notes on a 2017 essay idea thing "Reading Novels, A Moral Playground" or summin

Spent the last year looking for moral seriousness. Reading not for big ideas, but for small ones, and for people--the point of the character novel. Eliot, Austen, and even Galsworthy. David Brooks. William Deresiewicz's "A Jane Austen Education." William James of course. Anthony Trollope.

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"[Austen's] genius began with the recognition that such lives as hers were very eventful indeed--that every life is eventful, if only you know how to look at it She did not think that her existence was quiet or trivial or boring; she thought it was delightful and enthralling, and she wanted us to see that our own are, too. She understood that what fills our days should fill our hearts, and what fills our hearts should fill our novels." (Deresiewicz 27)

"To pay attention to "minute particulars" is to notice your life as it passes, before it passes." (31)

"...novels--which, after all, are training grounds for responding to the world, imaginative sanctuaries in which to hone and test our ethical judgments and choices." (99)

"But [Mansfield Park's] most important word of all was "useful." "It is not in fine preaching only," Edmund told Mary, "that a good clergyman will be useful in his parish." Henry had sense enough to put "usefulness" next to "heroism" (the "glory" of usefulness, no less) in his admiration of William Price. Lady Bertram...it was the worst thing that Austen could say about her--"never thought of being useful to anybody."....Usefulness--seeing what people need and helping them get it--is support and compassion....Love, I saw, is a verb, not just a noun--an effort, not just another precious feeling." (157-58)

"Duty, exertion, resignation, and ultimately, happiness..." (160) Austen's ideals

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Reading in 2018

1/14 Better by Atul Gawande
1/29 Amsterdam, Ian McEwan
3/20 Subtle Bodies, Normal Rush
4/6 Being Mortal Atul Gawande
4/7 Gratitude, Oliver Saks
5/2 Losing Mum and Pup, Christopher Buckley
5/26 Atonement, Ian McEwan
6/1 Christopher Hitchens: The Last Interview and Other Conversations
7/2 Complications, Atul Gawande
7/17 How Fiction Works, James Wood
7/20 The Prime Minister, Anthony Trollope
8/2 The Cement Garden, Ian McEwan
8/? A Slight Trick of the Mind, Mitch Cullen
11/19 Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
12/14 A Study in Scarlet, A. Conan Doyle
12/22 Spy of the First Person, Sam Shepard
12/29 When Breath Becomes Air, Paul Kalanithi
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P'tok! Actually one less on the board than last year! I met Chris in October or November (and started a new job in my local ER) so that may have distracted towards the end of the year but otherwise more classes and more distractions to work around. No regrets though, rather a fabulous year. Healthy doses of Gawande here, much ado about the Art of Dying on this list, and other meditations on aging well. A list of a young person trying to read Wisdom onto her own soul or something. What larks, as my friend says. What larks, indeed. Try better in 2010 Laura!