The Proper Villains

Chapter 2 & 3 At the Sedley's

2007-06-21T14:18:00.000-07:00

After tossing the "Dixionary" out the carriage window, Becky and Amelia sit back and try to enjoy the scenic trip through the country on their way to the Sedley's house. Thackeray uses this moment to give a little insight into Becky's family background: her father was an artist with a drinking problem and her mother was a French heiress/opera singer. After Becky's mother died, her father wrote a long letter to Ms. Pinkerton of Chiswick and begged her to take his daughter in as part servant/part student.

Becky hated Chiswick, but decided to make the best of it and used her talent in music and French to educate the younger ones at the school. She even bribed one of the other school mistresses to pay her money to teach the little kiddies to play the piano, because after all she was saving the school money over having to hire another teacher. Becky seems to be an astute business woman early on.

Before the carriage ride ends, Becky makes note of Amelia's lovely cashmere shawl (of which she had two) and discreetly asks about her brother Joseph and what he does and how much money he has.

Chapter 3 begins with a disturbing vision of Joseph: "A very stout, puffy man, in buckskins and Hessian boots, with several immense neckcloths that rose almost to his nose, with a red striped waistcoat and an apple green coat with steel buttons ..." SCREAM AND RUN girl! But Becky stays put and with a demure look in her eye whispers loudly to Amelia how handsome she thinks he is.

The rest of the chapter goes on about Joseph and how much fun he has in India and how lonely he is back home. He is an extremely shy fellow, but also extremely vain considering his wardrobe and the fact that he changed his outfits several times a day. It seems like he can't bear the thought of too much human contact, and uses his clothes and food to mask anyone from getting to close.

SIDEBAR: Middlesex

2007-06-19T07:13:00.000-07:00

Oprah's book club is reading Middlesex >

Leaving Chaswick

2007-06-18T08:30:00.000-07:00

We meet two main characters in the first section of the book: Amelia Sedlak and Miss Becky Sharp. It opens with the two young women departing from a ladies' academy: dull, sweet Amelia (rich) and fiery sharp-witted Rebecca (poor). The book details much (in 18th century fashion) about the send off that the school mistress, Ms. Pinkerton, and her daughter/niece (?) Jemima put together... about how they are going to miss Amelia because she is the sweet popular one, full of joy, etc. It's clear that the girls were treated differently at the school, Becky worked and went to school, Amelia was sent there because of her families wealth. Jemima wants to send Becky with a copy of the Johnson's Dictionary (I guess it's a gift that all well bred girls receive when leaving the school) as she goes, but as Becky departs she whips it out of the carriage back at Jemima. Everyone is appalled.

Our New Book: Vanity Fair by William Makepeach Thackeray

2007-06-14T11:36:00.000-07:00

Ok gang; since I said I would do this at the last gathering, here we go.

Thanks to Amy for the book! I have read the first few pages (and the last few pages too - HA) and will post a synopsis every few days or so for Guido's benefit since he doesn't read the book half the time.

Feel free to chime in if you want; if y'all can't remember your user names and passwords let me know and I'll resend an invite.

SIDEBAR: Expo Photos

2006-10-27T07:37:00.000-07:00

Here's a good site of World's Fair Photos

http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/fa267/1893fair.html

Devil in The White City

2006-10-27T07:20:00.000-07:00

Five out of the six villains met last night to discuss Devil in the White City by Erik Larson. Bombgasm red-flagged his book so much that it had a sort of wounded look to it, but everyone always appreciates his highlighting and underlining efforts when it comes to reading passages.

We all couldn't fathom the concept of building such a large event with such large scale structures, with the exception of an Olympic event, but even then I think the Olympics kind of pale in comparison to the Columbian Exposition of 1893. And what was the final number count of visitors - 27 million? The cultural legacy it left is even more interesting, and maybe not quite as obvious, but still as pervasive, today, coloring every aspect of daily modern life--from museums to the Pledge of Allegiance to Cracker Jacks and Disney World. Shredded Wheat, Pabst Beer, Aunt Jemima syrup, and Juicy Fruit gum a few more.

The darker side of the Chicago based story, Mr. Serial Killer, was interesting and a bit more puzzling as to why this character wasn't as famous as Mr. J. Ripper. Larson did a good job of writing his character and the victims. The only thing I didn't like about the book is the switching gears. I appreciated the glimpse into Chicago life in the 1800's, but reading about the exposition logistics, politics and personalities and then jumping to the killer's life was a huge mental switch for my simple mind at least.

Shoozie is picking the next selection - let us know what it is soon!!!!

Yo' Villains

2006-10-12T10:52:00.000-07:00

I know that SOME OF US are in San Diego, but is there anyone else that is updating this? Do tell. Otherwise we should change the format.

bark bark BARK

2006-08-29T11:59:00.000-07:00

Book Club was kind of a blur, but I remember talking about The Ponder Heart and discussing the clever way Welty writes right into the southern drawl language without a missing a beat. We all agreed that it was a hard step at first, but it didn't take long to pick it up and get into the story.

...then Guido put on Ruby's dog collar and started barking (ZAP) and the night went downhill from there. Never a dull moment wit my homies!

Our next proposed selection is Devil in the White City: Murder, Mayhem and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson. Give it a yay or a nay and we'll go from there.

Meanwhile Back on the Ranch

2006-08-11T13:05:00.000-07:00

Since we've been in a summer hiatus I picked up another read: Trinity by Leon Uris. I haven't read any of his other works, but I'm a die-hard fan now. As a fifth-generation Irish American I found the history particularly fascinating, as well as the threads of culture, politics and personalities. Ironically the area he writes about in the beginning of the story is the part of Ireland where my maternal side is from: Ulster/Antrim County.

I haven't read a complicated novel as this (since college days sitting in Olson's class I'm afraid) and there are many levels to pick apart: catholic/protestant/english/labor/class/family heirarchy/female/sons and daughters. The oppression of Irish Catholics IMO was two fold: from the English via protestants and then also from the Catholic heirarchy itself. I don't think Uris put it in a very good light, and I'm not sure what his point was other than there were many issues keeping the Catholics down, including their own faith that was used against them whenever convenient for the British.

I appreciated the multiple narrators and points of view. The only first point of view the story came from was Seamus, then Uris flipped and wrote from another perspective for the rest of the characters when Seamus wasn't in the story line. Very smooth.

I'd read it again for another book club!

Time for a Rendezvous?

2006-06-27T06:23:00.000-07:00

How many others are finished? Shall we pick a date and time? Welty's photo exhibit at the FIGGE ends July 30. We go through the exhibit and then enjoy those wonderful Pear Martini's on the terrace. Shoozie's got a special connection there.

Yo Roxy

2006-05-16T13:30:00.000-07:00

Whazzup wit da book? Do we have a selection yet?

Icksn-ay on the ruggod-ay

2006-05-05T11:29:00.000-07:00

We missed Roxy (again!)... did she get pinched (again!)? :(

A beautiful night for the ook-bay lub-cay. We hung out in Guido's front yard for a long spell. He had a mighty-fine conflagration going in his yard-chimenea (sp?). His neighbors are quite entertaining. We didn't get a glimpse of Sexy Grandpa, but the freestyle-cyclist-man made an appearance (first person I've ever seen over the age of 30 ride a bike hands free with only one foot on the pedals) as well as another nicer-to-look-at-man cyclist. Judy drove by too, although I didn't see her wave (Bomb said she did). Guido drove us inside the house when the embers started to fade.

I can't even type what I believe is the most bizarre phrase I have ever heard and will never forget. I am going to tuck it away in my brain for safe keeping and use it at the perfect moment. Fo shizzle!

Back to the book. We had one of the best discussions thus far IMO. Talk went from grief to marriage to careers to healing. Thanks to Shoozie (f.k.a BetteH) I am much more empathetic to Joan's writing throughout the book. Joan and John had a long (and rare type of) marriage, and when someone suddenly drops cold, it's mind-numbing. I've never lost a spouse or a child, I can't say what my grief would be like and I don't want to know.

By rare type of marriage: how many do you know who can live and work together 24/7? I don't remember what she exactly said in the book, but there were only a couple of times she noted when they were away from each other. Shoozie appreciated the stories and the memories in the book and I agree that I enjoyed reading about their times together and enjoyed reading about the things he wrote and would like to read some of his work.

RE: Grief. It was funny to note how others respond to anothers grief and what people say: ..."He's in a better place."....."He's in God hands now."...."It was his time.".... Does that offer any comfort? I don't think in Joan's case it did. She wasn't comforted, not that she could be either. I think others undermined her grief and I forget who said it in the book but I remember someone called Joan a "cool customer" in the face of a couple of hours after John had died. Actually, the more I think about it the more I feel like we need to leave people with their grief because it is such an essential process of healing. Don't take away people's grief.

Where It's At...

2006-04-24T13:15:00.000-07:00

Just to confirm our rendezvous: Thursday, May 4, at Guido's. Do we have a time? Or is it at the same time (which is what?)?

If you guys aren't busy, the YWCA is having a Preview Party of the new resale shop MOXIE this Friday (Moi is on the board) 4:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. It's located at 1600 2nd Ave., downtown Rock Island. The old Hyman's Furniture building across from Subway. It's an awesome structure. If I had ooooodles of money I would put a chi-chi bar/lounge on the top floor. I think it would be the perfect hangout for us villains, and we could make it exclusive to whomever we wish. Create the demand, then watch them weep when they can't make the invite list.

I'm Done!

2006-04-18T06:17:00.000-07:00

I finished reading Sunday. I don't feel any better about Joan Didion's outcome than I did when I started the book. I don't think that she accomplished the healing process, and is stuck in limbo between wishing that John were still alive and expecting John to still walk through the door. I think she could still go on wishing he were still alive, that seems to be a coping mechanism that she could deal with. The expectation for him to reappear is holding her back. I think she knows this however because of those little voices in italics that appear from time to time in the text. I wonder if she knew she was writing those.

I did like the book a lot and want to read some of her other writings and some of John's as well.

Joan's Grief Part 2

2006-04-05T14:26:00.000-07:00

So I'm mid-way through the book (should be more that halfway but the only time I read is before bed and I can't get through one page before the eyelids droop) and I don't want to be callous but she keeps repeating the events on the day of Dec. 30, 2003. I'm wondering when I get the end of the book whether she's really going to come out of this or not.

I must of not grieved hard enough or long enough for something, but my philosophy has been to feel sad for awhile, and that's ok, but eventually you have to get up and get going. No use hashing over events repeatedly. Is it magical to really fool oneself into thinking that a dead person will really come back?

Joan's Grief

2006-03-24T06:31:00.000-08:00

I'm freshly into the book - Didion is an excellent writer - and I'm already starting to think about how the mind processes traumatic events and how the mind grieves. The mind is almost like an animal that runs around hurt, confused, bewildered ... when something of traumatic magnatude happens, it really can't cope. Even the most intelligent people, like Didion, can't help but envelope themselves in grief and not know what they will do until grief is experienced "the unending absence that follows, the void, the very opposite of meaning, the relentless succession of moments during which we will confront the experience of meaninglessness itself."

Step into My Office: Zinga over Mowen?

2006-03-22T06:13:00.000-08:00

OK how did that happen? Did Zinga have more visibility? If I can put it out there first, can I say please don't play the health card... we all know that Mr. Evans disease has its challenges, but let's stick to the topics for the betterment of the region as a whole: jobs, economy, education and healthcare.

Gillilands bid in the primary may have had a slight impact on Mowen's loss, and that is unfortunate, however Zinga has a lot of ground to make up from the last election, and I hope she runs her campaign better.

New Read: The Year of Magical Thinking

2006-03-20T10:48:00.000-08:00

Guido picked the new read for this round: Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking by American writer, renowned as a journalist, playwright, essayist, and novelist Joan Didion.

The Year of Magical Thinking was published October 4, 2005, and chronicles the year following her husband's death (2003), during which their daughter, Quintana, was also gravely ill. Although during the period of the book their daughter recovered, she died in August of 2005 due to complications from acute pancreatitis.

In November 2005, it won the National Book Award for nonfiction.

Here's a review by the New York Times.

Successful Rendezvous - Guido on a Roll

2006-03-17T08:56:00.000-08:00

Well our rendezvous last night at Bombgasm's eclectic abode was a success (we missed you ROXY!). Guido provided most of the entertainment for the evening: breaking stemware, throwing cheese, dropping lemon bars, spilling juice (sidebar: next time bring a tarp for easy cleanup)... AND performed a stunning interpretive dance to the "Girl from Ipanema." Words cannot begin to describe his some of his other renditions - and we'll leave that alone for the time being but can say this much: we were in tears for more than an hour.

Back to the book:
Berendt's sophmore effort The City of Falling Angels can't equally be compared to Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. As entertaining as the characters and expatriates of Venice were, there didn't seem to be any concrete plot, or point to many stories within the story (other than there are many entertaining personalities in Venice). The crime, which was supposed to be a cornerstone of the book, took a back seat to the characters, some of whom did not have anything to do with the burning of the Fenice.

We appreciated some side points such as reading and learning more about Ezra (and printed out a few of his poems for further discussion) and Seguso the glassblower's artwork.

The book is not poorly written and Berendt has a gift for observing and describing people. The plot did suffer however, and I don't think we got the point of the title. It could be inferred that falling angels describes the state of the city in decay, hoping for a revival, or in a biblical sense a fall from grace waiting for redemption.

The villains gave the book three machine guns (out of six total).

one of my favorite Venetian Villains

2006-03-07T09:47:00.000-08:00

God love that De Luigi - defacing the construction mural with flames coming out of the window's is a perfect compliment to the ongoing construction bid catastrophe. It is ironic that when the ruling came down, the architect who got second place in the bidding process, suddenly dies in a car crash.

Berendt did fall into one heck of a story to write about (rather conveniently... he was coming off of the success of Midnight and looking for a new book) and happened to be in town (again, conveniently) at the time of the fire... hmmmm....

The Locals

2006-02-28T07:00:00.000-08:00

Berendt has weeded out some interesting locals in this book - at first I found it distracting because I thought he should stick to the plot (the Fenice burning: arson or not) but between Olga/Ezra Pound, the Rylands, piano nobile, artist glass blower man, the Rat-Man, and pigeon exterminators now I'm kind of dissappointed that he's back to the main argument of who torched the Fenice. I could really care less now I would just rather read about some other people.

Do we have any interesting people in Rock Island?

Two Villains to go...

2006-02-25T08:05:00.000-08:00

Well Wilma made it on! Now we have to work on Guido and Roxy. I saw Guido at the Country Market (he was threatening to make some sort of soup) and he says something is wrong with his modem (MODEM HAHAHAHA who uses a modem anymore) and can't get on the Internet at home. We're gonna have to come up with some sort of plot to get him bloogin'.

I'll send Roxy another invite.

Back to the book.....

The Heist has been altered

2006-02-22T07:41:00.000-08:00

Attention Villians rondevous date has changed, Its now the day after Burtis knifed that guy who was wearing a toga

Ezra Pound and Olga in Venice

2006-02-21T07:28:00.000-08:00

Who knew about Ezra? Did I miss a class in college? For a semester I suffered through Milton and would have rather delved into the Pound Era. I'm sure Heidi will have a lot to contribute and may even look up a few good poems to read aloud to us :) at the next B.C. (March 15th now is it Dan?).

I'm enjoying this read - how 'bout y'all?

Venetian Sites and Blogs

2006-02-02T09:14:00.000-08:00

Speaking of Save Venice - here's their site www.savevenice.org.

Sharon Zukowski has a blog called Wierd Venice albeit I don't know what she finds wierd about Venice, at least the web cam is neat. Right now it's nighttime and I think I see a gondola.

The Living Venice blog offers a lot of resources so MAYBE if the villains ever go on a trip (as soon as some of us get back from Cancun) ((I'm disgruntled can't you tell)) a field excusion is in order.