'Without books I'm nothing'

The title of this post is a quotation from Jeanette Winterson's live webchat with the Guardian last week. I love Jeanette Winterson. I'd read Oranges quite a few years ago and rediscovered her in 2010, when my then boyfriend recommended some of her others the day after we met. I've since read The Passion, Sexing The Cherry and the wonderfully moving Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?, which my friend Alice has just read and also adored. Alice has been working on a great literary web venture, which I will link to when it's a little more complete - I don't think the site is finished yet. Jeanette's webchat was great to follow - I find her views incredibly interesting and feel embarrassingly ignorant when I see how passionate and well-read she is.

I've been meaning to post a small continuation of the post about love for literary characters. Thinking about it more made me question whether unrequited love can sometimes be similar to literary love - it's a fantasy in which the inflicted tends to fill in the gaps or unknowns. Maybe that's true of requited love also. Having not been in love for years, I can't really say.

The final few mentions then.

My same sex desire was for Sappho in Sappho's Leap by Erica Jong, which I really must reread. Sappho's love (both of song/words and a man she hadn't seen for many years) drove her on through all the strife and trials faced in Greek mythology. As a quick background, Sappho was an Ancient Greek poet from the island of Lesbos. Little about her life is known but I've been told that her affairs with both men and women (very common in Ancient Greece - their attitudes towards sex are very interesting and probably sensible), combined with the name of the island she's from, gave birth to the word 'lesbian' as a term to describe a sexuality. Only fragments of Sappho's poetry and songs survive but many were shaped around love. The legend tells that she jumped off a rock to her death due to her unrequited love for Phaon, a young man. Erica Jong gives Sappho a voice - much like Margaret Atwood does for Penelope in The Penelopiad which I've also read recently.

I think I had strong feelings for the passionate 'violet-haired, pure, honey-smiling Sappho'. She showed resilience and faith and had some great lyrics, as well as one-liners such as 'are you challenging me to grant you the gift of my virginity?'

I asked a friend from work his thoughts on falling in love with fictional characters. His first answer was 'Lady Macbeth'! When I implored him to be serious, he admitted to having loved Trillian from The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy. I read that years ago and can't really remember her character. I think she was quite gutsy by comparison to Arthur Dent who could, at times, be a little pathetic. That may be harsh, though - I'm not sure how strong I'd be if I learnt my world had just been 'built on' and all I had was a towel.

It's great to have some more ladies on the list. I'm sure I've loved as many ladies as men. I'm currently listening to Dickens' David Copperfield and Miss Betsey Trotwood is incredible!

This post feels slightly wordy, yet it's difficult to post images and clips when thinking along literary lines. This lovely little song can be a reward for anyone who may read this, plus it fits in very slightly. Julia blames Hollywood. I blame literature and happy endings.