04 December 2006

Ok, I realize that I've not been posting lately, and I'm really not even sure why. But I should make a point of posting more often, because I really do think it's somehow good for my emotional health. Wow! "Emotional health" seems such a sterile term for something that feels so non-sterile. Isn't there a better, more accurate term I could be using? I mean, "emotional health" seems so void of any connotative meaning, and it seems like there should be some sort of connotative sense associated with such a term. But there isn't, at least not for me.

I logged on intending to post something about Rider Haggard's She, which I finished reading yesterday. First, how is it that I've not read this novel before? I don't know what to make of it. And most of all, why is it that so many writers and thinkers that I am interested in (Tolkien and Lewis, for example) find it so important? I mean, there has to be something about this novel, a popular adventure novel, that moves readers on some deep level, but I can't get at what it is. And I keep thinking about it. I suppose that there's something uncanny and even threatening about She-who-must-be-obeyed. But why? Is it simply that a beautiful, powerful women is scary? Or is it more than that? Maybe it's Ayesha's near-immortality that makes us uncomfortable. I really don't know. This discussion isn't going anywhere, I realize. I suppose that I'm working through it all but just don't quite know where to go.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Read 'King Solomon's Mines' and then consider 'She', that may give a clearer view of the author's intent :-)

Anonymous said...

Author's intent? I'm not a big believer in psychoanalysis. I'm a big believer in fiction, though. Further reading would definitely offer some interesting context. I'm wondering what people have written about it or the texts that preceeded it. There's definitely a conversation there that we're both outside of (h.r.h seems to be more familiar with it), but personally, it's not my area.

I am a fan of Hellstromism, though. That's a type of mind reading I can get behind.

I'll put on my aluminum foil hat now so my intentions aren't read from this post.