I recently finished reading this book, about two weeks before we’re supposed to finish it for my Intro. to Non-Fiction class. This book was a difficult read for me on a couple levels. Grealy’s books recounts events that happened during and after her diagnosis and treatment for a cancer (Ewing’s sarcoma) that had been found in her jaw as a young child. Grealy had to go through surgery to get rid of the tumor, which involved removing almost half of her lower right jaw bone. This left her face “disfigured” in the eyes of many people, including Grealy herself. So, she has to learn to deal with the aftermath of the surgery: more surgeries to try and “fix” her face (most of which failed because skin that has been exposed to radiation does not take well to grafts, etc), chemotherapy, radiation treatments and the inevitable sickness that followed the radical chemo treatments at the time. She also has to face the world knowing that she is now “ugly” in the eyes of many people. Read the rest of this entry ยป
Archive for September, 2008
The Exeter book is a rock-awesome compilation of manuscripts in Old English, listing such gems as The Wanderer, The Seafarer, The Ruin, The Husband’s Message, The Wife’s Lament, and a number of tricky riddles. Having spent some time reading each of these things, I feel that I can safely assess them. My conclusions are not of a scholarly nature, though.
I just think they’re plain AWESOME. There was a big discussion the other day over the applicability of both the comitatus ethic, and/or monastic lifestyle in each of these works (particularly in The Wander and The Seafarer) and I have to say, it was really interesting to me to see how deep such short works of literature can be when you let yourself question the values of the writer, the narrator, and society both then and now.
Hence, they are gems.
It’s a shame that people then (and some people now) didn’t (don’t) pay much attention to the care of our works of literature. My great hope is the fact that with modern-day publication our works will be preserved because the sheer number of books in circulation ensures that the careless people will not be able to entirely destroy what we have. Though I will admit some Fahrenheit 451-ish fears.
It’s fortunate for us that works such as these survived not only the tumultuous times in which they were created, but also the carelessness of scholars and the many disasters that have destroyed portions of the same works. (Much of the Exeter book was damaged in a fire.)
Thank God for the printing presses, eh?