Member: mambo_taxi

lol thank you. I admit, it's heavy going at times. I think the way to approach it is to read selectively from it. I've been focussing on what she writes about the fin de siecle decadents, both French and English. Oscar Wilde is one of my saints, and I think she nails his art on the head, if not his biography or personality. The opening chapter is also essential to understand her argument. Reading her is enormous pleasure, but like all pleasures, is best taken in moderation.

I'll look out for the Basic Instinct commentary. Sounds like she would be awesome at that kind of thing. When she talks about feminism or politics, she sounds like any old other crackpot, but when she talks about culture, art or lit, anything like that, she's in a league of her own, I think.
:)

posted by tomcatMurr at 7:30 am (EST) on May 12, 2013

I'm so elated that I used a senetence from it as an example of effective writing in class tonight!

This one:

The sky was smooth and a dark yellow, the naked trees barred it
like a tiger's hide

posted by susanbooks at 10:03 pm (EST) on May 8, 2013

"Well, you see," Alwynne expanded, "I had an awful row with Miss
Vigers--and she's sure to tell Miss Marsham. I suppose I was rude, but
she did make me so mad. I don't see that it was her business to come and
slang me before my class."

"My class," corrected Clare.

"I wouldn't have minded you," said Alwynne, lifting ingenuous eyes.

"I'm flattered," murmured Clare

OH. MY. GOD!!!!!!!! I'm picturing you reading this like a kid would eat a chocolate sundae! (Which is to say, in much the way I'm reading it)

posted by susanbooks at 6:39 pm (EST) on May 2, 2013

I know! It's taken me this long to figure our how to download it to my Nook. I'm startingit this week. Any moment I have while reading it that's less than absolute elation is your fault.

posted by susanbooks at 6:07 pm (EST) on Apr 30, 2013

Elizabeth Jane Howard? Nope, haven't read her. Is any of her stuff worth reading?

I know & hate that feeling when a book has let you down in the last 20 or so pages. It can be enough to ruin the whole book. My most memorable experience with this is Mildred Walker's Winter Wheat. Heroine starts out as independent, ambitious college student, inexplicably veers at the end to happy housewife (I'm making it a bit -- though not much -- more simplistic that it is). The first part of the book is wonderful but the last part makes me dislike the whole thing. Sometimes I can just pretend the ending didn't happen (See Austen, Sense & Sensibility) but other times the grrrr factor is too high.

Someone was looking at my LT acct recently & asked "Who's Mambo_taxi? She writes hilarious posts." So you have a new fan!

posted by susanbooks at 11:27 am (EST) on Mar 11, 2013

Hah! I was more than close -- the entire title is "The Flower Girls." I just have to congratulate myself on my impressive memory of books I've hardly read.

What's up with 4 stars for "Women of the Left Bank"? Why not 5? Don't make me come over there . . .

posted by susanbooks at 8:23 pm (EST) on Dec 3, 2012

OK, so Emily Eden beat me. I got to a chapter in which the vulgar Jews have other vulgar Jews over & the whole chapter was so fucking anti-ASemitic I don't know how that's not the main thing people remember about the book! I had to quit.

I know what you mean about the tone. I was hoping that perhaps as with Austen & others perhaps the archness hides irony, but no, it was just arch & cute & ribbons & bows & sugar & spice (and anti-Semitism).

Renata Adler is my antidote & she's working just fine.

I'm sorry you've been down. I'm dying to read Regiment of Women. I tried to read another of hers (something about Flower Girls or something) & couldn't get interested, tho I was entertained almost despite myself. But Reg of Women is one I think I'd stick with. Especially after hearing your descrip which, not surprisingly, is unlike any descrip I've ever heard of that book (I mean that as a compliment).

Wishing you well -- S

posted by susanbooks at 8:20 pm (EST) on Dec 3, 2012

Hah! No, YOU learned YOUR Helen Hull lesson. I'm still a devoted fan. I thought of you when I posted the book -- in fact almost every time I see her physical books on my shelf I think of you. You & your anti-Hull message are insidious!

Right now I'm reading Emily Eden's "The Semi-Detached House." My take away is that people of high social status are inherently better than everyone else. Also, Jews are pushy & vulgar, except for the young, atrractive female ones. I'm not done yet but I have a feeling that if the latter convert & marry upper class Christian men they can be invited to dinner.

What's your reading teaching you these days?

posted by susanbooks at 1:04 pm (EST) on Nov 30, 2012

Oh, Shirley, 3 stars?! Certainly not! It's a 19th century novel, of course the independent woman is well & truly quashed by the end. And Charlotte's heroines always have some S&M-like desire for creepy men to "master" them. But until Caroline gets sick (& leaves what little spine she has in her sick bed) it's good, doncha think? I like the friendship between Shirley & Caroline. And the compulsory heterosexual femininity that separates them at the end, at this distance, is so unsatisfying that almost despite itself it becomes a feminist work.

That & I have masochistic taste in books.

Tho right now I'm reading Walter Scott's Kenilworth which is a delight, utterly hilarious. It's set in the Elizabethan era so he takes a bunch of words from Shakespeare & loads them into every single line of dialog. It's so over the top, so camp.

But then I'm also reading a book narrated by a guy in a coma (Beijing Coma), so everything looks funny compared to that.

posted by susanbooks at 11:20 am (EST) on Sep 18, 2012

You warned me. Oh, you warned me. Did I listen? No. Of course not.

Like a child who sticks her hand in the fire to test whether it will hurt, like the teenager who drives at a tree to see what will happen, I had to read The Small Room. It wasn't so much dreadful as insufferable. From the breathless New England descriptions to the Mary Sue protagonist to the pompous meditations on molding young lives. Oh, and the smug Freudianisms. Can't forget those.

Hoping to rinse that taste from my mouth, I read Unusual Company next. It was equally bad, although more repellant. Have you been subjected to it? I don't see it in your inventory.

I don't own an e-reader, but I've begun to listen to more audiobooks. Lots of fun.

I've started collecting lesbian self-pub books I find cheap or get from swap sites. They're marked "Lesbian POD" in my inventory. I vaguely hoped to uncover something brilliant and neglected-- "the people, unmuzzled" and all that. It comes as no surprise to you, I'm sure, that they uniformly range from crap to barely literate. Ah well, they make me laugh. Sometimes until I cry.

Another LT'er now has my copy of The Small Room. I feel like Typhoid Mary.

Any unexpected literary pleasures lately?

posted by 7sistersapphist at 1:58 pm (EST) on Aug 31, 2012

Very cool! My wishlist is growing quite a bit today thanks to you :)

I'm reading Carloe Maso's "Defiance" right now. Pretty good so far, some beautiful moments.

posted by susanbooks at 10:12 pm (EST) on Aug 11, 2012

Thanks for the rec! Ever since I read the Eva Le Gallienne bio I've been interested in M Acosta, so I'll definitely be on the lookout for it. I tried to read The Sewing Circle but found the tone too irritating to continue.

posted by susanbooks at 8:25 pm (EST) on Aug 11, 2012

the characters themselves aren't supposed to have too good of a time.

Yes! Exactly! And I hate that so much! Go ahead, be a cold murderous fake-gay bitch if you must--but then at least take some JOY in it, dammit!

Oh, I didn't mean to put you off watching anything. Personally I'm willing enough to give anything where women go googly-eyed at each other a try, although in this regard fluff like But I'm a cheerleader or Bound rates highest for me. Mrs. Dalloway is fantastic, with its lone little kiss, simply because it was so spontaneous, between ordinary girls who cared for each other. But the only perfect movies of the kind are the ones in my head. ;)

I'll seek out Entre Nous. Actually, I actively avoided anything with lesbians (or more likely, "lesbians") for years, then ran across a couple of DVDs in the library, which started me off thinking again about the phenomenon and whether anything had changed.

On French, I remember I liked Gazon maudit (don't know whether it's available in English), years ago, with Victoria Abril (great Spanish actress, been in several Almodovar's movies) and Josiane Balasko. But that's it, and that too is fluff.

posted by LolaWalser at 7:24 pm (EST) on Jul 6, 2012

Hi, I saw Cracks recently and now found your review of the book (I thought I might read it; don't think so now!), so I'm curious whether you got to see it and what you thought of it. I was moved enough to leave a post in that Hall of Cosmic Stupidity, IMDB, about how much I'm sick of craven lesbo-exploitation. I saw recently-ish three other movies that exemplify it: Crimes d'amour (Kristin Scott-Thomas and Ludivine Sagnier), The page turner (can't recall actress' names) and Water Lilies. Seen any? Is it okay if I spoil them? Well, it's no big spoiler really, the thing that bugs me--it's that in every case we have, basically, NON-lesbians USING (lesbian) sex to destroy another woman (ALSO, btw, a non-lesbian)! Where to begin? First, we don't even have gay characters, BUT, we have hints of gayness--and that's super-turbo-evil and menacing, like the poison-gas creature from planet Zorb out to destroy us alllll. We don't even need homosexuals to threaten us, homo-sex is toxic on its own!

And these girls using the (lesbian) sex--is there some handbook on how actresses are to act in these roles, that every one of them swears to abide by, on penalty of death? They all do the same thing: when the super-evil lesbianism comes over them, they turn into zombies, faces freeze, lips barely move, eyes don't blink, they stiffen up like boards with their evil lesbian intent, robotic, affect-less vessels of destruction!

In short, I'm sick to death of "lesbianism-as-weapon". Frickin cheap titillation and nothing more. I'm sick to death of all "women as ice cold vipers", actually. Especially French. Maybe it's selection bias, but I can think of so many French movies with those characters it's not funny. Cold, or dead, doll-like. I'd like Deneuve better if so many of her movies didn't present exactly that persona. Etc.

Eh, sorry about the elephantine comment--please tell me about the movie if you saw it. I thought the acting was good overall and it was watchable once, but not re-watchable.

posted by LolaWalser at 6:20 pm (EST) on Jul 3, 2012

So I finally gave Haslund a try. Ugh! The narrator was like a female version of Goethe's Werther. I couldn't get through it, which really disappointed me since I seem to be developing a taste for Scandinavain lit. Despite her histrionics, the protag's a teacher, so maybe later on something happens that would be interesting to you . . . .

What'd you think of the La Gallienne bio?

posted by susanbooks at 3:23 pm (EST) on May 29, 2012

Hey!

Haven't read Haslund yet, but speaking of Scandinavian lesbians, I really liked this book & thought of you while I was reading it http://www.librarything.com/work/498292/book/72587984

posted by susanbooks at 4:58 pm (EST) on Apr 2, 2012

Yeah, definitely some buzz-kills there -- but that seems to be the case with most 19th c nocvels. Right now I'm doing a course on women & risk & we seem to be deciding that the only female who comes out unscathed is Carroll's Alice, and that's because she was only dreaming of risk.

posted by susanbooks at 6:04 pm (EST) on Mar 3, 2012

The last time I taught Odd Women it was w/Bronte's Shirley, Gaskell's North & South, & Hardy -- either Tess or Jude, I can't remember. I do remember loving that class, tho. . . maybe I'll reprise it

posted by susanbooks at 1:48 pm (EST) on Feb 5, 2012

I admit, while hanging my head in shame, that The Land of Spices sat for a long time on my night table, only twenty pages read. I was hell-bent on finishing my novel at the time, and my brain was too fried for anything other than the lightest fare. Since then, well, I'm sure you know how the TBR pile swallows things. But I'm sure I'll pick it back up-- how can I stay away forever when the book involves my own favorite fixation... nuns? Bless 'em. That and now you've found O'Brien worthy of Woolf-like obsession.

What are you reading?

posted by 7sistersapphist at 12:12 am (EST) on Jan 30, 2012

Hey!

My belated response on Gissing: for me he's hit or miss, either really good or unreadable. I loved Odd Women, too. I think it's about time for me to reread it. I'll have to find a class to subject to it, which is how I do most of my rereading.

Your review of Ann Wadsworth's Light Coming Back just saved my reading life. I'm in one of those places where I'm desperate for a great novel. I picked that up with high hopes & got through 40 pages. Perhaps it's just me, I thought, that thinks this cold fish of a protagonist is a killing bore. You've beautifully described everything I hate about the book already. Thank you for liberating me!

posted by susanbooks at 7:26 pm (EST) on Jan 29, 2012

Two-thirds through, and to be honest, I'm quite disappointed with it. Foster was openly lesbian in a time when only a very few brave souls were. She was a scholar who lived/taught in 17 states. She chased plenty of women, worked for Kinsey, and published the first survey of lesbians in literature. How could anyone make this material dry? Yet dry it is. I've gotten almost no sense of Foster as a breathing human being.

I won't discourage you from reading it, but would say that if you do, do it for the historical information. Engaging it isn't. Then again, knowing your interests, you might be intrigued by its accounts of relationships among (and between) students and instructors in the 1910's and 20's.

What are you reading?

posted by 7sistersapphist at 7:50 pm (EST) on Jan 4, 2012

You're very fond of [The Illusionist], as I recall. Are you already familiar with this trash-a-licious cover of its first US paperback edition?
http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/FrameBase?content=/en/imagegallery/imagegallery....

posted by 7sistersapphist at 11:44 pm (EST) on Nov 28, 2011

Do the bloggers not notice that the so-called village slob is actually the village rapist? Oh, but it's okay because he only attacks when his spidey sense tells him the woman is sexually unfulfilled. The women love it, of course, and orgasms are had all around. It keeps the village together.

What can one possibly say? I hadn't read anything quite this bad in The New Yorker before.

posted by 7sistersapphist at 3:59 pm (EST) on Sep 15, 2011

Do you get The New Yorker? Did you read "An Anonymous Island" in the current issue? I could just spit.

posted by 7sistersapphist at 9:42 pm (EST) on Sep 8, 2011

I owe you thanks! You recommended that I check out Nin's diaries. I've read one volume (6, cos it was what I could get my hands on), & really enjoyed it a lot. Some beautiful things in there. And there was this:

"The neighbors trust me with their children every time they need to go out. The idea of trusting your children to a surrealist must be encouraged."

I want to use that line all the time but I can't think of any way to work it into my sort of daily conversations. It's on my LT profile now, tho, so at least that's something.

What have you been reading?

posted by susanbooks at 10:53 pm (EST) on Sep 6, 2011

Hmm, I must admit I don't remember that one very well--or Cantrip's role. Something something vacation, drowning...? Wales? Greece? Seychelles? (Clearly, I could stand a reread...)

posted by LolaWalser at 3:28 pm (EST) on May 30, 2011

Oh, that's great that you're enjoying them! Thanks for letting me know--love the vicarious first-time-reading thrill. Yeah, I too wish Caudwell had been spared a bit longer and wrote more. Damn cancer.

posted by LolaWalser at 4:36 pm (EST) on May 8, 2011