"If we had a keen vision and feeling of all ordinary human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow and the squirrel's heart beat, and we should die of that roar which lies on the other side of silence."

It's been a while and I'm still plundering on with Middlemarch and can officially say that Marian Evans is amazing. I am finding it incredibly difficult to read still and have to read pages two or three times over to understand what she means at times but when I do get it I see how wise and funny she must have been. It's a dry but optimistic take on life and I like it that way!

I have also been slowly working on researching for an academic essay on her, getting used to being a researcher again is strange but the wonder that is Zotero is definitely helping. My Marian Evans research has begun with the character Felix Holt (namesake of a pub in Nuneaton), the radical. I am yet to read the novel he's in so don't know too much but I do know from the fictional essay Address to Working Men, by Felix Holt that he is young, opinionated and earnest. All brilliant things to be and I assume all things his creator must have been to think him up.

The essay addresses the need for the working class to rise and use the massive talent they hold as a collective to ensure that the mistakes of those in power and of those with the most money are challenged. Mention is made to the greatest crime being committed by those who engage in vicious excess, excess that leads to children and grandchildren being affected. I can't help but think how apt it is for how things are today. Especially this particular line:

"Indignation is a fine war-horse, but the war-horse must be ridden by a man: it must be ridden by rationality, skill, courage, armed with the right weapons, and taking definite aim."

This pretty much sums up my feelings on the recent riots. I really don't know if it's worrying or wonderful that I can relate current social problems to a text written in the 1800's and with all that's going on I think I'll be scratching my head about it for the next few years.

Nevertheless, after reading this at least I need never scratch my head and wonder if Marian Evans was revolutionary.

P.S. The summer's raced by and I'm getting the back to school fear again - I have a lot of new syllabus planning and transition work to do. I'm also desperately wanting to use new technologies but it's frustrating the time it takes to successfully implement this when taking it on as a solo project.

I can handle it though because the move has been tackled and look where I now type to you from:

Being back with yarn and glue (the taker of this picture) is not just super, it's aesthetically pleasing!

P.P.S. I saw Electrelane at Field Day and seeing them was as special as I knew it would be: