Trying to make it to a Friday Five
Dept of, Miff once more at the British Library: okay, I finally got to see the manuscript I ordered the other week (after being 'processing' it was 'returned to store', I ordered it again and lo and behold, it was in due course 'ready for collection' in the Manuscripts Reading Room.). Alas, it contained nothing of relevance to my research. However, Had I But Known, there was this exhibition Friendship Before Facebook: Social Networks in a Pre-Digital Age on friendship albums, like what Lady B- was ever being solicited to write choice passages from The Swan of Avon in. But alas, I found out today, and it comes off at the weekend.
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Dept of, Hmmm, Not So Sure About that: the ultimate goal of all self-improvement is to reach the point where you no longer feel the need to improve yourself, because, on the one hand one takes his point that people take it to ridiculous lengths, but on another, the more one learns about something the more one's ignorance is revealed. And on a foot, back in the dear old 70s growth movement, I had the distinct impression there were people for whom it had become their social life, a thought which made me think of that book about the blokes in the 'seduction' community and how that provided them with masculine companionship and friendship. That people get secondary gains from doing things even if they don't get whatever the primary intent is.
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Dept of, I Wish This Had Stuck To Its First Message: It's Okay to Be Good and Not Great, because it then goes waffling off into that rather insistent theme of modern distraction and anomie and the need for Human Connection, because, honestly, I think the early message is quite good.
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Dept of, I Thought Everyone Knew That, But I Was Probably Making Unwarranted Assumptions: The Equivocal Legacy of Charlotte Perkins Gilman - meaning, eugenic feminism, mostly.
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Dept of, May Be Of Some Interest: the chamber opera Dear Marie Stopes is having 2 performances at Kings Place in September. This entry was originally posted at https://oursin.dreamwidth.org/2921209.html. Please comment there using OpenID. View
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