Elise > Recent Status Updates

Agnes looks at him and he looks back at her. She wants, more than anything, to stretch this moment, to expand the time before he knows, to shield him from what has happened for as long as she can. Then she gives a swift, single, downward nod.

[…]phenomenon of moviegoing […] called certification. Nowadays when a person lives somewhere, in a neighbourhood, the place is not certified for him. More than likely he will live there sadly and the emptiness which is inside him will expand […]. But if he sees a movie which shows his very neighbourhood, it becomes possible for him to live, for a time at least, as a person who is Somewhere and not Anywhere.

For context, this book was first published in 1960, and the narrator is currently in New Orleans just before Mardi Gras.
“A krewe is a group of people who get together at Carnival time and put on a parade and a ball. Anyone can form a krewe. Of course there are famous old krewes […], but there are also dozens of others. The other day a group of Syrians from Algiers formed a krewe named Isis.”

Later I will cry and cry in great hollow howls. Later I will understand what it is to keen, to feel a crazed, dark sound emerging from the deep, hard, rock fields inside my body. […] Later I will learn that grief is so physical it makes you walk differently. Later I will begin to grieve, and it will last for many years. But I still have a few hours before that has to begin.

Huh.
“71. To make peace with one’s adversary before the sun sets.”
Obviously the source of that old marriage advice everyone gives. There you go.

Continuity issues aside:

“I put it into her hand. And then, before she could hand it back to me, I made her a slight bow and walked away.”

THE. FEELS.
#Youknowyou’retooemotionallyinvestedinafictionalcharacterwhen

It sucks to realise you’ve gotten older and life’s made you that bit more jaded. Got to this page noting that there was a jump in the time from 7 January to 21 January, signifying time between Caroline returning Jane’s call in London. Found myself thinking, “What the hell?! It’s Darcy’s diary and he’s in London! Surely he went to the theatre or met with his steward or his sister or SOMETHING!”

“His understanding and opinions all please me; he wants nothing but a little more liveliness, and that, if he marry prudently, his wife may teach him. I thought him very sly; he hardly ever mentioned your name. But slyness seems the fashion.”

😜 One of my all-time favourite letters of literature. 🥰

…she chooses Wendy’s not because she likes it, but because she can go and tell her friends or fellow church-goers how humble she is, how down-to-earth, that even on a day as special as her birthday, all she did was eat a side salad from a fast food restaurant. This thing in Mum drives me nuts. This thing where she yearns to be pitied.

WHY DO SO MANY PEOPLE CHOOSE TO LIVE LIKE THIS WOMAN?!?!