lunabee34

1. I got the most wonderful poems in the post from minoanmiss. Thank you! They are going to decorate my office.

2. I've been rereading the Murderbot books. I've finished all of them except Network Effect, which I just started today, and the most recently published one, which I've never read before. I love Murderbot so much.

3.

The Tempest by William Shakespeare

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I had never read this play and had somehow gotten a completely wrong impression of it. I thought it was long and tragic and deeply serious and full of soliloquies about the nature of power and monstrosity; instead, it's really short, mostly ridiculous, and a pretty breezy read. I mean, the postcolonial reading of the play appeals to me; there's definitely some heft and interest in interpreting Prospero as the colonizer and Ariel and Caliban as the colonized. (I also like Gonzalo's reference to Montaigne's "Of Cannibals.")

I suspect this is much more fun to watch than read; I bet the buffoonery is much funnier.

I'm a little confused by what happens at the end to Caliban, Stephano, and Trinculo. Are they left behind on the island? Are they pardoned and they leave to go back to Milan? 2025 ETA: Stefano and Trinculo go back with Prospero et al, but it's not clear what happens to Caliban. I think they just leave him behind.

I'd like to see a stage production of this play, especially the gender-flipped one with Helen Mirren.



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The Woman in Me by Britney Spears

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book makes me so sad and angry. I can't believe the conservatorship she was put under is any way legal. I'm glad she's back in control of her own life.

Really potent commentary on the sexual double standard, being a woman in the entertainment industry, the legacy of family trauma, and mental illness.



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Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This starts out really slowly. I was bored for about the first hundred pages. Once the book circles down from its aerial view of the family and dives more deeply into each individual character, I found myself hooked.

This is a deeply tragic book. I feel so sorry for most of the characters. Tony is forced to marry someone she doesn't love (even though her family wouldn't acknowledge the pressure they're putting on her) rather than the man she does (although I'm not certain she'd have been happy marrying that guy given the class/wealth disparity between them); then that guy turns out to be a scoundrel and a cheat. The second guy she marries is a lazy good-for-nothing, and her daughter's husband ends up a scoundrel and a deserter. Christian clearly has some sort of mental disorder as well as OCD, but I also think he has autoimmune disorders that would account for the nerve pain he experiences that everyone dismisses.

I ended up really enjoying this despite the slow start.



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3. the future is (a benevolent black hole) by ClassicMelancholy
Stranger Things
Steddie
Slow, happy getting together

standing up the dead by heartofwinterfell
Stranger Things
Max/Lucas, blink-and-you'll-miss-it Steddie
Max and Eddie dimension hopping post-Vecna. I love how things change in each world they visit.

1. Good news re: Josh's parents--

The estate sale went well, and we made a couple grand.

Josh's dad remembered that they have a $1300 credit at their dentist. I'm not exactly sure how this credit was accrued, but it has something to do with his parents having dental insurance but still paying full price for procedures (which, WTF?). So, he called the dentist, and they're sending him a check for the credit.

One of the people at the estate sale offered to buy the house immediately with cash. The offer was our minimum acceptable price, so the realtor is still going to put the house on the market because he thinks we can get more, but it's nice to have this fall back. We'd already had interest in buying the house from the plumber who came to work on the house over the summer and from Tom's doctor, weirdly enough. So I think the house is going to sell and soon.

2.

How to Dress a Fish by Abigail Chabitnoy

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This poetry collection is about Chabitnoy attempting to come to terms with the time her great-grandfather spent in a residential school for native children and also her identity as a person with both indigenous and white roots.

I particularly like that the poems span a range of styles, including snippets from government documents and translations of primary texts.




3.

Jane's Fame: How Jane Austen Conquered the World by Claire Harman

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I think it's fascinating how little we truly know about Austen's life and how so much of her image has been fashioned by other people.

Good reading for a Janeite.



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I nominated Moths again this year, so here's the link to my promo post.

Also, you should know that Fiona is now dismissing me with, "That's so 1900s, mom." *dies laughing*

Living with a Wild God: A Nonbeliever's Search for the Truth about Everything by Barbara Ehrenreich

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This is . . . a really weird book, and I don't know what to think about it.

The basic premise (and it's not spoiling anything to say this because Ehrenreich tells you this in the first chapter) is that she has an experience she can't explain as a late teen and continues to periodically have similar experiences throughout her life though none with the intensity of that first instance.

The book uses a journal she wrote starting when she was 12 and going through her undergraduate degree to help her construct the narrative, and part of the weirdness of this book is the erudition of the journal and discussion in it of what she was reading. I mean, I don't think she's lying about it because the journal exists and she can just show it to people to prove that as a thirteen year old she really was writing disquisitions on the existential meaning of life and Camus or whatever. But it's just weird to read that level of intellectual prowess in the journal entries from someone that age when I struggle to get my college students to successfully read Kant. LOL

I appreciate that she comes to the conclusion that connecting to other people is the answer to her existential questions, but the conclusion of the book is so abrupt and also, well, weird. She spends the whole book being uber rational and scientific and exploring all kinds of explanations for her experience, including dissociation because of her abusive family (which I think, honestly, is the most likely explanation), only to end the book in the last like ten pages by saying she's now not really an atheist and thinks there's an Other out there that she connected with. I think that's actually a fine conclusion to come to; it's just that she doesn't spend enough time on it compared on the 200+ previous pages of how nothing like that could be possible for the argument to be successful.



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( Charles Chesnutt, Tanith Lee, James Joyce, Ouida, poetry, and Victorian lit crit )

I know I missed some posts while I was gone, so let me know if you posted anything I need to know about over the last week.

I got another Etsy gift card, so I was able to get some silver and gold hair clips, a silver and turquoise bracelet to replace the one I lost about a year ago (yes, there is a theme to my Etsy gift card use), and writing gloves by Storiarts with text and graphics from A Christmas Carol. I also got a gift card to the Laurel Mercantile from spikedluv and got Ouida's Garden hand soap (how could I resist with that name!) and some Garden Mint wax melts; thank you! Mom and Dad gave me various and sundries, including some moolah. Altogether a wonderful birthday haul!

( lately read )

Quotes and Ideas of Interest from Shumway:

"By 'ideological,' I mean more or less what Althusser meant when he used the term to name that part of experience which we take so completely for granted that it becomes 'nature.' Ideology so defined is a '"lived" relation to the real' that has a powerful hold on the subject because it is largely unconscious. Thus, to quote James Kavanaugh, 'at stake in [ideological conflicts] are not different opinions, but different realities" (32).

"But both groups accepted the traditional Christian view of human evil and thus rejected the assumption common to both liberals and Marxists that human nature could be improved given the right social conditions" (230). This argument explains a lot about my personal experience of conservatism vs liberalism, that the evangelical Christian worldview denies the ability for improvement and progress in favor of focusing on universal and unremitting human evil.

1. misbegotten got me flowers for Valentine's Day! They are on my desk at work, and they make my office so cheerful. <3

2. January books:

Fairy Tales and After: From Snow White to E. B. White by Roger Sale

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


This is a whole hot mess. This is the kind of "literary criticism" that drives me bonkers, the sort where the writer makes confident pronouncements about authors' psychology and desires and abilities with zero support. I mean, there is a certain degree of subjectivity inherent in literary criticism, but good literary criticism is not, "Golly, gee, I really do like this and really don't like that." The best literary criticism is close reading of texts and examination of themes and perhaps literary influences on an author and the cultural/historical context that influences a piece of writing. Sale says the most ridiculous things about these authors. Complete anti-rec.




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Francois Coty: Fragrance, Power, Money by Roulhac B. Toledano

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is an interesting read for a variety of reasons. First, I knew nothing about Coty the man or Coty the perfume empire before reading this biography; Coty's influence on perfume--in terms of creating scents; bottling, marketing, and selling them; and including them in cosmetic products--cannot be overstated.

The biography is written by two people, one of them the former wife (Elizabeth) of Coty's grandson. Her involvement in the project is interesting. Because Coty divorced his wife and she took him for half his fortune, she ended up with the Coty perfume empire; however, the man she remarried sold it to Pfizer, and one of the stipulations of the sale was that no Coty could ever work for the company again. So one of Elizabeth's clearly stated motivations throughout the book is to reclaim an inheritance that she feels has been stolen from her child and the other Coty heirs. Along with that, though, I get the sense that Elizabeth genuinely admires Coty and his perfumes and is fascinated with his intellectual achievements beyond their family connection. One textual feature of the book that annoyed me while reading is that Elizabeth's writing is italicized, and Toledano's is not, but I didn't realize that at first because Elizabeth's opening Preface is not italicized; her writing isn't italicized until the book proper begins, and it's interspersed with Toledano's. So at first, I thought her writing was just quotations, and it took me a few pages to figure out what was going on.

The book doesn't shy away from discussing Coty's infidelity or his antisemitism at length; while his antisemitism is never excused, it's hard not to come away from the book with the sense that Elizabeth believes that the infidelity is excusable, especially since she characterizes her divorce from Michel, Coty's grandson, as a mistake she made when she discovered his infidelity. She implies that she should have stayed married to him despite his infidelity, and she implies that Yvonne should have stayed married to Coty, especially since their divorce led to the ultimate ruin of the perfume empire.

Another thing I didn't like about the book is that I wanted pictures of the original Baccarat and Lalique perfume bottles and had to look those up on google instead. I did appreciate many of the pictures included, but I really wanted to see those most of all.

I definitely think this is worth a read.



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Charles Portis: Collected Works (LOA #369): Norwood / True Grit / The Dog of the South / Masters of Atlantis / Gringos / Stories & Other Writings by Charles Portis

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This was a gift, and I expected that I wouldn't enjoy it very much. I don't have much patience for a lot of twentieth-century, white, male, American authors; I'm deeply disinterested in the kind of masculinity Hemingway is peddling, for example. As a Southerner, I'm also really weary of nostalgia/apologia for a South I don't miss at all, and I expected Portis to deliver on both those scores.

I'm happy to say that I was very wrong. I thoroughly enjoyed this collection, and Portis has become one of my favorite novelists. Contrary to my expectations, one of Portis's main projects over his body of work is to subvert stereotypical ideas of masculinity in really surprising ways. For example, in Norwood, the protagonist is this sweetly goofy guy who bumbles cluelessly through life being kind and generous to everyone around him and being taken in by con men but who manages to come out all right in the end. In True Grit, the character with true grit is a 14 year old girl, and the two men in the book are a drunken sad sack and a braggart. Dog of the South features a protagonist who makes confident pronouncements that are stupidly, obviously wrong and who gets hung up on irrelevant minutiae but who is confidently assured of his intellectual superiority.

Portis is also incredibly funny, just laugh-out-loud funny. Masters of Atlantis is a satire about a guy who inadvertently starts a cult. The whole thing is a con, but he's a total believer. It's very funny, but also very prescient commentary about the way conspiracy theories work.

I think my favorite is Gringos. This novel is the most realistic of the bunch and the darkest. It's still funny, but not in a satirical or absurdist way like the others (well, True Grit is not very funny). I don't want to spoil the plot, but I will say it involves debunking ancient astronaut theorists.



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Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is violent and gory, which I don't mind but may not be everyone's cup of tea. No one is raped on page, but rape is a constant threat, which gets a bit tedious after awhile. I also get weary of the focus on lust and sexual perversion (while understanding that it makes sense for the plot and themes of the book).

Those caveats aside, this was a quick and entertaining read for me. I especially enjoyed the ending--and I do mean the very, very end, like the last handful of paragraphs--which are a lovely moment of grace in a novel that does not contain many moments I would call lovely given that it is set during an epidemic of the Black Death.



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Revelator by Daryl Gregory

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I really, really like this book.

Explaining why without spoiling plot details of the novel is impossible. What I can say is that the sense of place is incredible, the characters are deftly drawn (even those who only briefly appear), and the story blends genres in really interesting and unexpected ways. This is a novel about family and religion and belonging and choices, and it tells the story of those things with the old, familiar songs but also a fresh melody that made this a page turner for me.



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Bid the Vassal Soar: Interpretive Essays on the Life and Poetry of Phillis Wheatley by Merle A. Richmond

My rating: 1 of 5 stars


I get why Richmond pairs Wheatley and Horton; she's the first African American female poet and he the first African American male poet published in the US and they were once published together in a single collection.

But OMG, this is the most obnoxious book of criticism I've read in a good long while, and it brings absolutely nothing of value to our understanding of Wheatley.

In Richmond's estimation, Wheatley has no genuine selfhood as opposed to Horton's genuine, black selfhood; Wheatley's experiences aren't authentic, black experiences as opposed to Horton's genuine, black experiences; Wheatley's poetry is no good as opposed to Horton's; and Wheatley's education and accomplishments are somehow meaningless compared to Horton's because they were facilitated by her white enslavers rather than being self-taught. Richmond writes about Wheatley as if she has zero interiority at all. It's really, really gross.



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Folle-Farine by Ouida

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This book is so kinky, and I wish we could go back in time and ask Ouida to what degree the novel is a deliberate, conscious exploration of kinkiness and what exactly she's intending to argue with that exploration if so.

I reread this in preparation for my presentation on Ouida's treatment of birds in her nonfiction essays because it's probably the novel in which the protagonist is most closely identified with birds and the novel which has the most protracted scenes that deal with birds (just in case someone asked me to elaborate on the way in which her arguments manifest in the fiction).

Additional themes include: principles and aesthetics of Romanticism, sadomasochism, the eroticism of self-sacrifice and self-abnegation, silence (both self- and externally-imposed), scathing critiques of Christianity (with some very startling passages in which the female protagonist allies herself with the devil), commentary on art and the role of the artist, sexuality and asexuality, morality.

This is an astonishing and interesting book and nothing at all like what anyone imagines when they hear the phrase Victorian novel.



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It's come to my attention that I've posted six times this year, and five of those were in January. So, ah, hi! :)

I've had some very good news in the last couple of weeks. I've been promoted to Professor. *takes a bow*

And last night I won the Excellence in Service Award for my institution. For those of you not in academia, this award recognizes service to the institution (things like serving on committees), service to the community (community outreach and projects, etc.), and service to the profession (leadership positions in professional organizations, editorial positions on journals, etc.)--and I am highly active in all three areas. Super, super prestigious thing at our institution; I am very honored. I also exceeded expectations on all areas of my annual evaluation. So, hurray, me!

In other good news, I got an email from a guy in California whose mother had died and left behind a shelf of books by Ouida. He'd been googling to figure out who might want them and came upon my name. So, Frank in California gifted me a box of books by Ouida that his mother bought in Bury St. Edmunds, Ouida's birthplace, in the 80s. They arrived earlier this week. What an unexpected and deeply kind act of generosity. I am so grateful.

Here's what I've reading since we last spoke:

( badly researched religious book my mom gave me )

( Victorian literary criticism )

( Judy Blume )

( MISC )

1. Warnock has been elected our Senator! What a victory, and I'm very happy to have been part of it.

2. I have finished grading, turned in grades, and put the semester to bed. I also had a book review to turn in at the same time, so I was writing that simultaneously with grading (which was actually kinda nice; just as soon as I got disgusted with grading, I could switch gears to writing). I got the review finished and got good feedback from the editor and started making headway on my classes for the spring semester. I think I am now going to do nothing for a few days. LOL

3. Josh and I watched Everything Everwhere All at Once, and I can't recommend it highly enough. I have not watched many TV shows or movies since the pandemic, even ones I am interested in watching, so when I tell you that this is must-see, the praise is high. This movie really touched me emotionally. I spent the last third of it in tears. The acting is so good. The writing is so good. The message is so good. ( brief spoilers )

4. My endocrinologist has upped my thyroid meds, so crossing my fingers that will make a difference in my energy levels.

5. The Victorian Popular Fiction Association's Third Sex Reading Group read Night Brother this month, and it was a very interesting read. I enjoyed the book when I was reading it, but certain aspects of the novel fall apart on close analysis. None of us in the reading group could quite decide what Garland is trying to say about gender/sexuality.

The Night Brother by Rosie Garland

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I really enjoyed this. It's such an intriguing premise--that Edie and Gnome share one body and fluidly shift from male to female. Add in the Edwardian setting, and I'm hooked.



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( Poetry )

( Memoir )

( Literary Criticism )

And the rest:

Ungrading: Why Rating Students Undermines Learning by Susan D. Blum

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I am convinced by the evidence that grading causes problems (it's not objective, it demotivates students, it doesn't truly measure learning--it doesn't account for the student who comes into the course writing A material and learns nothing or for the student who comes into the course writing F material and improves to a D, and a whole host of other issues).

I am not necessarily convinced that dispensing with grades solves those problems.

This book certainly gives me a great deal to think about and some good idea for how to adjust self- and peer-assessment exercises; I am all about the metacognition in my classes.



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The Massarenes by Ouida

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This is such a fantastic book; I reread it for a conference presentation I'm giving this week, and I had forgotten how witty and funny it is. I think I will teach this book next time I teach an upper division level course; unlike many of her other books, it has very little French and other languages mixed in which makes reading easier for the students. The plot is also riveting--the nouveau riche Massarenes attempting to break into upper class society with the help of the scheming Lady Kenilworth--and truly suspenseful. It's perfect for a discussion of 19th-century class issues.



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Songbroken by Heather Osborne

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I don't think I can recommend this highly enough.

I don't want to spoil any of the plot, so I'll say very little about that here; instead I'll just note that the character work and the world building is so well done and interesting. I would happily read a billion stories set in this universe.

This novel also hits me right in all the feels. I spent most of it really emotionally moved at the depictions of people who are frustrated at their inability to live as their authentic selves.



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