February BOTM: BEAR by MARIAN ENGEL

The Something Awful Forums > Archives > Comedy Goldmine > February BOTM: BEAR by MARIAN ENGEL

Bilirubin: Feb 16, 2014; The sanctioned action is to CHUG

Just ordered it from the library, should have it tomorrow.

Actually I never checked the bookshelf at home, my partner has an extensive collection of Canadian lit

# ¿ Feb 7, 2019 22:33

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# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 21:39

Bilirubin: Feb 16, 2014; The sanctioned action is to CHUG

lofi posted:

Yeah, you're right, good. Good because it SUCKS and no-one should get paid for that.

Unlike the book, which I'm actually enjoying so far. As you mentioned upthread, it's some good isolation-porn. And library porn. Who doesn't want to sit reading in a huge sofa, in front of an open fire, a 180 degree window, nestling their naked feet into bear-fur?

I love how the guy taking her to the place was all "so, here's the house, lemme just show you how everything works, here's your stuff... also there's a bear ok seeya."

e: Looking at those other covers in the link, there's a couple of really nice ones. Which makes it even more infuriating that my totally-legit copy went with that one.

Artsy! (And using native canadian imagery?)

Tactile!

Cute.

Welp, guess I know what I'm doing tomorrow.

what, loving a bear?

# ¿ Feb 8, 2019 05:20

Bilirubin: Feb 16, 2014; The sanctioned action is to CHUG

I now have a copy of this fine, award-winning novel in my hands. I can bearly hold onto it due to its torrid content.

# ¿ Feb 8, 2019 19:29

Bilirubin: Feb 16, 2014; The sanctioned action is to CHUG

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 :smith:

Its a pretty spare writing style, I guess in keeping with the protagonist?

Anyway, enjoyable enough so far, if not a barn burner.

# ¿ Feb 14, 2019 05:12

Bilirubin: Feb 16, 2014; The sanctioned action is to CHUG

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:

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.

Yeah the spread legs thing caught me too.

Algoma is Sault St. Marie and points north https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algoma_District

# ¿ Feb 14, 2019 15:42

Bilirubin: Feb 16, 2014; The sanctioned action is to CHUG

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.

# ¿ Feb 15, 2019 04:32

Bilirubin: Feb 16, 2014; The sanctioned action is to CHUG

and here I was smugging it up having a first edition hard cover.

# ¿ Feb 15, 2019 22:43

Bilirubin: Feb 16, 2014; The sanctioned action is to CHUG

chernobyl kinsman posted:

that is actually very cool. does it have the gently caress cover?

No the dust cover is plain white and just says "Bear"

_{Of course this is a library loan so the dust cover is in archives somewhere}

# ¿ Feb 17, 2019 01:35

Bilirubin: Feb 16, 2014; The sanctioned action is to CHUG

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.

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.

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.

# ¿ Feb 17, 2019 05:36

Bilirubin: Feb 16, 2014; The sanctioned action is to CHUG

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

# ¿ Feb 18, 2019 02:36

Bilirubin: Feb 16, 2014; The sanctioned action is to CHUG

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

# ¿ Feb 18, 2019 02:44

Bilirubin: Feb 16, 2014; The sanctioned action is to CHUG

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

# ¿ Feb 18, 2019 03:29

Bilirubin: Feb 16, 2014; The sanctioned action is to CHUG

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

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

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.

# ¿ Feb 18, 2019 04:30

Bilirubin: Feb 16, 2014; The sanctioned action is to CHUG

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

:goonsay:

# ¿ Feb 19, 2019 05:34

Bilirubin: Feb 16, 2014; The sanctioned action is to CHUG

Fifth Business by Robertson Davies
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood

After that IDK. House of Leaves? Ulysses?

# ¿ Feb 25, 2019 05:58

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WHEEL OF TIME

# ¿ Feb 25, 2019 06:23

Bilirubin: Feb 16, 2014; The sanctioned action is to CHUG

poisonpill posted:

Lol. Just like American lit is all about explorers on the frontier;

lol I am reading Blood Meridian right now and its glorious and gory and so not that.

Would be a decent BotM in fact

# ¿ Feb 26, 2019 06:25

Bilirubin: Feb 16, 2014; The sanctioned action is to CHUG

Yo unsticky this and put up the V. thread

Please and thank you

I mean its still a few days until BotL is back surely you have nothing else to do right now :p

# ¿ Mar 3, 2019 22:41

Bilirubin: Feb 16, 2014; The sanctioned action is to CHUG

On the way in to work the CBC was interviewing Erica Jong's daughter about the impact of her mom's early 70s novel Fear of Flying, which I think puts Bear into better context for me. The time was the sexual revolution, second wave feminism, and having women write about sex in the same way as Norman Mailer or Henry Miller was apparently shocking. Bear then becomes more than "getting her groove back" as "claiming her groove for herself".

But with loving bear loving in northern Ontario, so a unique Canadian twist

# ¿ Mar 6, 2019 17:52

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# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 21:39

Bilirubin: Feb 16, 2014; The sanctioned action is to CHUG

and Canadian wildlife

# ¿ Mar 7, 2019 00:38

The Something Awful Forums > Archives > Comedy Goldmine > February BOTM: BEAR by MARIAN ENGEL