#Jude the Obscure

[divorcedwife]

designed new covers for books i read this summer (+ a podcast)

[sophsicle]

"but nobody did come, because nobody does" because nobody does you think "this is the moment. this is the moment when the hero appears and I am saved" you think "this is the moment when the music swells" someone will pull me out of the fire. out of the crashing waves. out from under the knife.

and you wait. and you wait. but life has no narrative. it holds no morals. it needs no heroes. “and under the crushing recognition of his gigantic error, Jude continued to wish himself out of the world.”

[derangedrhythms]

The trees overhead deepened the gloom of the hour, and they dripped sadly upon him, impressing him with forebodings - illogical forebodings; for though he knew that he loved her he also knew that he could not be more to her than he was.

Thomas Hardy, from 'Jude the Obscure'

[thewomanwithmissingfingers]

Knowing not a human being here, Jude began to be impressed with the isolation of his own personality, as with a self-spectre, the sensation being that of one who walked but could not make himself seen or heard. He drew his breath pensively, and, seeming thus almost his own ghost, gave his thoughts to the other ghostly presences with which the nooks were haunted.

Jude the Obscure, Thomas Hardy, 1895

[teenaged-athena]

i'm worried that my need for academic validation is reaching the levels seen in jude the obscure

[queeringclassiclit]

Sue Bridehead

from Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy

submitted by anon

[duplicitousdamsel]

Me: feeling sad

Also me: reads Hardy

[shizukoakatsuki-blog]

Maybe reading Jude the Obscure while being already sad wasn't a great idea

[a-book-is-a-garden]

“Knowing not a human being here, Jude began to be impressed with the isolation of his own personality, as with a self-spectre, the sensation being that of one who walked, but could not make himself seen or heard. He drew his breath pensively, and, seeming thus almost his own ghost, gave his thoughts to the other ghostly presences with which the nooks were haunted.”

- Thomas Hardy, “Jude the Obscure”

[angelic37]

Christopher Eccleston spam → part 36/∞

Jude. 1996

[whereintheworldiskamalakhan]

"Take My China" by Gypsy Rebel Rabble

Listen to the whole album in better quality on band camp

Lyrics:

We got wed way too soon Tied the knot without a clue Well you'll never get to heaven with your eyes sewn shut you'll never get to heaven with your eyes sewn shut but right now, I'm in the heat of dismay and we got let go on the move times were tight but we were born to brood (?) Well you'll never get to heaven with your eyes sewn shut you'll never get to heaven with your eyes sewn shut but right now, I'm getting carried away and Captain, put it to me straight how many days without alcohol are you willing to navigate and we stepped down this neck of the woods at 22 you are damaged goods like hell you'll never get to heaven with your eyes sewn shut you'll never get to heaven with your eyes sewn shut but right now it's raining in May and Captain, put it to me straight how many days without alcohol are you willing to navigate I wish he'd never given you away (never given me away) I wish he'd never given you away (never given me away) if I'm honest, I choose freedom and if I'm honest, I choose life if I'm honest, I choose loneliness and I'm honest, it's in my mind if I'm honest, take my china if I'm honest, take my heart if I'm honest, indeed the ocean (?) I'm honest, hold on tight I wish he'd never given you away (never given me away) I wish he'd never given you away (never given me away) I fucking wish he'd never given you away, oh no no I wish he'd never given you away

Listen to the rest of their stuff (all albums on band camp, one album on spotify), they're good:

[scleroticstatue]

Okay, I'm just going to say it. We need to be honest with kids and young adults in high school and college who have ideas for what they want to do with their lives. We need to have school counselors that tell students they won't do well in college, we need to have parents that tell their kids that they actually can't do what they want, we need academic advisors that tell college students they're being stupid about their future. I don't even mean stuff like "they're just not as big a market for gender studies grads as you're hoping," I mean stuff like "hey, you have zero regard for authority, going into a field that requires you to build a relationship of respect and mentorship with a college professor in order to get a PhD is a dumb thing for you to try and attempt. You will spend the whole time making enemies and then getting failed for personal reasons" and "yeah, I know "reasonable accomodation" is a thing, but you are in a wheelchair and being a field underwater achaeologist just isn't going to be a viable career," and "you almost failed algebra three different times, you cannot be a math major." I know it's mean, telling someone now that it's a waste of time for them to do whatever they've got their heart set on, but it's kinder to let people know now that their life path is going to lead them to disappointment and they need to reassess where they're at. The 16-25 age group are idealists and think they can change the world, but they might need to change the world just to be accepted into a field and most kids aren't ready or devoted enough to any particular discipline to do that, and adult guides in the young adult's life should be there to bring them back to reality.

[cobwebs-in-sues-closet]

reading these sentences about oxford while oxford looked like this felt like fate :)

[donlyonewhogetsmep]

Thomas Hardy, from 'Jude the Obscure'

[thewomanwithmissingfingers]

It was curious, he thought. What was he reserved for? He supposed he was not a sufficiently dignified person for suicide. Peaceful death abhorred him as a subject, and would not take him. What could he do of a lower kind than self-extermination; what was there less noble, more in keeping with his present degraded position? He could get drunk. Of course that was it; he had forgotten. Drinking was the regular, stereotyped resource of the despairing worthless.

Jude the Obscure, Thomas Hardy, 1895

[sparklygraves]

reading Brideshead Revisited got me thinking about my own gay college days so I dug up an old diary from that time & am writing poems based on some of the entries. I was in my second year & angsting hardcore over my first love. also writing essays for my english lit classes :P

p.s. if you happen to have done any projects involving your old journals, I’d be curious to learn about them!✨