Slum as a Way of Life by F. Landa Jocano
January 2012
The quality of life has always been quantified by one’s wealth. This is just how the world works—at least that’s what generations before us have imparted in classrooms and this lesson might be handed down just the same to the next generation after us. There is a truth to this statement which seems to be a continuous validation achieved through countless self-fulfilling prophecies done by the most ambitious, competitive and privileged of people everywhere. The struggle between classes of people is not a new concept, most notably between the rich and the poor that goes back from ancient civilizations. People used to believe that once you are born to poverty then there is no way to reverse that.
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The only difference now is that this belief has finally been defined more as a social condition attributed to many factors, and that people have also grown less apathetic and passive about the conditions they are born in.
The world has evolved—innovations and progresses of different types can attest to that—but what has yet to evolve is our way of thinking at least in a general standpoint. Now and again people still cling to old systems that have detrimental consequences, and other forms of parasitic practices that only benefit an individual’s ego while others, who are victims of a perpetuating cycle of circumstances, suffer in exchange.
In its publication around the 70’s, Slum as a Way of Life must have been groundbreaking because it was an extensive examination of the lives of people inside a concentrated slum area in Manila. The author F. Landa Jocano not only strived to challenge the way of thinking of the people then, but he also painted readers a most harrowing, poignant and diverse picture of what it truly means to be poor and what is not, and perhaps there have been changes that tipped the scale after its publication. Consider the timeline.
The country and its citizens were more adept to learn and discover new explanations on how the world and environments work around them. The book certainly makes an interesting and insightful read because the perspectives are fresh and the readers then are more open to the experience. Consider the time students of my age or of this generation now live in. Young people are once again more comfortable about the situations they are born to, no matter how bad. Unconsciously, especially when they come from middle-class backgrounds, they see poverty not as an ailment but as an inevitable product of the modernization. Young people could skim through the pages of this book and arrive to the brilliant inquiry of “And so what?” because it really doesn’t concern them personally if there are people suffering in poverty because the only thing that matters if that they are not one of those people. I suppose I had the same reaction initially, especially when the book began to specify the kind of culture and practices ‘those poor people’ partake in order to live and survive. So yes, thank God indeed that I was born into a capable middle-class family, that I’m studying at a prestigious university, that I have all the means to satiate my needs for food, clothing and shelter, that I can happily type away in this laptop in a well-lit, breezy room while a girl of my age is probably a whore. Thank God indeed.
This is the kind of mindset that is fixed and innate among my generation. And it’s not as if we choose to be this horrible. We were automatically conditioned to feel less bad so we can adapt while the poor have learned through a process to feel less good so they can adapt to their situations.
The Philippines is a developing country—that is to say if I want to be sugar-coated about it. The fact is we are still a third-world country and the problems we have are, more often than not, lifestyles we subscribe to readily because it is most convenient. One of them is the culture of poverty.
The American anthropologist Oscar Lewis defined it as, “People with a culture of poverty have very little sense of history. They are a marginal people who know only their own troubles, their own local conditions, their own neighborhood, their own way of life. Usually, they have neither the knowledge, the vision nor the ideology to see the similarities between their problems and those of others like themselves elsewhere in the world. In other words, they are not class conscious, although they are very sensitive indeed to status distinctions. When the poor become class conscious or members of trade union organizations, or when they adopt an internationalist outlook on the world they are, in my view, no longer part of the culture of poverty although they may still be desperately poor.”
What I find interesting in this excerpt is how it struck me as a rationalization that wants to justify why poor people remain poor and how the blame never shifts away from them. I agree with Jocano’s statement that their data does not support this view at all. The poor are victims of their own choices because they do not know better. It’s certainly laughable. The statement also makes an excuse for people like us. It would definitely be easier to blame the poor for being poor rather than immerse ourselves into a rude awakening that we enable poverty by being close-minded and selfish. We have the means of education and opportunities and we are obliged to provide these to those who need them. That is not to say that the poor are faultless and neither are we. The phenomena of third-world problems rapidly increase with children and the youth who suffer most.
In reading Jocano’s book, it was like living among the Looban residents as well. That was how his dyadic language was both informative and imaginative. The accounts of the informants are also fascinating, particularly on the sex trade and gang initiations. I was fortunate that my middle-class upbringing has given me opportunities to correct my mistakes of the past but in contrast with the young people in the slum, their own bad habits are easier to break and can have lifelong consequences. Slum as a Way of Life also offered composition tables that were challenging to analyze at first until you have read the research data they were based on. The de-familiarization of Filipino family values are also elaborated on with a brisk accuracy that was enjoyable for me as a reader and student. In a nutshell, the book was a great way to learn about culture as well as the many stigma on poverty.
The quality of life has always been quantified by one’s wealth. This is just how the world works. The struggle between classes of people is not a new concept, most notably between the rich and the. People used to believe that once you are born to poverty then there is no way to reverse that. The world has evolved but what has yet to evolve is our way of thinking.
People still cling to old systems while others are victims of a perpetuating cycle of vicious circumstances.
The world has evolved—innovations and progresses of different types can attest to that—but what has yet to evolve is our way of thinking at least in a general standpoint. Now and again people still cling to old systems that have detrimental consequences, and other forms of parasitic practices that only benefit an individual’s ego while others, who are victims of a perpetuating cycle of circumstances, suffer in exchange.
In its publication around the 70’s, Slum as a Way of Life must have been groundbreaking because it was an extensive examination of the lives of people inside a concentrated slum area in Manila. The author F. Landa Jocano not only strived to challenge the way of thinking of the people then, but he also painted readers a most harrowing, poignant and diverse picture of what it truly means to be poor and what is not, and perhaps there have been changes that tipped the scale after its publication. Consider the timeline.
The country and its citizens were more adept to learn and discover new explanations on how the world and environments work around them. The book certainly makes an interesting and insightful read because the perspectives are fresh and the readers then are more open to the experience. Consider the time students of my age or of this generation now live in. Young people are once again more comfortable about the situations they are born to, no matter how bad. Unconsciously, especially when they come from middle-class backgrounds, they see poverty not as an ailment but as an inevitable product of the modernization. Young people could skim through the pages of this book and arrive to the brilliant inquiry of “And so what?” because it really doesn’t concern them personally if there are people suffering in poverty because the only thing that matters if that they are not one of those people. I suppose I had the same reaction initially, especially when the book began to specify the kind of culture and practices ‘those poor people’ partake in order to live and survive. So yes, thank God indeed that I was born into a capable middle-class family, that I’m studying at a prestigious university, that I have all the means to satiate my needs for food, clothing and shelter, that I can happily type away in this laptop in a well-lit, breezy room while a girl of my age is probably a whore. Thank God indeed.
This is the kind of mindset that is fixed and innate among my generation. And it’s not as if we choose to be this horrible. We were automatically conditioned to feel less bad so we can adapt while the poor have learned through a process to feel less good so they can adapt to their situations.
The Philippines is a developing country—that is to say if I want to be sugar-coated about it. The fact is we are still a third-world country and the problems we have are, more often than not, lifestyles we subscribe to readily because it is most convenient. One of them is the culture of poverty.
The American anthropologist Oscar Lewis defined it as, “People with a culture of poverty have very little sense of history. They are a marginal people who know only their own troubles, their own local conditions, their own neighborhood, their own way of life. Usually, they have neither the knowledge, the vision nor the ideology to see the similarities between their problems and those of others like themselves elsewhere in the world. In other words, they are not class conscious, although they are very sensitive indeed to status distinctions. When the poor become class conscious or members of trade union organizations, or when they adopt an internationalist outlook on the world they are, in my view, no longer part of the culture of poverty although they may still be desperately poor.”
What I find interesting in this excerpt is how it struck me as a rationalization that wants to justify why poor people remain poor and how the blame never shifts away from them. I agree with Jocano’s statement that their data does not support this view at all. The poor are victims of their own choices because they do not know better. It’s certainly laughable. The statement also makes an excuse for people like us. It would definitely be easier to blame the poor for being poor rather than immerse ourselves into a rude awakening that we enable poverty by being close-minded and selfish. We have the means of education and opportunities and we are obliged to provide these to those who need them. That is not to say that the poor are faultless and neither are we. The phenomena of third-world problems rapidly increase with children and the youth who suffer most.
In reading Jocano’s book, it was like living among the Looban residents as well. That was how his dyadic language was both informative and imaginative. The accounts of the informants are also fascinating, particularly on the sex trade and gang initiations. I was fortunate that my middle-class upbringing has given me opportunities to correct my mistakes of the past but in contrast with the young people in the slum, their own bad habits are easier to break and can have lifelong consequences. Slum as a Way of Life also offered composition tables that were challenging to analyze at first until you have read the research data they were based on. The de-familiarization of Filipino family values are also elaborated on with a brisk accuracy that was enjoyable for me as a reader and student. In a nutshell, the book was a great way to learn about culture as well as the many stigma on poverty.
The quality of life has always been quantified by one’s wealth. This is just how the world works. The struggle between classes of people is not a new concept, most notably between the rich and the. People used to believe that once you are born to poverty then there is no way to reverse that. The world has evolved but what has yet to evolve is our way of thinking.
People still cling to old systems while others are victims of a perpetuating cycle of vicious circumstances.
The Lives of a Cell by Lewis Thomas
December 2012
This was an extraordinary find while I was sifting randomly through the dusty boxes of a booksale outlet store. The price tag was shocking as well; it only cost 10 pesos. I enjoy reading anthologies, whether they're short stories in fiction or non-fiction essays. Lewis Thomas' The Lives of a Cellfalls in the latter category.
The book is composed of 29 of the most succinct but unforgettable essays on subjects not just narrowed down to scientific fields but also about their ongoing connection to more humanistic fields of knowledge and endeavor such as mass communications and music. Thomas' aim is to show readers that everything in Earth is connected even if such connections are microscopic and neglected by the human populous. Recommending this book to a general audience may seem like a strange thing, especially since most people would view this as an academic piece of literature that not everyone can enjoy in passing. True, Thomas's work belongs to classrooms and for students who actively pursue science as a vocation but I believe The Lives of a Cell has accomplished a surprising feat: anyone can enjoy the essays he had composed, and he composed them with such delicacy, craft and mastery, successfully employing a literary voice to deliver his pieces. The result is worth at least a day of your life (and I've finished this while on a bus ride during a field trip). The essays themselves are harmonious; Thomas not only has a great grasp on the fundamentals and implications of biology as a scientific field but also as a philosophy which we can look at nature and man's place in it with a renewed understanding. |
He definitely has an ear for music while he writes the essays; his sentences are so melodious, often resonating beyond our scholarly comprehension. Here is a sample of his first essay that immediately gripped me by the throat:
"We are told that the trouble with Modern Man is that he has been trying to detach himself from nature. He sits in the topmost tiers of polymer, glass, and steel, dangling his pulsing legs, surveying at a distance the writhing life of the planet. In this scenario, Man comes on as a stupendous lethal force, and the earth is pictured as something delicate, like rising bubbles at the surface of a country pond, or flights of fragile birds.
But it is illusion to think that there is anything fragile about the life of the earth; surely this is the toughest membrane imaginable in the universe, opaque to probability, impermeable to death. We are the delicate part, transient and vulnerable as cilia. Nor is it a new thing for man to invent an existence that he imagines to be above the rest of life; this has been his most consistent intellectual exertion down the millennia. As illusion, it has never worked out to his satisfaction in the past, any more than it does today. Man is embedded in nature."
There is nothing I could say that could offer you any kind of consolation if you ever pick up this book except that it's a transformative experience you shouldn't miss out on. You can view The Lives of a Cell as a scientist's journal--but don't expect it to be stifling or dreary at all. Thomas' musings and observations are quite whimsical and heartfelt. Trust him while you read his work and he may open your mind with things a lot of us are quick to overlook in our lives. Since I don't believe this book is available in print anymore unless in bargain sales, I decided to research it online and was happy to find a PDF copy which you can read HERE
"We are told that the trouble with Modern Man is that he has been trying to detach himself from nature. He sits in the topmost tiers of polymer, glass, and steel, dangling his pulsing legs, surveying at a distance the writhing life of the planet. In this scenario, Man comes on as a stupendous lethal force, and the earth is pictured as something delicate, like rising bubbles at the surface of a country pond, or flights of fragile birds.
But it is illusion to think that there is anything fragile about the life of the earth; surely this is the toughest membrane imaginable in the universe, opaque to probability, impermeable to death. We are the delicate part, transient and vulnerable as cilia. Nor is it a new thing for man to invent an existence that he imagines to be above the rest of life; this has been his most consistent intellectual exertion down the millennia. As illusion, it has never worked out to his satisfaction in the past, any more than it does today. Man is embedded in nature."
There is nothing I could say that could offer you any kind of consolation if you ever pick up this book except that it's a transformative experience you shouldn't miss out on. You can view The Lives of a Cell as a scientist's journal--but don't expect it to be stifling or dreary at all. Thomas' musings and observations are quite whimsical and heartfelt. Trust him while you read his work and he may open your mind with things a lot of us are quick to overlook in our lives. Since I don't believe this book is available in print anymore unless in bargain sales, I decided to research it online and was happy to find a PDF copy which you can read HERE
The Consolations of Philosophy by Alain de Botton
March 2014
While randomly browsing through the humanities section (I loosely use the term in this situation, however) of a National Bookstore branch, I pulled out Alain de Botton's How Proust can Change Your Life and then I realized that he had several other books all lined up together in that shelf.
What caught my attention foremost were Religion for Atheists: A Non-Believer's Guide to the Uses of Religion and this one so I bought them together immediately. I really thought that reading this book will be understandably slow since it touches upon philosophy subjects, but I'm more than patient to see it through because I've researched about the author as soon as I bought his two books, and there are great things said about his writings. |
And upon getting started on The Consolations of Philosophy, I certainly saw for myself why: de Botton makes complex subjects more accessible and easier to comprehend and personally connect with, unlike with any of your average college textbooks.
In The Consolations, de Botton divides philosophers into the particular day-to-day challenges that their philosophies can be applied to: For unpopularity, we have Socrates to turn to; Epicurus for material possessions and financial troubles; Seneca for frustrations; Montaigne for different kinds of inadequacies; Schopenhauer for mending broken hearts after rejection and failed romances; and Nietzsche for lack of faith in facing difficulties. There is a formula to de Botton's approach for each philosopher and the specific problem he tackles. He would first introduce the life of the philosopher and the criticism and challenges he faced during his time, and then expand as to how he formed his philosophy and why we can adapt that to our own lives so we can cope with the same kind of dignity and transcendence as they had. The book also provides visuals and illustrations, perhaps to ensure that the chapters will not be too textual for a casual reader who may find it a bit hard to keep up with the analyses and explanations for each chapter.
However, it must be stated that de Botton's graceful passages never gets dull at all. He never overwhelms readers with unnecessary verbosity, and he manages to communicate ideas and deliver each philosophy with a precision and insight that allows any reader to digest and appreciate the teachings of even the most obscure of philosophers. My favorite discussions were on the Consolations for Inadequacy with Montaigne's writings on sexual, intellectual and cultural inadequacies that plague everyone (it's the longest chapter of the book devoted to the nature of prejudice, discrimination and intolerance, and how these shortcomings could destroy us and other people); and the unorthodox thinking of Schopenhauer in Consolations for a Broken Heart as he tries to justify why human beings fall in love and seek partners--and why there is no need to be ashamed of how irrational we often act when faced with romantic entanglements. Here are some of the memorable passages from the book:
"If we cannot match such composure, if we are prone to burst into tears after only a few harsh words about our character or achievements, it may be because the approval of others forms an essential part of our capacity to believe that we are right. It may be frightening to hear that a high proportion of community holds us to be wrong, but we should consider the method by which their conclusions have been reached." ~onConsolations for Unpopularity
"What is declared obvious and 'natural' rarely is so. Recognition of this should teach us to think that the world is more flexible than it seems, for the established views have frequently emerged not through a process of faultless reasoning, but through centuries of intellectual muddle. There may be no good reason for things to be the way they are"~on Consolations for Unpopularity
We don't exist unless there is someone who can see us existing, what we say has no meaning until someone can understand, while to be surrounded by friends is constantly to have our identity confirmed; their knowledge and care for us have the power to pull us from numbness"
~on Consolations for Not Having Enough Money
"We aren't overwhelmed by anger whenever we are denied an object we desire, only when we believe ourselves entitled to obtain it."
~on Consolations for Frustration
"Fortune gives us nothing we can really own. We live in the middle of things which have all been destined to die." ~on Consolations for Frustration
"It is no less unreasonable to accept something as necessary when it isn't as to rebel against something when it is. We can easily go astray by accepting the unnecessary and denying the possible, as by denying the necessary and wishing for the impossible. It is for reason to make the distinction" ~on Consolations for Frustration
We have been allotted inconstancy, hesitation, doubt, pain, superstition, worries about what will happen (even after we are dead), ambition, greed, jealousy, envy, unruly, insane and untameable appetites, war, lies, disloyalty, backbiting and curiosity. We take pride in our fair, discursive reason and our capacity to judge and to know, but we have bought them at a price which is strangely excessive." ~on Consolations for Inadequacy
"By conceiving of love as biologically inevitable, key to the continuation of the species, Schopenhauer's theory of the will invites us to adopt a more forgiving stance towards the eccentric behavior to which love so often makes us subject." ~on Consolations for a Broken Heart
"We must, between periods of digging in the dark, endeavor always to transform our tears into knowledge">~on Consolations for Difficulties
"We all become Christians when we profess indifference to what we secretly long for but do not have; when we blithely say that we do not need love or position in the world, money or success, creativity or health--while the corners of our mouths twitch in bitterness; and we wage silent wars against what we have publicly renounced, firing shots over parapet, sniping from the trees." ~on Consolations for Difficulties
"The worst sickness of men tends to originate in the sentimental way they try to combat their sicknesses. What seems like an easy cure, in the long run produces something worse than what it's supposed to overcome. Fake consolations always have to be paid for with a general and profound worsening of the original complaint.” ~on Consolations for Difficulties
In The Consolations, de Botton divides philosophers into the particular day-to-day challenges that their philosophies can be applied to: For unpopularity, we have Socrates to turn to; Epicurus for material possessions and financial troubles; Seneca for frustrations; Montaigne for different kinds of inadequacies; Schopenhauer for mending broken hearts after rejection and failed romances; and Nietzsche for lack of faith in facing difficulties. There is a formula to de Botton's approach for each philosopher and the specific problem he tackles. He would first introduce the life of the philosopher and the criticism and challenges he faced during his time, and then expand as to how he formed his philosophy and why we can adapt that to our own lives so we can cope with the same kind of dignity and transcendence as they had. The book also provides visuals and illustrations, perhaps to ensure that the chapters will not be too textual for a casual reader who may find it a bit hard to keep up with the analyses and explanations for each chapter.
However, it must be stated that de Botton's graceful passages never gets dull at all. He never overwhelms readers with unnecessary verbosity, and he manages to communicate ideas and deliver each philosophy with a precision and insight that allows any reader to digest and appreciate the teachings of even the most obscure of philosophers. My favorite discussions were on the Consolations for Inadequacy with Montaigne's writings on sexual, intellectual and cultural inadequacies that plague everyone (it's the longest chapter of the book devoted to the nature of prejudice, discrimination and intolerance, and how these shortcomings could destroy us and other people); and the unorthodox thinking of Schopenhauer in Consolations for a Broken Heart as he tries to justify why human beings fall in love and seek partners--and why there is no need to be ashamed of how irrational we often act when faced with romantic entanglements. Here are some of the memorable passages from the book:
"If we cannot match such composure, if we are prone to burst into tears after only a few harsh words about our character or achievements, it may be because the approval of others forms an essential part of our capacity to believe that we are right. It may be frightening to hear that a high proportion of community holds us to be wrong, but we should consider the method by which their conclusions have been reached." ~onConsolations for Unpopularity
"What is declared obvious and 'natural' rarely is so. Recognition of this should teach us to think that the world is more flexible than it seems, for the established views have frequently emerged not through a process of faultless reasoning, but through centuries of intellectual muddle. There may be no good reason for things to be the way they are"~on Consolations for Unpopularity
We don't exist unless there is someone who can see us existing, what we say has no meaning until someone can understand, while to be surrounded by friends is constantly to have our identity confirmed; their knowledge and care for us have the power to pull us from numbness"
~on Consolations for Not Having Enough Money
"We aren't overwhelmed by anger whenever we are denied an object we desire, only when we believe ourselves entitled to obtain it."
~on Consolations for Frustration
"Fortune gives us nothing we can really own. We live in the middle of things which have all been destined to die." ~on Consolations for Frustration
"It is no less unreasonable to accept something as necessary when it isn't as to rebel against something when it is. We can easily go astray by accepting the unnecessary and denying the possible, as by denying the necessary and wishing for the impossible. It is for reason to make the distinction" ~on Consolations for Frustration
We have been allotted inconstancy, hesitation, doubt, pain, superstition, worries about what will happen (even after we are dead), ambition, greed, jealousy, envy, unruly, insane and untameable appetites, war, lies, disloyalty, backbiting and curiosity. We take pride in our fair, discursive reason and our capacity to judge and to know, but we have bought them at a price which is strangely excessive." ~on Consolations for Inadequacy
"By conceiving of love as biologically inevitable, key to the continuation of the species, Schopenhauer's theory of the will invites us to adopt a more forgiving stance towards the eccentric behavior to which love so often makes us subject." ~on Consolations for a Broken Heart
"We must, between periods of digging in the dark, endeavor always to transform our tears into knowledge">~on Consolations for Difficulties
"We all become Christians when we profess indifference to what we secretly long for but do not have; when we blithely say that we do not need love or position in the world, money or success, creativity or health--while the corners of our mouths twitch in bitterness; and we wage silent wars against what we have publicly renounced, firing shots over parapet, sniping from the trees." ~on Consolations for Difficulties
"The worst sickness of men tends to originate in the sentimental way they try to combat their sicknesses. What seems like an easy cure, in the long run produces something worse than what it's supposed to overcome. Fake consolations always have to be paid for with a general and profound worsening of the original complaint.” ~on Consolations for Difficulties
RECOMMENDED: 10/10
* de Botton transformed philosophical writings into intimate portraits of our own daily struggles and how we can overcome and rise above them. He provided us tools on the best ways to combat our lesser inclinations through the comforting words of some of history's profound thinkers. |
A Room of One's Own and Three Guineas by Virginia Woolf
August 2015
This book is a real treasure since it collects two of Virginia Woolf's most notable essays namely A Room of One's Own and Three Guineas. They were both such insightful readings filled with memorable and philosophical passages that took me in an adventurous and stimulating journey about important issues that I damn well should care about. In fact, I was so incredibly enthralled by the essays that I ended up placing strips of sticky notes for the pages that have the most discussion-worthy quotes. I suppose this review will be littered by them as I write this because I want to take the time to explain how much Woolf's writing affected me, and the kind of lasting impressions it left.
Please take note that I will be devoting more time in tackling A Room of One's Own and just briefly touch upon Three Guineas much later on. I enjoyed the first essay more than the second one. |
A ROOM OF ONE'S OWN
"Literature is open for everybody. I refuse to allow you to turn me off the grass. Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt, that you can set upon the freedom of my mind."
"Literature is open for everybody. I refuse to allow you to turn me off the grass. Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt, that you can set upon the freedom of my mind."
This is probably the only written feminist piece that resonated with me for all the right reasons mostly because it was written for and about women who aspire to write in literature themselves. I don't consider myself a feminist; even when I joined Gabriela Youth in the first two years of college, I simply didn't become passionate about the movement itself. It's just not a political identity I can strongly associate myself with, but I would be a negligent asshole if I don't at least acknowledge and be thankful for the benefits I'm reaping now which are mostly due to the long decades of dedication and hard work of earlier generations of women who fought for feminist values. That is why A Room of One's Own was such a meaningful reading experience to me now that I'm at this tricky point of my life where life-altering decisions depend most often on the small and seemingly inconsequential ones. I myself have always dreamed of becoming a fictionist. I want to write something publishable someday too. It's just a matter of fate for me to seek out the words of a respectable writer like Virgina Woolf, and what she could teach me.
Divided into six cohesive chapters, A Room of One's Own is where Virginia Woolf imparted a beguiling lesson on the status of women in both the real world and in fiction whilst providing very searing observations regarding their perceived inferiority, and the day-to-day oppression that they had to face throughout the centuries. Woolf also employed the 'stream of consciousness' type of narrative for this titular 1929 extended essay which was originally a series of lectures she delivered in Cambridge University about Women and Fiction.
The essay's title is derived from Woolf's assertion that a female writer needs to be financially stable and to have the space and privacy in which to write. It's also essentially a metaphor for the freedom 'needed for creativity and imagination to flourish' (Collins). The quoted passage below was taken directly from Chapter 5 of the essay where Woolf was reading the first novel of the fictitious Mary Carmichael as Woolf made notable criticisms on where she could improve and how to go about it. The commentary she provided for this part of the essay is one of my favorites. Sure, it was bizarre to read about a literary criticism on a novel that doesn't even exist, but Woolf made it work, using Carmichael as a way to further emphasize the points she wants to get across when it came to the formation of female writings. She assessed for any woman who wants to write:
"Give her a room of her own and five hundred a year, let her speak her mind and leave out half that she now puts in, and she will write a better book one of these days."
To determine how and why women write fiction, Woolf traced how women have been represented in fiction so far as written by men. She took on the persona of Mary Beton. The first chapter gave detailed accounts explaining her experience in luncheons and tedious social gatherings she had to attend at a university, and how she seemingly feels at times misplaced in her surroundings. As Beton, Woolf distanced herself from her writing as she tried to establish the definition and constraints about women and/in fiction in general. This led her to some crucial and enlightening research about the several crises, challenges and disadvantages women have been subjected to that in turn stifled whatever creative heights they can accomplish as novice writers. Her research included and highlighted a great many essays written by men who argued that women have less intelligence than men, and therefore cannot sustain the discipline and other qualities needed to pursue a literary endeavor or anything based on an intellectual pursuit.
Quotes such as "Female novelists should only aspire to excellence by courageously acknowledging the limitations of their sex" can be both infuriating and amusing to read, and Woolf was very glib albeit sharply critical of such ridiculous sentiments coming from well-educated men who had internalized and perfected their chauvinist points of view into a near art form. To contextualize this, Woolf called out patriarchy to attention as an enabler for such a cyclical narrow-minded view about women and their role in civilization. It's interesting because, in her next essay about the needless contraptions of wars fought in the name of masculine gain and greed, Woolf held patriarchies in contempt, citing them as dangerous social constructs that allowed the fascist movement to take root and infest Europe. But I digress. For now, Woolf shared us these gems to illustrate the oppressive function that women were unwittingly placed upon:
"Women have served all these centuries as looking glasses possessing the magic and delicious power of reflecting the figure of man at twice its natural size...Whatever may be their use in societies, mirrors are essential to all violent and heroic action. That is why Napoleon and Mussolini both insist so emphatically upon the inferiority of women, for if [women] are not inferior, [men] will cease to enlarge...and if she begins to tell the truth, the figure in the looking-glass shrinks, his fitness for life is diminished."
Woolf as Mary Beton proceeded to quote certain male essayists regarding on how they view women, the paradoxical ways that they women as muses on pedestal to serve for inspiration; but also as sirens or seductresses who lure them to to their destruction and ruin once a woman ceases to agree with him or worship his every word as if it's the only sacred thing. This for me is the singular, most spot-on assertion that anyone has ever said about men's idealization of women in fictional landscapes and sexist disregard of them in real life; something that could still hold true even in modern times:
"Women have burnt like beacons in all the works of all the poets from the beginning of time. Indeed if woman had no existence save in the fiction written by men, one would imagine her a person of the utmost importance; very various; heroic and mean; splendid and sordid; beautiful and hideous in the extreme; as great as a man, some would say greater. But this is woman in fiction. Imaginatively she is of the highest importance; practically she is completely insignificant. She pervades poetry from cover to cover; she is all but absent from history. She dominates the lives of kings and conquerors in fiction; in fact she was the slave of any boy whose parents forced a ring upon her finger. Some of the most inspired words and profound thoughts in literature fall from her lips; in real life she could hardly read; scarcely spell; and was the property of her husband."
Midway through the essay, Woolf as Beton then began to weave a fictitious tale about Shakespeare having a sister who is just as talented as he is but unfortunately was never allowed to study so she can learn to read and write. This sister was said to be just as creative but instead was forced into marriage which she promptly denied. Ber family disowned her and she was forced to leave in the streets, her hopes of being just as accomplished as her brother had turned into despair. In this fictitious Shakespeare sibling, Woolf merely wanted to showcase and drive home the point that the education and privilege afforded by men will always give then more opportunities and varied choices for careers, livelihoods and vocations. Meanwhile, women play the parts of a subjugated, separated species altogether in the background, only meant for homemaking and childbearing alone. In fact, Woolf cited poetry from possible women who lived in those times and the content of their poems she shared is depressing; almost all of them protest their stifling homebound lives that they consummately fixate on the unfairness of their chains, rendering them unable to write anything else. Woolf made an educated guess that if a learned woman (born in a high-class family) aspires to write, her stories and poems will always bear the tragic mark of her enslavement and would not create any kind of literary legacy. Such in the case back then for women who have creative inclinations.
"…a woman was not encouraged to be an artist. On the contrary, she was snubbed, slapped, lectured and exhorted. Her mind must have been strained and her vitality lowered by the need of opposing this, of disproving that. For here again we come within range of that very interesting and obscure masculine complex which has had so much influence upon the woman's movement; that deep-seated desire, not so much that she will be inferior as that he shall be superior."
In addition, Woolf also talked about how a fully-characterized woman in fiction should be depicted by her fellow woman as genuinely as possible, and that in order to be successfully understood, her value as a person should not be exclusively tied to her relation to a man at all in a story . This is still applicable today especially in male-centered narratives in certain genres like action movies where women are one-dimensionally portrayed as the men's love interests, sex objects or damsels in distress to rescue (hell, even all of the above so the story can focus on the male lead's journey and completion of goals; the worst of which is the "girl" is reduced to becoming a 'prize' he is entitled to claim). Sure, women both in fiction and real-life have a wider range of roles these days but the battle--to define ourselves without having to always contextualize male presence and perspective and how they contribute to our decisions and actions-is ongoing and is still being fought.
"All these relationships between women are too simple…almost without exception they are shown in their relation to men. It was strange to think that all the great women in fiction were not only seen by the other sex but seen only in relation to the other sex...indeed, literature is impoverished beyond our counting by the doors that have been shut upon wome. Married against their will, kept in one room, and to one occupation, how could a dramatist give a full or interesting or truthful account of them?"
Woolf also briefly referred to lesbianism which she surmised is natural; 'sometimes women like other women' and that's that. I'm also queer myself so Woolf writing about lesbian identity was a nice touch because I've always felt more emotionally compatible with the same sex though, ironically, I intellectually identify more with the literature written by men which brings me to this intriguing philosophy Woolf offers about bisexuality in men and women:
"…it made me also ask whether there are two sexes in the mind corresponding to the two sexes in the body, and whether they also require to be united in order to get complete satisfaction and happiness…in each of us, two powers reside; one male, one female...the normal and comfortable state of being is that when the two live in harmony together, spiritually co-operating…'a great mind is androgynous'. It is when this fusion takes place that the mind is fully fertilized and uses all of its faculties."
As Virginia Woolf nears the end of her essay, she gives us this great advice to women:
"By hook or by crook, I hope that you will possess yourselves of money enough to travel and to idle, to contemplate the future or the past of the world, to dream over books and loiter at street corners and let the line of thought dip deep into the stream. For I am by no means confining you to fiction."
THREE GUINEAS
This essay, on the other hand, expounds on the promotion of education for women so they can hold positions in more demanding careers and even in public office. This is contextualized in the eve and aftermath of the world wars. Woolf exposes the stupidity of war according to her opinion, and lays out facts she believes are indisputable when it comes to preventing wars, and that should start with the liberation of women. For example, she talked about finances and that a woman should be allowed independent control of money she earned:
(1) The daughters of educated men are paid very little from the public funds for their public services;
(2) They are paid nothing at all from the public funds for their private services;
(3) Their share of the husband’s income is not a flesh-and-blood share but a spiritual or nominal share, which means that when both are clothed and fed the surplus fund that can be devoted to causes, pleasures or philanthropies gravitates mysteriously but indisputably towards those causes, pleasures and philanthropies which the husband enjoys, and of which the husband approves. It seems that the person to whom the salary is actually paid is the person who has the actual right to decide how that salary shall be spent.
Once again, Woolf emphasized the limited roles of a woman during that time, particularly on how her individuality is automatically diminished once she is taught that marriage is her only calling and must therefore subject herself to the whims and ambitions of her husband.
"It was with a view to marriage that her mind was taught. It was with a view to marriage that she tinkled on the piano, but was not allowed to join an orchestra; sketched innocent domestic scenes, but was not allowed to study from the nude; read this book, but was not allowed to read that, charmed, and talked. It was with a view to marriage that her body was educated; a maid was provided for her; that the streets were shut to her; that the fields were shut to her; that solitude was denied her—all this was enforced upon her in order that she might preserve her body intact for her husband. In short, the thought of marriage influenced what she said, wha she thought, what she did. How could it be otherwise? Marriage was the only profession open to her."
I was honestly more enticed with A Room of One's Own than Three Guineas which I might have to re-read because I got decidedly uninterested midway through reading. Nevertheless, Woolf manged to write something exceptional and remarkable in these two essays and I warmly congratulate her for the insights she accomplished to deliver in her pieces, most notably in A Room of One's Own. I am so excited to read her fiction before the year ends. I'm undeniably compelled to do so now.
Divided into six cohesive chapters, A Room of One's Own is where Virginia Woolf imparted a beguiling lesson on the status of women in both the real world and in fiction whilst providing very searing observations regarding their perceived inferiority, and the day-to-day oppression that they had to face throughout the centuries. Woolf also employed the 'stream of consciousness' type of narrative for this titular 1929 extended essay which was originally a series of lectures she delivered in Cambridge University about Women and Fiction.
The essay's title is derived from Woolf's assertion that a female writer needs to be financially stable and to have the space and privacy in which to write. It's also essentially a metaphor for the freedom 'needed for creativity and imagination to flourish' (Collins). The quoted passage below was taken directly from Chapter 5 of the essay where Woolf was reading the first novel of the fictitious Mary Carmichael as Woolf made notable criticisms on where she could improve and how to go about it. The commentary she provided for this part of the essay is one of my favorites. Sure, it was bizarre to read about a literary criticism on a novel that doesn't even exist, but Woolf made it work, using Carmichael as a way to further emphasize the points she wants to get across when it came to the formation of female writings. She assessed for any woman who wants to write:
"Give her a room of her own and five hundred a year, let her speak her mind and leave out half that she now puts in, and she will write a better book one of these days."
To determine how and why women write fiction, Woolf traced how women have been represented in fiction so far as written by men. She took on the persona of Mary Beton. The first chapter gave detailed accounts explaining her experience in luncheons and tedious social gatherings she had to attend at a university, and how she seemingly feels at times misplaced in her surroundings. As Beton, Woolf distanced herself from her writing as she tried to establish the definition and constraints about women and/in fiction in general. This led her to some crucial and enlightening research about the several crises, challenges and disadvantages women have been subjected to that in turn stifled whatever creative heights they can accomplish as novice writers. Her research included and highlighted a great many essays written by men who argued that women have less intelligence than men, and therefore cannot sustain the discipline and other qualities needed to pursue a literary endeavor or anything based on an intellectual pursuit.
Quotes such as "Female novelists should only aspire to excellence by courageously acknowledging the limitations of their sex" can be both infuriating and amusing to read, and Woolf was very glib albeit sharply critical of such ridiculous sentiments coming from well-educated men who had internalized and perfected their chauvinist points of view into a near art form. To contextualize this, Woolf called out patriarchy to attention as an enabler for such a cyclical narrow-minded view about women and their role in civilization. It's interesting because, in her next essay about the needless contraptions of wars fought in the name of masculine gain and greed, Woolf held patriarchies in contempt, citing them as dangerous social constructs that allowed the fascist movement to take root and infest Europe. But I digress. For now, Woolf shared us these gems to illustrate the oppressive function that women were unwittingly placed upon:
"Women have served all these centuries as looking glasses possessing the magic and delicious power of reflecting the figure of man at twice its natural size...Whatever may be their use in societies, mirrors are essential to all violent and heroic action. That is why Napoleon and Mussolini both insist so emphatically upon the inferiority of women, for if [women] are not inferior, [men] will cease to enlarge...and if she begins to tell the truth, the figure in the looking-glass shrinks, his fitness for life is diminished."
Woolf as Mary Beton proceeded to quote certain male essayists regarding on how they view women, the paradoxical ways that they women as muses on pedestal to serve for inspiration; but also as sirens or seductresses who lure them to to their destruction and ruin once a woman ceases to agree with him or worship his every word as if it's the only sacred thing. This for me is the singular, most spot-on assertion that anyone has ever said about men's idealization of women in fictional landscapes and sexist disregard of them in real life; something that could still hold true even in modern times:
"Women have burnt like beacons in all the works of all the poets from the beginning of time. Indeed if woman had no existence save in the fiction written by men, one would imagine her a person of the utmost importance; very various; heroic and mean; splendid and sordid; beautiful and hideous in the extreme; as great as a man, some would say greater. But this is woman in fiction. Imaginatively she is of the highest importance; practically she is completely insignificant. She pervades poetry from cover to cover; she is all but absent from history. She dominates the lives of kings and conquerors in fiction; in fact she was the slave of any boy whose parents forced a ring upon her finger. Some of the most inspired words and profound thoughts in literature fall from her lips; in real life she could hardly read; scarcely spell; and was the property of her husband."
Midway through the essay, Woolf as Beton then began to weave a fictitious tale about Shakespeare having a sister who is just as talented as he is but unfortunately was never allowed to study so she can learn to read and write. This sister was said to be just as creative but instead was forced into marriage which she promptly denied. Ber family disowned her and she was forced to leave in the streets, her hopes of being just as accomplished as her brother had turned into despair. In this fictitious Shakespeare sibling, Woolf merely wanted to showcase and drive home the point that the education and privilege afforded by men will always give then more opportunities and varied choices for careers, livelihoods and vocations. Meanwhile, women play the parts of a subjugated, separated species altogether in the background, only meant for homemaking and childbearing alone. In fact, Woolf cited poetry from possible women who lived in those times and the content of their poems she shared is depressing; almost all of them protest their stifling homebound lives that they consummately fixate on the unfairness of their chains, rendering them unable to write anything else. Woolf made an educated guess that if a learned woman (born in a high-class family) aspires to write, her stories and poems will always bear the tragic mark of her enslavement and would not create any kind of literary legacy. Such in the case back then for women who have creative inclinations.
"…a woman was not encouraged to be an artist. On the contrary, she was snubbed, slapped, lectured and exhorted. Her mind must have been strained and her vitality lowered by the need of opposing this, of disproving that. For here again we come within range of that very interesting and obscure masculine complex which has had so much influence upon the woman's movement; that deep-seated desire, not so much that she will be inferior as that he shall be superior."
In addition, Woolf also talked about how a fully-characterized woman in fiction should be depicted by her fellow woman as genuinely as possible, and that in order to be successfully understood, her value as a person should not be exclusively tied to her relation to a man at all in a story . This is still applicable today especially in male-centered narratives in certain genres like action movies where women are one-dimensionally portrayed as the men's love interests, sex objects or damsels in distress to rescue (hell, even all of the above so the story can focus on the male lead's journey and completion of goals; the worst of which is the "girl" is reduced to becoming a 'prize' he is entitled to claim). Sure, women both in fiction and real-life have a wider range of roles these days but the battle--to define ourselves without having to always contextualize male presence and perspective and how they contribute to our decisions and actions-is ongoing and is still being fought.
"All these relationships between women are too simple…almost without exception they are shown in their relation to men. It was strange to think that all the great women in fiction were not only seen by the other sex but seen only in relation to the other sex...indeed, literature is impoverished beyond our counting by the doors that have been shut upon wome. Married against their will, kept in one room, and to one occupation, how could a dramatist give a full or interesting or truthful account of them?"
Woolf also briefly referred to lesbianism which she surmised is natural; 'sometimes women like other women' and that's that. I'm also queer myself so Woolf writing about lesbian identity was a nice touch because I've always felt more emotionally compatible with the same sex though, ironically, I intellectually identify more with the literature written by men which brings me to this intriguing philosophy Woolf offers about bisexuality in men and women:
"…it made me also ask whether there are two sexes in the mind corresponding to the two sexes in the body, and whether they also require to be united in order to get complete satisfaction and happiness…in each of us, two powers reside; one male, one female...the normal and comfortable state of being is that when the two live in harmony together, spiritually co-operating…'a great mind is androgynous'. It is when this fusion takes place that the mind is fully fertilized and uses all of its faculties."
As Virginia Woolf nears the end of her essay, she gives us this great advice to women:
"By hook or by crook, I hope that you will possess yourselves of money enough to travel and to idle, to contemplate the future or the past of the world, to dream over books and loiter at street corners and let the line of thought dip deep into the stream. For I am by no means confining you to fiction."
THREE GUINEAS
This essay, on the other hand, expounds on the promotion of education for women so they can hold positions in more demanding careers and even in public office. This is contextualized in the eve and aftermath of the world wars. Woolf exposes the stupidity of war according to her opinion, and lays out facts she believes are indisputable when it comes to preventing wars, and that should start with the liberation of women. For example, she talked about finances and that a woman should be allowed independent control of money she earned:
(1) The daughters of educated men are paid very little from the public funds for their public services;
(2) They are paid nothing at all from the public funds for their private services;
(3) Their share of the husband’s income is not a flesh-and-blood share but a spiritual or nominal share, which means that when both are clothed and fed the surplus fund that can be devoted to causes, pleasures or philanthropies gravitates mysteriously but indisputably towards those causes, pleasures and philanthropies which the husband enjoys, and of which the husband approves. It seems that the person to whom the salary is actually paid is the person who has the actual right to decide how that salary shall be spent.
Once again, Woolf emphasized the limited roles of a woman during that time, particularly on how her individuality is automatically diminished once she is taught that marriage is her only calling and must therefore subject herself to the whims and ambitions of her husband.
"It was with a view to marriage that her mind was taught. It was with a view to marriage that she tinkled on the piano, but was not allowed to join an orchestra; sketched innocent domestic scenes, but was not allowed to study from the nude; read this book, but was not allowed to read that, charmed, and talked. It was with a view to marriage that her body was educated; a maid was provided for her; that the streets were shut to her; that the fields were shut to her; that solitude was denied her—all this was enforced upon her in order that she might preserve her body intact for her husband. In short, the thought of marriage influenced what she said, wha she thought, what she did. How could it be otherwise? Marriage was the only profession open to her."
I was honestly more enticed with A Room of One's Own than Three Guineas which I might have to re-read because I got decidedly uninterested midway through reading. Nevertheless, Woolf manged to write something exceptional and remarkable in these two essays and I warmly congratulate her for the insights she accomplished to deliver in her pieces, most notably in A Room of One's Own. I am so excited to read her fiction before the year ends. I'm undeniably compelled to do so now.
You're Never Weird on the Internet (almost) by Felicia Day
December 2015
I stumbled upon Felicia Day almost four years ago when she first appeared in the CW's Supernatural during its seventh season. She played the role of the queer computer expert and all-around geek Charlie Bradbury, and has since continued to reprise that role in the subsequent seasons of the show. I absolutely enjoyed her portrayal because I found that I can relate to her as Charlie, so I researched about the actress online and found out that she has written and produced her own webseries called The Guild, a rather funny slice of life story concerning a bunch of gamers and their eccentricities and struggles both on and off their roleplaying games. I was instantly hooked by the first two seasons and utterly mesmerized of the confidence and talent that Felicia has displayed as herself and as the co-founder of her company Geek and Sundry that has a channel in YouTube featuring the most nerdgasmic content about gaming and other related stuff.
As an independent woman who has made a profit out of her geekeries, Felicia Day is someone I found rather inspiring and so I have spent copious amount of time downloading and watching a lot of the G&S shows likeTabletop, Meta Dating, Sword and Laser, Co-Optitude, The Flog, Vaginal Fantasy, Written By a Kid and many more. I couldn't get enough of this lady and simply had to know more about her. Luckily, she finally published her memoir and I eagerly devoured it the moment I got my hands on a copy. This was everything I expected it would be and so much more! I would recommend this to EVERYONE even if one does not know who she is because her journey to get to where she is now is astounding and enjoyable, written with a style and prose that exude warmth, teeming with humor and insight. Felicia Day certifiably makes her distinct mark recognizable and uniquely hers in every passage found in You're Never Weird on the Internet (Almost), an autobiography that never ceases to be engaging from beginning to end. |
Day is sensible and humorous as she recalls her unconventional childhood and family ties, her studies to become a violin virtuoso while also earning a Math degree, and most importantly her introduction to the gaming world and how finding a community of like minds (and having a very supportive mother) has nurtured her individuality and confidence in herself. But Felicia Day is not always as self-assured and secure in her life no matter how much she thrives on her uniqueness. In fact, her amusing streak of neurotic insecurities fill the pages with stories about her daily freak-outs over the most minuscule of things, and her struggle to make it as an actress during her twenties. They are very realistically rendered and often very heartfelt and hilarious at the same time. It was only when she found a support group of other creative women and finally decided that she wanted to write a show about her experiences with game addiction that Day found her true calling in life. That being said, there are more battles to come that she needs to conquer to maintain her success, small and non-mainstream as it may be, but still very much hers to claim and be proud of nevertheless.
The memoir also reveals her creative process and the grueling and often disheartening ways she almost didn't want to write or act or do anything because she was overcome with fear, anxiety and the pressure of living up to people's expectations, as well as her built-in personality flaw of chasing after perfection. These are the most gripping portions of her book because it was her tell-all. Her crippling self-doubt is something we all can relate to. By showing her weakest points and allowing the readers to see how she challenged herself to get the upper hand over them, Day has also encouraged them to take control of their lives and pursue what they're most passionate about--regardless of how weird--no matter the pesky negative feedback from an unappreciative audience because sooner or later other people who share that passion will find them and make all the heartache and rejection worth it. Bravely and proudly, she writes to all of us:
The memoir also reveals her creative process and the grueling and often disheartening ways she almost didn't want to write or act or do anything because she was overcome with fear, anxiety and the pressure of living up to people's expectations, as well as her built-in personality flaw of chasing after perfection. These are the most gripping portions of her book because it was her tell-all. Her crippling self-doubt is something we all can relate to. By showing her weakest points and allowing the readers to see how she challenged herself to get the upper hand over them, Day has also encouraged them to take control of their lives and pursue what they're most passionate about--regardless of how weird--no matter the pesky negative feedback from an unappreciative audience because sooner or later other people who share that passion will find them and make all the heartache and rejection worth it. Bravely and proudly, she writes to all of us:
"Create something they've always dreamt of. Connect with the people they never thought they'd know because there's no better time in history to do it...We need the world to hear more opinions, give glimpses into more diverse cultures... Everyone has a chance to have his or her voice heard, or to create a community around something they're passionate about and connect with other people who share that passion. Best of all, it rewards people and ideas that never would have made it through the system and allows the unique and weird to flourish."
Felicia Day is the living embodiment of this example, and by establishing her Geek and Sundry channel, she has allowed other individuals who have the same vision about themselves and the world at large to come forward and bask in the glory of their geekiness; to never be ashamed of being labeled as weird, idiosyncratic or a little crazy. Day's memoir essentially imparts the message that once you accepted what you are and become fearless enough to show it to the world, the world will open to you and you can carve a place in it where you can belong. You can even help people build their lives around the things they love and want to celebrate with others. This is why she has a spin-off extension channel for aspiring vloggers who talk about whatever they want, however they want. That is what defines a nerd or a geek. It's the often obsessive but devoted ways we show how much we love and enjoy the books, shows, games and fandoms that have dominated our lives. Day simply found a very positive and constructive way of using it to reach to an audience who is interested to hear her story and point of view, and all of us could do the same, thanks to the power of the internet.
"I love the idea of breaking the system. The beauty of the internet is that it gives unrepresented voices, the opportunity to do a little breaking."
You need to be able to be proud of yourself. You are unique and good enough just as you are."
Of course, she also shares her bad experiences during the #GamerGate incident which was something that you could tell was hard for her to talk about, but she soldiered on anyway because she knew her voice as a female gamer has to be represented especially when she is a role model to a lot of young women who want to feel safe in their gaming community that has continued to become even to this day so vile, close-minded and sexist. Day expresses her concerns and wishes that this misogyny and discrimination not just against women to be put an end to because it damages the gaming community to the outside world, and fractures the relationships of these people within their own divided factions.
Felicia Day's You're Never Weird on the Internet (Almost) is an unforgettable and inspiring narrative detailing a young woman's quest to find a fulfilling vocation that led to the creation of her own geekdom. It's funny, audacious, reflective and very much riveting. Pick it up, even if you don't know who this woman is because it's nigh time for you to get acquainted with the ferocious Felicia Day.
Felicia Day's You're Never Weird on the Internet (Almost) is an unforgettable and inspiring narrative detailing a young woman's quest to find a fulfilling vocation that led to the creation of her own geekdom. It's funny, audacious, reflective and very much riveting. Pick it up, even if you don't know who this woman is because it's nigh time for you to get acquainted with the ferocious Felicia Day.