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这个星期我很忙很累。所以我每天不能写我的日记。星期一我到图书馆去工作很好玩儿。后来我的叔叔来了我家。他给我他的电视。现在我和我丈夫能看电视。星期二我到大学去中国历史课。星期三我又到图书馆去工作。下班我去咖啡馆。我喝一杯咖啡我吃晚饭和我看书了。然后我坐地铁去书店。我跟我丈夫在书店听报告会。这个报告会"Edwardians and Pagan Imagery" 很有意思。后报告会我们一边儿喝酒一边儿聊天儿。我才十一点半回家。星期四我到大学去中文课。我不去我的第二中文课因为我很累。我坐地铁回家去睡觉。今天我到大学去历史课。今天课很有意思。后来我到大学图书馆。我借了三本书。这个周末我得念了这三本书。下个星期我丈夫上工作！我很高兴。他没工作四个月。
I was recommended "The well of Loneliness" by the nice lady who runs the Occult bookshop. She said it was full of misery and allusions, and went on about how terribly depressing it was. I thought is sounded wonderful and said so, and immediatly ordered myself a copy when I got home.
I have to say it is one of the best novels I've read in ages. I loved it so much. I think I don't read nearly enough queer fiction. But this one was really good, it seemed to be everything I was hoping for when reading Sarah Walters or Orlando. I think it helped that the charcter grew up within 10 miles of the village I grew up in. There was a great scene where the main character and her girlfriend were spending the day kissing in the Malverns and when they got home they explained to her husband that they'd been at Tewksbury Abbey and had had trouble with the car. I had a summer job helping to run the Abbey gift shop, and it made me so happy to think of fictional Victorian lesbians using it as an excuse. I think the closeness of the book to where I grew up, and the fact that it was such a difficult place for growing up with any homosexual tendencies, even a century later really hit home. While the main character, Stephen (girl with a boy's name) was realy more what we now term, transgendered, and she termed, invert, than I was. So many of the same things occured in the book that I experienced growing up. In particular the paranoia about people laughing must be laughing at you cause they know your secret. All very well done.
I also liked the fact that though it was terribly tragic, there was always someone there who loved and supported the main character aware of her difficulties. I think it would have been too easy to write the book of the incredibly persecuted person, where things are just terrible and no one understands. But having a sympathetic person made the whole thing seem so much more real and tragic. The prejudices faced by the people who didn't understand just stood out as so much more shocking and horrible.
It made me think how despite everything we've really not come as far in the past 100 years as we'd like to think. I don't think most lesbians, or bisexual women today, would feel the same need to think that women could only be fulfilled by marriage with men. However there still seems to be a need for women to have that security. It seems like lots of women end up settling down and marrying in the end. Society still seems to be full of the same prejudices. Reading this book made me think so much of Brandon Teena and just in the past few months the barman murdered in South London for being gay. I wish I could have seen the characters in the book and told them it was alright as things would get better, but I really don't feel like they have.
But it was an amazing book, tragic and full of allusions, and yet at the same time so real and full of so many interesting characters. I can't believe it's taken me this long to find and read it. But I loved it and would heartily recommend it to anyone interested in the tragic side of queer life and gender issues.
I have to say it is one of the best novels I've read in ages. I loved it so much. I think I don't read nearly enough queer fiction. But this one was really good, it seemed to be everything I was hoping for when reading Sarah Walters or Orlando. I think it helped that the charcter grew up within 10 miles of the village I grew up in. There was a great scene where the main character and her girlfriend were spending the day kissing in the Malverns and when they got home they explained to her husband that they'd been at Tewksbury Abbey and had had trouble with the car. I had a summer job helping to run the Abbey gift shop, and it made me so happy to think of fictional Victorian lesbians using it as an excuse. I think the closeness of the book to where I grew up, and the fact that it was such a difficult place for growing up with any homosexual tendencies, even a century later really hit home. While the main character, Stephen (girl with a boy's name) was realy more what we now term, transgendered, and she termed, invert, than I was. So many of the same things occured in the book that I experienced growing up. In particular the paranoia about people laughing must be laughing at you cause they know your secret. All very well done.
I also liked the fact that though it was terribly tragic, there was always someone there who loved and supported the main character aware of her difficulties. I think it would have been too easy to write the book of the incredibly persecuted person, where things are just terrible and no one understands. But having a sympathetic person made the whole thing seem so much more real and tragic. The prejudices faced by the people who didn't understand just stood out as so much more shocking and horrible.
It made me think how despite everything we've really not come as far in the past 100 years as we'd like to think. I don't think most lesbians, or bisexual women today, would feel the same need to think that women could only be fulfilled by marriage with men. However there still seems to be a need for women to have that security. It seems like lots of women end up settling down and marrying in the end. Society still seems to be full of the same prejudices. Reading this book made me think so much of Brandon Teena and just in the past few months the barman murdered in South London for being gay. I wish I could have seen the characters in the book and told them it was alright as things would get better, but I really don't feel like they have.
But it was an amazing book, tragic and full of allusions, and yet at the same time so real and full of so many interesting characters. I can't believe it's taken me this long to find and read it. But I loved it and would heartily recommend it to anyone interested in the tragic side of queer life and gender issues.
.