Culture Clash + The Epic Book Project

[trinityofone]

I’ve been really craving “culture clash” romantic comedies. I’m pretty sure this started because I’ve been rewatching The West Wing (siriaeve’s fault) and I was reminded of a Josh/Donna fic I read years ago where Josh, the East Coast Jew, meets Donna’s Midwestern WASP family, and amusing awkwardness and eventual romance ensue. (This is, incidentally, the story of my mother’s family—my Grandpa G. was even from Connecticut and my Grandma C. from Wisconsin!) Anyway, I can’t find this fic anywhere. Does anyone:

1) Know what the heck I might be talking about?
2) Have any other recs for culture clash rom coms—be they books, fic, films, or anything else? (Just don’t say Meet the Parents.)

Second, I used to nobly set aside a Large and Intimidating Classic to read in the summer months of July and August; this is how I tackled Ulysses and War and Peace. I want to start doing this again, but I can’t decide what book I should read. Can I beg your thoughts? (I’d make a poll but I just realized you can’t without a paid account. Pooh.)

Trin should read:

1) Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
2) Swann’s Way by Marcel Proust
3) Middlemarch by George Eliot
4) Something else that I’ll suggest in the comments
5) The very idea of this project is incredibly pretentious and I think Trin should just read fanfic and more of akukorax’s Star Trek novels

Thanks, as always, for your suggestions!

Comments

[wychwood]

Middlemarch! Because I support you in your ambitions, and also think that you might possibly enjoy it, which is at least as important as anything else.

[wychwood]

PS - Do you like Georgette Heyer's Regencies? Because a lot of those have culture clashes, albeit of the "upper-middle-class girl falls for upper-class boy! oh no! can they cross the class boundaries??one?" kind where you need to know a fair amount about cultural markers and so on to really get the clash *g*.

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

I've read two Georgette Heyers: loved one, hated the other. But I recently got Cotillion from the library and have been thinking of reading that. Do you know that one?

*records your vote for Middlemarch*

[wychwood]

Hm. I think Cotillion was ok? The Masqueraders is TOTALLY my favourite, though, so it might be all down from there! I also liked (though not necessarily for culture-clash reasons) Venetia (generally considered one of her best), Black Sheep, Frederica, and - for a *very* different one - A Civil Contract, in which true love doesn't conquer anything, there is very little snappy banter or falling madly for anyone, and relationships really have to be built.

[soupytwist.livejournal.com]

I was going to say Heyer as well! I think you might like her, Trin; she's a bit like if Jane Austen upped the pace and the snappy dialogue by about 25%. Really good fun.

*goes off to think of other culture clash based novels*

(Oh and I would say Don Quixote out of your list of classics, but that might be because Stephen Fry loves it and in the absence of other criteria for choosing - I've not read any of 'em - I tend to go with his judgement. *g*)

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

I should try Heyer again, because I really did love The Masqueraders, even though I hated These Old Shades. Cotillion, y/n?

Stephen Fry is an excellent arbiter of taste! *adds another vote*

[soupytwist.livejournal.com]

Cotillion is way more like The Masqueraders than These Old Shades, so I say YES. :)

(I also just read The Foundling and sort of want everyone else to read it in the hopes they also think it is ridiculously gay.)

[laughingacademy.livejournal.com]

Don Quixote is the only title in that list that I’ve read, so while I can’t say it’s better than the others I can say it’s amazing. I love that book so much I decorated my dorm room with a print of Gustave Doré’s depiction of the Don in his study (http://www.lemur.com/dore-quixote.html). (Warning: large image.)

I’d also recommend Moby Dick, which turned out to be much more interesting and fun than its reputation had led me to expect. There are chapters that struck me as downright postmodern, but the whole thing is actually incredibly readable.

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

My brother's really been pushing me to read Don Quixote (which is kind of a vote for and a vote against, really). This'll definitely be another one in the plus column! *g*

I've read Moby Dick, and yes—I totally agree. Very few classics offer such long and enthusiastic chapters about sperm.

[kudra2324.livejournal.com]

i think the scene in annie hall where woody allen meets "grammy hall" is a classic.

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

ahahahaha, omg, I LOVE that movie. I could always rewatch that, it's true!

There's gotta be something with a happy ending, though, right?

[kudra2324.livejournal.com]

probably, but i'm not sure i can help :).

[(Anonymous)]

The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu - one of the oldest novels, one of the longest, one of the best.
(Seidensticker's translation is the most readable, partly because he consciously modelled his English style on Jane Austen's, which is amazingly appropriate for Murasaki.)

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

Ooh, interesting. Thank you, anonymous person, I shall keep it in mind!

[lilac-way.livejournal.com]

Either Don Quixote or how about Vanity Fair? I can't endorse Middlemarch. I've tried to read it 4 times since grad school and I can't get past the first couple of chapters.

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

*adds another vote for Don Quixote*

With Vanity Fair, my fear has always been that I wouldn't be able to get through a novel that long since I suspect I would hate all the characters. Am I totally off-base?

[divide-by-zero.livejournal.com]

the characters in vanity fair are indeed rather hateful, but the author knows this, and spends most of the book very poking fun at them archly from the sidelines. plus i loved becky sharp in spite of everything because she's just SO awful. :)
(on the other hand, don quixote is my own summer reading project, so...)

[siria]

I vote Middlemarch! It's this sprawling, leisurely, spacious thing and I love it. Other pieces of Victoriana that I'm fond of: Shirley by Charlotte Bronte, or Vanity Fair by Thackeray. If you want to go back a bit further: Pepys' Diary? Or ignore the Paradiso, but Dante's Inferno is awesome.

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

I love Inferno—I actually took a seminar on it taught by this eccentric British guy; it was fantastic. Dante/Virgil = OTP!!!

Even if I don't read Middlemarch this summer, I promise I will soon/eventually. And speaking of Bronte—someone else was just telling me I should read Villette. Have you read it, and if so, how do you think it compares to Shirley?

[springwoof.livejournal.com]

woops. posted about the Inferno before I saw this. Glad you enjoyed it.

Definitely read Villette! It really blew me away....

[siria]

Villette I would also recommend :D Shirley is all class warfare! Trouble at t'mill! whereas Villette is all about the levels of Gothic repression it's possible to achieve in a girl's boarding school. *thumbs up* Though I do have a bizarre level of affection for all of the obscure Bronte works, and re-read them all tell my Penguin paperback copies were tattered when I was ten or eleven or so, so you might want to take my recommendations with a pinch of salt!

[elbomac.livejournal.com]

Villette is amazing! Heartily recommend!

[springwoof.livejournal.com]

I really enjoyed Don Quixote, which is actually really funny and a very entertaining read if you get a good translation. So you can feel Virtuous for reading a Big Damn Book, but also have a good time....

...and it's not on your list, but have you read Dante's Inferno? It's pretty fascinating, and a real page-turner as I recall--again, a good translation is vital...

[sonofzeal.livejournal.com]

I read and enjoyed Moby Dick and Brother's Karamazov.

[shrewreader.livejournal.com]

There -is- a new Brothers K translation, by the same couple that did the new War & Peace translation.

Of the set, I'd go for the tilting at windmills -- seems appropriate for a summer project. :)

[dancinguniverse.livejournal.com]

Out of your list, I've only read Quixote, but I really enjoyed it. It was far more approachable than I was expecting, and I had fun.

[trie-squid.livejournal.com]

Don Quixote! Between when the two volumes were published, a bunch of "false" Quixotes were written! It was so popular there was fanfic written during its time!

Okay, so in the second volume there's a slightly cranky, rather clever bit about the existence of these stories, but, still, that's pretty shiny.

[dancink.livejournal.com]

Yes! I know this fic! Or possibly, since I think this fic was written about twenty million times over by many many authors, but if it was Christmas-y then it was probably "Snowbowl" by Bondi Gargoyle. I have no links because my internet is being a bitch, probably because I'm watching my pizza order obsessively, but I do happen to have it saved in .txt format if you can't find it anywhere else.

I vote for Don Quixote, if only because it's on my list to read when I actually start reading books again.

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

Ha! "Snowbowl" was actually one of the first fics I read when I was searching for it (if 'it' even exists). Not the same story, but fun nonetheless!

I'm in the middle of S7 right now, and if Josh and Donna don't make out soon I AM GOING TO DIE.

[maribouquet.livejournal.com]

Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham!

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

I've been meaning to read that for years! Even since it featured in a Buffy episode, but we can leave that part out.

[ferret-kitty.livejournal.com]

I vote Don Quixote, much like everyone else, but I've not read the other two.

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo is also good, and I even read the unabridged version. (Did I have weeks and weeks with nothing better to do? Why yes, yes I did. Why do you ask?)

As far as culture clash romantic comedies go, these are a few of my favorite movies:

Keeping the Faith - a rabbi, a catholic priest, and a hot business woman. What not to like?

My Big Fat Greek Wedding - My friend, who is greek and recently got married to a non-Greek, said that this movie pretty much described her life.

Bend It Like Beckham - Silly and fun. Great music, too.

Ever After - The original Cinderella story. And this Cinderella is actually an intelligent, self-assertive woman. Probably anachronistic, but fun nonetheless.

and Shall We Dance? (the original Japanese version; the American version is CRAP) - I love this movie beyond the telling of it. The culture clash isn't so much between the main characters, as it is between the characters and society. It's great.

[an-kayoh.livejournal.com]

I recommend the Star Trek novels because I haven't gotten around to any of those other books and it would validate my consumption of CSI tie-ins.

Also, psst, A Town Like Alice.

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

The copy I requested from the library arrived yesterday. :)

[an-kayoh.livejournal.com]

Lucky! I have to depend on relatives Back East for any copies of Nevil Shute books.

[celebriangel.livejournal.com]

Total stranger here, hi, etc.

I couldn't get through Middlemarch, or any of George Eliot's books, sadly. I suspect setting aside two months to read it might be the only way: Don Quixote won't require as much dedication and effort to get through, as it sort of sucks you in.

[If you haven't already read it, I'd suggest The Count of Monte Christo be included at some point. It doesn't take all that much effort to read, really (since I *couldn't put it down*), but you're better to set aside some time just because of the sheer length of the thing. And who doesn't love the revenge-and-comeuppance-to-baddies-in-ingenious-ways thing?]