Virginia Woolf said that this is one of the few novels written for grown-ups and, in 800 pages, this book tells you how to "quit your young lives and minds after being long in the company of them" to live a life of generosity and community. George Eliot (Mary Evans) has a great sense of humor about Victorian social mores; her prose is as vicious as it is beautiful and penetrating. My high school English teacher gave a beautiful speech about this book, her favorite. : )
Feb 20, 2024
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It is one of those reads that no synopsis of mine can encompass the multitudes hidden within those pages. It is a great comfort if youāre feeling lonely or particularly ānutsā because no one depicts the gnarly & honest nature of internal āmadnessā like Woolf. She writes from raw experienceāand sheās not trying to teach you anything either. Another thing she does like no one else is demand the readers attention on the overlooked. She follows this modernist/mystic tradition that the mundane & sublime are more alike than we think, if we are truly conscious.
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Feb 14, 2024
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a breathtaking work of experimental modernism, and probably woolfās greatest masterpiece.
the text follows six children as they stumble through life, grow up, grow apart, and grieve a dead friend. written in a nauseous stream of consciousness that blurs each character into the next in an attempt to break down the walls between the inner world and the world of the other.
the most successful meditation on big existential questionsādeath, love, grief, and the impossibility (and harrowing importance) of unfiltered connectionāiāve ever encountered.
really hard to describe this one without minimizing it. i recommend reading it in as few sittings as possible to get the full effect.
Feb 9, 2024
Jan 26, 2024
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this was the epitome of the Obama administration
Feb 19, 2024
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Not a rec but a trend I noticed in music.
In Hayes Code Hollywood (puritanical production mandates against things like sex, violence, swearing in movies), there were musical numbers that took otherwise innocuous songs and added eroti./BDSM undertones. we had āDiamonds Are a Girlās Best Friendā from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. The big dance sequence in Minnelliās The Pirate, where a woman is transformed into a donkey/bunny(? I forget) on all fours (I think?) while Gene Kelly gyrates around her in tight, low cut leather (this is crystal clear).
Fast forward (Iām skipping many steps - an amateur at this sort of thing) to the late 2000s/early 2010s. The latent BDSM becomes more explicitly lyrical in songs Like āBad Romanceā and (obviously) āSM.ā However, these songs have erotic purchase - they chart desire ( ā I want your revengeā āChains and whips excite meā) without the context of the body. The instrument and the lyrics let the listener construct titillation/lust.
Then, in the latter 2010s, we get total assaults of the physical experience of pleasure in Songs like āWAPā artists like Cupcakke, etc. so explicit that they undermine eroticism. At the same time, thereās also artists like Carly Rae Jepsen, who wax about yearning in a mystical, spiritual fashion (that im sure Jia Tolentino wrote about somewhere).
still working out why, but I think this change speaks to how rabidly we want sensation (not contemplation) from art but also (bc we get most of our art electronicall) technology and (still Working this one out) religion?
i told my friend about this and he said, āSex Positive Accelerationism.ā
Feb 26, 2024
The following photos are examples. another instance which belongs only to memory: I was teaching kindergarten on the UES at a point in my life which seemed to have no point but one morning I was walking from 86th street where they have enormous lavish dogs who look like they have a 401k and the sun was coruscating like entire streets were orange and I strolled past this Platonic piece of dog shit that was sculpted like a soft serve and the shit had this gleaming halo from the sun and stopped and stared at it for like 5 minutes
This song from the legend of Zelda always plays when I see these: https://youtu.be/qtCWgWUhA8s?si=f13382M560HRzX6B
Feb 4, 2024