I don’t remember exactly when it started, but there have been a few times in my life where I have thrown a book across the room after finishing because of how annoyed I am with the book.

You know, I want to say the first book thrown was during a course in Canadian Lit.

Some books just incite violence. I’m joking. I’m not into victim-blaming. And a book, after all, is simply a product of its context. If anything, I should be angry at the context. Hate the game and not the player. Or something. It’s been a long day and I’ve got all sorts of metaphors in my head to mix up.

The most recent book I threw to the ground was Tess of the D’Ubervilles. I tried giving J a synopsis but even that took a long time. Suffice to say that a naive girl is taken advantage of and unfairly treated. Despite her seemingly pure heart, she meets the short end of the stick on all accounts. Spoilers to follow. Her first abuser becomes her provider, against her wishes, and her second true love turns out to be just as hateful as the first, albeit for different reasons. Interestingly, both men (for that they are) justify themselves through misguided application of Scripture and Victorian morals of the time, including a foisting of any male wrongdoing onto the female.

I could go on but I don’t want to… it’d be an exercise in augh and I had enough of that in university. I wanted to stop reading after the assault. I think there’s enough heartbreak in the world. But then I thought that maybe there would be a better ending and… nope. It was bleak and upsetting right up until the end, without the salacious details, and that made it even more upsetting in some ways. George R.R. Martin could take some notes..

My only lit-related commentary on this novel is that the author is as much to blame as his two antagonists. In demonstrating the gross unfairness of the times in the life of a fictitious female, he, too, abuses the same character he holds up to be faultless. Tess isn’t treated poorly by two people but by three, and the third is the author, whose narration demonstrates that he endorses the same women-as-object perspective. Given that I’ve only read Tess though, of Hardy’s works, I’m likely jumping to conclusions.

More relevant to my next post is the massive resentment against the “Christian ideals” of the time that is present in his novel. If the antagonists’ behaviours are anything to go by, I’d be against “Christianity” too. The abuser is a dastard and, even after “conversion” tells Tess that she tempted him, as if she were responsible for his terrible choices. The true love confesses to Tess that he has committed indiscretions before marriage and yet condemns Tess for not being a virgin, saying that forgiveness is not applicable in her case. Both can quote Scripture readily and seem sure that they are on the side of the angels, yet Tess, who is more noble, more sacrificial, and so on, believes herself to be condemned and beyond redemption.

The greatest problem, and the one that makes me throw the book across the room, is that all three characters (or four, if you count the author, or you can fragment the author into his characters and just say three) continually operate on a broken understanding of Scripture, and that is where the heartache lies.

End of Phase the One (see, Hardy, I can do it too, lol).