hoursofreading

[hoursofreading]

somehow the poor cops who we were told are simply too understaffed and underpaid because of Woke to deal with 'rampant rising crime' have found the strength to beat the shit out of college students across the whole country for peacefully saying "divest from the country killing innocent palestinians in the tens of thousands"

[hoursofreading]

Lmao how is this real, "the ambient sounds of the world were wrong, sir"

[hoursofreading]

And Baru cast the first dart at hand, the words that set the coopers and the fishmongers and the bannermen of Lyxaxu and Oathsfire and Unuxekome roaring: “Show them who should rule Aurdwynn, and why.” Vultjag! the poorer parts of the crowd screamed, a raw astonished sound. Vultjag!

[hoursofreading]

THE TRAITOR BARU CORMORANT

[hoursofreading]

still working my way through baru so so slowly bc my FLP checkout keeps running out and then i have to wait on the hold etc but i just got to the part where muire lo shows up at vultjag to immediately die of the plague and the whole thing is worded in such a way as for it to be very suspect whether he's actually a) dead, b) had the plague in the first place, and c) even came to vultjag and it's not all a game someone's running on baru to unseat her because they're sort of close (and whether or not it's HIS game, farrier's, or xate yawa's is also unclear) BUT ALSO MAYBE that's what seth dickinson wants me to think and he actually is dead because that's how characters do things in this book it's very 'i know that you know that i know...but do you know what i know?' and once you've read enough of it you start triple-guessing things too

[hoursofreading]

trying to figure out how to draw Her <3

[hoursofreading]

@academia-lucifer

[hoursofreading]

We must first live the Gospel before proclaiming it, since Jesus did it this way.

Pascal Pingault, Sharing Poverty

[hoursofreading]

[hoursofreading]

The sluttiest things a man can say (Jane Austen edition):

I am fully aware of your flaws but I still love you (Mr. Knightley)

If you aren’t interested in a relationship, I’ll leave you alone (Mr. Darcy)

I was wrong. I let my emotions get the better of me (Captain Wentworth)

You don’t deserve to be neglected (Henry Crawford)

I would infinitely rather marry you than be rich (Edward Ferrars)

Your interests aren’t silly; what is silly is dismissing them as “girly” (Henry Tilney)

Before I decided to tell you this, I thought for a long time about your feelings and reaction to it. (Colonel Brandon)

[hoursofreading]

After explaining some drama at work that he was trying to deal with, my husband quoted Shakespeare to me:

O time, thou must untangle this, not I. It is too hard a knot for me t’ untie. -Viola, Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 2, William Shakespeare

Sir, I already married you, why are you being so attractive?

[hoursofreading]

As a novel dedicated to the Prince Regent, it's interesting that Emma is basically about a regency. Mr. Woodhouse is the eldest male landholder in the area, which comes with a certain amount of power and deference (though Mr. Knightley holds more land). Mr. Woodhouse is treated (to his face) with deference befitting to his rank.

But we know the truth: it is Emma who holds the real power, managing both his household and most likely his wealth (with Mr. Knightley's help, presumably). Emma is the power behind the throne, pleasing the emotionally erratic king and carrying out his wishes despite his own eccentricities. She is a caring and kind regent, doing everything she can to both maintain the dignity of her house and appease her father.

There was a regent before Emma. We know nothing of the late Mrs. Woodhouse, not how she came into the family or what her background might have been. However, as we know she was much like Emma, she must have known what kind of husband she was marrying. Why did she choose to marry a man who was her intellectual inferior? Was she poor and desperate for a comfortable home despite the drawbacks? Was she trusted by the family to be kind to Mr. Woodhouse? Or did they admire her intelligence and know that she would be able to make up for Mr. Woodhouse's deficiencies?

We are told about another such woman in Persuasion, the former Lady Elliot kept her husband out of debt for sixteen years, most likely against his will since he runs his estate into the ground after her death.

However, Emma doesn't end with a regency, it ends with two competent, benevolent people coming together to ensure the future of Highbury. The marriages held up as ideal in Austen's novels do not have all the talent and intelligence on one side. Admiral Croft lets his wife take the reins and guide them safely around the post. Do we have any doubt that Captain Wentworth and Anne Elliot would do the same?

[hoursofreading]

Why I am NOT an Austen Heroine:

-If I was Anne Elliot, I would have married Charles Musgrove in a heartbeat just to get away from my family

-If I was Elinor Dashwood, I would have ugly cried when Lucy Steele told me she was engaged to Edward until I couldn't breath

-If I was Fanny Price, I would have married Henry Crawford just to get away from Mansfield Park

-If I were Elizabeth Bennet, I would have probably just said yes to Darcy (highly loss adverse and very concerned about my age)

-If I were Emma, I wouldn't have lasted until Box Hill to insult Miss Bates. It would have happened years ago and far more often

-If I were Catherine Morland.... oh... at 17? Oh... yeah, girlies I would totally accuse my crush's dad of murder because I was reading too many Gothic novels...

I AM a Jane Austen Heroine

[hoursofreading]

They are married from the beginning and it takes them the whole novel to realize it.

[hoursofreading]

I find this post-engagement exchange in Pride & Prejudice between Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy very cute:

...To be sure you know no actual good of me—but nobody thinks of that when they fall in love.” (E) “Was there no good in your affectionate behaviour to Jane, while she was ill at Netherfield?” (D) “Dearest Jane! who could have done less for her? But make a virtue of it by all means. My good qualities are under your protection, and you are to exaggerate them as much as possible...." (E)

Because in a way Elizabeth's right, it's pretty normal for a sister to take care of a sister when she's sick. But in another way, he's right because Mary refused to come and Kitty and Lydia only cared about the ball.

It's this cute thing about how we can't even see our own virtues that others fall in love with.

[hoursofreading]

I feel like no one talks about how after Elizabeth refuses Collins like 6 times but he just keeps plowing ahead with his plans for marriage, she actually starts to go get her dad so he can stop Collins with the power of mansplaining:

To such perseverance in wilful self-deception Elizabeth would make no reply, and immediately and in silence withdrew; determined, that if he persisted in considering her repeated refusals as flattering encouragement, to apply to her father, whose negative might be uttered in such a manner as must be decisive, and whose behaviour at least could not be mistaken for the affectation and coquetry of an elegant female.

Jane Austen perfectly capturing the epitome of a female experience.

[hoursofreading]

I had tears pouring down my cheeks while I was driving home this morning because I listened to a podcast about the Radium Girls and how hard they fought to hold their employer to account for poisoning them, even though they knew they would die regardless, because they wanted to protect the workers who came after them. Even though their community called them liars and they were in horrible pain, they fought. And then the host started talking about how the Manhattan Project used knowledge gained from the Radium Girls to protect their workers and how the ghosts of those girls and women protected people going forward...

And it made me think of all the ghosts, unnamed and unknown, who in their death protect us: the ghosts of the Titanic, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, the Quebec Bridge, and so many others. Disasters that made us change laws and protect people, not just because they were horrific but because survivors and survivors families demanded that we change; kept screaming and fighting and pushing until someone listened and something was fixed.

What a debt we owe.