Middlemarch vs two weeks of course reading:



So, you see, it isn't that I haven't been reading. Oh no. And it isn't that I prefer the ramblings of St. Antony to Rosamund's. I'm just busy, that's all. Work work work. So, to keep this community alive (and in lieu of actual Middlemarch updates), your intrepid readers will simply be forced to spam you with fatuously irrelevant and pointless posts. Reluctantly, of course.

What a hectic Christmas! There was no way we could've finished, especially with all that sitting at the computer and complaining about our lives we had to do. (Hah. Speak for yourself much, Rebecca?)

Icon and community info adapted accordingly.

A regretfully delayed picture post:



omg AdD mE On mYsPaCe!!1

Book One: check! Please disregard the fact that the three weeks is now half-over. The book has, at last, become less taxing to read, though not because I'm gaining speed but because I'm realizing that it isn't necessarily bad that I don't fully comprehend each sentence in Ms. Eliot's moral ramblings. Some of what she has to say is interesting, of course, but I find it tiresome, though I acknowledge that this probably makes me fearfully unliterary. Scold me. :p

New characters: young doctor Lydgate and Miss Rosamond Vincy. (What a name! <4 No crush yet, but she oddly reminds me not a little of Jinny from The Waves, who is firmly establish on my fictional character "to do" list, to nerdanelthenerd's chagrin. Weird Rosamond/Rosamund/Edmond/Edmund associations going, which brings up that whole erotic King Lear thing which we won't dig up.) A small but notable appearance by Rosamond's brother Fred was fun and I found myself wanting to play his hypothetical word game:

Aha, Miss Rosy, you don't know Homer from slang. I shall invent a new game; I shall write bits of slang and poetry on slips, and give them to you to separate.

I wonder if this is IM-compatible. :D

Dorothea has been elegantly given personality, developing into a character that is both compelling and engaging. I like seeing the moments when fresh layers of character depth emerge, as when Casaubon irritated her for the first time ("I should feel more at liberty"! What an ass!) or when she realized just how unnecessary she will be to him.

Favorite quotes thus far:

We mortals, men and women, devour many a disappointment between breakfast and dinner-time; keep back the tears and look a little pale about the lips, and in answer to inquiries say, "Oh, nothing!" Pride helps; and pride is not a bad thing when it only urges us to hide our hurts—not to hurt others.

Profundity!

[...]when a woman is not contradicted, she has no motive for obstinacy in her absurdities.

More lol-inducing than aphoristic, but fun nonetheless.

Destiny stands by sarcastic with our dramatis personæ folded in her hand.

Somehow the lack of an "-ally" makes it that much better.

I can't wait to watch the BBC adaptation if I ever when I finish reading this. Not only will I have the unalienable right to dissect it with fannish smugness but I will also...well. I'm a hopeless sucker for "brooding artist" figures, so I image-googled "Ladislaw". Devoted readers, Merry Christmas.

Not many relevant images for crapinbed!ED Casaubon. (How do you pronounce his name? It always sounds French in my head.) However, we do have lots of Locke pictures to feed our imaginations.



He seems anxious; I suppose that's sort of cute, but it strikes me as "why hasn't anyone added me on myspace?" anxiety rather than "ah, the weight of my intellect!" anxiety.

Musica Rockica says:
I actually did read for a bit
Musica Rockica says:
met Ladislaw
Zemře says:
woo!
Zemře says:
creeped out by random laughing?
Musica Rockica says:
INSTANTLY wanted to sleep with him
Zemře says:
*snork*
Musica Rockica says:
then felt rather predictable for doing so
Zemře says:
over lookslikelocke!casaubon?
Musica Rockica says:
totally gone off him
Zemře says:
aha
Musica Rockica says:
I'm trying to figure out what it was
Zemře says:
i'm fighting sensible!celia
Musica Rockica says:
fighting a crush?
Zemře says:
>_>
Musica Rockica says:
hmmm
Musica Rockica says:
I've warmed to Sir James, in fact
Zemře says:
literature makes me wofsfwhat?!
Zemře says:
:S
Musica Rockica says:
oh! not in a crush way
Zemře says:
oh!
Zemře says:
ahahaha
Musica Rockica says:
in an "aw, he's okay" way
Musica Rockica says:
literature makes you what?
Zemře says:
nothing

Oh, we're just flying along.

Now I see the benefits of the Generator layout: the calendars, with their embarrassing gaps in posting regularity, are conveniently tucked away on another page where they cannot constantly remind everyone of how inconsistent and crap we are. I knew I liked that layout for some reason.

So... still making slow progress through Book I, but I still have other things to blame. The weeks after Christmas are going to be the one of creative excuse-finding; for now, I can blame dinner parties, shopping, and hours of decorating. Anyway, Dodo has made the transition from initial prissiness to slightly bothersome idealism. "Ohoo! I just can't wait to get married and read to my bat-blind bookishly hot husband and maybe he'll teach me Hebrew and I'm not paralleling Milton's daughters AT ALL." I find myself shouting down at the page: "Get this girl some sex ed.!" Not much beyond that... Celia took the news quite well, I thought. Otherwise, the only other thing that caught my interest (besides wondering about Casaubon's sexual prowess) was the linguistic contrast between Casaubon's letter of proposal and Dodo's acceptance letter.

Also, Casaubon is too hard to type so he needs a nickname pronto.

Edit: Rebecca suggests 'crapinbed!ed', while Daniel suggests 'e.d.' (E.D.? Like, erectile dysfunction? Geddit?)

I was going to reply to the previous post in the comments, but decided not to. More posts give the illusion of progress.

Quivering beards are freaky. "No. I'm clearly reading it FOR THE INTERNET." The guy who sold me my book had absolutely no facial hair and an actorish set of mannerisms. He tried to offer me 10% off my next purchase, and said "none of your sarcasm!" when I, apparently unconvincingly, said "exciting!".

I was impressed by the Don Quixjxjxjxjote quote too, but struggled to relate it to the rest of the chapter. Perhaps Dodo (heh), with her "sweet, ardent nature" and her idealistic view of Casaubon, is our very own Doña Quijote? Dunno. At any rate, with all that suggestive blushing she does, we really needn't worry about the prissiness at all.

I find myself being thankful for the existence of Sir James just because I have no qualms writing him off as a run-of-the-mill pathetic idiot. Love the line about the limp personality, George. Love it.

Oh, and

"We must not inquire too curiously into motives...they are apt to become feeble in the utterance: the aroma is mixed with the grosser air. We must keep the germinating grain away from the light."

Next time I can't explain myself, I'm totally going to say that.

Book I, Chapter I, check.

Quirky features of the hour: the little excerpted epigraphs at the beginning of each chapter. Ms. Eliot/Evans apparently really wanted to drive home the point that she's envy-inducingly well-read. Don Quixote Quijote in the original Spanish? Touché. I expect Pound-esque obscure allusions and unheard-of references later.

I regret not having a picture of my book and me. My copy is the crappy but cheap Barnes & Noble Classic edition with a classic Monet on the cover. In case you were interested. Buying it was pleasantly unnoteworthy, except for a bit of "You opened the door for me; am I supposed to be obligated to return the favor?" awkwardness at the entrance which gave me anxiety for a third of a second. Not exactly interesting, but that's about as good as it ever got, aside from the massive furry, quivering gray beard of the cash register man. And the annoying faux-friendly questions that are wholy inaccurate: "Oh, Middlemarch (lol, like you've read it). Reading this for school?" -_-

Architect!Dorothea crush duly germinated, though she'll need to lose a bit of the prissiness for a full literary lustfulness to arrive. That or it'll become her most swoon-worthy characteristic. Hard to tell sometimes. Other fun moments include HotDot's expert repression of hypocrisy guilt. This skill I must develop. I echo Rebecca's word interests and am adding "frippery" to my list of words to start including in everyday conversation.

More reading tonight. I promise. >_>

Day One has gone really well! Wait, that was sort of a lie. I took lots of OKCupid tests and even blogged in last.fm. Who the hell blogs in last.fm?

Things that have amused me so far:

• the suggestion that Dorothea is massively turned on by horse-riding, and feels guilty about it
• use of "Dodo" by Celia as a sisterly diminutive
• the word "guimp"
• the word "huckster"

All in the first ten pages, which should give you all an idea of the progress I've made. Time for our first :$ emoticon.

Tentative crush predictions:
lookslikeLocke!Casaubon for me, architect!Dorothea for Mr Roadtrip.

Forehead ad infinitum taken out of the equation, reading makes me look pretty smooth, sophisticated and not retarded at all.

TO A MORE PRODUCTIVE TOMORROW.

I hope that post was sufficiently vacuous: I don't want this community to become one that forever cowers in the shadow of the erudition and insightfulness of its first few posts. </excuse for lameness>

First post! Today we decided that our Kick-Ass Christmas Character-Enriching Reading Project book would be some something by George Eliot. We had previously determined it would be something nineteenth century, English, and vaguely Victorian, but nerdanelthenerd supplied a more specific direction with her choice of author (appropriate, since she's, like, read books before and stuff). Hasty Wikipedia research brought us to the idea of Middlemarch, and rave Amazon.com reviews sealed the deal despite misgivings at learning the length of the book ("880 pages" "hwhoakay").

Also fun was our discovery of this Henry James quote describing Ms (Mr? dammit) Eliot:

She had a low forehead, a dull grey eye, a vast pendulous nose, a huge mouth full of uneven teeth and a chin and jawbone qui n'en finissent pas... Now in this vast ugliness resides a most powerful beauty which, in a very few minutes steals forth and charms the mind, so that you end, as I ended, in falling in love with her. Yes behold me in love with this great horse-faced bluestocking.

Punning to follow. Wish us luck.