380 – chapters 5–6 – Sense & Sensibility

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Heather

Mother, knitter, spinner, writer, wife, weaver, host...not necessarily in that order...

8 Responses

  1. Caroline says:
    April 14, 2015 at 9:37 am

    Ooh look– “In ‘The Decay of Lying–An Observation’ (1889, rev. 1891), Oscar Wilde writes that ‘the transformation of Dr Jekyll reads dangerously like an experiment out of The Lancet.'” I found that in a JSTOR article sample that came up in Google.

    • Heather says:
      April 16, 2015 at 10:55 am

      SWEET! I just found another parallel in this week’s episode, too!

      • Caroline says:
        April 19, 2015 at 7:50 pm

        SPOILER ALERT!!–(You have been warned)

        Just listened to the end – sort of a funny obverse of J&H – in that book, Jekyll killed himself to stop Hyde from continuing to do bad things, in this book Dorian killed himself by accident while attempting to kill his ‘Hyde’ character because he blamed him for everything – blamed a piece of canvas with paint on it for the things he’s done. So Jekyll was self-aware and Dorian was self-deluding, at the last. I found the parallel the more interesting because of how the two were different. I can’t help but think that Wilde knew what he was doing not only in echoing J&H but in changing the character’s intention as he comes to the same result.

  2. Caroline says:
    April 13, 2015 at 7:45 pm

    Hi Heather, I just already today called the voice mail and left you a comment about Dorian so I won’t burden you again – besides, I need to leave you a link. I hope it will come through. Fanny Dashwood LIVES TODAY– http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/04/03/missouri-republicans-are-trying-to-ban-food-stamp-recipients-from-buying-steak-and-seafood/?tid=sm_tw

    It’s definitely not just a UK thing. I’ve been hearing since I was a child about how if you go to “the ghetto” (wherever that is) all you see is expensive cars (this from republican Reagan worshippers who probably had never seen a ghetto). When Fanny said that basically women with such a small income shouldn’t have anything nice, I knew right away that she’s alive and well and living in the USA.

    • Heather says:
      April 13, 2015 at 8:00 pm

      Good grief.
      I thought we were past the “Welfare Queen” garbage. I swear, every time I think we’ve grown up and gotten some compassion I’m always reminded that no… not so much.
      This is what happens from hanging out with CraftLit people all the time. I’m always shocked by appallingly nasty (and illogical) behavior.
      Sigh.

      And I did get the voicemail.
      You beat me to the next chapter’s “punch” – so I’ll lead with your recording if that’s okay.
      ; )

      • Caroline says:
        April 14, 2015 at 7:26 am

        Sure… And when I said ‘conventional’ in the voice mail, I think I meant not so much conformist, as unexpectedly Golden-Rule – not what I anticipated from Wilde after everything that’s been going on. It makes me think of Jekyll and Hyde too – Dorian has been sort of a Jekyll+Hyde character, but Hyde was never redeemed and Jekyll killed him. Will Dorian be redeemed?? Was Wilde a fan of “Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde?”

        • Heather says:
          April 14, 2015 at 7:30 am

          Ooh! Excellent question! I’ll dig around. He certainly should have known OF it (and Stevenson was From Edinburgh -I think- so they would both have come from that ‘outsider’ perspective).
          You can see after 18 (and this week) why I think it’s a remarkably ‘moral’ book from someone who said it wasn’t possible for a book to be so.
          I lurves me my Oscar. What a Whitmanesque “I am vast. I contain multitudes” man.

          • Caroline says:
            April 14, 2015 at 9:25 am

            I’m sure you’re finding a lot. A google of ‘oscar wilde jekyll hyde’ turned up a bunch, so I have not had an original thought here!