Great Cake

6 October 2022: From a bit earlier this week...me pointing to a tiny plastic rat sticking its head out of my student's reproduction if Miss Havisham's wedding cake. What a delight!

"against reason, against promise, against peace, against hope, against happiness..."

1 October 2022: "According to my experience, the conventional notion of a lover cannot be always true. The unqualified truth is, that when I loved Estella with the love of a man, I loved her simply because I found her irresistible. Once for all; I knew to my sorrow, often and often, if not always, that I loved her against reason, against promise, against peace, against hope, against happiness, against all discouragement that could be. Once for all; I loved her none the less because I knew it, and it had no more influence in restraining me than if I had devoutly believed her to be human perfection." --Pip, in Great Expectations

Reading this with my Victorian Lit class and find myself struck--as always--by Dickens' insight and understanding here. 

So...she gets it?

29 March 2019:

Me, trying to explain a point about Miss Havisham in Great Expectations (how she just can't get over being ditched on her wedding day), using an analogy: "It's like that person you know who just can't get past someone who wronged her in 10th grade..."

Student, cutting me off: "That's me. I hold grudges. I hold other people's grudges for them."

Me: "Good to know."

On Mrs. Joe...

17 February 2019: "It was the first time that a grave had opened in my road of life, and the gap it made in the smooth ground was wonderful. The figure of my sister in her chair by the kitchen fire, haunted me night and day. That the place could possibly be, without her, was something my mind seemed unable to compass; and whereas she had seldom or never been in my thoughts of late, I had now the strangest ideas that she was coming towards me in the street, or that she would presently knock at the door. In my rooms too, with which she had never been at all associated, there was at once the blankness of death and a perpetual suggestion of the sound of her voice or the turn of her face or figure, as if she were still alive and had been often there....Whatever my fortunes might have been, I could scarcely have recalled my sister with much tenderness. But I suppose there is a shock of regret which may exist without much tenderness." --Pip, after his sister's death, in Great Expectations

On yet another turn through Great Expectations for me, this time for ENGL 341, the book continues to give me new gems to focus on. Pip's inability to imagine a world without his sister--such a dominant figure in his life--is well-rendered, right down to his seemingly unanticipated feeling of regret even though she was never warm towards him. Loss is complex, especially when the family member is someone like Mrs. Joe.

Great (Dating) Expectations...

3 April 2018: Today we finished up our discussion of Great Expectations in ENGL 311. As usual, the class had lots of smart things to say as we wrestled with the strange (and plural!) endings of this book. I asked them what they thought of (spoiler?) Biddy marrying Joe and joked that, "hey, he's got a job and he's nice." Somehow that got us talking about who we would date from the book (lots of "anyone but Pip!" responses...poor Pip!).

Half joking, half serious, I wondered aloud if that might make a good final exam essay prompt--something about having them write about which character (or writer?) from over the course of the semester would be a good spouse/match. It's certainly a different kind of prompt, but one that can trick them into doing some actual critical thinking. And, as someone who does a lot of exam grading, something fun might be more, well...fun to grade. I have to think about it some more, but the class liked the idea. We shall see...

More on Great Expectations

29 March 2018: "She's beautiful and unattainable and empty." --a student in my ENGL 311 class on Estella in Great Expectations, in response to my question about what it is that makes Pip love her. This was such a concise and smart answer. The class has done a terrific job with this book so far, including the complicated character that is Pip.

This re-read has me focused mostly on the "adult Pip" looks back on "young Pip" and "young adult Pip." His voice isn't the voice of someone who has made peace with his past or gotten "past it," whatever that means. He is so hard on himself and the very process of telling these stories and relating his earlier self's thoughts is painful. That adds a layer of pain that largely escaped me on earlier readings. Maybe that's a reflection of my current self looking back on the 40 years behind me and surveying how much peace I had made with earlier selves. I think (hope?) that I am somewhere beyond "adult Pip," but maybe not completely.

Can't wait for this!

Check out the trailer for the new Great Expectations on PBS. Looks terrific...I have, ha ha, great expectations for it.