Quoteskimming
Happy Easter to those of you so inclined. And a belated happy equinox to those of you so inclined. Today's post will be shorter than some, on account of me not getting my act together over the past few days, what with the travelling and so forth.
"Somewhere, all stories are real, all songs are true."
From The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett.
Seems fitting for Easter, somehow. And besides, I'm nearly done reading the book, which I started at bedtime last night and stayed up far too late reading. It's funny and clever and wise, with just the right amount of sadness in it to ring true. And oh, how I love the Nac Mac Feegle (the Wee Free Men) and the young witch named Tiffany. I owe my discovery of this book to Jo Knowles (jbknowles), who mentioned it sometime in the past year or two as a favorite with her son, E, and I bought it then. And am finally reading it now. I think we should all have our individual battle cries in the tradition of the Feegle. (Examples from the book: They can tak' oour lives but they canna tak' oour troousers!, Ye'll tak' the high road an' I'll tak' yer wallet! and Ach, stick up yer trakkans!)
"[W]omen like writing biographies because they enjoy reading other people's mail."
Marion Elizabeth Rogers, in an article in the April 2008 issue of Writer's Digest about writing biographies.
There may be a little something to this, but I think it may also relate to women's urge to find out what people are thinking and what makes them tick. Women evidently also read more biographies than men, by the way, according to Telling Women's Lives by Linda Wagner-Martin.
"Every body allows that the talent of writing agreeable letters is peculiarly female. Nature may have done something, but I am sure it must be essentially assisted by the practice of keeping a journal."
A comment by Henry Tilney, the hero from Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen.
A later comment (the speaker of whom may be Henry or Catherine - in the edition I'm currently reading, the Norton Critical Edition edited by Susan Fraiman, it's not entirely clear) scores a point for gender equality: "I should no more lay it down as a general rule that women write better letters than men, that that they sing better duets, or draw better landscapes. In every power, of which taste is the foundation, excellence is pretty fairly divided between the sexes."
"Somewhere, all stories are real, all songs are true."
From The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett.
Seems fitting for Easter, somehow. And besides, I'm nearly done reading the book, which I started at bedtime last night and stayed up far too late reading. It's funny and clever and wise, with just the right amount of sadness in it to ring true. And oh, how I love the Nac Mac Feegle (the Wee Free Men) and the young witch named Tiffany. I owe my discovery of this book to Jo Knowles (jbknowles), who mentioned it sometime in the past year or two as a favorite with her son, E, and I bought it then. And am finally reading it now. I think we should all have our individual battle cries in the tradition of the Feegle. (Examples from the book: They can tak' oour lives but they canna tak' oour troousers!, Ye'll tak' the high road an' I'll tak' yer wallet! and Ach, stick up yer trakkans!)
"[W]omen like writing biographies because they enjoy reading other people's mail."
Marion Elizabeth Rogers, in an article in the April 2008 issue of Writer's Digest about writing biographies.
There may be a little something to this, but I think it may also relate to women's urge to find out what people are thinking and what makes them tick. Women evidently also read more biographies than men, by the way, according to Telling Women's Lives by Linda Wagner-Martin.
"Every body allows that the talent of writing agreeable letters is peculiarly female. Nature may have done something, but I am sure it must be essentially assisted by the practice of keeping a journal."
A comment by Henry Tilney, the hero from Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen.
A later comment (the speaker of whom may be Henry or Catherine - in the edition I'm currently reading, the Norton Critical Edition edited by Susan Fraiman, it's not entirely clear) scores a point for gender equality: "I should no more lay it down as a general rule that women write better letters than men, that that they sing better duets, or draw better landscapes. In every power, of which taste is the foundation, excellence is pretty fairly divided between the sexes."