W.R. Gingell > Recent Status Updates

(2/2)

"....In part, this interpretation calls into question the equation of authenticity with resistance to the status quo...instead, individuals are constantly deciding how to manage and express competing and even at times contradictory cultural values."

from the chapter on Thecla:

"...women, including Christian women, might choose conservative expressions of modesty as they demonstrate their agency....This interpretation of women's agency is an important corrective to earlier scholarship's thesis that agency is synonymous with autonomy and can only be seen in countercultural moves and poses of resistance" (1/2)

absolutely fascinating so far!

reading to edit and WHAT A RELIEF to find that this book is much better than my gremlin brain tried to convince me it was

it's getting cuter, you blokes

LET👏A👏 TALL👏 QUEEN👏 WEAR👏 HER👏 HIGH👏 HEELS👏

ok, everyone in to grab Louis and beat him up behind the bottle-o, yeah?

very fond of this:

""A lot of people talk about relationships being two people becoming one," Andie agrees. "And that's true, but you're still talking about two different people with two different backgrounds trying to merge their lives. Without knowing what the other needs and being willing to help support them is ripe ground for misunderstandings to arise."

giving the anxiety-brain to the male mc and not the female mc is GENIUS and also i'm SO delighted to see that Chase is so willing and open to consider that *he* might be the issue when it comes to his...well, issues--even if his gremlin anxiety brain is what's mostly eating at him

i am a very happy camper rn

being inside Chase's anxiety-riddled gremlin brain is fun and also very, very familiar

give 👏 this 👏 boy 👏 his 👏 therapy 👏

Claire just casually dropping bangers in the narrative:

"Lily hadn't killed but she was still lost to the madness...No one had taught her control or how to craft her own fetters for the urges. Her maker had been the one to control her, and now he was dead"

as a woman coming from a controlling patriarchal church background, this was the thing that hit hardest about the privilege of self-government/responsibility

snaffled an early copy of this book and i CANNOT WAIT 🤩

yesssss marriage of "convenience" is a go!

also loving the theme of strong female friendships that continues on from book one; the women are allowed to be complex, difficult, and dangerous to navigate.

they're allowed to be wrong (and even unpleasant) while the book reminds us that they still deserve not to be assaulted, mistreated, and hurt.

we're also navigating friendships with difficult parts, betrayal, and potential to hurt, and i love that

i adore how Claire focuses on the personhood of her fmcs. we know Gen has been horribly assaulted, but we don't have our noses shoved in the horror & degradation--we hear about her moments of bravery, her comfort in a hand held; we aren't made to witness things we'd rather not see.

and we're still left with the healing, the hope, and the change that these stories demand, each bit shown as clearly as you could hope.

the crew are cats on hot bricks and our not-so-friendly neighbourhood tech bro thinks he's the christ of the future which is pretty much par for the course with both the crew and tech bros

i will never not be amused at lawful good heroes being so startled that The Big Bad Evil thing has been *gasp* LYING to them

i love lawful good characters for exactly this reason

the stollen thickens!

"There was a moment’s silence. Then Nijam said, frostily, “Remember that you are speaking of the man I love.”"

have i mentioned that i adore nijam, especially in context?

i always really enjoy Nijam (she's still my favourite) and this book is No Exception, even tho M and V are just as ridiculous and fun as ever

welp! as predicted, all the gang are here! let the shenanigans commence!

this is all GREAT VIBES

audio is absolutely the superior way to take in this deliciously (sorry, Kitty) funny and completely australian book--Kitty's reading is the best

also you really need to be watching Fisk if you want more of the best of dry and weird aussie humour

"the aniimal within me licking the chops of memory"

ye GODS this man has a way with words

"MUCH WAS DONE FOR OTHERS"

"MY BENEFICENCE"

Jekyll, after finding out that the murder he committed was "not only a crime, but a dreadful folly" becuase he killed an important man instead of just a man, and has to hide out as Jekyll and avoid being Hyde. and just...thinks that he can make up for the past by being really very nice and helping people (yanno, his JOB for which he gets PAID)

"...but Hyde was indifferent to Jekyll, or but remembered him as the mountain bandit remembers the cavern in which he conceals himself from pursuit"

Jekyll telling on himself AGAIN and me AGAIN shriekin' at how deliciously Stevenson is drawing this character--and indeed all of the banal evil of men in power who have the ability to keep their vice and wickedness hidden from the world behind an exterior of goodness

i will fight jekyll in the street and eat his self-righteous heart in the marketplace

absolutely SHRIEKIN' at Jekyll's self satisfied explanation for why Hyde's so much smaller physically-- "WELL YES YOU SEE I HAVE BEEN A GOOD MAN, A VERY VERY GOOD MAN, & MY BOUNTEOUS GOODNESS, HAVING BEEN THUS EXERCISED, HAS FAR OUTSTRIPPED THE EXERCISE OF THE BAD IN ME"

sir, you are a galah

your other self is tiny bc he is a small man with a small mind and curdled in on himself with evil and also HE IS YOU

TEARS OF PENITENCE, MY EYE

TEARS OF SELF-PITY MORE LIKE

"-or is the greed of curiosity too heavy upon you?"

and here we go again with Jekyll manipulating everyone around him in an attempt to make them just let him be and let him go, and say nothing at all to anyone, or even to find out anything at all. no responsibility and no repentance, just darkness hiding from the light.

...in fact, i'd laugh at him if the picture wasn't so. very. familiar.

abusive pastors, anyone?