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Perhaps I am a terrible reader but I am having the hardest time following this book. It moves from scene to scene and point to point in ways that I just do not understand. I cannot follow the characters and do not understand their connection. The Moorish slang is too difficult to understand.
I contrast the use of slang in this story to Twain’s use in Tom Sawyer or Huck Finn. In Twain's version I could sound the words out a come close to what he was trying to say. In this book the slang is too difficult for me to understand and it causes me to pull my mind from the book. It is like seeing a film with terrible graphics, if I am pulled out of the story then the story is no good.
From what I can gather the book is a ghost story or Gothic horror novel but my reading could be totally off base. I am not sure who Catherine really is and exactly how Heathcliff is related to her. I do not understand the narrator’s relationship to Heathcliff and why there is animosity there.
Even with the introduction of Mrs. Dean to clarify the story I remained lost. If I cannot connect with a story it becomes a burden to read and my focus is lost quickly. It makes the reading tedious and seems like a chore rather than a pleasure. This book has become no more of a pleasure than cutting the grass, doing the dishes, or washing my car. The entire time I am involved I want to stop.
It make take two or three readings for me to grasp the story and understand what is going on but I will get there even if I hate every minute of it.
“In this book the slang is too difficult for me to understand and it causes me to pull my mind from the book. It is like seeing a film with terrible graphics, if I am pulled out of the story then the story is no good.”
ReplyDeleteThat is exactly right. The choices the author made, from blurry narrative construction to an overly complicated use of “slang” language only serve as a displacing distraction from the story itself. I may be able to find something interesting within the story, but these problems manifest in such a way as to keep me from enjoying what I am reading. No one wants to have to consult a glossary of name in the back of a book every few lines just to understand what is happening to who, and when.
Brent, you are not alone. I too find the Moorish slang to be unintelligible. I tried, in vain, to sound out Joseph's utterances, but I still have no idea what he was trying to say. Also, the stories of each character are all jumbled in my mind. I cannot, for the life of me, keep up with which character is being described at which time. I get the sneaking suspicion that Bronte doesn't want her audience to know the characters very well, let alone their relation to each other. I also find it incredibly frustrating to get side-tracked in almost every other line because I'm trying to figure out who is talking about whom, and what is being said about the character in question. Maybe we will get a clearer picture as the novel goes on, but who knows?
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