Shawn L. Bird

Original poetry, commentary, and fiction. All copyrights reserved.

Flavia rocks! June 4, 2011

Filed under: book reviews,Commentary,Grace Awakening,Literature,Writing — Shawn L. Bird @ 12:42 am
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I have just finished reading A Red Herring Without Mustard by Alan Bradley.  This is his third book featuring 12 year old chemist Flavia de Luce.   The other two are Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie and The Weed that Strings the Hangman’s Bag.

What’s great about Flavia, is that although she is an uncommon genius in the chemistry lab, she has all the same issues that any youngest of three kids could expect- torturing by older siblings, being ignored by a distracted parent, etc.

Her bike, Gladys, is as much a character as Fatima the VW Beetle is in Grace Awakening.  I  like that someone else feels transportation can be a valid character. lol

Although Flavia is 12, these are not books for kids.  The murders Flavia  solves are rather gruesome.  Nonetheless, the humour of her prepubescent attitude adds a lot of amusement to the stories. They are set in Georgian England.  Flavia has a good relationship with their gardener who was a shellshocked WW I soldier and with their housekeeper Mrs. Mullet.  Her mother Harriet was lost and presumed dead while mountain climbing.  Her sisters  are Daphne and Ophelia.  They have their own unique talents.  Their father has never gotten over the death of his wife, and has retreated into a world of philately.

Here is a little taste of Flavia’s voice:

My experience of cod-liver oil was vast.  Much of my life had been spent fleeing the oncoming Mrs. Mullet, who, with uncorked bottle and a spoon the size of a garden spade, pursued me up and down the corridors and staircases of Buckshaw–even in my dreams.

Who in their right mind would want to swallow something that looked like discarded engine oil and was squeezed out of fish livers that had been left to rot in the sun?  The stuff was used in the tannig of leather, and I couldn’t help wondering what it would do to one’s insides.

“Open up, dearie,” I could hear Mrs. Mullet calling as she trundled after me.  “It’s good for you.”

“No! No!”   I would shriek.  “No acid!  Please don’t make me drink acid!”

And it was true–I wasn’t just making this up.  I had analyzed the stuff in my laboratory and found it to contain a catague of acids, among them oleic, margaric, acetic, butyric, fellic, cholic, and phosphoric, to say nothing of the oxides, calcium and sodium.”

Alan Bradley.  A Red Herring without Mustard.  Toronto: Doubleday. 2011 (pp.127-8)

How can you resist a character with so strong a voice?  Even when the story goes just where you expect, Flavia is always a delightful surprise and there is always something interesting to learn!

 

♪ kind, kind, kind vibrations ♪ May 17, 2011

Filed under: Literature,Pondering,Reading — Shawn L. Bird @ 12:01 am
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Here is a lovely thought from fantasy author Charles de Lint that fits with the kindness assignment my grade 7s are working on this week:

“It’s funny what a difference a positive attitude can have. When you go out of your way to be nice to people, or do something positive for those who can’t always help themselves…it comes back to you. I don’t mean you gain something personally. It’s just that the world becomes a little bit of a better place, the music becomes a little more upbeat, and how can you not gain something from that?

See, when you get down to the basics of it, everything’s just molecules vibrating. Which is what music is, what sound is, vibrations in the air. So we’re all part of that music and the worthier it is, the more voices we can add to it, the better we all are.”

~Charles de Lint in Moonlight and Vines. p. 33.

What more can I add to Mr. de Lint’s words?

(Well, I will add something eventually, but for now, let’s just absorb his brilliance).

 

Pearl of great price February 21, 2011

Filed under: Literature,Reading — Shawn L. Bird @ 3:46 pm
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The final character to explore from Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is Pearl.  Of course, much has been written about the obvious point that Pearl represents the Biblical “pearl of great price” because Hester loses everything on her account.  What I don’t see explored are some deep issues around that Biblical reference or some other issues around her name.

A pearl is an excellent symbol for a secret, because a pearl is a hidden irritation that is slowly transformed. The pearl becomes a ball that emerges from the flesh of the oyster.  When revealed the pearl is a thing of beautiful rarity.  Hester’s body would have been transformed as Pearl blossomed in her belly and exposed the sin.  When choosing the name, Hester chose to acknowledge Pearl as a treasure and accepted the transformation of her life.  She seems to welcome the isolation and notoriety that results, celebrating her difference from the rest of the community.

Hester also chose to protect the identity of Pearl’s father.  A pearl is hidden inside the oyster and no one knows whether it is there.  Thus, Pearl represents the secret of her father’s identity.  Today, he could be found by genetic testing, but Pearl would have to give her genes in order to reveal the identity.

The Bible quotation is a short one. Matthew 13, verses 45 and 46 reads     “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.”  (New International Version).   Consider this: 1. the merchant purchases this treasure, and the purchase is what determines its value.  2. the kingdom of heaven is represented in this transaction.

Is Hester symbolic of the kingdom of heaven because she has made the sacrifice for this pearl? Or is Pearl symbolic of the kingdom of heaven because she is purchased at great sacrifice?  Both concepts are worthy of exploration.  What microcosm of heaven is found in Hester and/or Pearl?  The fundamentalists Calvinists represented by the Puritans believed in pre-destination, in other words, from the beginning of time God has known who will or will not make it into heaven. This philosophy makes reward and punishment seem a trifle perverse, since there is nothing the individual can do to improve his or her spiritual condition.  Thus, Hester was conceived with Pearl as an inevitable sacrifice and the weight of Dimsdale’s and her sin.  Does their respective independence, insolence, disrespect for authority, love of beauty, and unrepentence reflect the kingdom of heaven?  Hmm.  There is an entire essay waiting to be written on just this concept. (If you write it, put a link to it in a comment, below!)

A pearl is an expensive ornament, and Hester works very hard to ensure Pearl is a showy ornament in the dreary community.  Puritans do not believe in ornamentation.  Pearl was destined to be set apart from the other children simply due to her parentage.  If she is going to be set apart, Hester seems to have reasoned, then she might as well celebrate the difference.

A pearl is also the most delicate of precious stones.  One can easily crush a pearl underfoot.  Rough treatment does little to damage a diamond or a ruby, but will destroy a pearl.  Pearls are supposed to be kept isolated from other jewelry in soft bags to avoid being scratched or damaging their glowing lustre.  They can not be cleaned with caustic substances or they are destroyed (one suspects Puritan life was rather caustic with all that fire and brimstone).  Hester seems to believe that Pearl is a sweet gentle creature beneath the aggression that she shows to others.  The aggression confuses her.  Is Pearl really as delicate as her name implies or is her mother’s treatment what makes her unable to fit into her society?  From her clothes to her attitude to her living arrangements Pearl is intentionally set apart.  Should one not anticipate a creature who does not fit in as a result?  Is Pearl really delicate or is she the firey creature intimated by her wild behavior?

One further thought:  we never hear her full name spoken, but consider the sound of the name “Pearl Prynne.”   The double aspiration of these single syllable words is like an exclamation of derision.  It makes a rather effective taunt.  Consider also some homophones for Pearl Prynne.  Puritan is one. Why would her name echo her community’s and her father’s faith? How about Purim– when the Jews were saved from a genocide by Queen Esther’s appeal to King Darius?  Who does Pearl save? (or attempt to save?) Or purlin– the beam that supports rafters in a roof.  Does Pearl support anyone? Or purlieu  a place on the edge, once set aside for royalty but now available for common use.  How does Pearl allow others to go through into royal (heavenly?) lands?  Or pyrethrum– a poison derived from chrysanthemums.  How is Pearl a poison within the community or within the lives of her parents?  Each of these homophones invites further exploration of symbolic connection to Pearl.

I’ve given you lots of complex things to consider when you analyze Pearl Prynne.  Which ones particularly resonate with you?

(c) Shawn Bird.

Students, to avoid plagarism please cite this source as follows:

Bird, Shawn.  Pearl of great price.   https://shawnbird.com/2011/02/21/pearl-of-great-price/  Collected (insert date you copied your notes).

See analyses of other characters from The Scarlet Letter.

 

 

Arthur Dimsdale: can’t see his power February 19, 2011

Filed under: Commentary,Literature,Reading — Shawn L. Bird @ 12:36 pm
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A third character to explore in The Scarlet Letter is the minister, Arthur Dimsdale. Many sources narrow in symbolically on the idea that Dimsdale is ‘dim.’ Dim as in stupid, when he fails to recognise the evil in Chillingsworth. Dim as in weak, as his physical health declines. Dim as in muted light, when he is hiding himself in the dark of his denial of Hester and Pearl.

However, there is far more to explore here. Dale means ‘valley.’ I live in a valley, and I love the sense of comfort and security the hills provide. One feels hidden away, not everyone can see you when you’re in a valley. Being in a valley cuts off light though. The sun isn’t visible until it has climbed over the hills, and it leaves earlier dropping behind them. This gives valley dwellers a shorter day. Being down in the valley also limits our perspective. We see what we see of our own little area, we don’t get a sense of the larger world unless we climb up to the top of the mountains. Isolation tends to produce navel gazers, and this certainly applies to Dimsdale. He has no sense of a wider world of possibility open to him.

Finally, Arthur is an old Welsh name means ‘bear.’ There are lots of bears where I live as well, so I know something of their characteristics and I see Arthur reflected in this name choice as well. A bear is a powerful creature which has the ability to get whatever it wants, but it can be defeated until it becomes a dancing bear- moving to the tune of trainer who has weakened it, until it has no idea of its power anymore.   A bear looks distinguished and capable to some, but the bear itself often seems slow and stupid, going about motions without a lot of consideration to more creative solutions (return to the same places to feed on easy garbage, for example, instead of fleeing to the safety of the wilderness where freedom means more effort). Bears also hibernate. They fill themselves and climb into their dens and ignore the world, stuck in their own dreams until awakened by the hunger for more. However, this is the time when bears are their most vulnerable, for a hunter can pick them off as they groggily head out the door.

Yes, Nathaniel Hawthorne made a very appropriate name choice for Arthur Dimsdale!

(c) Shawn Bird.  Students, to avoid plagarism, cite this article as follows:

Bird, Shawn.  “Arthur Dimsdale: can’t see his power.” https://shawnbird.com/2011/02/20/arthur-dimsdal…-see-his-power/  Collected (insert the date you copied the information)

 

Hester Prynne: the star of love February 17, 2011

Filed under: Literature,Reading — Shawn L. Bird @ 12:27 am
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I’ve mentioned before that authors choose their characters’ names very carefully, researching them like they would for their own children.  These offspring of the imagination need a name that edifies the reader about their traits, either in agreement or contradiction.

Last weekend I read Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter.  I haven’t read it since college, and although I remember the plot well enough that I was shocked and dismayed by the movie version a few years ago, I had lost some of the finer points.  Unfortunately, I didn’t finish reading until moments before book club, and I didn’t get a chance to do some of the research I’d like to have done on the characters’ names.  So I’ll do some of that exploration here.

The protagonist of the story, of course, is Hester Prynne.  Her name is delightfully symbolic, though I can’t say I’ve ever seen reference to this in any on-line study guides I’ve skimmed through.

Her first name, Hester, is Greek.  Like “Aster” it means Star.  This meaning opens up several possible interpretations.  A star is a beacon that guides the lost.   A star illuminates the darkness.  A star is unreachable.  A star cannot be hidden for long, even if it is covered by cloud, it is still above all, shining.  A star is forever burning.  A star can implode and suck others into the void.  A star inspires stories, music, and wishes.  Now consider the character of Hester and all the ways those things apply to her…

Her last name, Prynne, is not an accident either.  Although it doesn’t mean anything to us, to Hawthorne it would have been a classical Puritan choice, like naming a Mennonite character Friesen or Reimer.  William Prynne was a very famous Puritan leader and pamphleteer.  He lived in England and wrote denouncing the Church of England and its Archbishop Laud.  Over objections to some of his writings, he found himself in court a time or two, and managed to get his ears cut off as a disciplinary measure.  He was rather successful in his campaigns, however, because Archbishop Laud was executed.  Like William Prynne, Hester Prynne was punished publically, but challenged authority by bearing unapologetically the mark of shame, and thereby turning it into a badge of honour.

I ponder whether Hawthorne could have known the Sanskrit word prem, which is a homophone of Prynne?   Prem means love.  Seems pretty coincidental, doesn’t it? Hester Prynne was a star of love, blazing above her community, having flaunted the moral rules of the community by embellishing the token of sin and becoming a beacon and a talisman.

(c) Shawn Bird.  Students, to avoid plagiarism, cite this article as follows:

Bird, Shawn.  “Hester Prynne: the star of love”  https://shawnbird.com/2011/02/17/hester-prynne/  Collected (insert the date you copied the information)

There are four posts on this blog about characters from The Scarlet Letter.  Click to see all four.

 

Fishtailing February 15, 2011

Filed under: book reviews,Literature,Writing — Shawn L. Bird @ 12:06 am
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Wendy Phillip’s YA novel Fishtailing is a collection of poems that tell a painful narrative about teen life. The inner turmoil expressed in the poetry paints the undercurrents that the adults either ignore, misunderstand, or are overwhelmed by. The needs are so great, and the students are so many, the adults’  insensitivity is understandable (survival instinct more than anything) but it’s frustrating as well. You want to shout, “Can’t you tell what’s going on here?”

Wendy is a graduate of the UBC MFA in Creative Writing, and I see their interdisciplinary approach echoed in the way poetry and story have combined in a way that is more profound than a strict narrative would have been.  The masterful way  each persona is crafted delineates a clear voice for each character as the woeful tale unfolds.

Wendy’s years working in high schools is very apparent. This feels real. These kids feel like the complexly burdened teens that stare across their desks at me.

It’s a book that offers a challenge to teachers of teens. The challenge may be too difficult for them to cope with though. Ignorance is bliss.

 

border crossings January 25, 2011

Filed under: Reading — Shawn L. Bird @ 6:49 pm
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She had stood in one of those rare border crossings between the past and the future where one is aware—so aware—that the decision about to be made will change everything. (Charles de Lint’s Memory and Dream, p. 69)

I’m just thinking about milestones.  You know, the mid-life crisis kind of moments when you look at your  life and you think the crucial questions:

  • Is this where I wanted to be?
  • Is this what I wanted to be doing?
  • Is this what I wanted to be feeling?

If the answer to any of those questions in no, then it’s the time to stand on the corner and study the other directions that you could go.  If you don’t like where you’re headed, if you don’t like what you’re doing.  if you don’t like what you’re feeling, then it’s time to take charge of your life and head in a new direction.

Sometimes your heart in your throat and the weight on your shoulder try to force you to stay on the familiar, painful path.  If you’re not happy there, why keep walking it?  If you’re not the person you want to be, you are the only one who has the power to transform into the true self lurking beneath the surface.  

Take hold of your future.  Put your feet on a new path and embrace the adventure of discovery.  Despite all the fears that have held you back from attaining the true connection and the true joy you hve longed for, you may discover a world of fulfillment unbelievably better than what you had before.  Even though you couldn’t imagine more, your new path may lead you to a bounty of joy that you couldn’t conceive of previously.

Look around the cross roads, step over the border into a new life.

 

Flight December 15, 2010

Filed under: book reviews,Commentary,Literature,Reading — Shawn L. Bird @ 1:42 am
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Just finished reading Sherman Alexie’s Flight. I was asked to read it for assessment of school use. The first chapter had me adamant that it was completely inappropriate. By the end I was thinking, “Well…maybe.”

Alexie is just so gritty. His characters are coarse and vulgar. They grate against sweet, prudish, slightly virginal English teachers. However, they also reflect a reality that a lot of our students know only too well. I’m not into censorship, but I don’t have to teach a book I don’t like either. That’s a nice thing about professional autonomy. Not having prescribed curriculum or literature means we have a lot of freedom to teach process and encourage analysis using literature that is particularly relevant to our teens. For some kids, this will be a powerful reflection of their world.

Sherman Alexie is a Native American writer from Washington State. His books explore his world and observations of the interaction of his two communities. He has challenging ideas to both and this book reflects them.

It is the story of Zits, a kid whose native dad left, whose white mom died, and who has been shuffled through the foster system. He has to come to terms with his identity, his abandonment, and his anger. The method is essentially a series of parables. Zits travels through time to inhabit the bodies of whites and natives from Little Big Horn to his father.  Watching the ‘native experience’ through other eyes leads him back to the beginning, and gives him a chance to make different decisions in order to attain a different outcome.

Alexie is accessible as a Native writer. His young characters are funny, ironic, and believable, but they’re gritty. Their lives are hard. Their experiences have been horrible. Alexie doesn’t sugar coat the misery, but he forces the protagonist (and therefore the reader) to decide whether he will allow the past to rule his future or whether he will carve a new path. 

The hopeful message is what wins me over.    He has used the graphic language and rebellious attitude of the first chapter or two to grab his audience.  The time travel is confusing enough to keep them curious.  The ending is satisfying.  We all want to believe that everyone can have a happy ending.

 

celebrating Petrarca July 23, 2010

Filed under: Commentary,Grace Awakening,Reading,Writing — Shawn L. Bird @ 12:22 am
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On July 20 & 19, 2010 it was the 306th anniversary of the birth of Francesco Petrarch in Arezzo, Italy and the 236th anniversary of his death in Arqua near Padua Italy 70 years later.

Petrarca will feature prominently in my life over the next few years, and I am finding him a fascinating man to get to know. Aside from his romantic tale of woe, as re-told briefly in Grace Awakening, he was a significant intellect of his time. It was his interest in Classical studies that ushered in the Renaissance. He was the one that coined the term, “The Dark Ages” for the Medieval period when men of intellect stopped studying the classics and lost themselves in church pronouncements and reinterpretations of history.  His writings were used to establish the  language rules for modern Italian.  He was declared the Poet Laureate of Rome in 1341 when he was only 35 years old.  His name is attached to the sonnet form he developed: the Italian or Petrarchan sonnet.

As Petrarca travelled around Italy and France, he collected the finest library in Christendom, one fought over after his death.  Here is a man who loved learning, celebrated travelling for new experiences, delved into history to better understand himself, climbed mountains for the aestetic of seeing the view at the top, struggled with faith, and loved purely with a devotion that was stronger than death.

One of the most wonderful (and challenging) things about Petrarca is that he was a prolific writer.  He wrote volumes and volumes about his life, his thoughts, and his beliefs. He wrote poetry about his love. He wrote biographies of those he admired. He wrote letters to his friends. Most of his writings survive, because his genius was well-recognised at the time. There is a lot of material to go through!

As I unfold the layers of his life, I hope that I can do justice to the story and that the embellishments I bring will be worthy of him.  He is surprising and amazing me at every turn.    It’s not going to be a quick book to write.  I have 70 years of writings to work through and tons of things to learn about the time and place.  I just hope this amazing man will captivate you when I am finally able to introduce you to him in a few years.

 

after the Eclipse July 2, 2010

Filed under: Grace Awakening,Literature,Reading,Writing — Shawn L. Bird @ 2:22 am
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The problem with spending time in a fantasy world is that sometimes it’s very hard to leave and return to the world of reality.

I have a friend who was raised in a huge Catholic family. Her dad was an illiterate farmer. He valued farm chores. He did not value education, and he especially did not value reading. Being discovered shirking one’s chores with a book was asking for a beating. I can kind of appreciate the anger. When your children have escaped into a book or movie, they are out of your control. They are being exposed to ideas that may differ from your own. A lot of people fear ideas that are different from their own, and that is why we have censorship. Ideas are free. Control is not.

I came out of the Eclipse matinee today, lost in the world of love, hard decisions, glorious Pacific scenery (the very roads of the Fraser Valley that we were driving last spring break), and the passions of youth. I have felt a little bittersweet all day, as I fight not to go back and read through the series again. (I just read them all last weekend for about the twentieth time, afterall, and I watched the movies 3X this week already).  My emotions have been highjacked by Twilight again.  It doesn’t matter that it has been a long time since I was engulfed in those passions of new love and the difficult decisions that last a lifetime, but it doesn’t seem like it. Whether those feelings were thirty years ago or three years ago, the intensity of them doesn’t change. Auntie Bright and Grace discuss this at the end of Grace Awakening,

. “Have you heard how the archaeologists have excavated three thousand year old honey from within the pyramids?”
(Grace) nodded and whispered, “Yes, they discovered it was still perfect, because bacteria don’t grow on honey.”
“Exactly. Like ancient honey, a first love remains ever incorruptible despite the passage of time. Though the boy may no longer exist, the memory of him is always pure and sweet.”

Like Bright, I’m feeling somewhat lost at the moment in the ache and joy of nostalgia. Those intense feelings are always just below the surface, and the Twilight Saga has woken them for many women, of all ages. Whether our heads remember all the details, our hearts recall each nuance of confusion, joy and adoration.   Stephenie Meyer’s created world pushes us back to that place.  It can be a wonderful place to revisit.  Being in love has a narcotic effect on the system.  It does us good to re-awaken those passions by escaping from our dreary every day.

Perhaps someone watching my vacant stares and unexplained flashes of smiles might be distressed.  Perhaps that fact that my thoughts are unknown would pain some people.  Not being quite in control of your head can be a problem.  On the other hand, it is amazing as a writer to know that words have that kind of power!   I bow to the brilliance that can take control of my emotions away from me, and remind me of  love’s power.

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I am so glad to have spent the last twenty-five years with the amazing and brilliant man who happily attends Twilight movies with me, discusses books, gives me valuable  writing critiques, tolerates my foibles, loves me beyond reason, and yes, does laundry. What a blessing I’ve been given.  I am reminded of this whenever I float out of the cloud of love and adoration rekindled by Twilight.

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I hope Grace Awakening leaves readers in a haze, wishing they were still lost in the story, spending time with Grace, Ben, Bright, Jim and the others. I hope they find themselves in the realm of memory, remembering the boys and men who first touched their hearts and awakened them to the grace of love.  I hope the fantasy rekindles their hearts to their reality.