Welcome to Litsy!

Oh boy. It ends in a "meh" despite the subject being extremely interesting, mostly b/c the intro and chapter 1 weren't quite on topic; Frantzen is in literature, not history, so for him the narrative is important enough to spend a chapter on 19th c opera. That said, the bits about Anglo-Saxon England and how later texts reflected it? Awesome.
Photo from Friday; today was so rainy I had to finish the book at the gym after the coffee shop closed.

"unlike me, an intellectual, those stupid basic Kushner fans don't notice the true depth of Angels."

Maybe I'm being uncharitable, but nothing in Frantzen's style of writing so far, 95% through the book, leads me to any other way of interpreting that quote.

Why why why was a typeface where the eth, the wynn, and the thorn are all so ugly and mismatched chosen for a book full of quotes in Old English?

#Bookhaul! My husband gave me a Powell‘s gift card for Christmas but then said I couldn‘t use until we moved back (rude!). So now that we‘re back and I finished the taxes yesterday, I made the drive and found some great books. I removed myself from the store when too many things started looking good. 😂 You all know how that is.

This book encourages embracing sensuality, pleasure, and self-love, which boosts confidence and even helps with tasks like cleaning. Go figure. LOL

Love the great range of disabilities and body types shown here. Although the main focus is on physical limitations, a lot of the advice is applicable to other kinds of disabilities too.

#TransRightsReadathon (author is genderqueer)

I love how Frantzen goes from "Foucault missed a lot in The History of Sexuality when it comes to the medieval era" (true) to "so all of queer theory is stupid and invalid and also they probably said something mean to me". I don't even care. I usually like academic pettiness, but this has been going on for 21 pages! I'm not out of the fucking intro yet. Do your own work instead of bitching at everyone else. Jesus fuck.

It's probably not a good sign when I'm irritated with the author before even leaving the introduction.
More soon.

We all know the victorians is why we can't have nice things, so it's a little jarring when 60s historians praise their horror show (in a quote).
"I admire the 19th century West's success in postponing the age of sexual awakening, sexual experience, and sexual infatuation far beyond the age of puberty. You may tell me that this is against human nature; but to be human lies precisely in transcending nature..."
Again, why we can't have nice things.

Current read. Every page offers something fresh - a reflection, consideration. I am loving it. P22 “as Virginia Woolf well knew, “killing the angel in the house was part of the occupation of a woman writer.” The violence was necessary; without it, that Angel - sympathetic, charming, unselfish (if there was a chicken she would take the leg; if there was a draft she‘d sit in it) - would have plucked the heart out of my writing.”