Michaela Wood's recent posts

Recent public discussion board posts (showing 1-20 of 186).

You know, I've been really interested in the "marriage" between "best friends" Virginia and Leonard Woolf since I've read a their biographies, but all I've read of Virginia is "Orlando". I don't read alot of modern fiction.

I really am interested in the homoerotic tension in the popular, male, 20th century, British writers; Evelyn Waugh (who denied homosexuality and married - he liked to claim homoeroticism and was something that all boys went through, into their twenties) and EM Forster (who denied homoseuxality though he was gay, and wrote a great book about the closeted and open options of homosexual love in the British middle/upper class entitled "Maurice"... also a series of erotic short stories entitled "The Life to Come". I adore Forster's books.

I have to say, I think there WAS money in the Harriet and farmer match in "Emma" - he had lots of property and cash. It was class snobbery that Austen was "poo-pooing" by having Emma be wrong and Knightly be right about HArriet and her farmer's suitability: Austen thinks class should be somewhat mallable based on intellectual and practical merit, but NOT MONEY. THERE ARE NO UNMONIED MATCHES IN AUSTEN> NONE (LOL).
Zero, zip zilch, Austen really, really, thought money was the basis for a good marriage. No money, no love. Remember how cheerfully Elizabeth gives up Wickam? That's Austen practicality.
Of course money without love was just as wrong. There had to be something to live on, and then feelings should be honored. No woman should marry FOR money, and certainly not WITHOUT it.

Emma and Knightly have, I think, a strange/ Woody Allen type relationship. HE "molds" her mind from a certain age up and acts the "big brother" to her (incestual without actual genes, please see Clueless). I can appreciate where the attraction comes from...power relationships wonderfully askew can create good sexual tension. I think it, however, not an equal power relationship, as were, I think, Jane Fairfax and Frank Churchill. I think Emma is looking for someone older, mature and decisive, to step in and take care of her father... who seems more of a grandfather.

Hi everyone!
I don't recommend limiting yourself to short poems. You have two choices with longer ones.

You can write "in part" next to the author and title.

You can send more than one postcard if you're feeling a lover of literature....

I, for one, and sending something "in part" this month! It's great, because your buddy may seek out the rest of the poem! (very romantic!)

I found out very recently my family landed in Charlottestown PEI in 1760 (in the area formerly known as Squaws Bay), and stayed there until 1940 as nearby local farmers and fishermen! I read the Anne series, loved it, and discovered this! IT really was like finding out one was royalty and it was simply amazing to visit after that. The culture is so funny - so Anne.

Please send your mailing address, (including first and last name!) to Michaela in an email entitled "postcard address".

Your address will never be shared with anyone but your assigned postcard buddy.

If you have questions or concerns feel free to write me

Yes! I think the violence with which all these characters interact feels like gunpowder running along the ground between the two houses and families.
Does anyone remember the first meeting between Cathy, Heathcliff, Edgar, and Isabella? We see the beginnnings of future trouble for all four in this first meeting. What did you think about the scene?

Heard. I cannot remember much about the heroine.

I think of Edmund as a deep moral thinker, I think he cares about people around him, loves literature and poetry and he is feels responsible for both his friends and family. I think he can be passionate and decisive, but he is a sucker for a pretty face.

Edward is less decisive, more willing to please. He is less of a care-giver, and more of a shy lover. He wants to hang more in the background and be less in the middle of the discussion. He can be firm when pushed to the point, but is mostly open to suggestion. I think he likes women who can draw him out.

I agree that Austen would have been less read had she been more radical! I also think, if art imitates life, how far do you want Austen to write away from her real life? Wouldn't Elizabeth, if she insisted on working for a living and fighting injustice(LOL), be ostracized from the life about which Austen wants to write?

I really like your reference to Georgiana's past near escape...it's true Darcy is more like a father to his younger sister. I think it's pretty common that fathers don't want their daughters doing things that they might really like in their wives! As to if that's sexist, well, there's too much going on with the idea of children as property... I don't want to explore that right now.

I think Darcy has great respect for women's intelligence, I don't think he thinks less of them at all.


Elizabeth self regulates in P & P. She bemoans her passion in defending Wickham, her quicknesss to blame Darcy. This is a pretty well-known conservative idea - "calm your passions, ladies". What do you think?

1. Buy a bunch of postcards at once, or a package. (You can make you're own art too)

2. Keep it regulation size! (erratic sizes cost more than postcard size!)

3. Buy your stamps beforehand, (ask after the amount of postage needed at post office)

4. If your person lives far away and you can't do the postage, contact me and I'll switch you.

Anthologies are a great place to start - just flip open and start reading. You can use your library, or bring a notebook to a bookstore.

Don't be afraid to check out newer works of poetry, you can rifle through them at a book store, if your taste in fiction runs more modern, your poetry tastes may too.

Ask friends,teachers or parents if they have any favorite poems.

LOL

Does Charity owe him sex? Do you think that Charity has the means to resist the sexual predator that Royall becomes when he's drunk? Who's stronger?

Let's talk about Harney visiting there. Do you think he's immeadiately drawn to Charity, or thinks her odd, or is incensed by her lack of care of the books? Why does Harney care about books?

Does anyone want to talk about Ethan Frome and his relationship with his wife and with Mattie?

Why do you think one should show pity, or not show pity, for Mr. Royall's situation?

OK slow pokes, what about being a man from the Big City? He has the power of knowledge and travel.

What do people here enjoy about the Age of Innocence? I always considered it, for one, a classic cheating novel. All the emotions that lead the staid Newland Archer into a kind of moral nightmare, from which he tries to escape with honesty, and find's society doesn't allow that level of honesty (it can handle his cheating better).

I enjoyed the ideas of womanhood shown in Madame Olenska verses May Welland.

Hey great comment on Austen anti-heroes marrying for money! It's true that men who marry for money are bad guys in Austen, but their aren't many unmonied matches in Austen...
Austen shows Emma to be wrong to look down on Harriet's Smiths wealthy farmer, but that's a class and not a money issue...
I think Austen was for "no marriage" if there wasn't monied, love match to be had. No one married JUST for love and were happy...look at Fanny Price's parents.