Huckleberry Finn/ chapters 7-12

WildCityWoman · Fri Jan 21, 2011 1:41 pm

giselle wrote:


	WildCityWoman wrote: Yes, but women were given different adventures. None of us went out swashbuckling.

Perhaps, but I'm reminded of Star Trek, at least the original version, with some notable female characters and I think you could call this 'swashbuckling adventure' ..

Depends on what age you are, I'd say . . . I was a child - grade school age - in the 40's and 50's . . . there wasn't any Star Trek then.

So, you see, when I say that there wasn't much around for us girls in the way of adventure stories, that's the timeline I'm referring to.

For those of you who were in grade school age during the 70's and on, you wouldn't have felt this lack.

WildCityWoman · Fri Jan 21, 2011 2:01 pm


	Penelope wrote: Well, I grew up with Arthur Ransome's - Swallows and Amazons, the girls played quite a major part, and in Enid Blyton's 'Famous Five' books, and also the 'Secret Seven'. Admittedly they are very British... ...But what about Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. What about Anne of Green Gables. What about Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. All heroines, just not so swashbuckling. - (How do you swash your buckle?) What about 'What Katy Did' 'Little Women'....and Heidi???

Oh, I didn't find what girls did in Little Women as adventurous as what the boys are doing in HF. And Anne of Green Gables - but they sure were good books. I enjoy them to this day.

Well, yeah - maybe there was more adventure for girls in some books - don't remember reading any though.

By the time I was 11 or so, our adventure reading was in the comic books. Didn't get interested in actual books again until the late teens.

Penelope · Fri Jan 21, 2011 2:31 pm

I think I was corrupted a bit by William Golding's 'Lord of the Flies' which I first heard as a Radio Play, when I was a little girl.

Then I read, A High Wind in Jamaica by Richard Hughes:-


	Quote: To say A High Wind in Jamaica is a novel about children who are abducted by pirates is to make it seem like a children's book. But that's completely wrong; its theme is actually how heartless children are. The story begins almost whimsically in Jamaica, with five English children surviving a hurricane. Later on, as the ship is returning to Europe, we enter Treasure Island territory when the vessel is boarded by pirates. Here's where it gets good, because the pirates and the children begin to switch places. At first the pirates are the brutal ones, drinking heavily and throwing people overboard as pirates will. But the children have such a deformed sense of right and wrong that it's soon the pirates who are frightened of them. Eventually our heroine, little Emily, murders a man in cold blood — to the pirates' dismay. And when the children are at last rescued to England, our Emily performs one final bit of cruelty as simply as throwing a tea party for her dolls.

I then lost my taste for adventure novels....I became a real girly girl....

JulianTheApostate · Fri Feb 18, 2011 12:55 am

The portion with Huck's father and Huck faking his own death became tiresome. However, I enjoyed the story once the primary "Huck and Jim on a raft" narrative began. Sometimes I can't follow the details of raft & canoe manipulation, but otherwise it's a good story.

I was surprised how superstitious Huck and Jim were. That's probably a reflection of the time and place where the story took place.


	DWill wrote: Women can tell me if I'm wrong here, but one aspect of this book appeals most deeply to men, or maybe the boys within the men. That's the element of chucking it all to embark on a grand adventure, living off the land or off the water, having no responsibilities and bonding with another male.

I don't see it that way, in part because Jim and Huck face more serious responsibilities that I've ever dealt with. As someone who's never faced any physical danger, haven't raised a family, and never worried about my physical needs, my life has much easier. I'd be totally inept and stressed out in the situations Huck and Jim find themselves in.

Penelope · Fri Feb 18, 2011 6:03 am


	Quote: Julian wrote: As someone who's never faced any physical danger, haven't raised a family, and never worried about my physical needs, my life has much easier. I'd be totally inept and stressed out in the situations Huck and Jim find themselves in.

Well, that's what Baden Powell's Boy Scout movement was for I suppose. :wink:

Chris OConnor · Wed Feb 23, 2011 11:04 pm

Personally, I find the river raft trip quite an adventure and definitely exciting. The thought of drifting down the middle of the Mississippi in the dark of night with my feet dangling over the edge in the cold water is so inviting. I'd love to do a trip like this even today, but when I was a teenager this would have been a dream come true.

My biggest complaint with this book is simply that it was difficult to read at my normal reading speed. I know Twain was trying to capture the southern and slave dialects as accurately as possible, but this caused me to continuously pause to try to understand what each character was saying.

I'm reading this on my Kindle and am still only at about 56% through the book.

Penelope · Thu Feb 24, 2011 6:27 am


	Quote: Chris wrote: I'm reading this on my Kindle and am still only at about 56% through the book

.

Well, read it in a proper friggin book then. (I'm only saying this to Chris, because he's the boss, and he knows me well enough)

Actually, my daughter had a kindle for Christmas and she says she finds it much easier to read, especially in bed. But of course, books having been my livelihood, and still contribute to finances to a large extent.....I couldn't possibly agree.

I found it like, when reading Dickens, the language at first seems archaic and difficult and then suddenly, you get into it and don't need to give it a second thought. A Clockwork Orange was like this too. Anthony Burgess invented his own language for the protagonists.

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