aspensdear

[aspensdear]

Gotham City backgrounds

#dc

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Antiques at Home, 1989

#interior

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Celidh in Gairloch, Scottish Highlands

National Geographic - March, 1968

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yiddish sayings that drive me absolutely bonkers, click or zoom to see them better (all from yiddishwit.com)

#yiddish #language

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Aqueous Photographs by Maria Svarbova Synchronize Swimmers Within Cavernous Soviet-Era Pools

#<3

[aspensdear]

my new-found reading habit has not yet abated so here's another one i finished yesterday. Childhood by Tove Ditlevsen! i didn't expect to like it bc i'm not a fan of child-narrators who are too innocent to understand what's going on etc, i think it's a cop out and a boring way of telling what could be complicated and interesting stories. i ended up liking this book more than i expected, though. i found the first few chapters extremely boring due to the aforementioned child-narrator, but as the story progresses it moves on to the very early teens and it became much more interesting to me. also, it's not really narrated by a child, but more narrated by an adult looking back, telling the reader what the child experienced/though, so not as bad as it could have been!

this one is going on my growing stack of memoirs/autofiction/autobiography books that i've been reading. i'm still not the biggest fan of the genre, but i guess i can't say i dislike it anymore

#tove ditlevsen #childhood #am i turning into a bookblr? maybe #lit

[aspensdear]

i think i'm on a kind of autofiction/memoir kick right now bc i read All Down Darkness Wide in the train back home on saturday (after just having read Jaguarman and Changer: méthode). It was good, but it didn't really live up to my expectations, but that may have been bc i was hoping for more Gerard Manley Hopkins-content, which is in the book, but not what it's about.

there were some things that i think will stick with me though. the way the narrator feels so protective of GMH (which i sympathise with so much), the feeling that something has been irreparably broken by growing up in a queerphobic environment (also... relatable), the way shame & fear make someone approach joy with such a convoluted, tortured way that it never feels fully realised... oof. anyway. good book. not great, but i will definitely be thinking about this one for a while.

#am i turning into a bookblr? maybe #lit #sean hewitt #all down darkness wide #queer #gerard manley hopkins

[aspensdear]

i read this double interview in the nrc (a dutch newspaper) with Raoul de Jong and Edouard Louis which was so good, it's a really neat way of getting into the ideas that percolate in their novels. So after reading this interview, i decided to read Jaguarman and Changer: méthode and i flew through them in two days or so - they're rlly good. I esp liked Jaguarman because it is so many things at once (autofiction, quest narrative, travelogue, etc.). their approaches are very similar in some ways (autobiographically inflected novels/autofiction, very socially engaged, politically outspoken, etc.) but not completely the same ofc.

#dutch literature #lit #am i turning into a bookblr? maybe #french literature #<- ooh that's a new tag!!

[aspensdear]

ok so i'm still on my p&p kick and i think this article really raises some beautiful points.

#am i turning into a bookblr? maybe #p&p #lit #austen #being alone #feminism

[aspensdear]

the thing about mr darcy. is that everything he does he does because of his eldest sibling syndrome. it's so important that he has a younger sister and it's so important that she's 16 and it's so important that their parents are dead. it's so important that georgina is friendly and cheerful and that he hates everyone. it's so important that he loathes wickham for what he did to her and gets involved to stop him from destroying lizzy's younger sister's life. it's so important that he moves bingley away because he thinks he's about to get his heart broken. it's so important that bingley is a lot like georgina. like seriously darcy is an asshole because he's an eldest sibling and he's so so sweet because he's an eldest sibling that's the whole point

#p&p #literature

[aspensdear]

an underrated detail in pride and prejudice is that elizabeth bennett was home alone on the day darcy proposed because she had a headache. can you imagine. this was in the pre-painkillers era. you're at home with a headache and then this asshole walks into the room and tells you he loves you and wants to marry you even though he hates your whole family and you're beneath him. imagine having to deal with that while also having a headache. she doesn't even have ibuprofen

#p&p #literature #austen

[aspensdear]

i mean....

and the surrounding gardens are also so lovely!!

in p&p, when Elizabeth falls in love with Darcy after seeing his house, she thinks, "to be mistress of Pemberley might be something!" which comes across as a bit mercenary perhaps but after having seen Chatsworth (allegedly the model for Pemberly), i completely get her. also, it is of course a reflection of Elizabeth's search for someone with discernment and taste, rather than someone who can only offer wealth and status. but also also sometimes you just fall in love with a building and that's ok

#p&p #am i turning into a bookblr? maybe #austen #(and yes yes down with the rich etc etc i do agree with all of that but walking there on a sunny day is just gorgeous) #like Pemberly would not do it for me - i'm a bauhaus guy at heart - #but i do get the feeling of seeing a building & loving it instantly

[aspensdear]

in p&p, when Elizabeth falls in love with Darcy after seeing his house, she thinks, "to be mistress of Pemberley might be something!" which comes across as a bit mercenary perhaps but after having seen Chatsworth (allegedly the model for Pemberly), i completely get her. also, it is of course a reflection of Elizabeth's search for someone with discernment and taste, rather than someone who can only offer wealth and status. but also also sometimes you just fall in love with a building and that's ok

#p&p #austen #am i turning into a bookblr? maybe

[aspensdear]

I think I must be the only English Lit major who graduated without reading P&P but i knew i was going to be visiting the house on which Pemberly was (allegedly) based with my mom and best friend (both avid P&P fans) so i ended up reading it, & it really is delightful. Mr Collins is hilarious, Lydia breaks my heart, bingley is a delight, and elizabeth!! <3 i love her so much! so prickly and sharp <3.

#p&p #austen #listen in my defense i have read persuasion and northanger abbey #i'm not completely ignorant #but i focused on other literary movements!! #also #i wonder what people make of miss de bourgh #am i turning into a bookblr? maybe

[aspensdear]

the amazing 550-million-years-old Uluru and Kata Tjuta, from a distance

#australia

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The floor plan evolved around an arroyo. The “bridge” shown here spans the fragile chasm, connecting the bedrooms to the living spaces. As elsewhere in the Wallach house, the Douglas fir ceiling flows uninterruptedly through the glass, merging indoors with outdoors.

The Naturally Elegant Home, 1992

#interior

[aspensdear]

The figure of Melusine, at the 16th century sculpture garden of Bomarzo, Italy.

#garden of bomarzo #hella haasse