Happy New Year!
This post about John Steinbeck’s East of Eden, and the accompanying Journal of a Novel, is a little different from some of the other bookish memories I’ve shared so far, in that I still haven’t read Journal of a Novel (as you’ll see), and because the memory is actually in two parts.
Part 1: School Days
I chose East of Eden as the subject of a term paper in my junior year of high school. I loved that sprawling saga and its modern portrayals of Cain and Abel. In my research, I came across an interesting quote attributed to Steinbeck’s Journal of a Novel. That, I knew, had to be a goldmine of material for my paper.
Back in the olden times before Amazon, it wasn’t quite so easy to lay hands on any book you wanted, any time you wanted it. The book wasn’t in our school or county libraries, and if I looked for it at any of the local bookstores, it probably didn’t occur to me then to ask them to order it for me. I might have looked into interlibrary loan, but we had a limited window of time for the assignment. In spite of efforts to lay claim to a copy of the East of Eden letters, I ended up writing my paper without them.
For my paper, I explored the themes around timshel, a Hebrew word given prominence in the story. And to be perfectly transparent, I remembered the word itself, but nothing at all about those themes or even the meaning of the word. I had to fish around in the book to find this:
Lee’s hand shook as he filled the delicate cups. He drank his down in one gulp. “Don’t you see?” he cried. “The American Standard translation orders men to triumph over sin, and you can call sin ignorance. The King James translation makes a promise in ‘Thou shalt,’ meaning that the men will surely triumph over sin. But the Hebrew word, the word timshel–‘Thou mayest’–that gives a choice. It might be the most important word in the world. That says the way is open. That throws it right back on a man. For if “Thou mayest’–it is also true that ‘Thou mayest not.’ Don’t you see?” [East of Eden, p303]
For what it’s worth, I made an A on my paper. It’s probably tucked away in a file folder around here somewhere.
Part 2: Many years later
(Well, twenty or so. It’s funny that none of this seems so awfully long ago, even the parts I’ve forgotten.)
In 2018, one of my writing goals was to strengthen my plotting skills, and to that end, I selected several pairs of books to reread and analyze. The plan, loosely defined, was this:
- Why Did I Love/Hate That Novel? by Brandilyn Collins & Gone South by Meg Moseley. Analyze the structure and pick out the beats and bits that made me love Moseley’s novel so much.
- How to Write Plot Twists by Brandilyn Collins & Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier. Study the set-up and execution of twists in that delicious classic.
- East of Eden and Journal of a Novel. Read them both. Learn something valuable. Possibly finish what I started as a high school junior.
And indeed I did purchase a copy of Journal of a Novel somewhere along the way. The internet makes everything so easy. Too easy, maybe.
Then and Now
Alas, the best laid plans–oops, wrong reference. Of many goals set for 2018, some came to fruition. Others did not. Now another year lies ahead, a junction of choices, priorities, goals–and yes, doubts and dreams warring like rival siblings.
But isn’t every day just such a junction, and every decision inherently embedded with notions of timshel as Steinbeck understood it? I think so; I hope so.
So I will enjoy the twinkle of promise that comes every January and make a new list of goals–but the fresh start already awaits in every choice and every action…
Thou mayest. Or thou mayest not.
Note: If you are interested in doing your own word study, here is a link to Bible Hub to get you started.
UPDATED 7/5/19: Here is a fascinating related article: How Did John Steinbeck and an Obama Staffer Get The Bible So Wrong?
Thanks for reading! Later this month, we’ll decide what’s scarier: a modern horror classic or loaning basically your whole library at once…
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