Nut Meg > Recent Status Updates

"The characteristic intellectual failure of the critic of power is a lack of understanding of the limitations under which power is exercised. His characteristic moral failure lies in an excessive concern with his own purity: but purity of a sort is easily had where responsibilities are not assumed."

"When power resorts to knowledge, as it increasingly must, it looks not for intellect, considered as a freely speculative and critical function, but for expertise, for something that will serve its needs."

"As soon as the inherited notion of learning as a leisure-class activity is discarded, the style of education it represented also falls under question...Academic and scholastic, instead of being titles of honor, are becoming terms of reproach."

95 pages to go, let's see if I can do it by midnight

"Until 1830, most teachers had been men...opponents of women teachers were still to be heard in many communities, but they were often easily silenced when it was pointed out that women teachers could be paid one third or one half as much as men."

"The belief in mass education was not founded primarily upon a passion for the development of mind, or upon pride in learning and culture for their own sakes, but rather upon the supposed political and economic benefits of education."

"There is a type of alienation which is simply personal, which arises from the education and in some cases the personal culture of the expert. He is out of place. He is not the right kind of man, he would not be sought after as a companion if his services weren't needed."

"Whereas business had been an instrument of religious discipline, one of the various means of serving God, religious discipline now became an instrument in business, a way of using God to a worldly end."

Dialog isn't really her strong suit, but I've seen worse. The kids are actually pretty realistic

Omg Sam you little psycho, I love it.

"Everyone loved Lucas." Oh hell, he's going to die tragically, I can feel it

"Business interests which suffered from Progressive policies-- and indeed many which suffered from nothing more than fear of further extension of regulation-- became convinced that the university...must be counted among their enemies"

"Furious menaces and bellowing exaggeration take the place of calm and dignified debate...Congress attains the unenviable fame of being the most helpless, disorderly, and inefficient legislative body which can be found in the civilized world." Lol some things never change

"It is ironic that the United States should have been founded by intellectuals; for throughout most of our political history, the intellectual has been for the most part either an outsider, a servant, or a scapegoat."

"The literature of the extreme right also shows a significant continuity in style-- indicative of the degree to which the pattern of fundamentalism has become the pattern of militant nationalism."

"Men insist most vehemently upon their certainties when their hold upon them has been shaken"

"The effect of the evangelical impulse, of the search for a new religious style to reach the people and save souls, was to dilute the strong intellectual and educational traditions of the Presbyterians and the Congregationalists."

This style reminds of Elif Bateman's "The Idiot." I hate it so much

Slow to start, but finally picking up

"My kind governess was shortly removed to a lunatic asylum. What share I may have had in her mental downfall I do not care to inquire."

"The Awakeners were not the first to disparage the virtues of mind, but they quickened anti-intellectualism"

And dnf. No way am I putting myself through another 400 pages of this

The repeated use of "mystery man" is an immediate turn off, so not sure I'm gonna make it through this. I'll give it another 20-40 pages before I make up my mind

"He was a man who had made his own hell." What a line

While I think she's being a little silly at this point, her genuine terror of the prospect of sleeping with her husband does work well in the context of this being a beauty and the beast retelling. It's refreshing to see the issue being handled more explicitly

Given how often bodice ripper heroines survive attempted assault, it's amazing any of them leave their homes. Men lie in wait for them at every turn! You'd think they'd have PTSD

"Fruit of my seed" ugh I could have gone my entire life without knowing that phrase...

Ok, there's no question that the mysterious Lord Saxton is in fact the handsome Christopher in disguise. The question is how long can he possibly keep the charade up?