Of Human Bondage

Welcome to the middle of the week!

First off, my apologies to anyone who read the title of this post and got excited about the topic: in all likelihood, you’re probably about to be subsequently disappointed.

I really racked my brains over what to write for today’s post. For a while there, I strongly considered just letting it go and not doing a post: tempting. Verrrrry tempting. But then I thought about having recently (finally) finished Somerset Maugham’s ‘Of Human Bondage’, and wanted to report back on the experience. Mainly because, despite the fact that it was pretty long and sometimes a bit slow, there were a lot of thought-provoking things about this novel. Also, apparently (so Wiki reliably informs me) it’s been ranked by Modern Library as #66 on it’s list of the 100 best English novels of the 20th Century. So there you go.

To give you some context, the main character, Philip, is an introspective fellow with a club foot. Really, having a club foot sounds like it probably isn’t really that important to the tale, but Philip’s perception of it is so crucial to his personal paradigm, that it is affects almost everything he does in his formative years and thus forms the habits for the remainder of his life. After being orphaned at a young age, he’s sent to live with his aunt and uncle, who strongly advocate for him to become a clergyman; however, towards the end of his schooling, Philip abandons this in favour of making his own way. And after a series of other events, he heads to Paris to study art.

Now, number one on my list of thought-provoking events was a particular scene (on page 300 of the Kindle version, for anyone following along at home and desperate to have a point of reference) that occurs while Philip is living in Paris. After a particular traumatic experience (which, for everyone’s sake, I’ll leave up to you to discover), Philip asks one of the art teachers whether he has any talent. Monsieur Fontaine replies to him

“But if you were to ask me my advice, I should say: take your courage in both hands and try your luck at something else. It sounds very hard, but let me tell you this : I would give all I have in the world if someone had given me that advice when I was your age and I had taken it… It is cruel to discover one’s mediocrity only when it is too late. It does not improve the temper.” 

So it made me think: are we better having someone tell us the truth of things so that we can adjust our lives accordingly? I mean, Monsieur Fontaine seemed to think so.

I’m undecided.

I think as human beings, most of us write for the magic of it and the enjoyment we get out of it, yes… But I also feel that the vast majority of us need some kind of external validation of our work. As much as I love writing, part of the thrill is the idea that one day perhaps I will share it with someone else who finds it just as enchanting as I do. The other question is, how many times has someone arbitrarily decided that something (regardless of what it was) wasn’t good enough, only for it later to be decided by someone else that it was amazing?

A million.

[Probably. I actually have no idea how many times it’s happened, but it’s a few.]

So then, I think all we can do is keep on, keeping on. Some people will love what you do, some people will hate it, and as you grow and develop in your craft, those people may (or may not) change their minds. But the continuous pursuit of improvement, of beauty, of a way to reach others, must continue.

I enjoyed reading ‘Of Human Bondage’, so if you’ve ever done the same, please let me know! It’s a complex and interesting study of finding meaning in life, and now I can feel secure in the knowledge that I’ve actually read something of his when reading my Somerset Maugham biography (at some point). But, for now, I can at last start on Terry Pratchett’s ‘The Colour of Magic’. I’ve never read any Pratchett before, which I know makes me a complete punk, so I’ll remedy this in the coming weeks. I’m hoping to start it tonight and read it during our camping adventure this weekend (SO EXCITED!). 

Wednesdays are also scheduled as an active recovery day in James’ training program, which means we go swimming today: and if I’m nothing else, I’m a good swimmer. It’s always an enjoyable feeling to return to something you’re good at… Though right now I’m also really quite tired, so we’ll see how I feel after today!

New book, swimming, an untried gnocchi plan for dinner: it’s all happening here people! Tune back in on Friday to hear about our pavlova adventures last weekend, see a goofy photo of me and read more about the Aussie Expat Adventures!