Fahrenheit 451

I'm stealing this from Milamber, just the beginning, because I've done the rest of it somewhere else.

And, I'm doing it here because it's an intersesting proposition, too meaty for memes (which of late have been the mental equivalent of sugar cookies and M&Ms). And I don't really have anything to blog about; my life lately is B-O-R-I-N-G. Not in a bad way, and I'm not sad or worried about anything, but it's just one-foot-in-front-of-the-other kinds of days.

You're stuck inside Farenheit 451, which book do you want to be? (For those of you who haven't read it, the writer posits a society in which people surround themselves with walls of empty, contentless media which keep them from ever having to think or feel. Any books that are found are burned. But booklovers cannot be discouraged that easily. They keep books alive by each committing one or more books to memory in entirety. So long as they live, no society is powerful enough to destroy the books that live inside them. If you lived in such a society, which book or books would you choose to become?)

It would almost have to be Shakespeare, no? The problem is in the definition of "book." Can I do the complete plays or complete sonnets or ALL of Shakespeare? That's kind of cheating isn't it, not to mention asking an awful lot of myself to memorize all of that!

So..."King Lear" was the first thing to jump to my head. I love Lear. It's got everything in it: jealousy, insanity, impossible family dynamics, love, bad weather.... I feel a certain kinship because of the family dynamics although I can't quite explain why. Anyway, I fell in love with "the Fool" in high school. Weird, but true. Kind of like him.

But then I thought the sonnets would be worthwhile too, for similar reasons: love, jealousy, etc. Some amazing verbal skill and play involved and the mental pictures in each one are just ... unexplainable. I also love the mathematical logic in sonnets; it's an unforgiving form of writing which appeals to me. I loved the assignment to write a sonnet and actually wrote several instead of the one that was assigned. [I only turned one in.]

OK, but Shakespeare isn't all tragedy and poetry. How about "The Taming of the Shrew" since if books are being banned we'd need a little comedy in our lives to get us through? Kate is my role model (anyone shocked to hear that?). She never gives in, never gives up and let's herself be herself. There's no keeping her under wraps and under control. I always mix her up with Queen Elizabeth somehow, with more humor (although, personally, I've always suspected QE of a healthy streak of comedy).

Leaving Shakespeare aside, my emotional favorite to actually enjoy memorizing would be "The Long Winter" by Laura Ingalls Wilder. That, or "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom.

I need to buy a memory chip for my brain. It's not all going to fit.