#i was actually thinking of aphra behn when i started this poem

[creatediana]

I ponder what she'd want from me— I know one part is wit, which I possess, debatably; I stole her store of it. But what else of my character? To be an Imogen the men would have me—artless, pure, beneath a father's pen. I don't think I'd be so unwise to be cast in her play, to move before that woman's eyes as I do anyway— But they are drooped. She is long-dead and so are many more. I pluck hairs from her resting bed and other corpses for my wicked, hoary majesties, my poems, mortal, light— look all around these lines. The breeze breathes dust through storied sight. Look for romantic ingenues, and you may painted find their flesh embalmed, with added hues that never crossed a mind. My eyes come not from Cymbeline— the eagle plucked them out. I found some pearls, incarnadine dyed in my husband's doubt. I ponder—do I do enough for women with my arts? Stroll through their graves, unpack their stuff, dissect their carrion hearts, decayed and crumbling in my palms— do I do right by them? Past undegrading them with balms, I paste on pomp and gem.

—"Do It for Her (Self-Aggrandizing Self-Portrait as Imogen)" - a poem written 2/16/2024

[tinydooms]

For the bookish questions: 4, 5, 9, 12, and 31

Okay, @hathor-frozen, prepare yourself for my long-winded answer!

4. Favorite book of all time?

Okay, that is a tough ask! I don’t have one single favorite book, but I do have what I refer to as my “travelling companions”, the books that come with me when I move countries, and they are:

“Chocolat” by Joanne Harris

“Tamsin” by Peter Beagle

“Gaudy Night” by Dorothy L. Sayers

“84 Charing Cross Road” by Helene Hanff

“Howl’s Moving Castle” by Diana Wynne Jones

“Letters to a Young Poet” by Rainer Maria Rilke

“The Collected Ghost Stories of M.R. James” ed. Oxford University Press

5. Least favorite book of all time?

“Pride and Prejudice”! 

Not because it’s a bad or stupid story-it’s not-but because I am SO ENTIRELY DONE with Western culture’s obsession with this ridiculous book. I fell into the P&P trap of NOT UNDERSTAND WHAT THE STORY ACTUALLY IS thanks to countless variations of this story, and it led me into some truly toxic relationships where I was convinced that since we didn’t like each other, it must mean we were Soulmates. Give me “Sense and Sensibility” any day. 

9. An author/s you like/love?

Dorothy L. Sayers is my spiritual sister; I love and admire everything about this woman. 

M.R. James wrote ghost stories so amazing that I kept calling my friends to scream my excitement when I first read them. Masterpieces, all of them. 

Joanne Harris taught me how to weave physical sensation into a story, so that the scene is round and full and lifelike. She also writes ripping good yarns.

Diana Wynne Jones writes about ordinary people dealing with completely ridiculous situations, and still manages to make her stories of life and death comfortable, like going out with good friends.

12. How many books do you read in a year?

According to my ledger (I keep a book ledger), I’ve read 65 books so far this year (2017). In 2016 I read 105 and in 2015 I read 112, but keep in mind that I was in grad school here, so I was reading rather more than I normally do. In 2014, when I first started the ledger, I read 82, so I think it’s fair to say I put away about that many books per year.

31. Do you read ‘classics’?

Yes, absolutely. I’ll read just about anything, if it strikes my fancy. Standouts this year are “Sense and Sensibility” and “A Christmas Carol” (guess what movie I’m prepping for?), but I’ve also read a lot of literary criticism and biography/memoir (’Howard’s End Is On The Landing” and “The Man Who Invented Christmas” are standouts) this year, and I’m working my way through Dorothy L. Sayers’ books on theology and feminism and am starting in on G.K. Chesterton’s collected short stories. I’ve also been reading a bit of John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester’s erotic poetry, and poems and plays by Aphra Behn, as background reading for my BATB fics. Basically, if it strikes my fancy, I’ll read it, and right now I am hot and heavy into a strange mix of seventeenth century poetry and interwar fiction.

Anyone else want me to lecture them about my read habits? ;-)

[nellygwyn]

you are LITERALLY nell gwyn, it's scary (in a good way)

Evidence that I’m Nell Gwynn reincarnated:

Me and her are the same height. Smol. I think that’s what made her so funny because she’s this tiny full figured woman cracking jokes about cock (BIG MOOD)

Charles II was 6ft5 so massively taller than her, and my Beau is massively taller than me in very much the same way. SO.

“Her cheeks were dimpled when she laughed and her face alive with mischief. Her portraits too reveal something more profound in those large, melting eyes: the melancholy of the jester.” dat me.

‘But everything about her was perfectly rounded, including her plump cheeks, where two dimples appeared when she smiled. As for her full lower lip, it aroused this tribute from a contemporary admirer: ‘An out-mouth that makes mine water at it.’ DAT ME

Literally always had her tits out in some capacity and like? MOOD. Have you seen Stage Beauty? “I’d take yer hand but my tit’d fall out” she says. ME TOO.

Richard Flecknoe wrote her a poem as a thank you for starring in one of his plays and called it “On a Pretty, Little Person” (Absolutely Me) and it starts like “She is pretty and she knows it and she is witty and she shows it. And besides that she’s so witty, and so little and so pretty, she has a hundred other parts for to take and conquer hearts” SO JOT THAT DOWN BECAUSE THAT’S ME

Uncouth and crass and inappropriate but utterly charming because of it (dare I say….me)

Schooled in the art of sex, wit and pleasure by Rochester and you know what? Me too.

Actually interrupted an ACTUAL politically important meeting between Charles and his ministers to parade herself in front of him (Charles) and ask him to give her a DAMN good seeing to right that second. Which of course, he did because like…..Nell. Anyway, mood. Anglo-Dutch Wars who? I WANT MY P*SSY ATE GODDAMMIT. TELL THE PRINCE OF ORANGE AND THE DE WITT BROTHERS TO TAKE A DAMN RAINCHECK.

ALWAYS DOING IMPRESSIONS OF MEN WHEN THEY ACTED SILLY

Not perfect by any stretch of the imagination; in fact, she could be jealous and spiteful as a consequence and same tbh. Still a “Tart with a Heart” though.

Charged men money to watch her get changed when she was still on the stage. A Diva. A Visionary.

BFFLs with Aphra Behn and that’s goals

Only things that aren’t the same is the fact that she apparently had AMAZING legs, like Charles used to buy her Rhinegrave skirts (the divided, revealing dresses) so he could see them and when she was on the stage, in her foppish clothing, men would go a bit dippy when she rolled across the stage and her skirts went flying so they could see……stuff. But mainly her legs. I ain’t #blessed like that. Also, her hair was reddish whereas mine is pretty much black. Still, when she reincarnated into the body of an awkward, chubby 21st century sin-bin, she couldn’t COMPLETELY assume her previous guise. So give her a break.

Nell = Me. Confirmed