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alias grace meta: dr jordan & grace’s dynamic

I McFreaking love what they did with the dynamic between these two characters because it’s subversive on so many levels.

on the one hand we get a traditional historical fiction “romance” set-up–both attractive, young, single, conducting intimate and long conversations in a sitting room with equal parts civility and a simmering something underneath.

but then you have layers of power dynamics along different dichotomies: man/woman, doctor/patient, prisoner/free man, object/subject. Not to mention class. Doctor Jordan is a member of the bourgeoisie, well-educated, and has been afforded every privilege in life. Meanwhile, Grace is a working-class immigrant who grew up in poverty. (On a side note, I greatly enjoyed Grace’s sly aside regarding Jordan’s inquiry into throwing away people’s shit in the privy.)

The power dynamics are fragile, though. And I would argue, they flip, or are in flux.

The thing is, where Dr. Jordan finds Grace fascinating, Grace finds Dr. Jordan relatively transparent. She manipulates him easily because of this. He wants “forbidden knowledge” of her–both in a spiritual, mental, and physical sense. Grace is a great mystery to him. But he’s just a another man to her. Sure, he’s a doctor and has theories and ideas. But he also wants to fuck her, just like so many other men she’s encountered in life. Grace knows this. She speaks to this fact during her hypnosis session through the dark veil (”through a mirror, darkly.”) Grace reveals him, humiliates him, and shows the extent to which she has him figured out. She says it later too, in her letter to him eleven years on, how his morbid fascination and sexual desire tangled together, just like with her husband Jamie, just like with the “doctors” who raped her in the asylum.

On another note, throughout the show we see Dr. Jordan slowly slipping, losing control. Grace, on the other hand, stays in control of her narrative. The slippage within it, the multiple identities, one could argue that it, too, is part of her theater and performance of her own story.

As Grace transforms further into metaphor, obscurity, multiplicities–the forbidden fruit, the tree of knowledge of good and evil, Dr. Jordan becomes more and more humanized. Adam. Falling from grace. Note the scene where we see Jordan rutting the landlady into the carpet, putting his dick away, and saying “I wish that was someone else.” This scene shows an aspect of the Doctor that Grace observed early-on, namely, that he’s just another angry, horny man who treats women like shit.

(Also, note how Jordan treats other women in the narrative that he’s not attracted to!!)

The subject/object dichotomy is the most in flux between them. Indeed, Grace is his subject and it is her subjectivities that fill his notebooks. She is also an object though–her beauty and her body are coded as highly feminine and beautiful by many of the male characters in the narrative (see: Kinnear’s description of her “Grecian profile” and “blush.”) Jordan is also patronizing toward her in his dreams (him, wrapping his coat around her) and in reality (Grace, fainting, Jordan rushing to her aid.) But Dr. Jordan also functions as her subject. Just as he’s studying her, she’s studying him. She gauges he wants to hear, how he reacts, and adjusts accordingly. She wants to understand the truth he’s seeking from her (perhaps subconsciously) and then delivers it to him.

How does Dr. Jordan function for Grace then? I would argue he becomes someone for her to pass the time–an amusement. Someone she can craft stories for. Indeed, Grace is the Scheherazade of this story, and Dr. Jordan is the bewitched and enthralled Sasanian king. And Grace herself is an allegory for storytelling and narratives, holding multiple identities and truths within her, needing to be told and witnessed/heard. (This is stated at some point in the show–her need and desire to be witnessed and heard.) This is one way I would concede Dr. Jordan differs from other men in her life. He wants to hear her story, and not from papers or other people, but from her own mouth. (Unfortunately he doesn’t realize he’s getting played to some extent.)

And the power dynamics do flip in the end. Dr. Jordan becomes a literal prisoner to his own mind and body, first after his depressive spiral after parting with Grace and then from his subsequent injury in the war. Grace, on the other hand, gains her freedom.

I might write more on this just because I have SO MANY THOUGHTS but do you guys agree? disagree? have things to add?

Also: I’m very curious about the moment when Grace offers to show Jordan the scar on her chest from when she fainted while in court. Was she testing him? Was she offering something to him?

akajustmerry

friend sent me an Instagram reel yesterday with 1000s of likes that was basically like "pride and prejudice is timeless actually because it's about an autism4autism romance 🥰" and then the creator proceeded to cite moments in the book and film where Lizzie and Darcy are "socially awkward" and....listen. I'm far from an Austen scholar, but I have taught Austen novels as an educator and this kind of psycho-pop analysis that views characters as individuals with autonomy over their actions, rather than tools in a story written at a particular time to say something about that time, pisses me off more than I can say without sounding like an asshole. I'm sorry but Darcy isn't rude and awkward and even cruel to Lizzie because he has autism, he says and does those things because he's a wealthy upper class land owning man raised to see a middle class woman from a large family with no male heirs like Elizabeth as inherently beneath him which he expresses to her multiple times because it is socially acceptable for him to do so in a society where someone like him is privileged above almost all others. He is "socially awkward" around her because of misogyny and classism (PREJUDICE) and she is "socially awkward" around him because a woman of her standing at that time simply wouldn't have had much to do with the gentry but to actually push back against the shit that Darcy says would be social suicide for her whole family so she protests the only way she can which is refusing his advances (PRIDE). not to be the "context collapse is the death of media literacy" guy. But this is the problem with the kind of head empty, let people enjoy things, if I can't relate to it what's the point type crowd. Youse think you're being so quirky justifying incoherent and anachronistic interpretations with your rampant individualism, ensuring that other people never confront anything that challenges them in these stories like patriarchal misogyny and classism. Pride and Prejudice becomes an "autism4autism romance", completely undermining the historical context of its status as one of the great social satires about the class and gender politics that Austen so expertly observed around her. This attitude is why we have nonsensical historical dramas that actively hate history like fucking edgy bdsm "Wuthering Heights", Bridgerton, The Buccaneers, and even a 2025 Frankenstein movie where the monster is just misunderstood and does no wrong uwu etc. because individual relatability and catharsis is king over anything actually saying anything about anything now. Everything is relatable and nothing is meaningful.

animentality

striders

the other day i saw a tiktok of a woman talking about how her hyper-militant abusive parents would sometimes punish her by “taking away her name” and referring to her as a prisoner number. genuinely terrible stuff, obviously. but i skimmed the comments and. listen. i truly DO NOT mean to dunk too hard on this person, like they could be a kid or something, but.

just. breathtaking. imagine if your primary reference for the concept of the un-personing of prisoners was (check notes) a book series about owls.

saleensundria9

This is why it's important to Include stuff like this in fiction, especially ya fiction. It can be a lot of sheltered and/or indoctrinated children, in the case of a lot of rural "Christians", first introduction to these types of concepts in a way they can understand.

I don't think there's anything weird or shameful about it. Knowledge is knowledge, regardless of where it came from.

a-polite-melody

derinthescarletpescatarian

I was once listening to one of the ten billion animorphs podcasts out there, with two hosts, one who'd read Animorphs as a kid and one who was reading it for the first time as an adult. For those who don't know, Animorphs is a war story in which a handful of children have to secretly hold off an alien invasion until the "good" aliens arrive to save Earth. It starts off with fairly clear-cut Bad Species of aliens and Good Species of aliens but as the series goes on it becomes clear that there is no such thing as a good, clean or glorious war, that a clean Good Side and a clean Bad Side is usually propoganda, that heroism is a matter of circumstance and that war will chew up and spit out even the victorious; there are no winners in war, just the side that lost less.

It's a lot, for books aimed at eleven year olds who want to read about kids turning into fun animals.

On the podcast, the two (American) hosts happened to get onto the topic of the post-9/11 Iraq War and their reactions to it. They were both children at the time and as such could not be expected to have particularly nuanced views of US military policy. The person who hadn't read Animorphs was unsurprised by the declaration of war; that's what you did. Someone attacks America, America goes to war. That's how a country protects itself, through military revenge. The Animorphs fan, about the same age, had been devastated and against the war from the start. War was a Big Deal and, while sometimes unavoidable, should be a last resort; a lot of people were going to die, and a lot more were going to get hurt, and no matter how the war shook out it was still going to be horrible. They attributed this perspective, of course, to the series that had taught them about the horrors endemic to war in an engaging way at such a young age -- to Animorphs.

That's what kid fiction is for.

archaeo-geek

A while ago, when I was with my mother overnight in the hospital while she was dying, at times I thought about a book by Tamora Pierce that I first read as an 13-year-old, which included a character sitting with his friend as she was dying. It was my first personal experience with death, but I felt less alone, and felt like I understood my emotions a bit better, because I had seen what that character had felt and gone through.

Kid fiction stays relevant to new adult experiences, too.

mysharona1987

stuffaboutminneapolis

Minneapolis 💪❤

alunaloverworld

anouchard

Well, they say printers can sense fear.

dearausten

nah cause the fact that jane austen wrote a character like emma woodhouse is still insane to me. she threw all the standards out the window and was like hey, here’s this incredibly complex and nuanced character, she’s selfish, privileged, manipulative and arrogant, but she’s also really fucking kind, she would do anything for those she loves (including sacrificing a lot of her liberties), she is able to admit that she’s made a mistake and grow from it, because those things are not mutually exclusive. and i think the reason why everyone is trying to girlbossify their heroines to make them like lizzie bennet (which is an insult to her character but that’s another story) is because they’re scared to write characters like emma. which is understandable, because she’s unlikeable-ish, and they don’t want to take that risk.

honestly the way jane wrote emma is IMPECCABLE and not everyone can pull it off, but i wish female characters with actual flaws were more popular.

ub-sessed

I am going to take a heroine whom no-one but myself will much like. [on starting Emma]

--J. E. Austen-Leigh, A Memoir of Jane Austen (1926 ed.)

greenishness

As part of her social media detox this girl on YouTube made herself do one hour of understimulating tasks every day and she just counted rice for 60 minutes straight because its no different from doomscrolling in terms of wasted time

greenishness

When I say this changed my life. Every time I'm on my phone I ask myself Is this different from counting rice for one hour ? and if the answer is no I go find something else to do. It works well because it's not about conforming to productivity standards or about moralizing digital hobbies it's just an honest reflection on whether tomorrow I will be glad I spent my time this way and then acting accordingly. The rice paradigm

snarlmalden

The portrayal of white people who have been violently separated from their own culture stealing the power of black culture and music to try to get reconnected was SO literal and somehow not at ALL heavy-handed or trite. Fkn remarkable.

jollyreginaldrancher

Sister Michael could have handled the yellowjackets but coach Ben could not handle the Derry Girls

franklinwvixen

The Wilderness would have sniped Sister Michael immediately she's too powerful. A good bracing hike to safety and then it would be a legal drama about the parents suing the shit out of the school and the flight charter company.

licenseddoctor

Hey kid you want a job?

Great get online and go to a job board. Indeed, Linkedin whatever. Now you're gonna search for a role that's in your city, fits your qualifications, and doesn't seem like a bad time.

See that easy apply button? Don't hit it they just throw those in the trash. Now you're gonna want to go to the company's website and check their careers page.

Oh? That job doesn't exist anymore. Cool go back to the job board and find another one.

Great you found another job, you're on the company's career page and the job exists!! So you're going to need to make an account on the career page website. They're using Workday, the same site as the last job you applied for? Who cares? You need to make another account for THIS job's workday page.

Now you're going to upload your resume. That'll autopopulate about 15 boxes with everything on your resume, except formatted wrong and with tons of errors. So just go through and painstakingly check the dates on all of that and rewrite everything you already laid out in an aesthetically pleasing format on your resume.

Ok time for the cover letter, explain why this specific job and company are deeply important to you. You love their mission statement and wouldn't even laugh if their ceo was gunned down in the street. You'll really want to reiterate the things you just spent the last 20 minutes filling out on the resume section

(Remember to include language from the job description, people who work in HR are lower than dogs and they need patterns or they get confused.) Write about a page, but hey don't sound too desperate or robotic this is where they judge your character!

Maybe add your portfolio site at the end here, who knows if that helps no one has ever clicked mine haha.

Anywayyy time to hit apply! Congrats! You'll see that confirmation email come in and you should be getting the rejection letter in about 2 weeks. Unfortunately your resume didn't have the right buzzwords and the AI auto rejected you :(

Time to start again and try not to kill yourself!

your-werewolf-boyfriend

Listen to me

Listen very closely

The above is exactly why half of my friends come to me, and cry they're suffering, and I get to bestow my job hunting knowledge on them. I love this shit, it's a game.

For credentials my fastest job hunting time has been 1 week. I searched for 1 week, got an interview, and was hired within a week. My slowest was 1 month, while out of work, while telling ALL my interviewers that I quit my work without notice (I was testing my interviewers to see how shocked they'd get when I'd tell them why, anyone who wasn't shocked I would tell them at the end that I will keep them in mind (not)). My entire average is 2-3 weeks.

Firstly, what you're gunna do is pick a job sector. You're gunna pick a few of these by the end, but for now pick one. Maybe you wanna do bookkeeping, maybe you wanna do something in doggy daycare. Maybe you're a sous chef. Idk! Figure out what abouts you want first. Do not apply to anything yet. You're gunna look at the job description, I've picked out a few for bookkeepers below.

Now what you're gunna do is you're gunna look for "buzz words", or rather words that are gunna appear commonly and indicate the tone for that job. I've highlighted some, but not all in my examples below

Just look at that snout at how similar those descriptions are!

Now that you've got your buzzwords, you're gunna slap those babies into your resume! You see, since your resume is usually read by a computer first, you're gunna trick the computer into giving it to a person. Really what the computer is scanning for is how similar your resume is to the job description. Remember your bullet points, and to keep it short, try to only have 3 to 5 bullet points per job:

- Processed over 500 invoices a day in an efficient and accurate manner

- Curated reports for management review by utilizing available data

- Monitored and recorded over 100 submissions each day increasing accuracy by 50%

These are some great, made up examples I pulled from those buzz words. You might notice I added some numbers into there. That's something you'll wanna try and note for yourself, how much of something you can do, how accurate, how much efficiency you increased, these look GREAT when your resume gets past the computer and is moved in front of a real person.

Now you have your sector-based resume with lots of buzzwords. This is great! Now for the easy part. You're gunna channel your inner "IDGAF" And you're gunna send that to every listing you like on indeed. Filter for "Apply on Indeed" and spam that shit. Sometimes you gotta answer a few extra questions, but if they give me more than 5 quick questions I trash the submission and move on.

Don't waste your time jumping through hoops, streamline it for yourself and use the same methods companies are using. Push MASSIVE amounts of average quality resumes out. The more opportunities taken = the greater the chance of success. For every opportunity taken you've now pitched a chance of success, for every resume you cannot submit because you're piddling around on their stupid website or answering 50 interview questions online, you send out a 0% chance of success.

So go, try this, and see how it works for you.

Some additional things to consider:

- Add random shit in your resume, I added my "Board Game Club" (BDSM group) into my resume for hobbies and discussed how I got my start using sparklines there

- Never underestimate the flair of a little Clipart fleur-de-lis or something on your resume. Never put colored Clipart, but a little floral or swirl design located somewhere nice makes it stand out

- if you don't have a degree that doesn't mean they won't pick you, twice now I've come to a job without a bachelors and being honest that I was only getting an associates before I think of my next steps

- Embellish, do not lie. Jargoning your job description to make it sound cool and professional is GREAT. Do not give me a resume saying you can use CNC machinery when you've only used a 3D printer. Just tell me you know how to program and manage a 3d printer and want to learn CNC machinery.

- Keep. Your. Resume. To. Two. Or. Less. Pages. You don't need EVERY job, only the relevant ones, if your interviewer asks about the gap, tell them what job you had during that time (or if you wanna lie say you were taking college courses and were on a break, you dont need a degree to say you took courses) and that you only wanted to showcase the most relevant ones

- I'm serious on that last one I'll eat your fucking resume

booksinmythorax

"Don't use Libby because it costs libraries too much, pirate instead" is such a weird, anti-patron, anti-author take that somehow manages to also be anti-library, in my professional librarian-ass opinion.

It's well documented that pirating books negatively affects authors directly* in a way that pirating movies or TV shows doesn't affect actors or writers, so I will likely always be anti-book piracy unless there's absolutely, positively no other option (i.e. the book simply doesn't exist outside of online archives at all, or in a particular language).

Also, yeah, Libby and Hoopla licenses are really expensive, but libraries buy them SO THAT PATRONS CAN USE THEM. If you're gonna be pissed at anybody about this shitty state of affairs, be pissed at publishing companies and continue to use Libby or Hoopla at your library so we can continue to justify having it to our funding bodies.

One of the best ways to support your library having services you like is to USE THOSE SERVICES. Yes, even if they are expensive.

*Yes, this is a blog post, but it's a blog post filled with links to news articles. If you can click one link, you can click another.

knottahooker

Please, PLEASE use Libby. OverDrive. Hoopla. CloudLibrary. Kanopy. Flipster. Freegal. Transparent Language. Mango. Jstor. Your library would not offer it if they could not afford it, and we afford things by reporting the number of people who use that service, so if you don't use the service we can't afford it. It's a cycle. Keep it going, keep using it, and we'll keep providing because we'll be able to justify the cost to the bean counters in government.