Although "The Eighth Day" was a bestseller and won the National Book Award in 1968, it wasn't universally loved. The New Republic called it “a book that means nothing.” Newsweek called it “a worthless bauble.” The New Yorker said that “none of the characters, major or minor, rings credible to the reader."
And it has fallen out of favor in the years since. A new edition was published in 2007, but for most of the past 40 years it's been out of print. I had never heard of it until I saw it on a list of National Book Award winners. When I went to get it from the Wichita Public Library, they had to dig it out of storage.
Do you think the book deserves its fall into obscurity? Why do you think it's not more popular?
Friday, January 14, 2011
The tapestry
The Deacon of the Covenant Church shows Roger a carpet with a woven pattern and points out that from the back, the design can't be seen; it's a jumble of yarn and knots. He implies that there is a hidden pattern to life and that there may be some special role for the Ashley family in the design of the world.
Then the book ends like this:
There is much talk of a design in the arras. Some are certain they see it. Some see what they have been told to see. Some remember that they saw it once but have lost it. Some are strengthened by seeing a pattern wherein the oppressed and exploited of the earth are gradually emerging from their bondage. Some find strength in the conviction that there is nothing to see. Some
What do you think is the message? Why the dangling "some"?
Then the book ends like this:
There is much talk of a design in the arras. Some are certain they see it. Some see what they have been told to see. Some remember that they saw it once but have lost it. Some are strengthened by seeing a pattern wherein the oppressed and exploited of the earth are gradually emerging from their bondage. Some find strength in the conviction that there is nothing to see. Some
What do you think is the message? Why the dangling "some"?
Covenant Church
What did you think about the inclusion of the Covenant Church at the end of the story? Were you surprised to learn they were Ashley's rescuers?
Miss Doubkov
Miss Doubkov may be the most remarkable resident of Coaltown. She's certainly the most perceptive. Early on we learn that she figured out long ago who killed Lansing and who rescued Ashley. She seems to understand everyone's situation, everyone's motives. She's the one who helps Lily run off to be a singer. She's the one who instructs George on how to make his confession and escape to Canada. In fact, she was the inspiration for George's dream of Russia.
I don't have a question, here, and I don't have my book to reference all Miss Doubkov's important scenes, but her character seemed to play a significant role in the story of the two families. Thoughts?
I don't have a question, here, and I don't have my book to reference all Miss Doubkov's important scenes, but her character seemed to play a significant role in the story of the two families. Thoughts?
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Breckenridge Lansing
The guy was awful, clearly, and there's no excuse for his behavior. But Wilder says he was just reflecting his own father's behavior toward his wife and son. And he knew at some level that he was incompetent and unloved, so he protected himself by using cruelty. And at the end, after his illness, he seemed poised for some kind of redemption. Did you feel any sympathy toward him at all?
Sunday, January 09, 2011
John Ashley
My favorite John Ashley moment was when George was having nightmares before his tonsil surgery and John came in to calm him.
"Does the sun go round the earth, George, or does the earth go round the sun?"
"The earth goes round the sun, Mr. Ashley."
"And anything else?"
"The moon, and ... the planets, I think."
"And what's the sun doing all that time?"
"It's going very fast."
"And carrying us with it?"
"Yes."
"It's as though we were on a great ship moving through the skies." Pause. "I often have that feeling just before I fall off to sleep. We're going at that great speed and yet you saw how quiet it is down there in the square. It's a wonderful fact, isn't it?"
I love the gentleness with which he approaches George and the way he talks about life. It was especially touching to me after seeing the cruelty of George's own father.
What did you think of our generous workaholic, simple family man, genius inventor, fugitive murder suspect John Ashley?
"Does the sun go round the earth, George, or does the earth go round the sun?"
"The earth goes round the sun, Mr. Ashley."
"And anything else?"
"The moon, and ... the planets, I think."
"And what's the sun doing all that time?"
"It's going very fast."
"And carrying us with it?"
"Yes."
"It's as though we were on a great ship moving through the skies." Pause. "I often have that feeling just before I fall off to sleep. We're going at that great speed and yet you saw how quiet it is down there in the square. It's a wonderful fact, isn't it?"
I love the gentleness with which he approaches George and the way he talks about life. It was especially touching to me after seeing the cruelty of George's own father.
What did you think of our generous workaholic, simple family man, genius inventor, fugitive murder suspect John Ashley?
Beata Ashley
"The Elms" may have been my favorite chapter of the book, with the delightful boardinghouse section. It made me wonder, though, about Beata Ashley. We never really got inside her head. Why do you think she refused to leave the house? She didn't strike me as the type to be ashamed.
There were a couple of sections that shed some light on her character. The first was Lily's insights to Roger in Chicago: Their mother adored their father, a self-centered, possessive love. An all-consuming love that kept her from having any friends or even paying her own children enough attention. Their father had a lot of friends, but he didn't tell their mother about them. "He simply didn't tell her because she wouldn't be interested. She was not a noticing woman and she was not a ... a sympathetic woman."
But Roger offered another picture: Beata worked hard every day, never let the children know they were poor, read them the best books and played the best music, was never short-tempered. And "there was nothing small about Mama." She held her head up and walked every day to their father's trial.
In the Hoboken chapter we see Beata's resemblance to her mother: "If her husband had entered the house one day and told her that he was bankrupt, she would have uttered no word of complaint. She would have moved to a slum and improved the tone of the neighborhood." She was taught never to demonstrate affection or tenderness and to develop "a spine of steel" and a "royal carriage."
Did you wish to know more about who Beata was and what she was thinking? Or was it not as important as her famous husband and children?
There were a couple of sections that shed some light on her character. The first was Lily's insights to Roger in Chicago: Their mother adored their father, a self-centered, possessive love. An all-consuming love that kept her from having any friends or even paying her own children enough attention. Their father had a lot of friends, but he didn't tell their mother about them. "He simply didn't tell her because she wouldn't be interested. She was not a noticing woman and she was not a ... a sympathetic woman."
But Roger offered another picture: Beata worked hard every day, never let the children know they were poor, read them the best books and played the best music, was never short-tempered. And "there was nothing small about Mama." She held her head up and walked every day to their father's trial.
In the Hoboken chapter we see Beata's resemblance to her mother: "If her husband had entered the house one day and told her that he was bankrupt, she would have uttered no word of complaint. She would have moved to a slum and improved the tone of the neighborhood." She was taught never to demonstrate affection or tenderness and to develop "a spine of steel" and a "royal carriage."
Did you wish to know more about who Beata was and what she was thinking? Or was it not as important as her famous husband and children?
The Eighth Day
What did you think of the title, "The Eighth Day"? It comes from Dr. Gillies' speech at the tavern on New Year's Eve 1899.
"Nature never sleeps. The process of life never stands still. The creation has not come to an end. The Bible says that God created man on the sixth day and rested, but each of those days was many millions of years long. That day of rest must have been a short one. Man is not an end but a beginning. We are at the beginning of the second week. We are children of the eighth day."
Man is still evolving, he says, and in the new century (the 20th) mankind will enter an enlightened stage of development focused on Mind and Spirit, moving from the "self-favoring life into a consciousness of the entire community of mankind."
But Dr. Gillies didn't believe any of that. He thought the 20th century would be as miserable and dark as all the previous ones. He lied because he saw Roger Ashley and George Lansing there and believed "it is the duty of old men to lie to the young."
Let these encounter their own disillusions. We strengthen our souls, when young, on hope; the strength we acquire enables us later to endure despair as a Roman should.
What do you think the story has to do with this concept of evolving humanity, or of strengthening yourself on youthful hope?
"Nature never sleeps. The process of life never stands still. The creation has not come to an end. The Bible says that God created man on the sixth day and rested, but each of those days was many millions of years long. That day of rest must have been a short one. Man is not an end but a beginning. We are at the beginning of the second week. We are children of the eighth day."
Man is still evolving, he says, and in the new century (the 20th) mankind will enter an enlightened stage of development focused on Mind and Spirit, moving from the "self-favoring life into a consciousness of the entire community of mankind."
But Dr. Gillies didn't believe any of that. He thought the 20th century would be as miserable and dark as all the previous ones. He lied because he saw Roger Ashley and George Lansing there and believed "it is the duty of old men to lie to the young."
Let these encounter their own disillusions. We strengthen our souls, when young, on hope; the strength we acquire enables us later to endure despair as a Roman should.
What do you think the story has to do with this concept of evolving humanity, or of strengthening yourself on youthful hope?
Wednesday, January 05, 2011
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