In a review of a novel by Mussolini, Dorothy Parker wrote: If only I had a private income, I would drop everything right now, and devote the scant remainder of my days to teasing the Dictator of All Italy…Indeed, my dream-life is largely made up of scenes in which I say to him, “Oh, Il Duce yourself, you big stiff,” and thus leave him crushed to a pulp. And this is just how I feel about Jonathan Franzen. Not because he is a fascist or in any way a danger to America. Just because I find him extremely annoying, and…
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Dan Jones’s The Plantagenets is a hugely enjoyable read, particularly if you are (as I am) already roughly conversant with the early kings and queens of England. Since I have a vague outline in my head of the course of early British history, this book might as well have been Gossip about the Plantagenets. My main takeaways were on a theme, that theme being People from History Who Were Way Worse Than You Thought. First up: Thomas Becket. I know you learned in school that Thomas Becket was a martyr to his faith, and “will no one rid me of this turbulent priest” etc. That is true as far as it…
16 CommentsI had a bumpy start with Villette, insofar as I instantly loathed everybody. I’m not trying to get on Lucy Snowe’s case, but her youth seems to have prepared her exceptionally well for becoming the kind of mean governess who hits you with a ruler for saying you think Richard the Lionheart was bad at governing a nation. She is so judgey right off the top. Here are Lucy Snowe’s assessment of all the characters in the first three chapters, in GIF format. Polly: Polly’s father: Graham: The effect of this is to make me dislike all those characters (well…
24 CommentsHere is an experiment me and Randon did! Testing out some new equipment, we here have a podcast review of Captain America 2. You can listen to the podcast in the embedded player below or download the file directly to take with you on the go. Or if you wish, you can find us on iTunes (and if you enjoy the podcast, leave us a review! We appreciate it very very much). Episode 20a Credits Producer: Captain Hammer Photo credit: The Illustrious Annalee Song is by Jeff MacDougall and comes from here.
1 CommentWILKIE IN WINTER I LOVE THIS SO MUCH. A hundred thank-yous to the wonderful Estella Society for hosting this event. Today we shall discuss the First Epoch of The Woman in White, or as I like to call it, the much-more-successful-first-act-than-the-first-act-of-The-Moonstone. (It’s a long nickname, yes, but it makes some good points.) Of Wilkie Collins’s two most famous works, The Moonstone has a stronger finale, and The Woman in White a much much much stronger set-up. Where The Moonstone spends a lot of time on place-setting, The Woman in White has a short set-up where we meet Our Hero, Walter Hartright,…
29 CommentsThis week we’re here to talk about some amazing Harry Potter news, depictions of food in books, and Pamela Erens’s new novel The Virgins (affiliate links: Amazon, B&N, Book Depository), and play a game of guessing where movies came from. You can listen to the podcast in the embedded player below or download the file directly to take with you on the go. Episode 8 Or if you wish, you can find us on iTunes (and if you enjoy the podcast, give us a good rating! We will appreciate it very very much). If you want to skip around, here…
10 CommentsWe have returned once again to talk about more books! This week, we have a discussion about genre and how to make it better (spoiler alert: WHOLE TABLES OF BOARDING SCHOOL BOOKS), review Karen Joy Fowler’s We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves (affiliate links: Amazon, B&N, Book Depository), and answer a listener question about book trailers. Except we say “reader question” in the podcast. We have no idea why we keep saying that. We know you are listeners. We know that. You can listen to the podcast in the embedded player below or download the file directly to take with…
13 CommentsTwo-thirds of the way through this book I wanted to buy it for everyone on my Christmas list. At the end of it, I no longer did. I felt sort of depressed and unfinished. That right there is my untrammeled reaction. I am writing this post (responsibly far in advance!) on the evening of the second day of the hurricane. Very very unusually I am writing it only a few hours after finishing the book, so please forgive me if my thoughts on it seem a trifle unorganized. Ana has sung the praises of Elizabeth Hand extensively, and although I…
35 CommentsI have a weird, specific pet peeve which is that Latin should sound like Latin. There is a way that translated Latin sounds, and if you’re writing something that’s supposed to be an English translation of a Latin manuscript, it should sound like it was Latin before it was English. I get antsy reading something that’s supposed to be a translation of Latin, and thinking, Wait, how would that go in Latin? Wouldn’t there sometimes be some ablative absolutes? Wouldn’t a lot of those words have been left out because that would all get conveyed by the way the nouns…
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