4.07.2015

Villette 34-37, "I am ferocious and bearded and monkish"



   WELL, I am very glad this week's selection was super short because I was doing a whole lot of this:

boo-yeah
   and not a whole lot of reading. As usual, however, there's an Arnold gif to sum up my feelings re: this whole damn section:


   You know what? CB should write a book about Ginevra teaming up with Ghost Nun (who I refuse to believe is what's her face no personality lady) and them going on paranormal adventures and it would be like a mash-up of Supernatural and Elementary, with a little Scooby-Doo thrown in. Mr Home or whatever his French name is can finance them. He seems an alright dude, if a little dense, and he wouldn't be able to control or strike fear into Ginevra the way he does Polly.

   I was reading in my tent and thinking, "wow, CB has really eased up on the Catholics," when BAM: vitriol to the nth degree. I am glad Alice has told us about M. Heger or not much of this would make sense. Poor Charlotte.

   Okay, also? Dr John and Paulina and their whole dynamic? Uber creepy and weird. SHE WAS SIX, DJ. SIX. I don't care if she is "grown up and will be no taller", just stoooop recollecting her sitting on your lap as a TINY CHILD in your dumb love-letters. EVEN SO, I was sad to read "once even there rose a cry in their halls, of Rachel weeping for her children" and know that Paulina had lost a wee bairn. 

   The problem is, essentially, that I'm not MAD about reading this book. I'm glad to be reading it and I think it's valuable, but I'm ALSO glad we're almost done. I don't really like Lucy Snowe so much as admire her. It seems like she goes through life giving everyone she meets a mental middle finger and she's had a pretty rough go of it and it makes me dislike her less.

   p.s. if you want to read about climbing I will *probably* post about it tomorrow. Long story short: it was awesome.

8 comments:

  1. "I don't really like Lucy Snowe so much as admire her. It seems like she goes through life giving everyone she meets a mental middle finger and she's had a pretty rough go of it and it makes me dislike her less."

    Yes yes. And soon we'll all have read Villette! Proud accomplishment that that is.

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    1. I will be glad to be done reading it, even though this readalong has been very delightful.

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  2. Yay us next week! Next week we'll have read Villette, and I will no longer feel like quite such a jerk for having read 0 books this year published before the turn of the century. And also, I will be done with M. Paul. I can't believe I ever liked him. He is the worst. (I hate Dr. John also.)

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    1. Haha, I was looking over my booklists recently and mourning the severe lack of classics, so Villette has been just what I needed to get me back into the groove.

      M. Paul, Dr John, all of them the worst. More Ginevra!

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  3. That picture is awesome and terrifying!!!

    You make a good point about admiring Lucy. Even if she's a super bitch a lot of the time. I think a lot of that has to do with knowing about M Heger. Poor CB

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    1. If I didn't know about M. Heger I would be so monumentally frustrated and confused by this book.

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  4. Climbing is one of those things that I admire but am COMPLETELY fine with living vicariously through other people's photos and go-pro videos. Way to go! I've subscribed to you on bloglovin so I can see more climbing photos (and other book reviews) in the future :)

    Dr. John and Paulina - ew ew ew. (I should grow up, but that's my knee-jerk reaction for now). You make a solid point about Lucy - she may not be likable, but her grit is certainly admirable!

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    1. Climbing is SO GREAT, I love it.

      Maybe if CB hadn't talked so much about them fondly remembering the fun times they had when Polly was six it would all be less gross. Ten years is a much more reasonable age gap than say, Jane and Rochester's nearly-twenty years. It's just the childhood friendship construed as romance thing that wigs me out.

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