Can I brag for a quick sec? This week I got renters insurance for the first time ever. BOOM. ADULTING. Though, I hope the hurricanes of the world won’t take this as permission to bring around a cloud to rain on my parade. If the internet were a high school. I like the BuzzFeed one the best. Also keep your eyes peeled for a cameo by the Lizzie Bennet Diaries‘s own William Darcy. Scott Tobias wrote an article called The Church of Scientology is Bad at Twitter, which is one of many reasons I cherish the internet. Trevor Noah is…
12 CommentsCategory: Misc.
We are nearly done with Villette, and I will go ahead and say right now that it’s not Charlotte Bronte’s best work. And I am not just saying that because I’m mad that Lu Paul turned out to be such a dud! It’s also that Villette lacks both the focus and the craziness that make Jane Eyre such a treat. Luckily this was a short reading section, and I didn’t have that much time to get mad at Lucy. “Not that much time,” however, does not equal “no time.” Lucy goes out to do some errands for M. Beck but…
11 CommentsVillette starts the next section by trying to make me not like Ginevra Fanshawe by having her be really snobby to Lucy Snowe. Joke’s on you, Villette! I never liked Lucy Snowe that much to begin with — except very occasionally when she starts blitzkrieging truth bombs — and I do like Ginevra Fanshawe because although she is a twit, she does not have conversations with Reason. (As far as I know.) It’s lucky I do like Ginevra Fanshawe, because everybody else in this book is horrible. Let’s do a rundown. Dr. John, having spent ignored Lucy completely since Paulina come to town, sits next…
10 CommentsSo this is how the fourth section of the readalong begins: Lucy gets back from vacay and has an extended conversation with Reason. That is not a person. She has an imaginary conversation with her own personified faculty of Reason, who has blue lips and is kind of a dick. “But I have talked to Graham and you did not chide,” I pleaded. “No,” said she, “I needed not. Talk for you is good discipline. You converse imperfectly. While you speak, there can be no oblivion of inferiority—no encouragement to delusion: pain, privation, penury stamp your language.” Hey, Lucy, I’m on your…
21 CommentsThe Once Upon a Time challenge is upon us once more! And this year I am not just going to talk about participating. I am going to really do it! And I mean — look at how pretty the button is (as always). So I want to do Quest the Second, in which I will read one book apiece in each of the challenge’s categories: fantasy, folklore, fairy tales, and mythology. Here’s my plan. Fantasy: I am already reading Caroline Stevermer’s A Scholar of Magics, so that’s going to be my fantasy read. It is about an Oxford-like college at which people do magic. There is a…
6 CommentsA quick note before I start reading: My hope for this section is that Monsieur Paul finds Lucy in the midst of her depression and swooning and nurses her back to health. I recognize that it is much more likely that Dr. John will do this, as he is in fact a medical professional, but I don’t care. LU PAUL FOREVER! Remember last week, when Alice said that Charlotte Bronte was super weird and gave zero fucks about it? I didn’t really see it then, but I am coming around to Alice’s point of view. This is how Lucy Snowe describes waking…
5 CommentsGin Jenny: I dreamed that you & I were both at the hospital having babies and I was like, “Aw, Whiskey Jenny, this’ll be so neat, our kids will grow up together and be friends” and you were like “meh” “maybe” Whiskey Jenny: WHAT I WOULD NEVER of course they would be friends and of course I would find endless joy in that fact I would make them be friends make them answer those questions if it didn’t seem like it was working at first Gin Jenny: “No more apricot Gerbers until you tell Rosemary what would constitute a perfect…
9 CommentsYikes, guys. The State of Alabama is investigating claims of elder abuse against Harper Lee. Hopefully everything is fine… There are many reasons to feel grateful that I live in the times I live in, but here’s another one. Tom Stoppard has a new play at the National, and although reviews of it have accused it of being all ideas and no feelings, I still want to see it. And because of technology, I can. And that is pretty great. Kelly Sue DeConnick and Matt Fraction, that widely-beloved power couple of the comics world, are coming for your televisions. I…
17 CommentsOMG so many chapters in this week’s installment of the Villette Readalong, and it was a busy week, with cleaning and unpacking and houseguests and small road trips. So if you find that I have missed crucial nuance in this section of Villette, please try to forgive me. I spent yesterday gazing sadly at the very small number of dirty dishes in my sink and feeling utterly daunted by them. I started Chapter Six with very warm feelings toward Lucy Snowe, because she had just come to a new city, and she was comforted in the midst of all the…
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