Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Fifth Business
Robertson Davies
1970
It was good to read this book. I know American history, British history, and Canadian history, but not much Ontario history. More than America, Britain, or Canada, I am a product of people of Ontario and knowing them is to know myself. History books are excellent, but narratives offer a personal aspect that text books cannot touch. The depictions of small town Ontario during the wars was as real as if I was sitting with someone telling me stories about their childhood. I suppose that's what Davies is doing. I have a longing to know more about my past, to know more about the places that have touched me and shaped me. Am I continuing along a path set out generations ago, or did things change at some point.
Dunstan Ramsay is an almost Bilbo Baggins character. Single, eccentric, travels oddly, and to visit a strange crowd of friends. Bilbo is Fifth Business, so is Dunny. He is so philosophical, but so confused. He seems pretty self conscious to be writing as much as he is, and as personally as he is doing it. But, his skil as a writer, and the fact that he is the author, makes you question whether he is intentionally inserting the self conscious aspect to the story. Know him so well after a whole book, we assume. But, we only really know what he has allowed us to know. It is his absolute idealised version of himself, and where does the truth stand?
The spiritual depth to the novel is inescapable, complex. Dunny looks at religion so scientifically, so academically. But, at the same time he is completely consumed by his belief in mystery. Mary Dempster, books could be written about her, is so confusing to him. A saint and a burden, he loves her and she so confuses him. In the end she just kind of wastes away and dies, and he feels guilty. Guilty! He is so studied in the depths of Religion, but he has no control over his own emotions. When it counts, he is as helpless in a trying situation as the simplest of the faithful.
Robertson Davies, I appreciate you know, at last. And I am happy to. High school is much to early for someone to handle a book like this. And it is unfair to Davies to force his books on high school kids, turning them off his genius for, often, ever.
Robertson Davies
1970
It was good to read this book. I know American history, British history, and Canadian history, but not much Ontario history. More than America, Britain, or Canada, I am a product of people of Ontario and knowing them is to know myself. History books are excellent, but narratives offer a personal aspect that text books cannot touch. The depictions of small town Ontario during the wars was as real as if I was sitting with someone telling me stories about their childhood. I suppose that's what Davies is doing. I have a longing to know more about my past, to know more about the places that have touched me and shaped me. Am I continuing along a path set out generations ago, or did things change at some point.
Dunstan Ramsay is an almost Bilbo Baggins character. Single, eccentric, travels oddly, and to visit a strange crowd of friends. Bilbo is Fifth Business, so is Dunny. He is so philosophical, but so confused. He seems pretty self conscious to be writing as much as he is, and as personally as he is doing it. But, his skil as a writer, and the fact that he is the author, makes you question whether he is intentionally inserting the self conscious aspect to the story. Know him so well after a whole book, we assume. But, we only really know what he has allowed us to know. It is his absolute idealised version of himself, and where does the truth stand?
The spiritual depth to the novel is inescapable, complex. Dunny looks at religion so scientifically, so academically. But, at the same time he is completely consumed by his belief in mystery. Mary Dempster, books could be written about her, is so confusing to him. A saint and a burden, he loves her and she so confuses him. In the end she just kind of wastes away and dies, and he feels guilty. Guilty! He is so studied in the depths of Religion, but he has no control over his own emotions. When it counts, he is as helpless in a trying situation as the simplest of the faithful.
Robertson Davies, I appreciate you know, at last. And I am happy to. High school is much to early for someone to handle a book like this. And it is unfair to Davies to force his books on high school kids, turning them off his genius for, often, ever.
# posted by mz @ 2:16 PM 
