Wednesday Reading Meme
Feb. 21st, 2018 08:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerWhat I’ve Just Finished Reading
I finished Mary Downing Hahn’s Stepping on the Cracks, and ultimately I did mellow about Elizabeth, The Meanest Best Friend Ever, although I’m not sure if it’s because Elizabeth grew as a person or because Hahn didn’t actually intend her to be that mean in the first place and didn’t quite notice she’d written her that way. But in the end I think Hahn’s ghost stories are better: Wait Till Helen Comes still haunts me.
I also mellowed on Kathleen Norris as I went along in The Cloister Walk, not least because she has a few good and thoughtful chapters about the virgin martyrs, whom no one ever properly appreciates even though they are the most badass saints.
I think the idea that they’re dying for their virginity trips people up (and “it’s better to die than be raped” is certainly the spin the patriarchy often gives their stories), but there’s more to them than that: they’re not dying just for virginity or even just for bodily autonomy but for autonomy, full stop, for the right to live their lives according to their own beliefs rather than bowing to the rules of society. The virgin martyrs are the ultimate nonconformists. They’re suppose to get married and have children whom they will raise to die for the glory of Rome, and they say, “Nah, fuck that.”
Like action heroes cracking wise as the bad guys beat them up, the virgin martyrs remain smart and sarcastic right up until they get their their heads cut off - and sometimes even decapitation doesn’t stop them. In fact, in a wider sense decapitation never stops them, because the virgin martyrs always win the ultimate victory both in the sense that they ascend to heaven and because their torments generally win dozens of converts within the story itself.
In fact, sometimes they convert the first bad guy, who is duly martyred too by the next round of bad guys.
But also sometimes the virgin martyrs just keep talking post-beheading. As a true badass does.
However, I still found Norris tiresome whenever she started talking about poetry. There’s something about the way she talks about the importance and majesty of poetry and the sacred calling of the poet that reminds me of Plato’s decision to have his perfect republic ruled by philosophers, just like him. Yes, of course people just like you are the most important and also the most intelligent and spiritually evolved people in society. Of course.
What I’m Reading Now
I’m listening to Rainbow Rowell’s Eleanor and Park on audiobook and YOU GUYS, why did I deprive myself of this book for so many years? It’s been on my reading list forever! And it’s so good! And I only just now got to it! But on the other hand this means that I have cleverly saved myself a treat to help ease myself into my new job, so that was awfully nice of past me, now wasn’t it.
I’m also reading Aunt Dimity and the Duke, which like all Aunt Dimity books is delicious popcorn (possibly I should substitute something more British for popcorn. It’s a delicious chocolate-dipped digestive biscuit?), and also What Katy Did Next, in which Katy Carr of What Katy Did fame goes to Europe. It’s a bit too much of a travelogue for my tastes but we’ll see where it goes.
What I Plan to Read Next
carmarthen sent me Rosemary Sutcliff’s Simon! I AM PRETTY EXCITED.
I finished Mary Downing Hahn’s Stepping on the Cracks, and ultimately I did mellow about Elizabeth, The Meanest Best Friend Ever, although I’m not sure if it’s because Elizabeth grew as a person or because Hahn didn’t actually intend her to be that mean in the first place and didn’t quite notice she’d written her that way. But in the end I think Hahn’s ghost stories are better: Wait Till Helen Comes still haunts me.
I also mellowed on Kathleen Norris as I went along in The Cloister Walk, not least because she has a few good and thoughtful chapters about the virgin martyrs, whom no one ever properly appreciates even though they are the most badass saints.
I think the idea that they’re dying for their virginity trips people up (and “it’s better to die than be raped” is certainly the spin the patriarchy often gives their stories), but there’s more to them than that: they’re not dying just for virginity or even just for bodily autonomy but for autonomy, full stop, for the right to live their lives according to their own beliefs rather than bowing to the rules of society. The virgin martyrs are the ultimate nonconformists. They’re suppose to get married and have children whom they will raise to die for the glory of Rome, and they say, “Nah, fuck that.”
Like action heroes cracking wise as the bad guys beat them up, the virgin martyrs remain smart and sarcastic right up until they get their their heads cut off - and sometimes even decapitation doesn’t stop them. In fact, in a wider sense decapitation never stops them, because the virgin martyrs always win the ultimate victory both in the sense that they ascend to heaven and because their torments generally win dozens of converts within the story itself.
In fact, sometimes they convert the first bad guy, who is duly martyred too by the next round of bad guys.
But also sometimes the virgin martyrs just keep talking post-beheading. As a true badass does.
However, I still found Norris tiresome whenever she started talking about poetry. There’s something about the way she talks about the importance and majesty of poetry and the sacred calling of the poet that reminds me of Plato’s decision to have his perfect republic ruled by philosophers, just like him. Yes, of course people just like you are the most important and also the most intelligent and spiritually evolved people in society. Of course.
What I’m Reading Now
I’m listening to Rainbow Rowell’s Eleanor and Park on audiobook and YOU GUYS, why did I deprive myself of this book for so many years? It’s been on my reading list forever! And it’s so good! And I only just now got to it! But on the other hand this means that I have cleverly saved myself a treat to help ease myself into my new job, so that was awfully nice of past me, now wasn’t it.
I’m also reading Aunt Dimity and the Duke, which like all Aunt Dimity books is delicious popcorn (possibly I should substitute something more British for popcorn. It’s a delicious chocolate-dipped digestive biscuit?), and also What Katy Did Next, in which Katy Carr of What Katy Did fame goes to Europe. It’s a bit too much of a travelogue for my tastes but we’ll see where it goes.
What I Plan to Read Next
carmarthen sent me Rosemary Sutcliff’s Simon! I AM PRETTY EXCITED.
no subject
Date: 2018-02-21 04:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-02-21 05:38 pm (UTC)I read this as an ebook and I LOVED it! ^_^
I loved Eleanor!
no subject
Date: 2018-02-21 07:58 pm (UTC)I didn't realize that's who we were talking about. I haven't read that book since high school at the latest and I remember it vividly. It scared me in elementary school.
But also sometimes the virgin martyrs just keep talking post-beheading. As a true badass does.
I think this would be a terrible political climate for it and also I suspect it would be made by the worst possible people for the job, but you have almost made me want a virgin martyr action movie.
no subject
Date: 2018-02-21 09:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-02-22 02:57 am (UTC)It may be a bit before I get to it, so I'll PM you for your address once I'm ready to send it on.
no subject
Date: 2018-02-22 03:05 am (UTC)I could also see a magical-girl type series starring virgin martyrs. You have a plain ordinary high school girl who just happens to have a magical jewel that turns her into St. Thecla, who can resist the power of flame and also probably throw fireballs, as befits a magical girl.
no subject
Date: 2018-02-22 04:37 am (UTC)Unlike the virgin martyrs, she did not die a fiery terrible death, but eventually became a prioress.
no subject
Date: 2018-02-22 04:39 am (UTC)I also want to know where she got her fashion sense, and if she got it on purpose or if she somehow just inherited a man's wardrobe and wears his clothes because she has no other choice.
no subject
Date: 2018-02-22 05:11 am (UTC)--Yeah, I think just on principle, if you're designing a utopia, you have to NOT put People Like You in charge. It's like recusing yourself from a court case.
How nice that Eleanor and Park ends up being a pleasant treat!
no subject
Date: 2018-02-22 02:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-02-24 06:19 pm (UTC)Norris seems to be a Rorschach test. Norris on poetry didn't bother me at all - I thought she was thoughtful and interesting - but I had a hard time with her virgin martyrs and a lot of her writing on celibacy in general.
no subject
Date: 2018-03-02 04:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-03-02 04:26 am (UTC)I'd read other reviews of these books, but not this one. Definitely on my give-it-a-try list.