Mitchell > Recent Status Updates

Five pages in and I can tell you that if I had read this when I belonged to the intended MG age group, my brain probably would have shut down at the words "commune" and "cultural poison of a world that had lost its way."

Here in 2018 though... Cap is a real mood.

me: i should challenge myself more next year
me to me: only read books with 400+ pages
me: wait
me to me: AND TRY TO READ WAR AND PEACE FOR FUN

Someone was handing these books out for free at my sister's college and she gave it to me. Knowing how those books usually go, I decided to black it out (a la Victor Vale) and given that the lead-in of the first page is the protagonist gets an erection, I think I'm doing a public service.

I CAN'T BELIEVE I DIDn'T NOTICE WHEN I HAD EXACTLY 1000 BOOKS ON MY READ SHELF I HAVE FAILED

"The most profound message of racial segregation may be that the absence of people of color from our lives is no real loss. Not one person who loved me, guided me, or taught me ever conveyed that segregation deprived me of something of value."

I have to say, removing 108 books from my TBR list took a lot of time but also I'm so glad that this burden has been lifted from me.

Damn it, Jim—I'm a doctor, not a book blogger.

"The Furies—this is what the spirits who disliked [Hades] so much were called."

I am going to put my foot through a frickin DOOR my friends this is slander and untruth and the prose isn't even good :( just leave my Furies alone ok

Why does everybody make the Furies into villains? I wasn't enjoying myself or anything but this slander does put a damper on my relationship with this book. :\

Pro-Tip: Add the "Page Number" option to your "Want to Read" shelf. Then you can still get books during busy times but be confident that you will be getting a 30-page book from the library and not a 400-page behemoth. ;)

"...many (if not most) women and young ladies who do choose abortion hate themselves twice as much as the angry people marching with the picket signs and clenched fists do."

I have no words. *facepalm*

"I fully believe after having read the whole Bible, that God created sex to be between a woman and her husband."

On the one hand, this is an interesting reversal of what we might expect (i.e. putting the man first) and even encourages women to claim their sexual identities. At the same time, this sentence seems like it could easily be used to justify patriarchal polygamy.

(and, obvs, the homomisia. se nota)

"Even if what we believe is right really is right, we do not have the right to attempt to control other people. What we can do is equip them and teach them to hear God speak to them."

Finally, something that almost sounds feminist. Of course, it's very fascinating that she says that shaming teens will not help them keep their virginity, and then in the next sentence refers to virginity loss as having "blown it."

Historical note: popularizing the term "amazeballs" is often attributed to Perez Hilton (in 2009) or Elizabeth Spiridakis.

And not that I'm really here to make a fuss about people who "may or may not have coined" the word amazeballs, but it does make me wonder who the intended audience is, if they never would have seen the word amazeballs in the wild.

I'm concerned that Picota suggests her readers will find history's Biblical basis for slavery "ridiculous" and "far-fetched" when those same "ridiculous" values are very much alive in America today.

I'm more concerned that she suggests other readers will recognize the same beliefs that motivated American slavery hindering women from entering ministry still. What a White thing to say.

First page of the introduction and we're already being informed that "God's Feminist Movement" has no political agenda.

Always fun to start a book that erases feminist history and assumes that the norm is apolitical.

"And who are these, pray? Your wedding train or forgetters? Your bridesmaids of murder and robbery?"

Hello yes I would like to apply to be a bridesmaid of murder and robbery AS SOON AS POSSIBLE thank u

"Society is no comfort / To one not sociable." (IV.ii. 14-15)

Shakespeare: understanding introverts since the seventeenth century.

well kids let me just say I am pretty shocked to find out that Cymbeline is actually a guy's name

I get that there are a lot of gender issues to unpack in "A Scandal in Belgravia," but five essays in a row is starting to feel like a lot. A lot a lot.

*looks with a general sense of helplessness at the camera*

V2,Ch74:

You know that scene at the end of The King and I where the king is dying and he leaves things to his wives and children and we find that nothing will ever be the same again because things are different now and you're sort of just hanging on with despair in yourself?

It's like that.

And, like in TKAI, one of the worst parts is the relinquishing of name and title. Death takes identity.

V2,Ch73:

a) DQ is worried about bad omens regarding Dulcie

b) it is possible that Dulcie was instead turned into a rabbit and he handed her over to be eaten (oops)

c) "Shut up, Teresa." –Sancho Panza (739)

d) DQ shares his shepherding plans with his friends, which they pretend to admire

e) "...whether I'm a knight errant... or shepherd... I'll never stop doing for you whatever needs to be done..." –DQ,741

V2,Ch72:

a) Cervantes literally steals a character from the fake DQ book and then DQ and SP convince Don Alvaro Tarfe that they are the superior pair

b) also Sancho says, "I think I create a lot more smiles than I do tears" (735) which I loved

c) Sancho finally finishes his lashes—Has Dulcie been healed????

V2,ch71:

a) interestingly, DQ doesn't think Altisidora was actually dead

b) Sancho suffers more than most doctors because to heal Dulcie he needs to take those 3300 lashes; however, he is willing to do it if DQ pays him per lash

c) DQ then decides to stop Sancho from beating himself because he does not want his friend to kill himself

d) DQ regrets that he did not get to kill Paris so that Troy never fell

V2,Ch70:

a) DQ is actually the worst roommate—he talks to you all night and then you can never sleep

b) the duke and duchess are back at it again thanks to intel they gained from Samson (oh, Samson *facepalm*). Sidi Hamid points out that the effort they put into this exercise to make DQ/SP look like fools is making THEM look like fools and he is not wrong

c) Altisidora has gets extremely angry with DQ :P

V2,Ch69:

a) damn daniel back at it again with the duke and duchess kidnapping DQ and SP to take advantage of their vulnerabilities for the entertainment of their court

b) Altisidora pretends to be dead because of her (pretend) unrequited love for DQ

c) Sancho is made to wear a demon hat because Rhadamanthus and Minos said to; apparently it was Aecus's day off

d) Altisidora is resurrected! Yay!

V2,Ch68:

a) DQ is so desperate for Sancho to flagellate himself that he cannot even sleep

b) Sancho points out that sleep is the best thing, like, ever tho

c) then they are trampled by pigs in the night

d) in the morning they are kidnapped by mysterious people with an amazing vocabulary. "troglodytes!" "anthropophagians!" "Polyphemian assassins!" What will they do next?

V2,ch67:

a) ENTER THE LAND OF THE PASTORAL

b) literally Sancho and DQ want to invite all their friends to come be shepherds with them and they see absolutely no flaws in this plan

c) Samson did not really want this to happen but

d) and also we have some fun reflections on the nature of proverbs and hypocrisy related to them

V2,Ch66:

a) DQ is a general drama queen about the loss of his knighthood

b) they hang up their armor and weapons as a shrine to their knight errantry while it lasted

c) there is some conflict over a race and Sancho mediates for them, throwing some King-Solomon-level shade

d) then they run into Tosilos the footman who wanted to marry Dona Rodriguez's daughter, but instead the duke beat him after DQ left

V2,Ch65:

a) gasp, the Knight of the White Moon was SAMSON all along, freaking Samson what is wrong with you

b) everyone is sad that they can't make fun of DQ anymore; who cares about his well-being?

c) DQ mopes for six days and is sad that Don Gregorio got out without needing to be rescued

d) Gregorio and Anna work out living arrangements for the next while until Gregorio can contact his parents