The Squeee

I've often wondered why in Jane Austen the interesting new acquaintances of the heroine's age are often men rather than women. If the women are bad, they are petty, malicious, proud and inconstant. If the women are good, they are giggly, unintellectual, sometimes sensible, never really deep or profound. (We're not talking about the heroines themselves). Perhaps Jane Austen preferred the company of men? (We seem to see quotes from her letters favourable things about the gentlemen she met). Was she trying to tell us something by having the heroines be friendlier (in a platonic sense) to men than women? Look at Pride and Prejudice . Miss Bingley is a petty malicious slanderer who thinks she's greater than the less well-off Elizabeth. Charlotte Lucas is sensible but then marries the idiotic Mr Collins. Lady Catherine de Bourgh is a vulgar, arrogant interfering old woman. The only exception is Mrs Gardiner, but she's Lizzie's aunt, so that doesn't count. The ge...

Hello. If you have ever considered submitting a guest review or any other kind of post, to my humble haunt here, now is a great time to get your hands dirty! I'm going to be offline for a few weeks, but I'd still like there to be some posts while I'm gone, if possible. I'm working on writing reviews myself, and so far I've managed to cover six out of nine posts (or twelve, preferably), but if you ever wanted to contribute, now would be a good time, as it gives me time to focus on a bunch of stuff I'll need to sort out in the week ahead. If you have anything you'd like to write, you can email the finished post(s) to blog(at)traxy.co.uk before Friday 21 September, and I'll let you know what date it'll be scheduled for, which will be early- to mid-October. If you've never contributed before, a short blurb about yourself would be great so that you're more than just Random Name. See Guest Posts for examples of previous guest posts. :) Thank...

Smile, you're in a romcom! It seems that Hollywood churns out films these days with little regard for authenticity, class or style. Script and substance are squashed by cheesy lines and outrageous CGI in the rapidly homogenising movie industry. This doesn’t deter cinema goers, who are happy to spend their hard-earned cash on the spiralling price of film tickets, as well as £8 on some puffed up corn, carbonated water and syrup. Yet from time to time, even this monolith of consumerist mediocrity can drop a blooper so bad that the public can’t stomach it. After much research amongst the Blockbuster bone-yard, some truly horrific finds have surfaced. There actually is such a thing as Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2 (2004) which recounts the wacky adventures of infants fighting to save America’s freedom … for the second time. Yes, there was a Baby Geniuses One (1999), which clearly failed to impress viewers any more than its sequel, as the consensus amongst critics is that both mo...

I love the richness of detail in Jane Eyre . Charlotte Brontë weaves Jane’s inner life and her outer surroundings into a tapestry of emotion, physical sensation and contrast. The themes that run throughout the story are both subtle and strong, resulting in a coming-of-age / gothic horror / love story / portrait of integrity that I return to again and again. One theme is that of insight and blindness. Brontë describes many of her characters’ eyes in great detail. Take this quiz to see if you can match the eyes with the character. Who has:

When someone asks me, what is my favorite book, I answer “Wuthering Heights”. In one of the student organization I belong to we have had book-nights a few times. The first time I took this book with me, and someone actually asked, why this book. I just answered, that whenever I move (and as a student, I have moved a lot!), this is the book that always comes with me! My history with “Wuthering Heights” goes back into the year 2002 or 2003, when we had to read it for our English Literature course. It was out from all the libraries so I found one from the antique bookshop, which is great, because now I have my own personal copy =) Since 2004 I have read it every year at least once. Have already done it in 2011 and not long ago in June. I think I still don't know, why exactly I love this book so much! Is it the plot, the characters, the setting, the era or something else. Or perhaps all of these together. I'm not an educated literature aesthete, especially when I'm not read...