The Woman in White

"I had mechanically turned in this latter direction, and was strolling along the lonely high-road—idly wondering, I remember, what the Cumberland young ladies would look like—when, in one moment, every drop of blood in my body was brought to a stop by the touch of a hand laid lightly and suddenly on my shoulder from behind me.

"I turned on the instant, with my fingers tightening round the handle of my stick.

"There, in the middle of the broad bright high-road—there, as if it had that moment sprung out of the earth or dropped from the heaven—stood the figure of a solitary Woman, dressed from head to foot in white garments, her face bent in grave inquiry on mine, her hand pointing to the dark cloud over London, as I faced her."

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins is a novel written in the Gothic style of the 1800's, as illustrated by the passage above. Wilkie Collins was a friend of Charles Dickens and published this novel in pieces in one of Dickens' monthly journals (the kind of journal where he was probably paid by the number of words). It is a bit wordy, but every bit of it is essential to the plot. Of course, committed to the Gothic tradition, Collins includes asylums, secret plots, fires, deaths, deception and even a little love story that ends the book nicely.

What makes this novel unique is the point of view it is written in. Collins includes the point of view of many characters. While the longest bits are from the point of view of the main characters, there are few small narratives from very minor characters. I found this to be extremely interesting because as the views changed from character to character so did the language, diction and thought process. I've seen this style of writing with many contemporary authors, including one of my favorite, Jodi Picoult, but I think Collins may have been an innovator of this style. It's interesting to see where modern authors may have gotten some of there ideas and inspiration.

I don't know if I'd ever read another Wilkie Collins novel. The Woman in White is the most touted of his novels, so I'm glad I chose this one to read, but I found it a little dull at times. This is the same reason that I have given up on Charles Dickens. Maybe one day, however, I will return to these two authors and fall in love with their work. For now, I'm still discovering a seemingly unlimited world of classic literature and learning of new old authors everyday!

Midnight Madness!

Sticking to tradition, Kate and I went to Borders around 11:00PM on Friday night so that we could get in line to buy the new Harry Potter book at midnight. Maybe it was the anticipation of the seventh book coming out that did it, but I think the fans of Harry Potter have gotten crazier over the years. There was a record number of people dressed up as characters this time. You'd think to mostly see people dressed as Harry Potter, Hermione, maybe Dumbledore, but this year there was quite a variety. We saw a huge hairy man dressed as Hagrid who was even carrying a little pink frilly umbrella. Someone was dressed as Umbridge from the most recent movie. I saw another kid who looked exactly like Dudley Dursley, although I'm pretty sure he wasn't dressed up!

Kate and I decided that we probably wouldn't do that again if there was another book. They order so many that we could easily just buy it the day that it comes out and avoid the crowds as well as the over enthusiasts! We did, however, get a pretty cool poster and a glow stick out of it. On the car ride home, I found some techno music on the radio and Kate had a great time with those glow sticks!

O Pioneers!

I have yet to read that book. But this is not about Willa Cather and her novels. This is about four days of my life that I spent dressed up like a pioneer (pantaloons and everything) and pushing a handcart. I'm sure we have all heard of and maybe even been on a pioneer trek. For those who haven't, this is a little invention some people in the church came up with so that the youth (as well as a lot of adults) could experience what the pioneers had to go through in coming to Utah.

If you can't tell, I'm saying this with a little sarcasm and disdain in my voice. So why did I go? I can't really answer that because I don't know. Kate really wanted me to come, but we weren't together much. The picture above was taken right after we finished. Can you tell how dirty and tired we both were? I will admit, however, that I did enjoy spending time with the people I was with and there were some enjoyable moments during the time I spent on trek.

I had a pretty cool family. My ma and pa, the Menloves, were awesome. We spent the nights torturing the other families with a dried up bean pod my pa brought that sounded exactly like a rattle snake when shook. We actually trapped a girl in the port-o-potty for a while. I know, that one was pretty mean! One night we did it to this family who had set up a little tent with their tarp. They were mostly all asleep. So we rattled the bean and we heard the ma say to her husband in a little scared voice,

"John, what do I do?"

He answered and said, "About what?"

"The noise!"

It was so funny! We got a lot of other people too. I think some people we got still don't know that it wasn't an actual rattle snake. On another night when we were out and about, we noticed a group of about six kids running up one of the hills that surrounded the camping area. We had been warned earlier about huge badger holes that were up on some of the hills. Anyways, because the moon was behind them, we just saw their silhouettes. They were running in a single file line and all of the sudden one of them disappeared. It was like a cartoon because we didn't just see him stumble or fall, he actually disappeared! It was hilarious and I don't think he got hurt because after a while they were all at the top of hill making coyote noises. Stupid kids.

Other than the heat, constant wind, barren land (there were no trees), and dust, the trek was a pretty fun experience. We had a hoedown one evening. You would think we'd all be too tired to participate, but for some reason it was really fun. We even got apple pie and ice cream after, a luxury I don't think the real pioneers had, but they didn't have a lot of things we had. I guess you can't get too authentic.

Well, if anything, I can a least say I've been on a pioneer trek, . . . twice! Oh yeah, here's a picture of my little trek family. It's a really washed out though. If you don't recognize me in all my pioneer finery, I'm the one of the far right wearing the bonnet.