...because each immediate step was clogged with evil.

[icepixie]

I finished The Mill on the Floss. Siiiigh. I guess that was the only way to end it, but man, these Victorians. No one escapes unscathed in their novels.

Downer ending aside, I really liked it! It got to be a page-turner by the end, and she has an excellent eye for familial relationships, and writes interesting female characters. I also detected more than a hint of biographically-related bitterness in the "shunned woman" part, and a sort of incipient "rah rah women's rights" kind of feeling that I much appreciated. Maggie is a great character.

(BTW, yes, the subject line is a direct quote. Not, perhaps, one of Eliot's finest clauses. Although it truly amuses me that, instead of the usual meaning of "clogged," i.e., "filled with," I think she means "shod in clogs." CLOGS OF EVIL.)

*

I'd do that sorting hat meme thingy, but really, is there any doubt which House y'all would sort me into? I mean, really? (For that matter, is there much doubt about which house basically all of fandom would be sorted into?)

Comments

[rowdycamels.livejournal.com]

CLOGS OF EVIL.

BWAHAHAHAHHA THOSE SINISTER DUTCH!!!

(For that matter, is there much doubt about which house basically all of fandom would be sorted into?)

*waves a lone badger-y flag*

[rivrea.livejournal.com]

See, I didn't spoil you for the ending! There's quite a bit of heavy foreshadowing, though, with the water symbolism running through the entire novel.

ETA: Ooops. Wrong Victorian woman writer in my icon.

[elflore.livejournal.com]

In regards to an old post...

The Torchwood miniseries (Children of Earth) might be worth a look for your sci-fi class. Regardless of previous experience you might have had or not with Torchwood, it's a stand alone mini...it's very dark (I'm still kind of in shock from the final ep), but brilliantly done, and really gets into how contact between aliens and a human government might go. Plenty of juicy real-world-history parallels and hard moral questions. I think it'd be perfect for class discussion.

[icepixie]

BWAHAHAHAHHA THOSE SINISTER DUTCH!!!

Even their wood is diabolical!

*waves a lone badger-y flag*

You and your badgeriness. *flaps wings*

[icepixie]

There's quite a bit of heavy foreshadowing, though, with the water symbolism running through the entire novel.

I suppose, although I think I only realized it was foreshadowing after the ending came to pass. I was mostly thinking of it in relationship to Adam Bede and Hetty's inability to drown herself. (Oh lord, now I'm thinking of George Eliot serving as counselor to Virginia Woolf, telling her not to drown herself. Brain, why do you do these things?)

[icepixie]

Thanks for the rec. My syllabus really needs to have things cut from it rather than added to it at this point, though, so unfortunately even if I do get around to watching it, I probably won't be able to put it in. :(