08.11.2012

The Romantics were creepy as fuck, their cult to the morbid and depression was bad enough but they were the ones that became enamoured with sickly looking people, too thin, too pale. It is not hard to understand why vampires became super popular with people who thought a debilitating illness (be it depression or tuberculosis) was sexy ( Read more... )

29.01.2012

Hard to read but interesting.

If the author is only a function of classification. Isn’t the subject the same?

#non-fiction, #essay, 2012: essay in english, 2012, book-2012 [essay], book-2012, @read in english, *author: male, +academic, *read for university, author: michel foucault

17.03.12

And to show that it is perfectly possible to be progressive in one regard and completely retarded in another....MOST IRONIC COMMENT EVER:
"I think it reflects the changes in society," she said. "A lot of women are bringing up children with autism so it is not surprising authors are writing about it."

[quotes], [quotes] books/non-fiction, # ( Read more... )

20.04.2012

Lots of crazy anecdotes + general situation of women who loved women at different times in British history (so, since 1500). I’m looking forward to getting it back from the library and finishing it.

Ladies to look up:
Queen Christina of Sweden

Mary Diana Dods

Charlotte Bronte + Ellen Nussey

2012, book-2012 [essay], book-2012, @read in english ( Read more... )

02.05.

Lady Mary Montagu was this 18th British lady who got to travel around thanks to her husband being an ambassador. This is an account of her time in Austria and Turkey. She was freaked by nail polish (not but Turkish), and they were only using pink, on account on it being the 18th century and all.
More interestingly, though, she's like 'they ( Read more... )

21.04

Quotes:[Spoiler (click to open)]
From The Rise of English (chapter 1)
Literature was in several ways a suitable candidate for this ideological
enterprise. As a liberal, 'humanizing' pursuit, it could provide a potent
antidote to political bigotry and ideological extremism. Since literature, as
we know, deals in universal human values rather than in such historical
trivia as ( Read more... )

23.04.2012

Probably the kind of book one needs to read a couple times, especially if listening, when bits and pieces are lost by zooming out.

#non-fiction, #essay, 2012: essay in english, 2012, book-2012 [essay], book-2012, @read in english, *author: male +academic, author: terry eagleton, +bookish

22.04

This one is really good. Quotes following.[Spoiler (click to open)]

As I lived among folk for whom language was an absolutely necessary way of validating our existence, I was told that the minds of the world lived only in the small continent of Europe. The metaphysical language of the New Philosophy, then, I must admit, is repulsive to me and is one reason why I ( Read more... )

20.04.2012

Comments:
Need to read the whole thing ASAP.

The thing with real genius is that often you forget is there, it seems effortless… I found The Picture of Dorian Gray a total bore, while I love The Importance of Being Ernest to bits. I had never read any non-fiction by Wilde but you get a lot of it in the dialogues his fictional characters have ( Read more... )

 “On the Abolition of the English Department” by Ngugi Wa Thiong'o, Taban Lo Liyong and Henry Owuor-Anyumba

14.03.2012

The article seemed like common sense to me. In Africa, why not do African lit/culture (in Swahili and other languages) instead of letting all education turn around an English Department? While also having English and French lit, ( Read more... )