Reading Wednesday
May. 27th, 2015 03:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brigdhWhat did you just finish?
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen. I'd read this before, but decided to reread it this week on the spur on the moment. It's my favorite of Austen's novels; I used to like Emma best, but when I reread it recently, I was too bothered by the classism to enjoy it as much as I once had. (Not that any of Austen's novels are free of classism, of course, but in Mansfield Park it's a quiet background noise compared to the CENTRAL FOCUS OF THE PLOT as it is in Emma.) Fanny is timid, unloved, and suffers from some undefined type of chronic illness (I'm pointlessly fascinated by trying to figure out what the hell, specifically, it is, since it can apparently only be treated by riding horses), and, as in most Austen novels, nearly everyone around her is a terrible human being, of one type or another. She's incredibly sympathetic, at least to me, and I do like how clearly she sees people.
Anyway, here are some people who are more eloquent than me saying interesting things about the book:
A very excellent discussion on FFA about Fanny Price: self-righteous prig or no?
A Telegraph review. I'm not sure I can go as far as the author does with the idea of slavery being an important underpinning of the book, but it's an intriguing idea, at least.
What are you currently reading?
This Is Not A Test: A New Narrative on Race, Class, and Education by José Vilson. A non-fiction book about teaching in NYC's public schools.
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen. I'd read this before, but decided to reread it this week on the spur on the moment. It's my favorite of Austen's novels; I used to like Emma best, but when I reread it recently, I was too bothered by the classism to enjoy it as much as I once had. (Not that any of Austen's novels are free of classism, of course, but in Mansfield Park it's a quiet background noise compared to the CENTRAL FOCUS OF THE PLOT as it is in Emma.) Fanny is timid, unloved, and suffers from some undefined type of chronic illness (I'm pointlessly fascinated by trying to figure out what the hell, specifically, it is, since it can apparently only be treated by riding horses), and, as in most Austen novels, nearly everyone around her is a terrible human being, of one type or another. She's incredibly sympathetic, at least to me, and I do like how clearly she sees people.
Anyway, here are some people who are more eloquent than me saying interesting things about the book:
A very excellent discussion on FFA about Fanny Price: self-righteous prig or no?
A Telegraph review. I'm not sure I can go as far as the author does with the idea of slavery being an important underpinning of the book, but it's an intriguing idea, at least.
What are you currently reading?
This Is Not A Test: A New Narrative on Race, Class, and Education by José Vilson. A non-fiction book about teaching in NYC's public schools.
