Our first assigned play in school this semester (my Wilde/Shaw graduate seminar) was Lady Windermere's Fan, which I'd never read before. I was expecting something a little more like The Importance of Being Earnest and I certainly didn't get it. LWF isn't exactly what I'd call funny. There are funny moments, sure, but most of the play had a fairly serious, sometimes depressing A Doll's House feel to it. I also feel that the main problem doesn't resolve itself satisfactorily and that the ending is very abrupt.

We had to trace the path of the fan through the play and frankly I don't think it works successfully as a symbol. It seems to mean too many different things. Does it represent the relationship between Lady and Lord W? Does it symbolize power? Lady W's power? Power in general? Does it have something to do with Lord Darlington? Who knows. The fan moves around a lot, sure, but in too scattered a way, I think, to really succeed as a coherent symbol.

I was just in Toronto and on the plane home I read the latest Nora Roberts, Key of Valor. I couldn't believe how many mistakes I found that should have been caught in the editing process - "possible" instead of "possibly," misuses of apostrophes, incorrect contractions, etc. This woman's books sell more copies than anything I can think of, and yet they can't spring for a thorough edit before they get published? Sheesh.