Sunday, November 22, 2009

For Credit: Sterne's Sentimental Journey

Post here any questions or reflections you have here on your initial encounter with Laurence Sterne's Sentimental Journey.

Deadline: Monday after break, start of class.
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6 comments:

Whitney said...

After beginning Laurence Sterne's Sentimental Journey, I could tell right away that it would not be an easy read. I found the format of his writing style rather easy to tackle, however, as he splits up the reading in a section-by-section format as Yorick travels. I enjoyed reading about his encounter with the monk, seeing that these inital interactions allude to themes that I think will be present throughout the entirity of the book. Yorick does not want to donate his "sous," and makes it off right away that this is the case. The monk, however, puts this decision into question. My prediction is that this will continue to happen throughout the novel, as Yorick slowly becomes more and more "sentimental."

November 23, 2009 at 6:23 PM
Anonymous said...

I read the Prologue three or four times. I found that I was reading the first page, but not actually retaining anything. It wasn't until I started reading aloud in a very high-pitched voice to annoy my sisters that it clicked with me what was happening! As soon as I got to Calais, the novel was a lot easier to understand. I also liked the part about the Monk. It was very interesting how Yorick muses that a "man at peace with man...pulls out his purse, and holding it airily and uncompress'd, looks round him, as if he sought for an object to share it with." Yet, when a Catholic monk asks for donation for his convent, Yorick is unwilling to let go of any money at all and gives him a lecture about begging when Yorick has "left thousands in distress upon [his] own shore." I like how this ironically places Yorick with those "kind-hearted brethren" that have "fall[en] out so cruelly" when only moments before he was resolved to not become one of them by giving away his money.

November 25, 2009 at 12:58 PM
LaurenBurke said...

In the introduction, the editors tell us that "Stern wrote a book replete with mischievously lewd wordplay, which frankly and comically explores Yorick's often questionable responses to the chance encounters with women that his journey throws up" (p.xx). I am afraid that I am going to gloss over these double meanings in the book. Even after being in this class for the semester, I am still very unfamiliar with this language and can foresee myself missing an important double meaning.
Also, while reading, I noticed there are end notes in the back of the book (in my edition) that correspond with the markings in the text. It is too cumbersome for me to keep flipping back and forth while reading and it also causes me to lose my train of thought to keep switching back and forth. I have resigned to not reading them and hope this will not effect my understanding of the text too much! What do other people think about these end notes (if you have an edition that does something similar)? Do you think they chose to put the notes at the end instead of on the actual page because all of the notes aren't essential? This way so you could choose what comments you wanted to read and not be bothered by the explanations that seemed obvious to you (which would probably be different to each reader)? Just something I was curious about :)

November 29, 2009 at 9:06 PM
Taylor Pinion said...

The part I found most frustrating about the first part of Sentimental Journey was the dialogue. I had a really tough time deciphering who was talking, especially on the opening page. Yorick is having a conversation about the droits d'aubaine with his gentleman, but the men's statements almost run together (3). Moreover, I often found myself confusing Yorick's vocalized thoughts with his internal thoughts, because they were generally only separated by a comma. After a few pages, I began to get the hang of it, but I still find myself backtracking at times to figure out who, if anyone, is actually speaking.

November 29, 2009 at 9:24 PM
Ian Cottle said...

I pretty much agree with everything said so far. Just like Lauren, I've resigned myself to not reading the endnotes (unless KW shows up and says they're crucial). It's inconvenient that they are only numbered by page, and I found that they weren't that enlightening, at least for the ones I made the effort to look up. I think it will also be tough for me to pick out all the double entendres and word play; I still don't feel like I have a comfortable or accurate tone in my head when I read this work. Finally, to add a comment of my own to the discussion, I cannot stand the punctuation style. I know it's a pretty minor quibble, but Sterne's constant use of the dash really grates on me. It breaks up my reading, since Sterne likes to use it for various purposes: sometimes to start off a new line of dialog, sometimes as a start for a new paragraph, sometimes to set off appositives, etc. Of course, all of these are small complaints, and hopefully by the end the book will have won me over.

November 30, 2009 at 9:34 AM
Will Xiao said...

I agree. I had a hard time reading the text as well, particularly figuring who is speaking. I didn't realize I was re-reading a bunch of parts.

December 2, 2009 at 10:02 AM

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