also happens to be among my Favourite Books Ever (will it make another appearance in the meme?
It was written in the early/mid-'60s, some years before it was actually published (1969), and Atwood describes it in her preface as 'more pre-feminist than feminist', saying that she hadn't had so much of a feminist awakening yet when writing it, and noting that the main character's options in life remain very much the same at the end of the book as at the beginning: trapped in a dull loveless job or a dull loveless marriage.
In an odd sort of way, I feel like its more-proto-feminst-than-feminist qualities are the perfect mirror for reading it now. That is, it is rich with metaphor and all the tools and ingredients for feminist analysis laid out bare, but without having any actual analysis in it, because it doesn't quite know how -- which is kind of precisely the point I feel we're at with feminism today. Sure, it's recognized, but it's also stagnated. Things have gotten a lot better than they were, but we're told that now that we can dress like men and own property like men and have jobs like men and keep our names &c. &c. that we should be satisfied and please just be quiet already, MEN are talking, I think I heard the doorbell, ooh I think the baby's poopy, yes of course I'll help you with the housework, darling, we are a team...
There's not much you can say to people who claim to agree with you and then refuse to acknowledge how their actions belie their words.
Upcoming Days
Day 8 – Most overrated book
Day 9 – A book you thought you wouldn’t like but ended up loving
Day 10 – Favorite classic book
Day 11 – A book you hated
Day 12 – A book you used to love but don’t anymore
Day 13 – Your favorite writer
Day 14 – Favorite book of your favorite writer
Day 15 – Favorite male character
Day 16 – Favorite female character
Day 17 – Favorite quote from your favorite book
Day 18 – A book that disappointed you
Day 19 – Favorite book turned into a movie
Day 20 – Favorite romance book
Day 21 – Favorite book from your childhood
Day 22 – Favorite book you own
Day 23 – A book you wanted to read for a long time but still haven’t
Day 24 – A book that you wish more people would’ve read
Day 25 – A character who you can relate to the most
Day 26 – A book that changed your opinion about something
Day 27 – The most surprising plot twist or ending
Day 28 – Favorite title
Day 29 – A book everyone hated but you liked
Day 30 - Your favorite book of all time
*So, I guess I missed a day there -- and am right under the wire for missing a second. I wasn't even sure I had until I looked at the date on the last entry to get the list for this one, because that is how hectic my yesterday was. Really nice, but hectic. Anyway, nobody said these thirty days had to be consecutive! Right? Right?