thoughts, like light

mary, 26. literary opinions no one asked for.

[dorotheeabrooke]

Whatever your thoughts on the bbc les mis adaptation, those final scenes when Valjean tells Cosette he’s not worthy of her love, of anybody’s love, are heartbreaking. His expression destroys me (“do you truly love me?” Ughhhhh)

[lipstickfutch-deactivated201703]

[maurevar]

                                                     "    More of a lark than a dove.  "

[dorotheeabrooke]

[spokenworded-deactivated2025080]

Carol (2015) dir. Todd Haynes

[fortonystark]

Anti-Racist Resource Guide

Resource is from victoriaalxndr on Twitter!

[dukeofbookingham-deactivated202]

And consider buying from one of these bookstores:

[dorotheeabrooke]

“Dorothea had gathered emotion as she went on, and had forgotten everything except the relief of pouring forth her feelings, unchecked: an experience once habitual with her, but hardly ever present since her marriage, which had been a perpetual struggle of energy with fear. For the moment, Will’s admiration was accompanied with a chilling sense of remoteness. A man is seldom ashamed of feeling that he cannot love a woman so well when he sees a certain greatness in her: nature having intended greatness for men. But nature has sometimes made sad oversights in carrying out her intention; as in the case of good Mr. Brooke, whose masculine consciousness was at this moment in rather a stammering condition under the eloquence of his niece. He could not immediately find any other mode of expressing himself than that of rising, fixing his eye-glass, and fingering the papers before him.”

George Eliot, ‘Middlemarch’

[avi-why]

every writing tip article and their mother: dont ever use adverbs ever!

me, shoveling more adverbs onto the page because i do what i want: just you fucking try and stop me

[quarter0master]

May I add something, because I will never shut up about this book (Writing Tools by Roy Peter Clark):

[jackironsides]

Finally, some good fucking advice

[jonpertwee]

“Ever” is an adverb, btw.

[loverism-deactivated20230916]

hades x persephone 09.07.18

[riannafinch]

wow the ending of Wuthering Heights was pretty fricked up

[xshayarsha]

Milan Cathedral.

[dorotheeabrooke]

I thought I’d share a few ideas for busting procrastination which I’ve picked up over four years of self-guided PhD work--it’s been a struggle to motivate myself during self-isolation without my usual network of fellow-PhD candidates, academic folk to chat to, etc. Hopefully this is helpful to some other grad students out there! 

- do a short block of work as soon as you wake up, or right after you eat breakfast/drink coffee/whatever your usual morning routine is. The worst thing (for me anyway) is to start by procrastinating or doing something fun, because that throws things off for the rest of the day. I’ll just want to continue doing the “fun” thing. 

- plan your day: this doesn’t have to be a super detailed schedule. I usually write out one or two big-picture goals (e.g. ‘write three paragraphs’, or ‘develop outline for my Dickens chapter’), then break these into tasks which you can work into some sort of schedule. Don’t forget to keep in mind the big picture, e.g. if you’re trying to finish a chapter in two weeks, take that into account in the amount of work you allot to it each day (I am most definitely Not Good at this but struggling my way towards improvement)

- I usually aim to do about 4-7 hours of work per day, and I break this down differently depending on how motivated I feel. For the past couple of days it’s been a real struggle to be productive, so I’ve been doing 30 min work/30 min break to keep things moving. Some other combinations which have worked for me: 

4 x 25 mins (with 5 min breaks) + 30 min break (rinse and repeat)

3 x 30 mins (with 5 min breaks) + 30 min break (rinse and repeat)

If you’re feeling brave, 4 x 60 mins (with 30 min breaks) - I do this if I need to get through all my work in one half of the day.

If anyone else has tips to share, please do!

[imperfectionisbeautym]

[dorotheeabrooke]

I have a theory that Jaime/Cersei shippers like Wuthering Heights while Jaime/Brienne shippers prefer Jane Eyre, hmm!!

[seeliequeene]

Haunt me then be with me always take any form, drive me mad but don’t leave me

[90377]

May God save this chapel by Jérémy RONDAN

[dorotheeabrooke]

Figuring out how to deal with problems in my personal life by re-reading the scene in Middlemarch where Dorothea fights against her (totally justified) anger at Casaubon, and is ultimately able to see beyond herself to *really grasp* what he’s going through, and to feel genuine sympathy for him. There are discomfiting undertones of female self-sacrifice and submission, but it’s also about so much more than that - there’s still a space, I think, for us to learn from it - learn to transcend pettiness and the urge to hurt people who have hurt us, to understand and pity the impulses which motivate small cruelties.