Caterina > Recent Status Updates

Emily Wilson has done an amazing job with the introduction. It's divided in parts that are easy to follow and it offers invaluable insight into the debates about when, where, and by whom the work was originally written. I also appreciate that there's an entire subchapter explaining the role of the feminine characters in the book. I'll go out on a limb thinking that the classic translators of yore overlooked that.

Projekt för sommaren: läs den här och lyssna på ljudbok versionen på engelska samtidigt.

Finished book 1 ('the story of a childhood') in one sitting, and it was stunning. I am in awe for the small ways little Marianne found to rebel against the system that was forced upon her. I think this is mandatory reading for everyone who wants to understand Iran's history.

It do be heated.

so visceral I had to actively try to stop myself from screaming at times

"It has nothing to do with what you deserve. Life itself is probably just a spontaneous abnormality in this chaotic universe, but here it is. It's ours regardless. I know you humans like to look for purpose; some demons end up doing that too. We all want to know why at some point. I don't believe in fate or a higher purpose. I believe we take these rare, nonsensical lives of ours and do whatever we want."

Giving the audiobook a try, hate that it's only available on apple or amazon though.

"We'll tell them that we found him floating in the basket", she said, smiling.
"No one will believe it", the nun said.
"If they believe it in the Bible", Fernanda replied, "I don't see why they shouldn't believe it from me."

opening goodreads and realising status updates are finally an option is one of the highlights of 2025 for me

"Classism, racism, and machismo, coexist in harmony, holding hands and dancing like three disgraces. The eternal party of the Caribbean."

"Whenever she asks if you are OK, you nod, mute, convincing her, trying to convince yourself. Then she asks you, are you sure? To be you is to apologize and often that apology comes in the form of suppression and that suppression is indiscriminate. Except there you must unfold your arms and from your chest say, you are tired."

"Kindly consider the question: what would your good do if evil did not exist, and what would the earth look like if shadows disappeared from it?"

"And generally I will allow myself the boldness of advising you, Margarita Nikolaevna, never to be afraid of anything. It is unreasonable."

"Love leaped out in front of us like a murderer in an alley leaping out of nowhere, and struck us both all at once. As lightning strikes, as a Finnish knife strikes!"

Oh, Bulgakov 🫶🏻

Lizzie cleared her throat. "Miss Watson, dat sum conebread lak I neva before et."
"Try 'dat be'", I said. "That would be the correct incorrect grammar."

"I felt a tremor go through me, like the beginning of an earthquake, and felt, for an instant, that I was drowning in his eyes."

I finally understand what people mean when they talk about gorgeous writing.
--
"He looked at me and I saw in his face again something which I have fleetingly seen there during these hours: under his beauty and his bravado, terror, and a terrible desire to please; dreadfully moving, and it made me want, in anguish, to reach out and comfort him."

"I have thought about Jack's question since. The question is banal but one of the real troubles with living is that living is so banal."