I read Sarah B. Pomeroy's Goddesses, Whores, Wives & Slaves, which explores what daily life was for women of classical Greece and Republic Rome based on the thin historical record, plays, poetry and so on, for the purpose of illuminating an otherwise ignored or invisible faction of society. What rights did they have or not have, how were they viewed by and treated by the men who had power over them, what were the gender essentialist turned institutional mechanisms used to control them, and so on. Pomeroy argues that evolution towards increasing freedoms isn't a-given, with her analysis that ancient Greece had more freedoms for women, then a tightening of those freedoms after wartime and a reduction of the male population, then more relaxation of freedoms into the Hellenistic era.

I admit, although the topic itself is interesting to me, I found the prose hella dry and the style tough to get through at points. But then I realized that the book was published in 1975, during a very different time of historical scholarship! I still find it dry and heavy-handed in places, but I can appreciate the groundbreaking feminist view of analysis, and the necessity of spelling things out clearly in order to argue against common perception of the time, even if it's tiresome to read now. Particularly enjoyed Pomeroy mentioning her male historian predecessors who made assumptions about women's attitudes back then due to the societal blinders they had about the women of their own time (eg. assuming women are happy with their lot).

One thing I will take away from the book with the glee is the description of how in ancient Athens, high class women were kept secluded at home and away from the eyes of men who weren't family, with exceptions to go outside behind a veil. That is... the purdah. Ancient Athens, birthplace of the modern concept of democracy, practised the purdah, the same way medieval Arabia did. (Low class women and slaves were allowed to go about freely without the veil, same as in medival Arabia.) That's rather funny, I think!
scaramouche: Gavin Lee as Bert and Ashley Brown as Mary from Mary Poppins (mary and bert)
([personal profile] scaramouche Oct. 28th, 2025 09:56 am)
In my further adventures of "watching" Filipino mermaid-centric TV shows, I've started watching Aryana and the opening situation has a poor woman (Ofelia) and a rich man (Victor) having already gotten married despite the casual classist cruelty of Victor's mother (Elnora). You've got the regular shorthand of Ofelia not knowing how to handle herself in unfamiliar rich-people-enviroment situations (which is also Victor's fault for not helping her, not that these kinds of stories acknowledge that most of the time) which earns Elnora's ire and verbal abuse. Ofelia=good, Elnora=bad, as these things go.

However! Ofelia tries to assert some financial independence by selling cheap lunch food, hawker style, and we're supposed to go, YAY @ her, and BOO @ Elnora for belittling Ofelia's efforts. But! Ofelia has chosen to sell food in the same dang office building, and I think it's hella tacky to take money from your VERY RICH husband's employees, even if you are selling food to them. It's not wrong, but if I were an employee I'd be side-eyeing that fam.
scaramouche: Helen Slater as Supergirl (supergirl)
([personal profile] scaramouche Oct. 26th, 2025 05:35 pm)
I got my hands of the trade paperback of the first Superman '78 comic! A local reseller surprisingly had it in stock, so I pounced when I saw it. So now I have read both, the first story of which was published over 2021 and the second (which was the first book I got) was published over 2023-2024.

They're continuations of the Christopher Reeve Superman universe, and I was excited to read them, though when the plot kicked in I paused and had the very distinctive thought, "Oh no... bad things are going to happen to Clark! I don't want bad things to happen to Clark!" Even though bad things have to happen in order for there to be a story at all, but there was a funny mismatch in my brain because the Reeves Superman movies are so comforting and familiar and safe, while you don't know what you'll be getting with new canon! ("Canon", of course.)

Anyway both stories are charming and earnest and funny, but nowhere near as goofy as the movies were*, which I think is a consequence of trying to tell a story set in that era now, with our modern sensibilities and nostalgia and reverence tangled up in each other. Plus, it may just be the format, since there's no cinematic pauses or dramatic music to amp up the feeling, but I felt there was less weight to the stories, though the first story literally up-ends the status quo by spoilers ) Clark makes his typical choices and sacrifices in both stories, but he's noble and at most sad about it. He doesn't get angry or have break downs as he does in the movies.

*The plot and resolution of The Metal Curtain is goofy but in an idealistic way, where doing the right thing immediately has his "enemies" realizing that Superman has good intentions and doing a heel face turn. It's not goofy in a Superman-turns-back-time-by-flying-really-fast or throwing-nukes-into-the-sun-creates-a-sun-based-villain way.

Also! Very funny that the plot of the first comic sounds like what James Gunn said the second Superman DCU movie is going to be about, namely potential spoilers for a future DCU movie. ) That's this comic!
scaramouche: Gene Kelly dancing in the rain, from Singin' in the Rain (singin' in the rain - umbrella)
([personal profile] scaramouche Oct. 18th, 2025 08:42 am)
I might've waited longer to make a post, but I just finished The Listerdale Mystery, which is a collection of twelve short stories, and I had such a fun time I had to post ASAP! It's different from the previous short story collections I've read in that only one is a proper murder mystery, while the rest are murder without the mystery, murder adjacent, or do not come anywhere near murder at all! (Look at me being so excited, when it may turn out Christie has plenty of these.)

Some of the stories were centered on a twist that, by virtue of being a short story, made the twist far more important to the story itself, like anthology episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents or Twilight Zone (in terms of story structure, but with mundane concepts instead of fantastical). By the time I got to story ten there were some tropey repeats, especially featuring a man being pulled into an adventure by mysterious girl, but overall it's a fun mix and I really enjoyed myself.

Only caveat I would say that classism is particularly strong throughout in terms of justification for certain characters' successes or assumptions being proven right, but sometimes it seems earnest and others it seems ironic. I say that because another repeated topic of the stories is to not believe that people are who they say they are without proof, but the working class characters who get scammed this way tend to be rescued by their honesty, while the upper class characters who get scammed are either able to brush it off or are able to notice just enough truth through the scam to be rewarded by it.

Particular shoutouts to:
  • The opening "The Listerdale Mystery", about a widowed mother who finds a house for rent that seems to good to be true; the story is, if you think about it for two seconds, a ridiculous concept, but it's a particular kind of romantic id that you'd be well used to if familiar with Bollywood films and I found it kinda charming for that;

  • "Philomel Cottage", the most Alfred Hitchcock Presents of the bunch, with a recently-married woman realizing that her new husband might be planning to murder her;

  • "Accident", where a retired inspector suspects that a neighbour is a twice-murderess who is going to kill her current husband and wants to try to prevent it, spoilers )

Besides that, I've also read two more Christie short story collections, both of which are Poirot collections and thus more traditional mysteries: The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding and Murder in the Mews. The best thing about short Poirot stories is that Poirot can show up at a scene of the crime, take one turn of it and solve the mystery immediately. Which is neat!

In Christmas Pudding, I did like the one about the elderly estranged twin men, which kind of deceives you into thinking it'll be a switcheroo between the twins but is actually a switcheroo of a different kind. But quite a few (three, I think) stories involve disguises to make the murder appear to have happened differently or at a different time, and it kind of kicked my disbelief a bit too hard, especially the one that hinges on the murderer leaving it to chance that another character won't see the body after the murder.

Murder in the Mews has four short stories, with three being meatier than the fourth, and they’re kind of bound together with the theming of the "crime" isn’t exactly what it looks like. Well, the third one, "Dead Man's Mirror" is way more in line with Christie's precise murders, right down to the layout of the room being key to what's happened, but all of them are in the same realm. The only qualm I'd have is with the last one, "Triangle at Rhodes" which is the shortest of the lot and the assumptions are a bit of a stretch for me, in terms of what Poirot observes of the relationships that's happening vs. what we the reader are shown of those same relationships.
scaramouche: Freddie Mercury in profile, with "Hello again, my beauties" in text (freddie hello my beauties)
([personal profile] scaramouche Oct. 17th, 2025 11:34 am)
A friend and I had a loose resolution to check out more non-pop orchestral performances next year (since the ones we've gone to so far have all been for pop culture music, eg. movie and video game soundtracks), so she shared the 2026 season for the Malaysian Philharmonic and I thought maybe I'd check out their upcoming Mozart concert which is in conjunction with his 270th birthday.

Coincidentally, or maybe not because of said birthday, there's a new adaptation of Amadeus! Looks like a miniseries instead of a movie, but still, excitedly hopeful!

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