influence

   When I was but a young teen, I read Tarzan of the Apes / Edgar Rice Burroughs. It is slotted among my list of "life-changing books", but please, don't ask me to explain it. I don't know why it had such an effect on me, and I reckon if you read it in an effort to understand how it impacted me you would come away with a resounding "huh". So, when the game-changing novels meme goes around and people post their books and all of them make perfect sense and people say "Yes! Oh my gosh! Me too!" I list Tarzan right along with perspective altering books like Slaughterhouse-Five and A Farewell to Arms and Siddhartha. I don't talk about Tarzan very much, partially because Edgar Burroughs was a rather problematic person (ERB: super into eugenics, apparently), but mostly because its influence is confusing to me. Why was it so important? It's a mystery.

   The impact of some books is obvious (I mean, come on, the river is everywhere) and for some it isn't and I guess that's just the way things are. I think it is unreliable to judge the impact of a book directly after you read it. Right now I would put Never Let Me Go on a list of especially influential books, but that might just be because I recently finished it. And what if I go into a book expecting it to be a certain thing? For example: I haven't read East of Eden (a crime, I know, I get it) and I am anticipating my reading of it to be something like a revelation, so will that affect the way I read it? Will I pull something out of it merely because I expect to? Incidentally, I thought that Of Mice and Men was about greasy politicians (where did this idea come from????) and when it wasn't I was confused ("What's with all this ranch stuff?" "Maybe this isn't about politics." "Huh. Okay."). Even so, I found it left a lasting mark. Expectations: just as mysterious as influence.

   Even if I did sort out what exactly was so influential about Tarzan, would I be able to pinpoint exactly what "influence" or "impact" or "importance" mean? Clearly the things that are important about Tarzan aren't the same as the things that are important about, say, We Need to Talk About Kevin. I don't think about them in the same way or with equal frequency. (Do you want to be haunted by a book? Then read We Need to Talk About Kevin.) Or how can I compare Tarzan to Til We have Faces? A Farewell to Arms?

   When I worked at the Jubilee I had a similar problem. People would ask me what my favorite thing I had seen there was, and I wouldn't really be able to answer. How do I judge Tosca against Great Big Sea? Stomp against Stuart McLean? I would usually say "well it sure ain't graduation ceremonies".

   It's a mystery. 

   Anyways, here's some novels my mom thinks everyone should read (she says that if you don't feel like you could re-read a novel, it hasn't achieved greatness):

• Pilgrim's Progress / John Bunyan
• Carry on Mr Bowditch / Jean Lee Latham
• Sign of the Beaver / Elizabeth George Speare
• Pride and Prejudice / Jane Austen 
• Jane Eyre / Charlotte Bronte
• That Printer Udell's / Harold Bell Wright
• Ishmael / E. D. E. N Southworth

   My dad says you should read The Lord of the Rings, and my mom says "I haven't read that."