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Mature
Bear by Marian Engel
#3
I will hit Kayte's other discussion questions later, but this initial ramble pretty much covers What surprised you most about your reaction to this novel?.

First off, this is the kind of book I can absolutely imagine that Sally Rooney would have written if she were a Canadian feminist in the 1970s, and also not a coward. It's laconic and inexpressive and plain in style, about an ~intellectual, lonely modern woman, and Bear is obviously a love it/hate it kind of literary novel.

And somehow I, um, didn't actually hate it? no do NOT JUDGE ME YET!!!!!!!!!

At least for the first two thirds, I was reasonably enjoying this. Not totally my bag, and nothing was really happening except a woman categorising some old books and communing with nature, but it was heading for a solid two/three star review? Then came the bear sex, which does necessitate at least a star drop, because, man.

However. I wouldn't even file this under "weird erotica" because (I don't know if it was intended to be, but) it's definitely not erotic, her falling in love with a bear kind of just happens to be the main plot... and it's treated in a neutral, not entirely sensational way? I've got to agree with the Margaret Atwood description of the vibe here, it has half the air of a myth or a folktale and is half just plain plausible? The bear was literally just a poor partly-domesticated creature doing its thing, and (this was apparently important to me I guess????) it is never made out to be a particularly special ~sexy bear or anything. It's not described attractively. So that leaves Lou, the MC, as just a (mildly pathetic, dissatisfied and confused and emotionally empty) woman who, as it turns out, likes the bear licking her down there with its vertically ridged tongue. Sorry not sorry, if I had to suffer learning this y'all do too.

Disclaimer: I personally am coming from a place where the last expressly Canadian book I read this year dealt with incestuous children living in a remote Newfoundland cove; and also most of my classical language courses at uni came with a bestiality trigger warning (lol), so my tolerance for weird uncomfortable themes is probably high.

So to me (through a very weird lens, yeah, obvs) this book did deal interestingly with a woman's all-encompassing loneliness, sexual and otherwise, in her life; and that terrible human tendency to desperately impose feelings and patterns on the universe and nature to find some kind of meaning in it. She craves that bear sex so badly and people warn her the bear is still a wild animal and guess what?
Show

Anyway she finds a new sense of self and independent sexuality and lease on life, sort of. And when it is not describing the bear, the novella is about an archivist who spends a summer at an old house on a tiny Canadian island sorting out a collection of dusty VE books, being isolated and thinking about the romantic poets (and "getting high on Trelawny", loooooool) and swimming. These are kind of my weaknesses. (You know that line about "people who think that the ending of Midsommar (Ari Aster, 2019) is a takeaway about female empowerment would absolutely successfully be indoctrinated into a cult"? Because, yeah, for most of this novel I was kind of drawn in and seeing the appeal of the lifestyle........... that said, I would just like to publicly affirm that in spite of that, I would not, and never will, choose to fuck a bear.)

So, this was weird and bad and uncomfortable, but did not make me rage as some books do? Do not @ me.

In summary?
[Image: CbDA0m1.png]




look ANOTHER beautiful bee!set <3


Messages In This Thread
Bear by Marian Engel - by Elias Grimstone - August 21, 2022 – 6:44 PM
RE: Bear by Marian Engel - by Persephone Broadmoor - August 21, 2022 – 7:57 PM
RE: Bear by Marian Engel - by Elias Grimstone - August 21, 2022 – 8:08 PM
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