There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year-old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs. -- John RogersI saw this quote in the comments on Ta-Nehisi Coates's blog this morning (in a post on Ron Paul, for context), and wanted to throw it up here to save because it ties to one of my pet theories: that the book you fall in love with between the ages of twelve and fourteen has a defining effect on the entire rest of your life. For me it was Pride and Prejudice, and I've written before about where that's gotten me now. (The quote above is very male, I have to observe. And I bet a lot of people in their twenties now would say simply "Harry Potter.") Did you all have a book like this when you were a young teenager? What was it, and how has it played out in your life since?
I also went through an Ayn Rand phase, actually, where I loved Anthem and The Fountainhead, though I never quite got around to Atlas Shrugged. I never believed in the books' economic or cultural theories, partly because I spent nearly every Sunday morning of the prior sixteen years in church, and Jesus's words about loving your neighbor were planted far deeper in my consciousness than Ms. Rand's screeds against it. (I read The Fountainhead on a youth-group mission trip, which is probably the single most ironic place possible to read an Ayn Rand novel.) But her ideas about identity and self-knowledge and self-reliance had a major effect on me -- for instance, that "To say 'I love you,' one must first be able to say the 'I'": that concept that it was important to have your own strong, whole sense of self before you could truly commit that self to another person. And also the idea of work as a basis for and expression of identity . . . Both of these things spoke powerfully to my burgeoning feminist intellectual self. I have no use for most of the rest of what she's written, and I'd doubtless sniff at the prose style today (and I remember thinking, "Goodness, these speeches go on for a while" and skimming when I was sixteen), but I'm grateful to her still for in part making me who I am.
And we do teenagers too little credit sometimes, I think, in worrying that they can't filter ideology from real life as I did. But probably this depends on the teenager. And I can't explore that idea in more depth now because I am, in fact, running late for my lovely, liberal, love-your-neighbor church . . . Which shows you truly which idea won out.
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Even Cowgirls Get the Blues by Tom Robbins was mine. I wanted to be Bonanza Jellybean.
ReplyDeleteMy childhood was full of L'Engle and Narnia and Lloyd Alexander, books that say, you are small, and the universe is bigger than you can imagine. But at the same time, there are miracles, and God knows who you are, and even the smallest and most insignificant person can change the world for the better with a little love and a spark of courage. I still read this way, though--there are still books that I find now that make me *me* in precisely the same way.
ReplyDeleteI think best books, especially those you read when you are growing up, are a little bit like basilisk venom on a goblin-made sword--they seep into you and make you stronger forever.
This book is certainly Daphne DuMaurier's Rebecca for me, but I would have to think about in what ways it might have actually affected my life and/or worldview. I have doubts that it would be positive, come to think of it.
ReplyDeleteI read L'Engle, Lewis and Alexander too, but the ones that were most influential between 12 and 14 were Harry Potter and Jane Eyre. Of course there were plenty of things I didn't understand about Jane at such a young age, but the many re-readings over the years have brought so much to light, influencing both who I want to be as a person and as a writer.
ReplyDeleteAs a young teenager, probably the most important book for me was The Great Gatsby... closely followed by Jane Eyre.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was about that age, I began discovering books on my parents' shelves that startled and perplexed me--C.S. Lewis' non-Narnian books, Sartre, the plays of Shakespeare, The Arabian Nights, Jane Eyre. After reading Jane Eyre, I sought out all of Charlotte Bronte's other books and various biographies about her and her family. I'm still not sure what draws me to her stories, but they definitely still have a hold on me.
ReplyDeleteI am so glad to see multiple mentions of L'Engle. Her books had a profound influence on who I am today. In fact, as a teacher (my day job), I've often held up a copy of "A Wrinkle in Time" and announced that I would not be standing there if it weren't for that book which I read in the fifth grade. It was the first time I saw science (a tesseract is real, don't ya' know) and literature combined and the first time I saw a strong female protagonist. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Madeleine L'Engle. I've always found it interesting that I teach science, even though I'm a huge literature nerd. Again, I credit this to my early love of L'Engle's writing.
ReplyDeleteI read a lot of comic books and comic book adaptations at that age. It certainly affected who I am today. I still love me some superhero stories.
ReplyDeleteI read Rand at a critical time and am trying to stil parse out what parts can stick with me and which parts can't. But one part that will certainly remain is "her ideas about identity and self-knowledge and self-reliance," as you said!
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