MIddlemarch

                                                                 MIDDLEMARCH

George Eliot

Books for Bigots

I do love my subtitle "Books for Bigots".  It announces clearly what needs to be understood, that books, reading in general, is anathema to Bigots of all stripes and flavors.  I submit the following thesis:  If you do not read books, you are a default Bigot.  It can't be helped.

Middlemarch, as has been pronounced, now for several hundred years, is a marvelous book.  I have been living with my copy now for an entire summer.  In explanation, my reading habits are somewhat odd.  I have books on the main floor of my house which I am reading.  The issue I have on the first floor of my house is that I am reading a book but pick up another and get sidetracked.  Consequently, I am reading several books at once.  

My second floor reading is bedtime reading and the books that I have on the second floor are separate from the books I have on the first floor.  In addition,  I do my magazine reading on the second floor in a horizontal position.  My bedtime reading continues until I find myself falling asleep with a book in my hands.  This is a nightly occurrence and has become habitual.  

Middlemarch was a second floor reading or, as I say, bedtime reading.  My copy is a Signet Classic version of 823 pages.  I often see where people get caught up in reading a book and read it through all at once or nearly so.  What I find interesting is that when you spend an entire summer, as I did with Middlemarch, the book, the characters, the scenes, the setting, etc. become embedded in your mind so much more than if you take a day to read something and then go on to something else.  Dorothea Brooke, Tertius Lydagte, Rosamond Vincy, Nicolas Bulstrode, Edward Casaubon, Camden Farebrother, and the many others become your acquaintances over the summer which is not possible with a quick read.

I really have no critique of Middlemarch in that it has been the subject of literary criticism and academic discussions for a century and a half and I can add nothing to those discussions that would warrant any additional comments.  It is a book worth reading.  I know there are thousands of books in existence worth reading and a person can't read them all - - can't even read all the ones he or she wants to read.

What I will say is that George Eliot is a person I would have liked to know.  She clearly is a person of incites and observations of the human species and had the audacity to put these incites and observations into print.  During a person's daily activities, one does not often come across another person that merits further acquaintance.  Most of us are humdrum and without any particular aptitude that would warrant further acquaintance.  

This judgment of my fellow creatures may seem callous and unnecessary but the fact remains that most of the people we meet or interact with on a daily basis do not merit further acquaintance.  There is just nothing that warrants much time spent.  

George Eliot, otherwise known as Mary Ann Evans, was one of those people who have existed that made a difference in those who knew her and have read her.  It is unfortunate that the vast majority of people, English speaking people, Americans, Bigots of all stripes, will never know her or of her or care.

Richard E H Phelps II

Mingo

Middlesex II

  MIDDLESEX II

Jeffrey Eugenides

Books for Bigots

My reading is geared to Bigots.  Bigots consist of a vast multitude of people in this country who are illiterate in all respects except the ability to decipher script dealing with their very limited area of expertise.  Most of the folks of whom I refer spend the vast majority of their time mowing the yard or watching a football game.  These two activities are sure evidence of illiteracy.

Now Middlesex, the biography of a hermaphrodite (fictional presumably) is a book that should be required reading for any would-be Bigot.  The book vividly chronicles the life of a hermaphrodite, is not untasteful nor gruesome.  It does what appears to be a really good depiction of growing up as a girl and ending up as a man and how the person so growing up and the family and acquaintances of Calliope but now Cal adjust to the change.

Bigots have great difficulty believing, or wanting to believe, that other people may be different from them, have different needs and beliefs, and believe them to be Bigots which, indeed, they are.  We currently live in an environment when Bigotry is in the ascendance.  It is difficult to believe, but more difficult to understand, that with the level of knowledge available and its easy accumulation, that someone being different from the usual or the norm is to be castigated and not allowed to define him or her self.

The general run of Bigots appear to be religious, at least in the main.  Bigotry runs deep and periodically resurfaces as it is doing now and with it the espousal of religious principles as the rationale and justification for it.  I espouse one principle and one only when it comes to what a person may or may not be - - they are entitled to choose for themselves.  I have no business telling a person that they should declare themselves one thing or another to suit my preferences.

As I began, Middlesex is well written and gives the reader an understanding that most do not have before reading the book which, to me, is the purpose of any book worth reading.  Obviously there is some sexual activity, but it is not graphic nor included for any pornographic purpose, but really a necessary topic, and probably the most important one, for a person who is a hermaphrodite.

I can't think of a better book for a current version of a bigot to read and ponder.  It could have a wonderful effect on the understanding of a person who currently has none.  And, I apologize to anyone who is a hermaphrodite for talking about them, but hopefully I will be excused.

Richard E H Phelps II

Mingo