WordVixen.com

A few days ago, I watched the entire 5 or so hours of the A&E Pride & Prejudice (so awesome). You know how Mr. Collins is always talking about how condescending Lady Catherine is?

Granted, in truth Lady Catherine meets our current understanding of the word, but at the time, condescension wasn’t an offensive description. Quite the opposite.

In America and most of the modern world, the term condescension is quite an insult. It means that the condescending person seems to think so highly of themselves that they have to lower themselves to our level. And that’s offensive to suggest that we’re at a lower level.

But think of when there was such a thing as rank. A social system where your rank dictated what you could wear, what you could do, your power in society, how you could marry, and so on. In a social system such as that, for a powerful person to condescend to the lower level was the utmost in gentility, kindness, thoughtfulness of those in a lower status than they. Not that it could never be considered an insult- a person of equal or lower rank behaving as though they were condescending from a higher rank would be the ultimate of fools. Which is why we use it exclusively as an insult today- after all, no one is higher than anyone else now. Even the President is the servant of the people- perhaps we should condescend to him?

But the truth of the matter is, we are still impressed by those who seem to truly condescend to us, even if we don’t call it by that word. Now we say “S/he’s just like a regular person” or “They’re so normal!” or “They’re just like us” and count it a compliment. Think of all the stories you hear of someone meeting a really pleasant Hollywood star, a rock god, or famous politician? How about when you work at a company where the boss is just “one of the boys”?

Rank still exists, condescension in the original still exists, but we’ve used it so much as an insult that it can no longer be considered a compliment. It’s just a shame that unless you write historical fiction, even writers are constrained by modern society’s norms. Oh well.

One of my best friends in the whole world just had her first novel released by Tyndale. Squee!

(click here for my actual review of Thicker Than Blood by CJ Darlington)

Remember I talked about my friend who won the Operation First Novel contest way back when? Well, the book was officially released in mid-December, and I ordered an additional copy just so that I could give it away here.

I haven’t started reading it yet- there’s the whole nervous-about-reading-my-friend’s-published-novel thing combined with the fact that I wanted to do my review at a later date, and the fact that I’ve been so tired lately that I just crash in bed instead of reading at all. However, my mother is over 1/3 of the way through and loves it.

Since I seriously suck at describing story lines, and since I have a paranoia of sounding overly biased, I’m just going to copy/paste the description the publisher gives on the back:

Christy Williams finally has her life on track. She’s putting her past behind her and working hard to build a career as an antiquarian book buyer. But things begin to unravel when a stolen Hemingway first edition is found in her possession, framing her for a crime she didn’t commit. With no one to turn to, she yearns for her estranged younger sister, May, whom she abandoned after their parents’ untimely deaths. Soon, Christy’s fleeing from her shattered dreams, her ex-boyfriend, and God. Could May’s Triple Cross Ranch be the safe haven she’s searching for? Will the sisters realize that each possesses what the other desperately needs before it’s too late? A stunning debut from the latest Christian Writers Guild winner.

After I read it, I’ll give my full review here, but in the meantime, I’m giving one copy to the first person to comment (stating that they want it) who promises to at least talk about the book and link to some place that it can be purchased (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, ChristianBooks.com, Berean, etc). You don’t have to review it, though that would be appreciated, but at least post about the book and link out to some place that sells it. I’ll send it to you once I get it autographed.

For more info on CJ’s Christian fiction Thicker Than Blood, see her website or her blog.

Remember, first come, first served!

Update: We already have a winner. You can buy a copy through the link above, or wait until my review. I might offer another copy at that time.

Merry Christmas Everybody!

I think I’ve mentioned it before, and I meant to get this video up a while back (remember how I was done decorating about a month ago and I’d finished my Christmas shopping before the end of Thanksgiving weekend? Yeah, I know ya’ll hate me and you’d THINK in that month that I’d get around to posting a video before the actual Christmas Day, but you’d think wrong).

Anyway. Hubs and I went a little nuts decorating this year. Fresh garland on the tree, put our pre-lit garland on the stair railing, the old garland absolutely everywhere, new Santa and snowmen lamps, the Christmas village, our Nutcrackers, our humongous How the Grinch Stole Christmas and The Night Before Christmas books, our Christmas stuffed animals under the tree, and a bunch of knick-knacks. I think it looks pretty sweet, so I video’d it (including my hippopotamus that sing “I want a hippopotamus for Christmas”) and had intended to actually dub in an MP3 from one of my many Christmas cds, but found out too late that just because I rip a song off a cd that does not turn it into an MP3. Bummer. So, the vid is mostly silent. Hope you enjoy it anyway, because there will be a quiz later.

And, since I’m a “settle for second best” kind of girl, I thought I’d show you exactly hard it is to achieve even second best for me!

Two more things. In the first video, at the end, you’ll see the lights on my stair rails in the shape of stars, snow flakes, and snow men. This is because I found these awesome glasses at Lowe’s or Home Depot or something that look like 3d glasses, but which actually make little lights look awesome. I have a Santa one too, but it doesn’t work as well. And the second thing is my earring ARE blinking. Love ‘em!