As we approach a new calendar year, perhaps paging through this gorgeously printed book and reflecting on the art and philosophy of Tibetan Buddhism will help you bring closure to the old year and begin preparation for the new.
From the publisher: “Taking as its theme the universally accessible experience of Awakening, the book’s main text leads readers along an immersive journey of self-discovery, aided by a virtual guide, or lama, and traditional art meant to support meditative practice. Complementary essays examine Tibetan Buddhism’s ritual tools, paintings, symbolic imagery, and artistic traditions. Beautiful color images of all artworks, including three by contemporary Nepalese-American artist Tsherin Sherpa, and selected important details enhance our understanding of their complex iconography.”
Best wishes for a New Year!
Awaken:
A Tibetan Buddhist Journey Toward Enlightenment
by John Henry Rice & Jeffrey Durham
New Arrivals, 2nd Floor N 8193.A3 R533 2019
Before I provide a review of Midnight Sun, it is best to give an overview of the Twilight series. These synopses are about the film versions of the books. Those of you who are loyal fans are picturing Kristen Stewart as Bella Swan, Robert Pattinson as Edward Cullen, and Taylor Lautner as Jacob Black. One of the great joys of reading a new book is visualizing the characters. It was extremely difficult for me to read Midnight Sun without seeing the faces of the movie stars as the characters, so I simply gave into the imagery and it made the reading more alive.
If you read the saga and also saw the movies, you will be revisiting the series again as you read Midnight Sun, trying to remember the details of Twilight, which was told through Bella’s perspective, and is now being told through Edward’s voice. I found the entire process fascinating and most enjoyable as an experienced reader of young adult literature. Midnight Sun is definitely on the cusp of adult literature and fits perfectly with the age of most readers who started the series around age 15 in 2005 and are 30 in 2020. I wonder about readers who will start the series with this book and then read Twilight and the others. That too would be a fascinating journey.
Twilight (2005) – High-school student Bella Swan, always a bit of a misfit, doesn’t expect life to change much when she moves from sunny Arizona to rainy Washington state. Then she meets Edward Cullen, a handsome but mysterious teen whose eyes seem to peer directly into her soul. Edward is a vampire whose family does not drink blood, and Bella, far from being frightened, enters into a dangerous romance with her immortal soulmate.
New Moon(2006) –Bella Swan is on the cusp of her 18th birthday and blissfully happy with her undead beau Edward Cullen. While celebrating her birthday with Edward’s family of “vegetarian” vampires, a frightening incident convinces Edward that he’s simply too dangerous to be around his sweetheart. He decides to leave the town of Forks in order to ensure her safety – leaving her behind, angry and depressed.
Eclipse (2007) – Danger once again surrounds Bella, as a string of mysterious killings terrorizes Seattle and a malicious vampire continues her infernal quest for revenge. Amid the tumult, Bella must choose between her love for Edward and her friendship with Jacob, knowing that her decision may ignite the long-simmering feud between vampire and werewolf.
Breaking Dawn(2008) – At last, Bella and Edward are getting married. When Jacob finds out that Bella wants to spend her honeymoon as a human, he is horrified — for Edward’s passion could accidentally kill her. Bella does indeed survive her honeymoon, but a new complication arises when she discovers that she’s pregnant — and the child is growing at an alarming rate. The pregnancy sets the wolves against Bella and Edward, but Jacob vows to protect his friend.
Midnight Sun (2020) – As a professor of children and young adult literature, I must provide a teachable moment. If teachers introduce this book in their classrooms as an independent read for their 15 year old and beyond students, then this is the exact story from the wildly popular vampire romance Twilight, but told from the vampire Edward’s perspective. Teachers will want to start with Twilight before they tackle this longer version and make their comparisons, or they could assign these books as parallel reads or partner reads. A parallel read is when you assign a student to read two books at the same time and make a comparison. A partner read is when one student reads Twilight and discusses events through Bella’s perspective, and the other student reads Midnight Sun and discusses the book through Edward’s perspective.
Teachers, Midnight Sun is a bit more violent as Meyer provides descriptive details as the vampires hunt big game, and Edward plots to kill Bella and anyone who gets in his way at the high school. Another violent episode in the book is the vivid description of James, the hunter vampire, and his attack on Bella. Also, the description of how to kill a vampire is very graphic. Students who play violent video games will find the descriptions tame, but still, as teachers, be cautious.
After Edward decides he is strong enough to tame his vampire urge to kill Bella, he has some more common relationship missteps. He is overbearing and so protective of his mortal girlfriend that he sneaks into her house and watches her sleep. Meyer is exceptional at description which I enjoy when the plot is action packed. But it becomes a bit of a snore, when it is Edward sitting in Bella’s room pining on about his love for her. This swoon talk and smitten speech and Edward’s ability to woo was a bit too gooey for me.
The one thing about the original series was how Meyer was able to balance action and romance so that both male and female young adult readers were equally captivated by the descriptive language and the story. In the 660 pages of Midnight Sun, there is too much nuanced detail that I found distracting, especially in the “Confessions” chapter.
All-in-all, I enjoyed the book. It is ideal for a snuggled winter read. It will keep you woozy with wonder and watchful with woe. Meyer should be commended for conceptualizing such a compelling companion read to her phenomenal series of beloved books.
Other Reviews of Midnight Sun:
If you are on the fence, I can absolutely recommend you join the hype. Hopefully the emergence of YA culture as a world-dominating phenomena means people will stop dismissing books enjoyed by teenage girls out of hand. And if you, too, missed out on this epic of the YA canon, there’s still time to get some friends together for a read-along (www.guardian.com).
The Edward/Bella power dynamic is still ripe for criticism, as is the depiction of the Quileute characters who don’t get much time in this book, not even Jacob Black. They still come off as stereotypical B-list characters. Meyer said that in writing Midnight Sun she was locked into the original story. But leaving those aspects unchanged adds a staleness to what is in many other ways an entertaining page-turner carried by frisson after frisson, a sudden strong feeling of excitement or fear; a thrill, often relegated to the sexual tension of youth (Karin Tanabe, Washington Post).
Unfortunately, Midnight Sun does not make for gripping reading, nor significantly expand Meyer’s vampiric lore, an obvious missed opportunity when writing from Edward’s perspective. It feels below the belt to criticize the quality of the writing, given that Twilight was never loved for that – but there is something to be said for editing. Midnight Sun is chronically overwritten, plodding along almost in real time. Nine whole pages are given over to a chat about their likes and dislikes: Bella’s favorite gemstone is whichever one matches Edward’s eyes, while he analyses Linkin Park lyrics for clues to unlock his lady love: “It didn’t seem to match any of her moods that I’d seen, but then, there was so much I didn’t know.” https://bookmarks.reviews/reviewer/elle-hunt/
Despite its door-stopper density, Midnight Sun does not amplify the original novel. At times, it even undermines it. The whole appeal of a vampire-boyfriend is that he is deadly and undead, but Midnight Sun just exposes how toothless Edward really is. https://audioproeventos.cl/pcn6ms/midnight-sun%2C-stephenie-meyer-english-e4ab51
Since I saw this DVD version of the 2019 movie appear on the New Arrivals shelf, I knew I had to watch it, and how convenient that I can also review it for our devoted blog readers (both of you 😉 ) here!
A friend who’s a big fan of the book insisted that I read the book first (I somehow missed out when I was a girl) and I’m very glad I had that fresh in my mind, both for the great pleasure of Alcott’s writing, and because this movie version is quite non-linear — it assumes watchers already know plenty of details about the story. There are so many jumps between 15-year-old Jo, 22-year-old Jo, and many ages in between, often with only a minute or two in each scene and sometimes with scarce cues in lighting or character age to differentiate the two — I’m thinking in particular of the sequence covering Beth’s illness and eventual death. But the jumps, while sometimes confusing, do still enhance the emotional impact of such scenes, so I can’t fault director Greta Gerwig too much.
Beyond that, I loved everything about this movie! The cozy family scenes are just as heartwarming as you’d want them to be — the cinematography and costuming are lush and gorgeous — the actresses are all believable in bringing to life the author’s intention. Jo’s tension between relationship fulfillment and writing genius are perhaps heightened a bit more in this modern feminist retelling than in the book (does Jo actually marry in the end or not, in this version!?), but Gerwig knows her audience.
Highly recommended, and I think over the winter break, I might have to go watch some earlier movie versions of this classic, just for comparison and the sheer pleasure of it!
Exceptions: The library is closed on Dec. 31 (Thurs.), Jan. 1 (Fri.), and Jan. 16-18 (Sat.-Mon.), 2021.
*Please remember that even when the physical Library is closed, or you are remote, you can:
Search the article databases (login when prompted with your campus Net-ID, same as for your campus email or Canvas) or Research@UWW (sign in to access all possible full text) and access online article text or submit ILLiad interlibrary loan requests for articles not available via UW-Whitewater’s libraries,
Ask a librarian for help using email or chat (UW-Whitewater librarians respond to the emails when the Library is open, but chat is covered 24/7 by non-local staff). You also can choose to make an appointment with a UW-Whitewater librarian, which can take place in person, over the phone, or online by Webex.
Posted inaround the library|Taggedhours|Comments Off on Andersen Library hours Dec. 20, 2020 through Winterim
But if your tastes gravitate toward gloomier topics, don’t despair. The title does not signify all buttercups and sunbeams and many of the themes center around human frailty, conflict, struggle, and heartache. At least one story is set in a post-apocalyptic world, which will be more familiar to L’Engle’s science fiction aficionados.
Many of these stories were written in the 1940s and 1950s, starting in the author’s college days and ending before the publication of A Wrinkle in Time. So they also chronicle the author’s developing talent and style.
If you enjoy Young Adult fiction, L’Engle is a master of the genre and the Library has a number of her books in the Curriculum Collection (and a few in the Main Collection).
The Moment of Tenderness by Madeleine L’Engle New Arrivals, 2nd Floor PS 3523 .E55 A6 2020
Emerson stated that “there is properly no history; only biography.” I like this quote because it captures my thoughts about this book which is a series of vignettes from Dr. Downs’ counseling clients who share their stories about being gay in a straight man’s world. One of my favorite genres is memoir (See Gay and Lesbian Review Newsletter). The life story of a person in a historical context is biography that I crave to understand historical events through the lens of others.
The stories in Velvet Rage are more testimonies than biographies or memoirs, but the ethno-autobiographical way in which the book is written is akin to my qualitative research style. I often capture pieces of my past in my writings. My journey as a gay man growing up in the segregated South in the ’60s is a tale of challenges and opportunities, and the rage I felt around my circumstances did not shackle me, but propelled me to move forward with my life and to focus on aspirations instead of setbacks.
Dr. Downs captures this pathos in his books when he states that most gay men are over-achievers who seek affirmation through accomplishments. The harder the trials and tribulations, the more glorious the triumphs. This is wonderful if the motivation is internal gratification, but the seeking of external affirmations can be limiting, short-lived, and disappointing.
One of the theories in the book is that gay men built their lives around lies. These lies that they tell their families and friends are conditional components of their upbringing. The fact that when I was growing up, I was a sexual outlaw. My interactions with other men were illegal in the United States in the 70s and throughout the 80s. Staying in the closet was the best solution. I often called this my straight drag in which I had to pretend to be dating girls and women. I did all the traditional high school male activities such as going to the prom, escorting women at the debutante balls, taking cotillion lessons in order to learn how to treat women, take them to dinner, open doors, and use proper etiquette for eating white table cloth meals. All of these pronouncements were perpetrations, not preparations and my youth was predicated with a series of lies.
The book surmises that this conditional lying entraps gay men and keeps them longing for absolution and forgiveness which causes them to crave love, honesty, trust, and integrity. As I read the book, I recognized that many of the theories in the book aligned with my journey to self-affirmation and actualization. I am glad that I am through those stages of development and can now chamber that part of my life off and learn from those challenges in order to strengthen my passage to my current realities. I have met my resolve and what might have been a velvet rage is now more of a silky sensitivity in which I reflect on my past in order to confront and comfort my future.
Summaries
Downs’s spry self-help manual is called The Velvet Rage: Overcoming the Pain of Growing Up Gay in a Straight Man’s World. It is becoming a touchstone in gay culture just as Christopher Isherwood’s Goodbye to Berlin was in the 30s, Larry Kramer’s Faggots in the 70s and Edmund White’s A Boy’s Own Storyin the 80s. But The Velvet Rage is not fiction: it addresses the myth of gay pride and, after three decades of post-AIDS concentration on gay men’s physical health, turns inward to their mental wellbeing.
Along my actualization journey, I read each of these books and I agree that they were touchstones of history that enabled me to situate my present realities. Those books were dear to me because they gave me insights into a world I wanted to explore, but too terrified to venture into so I lived vicariously through the early explorations of others.
The gay male world today is characterized by seductive beauty, artful creativity, flamboyant sexuality, and, encouragingly, unprecedented acceptability in society. Yet despite the progress of the recent past, gay men still find themselves asking, “Are we really better off?” The inevitable by-product of growing up gay in a straight world continues to be the internalization of shame, a shame gay men may strive to obscure with a façade of beauty, creativity, or material success. Drawing on contemporary psychological research, the author’s own journey to be free of anger and of shame, as well as the stories of many of his friends and clients, The Velvet Rage outlines the offered profoundly beneficial strategies to stop the insidious cycle of avoidance and self-defeating behavior,
In many cases, I found that Dr. Downs painted a too tragic picture of gay-identity development. Yes, we have to find our way. Yes, there are no navigational milestones and we attach ourselves to the hetero-normative blueprint. But we are not all shameful and guilt-ridden. We all do not seek ways to harm ourselves and live suffering repressed lives. We are not all gorgeous, fabulous, flamboyant, and swimsuit-runway ready to strike a pose. We are self-constructed, nuanced people that defy stereotypes. One reviewer wrote, “We have created a gay culture that is, in most senses, unlivable. The expectation is that you have the beautiful body, that you have lots of money, that you have a beautiful boyfriend with whom you have wonderful, toe-curling sex every night… none of us have that. To try to achieve that really makes us miserable. The next phase of gay history, I believe, is for us to come to terms with creating a culture that is livable and comfortable.”
Like many of the reviews I read, I, too, am conflicted about this book. While I could relate to many of the author’s points on gay shame and how it affects us, I struggled with the position from which the author was writing. One comment stated, “Early on, the author puts forth a homogenous view of the gay experience, one that oftentimes seemed rich and White. With practically every example the author employs, there’s mention of fabulous wealth, executive careers, and many other hallmarks of affluence that I just couldn’t relate to in my experience. Early on, I had doubts whether or not this book could be applicable to me, given that my experience as a gay man differed so much from the experience the author painted.”
This book by physician and sociologist Jonathan M. Metzl travels across America, where he finds that racial resentment has impacted not only the health of people of color, but also the health white people. Particularly impacted are working class whites, the type who voted for and support president Donald J. Trump and other Tea Party politicians. Those people who want to “Make America Great Again,” but only for whites. This trend did not begin with Trump running for office and it certainly didn’t end there. According to Metzl, many southern and midwestern states have been electing politicians who enact laws that disadvantage working class people of all races for decades.
Over the course of eight interviews and much analysis, Metzl shows that the repeal of gun control laws, the cutback of school and social service funding, and the partial dismantling of Obamacare have directly caused white life expectancies to fall, gun suicides to rise, and school dropout rates to increase. He relates many stories over the course of the book and ends with the tragic story of Becca Campbell, a lower-middle-class white woman. In the wake of the Ferguson riots, she accidently shot herself in the head while waving her gun around in a moving car. The car struck the vehicle in front of her just at the moment she joked that she was getting “ready for Ferguson.”
Dying of Whiteness:
How the Politics of Racial Resentment Is Killing America’s Heartland
by Jonathan Metzl
New Arrivals, 2nd Floor RA563.M56 M48 2019
Andersen Library’s hours for the Thanksgiving holiday week are:
Mon.-Tues., Nov. 23-24: normal hours (7:30am-12 midnight)
Wed., Nov. 25:7:30am-6pm
Thurs., Nov. 26:CLOSED*
Fri., Nov. 27:8am-4:30pm
Sat., Nov. 28:CLOSED
Sun., Nov. 29:3pm-12 midnight
As of Monday, November 30th, Andersen Library will resume its normal fall semester hours through Saturday, December 19th. *What can you do if the library is closed, or you are remote? A lot! See the bottom of this blog entry!
Andersen Library’s hours between fall semester and Winterim (Sun. Dec. 20-Mon. Dec. 28):
Exceptions: The library is closed on Dec. 31 (Thurs.), Jan. 1 (Fri.), and Jan. 16-18 (Sat.-Mon.), 2021.
*Please remember that even when the physical Library is closed, or you are remote, you can:
Search the article databases (login when prompted with your campus Net-ID, same as for your campus email or Canvas) or Research@UWW (sign in to access all possible full text) and access online article text or submit ILLiad interlibrary loan requests for articles not available via UW-Whitewater’s libraries,
Ask a librarian for help using email or chat (UW-Whitewater librarians respond to the emails when the Library is open, but chat is covered 24/7 by non-local staff). You also can choose to make an appointment with a UW-Whitewater librarian, which can take place in person, over the phone, or online by Webex.
It’s getting dark outside early now… and cold… and now that classes are all remote after 11/20, you’re probably spending a lot more time in your dorm room….
Sounds like you need a handmade craft to brighten up that dorm room!
Come to the library on Wednesday 11/18 or Thursday 11/19, between 11:00a.m. and 4:00p.m., to make your own tea light candle holder. It’s an LED light candle — entirely dorm-approved and safe.
The pictures here might give you some inspiration. Or, check out Youtube for inspiration like this. Your only limit is your imagination! (well, and the supplies we have on hand, but we plan on a variety.)
Most everyone knows by know the horrible story of Auschwitz and the Holocaust, and in this trying year of 2020, one can be forgiven for passing by a story about that depressing time period in our recent past! But (being a librarian, of course) I noticed it because of the title, and I was rewarded in reading it. While the darkness of that time is certainly on full display through all the expected atrocities; so also is the prisoners’ resourcefulness to survive, the resistance of the human spirit, and the care and concern some people can show each other even in the worst circumstances.
The main character, Dita, is based on a real person who tended the eight precious books that managed to make their way into the Auschwitz “family camp” of Block 31. As an experiment, somehow the Nazis running Block 31 allowed some children to stay with their parents and even attend school during the day while their parents were working — ostensibly to be taught proper German history and culture, but the resourceful teachers (prisoners themselves) managed to teach Jewish culture and history alongside geography, math, and the more traditional subjects. They are aided in the effort by eight books — ranging from an atlas to a psychoanalysis text by Freud, a Russian-language grammar to H.G. Wells’ A Short History of the World. More than the content of the books, it’s their mere existence, their attestation that a more sane world is still there and available to any who manage to survive, that gives the books their hopeful power — in Auschwitz, or to anyone in troubling circumstances.
While this book is classified as young adult fiction, the real Dita has also written an autobiography, A Delayed Life, which you can check out via UW Request.
The librarian of Auschwitz
by Antonio Iturbe, translated by Lilit Thwaites
New Arrivals, 2nd Floor F Itu
Andersen Library’s Winterim hours (Tues. Dec. 29-Fri. Jan. 15):
Andersen Library’s hours for the Thanksgiving holiday week are:
