21st Century Literature discussion

Discussion thread for chapters 61-82

I'll keep my full thoughts vague for a bit until more people finish it (if indeed they are reading it!), but I have to post that I just read the last half or whatever of the book in two sittings, I loved it so much. For me everything in this novel starts off shaky and off, and just improves until by the end I thoroughly adore this book.

I absolutely agree that it improves as it goes along. Though, I very much enjoyed the beginning.

Harbach's prose is often gorgeous. And I felt invested in the story the whole way through.

Sadly, I stick with my original criticisms. But they didn't ruin it for me. Still very good.

I thought that the character's personal journeys modified their clunky births. Taking Pella, whom you cited as disliking her introduction, which I quite strongly agree with you on, I thought that her brief and uncomfortable relationship with Henry gave her a completely different outlook and strength on her own internal struggles, and might have had more to do with getting back with Mike than the death of her father did.

Mike might have the most traumatic arc of anyone in the book, nearly paralyzed in his fear.

Mike was my favorite. Followed by Henry. And then Pella, who I liked better after that initial moment.

Here's some discussion questions I would dearly love to hear people's opinions on (after they finish the book)..I'm not just trying to foster posts here, I personally and honestly would love to hear some thoughts on these, if any of you would do me the honor...

#1: Owen is the only central character the author never writes in his own point of view. How did this effect your view of him, if any? What special significance does this have? Does this denote some importance, or the opposite?

#2: What importance does the Melville Moby Dick theme have to the arc of the story? As an online book club question guide for the book asks, "Monomania" - the obsessive pursuit of a single thing - is one of the major themes of Herman Melville's Moby-Dick. Is it also a major theme of The Art of Fielding? If so, for which characters, and in what ways?" - - I personally think this is a fascinating question.

#3: Why does Henry lose his accuracy? The accident? Or is the accident because of the accuracy?

I wanted to give others a chance to jump in. But they are obstinately silent. Great questions!

I thought Owen was sort of a static center. He doesn't change really. Things happen to him, but he seems not to be altered by those events. Only affected.

I saw Moby Dick for the first time about two years ago. I was surprised at how much I liked it, and briefly toyed with reading the book. I haven't though. I probably won't. Life is short. So many books. What can you do? I think the parallel is an interesting one, I like the question, but I confess it did not occur to me in the course of reading.

I don't know that the why is ever clarified really. And while we can consider why in the end the ailment seems idiopathic. It could be either the cause or the symptom. Or both at the same time.

I just finished it. I liked it a lot but I didn't love it and some of the reasons resonate with your questions.

The writing itself is beautiful. The characters actually seemed to me to be brought to life by the loveliness of the writing more than by their character traits. I felt Guelt's obsession with Owen was meant to be Ahab-like but I thought we were told that more than shown. I felt the strength of Henry's and Mike's obsessions more convincingly portrayed

Well I'd say that certainly the obsessions of Henry and Mike are more clearly similar, both in quest for something, failing that, find themselves temporarily broken men. Pella begins as a girl obsessed with skipping ahead in the story, achieving a failed starter marriage before her classmates graduate college as she puts it at one point.

Owen, you'll notice is referred to as "Buddha" by his teammates. He exists (to me) as a moral and spiritual center to the book, calm but responsive to the attentions of Guert, plays baseball, but reads in the dugout. Unflappable, philosophical, peaceful. To me, Owen is the pivot upon which this created and complete little world turns. A world unto itself is something all novels and symphonies are intended to be, IMHO.

I think Henry's failures ARE traceable to an extent. He makes the bad throw and continues the slide because of his fears, yes, but also his anger and resentments. Remember how angry he finds himself with Mike at the end of the book, when he's working over his feelings with a doctor. He can't shake the fury and rejection at his first lonely weeks at school when he feels ignored by him, and then feels essentially used by him after years of training. Fear of success is far more common and crippling than fear of failure in athletes (believe me, I work with this daily)

Fear of success is far more common and crippling than fear of failure"

That gets to the heart of it far more that the bad throw, I feel.

Deborah wrote: "Fear of success is far more common and crippling than fear of failure"

That gets to the heart of it far more that the bad throw, I feel."

But surely the bad throw was the catalyst, whereby Henry could only self-sabotage thereafter.

As a competitive athlete for many years, and as a professional coach of many now who struggle with under-performance, this subject occupies a lot of my thoughts daily. I believe the bad throw which caused the injury stemmed from the pressure/fear/anger, and the injury to his friend/roommate/largely sole support structure just magnified it a thousand times. But even if that ball had hit the dugout wall instead of Owen's face, he had already begun the downward slide. In my own athletes, I see them struggle with self-knowledge and belief and fear, and I'm left essentially powerless to help them directly. I can just try to pump them up as much as possible and hope they find a way to believe in themselves, and in time, to understand who they are as people.

I wonder if Henry would have been soothed if Pella had the opportunity to say all she thought, that if he didn't become the best shortstop if he never played baseball again that it would not be a tragedy, or if Mike had said it, before the last game before the total breakdown.

I agree with Will that the pressure may have caused the bad throw rather than the bad throw causing the spiral. But one could make an argument either way.

I agree with Will's assessment of Owen as a place of stillness and calm around which the rest of the characters spun and collided.

That's a really interesting idea, what effect would Pella have had if she had done any number of different things, or just at different times. She seemed to be the only thing that could break through his self-barriers (go figure). Good comment!

I just noticed in a GR discussion that http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/56... started a little list of Moby Dick/ Melville Allusions found in #4-5 I didn't catch myself!

I enjoyed this book for all the allusions to Melville. It made me feel like my English Major was really worth something! Here are the Melville/Moby Dick allusions I heard (that's right, I listened, so I'm sure I missed some):
1. The statue of Melville looking out of the quad toward Lake Michigan
2. The school's teams are called "The Harpooners"
3. Henry Skrimshander-- a reference to skrimshaw, the art of painting on whale teeth and bones practiced by many whalers.
4. Bartleby's--the bar near the campus, named for another Melville character, Bartleby the Scrivener
5. Henry's swim out to the middle of the lake alludes to the cabin boy, Pip, who loses his mind in Chapter 93 of Moby Dick in a similar fashion.
6. I loved the "Melville World Tour" T-shirts mentioned in the book

He asks if anyone else noticed others, the discussion is at http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/7...

I've arrived very late to this party, as I just finished reading The Art of Fielding this afternoon. I loved this book. I spent some time this afternoon trying to figure out just why I like it so much. I think it was the characters. We saw so much to identify with and so much growth is so many of them. I think it is very rare that an author takes on so many points of view, does all of them so well, and keeps all of them going so consistently through an entire book. As Will mentioned, we don't see Owen's point of view, and he does seem to be the still center around which everything else turns. I think that not hearing his thoughts directly also contributes to the perception of this character as calm, unflappable, thoughtful, and "the Buddha." Henry's bad throw -- I think I agree with Henry's assessment that it was a combination of him making a less than perfect throw, and the wind that caught and carried the ball. Neither alone would have produced such a catastrophic result. And it spooked Henry enough that he started over-thinking plays. I've never been an athlete, but I used to play classical piano somewhat seriously. With a piece I knew well, I could let it flow and play it beautifully, but if I started thinking about it too much, suddenly I was hitting wrong notes all over the place. I think fear of success contributed to Henry's breakdown, but, like the throw that hit Owen, I think more than one factor played together to cause that total collapse.

I loved this book, and I very much enjoyed reading the group's comments on it. I'm sorry I didn't discover this group sooner. (I found you around the time you finished Art of Fielding, and I joined in for the Marriage Plot.) Thanks for the discussions!