Friday, January 22, 2021

 

It was cold today, but a brief thaw yesterday afternoon had cleared the pavements. C. came, and we walked twice around the garden. I wasn’t quite as flattened by the experience as the last time I tried it. So: 2803 steps. Am I peppy enough to get it up to 3000 before I lie down? We’ll see.

 

I think (alas) there’s no doubt that I am (marginally) stronger without cider. The Calcutta Cup (England v. Scotland at rugby) will be played-for on February 6. I might as well extend dry January until then.

 

The hap progressed well, too. Due to accidentally missing out a Decrease Round, I now have 16 ½ scallops to do per side, instead of 14. But even by that increased measure, I’ve done the first side. I plucked “Drop Dead Easy Knits” from the shelf the other day, in order to begin thinking about yarn for the Pollywog, and now I can’t find it. Couldn’t be far away.

 

Reading

 

McWilliams’ “What to Look for in Winter” is getting a bit wordy towards the end. I’m doing a bit of speed-reading. Where to go next?

 

Here’s another thought about “Mansfield Park”, hoping you’re still there, Shandy. There’s lots of love in it, and we are in no doubt about the feelings of the characters, even – or especially – in the cases where the author doesn’t spell it out. The characters themselves are almost equally aware – Julia and Maria, in particular, each know that the other is keen on Henry Crawford, and Henry knows it too. But nobody ever suspects that Fanny loves Edmund, not even Edmund himself.


Tamar, your interesting comment arrived just as I was packing up and going to get my supper. It deserves thought. I'll address it tomorrow.

 

 

11 comments:

  1. While you are thinking about where to go next in reading perhaps, if you have not already read it, see if you can pick up a copy of Randolph Stow's "Midnite". It's a book for children - just good "laugh out loud" at points fun, particularly if you know a little Downunder history.

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  2. Tamar’s comment is interesting- I’ll have to reread Mansfield Park. I have to say, though, that I do like Persuasion, perhaps best of Austen’s books. I listened to Marlon James discuss Austen one on some podcast. He is a fan, especially of the ‘bad’ characters https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjMz8qc4LDuAhUMXc0KHfx3C70QFjADegQIAxAC&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2016%2F05%2F13%2Ft-magazine%2Fmy-10-favorite-books-marlon-james.html&usg=AOvVaw2K58n0LNnRf5B3pm9lfmEb

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  3. Persuasion is my favorite, as well — not least because I love the film version with Ciaran Hinds as Captain Wentworth.

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    1. Mine too - both book and that particular film version. (Not the later version from ?BBC, with Sally Hawkins - in my opinion they blew the ending, missing the point about the Navy vs. the ancestral home.)

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  4. Drop Dead Easy Knits is such a gorgeous book!

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  5. Sir Thomas does come close to guessing Fanny's secret but puts her deep blush down to her natural shyness. What does surprise me is that Edmund should be able to shift his fondness for Fanny as a younger sister into romantic love, even dare one say it - sexual attraction. I guess it is prurient to speculate, but I'd have thought he would just have valued her as a confidante until a new Miss Crawford came along.

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  6. =Tamar2:21 PM

    Fanny loves Edmund. I think Edmund was so shocked by Mary Crawford's lack of principle that he fell for Fanny as much for her principles as for any romantic feeling. It might even be said that the difference is between romantic love and the kind of love that builds over time and appreciation of character--the kind that 18th century ideals assumed would build after an arranged marriage.
    It may be that the only actual love match in MP is that of Mrs. Price and the then Lieutenant Price.

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    1. Yes, but my point is, Tamar, that the love someone feels for a younger sister is different in kind to either of these. How does Austen imagine it would just be a matter of learning to prefer lighter eyes to dark sparkling ones? He is said to have known Fanny since she was 10 and had a major part in forming her character. Even Nabokov says there is a hint of incest about it.

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    2. As with Emma and Mr.Knightley, whose marriage ensures that the wealth stays in the Woodhouse/Knightley family (already united by the marriage of their siblings), the family remains intact and closed to outsiders, and the social order prevails.

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    3. Now that is quite different. Yes, Knightley did hold Emma as a baby, but you can see a dynamic in their sparring which you just don't see in the Fanny/Edmund relationship. And there is no "Other Woman" in the Knightley case.

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  7. Anonymous4:08 PM

    Oh good! Thank you, Tamar. Fortunately Persuasion was the one I ordered for my Kindle a while back which is sadly in a currently inaccessible location. But there is always the library, God bless 'em, which is one of humankind's best inventions. Chloe

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