Month: May 2016

Book 5: The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham

I think this story might have been where it started: my love of all tales apocalyptic. As a kid, I remember watching both the 1962 movie (Not in 1962 I hasten to add!) and the 1980s TV series. I was totally gripped by both, but until a couple of weeks ago, I’d never actually read the book. Shameful!

So, it goes like this: there’s a dazzling meteor shower; almost the whole world goes blind as a result; society collapses; carnivorous plants literally stalk the land; plagues spread like the plague, and a handful of survivors have to … well … survive.

I love this book for so many reasons. It’s very much of its time. It was written in 1951, and you can feel the Cold War breathing down your neck as you read. The changing gender roles of the period are also discussed – overtly and covertly. The narrative voice is very 1950s British; it put me in mind of Ian Flemming’s James Bond books. But what I really love is the whole ‘Do the ends justify the means?’ choices the characters have to make, because, for me, that’s what apocalyptic stories are about. They’re about maintaining our humanity (the good parts at any rate) in the face of extreme adversity. When the rules and norms of society are stripped away, what do we become? Who do we protect? Who do we save? How do we decide who is ‘them’ and who is ‘us’? And should we? And then of course there are the titular Triffids, which are basically plant zombies. Attracted by sound, they trudge relentlessly toward their blind victims, dispatching them with their venomous stingers and then waiting for their bodies to decompose so they can digest them. You could write a whole PhD thesis on the symbolism of triffids/zombies (In the 1950s they pretty much represented the Soviet Union.), and I’m sure someone has, but when I read about them the one thought that goes through my mind over and over again is that, today, triffids/zombies = consumerism. As a race, we’re mindlessly chomping our way through this planet’s resources (and people), and most of the world seems blind to it.

Fans of The Walking Dead might enjoy this book – there is a lot (and I mean a lot) of similarity between the plots, but that’s not a bad thing; 1950s Britain and 2010s USA are very different places, the people who inhabit them, however, are not …

“Zombies are all the things that will not lie down and die, the truth we cannot repress, the thing that will rise up until it overwhelms us all. Whatever you want to forget is stumbling, dead-eyed and open-mouthed towards you.” Naomi Alderman

So, I started my #52librarybooks reading challenge on 11 April 2016 by borrowing Chattering: Stories by Louise Stern. This is a touching yet somewhat unsettling collection of short stories revolving around the themes of communication, dislocation and isolation. Most of the main characters are young women looking to broaden their horizons and let their hair down. They’re also deaf. Beautifully written: graceful and fluid, these stories don’t spoon-feed the reader – some don’t have a sense of denouement, but that suits the characters and situations about which these stories were written. I think I found this collection unsettling because it reminded me of my own travels as a young women, half a lifetime ago, and of just how vulnerable I often felt living and working among people whose language and culture I didn’t understand.

Book 2 was Closure Limited and Other Zombie Tales by Max Brooks. This choice was inspired by my latest obsession: The Walking Dead. (So far, I’ve watched Seasons 1 – 4 on Amazon Prime.) As with all good zombie stories this isn’t about zombies; it’s about surviving an apocalypse whilst retaining some shred of your humanity – unless you’re a vampire and then it really is just about surviving. I enjoyed all four stories, but my favourite was ‘The Extinction Parade’ – of course vampires would be worried about losing their food source to the zombie hordes! ‘Great Wall’ was a heartbreaker, and ‘Closure, Limited’ offered an intriguing scenario. I found ‘Steve and Fred’ engaging, but I can’t help wondering if the zombies outside Fred’s toilet cubicle were all in his imagination.

I took out Book 3 – Pictures or It Didn’t Happen by Sophie Hannah – because I wanted a ‘quick read’ and I’ve enjoyed Sophie Hannah’s poetry in the past. The book was certainly quick to read as it only took me about an hour to finish, but it felt a little … unsubstantial. I read a lot of short stories, so I know you don’t have to compromise character to achieve a low word count, but that’s what I feel happened here. I felt I was skimming along the surface of everyone’s lives. On the flip side, there was plenty of suspense which was what kept me reading to the end. I guess it was just not my cup of tea.

 

And finally for this update: Book 4 – The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman. Oh my goodness, what can I say about this other than I loved it?! I loved the writing, and I loved the story. Both have a fairy tale quality to them, but neither are for kids – to be fair, most fairy tales aren’t for kids are they? There’s a lot of mythology and a lot of allegory and a lot of wisdom – this book is Neil Gaiman’s The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. I could write for ages about all the things I loved about this book, but I won’t, instead I’ll leave you with my favourite quote: “I’m going to tell you something important. Grown-ups don’t look like grown-ups on the inside either. Outside, they’re big and thoughtless and they always know what they’re doing. Inside, they look like they always have. Like they did when they were your age. The truth is, there aren’t any grown-ups. Not one, in the whole wide world.”

It must be something to do with the warmer weather and longer days – as the vegetable seeds germinate in my planters, the urge to take on a new challenge germinates in me. It’s the same every year.

This year, I’ve decided to take on a year-long challenge: to read 52 library books in 52 weeks. The reason for this is three-fold:

1. I’m trying to save money, and borrowing books is infinitely cheaper than buying them. I did think about buying cheap secondhand books from charity shops or Amazon, but this way …
2. the authors of the books still get paid, and …
3. I am supporting my local libraries, which are perpetually in danger of closing due to funding cuts. It’s ‘use them or lose them’ time.

There’s no two ways about it; libraries are essential. To quote Albert Einstein:

 “The only thing that you absolutely have to know, is the location of the library.”

Where else will you find all those stories, all that knowledge, all that wisdom? Where else will you find all those support groups, citizens advice sessions, comfy sofas, study rooms and public PCs with wifi – all for free at point of use and equally accessible to everyone?

Not to mention the kids clubs, adult education courses, and arts ‘n’ crafts workshops!

As Neil Gaiman says:

“Libraries are about freedom. Freedom to read, freedom of ideas, freedom of communication. They are about education (which is not a process that finishes the day we leave school or university), about entertainment, about making safe spaces, and about access to information.”

If you’d like to join me as I read my way through the libraries of Hampshire, I’ll be posting updates here on the blog, on goodreads and on Instagram. Any book suggestions will be greatly appreciated, although I suspect the lack of pressure to purchase, will mean I’ll be indulging myself in many blissful hours of in-depth browsing!

“The very existence of libraries affords the best evidence that we may yet have hope for the future of man”
― T.S. Eliot