Austin Continued...

So I finally finished S & S a couple nights ago. Took me a little longer than I would have thought, mostly because I have been busy....but also, because I was kind of rationing it out to try and make it last!

I really enjoyed the points she was trying to make about being over and under sentimental. I love that Elinor is not always right, either. And of course Miss Austen's sketches of all other human failings are as insightful and perfect as ever. Their brother convincing himself he's a hero for doing practically nothing for his sisters, Mrs. Ferrars unable to decide if her children are alive or dead to her, etc.

The wrap-up did seem a little too convenient to me- Edward magically free, Marianne just gets over it and decides to marry someone twice her age. Still, I got the point - getting over your preconceptions and realizing your ideas about what will make you happy were very, very off. God knows we've all had one or two Willoughby's to learn from  :-p

Do not feel sorry for him. He is an asshole. 

It's interesting, because I think she was making a similar statement in P&P about preconceptions, but unfortunately, the lesson most girls take from that is 'you know that rich handsome guy who's kind of a jerk? dont' worry, you will totally win him over and everything in your life will come together!" This one is perhaps a little more mature, and definitely harder to misconstrue  "That mysterious handsome guy who's doing everything to lead you on but not actually offering you a real commitment? Yeah, he's a selfish bastard who is never going to make you happy." Hell, they should skip the Darcy fettish and make high schoolers read this one!

Not an asshole- but whoever you are projecting him onto in your real life probably is. 

As soon as I was done I wanted to read it again to absorb every little nuance, but I don't really like to reread something right away. It's weird, my mind doesn't really want to absorb it again yet. I have to give it some space.

Therefore, on to Persuasion! I'm about three chapters in so far, and loving it! I have no idea how I ever waited so long to read these books, but it's almost a gift that I did since I get to discover them now.

Look at you, just waiting calmly for me all these years, you saucy little thing- you knew I'd be back! 

What I'm reading- the Austen Winter begins...

So believe it or not, despite having set myself up as a fount of Dickensian knowledge, I am actually pretty unversed in Austen. The exception of course is P & P- not only have I read it, but after being in Don's amazing adaptation with Butterfield 8, the dialogue has literally become something so familiar I could put it on as comforting background noise when I was studying for my comps. However the rest of Austen I have yet to delve into. 

Therefore, I have decided this will be the Winter of Austen, wherein all that changes. When I left school, I remember one of my professors telling me that if I meant to continue my studies but had some time on my hands, I ought to delve into all the literature I could to get a feel for the period I was interested in. Considering I am out in 1812/Austen land, this seemed like an especially good place to start. 

So, at the suggestion of my friend Christopher Erickson, who is working through the Austen Odyssey a little bit ahead of myself, I decided to start with Sense and Sensibility. This has the added benefit of being one I really do not know anything about, unlike say Emma (i.e, if at all avoidable, please try not to leave a bunch of spoiler comments).

So far I am about 45 pages in, and am enjoying it immensely. Miss Austen really does have a keen understanding of human foibles, both in the most obvious and subtle senses. I am really enjoying her characters and both cannot wait and kind of dread to see where they go. 

This Willoughby guy cannot be on the level.....

What I'm Reading

A biography of Charlotte Charke, famed cross dressing actress of the eighteenth century stage in London. The book has lots of great information about theater at the time- how the companies worked, what kinds of pieces they staged, the drama between actors and their employers. Many of these people were HUGE celebrities in their day. There's also some great information about theater booths at St. Bartholomew's Fair every year.
 
The author does take a great deal of literary license filling in the gaps in her subjects life, but she does weave a wonderful narrative in the process, taking you through the filthy streets of London into the magic of the dark and filthy playhouses and their shining stars.

Thoroughly recommendable!

Must get back on track......

I need to get my ass in gear on all my summer projects. I have approximately two months before I go back to school, and six weeks before I head out to TN. Sooooo many things that I want to do, that sometimes it holds me back. because i am human. so I get overwhelmed and just stare at fb. THIS MUST STOP.

Books

My big summer project was IS supposed to be the reading lists for my MA exam next fall. Basically, instead of a thesis, I spend an entire semester with a ridiculously rigorous reading list assigned by a committee of three professors whom I meet with throughout the semester. Then the week after Thanksgiving, I take a four hour comprehensive exam answering questions they come up with. It's largely historiographical in nature- i.e., I need to know who said what in the field of European History in the last 50 years or so and why it's important. Of the three professors who are on my exam I managed to get a final list from one before we let out, a preliminary from another, and last year's unconfirmed list from someone who had had the third one on their committee this year. :-p And when school let out, I made this big whole stink about how I was gonna be *smart*, and get started during summer, and knock like half of those damn books out! HA! HOW I LAUGH AT MY OWN FOOLISH PRIDE.

 At the honors banquet at the end of this semester I was looking at the few folks who got the highest honors on the exam and talking to some friends, saying 'ok, that's the goal'....and then our professor was like 'oh, um, yeah...those were Americanists. You know, those folks with only 200 years of history in one country....Europeanists pretty much never get that...but hey, good luck!"   Soo... there's that :-p

I am just gonna set myself a goal of two books a week for the next 8 weeks. That is 16 books. And frankly, two books per week is not as quick as I will need to go once the semester starts.

Sewing

This popped up when I typed 'sewing' into google images......

this chick looks waaay too calm and put together ...just sayin' 

Here I give you my beginning of the summer, aren't I awesome and waaaay to enthusiastic and don't I want to do everything list, paired down to reality and priority.

• Andrew's Doublet- DONE!!!
• Xander's doublet- Edit: SHARON IS AWESOME!!!!
• Re-dye Nobles- need to touch base with Mackenzie, gonna go over to Vallejo at some point and try and breath some new life into the old jaquard. 
• My livery- probably gonna be put off again, though I do now have the fabric and the Tudor Tailor. Would be nice to at least get the kirtle and a coif done by the end of the season.
• Various blackwork projects- probably no time soon. 
• Regency outfit for TN, including stays- PRIORITY
• Extra livery cloak for St. George- not hard, just you know, another project. 
• New Victoria ballgown for PEERS Steampunktoberfest- PRIORITY after TN- will go fabric shopping when Laura and I hit the garment district at Costume College. 
• Fix hem on Mrs. Oakley's dress- will get done before Dickens.

So um, yeah.... maybe I should get off my blog, and like, get to it......

What I'm reading

Ok, I will do a bigger post soon with the insane run down on my summer reading plan for my upcoming MA exams. However in the meantime I am starting the summer off with a book not on those lists at all, written and given to me by one of my favorite professors at SF State, Sarah Curtis.

ye old google books

This book explores the careers of three French Missionary nuns in the first half of the 19th century. It explores the ways that these women were able to use their traditional roles in a heavily patriarchal organization, ie the Catholic Church, to go places and do things that lay women, especially unmarried women, could never do. 

(Think of protestant Jane Eyre- "you have to marry me and go risk your life in India" "Hmm....couldn't I just do *one* of those things???" "NO- do what I say!")

It's also about the shift in convent focus and life after religious orders were re-authorized under Napoleon. Basically the old, contemplative model gave way to a new generation of nuns who wanted to get out and be useful- and in this case acts as agents of imperialism. 

My Summer Reading List

well, the short version at least... for now

The List of Books

Three more days... three days in which to take a final, turn in one paper and write and edit 11 pages on another- Grad Student, activate!

What I'm Reading

Continuing our World War I Theme this book was written in 1930 (All Quiet on the Western Front came out in 1929). Before the late 20's there were very few books written on the war, but with All Quiet suddenly publishers knew the war would sell. This one is about female volunteer ambulance drivers for the British Army. I'm only about 75 pages into it but so far I love it and had to share.

The main character keeps talking about what a coward she thinks she is as she deals with things you and I will hopefully never even be able to fully imagine. She writes the kinds of letters home she knows they all expect to hear 'It feels wonderful to be doing my bit', etc etc because she knows its what they want to hear. Her main reason for staying is ostensibly fear of shame should she return, but the sense of duty to the wounded soldiers she and all her friends convey is heartwarming at the same time.

 I love books where the characters display that practical 'well, here it is so I might as well put one foot in front of the other and deal with it' attitude.One of the things I am most consistently impressed with as a modern person living in hitherto unimaginable convenience in folks from the past is their ability to suck it up and deal. I think that's something as a society we might want to get back to.

 All sorts of amusing modernity culture shock moments- women cutting their hair to deal with lice, smoking and swearing, etc. Very well worth the read, and another fairly quick one at that.

What I'm Reading

well, among a million other things, anyway- grad student- but I particularly wanted to share this one. It takes the story of these two very passionate young people dealing with a world gone loco, and uses it as a focus point to describe a whole world in transition during the war.

http://books.google.com/books?id=w632o-xZ4_MC&printsec=frontcover&dq=your+death+would+be+mine&source=bl&ots=0GnrIzLKDd&sig=PL0Q4cOCQqjL9vx_vwsyrNmhZ58&hl=en&ei=DIiBTeXxCpGosAO0yJzwAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CDcQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q&f=false

BTW if anyone wants to explain to me how to hide a link under a tag or upload a picture to my posts, that'd be swell :-D