About

Welcome to Project Dog-eared. As avid readers we realised that we go through a multitude of emotions and thoughts at different stages of reading any book. But, once we have finished the book, our impression of it was often based on one predominant emotion or memory of the book rather than our whole reading experience. We wondered if this could be improved upon , and came up with the idea of Project Dog-eared.

Here, we intend to choose a book - any book - some times agreed, but mostly our own individual choices and document our thoughts and emotions as we read along. We then intend to collate it all together at the end, possibly into a review.

In other words, this is just the good old scribble at the corner of the book, but more organised and shared live on the net. We must point out the reading is not collaborative but only a collective assortment - that is - unlike book clubs you don’t discuss the books as you read along. However some of you might want to follow what others are reading and comment on others’ posts and interact. So if you feel this is something that you would be interested in, give us a shout. We will log you on here. Then all you have to do is pick up a book of your choice and start reading and posting.

Thursday 30 September 2010

Masque of Africa and Conversation between Cornelia Nixon and Marilynne Robinson

1. Conversation between Cornelia Nixon and Marilynne Robinson, in the Believer writers book. Haven't been able to complete the whole conversation yet. It is lovely to read two intelligent talented writers talk. Cornelia started off describing Robinson's sentences to have a rare kind of beauty, which is so true. Robinson reminds me a lot of Banville.

Anyway, the focus so far has been on Robinson's books Housekeeping and Gilead especially the religious, racist (counter-racist) themes in the novels. I had read most of, but couldn't manage to finish Gilead (2004 Pulitzer) in a reading group; However, I have enough idea of the book and it's characters to pick up the threads in conversation. Robinson has been explaining the idealists American northerners and their unsung social efforts to integrate the races in America. I am , I must say slightly embarrassed about how little details I know of Civil War in America.

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2. Masque of Africa

Sir Vidia is back in Africa, trying to explore what the book calls the – African Belief. This immediately makes me slightly antagonistic towards the book, for, I have no expertise in African beliefs, rituals and to be frank, the topic is not something that I find terribly exciting. Anyway, it is a Naipaul book and would have wonderful prose if not anything.

Naipaul has returned to Africa, arriving at Uganda that he had left in the 1960s; naturally much of the opening pages of the book is descriptive- often using the – entering the river twice - type of narrative consciousness. Uganda has changed and seems unfamiliar including his previous site of his residence which he struggles to locate to the capital and it's landscape.

The progression is slow, and I must say to my surprise, slightly haphazard. I expected to start off with encountering African beliefs right away. But Vidia is using broad strokes to paint the canvas – the first chapter is brilliant in a typical Naipaul tradition of the Bend: gathering all the information and arranging it into a pastiche, he introduces the arrival of external faith to indigenous populations, the political and the religious reasons for its acceptance etc.

The narration then moves into a parallel exploration of extant architecture, landscape, flora, fauna religion and most importantly history. Everything is just touched upon but not gone into, in a sense. There is a drawing back to history especially the predecessors of Amin and Obote – as he visits couple of tombs of Kabakas (Kasubi) and a waterfall. He often goes back to Stanley and Speke for historical references. There is a vivid description of one war between Sunna and the people of Busoga, which I quite enjoyed. Some touches about human sacrifices – which people seem to avoid / forget to tell him.

Prose is simple, effective and brilliant as you would expect from Naipaul (How does he continue to do that?) e.g there is one sublime sentence which has about a dozen simple words yet is truly profound in a post-modern sense. Visiting the Kasubi Tombs which is a UNESCO heritage site he writes – We picked up a guide there, or perhaps, we were picked up by him. Perfect.

Have done about 8 chapters, 50 odd pages ; the narration has started to unravel – he was arranged to visit a witch-doctor, the visit in itself was unremarkable, but he has been tricked by the local contact to pay him pounds instead of dollars as it was agreed...


New words learnt – Nil

Words reinforced – Moraine ( lovely, after a long time I had almost forgotten !)

Things of Interest, To Be Researched (TBR) – History of Raffia mat, Lives of John Speke and Henry Stanley

Trivia - Sunna had a pet dog; it was him who gave Uganda the heraldic device woman, spear and dog. ( I couldn’t find it online)

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Monday 27 September 2010

The Middle Passage

Naipaul's Middle Passage begins with the description of his ship journey to his birthplace- Trinidad. This was probably the first travelogue that Naipaul wrote, and perhaps that's why the book is written in the way of a typical travel account - a journey starts and then gets to the destination. Funny incidents, people, anecdotes line it along.
The description of the ship journey is mildly tedious. There are many people on the ship who appear boring. What is interesting is the ship on which he is traveling - an immigrant ship Francisco Bobadilla (named after, I learned, a Spanish administrator who was Columbus' successor as the Governor of Indies and had been responsible for Columbus being sent back to Spain on charges of mis-management) , which carries immigrants from West Indies and takes them to UK. A few interesting moments of this journey occur when the immigrants come on-board - the reaction of the remaining passengers is that of superiority and disgust - at best of passivity and feigned disinterest. The holiday is over. Wild cows are here.
I have started enjoying the book after Naipaul's observations on the West Indian culture begin taking shape. The very first appear on the dilemma of West Indian historian:
How can the history of this West Indian futility be written? What tone shall the historian adopt? Shall he be as academic as Sir Alan Burns, protesting from time to time at some brutality, and setting West Indian brutality in the context of European brutality….Shall he, like the West Indian historians, who can only now begin to face their history, be icily detached and tell the story of the slave trade as if it were just another aspect of mercantilism? The history of the islands can never be satisfactorily told. Brutality is not the only difficulty. History is built around achievement and creation; and nothing was created in the West Indies.
I am now in the pages where Naipaul is roaming around the streets of Trinidad, trying to come to terms with returning to a place which he apparently always saw as a prison while growing up. He still resents its limits, the 'second-rate' nature of everything - from radio to cinema to journalism. More than a travelogue, it seems like the grudges of a childhood finding a lovely articulate voice, and a space to vent those grudges.

Friday 24 September 2010

Autumn List





Ongoing -
1. In a Free State, VS Naipaul (Actually a reread but the first read was a long while go and I don't seemed to have remembered much. So I thought that I should check it out now, when I am not the green-horn I used to be. I am hoping to finish it off before the arrival of 'Masque of Africa' which I am told is scheduled to be mailed tomorrow.
2. The Emperor's New Drugs - Exploding the Antidepressant Myth, Irving Kirsch This has been lent to me by a colleague, so I will be devoting more time and energies towards it in the next few weeks. I don't like the returning books late.
3. Just about have started with The Believer Book of Writers Talking to Writers .I am a huge suckers for such established midde-aged achievers ( writers) talking about their lives with each other - their work, idiosyncrasies and writing in general. Much fun and more insight.
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Pipeline
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Other additions, if any are listed as we move on.