Sketch #63

In Dickens’ time, and earlier, beer was drank to quench thirst, not water from a well. Tea and coffee were too expensive. Children were served a thin brew.

Day/Page/Sketch #62

I was inspired by the way Dickens renders Miss Havisham on this page, as a spectral figure from the darkness that would turn to dust under sunlight.

Day/Page/Sketch #61

Stella (star) is a name that became immensely popular thanks to Great Expectations. There were hardly any references of that name before 1861.

Day/Page/Sketch #60

In this page Pip discovers all the clocks in Satis house are intentionally stopped at 8:40 AM, the exact time when Miss Havisham’s heart broke.

Day/Page/Sketch #59

Miss Havisham makes her presence on the book in this page for the first time. What and entrance!

Day/Page/Sketch #58

The name Satis House comes from the Latin satis for ‘enough’. It’s the name of a real mansion in England, which gained its name from a comment by Queen Elizabeth I who stayed there as a guest. As she left, the queen was asked if she had been comfortable during her stay. “Satis”, she answered.

Day/Page/Sketch #57

She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that’s best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes:
Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

Day/Page/Sketch #56

A mug of tea and a sack of peas, and then off to Miss Havisham’s for the first time! I’m savoring this.

Day/Page/Sketch #55

Corduroy and seeds are having a party.

Day/Page/Sketch #54

It feels as if this page synchronized with our own daily reality. Our dreams today will shift, skid, move, and change right before our very eyes. All as it is meant to be.

Day/Page/Sketch #53

Being soaped, kneaded, toweled, thumped, harrowed, and rasped with water-butt. I had to check what water-butt means: a butt (large barrel like container) set on end to contain water especially to store rainwater. PHEW!

Day/Page/Sketch #52

A bildungsroman is a literary genre that focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist of a story from youth to adulthood. Read coming-of-age story. Great Expectations is a bildungsroman.

Day/Page/Sketch #51

Self-consciousness is an acute sense of self-awareness. It is a preoccupation with oneself, as opposed to the philosophical state of self-awareness, which is the awareness that one exists as an individual being. According to Schopenhauer, man can, through self-consciousness, make a choice between affirming or denying the will.

Day/Page/Sketch #50

Your moment of truth is here. Move slowly away from what you no longer want. So be careful! No one is indispensable. Take a couple of deep breaths before you shoot your mouth off. Be silent and see what comes toward you.

Day/Page/Sketch #49

According to the anthropologist Alfred-Louis Kroeber, the female silhouette regularly revolves through one of three basic shapes—bustle, scabbard, bell.

The Havisham Hour

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