Oh, Tess

I came to Thomas Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles quite late, as in, early this year. I'd read most of his other books in High School and beyond but somehow, Tess and I never met. When we did, via audiobook from Audible on many a bus trip to and from work, it was sudden, instant love. I don't know how I lived to the ripe old age of thirty six without knowing the first thing about this book, other than that it was considered traumatic.

Traumatic is fine by me. I can do trauma in my literature. I'm not afraid to be upset. I'm not unwilling to feel. I don't even mind that I will always feel sad when I think of the book. There's a place for sad and Tess Durbeyfield's story is certainly that.


But it's also beautiful, challenging and compelling. Hardy was misunderstood in his time; his exploration of sexual morality made him unpalatable for 19th century reader. There's an honesty and openness in his work that resonates for us now, I think. He was not afraid to dig deep beneath the surface, to examine the accepted morality of the day and expose the damage inflicted by those who upheld it.

You could say I was still reeling from the horror of reading the novel when the recent adaptation, not yet screened in Australia, landed in my hands last week, courtesy of a very dear friend in the UK. She knew I would love this.

Writing a review is not an easy thing. I read a lot of reviews of this adaptation, which stars "Bond Girl" Gemma Arteton (I've never seen her in the Bond Girl role) and they all do things I'm not going to do - go blow by blow into analysis.

If you know the story, you won't need to read the details again. If you don't, it's perhaps enough to say that it's a gut-wrenching story in which you hope with each page that maybe, just for a moment, Tess Durbeyfield will be given some reprieve from the torment and suffering that life dishes out to her.

It all starts out so well, so idyllic. Life in Hardy's fictional county, Wessex on a spring day.


But it doesn't last. Soon there are the men. Alec D' Urberville. Damn, why do the bad ones have to be so very attractive?


And Angel Clare.

One looks as dark and menacing as the other does kind and good. Don't let the look of them deceive you. They are both as reprehensible as each other in the end, both contributing equally, though differently, to the tragedy of Tess's life.

On and on the suffering goes, played out against the prettiness of England's west country, among people with alarming superstitions and limited moral understanding.

By the time the four part series reaches Stonehenge, you've lived a lifetime with Tess, who is barely out of girlhood. The trainwreck ends and I have to say, knowing the end was coming I was full of trepidation. What would they show? What wouldn't they show?

There are several points like that in the story, moments of pure hell which the makers of the adaptation handled carefully, sympathetically and, most importantly, without the heavy handedness that could so render this story utterly unwatchable.

Gemma Arteton, who I had only seen previously, and recently, in Lost in Austen as Lizzie Bennett, gave gentle, beautiful grace to this role. She gives us a Tess who, though a victim, refuses to live like one.


Beautiful. I'll be watching it again. And again. Thank you for sending it to me, Sharon. You made my week. xo

Bells

ps the contest is yet to be judged. Just have to pin Sean down to do the judging!

More thoughts on ravelry and how it is not like MySpace (thank God)

I'm going to be doing a bit of this over the next few days, I think, writing about ravelry. So if Ravelry either doesn't interest you or you don't want the spoilers or you are insane with jealousy and not coping, now might be the time to tune out.

OK. Here's the thing, I quite enjoy a couple of fairly well known knitting podcasts - Lime and Violet and Stash and Burn. I also love Brenda Dayne's Cast On, but, you know, who doesn't?

The first two, if you don't know them, are hosted by two women each. They're each radically different in style and often content. Lime and Violet are outrageous, veer wildly off topic all the time and can get a little bizarre. Nicole and Jenny on Stash and Burn are almost the antithesis of this. Their shows are well structured and considerably shorter.

I like them both for different reasons. Some days I want the outrageous and bizarre world of L&V. Somedays they make my head ache and then I turn to Jenny and Nicole for interesting and insightful discussions on stash management or how to make yourself finish projects, that kind of thing. These shows make my bus rides and housework a lot more enjoyable. I've been listening for a long time now and feel like I know them a bit. The podcasting medium is like that. You're listening to friends having conversations.

This does not mean they are my friends.

I've found them all on Ravelry and have loved being able to look at their WIPs and UFOs, see photos of them and, gasp, figure out whether they're actually on line or not. Sure, I can do this via their blogs but until today, I've never actually looked at their blogs. I don't know why. I just listened to their shows and left it at that.

I noticed that the big names out there, including the Yarn Harlot, have hundreds of friends on Ravelry. I thought it was weird. Aren't friends people you either know or, in the case of blog readers, people who at least have some contact with you via your blog or theirs? Just because you comment a lot on the Yarn Harlot's blog, doesn't really make you her friend, does it?

I thought about it and decided to add Miss Violet to my friends list because well, she has a cool photo (she's a goth) and I will be watching her WIPs and UFOs with interest. It felt just a little bit sycophantic though. I'll probably go back in a moment and add Miss Lime, too.

If you think about it, on Myspace (which I loathe) you can add bands and other celebs to your 'friends' list as a way to keep up with what they are promoting or communicating. Cool, if that's your thing. If the Yarn Harlot was on MySpace, I'd add her to my list. But Ravelry (correct me if I'm wrong) isn't a place for the big names in our community to show case their work. We're all there to share ideas, lust over goodies and play together. See the difference?

This subject, or something akin to it, was eloquently raised over at Chronic Ennui. Ravelry is bringing a new level of intimacy to our online community. Instead of just listening to the podcasts and reading the show notes,we can kinda hang with them now in a way we couldn't before.

It's a new world!


Bells

Good Yarn Karma

The blogosphere is being VERY good to me at the moment. What with the Victorian Lace Today win, the green sock yarn win and another win yesterday, I'm starting to feel like I should buy a lottery ticket.

There are a couple of other competitions I'm waiting to hear the results of today or tomorrow (given the time difference between the US and Australia), so who knows, perhaps in the next few days I'll boasting some more!

Anyway, yesterday's win was not so much a win, but a bout of good karma. A few Aussie bloggers have banded together to create a rather special corner of in the internet called Good Yarn Karma. I feel all warm and fuzzy just writing about it.

Got yarn to swap? Yarn you feel could be more loved by someone else? Follow the link and see what Nora and her friends have put together. It's not just for Aussie bloggers, either. There are already some international bloggers participating.

My first spot of GYK has been to 'win' a copy of Interweave Knits, previously owned by Rose.

I've only leafed through a copy at SnB before. I've never read it. This seems like a good way to get better acquainted before I decided if I want to fork out for an international subscription.

Good work GYK girls. I think you've struck gold. And it looks so good, too. It's a great place to visit and see what other people have to offer.

Oh and I got some great stitch markers in the mail last night but as I'm at work, photos will have to wait. They are soooo pretty.

Bells