Author archives: author

Villette

by Charlotte Brontë

Full chapters in half a thousand pages aggravatingly steeped in Christian patriarchy, with moderate compensation in a playfulness of language. Lucy must perform for and soothe a domineering, needling, petty, and creepily hovering M. Emanuel, who at a switch is transformed into her life’s hero.

The Power

by Naomi Alderman

A fantasy I could indulge in but philosophically unimaginative, positing only that power corrupts. A simple reversal without consideration of history of oppression, blanketing humanity with the empathic capacity of a child wanting to be king of the hill.