My stomach hurts.
Um, yeah, I totally ship Cal and Gillian on Lie To Me. Yeah, I know she's married. I don't really care.
*****
I really love the music Life uses.
And apparently Sarah Shahi is knocked up which is why she's gone? Is she gonna come back soon? Because I miss Dani.
Seriously, where is Dani!? Aww. He's worried about her.
Damian Lewis and Donal Logue do crack me up.
He threw his shoe! Tidwell is growing on me when he's not making out with Dani.
"So now you are going to tell me what the hell is going on." Hmm. Oh boy Tidwell and Charlie at the FBI. AWESOME. Oh snap. OH SNAP. Tidwell goes a little nuts and FBI agent pulls a gun on Tidwell and Charlie pulls his and it is HOT. SO HOT.
Ahem.
Haha. The scary lady (aka Helen McCrory) is being hired by Ted to find Dani.
Uh what? If there's sexual tension between any male and female partners it is Dani and Charlie and not you, temporary partner. Also, SHUT UP. Geez.
Seriously why is she so scary? Is it the eyebrows? The hair? SHE IS TERRIFYING.
Oh damn. They got played. Oh snap! They played her! AWESOME.
So they're just gonna find Dani's cell phone, right? RIGHT. Because Charlie is not going to be happy about this. Also, I love that Ted's getting involved with the search for Dani. "Bow we need to call Charlie." "Yeah, now we need to call him."
Oh man. Charlie just staring intently at the gun and cell phone saying "Roman." OH SHIT. Roman is not in prison. OH SHIT.
"I'm thinking about what I want and what I need." "What do you want?" "I want a peaceful soul." "And what do you need?" "I need a bigger gun." BRING IT ON, SHOW.
I know I should be all enlightened and feminist and all Dani can rescue herself because she is awesome but part of me really wants Charlie to find her and kick ass while he's doing it. I WANT THAT A LOT, OK.
PLEASE LET IT BE THE SEASON FINALE AND NOT THE SERIES. SEASON NOT SERIES.
*****
I finished Sin in the Second City. It only took me 3 days which is pretty impressive for me and a non-fiction book (I think it takes me so long to finish one because unlike with fiction I'm not in a hurry to find out how it all ends).
The interesting thing for me is that I spent a year reading literature from the other side. By and about reformers who often combined a quest for suffrage with a crusade against prostitution and other such sexual deviations from the norm because they believed such sexual freedoms harmed their case. Then there were the birth control advocates who were often scorned by suffragists but also had to speak out against prostitution, etc.
So it's interesting to read a book that isn't exactly saying brothels were a good thing but it does take a more positive view of them than the other books I've read.
The other interesting thing about this book is that I can't find the thesis. The theme is change which is unoriginal but also the lynch pin of the historical narrative. But I can't find a thesis. Once you get down to it it is basically just a stringing together of the research in a creative manner which is fine but, well, there's no thesis! The back cover wants you to think the thesis is that the Everleigh Club was "the catalyst for a culture war" in the U.S. but I don't really think the book proves that.
It probably wasn't Karen Abbott's intended purpose. I really think she discovered this interesting story, found some good sources (most historians don't pick a subject to write about, they find a cadre of sources that no one's really used or found before and come up with something out of that), and went from there. This is fine but there's just so many more connections to be made.
And if she really did want to present the Everleigh Club as a microcosm of the changes taking place all across the U.S., if she really did want to show that it was the catalyst for a culture war, then she failed. Other than mentions of brothels in other U.S. cities there's not much evidence that it was the fame and popularity of the Everleigh Club that prompted reformers to take up their crusade against prostitution and white slavery. Because it really kind of wasn't.
It does, however, provide an interesting perspective on Chicago politics of the early 20th century. I already knew Chicago, and Illinois, politics was a special brand of politics but this was kind of fascinating. I think I'd actually like to read more about Chicago politics because of it.
I'll stop now. I did like the book but most popular historical narratives, books that make the NYT bestsellers list, aren't actually good historical monographs. If I'd read it during my independent study (and had it existed then I probably would have either on my own or because my advisor made me because he wanted to know if it was worth the read) I would've ultimately given it a bad review in the inevitable book review I wrote.
And I think that's my problem. It's too closely related to my own research that I keep thinking "but why didn't she include this? and why didn't she mention that?" I did like it though. I kind of ridiculously like Minna Everleigh too. She's like my brothel madam hero.
*****
I really love the music Life uses.
And apparently Sarah Shahi is knocked up which is why she's gone? Is she gonna come back soon? Because I miss Dani.
Seriously, where is Dani!? Aww. He's worried about her.
Damian Lewis and Donal Logue do crack me up.
He threw his shoe! Tidwell is growing on me when he's not making out with Dani.
"So now you are going to tell me what the hell is going on." Hmm. Oh boy Tidwell and Charlie at the FBI. AWESOME. Oh snap. OH SNAP. Tidwell goes a little nuts and FBI agent pulls a gun on Tidwell and Charlie pulls his and it is HOT. SO HOT.
Ahem.
Haha. The scary lady (aka Helen McCrory) is being hired by Ted to find Dani.
Uh what? If there's sexual tension between any male and female partners it is Dani and Charlie and not you, temporary partner. Also, SHUT UP. Geez.
Seriously why is she so scary? Is it the eyebrows? The hair? SHE IS TERRIFYING.
Oh damn. They got played. Oh snap! They played her! AWESOME.
So they're just gonna find Dani's cell phone, right? RIGHT. Because Charlie is not going to be happy about this. Also, I love that Ted's getting involved with the search for Dani. "Bow we need to call Charlie." "Yeah, now we need to call him."
Oh man. Charlie just staring intently at the gun and cell phone saying "Roman." OH SHIT. Roman is not in prison. OH SHIT.
"I'm thinking about what I want and what I need." "What do you want?" "I want a peaceful soul." "And what do you need?" "I need a bigger gun." BRING IT ON, SHOW.
I know I should be all enlightened and feminist and all Dani can rescue herself because she is awesome but part of me really wants Charlie to find her and kick ass while he's doing it. I WANT THAT A LOT, OK.
PLEASE LET IT BE THE SEASON FINALE AND NOT THE SERIES. SEASON NOT SERIES.
*****
I finished Sin in the Second City. It only took me 3 days which is pretty impressive for me and a non-fiction book (I think it takes me so long to finish one because unlike with fiction I'm not in a hurry to find out how it all ends).
The interesting thing for me is that I spent a year reading literature from the other side. By and about reformers who often combined a quest for suffrage with a crusade against prostitution and other such sexual deviations from the norm because they believed such sexual freedoms harmed their case. Then there were the birth control advocates who were often scorned by suffragists but also had to speak out against prostitution, etc.
So it's interesting to read a book that isn't exactly saying brothels were a good thing but it does take a more positive view of them than the other books I've read.
The other interesting thing about this book is that I can't find the thesis. The theme is change which is unoriginal but also the lynch pin of the historical narrative. But I can't find a thesis. Once you get down to it it is basically just a stringing together of the research in a creative manner which is fine but, well, there's no thesis! The back cover wants you to think the thesis is that the Everleigh Club was "the catalyst for a culture war" in the U.S. but I don't really think the book proves that.
It probably wasn't Karen Abbott's intended purpose. I really think she discovered this interesting story, found some good sources (most historians don't pick a subject to write about, they find a cadre of sources that no one's really used or found before and come up with something out of that), and went from there. This is fine but there's just so many more connections to be made.
And if she really did want to present the Everleigh Club as a microcosm of the changes taking place all across the U.S., if she really did want to show that it was the catalyst for a culture war, then she failed. Other than mentions of brothels in other U.S. cities there's not much evidence that it was the fame and popularity of the Everleigh Club that prompted reformers to take up their crusade against prostitution and white slavery. Because it really kind of wasn't.
It does, however, provide an interesting perspective on Chicago politics of the early 20th century. I already knew Chicago, and Illinois, politics was a special brand of politics but this was kind of fascinating. I think I'd actually like to read more about Chicago politics because of it.
I'll stop now. I did like the book but most popular historical narratives, books that make the NYT bestsellers list, aren't actually good historical monographs. If I'd read it during my independent study (and had it existed then I probably would have either on my own or because my advisor made me because he wanted to know if it was worth the read) I would've ultimately given it a bad review in the inevitable book review I wrote.
And I think that's my problem. It's too closely related to my own research that I keep thinking "but why didn't she include this? and why didn't she mention that?" I did like it though. I kind of ridiculously like Minna Everleigh too. She's like my brothel madam hero.