an important announcement ~

[lookingland]

i would just like to say, for the record, that until i came across his name in Rehabilitating Bodies: Health, History, and the American Civil War by lisa a. long at the beginning of this year, i had never ever ever before heard of S. Weir Mitchell, nor read any of his works, nor known anything about them.

so i can't account for the fact that his characters are disturbingly similar to my own sometimes (and have the same set of names even! Hunter, Preston, good gravy, common enough names, but honestly!), his plots are even more so (drug addicts, quadruple amputees, married people of opposing north/south politics), and his themes generally likewise (racism, the psychological effects of war, maiming and the idea of "wholeness").

so yeah, he's kinda pissing me off lately.

just thought i would say that ~ for the record.

picture of the day: "hope deferred" ~



in Victorian art, the carelessly tossed gloves
symbolize absent-mindedness or possibly compromised virtue

Comments

[rabiagale.livejournal.com]

He can't be as good of a writer as you.

*pets*

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

awww, thanks rabs.

: D

[bachsoprano.livejournal.com]

I had a similar experience recently. It sucks....but, I ditto what Rabia said. :)

As for the picture, I'd guess the second interpretation (compromised virtue). There's an open jewellery box on the table behind the girl...I wish I could make out what the other object is on the table, and what's beside the gloves on the floor...

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

maybe we should have a discussion: what to do when channeling old deaf forgotten people. hahahahaha ~ !

good point about the jewelry box in the picture. i think the other thing on the floor is a clutch purse of some sort. she doesn't quite look suicidal enough to have compromised her virtue (her hair is still neatly arranged), but it's interesting to speculate!

: D

[countrysoaper.livejournal.com]

Reviewers will say, By comparison, S. Weir Mitchell is a complete hack and mockery of the literary arts. Yes, they will.

There's nothing original... nothing original as deeply as I sense you're wanting to find it. Everything has been done and the period of time you're contexted in has very predominant issues that are almost manditory to include in any plotline. There's no rip-off about that. What's going to hook a reader is how the material and characters are connecting to them.

in Victorian art, the carelessly tossed gloves
symbolize absent-mindedness or possibly compromised virtue

I didn't know that!

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

you are completely right, of course ~ and earlier this evening i was thinking about how much one of the things that drove me to write was not being able to find the sort of things i would like to read ~ so i should be grateful to have found them now! and carry on creating my own to fill in whatever may not have been covered in that era (because, frank as mitchell is sometimes, at the turn of the century there's still a lot that wasn't appropriate to put into a book!).

thank you for your encouragement!

: D

Silly Miss Lookingland ~

[(Anonymous)]

Those are EXCELLENT themes, many writers have written about them--but none like you write about them (as has been stated here by wise others).

I think judging by the previous picture where bad wife was prostrate on the floor that in this pic the gloves must symbolize absent-mindedness because if it were compromised virtue she'd at least be in a reclining position or threatening suicide or something of that ilk.

Man, repression is both evil and funny.

moo

Re: Silly Miss Lookingland ~

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

i agree about the woman ~ she doesn't look "abandoned" enough to have compromised her virtue.

as for mitchell, well, he is an inneresting writer ~ and you're right: particularly growing up in that century and having the life experiences he had, he was just drawing from that well on ideas that were pretty much preoccupying the country as a whole.

: D