1946 International Military Tribunal opened in Tokyo against 28 Japanese war criminals
1989 Beginning of the Tiananmen Square Massacre as Chinese troops opened fire on pro-democracy supporters in Beijing
2018 A dead whale was found with 17 pounds of plastic in its stomach in Thailand
8:57 p.m.
Caren Goldberg:I found her writing process so interesting — inhabiting her characters and not knowing ahead of time what will happen. I loved that she had planned for Artie to tell Evie that her knew and she just couldn’t do it. And I loved that she felt it gave him power not to tell her. I thought it was an exercise of free will for Artie and gave him a certain freedom and the new shared secret with Rob and his son made them closer. While that secret made them each lonely, in the end it made her lonelier. And that the father of the girl killed in the accident came to Artie’s funeral gave such grace to him and a recognition on the father’s part of what Artie as a father had to live with. Strout’s writing about ordinary people and the human condition, our battles, our shared loneliness, inability to communicate and really understand one another is heartbreaking and beautiful to me at the same time. I feel inspired to take the time to look at people and talk to one or two.Charles Clausen:Amen. She must have a very powerful imagination to so thoroughly become an imaginary creature, and not just one, but all the principal characters. I found myself wanting to know more about Evie and the circumstances of her relationship with Flossie’s husband, much like I wanted to know more about the circumstances of the relationship between Hester Prynne and Reverend Dimmesdale. How much just lust and the thrill of naughtiness and how much something less culpable. I have to get to bed now. I’m past my bedtime.😴❤️
8:45 a.m.
Good morning. I was in bed, though not asleep, when you texted last night, so my response wasn’t very responsive. I’m an old early bird, with a target bedtime of 9 p.m. and rising time of 5 a.m. though I often miss my target times.
I’ll try not to trespass overmuch on your patience about this book, but here are some other thoughts it, and the Katie Couric interview, triggered in me.
1. I’ve gone back and re-read the first chapter, and notice how much foreshadowing she does in it, especially about the relationship between Evie and Reginald, and about Rob’s knowing about his paternity. It seems that Strout must have at least a general idea of the plot of her story as she starts writing, about its fulcrum, or else why would she start as she did, with the regular get-togethers between Flossie and Artie, Flossie’s description of Reginald as an asshole, Evie’s knowing as much as she does about Flossie and Reginald’s marriage, and her disdain for Flossie. On the other hand, perhaps she starts writing as Artie has his students write at the beginning of each semester, i.e., about anything at all, just so he gets some sense of who they are.
2. I was struck by the “Peyton Place” (showing my age) aspect of the community about which she writes. Flossie’s husband slept with Artie’s wife, Flossie slept with Anne Merrill’s husband, principal Hoover Lakeland was involved in an affair with someone for years, Danny Marino’s mother was having an affair, and even Rob had a relationship with a younger woman Rachel while still married to his older wife Francesca.
3. I was confused about how old Artie was when he died. He was 57 when the story starts, which was during the 2024 presidential election, and died “several years later”, yet we’re only in 2026. Maybe Strout was blessed, as Artie was, with some “precognition.”
4. Strout leaves Artie’s nagging doubt about free will vs. determinism unresolved but I noticed that, when Katie Couric asked her her own views on the question, she said she didn’t know, but that she believed we have a lot less free will than we suppose (or something like that.) I’m inclined to agree with that. I’ve watched a number of lectures by Robert Sapolsky, a Stanford primatologist/biogeneticist, about the issue and ought to read his book on the issue, “Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will.” His basic theory, supported of course with a lot of data/evidence, is that every human action is the product of causes that precede it. He believes we are fooling ourselves when we think that we act and make choices freely. It’s a lot to think about, with a lot of social and political consequences. And it makes one wonder about all the “choices” made by the characters in the novel and of course the choices we’ve made in our own lives. Just how free are or were those choices? I think particularly of Artie’s strange shoplifting and of Rachel’s strange kleptomania.
5. I think it’s interesting to engage in some counterfactual wondering about the Dam family. What would have been the results if Reginald had never told Rob of his paternity? If Rob had never told Artie? What if Rob had, as he had originally intended, told his mother but not Artie? What if Artie had told Evie instead of keeping it his and Rob’s secret? Strout told Katie Courie that she originally intended that Artie would tell Evie, but that she/he ‘just couldn’t do it.’ It makes one wonder, why? What causes caused her inability to have Artie tell Evie? Was her choice free or pre-determined? Was Artie’s? Just asking the questions suggest the issue of free will vs. determinism insofar as we expect the answers would affect , which is to say, determine, subsequent behaviors on the part of those affected by them.
As I suppose is clear, I tend to run off at the mouth (and on the keyboard) in my old age, and there is no need to respond to any of this. If you do, however, you know I’m always interested in your thoughts. Thanks again for alerting me to this novel and to this author.
Caren Goldberg
I love hearing all of your thoughts — you give me a lot to think about. I found it interesting that Strout didn’t really have much to say about free will in the interview and I wondered if she just chose not to share. I think Strout gave a lot of herself in the interview and I felt she was entitled to hold back and maybe that was part of what was going on. It will be interesting to see if it’s made into a movie.
No comments:
Post a Comment