On Mar 25, 8:21 pm, Jerry Bauer <use...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> On Tue, 25 Mar 2008 20:10:46 -0700, Veronique wrote
> (in article
> <fe26227d-4244-4f05-abf8-268141090...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>):
>
>
>
> > On Mar 25, 7:27 pm, UaNe...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
wrote:
> >> On Mar 25, 9:02 pm, Dover Beach <moon.blanc...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
> >>> I'm looking at the list of 100 books, and I'm thinking that although
> >>> I've read some of them (I couldn't be arsed to count) I read them a
long
> >>> time ago. And you know why?
>
> >>> Because I can't focus on anything anymore. Here is my reading so
far
> >>> this afternoon, after I got the taxes to the CPA. I started by
> >>> wondering about the book S**** Pit. Can't remember what triggered
it.
> >>> Oh, yes I do -- I heard a recording of Sylvia Plath reading her poem
> >>> Daddy on some XM channel. So I started thinking about crazy chicks
and
> >>> political analyses of crazy chicks.
>
> >>> So I used one of my gray-market library cards and found a 1979
article
> >>> about the difference between the movie and the novel (S**** Pit,
that
> >>> is), analyzed in political/feminist terms. The woman who wrote
S****
> >>> Pit was sort of lefty and it was unclear whether that was partly why
she
> >>> had been committed. That article made reference to the Children's
> >>> Bureau publication from 1914 called Infant Care. So I read that.
Well,
> >>> partway. It got boring about how to fold diapers. I got through at
> >>> least 10 pages, though. I noticed that Julia C. Lathrop was the head
of
> >>> the Children's Bureau. In 1914? A woman was head of a gov't agency
in
> >>> 1914? So I looked her up and it turns out I really should have
known
> >>> about her because she was in with the Jane Addams/Alice Hamilton
> >>> Hull-House crowd.
>
> >>> So back to my online library account. I looked up Julia Lathrop and
> >>> found some correspondence between her and a working class woman from
> >>> right around 1914-15 and it was just riveting, and heart-breaking,
> >>> because I swear conditions for poor women in Chicago have actually
> >>> gotten worse in the last 100 years. Then I got led off into a
puzzler
> >>> about the Progressive Movement and the conflict between the radicals
and
> >>> the reformers, and found some material that described the criticisms
of
> >>> the Settlement House programs, which were assimilative and promoted
hard
> >>> work and sobriety and a bunch of other conservative, unpopular
stuff.
>
> >>> Then I needed some M&Ms and I thought about how I really probably
would
> >>> have been better off if I had just sat down and ground my way
through
> >>> some more of Plath's poems, and just thought about those, but my
head
> >>> just constantly explodes and with teh Intarweb being universally
> >>> available I now cannot stay focused on anything.
>
> >>> I'm sorry, what were you saying?
>
> >> Yes. I'm not much for abstaining from anything in an organized way,
> >> but lately I've been staying offline for the bulk of the day, just
> >> checking email and surfing a bit once in the morning. It's been a
> >> great victory. Though I've been feeling more like being outside in
> >> the sun, doing some sort of physical something rather than reading a
> >> book. The other day I spent the whole damn day driving around not
> >> buying a boat, which was another great victory, of a sorts.
>
> >> Huh. I wasn't even trying to ramble, there. It's worse than I
> >> thought.
>
> > I planted tomatoes. Did I mention that?
>
> I thought you talked with a nun.
What?
V.
--
Veronique Chez Sheep
|
