6 Degrees of Separation

I always like seeing people’s 6 Degrees of Separation posts, so for the first time this month I am going to make an attempt myself. I am posting late this month because it took me a while to decide where I wanted to go with it. We all start with the same book, assigned by Kate at Books are my Favourite and Best, and see where our links take us!

The starting book this month is The Turn of the Screw by Henry James. I’ve never read any Henry James, being a deeply committed coward when it comes to anything even vaguely horror. However, in a surreal experience, I once went to see Benjamin Britten’s opera based on the book at Glyndebourne Opera House. On a middle-of-the-day school trip. Just for the choir. Look, the whole thing was weird, and I mostly remember the fact that the maybe-ghost was heavily pregnant, and wondering if that was an artistic choice or if the singer was actually just expecting a baby. Anyway, another book that has been turned into an opera by Benjamin Britten is…

A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare. This probably needs no introduction, but just in case: fairies muck about in human love lives; shenanigans ensue. As a child this was my favourite Shakespeare, though as an adult I am left to wonder about the consequences of being drugged into marrying someone you’d previously jilted. There are countless stories where people are manipulated, intoxicated, or brainwashed into relationships, portrayed as a romantic happy ending, but the one that springs to mind most quickly is…

Robots of Dawn by Isaac Asimov. I really enjoyed the Robots series when I read it a few years ago, although Robots of Dawn was my least favourite for many reasons, including the peculiar depiction of sex and romance. Anyway, one of the things that appeals to me about the series as a whole is the way that the typical hallmarks of crime fiction are carefully transported to a totally atypical setting – in this case a strange world on another planet. Another book that moves a mystery plot to somewhere unexpected is…

Death in Captivity by Michael Gilbert. This fascinating murder mystery uses an Italian WWII prisoner-of-war camp as its setting, with one of the prisoners taking over the investigation, and all the captives scrambling to try and hide as much from their guards as possible. Over the course of the novel, some of the soldiers who are imprisoned at this camp are trying to get together a play, which causes at least as much trouble as it solves. This reminds me strongly of…

Mansfield Park by Jane Austen. Another favourite-as-a-child pick, because I was a weirdo I guess. I loved this story of a deeply introverted, not very pretty, crippled-by-social-anxiety teenage girl turning out to be right about everything in the end. It was very inspirational. I still like it a lot more than most Austen fans do, though my heart now belongs to Persuasion. Fanny Price’s difficult position of being the poor relation to the wealthy Bertrams brings me, at last, to…

Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E Harrow. Like Fanny Price, the eponymous January is raised in the lap of luxury, but always made aware of the fact that she doesn’t fit in the world where she’s brought up. Her austere guardian Mr Locke tries to mould her into the high society belle he thinks she would be best as, hampered both by the fact that she isn’t white (this is an alternate 19th century Boston) and by her inconvenient talent for opening doors to other worlds.

There you have it – my first 6 Degrees of Separation list – it was a lot of fun! We’ve visited Regency England, space, Italy, Athens, and many non-Earth parallel universes, which feels like a good first effort. The next one is a wildcard, where I will be started at the book where I finished this time. I’ll try to be punctual next time!