Notinclass’s Weblog

I like this book. Ok so it’s a bit too Utopian, and arguably sappy, but it’s not focused on a slut or naive innocent who can’t say a sentence without the word “virtue” in it.

 Finally, women are active and dominant. yay for early feminism! There are parts that seem to yield somewhat to the view that a woman will use power badly, but the nearest man is characterized worse for not knowing how to correct her.

Previously, it seems that the works we have read equate female virtue with weakness and strength with vice, but Millenium hall presents several strong, virtuous female characters. Power is separate from moral values – a tool to be used by any who can gain it. Virtue is a matter of individual character: a quality over which one has full control and which is shown in one’s behaviour toward self and others, not limited to sexual purity that is in constant danger.

 Millenium Hall also attributes intelligence and self sufficiency to women in a socially respectable way (being self-sufficient does not require theft and prostitution as with Moll Flanders). Millenium Hall is inhabited mostly by women, it seems to be owned by the women, and the community is certainly ruled by women. As the poor and disabled of the ommunity are visited, they express the grace and generosity of ‘the ladies’, making no mention of men with regard to their good fortune.

Millenium Hall also is much more descriptive than previous texts in constructing feminine vice and virtue. The virtuous women are not merely agreeable (to men), nor are they all wondrously beautiful, just pleasant. Virtue consists of intelligence, a desire to learn, generosity, compassion, and a sense of true friendship, often accompanied by early maturity in girls. There is here a prescription for femininity, as the female villian is described through a list of unfeminine qualities: lack of feminine charms, austere appearance, lack of respect and kindness toward her husband, lack of charity, vanity, jealousy, undue use of power, competition with other females, manipulation . . . .

 Some of the above are similar to the characterization of women in the amatory fiction, but this approaches femininity from a woman’s perspective, resisting the insinuation that a male is needed through which to identify a woman.

I like Let’s Stop Buying Crap’s little insight about green in the theatre being associated with prostitution. It’s been a while since I last watched Moulin Rouge, but I think I remember a lot of green in the tango de roxane scene – a nice pale shade that worked well with the red heads . . . oddly I don’t remember nicole kidman wearing green at all – maybe cuz she’s not cheap : )

What confuses me about Fantomina though, is the girl’s extreme naivity in her first adventure, contrasted with the coyness and expertly artistic seducttive talents that she acquires immediately after her first sexual encounter.

there are three important points here: The first is the niavity and innocence associated with a virgin damsel; the second is the sexual appetite and aggressiveness attributed to a sexually aware woman; and the third is the portrayal of the nature of a woman’s vs. a man’s love.

In the first case, this girl is niave to the degree of plain stupidity. She understood why a particular woman in the theatre was such a centre of attention and somehow thought it was a good idea to present herself as a prostitute. So the first night, she enjoyed the attention and easily escaped the consequences of her escapade – that’s one thing. But she went back the next night! She knew she’d have no way out this time – she had promised that she wouldn’t – and yet was upset when the man expected her to follow through on her offer.

I’ll go to the third point next. The guy raped her. And she thinks she’s in love. The only logical conclusion in my head is that it is the woman’s place to receive whatever the man dishes out and return it with infinite, undying love. He tires of her, and she still loves him. He believes himself to be sleeping with other women, and she still loves him. She sets him up to be playing two women at once, knowing that he will, then she is upset that he does!! -And still loves him!!

The man is not required to love her. It is expected that he will tire and move on to new women, she plans for it. It is expected that he will have his way with the servant girl, and toss her when he pleases – she plans for that. Several times over, he proves himself to be an unrespectable animal led by his sexual urges alone, and yet this supposedly respectable young woman believes she loves him.  Perhaps points one and three are the same.

Finally, there is the matter of her expert scheming. Is this meant to compliment or demean her? Is it meant to compliment or demean the man? the main implication is that sexual awareness transforms a woman into a relentless man-hunter. The aggression is on her side, and he is the victim of her sexual advances – even though he raped her twice. and this was written by a woman – which confuses me even further. does she mean to empower women? show the fickleness of men? answer male complaints about feminine tricks by portraying them as necessary?

Can you guess how many times I wanted to throw this book?

So they pass it off as a morality tale, as the intro explains at superfluous length, then spend a grand total of maybe 30 out of 300 pages making small mention of why she shouldn’t have done the things she did. But the whole story is about her thievery and sexual transgressions. Ok, so she tells us ‘this is how theives steal, so don’t make yourself an easy target, fasten your watch tight’ and ‘I shouldn’t have slept with him, but I really thought I loved him’ or ‘ but it was the only way to get his money’, but that’s all mixed in with how much fun it was and how much money she made. I counted 12 children by the way, and 15 lovers by her account, though I only counted 7.

This is the crime literature from last week in greater length – exhausting length, and her supposed repentance is a poorly executed device for making it almost socially acceptable in the time period. but because the whole point is to entertain the audience with her ‘wicked adventures’, these must be described with excitement, and the repentance wrapped up quickly.

The most annoying thing was – well it’s hard to say. First there was the attrocious treatment of marriage, but that generally goes with the time – marriage was like unethical business arrangements. Then there were the dozens of petty theft stories that led the plot nowhere, all sounded alike, and went on for ages. Then while she is so very peninent for her years of thievery, Moll makes full use of that which she gained thereby – alright so she needed money, but once she was settled in Maryland she didn’t need to send for 200L worth of fancy clothes and stuff bought with money she stole – did anyone else notice she lies constantly? She really needs to read revalations. And finally, or agian, when she tells her story, the focus is entirely on her transgressions! She even takes time to tell us how exciting a story would be made by her husband’s life, which was apparently worse than hers. But she raves on about her wicked life for 300+ pages, and then we are meant to understand from the final 10, that her honest years are the more important, that those are more important to her . . .. ya she bugs me.

At the Delta Brunswick on Monday, Rick Miner attempted to defend his recent proposal to disolve UNBSJ and NBCCSJ into a polytechnic institution. Even in the faces of more that 200 strongly opposed community members, Dr. Miner insisted that his proposal would provide the education choices and resources that the community wants.

In response to many protests that Saint John wants a university, not a polytechnic institution, Dr. Miner advised the audience several times to read his report to find a satisfactory description of this proposed institution. He continued use of this insult until an audience member politely categorized it as such.

Dr. Miner’s objective in this meeting seemed to be an attempt to convince his audience that Saint John will lose nothing in this change  - that transforming our university into a polytechnical school would add to and not remove any academic programs or career choices from the local post secondary system. Of course he did not use these words because they are too far from the truth for him to qualify. Dr. Miner emphasised the presence of arts programs in his proposed institution and its ability to grant a variety of degrees. Yet, when asked to put these two statements together and confirm whether this polytechnic institution would include a four year bachelor degree program in English literature, Dr. Miner avoided any reference in his response to his own proposal, and declared that he could not say what others would decide regarding the future of the UNBSJ campus. The proper answer to this question is obvious in light of a previous statement made by Miner that, “There will be no change made in the nursing program”. It appears that Dr. Miner does know what others will decide regarding the future of our campus when he expects we will like to hear the answer.

Politicians, like lawyers, never ask a question that they do not already know the answer to. This post secondary commission was not designed to research and find out what is best for the provincial post secondary education system. The provincial government, in favour of certian business interests, decided to place a polytechincal institution in Saint John, then provided a commision to advise in its favour. The government is not deliberating.

In the recent past, Saint John has not fought hard enough for our Saint John. We have allowed self interested government officials and certain industrial powers to dominate our city, running their agendas with no regard for the people of our community. This happens in Saint John because we let it happen. We must now stand up for ourselves. Politicians care only for money and votes. Our officials must be forced to remember that they are elected by us! Our elected officials must believe that their actions now will win or lose the next election! We must not allow Saint John to be the puppet town!!

alright, as the date an time above will clearly indicate, I am writing this after class. I will mention my personal computer crash and an emergency involving my mother’s business, both of which kept me from this duty – though I do realize I could have started earlier.

Anyway, I agree with other comments discussed in class that the social preoccupation with deviant behaviour and grusome details of such is interesting – and rather disturbing. This also seems an unsolvable mystery in western societies. There is no good reason for wanting to know every bad thing another person has done, unless it is to make one’s self feel better for having made lesser mistakes. But those who would take such consolation have likely also been taught that knowledge and interest in such things tends to take one’s thoughts and then actions closer to said ‘evils’, so the desire to know of such things is again illogical.

This line of discourse reminds me of a media course in which the class was asked why funny things are funny. Why, for instance is it funny to tell stories of annoying people at the grocery store? stories of people being hurt? why is it funny to make insinuations about our friends being sexually transgressive in ways we know they are not? Of course this constantly led toward unpleasant conclusion about human nature, as does the interest in many forms of crime literature.

And of course there is the matter of telling children stories regarding issues that it is hoped most adults will never become part of. This seems rather contradictory, though the idea of ‘keeping them innocent’ is obviously naive. Perhaps in part, the fear of our youth (used to keep children out of trouble as in the stranger danger example) drives us toward these interests. That is, because we learn of these things as enigmatic dangers that often are not explained in full (for good reason), we feel the need later in life to overcome this childhood fear through investigation and understanding – and to releive it through humour.

yay for the first class! Not as boring as expected, that’s a plus.

You know what Pamela’s problem was, she didn’t have a muffin recipie.  

I think we should all go try rats on a stick now. I know a lady who could help with that. She can roast a a whole pig over an open fire – I’m sure a rat’ll be no problem : )

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