I didn't name the protagonist of my next series "Isabella" after her, but once I found out about her books, I decided it was fate.
Haven't read her Japanese book yet, but the interesting thing about reading her Rocky Mountains letters is the way that she's entirely willing to editorialize. I'm so accustomed to anthropological writing, which even back then generally tried to dress itself in a veneer of objectivity, that it's weirdly refreshing to see her say things like "these people are total assholes* and can't be bothered to bathe; however, their neighbors are lovely people." She isn't unbiased, but the flip side is that she isn't trying to hide her bias. And she's much more open to new experiences, even unpleasant ones, than I tend to expect of Victorian writers.
*In case you couldn't tell, this an extremely loose paraphrase of her actual words.
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Haven't read her Japanese book yet, but the interesting thing about reading her Rocky Mountains letters is the way that she's entirely willing to editorialize. I'm so accustomed to anthropological writing, which even back then generally tried to dress itself in a veneer of objectivity, that it's weirdly refreshing to see her say things like "these people are total assholes* and can't be bothered to bathe; however, their neighbors are lovely people." She isn't unbiased, but the flip side is that she isn't trying to hide her bias. And she's much more open to new experiences, even unpleasant ones, than I tend to expect of Victorian writers.
*In case you couldn't tell, this an extremely loose paraphrase of her actual words.