Luke > Recent Status Updates

Swarnakumari Devi (1856-1932, Bengali) - "One cannot today claim that Swarnakumari Devi's writing is comparable to that of her brother Rabindranath, whose mature work places him among the most distinguished of twentieth-century writers in India. But one can ask, Had she received the support and encouragement she deserved, what might she not have achieved?"

Thinking about raising my currently reading limit from three to four. Hrmm...

The temptation to exploit our young wartime enthusiasm must have been immense—and was not fiercely resisted by the military authorities.

Yoshimoto has the supreme gift of "When did my heart start hurting? When did my face start wibbling? Why does it still seem like everything will be alright? Buuuuuuh ; - ;b"

I myself cannot yet realise that each little singing thing that flies near me holds latent in it the power of death for someone.

Second time I've been woken up by an earthquake in a matter of weeks. Harrum harrum.

Tarabai Shinde (ca. 1850-ca. 1910, Marathi) - "She makes no plea to the men that they pay attention to her work. In fact, she does not count on their goodwill or chivalry. If they are true to the images of rationality and objectivity they project, she says, they will be forced to accept her arguments. But if they respond from self-interest or merely retort out of wounded pride, she warns, she will continue...

Mokshodayani Mukhopadhyay (ca. 1848-?, Bengali) - "It was entitled "Bangalir Babu" (The Bengali Babu)...Mokshodyani's witty attack on men...is an extremely important piece because it is woman's impatient response to the widespread nineteenth-century concern, especially in Bengal, with the "improvement" of women and her own "rewriting" of the issues.

Muktabai (1841-?, Marathi) - "We know only....when she wrote this essay in 1855 she was fourteen...For an untouchable, and a woman at that, to write "O learned pandits, wind up the selfish prattle and listen to what I have to say," would be surprising even today. In Muktabai's time it was awe-inspiring.

Savithribai Phule (1831-1897, Marathi) - "Savithribai was not only a teacher and an activist but also a writer. Her first collection of forty-one poems, Kavyaphule (Poetry's Blossoms), was published in 1854. Many of the poems are nature poems; others speak in the main of the wealth that comes with education, give advice to children, and decry the caste system."

Hannah Catherine Mullens (1826-1861, Bengali) - "Phulmani O Karunar Bibran (The Story of Phulmani and Karuna), 1852, is the first work or prose fiction written in Bengali...Why then, one might ask, is this book largely forgotten?...A more plausible explanation may be that researches were unwilling to grant the honor of having produced the first Bengali novel to a woman writer..."

Rassundari Devi (1810-?, Bengali) - "...Amar Jiban (My Life), 1876...was the first autobiography to be written in the Bengali language..."Is this my fate because I am a woman?" she asks. "Just because I am a woman does it necessarily mean that trying to educate myself is a crime?"

[...]

I believe in the refusal to take part.
I believe in the ruined career.
I believe in the wasted years of work.
I believe in the secret taken to the grave.

[...]

-"Discovery"

I wonder how much someone had to pay Goodreads for a Quote of the Day that actually makes good use out of its broadcasting capabilities.

...I joined the Pass Mods. class and studied the Cyropædia and Livy's Wars with a resentful feeling that there was quite enough war in the world without having to read about it in Latin.

Why does this written doe bound through these written woods?
For a drink of written water from a spring
whose surface will xerox her soft muzzle?
Why does she lift her head; does she hear something?
Perched on four slim legs borrowed from the truth,
she pricks up her ears beneath my fingertips.
Silence—this word also rustles across the page
and parts the boughs
that have sprouted from the word "woods."

Lugging all four volumes of this in their box to the coffee shop tomorrow for reviewing purposes is going to be interesting, to say the least.

"The reading of Romola," enthusiastically records my diary for April 27th, 1913, "has left me in a state of exultation! It is wonderful to be able to purchase so much rapture for 2s. 6d.!...It makes me wonder when in my life will come the moments of supreme emotion in which all lesser feelings are merged, and which leave one's spirit different for evermore."

Upcoming school requires a drastic slimming down of the library, so this year I asked for socks. A particularly special pair will ensure that I am equipped with cats sleeping on books wherever I may roam.

This is some Beowulf/Lord of the Rings shit right here.

Bhabani (early 19th c., Bengali) - "She led two troupes that gave tarja and jhumur performances and was one of the most eminent exponents of these forms at the time. Many of Bhabani's songs parody the themes and conventions of religious songs and are hilariously subversive."

Jogeswari (early 19th c., Bengali) - "...a woman named Jogeswari formed her own group...Kabigan is a form of poetic duel or repartee, invariably spontaneously composed...Folksingers generally moved freely among different strata, but this roving band of women artists must have been an outstanding exception to the norms even of those times, since they were widely known in many parts of Bengal."

17,023 female artists + ten years of God Save the Queen = 3,527 female artists + 13,496 female mill workers. Grats, God Save the Queen. Grats. We could've had it all, but you needed your money.

Tarigonda Venkamamba (ca. 1800-1866, Telegu) - "According to legend, a complaint against her reached as far as the Sringeri Shankaracharya. She was summoned, but when she arrived, she refused to offer obeisance to him. While the brahmins insisted, she asked the Shankaracharya to rise from his seat and then bowed before it. It burst into flames. Awed by her superhuman powers, the Shankaracharya ordered that..."

Mahlaqa Bai Chanda (1767-1824, Urdu) - "A patron of the arts, she gave large sums of money and endowed several shrines, some of which still stand. When she died, her enormous wealth comprising gold, silver, and jewelry was distributed among homeless women."

Muddupalani (ca. 1730-1790, Telegu) - The genre in which Muddupalani wrote Radhika Santwanam, the sringaraprabandham, was a popular one in her times, but she is the only woman to have written an erotic epic and it is possible that the work became so controversial a century later principally because it was written by a woman.

Sanciya Honnamma (late 17th c., Kannada)

Wasn't it woman who bore them,
Wasn't it woman who raised them,
Then why do they always blame woman,
These boors, these blind ones.

In the womb they're the same
When they're growing they're the same
Later the girl will take, with love, what's given
The boy will take his share by force.

Lest anyone should suspect the family of being literary, these volumes were concealed beneath a heavy curtain in the chill, gloomy dining-room.

Nothing demonstrates privilege like someone sporting a grenade stylized wallet in a US coffee shop without getting shot.

A trans man! A trans woman! Not a hair of cisnormative bullfuckery to be found! Woo!