Beasts
£0.01
Beasts - Joyce Carol Oates, `Beasts This novel opens with Gillian Braeur the protagonist in the Louvre in Paris, considering some sculpture there, for she recognizes the work and knows the artist, and the discovery of her work in a gallery in Paris sends here on a journey into the past.As an inexperienced university student she is infatuated with her English professor, who because of her quietness in class, her muteness begins to address her as Philomela - the allusion to the Philomela of Ovid s Metamorphosis, who after being brutally raped , has her tongue cut out by her rapist. `But Tereus did not kill her, he seized her tongue with pinchers, though it cried against this outrage. Babbled and made a sound like Father. Till the sword cut it off. The mangled root, quivered, the severed tongue along the ground. Lay quivering, making a little murmur, Jerking and twitching, the way a serpent does ... `so she will not reveal him. The Philomela of Ovid s Metamorphis seeks revenge and murders her rapist and is transformed into a a bird with blood coloured feathers.The motif of the Ovid Philomela sets the stage for the transformative capture of Gillian, by the predatory professor and his French wife, the flame haired Dorcas, whose sculptures have caused outrage when shown in the local village. For over them the inflammatory artist has written ` we are beasts, and this is our consolation .the capture and ownership of Gillian, continues with a sex episode in the office of the professor who then brings home the newly deflowered virgin to share with his wife. Between them she is played as a toy, a sportive sexual ingenue. When finally they go on holiday and leave her to mind their house, she discovers in a drawer Polaroid s of herself and most of her classmates, taken when they were drugged by the pair.Her shattered love demands a ritual , and the ritual is not tame. She cuts her hair , the mane of beautiful hair, the thing the pair most admire and brings it to her lover, the professor. he is surprised, and brings the votive offering of pigtails home to Dorcas who fits them to one of her totems.After a night of degradation,she sets fire to their living room. she brings the French woman s wild paintings to the spot, to burn and leaves the house.The fire claims both their lives and most of Dorcas work. Both the beasts of the tale are now dead, and the wraith like figure that brought about their doom , tells the tale.
Carved Lives - Beasts is a gothic novella set in a small New England woman s college in the 70s. It is told through the perspective of Gillian Brauer, a yearning student poet who is infatuated with her D. H. Lawrence loving professor Andre Harrow and his controversial and mysterious sculptress wife, Dorcas. Several mysteries including recurring acts of arson, a coveted but secret apprenticeship to the radical Dorcas and several students who are debilitated by mental illness are balanced through the book. The characters explore the moral boundary of the liberal time period through their sexual explorations, but this isn t a novella that seeks to exploit the titillating age of free love. Rather, it reinvents the tale of Bluebeard to create a contemporary fable of the grotesque.This novella explores the deadly consequences of a train of thought taken too far, viciously seeking out the passionate ends of extended thoughts. Harrow and his wife take the liberal sexual attitude of DH Lawrence and act out the extreme barriers of it. Gillian enigmatically buries her responsibility in the events of her early life while simultaneously plotting the motives which form her guilt. Somehow she is left centrally pure, a passionate girl spoiled by ideas. Oates draws out the violent inner natures of her characters to show them in the light, exposing the consequences of their nature. This novella isn t subtle, Oates chooses instead to go for the extreme to show us our forgotten nightmares. It is a powerful and memorable read.
Alarming Memories and Events! - Caution: Beasts is a very appropriate name for some of the human characters this book. Some readers will be disgusted by the misbehavior in this book. I was. The book also abounds in the usual four and five letter words . . . as well as the most offensive six letter one, which will make people who dislike foul language feel like they have been draped in it.One of fiction s classic roles has been to strip away the veneer of civility and conventionality to reveal the untamed self that pulses at or just below the surface. Beasts takes apart the day-to-day reality of academic life to reveal the darkness lurking beneath Catamount College in a Bennington-like setting during the 1970s in the Berkshires of southwestern Massachusetts.The narrator of the novella s story is Gillian Brauer. She is startled to see a 200 year old totem, Maternal Figure, in the Louvre during a trip in February 2001. Her first thought is, It wasn t burned after all. She goes on to think, This is not a confession. Memories cloud in. We are beasts, this is our consolation. We are beasts, we feel no guilt.With this powerful beginning, you immediately will want to know what this story is all about. Using flashbacks, you next retreat back to Heath Cottage, Gillian s small dorm, at Catamount College on the night of January 20, 1976. The dorm s fire alarm has been pulled. What s happening? This first flashback builds the mystery, and you will find yourself wanting to race to turn the pages to find out more about the mystery of what has happened at Catamount . . . and to Gillian.Gillian is an impressionable junior with a taste for poetry . . . and a crush on her professor, Andre Harrow. The crush pulls her forward towards obsession, and she soon finds herself following Harrow s wife, Dorcas (no surname). In her poetry class, Gillian finds it difficult to reveal her deepest feelings and secrets. Harrow constantly encourages her to Go deeper! . . . Go for the jugular. Each student is writing a journal to help with this process of self-revelation, and the material is read in class. There s a competition to expose the most, and the students find themselves riveted by the experience. Each seems to share Gillian s love for Harrow. Where will it all lead?The story proceeds almost like a detective novel to explain the events that led up to Gillian s experiences in the book s first two scenes. Bit by bit, you will pick up hints, clues, and facts. Then, suddenly the whole mosaic comes together in an unforgettable picture that will haunt you.The tension and the mystery in the book are nicely developed and balanced. You will enjoy the development of Gillian s character, because you will feel like she is part of you by the time the story ends. I was left thinking about how the experiences described in the book would have changed my life, had they occurred to me.Shine the light of truth to push back the cover of darkness from falsity! Protect innocents!
Alarming Memories and Events! - Caution: Beasts is a very appropriate name for some of the human characters this book. Some readers will be disgusted by the misbehavior in this book. I was. The book also abounds in the usual four and five letter words . . . as well as the most offensive six letter one, which will make people who dislike foul language feel like they have been draped in it.One of fiction s classic roles has been to strip away the veneer of civility and conventionality to reveal the untamed self that pulses at or just below the surface. Beasts takes apart the day-to-day reality of academic life to reveal the darkness lurking beneath Catamount College in a Bennington-like setting during the 1970s in the Berkshires of southwestern Massachusetts.The narrator of the novella s story is Gillian Brauer. She is startled to see a 200 year old totem, Maternal Figure, in the Louvre during a trip in February 2001. Her first thought is, It wasn t burned after all. She goes on to think, This is not a confession. Memories cloud in. We are beasts, this is our consolation. We are beasts, we feel no guilt.With this powerful beginning, you immediately will want to know what this story is all about. Using flashbacks, you next retreat back to Heath Cottage, Gillian s small dorm, at Catamount College on the night of January 20, 1976. The dorm s fire alarm has been pulled. What s happening? This first flashback builds the mystery, and you will find yourself wanting to race to turn the pages to find out more about the mystery of what has happened at Catamount . . . and to Gillian.Gillian is an impressionable junior with a taste for poetry . . . and a crush on her professor, Andre Harrow. The crush pulls her forward towards obsession, and she soon finds herself following Harrow s wife, Dorcas (no surname). In her poetry class, Gillian finds it difficult to reveal her deepest feelings and secrets. Harrow constantly encourages her to Go deeper! . . . Go for the jugular. Each student is writing a journal to help with this process of self-revelation, and the material is read in class. There s a competition to expose the most, and the students find themselves riveted by the experience. Each seems to share Gillian s love for Harrow. Where will it all lead?The story proceeds almost like a detective novel to explain the events that led up to Gillian s experiences in the book s first two scenes. Bit by bit, you will pick up hints, clues, and facts. Then, suddenly the whole mosaic comes together in an unforgettable picture that will haunt you.The tension and the mystery in the book are nicely developed and balanced. You will enjoy the development of Gillian s character, because you will feel like she is part of you by the time the story ends. I was left thinking about how the experiences described in the book would have changed my life, had they occurred to me.Shine the light of truth to push back the cover of darkness from falsity! Protect innocents!
Alarming Memories and Events! - Caution: Beasts is a very appropriate name for some of the human characters this book. Some readers will be disgusted by the misbehavior in this book. I was. The book also abounds in the usual four and five letter words . . . as well as the most offensive six letter one, which will make people who dislike foul language feel like they have been draped in it.One of fiction s classic roles has been to strip away the veneer of civility and conventionality to reveal the untamed self that pulses at or just below the surface. Beasts takes apart the day-to-day reality of academic life to reveal the darkness lurking beneath Catamount College in a Bennington-like setting during the 1970s in the Berkshires of southwestern Massachusetts.The narrator of the novella s story is Gillian Brauer. She is startled to see a 200 year old totem, Maternal Figure, in the Louvre during a trip in February 2001. Her first thought is, It wasn t burned after all. She goes on to think, This is not a confession. Memories cloud in. We are beasts, this is our consolation. We are beasts, we feel no guilt.With this powerful beginning, you immediately will want to know what this story is all about. Using flashbacks, you next retreat back to Heath Cottage, Gillian s small dorm, at Catamount College on the night of January 20, 1976. The dorm s fire alarm has been pulled. What s happening? This first flashback builds the mystery, and you will find yourself wanting to race to turn the pages to find out more about the mystery of what has happened at Catamount . . . and to Gillian.Gillian is an impressionable junior with a taste for poetry . . . and a crush on her professor, Andre Harrow. The crush pulls her forward towards obsession, and she soon finds herself following Harrow s wife, Dorcas (no surname). In her poetry class, Gillian finds it difficult to reveal her deepest feelings and secrets. Harrow constantly encourages her to Go deeper! . . . Go for the jugular. Each student is writing a journal to help with this process of self-revelation, and the material is read in class. There s a competition to expose the most, and the students find themselves riveted by the experience. Each seems to share Gillian s love for Harrow. Where will it all lead?The story proceeds almost like a detective novel to explain the events that led up to Gillian s experiences in the book s first two scenes. Bit by bit, you will pick up hints, clues, and facts. Then, suddenly the whole mosaic comes together in an unforgettable picture that will haunt you.The tension and the mystery in the book are nicely developed and balanced. You will enjoy the development of Gillian s character, because you will feel like she is part of you by the time the story ends. I was left thinking about how the experiences described in the book would have changed my life, had they occurred to me.Shine the light of truth to push back the cover of darkness from falsity! Protect innocents!