Sociologist, Fangirl, and Oxford comma believer. Thinks in Hindi film songs. "Obstinate, headstrong girl". | DU, JNU, @TheGendVProject | Currently teaching |
Joined December 2008
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This has been a classic kind of year for me. And I have now rediscovered Anthony Trollope. I wish we talked more about him. Really, really enjoyed 'Can you forgive her?' Now onto 'Doctor Thorne'
Pratichi retweeted
Machines are tools, not persons. Today, some propose granting these systems rights, or even legal personhood. Such an approach risks obscuring human responsibility and leaving those who suffer harm to confront a faceless entity.
This!!! ❤️❤️❤️
Rolls up sleeves. I just had to see this before going to sleep:
Darcy is not a myth. He is Austen’s design.
She wrote the man who first insults Elizabeth in a crowded room and later crosses England to save the sister she loves, quietly, without seeking credit or gratitude. She wrote the letter that undoes every false impression. She wrote the walk at Pemberley where Elizabeth sees the true shape of his character for the first time. He wasn't in a ballroom, but in the place he has made into a home. She wrote the second proposal in which he offers her nothing but the proof that he has learned to value her judgment above his own pride.
That is not Stockholm syndrome. That is the romance Austen chose to tell: two people of equal wit and unequal station who must each shed a false understanding of the other before they can meet as equals. Elizabeth’s prejudice is real; Darcy’s pride is real. Austen gives neither of them an easy victory. She gives them the harder gift of change.
The man who begins as “tolerable” ends as the only person in the novel who can truly see Elizabeth’s mind and still desire her wholly. Austen did not invent him by accident. She built him, sentence by sentence, so that the moment he says he has been a selfish being all his life would land with the full weight of everything that came before. To call that arc a dangerous myth is to refuse the story she actually wrote.
I will take Austen’s Darcy who is flawed, proud, capable of growth, and finally worthy over any modern rewrite that begins by deciding he was never the hero she intended.
Olivia Colman seems perfect. Jack Lowden looks good too with the little we see here.
But the dialogues are making me very, very nervous. Austen's strength is the dialogue, and all these new insertions are giving a little "now we are worse than exes".
I have been scarred...
Pratichi retweeted
quem diria que o brasil iria EXPORTAR o item de luxo mais caro e cobiçado do mundo: ESPERANÇA.
Pratichi retweeted
It’s easy to take Jane Austen for granted because we live in the world that she created. We struggle to see how groundbreaking and innovative her novels are because they set the template for all modern fiction. Pride & Prejudice, to cite the most obvious example, did more than invent a genre. Anyone who now writes a story in which two people fall in love is either inspired by her or reacting against her. She’s like Tolkien in that sense.
But she did much more than that. She perfected a method of narration known as “free indirect discourse” that’s now used by virtually every writer. You have only to read the novels of pre-Austen writers to see what a tremendous difference she made through her use of this technique. Literary scholar John Mullan argues that Emma launched a revolution in form & technique that’s comparable to the innovations of Joyce and Proust. It is the favorite novel of Susanna Clarke and of Katherine Rundell, who calls it “a book that shows as much of the sweep of the human heart, of fear, love, morality, untruth, foolery and triumph as a Shakespearean drama.” It is also, arguably, the novel that invented the mystery genre, having what J. K. Rowling has called the biggest twist in literature. You don’t notice the greatness of Austen for the same reason a fish doesn’t know that it lives in water.
I've read Pride and Prejudice and to this day I have no idea what the hell people see in it. It's not a bad book but I don't see it as being much beyond a glorified romcom. Pointing out foibles? Yeah, every half-decent writer does that. So what is Austen so good at?
Liz Bennet hates her mother and thinks her father, while well meaning, is an idiot (Austen doesn't seem to consider there to be anything wrong with any of that). Then there's Mr. Collins the clergyman whom the girls dislike despite his status in life. Okay, no one's entitled to someone else's romantic love but what great insights does the book contain on that?
What about any of this is supposed to be so impressive? Dickens would handle a failed courtship more efficiently and entertainingly. Just compare with Mr. Stryver's attempt at marrying Lucie Manette in A Tale of Two Cities.
Pratichi retweeted
It’s sort of remarkable that Jane Austen has become probably the central figure in English literature after Shakespeare, and arguably the most beloved. All the more so because she never traveled far from home; her life was largely lacking in drama. Early critics accused her of leading an insular existence, ignoring the great issues of the day and limiting the scope of her stories to the home. And yet, as Eudora Welty has noted, “The interesting situations of life can take place, and notably do, at home.” Such was Austen’s genius that within her limited sphere she saw the whole of human nature. All of life is contained within her six novels. She remains our greatest psychologist and one of our wisest philosophers. To read her books is a first step towards acquiring wisdom.
Why not? I say let's name it Trump Ocean. And let's name it Biden Oxygen. Maybe we can throw in Obama desert or mountain for good measure. Let's name all the countries and land after them. Maybe then they'll stop waging war on everyone.
PS. Our guy is ahead in the renaming game.
This! Always, always tip in person and not via the app.
These platforms apps have the most horrible forms of exploiting the workers.
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"Anger is having a moment.
Not the anger kept behind closed doors. Not the anger dissected by friends. Not the anger swallowed into the body only to return in a dream at night. This anger has moved from memory to muscle....
It is not male" - @NidhiSuresh_ 👏👏👏
Very good. I wish more players would do this.
"There were invitations from Israel to a tournament. I flatly refused. I'd refuse now too. I have a firm principle" — Nodirbek Abdusattorov on Avoiding Israel
rookreview.com/news/there-we…
#chess
There's something happening here
What it is ain't exactly clear
There's a man with a gun over there
A-telling me I got to beware
I think it's time we stop
Children, what's that sound?
Everybody look what's going down
youtu.be/CXvyq4SyDwU?si=gjBp…