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Time's Running Out
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From: Megan Schliesman <Schliesman>
Date: Fri, 28 Jul 1995 15:13:00 -600
Like Nina, I don't want to overgeneralize in terms of a gender-response to the novel; on the other hand, I think
"generalizations" are exactly that - speaking to the general population and not all specific individuals and so perhaps it is safe to summise that male and female responses may, in general terms, be different. However, I can say that my appreciation for WTM most certainly starts with the wonderful characters about whom I was made to deeply care.
I do know that when I read WTM - indeed, when I read any novel - I did not look for specific references to time, nor did I find them lacking.
Sometimes I find specific references in a text that firmly establish when a book takes place; other times I only get an overallall impression of when I think a book takes place, as in WTM. There have been times (and of course specifics elude me right now) when I have been amazed to find a book is set in a contemporary time period several decades off from when I envisioned it to be set. (Much the same way I was flabbergasted when I was younger to discover - after reading much Flannery O'Connor - that Flannery O'Connor was a woman. It wasn't just the name that threw me, but the style and sense of her prose....this relates to the gender discussion, however...). But while such a discovery may force me to make an adjustment in my perceptions, it generally does not change my overall feelings about a book.
The point is that for me, as a reader, I don't care when a novel is set (that's probably a little too flippantly stated). What I care about is the characters. Certainly time, setting and other elements figure in to this with regard to how the setting in terms of time has an impact on their lives, but what I ultimately respond to is the emotional tenor of the book, which to me is tied to the characters what are they thinking and feeling? What makes them behave the way they do?
In some novels I'm going to find time a critical factor in these questions if the characters' lives and behavior are linked directly to events or objects for which the time plays a critical role science fiction and historical novels are two obvious examples. But in WTM, time is not critical to my response to the characters. At the same time (sorry - can't get away from the word), I didn't wholly discount it, for I couldn't help but think how much Mrs. Winterbottom read as such an anachronism, reminding me of the stereotypical 1950's t.v. housewife run amok. (Bad form to use t.v. reference in this discussion of time.)
Now I've spent too much time talking about time, and all I really wanted to say is how little it mattered to me in my appreciation for this novel.
Megan Schliesman CCBC UW-Madison
Received on Fri 28 Jul 1995 04:13:00 PM CDT
Date: Fri, 28 Jul 1995 15:13:00 -600
Like Nina, I don't want to overgeneralize in terms of a gender-response to the novel; on the other hand, I think
"generalizations" are exactly that - speaking to the general population and not all specific individuals and so perhaps it is safe to summise that male and female responses may, in general terms, be different. However, I can say that my appreciation for WTM most certainly starts with the wonderful characters about whom I was made to deeply care.
I do know that when I read WTM - indeed, when I read any novel - I did not look for specific references to time, nor did I find them lacking.
Sometimes I find specific references in a text that firmly establish when a book takes place; other times I only get an overallall impression of when I think a book takes place, as in WTM. There have been times (and of course specifics elude me right now) when I have been amazed to find a book is set in a contemporary time period several decades off from when I envisioned it to be set. (Much the same way I was flabbergasted when I was younger to discover - after reading much Flannery O'Connor - that Flannery O'Connor was a woman. It wasn't just the name that threw me, but the style and sense of her prose....this relates to the gender discussion, however...). But while such a discovery may force me to make an adjustment in my perceptions, it generally does not change my overall feelings about a book.
The point is that for me, as a reader, I don't care when a novel is set (that's probably a little too flippantly stated). What I care about is the characters. Certainly time, setting and other elements figure in to this with regard to how the setting in terms of time has an impact on their lives, but what I ultimately respond to is the emotional tenor of the book, which to me is tied to the characters what are they thinking and feeling? What makes them behave the way they do?
In some novels I'm going to find time a critical factor in these questions if the characters' lives and behavior are linked directly to events or objects for which the time plays a critical role science fiction and historical novels are two obvious examples. But in WTM, time is not critical to my response to the characters. At the same time (sorry - can't get away from the word), I didn't wholly discount it, for I couldn't help but think how much Mrs. Winterbottom read as such an anachronism, reminding me of the stereotypical 1950's t.v. housewife run amok. (Bad form to use t.v. reference in this discussion of time.)
Now I've spent too much time talking about time, and all I really wanted to say is how little it mattered to me in my appreciation for this novel.
Megan Schliesman CCBC UW-Madison
Received on Fri 28 Jul 1995 04:13:00 PM CDT
