#annotating emma is great though

[bethanydelleman]

Have you ever done/do you know if there is a ranking of Jane Austen couples based on how long they knew each other before the proposal? Every time I reread Pride and Prejudice I can’t help but think about how little time Jane and Bingley have actually spent together

Jane Austen Charted #11!

This is a wonderful idea! I have it ready. Here are all the couples that marry in each book with sufficient data for me to record. This is from meeting to engagement:

Now if we put them in order of length, we can see just how very short some of these relationships were:

Caveats: I was as exact as possible, so for example, despite "knowing" Mr. Bingley for about a year, Jane only spent 6 weeks in his actual presence. I also took out Wentworth's absence from Anne from Dec to Feb 15 etc.

I want to say something about time not being the same. Harriet and Robert Martin were staying at the same house for 2 months, so that's a lot more face to face time than say Jane and Bingley, but I don't have a great way to represent that.

We do not have sufficient data for Jane Fairfax & Frank Churchill or Maria Bertram & James Rushworth, though I would estimate about 8 weeks for the latter couple. John Willoughby also knew Sophia Grey for an unspecified amount of time before the more official courtship and marriage. Mr. Weston and Miss Taylor is also unknown, Emma predicted it 4 years prior, but we can assume they had met before that time.

Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Collins knew each other for about 10 days before the proposal, but that did not result in a marriage. Henry Crawford and Fanny Price is again difficult, because while Henry and Fanny were introduced and “knew” each other, he didn’t pay attention to her until the Miss Bertrams left. Also did not end in a marriage. From "hole in her heart" to proposal was only about a month.

If we take out the outliers (Marianne and Colonel Brandon, Emma and Mr. Knightley, and Fanny and Edmund), we can see the longest period of knowing is Lydia and Mr. Wickham! But most are under 15 weeks or about 3.5 months

Of course, the length of time may not be important after all, Mrs. Croft says, "“We had better not talk about it, my dear... for if Miss Elliot were to hear how soon we came to an understanding, she would never be persuaded that we could be happy together. I had known you by character, however, long before.” - Persuasion

But yeah, from a modern perspective these lifelong decisions are happening pretty darn quick!

Sources:

David Shapard's The Annotated Pride and Prejudice

And these wonderful online calendars

http://mars.gmu.edu/bitstream/handle/1920/999/emma.calendar.html http://www.jimandellen.org/austen/persuasion.calendar.html http://mars.gmu.edu/bitstream/handle/1920/999/mp.calendar.html http://www.jimandellen.org/austen/na.calendar.html

#jane austen charted #jane austen #excellent question #interesting data #I just thought up another idea... #more charts on their way! #and now all the tags #pride and prejudice #sense and sensibility #northanger abbey #mansfield park #emma #persuasion #stupid meta posts and all their tags #I doubt emma is useful anyway #Jane Austen clearly wasn't thinking about ease of search on Tumblr

[the-unspeakable-tsar]

X-Manson Chapter 4 by Benway - Annotated by Tsar

Here we meet this universe's favorite lads, the Proudstars. Along with this au's version of Storm.

[Shot: Two young men of obvious Native American ancestry. They are huge.]

*huge is an understatement

[Caption: John & James Proudstar, The Hearth Social Services Centre, Salem Centre NY]

*Thunderbird and Warpath of the X-Men and X-Force.

James: Did she tell you how we're all Morlocks, named after the characters in HG Wells' novel the Time Machine?

*Finally, someone points it out.

John: A great many of the people in this community had very rough lives. There's a lot of serious headcases living here. I wish you'd come to us first.

James: You're lucky. Last camera crew, she said her thing but said War of the Worlds instead of The Time Machine and when they corrected her she beat the crap out of them.

Int: Really.

John: She's superhumanly good at hand-to-hand combat. Used to be a Marine until her first psychotic episode.

*Callisto was never a marine, but John was.

Int: You were both graduates of the Massachusetts Academy.

James. Yeah. Great place.

John: James graduated the year before they closed it down. Fuckers.

Int: Who finances this centre?

James: Doug Ramsey gives us most of our funds.

*interesting.

Int: How long has the centre been open?

John: Since they closed that hellhole down.

James: We were here before that, though. Keeping an eye on the place. We're resistant.

John: We kind of settled here, just in case.

Int: Did Emma Frost encourage you?

James: Hell no. She freaked when we told her.

*another instance of the interviewer being skeptical of Emma Frost.

John: It was James' idea. If someone tried to get out, we'd be there. Kind of like the Underground Railroad. We got jobs here. I worked in the Family Services office, and James worked in the Parks and Recreation Department.

James: He got to look at the inside, I got to see the outside of the real ugliness that's here. Hard to tell which was harder to bear.

John: People were on best behaviour when they came to see me.

James: I had to see all the fights in the street, had to mow the lawn in the park in front of the School. Had to wear a gas mask when I did that for most of the summer.

Int: Why?

James: Place stank. Any time the wind came past the house into town in summer, it cleared the streets. Guess we now know why.

Int: Didn't you try to summon the authorities?

James: Yeah. Fuck all happened though.

John: We made complaints and nothing ever happened.

James: We think they were in some heads up in Albany and in White Plains. Either that or the Feds were holding them off.

John: We couldn't complain too much, or else it would have attracted too much attention.

James: Still think we should have made more noise.

John: Being in the bottom of that lake would not have been a good death.

James: Says you.

Int: But you must have known what the smell was.

John: We knew what most of it was, because we didn't have toilets in some of the places where we grew up.

James: Guess we just didn't want to think about what the rest of it was.

John: We knew that from the rez too. We saw our main job as watching, keeping track of things, being there in case anybody would want to get out.

Int: Did you think that there were any government operations that you didn't know about?

John: Oh yeah. There were at least four attempts to put an observation post in here. Logan and Rasputin took care of all of them.

Int: Didn't the agents have any protection against psis?

John: Yeah, but that didn't protect them against the neighbours.

Int: The psis in the School were watching the neighbours?

John: Maybe, but they didn't have to.

James: A lot of people came here because it was relatively safe for the mutants who couldn't hide, but some came because of the rumours about the School.

Int: What sort of rumours?

John: That it was the place that the revolution would come from. A revolution that would put mutants in charge. There were all these rumours about a mutant messiah, who would come and deliver them all.

*Sounds an awful lot like propaganda from regular x-men comics

Int: Did these people come and go from the School?

James: Hardly anyone came and went from the School who didn't live there. Sometimes people went, but didn't come back. No, the believers went to our competition.

John: The Xavier Centre. They changed the sign to Liberation Centre, but everyone still calls it the Xavier Centre.

Int: Was it run by Xavier?

James: They always denied it, saying he just put up the money, but that bitch who runs it always used to be down at the School.

John: She was one of the few of them who didn't live there.

Int: What did the centre do?

James: Same things we do. Give food to the hungry, arrange clinic visits, talk people out of killing themselves. Only difference is they have the church services there.

John: The church of the mutant messiahs. The twins. Little Rachel and Nathan.

*Our Nate count is up to 3

*Nate (scott and Maddie's son)

*Nathanial (?) Cable.

*Little Nate.

Int: The names of the children from the house? The ones with the crowns?

James: You got it.

[Shot of a haughty, regal woman of African descent with dark skin but pure white hair.]

*you saw her in the gif, you know her, you love her, It's Storm!

[Caption: Ororo Munroe, Director of the Liberation Centre, Salem Centre NY]

OM: I would prefer to be addressed as Your Highness, as I am a princess.

Int: From Africa?

*and she's an asshole.

OM: Please.

Int: Your highness.

OM: Yes. My lineage can be traced back to the dawn of time.

Int: Are you also a mutant, your highness?

OM: I am. I can control the elements, the winds and the waves.

Int: What services do you offer at the centre? Your highness.

OM: We offer counseling for the lost, as well as elementary medical care. Unlike the other so-called assistance centres, we offer our aid with no strings attached.

Int: What about the Drop-In Centre, your highness?

OM: It is associated with the pederast Frost. It is a well-known front for her slavery operations.

Int: Is there a religious dimension to your centre? Your highness?

OM: Our centre is non-denominational.

*bullshit.

Int: I've been told, your highness, that you hold worship services here, associated with the children who were found in the School after the raid.

OM: Many of our clients are religious, and often pray for the souls of all the children found there.

Int: Your highness, was the centre financed by Charles Xavier?

OM: He was among our many backers. We had not heard from him for many years at the time of the raid.

Int: What do you think of Charles Xavier, you highness?

OM: I believe that he was a brilliant man who was misled, and manipulated by others. His dream remains alive within us.

*Oh you have no idea, sister.

Int: What dream is that? Your highness.

OM: That mutants and humans might live together in harmony.

Int: Does the centre encourage this, your highness?

OM: It does.

Int: Your highness, are there any non-mutant volunteers or employees of this centre?

OM: Some.

Int: Could I speak with them, your highness?

OM: Our volunteer and client lists are strictly confidential.

[Shot of J&J Proudstar]

James: She made you call her Your Highness, didn't she?

John: Funny thing is, she really is a princess. She used to work for the dictator of Zanzibar in his secret police, but she had to leave after the coup in '76. She ended up in their embassy in Washington, but, after the coup in '78, they booted her out into the street.

*I don't know what this is a reference to, if anybody knows, please reblog.

Int: How did she get hooked up with Xavier?

John: No idea.

James: We do know what she did in between, though.

[Shot of the cover of a glossy magazine called Dark Chocolate. The African woman on its cover is bereft of clothing, but is fascinatingly scarred. A teaser on the cover promises pictures of a princess within.]

Int: She claimed that the centre was non-denominational.

James: Yeah, just like the Vatican is.

John: They have services there, for Xavier's religion.

Int: Have you ever been?

James: We didn't dare. Too close to Xavier. John hears all about it, though.

John: It's got a kind of bastardized Christian theology. Lots of elements of things I read about in The Golden Bough. They're waiting for a messiah who will save the world from the chaos-bringer and Apocalypse.

Int: Apocalypse being Secretary-General Nur?

James. You got it. They're kind of vague about who the chaos-bringer is.

John: Sometimes they said it was supposed to be Doug, sometimes it was supposed to be Erich Lehnsherr.

*Doug Ramsey, the lord of chaos!

Int: I though Lehnsherr was supposed to be one of the Horsemen?

James: Kind of depends on the day of the week. They're pretty consistent on the Whore of Babylon, though.

John: Takes a lot of strength not to react to some of the things they say against Ms. Frost.

Int: Who runs the church?

John: Munroe, we think. Worthington's involved, but we're not sure how.

Int: Is he involved with New Salem Holdings?

*I think that's a definite "Yes"

John: Never been able to trace it back that far.

Int: Was the church involved in the escape?

James: Shit, yeah.

John: We'll never forgive her for that. Never.

Int: Were you here then?

James: Happened six months before we came.

John: I heard all about it, though. Lots of people here saw what happened.

Int: Was Callisto involved?

James: Yeah. She was a lot more together then.

Int: How many of the students at the School were involved?

John: Can't really say. We know that the Guthries and three others made it this far.

Int: Sam Guthrie, his sister, Psyche and Ariel?

James: Can we answer that?

John: Long as you keep away from real names. Yeah, those four. Which ones you talking to?

Int: Psyche. She's the only one we could find who would talk.

James: Doesn't surprise me Ariel wouldn't talk. She was there the longest.

Int: Who planned it?

John: Don't think we should say anything about that.

Int: Were there any people on the outside?

James: Some. You'll have to talk to Callisto about that.

John: We can tell you that Nathaniel Essex was involved.

Our nathan count is now up to four:

Maddie and Scott's kid, Nathan

Cable (?) Nathaniel.

Little Nate

and Lastly Nathaniel Essex, Mister Sinister.

#marvel #fanfiction #x men comics #ororo munroe #john proudstar #james proudstar #nathaniel essex #mister sinister #x-men #xmen #marvel fanfiction #annotated fanfiction #Doug Ramsey #New Mutants

[madamescarlette]

Hey darling I hope life is treating you well lately 🥰

Emma!!! my love my dearest one!!!! I hope the same for you, always and always praying for that 💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖 (also I'm so sorry you're under the weather my darling!!! I hope you recover semi-quickly, summer colds are the WORST!)

ALSO I MEAN WEIRDLY ENOUGH I am really, really okay right now. As in, I'm the steadiest amount of happy I've been in a really long time?? It's very strange to me because it's been such a tumultuous few years, but I've been very grateful to just be....calm and happy for a little while at least. For the most part, my days now mostly consist of:

- me cleaning the kitchen and caterwauling folklore until my family begs me to stop

- me becoming determined (out of NOWHERE) to become a muffin master (can now make 4 varieties, though! well.....3 and a half, really)

- I've read 14 Georgette Heyer novels this year and don't plan to stop anytime soon

- trying for the seventeen MILLIONTH time to pick up guitar again & fussing at myself for not being adept THIS VERY SECOND (me, swearing at my poor innocent guitar: WHY IS THE F CHORD IN EVERY SINGLE POP SONG EVER)

- new short stories are coming!!! slowly!!!! painfully!!!!! they're sitting calmly in the corner of my home screen and I poke at one of them almost every day & that's progress at least

- I've been annotating a few of my favorite books lately and mayhaps??? I will do P&P next??? I am perhaps a bit too irrationally excited about it!!!

and other such things of great import.

I'm very well, and very happy, and there are the summer stars in the sky and fireflies out in the yard almost every night!!! so things can't be that bad!

#friends tag #ask #emma 💖💖💖💖💖💖 #i hope you're enjoying this renaissance of loki things as well dear one!!! #it's like....it's 2012 again but in a great way tbh

[emmastudies]

hey emma! i'm attempting to set up a bujo and online planners for the new school year. i used to use My Study Life for the online one but since its shutting down, i'm looking for an alternative. What do you recommend for online academic planners? (i have a windows laptop, if that helps any)

Hey! Ah, that sucks - it seemed like such a helpful site :-( If I’m honest I’d frickin love to build an app/website that was like a hub of everything student related. I love(d) doing UI in uni so it would be right up my street! 

I’ve not really seen too many online planners beyond ones like Google Calendar. I recently came across ArtfulAgenda which seems a great online calendar - not my personal taste design wise - but a really clever idea, however I think it is paid! Asana Calendar might be an option but I’m not sure if that's paid or more geared towards collaborative workplaces? 

Other random ones are:

Any.do - I think it might have a premium option though!

Cozi

Timetree

Vueminder

Minetime

EduPlanner

Skolar

Student Manager

StudIn

I’ll also throw my own hat into the ring :’-) I have a selection of dated/undated student (and non-student) digital planners on my Etsy shop! It isn’t automated (so no internet needed) like those apps above but more customisable if you like the mix of digital and ‘paper’-like planning! You can use any PDF annotating app to use them - I think Drawboard is a common recommendation. I hope that helps! xx

[austenmarriage]

New Post has been published on Austen Marriage

New Post has been published on http://austenmarriage.com/fanny-burney-writer-of-her-time/

Fanny Burney: Writer of Her Time

Fanny Burney was the female writer before and during Jane Austen’s life. Both in popularity and literary regard, she stood astride the Regency era as the Colossus stood astride the harbor of Rhodes. She published her first novel, Evelina, when Jane Austen was three years old, hit her publishing peak as Jane was beginning her serious writing, and continued to live and work for another two decades after Austen’s death.

To ensure the proper level of respect, some editors insist that we call her “Frances” rather than “Fanny,” the name she used all her life. Evidently, no one will take her seriously as Fanny but Frances will garner immediate intellectual respect. You’d think her complex writing style, modeled on Dr. Johnson, would be enough for anyone to take Burney seriously. But, here, we digress. …

Austen called Burney, who married a French officer to become Madame D’Arblay, “the very best of the English novelists.” In tracking Jane’s surviving correspondence, we can see her tracking Burney’s career. At the age of twenty, Jane subscribed to the purchase of Burney’s third novel, Camilla.

Two months after its publication in July 1796, Austen references Camilla in three successive letters, including the comment that an acquaintance named Miss Fletcher had two positive traits, “she likes Camilla & drinks no cream in her Tea.” Camilla is mentioned in the discussion of novels in Northanger Abbey. Jane’s annotated copy of Camilla is now in the Library of the Victoria and Albert Museum.

More interesting is a possible indirect but personal connection between the Austens and the D’Arblays. A relative, who likely encouraged the Austens to subscribe to Burney’s novel, was Mrs. Cassandra Cooke. She was first cousin to, and a contemporary of, Jane’s mother. The Cookes lived across the road from Burney and her husband for four years and nearby for several more.

Though the two authors never met, Jocelyn Harris writes in an article that Mrs. Cooke was probably a “direct source of information” about Burney to Austen. In her book Satire, Celebrity, and Politics in Jane Austen, Harris also finds a number of connections between scenes and characters in Austen’s fiction and Burney’s novels and life. Harris proposes that Mrs. Cooke may have been the source for the biographical anecdotes about Burney.

In addition to her novels, Burney wrote plays, most of which went unproduced, and was active at court. From 1786 to 1791 she was “Second Keeper of the Robes” to Queen Charlotte, and she dedicated Camilla to her. During the Napoleonic wars she was trapped for a decade in France. Though her husband was a military man and patriotic Frenchman, the couple detested the violence of the French Revolution and the dictator that followed. She was able to slip out of France when her son was a teenager to keep him from being conscripted into Napoleon’s army.

When Napoleon returned from exile in Elba to reclaim his throne, this time her husband fought against him on the side of the allies and was wounded in battle, before Waterloo ended Napoleon’s career a final time. After the war, the D’Arblays settled in Bath near relatives. Many French emigres had settled there during the war.

Two hundred years later, Burney’s position as Literary Superstar and that of Jane the Obscure has reversed. Burney is still read, and The Burney Society exists to promote her life and works. Yet most of the interest today relates to her diaries and journals, which show us the private thoughts of a sensitive, articulate woman about her long and eventful life. They record what it was like for an intelligent, vivacious, politically aware woman of the age. The also record her personal travails, including her description of undergoing a mastectomy in France—without anesthesia.

Burney began her diaries as a teenager. In an early entry, she tells of an earnest but not very pleasant fellow who fell for her on their first meeting. She asks her family how to get him to leave her alone. They instead encourage another visit. Burney writes in her diary something right out of (write out of?) Austen: that she “had rather a thousand Times die an old maid, than be married, except from affection.”

Today, few would put Burney in the same class as Austen as a novelist. Many Burney characters are extreme, her plots at times involve wild coincidences, and her language is enormously complex. What follows is a simple but representative example in the difference of style. The first is Austen’s dedication to the Prince Regent at the beginning of Emma. The next is Burney’s dedication to Queen Charlotte at the beginning of Camilla.

Austen’s, printed in capital letters and in large type to fill the page:

“To his Royal Highness the Prince Regent, this work is, by his Royal Highness’s permission, most respectfully dedicated, by his Royal Highness’s dutiful and obedient humble servant.”

Burney’s, set in type a little larger than normal, addresses the queen directly:

“THAT Goodness inspires a confidence, which, by divesting respect of terror, excites attachment to Greatness, the presentation of this little Work, to Your Majesty must truly, however humbly, evince; and though a public manifestation of duty and regard from an obscure Individual may betray a proud ambition, it is, I trust, but a venial—I am sure it is a natural one. In those to whom Your Majesty is known but by exaltation of Rank, it may raise, perhaps, some surprise, that scenes, characters, and incidents, which have reference only to common life, should be brought into so august a presence; but the inhabitant of a retired cottage, who there receives the benign permission which at Your Majesty’s feet casts this humble offering, bears in mind recollections which must live there while ‘memory holds its seat,’ of a benevolence withheld from no condition, and delighting in all ways to speed the progress of Morality, through whatever channel it could flow, to whatever port it might steer. I blush at the inference I seem here to leave open of annexing undue importance to a production of apparently so light a kind yet if my hope, my view—however fallacious they may eventually prove, extended not beyond whiling away an idle hour, should I dare seek such patronage?”

Austen was no fan of the Prince Regent, and her publisher probably prodded her into a sufficiently proper flourish. Yet even doubled, her dedication would barely run 50 words. Burney’s dedication runs 216 words—and the excerpt does not include all of it.

This gushing pipe of words is not just an instance of royal flattery. The entire 900-page novel strains under the load of such verbiage. Burney’s first and most successful novel, Evelina, written in the epistolary style, was a contrast. The letters by Evelina are as sharp and funny as anything Elizabeth Bennet ever said. Everyone else, however, writes in a ponderous style that came to dominate Burney’s third-person novels. Wanting to be taken seriously, Burney followed the “serious” style that “real literature” of the eighteenth century required. She was a writer of her time.

—

The Marriage of Miss Jane Austen, which traces love from a charming courtship through the richness and complexity of marriage and concludes with a test of the heroine’s courage and moral convictions, is now complete and available from Amazon and Jane Austen Books.

#18th century literature #Bath #Burney's journals #Fanny Burney #Frances Burney #Jane Austen #Napoleonic war #Regency era

[grandhotelabyss]

—Louise Bogan, qtd. in Elaine Showalter, “I wish she’d been a dog”

Showalter is quoting Bogan to disapprove of the sentiment (she can be seen disapproving of Gertrude Stein in my latest essay and Virginia Woolf and Dorothy Richardson in earlier ones), and quoting her moreover against Jean Stafford. Stafford was the much-abused first wife of Robert Lowell and so painfully adjoins the company in a previous post. She was celebrated as a novelist and short-story writer in her own time, if one whose talents were abraded by addiction, ill-health, and bitterness. Showalter, back in 1991, was reviewing two biographies of Stafford that appeared in the decade following her death. 

After those biographies’ appearance, Stafford seems to have gone into an eclipse only now ending with the publication of her fiction in Library of America volumes. I had more or less never heard of her, or had heard of her only as a vague name trapped in the amber of literary history. Didn’t she write A Christmas Story? No, that was Jean Shepherd. What about “Traveling through the Dark”? Negative again—that’s William Stafford, apparently no relation. My ignorance ended last week, when suddenly in the small world of American literature she was everywhere.

I am so distant from the places where literary decisions are made—I’m not in New York, not on the Slack channels—that like any Rust Belt provincial I can only experience these sudden shifts in national fortune like conspiratorially-ordained decrees on the part of distant powers, à la Hollywood according to Mulholland Drive: a mysterious mobster taps a photo of Jean Stafford and says, “This is the girl.” Then you go back through what archives there are online and find out why some people—Showalter, for one—thought she wasn’t the girl in the first place.

I admit all this ignorance only because I finally read something by Jean Stafford that seemed to license it. I can’t really read anything serious online (literary criticism is not serious), so I ransacked the anthologies in my apartment until I turned up a Stafford story, happily her most famous, “Children Are Bored on Sundays,” in Daniel Halpern’s The Art of the Tale: An International Anthology of Short Stories. (You can read it here if you haven’t run into the paywall or, God forbid, if you subscribe.) 

This 1948 tale is a crystallization of sensitivity, intelligence, and hatred, both for self and other. I doubt I have read anything that so perfectly captures the conflict between insider and outsider in American bohemia. It is set on a Sunday afternoon in the Metropolitan Museum, where the heroine, Emma, sees a man she used to know when she was frequenting intellectual cocktail parties a year or so before. Trying to decide whether to speak to him or not, she reflects on her time among his bohemian circle and what drove her out of it.

Emma, observed with the close and ironizing distance of free indirect discourse, came to New York from the country—perhaps Stafford’s own west, California or Colorado—and is what she calls a Rube among the Intellectuals. Being an Intellectual is not, for Emma, about how much you’ve read; it’s rather a social role reserved to metropolitans, whose hothouse rearing in urban apartments has given them a confidence and poise in their cultural and political pronouncements that outsiders, no matter how educated, can’t share because of their greater proximity to nature, which burdens them with an unshakably naive access to emotion in response to experience, artistic and otherwise. 

Furthermore, Emma’s own learning, being merely knowledge without urbane and urban-indigenous sensibility, further disqualifies her for the company of the Intellectuals, because they cannot even relish her as an authentic know-nothing barbarian. She is, to use a word the story never does, middlebrow. Acceding to this judgment, she exits bohemia and turns, as her author would, to drink; all the hope the story holds out for her is an ill-sorted affair, conducted at an emotional level below learned cultural discourse, with the very Intellectual-gone-to-seed she spies in the museum.  

My summary doesn’t capture Stafford’s achievement in the story, however. Any fool can sociologize, but only a real literary artist can, now quoting Keats’s advice to Shelley, load every rift with ore. Here is one passage, a sentence and a quarter, to give the taste of her wit and intricacy: 

Actually she had ceased to dine long since; every few days, with effort, she inserted thin wafers of food into her repelled mouth, flushing the frightful stuff down with enormous drafts of magical, purifying, fulfilling applejack diluted with tepid water from the tap. One weighty day, under a sky that grimly withheld the rain, as if to punish the whole city, she had started out from Ninetieth Street...

What a pleasure to read prose that comes before the puritan prohibition on adjectives and adverbs. The story’s sentences are gracefully complex but studded with spiky ironies; the effect is Henry James as annotated by Flannery O’Connor or Shirley Jackson. 

The style conveys the untamed intelligence Emma enjoys (though she abuses herself for its alleged unsophistication) in contrast to the Intellectuals, for whom thought is never linked to experience. Intellectualism just is this dissociation of sensibility (though whether or not the story has an anti-Semitic subtext I will leave the reader to decide), and Emma’s tragedy is that she mortifies herself for it rather than savoring it:

Thus she continued secretly to believe (but never to confess) that the apple Eve had eaten tasted exactly like those she had eaten when she was a child visiting on her Great-Uncle Graham’s farm, and that Newton’s observation was no news in spite of all the hue and cry. Half the apples she had eaten had fallen out of the tree, whose branches she had shaken for this very purpose, and the Apple Experience included both the descent of the fruit and the consumption of it, and Eve and Newton and Emma understood one another perfectly in this particular of reality.

So Stafford wouldn’t, or anyway shouldn’t, be one to complain if I write about the experience of reading her after having read only one story. And her story has aged only a little. The world she describes still exists—sample a Brooklyn podcast—but its intellectual standards have perhaps declined.

No one is capable any longer of writing or even reading prose like this, as evidenced by the difference in sentence and paragraph lengths and in diction and range of reference between Joyce Carol Oates’s famous 1988 savaging of a Stafford biography as “pathography” and Parul Sehgal’s appreciation of Stafford’s work from last week. Since Sehgal’s talent and intelligence aren’t in question—just look at her bookshelves and despair—an editorial mandate responding to straitened readerly attention spans and knowledge bases is surely at work: this is the syntax.

Stafford’s “Children” at once implies and enacts the thesis that it will take a wind from elsewhere to blow this petrified culture anywhere better. And as Bogan tells us, only the perverts have ever advanced art. While I can’t, anymore than Showalter can, endorse the specific forms of perversion that Stafford was both victim and perpetrator of, neither do I expect “nice people” or “joiners”—however “niceness” or “community” are defined by today’s intellectuals—to be of any use at all to literature. 

#elaine showalter #jean stafford #gertrude stein #louise bogan #joyce carol oates #american literature #fiction #short fiction #short stories #literary criticism #parul sehgal #literature

[hayleysbookblog]

Blog 8

This week, I read

The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer

Emma by Jane Austen

The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer

Rating: 4/5 stars

Going on with my nostalgia buzz, I wanted to reread one of my favorite series. In Literature, I have two things I’m particularly drawn to: Jane Austen, and Mythology retellings. This series was the start of the latter of those two. The Lunar Chronicles sets the well known stories of Cinderella, Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, and Snow White in a futuristic Sci-Fi setting marketing towards young teens. I was a children who explicitly loved princesses; from the beginning, I loved stories. My family and I would regularly go to Disney, and even as I’m older, I find so much joy and comfort in the movies. These books are definitely what to turn to when I watch one of these movies and feel like I want more. The characters this series creates are a perfect mix of their own and a call to the original material. They ave a balance of complexity in them all for a younger reader to understand when they read, and an older audience can still enjoy it and take something from it without feeling likes its much too young for them. These books always are a good reminder of my childhood and its enjoyments. Overall, a great bridge for younger readers to use to go into more mature works, comfortably.

Emma by Jane Austen

Rating: 4.5/5 stars

This was a slight reread for school. I say slight, because I know I have read it before, but the ending seemed a bit unfamiliar so I am not sure if I had finished it. Nevertheless, once again Austen wrote a delightful novel that perfectly shows her mastery in the skillset of story telling. This novel is usually titled her most boring because of the lack of action despite its size. That in itself, though, is a tell of her skill. The extensibility of the book is a play at the Main character, Emma, and her over-analysis of situations and events as she tries to play match maker with the people around her. 

The novel was just a very fun read, especially as i knew what exactly was happening, because I could distinguish when Austen was trying to trick a new reader, or another character, or the main character herself. This is a book that can be full of annotations that pinpoint her writing style and language  and i am very happy that I was able to conjure an essay on that topic for my class.

Now that I have completely read the book, I can see why people do not like the 2020 movie and say its a bad adaption. I, for one, still stick with my own opinion on how it is a good adaption; sure, it misses some scenes or joins them with others, but It works out for the better, and still got the story across in the way Austen intended.

[davidmann95]

Top 10 Comics Alliance articles?

That is a scale of searching and winnowing down that’s beyond me, though along with those Superman pieces and a bunch of Sims’ stuff on Batman that would probably increase the size of this damn thing by half over again, some favorites that come to mind after a search include: 

* Andrew Wheeler’s Where Have All The Good Men Gone And Where Are All The Gods? Reflections On The Rifts In Superhero Fandom; The Straightwashing Of Hercules And How Marvel Keeps Failing LGBTQ Readers; ‘If You Don’t Like It, Make Your Own’ Is Terrible Advice, But A Great Idea; Super: The Inhumans And The Sinister Gentrification Of Otherness; Revival, Reinvention, Resurrection: The Power Of Great Superhero Costume Design; and Is Frank Cho The Last Champion Of Straight Men’s Boners In This Hellish Feminist Wasteland We Live In? 

* Kieran Shiach’s This Magazine Kills Fascists series; Understanding Hawkman: How A Simple Concept Became The DC Universe’s Most Confusing Character; The Importance Of LQBTQ Representation In All-Ages Comic Books; Rebirth Anxiety: Our Hopes And Fears For DC’s Latest Not-Reboot; How Comic Books Helped Me Come Out As Bisexual; and Crisis Management: How Do You Solve A Problem Like Continuity? 

* Juliet Kahn’s Who Is Wonder Woman? The Diamonds And Dinged Plastic Of Azzarello & Chiang’s Amazon Princess; Smart, Nice And Sassy: ‘Good Girl’ Role Models Make Boring Heroes; and Emma Frost’s Wardrobe Is Malfunctioning

* David Uzumeri’s various annotations; Alan Moore X Hideaki Anno: Their Failed Assassinations Of Their Genres; and The Geoff Johns Literalism Method: A Primer

* Kate Leth’s Kate Or Die strips

* David Brothers’ The Originals and I’m David series; 50 Years Later: Growth And Maturity In Amazing Spider-Man 1-50; and Frank Miller’s Holy Terror: A Propaganda Comic That Fights Faith Instead Of Evil

* Charlotte Finn’s Lost in Transition and Preacher, Ma’am series along with Unpacking The Transphobia In Airboy #2 and It Will Never Love You Back: Marvel, Ike Perlmutter, And Why The Corporation Cannot Be Your Friend 

* Elle Collins’ Give ‘Em Elle series 

* Chris Sims’ Funkywatch and Bizarro Back Issues along with various TV/movie co-reviews; The Racial Politics Of Regressive Storytelling; Time And Time Again: The Complete History Of DC’s Retcons And Reboots; The Rise And Fall Of Chuck Austen; The Ask Chris Halloween Special!; Worst Of The Worst: ‘Justice League: The Rise Of Arsenal #3′; Building A Better Superhero Costume; Which Superhero Could Replace Santa Claus?; Batman Vs. ‘Twilight’ (and indeed any time he was called upon to take a look at either Twilight or the Transformers movies); The Great Santa Fight; How I Learned To Love ‘Achewood’; The Weirdest Part Of ‘Achewood’; I Hate You So Much Lucy Lane; Why Spider-Man Is The Best Character Ever (Yes, Even Better Than Batman); Bob Kane Is Just The Worst; Stan Lee, The Man And The Myth; DC, Marvel And ‘The Problem’; and any time he was asked to review fast food/Halloween costumes/Valentine cards/happy meal toys/etc., along with plenty of other Ask Chris’s I’m forgetting about at the moment to be sure (but I feel fair in saying I’ve done a deep enough dive for the evening)

* Laura Hudson’s The Big Sexy Problem With Superheroines And Their ‘Liberated Sexuality’; Sexual Harassment In Comics: The Tipping Point; and the The Complete And Utter Insanity Of ‘Batman: Odyssey’ series with David Wolkin

* Tuesdays & Wednesdays: The Comicsalliance Roundtable On Politics And Comics; ‘Rebirth’ Roundtable: Comics Alliance Takes On DC’s Latest Announcements; and Why We Love Comics

#Comics Alliance #DC Comics #Marvel #Andrew Wheeler #Kieran Shiach #Juliet Kahn #David Uzumeri #Kate Leth #David Brothers #charlotteofoz #Elle Collins #Chris Sims #Laura Hudson #Opinion

[tkwrtnewsfeed]

Newsfeed #86 August 13, 2017 (13 Úrimë)

ICYMI: Fantastic Credits and Where to Give Them.

I worked in Hollywood for 4 /12 years and one of my good friends is an intellectual property lawyer I’ve known since then--well over 16 years--with a client list that includes none other than Maurice (Kevin Kline) in the live-action film “Beauty and the Beast” starring Emma Watson.

Image: © 2017. Walt Disney Studios. Beauty and the Beast. All Rights Reserved.

(My attorney could sue anyone spreading salacious rumors about me and my work should he choose to do so, but I’m not a jerk. But he does know about it; he’s good at what he does--he’s successfully sued Google).

Translation: I’m at least 3-7 degrees of knowing how to give credit to artists. Otherwise, my attorney/friend would have me shot at sunrise. Would you like to learn how to do it without being a pain about it and spreading unscrupulous rumors? Let me explain Copyright © from a legal perspective from 30 years of working with copyrighted materials with an actual attorney that specializes in artistic intellectual properties with 40 years of experience that includes everything from visual art, music, film, books and has won a major copyright infringement case against Google (among other high profile cases) for major A-List celebrities.

1) Whatever you do is copyrighted from the moment you put it on paper by law. You don’t have to bitch about anyone stealing it perpetually. HOWEVER, you can’t complain about someone posting it anywhere in public (Pinterest, mostly) if YOU post it anywhere in public. If you share it, even asking people not to, it is already public and can go anywhere. What people CAN’T do is SAY it’s theirs. If they explicitly say “I did this” and they didn’t, you have a case. Otherwise, it is NOT copyright infringement if someone posts it anywhere. 

It would be nice if EVERYONE would give credit--I try to do it if I do or link back to the original place I find something and that is time consuming if the work is not located where it came from (dead-link) or it was digitally stolen--something my attorney told me about a couple years ago. I see it all the time. But, if you make it public, it is assumed to be public. It is NOT ASSUMED to not to be copyrighted. Put that cute copyright sign on it and let it go. You should have the original as collateral, I would think. That’s the only way no one can claim it and you can properly bitch about it w/o an official U.S. Copyright.

2) I PUT “Images: ©2012, 2013, 2014. Warner Brothers Pictures. The Hobbit: The Unexpected Journey, The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug, The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies. All Rights Reserved.” on pretty much every post for The Kingdom of the Woodland Realm Trilogy because the photos I use BELONG to Warner Brothers/New Line Cinema/Wingnut Productions. Altered by someone online doesn’t change this UNLESS the person altering got permission from WB/NLC/Wingnut to alter it. Otherwise, it is their property and they can sue anyone that alters their work and put their name on it if they so choose. I post this disclaimer to keep from GETTING sued--even though I don’t alter the photo in anyway. Gifs are the same way and currently seen as pirated these days and are subject to suit as with screen caps. 

The reason no one gets sued over screen caps and gifs is because no one is making $$ off of them. You only get credit for edit not the work of the camera guy that was paid to shoot a film and the studio that owns his camera work. Unlike Marvel that has begun digital copyrights on some photos (you post something on Facebook, it automatically gives credit). The minute someone charges for any altered screen caps, gifs or photos and calls it their own work, that is the legal definition of copyright infringement.

Without proper credit, you are open to lawsuit by the studios, photographers. I go out of my way to avoid altered anything because then I could get sued even if I didn’t alter it--even if I am not making money from it. Which brings me to the next point:

3) IF I was making $$ and using someone’s art, then I could get sued. That means I’m not paying the original person their due (licensing fees) for use of their work. THAT includes my original story that uses and will use a great number of canonical characters from Tolkien. If I want to turn The Kingdom of the Woodland Realm Trilogy into a book, I have to do it the right way--which is get permission from the Tolkien Estate (I’ve had the paperwork since 2016 when it was shown to me by a member of the Mythopoeic Society--they are close to the Estate). They can allow me to publish after negotiations of paying for use of the characters or force me to put “not affiliated with the Tolkien Estate” and/or change names if they so choose.

Example of a Tolkien allowed to go to press with “non-affiliated” tag of Tolkien. It’s clean, so the Estate probably doesn’t mind so much. Not all of these “non-affiliated” books are bad or not liked by the Estate. The label is not exclusively a non-endorsement--there might be something unknown about as to why it’s there.

Example of a book with the coveted “Tolkien Trademark” and approved by the Estate--spoke with one of the authors; pretty cool.

You want this, you better have your %^$* together. Yes, they give them out, but they are particular--do it right: legal and above board.

I’m not making any revenue off of TKWR Trilogy but if I were, I wouldn’t be using film photos. I would HIRE an artist to tag along over to the final phase of getting this book turned into something sold on Amazon or in Barnes & Noble. Then, the artist of choice would get paid for their work properly. They could use the work from this book anywhere they wanted and it would be protected forever--example of this would be Ted Nasmith.

© Ted Nasmith. All Rights Reserved.

Due to all the rumors about people say I’m doing because they have nothing better to do with their time (regardless of the obvious), I decided not to share any Tolkien Fan Art, use and Tolkien Fan Art or consider any Tolkien Fan Art unsolicited by anyone on Tumblr, Pinterest, DeviantArt or anywhere else that isn’t done by anyone not represented by an agent or a lawyer. If I so choose, artists will have to go through my lawyer--not me. After today, there will be no artists’ works mentioned or shared by me anywhere again until I’m done with the entire trilogy--unless idiots stop spreading lies and rumors (they won’t so don’t hold your breath).

I discovered a lot of fan art pertaining to my book and I could say something, but I’m not a jerk and I’m not complaining. I’m also not making any $$ of the book. It is assumed to be public but not assumed not to be copyrighted--which it actually is (ask my attorney).

I will do something should I decide to take any number of offers to publish after a lot of legalities I will go through. For now, I’ll just watch to make sure no one’s claiming my work--my words--as their own (and some have which is why I sent the book to witnesses so I have a case and proof should I do something later on). The book will change in the final form as I edit; it already has with additions and changes in Book II: The Saga of Thranduil and Book I: The Epic of Eryn Galen and Book III: The Last Tale of Legolas Lasgalen.

I love artists here, but a few ruined it for everyone. I’ve had artists wanting to illustrate Book II: The Saga of Thranduil, but now that’s been narrowed to only one that doesn’t accuse me of salacious and reputation-altering deeds I’ve never done. Having a friend that’s a respected and experienced intellectual properties attorney with connections in the U.S. and Europe that has worked within the industry successfully for 30+ years with a stellar reputation protecting my works--all of them including screenplays, poetry, stage plays--makes it possible for me to help protect an artist of my choosing (and he’s already done wonders for clothing designer friend of mine in Florida that designed things for my film project HERETIC: THE LEGEND OF AKHENATEN*). He loves protecting properties and takes referrals. I’m not helping anyone spreading rumors.

Thank you, Captain Obvious. That was obvious.

I told someone once that I would, but they thought it better to insult me rather than allowing me to connect them to a publisher I knew that could have looked at their work without the long query process. You make connections in the business and it’s good to keep them and I do.

I live by the motto: “The ass you kick today may be the ass you kiss tomorrow” so I try to be nice and respectful to everyone--even I have to draw a line.

[By the way, there will be a LOT of versions coming for The Kingdom of the Woodland Realm Trilogy. This one is the Annotated Version--complete with all the notes and references and explanations of the use of Tolkien to create the entire trilogy. Let’s just say it took 4 hours to do the first bibliography and I just added more books. This one (which will be done for both the original version and extended version) will take years.]

But if you don’t want to be seen as an artist, it’s a safe bet you won’t think pinning = stealing. Pinterest is nothing more than a bulletin board for what people like--it’s not supposed to deal in copyright protection like YouTube or Instagram where you are actually legally protected by copyright law. If they were, a lot of stuff they still allow would be subject to lawsuit against them--not the pinners. They blame pinners to keep themselves from being liable for allowing copyrighted properties. I’ve already deleted my Art page of potential artists for The Kingdom of he Woodland Realm Trilogy. I’ve gotten blocked on Pinterest by people here on Pinterest over pins I re-pinned years ago over what they don’t know--probably out of spite. I don’t mind and don’t care. My job is to finish my work to the best of my ability and move on to the next.

Writing has been my life since the age of two. Only an act of GOD is going to keep me from doing what I love. I write because I love it. If it’s liked, I’m happy. If its not, that isn’t a deterrent for me to stop. Like any artist, I want to protect my work--but I’m going to do it the right way and I’m going to give credit due when credit is due if I eventually use an artist for The Kingdom of the Woodland Realm Trilogy. Full Stop--end of sentence. There is nothing left to say. I have to do it right because I have a too many people in the business watching me and if I’m not doing what is right, they aren’t going to want to work with me and that lessens the work I put in to write this and it will not be able to help a fellow artist along the way. My attorney acts as a free attorney for artists that can’t afford to hire expensive attorneys for protection because he believes in protecting the rights of artists and we often work together on helping artist connect with attorneys that work for free for all artists (Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts).

I know, that won’t keep some people from being jerks--I just wanted to put it out there.

*HERETIC: THE LEGEND OF AKHENATEN by Jaynaé Miller (me) is copyrighted by the U.S. Copyright Office. Any unauthorized use is strictly prohibited without prior consent for the next 100 years. In other words, I could sue a major studio if they don’t buy it from me. This is a wholly LEGAL and Recognized (and stamped) copyright. It doesn’t make the original copyright less potent, it just makes your work recognized by law and gives you further protection for your works. This includes photography, visual art, books, film, plays, videos, logos. Being a copyrighted work, it is also subject to the Berne Agreement (World Copyright Organization) guidelines for international use. With this, it wouldn’t matter where you work is posted, if someone said it was theirs, it’s a lawsuit waiting to happen. Once you put a stamp on it, by law, it is already protected by the government as it is being sent via the federal government--and it is protected from loss of materials sent as well (USPS is good and finding it, too; get a tracking number and it is found faster).

I know all this stuff because I work with copyrighted and trademarked things since I wrote my first opera and lyrics for which my music teacher taught me about this in fifth grade. I’ve written adaptations with permission of the original writers. The More You Know depends on how much you care to know.--J.

#volunteer lawyers for the arts #tkwrtnewsfeed #ask before you assume #i know what i'm doing #tolkien fan fiction #in honor of tolkien #legalese #i know what a copyright is #artists on tumblr #tkwr trilogy #tkwr writings #book i #the epic of eryn galen #book ii #the saga of thranduil #book iii #the last tale of legolas lasgalen #pinterest #the truth about pinterest #haters are gonna hate #and they will pay for it #dearly #writing #am writing #love writing #back to work #kevin kline #yes i have an intellectual properties lawyer #and i'm not afraid to use him #learn something every day

[emreadingtoteachub-blog]

This week’s topic is Historical Fiction. As a child, I hated diary style books and true history books like biographies, however, I loved historical fiction books. My favorite historical fiction author was Ann Rinaldi though I did not include her in this following list. I would recommend any of her books though I haven’t read any of the newer ones. If you would like to see what the featured books are all about you can check out the annotated bibliography attached here. 

Boyne, & John. (2017). The Boy at the Top of the Mountain. New York, NY: Turtleback Books. 

From the author of The Boy In the Striped Pajamas, The Boy at the Top of the Mountain is the story of an orphan boy who is sent to live with his aunt in World War II Germany. Through a series of events, he ends up living in the home of Adolf Hitler, to whom his aunt is a maid. This book deals with courage, survival, effects of the past, justice, war, and abundance/scarcity. At a reading level of 970 it is certainly easier to read than The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Most secondary students could read this book easily.

Curry, J. L. (2005). The black canary. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster Children's Pub.

When James, a twelve-year-old biracial boy, finds himself transported to the past he must use his gift for music which he had always repressed to keep himself safe from harm. This book focuses on the themes of family, parent-child relationships, and effects of the past. The Lexile level is 1020 which makes it perfect for most secondary education students.

Engle, M., & Recorded Books, Inc. (2015). Hurricane dancers: The first caribbean pirate shipwreck. New York, NY: Henry Holt and Company (BYR.

This book chronicles the story of a boy who is half indigenous and half Spanish who was stolen away and forced to work on pirate ships. When he is shipwrecked and the only survivor, he finds his way back to society and ends up being the one person to decide the fate of the people who captured him. This book is great for middle school and higher students as it has a Lexile level of 1170. The themes covered in this book are corruption, courage, fear, freedom, greed, hate, justice, survival, and security/safety.

Levine, K. (2014). The best bad luck i ever had. New York, NY: Puffin Books. 

The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had is the story of two children who meet and though they are of different races and it is the 1910s. Emma is black and Harry is white but when they become friends they find themselves looking at the inequalities around them and when a black barber is put on trial they decide to try and save him. The themes in this book are courage, heroes, prejudice, and the overlooked. The Lexile level of 680 makes it a good book for low level readers and in secondary levels it would be good for sixth grade students.

Smith, S. L. (2010). Flygirl. New York, NY: Speak. 

Flygirl is the story of Ida Mae Jones, a black girl in 1940's Louisiana. She dreams of flying airplanes like her father though she is not allowed to. She passes for a white woman and joins WASP during World War II, allowing her to live out her dreams but the drama does not stop there. As she flies for WASP she confronts her views on family and truth and must make her final decision on whether she can hide her heritage or not. The main themes in this book are discrimination, family, honesty, secrecy, and perseverance. The book would appeal to a wide range of children and based on its Lexile level of HL680, this book would be good for both younger readers or older readers who struggle a little bit.