Comments on: why we love mandarin http://theunreliablenarrator.net/2008/04/why-we-love-mandarin/ "bringing you all the news that's fit to mistrust" Wed, 04 Jan 2012 18:18:20 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: oleoptene http://theunreliablenarrator.net/2008/04/why-we-love-mandarin/comment-page-1/#comment-30272 oleoptene Sat, 17 May 2008 00:21:17 +0000 http://theunreliablenarrator.net/2008/04/05/why-we-love-mandarin/#comment-30272 Just finished this book, and besides the conviction that I ought to probably haul my sons off to the woods for the summer so that they may become Men, there are little synchronicities. I have gone years without wondering about frontiers and then a friend at lunch explains that the appeal of <em>Law and Order</em> is that the system of "the police who investigate crime and the district attorneys who prosecute the offenders" is about the boundary between civilization and lawlessness—that the disappearance of an American frontier has opened us to an internal version of this boundary of civilization, and what happens there, a theory I find elegant and beautiful, that fits well with the reading of <em>Lord of the Flies</em> I am doing with my older sons. And then pick up Gilbert where she talks about the elimination of the American frontier and how it used to be that men would go out to the fringes of civilization and become Men (not to mention how Eustace needs a woman with the unusual combination of strength and submission!) Which has an eerie resonance with the Slate story titled "Envirogeddon" about how there's this environmentalist fantasy about the end of civilization that has this subtheme of returning to traditional gender roles—men as hunters and providers, women as helpmates. And as the Unreliable Narrator is getting ready to teach a class on Feminist Post-Apocalyptic Literature I want to know what she thinks about the apocalypse as a sort of frontier, about how people put these ideas of what gender roles are natural and which are the result of civilization onto their fantasies of the frontier. <em>Editor:</em> Oooh oooh oooh! [<em>editor momentarily incoherent with insomniac intellectual excitement</em>] So, my planned title for tomorrow's post? Was already: "Why I Broke Up With Eustace Conway." !!! Now I'd better take my sleepy meds so I can try to live up to it. You, my dear, are too cool for (almost) words. Just finished this book, and besides the conviction that I ought to probably haul my sons off to the woods for the summer so that they may become Men, there are little synchronicities. I have gone years without wondering about frontiers and then a friend at lunch explains that the appeal of Law and Order is that the system of “the police who investigate crime and the district attorneys who prosecute the offenders” is about the boundary between civilization and lawlessness—that the disappearance of an American frontier has opened us to an internal version of this boundary of civilization, and what happens there, a theory I find elegant and beautiful, that fits well with the reading of Lord of the Flies I am doing with my older sons. And then pick up Gilbert where she talks about the elimination of the American frontier and how it used to be that men would go out to the fringes of civilization and become Men (not to mention how Eustace needs a woman with the unusual combination of strength and submission!) Which has an eerie resonance with the Slate story titled “Envirogeddon” about how there’s this environmentalist fantasy about the end of civilization that has this subtheme of returning to traditional gender roles—men as hunters and providers, women as helpmates. And as the Unreliable Narrator is getting ready to teach a class on Feminist Post-Apocalyptic Literature I want to know what she thinks about the apocalypse as a sort of frontier, about how people put these ideas of what gender roles are natural and which are the result of civilization onto their fantasies of the frontier.

Editor: Oooh oooh oooh! [editor momentarily incoherent with insomniac intellectual excitement]

So, my planned title for tomorrow’s post? Was already: “Why I Broke Up With Eustace Conway.” !!!
Now I’d better take my sleepy meds so I can try to live up to it. You, my dear, are too cool for (almost) words.

]]> By: mandarin http://theunreliablenarrator.net/2008/04/why-we-love-mandarin/comment-page-1/#comment-27816 mandarin Sun, 06 Apr 2008 03:56:52 +0000 http://theunreliablenarrator.net/2008/04/05/why-we-love-mandarin/#comment-27816 When you finish the semester I send <a rel="nofollow" href="http://homepage.mac.com/merussell/iblog/B835531044/C31175526/E1760055929/index.html">The Heart of the World</a>. I would send it now, but it's much longer than <em>The Last American Man</em> and it features all kinds of leeches and crazy nuns and Chinese border patrols! When you finish the semester I send The Heart of the World. I would send it now, but it’s much longer than The Last American Man and it features all kinds of leeches and crazy nuns and Chinese border patrols!

]]> By: mandarin http://theunreliablenarrator.net/2008/04/why-we-love-mandarin/comment-page-1/#comment-27815 mandarin Sun, 06 Apr 2008 03:51:32 +0000 http://theunreliablenarrator.net/2008/04/05/why-we-love-mandarin/#comment-27815 and I must credit the Former Spouse with the discovery of the book. and I must credit the Former Spouse with the discovery of the book.

]]> By: mandarin http://theunreliablenarrator.net/2008/04/why-we-love-mandarin/comment-page-1/#comment-27814 mandarin Sun, 06 Apr 2008 03:49:36 +0000 http://theunreliablenarrator.net/2008/04/05/why-we-love-mandarin/#comment-27814 Darling! I love that you posted this and that you love the book which I just knew would be irresistible for you. [Bouncing up and down] And oh please post the bit where Eustace is in New York and explains to the people how he made his shirt... Happy Batday! When I drew them they were going the other way! But I bet wrote on the back upside down. Love love love! Darling! I love that you posted this and that you love the book which I just knew would be irresistible for you. [Bouncing up and down] And oh please post the bit where Eustace is in New York and explains to the people how he made his shirt…

Happy Batday! When I drew them they were going the other way! But I bet wrote on the back upside down.

Love love love!

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