#byronicism

[burningvelvet]

Why Mr. Rochester and Bertha Mason Couldn't Get a Legal Separation; or, the Utter Madness of Marital Laws

So I saw a Jane Eyre post discussing why Mr. Rochester and Bertha Mason couldn't get a legal marital separation. I've thought a lot about this topic, and in order to procrastinate writing the final for my upper-level Brontë class, I've decided to write this sort of convoluted analysis instead. I know many others have written about this subject, but I wanted to explore a bit further on my own.

Preliminary context about me, the Brontës, their Byronic inspiration, etc.: I've learned a lot about 19th century British marriage laws recently in my classes on old British literature, as well as by having studied Byron, whose marital separation in 1816 was a notorious part of his history & also reverberated through 19c literature. He refers to this separation in many of his works, most famously in his notorious poem "Fare Thee Well." Harriet Beecher Stowe, the most famous American female writer at the time, was friends with Lady Byron and wrote a book defending her called "Lady Byron Vindicated: A history of the Byron controversy from its beginning in 1816 to the present time" (the original callout post).

Insanity accusations did factor in to Byron's separation. Many scholars have remarked how the Queens of Byronic Criticism, the Brontë sisters, took significant inspiration from their well-worn copy of Moore's biography Life of Byron when creating their works. The Brontës would have been very familiar with marriage laws not only due to their knowledge of Byron's trainwreck of a marriage, but also due to being well-educated women at the time who knew that marriage was the most important economic decision of one's life and could very well make or break a person. As a result, marriage plays a significant role in their novels.

More relevant preliminary context about the novel: Jane Eyre actually takes place in the Georgian era, despite most adaptations and anaysis presenting is as a Victorian piece due to the novels publication date (this drives me crazy; same goes for the other Brontë books). Marriage laws did not change drastically from the time the novel is set to the time Brontë was writing the novel, but things were a bit different socially. Rochester was also married 15 years before his attempt to marry Jane. According to this very good analysis, Rochester and Bertha probably married in or around the year 1793: https://jane-eyre.guidesite.co.uk/timeline.

Now, here are the reasons why Rochester couldn't separate from Bertha:

1) Insanity wasn't grounds for divorce/separation in the Regency era.

Rochester himself says that he couldn't legally separate from her because of her insanity, which presumably rendered any of her faults null on the grounds of that marital vow "in sickness and in health." This is possibly one of his biggest reasons:

"I was rich enough now – yet poor to hideous indigence: a nature the most gross, impure, depraved I ever saw, was associated with mine, and called by the law and by society a part of me. And I could not rid myself of it by any legal procedings: for the doctors now discovered that my wife was mad — her excesses had prematurely developed the germs of insanity [..]"

2) Divorce was nearly impossible anyway.

There had only been around 300 divorces in English history at the time. Almost all of them were husbands divorcing their wives for committing adultery. Only a handful of divorces had succesfully been obtained by women, and they were only in cases where the husband had committed incestuous adultery or bigamy, and was extremely physically cruel. So technically after his bigamy attempt, Bertha may have had more grounds to obtain a divorce than Rochester would have, if only she were lucid enough to do so. However, in that scenario infertility would have helped their case, and Adèle's existence would have harmed their case if he attempted to seek a divorce before marrying Jane. Though as the novel explains, Adèle is probably not his, she definitely would have been used against him, as would the fact that he kept Bertha's existence a secret in England. But he wouldn't have tried for divorce that late in the game anyway, considering it was one of the most difficult options.

3) Female adultery was your best bet at divorce or separation, and this probably wasn't applicable to Mr. & Mrs. Rochester.

Although some scholars claim that there is subtext hinting that Bertha was adulterous (which some adaptations, like the 2006, include), you needed substantial proof of the adultery, which Rochester may not have had if it did occur. Being a proud man, he also wouldn't have wanted to be humiliated in that way by letting it be publicly known (as shame is one of his main reasons for hiding their marriage to begin with).

However, I lean toward the idea that Bertha may not have committed adultery. If she definitively did, seeing how affected Rochester was by Céline cheating on him (he shot her lover in revenge and left her with a stipend), if he ever suspected adultery on Bertha's part then I'm sure he would have been at court the very next day. I also think Rochester tries not to be too much of a hypocrite, and he is well aware that he himself is an adulterer, so he probably doesn't want to accuse Bertha of a crime he's committed and which he couldn't definitively prove she did.

Rochester does talk about hating Bertha's "vices" when they lived together, citing drinking, arguing, cruelty to servants, cursing, her being "unchaste," a "harlot," etc. - the last epithets, combined with her supposed lack of morality, and her being described as seductive, heavily imply that adultery could be added to her list of offenses. However, if she did truly cheat on him as well, I don't see why he wouldn't plainly tell this to Jane as well. I would imagine it would be his first complaint, and it would probably be considered his most justifiable reason against her by their cultural standards.

I don't see why he wouldn't jump to take Bertha's infidelity as an opportunity to defend his own actions, considering how open he is with Jane about his own adultery and being cheated on by Cèline Varens. While I can see how some of the textual evidence may strongly suggest Bertha's adultery, we cannot be fully certain, and that may be because Rochester himself is not fully certain. I cannot see why he wouldn't have sought legal advice on that account alone.

In short, if Bertha was an adulterer, there must have been no evidence to convict her.

Also: while the double-standard may seem odd and trivial to us, the reason why female adultery held more weight than male adultery has entirely to due with old patriarchal inheritance laws; i.e the risk of a wife getting extramaritally pregnant and passing the illegitimate child off as her husband's heir was considered too great of an affront. A man could have as many bastards as he wanted because he would know they were bastards and were not at risk of inheriting his stuff. One needed legitimate heirs to justify passing on one's ancestral wealth to. Essentially, marriage was a mere economic tool, and the economy was and is inherently patriarchal. I digress.

4) Rochester's lack of social & economic leverage, and risk of social ruin in general.

Only the wealthiest of the wealthy could obtain divorce or official separation, and it often led to social ruin. Rochester is rich, but he has no title and no great network of supporters due to being a younger son and having been abroad for most of the past 15 years (this was the length of his marriage to Bertha, stated by Mr. Briggs during the bigamous wedding attempt). He doesn't have as much leverage as Lord and Lady Byron had.

To continue on official separation, like Lady and Lord Byron obtained. Just like divorce, this was also a messy and scandalous legal proceeding, and required numerous good reasons to obtain, and being well-connected Lords and Ladies really helped your case. You also needed many witnesses and written statements as evidence. Bertha's family, as we see with Mason, would have been unhelpful to Rochester, and due to his shame and secrecy, no one could really testify on his behalf I'm assuming.

5) Unofficial separation would have been inconvenient, especially in regards to living situations.

Aside from divorce, which was extremely rare, extremely controversial, and only for the wealthiest members of society — there were unofficial and official separations. An unofficial separation was simply living apart from one another. I've often wondered why Rochester didn't simply move Grace Poole and Bertha somewhere else, but my main theory is that it would have been cost ineffective, and due to his family who were implied to be shitty, he probably really didn't want to live at Thornfield anyway so thought it would be convenient to place her there. Rochester says it would be dangerous to place her in his other residence of Ferndean:

"[..] though I possess an old house, Ferndean Manor, even more retired and hidden than this, where I could have lodged her safely enough, had not a scruple about the unhealthiness of the situation, in the heart of a wood, made my conscience recoil from the arrangement. Probably those damp walls would soon have eased me of her charge: but to each villain his own vice; and mine is not a tendency to indirect assassination, even of what I most hate."

6) Annulment was likely impossible given their circumstances.

Annulment means evaporating the marriage, acting as if it never existed, that it was a mistake. This was rare and only granted in unique circumstances, and I believe it was more common with aristocracy and royals. I believe you could possibly get an annulment if you could prove that the spouse was insane at the time of the wedding and you did not know. However, Bertha did not begin to truly deteriorate until after they had been living together for a bit. And while Rochester says that he did not know her mother was in an asylum until after the wedding, having an insane mother doesn't mean that you are insane, which Bertha clearly wasn't at that point, at least not in a way that people would have publicly acknowledged, since Rochester says she attended parties and her hand was highly sought after.

Generally, the longer a marriage had gone on, the harder it was to prove why it could not go on. Rochester says that he and Bertha "lived together" for "four years" in Jamaica while her condition deteriorated and he tried to make things work. And again, after the wedding he found out her mother was "mad, and shut up in a lunatic asylum." So we have more reasons for Rochester's difficulty: the fear of Bertha going to an asylum while she was still mostly lucid in those first four years, combined with the fact that they openly lived together and certainly must have consummated their marriage (things which would further prevent annulment), and were certainly publicly recognized as a couple in Spanish Town society, and her family wanting the marriage to continue so she could have children of "good race" i.e. to produce heirs.

Here's an important passage that to me suggests that Rochester and Bertha not only had an initial flirtation but likely consummated their marriage, likely had a passionate sexual relationship for some time, and likely implies his feelings for her were more complex than we'd initially assume, making annulment not so clear-cut of an option to him at the time:

"My father said nothing about her money; but he told me Miss Mason was the boast of Spanish Town for her beauty: and this was no lie. I found her a fine woman, in the style of Blanche Ingram; tall, dark, and majestic. Her family wished to secure me because I was of a good race; and so did she. They showed her to me in parties, splendidly dressed. I seldom saw her alone, and had very little private conversation with her. She flattered me, and lavishly displayed for my pleasure her charms and accomplishments. All the men in her circle seemed to admire her and envy me. I was dazzled, stimulated: my senses were excited; and being ignorant, raw, and inexperienced, I thought I loved her. There is no folly so besotted that the idiotic rivalries of society, the prurience, the rashness, the blindness of youth, will not hurry a man to its commission. Her relatives encouraged me; competitors piqued me; she allured me: a marriage was achieved almost before I knew where I was. Oh, I have no respect for myself when I think of that act! — an agony of inward contempt masters me. I never loved, I never esteemed, I did not even know her."

7) Spousal abandonment wasn't possible, and on some level he honored his legal and financial obligations to her and the Mason family.

Bertha's family likely refused to house her for legal and personal reasons, and spousal abandonment was forbidden due to the husband's financial responsibility as well as the law of coverture (a wife became her husband's full legal responsibility; some say "property"). Like we see in Anne's Tenant of Wildfell Hall, if a woman ran away from their spouse they would have to live in obscurity and be at risk of being sussed out. You couldn't just abandon your partner. Still, people did, because it was the easiest route to take.

But the more upper-class you were, and the more financial entanglements you had, the more inconvenient this was. We know that Rochester and his family became enmeshed with the Mason family, and he got a lot of money from Bertha, so her father likely would have taken him to court. At any rate, Rochester was legally bound to bring Bertha with him to England when he left Jamaica. If he attempted to abandon her in Jamaica, the backlash it would have brought would have brought him social ruin and foiled his chances at getting away with any bigamy attempts.

All this brings us to a further notice of Bertha's family situation. Based on Charlotte Brontë's positive comments about Rochester's character (https://www.tumblr.com/burningvelvet/731403104856195072/in-a-letter-to-w-s-williams-14-august-1848) I see no reason to suspect him, like many feminist critics do, of being an unreliable narrator or of lying about Bertha Mason's history. Everyone is entitled to their opinions, and in mine, that is simply not the novel Charlotte wrote. By her own admission, she wanted his narrative to be a path to further goodness.

It makes no narrative sense for our explanation of his and Bertha's history to be full of lies when he's trying to make ammends with Jane, who never suspects him of lying during his admission, but who does critique him and figure he'd tire of her like she was one of his many mistresses. Jane wonders if Rochester would lock her in an attic too, which he refutes on the basis that he loves her more than he loved Bertha when she was sane, and so he would care for Jane himself. Jane also tells him that it's not Bertha's fault that she's mad. So in my opinion, if Charlotte wanted us to believe Rochester was lying about his and Bertha's history to make himself look better or Bertha look worse, I don't see why she would have been vague about it, and I don't see why Jane wouldn't have called it out like she does everything else. I don't think Rochester is really a villain who locked his harmless wife in the attic for giggles; I think he weighed most of his options and found, like most people back then and even today, that keeping his problems locked up and ignored was the best solution.

Now, on with the point. I have often wondered why Rochester didn't simply "unofficially separate" from Bertha by leaving her with her family when he left. Why did he take her to England? Why didn't he just run away? It wasn't because he was an evil villain who wanted to keep her as a trophy. It's because 1) I don't think her father would have let him, as he was so quick to marry her off, 2) he felt obligated to her, and 3) it was criminal for men to abandon their wives, and it would have attracted publicity, which is what Rochester was avoiding by taking Bertha to England and sheltering her in secrecy.

Many claim that Rochester's adultery is a betrayal of his wife; and while religiously, narratively, socially, we can accept this statement, it was not legally a crime. While Rochester does honor his financial and legal obligations to his wife and her family, he does not take the religious part of the vows into account, and that's why he's cosmically punished and only rewarded after he repents, as he explains toward the end of the novel.

Another interesting point is that when Rochester recounts his decision to move back to England, he tells us that Bertha had already been declared insane in Jamaica and that she was already confined there (presumably around the 4 year anniversary before they left), meaning her father probably knew about confinement:

"One night I had been awakened by her yells (since the medical men had pronounced her mad, she had of course been shut up) — it was a fiery West Indian night; [..]"

Locking away "insane" people was standard procedure then, and if this was done with Bertha's father's knowledge, considering he locked his own wife away in an asylum, then this further absolves Rochester of a lot of the blame in my opinion. It more than likely wasn't his idea to lock her away, but the advice of "the medical men" and presumably her father's consultation as well.

8) Even if he divorced or separated from her, he couldn't remarry. Attempting these, or getting caught attempting abandonment, would have brought negative publicity that would have likely prevented the success of any future bigamy attempts. To him, secrecy and bigamy seemed better chances at securing happiness than the social ruin and likely failure the other options would have brought him.

Aside from Rochester's own explanation (which I supplied in #2 re: the separation veto inherent to Bertha's insanity), the other biggest reason as to why Rochester wouldn't seek a separation/divorce even if she hadn't been declared insane and even if he were willing to accuse her of adultery truthfully or not, is due to the fact that one could not legally remarry upon separation or divorce (unless you were Henry VIII and got God's permission lol). Rochester's impossible dream is that he wants to be married to someone he really loves, and if secrecy and bigamy are his only options then he is willing to succumb; this is shown in numerous passages:

"[..] I could reform — I have strength yet for that — if— but where is the use of thinking of it, hampered, burdened, cursed as I am? Besides, since happiness is irrevocably denied me, I have a right to get pleasure out of life: and I will get it, cost what it may."

"I will keep my word: I will break obstacles to happiness, to goodness — yes, goodness; I wish to be a better man than I have been; than I am — as Job's leviathan broke the spear, the dart, and the habergeon, hinderances which others count as iron and brass, I will esteem but straw and rotten wood."

"Is there not love in my heart, and constancy in my resolves? It will expiate at God's tribunal. I know my Maker sanctions what I do. For the world's judgment — I wash my hands thereof. For man's opinion — I defy it."

Closing remarks on the above's validity: I can't cite all my sources because a lot of this stuff I learned from lectures via my professor who specializes in 19th century English literature & history. But here's some recently published information from a historian, taken from "Inside the World of Bridgerton: True Stories of Regency High Society" by Catherine Curzon (2023):

"And if you were one of the newly-weds, you really did hope things would work out, because in the Regency till death do us part wasn't just an expression. As the Prince Regent himself had learned when he separated from his wife within eighteen months of their marriage, obtaining a divorce in Regency England was no easy matter. He never achieved it, and for those who did the stakes could be high and the cost ruinous in every sense."

"Until the passing of the Matrimonial Causes Act of 1857, which legalized divorce in the civil courts, it was governed by the ecclesiastical courts, and the Church didn't end a marriage without very, very good reason. Even these divorces didn't allow a couple to remarry, though, and they were more akin to what we would today call a legal separation, with no shared legal or financial responsibilities going forward. It was freedom, but only to a point."

"The only way to obtain a complete dissolution that allowed for remarriage was to secure a parliamentary divorce, and these were notoriously difficult to obtain. They began with a criminal conversation case, because they relied on adultery by one of the parties to make them even a slight possibility. If a woman committed crim. con., her life in polite society was over."

#jane eyre #lord byron #charlotte brontë #charlotte bronte #byronicism #marriage #divorce #marriage laws #english history #english legal history #mr. rochester #bertha mason #mr rochester #analysis #literature #english literature #history #Inside the World of Bridgerton: True Stories of Regency High Society #regency era #georgian era #19th century #1800s #victorian #Catherine Curzon #interesting #essays #the bronte sisters #the brontes

[fructidors]

i love engaging in the most byronic harp practice ever which involves lounging by my harp not even facing it and reaching over and absentmindedly striking a few angelic chords without looking

#i think some of my mutuals are honest to god scholars of byronicism so very sorry if i am misusing the term #i’m having fun though. which is what matters

[immortalconclusions]

rules: tag 9 some people you want to know better and/or catch up with, then aswer the questions below!

Tagged by @licncourt, @sofipitch, and @translouisdpdl

Last Song: Bracero by Phil Ochs

Three Ships: Loustat (VC), Nicki/Lestat (VC), and Xuexiao (CQL/MDZS)

Currently Reading: Harvey Cushing's War Diary, 1918

Last Movie: Babylon (2022)

Craving: pizza and an ice cold coke

I know a lot of people have already been tagged but here goes @transjackfairy @chagreiner @puentera @i-just-like-whatever-i-like @fishpillowses @vrisbian @basquettcase @byronicism

#ask game #answered

[susandsnell]

🌻

I almost missed this one!!

I'm a big fan of all kinds of gothic romances, absolutely morally bankrupt characters (and the fucked up ways they might fall in love or lust or obsession or something in between), villains and foes and psychosexual nightmares, all that good stuff. I do not believe fiction needs to be moral or didactic in this respect. I say this as a preface to what I have to say next because I think it's a genuinely unpopular opinion:

This is an Edward Rochester hate zone.

I cannot abide this man. I hated him when I was thirteen, and I hate him at twenty-five. (I believe I once wrote "he should have gotten crispy in that fire" in some free reading assignment or other.) His Byronicisms all fall just in the wrong way for me, in large part because they are gross in a way that feels painfully real that isn't fun to read about, and they aren't tempered by any traits to recommend him. I find him not at all interesting and entirely unsympathetic. The only time I ever liked him was when he was doing the most with the drag act, but even then that was pretty loaded.

This all makes him a realistic jerk so he is perhaps well-constructed and well-written, but I for the life of me have never gotten the appeal of this dickwad. He's so mired in his own privilege and unearned self-pity that I genuinely find him to be insufferable. This is a bit bizarre to me as I have adored characters who have done objectively far worse and behaved far more cruelly and violently than he ever did, but again, as asserted earlier - I can get into an awful person being awful if they're doing so in a way that's interesting to witness, and/or if this is balanced out by humanizing elements. Heathcliff abuses women and children and kills innocent animals and he's still intensely sympathetic. Sweeney Todd did all of that and I feel for his plight and love his wry sense of humour and capacity for deep love. The Vampire Chronicles' entire thesis is that even the truly monstrous among us are made human by their ability to connect to art and to one another. To clarify, I know that a character need not have suffered/had a tragic backstory to be sympathetic or interesting just as people we know don't require xyz to be deserving of compassion (for instance I enjoy Dracula being The Worst because he's interesting, he's irredeemable with some zazz), but in terms of what he feels and how he acts, I cannot find any avenue for this connection to come in. I know that it's not uncommon as a modern reader to feel horror for Bertha Mason rather than at her (and it's not '''purity culture"/Puriteens/whatever paper skinned English majors are coming up with now to dismiss any critical discussion of books they like to feel this way!), and this plays a large part in my reading, but he's also cruel and dehumanizing to Jane in a way that feels very much like a Victorian era equivalent of negging/overpraise, which strikes exactly the wrong nerve in me compared to other destructive romances I've liked. That's not to say that one is more or less realistic than another, and comes down to personal bias, but I feel what I feel, and this is a free opinion sunflower emoji ask lolol.

I understand Jane Eyre and like most of it. I understand what a huge step it was as a protofeminist work, the reversing of the power balance by having him be humbled and reliant on her by the end, the emphasis on Jane's freewill and self-worth in the face of her horrific struggles and turmoil.

I cannot grasp wanting to be around this man for more than five minutes. Truly no judgment to those who get something out of this guy, but I just Don't See It.

#posts that will get me kicked out of gothic literature fandom #i'm interested in hearing people's counterpoints on why they like him #less so in debates on this post lolol #no judgment to anyone on either end of this love you all xoxo

[aconissa]

lit and art please!!

cool I got you! I follow lots of great people but these blogs should have the kind of content you’re into: @punkenglishnerd @boykeats @divinacommedia @gayleontologists @lennuieternel @ouidius @thefoxhuntingman @horaetio @byronicism @enlightenedromantic @beau--brummell @archistratego @vvaugh @archivisims @sggk @dykeofwellington @magnificentmoose @qlementines @saedhriel @rozencrants @arctolatries @legrandmeavlnes @mercuriousity @futilebeauty @gnossienne @ninablount @sevenshadesofshit @rxquiescat @lesmiserabelles @gracetowns @antiquarians @blowuponabruise @eradne @goldenarrowed @unefemme

#anon #ask

[retoxx]

tagged by @cithaerons ❤

last song: anemone -slenderbodies

last movie: rocky 2 as per my girlfriend. we tried to watch the most recent riz ahmed film but she fell asleep bc we started too late

currently reading: sister outsider - audre lorde; the personal librarian - m benedict v murray; the starless sea - erin morgenstern

currently watching: supposed to be watching survivor from the beginning (also per my gf) but we're stuck halfway thru season 2

currently craving: sleep, garlic scapes, mustard greens, summer veggies in general

tagging: @cretakano @localheretic @wegmans @lullabies-interventions @agentemo @wrappedinplastique @punk-ndy @byronicism + rly anyone who wants to do this :)

#meme

[cutcontinuity]

Late to do this, sorry @circleofplanets but tysm for tagging me!! I think this is super cute: list some snippets of literature/media that live in your head rent-free to the point where you have them memorized; write them down from memory, no cheating allowed.

Love the fact that you and I both have Baudelaire rattling around in there <3 but I have seen variations of this quote attributed to a fantastic number of people, so I’ll give his French first, “la plus belle des ruses du diable est de vous persuader qu'il n'existe pas,” which I’ve seen translated a few ways but I like it as, “the devil’s most beautiful trick is to persuade you that he does not exist.”

Shakespeare’s Hamlet has, “For here lies the point: if I drown myself wittingly it argues an act: and an act hath three branches - it is, to act, to do, to perform. Argal, she drowned herself wittingly.”

Ovid said, “perfer et obdura, dolor hic tibi proderit olim,” and I usually see it as, “be patient and tough; someday this pain will be useful to you.” 

Atwood says: “I know you would like a god/to come down and feed you/and punish you. That overcoat/on sticks is not alive”

Sarton: “The beast/is the god. How murder the god?/How live with the terrible god?”

And NBC Hannibal when he goes, “Killing must feel good to god, too. He does it all the time. And are we not created in his image?”

There is... more but I will stop here hdhdhdh and I’ll tag a few people! No obligation whatsoever, and if I didn’t tag you... know that in my heart, I did. @amourduloup @wildersage @goldturnedgray @katharine-hepburn @bluebeardsbride @byronicism @abigaylhobbs @chaosandeternalnight @snailmailthings 

#tumblr is not being nice to me so if this doesn't actually tag you... I'm a disaster #I'm only on here quickly bc I have So Much to do #but also I think this is such a cool look into people!! Also I have a hideous amount of poetry memorized but I tried not to list it hdhdhdh #m #so you're not supposed to look things up so it's totally possible that I didn't remember these right and I will laugh

[katharine-hepburn]

i was tagged by @cutcontinuity and @byronicism liek a month ago but i hadnt listened to a song that day so didnt do it then forgot!! sorry!!

last song: “the love club,” lorde

last movie: the heiress dir. william wyler (1949)

currently watching: showing my mom (narrator voice) pushing daisies

currently reading: uhhhhh im illiterate (i havent been reading a lot lately. i dont like it but)

currently craving: anything new or not from the town i live in but theres months left of quarantine

@bloodsporrt @ailichi @amourduloup @slavichorror @varelsen @devilsskettle @jenesuispastonchien @shieldsmaiden

[denyjesuschrist]

werewolf jerusulem/blj - “rooms”, unholy vampyric slaughter sect - “for the sect”, sodom - “beyond”, abigor - “verwüstung”

i was tagged by @pissmoon to share the most recent albums i’ve been listening to. i’m tagging the following:

@oni-lover @authorityissues @xenosagaepisodeone @marxism-leninism-memeism @danteacademia @averyterrible @byronicism @997 @lyingfigure @discreetwithabellyring @cold-ward @vehumet

[vainlungs]

Tagged by @byronicism, thank you!!

Rules: tag 9 people you’d like to know better/catch up with

Last song: Twisted Tango by Olivier Deriviere

Last movie: probably Happiest season........

Currently watching: don’t really do tv shows, I just watch birds and people from my window

Currently reading: Käsikirja sukupuoleen by Tuija Saresma et al.; Before They Are Hanged by Joe Abercrombie; Rajan taju by Leila Haaparanta; Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman 

Currently craving: peace of mind, I guess

Tagging anyone who wants to do this 🫀

#I'm so shitty at these tag people #tagging someone would feel like bothering them #it’s been so long I don’t remember what tag I have used for these?? #about #??

[blackhyena]

i was tagged by @regnskyll, thank you!!!!

rules: answer 17 questions and tag 17 people you want to know better

nickname: zanna!!!!!! for other nicknames..... get to know me better lmao

zodiac sign: libra

height: 166cm 

hogwarts house: sorry im too pretty 

last thing i googled: FEET TO CENTIMETRES CONVERSION..... IM NOT VERY SMART OKAY

song stuck in my head: the moment you asked me this i forgot every song ever. im going to say dynasty by rina sawayama because i cannot!!!! stop!!!! listening!!!!

amount of sleep i get: about 8 or 9 hours at the moment, im loving not having an alarm in the morning!

lucky numbers: 9!

dream job: hard to say when im kind of slowly but surely on my way there lmao! if academia doesnt work out, i want to be a gay bookshop owner.

wearing: leather look leggings, baggy paisley shirt and socks with stars on!

instruments: i play guitar and i sing!

random facts: i can’t ride a fucking bike

aesthetic: romantic gay goth vampire idiot!

this was very rushed sorry im about to do a zoom pub quiz!!! i tag uhh @wulfalice @maryiofengland @melmoths @gobnaits  @byronicism @squeakingcleopatraboy if you want to try!!!! 

#text post

[nem0c]

I was tagged by @byronicism

RULES: list either 20 books you want to read in 2020 or 20 goals, or some mix of both, up to you! then tag some friends to play along :)

BOOKS ONLY, 1v1, FINAL DESTINATION:

1. Teleny, unattributed but possibly a group of writers surrounding Wilde 2. Orlando by Virginia Woolf 3. The Temptation of St Anthony by Gustave Flaubert 4. Forbidden Colours by Yukio Mishima (since I never actually finished it) 5. Sea of Fertility Tetralogy by Yukio Mishima (I’ll be contented if I can at least finish Runaway Horses this year) 6. Funeral Rites by Jean Genet 7. Aline and Valcour by D. A. F. de Sade (I’ve already read the semi-autobiographical section) 8. Purgatorio and Paradiso by Dante Alighieri (I can’t work up the enthusiasm I had about Inferno) 9. Triton by Samuel Delany 10. Tales of Neveryon by Samuel Delany 11. Xenogenesis Trilogy by Octavia Butler 12. The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov 13. The State of the Art by Iain M Banks 14. The Player of Games by Iain M Banks 15. Summa Technologiae by Stanislaw Lem 16. The Transhumanist Reader edited by Max More and Natasha Vita-More 17. Vampyroteuthis Infernalis by Vilem Flusser 18. Writings by Vilem Flusser 19. The Ethics by Baruch Spinoza (which I did not finish smh) 20. The Accursed Share by Georges Bataille

I’m tagging @wajmariz, @jamofalifetime, @goatse-syndicalist-69, @derhoflichewolf, @minimum-wage-commando, @gonguedo

#tagged #reference

[cutcontinuity]

Tagged by @bedeliasbird 💕💕💕

Rules: tag 9 people you’d like to know better/catch up with

last song: honeythief by halou

last movie: Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) and I’m going to be obsessed forever

currently watching: NBC Hannibal rewatch hdhdhdh and I’m technically watching natsume yuujinchou since I watch like an episode every other week

currently reading: wuthering heights (brontë), stigmata (cixous) and I’m about to start deathless (valente)!!

currently craving: apple pie with vanilla ice cream.... or rasmalai

Tagging @amourduloup @bluebeardsbride @teiandcookies @byronicism @chaosandeternalnight @crowfriend @circleofplanets @katharine-hepburn @abigaylhobbs ... if you’ve already been tagged I’m sorry 🥺 and if you see this on your dash and haven’t.... believe that you were tagged hdhdhdh

#m #bedeliasbird #thank you for tagging me 🥰 #but now I’m thinking about opening a can of rasgulla lol #I’m actually very bad at making rasmalai so rasgulla it is hdhdhdh

[aconissa]

was tagged by carmella @lesmiserabelles!!

RULES: list either 20 books you want to read in 2020 or 20 goals, or some mix of both, up to you! then tag some friends to play along :)

15 BOOKS

No Friend But The Mountains by Behrouz Boochani

Insurrecto by Gina Apostol

A Woman In The Polar Night by Christiane Ritter

The Comanche Empire by Pekka Hämäläinen

Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino

A Thousand Moons by Sebastian Barry

Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin

The North Water by Ian McGuire

Moby Dick by Herman Melville

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

Tell It To The Bees by Fiona Shaw

Things We Say In The Dark by Kirsty Logan

Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford

5 GOALS

graduate from (and totally smash!!) my masters degree

finish more short stories and submit at least 1 for publication

improve my fitness

hit my 2020 reading goal (50 books)

get a job and/or sort out the post-MA phase of my life :/

I tag @byronicism @beau--brummell @henrylevesconte & @horaetio

#ana speaks