Alternate Endings to Great Expectations:
The Elizabeth Gaskell Ending:
Hell is snow-white, and a factory. How I despaired of ever knowing Estella, who was born forty-five yards north of me, as the crow flies, which is to say: she was born in another world. North and South would never be united in our clasped arms, and I would die in this factory. The future is stern, and made of iron, and neither of us could survive in it.
Our own Gloria Yip reflects on how her sense of humor has affected her relationships.
Katie Klabusich explains one strategy she uses to cope with her depression.
Simone Webb on Margaret Cavendish and Anne Conway, two overlooked seventeenth-century philosophers.
Jacquelyn Ardam on love, obsession, research, and Gore Vidal’s sex life.
Nicole interviewed Moira Weigel about her book, Labor of Love!
Kathleen Cooper on the process of acquiring and training her service pup, Belle Star:
My neurologist once chided me for resisting things that would make my life easier. When she signed the DMV form for a handicapped parking permit two years after I became disabled, she said, “You don’t have to be a stoic, you know. You don’t get extra points for suffering.”
For a while I resisted the idea of getting a service dog. Was I handicappedenough? My eminently rational husband pointed out there was no prescribed severity of handicappedness to get a service dog. Unspoken between us was the guarantee that my disease would progress (there is no cure) and the likelihood of me becoming progressively more handicapped. A service dog would not only make my life easier, but happier as well.
Sarah Kuhn on experiencing “rep sweats” as a writer (note: this piece is not about weightlifting):
As more and more Asian women—some longtime sisters-in-arms, some total strangers—told me how meaningful it was for them to see a book starring Asian American superheroes come into existence, I saw everything I’d always felt reflected back at me: the longing for representation, the need for characters who look like us, the hope that we’ll finally see ourselves in a way that’s centered, not stereotypical, and not Othered. I felt uncomfortable being on the other side of that hope for the first time. Because I still thought of myself as a sidekick, and people don’t look at sidekicks with hope.
“If Lea Salonga were your best friend, white musical theatre fans would finally stop congratulating themselves for South Pacific.”
“If Cate Blanchett were your girlfriend, every once in a while you’d wonder if it would have been easier to date Helen Mirren.”
As some of you might have seen on Twitter, I’ve been in the midst of a family health crisis and not on the site as much as I hoped to be in our final weeks. But I’ve already started wordpressing posts for our last week and I promise you will love every single one. I can’t believe we’re here already. Just one more week together! I will cherish it.
