tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5426133566476743259.post7486260447999806595..comments2023-04-24T16:45:24.838-07:00Comments on Blogging the Canon: Bleak House - Finished!! (Spoiler Alert!)Robby Virushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01206018782013858134noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5426133566476743259.post-14246781918626836192008-06-16T23:47:00.000-07:002008-06-16T23:47:00.000-07:00Jo's death indeed saddened me deeply, although I d...Jo's death indeed saddened me deeply, although I didn't cry. I had really hoped he would make it. When people use the word "Dickensian", I'm not exactly sure what they mean, but in my mind it makes me picture a character like Jo. A tragic orphan, living in the slums, working as a crosswalk sweeper, pushed around and used by everyone until he dies of poverty, hunger, and disease. And I think that's why I didn't cry at his death...because Jo's character was a little too close to the Dickensian stereotype that I have in my mind. I think if I'd gone into the book never having heard of Dickens I would have bawled my eyes out.<BR/><BR/>And I did not notice the iambic pentameter. That's incredible.<BR/><BR/>And while we're on the topic of Jo and poverty...I loved Dickens vivid descriptions of the slum Tom-all-alone's. I also just love the name "Tom-all-alone's".Robby Virushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01206018782013858134noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5426133566476743259.post-71681866335530339952008-06-15T14:57:00.000-07:002008-06-15T14:57:00.000-07:00Yes, yes, yes, and yes--what you said! When revie...Yes, yes, yes, and yes--what you said! When reviewers throw around the word "Dickensian" at novelists like, say, Zadie Smith, I think of <I>Bleak House</I> and feel how little these newbies deserve the comparison. Mind you, it's hard to imagine us accepting the kinds of things Dickens does--with plot, with language, with spontaneous combustions.<BR/><BR/>I think the Jarndyce proposal would have been a bit creepy even then. There's a more malevolent version with Bounderby and Louisa in <I>Hard Times</I> (there, after he kisses her cheek, she wishes she had a knife to cut out the piece of flesh). And in <I>David Copperfield</I> real happiness only comes with the passing of the "child bride" and the growth of a mature love.<BR/><BR/>Now, the acid test of character: did you cry over Jo's sad end? (And did you appreciate the way Dickens falls into iambic pentameter at the close of the passage: "And dying thus around us every day"... Amazing.)<BR/><BR/>What's next?Rohan Maitzenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12111722115617352412noreply@blogger.com