Woo hoo, tomorrow Daylight Savings starts here in eastern Australia and I can’t wait. I love the longer nights, and not being woken by the birds so early in the morning. But that’s tomorrow, today is Six Degrees of Separation day. Most of you know by now what that means, but for those who don’t, Six Degrees of Separation is a meme that is currently hosted by Kate (booksaremyfavouriteandbest). Click on the link on her blog-name to see her explanation of how it works.
I’m excited this month because it’s one of those rare occasions where I’ve read the starting book, which is SE Hinton’s The outsiders. It’s a YA novel, but I didn’t read it I didn’t read it when I was a young adult. I read it in fact for a course on children’s literature for my librarianship studies. I loved the course, and I really enjoyed this book. SE (Susan) Hinton wrote this, her first book, while she was still at high school.
I got that piece of information from Wikipedia, which also told me that she’s a private person who loves reading. The first author they list that she likes to read was – guess! Yep, Jane Austen! Now, which Jane Austen novel (or novels) have I not yet included in these Six Degrees posts? Emma (my review) … so I’ll make that my next link.
Now, Austen fans will know Austen’s famous statement about Emma. She wrote in a letter than “I am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like.” And it’s sort of true. There are people who don’t like Emma much. A recent novel I read which includes a character who, her author knows, some don’t like is Michelle de Kretser’s The life to come (my review). The character is Pippa, whom de Kretser herself doesn’t dislike!
But now, moving along. The life to come was de Kretser’s second Miles Franklin win. I have read and reviewed here another book that was its author’s second Miles Franklin win, Kim Scott’s That deadman dance (my review). In case you are interested, he won his first MF award with Benang: From the heart.
One of the important things about Scott’s novel is the different perspective it offers on the colonisation of Australia – an indigenous perspective. Another book by an indigenous author exploring colonisation from a different point of view – this one dystopian – is Claire G Coleman’s Terra nullius (my review)
From here I thought I could link to another book with characters from another planet, but not being a big reader of speculative fiction I don’t think I have any (since blogging at least). So, I’m going to stay with the colonisation theme, and choose another book looking at it from a different perspective, this one feminist. The book is Mirandi Riwoe’s The fish girl (my review).
Besides looking at colonisation, Riwoe’s Fish girl is a riff on – or a response to – an earlier text, Somerset Maugham’s short story, “The four Dutchmen.” This suggests a good last link, Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad (my review) which many of you will know is her take – her feminist take – on the Odyssey.
And so we come to the end of another Six Degrees meme, one that has taken us from 1960s to early 19th century England, and then to Australia where we spanned more than two centuries. We then crossed the sea just to Australia’s north – Indonesia – before finally time-travelling way back to Ancient Greece where we landed a long way from Hinton’s Oklahoma!
And now, over to you: Have you read The outsiders? And, regardless, what would you link to?
Whispering Gums 
Yay for daylight savings! I’m happy too, the birds in Melbourne are early-birds too 🙂
I loved The Outsiders as a teenager and watched the movie a few times too. Because of the character called Soda-Pop, I would link this to The Coca Cola Kid by Frank Moorhouse (a weird movie which came from some of his short stories).
Haha, good link idea Rose. I haven’t read that Morehouse nor seen the movie though have read a couple of his short stories.
Well done, Sue, I like your links, and I’ve read every one of them except the starter book…
so different to Kate’s where I haven’t read a single one of them…
Thanks Lisa… No Kate’s were very different weren’t they. I’d heard of a couple, but that’s it.
Hi Sue, yes, my body is already in tune with daylight saving. I too like your links, but mine traveled a different chain. From The Outsiders to the The Messenger by Markus Zusak, (again YA);, Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess;The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins; The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier, True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey and Too Afraid to Cry by Ali Cobby Eckermann.
Haha Meg I grumbled last weekend that we’d missed out by a day and had to wait another whole week!
Enjoyed your links.
Your special talent of including a JA reference in as many #6degree posts as possible is truly amazing!
Love all the Aussie books on this month’s post too.
Haha Brona … I had to do it!
BTW Did you get my comment on yours? You say you are moderating them all, but when I posted my comment I didn’t get the note you often get saying “Your comment is waiting moderation” so I wasn’t sure whether it went through or not. I think I sent it twice as a result.
Sigh I don’t know why blogger makes the whole commenting thing so difficult, but, no I did not get your comment/s. A recent update doesn’t seem to have solved any of the problems either.
I did look at migrating to wp, but the loss of all my hyperlinks was more than I could bear! As well as the ability to play around with some of css & HTML coding.
Darn it … I’ll try one more time. I couldn’t comment on Louise’s A strong belief in wicker the other other day. I’m sorry but I have to say that I groan internally whenever I have to face a blogger blog. I don’t know what coding you want to play around with but I find WP pretty flexible. (You can self host – but that costs of course – to really play around it.) I know I can’t convince you but the whole commenting thing does, I suspect, lose you readers. (That may not be important to you.) The AWW Challenge, as you probably know – I can’t recollect when you joined – converted from Blogger to WP, but that was after only a couple of years so there was less to worry about. Just saying 😉
I had an interesting discussion with blogger help in the end Sue & I’ve updated my comment page to reflect what I learnt (copied below).
A recent discussion with blogger admin revealed that the ability to post comments “is sensitive to both cookie and script filters. Your readers may need to enable (stop filtering) ‘third party cookies’, in their browser and on their computer. And, have them check their script filters, too. Third party cookies filtering, in a browser setting, is the most common solution. Filters are subject to update, by the creator. If the problem started a few days ago, your readers may have to look on their computers, and find out what product or accessory was updated, a few days ago.”
I hope this helps. Using a different browser for a while was another suggestion.
I had also heard that Safari is often a problem on mobiles so I checked my setting and found that it wasn’t using google as it’s default browser. I’ve now changed this and I can reply to comments on my blog again 🙂
I’ll be curious to see if any of the above helps you out with blogger – fingers crossed.
Hi Brona, I’m sorry you had to do this. I’ve already commented on your blog, but I’ll add here that I do use Safari on my devices, mostly, but my Safari is hooked into Google. I do have another browser – Opera – on my iPad but I use it to keep separate some work I do for an organisation. It uses Google too. In other words, Google is and always has been my default browser everywhere I that I browse.
I don’t have any cookie filtering on my lap-top. The option under Preferences to “block cookies” is NOT checked which I take to mean I’m not filtering them. Any site that asks me to “accept cookies” I accept. On my iPad under Safari, it’s the same: the “block all cookies” option is turned off. I certainly haven’t installed any third party filters (and I’ve checked with Mr Gums who manages my laptop and he says I have no filters.) So, I really don’t think this is it, because I comment on several blogger blogs and they all behave differently. Some, like Louise’s, rarely give me a problem whereas yours does at least half the time. I have no idea why that would be. As I think I’ve said, I run a blogger blog too – and I’ve always been able to comment on it. But it is basic (ie I don’t fiddle at all with it or with the theme I’ve chosen) and, as the admin on it, it may be that I’m special anyhow!?!
Thanks for taking the time to check Sue.
I thought I had google as my safari default too, but it obviously changed after the last update. I wouldn’t have to check unless I’d jumped into the forum last night. So it was worth it for that.
Here in the U.S. there are still a few more weeks before our time changes. I wake up in the dark year round, and so cannot say that will change for me. I do prefer it when the sun is out longer though–when I come home from work in the dark it feels like the entire day is lost. 😦
I enjoyed reading your list! It’s always fun to see how we each connect the books. I loved The Outsiders–and Emma. I admit I didn’t like Emma initially, but the more I time that passes after reading the book, I find I quite like her. Of the Austen characters I have met so far, she is the one who grows the most over the course of her novel.
I didn’t know The Penelopiad was a feminist take on The Odyssey! Now I must read it! I don’t know too much about Atwood’s novels other than a handful of them. I loved The Handmaid’s Tale and have only read one other besides that by her–so far.
I hope you have a great weekend!
I know what you mean about Emma, Literary Feline. She was my least favourite Austen for quite a long time, and yet, as you say, she’s the one who grows the most, followed by Marianne in Sense and sensibility, I’d say.
And, thanks for commenting. I’ll come visit your blog.
Good books and I could point out that Scott and Coleman are actually of the same Noongar language sub group, the Wilomin from around Ravensthorpe WA. But what I really commend you for is reminding me that Eastern Summer Time has commenced. I’m on the way over and had forgotten.
Haha Bill. Glad to have been of use to a hard working truckie. And thanks for the point a out Scott and Coleman.
I have not read The Outsiders but it still seems impressive that SE Hinton wrote it while so young.
Your links between these books are neat and imaginative.
Unfortunately, here in the Northern Hemisphere Daylight Savings Time will be ending soon.
Thanks Brian, as I’ve said before, this is a fun meme.
It’s funny how you descend to winter as we look forward to warmth isn’t it. Yes, science explains it but still…
What a brilliant chain Sue (and I’ve read them all except the Scott!) – and you got your Austen in by stealth 🙂 Particularly love your link to The Life to Come – I didn’t love this book at the time of reading but the character of Pippa has certainly endured in my memory.
Thanks Kate… It’s nice when you’ve read the links isn’t it? I think if you remember a character in a book it means it’s been a powerful read? Pippa is vivid isn’t she?
Pippa is very well done (as are the fictitious writers festivals!).
Yes, they are great aren’t they … she skewers some aspects of our lives so beautifully.
The only one I’ve read from your list is The Outsiders, but so many of them are on my to-read list, especially The Life to Come, Terra Nullius and Kim Scott’s books.
My 6 Degrees went a different way, which is not surprising since no two chains are the same: https://www.melindatognini.com.au/6-degrees-of-separation-from-the-outsiders-to-after-this/
Thanks Melinda. I’ll come and look at yours.
I absolutely love your first link between The Outsiders and Emma! I had a difficult time starting my chain this month, and yours kicks off in a very clever and unexpected way. I really want to read The Penelopiad soon, and The Fish Girl sounds interesting as well.
Thanks Jessie. I had fun with that first link. Penelopiad and The fish girl are good reads … and short!
Very nice chain. Any chain that includes a Jane Austen link is a winner.
Haha, thanks Tracy.