Still reading Lady Audley's Secret

Just a brief entry to let you know i'm still around...

Still reading Lady Audley's Secret and enjoying it more than i thought i would. The suspense is good, and it's not full of the soppy romantic stuff i was half expecting...

So far it's a thumbs up. I'm afraid i'm dense and I haven't worked out what the secret is yet. Because of the nature of the books i like reading, something in the back of my head keeps shouting 'vampire! werewolf! mad axe murderer!!!!!!!!'

Lady Audley's Secret

Based on a suggestion from K, i have checked some more books out of the library. I've been doing lots of reading, even though i haven't posted in a couple of days; i'm just giving what I've read a while to filter through and fit into place if that makes sense?

I wanted to have a bit of a break and read some fiction, so I've started reading Lady Audley's Secret by M. E. Braddon. It's not my usual reading preference, but it's a welcome change and i haven't actually rolled my eyes at it yet! ;)


I've only read the first few chapters, so i can't really comment on the book as a whole yet, but so far it's good.


Anyway, back to the reading, writing and making sense of freaking victorian ideas...

The Place of Peace: 1

i've already been reading around the subject of Victorian society. The first one i'm 'studying' (so to speak)is Jenni Calder's The Victorian Home (The Anchor Press LTD, 1977)

i have found this book interesting and full of rather apt quotes! The first chapter is called 'The Place of Peace'.

'The picture of the victorian house... is essentially an environment maintained by women and controlled by men.'

This is one of the most distinctive features of the period, what i first associated with the Victorians in comparison to the world i lived in as a child. The victorian home was a world dominated by the husband/father, where the woman's role was strictly defined and controlled. A wife was expected to ensure that the home her husband returned to was well kept and run smoothly, and - most importantly - peaceful.

'Victorian attitudes to marriage reflect this understanding of the home as a place occupied by a woman who was, ideally, both decorative and useful...

The man aquired a licit sex life... in a situation where someone else was responsible for the provision of food and comforts, a decorative symbol of achievement and, perhaps most important, a solidity and status which society approved, indeed deemed almost a necessity for the pursuit of a conventionally acceptable career, or occupation, or simply existance.' (page 9)

A victorian wife was seen to fail if she could not or did not provide these things, especially if she had servants to help.

In 1865, John Ruskin said:

'This is the true nature of home - it is the place of peace; the shelter, not only from all injury, but from all terror, doubt and division. In so far as it is not this, it is not home; so far as the anxieties of the outer life penetrate into it, and the inconsistanly-minded, unknown, unloved, or hostile society of the outer world is allowed by either husband or wife to cross the threshold, it ceases to be home.' (page 10)

According to Ruskin, the primary function of the home is therefore a place of refuge. 'It cannot be separated from Ruskin's view of women... for he considers it woman's function to preside over this refuge. It is the woman who must ensure that the home remains 'a place of Peace'... Home was a refuge and women made it such... as guardians of comfort and replenishment.' (page 10)

This idea of the home as a refuge from the hostility of the world beyond its' doors, and the apparently catastrophic effects of this refuge ceasing to be is something that interests me and i would like to pursue as a theme in my writing.

That's all for now.

x-lm-x

Portfolio Journal...

Urgh! So out of practice at keeping a journal/diary/blog/whatever...

So, not really got much to say at the minute, since i've only just started really. i thought it might be wise to try to manage my time better this year, rather than getting over-enthusiastic about specific elements and pretty much forgetting about the rest...

As i said, i don't have a whole lot to report right now, just forming an idea of what i want to do, and doing the research. i've been researching Victorian culture mostly, since i want to base my portfolio in a neo-Victorian setting - i do at the minute any way... let's see how enthusiastic i am in a few weeks when i'm still hitting brick walls left, right and centre - focusing on one specific House this time, whereas last year, as a Field Year Journal, my character, Jennis was supposed to be looking at the Houses as a group. This year i would like to examine his House in more detail from the point of view of another character, since Jennis is no longer a resident of the House of Tulnrek! (Not really a long long story, but still...)

Still got a lot of research to do for this project, but i'm trying to spread my work more evenly this year, rather than focusing on one bit, then the next etc, so i am also working on the written part.

Interestingly, i have found that my intentions have already changed a lot since i first started working on this project. i had originally intended to do a more in-depth look at the House of Sollenverl, but found that i just wasn't... comfortable with the characters. i decided to leave her for another day, and see where this idea fell more naturally. After dismissing House of Almara as too anti-social by nature and 'not quite right' it occurred to me that maybe i should try the original House, where the whole project had started! Duh! Sometimes i'm so stupid it's aggressive... *sigh*

i have also been looking at the animal side of my characters, since they are Shifters (mostly) to see how that will affect the 'human' aspects of their society. Getting a little frustrated by the repetitive nature of the internet, but suppose that's in part because i would much rather just go watch a wolf pack in their natural habitat... which isn't going to happen anytime soon...

Anywho, onwards and upwards...

x-lm-x