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lunabee34Oh, my friends, is there anything more ludicrous than the marginalia of an eighteen-year-old reading The Sorrows of Young Werther? *dies laughing at myself*
I first read Werther in a Honor's class freshman year, and my friends and I became utterly caught up in this book. I was dating a guy Alex who was so the wrong guy for me and who I would soon break up with (he was the rebound guy from breaking up with my high school boyfriend who was a year younger and still in high school; I'm sure I'd have said yes to anyone who asked at that point, and Alex just happened to ask first.
I think a small digression on why Alex and I were unsuitable for each other is necessary at this moment. He was super smart and very driven but very stodgy and into the rules. He was given to singing Queen in an impressive if thoroughly annoying falsetto and jumping down from his top bunk bed into a ninja crouch. He was partial to wearing a leather jacket and sunglasses even in the 90 degree weather and couldn't seem to decide whether he was Methos kin or Tom Cruise kin. He was an utterly absurd person, and writing all this out, I can't believe I ever dated the guy. He was a good guy, though, and I felt really badly when his father died the year after we broke up. He detested me at that point and would not have accepted condolences from me.). Alex's close friend and roommate Scott decided that he was Werther and I was Lotte, and while I thoroughly agreed with his assessment that Alex was a total Albert, I was unaware of Scott's crush on me and was instead imagining my Werther as the guy for whom I would soon throw Alex over. Oh, it was a tortured and tumultuous few months of desire and betrayal and damaged friendships. I am feeling a full body cringe all the way down to my toe nails recalling it all.
Scott kept saying he was in the vortex of hell *snort*, and I was certain that is actually a line from the novella, but if so, I missed it on this reread. We had all decided that Lotte is a manipulative temptress who's trying to have her cake and eat it, too (essentially we accepted Werther's assessment of her behavior at the end before he commits suicide even though he's clearly unreliable), which was totally fine until Scott decided I was just as devilish as Lotte.
And then I broke up with Alex, and he punched his door and broke his hand.
The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Oh, Werther. To feel so strongly and so deeply and to be denied the object of one's affections.
As an adult rereading this, I've got my professor goggles on and I'm noticing style and craft and the hallmarks of Romanticism, and I also can't help rolling my eyes at the melodrama of it all, but I remember reading this as a late adolescent with skin raw and bright as a newly minted penny and feeling well and truly seen.
View all my reviews
Life Studies and For the Union Dead by Robert Lowell
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Well, I did not like that at all. I am completely disinterested in just about everything in this collection. Hardly even a line that sings to me. Fly free to the give-away pile, Robert Lowell. LOL
View all my reviews
Sexual Anarchy: Gender and Culture at the Fin de Siecle by Elaine Showalter
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Showalter is such an engaging writer. The parallels she draws between the end of the 19th and 20th centuries are fascinating; it's also interesting to note how the sexual and literary landscapes have changed in the thirty years since this book was published.
View all my reviews
The Complete Chi's Sweet Home, Part 1 by Kanata Konami
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
OMG this is so freaking cute. Just adorable. My kids have both read this series over and over again, but I just started reading it with the youngest for my first time. Love it.
View all my reviews
The Return of Martin Guerre by Natalie Zemon Davis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is an impressive bit of historical scholarship; the author goes back to the sixteenth-century records to discover all she can about the case of Martin Guerre. He abandoned his wife for many years, came back, and then was discovered to be an imposter and hanged when the real Martin Guerre returned. Fascinating.
View all my reviews
The Graduate by Charles Webb
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I've never seen the movie, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect.
The book is almost entirely written in dialogue; I can see why it was made into a movie as it's basically a script already. It's blackly funny with a level of absurdity underlying most of the scenes. Mrs. Robinson's reverse psychology to get Benjamin to do what she wants is particularly funny to me.
Everyone is fairly unlikeable and makes terrible decisions. Not really my cup of tea, but it did make me LOL in several places (especially the diving suit scene).
View all my reviews
I first read Werther in a Honor's class freshman year, and my friends and I became utterly caught up in this book. I was dating a guy Alex who was so the wrong guy for me and who I would soon break up with (he was the rebound guy from breaking up with my high school boyfriend who was a year younger and still in high school; I'm sure I'd have said yes to anyone who asked at that point, and Alex just happened to ask first.
I think a small digression on why Alex and I were unsuitable for each other is necessary at this moment. He was super smart and very driven but very stodgy and into the rules. He was given to singing Queen in an impressive if thoroughly annoying falsetto and jumping down from his top bunk bed into a ninja crouch. He was partial to wearing a leather jacket and sunglasses even in the 90 degree weather and couldn't seem to decide whether he was Methos kin or Tom Cruise kin. He was an utterly absurd person, and writing all this out, I can't believe I ever dated the guy. He was a good guy, though, and I felt really badly when his father died the year after we broke up. He detested me at that point and would not have accepted condolences from me.). Alex's close friend and roommate Scott decided that he was Werther and I was Lotte, and while I thoroughly agreed with his assessment that Alex was a total Albert, I was unaware of Scott's crush on me and was instead imagining my Werther as the guy for whom I would soon throw Alex over. Oh, it was a tortured and tumultuous few months of desire and betrayal and damaged friendships. I am feeling a full body cringe all the way down to my toe nails recalling it all.
Scott kept saying he was in the vortex of hell *snort*, and I was certain that is actually a line from the novella, but if so, I missed it on this reread. We had all decided that Lotte is a manipulative temptress who's trying to have her cake and eat it, too (essentially we accepted Werther's assessment of her behavior at the end before he commits suicide even though he's clearly unreliable), which was totally fine until Scott decided I was just as devilish as Lotte.
And then I broke up with Alex, and he punched his door and broke his hand.
The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von GoetheMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Oh, Werther. To feel so strongly and so deeply and to be denied the object of one's affections.
As an adult rereading this, I've got my professor goggles on and I'm noticing style and craft and the hallmarks of Romanticism, and I also can't help rolling my eyes at the melodrama of it all, but I remember reading this as a late adolescent with skin raw and bright as a newly minted penny and feeling well and truly seen.
View all my reviews
Life Studies and For the Union Dead by Robert LowellMy rating: 2 of 5 stars
Well, I did not like that at all. I am completely disinterested in just about everything in this collection. Hardly even a line that sings to me. Fly free to the give-away pile, Robert Lowell. LOL
View all my reviews
Sexual Anarchy: Gender and Culture at the Fin de Siecle by Elaine ShowalterMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Showalter is such an engaging writer. The parallels she draws between the end of the 19th and 20th centuries are fascinating; it's also interesting to note how the sexual and literary landscapes have changed in the thirty years since this book was published.
View all my reviews
The Complete Chi's Sweet Home, Part 1 by Kanata KonamiMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
OMG this is so freaking cute. Just adorable. My kids have both read this series over and over again, but I just started reading it with the youngest for my first time. Love it.
View all my reviews
The Return of Martin Guerre by Natalie Zemon DavisMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is an impressive bit of historical scholarship; the author goes back to the sixteenth-century records to discover all she can about the case of Martin Guerre. He abandoned his wife for many years, came back, and then was discovered to be an imposter and hanged when the real Martin Guerre returned. Fascinating.
View all my reviews
The Graduate by Charles WebbMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
I've never seen the movie, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect.
The book is almost entirely written in dialogue; I can see why it was made into a movie as it's basically a script already. It's blackly funny with a level of absurdity underlying most of the scenes. Mrs. Robinson's reverse psychology to get Benjamin to do what she wants is particularly funny to me.
Everyone is fairly unlikeable and makes terrible decisions. Not really my cup of tea, but it did make me LOL in several places (especially the diving suit scene).
View all my reviews
no subject
Date: 2021-06-15 02:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-06-15 06:19 pm (UTC)I can't believe I was ever that insufferable or earnest or insufferably earnest. *snorts*
no subject
Date: 2021-06-15 04:39 pm (UTC)Although the Creature in Frankenstein loved it, and I am very much Team Creature, so maybe I should.
I spent most of my breakup time in college listening to particularly melancholy Neil Young songs over and over.
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Date: 2021-06-15 06:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-06-15 05:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-06-15 06:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-06-15 08:58 pm (UTC)"What Charlotte say, when they brought his body on a shutter?
Like a well-conducted maiden, went on cutting bread and butter."
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Date: 2021-06-15 08:59 pm (UTC)Honestly, I feel like this is one case where an OT3 might have solved a lot of problems.
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Date: 2021-06-16 05:41 am (UTC)That is an amaaaaazing description! I'm loling at the idea of all the latter stuff PLUS "stodgy". :D
<3 <3 <3
no subject
Date: 2021-06-16 02:57 pm (UTC)He was so uptight. Just terribly uptight. Follow all the rules. But also obsessed with Highlander. And looking like Tom Cruise.
I cannot believe I ever dated this guy.