I adored reading this! Read it twice, for the sheer joy of your sentences. I need to learn to write like you! I also thought, since I'm rereading Howards End, that it is PERFECT you address yourself to walls in this first week's report, since Forster himself talks a great deal about walls, and how people like the businesslike Wilcoxes live behind them, fortressed and obtuse, and that if the walls ever do come down, there is basically just panic and emptiness. Of Mr Wilcox: "At times his forehead 'had the effect of a blank wall. He had dwelt behind it, intact and happy, for 50 years.'" Also: "He was obtuse. He simply didn't notice things . . . he never noticed the lights and shades that exist in the greyist conversation, the finger-posts, the mile-stones, the collisions, the illimitable views." Well, you no longer have an illimitable view because there is this Wilcoxian imperious obtuse incurious narcissist living beside you. But I have to say that this adventure seems to be perfect. It was because of people like the Wilcoxes that Forster exclaims we need to connect, at least with ourselves! (I apologize if I've become pedantic! I am immersed in reading Howards End right now, advancing at a caterpillar's pace in order to track it . . .)
Bonnie, Thank you for this thoughtful response. Ironic that you want to learn to write like me, when I want to learn to write like you! And absolutely on the wall and the Wilcoxes. She was definitely Wilcoxian, with her lifelong conviction that her mother's younger sister was the most interesting woman in the world!
First, I loved this story. Second, I was really, really hoping that your neighbor was going to be a connection for you and that you would be wonderfully surprised about how wonderful she was.
P, I wonder if your old neighbor could actually see that far? Maybe she can only see as far as the end of her nose which is kind of what it sounds like. ❤️
I adored reading this! Read it twice, for the sheer joy of your sentences. I need to learn to write like you! I also thought, since I'm rereading Howards End, that it is PERFECT you address yourself to walls in this first week's report, since Forster himself talks a great deal about walls, and how people like the businesslike Wilcoxes live behind them, fortressed and obtuse, and that if the walls ever do come down, there is basically just panic and emptiness. Of Mr Wilcox: "At times his forehead 'had the effect of a blank wall. He had dwelt behind it, intact and happy, for 50 years.'" Also: "He was obtuse. He simply didn't notice things . . . he never noticed the lights and shades that exist in the greyist conversation, the finger-posts, the mile-stones, the collisions, the illimitable views." Well, you no longer have an illimitable view because there is this Wilcoxian imperious obtuse incurious narcissist living beside you. But I have to say that this adventure seems to be perfect. It was because of people like the Wilcoxes that Forster exclaims we need to connect, at least with ourselves! (I apologize if I've become pedantic! I am immersed in reading Howards End right now, advancing at a caterpillar's pace in order to track it . . .)
Bonnie, Thank you for this thoughtful response. Ironic that you want to learn to write like me, when I want to learn to write like you! And absolutely on the wall and the Wilcoxes. She was definitely Wilcoxian, with her lifelong conviction that her mother's younger sister was the most interesting woman in the world!
First, I loved this story. Second, I was really, really hoping that your neighbor was going to be a connection for you and that you would be wonderfully surprised about how wonderful she was.
P, I wonder if your old neighbor could actually see that far? Maybe she can only see as far as the end of her nose which is kind of what it sounds like. ❤️
lol exactly!
Yeah, me too. Oh well.
I hope you give Gigi a second chance. I know I would want one. 😕
Oh, I don’t think she cares.