Thursday, October 25, 2012

McTeague

Regarding the question I came up with in class today, I've been trying to decide how I feel about McTeague as a character so far.  My initial impression of him was of am immense, bumbling oaf that was slow and often frustrating.  As is my tendency, I immediately felt guilty for judging him so harshly and tried to look at him more sympathetically.  "Dentist" is probably one of the last things that I would come up with if I were to guess McTeague's profession, which makes me wonder how he ended up where he is.  "Mine Worker" seems much more fitting for him.  I would imagine that McTeague could easily feel out of place in his line of work, and probably in society in general.  He has his set routine, a very small group of people with whom he associates with - basically a very limited sphere in which he exists.  Did he end up here by choice?  If not, what were the circumstances?  Broadening his social horizons opens up the potential for people to notice his mental and societal shortcomings or ineptitude, and who wouldn't want to avoid that?  Meeting and marrying Trina made him much more vulnerable in that sense.  His attitude toward marriage and his wife often verge on repellent in my eyes, but some of that is just a product of the times.  Wives were expected to shape their lives around their husbands and their families.  Trina is in the unique position of having acquired a large amount of wealth, and McTeague is in the unique position of being married to a person who has acquired a large amount of wealth, and doesn't react in the way he thinks they should.  I find it difficult to regard Trina as blameless in the downfall of their relationship, but her behavior did not warrant her death.  McTeague was simply at the end of his rope, and lacked the faculties to deal with it in a healthy way.  He appears to be baffled by numerous things throughout the novel, and unable to wrap his head around foreign occurrences.  He reacts in a primal, animalistic way that is shocking and makes him a challenging character.   

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Literature Through the Ages

I really enjoy visiting the MASC; I went with Dr. Campbell's 481 class last year, and recently with my Art History class.  Seeing the texts they pull for us is always really interesting, and I think it's really cool that the university has these extensive collections.  It can be hard to wrap your mind around the fact that the book your looking at is hundreds of years old.  When I visited with my Art History class, we got to see a Papal Bull from the 1200's, which was completely unreal.  The kinds of texts that were in circulation over the years, and how they have evolved is fascinating to think about, and it helps to paint a better picture of what life was like for people in those times.  It makes me wonder whether or not future generations will move totally into the digital arena, reading on Kindles, iPads or other devices.  Will the books we read now someday seem ancient and obsolete?  I would say no, on one hand because that idea kind of depresses me, but also because I think that there will always be a sense of romance and attachment to physical books.  Personally, I own a Kindle, but I find myself repeatedly going back to the printed word.  In a class environment, it's just more practical with flipping through pages quickly to get to specific passages.  I think that books will be sticking around for a while - not only would the task of digitizing be a monstrous undertaking, but honestly, who doesn't love that New Book Smell?