“We cared little for what lay beyond the borders of our land. Songs we have that tell of these things, but we are forgetting them, teaching them only to children, as a careless custom.” We Lack Discipline look at this quote from Théoden, King of Rohan, in JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and how meaningful it is for human lives, curiosity and advancement.
Category Archives: Literature
We Lack Discipline Reads: The Bet – Chapter 3
Moving on to Chapter 3 in Vivienne Tuffnell’s sublime ‘The Bet’ we see Antony Ashurst dealing with the aftermath of having lost his wife and child at home.
We Lack Discipline Reads: The Bet – Chapter 2
An analysis of Chapter 2 of Vivienne Tuffnell’s The Bet in which we meet the deplorable characters of Jenny and Judy and wonder why we aren’t just supposed to murder them right away. This chapter deals a lot with amoral and immoral sexual behaviours, sexual deviancy and the use of sex as a tool of power, control and as a weapon.
We Lack Discipline Reads: The Bet – Chapter 1
We Lack Discipline analyses the first chapter of Vivienne Tuffnell’s excellent novel ‘The Bet’. A hard open, with lots of natural symbolism of death, decay, pain and suffering.
We Lack Discipline Reads: ‘The Bet’ by Vivienne Tuffnell
Disclaimer: I consider myself a friend of the author. I did pay for the book. However my personal relationship with the author could potentially colour my interpretation and opinion of the book.That said I make every effort to be objective and generally don’t like what I don’t like and am honest about it. I believeContinue reading “We Lack Discipline Reads: ‘The Bet’ by Vivienne Tuffnell”
Tess of the d’Urbervilles: Part 3 – The Sepulchral Persephone
When we left off, Tess was done struggling away at the turnip patch, had shacked up with Alec Stoke-d’Urberville, Angel was, as far as we know, still in Brazil and that’s where we left it. Part 3 begins with the inevitable return of Angel Clare – now a much changed man. But lets stop andContinue reading “Tess of the d’Urbervilles: Part 3 – The Sepulchral Persephone”
Tess of the d’Urbervilles: Part 2 – The Wessex Artemis
CONTENT WARNING: Contains discussion on sexual violence, sexual assault, infant mortality and cruelty to animals. When we left our Tess she had returned home from the serpentine clutches of Alec ‘the twat’ Stoke-d’Urberville, basically had her rape dismissed by everybody as her own fault, had a baby, had it die, undergone a process approaching deification,Continue reading “Tess of the d’Urbervilles: Part 2 – The Wessex Artemis”
We Need to Talk About Love
Probably an article more suited to release a few weeks ago, around Valentine’s Day and all. I am writing this because I am currently doing an analysis of “Tess of the d’Urbervilles” and I have realised that despite the fact that it is supposedly a romantic tale, despite the fact that it is supposedly aboutContinue reading “We Need to Talk About Love”
Tess of the d’Urbervilles: Part 1 – The Virgin Eve
CONTENT WARNING: Contains discussions of sexualisation of children, rape, sexual assualt and infant mortality. The first theme presented to us is one of the most important to the whole novel. A simple, humble, some could argue lazy, countryside peddler, John Durbeyfield, is lounging about minding his own when the local Parson informs him he actuallyContinue reading “Tess of the d’Urbervilles: Part 1 – The Virgin Eve”
Tess of the d’Urbervilles – An Introduction
CONTENT WARNING: Contains discussions about sexual assault, rape and infant mortality. I am still finding trouble processing my thoughts on Tess, but let me begin with a brief summary of the plot of the book the full title of which was once “Tess of the d’Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented” which…we’ll likely discuss atContinue reading “Tess of the d’Urbervilles – An Introduction”
We Lack Discipline 