Midsummer, Summer Solstice, and Father's Day

Summer officially begins today in the Northern Hemisphere with the Summer Solstice --the lightest day of the year. I prefer to say the lightest and darkest rather than the longest or shortest day of  the year. 

This year it's also Father's Day. We decided to go to Pooles Island for some beer. We considered Key Brewing, but knew we could go inside at Pooles, so that decided it. Pooles also has a good selection. 

There was a crab focused food truck. This was better than the limited kitchen it previously had onsite or the short list of restaurants that would deliver. Jace was a hit, though today it was with guys, except for a mother-daughter duo just before we left. 

I can't think of Midsummer without thinking of Cassandra.

More on I Capture the Castle

As I wrote the other day, I have several copies of I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith. First, it's my favorite book. This post explains what the book means to me. 

When it was out of print, I scoured antique shops and tag sales and bought a few copies when I saw them. 

The book is now back in print. I bought two more copies recently, anyway.

I'm safe in saying it's the only book of which I have multiple copies. (Is that grammatically correct? How awkward.)

I googled I Capture the Castle and found people who share my feelings about the book. I'm apparently a member of a cult. My second cult, it seems.

"It's Only a Whiff of Spring, Not Whole Lungs Full."

That's a line from my favorite book, I Capture the Castle, and it's the way I felt today. It was the first of three days with temperatures in the fifties in February. Today Lola and I returned to Oyster Shell Park.  It was a bit windy, but that was a small price to pay.

I know this won't last--temperatures will plummet on Sunday, but I will enjoy the next few days. 

Midsummer Eve

Tomorrow is Midsummer Day. As I recently learned and wrote, Midsummer Day is the midpoint of the growing season. It is important to me as a special day for Cassandra Mortmain in I Capture the Castle. 

Critter Sightings at Oyster Shell Park

Lola and I visited Oyster Shell Park yesterday by way of Mathews Park. We often see groundhogs at Oyster Shell. Today on the lower loop where the path runs along a hill I saw a groundhog in his hole looking directly at us. I've never seen a groundhog straight on before. It was kind of cute. (Though not on the level of rabbits or beagles.)

A few minutes later on the upper trail, I saw this hawk.

I think it might be a Cooper's Hawk (immature) or maybe a Sharp-shinned Hawk (immature) or even a red shouldered hawk (also immature.)  I just don't know. It was beautiful.

I guess I feel the way about hawks that Cassandra Mortmain felt about owls. She loved them, but wished they were vegetarians. I hate to think of that hawk catching one of the cute bunnies at Oyster Shell.

I remember an afternoon at Taylor Farm. We saw a bird high in the sky with something in its talons. The something was screaming. It was haunting.

In happier nature sightings, here's a monarch butterfly along the Pollinator Pathway at Oyster Shell.

My Best Book Gift

I saw a question in The New York Times Book Review for Chelsea Clinton: what's the best book you ever received as a gift?

I want to write about my answer.

My favorite book is I Capture the Castle as I discussed here. The book was out-of-print for many years. I lent my copy to my sister Joanna to re-read. I told her to take care of it; she used to dog-ear her books which drove me crazy.

So what happened? Her German Shepard puppy got a hold of the book and chewed it up. Joanna said she sobbed when she found it.

I was bummed, but I didn't blame her.

For my next birthday, Jeff gave me a copy of I Capture the Castle, in perfect condition along with the dust jacket.

I was so happy. I had no idea you could get out-of-print books without hunting through library book sales (which I did before the book was back in print.)

Only Jeff realized how important the book was to me: one more reason why I love him.

Reading and Re-reading

I made a goal to read 12 books this year. It's weird for me to have to make reading a goal--I love to read. But at some point I realized that I wasn't reading as many books as I thought I was. I was reading things online and in magazines.

So far this year I've read 3.5 books. The .5 is the Kinsey & Me.  I realized I was back in a reading books mode when I was anxious to select the next book to read. 

I re-read The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. This is the third time I've read the book.

I love books and  I re-read books. Living in 1000 square feet, I've decided I need to get rid of books. I've regretted getting rid of some books such as The Women's Room and Rebecca. I wanted to re-read them but they were gone.

For the most part, I now buy books that I plan to recycle. I figure I'm supporting the library sales when I buy the books and then other libraries or Goodwill when I recycle them. Occasionally I'll pick up a hardcover of a paperback book I've kept (Gone With The Wind--which I've read about seven times--Smila's Sense of Snow and Lonesome Dove.)

I know that I need to keep reading and in some cases re-reading. I love it. 

A Taste of Spring

We had a nice, warm weekend with temperatures in the 50's and 60's. Even today, though cooler in the mid-40's, is unseasonably warm. The only downside is that with a foot of snow already on the ground, we had to deal with slush and mud. Luckily the slush and mud at Taylor Farm and Cranbury Parks weren't bad enough to offset the good weather.

Earlier this week Jeff and our friend Debbie were speculating if this was the end of winter or if we'd have another wintry blast. I was reminded of the beginning of my favorite book I Capture the Castle. Cassandra and Stephen discuss the beginning of spring. Later Cassandra tells Topaz her stepmother that it's a whiff of spring, not whole lungs full. But Topaz was still ready to commune with nature.

I skimmed through the first four or five chapters to find the whole lungs full quote. I might re-read the whole book again. For now I picked up a book I've had for years, but I'm not sure I completely read: Women of Wonder The Classic Years--a book of short stories.

"I've got my crossroads feelings"--Mets Edition

It's been a wild season: exciting, frustrating, up, down.

August started well with two consecutive series sweeps. The Mets stumbled against the Rays, but then sweep the Rockies in a four game series. Momentum?

The Pirates came to Citi Field on Friday. After the Mets lost the first game, broadcaster Keith Hernandez said something like Mets fans, you really didn't think that the Mets would win the rest of the games, did you?

No, that would be ridiculous. But this was a big series for the Mets, and they were swept. 

Two teams have swept their season series from the Mets: the Pirates and the Cubs. The two teams leading the National League Wild Card race are the same Pirates and Cubs. The Mets are six games behind the Cubs and eight games behind the Pirates.

If the Mets are going to realize their dream of a post-season, they better win the division. They were lucky that the Nationals have been playing badly; the Mets are leading by four games.  But, oh, what could have been.

The Mets pulled out a win tonight against the Orioles 5-3, despite a scary bottom of the ninth. Let's go Mets!

Note on the title of this post.

Midsummer Eve

Tomorrow is the first day of summer, Midsummer Day, the summer solstice.

Tonight is Midsummer Eve..

I never really thought of Midsummer Eve as a holiday until I read I Capture the Castle, my favorite book.

Midsummer Eve is Cassandra's favorite day. She holds rites every year: gathering wildflowers, lighting a nearfire, drinking wine and eating cake.

Bonfires are a traditional celebration. I'm not much of a bonfire kind of girl and have no place to build a bonfire. Instead I drank some wine and  lit a candle for the love chakra.

After all, Midsummer Eve is the night Cassandra fell in love.

On Adaptations

It's hard to believe that it's been a week since my last post. I spent a lot of time on that: I re-read I Capture the Castle; watched the film; watched the commentary; re-read a few scenes; then re-watched a few.

I wrote the post last Monday and edited it on Tuesday.

But the more I think about the adaptation of I Capture the Castle--more specifically the comments of the screenwriter, Heidi Thomas--the angrier I get.

I thought she made some condescending comments--there is no novel that can be transferred intact perfectly to the screen. Doesn't everyone know that?

I remember my first conversation about adaptations--it was with my mother after I had seen Gone with the Wind. I was around 12 or 13; the film was good, but I was disappointed. I missed Wade Hampton; more importantly, I missed Will Benteen. My mother said that they couldn't include all the characters and I got that. But I still missed Will--I thought he was an integral character.

Some changes didn't make sense to me: Rhett suggesting that he and Scarlet had a chance and she rejected him. That wasn't in the book because that was one of the ironies in the story--Rhett and Scarlett were in love, but both were too proud to admit their feelings.

I also questioned the casting of Leslie Howard as Ashley Wilkes. Scarlett loved Ashley because he was dashing and handsome: Leslie Howard wasn't. My sister said that Ashley was the son of the man with the greatest plantation in Georgia, and that appealed to Scarlett. While that was true, Leslie still wasn't the Ashley of the book.

But, back to my problems with I Capture the Castle. In my earlier post, I mentioned Thomas' comment that Stephen prostituted himself. Was that a joke, an exaggeration? She also commented that Stephen was morally outraged when Rose and Neil kissed. WTF--where did that come from? I read him as surprised and embarrassed.

The film downplays James Mortmain's writing block and his work, which is a huge subplot in the book. Thomas adds a scene before the added wedding, saying that she needed a scene between the brothers that wasn't in the book because of Cassandra's point of view. But she could easily have dramatised the scenes described in the novel between the brothers and Rose and Simon instead. Having Simon serve as Neil's best man is unnecessarily cruel.

I love the scene between Cassandra and Topaz in the book when Topaz is considering leaving James. Thomas changes that to an "I'm sorry, please come home" cliche.

The worst change is to the final conversation between Cassandra and Simon. As written, most of the conversation is about James' book. Only at the end of the conversation does it get personal when Simon asks Cassandra if she wants to go to America with him. They don't talk about her feelings for him.

Instead Thomas has Cassandra ask how Simon can still be in love with Rose after what she did. Cassandra also makes a snarky comment to Simon in Thomas' feeble attempt to let her get in the last word.

In the final pages of the novel, Cassandra is finishing her journal. In the margins, she writes "I love you, I love you, I love you." The screenplay changes it to "I love, I have loved, I will love." Apparently Thomas didn't want the ending to be about Cassandra's love for Simon. But that's what it was about!

Perhaps next time, Thomas can write an original screenplay; I don't intend to see it.

Appropriately, I recently read a post from Streams of Unconsciousness that discusses the latest film version of The Great Gatsby. Riku writes, "People will complain that a movie is not true to the book but what they really mean is that it's not true to their interpretation of the book."

That may be true, but I wish Thomas' interpretation didn't re-write Dodie Smith's story.

From Page to Screen: I Capture the Castle

I have written about my favorite book here. I remember reading that Disney had the rights to the film, but don't know what happened with that. BBC made this film in 2003. Last week I re-read the book so I would have it fresh in my mind as I re-watch the movie.

I had often thought about how I would cast the film. I thought Rachel Blanchard would make a good Cassandra, later Evan Rachel Wood. (My sister suggested Sara Gilbert.) Romola Garai is perfect as Cassandra and  Rose Bryne is wonderful as Rose. Oddly, I pictured Paul Simon as Simon; I had a very good picture of him with a beard on a Simon and Garfunkel single (maybe the Boxer.) Neil was rather vague to me; I pictured a version of Neil Diamond (I guess singer/songwriters were on my mind.) Topaz was the most interesting character to think about casting. I imagined Carol Kane, Meryl Streep and most recently, Tilda Swinton. I liked Bill Nighy as James. Joe Sowerbutts as Thomas was the only really wrong note. He seemed much younger than what I had imagined and nerdier too.

I even started on a screenplay myself. I didn't get beyond the opening scenes. My opening was similar to the one in the film. I would have shown them selling off the furniture to demonstrate the Mortmains' financial decline.

I love that the first words after the credits were the first line in the book: I write this sitting in the kitchen sink.

I usually prefer novels to their film adaptations.  I Capture the Castle is no exception. Many scenes seem rushed, especially Midsummer's Eve, and the plan to lock up James.  Only the night out in London scene seems more fully realized than its counterpart in the novel. I loved the choice of the song, "You and the Night and the Music."

A few scenes--not in the book--seem off: the emotional discussions between James and Cassandra, James and Topaz, and Cassandra and Simon, Mrs. Cotton telling Cassandra that James will never write, as well as Rose and Neil's wedding. The bear scene fell short.  I also think the film did not capture (sorry) the bleak poverty and actual hunger the Mortmains suffered.

What bothered me the most: the idea that Stephen prostituted himself by sleeping with Leda Fox-Cotton. I never got that impression from the book. Actually I didn't get that impression from the film either. That's what the screenwriter thought, according to her commentary.

All-in-all, a decent to good movie; the highlight is Romola Garai's performance. But the film was disappointing to me as a big fan of the book.

Memorable Lines: Girls Edition

I regularly watch Game of Thrones and True Blood and HBO is big on promoting its new shows. I started watching VEEP to see Julia Louis-Dreyfus and figured I might as well check out Girls.

Frankly, I don't get all the praise. I'm interested enough that I watched all episodes. It's not funny, which is the usual standard for a comedy. I also don't like any of the characters.

But the reason for this post is a line that Adam (Hannah's boyfriend) said. They were at the surprise wedding of Jessa and Thomas who've only known each other for a few weeks. Adam says, "Time's a rubber band."  That intrigued me because I've seen that image used in an explanation of time travel. On another level, Jeff and I started talking about getting married after dating for a month or two. (Just for the record, I'll add that we were engaged for almost two years before we got married.)

Another small thing that appealed to me: Hannah's friend and coffee shop boss, Ray is shown reading "I Capture the Castle" my favorite book and praising English women authors.

My Favorite Book: "I Capture the Castle"

I used to subscribe to a magazine called Ingenue. I don't remember much about it but I did see a review for a book called "I Capture the Castle" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Capture_the_Castle. Then one day at a sidewalk sale, I found it in a shopping cart of books in front of Woolworth's.

It was synchronicity--finding that book was important to me.

On the surface, there were few things in common between the narrator Cassandra and me: we were both 17 year old girls who wanted to be writers.

The differences: she lived in a castle the English countryside--I lived in a colonial in the New Jersey suburbs. She lived in poverty with little to eat--I lived in American middle class affluence with arguably too much to eat. She lived in a literary family--I lived in a family that rarely discussed books.

Yet Cassandra spoke to me. We both struggled with our writing--how could we learn to write? We both struggled with love--how could we learn to live with or without our loves?

I remember my mother asking me what was wrong the afternoon I finished the book. I felt sad. There was no pat happy ending and I felt for Cassandra.

Maybe it was our common age and our common dream that first drew me to Cassandra, but something more has held me to her. "I Capture the Castle" remains my favorite book.

"I've got my crossroads feeling--

I've only had it three or four times in my life. That night in the Café Royal when Everard hit the waiter--" She stopped dead.

That's a quote from my favorite book, "I Capture the Castle" which deserves a post of its own soon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Capture_the_Castle

Maybe that quotation is a little melodramatic for what I'm feeling now but I feel that I'm in a time of changes.

The spring test prep season is over. I've only got a few students for the June tests. I'm worried that I might not have any students after the first week in June. Although I've had leads for other work--both contract and full-time jobs, nothing's panned out for me.

Spike has health issues--he has an under active thyroid which we are treating but also is losing protein in his urine. The latter can be a symptom of many problems, some of which are difficult to diagnose. We've already spent a few hundred dollars on inconclusive diagnostic tests. We'll spent whatever we need to keep Spike healthy, but I wonder how valuable all these tests are. The latest test cost about $120 only to eliminate an infection that the vet and I thought was unlikely.

My birthday is approaching. Birthdays are another new year--a time to think about plans and goals.Unfortunately, I'm falling short.

In three weeks, I go on a writer's retreat. Usually, I get a lot of writing done at retreats but not last year. So I'm trying to psych myself up to write--to get into a creative mood.  The last thing I want to do is to put pressure on myself but I don't want to leave my creativity to chance.

Then there are the Mets. They got off to a good start despite dire predictions. Sometimes they look great; other times it's like amateur hour. I don't know from one day to the next what team will take the field.

My crossroads feeling--as Yogi Berra said, "When you come to a fork in the road, take it."