From Sense to Sensibility... and then Back to Sense Syllabus

From Sense to Sensibility... and then Back to Sense

Exploring the Pendulum of Female Expectations and Expectations of Females in British Literature

Introduction:
Welcome to what may be the height of my nerdiness! This is From Sense to Sensibility... and then Back to Sense, a self-structured, self-run, self-study of how women are portrayed in British literature, revealing what they wanted out of their lives and what behaviors were expected and deemed acceptable for them. I really missed being an English major, so even though I still have loads and loads of reading assignments, I decided to create my own "course" if you will to bring some English literature studying back into my life. This is what I came up with, and I'll write more about the inspiration behind it roughly halfway through the "course."

What do I mean by a "pendulum"? In short, I will be personally exploring what women wanted out of romantic relationships during their time and what roles or personalities were the best ways, or the acceptable ways, to achieve those wants. My theory is that there has never been a real consistency for women in terms of what they could or could not do. ("Do" can be replaced with the following: say, wear, want, desire, take, give, etc.) There are probably some consistencies, to be sure, but the behavior defining the role they needed to act varied over the course of time as societal interests and tastes changed. Again, I am specifically interested as to what behaviors were acceptable for them, especially in relation to finding a romantic partner, but I'm sure there are dozens if not hundreds of other ways that women have been a part in this never-ending pendulum pattern.

Some notes on this syllabus:

• First, everything that I write and reflect on for this "course" can be found under the tag "Sense to Sensibility." 
• Second, I don't know how well I will stick to this schedule. I am still in school, and while there is a break halfway through that corresponds with my finals season, school will be my priority and if this falls behind, so be it. I'll update the syllabus as needed should that happen.
• Third, there are two authors that do not fit the criteria of being female British writers: Madame d'Aulnoy and Lewis Carroll. Why? Well, for Madame d'Aulnoy, she wrote a massive amount of popular fairy tales that (from very preliminary research) heavily broke into English culture. For Lewis Carroll, Alice is a young girl and her portrayal I think will offer an interesting perspective for that period, even though Carroll was a man. I also just really love the madness and youthful chaos of Wonderland, so I think it will be pure fun as well. 
• Lastly, the "course" is broken up into four sections, one for each century from the 17th through the 20th. At the end of each century, there will be a week to review and reflect on that sections alone along with how it fits on the pendulum. It also makes it each for people to jump in and out if they want to. (Which I would love!)

How's this going to work? Ideally, for each book or reading selection, I'll have an individual reflection on each- mini essays on what those works reveal about female expectations. I'm not quite sure what those will look like, but as of right now I imagine I'll highlight some theme or motif from each. At the end of each section then I'll write an essay about each century as a whole and have a week to only think about everything from that century and how it fits into the course as a whole. No new readings or anything. We'll see what else comes up, but for now we'll try to start here.

Schedule:
17th Century (5 Weeks)
Week 1 (1/13): Miscellanea Prayers. Meditations. Memoratiues. by Elizabeth Grymeston; The Countess of Montgomery's Urania by Lady Mary Wroth
Week 2 (1/20): Love-Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister by Aphra Behn
Week 3 (1/27): The History of the Nun by Aphra Behn
Week 4 (2/3): CCXI Sociable Letters by Margaret Cavendish
Week 5 (2/10): A selection of fairy tales from Madame d'Aulnoy: "The Blue Bird," "Prince Ariel," "Babiole," "Princess Carpillon," "Belle-Belle," and "Princess Belle-Etoile"

Week of 2/17: Focus: How hard it was to find 17th century women writers

18th Century (6 Weeks)
Week 1 (2/24): Fantomina by Eliza Haywood
Week 2 (3/2): Evelina by Frances Burney
Week 3 (3/9): Cecilia by Frances Burney
Week 4 (3/16): The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe
Week 5 (3/23): A Sicilian Romance by Ann Radcliffe
Week 6 (3/30): A Vindication on the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft; Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austin

Week of 4/6: Focus: Women and the Gothic novel


BREAK HERE 
Behind the Course: The First Inspiration and Thought Seed Behind This Notion of a Pendulum


19th Century (5 Weeks)
Week 1 (5/18): Emma by Jane Austin; Northanger Abbey by Jane Austin
Week 2 (5/25): Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte; Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Week 3 (6/1): Why do I know those gals (above) but not these gals (below)
Week 4 (6/8): North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell; Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
Week 5 (6/15): Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll; The Heavenly Twins by Sarah Grand

Week of 6/22: Focus: How to Catch a Husband 101

20th Century (4 Weeks)
Week 1 (6/29): Pilgrimage Volume I by Dorothy Richardson
Week 2 (7/6): The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett; Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
Week 3 (7/13): A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf; My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier
Week 4 (7/20): A Taste of Honey by Shelagh Delaney; The Millstone by Margaret Drabble

Week of 7/27: Focus: Overall wrap-up and thoughts on the pendulum


Phew! This is going to be a lot of reading, a lot of work, and a lot of determination. I do feel very determined though to finish this "course" however, if only because in researching I realized how many more women authors there are out there that I had no idea existed and yet have contributed so much to the literary canon. I also realized though that they were a bit rare, especially in the earlier years. I can name Austen and the Brontes off the top of my head, but then in terms of classic literature, I think of like Dickens and Hardy, Wilde and Orwell. For example, why have I never read Ann Radcliffe? And why had I never heard of Elizabeth Gaskell before? I clearly have a lot to educate myself about and I can't wait to start!!!

Thanks for Reading!

Review of The Wicked King by Holly Black

The Wicked King by Holly Black

4.2 out of 5 Stars

Okay, so straight up- fresh from the finish- I don't know how I feel about the ending. We'll... we'll just come back to that later.

Overall, I really enjoyed The Wicked King. I really, really loved The Cruel Prince though and at the end of the day, I couldn't bring myself to give this one the same rating as the first one. Comparatively, I think the first one had a much tighter grasp on the relationships between the characters than this one did, and that made the difference between them. This was still such a great book, and certainly, the political maneuvering that Holly Black performs is still just as mesmerizing as it was in the first book. There were a couple of moments when I was just like, yeah-yeah-let's-move-on, which was a little surprising, but even then those moments were fleeting and I was shoved right back into the thick of the plot.

SPOILERS BELOW


PLOT:
I'm not sure if this was the smartest move on my part, but I jumped straight into just reading this without refreshing myself from what happened in the first book-- which I read nearly two years ago. So while I was in my warm-up speed of digesting the story, the actual plot was already starting to happen and I kind of missed it. Maybe this was helpful though, because I don't think I was sidetracked by an expectation. It seems like the most important plot line was resolving the conflict with the Undersea. Within this however, we are tied back to the greater issue from the first book which is succession and who gets to sit on the throne. (And then we get into Carden v. Jude, Jude v. Madoc, Carden v. Balekin, throw Oak into the mix, etc. etc... whatever.) However, there was the other plot line of the stupid wedding between Taryn and Locke. That is what my rusty brain first latched onto, but ultimately, it boils down to being fairly insignificant on its own. By this, I mean that it really just seemed to serve as a method for distracting Jude more. It's a giant shiny toy that gets thrown at the reader first that, while it does have some important pieces to it, really just ends up being shiny. The actual meat of the story was lying underneath it in the beginning.

It wasn't like the story was hard to follow or anything. It was just slightly distracting when I realized that the wedding wasn't actually all that important. Especially when the book breaks in half, this distraction and tear from the story was driven home. When it came to Book 2, I actually set the book down and stepped away from it for a couple of days. I just didn't want to deal with it. I felt like I was about to go deep-sea diving when I was already at the bottom of the ocean. In that moment, I could tell that everything was about to get shifted to the actual focus of the book in a way that would require so much more energy and attention. Instead of being fully incorporated throughout the entire book, it felt like the important plot was heavily thrown at the end with sprinkles of it in the rest of the book. It ended up being worth it because holy cow so much happens in that last third of the book. Which brings us to the ending.

While I was slightly prepped for it, nothing could have prepared me for Carden proposing to Jude. Nothing. Not. A. Thing. And it all ended up both working beautifully and falling apart spectacularly in a way that seems almost unreal. This ending, or endings like this, are the ones where my mind feels like a tattered cloth, and I'm not sure if that's a good thing because it was so engaging and unexpected, or if it's a bad thing because that was too wild of a ride. The whole ending is a bit of a blur it went so fast. I abso-freaking-lutely loved the part though where Carden gets the sand to rise out of the water and he traps Nicasia in a tree. That was great. A sight to behold. Love it. Did not love Jude's blow up. That seemed way to out of character for her, someone who is a master of self-control. And then it all goes to crap of course, but I'm so curious to see what the effects of Jude's exile will be, and more importantly, when Carden will let her come back. That's my real concern with this ending, I think: that they'll stay separated for so long in the next one that I'll be bored.

CHARACTERS:
Jude: Oh Jude. I still admire this character so much. I just reread my review for The Cruel Prince, and I have to say, I liked that she's flawed. Not just in that she has a genuine fear of the fae, but that she works with it because she has a stronger hunger for power. What I think is so interesting about her character though is when it is contrasted against Val, the dead king's seneschal. Jude makes it a point to say that Val isn't bound to any of his oaths, especially now that the king is dead. But Val pretty much refuses that outright, connecting it to his love for the dead king. And it pricks at my mind because Jude doesn't have a connection like that that she openly admits and relies on. I think/hope she will come to hold herself to that standard when it comes to promises to Carden, but we'll see 'bout that after the whole exile thing. Her trust is likely shattered a bit, but ultimately, she does need at least one solid touchstone for reliability or she could never gain traction in the fae world again (which is, I suspect, the bigger point Val was getting to).
Carden: Carden's development was one of my favorites of the entire story. Even from the beginning, I loved watching him go from not really giving a crap about being king to wanting to really take control of his reign. I do have a lot of follow up questions about his character though. How upset is he with Jude? Cause surely he's at least a little mad if he exiled her. Or maybe he really is just truly invested in being king and is keeping her exiled to appease the Undersea Queen. Phew. So much to think about. But I love his character. I'm still a little wary of him, but I love his character. I want to see more of him in the next one.

Balekin: Bye ***** and good riddance.

Nicasia: I think there's more to Nicasia's story than what we've really seen. At least, I hope there is. I think there will be a great opportunity to see more of her in the next book as the ambassador between the kingdoms, and I hope that gets taken.

Madoc: My biggest question about Madoc's character is how much he's going to be involved with Jude's exile and if he'll try to win her back so to speak. If that is the case, I really hope Jude tells him to shove it, because Carden isn't playing around anymore. If anything, I think he may kill Madoc as a way to get even with Jude for killing Balekin. Multiple birds. One stone. It would be a bit of a shame though because if Madoc and Jude could just get past each other's petty power plays, they would've been a great team.

WORLD:
I love this world that Holly Black has created so much. It is weird, and unnerving, but not over the top like her other series. Moreso than that, I love how because it's fae, they all have to work while using and stepping around the truth, and I think she does an excellent job of that. It is one of my favorite things to see her do in her writing. There are such fine nuances and details to the characters and their choices that every piece of dialogue becomes a game.

The Wicked King, while not as good as the first book, was still completely enthralling and I'm curious more than anything else to see what happens in the next one. Luckily, I don't have to wait this time around.

Thanks for reading!

Spoiler Free Review of The Wicked King by Holly Black

The Wicked King by Holly Black

4.2 out of 5 Stars

Okay, so straight up- fresh from the finish- I don't know how I feel about the ending. We'll... we'll just come back to that later.

Overall, I really enjoyed The Wicked King. I really, really loved The Cruel Prince though and at the end of the day, I couldn't bring myself to give this one the same rating as the first one. Comparatively, I think the first one had a much tighter grasp on the relationships between the characters than this one did, and that made the difference between them. This was still such a great book, and certainly, the political maneuvering that Holly Black performs is still just as mesmerizing as it was in the first book. There were a couple of moments when I was just like, yeah-yeah-let's-move-on, which was a little surprising, but even then those moments were fleeting and I was shoved right back into the thick of the plot.

The Wicked King, while not as good as the first book, was still completely enthralling and I'm curious more than anything else to see what happens in the next one. Luckily, I don't have to wait this time around.

Thanks for reading!

2020 TBR

My (Very Rough) First Look at a 2020 TBR

The new year starts tomorrow and I am so looking forward to what books the new year will bring!!! Here are just some of the titles I'm looking forward to:      :):):)

• Woven in Moonlight by Isabel Ibanez
• Beyond the Shadowed Earth by Joanna Ruth Meyer
• All the Stars and Teeth by Adalyn Grace
• Night Spinner by Addie Thorley
• A Witch in Time by Constance Sayers
• The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson
• The Kingdom of Back by Marie Lu
• Chain of Gold by Cassandra Clare
• Havenfall by Sara Holland
• Be Not Far from Me by Mindy McGinnis
• Crescent City by Sarah J. Maas
• Darling Rose Gold by Stephanie Wrobel
• The Sinner by J.R. Ward
• Imagine Me by Tahereh Mafi
• The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins
• The Last Confessions of Mara Dyer and Noah Shaw by Michelle Hodkin

I think these are mostly listed in publication order, but holy moley, five of these books are all coming out on March 3: The Kingdom of Back, Chain of Gold, Havenfall, Be Not Far from Me, and Crescent City all come out on that Tuesday. Ummmmmmm.... cough, cough, @publishing-- are you trying to kill my grades??? How the hell am I supposed to be able to focus on school with all of those books coming out at once?! :(:(:( At least this is a good problem to have. I'd much rather there be a crap ton of books coming out that I'm looking forward to than to be stuck with a book coming out that I'm just meh about.

My list is very early-2020 heavy, but I'm sure more books will be added to the list that will come out in the second half of the year. I'm also thinking of putting together a sort-of curriculum for myself consisting of classic literature, but we'll see how that goes and if anything actually comes of it. If that plan comes together, I'll outline my "syllabus" here.

Thanks for reading!

Little Women Movie Review

Little Women

Movie Review

4.899 out of 5 Stars

Before the actual review... a confession. I've never read the book.

I know, I know, I'm the worst. I am currently in the middle of it and really enjoying it, but it was just something that I never had to read for school and never caught my attention on its own. But that being said, this review is based solely on the movie in and of itself as a work of art, not so much as an adaptation of a literary work. Also, I'm not sure where to mark where spoilers start, so if you haven't seen the movie or read the book, you may just want to hold off on reading this until you do.

I really loved movie. I really really did. It was so sweet, and so warm, and so homely, that I am seriously considering going back to the theaters so I can watch it again. I saw it with my sister, my mom, and my aunt (the boys in my family didn't want to see it-- harumph), which I think just made the viewing experience all the more special because I was with family. It's too bad though that not everyone wanted to go see it because I think everyone would have really enjoyed it. Yes, it is a movie about sisters. Yes, it is a bit romantic. Yes, it is a period piece. BUT, it really is mostly about family and friendship, and it's done in a way that I think is very accessible to any audience type.


On a technical level, everything about it seemed really well done as well. I don't have any sort of theater or film studies background, but there were still some things that I really appreciated. For example, the whole film, while being set in the Civil War era, felt so incredibly modern, and that could not have been easy to accomplish, either in writing or directing. I don't believe this movie has any SAG Award nominations (sad), but Saoirse Ronan is up for a Golden Globe for playing Jo and Alexandre Desplat is up for a Golden Globe for original score. Nominations for the Oscars won't be announced for another couple of weeks, but I'm curious to see if they get any nominations there.

The acting really was great though. Saoirse was phenomenal and I'm not at all surprised to see that she got a nomination and I won't be surprised if she gets any other nominations for her work in the future. I also think Florence Pugh did a really amazing job, as well as Timothee Chalamet. The whole cast seemed to work together really well, and this might go toward the directing a bit, but I loved how they all just chattered around each other. It reminded me so much of my own family with all of my aunts, uncles, cousins, siblings, etc. just talking over each other all at one with a thousand conversations all tangled into one giant lump.


One of the small details that I really appreciated was the shift in lighting throughout the whole film. I don't know what exactly that's called, but I'm pretty sure that whenever the girls were in their childhood-happy-fun-innocent periods, the lighting was all golden and warm. But then in their adult periods, it was cooler and more blue. There was such a lovely connection then at the end when at the very end of it all, they're all adults with children at the school, but the lighting isn't blue like the other times that they are adults, but golden like when they were kids.

Favorite scenes...
Oh my God the attic scene where Jo has her monologue about being lonely was one of the best things I think I've seen in a movie in a loooooooong time. Everything from the words she was saying, to how she was slightly shaking, to how she punched emotion into certain words made the whole scene so potent and ripe with longing that Jo had pent up inside herself. I think that may be one of the scene that will be shown around in promos and stuff, but this one piece within the whole puzzle is 10x more powerful than it is alone.


I also really loved the scene in France where Amy tells Laurie that she refused the other guy's hand in marriage, but is like, "We don't need to say anything else about it," and he just kisses her. Ah!! Swoon!!!! But also, I really loved them together as a couple. There was a part of me that was disappointed for a bit that Jo and Laurie wouldn't be together, but Jo was right and it makes so much sense for them to only be friends. And then when she writes the letter to Laurie telling him she changed her mind, I was so mad because she didn't actually love him the way that he needed to be loved for a marriage, not like how Amy loved him. Jo wanted to not be along-- a very valid want-- but it would have been a cheap way to get it, and at the expense of both of their happiness. No, Amy and Laurie make so much more sense together and that scene in Paris was the proof of it. Laurie has finally realized that he loves Amy and knowing how she feels about him, acts perfectly on it. She doesn't initiate it, only coolly lets him know where things are at, and that is that. So perfect. I loved it.

Okay, also... Beth's death?!?!! I don't know if I can say it was a "favorite" scene, but it was a strong one. Absolutely. Heartbreaking. Like I said, I hadn't read the books before I watched this, and unlike my sister, I didn't remember that nugget of information from Friends. (Where Joey and Rachel switch books and he hides Little Women in the freezer. Remember? It's a good one.) I was a complete mess when she died, like, big, fat, tears rolling down my cheeks in the theater because I was so upset. I was completely unprepared for that AND I was sick so my nose was running as well and in the span of like 5 minutes I had turned into a complete emotional wreck. That scene was so tastefully done though. I loved how, so soon prior to the actual death, they have the scene of when Beth is sick as a kid and Jo runs down to see her sitting and eating with their mom. The contrast of having Jo run down to have her mother turn around and there is no one else there, for her mom to just start crying, was so so so upsetting. It was like I was being nailed in the heart.


Lastly, I have to give a shout-out to the literature element threaded throughout the entire story. No, duh, it's an adaptation of a literary classic, but I didn't realize how much more than that it was. Jo as a writer was a sight to behold. And the end bits where she labors over her book for Beth for hours on hours without end made the end production of the paper cutting and leather binding all the more satisfying. My mom actually pointed out this next part to me. They all have their children in the last scene. Meg has her kiddos, Amy has her baby, and Jo has her book. It's all so well-rounded with a perfect little ending. And oh my God, the part about an artists owning their work. LOVE THAT. I love that she asks the questions about what the copyright means and what it could be worth in the future, and then she bargains for it, taking a lower advance in the moment. I absolutely love that and I hope that other people on some level will recognize the importance of that as well.

Thanks for reading!

Books of 2019

The Best and Worst Books of 2019

I don't feel like making two separate lists, so I'm just going to put the top 5 best and top 5 worst books that I've read all in this one post. :) Also, I know the year isn't really finished yet, but I don't really foresee me finishing many more books before the new year strikes. The ones I am reading I pretty much can tell won't be on either of these lists.

BEST BOOKS OF 2019

Serpent and Dove by Shelby Mahurin

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier 

Lover Awakened by J.R. Ward

The Burning Shadow by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Circe by Madeline Miller

WORST BOOKS OF 2019

Dearest Ivie by J.R. Ward

Henry IV, Part 2 by William Shakespeare

Death and the King's Horseman by Wole Soyinka

The Shadows by J.R. Ward

Mr. Burns by Anne Washburn

Some notes:
1. These are not listed in any order; they just are the five for each category.
2. I had to read a lot of plays for school last spring... I'm not really a huge play-reading lover.
3. The "Worst" list was hard to do because I did like some of the books on that list. They just ended up being the least-liked for the year.

Thanks for reading!

2019 Wrap-Up

2019 Wrap-Up

(Everything This Year That Will Hopefully Help Organize The Future A little Bit at Least)

So my last post was April 26, 2019, and that blows my mind. It seems so odd that I've spent so much time away from the blog, and yet I can also 100% believe that because this (writing) feels hella weird. All this post is going to be is, essentially, me just running through my thoughts as they come and trying to holistically look at my year and start to piece together how I may want 2020 to go. So if you're looking for straight up bookish things or pop culture stuff... sorry. Not the post for you. Please poke around and check back later for those things. This one's mostly just for me.


Looking at my 2019 New Year's Resolution, I think I actually did pretty alright by those standards that I laid out for myself. There were three main resolutions that I wrote about, and while I can comfortably say I failed at the second one (journaling), I did a pretty bang up job with the other two, especially the third. Some observations though:

1) I don't do well with a lack of structure. Resolutions 1 and 3 both left a lot of room for interpretation, and while I do think I did a fairly decent job with them, I wonder if I could have done more if I had set out hard, objective means to measure things by. For example, Res. 1 was to be more creative. Well, clearly that wasn't through blogging. However, I did finish writing a novel, so like... holy **** am I right?! And that's super exciting, and I'm onto the next steps of editing and looking for agents, but again, what else could have happened if I had been more organized with my time? More purposeful? I am especially running into this problem now with the holiday break because I don't have a super structured routine right now. It just feels weird and I don't really like it.


2) I want to hold myself to higher standards and more accountability. This ties into the last point. While I have come a long way from where I was last year, I want to grow further still. 2019 moved fast in a lot of ways; but it also moved rather leisurely in other areas of my life. While that was nice and all, I think it's time to pick up the tempo and get back on the horse. I want to lay out goals. I want to set timelines and deadlines for myself. I don't want to just feel like I've grown in my life, but I want to be able to touch and see that growth as well.


3) I do need to give myself some slack because a lot has happened this year. Personally, academically, vocationally, family-wise, medically... you name it, it likely shifted for me. For one thing, I finished my undergraduate degree and proceeded to seek more education. There were a lot of little and large things in addition to this that, overall, made 2019... what's the word... tumultuous. And I don't necessarily mind that, because I'd rather have things shaken up so that I'm not bored, or to have things be crazy so that they can resettle where they need to be, but I want to grapple with 2020 a bit more forcefully than I have 2019. I want to be able to say I accomplished things and oh-by-the-way thing x was happening at the same time, or oh-yeah that was when thing y was going on.

4) Now what? Where to go from here... Well, this post feels good, like I've started to walk back up a mountain I'd been sliding down. Just dusting off some cobwebs and wondering where to go next. I'll keep thinking about what I want out of 2020, and I'll maybe do another post about that. For the immediate now, I think I'm going to write some reviews and get back into the swing of things. :):):) Super exciting (for me at least lol), so here we go!


This post is vague in general, but like I said, this was another one mostly just for me. If you read it and could relate in any way or to any part, great! I'm glad, and I hope you enjoyed reading it or that it made you think or something. If not, thanks for stopping by anyway. :)

Thanks for reading!