Two books of Biography of Charlotte Bronte

　　
Many people start reading Charlotte's book from Jane Eyre. But the first book I read is Emma, the unfinished book by Charlotte. No evidence shows which parts were written by Charlotte and which were not. Likely that Charlotte wrote broken pieces of the story before she left this world.

The second book I read is Jane Eyre, the fomous one. The book is amazing, I found almost every sentence, from the beginning to the end, is interesting and brilliant. I feel terror, tense, sympathy and sometimes, shock. All this intensive feeling mingled together and drawed me to the book.

Thus, finally, Jane Eyre became one of my favorite books. And I want to learn more about the author, Charlotte Bronte.

I found some reading regard the life of Charlotte, two of the important ones are Elizabeth's The Life of Charlotte Bronte and Reid's Charlotte Bronte.

The former one is the earliest biography of Brontes. It is more like a story than merely a biography, judging from the style and language of writing as well as the fact that Eliz keyed the tone of Bronte's life as sad, hard and depressed.

The later, has fixed the disadvantages of Eliz's work but not particularlly interesting. The last chapter devotes to the critic of Brontes' works, not only Charlotte but also Anna and Emily.

I am now reread Jane Eyre every day before I lie myself in the bed. Having gained understanding of Brontes, I may draw some fresh and truer understanding of Jane Eyre. Later, I will start reading the other stories written by Bronte Sisiters.

It is quite an interesting and rewarding journey of reading these intelligent books!

Back to here

Two years ago, I open another independent blog and run quite smoothly untill 6 monthes ago.

My blog is using American surfer and I am in Australia. The blog maining published book reviews, photos and some short stories created by myself. It attract a group of friends that I like. I had hoped that the blog can long live till I die.

But...but..it was attached by hacker and all the data has been destroyed. My friend tried to recover the back up data but failed because he can not access to the control panel. Anyway, it was hacked by some reason that I don't know.

So I am back, to this quite blog and continue to write my passion about life and about the books I love.

The lesson-by Toni Cade Bambara

The main problem of poor people (often they are ethical groups), I think, is they haven’t realised they are poor and being treated unfairly. Every time I pass redfern, I saw many aboriginal people beg or crazily run along the street. They seem quite happy to live on the support of other people or the government and seem feel no shame. And I have talked with many poor people in China and in Australia, most of them are indifferent with their lives and never thought of flighting for better lives or better treatment.

Just as the children in this story They thought they are the smartest in the street and don’t care about education provided by the teacher who is also black. They wouldn’t realised they are poor if they haven’t taken to the shop in the town. The price of a toy is the amount of what a family could earn in a year. Without knowing how other people lives, the poor children would not know they are being treated unequally. Without realising the inequality, poor people are impossible to flight for what they desire.

So I start to understand why Chinese government tries to block the source of information for people to know the past and what is going on in China. Because once they know the true, it is possible for them to flight for their rights. If they have no idea of their situation, they may content about the existing lives though might be unfair.

Note: Toni Cade Bambara is one of the best African American short story writers.

The use of force-by William Carlos Williams

The story is written by William Carlos Williams and quite worth thinking for a while.




The doctor uses force as a means to check whether the girl has deadly illness. Trying to hide the sore throat, the girl dares not open her mouth, so the doctor uses violent actions to open up the girl's mouth. Finally, the mouth is opened but with brood and the girl's tears. The doctor's inner activities is quite interesting: he say to himself that what he is trying to do is in good purpose and it is what doctor should do-save life; but he also enjoys the violent attack, imagining he is tearing the girl apart. There is no description of the girl's psycological activities, but we can imagine that she obviously knows her illness and the need to be checked. But she tries her best to defense and would not let others know her secrect. After she is forced to open her mouth, her defence becomes attack with anger and frustration.



I natrually connect this story to the relationship between US and Iraq. US attacked Iraq violently, claiming that they did that for the sake of peace and welfare of people in Iraq and the rest of the world. But is it justified to use violence to achieve peace? During the war, how much blood and tears it brought with? How many innocent people died for so call "justification"? In the story, the doctor gains his success, but in the light of the girl's feeling, it might be a lost. Iraq people, just like the girl, know the ills of their country, but they just don't wanna other countries to solve problems for them. They try to defense though they know they may be better if the illness of their political system is cured. After US successfully won the battles and arrested Saddam and his accociates, people in Iraq started to attack US army by suicide bombs and terrorist attack. Exactly as what the story descrides!



The war, I think, is the exaggerated human conflict. The means applied to achieve the good aim might not be necessarily fair and justifed.

The Celestial Omnibus-by E.M.Foster

The Celestial Omnibus is one of the short story written by E.M.Foster.
I was attracted at the first beginning. A boy is curious about the sign-post opposite his house. It points up a blank alley with the words”Heaven”. He was told that the sign-post is a bad joy made by a young man ages ago and there is no need to think about it any more. But he can not control himself and decides to visit the alley to find out what is in it.

There is a notice on the wall of the alley saying that the company provides sunrise and sunset Omnibused, the passenger could buy a return ticket at this end and will not be issued ticket from the desitination. It seems there is Omnibus driving pass the alley everyday but why nobody knows? and why the dust on the ground is so thick? May be all the things are just bad joke.

But it is not the answer the boy wants.He want to prove that whether the Omnibus exists or not-he senses that all of them are true. At the dawn, he gets up, downstairs and heads to the alley. I can’t breath at this moment:imagine that I have to enter into a dark alley that nobody will go and may encounter something terrible. Normal person will be terrified but curious drives the boy to find out the truth.

There is an Omnibus! The boy jumps into the bus and was taken further and further away. Finally he finds out they are riding on the rainbow! He is in the heaven! It is true! He is right! The boy has a happy time in the heaven, talks with different people and runs across the rainbow.

While when he is home, his story is not believed by his parents. The guest-Mr.Bons appreciates the boy’s potery but disbelieves that is true. The boy insists he has not tell a lie and successfully persuades Mr. Bons to have a ride with him.

Things happen again. When Mr. Bons sees the Omnibus and has been taken to the ride, he worries and frightening, afraiding he is being kidnapped. But when he hears the boy met some people that are the authors of his great books, he is overjoy,deciding to have an intellitual conversation with those admirable authors. But when he realises only the boy not him can go back to the world he scares to death. He cares nothing but cry and beg. Finally he falls through the rocks as it were water and vanished.

Next day, his body is found by people in London, had apparently been hurled from a considerable height.

I am thinking why Mr.Bons is not allowed to return to his world. I think the ending indicates that Mr.Bons lack of imagination to enjoy the peotry and own the books without appreciate them. The boy, may not have read all the great books that Mr. Bons proud of, but he can really enjoy what he have encountered and what he imangines. The boy,rather than the adult, is more welcome by the heaven and is allowed to return to the world. Mr. Bons falls from the heaven because he could not appreciation the joy and beauty of the heaven which actually is a symbol of imaginary literature world.

The Warden-by Anthony Trollope

Some said that this story is based on the real event happen in St Cross Hispital. But Trollope denied this, saying in the beginning of story that :

Were we to name Wells or Salishbury, Exeter, Hereford or Gloueester, it might be presumed that something personal was intended…We are anxious that no personality may be suspected.

But I doubt this. It seems Trollope tried to avoid troubles by claiming that the story is not real. But the harder he tried to deny, the more we believe the story is real to some extend. Anyway, it is just some of my thought beyond the subject matter and we are not gonna find any information in reading fiction.

The book is well structured and related smoothly. I am not familiar with religion so it took me some time to figure out what is archbishop, clergyman, archdeacon, canon and so on. But after I have known what those mean, I fully enjoyed reading the story. By the way, I find it useful to draw or write the charactors and their relationship in my notepad. The strutures would be presented more clearly and I don’t need to bother to remember all of the name of charactors.

Chapter I briefly describes the warden, Mr Harding-his personality, his family, his job responsibility, and the cause of the conflict. As the value of the trust estate keeps increasing and the amount given to 12 bedesmen is fixed, which means the large amount flows to the warden and the steward rather than beneficiaries. The warden is a kind old man who has never doubted with his stipend until he hears some rumors that trigger his thought.

The story begins in Chapter II. John Bold, a rich heritor (if he is not rich, I doubt that the reform would not be happen), has a very good wish to seek justification for the society as he knows the huge payment to warden contradicts the nature of the will by John Hiram and is unfair to the 12 bedesmen. Things would not be so complicated if Mr. Bold is a merely a stranger to Mr.Harding. Unfortunatly, he is a close friend to Mr. Harding and he even falls in love with Mr. Harding’s daughter, Eleaner. Mr. Bold’s reform is by no means unjustifiable, however his act aggravates the warden’s inward suffering. Actually, not only the warden but also Mr. Bold is internal conflictive. This is reflected in a conversation between Mr.Bold and his sister, Mary:

Mary: And for what?For a dream of justice. You will never make those 12 men happier than they now are.
Bold: The duty of righting these poor men would belong to nobody. If we are to act on that principle, the weak are never to be protected, injustice is never be opposed and no one is struggle for the poor (pp. 46-47)

Personally, I admire Mr. Bold. Even though he seems to act on impulse, he is passionate and ready to sac
rifice all he has-his wealth, love and friendship-for social justice. It is rare to see this kind of people nowadays.

Mr. Grantly, the archdeacon and the son-in-law of the warden, is a strong opponent of the reform. He is not a bad man; he just a conservative man ready to fight for anyone and anythings that may harm the reputation of the church. I think Mr.Bold and Mr Grantly are similar: they are both strong, determined, confident and believe in what they believe. That is why they are enemies at the first beginning but turn out to be friends at the end.

Mr. Harding is tortured by two set of opinions represented by Mr. Bold and Mr. Grantly. In addition to those forces, a newspaper call Jupiter publishes some opinions attacking Mr. Harding. He can not stand it not because he is weak and scared but he has awared that there is something wrong with the distribution of the money. He can not live on those money that should be given to the bedesmen. It is his self-consciousness and honesty that impress me.

Eleanor wants to help her father and thus begs Mr.Bold for giving up the case, ready to give up her love in return for her father’s peace and happiness. She is really a unselfish and naive woman! At the end, Mr. Bold gives up his act and find himself deeply love and beloved. But this does not exempt the warden’s pain and doubts and he decides to resign.

Mr. Harding: A man is the best judge of what he feels himself. (p.142)

The ending is a happy one: Eleanor marries Mr. Bold, Mr. Grantly and Mr, Bold become friends and Mr. Harding lives free from worries and pain. While the 12 bedesmen are the true victims of the reform: they are given hope of receiving large sum of money every year and get nothing more at the end and even lose their best friend, Mr. Harding who is the only one that truely care for them. They live and then die sadly and lonely. What is the use of the sudden wealth to these old men? Nothing can make them more happily and cozily. I think it is a pitfall of the reform.

Reading The Warden is one of the happies thing in these two monthes. This is a great book that worth reading.

Stories of belonging (1)--edited by Kali Wendorf

It is the 'belonging' in the title attract my attention. But what on earth is belonging? Is it possible that we do belong to something? And belongs to what? I can not define it, so I want to see how other people think about belonging.

Not all of the stories are good enough, but some of them are quite impressing.

The second stories: Jasmine Petals by Banafsheh Serov.

The author tries to connect main events in Iran with her grandparents' lives, her parents' lives and her own life, in order to define their belonging in Australia. I appreciate her attempt, but unfortunately, parts of the connections are not smooth and well enough. However, the beginning and the ending of the story are touching and well express the real feeling of most of the immigrants. As an immigrant, he or she belongs to two countries or belongs to neither of them. More often than not, immigrants can not waive their memories and their family bond in their own country while they are not truely accepted by the country they are living in. It is kind of sadness of semi-belonging.

There are some of her words:

My grandmother found her sense of belonging in her devotion to her family and her religion. Her children, now living in exile, find their sense of belonging in common memories, culture and the language they share with others from Iran. Her grandchildren left Iran before they could form any lasting memories of their own, yet our dark features and slight accents set us apart from locals in our new country. We exist at the peripheral edges of both cultures and at times struggle with our identity and sense of belonging.

The end of paper books?

Some people said that the e-books will eventually take the place of paper books because they are costless, easy to be accessed and convenient. However, although I appreciate the merits of e-books, I do not share their opinion that the traditional books would lose in the market. Audio books and others can supplement, but not replace the traditional books.



Of course, e-resource has numerous benefits with the help of computer and advanced gadgets like iPad which are capable of storing and downloading large amount of books from the Internet. It is cheap, compared with the paper ones. And for some people, they can listen to the audio books while they doing housework or read e-books from the gadgets at anyplace and anytime. In addition, writers are also benefited from rich information online and the e-version of out-of-print books downloaded.



Nevertheless, the e-books may not replace the traditional books; instead, they could enhance people’s initiative in reading. More often than not, an e-reader would first access to e-book to see whether the book is worth reading, then he or she would buy the real book if he or she find the books appealing. On the other hand, the feeling of reading the real books is different from reading on the screen. Especially, the readers can mark, make notes or underline in the real books which can not be substituted by e-resource.



While the real problem lies behind this issue is the regulation and implementation of piracy. How can we make sure that the e-readers pay for the information? And what amount should we pay? If we do not pay, is that means we are committing crime? Mess of problems have to be resolved and discussed.



Overall, e-books would only make traditional books more important

How to Read a Book--by Mortimer J. Adler (Discussion 2--Readable)

Readable.What is this means? Apparently, it means easy to understand. You may say, Oh I get it--magazine is readable, newspaper is readable, sixth-grade textbook is readable.

It is true that these books are easy to read because ithe language they use is simple and straighforward. They convey idea and information that are easy to catch. They call for little effort to understand.

But this is not truely readable, as far as I am concerned, they are just simple to read. The readable ones should have logical sense with little gramma mistakes. What the books are trying to say should be well structured and has no or little ambiguous expression and can be understood by readers who have make reasonable effort to read.

One clue to see whether the book is readable is to find its "bone". If you can briefly state what the book is trying to say and what is the important words or sentences in the book and what the author is trying to argue, the book might be readable one.

The great books are readable in this sense. Why the great books can pass from long time ago to nowadays is because they are readable, well written and can convey knowledge to the readers.

How to Read a Book--by Mortimer J. Adler (Discussion 1--Active learning)

Only those who learn actively can benefit from reading books. That is the reason why I prefer self-study to being taught by school. When I engage in learning process either by reading or writing, I am actively exploring new knowledge on my own.

Most of students hate reading books because they are trained to swallow content in the books, they are directed to the wrong way of learning, they are spoon-fed by teachers and thus they lack of actively learning enthusiam. That is the failure of today's education--we are trained to be taught not are taught to learn by ourselves.

One of my friends said that every time he tried to read a book, he would quickly fall into asleep. He blamed his unsuccessful reading attempt for lacking interest and talent. While I think the cause of the failure is due to the fact that he had not prepared for active learning and not fully realise the hardship in the process.

Actively learning needs huge amount of effort, relative skills, determination,awake mind and so forth. It sounds terrible and difficult to most people and that is why some people never try to learn actively. While like any other kind of arts, reading can be improved by practising skills. At the very beginning, we would feel painful to read and interpret words, sentences and paragraghs,let alone criticising author's views. But we will get better after we try several times and only the practice day by day can make our reading skills come near to "perfect".

Self-learning is not a mission impossible. But you should start it as soon as possible and try to develop the reading practices into life-long habit. Sooner or later, you will see the benefits of it.