#lit professor

[sare11aa11eras]

Selyse Florent Baratheon as a character is just fascinating to me. She’s like 6’5”, she’s a religious zealot AND a late-in-life convert to a foreign religion, in fact she’s very close with the spooky foreign priestess who’s having sex with her husband, she’s severe and her husband is nearly ascetic but she has lots of jewelry and finery, she’s deeply insecure about her appearance, HER SISTER FUCKED THE KING ON HER WEDDING DAY, there’s a non-zero chance she’s going to sacrifice her only child to a fire demon god for like,, basic scouting information, she’s this very cold and prissy wealthy woman unhappy in her marriage— and yet what passion, what fire burns beneath…!

[academic-vampire]

𝙸’𝚖 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚙𝚛𝚘𝚏𝚎𝚜𝚜𝚘𝚛. 𝙰𝚛𝚎 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚝𝚊𝚔𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚖𝚢 𝚌𝚕𝚊𝚜𝚜?

(𝚙.𝚜. 𝙸’𝚖 𝚍𝚎𝚏𝚒𝚗𝚒𝚝𝚎𝚕𝚢 𝚐𝚘𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚘 𝚐𝚎𝚝 𝚏𝚒𝚛𝚎𝚍)

[octaviasdread]

(don’t repost photos)

05.02.24

new modules, new reading lists, and new multi vitamins are doing wonders for my motivation

unlike the professor who released our class details three days ago - our books should arrive on time but how much we can read by next week is…questionable

at least the storms are over. storm isha tik toks were right, battling the wind as a student with no car is really not it

[reverie-quotes]

A problem isn't finished just because you've found the right answer.

— Yoko Ogawa, The Housekeeper and the Professor

[quotespile]

He seemed convinced that children's questions were much more important than those of an adult. He preferred smart questions to smart answers.

Yōko Ogawa, The Housekeeper and the Professor

[thepersonalwords]

To be a philosopher you do not need to be a professor but you do have to love and understand nature.

Debasish Mridha

[possibly-a-table-or-just-gay]

My recent Hobbit hyperfixation has culminated in me writing a Hobbit/LOTR college au of questionable quality. Whether I continue it remains to be seen, but for now enjoy whatever this is.

Edit: there are lil offshoots to this now! 1 2 3 4 5

Also if you want to ask about anything in this au, my ask box is open!!

[sscrambledmeggss]

my literature class is incredibly tiny (there’s only seven people. the professor spent like all of winter break thinking it would be canceled), so what i’m trying to insinuate is: i hope we don’t turn into a tiny pretentious cult and push one of our friends off a cliff during a accidentally snowy day

[burningvelvet]

Ranking all the Brontë novels + briefly reviewing The Professor

I finally finished The Professor by Charlotte Brontë, which means I HAVE COMPLETED ALL THE BRONTË NOVELS, which means I can now rank them. This is a rough order, but brief explanations will be given...

As an aside, bc I don't want to make a separate post for my review of The Professor, but I did note several strong similarities to Jane Eyre (the female lead's description, her elvish comparisons) and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (Hunsden/Huntington as the cynic, although the former is mostly good and the latter mostly bad). Really all the Brontë novels are very similar so there are tons of more common themes I could mention but won't. Also, more references to Scottish besties Walter Scott & Lord Byron!

Now for my official Brontë Book Ranking (which may be subject to change over the years...)

7. Shirley - I would like to revisit this one. There are some great gems in it, and I'm fascinated by the Luddism subject matter. It is also a strong contender for the most feminist Brontë novel and has probably the most in-depth female relationships which does count for something. But it's SO UNNECESSARILY LONG! And often boring! And it took me the longest to finish. So it has to be last.

6. The Professor - this one benefits from not being Shirley. It's also a good attempt at a first novel I think. It has some gems, but it's often boring like Shirley is in my opinion. I thought the main male, Crimsworth, was a bit more exciting to follow than any of the men in Shirley. I actually think Crimsworth is a pretty inspiring figure and I enjoyed his observations and his anti-work rhetoric. Like most Brontë protagonists, he's a teacher who experiences classism, poverty, and oppression, and manages to overcome these things through frugality, faith, love, hope, etc.

5. Agnes Grey - it's hard to get through at times but it's generally worth it and has a strong pay off. I think Anne's writing style is generally enjoyable. It's has a lot of the horror of Wuthering Heights and the lighter parts of Jane Eyre but it lacks Charlotte and Emily's stronger passions and has more of Anne's calm reasoning, faith, and stoicism. That makes it sound more boring than it really is maybe. I also think it's fascinating for being largely semi-autobiographical like Charlotte's works can be. We get to "know" Anne more than we do in Tenant I feel, and I think she's pretty admirable. The bird scene was based on a real experience she had as a governess, and she wrote most of the novel as a rebellious act in her room right after work. All teachers and childcare workers – and really all women and members of the working-class – should take this novel as the cautionary tale it was written to be.

4. Villette - this is the weirdest Brontë novel. Some interesting scenes and characters. Charlotte's last novel shows far more writerly evolution than in Shirley where she was again trying for more progressive social commentary (and mostly succeeded I think) but often fell back into the more sedate or conventional nature that parts of The Professor has (saving Crimsworth's sometimes strong, sassy, rebellious attitude). Villette was written in a strange period of grief for Charlotte and it shows. Villette is basically Jane Eyre's weirder older sister.

3 and 2 are almost tied for me. I have also written about 3, 2, and 1 so much on my blog that I probably won't go into as much detail as I have with the others.

3. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall - shockingly underrated. Hard to get through, but so is Wuthering Heights which it's pretty similar to at times. Radically progressive and daring, it is a strong contender for being the most feminist Brontë novel and the most oriented toward social justice (although they really all are). Brilliant use of mystery and gothic allure with a social realism that was too ahead of its time to fall into the common traps of that genre. Has everything you could want in a Brontë novel.

2. Wuthering Heights - a bomb in your face. Full of passion. Grand drama. What can I say? It's infamous for valid reasons. Never a boring moment, which instantly pushes it to the top of the list for me who am easily bored. I have elaborated on this work very often on my page so I don't feel the need to reiterate everything here but I will say that this novel has basically everything you could want.

1. Jane Eyre - has all the gothic mystery and passion of Wuthering Heights but focuses on fewer characters whose arcs thus feel more personable and fulfilling in my opinion. We get to know Jane and Rochester much more fully than almost any of the other Brontë characters I feel. And it is my love for the characters that really makes this one my favorite Brontë novel as well as one of my favorite tales of all time (whereas Heights is notorious for its unlikeable characters which actually repel many readers from enjoying it). No wonder it's the most adapted and tied with Wuthering Heights for being the most famous (although I think it may have surpassed Wuthering Heights in pop culture at times). I also think there are a lot of really meaningful themes, morals, and subjects that are explored in this novel, which again can be said of all Brontë novels, but it all feels so much more full in this one. The plot itself is also the most well-crafted in my opinion, and it has one of the greatest twists in all of literature/media imo.

[hballegro]

i present; my first viewing of MASH, heavily condensed

all said by me in a server with my friends where they give me a channel where only i speak, because i speak to much

feat; a snip from a real story about alan alda that my anthro professor told me [story happened around the time the movie The Aviator was in the casting stage]

[academic-vampire]

I feel proud of myself as a literature major when my professors ask me to buy books for the classes… but I already own and have read all of the books they call for.

[babzyz]

there was a humanities students event at the pub, so noel begrudgingly left her cardigan at the dorm...

the handsome stranger aka julius created by @venriliz ❤︎

[bedbabayka]

I'm currently on vacation in St. Petersburg, so I don't have time to draw. But hey! I had a free minute to do a sketch in a cafe. Thanks to my brother, he had pens on hand + paper napkins in the cafe.

Sharikov did not take an umbrella to St. Petersburg, and got wet. But Professor Preobrazhensky took an umbrella for a walk.

[reverie-quotes]

Soon after I began working for the Professor, I realized that he talked about numbers whenever he was unsure of what to say or do. Numbers were also his way of reaching out to the world. They were safe, a source of comfort.

— Yoko Ogawa, The Housekeeper and the Professor

[quotespile]

A problem has a rhythm of its own, just like a piece of music. Once you get the rhythm, you get the sense of the problem as a whole, and you can see where the traps might be waiting.

Yōko Ogawa, The Housekeeper and the Professor

[floral-ashes]

Tomás Bogardus and Alex Byrne published their angsty tantrum about my recent MIND article in the pro-eugenics Journal of Controversial Ideas. Their footnote includes a complaint about their paper being rejected from MIND for being shit. The quoted claim sounds accurate...

The article is 50% strawman, 50% flippant, unsupported claims. I am rather puzzled how either of them managed to get advanced degrees in philosophy let alone jobs, if that’s what they consider serious academic work. I guess their standards went down the drain over time?

So much of the paper seems to boil down to something like “if we assume that gender bioessentialism is correct and that gender identity ought to track it, then Ashley’s account is incorrect.” No shit.

Fascinatingly, if you’re willing to make up a theory and attribute it to your rhetorical opponent, it’s pretty easy to disprove. Of course, they don’t even manage to do that.

Their claim that it’s psychologically implausible is more or less based on the fact that I try to account for everyone’s gender identity rather than just reducing gender identity to “I accurately recognized my biological sex” (their preferred approach).