Gillian > Recent Status Updates

Is this a love story?
I wrestle with my feelings for Scarlett. Will return to these thoughts.

My immediate reaction to the racism is to recoil, and having explored some thoughts on the book at this point with a southern friend, my aim for the rest of the book is to avoid compartmentalizing it so I can try to understand WHY these factors come into play: what is the society that came to depend on these ideologies? because so much is going on in this epic novel that merits attention alongside those things.

And on top of everything the writing sizzles. Scarlett’s rage and aching and determination, stubbornness, ignorance to her OWN CHILD (I and she forget constantly about her son from a spite marriage) are a whirlwind of entertainment. of course the scenes between her and Rhett, or her and Melanie, are so well written. The book is well written. I want to understand why this book surged in popularity when it did…

About halfway through and idk man Mitchell was on one. I’m so disturbed, and confused. I truly fail to understand how someone can buck against core tenets of the confederacy (notions of gentility, chivalry, heroism) and acknowledge how practically nonsensical and misguided the war is but not acknowledge racism or associate it at all with the misguidedness of the confederate cause is ??? So ignorant.

Fascinating doesn’t even begin to describe the experience of reading (listening) to this book. Many thoughts ranging from I’m glad I didn’t pay for this (shoutout to whoever uploaded this audiobook to YouTube), to may I never be this ignorant of myself

One fifth of the way through and this book epitomizes white feminism through and through

This audiobook listen is following my completion of Ken Burns’ civil war documentary.
I’m only 3/47 hours in, and here’s what I know so far:
- this book is extremely well written (which is to say, enthralling storytelling with a strong female protagonist- that was revolutionary)
- it is disturbingly, chillingly racist. It’s hard to underscore this point enough. The dehumanization of black people is shocking

The ideas in this book are so healing, and beautifully written. I love this feature of the Potomi language that verbs and nouns are defined not by gender but by animate and inanimate, and that animate extends to all living things like “to be a bay”
Her ideas about gifting, entitlement, and appreciation of earth and its resources are also transformative and I will try to carry them with me a going forward

I love the descriptions of nature and the story really transports the reader to a different time. It’s hard to imagine what it must have felt like to see mountains for the first time, without even having seen photos for reference. The book also has me thinking about how men are really brought up conditioned that their destiny is adventure, while women are brought up conditioned that theirs is love

Well I do not care for these plot twists at all

How am I supposed to work when this book is so good

Almost halfway through this book and I couldn’t tell you a single characters name or a single thing that has happened but the vibes are good enough

This feels like a highly important work to read for anyone working in the agricultural space; I learned that Steinbeck wrote this work originally as a series of articles for the San Francisco news about the plight of migrant farm workers.
It’s insane to me how current this story still feels, how little has changed in the almost 100 years since it’s publishing. Quintessentially American.

I was getting bored with some of this car trouble when BOOM exactly what I suspected and hoped not to hear: that California isnt all its cracked up to be.
and so we perceive the shadow of exploitative labor practices in agriculture
And also I love these chapters that break up the main plot.

The pivot to first person was unexpected and at first unwelcome, but I think Yuzuki pulled it off. Really enjoying this read

The dynamic between Riko and Kajii vaguely reminds me of that between Clarice starling and Hannibal lecter…friends, ish.
I love these rich descriptions of food, it makes me wonder at the work of the translator for some of these words.
Devouring this book and hungry for more

Really original story and storytelling. I’m digging the precise, colorful, and (scusa) delicious descriptions of food and the pleasure of eating, rudely interrupted by reminders of the expectations of women’s bodies. I love Japanese feminist literature.

I like her advice of needing your community, and also what’s outside it. I also think her advice on standup comedy about needing to get out of your typical demographic audience applies outside of standup. She talks so much about her now ex husband

Definitely confirming ali Wongs badass status in my mind. Eating a still-beating cobra heart in Vietnam?? Also my god, the candid descriptions of her body as a mom…badass and so horrifying I myself had a physical reaction.

“The power seeks power entirely for its own sake…no one ever seized power with the intention of relinquished it. Power is not the means, it is an end”
Oop

“When war becomes literally continuous, it also ceases to be dangerous. When war is continuous there is no such thing as military necessity. Technical progress can cease and the most palpable facts can be denied or disregarded.”
SCREAMS AND THROWS COMPUTER OUT THE WINDOW

“If it once became general, wealth would confer no distinction…for if leisure and security were enjoyed by all alike, the great mass of human beings who are normally stupefied by poverty would become literate and learn to think for themselves…in the long run, a hierarchical society was only possible on a basis of poverty and ignorance.”
HmmMmmmM

It’s pretty silly but good. Definitely picked up in the second half I’d say

I read this for the first time when I was just coming into political consciousness.

“It’s a beautiful thing, the destruction of words…in the end, the whole notion of goodness and badness will be covered by only six words—in reality, one word. Don’t you see the beauty of that?…The whole climate of thought will be different. In fact, there will be no thought, as we understand it”

“What does it say about our culture the desire for weight loss is considered a default feature of womanhood?”
Damn. This book is making me so sad and frustrated.

I couldn’t put this book down