(no subject)

[fahye]

the good

Developmental paediatrics assignment, part one -- done and done! Babies are fun <3 And taking a history from a mother who's a GP is the easiest thing in the world.

the bad

I can pick up my laptop tomorrow. The day I leave. So much for all those shows I wanted to catch up on :(

the ugly

I DO NOT WANT to spend this afternoon sitting in an ice rink judging a technical comp and trying to convince the judge administrator that I can't be the technical specialist for the ISA divisions because I haven't been trained above Aussie Skate, sjdadkhdsanmcslk >:(

the...mitigating

I've gotten a lot of reading done over the past week, after not having finished a single book since med school started. I've reread the first two Thursday Next books and The End of Mr Y, and last night I began One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, which I am LOVING.

the scary

*looks balefully at oh_shit_santa*

MYRA YOU CUNNING ENABLER.

Comments

[fahye.livejournal.com]

Ahh! See, I know nothing about the context (as usual. wow, it has been so long since I brought ANY external knowledge to the reading of a book.) and it's the kind of book where it's difficult to separate the author's issues from the narrator's/the dialogue's/the delibrate exploration of themes. Tell me things!

[littledust.livejournal.com]

I have not read any Ken Kesey biographies, so it's more that the inner circle of Beat writers were all overwhelmingly misogynist and Boys' Club carrying me to my conclusion. There is also Kesey's handling of Nurse Ratched, which I won't go on about in depth until you've finished the book, because it'll spoil you all through the end. But you can see right from the beginning that a woman in charge is unnatural and machinelike. The book argues against the machinery; a man in charge would only be natural and women in subordinate roles would then be more human. If Nurse Ratched & the Combine vs. McMurphy & the inmates were handled differently, it might not be so problematic, but there are skeezy undertones. The only positive women characters in Cuckoo's Nest are--wait for it--prostitutes. Mothers (nurses) and wives are part of the evil oppressive System.

Being a huge fan of the Beat writers (which I am, even after typing out the above) is kind of like being a fan of Supernatural. You love it, but the race & gender Issues are capital I's.