Hadran Alach Masechet Raskin
Dec. 19th, 2024 09:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seekingferretThe Mysterious Disappearance of Leon, I Mean Noel by Ellen Raskin
My foray into the Inheritance Games seems to have sent me down a full on Raskin reread, which is never a bad time? But this was something of a disappointment, though not a total disappointment. There are lots of delightful characters, clever wordplay abounds, and the book sustains itself on a perpetual motion machine of dark absurdities- there are many of the Raskin trademarks here. But Noel's identity and the resolution of the book's mystery just leaves too much that doesn't quite line up, because we never see how Leon became Noel and what his rejection of the family heritage means to him. At best we could say this is a book about coming to terms with the fact that sometimes mysteries don't give you satisfying answers.
The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
I don't know how many dozens of times I've read this, and I always find new details. It holds up remarkably well to rereads.
I was struck this time by the way the word 'mean' recurs, and how it is something of a subtle counterbalance to Chris's conclusion that Sam Westing is a good man. Turtle openly aspires to be seen as mean, and of course this leads her down the Eastman path as much as anything. I do think that mean does not mean bad, mean is the opposite of kind rather than the opposite of bad. Mean seems to mean something along the lines of willing to act knowing that it will cause others pain, and it's not hard to imagine scenarios where this can be morally good, but it's also profoundly uncomfortable in that brilliant Raskin way.
Also, I was at a Celtics game last week and it was Armed Services week or something and they actually dug up a recording of America the Beautiful that included the May God Thy Gold Refine verse. All quotations are from the Bible or Shakespeare.
Figgs & Phantoms
I don't think I knew what to do with this one as a kid and I think I understood a little more this time around, but definitely not most. Some of it, the Capri adventure particularly, reminded me of Pinkwater's Lizard Music, which I reread a few months ago. There is surrealist energy. A lot of it, like, Mysterious Disappearance, has the same kind of puzzly vibes as The Westing Game but I'm never able to quite suss out the puzzles.
It seemed very much preoccupied with what we think others think about us, and detangling those multiple layers of perception and misperception to figure out how to be in community. But set against that is the family legend of Capri, which is ultimately about the belief that you don't belong here where you are, you belong somewhere else that is perfect for you. Somehow in the ending Mona finds some way to balance these competing ideas, but it's not as clear to me what her balance is.
The Tattooed Potato and other clues
This was always my second favorite Raskin, and still true this time around. I liked that it is set in a real place unlike Westing Game and Figgs & Phantoms- Raskin's 1970s NYC is very specific and well figured. But it is such a sad and lonely story. Everyone in the story is sad and everyone is lonely and everyone is searching for something they lost, and most of them don't find what they're looking for. In a way, Edgar Sonneborg wins and there is maybe beauty in that. This is a story about a young woman learning that adulthood means living with profound sadness.
I think this book is intricate in the way that The Westing Game is and in which I would like to believe Figgs & Phantoms is even though I can't resolve its intricacies. Everything that happens serves multiple functions and most of those secondary and tertiary functions are not obvious at first glance. But while figuring out what GarSon means is similar to figuring out that Westing = Eastman, the latter discovery feels a lot more triumphant. Sometimes you're not sure a mystery is better off solved.
My foray into the Inheritance Games seems to have sent me down a full on Raskin reread, which is never a bad time? But this was something of a disappointment, though not a total disappointment. There are lots of delightful characters, clever wordplay abounds, and the book sustains itself on a perpetual motion machine of dark absurdities- there are many of the Raskin trademarks here. But Noel's identity and the resolution of the book's mystery just leaves too much that doesn't quite line up, because we never see how Leon became Noel and what his rejection of the family heritage means to him. At best we could say this is a book about coming to terms with the fact that sometimes mysteries don't give you satisfying answers.
The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
I don't know how many dozens of times I've read this, and I always find new details. It holds up remarkably well to rereads.
I was struck this time by the way the word 'mean' recurs, and how it is something of a subtle counterbalance to Chris's conclusion that Sam Westing is a good man. Turtle openly aspires to be seen as mean, and of course this leads her down the Eastman path as much as anything. I do think that mean does not mean bad, mean is the opposite of kind rather than the opposite of bad. Mean seems to mean something along the lines of willing to act knowing that it will cause others pain, and it's not hard to imagine scenarios where this can be morally good, but it's also profoundly uncomfortable in that brilliant Raskin way.
Also, I was at a Celtics game last week and it was Armed Services week or something and they actually dug up a recording of America the Beautiful that included the May God Thy Gold Refine verse. All quotations are from the Bible or Shakespeare.
Figgs & Phantoms
I don't think I knew what to do with this one as a kid and I think I understood a little more this time around, but definitely not most. Some of it, the Capri adventure particularly, reminded me of Pinkwater's Lizard Music, which I reread a few months ago. There is surrealist energy. A lot of it, like, Mysterious Disappearance, has the same kind of puzzly vibes as The Westing Game but I'm never able to quite suss out the puzzles.
It seemed very much preoccupied with what we think others think about us, and detangling those multiple layers of perception and misperception to figure out how to be in community. But set against that is the family legend of Capri, which is ultimately about the belief that you don't belong here where you are, you belong somewhere else that is perfect for you. Somehow in the ending Mona finds some way to balance these competing ideas, but it's not as clear to me what her balance is.
The Tattooed Potato and other clues
This was always my second favorite Raskin, and still true this time around. I liked that it is set in a real place unlike Westing Game and Figgs & Phantoms- Raskin's 1970s NYC is very specific and well figured. But it is such a sad and lonely story. Everyone in the story is sad and everyone is lonely and everyone is searching for something they lost, and most of them don't find what they're looking for. In a way, Edgar Sonneborg wins and there is maybe beauty in that. This is a story about a young woman learning that adulthood means living with profound sadness.
I think this book is intricate in the way that The Westing Game is and in which I would like to believe Figgs & Phantoms is even though I can't resolve its intricacies. Everything that happens serves multiple functions and most of those secondary and tertiary functions are not obvious at first glance. But while figuring out what GarSon means is similar to figuring out that Westing = Eastman, the latter discovery feels a lot more triumphant. Sometimes you're not sure a mystery is better off solved.
(no subject)
Date: 2024-12-20 02:29 am (UTC)Wait, what? While it's never named, The Westing Game is very recognizably set in Milwaukee--or at least recognizably if your family is from there. One of the things I like about it is its strong sense of place.
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Date: 2024-12-20 02:31 am (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2024-12-20 03:25 am (UTC)The Westing Game is a very captalist book, and I found that unsettling the last time I read it.
I read Figgs and Phantoms when I was a teenager, and it didn't work for me then, I haven't had a particular desire to return to it.
I read at least part of The Tattooed Potato when I was a kid, and some of it stuck with me despite mostly going over my head, and then I read it in grad school after it came back into print, and it worked for me despite its weird imperfections. (There were a couple times as a kid that I considered buying a copy at the library book sale, and then decided not to; I wonder how I'd be different if I had.) I feel like the imagery from that book sticks with me more than the others; also there's some great dialogue, and the "I am Christina Rossetti" story.
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Date: 2024-12-20 04:16 am (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2024-12-23 08:53 pm (UTC)