Search options (Page 36 of 38)

Want me to light the place up with my infinite smile?

I agree with Atticus. If I remember right, in this passage he's arguing with Aunt Alexandria about her insistence that Scout wear frilly dresses & speak politely & enact her polite female role when she'd rather slouch, curse a bit, & learn to shoot. Atticus has given Scout freedom in her childhood (matching Jem's freedom) which Aunt Alexandria finds appalling, because Scout is a girl. Atticus is defending Scout's freedom. I think Miss Austen would agree -- entirely.

"As sure as time, history is repeating itself, and as sure as man is man, history is the last place he’ll look for his lessons."
― Harper Lee, Go Set a Watchman

(Since you brought up Austen, I shall lecture.)

Austen was critiquing what she appears to be supporting in her novels -- the idea (propagated by most of the literature women were reading at the time) that the best use of a woman's brainpower was in silly novels, silly rituals, and the "happily ever after" that generally meant a very early marriage that would rob a woman of her freedom, her money, and her health (since she would inevitably have a dozen babies and then drop dead at thirty-five, so her husband could get himself a new bride and do it all over again. I reference my own family's history, for one thing! A grandmother of mine was married at TWELVE.) Austen couldn't very well come out & say what she thought of the social oppression of her gender, or she'd end up ostracized like Mary Wollstonecraft. So she wrote quiet novels that gently poked fun at the institution. In her novels women often faint or live entirely for catching a husband. These women often (to comic effect) destroy their own characters and self-respect to get their ultimate prize (marriage). Women become devious in their hunt for this prize -- as illustrated by Caroline Bingley (Pride & Prejudice) and Lucy Steele (Sense & Sensibility.)

But some of the women in the novels begin to understand the folly of such behavior, & realize an inner self. These characters don't marry out of desperation: they marry because they find a man worthy of their own character. All of Austen's novels are about the desperate place women were pushed into. The heroines are often poor, about to be destitute, and desperate to marry so that they won't starve to death. The whole thing is about the tight space: parlor conversations which seem tedious (they probably were), the inability to even get out of the house without a conveyance and a chaperone, tight confined writing that barely registers emotion, a heroine's tale that ultimately leads to some fabled happily ever after that the reader hears about but never sees. Austen even describes the weddings as if they are beside the point.

Northanger Abbey mocks the way a woman's brain was infantilized by silly literature. Pride & Prejudice is a teasing story about the very serious fact that if a father died and his land was entailed, the women, if unmarried, were destitute and had to live out a life of poverty or hope for brothers to whom they could expect to cling for life. Emma contemplates what happens to a woman who is rich and busy, but has absolutely nothing constructive to do, no education, no prospects, only everlasting "politeness." Mansfield Park considers the moral foundation of the male figure in the family, who lectures about duty while making his fortune off the back of slavery. Austen's work is rich! Critical, subtle, humorous, and groundbreaking, for its day. For our day, actually.

While I'm lecturing, I'll add that Louisa May Alcott in Little Women critiques the same thing -- giving us a Jo of bright mind and strong passions, who wants to write novels & have the sort of freedom her neighbor Laurie (a boy) takes for granted: the ability to go to college, to travel the world, to learn whatever he likes. Meanwhile, she's to stay at home and become a good "little woman." Alcott offers us girls who are happy with this lot (as many likely were), and a girl who is not. Alongside this, she contrasts the lure of freedom with the sincere beauty of home -- illustrating the conflict many women faced as they sought both careers and motherhood.

All of which I mention because too often I find literature by classic women writers dismissed as "a silly love story" or some such, and I feel quite passionate about setting that right. Girls read Hemingway and Mark Twain all the time, but when a boy is assigned a novel about a girl's struggles in history, the noses wrinkle, & the jokes begin. Well, we are all utterly human, and this little woman declares that she finds enormous richness in books by women, and that she is currently reading Little Women for the fourth time. And that love stories have their decided place in the life of human history, for when we look back on our lives, isn't it the love which we will remember? x

Indeed it is. Leave it to a woman to point it out!

When I walk down the street, I don't do it with my favorite books, my preferred genres, and my life history and career goals taped to my forehead. I can still review a novel.

Thank you! I'm thinking yes. Sol wouldn't want to deter the muse.

(Also - Sol. I'm pretty sure I accidentally just reported Linda's note above. I thought I hit "QUOTE"! I typed out a note and it disappeared, so I probably typed it in the report box.)

Oh, are we editing kind remarks between friends (who are also paying members of the site, and would prefer not to see folks publicly decimated and humiliated by cranky newcomers, as that degrades the good cheer and also tends to make the site look quite unprofessional)?

I thought we were only editing tirades! I offer you one above to tweak at your leisure.

Makira. I remember you from the early days! Horses and a fantasy novel. You were one of the first people I reviewed. It's really good to see you're so close to a complete project.

I haven't any money and don't have the time to review right now either (school! finals & papers! etc.) but I wanted to stop by to offer a forum hug and my best wishes with this project.

Keep your chin up. x

Yes.

Okay, that makes sense. I was wondering about the logistics of an account lapse: meaning to upgrade again but not realizing your account had run out, and getting dropped momentarily from points groups. Cheers!

Hi Max! I have no idea what to suggest for your question. Maybe someone else has an idea. Um, maybe a modernist/post-modernist work of some kind? They were big on stream-of-consciousness. Have you read Sophie's Choice? It focuses on a few characters, but one might work for what you're thinking about. I haven't read it yet. Or A Beautiful Mind? or The Bell Jar (the last about a woman, not a man)? I've not yet read those either, but they're on my list. They might be a starting point?

I have no other ideas. Except The Sound & the Fury. That book is insane. Not exactly what you're looking for though, probably. I've mostly read Victorians. And Jane Austen. Mrs. Jennings and Mr. Woodhouse are mad as hatters, and Lady Susan is a manipulative creature, but they'll probably not fit your bill.

What's your favorite book from off-site -- even if you read it years ago. And why? What about it made you interested enough to read?

Thank you!

Posting in TNBW Premium would give the site as a whole (and the whole world, as I understand it?) access to whatever I post there, but it would still prevent me from taking part in the many visible (and otherwise accessible) conversations which are NOT happening in TNBW Premium.

Speaking only for myself:

I love the idea of having a space where conversations can be archived. I don't see that in TNBW Premium -- not the way it can be managed within a forum specific to the conversation. For example, I set up the Shred Thread. It's completely open to new members, but the conversation is private so we can discuss works that have already been published -- why they work as written, and what may not work -- without having the conversation searchable beyond the site. Having that sort of control over the features of the conversation wouldn't be possible within TNBW Premium. There's also the potential within a group for a moderator specific to that sort of discussion (or several moderators), and the opportunity to send out a message to the group.

If we stuck the conversation in TNBW Premium, those benefits would be gone. The archive of the discussion would be lost in a lot of threads that have nothing to do with shredding.

I don't believe the point is a craving for a space to post threads visible to the entire world -- as in TNBW Premium. (Some may crave this. I certainly don't. I'm somewhere between the extremes I think: a bit private but still interested in many topics.) The point is that we crave more freedom to take part in conversations which would accessible in every way, but for the limit on group membership. I like that conversations can be arranged into groups, that some are private, that some are more open. I like that there is some facet of categorization in the conversations since groups tend to be specific to certain discussions. I like that some groups have different climates to them (some are very relaxed and laid back, some are very focused with a moderator who will take no guff), and some are absolutely silent to anyone but their own specific members. I like the idea that we could weave in and out of the discussions which are intended to be open and accessible to members. The potential for archiving is enormous in this sort of system.

I don't like that I can see conversations but cannot take part in them -- not because those in the group prefer not to have interaction, but because I've reached my five group limit.