Ma-Ro, meet Nelly
Aaron,
Right, the hair – I think that ‘regal’ might be pushing it a bit, but considering I haven’t had a haircut since August, I don’t suppose I’m in any position to judge too harshly. After all, Marilynne Robinson’s excuse would probably be that she is too busy writing Pulitzer Prize winners to update her style, whereas mine is that I actually don’t speak enough Spanish yet to get the job done properly. I’m glad that you posted both photographs for comparison, though. Aside from the hair, she looks exactly the same to me in both pictures (and if anything, a bit older in the first). Freaky!
Could the secret to eternal middle age be the fresh air and open sky in…
Iowa?
100% corn-fed writers
It’s appropriate that you brought up the Iowa connection, because my experience there has definitely influenced (positively) my perception of the book. My thoughts on the fine state of Iowa are almost as sentimental as John Ames’, so keep your salt handy, but I do feel like Robinson captures something authentic in her depiction of the place. Although all of the events described in the story take place between 50 and 100 (or 150, even) years ago, personal experience suggests that there are still many people in Iowa like John Ames and his family – reserved, sincere and, well, ‘nice’.
I know, I know, there are nice people everywhere, but Iowans take their niceness very seriously. Good intentions are practically the official state pastime.
…but to burst my own bubble, I completely bombed your test. The expressions that you mentioned in your last post were too old-timey Midwestern even for me. The one familiar term was ‘bodacious’, which just reminded me of Nelly’s Hot in Here. ‘Bodacious’ actually appears in the very first line – check it out here if you don’t believe me and/or to verify that the song is just as bad and catchy as you remember it to be.
Anyway, kind of a lazy (and late) post today, but Gilead is drifting along nicely. I’ll come up with something more on topic later this week!
-Liz
