Whether I was more or less than I had been, I couldn't decide: but I felt I was cast for a new role. Ch.6 #sinners #goodness #church #stillalive

Totally hear Diana Athill's interesting maternal art-loving aunt say that to the young Diana. #NYRBWomen26 "Gently, diffidently, she dropped crumbs of poetry or romanticism or liberal opinion along their paths for them to pick up if they cared to." Ch.12 #DianaAthill Instead of a Letter #Aunts

#TheBard_ProblemPlays Day 50, 2/18- Act V s6 "AJAX. Troilus, thou coward Troilus, show thy head!" to end of scene, HECTOR. Why, then fly on, I'll hunt thee for thy hide. [Exit, in pursuit.] #Troilus_2026

@thomasliam300.bsky.social To read after our read!

Hope my copy has a glossary too! Excited to see what else is up Hoban's sleeve, besides jam-eating badgers and turtle-admirers in London!

She was in a strange, exalted mood, and so was I; and I thought that somehow our elations came from the same source. Ch.4 #TheGoBetween (1953) by LP Hartley #Interloper looks back upon his first foray into this exalted world of Marian.

#Troilus_2026 V,4,19-21 DIOMEDES Thou dost miscall retire: I do not fly; but advantageous care Withdrew me from the odds of multitude. William Shakespeare

I like your "scaled sculls" - my edition has "scaled schools".

#TheBard_ProblemPlays Day 49, 2/17- Act V s4 "THERSITES. Now they are clapper-clawing one another" to end sc.; Act V s5 "DIOMEDES. Go, go, my servant, thou Troilus' horse." to end sc., ACHILLES. Know what it is to meet Achilles angry. Hector! Where's Hector? I will none but Hector. #Troilus_2026

"With a shameful, accepting humility I saw that I was diseased in other people's eyes: that unhappiness was not a misfortune but a taint." ch.11 In these circles, in her family. How awful. #NYRBWomen26 #DianaAthill Instead of a Letter

On ch. 4 now and LOVING it- So far, reminds me of part of Great Granny Webster (1977)! #Blackwood This #Athill first memoir was published in 1962.

Raised on these lyrics in NYC, I couldn't help but be charmed by Blue Moon, especially Andrew Scott's Richard Rodgers & Patrick Kennedy's E.B White.

CASSANDRA. It is the purpose that makes strong the vow, But vows to every purpose must not hold. Unarm, sweet Hector. Act V s3 #TheBard_ProblemPlays #Troilus_2026 #Cassandra

@literaturesc.bsky.social 🕊️ M. Silverblatt WKCR show "Bookworm" "...[his] approach [was to] read the book he was discussing on his show that day, [and] also the entire oeuvre of the authors he interviewed. ... David Foster Wallace, in one interview, said he wanted Silverblatt to adopt him."

#Troilus_2026 V,3,25-28 HECTOR Hold you still, I say. Mine honour keeps the weather of my fate: Life every man holds dear, but the dear man Holds honour far more precious-dear than life.

Go, wind, to wind! There turn and change together. My love with words and errors still she feeds, But edifies another with her deeds. [Exeunt.] (2/2)

#TheBard_ProblemPlays Day 48, 2/16- Act V s3 "ANDROMACHE. When was my lord so much urgently tempered" to end of scene, TROILUS. Words, words, mere words, no matter from the heart; Th'effect doth operate another way. [He tears the letter and tosses it away.] cont. (1/2) #Troilus_2026

And wonderful to hear the actual voices of "old" book friends & to meet "new" book friends! I've already ordered a used copy of "Ridley Walker" and "Selected Short Stories of S.T.W." And awaiting the paperback for "Little World" (love stories about saints and would-be saints). 😀

#McCullers #Woolfpack #Woolf #Synesthesia

Loved chatting about #LollyWillowes with you & everyone today! Thanks so much for organizing, book recs, & everything!!! @joiedevivre9.bsky.social

CRESSIDA Troilus, farewell! one eye yet looks on thee, But with my heart the other eye doth see. . . . this fault in us I find, The error of our eye directs our mind. What error leads must err: O, then conclude Minds swayed by eyes are full of turpitude. #Troilus_2026 Act V s2 (105-108)

While you can still love- For there is no tomorrow. (3/3)

I used to love swinging. ... I'd think about all the happy scenes from my childhood, as if they were part of a Schumann suite. But now, sitting on the swing, what came to mind was Kurasawa's Ikiru. Life is fleeting Fall in love, maidens While your crimson lips haven't yet faded (2/3)

as man's chivalric aspirations repeatedly dissolve into the sordid insinuations of Thersites or Pandarus. Despite the play's epic machinery, the gods are nowhere to be found. (2/2)

#TheBard_ProblemPlays TROILUS & CRESSIDA continues on 2/16- Epic similes adorn the formal speeches of Ulysses, Agamemnon, & Nestor. The rhetoric of persuasion plays an important role, as in Julius Caesar & other Roman plays. Epic convention becomes hollow travesty (1/2) #Troilus_2026 #Shakespeare

passengers had reappeared on the American coast in Virginia. Even more spectacular was the news of where the survivors had been all this time: on the Bermuda Islands, where, as everyone knew, witches and devils lived, who had used terrible magic to thwart every attempt by ships to land there. 3

Early #MelvilleMonday 🐳 A hurricane inspires Shakespeare to write „The Tempest“ — August 4, 1609 A terrible storm raged over the sea. In 1610, news circulated in London about the Sea Venture, a magnificent sailing ship that had been lost. It was said that almost the entire crew and 2+

#TheBard_ProblemPlays Day 47, 2/15- Act V s2 "DIOMEDES. What, are you up here, ho? Speak.? to end of scene, THERSITES. A burning devil take them! [Exit] #Troilus_2026 (1/2)

#TheBard_ProblemPlays Day 46 2/14- Act V s1 "ACHILLES. I'll heat his blood with Greekish wine tonight" to end of scene, THERSITES. Nothing but lechery! All incontinent varlets! #Troilus_2026

HECTOR (to Achilles) O, like a book of sport thou’lt read me o’er; But there’s more in me than thou understand’st. #Troilus_2026 Act IV s5 (239-240) #TheBard_ProblemPlays

#Troilus_2026 HECTOR The end crowns all; And that old common arbitrator, Time, Will one day end it.  IV,5,223-225 #TheBard_ProblemPlays

#TheBard_ProblemPlays Day 45, 2/13- Act IV s5 from 150 "AJAX. If I might in entreaties find success--" to end of scene, TROILUS. She was beloved, she loved; she is, and doth. But still sweet love is food for fortune's tooth.

How indeed is it possible for one human being to be sorry for all the sadness that meets him on the face of the earth, for the pain that is endured not only by men, but by animals and plants, and perhaps by the stones? E. M. Forster A Passage to India (finished)

"Since 1850, human & domesticated mammal populations have grown rapidly. During the same period, the total biomass of wild mammals decreased by more than 2-fold." www.nature.com/articles/s41...

@literaturesc.bsky.social perhaps one of these days...

#fate #humility #Middlemarch #GeorgeEliot

#SasanquaCamellia #Moms #Walks #GeorgeEliot

HECTOR. Of our rank feud. But the just gods gainsay That any drop thou borrow'dst from thy mother, My sacred aunt, should by my mortal sword Be drained! Let me embrace thee, Ajax. ...Cousin, all honor to thee! (2/2)

#TheBard_ProblemPlays Day 44, 2/12- Act IV s5 "AGAMEMNON. Here art thou in appointment fresh and fair" to 149, "HECTOR. We'll answer it; The issue is embracement. Ajax, farewell. [They embrace.]" #Troilus_2026 (1/2)

#NYRBWomen26 Instead of a Letter - Diana Athill "In the 'thirties anyone who had had her shell cracked for her and was not a moron could hardly read the papers without veering to the left."

Shakespeare continues to surprise me- this scene sounds very post-modern.

How to live fully – Ursula K. Le Guin's remedy for our resistance to change www.themarginalian.org/2025/12/23/l...

Marriage, says Beauvoir, is a destiny assigned to women by traditional society. ... She had to sever ties with the past & join the galaxy ruled by her husband, relinquishing the right to go out into the universe & shine on her own. #XiXi Mourning a Breast (1992) #NYRBWomen26 #CatchingUp 📚 #Essays

about any book I recommend to her perusal. ... And what a pretty smile Janet always had! Poor thing, she keeps that now for all her old friends." (2/2) Last story in Scenes of Clerical Life (1857) Reminds me of other PYW in history & literature. And youtu.be/7i5kiFDunk8?... #EmeraldFennell

"...for I certainly did consider Janet Raynor the most promising young woman of my acquaintance; --a little too much lifted up, perhaps, by her superior education, and too much given to satire, but able to express herself very well indeed (1/2) #GeorgeEliot Janet's Repentance #Shepperton 📚

CRESSIDA. O, you shall be exposed, my lord, to dangers As infinite as imminent! But I'l be true. ... TROILUS. And sometimes we are devils to ourselves, When we will tempt the frailty of our powers, Presuming on their changeful potency. ... With truth and plainness I do wear mine bare. IV.4 (2/2)

#TheBard_ProblemPlays Day 43, 2/11- Act IV s4 "PANDARIS. Be moderate, be moderate." to end of scene, AENEAS. The glory of our Troy doth this day lie On his fair worth and single chivalry. (1/2) #Troilus_2026 #Steadfastness #Loyalty