📖 Recent Quotes 📖

• There were two classes of charitable people: one, the people who did a little and made a great deal of noise; the other, the people who did a great deal and made no noise at all.

  an excerpt from Bleak House, written by Charles Dickens in 1853

• CHORUS: oh here's Haimon
  here's Haimon in pain and rage
  cheated of his future bride
  [Enter Haimon]
  KREON: in a rage about your future bride
  or are we still friends
  KAIMON: father, I'm yours
  KREON: good attitude, son
  good heart in your chest
  I need you like that

  an excerpt from Antigonick, written by Sophocles in -441

• [enter Kreon]
  KREON: here are Kreon's verbs for today
  Adjudicate
  Legislate
  Scandalize
  Capitalize
  here are Kreon's nouns
  Men
  Reason
  Treason
  Death
  Ship of State
  Mine
  CHORUS: "mine" isn't a noun
  KREON: it is if you capitalize it

  an excerpt from Antigonick, written by Sophocles in -441

📓 Recent Notes 📓

• Reading this again, and I am struck all over by Mrs Jellyby. Sheesh, what a character, what a situation. This hits harder than ever, mostly because I know a person who could be the pattern here, and I’ve known them for a long time now and seen the long-term effects they've had on the world. Complicated!

  an note about Bleak House, written by Charles Dickens in 1853

• This is honestly a great guide to the kinds of reading you can do, and how and why to do them. My wife loves to joke about this book, pretending to hold it upside down and sound out the letters: hhooooowww tooooo rrreeeeaaad. That's a testament to its title, which is excellent. I read it first twenty years ago or more and with I had read it earlier!

  an note about How to Read a Book, written by Mortimer J. Adler in 1940

• This is George Eliot with the edges sanded off. Is that.. good? I don't know. [Edit: I just read the Eliot's wikipedia page. This is about a decade before Middlemarch. So I suppose the spikes grew from here.] But really, a somewhat lighter-in-tone story, compared to the other ones of hers I've read. No really standout characters or moments, EXCEPT I had an incredible 'Matt doesn't know literature' moment.
  
  The main outlines of the plot: we meet our hero Marner, a loner who lives as an 'outsider' in a small community - he had moved there after a great loss and being excommunicated from his church. He's a loner. He's built up a small treasure by hard work and thrift, which was his only consolation in his lonely life. Then one day his treasure is stolen, and the town is sad for him. And shortly thereafter, an orphaned toddler finds his way to his lone cottage, which he adopts. The loss of his gold and the gaining of a daughter is the pathway to wrapping him back into a community. And the orphan is actually secretly the child of the big landowner's son, who doesn't take responsibility for her. And the stolen treasure was actually stolen by the big landowner's other son!
  
  My big dumb realization: this is the plot of The Storied Life of AJ Fikry, which is itself already a paean to great books. I had previously mapped onto A Gentleman in Moscow. But Silas Marner is obviously much more famous than either and it's the kind of thing every English major probably already knows.
  
  I've always thought that if I had to write a novel, I'd just pick a 2nd- or 3rd-tier classic that I know has a good structure, and just reskin it with a new setting and characters. Gratifying to see people really do it!

  an note about Silas Marner, written by George Eliot in 1861

Looking for more recent books? Check out the Personal Timeline.