JCO: Re: Second and Third Readings

The second reading often moves me more than the first, because I can
take the time to notice the structure of the work, which allows me to
follow the story with a greater understanding of the characters. The
characters in JCO's longer works are so complex that several readings
may be necessary to fully understand.

I love my hardback copies of her work, especially the three signed first
editions that I own, but I enjoy reading a used paperback that I can
mark up with a pencil even more. Then I can make marks or comments that
I can review on my next reading to help remember what I was thinking the
last time I read the book. (I recently picked up my paperback copy of
"Do with Me What You Will" that I had written in when I last read it
twenty years ago, and it made me smile to see the few shy marks--I was
just beginning my habit of writing in my paperbacks--but it also alerted
me to some important scenes that helped me understand Elena's
predicament and her final liberation from the control of others.)

Currently I am reading American Appetites. I thought this was one of her
books that I had missed when it was first published. I looked forward
to that first reading when I found a soft cover version in a used book
store, but as I read the chapter about the fight between Ian and Glynnis
McCullough that resulted in Glyniss falling through the plate glass
window, I realized that I have read it before. For the life of me, I
cannot remember reading it, but the story is familiar, as in a second
reading. I assume I read a library copy when it was published. On the
first reading I must have been going with the flow, moving from the
beginning of the book to the end without pause. On this reading, I am
much more aware of the structure of the novel, the prescient comments
that begin each section of the book, the division into prologue, parts 1
through 4, and epilogue, the titles of the chapters of each section, the
division of chapters into numbered parts, the image of broken glass on
the title page of each chapter. I'm sure I will have to read it a third
time for a better understanding of the characters.

I continue to find JCO's books different every time I read them, and
so, for me, her fiction can never be fathomed in the sense that Lawrence
meant. The meanings are never fixed, and our discussions on this forum
help keep the work alive.

Jane

----- Original Message -----
From: "aria376" <aria376@yahoo.com>
To: <jco@usfca.edu>
Sent: Friday, January 20, 2006 1:19 PM
Subject: Re: JCO: Re: Black Water

> D.H. Lawrence -- a writer with whom Ms. Oates is certainly not
> unfamiliar -- wrote
> in Apocalypse (1931): "Once a book is fathomed, once it is known and
> its meaning
> is fixed or established, it is dead. A book only lives while it has
> the power to move
> us and move us differently, so long as we find it different every
> time we read it." For
> me, none of her fiction has ever failed to move me, then move me
> again on second reading.
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