I'm really glad you enjoyed Silas Marner! you know me, I side-eye(d) the book's undertones of reproductive futurism wherein a child = source of purpose for Silas, but the overall ideas and care Eliot takes in writing about rural life is so evident that I was/still am charmed by it. even with sentences like (Exhibit A) "In old days there were angels who came and took men by the hand and led them away from the city of destruction. We see no white-winged angels now. But yet men are led away from threatening destruction: a hand is put into theirs, which leads them forth gently towards a calm and bright land, so that they look no more backward; and the hand may be a little child's."
had sooooo much fun with religion/its movements/how it is used for cover/its role in community-building or -breaking I love this too, and I won't bore you with my yapping but the contrasts btwn Lantern Yard and Raveloe were sooo interesting (and also a central topic I had to learn for A Level exams!)
how it ties him to the community, its relationship to his loneliness and how it perhaps alleviates it, the fact that it's not presented as some kind of insatiable greed
YES. I am butchering the stuff I remember from years ago, but I think part of what Eliot was trying to do with Silas's worship of the gold was to frame it as a fetish -- a reveration and projection of human feeling onto inanimate objects -- and suggest that his energies were positive but the object of affection was dead-ended and unworthy of that energy. the gold essentially filled the void within him where God used to reside.
* to Eliot a fetish is neither inherently good or bad, considering that Lantern Yard also fetishised, say, the bible and other rituals like lot-drawing, and the Raveloe residents did a similar thing with I.H.S lard cakes. if you're curious this was what I had in my A Level notes (lol): "Eliot remarks that “the gods of the hearth exist for us still; and let all new faith be tolerant of that fetishism, lest it bruise its own roots”. Be it IHS for Dolly, or gold for Silas, it is clear that characters attach themselves onto physical objects as it is their main means of comprehending abstractions of human goodness."
> Flèche by Mary Jean Chan
I've been curious about this and I'm glad you read it so I don't have to! something about the marketing blurb already puts me off... it's very, 'look at this surface-level pun! so deep, right?' maybe I'm just snobbish. 😔
the Chinese with English characteristics was the main section that came off unexpected and thus funny to me too! from what you say Chan's poetry reminds me of Ocean Vuong's style, very self-consciously dwelling in an amateur's way of playing with language, almost afraid of being too difficult?
> Strange Weather in Tokyo by Hiromi Kawakami
Chickens are super cute!!!!!!!!!!!
I agree. justice for chickens!! if chickens have no fans I am dead, etc
agree with your translation opinions - “什么妙龄女郎！我可不是。” --> “I am not a young lady.” to me loses a LOT of the tone... I feel like even a tiny change like "Oi! I ain't a young lady." could have carried it across better.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2025-09-20 10:28 am (UTC)I love this too, and I won't bore you with my yapping but the contrasts btwn Lantern Yard and Raveloe were sooo interesting (and also a central topic I had to learn for A Level exams!)
YES. I am butchering the stuff I remember from years ago, but I think part of what Eliot was trying to do with Silas's worship of the gold was to frame it as a fetish -- a reveration and projection of human feeling onto inanimate objects -- and suggest that his energies were positive but the object of affection was dead-ended and unworthy of that energy. the gold essentially filled the void within him where God used to reside.
* to Eliot a fetish is neither inherently good or bad, considering that Lantern Yard also fetishised, say, the bible and other rituals like lot-drawing, and the Raveloe residents did a similar thing with I.H.S lard cakes. if you're curious this was what I had in my A Level notes (lol): "Eliot remarks that “the gods of the hearth exist for us still; and let all new faith be tolerant of that fetishism, lest it bruise its own roots”. Be it IHS for Dolly, or gold for Silas, it is clear that characters attach themselves onto physical objects as it is their main means of comprehending abstractions of human goodness."
> Flèche by Mary Jean Chan
I've been curious about this and I'm glad you read it so I don't have to! something about the marketing blurb already puts me off... it's very, 'look at this surface-level pun! so deep, right?' maybe I'm just snobbish. 😔
the Chinese with English characteristics was the main section that came off unexpected and thus funny to me too! from what you say Chan's poetry reminds me of Ocean Vuong's style, very self-consciously dwelling in an amateur's way of playing with language, almost afraid of being too difficult?
> Strange Weather in Tokyo by Hiromi Kawakami
I agree. justice for chickens!! if chickens have no fans I am dead, etc
agree with your translation opinions - “什么妙龄女郎！我可不是。” --> “I am not a young lady.” to me loses a LOT of the tone... I feel like even a tiny change like "Oi! I ain't a young lady." could have carried it across better.