keilexandra: Adorable panda with various Chinese overlays. (Default)
* From Language Log, an interesting analysis of Zhonglish (the specific Chinese-English creole of China, I presume, as opposed to Chinglish of the West).

* Via [livejournal.com profile] yhlee, an article on e-publishing in China.

* Tibetans refuse to celebrate the New Year.


* On the atheist community befriending the ex-Muslim. Definitely worth reading from an intersectional perspective.

* A skeptical argument for troll-feeding. I have to agree with this: "I view troll-feeding as a useful tool in the skeptical arsenal--because I owe much of my skeptical "conversion" to reading skeptics' responses to internet trolls."

* Greta Christina on Alternet, presenting 10 Myths and Truths about Atheists. It's a great primer aimed at the totally clueless.

* On being good without God. If you want to call me immoral for possessing relative morality, of course, be my guest. Just don't expect me to pay you much attention.

* Nontheism among Friends (, Society of--aka Quakers). This made me seriously want to try out a meeting sometime, because I do value meditation and silence. But "Quaker atheist" remains somewhat of an oxymoron, especially if one is not born into the faith. And I haven't met many Asian Quakers, either.


* As a rule, I usually don't watch videos online. "Fidelity," however, was a worthwhile and worthy exception. Please click through and judge for yourself. (Warning for liberal bias.)

* And to lighten the mood, Austenbook! Pride and Prejudice as Facebook status updates.
keilexandra: Adorable panda with various Chinese overlays. (Default)
The Annotated Pride and Prejudice
by Jane Austen and David M. Shapard
739 pages (trade paperback)
Genre: Fiction/Nonfiction/Literary/Romance

This was my second reading of Pride and Prejudice; obviously it is significantly longer. It took me ~2 months to finish reading--I've renewed it at the library three times. But nevertheless, I do think it's worthwhile for Austen fans. The annotations are interesting and point out things that I would have never thought to consider on my own--the period meaning of "afternoon," for instance. The flow, however, is slowed by these asides; I would definitely not recommend this book for a first-time reader of Austen's most famous work. Shapard is a serious Austen scholar--the effort in determining chronology alone is beyond admirable.

Reading it so slowly, I am reminded of how characteristic the romance really is of Regency archetypes. Although Darcy and Elizabeth are depicted as developing a rational (versus passionate) love, they are in each other's company very little. Not much time passes from first meeting to engagement, if one considers that Shapard frequently discusses the novel as a model of realistic love. Well, not really.

It's still lovely and loveable, though.

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Keix

January 2011

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