Tove Jansson, Ted Hughes, and fictional morality – welcome to episode 75!
We’re back after a bit of a break – and we’re doing poetry for the first time ever. In the first half of the episode, we discuss whether we are moral or amoral readers. Do we have the same morality in our reading as we do in real life? And does the author’s own morality affect our reading?
In the second half, we compare Ted Hughes’ collection of poetry Birthday Letters and Tove Jansson’s The Summer Book. We just about manage to find links!
You can support the podcast at Patreon, email us at teaorbooks[at]gmail.com, find us on iTunes or your podcast app of choice etc. Feel free to get in touch!
I mention a couple of other podcast episodes here – the one where Jenny and Jenny discuss fictional morality is here; my discussion about Jansson with Trevor is here.
The books and authors – and poems! – we mention in this episode are:
A Time to Dance, A Time to Die by John Waller
Dead Man’s Folly by Agatha Christie
The Mirror Crack’d From Side to Side by Agatha Christie
Alfred Tennyson
Hickory Dickory Dock by Agatha Christie
Chronicle of Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The True Deceiver by Tove Jansson
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
Dorothy L Sayers
The Restraint of Beasts by Magnus Mills
All Quiet on the Orient Express by Magnus Mills
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
Frenchman’s Creek by Daphne du Maurier
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
Macbeth by William Shakespeare
Daphne du Maurier by Margaret Forster
Letters From Menabilly by Daphne du Maurier
Oriel Malet
Diary of a Provincial Lady by E.M. Delafield
Mrs Miniver by Jan Struther
Ian McEwan
Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
V.S. Naipaul
Rudyard Kipling
Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor
Angel by Elizabeth Taylor
At Mrs Lippincote’s by Elizabeth Taylor
Mrs Tim of the Regiment by D.E. Stevenson
Excellent Women by Barbara Pym
Jane and Prudence by Barbara Pym
Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
Some Tame Gazelle by Barbara Pym
Agatha Christie as Mary Westmacott
‘Suttee’ by Ted Hughes
‘Daddy’ by Sylvia Plath
Ariel by Sylvia Plath
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
‘Wuthering Heights’ by Ted Hughes
‘Wuthering Heights’ by Sylvia Plath
‘Chaucer’ by Ted Hughes
Sun City by Tove Jansson
A Winter Book by Tove Jansson
Fair Play by Tove Jansson
Miss Hargreaves by Frank Baker
Miss Boston and Miss Hargreaves by Rachel Malik
I can cope with characters whose morals are different to mine to an extent, although nowadays there are lines I won’t cross. The morals of the author can be very problematic e.g Ezra Pound who wrote some wonderful poetry but turned into a raving facist. I’m still conflicted about this.
I loved The Birthday Letters when the book first came out. I have major problems with Hughes’ behaviour towards Plath but this calmed me a little about that. I do find it hard to read his poems however, and I suspect much of that is because of their marriage. I’m sure she was not an easy woman to be with at times, but still – no excuses for his behaviour.
I’ve become more okay with reading books with morals different from my own as my life experience has broadened and my own morals have become both more nuanced and stronger. I definitely have no problem putting down a book if I just can’t stomach it, morally speaking. As I’m thinking about it, if I trust an author, it’s easier to read books that have morals in them that I don’t agree with because I am confident that the author is not just in it for shock value.
I read The Summer Book a couple years ago and enjoyed it. It reminded me a bit of Roald Dahl’s memoir (Boy) with his memories of summers on an island off the coast of Norway. I didn’t know anything about Ted Hughes, so I enjoyed your discussion. I’ve been much more into poetry lately, so look forward to checking this out. Thanks Simon and Rachel!
Oh I read Boy such a long time ago and remember very little about it – that’s an interesting comparison, Elizabeth.
Thanks so much, Simon and Rachel, for the lovely recommendations about where to get started with Barbara Pym, Elizabeth Taylor, and D.E. Stevenson! :)
You’re very welcome, Rebekah!