Roof Beam Reader

Hello, February! I hope you enjoyed last month’s classic read, Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. It’s a new month, which means it is time for a new classic. This month, we’re reading The Oedipus Cycle of Sophocles! 

Don’t forget: We have a Goodreads group! And we’re using #CBAM2017 to chat on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. 

About the Cycle: The three plays that make up Sophocles’ Oedipus Cycle (sometimes referred to as the Three Theban Plays) are Antigone, Oedipus the King, and Oedipus at Colonus. Antigone and Oedipus the King are tragedies; Oedipus at Colonus is difficult to classify. Antigone was written around 441 b.c., Oedipus the King around 430 b.c., and Oedipus at Colonus around 406–405 b.c. (just before Sophocles died). The plays were all written and produced in Athens, Greece. Antigone, though written first, actually takes place after the other two. 

The plays probably circulated in fifth-century b.c. Athens and have come down to modern editors through the scribal and editorial efforts of scholars in ancient Greece, ancient Alexandria, and medieval Europe. The most important modern edition of the Greek texts, prepared by A. C. Pearson, was published by Oxford University Press in 1924 and reprinted with corrections in 1928.

All three plays are set in the mythical past of ancient Greece. Antigone and Oedipus the King are set in Thebes, Oedipus at Colonus in Colonus (near Athens). In Oedipus the King, Tiresias tells Oedipus that Oedipus is responsible for the plague, and Oedipus refuses to believe him. In Oedipus at Colonus, Oedipus’s two sons, Eteocles and Polynices, are at war over the throne. Creon has been told by the oracle that only Oedipus’s return can bring an end to the civil strife in Thebes but Oedipus, furious at Thebes for exiling him, has no desire to return. Antigone’s major conflict is between Creon and Antigone. Creon has declared that the body of Polynices may not be given a proper burial because he led the forces that invaded Thebes, but Antigone wants to give her brother a proper burial.

Schedule:

• February 1st: Begin reading. 
• February 10th: Thoughts and Questions about Oedipus the King 
• February 18th: Thoughts and Questions about Oedipus at Colonus 
• February 27th: Thoughts and Questions about Antigone and the Cycle

Feel free to read at your own pace, post at your own pace (or not at all), and drop by to comment/chat about the book at any point. The schedule above is just the one I plan to use in order to keep myself organized and to provide some standard points and places for anyone who is reading along to get together and chat. 

Note on Reading Order: The Theban plays were not written in chronological order. They were written for separate dramatic competitions and there are inconsistencies between them because they were not meant to be performed in sequence (scholars made that decision much later). It is believed they are three parts of separate groups of plays which have not survived. I will be reading the plays in the order of dramatic events rather than in the chronological order they were written. 

Hello, Classic B00k-a-Month Readers!

Today is the day for the grand “posting of the questions.” Spoilers below!

To be honest, I’ve borrowed and modified these from a number of sources because 1) I’m not finished with the book yet and 2) I honestly knew very little about the book or about Louisa May Alcott before this month (not my period of study!).

I thought these questions were interesting, though, and I’m looking forward to hearing what you all think. Please feel free to respond in the comments or post on your own blog (or use our Goodreads Group page!). Remember that we are using #CBAM2017 for social media discussion, too – Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, etc. 

READING/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS (SPOILERS AHEAD!)

1. Little Women is often categorized as a “children’s book”? Do you think this is really the case? What aspects of it seem directed at or appropriate for child readers? What aspects of it might appeal more to adult readers?

2. Why do you think Little Women is divided into two halves? (If your edition doesn’t show this, note that the first part, originally titled Little Women, goes from Chapters 1 to 23, and the second part, originally titled Good Wives, goes from Chapters 24 to 47.) Is anything lost or gained by splitting the book into two sections? 

3. Does the title and term “little women” say anything about the status of American women in the 1860s?

4. The last two chapters find Jo setting aside her budding literary career to run a school with her husband. Some critics have argued that the book, sometimes praised as feminist, is actually anti-feminist because its strongest female character gives up her own ambitions in the end. Why do you think Alcott made her strongest feminine figure sacrifice her own life plans for her husband’s? Do you think this is a feminist work? 

5. What purpose does Beth’s death serve? Was Alcott simply making a sentimental novel even more so, or was this a play on morality and philosophy?

This check-in post comes a bit late. I had planned to post it on the 15th, but things have a way of happening, don’t they? Especially at the start of a new semester!

I’m enjoying Little Women so far. It’s not exactly what I expected, but it also is entirely what I expected. Does that make any sense? No? Didn’t think so! Let me try to explain.

I think part of the reason why it has taken me so long to read this book, despite the fact that I know so many people who absolutely love it, is because I thought it would be too sentimental or too “children’s”-focused. I wasn’t worried that it was “chick lit” or “girly,” as I’ve come to despise those kinds of classifications (& because I learned a wicked lesson about such assumptions after reading Pride and Prejudice). But, part of me did expect that this book would be, well, “sweet.” And it is. Each of the chapters thus far (I’m only about 2/3 done) is a kind of episode and each episode seems to offer something less than ideal about one of its characters, only to resolve things with a “lesson learned.” Maybe I’m in for some surprises later in the book, but this is the pattern so far, anyway, and that’s what I expected. It’s (the didactic) not my preferred style of writing, especially when it is heavy-handed, but of course Alcott was trying to sell the book and this was the popular mode.

That being said, I am definitely enjoying the characters and the humor. If one is going to write in such a conventional genre, one can at least bring some unique personality to it. Alcott definitely does that! It’s clear that LMA is intimately familiar with these characters (they are fashioned after her own family members, after all). It’s also admirable, I think, that she presents Jo, the character she bases on herself, so honestly. I understand why so many readers find her an attractive character: filled with great intentions, but flawed, too.

My two favorite chapters so far are Chapter 10, “The P.C. and P.O.” and Chapter 12, “Camp Laurence.” I like Chapter 10 because, well, I love books and language and reading and writing. What person with these interests wouldn’t love this chapter? The girls (and Laurie) create their own newspaper fashioned after Dickens’s Pickwick Papers. Their stories, reports, poems, etc. are creative and fun. I generally enjoy the meta-narrative as a device, and this styling of it, in particular, really seems to suit the girls and their personalities. I envy their imaginations! 

Chapter 12, the beach outing with Laurie’s other friends, is also great fun. I particularly loved the way that Jo and Fred kept bickering (Fred completely deserving Jo’s criticisms!). And the story-telling section, where they play a game called “Rig-marole” is really enjoyable, especially, again, for someone who loves reading and storytelling. I can remember playing similar games when I was a kid, though we didn’t have a name for it. Someone would begin a story and each person would have to build upon it. The iteration in Little Women is especially interesting because each character injects a different kind of genre into the story, making it both absurd but also, somehow, quite smart. 

I would love to hear what those of you who are reading along are thinking about the book so far. Is this your first read, or a re-read? If you’re re-reading it, have you caught anything new? Appreciating anything different this time? Changing your opinions?

I’m trying to decide which of the characters I most relate to (don’t we love those little quizzes — “Which March girl are you?”) but I haven’t made up my mind, yet. I think I’m quite a bit like Laurie, actually, but also a strange blend of the girls. I’ll have to wait until I finish these last 100 pages before I can really make up my mind. Which character do you enjoy the most, or feel most personally connected to? 

Upcoming: 

• Reading/Discussion Questions will be posted on January 27th! 
• My final thoughts/review to come on January 31st. 
• February 1st we begin reading Sophocles’s Three Theban Plays. 

Special Edit: I accidentally scheduled this post to go live on January 1st, 2018. It wasn’t until today that I realized my mistake — whoops! 

Here we are! It is January 2017, and we are ready for the first CLASSIC BOOK-A-MONTH selection: Little Women by Louisa May Alcott! 

Don’t forget: We have a Goodreads group! And we’re using #CBAM2017 to chat on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. 

About the Book:

Little Women is one of the best-loved books of all time. Lovely Meg, talented Jo, frail Beth, spoiled Amy: these are hard lessons of poverty and of growing up in New England during the Civil War. Through their dreams, plays, pranks, letters, illnesses, and courtships, women of all ages have become a part of this remarkable family and have felt the deep sadness when Meg leaves the circle of sisters to be married at the end of Part I. Part II, chronicles Meg’s joys and mishaps as a young wife and mother, Jo’s struggle to become a writer, Beth’s tragedy, and Amy’s artistic pursuits and unexpected romance. Based on Louise May Alcott’s childhood, this lively portrait of nineteenth-century family life possesses a lasting vitality that has endeared it to generations of readers.

Schedule:

• January 1st: Begin reading Little Women.
• January 15th: Check-in post with general thoughts, current questions, etc. goes live. 
• January 27th: Discussion questions posted; conversation in the comments! 
• January 31st: Post final thoughts on the book. 

You can feel free to read at your own pace, post at your own pace (or not at all), and drop by to comment/chat about the book at any point. The schedule above is just the one I plan to use in order to keep myself organized and to provide some standard points and places for anyone who is reading along to get together and chat.