(no subject)
Today jfb received email from a friend we ran into the other day, and the email mentioned in passing that his girlfriend was "intimidatingly pretty." well, intimidating, sure, i get that sometimes, but the other part? the premise doesn't even make sense. i'm interesting looking, if you're patient, but hardly pretty. i started thinking about why jfb's friend might have felt the need to build a sentence like that. i thought about how most women i've met, either obviously or deep down in secret, are terribly, painfully insecure. and when we don't like what we are, we begin to idolize things that are different from us. from that perspective, from the perspective of an attractive married woman of average height and build with a newborn, i might look very appealing. tattered, paint-stained clothes might remind one of times before one had to look respectable. a tall, lanky frame might seem strong, and weird hair might seem deliciously devil-may care. thick eyebrows might seem like freedom.
i'm describing this badly. the point of this post is that a lot of women, based on no tangible flaw, despise themselves and look for things outside their scope to admire. sometimes this need for the new supercedes aesthetic ideals. a new aesthetic is born, one based on novelty. Antithesis.
she said she felt like a buffoon, which was funny, because i also felt like a buffoon, but for different reasons (i couldn't remember her name and i kept saying things that sounded jerky, even though i meant well. also none of my jokes were funny.) it's too bad that when both parties feel like buffoons, it doesn't cancel out. math, where are you when i need you?
also i'm reading Gene Wolfe's _An Evil Guest,_ and i'm just not getting it. i've really enjoyed everything else i've read by him, but i don't understand what's happening in this one or why. at all. they just did one of those ask-a-question-then-stop-in-the-middle-because-you-realize-the-answer things, and i couldn't even figure out what kind of answer it was. you've lost me, book. anyone else read it?
i'm describing this badly. the point of this post is that a lot of women, based on no tangible flaw, despise themselves and look for things outside their scope to admire. sometimes this need for the new supercedes aesthetic ideals. a new aesthetic is born, one based on novelty. Antithesis.
she said she felt like a buffoon, which was funny, because i also felt like a buffoon, but for different reasons (i couldn't remember her name and i kept saying things that sounded jerky, even though i meant well. also none of my jokes were funny.) it's too bad that when both parties feel like buffoons, it doesn't cancel out. math, where are you when i need you?
also i'm reading Gene Wolfe's _An Evil Guest,_ and i'm just not getting it. i've really enjoyed everything else i've read by him, but i don't understand what's happening in this one or why. at all. they just did one of those ask-a-question-then-stop-in-the-middle-because-you-realize-the-answer things, and i couldn't even figure out what kind of answer it was. you've lost me, book. anyone else read it?