Mostly reading notes
I have read the article about the Heyer bio, and omg, there's Arnie Perlstein in the comments - why does DW have no facepalm emoticons? Also, I can't decide whether I want that bio. With Cartland her bio and her autobiographical writings are actually the most interesting thing about her (though I do like a Cartland on occasion and am still fond of the first ones I've read).
Also, finished watching Britain's Best Drives. Still charmed by Richard Wilson, by landscapes and by the Fifties cars.
I am still reading War and Peace, slowly, because I want to pay attention to things - only, such a lot of unpleasant people. From war we come back to Pierre, and Pierre is quite nasty, imho. Okay, he is childish, passive and, like most of Tolstoy's favourite characters, quite disconnected from reality.
But, his relations with Helene, if you can even call it relations... So there's a beautiful girl he knew slightly when they were children, and now she is a society beauty admired by everyone, and he is rich and courted as a suitable possible husband. And suddenly he manages to notice that she is not a marble statue but a live sexy woman and he wants her. And she apparently enjoys being noticed and wanted. So, what does our hero do? He (a) decides he must marry because he can't get her out of his mind and everyone wants this anyway; and (b) at the same time keeps thinking that this is not love, this is a nasty indecent feeling, and she is stupid and unworthy and anyway people say she had an affair with her own brother. But he is going to marry her anyway, while thinking all this, because she's sexy and her father and friends want this marriage.
Now, I don't know what Helene is thinking (I wouldn't mind knowing it), but if there's something nasty here, Pierre is the main example of this, imho.
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Also, finished watching Britain's Best Drives. Still charmed by Richard Wilson, by landscapes and by the Fifties cars.
I am still reading War and Peace, slowly, because I want to pay attention to things - only, such a lot of unpleasant people. From war we come back to Pierre, and Pierre is quite nasty, imho. Okay, he is childish, passive and, like most of Tolstoy's favourite characters, quite disconnected from reality.
But, his relations with Helene, if you can even call it relations... So there's a beautiful girl he knew slightly when they were children, and now she is a society beauty admired by everyone, and he is rich and courted as a suitable possible husband. And suddenly he manages to notice that she is not a marble statue but a live sexy woman and he wants her. And she apparently enjoys being noticed and wanted. So, what does our hero do? He (a) decides he must marry because he can't get her out of his mind and everyone wants this anyway; and (b) at the same time keeps thinking that this is not love, this is a nasty indecent feeling, and she is stupid and unworthy and anyway people say she had an affair with her own brother. But he is going to marry her anyway, while thinking all this, because she's sexy and her father and friends want this marriage.
Now, I don't know what Helene is thinking (I wouldn't mind knowing it), but if there's something nasty here, Pierre is the main example of this, imho.
This entry was originally posted at http://taelle.dreamwidth.org/20072.html. Please comment there using OpenID.