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3.54 AVERAGE
3.54 AVERAGE
emotional
funny
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
4.5/5
Of course, this lack of major interaction between my younger self and academic personas was a double edged sword. Perhaps a little more insistence from one of my favorite English teachers would have saved me years of mistaken pursuit of a Bioengineering degree, putting me via influential measures on my current path and avoiding all that fumbling around with personal choice. However, when looking at a book like this, I see the time I spent finding myself as well worth the cost of years and money and all that jazz. My distrust for authority figures may be on the paranoid side, but my questioning of everyone and everything alongside painstakingly gained self-worth has, is, and will continue to serve me better than any other tool at my disposal.
Thus, I see this Miss Jean Brodie as a seductive force that would have easily bowled me over in my younger days. Those times are long past, and her sway has been reduced by time to a portion of her power, a slogan in essence of that aesthetically minded mob machination of Fascism so well known to history. For every appealing remark in the realm of Literature and the Arts, there's the blind assuming in regards to Science, Math, Politics, Religion, etc. There's also that discombobulated aura of feminism of the hypocritical sort, something I wouldn't have known to look for in my youth and a key factor of why I have never had the desire to return to my childhood mentality.
The directness with which the author presents this miniature treatise on pedagogy never struck me as obtuse, as there's quite a bit more going on within the boundaries of this slim, sharp-shooting novel. I've heard of Spark excelling in the microenvironmental scope, and she doesn't fail in my first introduction to her fiction. The pointed way she captures that muddled feeling of school, that of one's time being filled with so much cramming of information while in reality knowing little of anything important, is especially impressive. I do like my literature that takes childhood seriously, and while this is no [b:The Instructions|8380409|The Instructions|Adam Levin|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1287702723s/8380409.jpg|13237247], there's a cynical naïvety to it that I well recognize.
While I would better remember and hold my school years in more esteem had I encountered an incarnation of Miss Jean Brodie in her prime, I spend enough time as it is in deconstructing all that I thought I knew in those days of desks and paper and the persistent feeling of an invisible cage, otherwise known as bits and pieces solipsism. Looking at how the woman in her prime ended up, rattling on the same rails of so many years as little more than a broken tape recorder, I'd say I got the greener side for my own satisfaction of sensibilities. Besides, all that vicarious chess game living with a side of psychosomatic sexuality? Creepy.
Give me a girl at an impressionable age, and she is mine for life.It wasn't until recently that I became aware of how teachers had viewed me during my high school years. To be frank, I was surprised that they had acknowledged me at all, let alone discussed me amongst themselves. This discussion extended out from time to time to parents associated with the school, one of whom is now a very good friend of mine and my reason for knowing about this at all. I was liked, apparently, for being a quiet and studious little girl, likely noticed despite said quietness due to being the lone white face in many of the advanced classes but that, of course, is only suspicion. In those days I excelled in the art of keeping myself to my self, especially in regards to those keepers of test scores and other belovedly loathed idols of my youth, so I had no inkling of this overarching benevolent gaze, to the point of being flabbergasted in senior year at finding many an enthusiastic response to my request for recommendation letters. Who knew.
Of course, this lack of major interaction between my younger self and academic personas was a double edged sword. Perhaps a little more insistence from one of my favorite English teachers would have saved me years of mistaken pursuit of a Bioengineering degree, putting me via influential measures on my current path and avoiding all that fumbling around with personal choice. However, when looking at a book like this, I see the time I spent finding myself as well worth the cost of years and money and all that jazz. My distrust for authority figures may be on the paranoid side, but my questioning of everyone and everything alongside painstakingly gained self-worth has, is, and will continue to serve me better than any other tool at my disposal.
Thus, I see this Miss Jean Brodie as a seductive force that would have easily bowled me over in my younger days. Those times are long past, and her sway has been reduced by time to a portion of her power, a slogan in essence of that aesthetically minded mob machination of Fascism so well known to history. For every appealing remark in the realm of Literature and the Arts, there's the blind assuming in regards to Science, Math, Politics, Religion, etc. There's also that discombobulated aura of feminism of the hypocritical sort, something I wouldn't have known to look for in my youth and a key factor of why I have never had the desire to return to my childhood mentality.
The directness with which the author presents this miniature treatise on pedagogy never struck me as obtuse, as there's quite a bit more going on within the boundaries of this slim, sharp-shooting novel. I've heard of Spark excelling in the microenvironmental scope, and she doesn't fail in my first introduction to her fiction. The pointed way she captures that muddled feeling of school, that of one's time being filled with so much cramming of information while in reality knowing little of anything important, is especially impressive. I do like my literature that takes childhood seriously, and while this is no [b:The Instructions|8380409|The Instructions|Adam Levin|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1287702723s/8380409.jpg|13237247], there's a cynical naïvety to it that I well recognize.
While I would better remember and hold my school years in more esteem had I encountered an incarnation of Miss Jean Brodie in her prime, I spend enough time as it is in deconstructing all that I thought I knew in those days of desks and paper and the persistent feeling of an invisible cage, otherwise known as bits and pieces solipsism. Looking at how the woman in her prime ended up, rattling on the same rails of so many years as little more than a broken tape recorder, I'd say I got the greener side for my own satisfaction of sensibilities. Besides, all that vicarious chess game living with a side of psychosomatic sexuality? Creepy.
This book truly surprised me, which hasn't happened in a long time. I'm not sure if I 'liked' many of the characters, but they all felt frustratingly real. I'm not sure how the book ended up on my 'list,' but I am glad it did.
Nederlands (English below)
‘Een klaslokaal is als een theater,’ zei Muriel Spark (1918-2006) in een interview met BBC in 2004. Het toneel dat ze opzet in haar bekendste roman The prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961) kent autobiografische elementen. Wie de roman gelezen heeft en bekend is met de lessen van mevrouw Brodie zal bij dat gegeven fronsen.
Het onderwijs van Jean Brodie is naar maatstaven van Marcia Blaine School for Girls in Edinburgh onorthodox: in plaats van de lesstof op te dreunen neemt Brodie haar zes leerlingen mee op pad en vertelt ze uitvoerig over zichzelf – haar liefdesaffaires daarbij inbegrepen – om hen kennis te laten maken met het leven en te leren op eigen benen te staan. Pedagogisch verantwoord is dat niet altijd, zeker niet wanneer Dat Brodie niet slechts een vrijgevochten, ongetrouwde vrouw is, maar ook veel waarde hecht aan traditionele, religieuze waarden en daarnaast een vergaande fascinatie heeft voor Hitler en Mussolini, pleit niet voor haar zaak. Uiteindelijk verraadt één van haar leerlingen haar, zoals al vroeg in het verhaal duidelijk wordt.
The prime of Miss Jean Brodie is een uiterst grappig boek met een bijzondere structuur. Spark steekt de draak met de zeden uit haar jeugd. De flashforwards en de nadruk op kinderfantasieën werken goed. Ik kan me goed vinden in de vele lovende kritieken.
English
Miss Jean Brodie is one of those classic novel characters that is not easily forgotten. Using pupils’ perspectives and flashforwards, Muriel Spark creates an intriguing portrait of a teacher who succeeds in becoming a forward-thinking, worldly mentor, yet comes with a dark twist. The prime of Miss Jean Brodie is funny at times, and contains interesting thoughts on education and morals. I quite enjoyed it.
These are the years of my prime. You are benefitting by my prime
‘Een klaslokaal is als een theater,’ zei Muriel Spark (1918-2006) in een interview met BBC in 2004. Het toneel dat ze opzet in haar bekendste roman The prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961) kent autobiografische elementen. Wie de roman gelezen heeft en bekend is met de lessen van mevrouw Brodie zal bij dat gegeven fronsen.
The word ‘education’ comes from the root e from ex, out, and duco, I lead. It means a leading out. To me education is a leading out of what is already there in the pupil’s soul. To Miss Mackay it is putting in of something that is not there, and that is not what I call education, I call it intrusion, from the Latin root prefix in meaning in and the stem trudo, I thrust. Miss Mackay’s method is to thrust a lot of information into the pupil’s head; mine is a leading out of knowledge, and that is true education as is proved by the root meaning.
Het onderwijs van Jean Brodie is naar maatstaven van Marcia Blaine School for Girls in Edinburgh onorthodox: in plaats van de lesstof op te dreunen neemt Brodie haar zes leerlingen mee op pad en vertelt ze uitvoerig over zichzelf – haar liefdesaffaires daarbij inbegrepen – om hen kennis te laten maken met het leven en te leren op eigen benen te staan. Pedagogisch verantwoord is dat niet altijd, zeker niet wanneer
Spoiler
haar methode naarmate het verhaal vordert steeds meer manipulatie vertoont en haar favoritisme afhankelijk blijkt te zijn van de trouw van haar ‘Brodie set’.The prime of Miss Jean Brodie is een uiterst grappig boek met een bijzondere structuur. Spark steekt de draak met de zeden uit haar jeugd. De flashforwards en de nadruk op kinderfantasieën werken goed. Ik kan me goed vinden in de vele lovende kritieken.
English
Miss Jean Brodie is one of those classic novel characters that is not easily forgotten. Using pupils’ perspectives and flashforwards, Muriel Spark creates an intriguing portrait of a teacher who succeeds in becoming a forward-thinking, worldly mentor, yet comes with a dark twist. The prime of Miss Jean Brodie is funny at times, and contains interesting thoughts on education and morals. I quite enjoyed it.
Really gorgeous prose, interesting use of repetition of details, boring as heck narrative. Stuck with this one only because it's considered a classic and the prose was that tight.
At first, THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE reads like any other novel about a prep school teacher with special gifts. But as the story unfolds, it becomes increasingly clear that this one is quite a bit different. I love the way Spark teases out the darker aspects of a story, and while the ending felt rushed, the writing is otherwise masterful. What a strange and fascinating book.
What a strange book. Read it, it isn't going to be what you think it is. Even while reading it, it isn't what you think. Hell, I don't think it's what I think it is. I don't know.
slow-paced
Horrible, hideous characters but really well depicted. I wish I could spit on Miss Brodie's face.