chocolatepot: Ed and Stede (Default)
The Memoirs of Miss Sidney Bidulph

You may remember that I picked this book up at the museum's book sale. It's by Frances Chamberlaine Sheridan (1724-1766), which is a fantastic name, right? She married an actor/director and wrote several plays (two of which were put on by David Garrick, which was a Big Deal) and novels, encouraged by Samuel Richardson. Her son was Richard Brinsley Sheridan, the writer of A School for Scandal.

Sidney Bidulph is a three-volume novel, and I've just come to the end of the first volume. IMO, it should be studied alongside or instead of Pamela or Clarissa - it's a much better read and just as literatury. So this is an epistolary/diary novel about a young woman having a suitably dramatic life: she lives with her mother, and her brother brings home a friend for her. The two fall in love and are preparing to get married, but a Moral Impediment is found (the friend impregnated a young woman) and her mother cuts off the match, with Sidney sadly complying. After a while, they (minus the brother - he's inherited their father's title and is off doing his own thing all the time) go for a long visit to a friend of the mother's, where the mother and her friend set Sidney up with a different young man. She's not in love with him but appreciates how gentlemanly and good he is, so they get married and the affection comes later. Several years and two daughters later, the friend comes back into the picture as her husband turns out to be having an affair with a neighbor; the neighbor is revealed as a nasty person who was involved with the friend impregnating the young woman in a bad way, and she orchestrates the husband into believing that Sidney's having an affair, and he hypocritically kicks her out. (End Vol. I.)

One of the things I really like is that, unlike Richardson, Sheridan doesn't hit you over the head with THIS CHARACTER IS BAD or THIS CHARACTER IS A PARAGON. The mother's actions are conventional and what most would have lauded, and Sidney's filial obedience is praised by the text (and I think by the author), but there's certainly critique of the social norms. There are also some side stories that contribute to the critique - the young woman's isn't finished yet by a long shot, Sidney suspects that she's not as innocent as she makes out (which at this point could mean anything from "she kind of wanted to have sex with the friend" to "she helped orchestrate their encounter to trick him into marriage"), but there's certainly a condemnation of what happened to her; the mother's friend has a daughter that married against her mother's wishes for love, and the narrative is very sympathetic to her and unsympathetic to her mother.

Finding Dory

SO CUTE. I wasn't sure if I was going to go see it - I'm a bit older than the demographic that's all "we've been waiting ten years for a sequel to Finding Nemo!" - but I saw it had 95% on Rotten Tomatoes and decided to do it. spoilers )

Crown Duel (Sherwood Smith)

I got this and its sequel, Court Duel, out of the library because of a rec online related to The Goblin Emperor (I think?). I was surprised that they turned out to be fairly slim YA volumes, but because they're older YA - back when it was "children's literature but a bit more complex and mature" - they're not full of the adolescent bullshit that usually makes me put YA books back on the shelf without finishing. The heroine is a teenager in a sexism-free medievalloid setting, and she and her brother have to rebel against the king on their father's death. She gets captured by the young aristocrat leading the king's forces, who they'd initially written off as a gambling fop, and they're clearly being set up for a future romance. I love it! (So far.)

Ilvermorny

My Ilvermorny opinions are probably somewhat controversial. (Link to JKR's writing on the first/biggest American magic school here, in case you haven't seen it.) It took me some time of pondering and mulling over to get at what was bothering me. See, Rowling doesn't even do the kind of interaction between Muggle and magical history and culture that people are expecting from her in other countries in her own. Magical Britain in Harry Potter is not just like modern day Britain, but with wands. She doesn't deal meaningfully with the Protestant Reformation/Jacobite Rebellion/reign of Victoria/WWI home front or the differences between all the regional cultures in the UK. It's very reasonable to say that you can do that to your own culture but not someone else's, but it seems like the common thought is that she was especially accurate to Britain and then did America worse and "wrong".

Basically, Rowling's worldbuilding is equal parts pastiche and Rule of Funny/Cool, and people want more standard urban fantasy worldbuilding. The magical world in HP is a thing totally apart from the Muggle world, not separated by a thin curtain so that every state/city has essentially the same culture on both sides. And TBH I wouldn't want it any other way.

... Actually, thinking about it, I would probably go with tight ethnic enclaves for American wizards, with some marrying in from local Muggles. There's definitely not a high enough population to support them spread out over the entire continent.

Writing

I just cannot write lately. I had a pretty good idea recently that could probably work as a novel but realistically, I know I could only do as a longer short story. Part of the problem is that I can't seem to get it started, and part is that I can't figure out what I'd do with it afterward. It's not salable (except maybe to a magazine from the Edwardian period), and if I put it on Amazon, do I use a pen name? Should I republish A Worthy Connection under a pen name? LIFE. I need someone else to make my decisions for me.
chocolatepot: Ed and Stede (Default)
No, if you've never read the Harry Potter books(/listened to them on audiotape), you aren't a real fan. Sorry, Tumblr. It's seven books, half of which are pretty short.
chocolatepot: Ed and Stede (Default)
Went back to Pottermore as they told me PoA was starting to go out, and finished up CoS.

cut because technically it counts as spoilers, I guess, although when I look at my gateway it's clear that few flisters are bothering to use the site but you know )

I kind of wish this site had been up during the old days of fandom. I feel like back then people would have taken the off-hand mentions like the existence of a play called 'The Fountain of Fair Fortune' and run with it and written them whole thing. *mourns*

Welp

Oct. 27th, 2012 08:38 am
chocolatepot: Ed and Stede (Default)
Sorry to those of my friends who found weird, rambling comments in their inboxes this morning. Madderbrad has been banned from this journal and his comments have been screened because, frankly, nobody should have to look at them.

ETA: The drop-down addresses in my URL bar are all in white text for some reason. Happening to anyone else?
chocolatepot: Ed and Stede (Default)
On a scale of one to ten, how pissed off would you be if a guy referred to a woman/female character with three kids as a baby machine, then defended it by saying "Whether a sausage machine turns out three sausages or a million ... it's still a sausage machine. Particularly if it does nothing else but make sausages"?

I ...

May. 13th, 2012 07:53 pm
chocolatepot: Ed and Stede (Default)
I wish fics would be tagged "good premise but Snape is crazy woobified". It wouldn't stop me from reading, but it'd be nice not to go in with the expectation that every other sentence isn't going to be about how much unendurable pain he's endured. (It would be nicer if everyone would consult me on their characterizations and headcanons before they wrote fic, but oh well.) It's funny, though, when you get to a certain amount of woobification I just enjoy the OTTness.

I took the pattern of my great-grandmother's dress (as seen in this picture) the other day, and now I need to get fabric, some kind of light, crisp cotton. The main issue I have to think about is whether or not it's going to be worn with the 1911 corset. I should just sit down and finish the damn grommets already, put the bones in, and bind it, because that's all that's left, but uggghhhh.

I don't understand why people feel the need to do the Rumple vs. Regina thing. They are both complex characters with good and bad points and are fairly easy to sympathize with while also doing things that make you dislike them. There's no need for one to be the Bad Guy and the other to be a woobie. THANK GOD Emma believes in magic now. I needed a big change. Also, I like that they're heavily indulging my "because your parents" kink. And Belle is out, yay!! I kind of feel like I should stop reading theories on Tumblr, because they so often come true that I feel like I'm missing out on surprises.

I have a few links: an article on the challenges of having a Kanien'kehaka hero/character in the next Assassin's Creed game; an Audra McDonald slideshow in the NYT (omg howwww did Ragtime flop twice??); Megan Hilty apparently WON at playing Lorelei Lee, hence my continued confusion over the Ivy/Karen rivalry (and where can I get this album).

I finally got my formal letter-in-the-mail from the Chapman Museum! This is my last week at the Institute, I wonder if I'll do anything different there. Probably not. Of course I'm nervous to start elsewhere, in my first full-time job, but it will be good for me and get me another recommendation, which will hopefully get me a permanent position somewhere. Or maybe I will get that one in Schenectady! Please!
chocolatepot: Ed and Stede (Default)
- My qualifying paper has been accepted. I should be more excited, but really I'm just relieved and uncaring. Burnt out on it.

- Everyone's probably seen them already, but there's a good trilogy of YouTube videos talking about why fannish misogynist hatreds of Cersei, Catelyn, and Sansa are bad.

- Is anyone else into The Syndicate? It's quite good. And it has Matt Lewis in it. And Timothy Spall, and Seth from Misfits.

- Madame Guillotine took her kids to the HP studio tour in Leavesden, and it looks insanely good. Okay, the main reason I'm linking is because the Remus and Tonks mannequins are arm in arm and it's cute.

- I have seven sales! And four reviews! The fact that the 5-star one is from my mother (come on, you must have guessed) means that my non-family average is 3 stars. D: Unfortunately, I have nothing else anywhere near done, and I can't let myself get into writing-mode because I need to be in sewing-mode and finish this gown.

- I'm hungry but I don't feel like making dinner. :( And we have no mac&cheese in boxes. :(((

- However, I've borrowed AFFC on the Kindle. I wasn't enchanted with the opening, because it seemed to so obvious that this kid who only thinks about the girl he's in love with was going to die very soon, which distracted me from all of the Citadel politics and stuff. And it just felt kind of too long for what it actually accomplished - we're this far in, I don't need to be reminded that THE WORLD IS A CRUEL AND TERRIBLE PLACE :C But moving on from that, I do like how it shows the Greyjoys (although the Damphair comes off like a parody of Puritans, I just picture him going, "fun is sinful," and putting his fingers in his ears at a party) and then Dorne, the fringes of empire coming detached. I would trade it for some solid Sansa or Tyrion time, though.

- Was 30 Rock not sheer wonderfulness last night? My dad actually called me in the middle of it because he was having such a great time watching it, and he does not do that sort of thing. And the cameos! I was not expecting Amy Poehler or Don Glover!
chocolatepot: Tamaki Suoh, clenching fist (Tamaki)
I loved this book when I was younger, although I forgot about it for a while, and ... I think I know where my deep love of AU rescued!child!Harry fic comes from.

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