THE READERS' THREAD PAGES
THE AGE OF INNOCENCE
Date sent: Thu, 03 Apr 1997 19:34:52 +0000
From: Martha
To: arezis@ntplx.net
Subject: Age of Innocence
I am finding that this book is no longer simple...
I feel badly for Newland Archer and May Welland because they seem to accept the boundries of convention soooo completely without any recourse.
I have read other books (granted more modern) about this time and I almost always end up angry at the narrow restrictions and the absolute rightousness of these people...
I think being poor and unknown is more free......
Marti
From: rossallan
Date sent: Tue, 8 Apr 1997 22:13:50 -0400
To: arezis@ntplx.net
Subject: The Boundaries of Convention
I doubt that Archer and Mary would be "happy" without the "boundaries" that existed in their society. The disappearance of those boundaries has made these current times tempestuous and complex. As one who has experienced poverty: know this - there's nothing "free" in being poor. We can't recapture our innocence; but we can remember it longingly. Incidently are the "well-to-do" all that different today?
Date sent: Wed, 09 Apr 1997 17:54:17 +0000
From: Martha L
To: arezis@ntplx.net
Subject: Age of Innocence
No perhaps the well to do are not different today -Not that I personally know any...
I just finished Chapter 10 - and I think you are right They might feel uncomfortable without restrictions....
However - It is not just the lack of restrictions that has put our society today into this temptuousness..There is a balance between all things. Too many boundries are just as binding as no boundries. Some how our society needs to find the middle. Just as a pendulum will eventually find the middle - but it sure swings back and forth a lot before then.
Marti
From: rossallan
Date sent: Thu, 10 Apr 1997 17:19:26 -0400
To: arezis@ntplx.net
Subject: The Age of Innocence
I wonder if this Chapter X would play about the same if JFK, Jr. were Archer; and Madonna or Darryl Hannah were Ms. Olenska? I think of another title for this work: The Loss of Innocence. Let's hope the pendulum will swing back a little. Just a few decades ago the concerns of the schools were gum-chewing and talking in class (Mary wouldn't do such); now there's serious talk of curfews and the like.
Is it not ironic that all of the disapproval of Ms. Olenska is what attracts Archer? At the same time Mary's conventionalism is causing Archer to become ambivalent.
Date sent: Mon, 14 Apr 1997 17:33:49 +0000
From: Martha L
To: arezis@ntplx.net
Subject: Age of Innocence
"The taste of the usual was like cinders in his mouth, and there were moments when he felt as if he were being buried alive under his future."
I am almost feeling sorry for Newland. It is hard to have everything decided and to still feel ambivalent.
I think that it is true that everyone's censure of Countess Olenski started the attraction...but I think her unconventional thoughts and ways are going to hook him.
The way Newland describes his mother-in-law to be I find scary..."The innocence that seals the mind against the imaginations and the heart against experience!" I think I would describe some cult members like that so unable to form even their own opinion - yet so willing to take on others opinions.
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