It’s been a while since I addressed my odd High WASP culture. Those of you old-timers who find the theme annoying, please (as Faux Fuchsia would say), Look Away Now™. Those of you new to the blog, I ask your forbearance. This is a complicated topic*. We’re throwing in a book and a movie review [...]
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Occasionally I receive offers of book sample copies, with requests to review. As you can tell, I don’t respond terribly often. But this book, Black Chokeberry, by Martha Nelson, seemed apropos to our discussions. It’s the story of three not-young women, and what transpires when one of them moves home to the small town of [...]
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It is a morning for pet peeve sharing. Yes it is. Here’s mine. I’ve observed a growing use of the word “creative” as a noun. Where people who write or work with images for a living call themselves, “Creatives.” Drives me nuts. I suppose I’m not alone. The term began in advertising, apparently, but is [...]
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How many of you know Sal, from Already Pretty? I imagine it’s a non-trivial number. She writes the kindest blog I know, offering style advice even as she advocates contentment with one’s own shape and size. In real life she’s open, lovely, and no-nonsense. Now Sal’s published a book. I’ve read it. Everyone has something [...]
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Professor C. continues his seminar series, in this case with E.M. Forster, and “A Passage to India.” The work has particular meaning here, in light of my own 1982 trip. But beyond that, as Professor C. says, lie implications for Gay Pride this week in the USA. Belonging, love, power, and cultural dislocation have always [...]
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The third and final installment of Professor C.’s Wharton web seminar series. Next month, he is considering “A Passage to India,” by E.M. Forster. Seemed fitting. Ethan Frome is as cold as any book I know. I mean bone-chilling. It’s the same world as that of Wallace Stevens’s “Snow Man,” “spruces rough in the distant [...]
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Next Thursday, Professor C. will be back with the 3rd and final installment of his Edith Wharton web series. We will be reading, and watching, “Ethan Frome.” The book is available free on the Kindle. The movie is $9.99 on Amazon, but with one-day shipping comes to ~$22.00. Professor C. might be persuaded to do [...]
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As promised, the second in a series, “Professor C.’s Wharton Web Seminars.” In which we discover how literary criticism and flame wars intersect. Before watching the film of Edith Wharton’s “House of Mirth,” directed by Terence Davies, with Gillian Anderson as Lily Bart and Eric Stolz as Lawrence Selden, I stumbled on an internet war. [...]
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When I posted about navy blue Oscar dresses, Ann asked me, quite politely, whether High WASPs should be discussing such silliness. And the answer is, “Of course not.” We are supposed to write about matters of intellect and refinement. Lucky for you all, my family knows when I need help. Herewith a post my from [...]
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The Season of Second ChancesBy Diane Meier (Henry Holt & Co.; pages; $25.00) Books for women have a storied history. From Jane Austen, to Georgette Heyer, to countless supermarket novels with heroines named Arabella, or, on another track, from Jane Austen, (the metaphorical head of this Amazon) to Erica Jong, with a mystical detour through [...]
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