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Thomas Liam @thomasliam300.bsky.social · 26m

Is it a kind of “myth” of domestic family life? Unattained. Are they museum pieces of some past/alternate identity?

Thomas Liam @thomasliam300.bsky.social · 31m

#RachelCuskTogether

Day 9

"The bunk beds, in other words, stood for the concept of children generally rather than for any child specifically."

I'm fascinated by this sentence—a casual little drip-drop of semiotics in our story. Signifier and signified. What's she trying to tell us?

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Thomas Liam @thomasliam300.bsky.social · 42m

Yes. The second-to-last line in the chapter is so good.

"I kept looking for something else, a clue, something rotting or breeding, a layer of mystery or chaos or shame, but I didn't find it."

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Thomas Liam @thomasliam300.bsky.social · 46m

It can be somewhat disconcerting. So many of the characteristics, quirks, faults, imperfections, mistakes she reveals, I see shadows of in myself. Only excellent and subtle writing can do this.

Thomas Liam @thomasliam300.bsky.social · 11h

And it's such an elegant phrase - poetic but precise.

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Thomas Liam @thomasliam300.bsky.social · 11h

I love this. She takes this seemingly obvious, heavy-handed metaphor and makes it brilliant, ironic. Flips it on Ryan - his symbol of change becomes a symbol of Sisyphian stagnation.

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Thomas Liam @thomasliam300.bsky.social · 11h

#RachelCuskTogether

Day 8

"As he spoke I saw the imaginary staircase rising in front of him once more, stretching out of sight; and him climbing it with a book suspended tantalisingly ahead of him."

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Thomas Liam @thomasliam300.bsky.social · 11h

And this self-preservation habit is echoed by his taking the seat against the wall.

Thomas Liam @thomasliam300.bsky.social · 11h

#RachelCuskTogether

Day 7

"I suppose it's a bit like a marriage, he said. You build a whole structure on a period of intensity that's never repeated."

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Thomas Liam @thomasliam300.bsky.social · 12h

#RachelCuskTogether

Day 6

"...and though he might have seen the Parthenon sitting like a gold and white crumbling crown on the hilltop with the fierce pagan blue of the sky behind, he wouldn't have felt it, as he was able to feel it this morning, airing the shaded crevices of his being."

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Thomas Liam @thomasliam300.bsky.social · 13h

I'm down! A slow read is precisely what his books need.

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Thomas Liam @thomasliam300.bsky.social · 13h

#HenryVIII_2025

King Henry VIII:
Your enemies are many, and not small; their practises
Must bear the same proportion

(V.1.161-162)

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Thomas Liam @thomasliam300.bsky.social · 2d

I've read Satantango and Melancholy of Resistance. He can be a tough grind to read but worth the effort, IMO.

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Thomas Liam @thomasliam300.bsky.social · 2d

#NYRBWomen25

What a happy, fun coincidence that I started watching The Godfather (bit by bit) for the first time a few days ago before ever opening I Used To Be Charming.

#EveBabitz

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Thomas Liam @thomasliam300.bsky.social · 7d

#RachelCuskTogether

Synchronicity with another divorce/shipwreck quote from #HenryVIII_2025 reading group.

Qn. Katarine:
I am the most unhappy woman living.
Alas, poor wenches, where are now your fortunes!
Shipwreck'd upon a kingdom, where no pity,
No friend, no hope; no kindred weep for me;

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Thomas Liam @thomasliam300.bsky.social · 7d

#RachelCuskTogether
Day 4

"So much is lost, he said, in the shipwreck. What remains are fragments, and if you don't hold on to them the sea will take them too."

"Yet I still, he said, believe in love."

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Thomas Liam @thomasliam300.bsky.social · 7d

#HenryVIII_2025

I've been reading along to the Stratford Festival's 2019 production of Henry VIII, with Jonathan Goad playing Henry VIII as a kind of rock star and Rod Beattie as a Hugh Hefner-like Cardinal Wolsey.

Jonathan Goad plays Henry VIII as rock star, while Rod Beattie (left with Ron Kennell) full commits to the role of Cardinal Wolsey

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Thomas Liam @thomasliam300.bsky.social · 8d

#HenryVIII_2025

Cardinal Wolsey:
...though perils did
Abound, as thick as thought could make 'em, and
Appear in forms more horrid,—

(III.2.245-247)

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Thomas Liam @thomasliam300.bsky.social · 8d

#RachelCuskTogether
Day 3

"...the history of his self-will appeared to him, by a simple revolution in perspective, as a moral journey."

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Thomas Liam @thomasliam300.bsky.social · 8d

No. I was researching Cardinal Wolsey and any connection to witchcraft or the supernatural. I'm not getting much reading done lately, but Wolf Hall is on the list soon.

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Thomas Liam @thomasliam300.bsky.social · 9d

#RachelCuskTogether
(Day 2)

"...among other things a marriage is a system of belief, a story, and though it manifests itself in things that are real enough, the impulse that drives it is ultimately mysterious."

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Thomas Liam @thomasliam300.bsky.social · 9d

This hit. I lived this, albeit on a much, much smaller scale.

"He could have it all again, with the difference that this time he would want what he had."

#RachelCuskTogether

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Thomas Liam @thomasliam300.bsky.social · 9d

#HenryVIII_2025

“Those who envy the cardinal say he has a ring which enables its owner to fly, and allows him to encompass the death of his enemies. It detects poisons, renders ferocious beasts harmless, ensures the favour of princes, and protects against drowning.”

- Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall

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Thomas Liam @thomasliam300.bsky.social · 9d

#HenryVIII_2025

Chamberlain:
If you cannot
Bar his access to the king, never attempt
Any thing on him; for he hath a witchcraft
Over the king in's tongue.

(III.2.19-22)

1/2

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Thomas Liam @thomasliam300.bsky.social · 9d

Sometimes, they are other things.