The Wellness of Lost Plots

[rosamicula]

I've managed to resist the temptation to delete the last entry on the grounds of it being melodramatic drivel. It is, after all, how I felt at the time. And I love melodrama and frequently spout drivel so it is fairly representative of me

Comments

[davywavy]

Would you like some melodramitic drivel in return, to draw some of the sting?

[rosamicula]

I would LOVE some. Please reread my last journal entry as I managed to suffer from some sort of premature LJ ejaculation before I had got to the (hopefully) interesting bits... very odd to edit it and discover it already had two comments.

[davywavy]

Well, if you stroll over to mystery_caller, you'll find my super-sekrit Lj which I use for private-only posts. There's a whingy melodrama post there just for you.

[rosamicula]

I've read it and will reply when there is not a gaggle of English teaching gawping at my screen. And when I've had a chance to think a bit. Can you think of a better collective noun than "gaggle" though?

[rosamicula]

Please reread my last journal entry as I managed to suffer from some sort of premature LJ ejaculation before I had got to the (hopefully) interesting bits... very odd to edit it and discover it already had two comments.

[rosamicula]

Which is as it should be... Are you up texting/emailing by any chance?

[ex_kharin447]

Hmm. If I had to pick three novels on the basis of their literary significance they'd be The Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa, Nausea by Jean Paul Sartre and Anna Karenina by some obscure Russian. But if I had to pick three books on the basis of emotional significance the list would change to The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot, The Sea The Sea by Iris Murdoch and Earthly Powers by Anthony Burgess (in all three cases for similar reasons to your friend Angeline - something similar would probably apply to Pessoa too). But it could so easily be so many other books (Kharin recalls that his info page cites Little Dorrit and Notes from The Underground)...

I'm quite jealous of your library. Mine is overwhelmingly literature, with some philosophy, cooking and mythology (this is my excuse for the lack of much classification and I'm sticking to it). There are one or two examples of historical travel writing that I'm hoping to increase (a sudden notion that seized me after having read Bligh's account of the Mutiny on the Bounty).

[rosamicula]

Please tell me more about the Pessoa. And why exactly Mill on the Floss, which I am very fond of...

[ex_kharin447]

There's a good account of Pessoa here: http://www.nthposition.com/themagicalworldof.php (link not working at time of posting, but do try again in a few days as it's worth it

[stickette]

I have been pondering this - and still am. Sad to say there aren't even 3 books that immediately spring to mind as being especially significant to me. This is somewhat strange since I spend a good part of my life reading all kinds of things and have done since progressing past Janet and John - perhaps it is more subliminal for me.

Anyway, this will show my age but actually I think the Female Eunuch by Germaine Greer probably counts as one. Looked at now it is in many ways hugely unsatisfactory and downright laughable in places. However, it struck a chord with me that has left a lasting impression. It was one of the first books I ever read that made me really question the reality of and justification for accepted norms of behaviour.This I think has stood me in good stead and while I may quarrel with the interpretation she puts on many aspects of male/female interactions, the refusal to simply accept uncritically societal codes of conduct is something I learned to value.

[rosamicula]

Good for you sister!