#Ella Cheever Thayer
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February Reading
I liked doing the reading post in January and thinking about books is better than thinking about family things! so here's another one.
Recent: Not all that recent now, but I finished Imre at the beginning of the month and I did actually enjoy it very much. It's very Edwardian, both in style and attitude, but along with the Weird Ideas about ethnicity there's also a sincere attempt to refute misogyny in gay male culture. And idk, the romance is just sweet.
Also read Wired Love by Ella Cheever Thayer, which I first heard of somewhere on tumblr most of a decade ago, and loved that too! And this one actually has surprisingly little in the way of Period Typical Attitudes. People respect each other's boundaries (or, at least, the good ones do) and there's a very nice portrait of life in urban boarding houses in the late 19th century.
Read Paladin's Faith by T. Kingfisher, which I loved all the way through, but I finished it at a point when I had kind of a lot of pain and PMS, which means I have ended up with no ability to comment on it. I liked the ground wights. Oh, also halfway through I decided Wren should ditch her party and marry me. Possibly I have a Type.
Reread an early Cat Sebastian, which, well, it's nice to see how much she's improved.
Still reading and listening to a lot of RWRB fic. I don't think there's anything I want to specifically call out as good, but it's nice and non-demanding. At least as long as I stick to AUs or shove it into the wish-fulfillment area of my brain rather than the class-conscious part. Oh, and I relistened to the first chapter of Life of Crime the other evening, that was great.
Current: In the middle of the climax of Gwen and Art Are Not in Love - thank god for skip-the-line copies, I have been reading this very slowly over the last six weeks. Recommended if it sounds at all like your kind of thing. Hopefully I will finish it on my commute tomorrow.
Have started The AI Who Loved Me by Alyssa Cole, because sometimes reading about living in a dystopia is, what's the word, sympathetic.
Last year I read The Astonishing Adventure of Jane Smith by Patricia Wentworth and wondered why she doesn't have the same reputation as, at least, Ngaio Marsh or Josephine Tey. Now I'm reading The Coldstone and finding it somewhat less impressive. Possibly because of SAD and possibly because it doesn't have any characters I straight up like as much as I liked Jane Smith. But the bit I read today had some very fun sneaking around at night pretending to be a ghost. Also a bicycle. I should read more books with bicycles.
Also I got Poetic Designs by Stephen Adams (one of my university professors) from my brother (we should have two copies between us, but mine has disappeared in a box somewhere) and am rereading that for nice practical unemotional nonfiction and nostalgia.
Future: I am going to pick up a gay sci-fi regency romance that I found in the local library and hope it is as awesome as it could be. And either Sixpenny Octavo by Annick Trent or One Night in Hartswood by Emma Denny, depending on whether I feel more like even more regency or even more medieval by then. And I have If You'll Have Me by @eunnieboo on hold at the library.
At some point I'm going to go through my reading file and run the stats to see if I'm actually reading more queer fiction this year than usual. Probably not, honestly.
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Having finished Moby Dick, I have, in search of something short and light to serve as a breather, started Ella Cheever Thayer's Wired Love, and it is very weird to go straight from a novel about a guy with a weird 19th century job who is absolutely obsessed with it and will put the plot on hold for chapters at a time to infodump about it to a novel about a girl with a weird 19th century job who regards it as a dead-end stop-gap gig to keep her afloat until she can find a husband.
#what i am saying is that i am feeling very starved for extended digressions about the intricacies of telegraph operation#there are probably other books to read about that though#idle musings#walrus reads old books#walrus consumes media
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Hmm
How many pages is Ella Cheever Thayer's Wired Love?
My copy is 162, but it's a funny wide shape, not like normal paperback size
I can crib it from google books tho, that's your standard size
Might make that my next project
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Wired Love: A Romance of Dots and Dashes
The classic book, Wired Love: A Romance of Dots and Dashes, by Ella Cheever Thayer.
Download now! https://www.free-ebooks.net/romance-classics/Wired-Love-A-Romance-of-Dots-and-Dashes
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Books read in October
I read a paperback book for the first time in over three months months and was sharply aware that I couldn’t change anything about the way the text was displayed to make it more comfortable to read. I wondered, sadly, if I no longer like reading physical books.
Then I became engrossed in the story, and there were long stretches of time when I didn’t think about how I was reading a brick of printed paper. I turned pages as automatically and effortlessly as breathing. I think I was just out of practice.
This month’s Unintentional Colour Scheme: pink, purple and light blue.
Favourite covers: The Time-Traveling Popcorn Ball and The Other Side of the Sky.
Also read: “Good Neighbors” by Stephanie Burgis and Tiny House, Big Love by Olivia Dade. (And half a romance novel which I disliked and have no interest in remembering or reviewing.)
Reread: The last section of The Beckoning Hills by Ruth Elwin Harris. The middle section of Hunting by Andrea K. Höst.
Still reading: Between Silk and Cyanide by Leo Marks, and Angel Mage by Garth Nix.
Next up: The Switch by Beth O’Leary, and Hamster Princess: Little Red Rodent Hood by Ursula Vernon.
*
The Time-Traveling Popcorn Ball by Aster Glenn Gray: A magical story of time-travel and of friendship between eleven year old Piper, who has just moved into a new house, and Rosie, who lived in the same house fifty years earlier. It’s totally charming, and exactly the sort of story I adored growing up. Sometimes that makes me wish I could send a book back in time to my younger self, but I appreciated this book’s references to things that my younger self didn’t know about. I also appreciated how, even though I’ve read similar stories, I couldn’t predict how this one would end. That was very satisfying.
The Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett: In 1547, Francis Crawford, the Master of Lymond, wanted by the Scottish government for treason, is back in Edinburgh. The audiobook was the perfect way to experience this! The voices the narrator uses highlights clues in the text, about who’s speaking or the subtext and emotional tones of a conversation, which helped me to follow the story even when I felt confused about exactly what was going on. I enjoyed the Scottish accents, the clever wit, the ambiguity about Lymond’s plans and motives, and the way many characters are very intelligent, perceptive people. I was interested in the historical political intrigue. I loved the twists and revelations, which are brilliant -- incredibly clever and satisfying.
“Good Neighbors” by Stephanie Burgis: The first “fantasy rom-com” about a grumpy inventor who, along with her father, moves into a cottage nextdoor to a notorious necromancer in his big black castle. I wasn’t expecting to read about Mia stitching up undead minions, but appreciate that Burgis doesn’t take this opportunity to give glory details. This short story was fun and satisfying, and I am looking forward to when the rest of this series becomes (easily) available.
Lake of Sorrows by Erin Hart: After Haunted Ground, Dr Nora Gavin heads to the midlands west of Dublin to oversee the evacuation of another body discovered in a peat bog. The setting is fascinating and I like the atmosphere -- this has a strong sense of both place and mystery. However the multiple murders meant there’s more unpleasantness than I’d prefer. But it’s probably not enough to deter me from reading the next book.
The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams: Engrossing -- a poignant story of childhood during the late 19th century and womanhood in the early 20th century, and an absolutely fascinating insight into the decades-long process behind the first Oxford English Dictionary. Esme’s father is one of the lexicographers collecting and defining words for the Dictionary. Esme grows up with a fascination for words and begins to collect words that the Dictionary leaves out. I liked that Esme has people in her life who love and support her, but the ending is intensely sad. I’m not sure why that disappointed me. As an ending, it fits this story.
Taking Down Evelyn Tait by Poppy Nwosu: Australian YA. Lottie is furious that no one else seems to realise what Evelyn Tait, her nemesis (and stepsister) is like. Her best friend Grace is in love with Evelyn. Her teachers and her father tell Lottie she should emulate Evelyn. So Lottie decides that she’s going to do just that -- she’s going to be better than Miss Perfect. I thought this was a very realistic portrayal of a teenager’s relationships -- with family, with friends, with school and with herself. It’s amusing and, ultimately, believably positive. It captures Lottie’s perspective and her experiences in-the-moment so effectively and intensely.
Wired Love: a romance of dots and dashes by Ella Cheever Thayer (1888): Nattie, a telegraph operator who chats whenever she can “over the wire” with C., another telegraph operator miles down the line. I love stories where characters fall in love through exchanged messages. And the experiences of telegraph operators is absolutely fascinating -- simultaneously a product of the past and yet incredibly relatable from a contemporary perspective, because the internet and mobile phones mean we communicate so much through text. After Nattie and Clem meet, the focus shifts away from the telegraph office to antics at their boardinghouse, but the story continues to be fun and delightful.
Once Upon a Con series by Ashley Poston:
Geekerella: When Elle discovers her late parents’ cosplay costumes in a box in the attic, she hatches a plan to enter a cosplay competition and use the prize to escape her step-family. This contemporary Cinderella retelling about two teenage fans of a SF series Starfield is a romance-through-messages story. Elle uses her father’s old phone, so sometimes she gets messages from people about ExcelsiCon, the convention her father founded. One message sparks a conversation -- but neither she nor Darien realise just who they’re texting. As expected, this is fun and fandom-y, and it makes the coincidences and Cinderella moments feel believable.
The Princess and the Fangirl: At ExcelsiCon, Starfield actress Jessica Stone swaps places with a fan, Imogen. Jess needs to find a mislaid script before she’s accused of leaking it, and Imogen hopes for an opportunity to promote the #Save Amara initiative. I enjoyed how they both experience a different side of fandom. Imogen discovers the pressures of being a star, when con appearances are your job, and, away from the spotlight, Jess discovers how cons allow people to come together and celebrate things they love. My only disappointment was the way they both deceive Imogen’s fandom friend, Harper. I wish that had been handled differently.
The Little Bookshop at Herring Cove by Kellie Hailes: Unlike other books I’ve borrowed because they had “bookshop” in the title, this didn’t focus very much on books, nor did it describe its bookshop vividly. Sophie could have easily owned a different sort of shop without changing the plot, the setting or the atmosphere. This is a light-hearted romance about nice people in a generic seaside town -- not what I was looking for. I wanted more about books and a stronger sense of place.
Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly (narrated by Cassandra Campbell, Kathleen Gati and Kathrin Kana): This begins with three different women at the start of WWII -- a teenager in Poland, a newly-graduated doctor in Germany and a wealthy consulate worker in New York -- and becomes about the Ravensbruck Rabbits, Polish political prisoners subjected to medical experimentation. Not what I expected or wanted to be reading (which is not its fault. I switched to the ebook, because I'm irrationally squeamish about some medical things and cope better when reading to myself). This story is compelling and does a good job of showing how the pain and trauma didn’t just end with the war. And it’s incredibly important to keep telling stories about distressing parts of history.
The Other Side of the Sky by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner: More or less the sort of story I expected from these two. Nimh is the Divine One in a world of magic and prophecy. North is a prince in a floating city of science and engineering. Nimh believes the gods fled into the sky thousands of years ago, and North believes no one still lives down on the surface… until he crashes his glider. I enjoyed this but don’t feel any emotional investment -- yet. I will read the sequel.
Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dade: April and Marcus keep fandom separate from their professional lives -- April to avoid negative comments, Marcus (an actor) to avoid violating his contract. So when Marcus sees a cosplay photo of April online, he doesn’t recognise his friend, he just sees a gorgeous woman getting nasty comments and invites her to dinner. I was hooked. As a romance, this didn’t always focus on the things I most wanted it to, but I understood why it made those narrative choices and liked how the characters resolved their mistakes. And I really liked it as a story about fanfiction and the way we tell stories in response to other stories.
Big Love, Tiny House by Olivia Dade: Lucy goes on a Tiny House Hunting show and drags along her best friend Sebastian. I’ve watched countless tiny house videos on Youtube, so it was fun to see tiny houses depicted in fiction -- although I was disappointed that all the houses are so disastrously bad. Beyond that, I have no strong feelings one way or another about this romance novella.
Memento: an Illuminae Files novella by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff (narrated by a full cast): A bonus prequel, set aboard the Alexander prior to the events of Illuminae. The audiobook is so well done! Even though this is a short story/novella, I cared about the new characters it introduces -- I really like the epistolary format and how it requires the reader to fill in some of the gaps for themselves. (I think that’s part of why I love The Illuminae Files but so far have no strong feelings about Kaufman and Kristoff’s latest series.) And it’s always interesting to see more of AIDAN.
#Herenya reviews books#Aster Glenn Gray#Dorothy Dunnett#Erin Hart#Pip Williams#Poppy Nwosu#Ella Cheever Thayer#Ashley Poston#Martha Hall Kelly#Amie Kaufman#Meagan Spooner#Jay Kristoff#Olivia Dade#Stephanie Burgis
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Top 5 books published before you were born
1. Beauty by Robin McKinley
2. Persuasion by Jane Austen
3. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
4. Wired Love by Ella Cheever Thayer
5. The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
This list might, full disclosure, change if I went to my bookshelf and bothered to check publishing dates on things! I think a lot of my formative reads were published at least a year or two before I was, so I went mostly with really safe ones.
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Wired Love by Ella Cheever Thayer
Technology makes everything more complicated; how do you know who you are talking to when it's not face-to-face communication? This is the basis of this romantic comedy about love via the...telegraph. Originally published in 1879, the story is still surprisingly relevant. Just goes to show human nature hasn't changed, even if the technology has advanced a little.
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theladyragnell: Casting aside the obvious with Austen or Bronte (though I know you're fond of Jane Eyre, but have you done Villette? I need to reread it): Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster probably comes out on top. And Wired Love by Ella Cheever Thayer is super charming.
I read Villette like ... eight years ago? Nine years ago? When I was an undergrad in college! HOW HAS SO MUCH TIME GONE BY! I remember loving it tremendously and always think fondly of reading it again. I even bought myself a copy that has footnote translations of all the French instead of endnote translations, so I’ll actually know what’s going on this time! I also remember just enough to know I sort of inconveniently shipped Lucy and her quasi-nemesis Ginevra, because of course I did.
I am not super familiar with your other suggestions; I am excited to look them up! Thanks!!
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For storms of nature, like storms of life, are hardest to a woman, trammeled as she is in the one by long skirts, that will drag in the mud, and clothes that every gust of wind catches, and in the other by prejudices and impediments of every kind, that the world, in consideration, doubtless, for her so-called 'weakness,' throws in her way.
Wired Love: a Romance of Dots and Dashes, Ella Cheever Thayer
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Wired Love: A Romance of Dots and Dashes
The classic book, Wired Love: A Romance of Dots and Dashes, by Ella Cheever Thayer. via http://www.free-ebooks.net/affiliates/idevaffiliate.php?id=5568&url=https://www.free-ebooks.net/ebook/Wired-Love-A-Romance-of-Dots-and-Dashes
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So, Wired Love
It’s a good book, I reckon - or, I’ve read it like I think three times now, and I don’t reread books much, really
It’s like basically this woman who runs a telegraphy office, for sending telegrams, right, and she falls in love with the person who runs the next one along the line, right
Good if you like romance novels and Victorian-level drama - it was written in 1880 if I’m reading my roman numerals correct
They don’t even meet for ages, it’s like her friends all like American-Victorian-speak for “who is this guy you met him on the internet he could be some axe murderer type you don’t even know” it’s great
Anyway there’s this one line where she’s like hang on lemme find it
Alright not a line a bit of a dialogue, where they’re describing themselves to each other (and Nattie’s just spilled ink over herself) - here, it’s maybe long but I’ll just paste it
--
"How can I describe myself?" replied Nattie. "How can anyone—properly? One sees that same old face in the glass day after day, and becomes so used to it that it is almost impossible to notice even the changes in it; so I am sure I do not see how one can tell how it really does look—unless one's nose is broken—or one's eyes crossed—and mine are not—or one should not see a looking-glass for a year! I can only say I am very inky just now!"
"Oh! that is too bad!" "C" said; then, with a laugh, "It has always been a source of great wonder to me how certain very plain people of my acquaintance could possibly think themselves handsome. But I see it all now! Can you not, however, leave the beauty out, and give me some sort of an idea about yourself for my imagination to work upon?"
"Certainly!" replied Nattie, with a mischievous twinkle in her eye that "C" knew not of. "Imagine, if you please, a tall young man, with——"
"C" "broke" quickly, saying,
"Oh, no! You cannot deceive me in that way! Under protest I accept the height, but spurn the sex!"
"Why, you do not suppose I am a lady, do you?" queried Nattie.
"I am quite positive you are. There is a certain difference in the "sending," of a lady and gentleman, that I have learned to distinguish. Can you truly say I am wrong?"
Nattie evaded a direct reply, by saying, "People who think they know so much are often deceived; now I make no surmises about you, but ask, fairly and squarely, shall I call you Mr., Miss, or Mrs. 'C'?"
"Call me neither. Call me plain 'C!' Or picture, if you like, in place of your sounder, a blonde, fairy-like girl talking to you, with pensive cheeks and sunny——"
"Don't you believe a word of it!"—some one on the wire here broke in, wishing, probably, to have a finger in the pie;" picture a hippopotamus, an elephant, but picture no fairy!"
"Judge not others by yourself, and learn to speak when spoken to!" "C" replied to the unknown; then "To N.—You know the more mystery there is about anything, the more interesting it becomes. Therefore, if I envelop myself in all the mystery possible, I will cherish hopes that you may dream of me!"
--
Anyway, right, so obviously the book has C is a man, right, cs this is 1880 we’re talkin about, so, but like. Let them be queer, is what I’m saying.
Like,,, nah don’t use a title just call me my initial?? That’s literally what I did you know, like,,,
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Highest Quality Victorian Nerdery
Given that a good number of you follow me for Dracula stuff and given that one of the major appeals of Dracula is that its about super-cute Victorian nerds nerding at one another, I have to very very very strongly recommend that everyone following me go read Wired Love: A Romance of Dots and Dashes, because it delivers nothing but the highest quality Victorian nerdery I have ever encountered.
It is a romance: a romance about telegraph operators romancing one another via morse code. It features horrible telegraph-delivered puns, relatable complaints about working in customer service, fears about being catfished, and the gang's inept dweeb friend accidentally throwing away his hat and sitting on Charlotte Russes. While nobody's memorizing train tables, geeking out about shorthand, or obsessively phonograph-blogging, it is clear that the cast would pretty much fit right in with people who are into that stufff... even if they might not exactly be up to fighting the malevolent undead and all.
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We shall soon be able to do everything by electricity; who knows but some genius will invent something for the especial use of lovers? something, for instance, to carry in their pockets, so when they are far away from each other, and pine for the sound of 'that beloved voice,' they will have only to take up this electrical apparatus, put it to their ears, and be happy. Ah! Blissful lovers of the future!
Ella Thayer, Wired Love, 1879
#Romance novelist invents the cell phone 100 years early
#cell phones#victorian literature#victorian#ella thayer#ella cheever thayer#wired love#a romance of dots and dashes
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Book/tv recs that are the equivalent of comfort food for someone who is going through a tragedy?
I am very sorry I haven’t answered you yet, anon, I wanted to get meme responses done so I could respond to you with as much attention as you deserve. First of all, I am thinking of you and whoever you are close to that’s dealing with tragedy right now.
Everyone’s comfort needs are different, so I’m always a little hesitant to make recs, but I’ll do my best for you.
Reading some of my favorites from my early teen years usually helps me a lot. Everyone’s reads at that age are different so I won’t give my specific list, but the nostalgia can really be helpful. Except Animorphs. I hear Animorphs is sad enough that it should probably be avoided for comfort reading purposes.
Noel Streatfeild’s books about young entertainers, if you like books for younger readers. “Ballet Shoes”, “Dancing Shoes”, and “Skating Shoes” are my favorites. (”Skating Shoes” is called “White Boots” outside the US, if you’re looking out for it).
Romance novels can be a good choice--one winter when things were awful for me a friend bought me a box of Goodwill romance novels and they were generally, you know. The quality you would expect from Goodwill romance novels, but they helped so much. If you want recs for actual good romance novels, Jennifer Crusie is my favorite for contemporaries (try “Bet Me”). For Regencies, I’m fond of Mary Balogh (give the Survivors Club series a shot, don’t start with her older ones, they can get weird and gothic), Julia Quinn, and I’ve only read a couple by Courtney Milan so far but they are utterly delightful. She’s got a contemporary series too, which I keep meaning to start because I hear it’s amazing, so you can give that a shot too! Georgette Heyer wrote romances minus the sex scenes and is full of delightful banter but also she was writing many decades ago and can get very anti-Semitic and otherwise Not Great so read with self-care in mind there. Oh, also Eva Ibbotson’s books for older readers, try “A Countess Below Stairs” as an intro.
If money’s an object, books that are free on Project Gutenberg that I have personally tried and enjoyed: “Daddy-Long-Legs” by Jean Webster, “Wired Love” by Ella Cheever Thayer, “Emily Fox-Seton” by Frances Hodgson-Burnett (gets very gothic and also racist, but if you like gothic romps it’s worth a look), “The Prisoner of Zenda” by Anthony Hope.
“The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet” by Becky Chambers is like gentle handholding that leads to an extended hug in space.
As for TV shows:
Leverage is good because the team never loses. They don’t always win in the way they expect, but they don’t lose.
Find a sitcom whose beats work for you--I’m particularly fond of Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Parks and Rec, and if you want a newish series I’m in love with The Good Place this season.
Kids’ shows are often great. I find clips from PBS’s It’s a Big Big World on youtube when I am too stressed to handle narrative. Maybe you’ll fall in love with Doc McStuffins or ... whatever the kids are watching these days. I mean, Steven Universe, but I’m sure you’ve already heard of that and honestly that can get upsetting enough that it might not be the best “comfort food” viewing.
Um, I watched Voltron last week and it’s a fun ridiculous show especially if you avoid engaging fannishly since the fandom seems really intense? Lots of people would also say Avatar would be a good choice but I still have not managed to watch that.
Xena gets dark sometimes over its six-season run, but overall it’s so campy and full of friendship and mythology references that I’d still recommend it as comfort watching.
Let me know if this kind of comfort watching doesn’t work for you! I’m always willing to try to come up with recs! Especially for people having a tough time.
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Ella Cheever Thayer's 1880 novel Wired Love: A Romance of Dots and Dashes must be one of literature's very first virtual love stories-- and yet much of it remains surprisingly relevant today. Wired Love's heroine, Miss Nattie Rogers, is a telegraph operator who falls in love "on the line" with a mysterious operator only known as "C."
Here, Nattie's co-workers discuss the possibility (familiar to anyone who's ever tried online dating) that "C" will turn out to be less appealing in person than he is in text:
“Yes, telegraphy has its romantic side—it would be dreadfully dull if it did not,” Nattie answered.
“But—now really,” said Quimby, who sat on the extreme edge of the chair, with his feet some two yards apart from each other; “really, you know, now suppose—just suppose, your mysterious invisible shouldn’t be—just what you think, you know. You see, I remember one or two young men in telegraph offices, whose collars and cuffs are always soiled, you know!”
“I have great faith in my ‘C,’” laughed Nattie.
“It would be dreadfully unromantic to fall in love with a soiled invisible, wouldn’t it,” said Miss Archer, with an expressive shrug of her shoulders.
Read all about Wired Love on Collision Detection, and read the whole novel for free on Google Books or Project Gutenberg.
#Wired Love#Ella Cheever Thayer#Wired Love: A Romance of Dots and Dashes#telegraphy#virtual romance#romance#Collision Detection#Google Books#Everything About Everything#Blog#Image
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