amelia_petkova

The Woman in White thoughts

2022-01-02T20:14:36Z

Almost one year later, I haven't written the rest of my Jane Eyre reaction posts. This isn't it! Instead, I've been decluttering my recent "scribble notebooks" and found some thoughts from my reread of "The Woman in White" in 2020:

Walter and Marian are like a Victorian Scooby Doo. Supporting evidence:

The "ghost" seen by a little boy in the cemetery near the school is a real woman.

The villains are men motivated by money.

Walter and Marian are good at investigating.

Conclusion: I would pay good money to see a The Woman in White/Scooby Doo fusion TV series.

comments

I can haz immunity?

2021-04-18T00:45:30Z

As of yesterday, I am fully vaccinated. I worry about catching one of the Covid variants but it's still a massive weight off my mind. Having a respiratory condition meant I qualified for a vaccine in NY fairly early on.

Reactions to the Pfizer vaccine, for the record: After shot #1, my arm was sore for a few days when I touched the area around the spot or lifted my arm. After shot #2, I felt fine in the evening, slept poorly, felt a little "off" when I got up, felt better after a shower and breakfast, and developed a fever sometime later in the morning. I spent all day in bed with a fever that crept up to 101.3 F several times, chills, and fatigue. No nausea, so at least I was able to eat regular meals. I slept about 10 hours that night and spent the next day feeling only a little weak. My temperature was a little higher than usual but didn't reach a fever.

comments

Jane Eyre reaction post, part 1

2021-04-09T00:53:54Z

I never read Jane Eyre for school. It was one of those books Everyone Has To Read that somehow missed my entire education, like Romeo and Juliet. I did read Jane Eyre just because I felt like it, I think when I was a teenager. I must have liked it because I didn't remember hating it, never watched any of the movies, never got around to re-reading it...until now. I'm able to spend part of each workday listening to my headphones and I've been working my way through a lot of audio books. And last week I decided to re-read Jane Eyre. I remembered all the main plot points, but not so much of the details. Thoughts in roughly chronological order:

Jane's aunt and cousins are hell on wheels. I wanted to start cheering when, just before Jane goes to school, she reams out Aunt Reed--excuse me, "Mrs. Reed"--about how Jane will never call her "aunt" again and will tell the entire world in detail about what a terrible person Mrs. Reed. I don't have a paper copy or ebook checked out from the library right now, so I can't quote, but my jaw dropped behind my face mask (I have to work at the office) when I listened to that speech. And then Mrs. Reed leaves the room! She's scared and runs off!

Mr. Brocklehurst can also drop dead. I know the general outline of Charlotte Bronte's biography, and I feel like his character is one of the ones where Charlotte must have drawn heavily from people she met in real life, and used this book as an excuse to absolutely roast them.

Helen Burns IS the trope embodiment of "too good for this sinful world."

I like Mrs. Fairfax so much! She's so kind and welcoming when Jane arrives at Thornfield Hall.

More reactions to come later, when I have more time for blogging.

comments

I'm still here!

2021-03-04T01:46:08Z

Still alive, still on DW, still mostly lurking due to being skilled at procrastination.

The last time I posted here was in August 2020. Not much has changed in my life since there. I'm still working full-time, which mostly makes me happy. In the fall I did a little local travel, and later took most of a week off from work for a staycation. I hadn't realized how much I needed time off until the first evening after I got home from work, when I actually felt giddy and couldn't stop smiling. I signed up for NaNoWriMo and got a lot of writing done that week! The novel I started almost a year ago is still in progress. I've accomplished a lot by my productivity standards. I've reached the point where I've hit a slump not in inspiration, but in work ethic. I really want to finish a draft of this novel. I'm ready to publish again, whether querying gets me somewhere this time or I end up self-publishing again. I wish I could get myself back to writing fanfiction. I want to do something fannish again.

I miss being able to see my friends in person, I miss travel, I miss being able to go places without needing an entire plan in place.

I hope everyone still here on DW who sees this is doing well.

comments

Shades of Milk and Honey Reactions, Part 2

2020-09-01T01:10:06Z

I realize I didn't actually write much about what the book is about in my first post. The first half of Shades of Milk and Honey is more character-driven rather than plot-driven, establishing what Jane's life is like in the country and her society. At the beginning, we learn that ~~Netherfield is let at last~~ the young Captain Livingston, who Jane and her younger sister Melody knew as children, has returned to stay with his aunt ~~Lady Catherine de Bourgh~~ Lady Fitzcameron. Naturally Melody and most of the eligible young ladies in the neighborhood are ready to swoon. Jane is more mellow about it.

We are also introduced to Mr. Dunkirk, who Jane gets along with and is attracted to, but manages to talk herself out of every compliment he pays her by twisting it around so that she believes he's really complimenting Melody who is briefly infatuated with Mr. Dunkirk at the beginning of the story. Mr. Dunkirk also introduces Jane to his younger sister, ~~Georgiana Darcy~~ Elizabeth Dunkirk who has just come to stay with him. Jane immediately makes friends with her, and takes Elizabeth under her wing, and it's all very sweet.

Jane also meets Mr. Vincent, who is a professional glamourist hired by Lady Fitzcameron to create a glamour display ("glamural") at her house. Continuing the Austen vibes, they have a number of interactions invoking Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth, though Jane is far more restrained and polite throughout. "Repressed" may be a more accurate term.

Mrs. Ellsworth, Jane and Melody's mother, doesn't have an obsession with marrying her daughters off but is otherwise so much like Mrs. Bennett that I was surprised she never literally said "my poor nerves!"

The plot picks up steam about halfway through the book as secret relationships are revealed and there's more focus on the physical effects from working intense glamour.

( spoilers )

Shades of Milk and Honey is the first book in a series and I liked it well enough to give the second book a try.

comments

Shades of Milk and Honey reactions, Part 1

2020-08-27T01:58:04Z

My current audio book is "Shades of Milk and Honey" by Mary Robinette Kowal, which I had vaguely remembered being advertised as "Jane Austen-esque fantasy" and had been on my To Read list for a while. I'm limiting myself to just a couple hours of listening each day, to make it last longer.

So far I've seen that yes, it's fantasy set in Regency England with a Jane Austen-type mood. It sets up the fantasy element right away, showing that this version of England has the magical art of glamour, which can be used by either gender but is included in the arts that genteel young ladies should learn.

Reactions so far:

I like Jane but there might be too much of how little she sees her self-worth. She's not beautiful, but she's accomplished and intelligent and the people she meets generally find her interesting.

Melody, the younger and beautiful sister is certainly feather-brained. The two sisters do love each other, but that fact that they end up being attracted to most of the same men isn't helping their sisterly bond at the moment.

( Spoilers and plot theories behind the cut )

comments

He said what?!

2020-06-04T11:37:55Z

Regarding James Mattis's comments about Trump's reaction to the protests and misuse of the military: When a longtime military man commonly known by the nickname "Mad Dog" accuses you of violating the Constitution and says “ 'Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people—does not even pretend to try. Instead, he tries to divide us,' Mattis writes. 'We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership. We can unite without him, drawing on the strengths inherent in our civil society. This will not be easy, as the past few days have shown, but we owe it to our fellow citizens; to past generations that bled to defend our promise; and to our children.' ” you know you done fucked up.

comments

Quarantine meme

2020-04-17T21:19:44Z

Taken from rymenhild

( Behind the cut for length )

comments

greetings in the age of corona virus

2020-04-07T23:34:21Z

Hello! It only took a pandemic to get me posting on DW again. Overall, I'm doing all right. I'm still employed full-time so that's the biggest source of worry out of my life. I had a minor illness about a month ago but wasn't sick enough to get tested. I get some kind of respiratory infection at least once a year, so it's anybody's guess whether I had corona virus or was just generally sick. I'm still getting my asthma beat back into submission but that's all. I miss seeing my friends in person and I want to travel.

It's good seeing everyone else's posts.

I've been trying to enjoy more books and TV shows since I can't do much outside of work other than going on walks and grocery shopping. Thoughts so far:

After rewatching a number of episodes from later seasons of The Closer, it could easily be subtitled Captain Raydor and Oh My God, What Did You People Do Now? I love her. The episodes featuring the misadventures of Flynn and Provenza continue to be my favorites.

My TV provider unexpectedly gave me a bunch of extra channels (for free as far as I can tell) including Showtime, and I now have access to all of Penny Dreadful. This pandemic just got a little bit better. I can finally watch Season 3! (I already hate the end of it based on spoilers, but I want to see at least the first half of that season.)

I listened to the audio book for Jane Austen at Home by Lucy Worsley and it's great. I want to re-read all of Jane Austen's novels now. On a related note, I read Lady Susan early this year--it was hilarious.

I began reading The Decameron for the first time. It's been on my To Read list for years but this was definitely the right time to began reading a work of literature about a group of people who flee from the bubonic plague to the Italian countryside where they tell stories for ten days. If I began highlighting passages from the Introduction that have meaning for me due to our current pandemic, I'd end up highlighting the entire thing. I'm on Day 1 at this point and the stories are hilarious.

comments

Beowulf socks

2020-01-28T23:44:01Z

One of my resolutions this year is to post on DW more and this post on Tumblr got me to do it: somebody knitted socks with the opening text of Beowulf. Fucking Beowulf socks. I love them, I can't imagine how detail-intense that pattern must be, and I want them on my feet.

comments

The Awakening by Kate Chopin, Part 1

2019-09-08T22:55:11Z

I'm halfway through listening to the audio book of The Awakening by Kate Chopin for the first time. Events so far can be summed up as Edna, the protagonist, saying, "I don't give a fuck and I'm gonna do what I want" and her husband in the background going "WTF?" again and again.

comments

Hello Dreamwidth, my old friend

2019-04-16T23:53:39Z

The problem I run into with DW is that even though I have it remember my password, every now and then it will log me out and a month goes by before I stop being too lazy to get out my password and log back in, even though I want to. It's the same reason why I left my snow shovel in the back seat of my car all last year instead of just carrying it to my easily accessed storage unit.

Things that have been happening:

1. It's only Tuesday and the work week has already been so hectic and stressful that watching The Exorcist while I type this is relaxing.

2. Spring is here at last! I love finally seeing flowers bloom and being able to go for long walks without wearing wool socks and snow boots.

3. Still writing. Still reading, though I've slacked off.

4. I want to travel all the time. I had a day trip recently which was nice, but I'm ready for someplace out of my ordinary again.

Hope all of you are doing well. I'd like to get my act together enough to complete some fan fiction this year.

comments

what if

2018-08-12T00:57:15Z

I like puzzling over how things could have gone differently in stories. The one that I'm focused on right now: what if Wato hadn't been into Moriya?

( spoilers ahead )

comments

Miss Sherlock: general thoughts

2018-08-07T01:05:31Z

I think I avoided spoilers in this one.

Sherlock's faces are the best--I especially love her grin, not to mention the way she moves.

Sherlock's relationship with her brother is a delight every time he is onscreen. They constantly pick on each other but it's in an obviously loving way.

This show is so goddamn shippy. Nothing subtle about it by the last episode.

Mrs. Hatano is the best.

The night I finished watching this show I was an hour late getting to bed because I started looking at fic on AO3. I want it all!

Raimon and Shibata are great. Raimon is constantly amused by Sherlock and I like watching how Shibata and Sherlock react to each other. I want to know how the hell she met them. Did Kento basically send over because she needed something to do and he thought they could use the help? Did she just turn up at a crime scene one day and start sticking her nose (and hands) into everybody’s business? How long has this been going on? Does the police force have a drinking game for cases that Sherlock's involved with?

comments

Miss Sherlock: short reaction

2018-08-04T01:11:56Z

I LOVE IT! I almost never get into TV shows while they're current and everyone is talking about them. The last time that happened was Hannibal...which ended in 2015. I'm especially glad I tried watching it now, because there are only eight episodes and I was able to get through the whole thing before it was hard to find any of the illegal uploads that I absolutely, definitely did not watch. All of the actors are great and I love the storyline.

More to come later once I manage to organize my squeeing!

comments

The Lizzie Bennet Diairies

2018-06-28T22:40:48Z

Continuing my proud tradition of getting into media years later than everyone else, I'm finally watching the Lizzie Bennet Diaries. I'm nine episodes in so far. Assorted thoughts:

I love Lizzie acting out the off-screen characters. Her mother is my favorite so far. I did kind of hope it was going to be something similar to Howard's mother from The Big Bang Theory, where we hear her as well, but never see her.

Changing the number of daughters from five to three makes sense for managing the amount of people popping in and out of the videos.

I like Lizzie but did the creators mean for me to like Charlotte more? She has a lot of good zingers and I just watched the bit where she correctly insisted that Lizzie was a witch for Halloween in 2nd grade, not a spinster.

comments

internment camps are bullshit: a collection of links

2018-06-20T01:40:33Z

I've been getting lost in a sea of horrifyingly-accurate information the past week or so while I try to figure out what to do first. I'll give a shot at gathering together links I've been seeing on multiple websites so I can find information again later.

Families Belong Together, includes information on upcoming events

a list of ways to help

parallels between current events and history of Native American boarding schools

list of comparisons between Nazi era and current events involving immigrants and other Trump actions

another list of ways to help

Laura Ingrahm compares the detention centers to summer camp because she's a dipshit. I can think of one kind of camp where she would have been a competent ~~guard~~ employee...

complaint letter from church members saying that Jeff Sessions's actions towards immigrant children are child abuse. Boom.

To be updated more and/or better organized as I have time.

comments

shades of Jacky Faber

2018-05-04T00:59:11Z

I visited the Rejected Princesses website today and found this page of information about a 16-year-old girl who was a repeated horse thief, jail breaker, and violinist in the 1920s. I feel like Veneida [sic] Smith is Jacky Faber's spiritual descendant.

God, I still love those books. (Except Boston Jacky. That one never happened.)

comments

that's one way of not getting murdered

2018-03-02T16:47:49Z

I was thinking about the NBC Hannibal series some more and that episode in Season 2 when he's choosing his dinner ingredients from the rolodex of the rude, and realized that what I want is a fic about one of Hannibal's victims-to-be unintentionally evading every attempt to kill them through sheer dumb luck. Look, that person may have intentionally given Hannibal decaf instead of regular coffee because they were in a bad mood that day (pretending for the sake of argument that Hannibal would actually go to a Starbucks), but that doesn't mean the person deserves to end up in Alanna's beer.

Let's say this person is Jenny the underpaid barista. Hannibal sabotages her car? Jenny decided to hitchhike and gets a ride before Hannibal can catch her. Hannibal breaks into her home and waits for the time he knows she gets home from the gym every night? Jenny unexpectedly has to fly to the other side of the country due to a family emergency. Hannibal waits outside the secluded side door at the gym that she always uses? Jenny canceled her membership that morning because she needs to save money to pay off her student loans.

By this time, it's the day of Hannibal's dinner party and Jenny (at least temporarily) escapes being on the menu.

comments

might not quite work

2018-02-09T12:05:12Z

I saw this Labyrinth comic that shows Sarah using GPS on her phone to find where the castle is. It's fun and the title "Suck it, Jareth" made me laugh. But...I feel like it kind of misses the point that as soon as Jareth found out about GPS, he'd probably find a way to either mess with the GPS itself or have the Labyrinth actually change while a person was walking through it. I do enjoy the idea of a person using their GPS while going through the Labyrinth, and the route changing every few minutes. Also, the concept of the Labyrinth having an address that allows it to appear in a computer system.

comments

Effie Gray (2014 movie)

2018-02-01T02:06:01Z

I've been watching more movies than usual this week as a result of being sick. Today one of them was Effie Gray about the woman who was married to the Pre-Raphaelite painter John Ruskin, had her marriage annulled due to non-consummation, and later married the painter John Everett Millais. The costumes are wonderful, the actors are great, and it's a good movie. But for my main reaction:

Wow. John Ruskin. Was. An. Asshole.

I don't know exactly what his deal was, but for whatever reason he decided to marry Effie and then it turned out he was completely unprepared to deal with the reality of an actual woman. They got married when she was twenty years old and the marriage ended six years later. In the movie Ruskin neglects her as soon they get to London and becomes more callous as the movie goes on. It gets to the point where I'm surprised she didn't go completely bonkers.

It's hard to choose the peak of Ruskin's asshole-ness, but definitely in the top five comes near the end, when Effie's young sister is visiting and Ruskin says the next big book he writes will be about how wicked Effie is.

( spoilers )

Reading the Wikipedia entry on real-life Effie Gray later, it turns out Ruskin later wanted to marry a teenage girl named Rose La Touche when he was a teenager and he was in his 40s. Rose's family wrote to Effie for advice and her response can be summed up as, NO. A WORLD OF NO.

ETA 24 hours later to add a spoiler cut. It's been so long since I posted about involving spoilers that I forgot to do it!

comments

January book log

2018-01-26T02:13:22Z

Maybe this will be a way to keep me posting more often! I didn't read a lot of books in January but I did get through two audio books:

Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown

Revolution is a Young Adult novel that I know is popular because the library I used to work at had copies stolen repeatedly so that I could never actually borrow it while I was there. Andi is a high school senior in NYC whose life is a mess: she's depressed, suicidal, self-destructive, and has to take care of her mother who is more or less catatonic after the death of her little brother. We don't actually find out how her brother (Truman) died until late into the book, but we know from the beginning that there was something very wrong about what happened. The only thing keeping Andi going is playing her guitar and her music lessons at school. During winter break she's hauled off to Paris by her mostly-absent father and forced to work on her senior thesis, a project about musical DNA starting with a fictional French composer named Mahlerbeau who lived during the French Revolution. And then things get weird.

The book is long and I was surprised at how quickly it went by. Andi is definitely not a happy camper and she makes sure everyone around her knows it. At times it almost goes overboard but generally the author does a good job of showing a person who's been stuck in despair for two years now and is barely hanging on. The portion of the story set in France really grabbed me and I laughed in many of the scenes when Andi is describing her rich, pretentious classmates.

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee has been on my To Read list for years. It's a non-fiction book about Native Americans during the second half of the 19th century. Predictably, it's depressing and harrowing, but always fascinating. I knew a little bit of the tribes and events Brown recounts, but most of the specifics were new to me. It focuses primarily on the western half of the country though trips to Washington, D.C. turn up occasionally. Some of the things I'd vaugely known of before reading this book but didn't really learn about till now where Geronimo, Custer, the Ghost Dance, and the origin of the saying "The only good Indian is a dead Indian."

One of the things that surprised me were the examples of people in the U.S. government and military who actually tried to help the various tribes and make things better, but these people were typically changed to a different position, fired, or driven to the point where they resigned. I think my favorite is a white mail carrier who'd been harassed by a tribe (I'm sorry, I didn't write down which tribe or chapter this happens in and it's a very long book) while carrying out his duties to the point where he almost quits. One day, he waltzes up to where the tribe is currently camped, sets down the gun he carries, and walks right up to their chief and sits down to work things out. Look, I'm just trying to do my job, I'm not trying to do anything on your land except get through to carry the mail in and out, how about you guys get off of my back? And then the mail carrier and the chief became friends and stayed friends for the rest of their lives.

comments

I may have miscalculated: Princess Tutu edition

2018-01-06T23:13:03Z

My mother and I were watching the pre-Olympics figure skating last night and she brought up the Bolero Routine from the 1984 Olympics. This inspired me to mention Princess Tutu--"It's an anime about a ballet school"--and the dance contest in Season 2 where the sloth who's in love with Neko-sensei has a Bolero routine reference. I couldn't find a clip of the scene online so I promised to show it to her from my DVDs sometime.

You guys, I didn't mention the part where they're all animals. I'm going to have to explain Neko-sensei to my mother.

comments

Summing up 2017: Reading

2017-12-30T22:58:17Z

Sharing some of the books I read this year and my thoughts on them!

The Light Princess by George MacDonald: A princess is cursed to float about in the air. My favorite part is the princess's evil aunt's eyes that literally change color according to her mood.

The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling: I listened to a great audio book of this. It's done entirely in script format so I don't know if the actual book is very different. Eartha Kitt voiced Kaa the snake!

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James: I loved the concept of this but wish I liked the actual book more. I just think I don't care for James's writing style.

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Care by Fannie Flagg: Another audio book winner. The accents were so great and I loved the characters, both in the present day and in the "past" sections of the story. Idgie and Ruth are so great together and I was crying by the end of the book. I really need to watch the whole movie adaptation at some point.

Irish Earth Folk by Diarmuid MacManus: I'm always a sucker for books of folktales and folklore, and the fact that this book's focus is on a certain geographic area and all the stories are connected to people that either the author knew or are told by friends of friends made it especially interesting.

The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis: Time travel to the Middle Ages and our protagonist accidentally ends up in the period of the Black Death. A great book and totally heartbreaking in parts.

The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher by Kate Summerscale: True crime about the murder of a child in Victorian England. So, so good and I really need to write a longer post about it because the events were a major inspiration for...

The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins: Great mystery novel. I'm still surprised that I enjoy Collins so much, given that he was major buddies with Charles Dickins and and I couldn't stand Dickens when I had to read him in high school.

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel: One of the only dystopia/post-apocalyptic novels I've really enjoyed and wanted to re-read.

A Desperate Fortune by Susanne Kearsley: Not my favorite Kearsley novel that I've read--I'm not as into Jacobins as she is--but I still liked it a lot. Notable for having a heroine with Asperger's who's treated well by the story, though I can't say how accurate the depiction is.

The Duchess by Amanda Foreman: A biography of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. A very fascinating woman who got married way too young, was really good at politics, and had an astounding gambling problem.

The Princess and the Goblin by George Macdonald: I liked this one just as much as The Light Princess. I've had a copy of this book for years but never got around to reading it until now. Curdie is clearly the most capable character in the entire book.

Lud-in-the Mist by Hope Mirrlees: A 1920s fantasy novel that I partly liked so much because the style is so different from current fantasy. Also, fairy fruit that makes people act unnaturally is a major part of the plot and I'm always up for that.

The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton: Takes place in present-day Australia and Victorian England. A woman finds out that she was abandoned and then adopted as a child and tries to find out her origins. It took me a little while to get into things, but by the time I'd gotten halfway through the book I didn't want to put it down.

The Mabinogion, Sioned Davies edition: I love it so much! I'm really glad that this is the version I had when I finally got around to reading these stories.

Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day by Winifred Watson: Turned out to be a lot different from the film version. A light, quick novel that's completely delightful and Miss Pettigrew has the wonderful time she's long deserved.

The Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich: The first of Erdrich's novels I've read and I definitely want to read more of her works.

The Romanov Bride by Robert Alexander: Historical fiction about Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna of Russia and the Russian Revolution. The Kitchen Boy was the first Alexander novel I read and this one is just as good.

Jane Austen at Home by Lucy Worsley: Notable in that it's as much about the Georgian period as Jane Austen. I knew a fair bit about her already from the Austen class I took in college but I learned a lot more from this book.

Arrowood by Laura McHugh: A young woman returns to her family's home where her baby sisters disappeared when she was a young child. Very Gothic.

Buried in a Bog by Sheila Connolly: First novel in a mystery series set in County Cork, Ireland. I wish it had been more about bog bodies, but otherwise I liked it.

comments

You know you're a fan of The Dark is Rising when...

2017-11-22T12:20:19Z

The photo on today's Bing homepage is of Wales and it makes you want to re-read the entire series. (And travel to Wales again, but I feel like that every day.)

comments