2/5/2001
White as Sin by Tanith Lee
So is the child that Ciara
carries the reincarnation of her mother?
The novel comes
full circle. It is very much like her
tarot short story. The queen is the
same. The idea of searching for a lost youth. A youth that was not so much as taken by
violence. Forcing the girl to move child
to woman. Ciara escapes this last idea
of youth even though her childhood was not happy. Is it because she loses her maidenhead
willingly? She already has experience
sex so she is missing the double shock so
to speak. Ciara live to a degree,
a less sheltered life than her mother. Arpita
was a very innocent 14. The very
sheltered girl. Ciara had that same type
of shelter but she also has more. Ciara is taught pagan ways, she that
knowledge. Does that knowledge contain the key to the saints.
Ciara s treatment at the hands of Hady is more violent that Apraztoes are the
hands of Draco. Yet Ciara comes out of the experience. Is it because her knowledge because his
Hespastion? Both? Would Agportia have enjoyed her sanity if she
and the huntsman had maintained her relationship. Was she too shattered to be remade?
Both Ciara and Aparita must unfreeze.
They are the mirror, the parallel mirror. The huntsman and The position are the
false. But Ciara’s mirror breaks while
Aprotia bends but does not break.
Deals with conception and
misunderstanding.
Pressure of the daughter to get
her youth back. To regain something that
was loss or taken away.
But aren’t we all trying to
regain something? Lost innocent, youth,
beauty, friends? Portia’s problem is
that his e loses her and goes into a trance like life. She cannot find herself except as the witch,
the queen, the devil bitch.
The men do not worry about this
for they have the power to control. They
have everything. IN Had, the madness and
the cruelness are dealt with, half embraced, half overlooked. In Aprotia she has more the case for
insanity. None of the women really
seems to understand or even try to understand. She lacks the kindness that
Caira recuses.
2/9/2001
Ghostly Beacons: Haunted
Lighthouses of North America by
Therese Lanigan-Schmidt
Is it the loneliness of the light house that
draw the ghosts or the lights? The fact
that some ghosts feel inclined The fact
that some ghosts feel inclined to continue their duty is not surprising. Its those haunting that do not seem connected
to duty that are more surprising.
2/11/2001
Jonathan Swift by Victoria Glendenning
Pope’s “Wendel Forest”
Smith’ scatological poems. “Lady Mary [Wortley Montagu} when she lived in Venice use to show
the privileged visitors her commode. On
the bottom of this receptacle were painted the faces of Pope, Swift, and Bolingbroke”
(258).
Supposedly the governor of New
York in the reign of Queen Anne, Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, wore women’s
clothes at state functions “to represent the Queen more exactly” (258). Why isn’t stuff like this in the history
books?
“molly-houses” male brothels. Wonder if they serviced women disguised as
men.
The Griffird incest story seems
interesting though one hopes, like Glennding says it, is wrong. Her tone was
very clear in that chapter and very distant.
Couldn’t Swift’s horror been
caused by something else besides Stella. Couldn’t you argue that Swift
discovered Stella and Dinigley in a compromising position and was upset by that? That might in turn explain Dingley later couldn’t it? For if Stella were bixsexual, if she felt
bound to both Swift and Dingley? So she
goes though the marriage ceremony with Swift but keeps it secret from Dingley
and so on Swift could have put the evidence out of his mind etc and etc. It might also explain why he still kept up a
relationship with Vanessa.
The problem with the incest story
would be explaining how Swift found out the information. The consanguinity between Stella and himself
is far more realistic explanation and would explain the interference of Stella’s
mother.
Or it could be a combination.
Who knows?
The same question is if he was
such a monster, why did the women put up with him?
Stella, Vanessa, and perhaps
Dingley have the excuse of having some affection for him. But what about Pinkerington? Esp. how he treated her when she was pregnant? Why go back to his company at all? Is the association that important?
Despite Swift’s treatment of
women, one feels sorry for his death.
The fact that his mind was so lost.
But its not surprising given his treatment of women. Is
this why they forgive him after Stella’s death, because they sensed a wrongness
in his mind, the instability? It would
explain a lot. But he must have had some
charm about him, some draw. Stella and
Vanessa were not stupid, the circle of women he drew around him after Stella’s
death were not stupid. These women were
not the run of the mill 18th century women. Why would all of them say near such a
man. Its hat a
The tragedy of the story seems to
lie in unfulfilled potential of Stella and Vanessa (even Dignley_ who followed Swift to Ireland. Which action would involve leaving behind
High society. Sorta like moving from the
inner social ring to one on the outside, I guess. But three women gave up their homes for him,
even Dingley, who if simply seems to be acting as a chaperone. The 3 women seem to have little life beyond
what they have in relation to Swift. We remember Stella and Vanessa because of
their relationships to Swift. And we
have a lack o knowledge about for the some reason. He destroyed papers. He kept private, private.
Perhaps he was just as much a
mystery to them as he is to us and hit aw as the attraction. To try to figure out the mystery.
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