insaneneko (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
insaneneko) wrote2010-11-08 07:16 pm
insaneneko) wrote2010-11-08 07:16 pm
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a weekend full of reading
I reread Persuasion again in hard copy and loved the conversation between Harville and Anne regarding women and men. Though I don't have an opinion on which sex has longer lasting affections, I thought Anne made excellent points that I could totally agree with. First off:
"...We certainly do not forget you as soon as you forget us. It is, perhaps, our fate rather than our merit. We cannot help ourselves. We live at home, quiet, confined, and our feelings prey upon us. You are forced on exertion. You have always a profession, pursuits, business of some sort or other, to take you back into the world immediately, and continual occupation and change soon weaken impressions."
Men can go do stuff to distract/forget if they want to, but women can't even if they wanted to. They are stuck at home for the most part. These are the times when I'm glad I was born now (though if I did live back then in England, I'd be some peasant working woman...).
And a little later:
"...Well, Miss Elliot," (lowering his voice,) "as I was saying we shall never agree, I suppose, upon this point. No man and woman, would, probably. But let me observe that all histories are against you--all stories, prose and verse. If I had such a memory as Benwick, I could bring you fifty quotations in a moment on my side the argument, and I do not think I ever opened a book in my life which had not something to say upon woman's inconstancy. Songs and proverbs, all talk of woman's fickleness. But perhaps you will say, these were all written by men."
"Perhaps I shall. Yes, yes, if you please, no reference to examples in books. Men have had every advantage of us in telling their own story. Education has been theirs in so much higher a degree; the pen has been in their hands. I will not allow books to prove anything."
It's so nice seeing Anne telling Harville to (very nicely) take his literature and shove it since it's almost all written by men anyway, so of course they are going to lay the blame on the people who don't have a voice.
I then took a slight detour and reread several of asolat's Master and Commander fanfics. I would've gone on reading more fanfics but then I got a humungous headache yesterday so I switched back to reading books instead of staring at a computer screen (I should've just stopped reading, but after napping for a while I couldn't sleep anymore and nothing is more distracting from a headache for me than books). I got into the next Fujimi book, Allegro Agitato. (Also learned a new musical term, "agitato," which per Wikipedia means "agitated") Oh man, this was much easier to read than the previous book.
I loved how Kei doesn't even know why he's crying because he's just so repressed, and how he comes to realize later what was going on (after more pushing from Yuki). It also makes me want to pet him on his head when he comments that he doesn't know himself nearly as well as he thought. Good job figuring that out! We all know ourselves at 24, right? *snorts*(God, I feel old) I love how Yuki just undoes him even as he makes him stronger. It's so sweet yet aching. The whole business at Yuki's parent's grave was saccharine...but so lovely. How awesome is it that Kei saying the most cliched words ever ("I'll make your son happy, please give him to me") is soooo perfect?
I usually don't read afterwards, but for some reason I did for this book. I was amused to learn that the author had the Niigata dialect translated by a native for this book as her attempts to mimic it previously had failed. And even that small conversation with the guy from..the other prefecture (I can't remember which one) Kei had on the train to Niigata was translated by a native! I tried to sound out the dialect but of course couldn't. I don't know what it sounds like (I only can speak standard kanto dialect) and you need the intonation right to make it even kinda work.
I'd forgotten just how country Yuki's home was. It makes a lovely juxtaposition, with Yuki having come from the middle of nowhere and Yuki playing the violin in a field in Fujimi when Kei first sees him.
The ballet recital was just adorable. Little ballerinas! Yuki trying not to mess up when the ballet dancer basically plasters herself to him during the performance!
I laughed that the pianist changed to look very lady-like for the competition but totally doesn't act like a lady. And how she bet 10,000 yen that Yuki will fail. Was that her way of giving him a small boost? I loved how she was all upset after the performance and Yuki thought he'd messed up. It didn't even occur to him that he was great, even though he felt so good at the end. I'd forgotten the Sibelius concerto was the final piece for the competition. I remember enjoying reading Yuki struggle with it and finally mastering it. ♥ It's one of my favorite violin pieces partly because I have such attachment to it through Fujimi.
"...We certainly do not forget you as soon as you forget us. It is, perhaps, our fate rather than our merit. We cannot help ourselves. We live at home, quiet, confined, and our feelings prey upon us. You are forced on exertion. You have always a profession, pursuits, business of some sort or other, to take you back into the world immediately, and continual occupation and change soon weaken impressions."
Men can go do stuff to distract/forget if they want to, but women can't even if they wanted to. They are stuck at home for the most part. These are the times when I'm glad I was born now (though if I did live back then in England, I'd be some peasant working woman...).
And a little later:
"...Well, Miss Elliot," (lowering his voice,) "as I was saying we shall never agree, I suppose, upon this point. No man and woman, would, probably. But let me observe that all histories are against you--all stories, prose and verse. If I had such a memory as Benwick, I could bring you fifty quotations in a moment on my side the argument, and I do not think I ever opened a book in my life which had not something to say upon woman's inconstancy. Songs and proverbs, all talk of woman's fickleness. But perhaps you will say, these were all written by men."
"Perhaps I shall. Yes, yes, if you please, no reference to examples in books. Men have had every advantage of us in telling their own story. Education has been theirs in so much higher a degree; the pen has been in their hands. I will not allow books to prove anything."
It's so nice seeing Anne telling Harville to (very nicely) take his literature and shove it since it's almost all written by men anyway, so of course they are going to lay the blame on the people who don't have a voice.
I then took a slight detour and reread several of asolat's Master and Commander fanfics. I would've gone on reading more fanfics but then I got a humungous headache yesterday so I switched back to reading books instead of staring at a computer screen (I should've just stopped reading, but after napping for a while I couldn't sleep anymore and nothing is more distracting from a headache for me than books). I got into the next Fujimi book, Allegro Agitato. (Also learned a new musical term, "agitato," which per Wikipedia means "agitated") Oh man, this was much easier to read than the previous book.
I loved how Kei doesn't even know why he's crying because he's just so repressed, and how he comes to realize later what was going on (after more pushing from Yuki). It also makes me want to pet him on his head when he comments that he doesn't know himself nearly as well as he thought. Good job figuring that out! We all know ourselves at 24, right? *snorts*(God, I feel old) I love how Yuki just undoes him even as he makes him stronger. It's so sweet yet aching. The whole business at Yuki's parent's grave was saccharine...but so lovely. How awesome is it that Kei saying the most cliched words ever ("I'll make your son happy, please give him to me") is soooo perfect?
I usually don't read afterwards, but for some reason I did for this book. I was amused to learn that the author had the Niigata dialect translated by a native for this book as her attempts to mimic it previously had failed. And even that small conversation with the guy from..the other prefecture (I can't remember which one) Kei had on the train to Niigata was translated by a native! I tried to sound out the dialect but of course couldn't. I don't know what it sounds like (I only can speak standard kanto dialect) and you need the intonation right to make it even kinda work.
I'd forgotten just how country Yuki's home was. It makes a lovely juxtaposition, with Yuki having come from the middle of nowhere and Yuki playing the violin in a field in Fujimi when Kei first sees him.
The ballet recital was just adorable. Little ballerinas! Yuki trying not to mess up when the ballet dancer basically plasters herself to him during the performance!
I laughed that the pianist changed to look very lady-like for the competition but totally doesn't act like a lady. And how she bet 10,000 yen that Yuki will fail. Was that her way of giving him a small boost? I loved how she was all upset after the performance and Yuki thought he'd messed up. It didn't even occur to him that he was great, even though he felt so good at the end. I'd forgotten the Sibelius concerto was the final piece for the competition. I remember enjoying reading Yuki struggle with it and finally mastering it. ♥ It's one of my favorite violin pieces partly because I have such attachment to it through Fujimi.
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