Flight Behavior

by Barbara Kingsolver

Bought by KRH for Osher class Jan-Feb 2021, with Nicholas Coles; read again for the ELPC Environmental Book Club on 11/21/24. https://workingclassstudies.wordpress.com/2015/06/08/class-meets-climate-in-barbara-kingsolvers-fiction/ My review notes: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3679016367 Note the geographical shape and psychological pattern of the chapter titles. Here’s the class schedule: Jan. 27 intro Feb. 3 chapters 1-4 miracle Feb. 10 chapters 5-8 education Feb. 17 chapters 9-11 the competing stakes of science, farming, environmentalism, and news media in the butterfly story are dramatized with sharp humor Feb. 24 chapters 12-14 Note geographical expansion in chapter titles from man, etc. to global, earth,.and then contracting again trough continent, community, family dyadic, to singular. Book title: “If fight or flight is the choice, it’s way easier to fly.” loc. 3900, “the marriage flight” 5214,, “Fly less.” loc. 5600, “the reverence of an ox in the presence of flight” 6614, “fantasies of flight where there was no flight” 7111. “Our brains trick us. They say: Fight this thing right now, or run away from it.” Loc. 7259. The chapter titles are echoes of phrases within the chapter: Chapter 1 title loc. 258 she had failed to take his measure, 808 man of measure, 837 measure of her worth; and in ch. 12, loc. 5859 Chapter 2 title loc. 952 For years she’d crouched on a corner of this farm without really treading into Turnbow family territory, Chapter 3 title loc. 979 The church was a thriving little village of its own, with new kinds of congregational space forever being discussed or under construction. Chapter 4 title loc. 1264 She’d barely adjusted to her place in the center of a family controversy before being thrust into the limelight of a church congregation. And now this, the talk of a town. Chapter 5 title loc. 1801 “In a scandal of national proportions, the president was seen flirting today with a sexy Tennessee woman wearing pajamas outside the home.” National proportions, that part struck her as true somehow. Loc. 2042 A dining event of national proportions. Chapter 6 title loc. 2402 “Dellarobia was floored to think of these fragile creatures owning the span of a continent, from Canada to Mexico, moving back and forth across the wide face of a land.” Chapter 7 title loc. 2866 not exact but crucial: She was trying to keep the scientists out of her argument for keeping the mountain intact. Their wonder, their global worries, these of all things would not help her case with Cub. Teams had been chosen, and the scientists were not us, they were them. That’s how Cub would see it. Everyone had to play. And, at the end of the dollar store scene, loc. 2932, finding the monarch potholder, “Did they even have monarchs in China? She did not know. But somewhere far from here, someone had taken the trouble to get this exactly right.” Chapter 8 title loc. 3016 not exact but clever: Next he’s going to ask me how Santa gets all the way around the world in one night. Chapter 9 title loc. 3861 ““We are seeing a bizarre alteration of a previously stable pattern,” he said finally. “A continental ecosystem breaking down. Most likely, this is due to climate change. Really I can tell you I’m sure of that. Climate change has disrupted this system.” Chapter 10 title loc. 4325 - “Natural state” is Ovid’s nakedness, and is a slogan to attract tourists, and it’s exactly what the butterflies are NOT. Chapter 11 title loc. 5375 - ecology of butterflies as a species : “An animal is the sum of its behaviors,” he said finally. “Its community dynamics. Not just the physical body.” “What makes a monarch a monarch is what it does, you’re saying.” Chapter 12 title loc. 6050 - “the ants had to stay together almost always because of their kinship system.” Also ch. 14 loc. 7259 parallel families Chapter 13 title loc. Chapter 14 title loc. Ch. 11, 5214; 6711,

Cf. Marilynne Robinson, similar radiance of prose, a good bit more sparkle, if a bit less depth. And a Faulknerian sadness of misaligned relationships, agonizingly poor judgments and decisions, and a certain painful humor withal. Lengthy paragraphs, many with a punch at the end. Themes of hope and sadness at lost opportunities. She “dramatizes the discourses — science, religion, politics, sociology — that claim to interpret these effects.” ~ Nick Coles “What I like best is how perceptive Kingsolver is about hierarchies of concern, and how those hierarchies come to be constructed and reinforced, as well as how they crumble and shift.” ~ Megan Baxter And the similes! Many varieties: humorous, pointed, helpful, arbitrary, ouch, illuminating, Title 680, 3900, 5600, 6060, 6070, 6615, 7111, 7261 You have to read her slowly to absorb the nuanced settings and appreciate the cleverness and beauty. Notes: ecology, climate, environment Bible Haha Ouch - self esteem Simile, simile-metaphor, haha simile Uh-oh Title resonance: book and chapters Poverty, economics Gender roles 2 worlds Themes and connections: Science v. Media, ignorance Media - role, ethics, economics Nature - ecology, climate change, v. Man and civilization, Education - access and meaning, who knows what, sports v. college ignorance v. Doing - the one judges the other harshly Economics: costs and values, structures and needs, poverty and inequality, Poverty - intellectual, privilege, economic, spiritual Inequality - 2 worlds Religion - Bible, Nature, Science Relationships - to family, in-laws, friends, community, church, Family - marriage, children, gender roles Community - disturbed by the butterflies, scientists, media, economics Ecstasy - “one part rapture” p. 1 & loc. 6542 “The word that rose in her thoughts was partnership, and it thrilled and sent her reeling as such thoughts did, in a life spent flying from pillar to post.” Loc. 6065: she’s always looking for something better in a relationship and believes rapturously, thrillingly, ecstatically, that the next one will be *the one*. Also 4290, 4790, 6070, I became a Cub man! Finally, in Chapter 13, loc. 6464-6474 And ““It wasn’t all a waste,” she told him over and over, holding on. Some things they got right, she was sure of that. The children.” Ch. 14, loc. 7111.

Chapter 1: 14 haha 2 ouch 12 similes There’s something scintillating in every paragraph. Here are a few examples in addition to all the above: Wonderful phrases: Throwing your good life away is one part rapture, loc. 42 An ordinary wildness, loc. 80 Sweet closed eyelids, loc. 136 The disaster is the failed expectation, loc. 163 just to fill a hole nobody meant to dig in the first place, loc. 193 A forest fire, if that’s what it was, would roar. This consternation swept the mountain in perfect silence, loc. 250 Her thoughts clotted, loc. 258 The life she had recently left for dead was still waiting, loc. 283 Sadness filled her like water, loc. 291 saved by AA and the Mountain Fellowship church, local. 380 calamitously tilting in, loc. 387 an instrument of finesse, loc. 411 So the slaughterhouse had its attractions, all things considered, loc. 430 slightly overripe ladies, loc. 454 Be sweet and carry a sharp knife, loc. 515 the child’s devoted unconsciousness, loc. 516 innocent by reason of insanity, loc. 537 strange fortune, loc. 557 the redneck national anthem, loc. 716 Inadmissable thoughts, 725 underly endowed, loc. 725 full righteous outrage intact, loc. 772 quicksands of stupid, loc. 772 outrageous intent, loc. 800 falling off the marriage wagon, loc 800 deceits were beyond her husband’s range, loc. 942 a no-heller church, loc. 1056 one-liners-in-Christ, loc. 1064 Cross between lightning bugs and dirt (a smell), loc. 1064 combination of urine and mashed bananas, loc. 129 Something between tomatoes and a ladybug (a color), loc. Sunshine on a cloudy day Pyramid scheme Interesting energy loc. 2555 Butterfly lab, loc. 2565 Recreational envy, loc. 2595 criminally hoping, loc. 3034 I think Mother wants to worm the pregnant ewes today, loc. 3120 relishing her own existence in any form, loc. 3314 a bargain bin of dead people’s jewelry, loc. 3335 A continental ecosystem breaking down, loc. 3861 an anger-deficit problem, loc. 4005 racing toward a future like some complicated sand castle that was crumbling under the tide, loc. 4175 a vigil against the cold, loc. 4176 They couldn’t close out the whole world, maybe, but they could sure find something on their TV or radio to put scientists or foreigners or whatever they thought he was in a bad light, loc. 4358 gathering his gumption, loc. 4188 she’d quit smoking. Since stepping into the flammable atmosphere of Ovid Byron, loc. 4552 a medium-size pod of tardiness, loc. 4831 She had roaming capabilities, loc. 4884 Some universal junk-attraction principle, loc. 4921 a museum of people’s second thoughts, loc. 4984 trails of ruminant breathing, loc. 5206 a ponytailed pied piper in cowboy boots, loc. 5616 an outlandish composure, loc. 5641 answers whose questions had all died of natural causes, 5897 the inhospitable garden, loc. 5914 arboreal stoicism, loc. 5931 a fir colossus, loc. 6055 this child’s unaccountable poise in the midst of a life that had been wrecked, loc 6078 post-traumatic stew of panic and rejection, loc. 6428 The man could not hold on to tension with a baseball glove, 6437 the reverence of an ox in the presence of flight, loc. 6614 expressing himself with a hammer in an empty barn, loc. 6614 a glimpse of strange fortune, loc. 7276 the reckless thrill of being at sea, loc. 7305

one part rapture.

how one hard little flint of thrill could outweigh the pillowy, suffocating aftermath of a long disgrace.

The shame and loss would infect her children too,

Haha

the day when hope in all its versions went out of stock,

Haha

the heart had just one instruction left: run.

Simile

a sensible mother of two.

babies

Simile

All those hopes placed in such a precarious vessel.

Simile

Why?

Maybe she even craved the collapse, with an appetite larger than sense.

Whoever was in charge of weather had put a recall on blue and nailed up this mess of dirty white sky like a lousy drywall job.

Haha simile

Cleary,

Turnbow

today was the day she walked out of the picture. Distinguishing herself from the luckless sheep

enduring life’s bad deals.

Life was just one long proposition they never saw coming.

The condition of the roof was not encouraging.

Haha

Hester’s

Author is so mean to Hester, I hope there’s a moment of redemption, or at last appreciation.

an ordinary wildness

Cub

Cordelia

Why would she name he daughter after a tragic Shakespearean heroine?

Preston

These raspberry canes were a weird color for a plant, she noticed now, not that she would know nature if it bit her. But bright pink? The color of a frosted lipstick some thirteen-year-old might want to wear.

She had probably skipped that phase, heading straight for Immoral Coral and Come-to-Bed Red.

Haha

the little shack on the ridge they used for turkey hunting.

Back when they used their feet for something other than framing the view of the television set.

Haha

Younger, his friends would be.

Simile

In such strange times, they may have thought God was taking a hand in things and would thus take note of a lie.

??

New boots.

Haha

In the normal course of family events, every other thing got snatched

She’d once had a dream of birds pulling the hair from her head in sheaves to make their red nests.

the wettest fall on record?

Climate

urine and mashed bananas,

She’d pulled on the boots this morning as if she’d received written instructions.

If I can still hear them, they’re still alive is not a thought conducive to romance.

Haha

sweet closed eyelids.

Burley Turnbow,

doing things a person could never do with just normal life instead of a script.

the pill did nothing, probably expired, like everything on the premises.

Haha