"No two persons ever read the same book" ~ Edmund Wilson
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Thursday, May 26, 2011
Mennonite Disccusion #1
Summary: This is where you can say anything you want regarding the book. Hate it, love it, indifferent, your favorite quote, your SAY WHAT moment, etc. and so on. This is your time, use it wisely.
This is a list of my favorite quotes. I love quotes. I LOOOOOVE quotes.
I don't have chapters and whatnot for reference. My kindle does not have page numbers and location numbers would only make it more confusing.
In no particular order:
1. (This is when they are in Denny's and her father is praying aloud) "Why should God grant one request when another supplicant is asking for the opposite? Why should one believer have the hubris to think her needs deserve special attention in the global schema?....It's when people start expecting divine intervention that I get nervous, because that's when they start hearing the voice of God telling them, for instance, to go kill a bunch of people in Iraq"
2. "Cold cuts, like dildos, bring a welcome element of surprise to any family gathering"
That's just funny.
3. (Hannah and Phil sending their daughter to a Catholic school) "...but Phil and Hannah had decided that Christian guilt was better than bad math."
This had me conflicted. Funny, yes. But also sadly true.
4. "Is it ever really a waste of time to love someone, truly, and deeply, with everything you have?"
One of the discussion questions used this quote. I love it. I don't think Rhoda even knows what the hell she is talking about, but good quote.
5. "But in my version, Eve wouldn't run away and hide. She'd invite God to sit down and take a load off. 'I've made an Apfelstrudel,' she'd say"
Is that blasphemous? I lol'ed when I read this, and I don't typically lol.
6. (On her brother) "But it spoke volumes that this man, who knew nothing about dance and who had probably never danced a step in his own life, was prepared to go without a second car so that his daughter could ripple like water. "
Amazing. That's the kind of parent I strive to be.
7. "Funny to have a board game, banned and censored for centuries, whose punch line is the literal act of reading"
8. "I used to think that virtuous people, for instance nuns, or even my mother, existed as a kind of Darwinian opposite to pederasts and serial killers"
9. "I want to know if they think we can change our core assumptions about what we believe. About how we believe."
10. "The family that shits together knits together"
11. "And if we had been created, hadn't we also created God?"
I (mostly) enjoyed reading this book. I'll admit that there were parts I had to re-read because after reading the words ten times they still had not sunk in. There were quite a few pages that were just boring and hard to read. However, overall, I actually liked it....I don't think the book is what I thought it would be. Not that I had a preconceived notions about a Mennonite wearing a little black dress...
What did I learn about Mennonites? -Sex is a big no no -Dancing is a big no no -Charity is important -Everyone is a great cook.
One of my favorites from the book:
(re: Mennonite church services - Chapter 1) .......No matter who you are, you do not snooze through this man's sermons. Even if you are an atheist, you find yourself nodding and thinking, Preach it, minter!
Well, not nodding. Maybe you imagine you're nodding. But in this scenario you are in a Mennonite church, which means you sit very still and worship Jesus with all your heart , mind, and soul, only as if a snake had bitten you, and you are now in the last stages of paralysis.
If you have spoken to me in person since I read this book, you know my favorite quote because I have tried to work it into every conversation possible.
"There was a soldier standing on a hill, making potato salad in his pants."
I'm not sure if it is the quote that gets me, or Mother's response. When Rhoda asks her mom why the soldier was making potato salad in his pants. Her mother turn the question around and asks why do we have to know? Why can't it just be what it is? I think that if we were to take this approach to more external problems around us (and by we/us, I mean I/me) then well...I don't know.... I guess what I got from the whole story was to enjoy silly songs and not try to over analyze them. Enjoy them, then move on. Stop thinking about potato salad, and how it is being made.
BTW, has anyone else ever heard the phrase "making potato salad" this way? I had not. I literally laughed out loud so hard that all the students in the class i was subbing in stopped and looked at me.
5 comments:
This is going to be loooong.
This is a list of my favorite quotes. I love quotes. I LOOOOOVE quotes.
I don't have chapters and whatnot for reference. My kindle does not have page numbers and location numbers would only make it more confusing.
In no particular order:
1. (This is when they are in Denny's and her father is praying aloud)
"Why should God grant one request when another supplicant is asking for the opposite? Why should one believer have the hubris to think her needs deserve special attention in the global schema?....It's when people start expecting divine intervention that I get nervous, because that's when they start hearing the voice of God telling them, for instance, to go kill a bunch of people in Iraq"
2. "Cold cuts, like dildos, bring a welcome element of surprise to any family gathering"
That's just funny.
3. (Hannah and Phil sending their daughter to a Catholic school)
"...but Phil and Hannah had decided that Christian guilt was better than bad math."
This had me conflicted. Funny, yes. But also sadly true.
4. "Is it ever really a waste of time to love someone, truly, and deeply, with everything you have?"
One of the discussion questions used this quote. I love it. I don't think Rhoda even knows what the hell she is talking about, but good quote.
5. "But in my version, Eve wouldn't run away and hide. She'd invite God to sit down and take a load off. 'I've made an Apfelstrudel,' she'd say"
Is that blasphemous? I lol'ed when I read this, and I don't typically lol.
6. (On her brother)
"But it spoke volumes that this man, who knew nothing about dance and who had probably never danced a step in his own life, was prepared to go without a second car so that his daughter could ripple like water. "
Amazing. That's the kind of parent I strive to be.
7. "Funny to have a board game, banned and censored for centuries, whose punch line is the literal act of reading"
8. "I used to think that virtuous people, for instance nuns, or even my mother, existed as a kind of Darwinian opposite to pederasts and serial killers"
9. "I want to know if they think we can change our core assumptions about what we believe. About how we believe."
10. "The family that shits together knits together"
11. "And if we had been created, hadn't we also created God?"
I (mostly) enjoyed reading this book. I'll admit that there were parts I had to re-read because after reading the words ten times they still had not sunk in. There were quite a few pages that were just boring and hard to read. However, overall, I actually liked it....I don't think the book is what I thought it would be. Not that I had a preconceived notions about a Mennonite wearing a little black dress...
What did I learn about Mennonites?
-Sex is a big no no
-Dancing is a big no no
-Charity is important
-Everyone is a great cook.
One of my favorites from the book:
(re: Mennonite church services - Chapter 1)
.......No matter who you are, you do not snooze through this man's sermons. Even if you are an atheist, you find yourself nodding and thinking, Preach it, minter!
Well, not nodding. Maybe you imagine you're nodding. But in this scenario you are in a Mennonite church, which means you sit very still and worship Jesus with all your heart , mind, and soul, only as if a snake had bitten you, and you are now in the last stages of paralysis.
I still feel like we haven't properly discussed this book.
Maybe we should meet (in Bham??) once a month to drink coffee, wine or whatever and hash it out.
If you have spoken to me in person since I read this book, you know my favorite quote because I have tried to work it into every conversation possible.
"There was a soldier standing on a hill, making potato salad in his pants."
I'm not sure if it is the quote that gets me, or Mother's response. When Rhoda asks her mom why the soldier was making potato salad in his pants. Her mother turn the question around and asks why do we have to know? Why can't it just be what it is? I think that if we were to take this approach to more external problems around us (and by we/us, I mean I/me) then well...I don't know.... I guess what I got from the whole story was to enjoy silly songs and not try to over analyze them. Enjoy them, then move on. Stop thinking about potato salad, and how it is being made.
BTW, has anyone else ever heard the phrase "making potato salad" this way? I had not. I literally laughed out loud so hard that all the students in the class i was subbing in stopped and looked at me.
I've never heard of "making potato salad" in this way. I will say though, I laughed pretty hard when that was the toast for my 30th b-day.
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