For this week I read Neil Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lane. I really enjoyed this short novel and the underlying themes that went along with it. Some of the things I noticed were the revealing of reality and how it is never as it seems, comparison of adulthood versus childhood, and the idea of other universes. The one theme that I want to mention and expand on is the idea that every person or being has a different side to them, that is not outwardly visible. In the father's case, it seemed that he was being controlled by the "flea" Ursula Monkton and almost drowned his son in the bathtub. This makes you wonder - did the evil person/creature make him do this or was there something evil and resenting in him the entire time? With the main antagonist, Ursula Monkton, she is an evil creature from another world that entered the world that we know it, disguised as a human. This provides some interesting perspective, that sometimes the evilest traits and experiences can most often be found in humans. Lastly, the Hempstocks, appeared to the general public as a family of farmers, nothing out of the ordinary. However, the Hempstocks never age and possess powers of time and space that many believe to be impossible. These "powers" so-to-speak, are what bring the evil creatures into reality, as well as take them out. Overall, it seems as though in this novel everything is about the dark side of the truth. Someone may seem like an ordinary farmer on the outside, but their true self is the one that can move oceans, take out pieces of reality, and conjure and cast away mysterious creatures. Everyone has this other side, the dark side of their moon, and revealing that side can either be disastrous or the best thing that ever happened. You just have to take the chance.
For this week, I read the short story Come to Venus Melancholy by Thomas M. Disch. The story had quite a bit of dark tones to it, as well as taking some time to understand. I think the element of surprise was something that played a big part in this story. Something that appears to be so normal, so close to what we know, can be the complete opposite. In this story, in the beginning, I thought that the character was monologuing about their life. The element of surprise here is that the "her" is a cyborg of sorts, that used to be a human, but is now a computer in a house. The second surprise is that the environment of the swamp isn't from planet Earth, it's on planet Venus. The final surprise was the cyborg's confession of both love and craziness. This was quite a short read and an interesting perspective since it's told from the cyborg's point of view. I feel like in many of these stories there is often a hero, and the story is narrated from that hero's...
This duality aspect of the novel never actually occurred to me when I read this story! I couldn't really find a theme in this book, it was all sort of magical and random to me, but I think this is a nice interpretation. And I like your theory about Ursula bringing out the father's evil side, and it's funny because she came from within the protagonist's body, but from what I remember no one else acts differently because of Ursula. So I wonder if that theory really holds any water. I'm not an expert (even after reading the book and then reading the summary multiple times I'm still a little confused) so it can still be valid!
ReplyDeleteI have heard great things about novels written by Neil Gaiman. This one I will diffidently check out!
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