The Way We Live Now

Anthony Trollope's The Way We Live Now is a hugely sprawling, hugely cynical portrayal of Victorian British aristocrats and their vacuous, money-centered morality. As with other Trollope novels, The Way We Live Now is best undertaken by serious readers and fans of Victorian literature. Both the massive length and the dark, cynical tone make it a challenge to finish. I found myself wanting to give up on it many times, but persevering was worth it in the end.

The Good: The Way We Live Now is certainly a prescient novel. It is easy enough to imagine Wall Street bankers gambling with money they don't have at the "bear gardens" club or to substitute Bernie Madoff for Mr. Melmotte. Though dark and cynical, Trollope's portrayal of society is just as valid now as it was more than one-hundred years ago.

The "rondo" form is also well done. The plot begins with just a few characters, expands to a whole lot of them in the middle and returns to just the few it began with in the end. This scheme shows a panoramic view of British aristocratic society without becoming decentered and letting the plot get lost.

The Bad: As I mentioned before The Way We Live Now is long and dark. Seven hundred pages of narrative about characters that are hard to like is tedious to say the least. It's not just that it is a long book. If there were likable characters that the reader could sympathize with it would be a lot easier to swallow. Yet, none of the characters is likable. I didn't find myself cheering for any of them.

The Way We Live Now was written for serialization. Each chapter seems to begin by repeating information the reader has already read. Thus, the narrative is repetitive.

While The Way We Live Now gives a panoramic view of aristocratic society, middle and lower class characters appear less often and are complete simpletons. Readers can look to Thomas Hardy or other contemporary writers for a rounder portrayal.

Anthony Trollope offers no path to fixing the dystopian society that appears in The Way We Live Now. It's gloomy and cynical. This isn't a true fault of the author, for maybe it is a realistic portrayal of the Way We Live Now...but it is gloomy, so be ready for that.

The Bottome Line: The Way We Live Now is a lengthy, cynical work, prescient in it's portrayal of the financial classes. It is a good novel, but it's length and pessimism are not for the most general reading audiences.

This Blog's Purpose

This blog has a purpose. I need to get back into writing and I haven't written anything longer than a paragraph in at least a year. Where have I been? Hibernating, I suppose. I feel as though I've been put on ice intellectually speaking. I've stalled in my development. It's as if since I had all that trouble in grad school and I shut down to protect myself.

In the meantime, I've been reading like crazy. I've read tons of books, graphic novels, comic books and editorials. I've tackled some of the big hitters of the literary canon like Moll Flanders, Moby Dick and Anna Karenina. I've explored how the authors of these works created multidimensional, dynamic characters. I've learned about crafting extended metaphors like Melville's white whale and to explore social and philosophical topics through subtle family dynamics.

I've also fallen in love with more contemporary writers like Richard Yates and Norman Mailer and Philip Roth. These artists are masters at making good stories from the banalities of modern life. And of courses there's my ever present love of everything John Steinbeck. He reminds me to always keep compassion and concern for people in unfortunate circumstances in the forefront of my ideas for writing.

This is all very big talk for someone who hasn't written anything at all lately. I know that, but I've got to start somewhere and laying out my ideas, influences and literary ambitions seems like as good a place to start as any. I said earlier that I'd stalled in my intellectual development. I suppose that isn't true. It certainly feels as if I've stalled, but ideas have been gestating, bouncing around in my head, looking for a way out onto paper.

These ideas need somewhere to go and this blog will fill that role. I envision several types of entries appearing in this blog. First there's going to be space here for me to practice writing fiction. Probably none of it will be great yet ,or even well edited, but it will be here and give me opportunity to practice the craft. Second, there will be reviews of books I've read. Looking at how other people practice the craft and practicing it more by writing about it can only be helpful. Third, there will be some political commentary. Good literature aims at the truths of human existence and necessarily has theoretical ideas about the relationships of people to one another and to society and this is loosely what I'm referring to as "politics." Fourth, there is going to be to be a certain amount of writing about the banalities of my own life. I may write some posts about what I had for dinner. Don't like it? Don't read it. I'm getting words onto the page and that's what I feel is most important right now.

Sure, I want people to read my writing and comment on it. But it's more important that I write something than I worry if people are going to like what I write here. That type of worrying comes later in the process and I'm just not there yet.

So, by all means, offer me encouragement on my journey. I have a long way to go and I can use all the help I can get.

Hi and Welcome!

Hey everyone!

In case you've stumbled across my new blogging project randomly, I'll introduce myself. My name is Trev. I live in Austin where I buss tables at a hipster-chic pork restaurant and try to find my voice as a writer. Lately I've been having some serious writer's block. I can't get the words out. I worry too much about every word I put down.

So here I am. I'm going to spew a lot of word vomit and just get over it. These are my unedited thoughts and musings, so don't get nit-picky with me!

Some of you may know me from my other blogs. I used to blog pretty much every day. I have a book review blog that was a finalist in a national book blogging competition last year. I haven't written anything on it for months, since April actually. It's this damn writer's block. I get so much anxiety thinking about how my words will be received.

I have problems with anxiety anyway, particularly social anxiety, something that pharmaceuticals only help marginally. So, again, here I am just trying to get over it by putting my words out there.

Not everything I think or say is going to be profound. Actually most of it is probably pretty damn inane. But so what? I'm tired of worrying, knowing that I can do this, but struggling with a blank page. 

So that's out of the way. In fact that's the most writing I've done in months. Woohoo! I guess, sorta. Small victories right?

So here's some word vomit about my day:

I had a really yummy hamburger today. There's this place called Flat Top down the street from my apartment. I walk by it pretty much every day, but I had never eaten there before.

Just a short walk and I'm there. I see two windows and a tip jar and a menu stuck to the wall. Burgers $6.25, fries $1.95 or something like that, onion rings - who cares about the price, you get the idea.

I order a cheeseburger and fries. The short, tattooed cashier in a wife-beater asks if I want a drink. I'd rather go to the gas station on the way home for a fountain drink (love that place but I'll write about it later). Do I want all the fixings? Yes, please. They will call my name when it is ready.

I take a seat on a picnic bench underneath an umbrella of Christmas lights adorning the garage ceiling. Five minutes later my order is ready. Deliciously nasty grease soaks through the paper bag. I glide home in anticipation.

The fries are OK. A little cold actually, but whatever. The burger is a double patty grease bomb with molten American cheese. It's gone in three minutes flat and I prepare for the inevitable stomach ache. It's totally worth it.

Anyway, that enough word vomit for today. I need to be getting ready for work tonight. Thanks for stopping by and feel free to leave some love in the comment section and share my post if you like.