"My dreams were at once more fantastic and agreeable than my writings."

Mary Shelley quote.  And about the best excuse I have for why I stopped writing this blog, because I was really having a great time reading the books and writing on them here.  And busy is really no excuse for anything.  In other words, why did I stop?

Okay. My world did look a bit like this...

But that's really no excuse either, since that's what I'm always like.

And wow this post is boring. It feels like a necessary thing to do as far as getting started, but still.

Yeah.

Long story longer... I'm starting this sucker again. I'm going to keep at it come hell or high water because I've largely given up on things in my life and even if it is just reading old books and writing about them, this is something I can do.

Let the horror return!

The blood! The torment! And of course, the fainting!!

I'm going back to Castle of Wolfenbach tomorrow.

"I'm just a fucked up girl looking for my own peace of mind. Don't assign me yours."

So recently this came up on my twitter feed.

 

And I got annoyed.

Maybe it's that I've been that concept more than a few times, but the whole thing made me.... hunting for the right word here. Not as strong as angry. Annoyed. A little frustrated. A bit of sigh, 'oh, this again.'

This blog post isn't really about calling this guy out. I wouldn't want to call him out or embarrass him. He seems like a neat person. Someone that if I knew in my real life might be interesting to be around. I'm projecting a bit there. I don't know him. But he seems he'd be worth giving a shot at friendship and he posts some cool things on twitter. Besides, for this rant to really fit, he needs to be one of the good guys that I think he is. So let's assume that.

Anyway, back to the picture. Incredible Hulk and nondescript woman who will save him with her love. (Presumably Betty Ross. Though Betty never does heal Hulk's rage or the comic would be over... but now I digress.)

The girl in that picture is not a person. She's a balm for a man's psychological hurt.
What happens to the relationship when that hurt isn't healed by this right woman? Because it won't be. Does this mean that she isn't 'right'? Does this mean he will find someone else who will fail him because his expectations can't be met by another human being? Does this mean that he keeps hurting himself and others in a continual search for that mythical object that will save him and make everything all right? Wouldn't the whole mess just cause more hurt and rage?

Where exactly does the real woman with her own rage and pain fit into all of this?

But what matters is also who posted it. A man who isn't sexist, would hate to be objectifying women, who might even be a feminist. That he would put something like that up means the idea of woman as object is that ingrained in our society. Even the men on our side can see us as something that is for their use. It's in movies and songs. 500 Days of Summer. Garden State. "Use Somebody" by Kings of Leon. She is there to forward the man's growth and heal him. Her lines and part are an image and cliche advice that don't reflect anything she has or is going through.

Want to see the difference?

 And...

If our stories tell us who we are and inform us and validate us, then what does this say? We need more characters like Clementine, the ones with their own fears and feelings. Ones who can't even fix themselves, much less fix the man. The ones who are still figuring it out, the same as he is.

"He has been bludgeoned..."

Started new job! Yay!

Took a spectacular fall onto concrete on July 4th. Skinned knee, twisted wrist and ankle, my left palm looks like I took a grater to it, and I skinned the tops of my feet!  That's the one that amazes me. Yes, it was a total faceplant.

So, right. Book! Death Comes to Pemberley.

Tiny spoiler alert (sorry):

But I am upset that it isn't Wickham who bites it.  I would have cared more about him.

For that matter I would care about all of them a lot more if they were the characters I love and not just a story of people with the same names as characters I love.

Elizabeth isn't witty. Darcy isn't scathing. Jane and Bingley have no personalities at all.  Neither does Lydia, who we don't see much of and has lost all spark, made into this screaming, unreasonable, but still vain caricature.  And Colonel Fitzwilliam, the almost other contender for Elizabeth in P&P, is now the creepy guy with no alibi.  I smell red herring.

I feel I'm like those fans who are always upset that the movie version doesn't exactly fit the original.  Or the remake is wrong.  Or something.  There had to be changes in the characters.  Of course there had to be.  But without the sparkling wit those characters had in P&P they don't work as characters.  James does mystery, which is interesting and I am continuing to read for that story.  But the characters have none of the intelligent spark.

Aaaaand, horror of horrors, there has been no fainting to keep count of! Though I guess that part does fit the original characters.  Lizzie and Jane weren't the fainting sorts.

Death Comes to Pemberly and I will be disappointed in Lydia Wickham

Okay.  Not exactly gothic novel that is hundreds of years old, but I have come to the conclusion, given that I am reading other things at the moment, that I define horrid novels, so I'm expanding.  I know.  Big revelation, right?  My blog.  Therefore write what I want.  So now that I have removed my own self imposed restrictions, I'm reading one of my favorite authors, P.D. James.  And it's a sequel to Pride and Prejudice!  It doesn't get more awesome than that.

There is the return of one of my favorite characters in literature.  Of course I mean Lydia!  Who is great fun and a bit self-destructive and foolish in the original novel, but independent and strong.

So it is 6 years later and everything is happy and then Lydia rides to Pemberley in hysterics because Wickham is dead.  That is all I know.

What I suspect is that no matter how wonderful P.D. James is, I will still be disappointed in Lydia, largely because I have my own hopes for her.  I see her and Wickham not working out and her running and diving gleefully into the demi-monde a la Harriet Wilson--Greatest courtesan of her age.

 Lydia would be great at it.  Harriet had freedom, independence, and her own money.  She was involved with Dukes and Princes and routinely told them where to stick it if they annoyed her.

Harriet wasn't acknowledged by the virtuous women of the age, but she still was a trendsetter and set the styles they wore. She was in the newspapers and gossip columns as if she were royalty, and her every move (and her clothes) was watched like we watch celebrities today.

If I were to write a sequel to Pride and Prejudice it would involve the demi-monde where Lydia rules and is involved in scandals. I'd give her a happy ending, like when Elizabeth Armitage married Charles Fox.  It would be gloriously wicked and fun. Sticky, stuffy Darcy and Elizabeth could go be boring somewhere else.

More Intermission and a lot of excuses

Sorry about this.  My quietness has nothing to do with World Cup obsession... Sure. Um...

I also really want to claim being back to school has caused this drop in reading, but it isn't true.  I've been reading.  Just not Castle of Wolfenbach.

I'm still reading all sorts of fun pulp.  I just have no ability to finish books I'm not fond of and I'm not fond of Matilda and her friends.  Hey!  I have an idea!

Oh.  Mark Gatiss thought of it first.  Oh well.

Instead I got the new re-release of Modesty Blaise from Titan Books and have been reading that.  More modern classic pulp and very worth it. She's been an obsession of mine since I started reading them in the 80s in the Detroit Free Press, the only place in the United States where they were printed.  I only got to read them when I went to visit my grandparents, so it is wonderful to actually read the full stories.  If you haven't read them, do so. NOW.

School did start again, so I have been nose deep in International Accounting.  And last night Andy and I went to see Neil Gaiman at Carnegie Hall.  It was amazing.

And there is the World Cup...

So that is all my excuses for giving up on Castle of Wolfenbach.  I'll choose something else this week and let you know.

"Why should I continue in the world?"

Not me. Matilda. She spent her whole life thinking she was being cared for by an uncle and therefore had parents of a certain society and it turns out she's an orphan and no one knows who her parents are. Clearly suicide is in order.

Instead she is insisting on leaving the protection of the Marquis for a convent. Honestly, I'm relieved. Maybe it was the forced lack of reading so I need to get into the story again but Matilda has been safe and under protection for long enough.

She has been surrounded by friends, the Marquis staved off the uncle, and she cried a lot because she can't support being a burden or inflicting her society on them when she isn't worthy of it.

But whatever her stupid reasons for doing it, getting out of the safety and protection of the Marquis is a good thing for the story. Not enough evil and screaming. Though there has been some fainting due to the mortification of being an orphan with no known family among the gentry.

Fainting fit count: 3

"I consider the English as the happiest people under the sun"

We interrupt this story for some author patriotism.

Pages and pages of it.

One of the characters has just come back from a trip to England and his friends ask how the trip was.

He goes off into raptures on the people (naturally brave, friendly, and benevolent), the government (they enjoy the blessings of a mild and free government), the laws (their personal safety is secured by the laws), the court of law (no man can be punished for an imaginary crime, they have fair trials). And on and on and on....

                             .....And on and on and on.

The nobility (generous and benevolent), merchants (rich and respectable), politicians (perfectly acquainted with the government of different nations, as much as of their own), and laws against gambling (a habit that dissipates fortunes, distresses families, hardens the heart, depraves the mind, and renders useless all the good qualities they receive from nature).  But wait!  There's more!

"What I most admire in the English, is the great encouragement given to all manufactories, and to all useful discoveries."  The generosity to the poor.  The greatness of the economy.  The public buildings, the entertainment and the performers.

And the ladies, of course!  "The English women, take them all in all, are more fascinating than any other nation I ever saw."

All this coming from a Frenchman at a time when the English and French went to war every twenty to thirty years.  They were fighting each other again at the point the book was published.  I can suspend belief for a lot of things, but a room full of French nobility all happily discussing the superiority of the English in 1792 and everyone agrees on this is just ridiculous.

But it is a great excuse to find every image of Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry that I can and shove them all into one post.

Also, will be a bit slow in posting.  Having some vacation and fun time.  See you soon!