Books 2&3

[lizzardgirl]

Book 2: Gaudy Night, by Dorothy L. Sayers

Hm, yeah, I don't know whether I can say anything new about this since I discussed it before ;-) Oh yeah: HELL YES INTELLIGENCE *IS* SEXY. Also, I just love, love, love so many little details in this book and while reading I always love looking forward to them. Like when Harriet realises that Peter took her gown per accident, and then decides it doesn't really matter. Because it also signifies that Harriet realises - and that she realises Peter saw it this way all along - that as far as education and university rank go, they are equals, and that they could meet as equals in a marriage. Or when Miss de Vine tells Harriet it's bloody obvious she's in love with Peter. Or about every time Peter is happy when Harriet doesn't rebuff him. And the punt scene of course. So much the punt scene. I always have to restrain myself almost physically not to skip ahead to the punt scene and Peter's underlying elation afterwards. Also, Katharine was right, of course now I have to read Busman's Honeymoon too. Also it's made me all excited about the book about the development of university education for women that I borrowed from Caroline but haven't started yet, because Gaudy Night always makes me wish I could attend an Oxford women's college in the 1930s.

Book 3: The Secret Life of Bletchley Park, by Sinclair McKay

For all intents and purposes, this should be #2 because I read all but the last ten pages or so before I started Gaudy Night. It was a very interesting read and quite illuminating in some ways. (I also realise that some of the Bletchley allusions I made in Blackout wouldn't really have worked that way, but since I never named Bletchley in the story, I think I can get away with that :D) One thing I missed a little was - since I used to be quite proficient in Maths in another lifetime - a more mathematical analysis of how the codes were cracked and how the enigma encoding and decoding actually works. I had the feeling the author was a bit out of his depths there. But I can't really find a fault with that since the book never promised anything mathematical ;-) I'll just have to find Simon Singh's book on secret codes and then see if maybe the library has something more about enigma codes. I'll probably not get all of it but I'd like some more mathematical insights all the same. But apart from that, it was a really fascinating book! Thanks Caroline for lending it!

Comments

[katharhino.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's even subconscious. I think she recognizes Phoebe has an equal marriage. But at that point, she thinks it's almost impossible to achieve one, and certainly it's not possible for her and Peter.

[lizzardgirl.livejournal.com]

Yes, I think you are right, and I worded that sloppily. I meant, she notices - consciously - that Phoebe and Mr Phoebe have an equal marriage, and a part of her subconsciously wants that too, but because she is not yet in a mental place where she'd actively consider being married to Peter, or would be open to any possibility of it working, she doesn't acknowledge that the fact that Phoebe has an equal marriage with a man who is her (intellectual) equal, means that it could be theoretically possible for her and Peter to work too, if she wanted to give it a chance.

But yeah, Harriet first has to enter a stage of mind where she won't instantly dismiss the idea of marriage to Peter. Not least because, with his constant proposing, saying no has become an automatic response for her where she doesn't even think about what to say, but only how to say it. But some time during her stay in Oxford, her mental state changes and she begins to see Peter - and more importantly, marriage to Peter - in a completely different light. Maybe it all starts with his letter (as you referenced above) and gets more momentum when she sees him in his gown, and then later that day realises that it doesn't really make a difference whether it's her gown or his. (Someone on the LPW mailing list, I think, once pointed out that in the 1930s, only an academic gown and a bathing suit would be garments that a man and a woman could ever have the same, which I think is a very intriguing thought. We don't really think about it because these days, it's so common to borrow each other's t-shirts etc. But it's fascinating that only in a garment that is essentially nothing but the naked body (even with the legs and straps and what-not of 1930s bathing suits) and the other for the university member, men and women can be equal. But I digress.) So I think the thought that when stripped of all else, in Oxford she and Peter will both be M.A.s who took a First, is what first makes her think about them as equals. And then of course on the punt later that afternoon she realises that she totally wants his hot body ;-)