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3.62 AVERAGE
3.62 AVERAGE
This was in my "emergency mystery read package" from the local library and I am glad it was because I'm not sure if I would have chose to read it myself. Reading Out of Africa was just mesmerizing. So dreamily full of love for her surroundings. There is some chaos in the stories, when you get distracted from the actual story by all kind of side stories, but then you are suddenly back and you remember and all the sides stories are so beautifully written I didn't mind at all. It was like listening to a real-life storyteller, painting a picture of her beloved place, her beloved people, but with words on a paper. I kept forgetting that this all was early 1900's, as lively as it all felt. Africa is a different continent today, but it really felt that I somehow, suddenly was there.
This was very uncomfortable to read. Mainly because the author has a paternalistic view on her tenants that feels very dated. This book was written in the 1930s, so of course they had a completely different view on colonial relationships. If you intend to read a good account of the relationships between colonizers and colonized, however, this might be an interesting thing to read. It shows how rich white people dealt with Africans and how they saw their role in the Empire. And (at least for me), this is very interesting in several levels.
Isak Dinesen (aka. Karen Blixen) was an upper class European woman who moved into Africa with her husband. This book shows her views on the natives and colonization. Obviously, she seems to think that they are doing something good for them. But, unlike other colonizers, she appears to put some sort of value in the traditions and cultures of the people in the farm. Other times, though, she presents them as quaint rather than as having equal value to European culture. She moves along this spectrum of possibilities throughout the whole book, so it’s rather hard to get what she really thought about them.
This memoirs chronicle her life in a farm in Africa. She talks about the daily life in it and its surroundings, her relations with the people who work for her and so on. She has a direct and straightforward style, which makes the book quite easy to read. Not too adorned or too bare.
As said before, this book is hardly a critical analysis of colonial relations. The natives are not given a voice (obviously, these are Blixen’s memoirs) and the whole story is tinted with some sort of romantic ideal of African in mind. At some points she reminded me of my missionary aunt, who’s just arrived from Mozambique and seems to feel that it’s her duty to preach us about it. Both Blixen and my aunt make a point of emphasizing how innocent and pure the natives are, and how generous they are for inviting them to their houses. I’m not saying that this people are actually mean or evil. But I think that characterizing them in this way is Othering. Blixen and my aunt other Africans by thinking of them as people in another category.
This is why I found this book so hard to read. I’m a twenty-first century English major. I know that people don’t fit in tiny little boxes, that they are complex, that their relationships cannot be described in single ways. And reading the memoirs of a twentieth century aristocrat in Africa is also showing me a completely different way to see the world. One which I don’t agree with, as well.
Blixen/Dinesen’s view of Africa feels a little as if she’s talking about a completely different planet. And I guess that is because it is a different planet for her, a completely different world. And in that sense, this book works really well as a historic document, presenting a woman’s point of view about the empire, from the position of the colonizer. I’d have liked to see more of the other side, but I’m realistic enough to understand that it wasn’t possible.
If you’re interested in Colonialism, read it. If you don’t really care for it, I’d give it a miss and read something else instead.
Isak Dinesen (aka. Karen Blixen) was an upper class European woman who moved into Africa with her husband. This book shows her views on the natives and colonization. Obviously, she seems to think that they are doing something good for them. But, unlike other colonizers, she appears to put some sort of value in the traditions and cultures of the people in the farm. Other times, though, she presents them as quaint rather than as having equal value to European culture. She moves along this spectrum of possibilities throughout the whole book, so it’s rather hard to get what she really thought about them.
This memoirs chronicle her life in a farm in Africa. She talks about the daily life in it and its surroundings, her relations with the people who work for her and so on. She has a direct and straightforward style, which makes the book quite easy to read. Not too adorned or too bare.
As said before, this book is hardly a critical analysis of colonial relations. The natives are not given a voice (obviously, these are Blixen’s memoirs) and the whole story is tinted with some sort of romantic ideal of African in mind. At some points she reminded me of my missionary aunt, who’s just arrived from Mozambique and seems to feel that it’s her duty to preach us about it. Both Blixen and my aunt make a point of emphasizing how innocent and pure the natives are, and how generous they are for inviting them to their houses. I’m not saying that this people are actually mean or evil. But I think that characterizing them in this way is Othering. Blixen and my aunt other Africans by thinking of them as people in another category.
This is why I found this book so hard to read. I’m a twenty-first century English major. I know that people don’t fit in tiny little boxes, that they are complex, that their relationships cannot be described in single ways. And reading the memoirs of a twentieth century aristocrat in Africa is also showing me a completely different way to see the world. One which I don’t agree with, as well.
Blixen/Dinesen’s view of Africa feels a little as if she’s talking about a completely different planet. And I guess that is because it is a different planet for her, a completely different world. And in that sense, this book works really well as a historic document, presenting a woman’s point of view about the empire, from the position of the colonizer. I’d have liked to see more of the other side, but I’m realistic enough to understand that it wasn’t possible.
If you’re interested in Colonialism, read it. If you don’t really care for it, I’d give it a miss and read something else instead.
Não consegui acabar o livro, infelizmente. Achei tão aborrecido, que não me deu alento para continuar.
Certamente, não o vou tentar novamente tão cedo.
Certamente, não o vou tentar novamente tão cedo.
Karen Blixen, writing under pen name Isak Dinesen, was a Danish baroness who lived 17 years in Kenya, managing her coffee plantation, taking care of the natives squatters Kikuyu, hunting big game, being part of the Protectorate community of white Western European dignitaries, overall living a fulfilling beautiful life. The exquisite book is one long beautiful description of Africa, its natural beauty, its people, and Mrs Karen's tenacity and love for the continent.
The book's opening phrase may be one of the most powerful I've read - "I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills." It captures the core of the writing; so is the rest of the novel - unassuming clear phrases about beautiful horrendous troubling sad amazing days, as Karen's life happens in Africa.
"Out of Africa" left me with a deep wish to travel there, and with a sympathy for strong feminine characters who shape the world according to their wishes, without assuming life owes them plenitude or happiness. This quote sums it up -"Pride is faith in the idea that God had, when he made us. A proud man is conscious of the idea, and aspires to realise it. He does not strive towards happiness, or comfort, which may be irrelevant to God’s idea of him. His successes is the idea of God, successfully carried through, and he is in love with his destiny."
The Sydney Pollack movie focuses on Karen's love story with Denys Finch - Hatton, an English big-game hunter. Contrary to the film, Denys's characters takes up small portions of the book; I felt that Mrs. Blixen's story if that of love of Africa and, somewhere among others, Denys was part of that large continent but not the main focus.
The book's opening phrase may be one of the most powerful I've read - "I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills." It captures the core of the writing; so is the rest of the novel - unassuming clear phrases about beautiful horrendous troubling sad amazing days, as Karen's life happens in Africa.
"Out of Africa" left me with a deep wish to travel there, and with a sympathy for strong feminine characters who shape the world according to their wishes, without assuming life owes them plenitude or happiness. This quote sums it up -"Pride is faith in the idea that God had, when he made us. A proud man is conscious of the idea, and aspires to realise it. He does not strive towards happiness, or comfort, which may be irrelevant to God’s idea of him. His successes is the idea of God, successfully carried through, and he is in love with his destiny."
The Sydney Pollack movie focuses on Karen's love story with Denys Finch - Hatton, an English big-game hunter. Contrary to the film, Denys's characters takes up small portions of the book; I felt that Mrs. Blixen's story if that of love of Africa and, somewhere among others, Denys was part of that large continent but not the main focus.
"Africa, amongst the continents, will teach it to you: that God and the Devil are one, the majesty co-eternal, not two uncreated but one uncreated, and the Natives neither confounded the persons nor divided the substance."
"A white man who wanted to say a pretty things to you would write: 'I can never forget you.' The African says: 'We do not think of you, that you can ever forget us.'"
"Natives dislike speed, as we dislike noise, it is to them, at the best, heard to bear. They are also on friendly terms with time, and the plan of beguiling or killing it does not come into their heads. In fact the more time you can give them, the happier they are, and if you commission a Kikuyu to hold your horse while you make a visit, you can see by his face that he hopes you will be a long, long time about it. He does not try to pass the time then, but sits down and lives."
"We of the present day, who love our machines, cannot quite imagine how people in the old days could live without them. But we could not make the Athanasian Creed, or the technique of the Mass, or of a five-act tragedy, and perhaps not even of a sonnet ... Still we must imagine, since they have been made at all, that there was a time when the hearts of humanity cried out for these things, and when a deeply felt want was relieved when they were made."
"I thought that the moon might be looking in and wondering how long I meant to stay on, in a place from which everything else had gone. 'Oh no,' said the moon, 'time means very little to me.'"
"A white man who wanted to say a pretty things to you would write: 'I can never forget you.' The African says: 'We do not think of you, that you can ever forget us.'"
"Natives dislike speed, as we dislike noise, it is to them, at the best, heard to bear. They are also on friendly terms with time, and the plan of beguiling or killing it does not come into their heads. In fact the more time you can give them, the happier they are, and if you commission a Kikuyu to hold your horse while you make a visit, you can see by his face that he hopes you will be a long, long time about it. He does not try to pass the time then, but sits down and lives."
"We of the present day, who love our machines, cannot quite imagine how people in the old days could live without them. But we could not make the Athanasian Creed, or the technique of the Mass, or of a five-act tragedy, and perhaps not even of a sonnet ... Still we must imagine, since they have been made at all, that there was a time when the hearts of humanity cried out for these things, and when a deeply felt want was relieved when they were made."
"I thought that the moon might be looking in and wondering how long I meant to stay on, in a place from which everything else had gone. 'Oh no,' said the moon, 'time means very little to me.'"
slow-paced
Αυτό το βιβλίο πραγματικά με έκανε να ταξιδέψω νοερά στην Αφρική.
"Now, looking back on my life in Africa, I feel that it might altogether be described as the existence of a person who had come from a rushed and noisy world, into a still country."
Out of Africa is beautiful. Its main merit lies in the abundant descriptions and stories of life on a farm in colonial Kenya. This memoir does not have a plot; instead it's a series of recollections and dedications to her life: the people (mostly the kikuyu, Masai, some settlers, and Somalis), the animals, the safaris, the land. Some might take offense to her descriptions and analysis of the "natives" and other races, but for a white settler in 1920, Karen Blixen was remarkably tolerant and open. She does not pass any judgements in her memoir, but seeks only to keep the time alive. She was one of the earliest settlers, and offers rare insight to how the country & land changed over time.
If you're interested in colonial history, in Africa, or Kenya, or want a better understanding of how races interacted and lived during colonization, this is a priceless account. It is a book to be read slowly & savored; whenever you need to be transported, pick up Out of Africa. [Also note that it's nothing like the movie.]
Out of Africa is beautiful. Its main merit lies in the abundant descriptions and stories of life on a farm in colonial Kenya. This memoir does not have a plot; instead it's a series of recollections and dedications to her life: the people (mostly the kikuyu, Masai, some settlers, and Somalis), the animals, the safaris, the land. Some might take offense to her descriptions and analysis of the "natives" and other races, but for a white settler in 1920, Karen Blixen was remarkably tolerant and open. She does not pass any judgements in her memoir, but seeks only to keep the time alive. She was one of the earliest settlers, and offers rare insight to how the country & land changed over time.
If you're interested in colonial history, in Africa, or Kenya, or want a better understanding of how races interacted and lived during colonization, this is a priceless account. It is a book to be read slowly & savored; whenever you need to be transported, pick up Out of Africa. [Also note that it's nothing like the movie.]
Another of my favourite books because it is full of stories within stories: Blixen became a kind of Sheherazade to her two sometime companions Denys Finch-Hatton and Berkeley Cole. But this book is also a clear-eyed depiction (not patronising) of the Kenya Blixen loved and a sad farewell to it at the same time.