The Stones of Summer

So today was a nice change of pace to watching a movie about literature from discussing different pieces we've read throughout the semester. This film, Stone Reader, definitely got me interested in the book The Stones of Summer. I guess the curiosity of this man really intrigued me. That he would go to so much trouble to set up a basically a documentary on finding the whereabouts of the author of this apparently fabulous book he read 30 some years prior. I was first amazed at his memory that he read the book so long ago. A lot of times I will read a book (I'm always reading something) and then a few years down the road completely forget what the story was even about...so kudos to him. But, his memory then lacked where, in my opinion, it should count. He can't remember what he was like thirty years prior, he has to go to his mother to figure this out...which she had a grand memory of how he used to be (my mom wouldn't). One final aspect that made me think a lot was how much money this man must have spent on books throughout the year. Through the entire piece of the film we were watching in class today, he kept getting more and more shipments of USPS books coming in. And his library, oh his library. It was PACKED!! I guess the only reason I say this is because I come from a family who loves to read, but hardly ever buys books unless it's for a gift. We're big fans of the library (free!)

While watching this movie, I was astounded by the man's intellect which was a direct result of his literary adventures. He is constantly reading. In fact he even said, "Reading is the only thing that keeps me sane." And while he's traveling and the stories he's reading become the "place within a place." This was very intriguing to me because I can definitely relate, not on quite the scale as him. I love to travel and whenever I go anywhere (either with my family or friends) I like to bring at least 4 or 5 books to read during the week. Then later when I think back on the trip, I remember it by the stories I dove into during my journies either being a beach bum or a tourist across Europe I can remember the specific novels I was reading and the mental pictures I had while enjoying them.

In the film today they brought up Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man which almost made me cringe because when I was a senior in high school and in AP Literature, I read this book and basically beat it to death. I could probably tell you every symbol, significant quote, theme, important character and their relationship you would want to know about this book. You can probably tell that I really didn't enjoy the story, but I do realize it is a great piece of literature. And that is a lesson I learned from the film today that just, "because it was a great book, doesn't mean you have to like it." But you can appreciate the literary novelties that come along with the writing. Anyway, there's just some of my thoughts from the movie today.