I was once teaching the Present Continuous tense to my Year 9 class and as an example of an ongoing action that may not be occurring every single second I used the sentence “I am reading a book on ancient history” meaning the book is being read by me until completion but not necessarily at that very minute.
A better example would be FOR LOVE ALONE by Christina Stead which I just finished after almost two months of dogged effort….This is not to say it is bad book….In fact, it is a brilliant book densely packed with details of landscape and characters who twist and turn and meticulously crafted dialogue that allows lengthy intellectual discourse that reveals not only what it is that enslaves much of these characters in their rigid social positions but also supposedly those who delude themselves with their more “open” ideas….The concept of love as something entered into voluntarily and that can be shared as opposed to something restrictive that keeps us in bondage.
A sort of unofficial sequel to Stead’s masterpiece THE MAN WHO LOVED CHILDREN (which I wrote about here) http://rgdinmalaysia.xanga.com/649792373/the-man-who-loved-children-by-christina-stead/….FOR LOVE ALONE reads both like the work of an older, more mature person and of a less free, more insular writer.
It finds Teresa Hawkins, the heroine (and stand-in for Christina Stead for this book is very autobiographical) wanting to break away from her stagnant home life in Sydney Australia and job as a teacher….Her father is a selfish, autocratic bully just like the character in THE MAN WHO LOVED CHILDREN but here he only appears at the beginning….Deliverance seems to come in her tutor graduate student Jonathan Crow from a poor family who is planning to attend school in England….This also encourages her to go to England….Their strange masochistic relationship of mutual frustration (which also brings Teresa to England) is unlike anything I’ve come across before in literature although I’ve unfortunately met people like this in real life before.
When real healthy love encompassing physical intimacy enters the scene in the last fourth of the book in the shape of older American James Quick separated from his wife and living in London (based on Stead’s real life husband William Blake), the dramatic contrast is great but her ability to express her love through sex after the bottled up repression of the years before takes another great twist in the last fifty pages where Teresa discovers that having been denied what she wanted during the neverending back and forth with Jonathan Crow she would now like to try love and men….This James Quick allows her and the book ends on a genuinely unique note as Teresa, having just had an affair with a friend of James (with his approval) reflects that monogamy isn’t necessarily necessary in a secure and loving relationship but is probably the easiest course.
With Stead, often her descriptions of scenes and characters and the dialogue which follows are so meticulously detailed and feature such interesting analogies and such a high level of awareness that one doesn’t notice the plot, in fact the real action in this 500 page book doesn’t occur until the last 150 pages.
I find the short preface by Mary Kathleen Benet makes a very salient point that culthood seems to have alluded the career of Christina Stead….One of the reasons for this she theorizes is that Stead writing is completely undiluted so packed is it with ideas and technical wizardry….There are passages in her books that will make your jaw drop so beautifully written, so perfect, and so complete are they….It’s the equivalent of seeing a great piece of art.
I can’t wait to read more Christina Stead….
A better example would be FOR LOVE ALONE by Christina Stead which I just finished after almost two months of dogged effort….This is not to say it is bad book….In fact, it is a brilliant book densely packed with details of landscape and characters who twist and turn and meticulously crafted dialogue that allows lengthy intellectual discourse that reveals not only what it is that enslaves much of these characters in their rigid social positions but also supposedly those who delude themselves with their more “open” ideas….The concept of love as something entered into voluntarily and that can be shared as opposed to something restrictive that keeps us in bondage.
A sort of unofficial sequel to Stead’s masterpiece THE MAN WHO LOVED CHILDREN (which I wrote about here) http://rgdinmalaysia.xanga.com/649792373/the-man-who-loved-children-by-christina-stead/….FOR LOVE ALONE reads both like the work of an older, more mature person and of a less free, more insular writer.
It finds Teresa Hawkins, the heroine (and stand-in for Christina Stead for this book is very autobiographical) wanting to break away from her stagnant home life in Sydney Australia and job as a teacher….Her father is a selfish, autocratic bully just like the character in THE MAN WHO LOVED CHILDREN but here he only appears at the beginning….Deliverance seems to come in her tutor graduate student Jonathan Crow from a poor family who is planning to attend school in England….This also encourages her to go to England….Their strange masochistic relationship of mutual frustration (which also brings Teresa to England) is unlike anything I’ve come across before in literature although I’ve unfortunately met people like this in real life before.
When real healthy love encompassing physical intimacy enters the scene in the last fourth of the book in the shape of older American James Quick separated from his wife and living in London (based on Stead’s real life husband William Blake), the dramatic contrast is great but her ability to express her love through sex after the bottled up repression of the years before takes another great twist in the last fifty pages where Teresa discovers that having been denied what she wanted during the neverending back and forth with Jonathan Crow she would now like to try love and men….This James Quick allows her and the book ends on a genuinely unique note as Teresa, having just had an affair with a friend of James (with his approval) reflects that monogamy isn’t necessarily necessary in a secure and loving relationship but is probably the easiest course.
With Stead, often her descriptions of scenes and characters and the dialogue which follows are so meticulously detailed and feature such interesting analogies and such a high level of awareness that one doesn’t notice the plot, in fact the real action in this 500 page book doesn’t occur until the last 150 pages.
I find the short preface by Mary Kathleen Benet makes a very salient point that culthood seems to have alluded the career of Christina Stead….One of the reasons for this she theorizes is that Stead writing is completely undiluted so packed is it with ideas and technical wizardry….There are passages in her books that will make your jaw drop so beautifully written, so perfect, and so complete are they….It’s the equivalent of seeing a great piece of art.
I can’t wait to read more Christina Stead….
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