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lofi posted:The getting bored and wandering off made me laugh, too. I guess she does interpret the bear's moods, yeah. I'd been more thinking of how often the text refers to it as unknowable/unreadable/etc, but that's more a third-person description than Lou's own. Christ, you know you've got issues when you're shagging a bear I don't have the book in front of me, but I do remember it saying that she loved the Director for a week and that she thought he was charming. What she thinks of Homer might be a bit more complex, and on second thought I probably need to look through the book again to see what she thought of him. Despite my profile saying that I'm a porpoise, I'm a dude and biased etc. so I'd be interested to read more opinions from women on what they thought about the librarian's relationships.
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Feb 11, 2019 21:55
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It's vague enough that I think you could interpret it either way, it just felt a little skeevy to me, and that led me towards a more negative interpretation. If I was on an isolated island and literally dependant on a guy for food, then he grabbed my rear end, that's not a good place. With the boss is a similar (though less extreme) power dynamic.
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Feb 11, 2019 22:16
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About a third of the way through so far--it is so Upper Canada and of its time. I was just in this area of northern Ontario last fall too so the imagery is right on. Poor bear  Its a pretty spare writing style, I guess in keeping with the protagonist? Anyway, enjoyable enough so far, if not a barn burner.
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Feb 14, 2019 05:12
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apropos of nothing but its worth noting that the narrator is, subconsciously, insanely horny from the very beginning. when she's thinking about the furniture in the house prior to her arrival, for example:quote:There were many sofas, many tables, many chairs. She could see their spread legs as they sat on the list. emphasis mine. that's a sex weird way of talking about furniture. then as she drives through the canadian landscape, there's a lot of juxtaposed death-and-fertility imagery. she recalls her parents looking for flowers while she, not joining them, stared at "the skeleton of the biggest dragonfly in the world, caught in a spiderweb and sucked dry". the beautiful beach and lake remind her of some kind of loss. she listens to the birds in the evening and then writes in a postcard to the director that she feels she's "being reborn", which is an odd thing to say to your boss on a work assignment even if you do let him hog up your gooch once a week. then the sight of the "bald stone mountains of Algoma", which I don't know where that is, remind her of some internal desolation of her own - of feeling that she's "old as the yellowed papers she spent her days unfolding". there's a constant back-and-forth movement between the landscape (in spring) and her own internal state (barren as a desert), is what i'm getting at here. and it all ultimately revolves around loving.
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Feb 14, 2019 08:11
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chernobyl kinsman posted:apropos of nothing but its worth noting that the narrator is, subconsciously, insanely horny from the very beginning. when she's thinking about the furniture in the house prior to her arrival, for example: Yeah the spread legs thing caught me too. Algoma is Sault St. Marie and points north https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algoma_District
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Feb 14, 2019 15:42
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Morels as penises is quite a foreshadow to Stormy Daniels... I am really enjoying this book, and seeing Lou slowly unwind her tightly wrapped city persona. Bear cunnilingus notwithstanding. Nearly done now. FWIW, back in the day House Cary were nobility from Cornwall. One, a knight, was beheaded for siding with House Lancaster in the War of the Roses; one of his sons or grandsons married Mary Boleyn, former lover of Henry VIII (reputedly) and sister to Anne. The Cary and Mary had a daughter that served as handmaiden to Elizabeth I.
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Feb 15, 2019 04:32
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My body is ready
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Feb 15, 2019 20:46
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Ooooh, fancy bear!
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Feb 15, 2019 21:16
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and here I was smugging it up having a first edition hard cover.
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Feb 15, 2019 22:43
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mewse posted:My body is ready That's bear-tacular But, seriously, if there are any notes or neat errors please post them
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Feb 15, 2019 22:46
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i forgot i agreed to read this until it arrived in the mail today. thanks guys.
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Feb 16, 2019 04:52
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Bilirubin posted:and here I was smugging it up having a first edition hard cover. that is actually very cool. does it have the gently caress cover? WatermelonGun posted:i forgot i agreed to read this until it arrived in the mail today. thanks guys. welcome, brother
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Feb 16, 2019 05:59
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chernobyl kinsman posted:that is actually very cool. does it have the gently caress cover? Of course this is a library loan so the dust cover is in archives somewhere
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Feb 17, 2019 01:35
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lofi posted:It's vague enough that I think you could interpret it either way, it just felt a little skeevy to me, and that led me towards a more negative interpretation. Just finished this and yes, this. Of course, it was an interaction quite of its time, and Homer didn't force the issue. Her going back to him later almost seemed transactional. My overall feeling is that she left there more self aware and sure but I wasn't really convinced with how she got there. I did like that it was fairly realistic in not being an overly dramatic metamorphosis. And I am super happy I didn't get tricked into reading beastiality porn by goons. Book was better than I expected, but winning a GG's award seems far fetched.
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Feb 17, 2019 05:36
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Bilirubin posted:And I am super happy I didn't get tricked in Book was better than I expected, but winning a GG's award seems far fetched. I'm not super familiar with canadian authors, do you think there was another book that could have won that award that year?
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Feb 18, 2019 00:19
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her interactions with homer indicate her taking ownership of her own sexuality. she doesn't really want him as him and it's not repayment for the work he's done. she seems surprised when he makes a pass at her in the house - naively, she didn't realize how her actions looked to him. she goes and fucks him later in the novel because she can. he's a conquest and nothing more.
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Feb 18, 2019 00:49
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DeadFatDuckFat posted:I'm not super familiar with canadian authors, do you think there was another book that could have won that award that year? As a Canadian what probably happened was the small high lit community decided this book was Worthy Of Praise and then it won that award
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Feb 18, 2019 00:55
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mewse posted:As a Canadian what probably happened was the small high lit community decided this book was Worthy Of Praise and then it won that award I haven't finished it yet, so not commenting on its merit, but given the author's connections in the Writer's Guild this seems pretty likely.
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Feb 18, 2019 01:03
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mewse posted:As a Canadian what probably happened was the small high lit community decided this book was Worthy Of Praise and then it won that award drat those writers for deciding a book was good!!!
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Feb 18, 2019 01:18
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most of the point of the book is her taking ownership of her sexuality and actually evolving into a sexual being; it's not an accident that Engel draws so much attention to the fact that she heads north in spring when things are blooming. she lets the director gently caress her, but it's routine, rhythmic; she describes it as "something that she's doing to herself" rather than a real act between two people in which both have agency. there's passing mention, at one point, to her having picked up a man "on the street" once, but the way that action is depicted reeks of desperation and loneliness; also, it's strongly implied that the man she picked up assaulted her. her seduction of homer, on the other hand, is wholly her decision. it's symbolic, representative.
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Feb 18, 2019 01:43
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mewse posted:As a Canadian what probably happened was the small high lit community decided this book was Worthy Of Praise and then it won that award "a group of people decided that [x] was worthy of an award and so gave [x] the award" is usually how awards work yeah
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Feb 18, 2019 01:44
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chernobyl kinsman posted:most of the point of the book is her taking ownership of her sexuality and actually evolving into a sexual being; it's not an accident that Engel draws so much attention to the fact that she heads north in spring when things are blooming. she lets the director gently caress her, but it's routine, rhythmic; she describes it as "something that she's doing to herself" rather than a real act between two people in which both have agency. there's passing mention, at one point, to her having picked up a man "on the street" once, but the way that action is depicted reeks of desperation and loneliness; also, it's strongly implied that the man she picked up assaulted her. her seduction of homer, on the other hand, is wholly her decision. it's symbolic, representative. OK, that makes sense--and I am super bad at lit crit generally, and am learning a bunch in this forum overall (drat streaming in university too early). Maybe my problem is more the overall feeling of detachment from emotions the writing evoked in me. vOv
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Feb 18, 2019 02:36
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:I haven't finished it yet, so not commenting on its merit, but given the author's connections in the Writer's Guild this seems pretty likely. I'm what is euphemistically called a "new Canadian" (i.e. dirty immigrant) so I didn't grow up in CanLit but there is a whole lot of quality out there that this, IMO, as a representative undersells. Hell, a Canadian just won the Nobel in literature last year. Half tempted to suggest next months BotM being a choice between nothing but CanLit award winners just because. Richler, Lawrence, Atwood, Oats, Davies, Munro, not even including French authors or newer talents, show pretty strongly IMO
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Feb 18, 2019 02:44
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Bilirubin posted:OK, that makes sense--and I am super bad at lit crit generally, and am learning a bunch in this forum overall (drat streaming in university too early). i mean that's just my read, i might be wrong, but i broadly interpreted the book to be about a woman who learns at last to get her gently caress on
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Feb 18, 2019 03:25
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chernobyl kinsman posted:i mean that's just my read, i might be wrong, but i broadly interpreted the book to be about a woman who learns at last to get her gently caress on Learns what love is, via Bear. Learns to love herself. Plans on quitting her job and being herself. Also loving
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Feb 18, 2019 03:29
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just a normal coming-of-age-late-in-life story about a lonely individual who learns how to take what she wants by having a large grizzly bear repeatedly shove its tongue into her hole
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Feb 18, 2019 03:31
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oh yo also it is 100% implied that the old native woman hosed the bear and that Homer knew about it. i wont back down from that interpretation furthermore everyone talks about the bear cunnilingus but no one talks about the fact that her friendship with the bear starts when she takes a big stinking dump next to it
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Feb 18, 2019 03:32
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chernobyl kinsman posted:i mean that's just my read, i might be wrong, but i broadly interpreted the book to be about a woman who learns at last to get her gently caress on I described it to my wife as "The Canadian How Stella Got Her Groove Back"
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Feb 18, 2019 03:55
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chernobyl kinsman posted:oh yo also it is 100% implied that the old native woman hosed the bear and that Homer knew about it. i wont back down from that interpretation which the old native woman tells her to do. And she says that he is a "good bear" repeatedly, with her cackling laugh. That was also my interpretation and I'll die on that hill with you. Hieronymous Alloy posted:I described it to my wife as "The Canadian How Stella Got Her Groove Back" I may have also used this line. But I also call this book "the bear loving book" openly with her and friends at the pub. One of them might eventually give it a read too.
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Feb 18, 2019 04:30
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Bilirubin posted:which the old native woman tells her to do. And she says that he is a "good bear" repeatedly, with her cackling laugh. That was also my interpretation and I'll die on that hill with you. its also extremely sus that the bear knew exactly what to do when started uh *checks the text* "making love to herself*
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Feb 18, 2019 06:47
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Bilirubin posted:which the old native woman tells her to do. And she says that he is a "good bear" repeatedly, with her cackling laugh. That was also my interpretation and I'll die on that hill with you. Yeah, that was my suspicion from the moment the old woman shows up onscreen. It's at least heavily implied.
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Feb 18, 2019 06:56
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Oh hell yeah, I mean, it was barely subtext.
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Feb 18, 2019 19:10
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chernobyl kinsman posted:just a normal coming-of-age-late-in-life story about a lonely individual who learns how to take what she wants by having a large grizzly bear repeatedly shove its tongue into her hole black bear, not griz 
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Feb 19, 2019 05:34
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Last call: suggestions for next month
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Feb 25, 2019 03:51
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Fifth Business by Robertson Davies The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood After that IDK. House of Leaves? Ulysses?
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Feb 25, 2019 05:58
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Bilirubin posted:The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood please. stop. please
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Feb 25, 2019 06:07
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WHEEL OF TIME
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Feb 25, 2019 06:23
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what have i ever done to you
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Feb 25, 2019 06:57
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It's time. Alan Moore. Jerusalem.
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Feb 25, 2019 08:18
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And this FINALLY came by ILL. I don't know that I make the end of the month on it, but I'm gonna read the bearfucking book anyways.
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Feb 25, 2019 16:38
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