Chapters

Rudyard Kipling’s “Kim”

December 17, 2007 on 7:41 pm | In Uncategorized | No Comments

Sonya and I will be reading “Love in the Time of Cholera” together (another way to ensure good digestion… read as part of a mini-group in which the other member was an English Major in College at Northwestern).

While she finishes her book, and to compensate for my faster pace in reading I will be carrying two books with me to reading time.

I watched the 1980 something film “Ghandi” recently which is phenomenal. I love learning about history. Ben Kingsley nailed the part. I can’t believe a white guy played Ghandi and made it work…  but the movie jostled my curiosity about India and Indian culture.

So I immediately jumped into a book written by a British Imperialist. What a Jackass.

But that is an interesting point. Rudyard Kipling is known both as a reporter of the colonialists, but at the same time is considered to have been critical of Britain’s involvement in India as well.

Strangely the book is a coming of age/spy novel which was completely unexpected.

Kim grows up an orphan as an Indian street urchin, but is actually the abandoned son of an Irish Soldier in the Indian city of Lahore.

The book deals with his travels with a Tibetan Buddhist Lama that he meets and his eventual training as a spy.

In the book Kim repeatedly asks himself who is… but only when he’s alone. He draws his identity from those around him: As a Sahib at St. Xaiver’s School, As a Priest with the Buddhist Lama and as a spy with his other mentor Mahbub Ali.

This was the most significant point to me. Growing up as a second child I feel that my identity was frequently more flexible than those around me as a way to avoid strife.

I wonder if I would make a good spy?

Mad Dash to Literary Freedom

December 14, 2007 on 8:50 pm | In Uncategorized | No Comments

It is difficult to find time to read for pleasure during school.

Since I have only 1 free month per school year (between fall and winter sessions) I want to make the most of it.

I started worrying that I was digesting to quickly to enjoy. I have decided to write short book reports to enforce thoughtful reading.