Ruxandra Grrr > Recent Status Updates

The contemporary part is so depressing to me. Like it's just about women and their lives revolving completely around having men and taking care of men. Idk if this is the general situation or just the way the stories are selected, but it's getting me down, maaaaan.

Unsurprisingly, Putin was a real POS husband.

Can't *not* hate Nancy Reagan's reaction to Raisa Gorbacheva. 'oh she just doesn't like my just say no anti-drug initiative', lol. I did think a bad, non-feminist thought about Nancy, I'll admit.

Oh, Julia Ioffe's dad was nicknamed Angela Davis because of his curly hair, just like my mother! Guess that was a thing at the time! The time being late 70s, early 80s.

The fact that Stalin and his daughter wrote each other notes in bureaucratic style is almost endearing, but more like shitty.

Love the concept of an emotional history, a history of pain. I mean, I don't *love* it, but I do feel the freaking pain of all these women in the Soviet Union. And thinking of how cold and detached history books are insufficient to express truth. Love the focus on individual women in the gulags, in the corridors of power, the army etc.

The next time a tankie / Marxist leninist tells me that Lenin legalized abortion and how great he was I will refer him (it's mostly dudes) to this text and how Lenin was anti abortion and contraception, but his wife and his mistress / friend actually convinced him.

It's horrible what happened to the Bundists even after WWII :( Persecution continued from all sides.

Got to the WWII part and oooof. It hurts.

So cool about the workers having Olympic Games in Vienna, against the capitalist nationalist 'official' ones.

What a fascinating piece of history. Loving this so far!

I rather like this ancient Mesopotamian view on mental health - something that comes at you from outside. Sure, it's not perfect, but it works, whether it's trauma and abuse or an uncaring world, a lot of it does come from outside and is not inherent to a person. Current therapy is way too focused on the individual and not the systems that create strife.

I'm not sure I am liking the direction of this anymore. I can accept 'the memory of water' as a thematic / metaphorical thing, but can I accept that as a scientific thing? Not so much. And also, this might be a historical fiction trope, but having Arthur do a thing that other people have done IRL? Idk, idk.

I was doubtful about this Dickens cameo, but there's interesting commentary on the hypocrisy and orientalism of English writers. Especially Dickens hehe.

I'm super enjoying this, but I have a pet peeve about characters in past centuries reading the exact authors we now consider classics / the canon today. And Arthur's reading is exactly that, nothing surprising there, which kinda reenforces the canon as a real thing and not a made up one. Tiny nitpick ha

Picked this up without even knowing the synopsis 😅 but I'm enjoying it and was not expecting a character to be moving into a London houseboat, moored in a place I've been. I can close my eyes and be there, mmm.

Wow, this really does go through all the genres and subgenres 😅😅

Lol, here we go. ADHD, I'm shocked!! Really great bit about it

Honestly, it's pretty intense to hear Lindy talk about herself and aspects of her personality that I share, ones I never really see / hear reflected in fiction or non-fiction, and ones I'm not sure the people around me see. Gotta be our Pisces Sun, amirite? (Deffo not deflecting from my discomfort with a joke!)

This book is great, actually, I hate the discourse about it, it's extremely judgmental and omg I will have all the thoughts. But ironic: Lindy writes about the way people like to diagnose fat people and infantilize them, as if the Discoursers know better, and there you go, that's exactly what the Discoursers are doing on social media.

Me, reading 95% of this book: Ah, this book and Joanna Russ's 'How to Suppress Women's Writing' are a pair and so compatible, almost sibling books.

Rebecca Romney, at 95%: I wanted to add another book to my shelf, Joanna Russ's How to Suppress Women's Writing.

Me: Omg, yesssssssss.

I love how three of these other writers used the phrase 'Pride and Prejudice'. How it got from one to another doesn't even matter.

Yeah, I feel like I don't need to dig deeper into Hannah More! One of those women who likes to police other women and 'separate the spheres of men and women' or whatever.

The mention of Fata Morgana reminds me of when I was a kid and I saw this in books in Romanian, cause 'Fata' means 'The girl' in my language so I just thought this was a girl named Morgana or *the* girl, lol.

I am in love with Charlotte Lennox 😎

Really loving this so far and it's giving me goosebumps. I love the bit about 'swooning' and how it was a way for women to 'say no' when they couldn't actually say no under their circumstances.

This book made me tear up twice today, in two different busses.

Love to witness El conceptualizing magical communism again 😍

I'd forgotten how nice it is to read something that takes place where you live. Places you just go to frequently. Knowing what the U1 is like and all that!

Oh no, I hate this guy already. 'the most radical thing under capitalism is not to work', really? Puh-leaaase