Monday, August 17, 2020

The Ten Year Itch Rereading Books After A Decade

The Ten Year Itch Rereading Books After A Decade [buyandread isbn=0385340893 linkshare=] [buyandread isbn=0061565318 linkshare=] I get really nervous about revisiting media I consumed as a child and as an adolescent. I call it The Hocus Pocus Problem because the childhood favorite I am most nervous to revisit is the 1993 Bette Midler-Sarah Jessica Parker-Kathy Najimy witch-vehicle Hocus Pocus. In elementary school, I thought this was just the freakiest/weirdest/awesomest film in cinematic history, and Im eeked out about watching again, because Im afraid Im going to realize this movie is completely stupid and have all my childhood memories of the movie dashed against the rocks. This already happened with the film version of The Neverending Story (and the sequel). The Childlike Empress, the luck dragon, Atreyu? Not a fraction of the rad they were to me when I was a child. Look, it was a risk, and it didnt pan out, thats what a risk is, which I completely accept, but I dont want to take that risk with Hocus Pocus, it has a 33% on Rotten Tomatoes, I know Im going to think its completely stupid as an adult and I do nt WANT to think that, I want it to remain the freaky/weird/awesome film it is in my memory. Of course this theorem applies to television shows (I didnt even KNOW Dawsons Creek was the most ridiculous thing ever when I was fourteen year old, I completely took it seriously, I didnt even KNOW) and to the matter at hand, it also applies to books. Ive recently revisited a couple books I hadnt read since high school: The Giants House by Elizabeth McCracken and Bel Canto by Ann Patchett (dont think Im fancy, I read a LOT of Oprah Club books too)  and have noted similarities in my experiences reading these books I hadnt read in about a decade. I read these backlisters for the reason so many people read backlisters: Patchett just came out with a collection of essays, McCrackens coming out with a new collection of short stories, and these new books reminded me that these authors existed and made me want to go back and reread their works that I had loved so well/probably was a little bit too young for in high school. Good news, first. I did not have The Hocus Pocus Problem while rereading these books. Well, okay, maybe I did a little bit, but I dont think thats the fault of these very, very fine novels, I think thats the problem of me having grown up a little bit. Scratch that, its been ten years or so, Ive grown up a LOT. It wasnt just any old decade Ive lived through , this was the decade where I got my bachelors and my masters degrees, started reviewing books and teaching creative writing, wrote hundreds and hundreds of thousands of words, read hundreds and hundreds of thousands of words. Im coming to these works now as a different kind of reader. Now Im not a reader who gobbles up anything interesting that crosses her path like the literary equivalent of a hunter-gatherer cave girl. Ive notched so many years of thinking critically that its almost impossible for me to take in a piece of art and/or entertainment without automatically drawing up a list of pros and cons, coming up with a dozen th eses for essays that will never be written. The awesome thing about taking a ten year break in between reading and rereading a book is that you remember so little about the book in question save the fact that you liked it enough then to safely assume youll like it again now.  And I do like both of these books now. Both reread novels capture human connection and unlikely, almost impossible love and the randomness and unfairness of the world so beautifully, and I know I can understand and appreciate that beauty so much better than I could as a teenager. At the same time, Im so much harsher as a reader now, Ive absorbed so many writing rules in these intervening years that I apply to everything I read, and its hard not to take these books to task for faults I wouldnt have even known were faults years ago. Example: McCrackens metaphors and similes are fancy and flashy and every once in a while draw too much attention to themselves. Also, Giants House  skews slow in the middle.  Another example: In Patchetts world of Bel Canto, e very single person in the novel is SO obsessed with opera, even all the terrorists, and the opera singer involved in the hostage crisis is able to solve problems with the terrorists by singing and as magical as this novel is (and it is!) it was maybe just one too many pinches of pixie dust for me. I notice these flaws but they dont f up the rereading experience for me. If anything they ground the reread, they deepen it. Its like growing up and realizing your parents are flawed, or your teachers, or basically everyone youve known all your life. The small flaws only serve to enhance what tremendous perfection also exists in what you love. Is anyone else in the habit of taking this long a gap in between rereads? You grow and change as a person and a reader, I mean, you have to in that huge span of time, how does that affect you rereads? Sign up to Unusual Suspects to receive news and recommendations for mystery/thriller readers.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.