sylly > Recent Status Updates

Despite having restarted this collection of works four times—to ensure that I am truly comprehending and meaningfully reflecting on what I’m reading—I appreciate Rosenberg’s fruitful, at times arduous (at least to me), but nevertheless important, thoughts.

I also deeply appreciate the way she keeps her foot on Eduardo Bernsteins neck(rightfully so, I might add). (1/2)

While this is quite harsh, from what little I’ve read, I do not like this book. I understand the balance between scientific accuracy and readability is delicate. However, I don’t feel as though this book strikes its balance. Nor do I find it interesting. Leaving it with little good going on. Perhaps I shall change my mind as I continue.

“When I was fourteen, I thought a lot about killing myself-it's a hobby today, but at age fourteen it was a vocation” (p. 153). Flynn has such a way of describing the darkness of girlhood, from adolescence to adulthood.

Usually I loathe when books jump between narrators, let alone jumping between narrators AND time, yet I continue to read this book. I think this is, perhaps, a testament to Flynn’s writing. Also a testament to her work is my desire to see Libby (the main character) succeed in her ordeals, despite my frequent feelings of disdain for her (the jury is still out on my overall opinion).

I love her books but they always make me feel horrible and set me back in my healing I think… this one feels no different

I loved this chapter. The concepts the author discussed in it were more or less the focus of half of my undergraduate senior thesis + an emphasis on the role “magic” and witchcraft played + Hobbes + capitalism (rather explicitly: I was told not to discuss this in my thesis lol) and the role it played in shaping perceptions of the body in the 16th and 17th centuries.

order, control, “normality,” (1/??)

This chapter starts with a wholly valid critique of Marx, as Federici highlights that he neglected to mention “the profound transformation that capitalism introduced in the reproduction of labor-power and the social position of women” (p. 62). Federici did so by focusing on four main developments in 16th//17th century Europe (though touching upon many interwoven themes, most of which still haunt us today).

this is the most interesting book I have read in quite some time and I find myself just putting through the pages. Embarrassingly enough, I had no idea just how how much persecution heretics faced from secular leaders, nor the proliferation with which those in power gendered heresy, resulting in the “figure of the heretic increasingly [becoming] that of a woman” (p. 41). I cannot wait to read more!!

Just put two and two together that Juliette’s husband, Julian, was the Julian Huxley that was very much so a proponent of eugenics and coined the term transhumanism. I loathe nearly every aspect of transhumanism (some of its biggest [current] proponents are tech billionaires, which says a lot about it). So booo Julian Huxley. I will definitely look at the book differently now.

Sidebar aside, I have finally (1/2)

Ok so I lied, I actually am not nearing the portion of time during which Juliette refuses communication with Sarton. While I still enjoy her writing and the way she attempts to verbalize how she feels (although she, like I, often highlights how inadequate words are), it gets a bit repetitive. I think it doesn’t help that we don’t get to see Juliette’s responses. Perhaps that was intentional, adding to the (1/).

I am roughly half way through the book and am enjoying it a great deal. I love reading how others materialize their love into words (despite my complicated relationship with the very thought of it), so I knew from the beginning I would most likely enjoy this collection of letters.

I think a large portion of my enjoyment for the book thusfar stems from the way I see parts of myself in Sarton. (1/ who knows)

“Everything seems wrong now that was so right. But one must pretend that there is some reason and some curious pattern in such things”