Recent reading

[luzula]

Elder Race, by Adrian Tchaikovsky (2022)
For book club, my choice. I've seen a lot of people enjoying this, and I think that, along with how much I enjoyed Children of Time and Children of Ruin, had raised my expectations a little too much. I did enjoy this, but I don't think I will remember it much half a year from now? Perhaps because there were no insects and spiders.

I have also begun listening to Clarissa, by Samuel Richardson (1747), because, you know, important 18th century novel. I like the epistolary structure a lot, which the audiobook handles very well with different narrators for different characters. The reader who does Clarissa is brilliant, and contributes a lot to my enjoyment. The main relationship so far is between Clarissa and her friend Anna, though admittedly they do talk about men a lot. I'm surprised at how much of the plot has happened already, even though I've only listened to a third of the first audiobook of three (just the first audiobook is 33 hours). How on earth is he going to draw this out for the hugely long length of this book?? The theme so far is pretty much: Men Are Terrible. I am not at all sure that I will listen to the whole book, though--I mean, I am spoiled for what is going to happen, and I'm not sure I want to read that dragged out at such length. But I've enjoyed the bit I've listened to.

Comments

[lyr]

For me, the real advantage of Clarissa over Pamela is that the theme stays at Men Are Terrible and never segues from that to Men Are Terrible, but the Terrible Things They Do Are All Okay if They Marry You in the End. I appreciate the good grace to not attempt to make that into a happy ending. But few pieces of literature piss me off quite as much as Pamela does, which is why I have added Richardson to my list entitled "People I Will Punch in the Face When I Have Invented my Time Machine."

[luzula]

Yes, I have no plans to read Pamela. Apparently people were annoyed at the time as well, though for other reasons? There's Henry Fielding's parody Shamela, where Pamela is basically a cold-hearted gold-digger. I understand that he was annoyed at the Pure and Virtuous Woman thing, which was not how he saw women? Which is not to say that Fielding seems to have been generally better on the subject of women. Just...different.

Who are the other people on the list? : )

[lyr]

Pamela was wildly popular, but there were a few critics. Some just didn't believe in the sanctimonious power of aggressive virginity. It appalls me how few just thought the whole system of gender relations was awful.

Who are the other people on the list?

Oh, you know, some of the obvious, like Hitler. Also some of the less obvious, like Aristotle, Carl Linnaeus, Woodrow Wilson, and Thomas Jefferson. It's an extensive list.

[regshoe]

I always get Clarissa mixed up with Pamela, but it's Pamela that has a universal reputation for being completely unbearable, isn't it? Perhaps I should try Clarissa, although I think I'd feel the same way you do about long-winded eighteenth-century Men Are Terrible plots.

[luzula]

Well, Pamela is the one with the woman who is sexually harassed by her employer, who manages to avoid being raped (I think?), but then everything is all right because he marries her and she reforms him.

[regshoe]

Ah, yes, the Power of Virtue! I think I remember something about that from Joseph Andrews.

[chestnut_pod]

Omg, 33 hours…! That is a positive marathon of 18th century Men Being Terrible.

[luzula]

And that's just the first audiobook! It's divided into three. We will see how long I persevere...