a beautiful tale of overcoming adversity and loving what makes you different, written at a time when being different was very very dangerous. it's a ca beautiful tale of overcoming adversity and loving what makes you different, written at a time when being different was very very dangerous. it's a classic tale that stands the tale of time. Plus who doesn't love a trumpet-playing, mute swan??...more
I don't get it. This is a "comedy," really? This was an experimental play within an experimental play that if anything is a tragedy, not a comedy. WhenI don't get it. This is a "comedy," really? This was an experimental play within an experimental play that if anything is a tragedy, not a comedy. When I read a play (which isn't often) by an exalted playwright, and said play is the most exalted of said exalted playwright, I would expect at least to take away a little nugget from this play. Even A Midsummer's Night Dream gave me something despite my response of "Meh." This did not. Perhaps I'm not intellectual enough but I can't think well of this play except to be glad it was brief....more
the most boring of the Austen books I have ever read. Honestly Fanny may be righteous and gentle but she is a milquetoast pansy who cries all the timethe most boring of the Austen books I have ever read. Honestly Fanny may be righteous and gentle but she is a milquetoast pansy who cries all the time and never once stands up for herself… a wonder Austen ever created her as a heroine. At the same time, it also has adultery which is a first that I've seen from her!...more
surprising book by the sci-fi author. I wish I had read this with an English lit class due to all the layers. I need to check when Wells wrote this busurprising book by the sci-fi author. I wish I had read this with an English lit class due to all the layers. I need to check when Wells wrote this but I think it was contemporary (along with suffrage beginnings and before 1st world war) The plot itself is fairly secondary though I followed it avidly enough, about a girl, age 20, who wants to LIVE not just exist but is surrounded by a world that just wants 'nothing to happen.' Her struggle as a naïve blank slate with unidentified yearnings is actually a marvelous coming of age - more a realization of self than any major event or symbolic action (which is much more like most of our coming-of-ages) but it parallels rather the changes of social order (rich/poor) women's' rights (to earn livings, to vote, to DO something besides living at home until passed off to a husband), scientific understanding - Darwin and Mendelian concepts introducing a new age of interest in science and questioning & philosophy- and common people's rights (socialist theories abounding, the rights of the people, the unnamed lack of rights of the common man to run for Parliament) I'm actually pleased I read this around the time of watching Downton Abbey since some of the same struggles are looked at there. Finally and most importantly, the movement either symbolically or literally of child away from parent (going out into the world, doing better, being or at least feeling more sophisticated then their predecessors, and rejecting what IS for what can or SHOULD be. I highlit many passages along those lines!...more
2.5 stars This book would have been nice with annotations (I kept wondering why Gawain was referred often as 'Sir Wawain" - typo or purposeful?). Other2.5 stars This book would have been nice with annotations (I kept wondering why Gawain was referred often as 'Sir Wawain" - typo or purposeful?). Otherwise, it's a faithful translation of an interesting tale. The tale was interesting… the method not as much. I despair of lengthy descriptions of chivalry and goodness. I really preferred Steinbeck's The Acts of King Arthur and his Noble Knights which is a retelling as well so faithful in its own way. Those characters were vivid, fallible and active!...more
Genesis as portrayed by R. Crumb. This celebrated underground comix artist (depicted by James Urbaniak in “American Splendor” with Paul Giamatti) takeGenesis as portrayed by R. Crumb. This celebrated underground comix artist (depicted by James Urbaniak in “American Splendor” with Paul Giamatti) takes the entire book of Genesis, every chapter, and graphically portrays the stories, ‘begots’ and characters therein. I’ve never cared much for his stylized humans (they’re usually somewhat grotesque and unlikable) but it works well to engage the reader here and remind one that the book of Genesis, far from being a morality tale, is about humanity and our hit-and-miss relationship with God. I’m hoping he carries on with Exodus and the rest of the gang!
hoping my Old Testament professor is making this the new required textbook :) Accurate & faithful (i.e. missing Sunday-school additions/interpretation)....more