"In about 1767, the novelist Sarah Scott, sister of Elizabeth Montagu, invited Fielding to come and live with her in a female utopian community, as an attempt to create the utopia described in Millenium Hall, but Fielding declined. She died"
guess she should have said Yes
as e.m. forster explains, "She was invited to come and live in a female utopian community but declined, and then died" is a story. "She was invited to come and live in a female utopian community but declined, and then died of regret" is a plot
Mar 27, 2021 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
just got home from spying on the squirrel & guess whose ceiling collapsed
NOT my downstairs neighbor! the neighbor one over from him. fellow sitting in his living room above very suddenly found himself below
who will be next! should we start a betting pool
my floors have never been level & I have a lot of heavy books. I mean a considerable number
Mar 12, 2021 • 10 tweets • 3 min read
lots of this is what I think. everybody has got their own peculiar psychological makeup informing their patriarchy mitigation procedures, & there is no single best response to a climate of danger insofar as no individual response can eliminate such a large & broad threat. also,
--I typed out many intemperate personal position statements that all boil down to Don't you FUCKING tell me what I'm afraid of.
because, I suppose, I will always be twelve years old in the things that really matter, things for which it would be a great benefit to be a grown-up
Nov 22, 2020 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
rose up to a sudden happiness on realizing that the Hob. numbers for Haydn are short for Hoboken, not whatever I thought they were, like Hobshawm or Hobbiton or some fucking thing. then a swift descent as soon as I found out it was for Anthony von Hoboken & not New Jersey
old anthony von hoboken came from Rotterdam they say. off on a bad foot to begin with: confusing. but do they mean Rotterdam, NY, in Schenectady county? no they absolutely do not.
after all this man is nothing to me
Nov 20, 2020 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
only noticed now the clear implication by messrs. Fischel & van Boehn that Liszt, at Karlsruhe & perhaps all the way from Switzerland, was not only wearing the soft grey felt [hat] given him by Wagner, but was wearing nothing else.
I mean if he was, they would probably have said
"When women were beginning again to wear corsets, waistcoats and coats were cut so close to the figure that men were obliged, whether they liked it or not, to lace themselves in, and those who refused to wear corsets had to substitute a basque belt worn next the skin" c. 1830
Nov 20, 2020 • 14 tweets • 4 min read
more myths
more myths!
this binding
these ENDPAPERS
I say nothing abt taste or craftsmanship but you know it’s art if it makes you dizzy. if it gives you a migraine it’s double art
Nov 20, 2020 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
that NYT guy explaining how he assesses the risk to his family from his contacts without a word on the risk he'll be bringing back to his contacts from his family
the important thing is to indirectly kill someone else's parents, not your own. to know who matters
the people most fixated on 'travel-shaming' are the ones who have never felt shame. the fascination of the innocent for a dirty word they looked up in a dictionary. Is this shame? they wonder. is THIS shame? oh but you'll know it when it finds you. if it ever does
Nov 20, 2020 • 10 tweets • 4 min read
the french murder show is different from the finnish murder show in small but crucial ways. for example the french murder show takes place in a chalet & is called le chalet.
it's not good but it's got good philosophies
the icelandic murder show is something else again
all of this "nordic noir" nonsense is infrastructure and glum divorcé(e)s. no time travel, very little adultery, just ports & turbines & taxes. won't be tolerating much more than 5 more identical serieses. I draw a line somewhere
Nov 19, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
the smithsonian is closing again! what a wonderful way to find out that it had opened again at some point, for some reason
for god's sake will the government give me some money to stay home and practice the piano on weekdays, I promise to stomp over to the Capitol and/or the mayor's office to play them a tune once I'm vaccinated, to prove it was money well spent
fuck's sake
Oct 5, 2020 • 14 tweets • 3 min read
you could write a book about genesis 2:19-20 and somebody must have. not that I would read it
(I mean the invention-of-narcissism part where Adam is unwilling to take for Friend & Companion anyone or anything that was not a literal piece of himself)
p.s. Eve has Adam's pre-split memories, right? she must have. so we must say Adam's early choices were hers also.
& so as far as eve knows, this is a Prestige situation. from her perspective, she is hugh jackman looking at second hugh jackman wishing she had a pistol on her
the icelandic murder show is something else again
