The Curious Legacies of the Brothers Grimm
There’s a sense of improvised sketching in them, as if the torso of some earlier attempt is being hinted at, some failed draft to get further. But that is just an illusion. The tales refuse the fixture of print, its authorities and policemen and prefer the threads and cobwebs of speech that become theophanies of an unwritten and ever-long tragedy fit for laughter and sacrifice. These are tales from the undercurrents of shamanic crazies, the terrifying anonymous oddness of women from the family tree of Sycorax.
Richard Marshall on Jack Zipes on the Brothers Grimm.
“breeding and feeding”
Tiffany views her role as a wife, devoid of a career, as a parallel to Stephen’s term for the ornithological lifestyle. She “breeds and feeds” now, after entering her thirties with a useless liberal arts degrees and a series of menial jobs. Marriage offers Tiff the promise of financial stability, above anything else. “Breeding and feeding” may not be such a pejorative. For Tiff, aside from economic freedom and the ability to read, think, and observe, her married life is comprised almost solely of unwanted sexual attention from an inexperienced and selfish sexual partner.
Patrick Disselhorst on Nell Zink‘s The Wallcreeper.