Poor Things

by Alasdair Gray

Only the French were sensible about the important things—did I not agree? I said, “I cannot say, Millie. What are the important things?” “Money and love. What else is there?” “Cruelty.”

from now on I would think like a woman, not like a child.

And while they spoke I clenched my teeth and fists to stop them biting and scratching these clever men who want no care for the helpless sick small, who use religions and politics to stay comfortably superior to all that pain: who make religions and politics, excuses to spread misery with fire and sword and how could I stop all this? I did not know what to do.

Your heart is too good for this wicked world, my dear.

Be free as a bird once more—fly from me!”

I am no longer a parasite.

You must answer some difficult questions for me. You must tell me how to do good and not be a parasite.

But perhaps her radiance did daze me slightly.

You were too sane to teach a child about craziness and cruelty. I had to learn about those from people who were crazy and cruel themselves.

Do you too think my hatred of suffering is nothing but displaced motherhood?”

“I am ignorant and confused but not a fool or a coward.

Prevention of disease was more important than cure.

I realized that the thought of Bella marrying me instead of him still caused him pain.

She did not deny it, but thought it a piece of daftness he would easily recover from.

But when we got children of our own I discovered most younger people are happily unfeeling toward parents and gua...

THOUGH AN ATHEIST I AM NO BIGOT.

“that all’s well that ends well”.

All Too Well (Bell Baxter's version)

Archibald McCandless,

Archibald???

Victoria Hattersley.

Bell "before"

I knew Bella was unknowingly seeing the father of her brain in the first husband of her body, the grandfather of her brain in the father of her body.

“If you have lied to me how can there be any truth? Who can be any good?”

“Truth and goodness do not depend on me, Bell.

dervishes

A muslim man

Why has the unhappy end of a brave warrior eclipsed a lifetime of patriotic effort?

we hoped it would leave us in peace.

yet I suddenly feared pity might draw her toward him.

“A week ago I got a letter from a man called Wedderburn.

That ASSHOLE Wedderburn is trying to sabotage Bella. Of course he is.

He was an ordinary man of about thirty: so ordinary that I noticed nothing personal in him except his style of speech, which left out first-person pronouns.

Your father was present at that demonstration.

ALL of this leads back to Sir Colin (Godwin's father)

If she is pretending to have forgotten then we should thank her. If she has truly forgotten it let us thank God.”

I could not haul out your three little brothers—they died of cholera.

Bella (before) had 3 brothers--all who died.

I fear nothing in the world except hunger, poverty and the sneers of folk with more money. Only a fool does not fear these, especially when he has suffered them.

But you are a woman and know nothing of business.

Her father is not only a asshole, he's sexist too!

‘Make a lady of her,’ I told the mother superior. ‘You will not find it easy. She is headstrong, like her ma once was—the sort of donkey who needs more kicks than carrots to drive her in the right direction.

Bella's dad literally compared her to a donkey...What a pathetic excuse for a man.

It took them seven years.

7 years???

Your ma was dead (feeble action of the liver) when you got home, and for your sake I was glad. Though a good wife for a poor man she was no use to a wealthy one. Her plain ways would have ruined your chances.

Bell's dad talks about his dead wife (bell's mom) as if she were an object...I hate this man.

She was the purest creature and prettiest thing I had ever met,”

“Did I love you?” said Bella staring at him.

Have you truly forgotten that?” said the General, closing his eyes. “Yes. Truly.” “You remember nothin at all about me?” “Nothing certain,” said Bella uneasily, “yet something in your voice and appearance does seem familiar, as if I once dreamed it or heard it or glimpsed it in a play. Let me hold your hand. It might remind me.”

but when her fingers touched it she gasped and pulled them back as if they had been scorched or stung. “You are horrible!” she said, not accusingly, but astonished. “You said so on the day you fled from me,” he answered wearily, his eyes still shut, “and you were wrong.

You are still an unstable woman. Prickett should have operated on you after our honeymoon.”

I hate men! :)

She has a right to know why you say she is an unstable woman

“Erotomania,”

Excessive sexual desire. It can sometimes also refer to a paranoia, delusional state of obsession.

“It means the General thinks you loved him too much,” said Baxter. “It means,” said Dr. Prickett hastily, “that you wished to sleep in his bedroom—share his bed—lie with him (I am forced to be blunt) every night of the week.

Wow--a woman? Craving intimacy? How horrible! Clearly she's delusional...0_o

“You could never face the fact,” said the General through clenched teeth, “that the touch of a female body arouses DIABOLICAL LUSTS in potent sensual males—lusts we can hardly restrain. Cuddlin! The word is disgustin and unmanly. It soils your lips, Victoria.”

Poor men! They can't control themselves…boo you whore.

“No normal healthy woman—no good or sane woman wants or expects to enjoy sexual contact, except as a duty. Even pagan philosophers knew that men are energetic planters and good women are peaceful fields. In De Return Natura Lucretius tells us that only debauched females wriggle their hips.”

but have you asked what women think/feel about it? this assumption is all based on uneducated mens opinion...when women speak up, they're dismissed.

“That creed is both false to nature and false to most human experience,” said Baxter.

Godwin is a feminist = CONFIRMED

“This peculiar notion,” Baxter told Bella, “was first recorded by Athenian homosexuals who thought women only existed to produce men. It was then adopted by celibate Christian priests who thought sexual delight was the origin of every sin, and women were the source of it. I do not know why the idea is now popular in Britain. Maybe an increase in the size and number of boys’ boarding-schools has bred up a professional class who are strangers to female reality.

YOU TELL 'EM!!!

Did Lady Blessington agree to a clitoridectomy?” “Not only did she agree to one—she begged for it with tears in her eyes. She loathed her hysterical rages, loathed her pathetic desire for contact with her husband, raged against her diseases as much as he did. She eagerly swallowed all the sedatives I administered, but at last I had to tell her they were worse than useless—that I could only cure her by cutting out the centre of her nervous excitement. She begged me to do it at once, and was bitterly sorry when I said we must wait until her child was born.

IM SORRY...THE MEN THOUGHT THE CLEAR ASWER HERE WAS TO SURGICALLY REMOVE BELL'S CLITORIS??? BUT MEN CAN'T EVEN FIND THE DAMN THING, I--

“But she has not been your wife since she drowned herself,” said Baxter quickly. “The marriage contract says the marriage lasts until death do you part.