Kathleen > Recent Status Updates

Je remercie Ousmane Sembène de m’enseigner les noms de tant de parties du corps (féminin) : les cuisses, les fesses, la poitrine… 🙄 Les écrivains masculins sont d’abord masculins et puis, évidemment, écrivains

Let me be vindicated that the word scramble ends up meaning nothing 🤞🏻

How am I willing to do pages on pages of logic puzzle but cowed at the idea of a 9 letter word scramble 😆 I did unmask Mr. Shadow, though! 🕵🏻‍♀️

Along with seasons, I’m learning that poets frequently reference the pastoral… like corncobs and horse parts. Which is a far cry from relatable for us urban humans. I get that we’re a global minority but not among the people reading published poetry in English

Are all men in this saga casually, cruelly irresponsible? I can’t get over Matha, and her daughter Sylvia’s starting out like another victim 😔

Astronaut training! Okay that was unexpected

Another disabled girl pitied by a young man, whisked away to Zambia, left to languish as a neglected housewife, husband matures to enjoy lording power over her. Ooh wait I wonder what will happen to the girl in the NEXT story 😒

What are fables when it comes to morality? Cautionary tales or examples of model behavior? This tricksy hare is always the villains, but sometimes the victims get justice and other times they are just taken for fools

I mean, he did kill his brother for you, what else did you want?

In which there is much discussion of poop 💩

Common theme may be resilience and self-assurance in the face of danger? Tale of the girl who got too mopey, repeatedly refused help, then died was blunt, but to the point 😆

Sibilla: I live in constant dread of something awful happening to this girl. Such is the plight of young girls in modern novels. Loving Adjoa Andoh’s theatrical narration, though, including the Italian accent

If the people can handle Hezekiah and Jeremiah, they can handle Nebuchadnezzar. Nebby is almost as bad as terming the Philistines the Phillies 😓

Nakoi’s fleshes out the internal dialogue of the fable characters in her own voice, which helps contextualize these traditional stories for modern readers / listeners.

Excellent setup for follow-on, interconnected stories. The alliteration is starting to grind on me just a bit… I love poetic turns of phrase, but I worry about having an English professor already musing on linguistic origins in Hour 1 of a 20-hour listening journey…

Ugh disgusting colonial explorer men. How do you travel on a life-or-death journey for months and fail to connect with the other humans on the journey over a dog? I like how Clark’s character, though, was inspired by a real Zambezi autobiography. Wazungu… indeed we are the wanderers. Less romantically… homeless 😅

Ahh! Joyce doped the Chief of Police with spiked lemon tea cakes!

The murder weapon appears! In the hands of the much-feared pension parking brigade! Then again, « spanner » sounds much more unique and threatening than wrench 😆

Old ladies drinking canned cocktails on the bus back to the retirement home… #squadgoals

Aw Chris we’re all there 😢 « Every Monday he convinces himself that this is finally the week he gets back into shape, finally shifts the weight… the weight that stands between him and the world… By Tuesday, Chris loses faith in the project. He’s aware the project is himself, and that drags him further down still. »

« Ian is on a lot of dating apps and sets a strict upper limit of 25… They need to understand that his time is limited, his work is demanding, and that commitment is hard for him. Women over 25 don’t seem to get that, in his experience… The thought briefly occurs to Ian that the only woman over 25 he spends any time with at all is his wife. » 😆 King of Dirtbags

Ron and Ian. May we all have such jaw-dropping self-confidence: « [Ron has led numerous failed union actions over decades]. A man less indefatigable than Ron might have considered himself a jinx. But that’s the fate of the underdog, and Ron simply loved to be the underdog. »

Ch. 6 was too short for the seriousness of its subject matter. People who have suffered terrible personal tragedies feel emotionally alienated from God in ways that even the Bible addresses only in the abstract (Job). « Why is suffering allowed to happen to me » is a profond question Durand treats too flippantly here

Saying « I will never sin again » has seemed ridiculous to me. Like… obviously I will stumble into this again. I’m kind of lying to insist I won’t. While Ch. 5 doesn’t exactly nail it, I do appreciate that shame for being weak is not the same as humility: accepting that weakness is part of the human condition and God doesn’t hold it against us

Sparked some good reflections on the nature of « intense joy » : the happiness that comes with reconciling oneself to a standard of life-affirming attitudes and behaviors. Then again, I can’t see myself giddy and skipping to confession 😅

Intellectual arrogance definitely emerging as one of Dostoevsky’s top themes. Though Crime & Punishment is harder to follow as an audio drama given that much of the drama takes place as Rodion’s internal dialogue

Glad the Climate Anthology of Depression I read earlier recommended Hirschfield to me. The word choice is exquisite, the self-searching, despair, and resilience reassuring

Build clocks to preserve the core and stimulate perpetual progress. Can be applied to personal philosophy as well. I appreciate that authors encourage readers not to adhere too closely to the methods described, but ti continue to develop new ones that serve the core theme

Finished Isaiah. Some good context from Cobble on chapters oft quoted by Jesus or that scholars believe point to the Messiah. Clearly points to a new covenant of some sort

Huzzah. Achilles’ son Neoptolemus is a welcome burst of youthful energy to the bedraggled Greeks. Yet still doesn’t slay Eurypylus in just one chapter. Which is great because we can barely keep track of the characters at this point