#those who leave and those who stay

[literatureaesthetic]

march '24 favs:

• those who leave and those who stay & the story of the lost child ; elena ferrante — the final two books in the neapolitan novels, a tetrology recording the lives of two girls in naples from childhood to old age. gutting, beautiful, layered, and complex. this series is a masterpiece, elena ferrante is everything to me <3 (please read it!!)

• sirens and muses by antonia angress — following an array of characters at an art university as they navigate life, work, academia, relationships, and being an artist in a capitalist world where everything is commodified. the depth of characters paired with the nuanced discussions of art, class, and politics left me so pleasantly surprised. (it's also extremely gay and perfect for all you tumblr users with mummy/daddy issues)

[asoftepiloguemylove]

suddenly childhood ended and now i am supposed to know how to live

Franz Wright Entry In An Unknown Hand / Elena Ferrante (tr. Ann Goldstein) Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay (via @luthienne) / Jenny Zhang How It Feels / Anna Kamienska Astonishments / unknown / Gabrielle Bates & Jennifer S. Cheng So We Must Meet Apart / W. Todd Kaneko The Day After / image; SZA Blind / Ethel Cain Dog Days / @darkerthanerebus / pinterest

[paunchsalazar]

reading The Neapolitan novels

[themindisapowerfulmotif]

1. // 2. Haruki Murakami, Sputnik Sweetheart // 3. Simone Weil, An Anthology of Selected Writings // 4. // 5. Czesław Miłosz, from “The Song.” // 6. L’Amica Geniale, Those Who Leave And Those Who Stay // 7. Haruki Murakami, 1Q84 // 8. Third Eye - Florence + The Machine, art by @sunsbleeding // 9. Susan Sontag, Reborn: Journals and Notebooks, 1947-1964 // 10. Mary Oliver, Upstream: Selected Essays

[tutyayilmazz]

"I fantasized, I listened at high volume to the music I had been ignorant of as a girl, I didn't read, I didn't write. And I felt increasingly regretful that, because of my self-discipline in everything, I had missed the joy of letting go that the women of my age, of the milieu I now lived in, made a show of having enjoyed and enjoying."

"But I couldn't control my restlessness, an eagerness for violation was growing in me, I wanted to break the rules, as the entire world seemed to be breaking the rules."

― Elena Ferrante, Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay

[therefugeofbooks]

Currently reading Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay by Elena Ferrante

[naneki-maid]

I began to have some ugly thoughts on the beach. Lila, I said to myself, deliberately pushes away emotions, feelings. The more I sought tools to try to explain myself to myself, the more she, on the contrary, hid. The more I tried to draw her into the open and involve her in my desire to clarify, the more she took refuge in the shadows. She was like the full moon when it crouches behind the forest and the branches scribble on its face.

Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay (2013) by Elena Ferrante

[goodfully]

a little delayed but i wrote most of this in my notes app waiting for internet access hahaha i finished reading the third book yesterday, mostly in the car, im in the middle of a trip with family and relatives so this might be more vague/disorganized. mm okay thoughts on "those who leave and those who stay"!

i mean all of this in a lighthearted way! but wow idk what i was expecting with nino, i was lowkey hoping he wouldnt be a major character in the third book. oh my god, i swear every time ninos name was revealed (the author of some article, somebodys friend, some babys father, etc..) i mentally rolled my eyes.. i get that hes an important character and its great how he encourages lenu with her academic work much more than pietro ever did, but wow, tbh ive had enough with this guy hahaha

okay! i think what i liked most about this book is that that while the first two books were centered on lenu and lila looking towards their future and escaping their neighborhood, the third book was so much of them both looking back on the past. by that i mean, both their own lives in that neighborhood in naples, as well as history and politics globally.

anyway im glad we got more political history in this book, it just makes sense to i think. lenu and lilas lives are very much affected by it, and always had been, but it becomes much more clear to them now that theyre older, altho ig in different ways. mm like understanding the connection between the violence in the neighborhood they grew up in and the systems of exploitation that exist globally (like imagine finding your first boyfriend is the leader of some fascist thugs that beat ppl up in front of the factory your friend works at). i think its important bc ever since the first book im sure that we've been hearing from both lenu and lila that they feel as tho something beyond their grasp and comprehension is keeping them from escaping from the lives they had/have. and like.. maybe theyve known it was the patriarchy, fascism... before they even knew what it was. ahh the stuff that lenu said in the beginning about how we cant really escape bc the world is poisoned everywhere. its a bleak view, but that part in the very beginning was ahhhhh...

oh god, lenu having daughters.. like.. more mother/daughter relationship things... the things girls learn from their mothers (dede and elsa in front of the mirror acting dissatisfied with the way they look.. i know it was a short, insignificant scene but i would have cried) and also. when lenus mother came to take care of her, and she said "i was afraid she would never return. but she always did"... ahh!!! and then when elena told her daughters about leaving their father and both of her daughters asked if she would take them or begged her to stay. screams. oh oh oh and every single time she notices that one the younger children resembles their father???

as much as i do adore lenu, i find myself attached to lila.. so when there was that big chunk of just purely lilas part of the story, i was excited (despite the very distressing events)... anyway thoughts on that lila part:

i was thinking about how much this part showed how revolutionary movements arent that straightforward, esp between the actual working class and the intellectual students, like when revolutionary movements arent led by the ones the revolution was made purposefully to liberate? ohh actually i have a lot of thoughts on this and the events that happened, i like how much ferrante talks about it, but ill keep it short.. the part with lilas speech in the pamphlet, the fight in front of the factory, pasquale and nadia disagreeing with lenu helping lila, local and state armed fascists, union organizers not truly representing the workers, its relation to the patriarchy etc..

also so heartbreaking, seeing lila lose her mind over her child, believing that the closer he is to her, the more likely he'll break.. like her. god god i understand that feeling, but i imagine its so much worse for lila when its her own child. that thing about feeling trapped in the same fate as your parents is just so so sad. ive literally never wanted to have my own children bc of this.

i know im projecting onto lila, but tbh the idea that lila is aroace is...!!! haha.. like when she was crying and telling enzo that she loves him and wishes every night to hold him close, but "beyond that i dont want anything." and hhfhrh idk i feel this way for a lot of ppl and know i risk being left if im unable to give what the other person in a relationship wants and they suffer for it. hh

oh! i think its cool that while the revolutionary/workers rights movement was a bigger thing for lila, the feminist movement was more significant for lenu.. god pietro was so??? idk why he was so insistent on following traditional husband/wife roles. i thought something was off about him since they first got engaged and he didnt care of her novel. tbh i am happy for her and hope she gets to be content with her self and her life in the next book. oh and the new thing that lenu writes is so interesting... i think maybe the women in the books would find it the truth for them, except probably lila. so it was interesting when alfonso tells lila that he wants to if he was a woman, hed want to be like lila.

oh some other random parts i keep thinking about: when she and lila were talking excitedly like when they were children, and the talk finally inspired something in her to write a second novel. and when lila read it, and cries. and they both say they dont know who they are without the other.. and when lenu starts rambling about how she believes lila has the intense capacity for apocalyptic violence like she did at the start of the second book, i go crazy i love that hahaha. hmm and gigliola... i remember not thinking much of her yet in the first two books, but really i like her and feel a lot for her.

mm there might be stuff i forgotten to mention, but ill end this here for now! i cant believe its only one book left already...

[whilereadingandwalking]

I was fascinated with the concept of “dissolving boundaries” on this reread, and noted often where boundaries were sharp between Lila and Lenú and where they were malleable. “What you do, I do,” they said as children, but as they grow, they push away.

Lila because she is held back, and resigns herself to it, she begins to believe that attempts to succeed or access her genius as ambition will only poison the people around her, and so she puts up a wall around herself, to protect herself, but also to protect others, like Lenú, from the influence that people have told her is magnetic and toxic, corrupting. Lenú puts a wall up between her and the neighborhood, between her and Lila, but inevitably those turn out to not be walls at all. Her boundaries do dissolve, ultimately, she is pulled back into the neighborhood, Lila is never not part of her body on some intimate level, her body is impacted by memory and love.

Similarly, I noticed how Lenú often talks of doubling—a past Nino and a present Nino, layered, different, the same—and that too reminded me of dissolving boundaries. Lenú is more comfortable with letting the world layer, overlap, swirl. Lila can see too much of the world, can see how easy it is for everything to shatter at any given moment, and it is always at risk of overwhelming her—Lenú, in her insistence on only seeing so much, is more able to guard her own boundaries and self.

[unfuckthisworld]

finished those who leave and those who stay….. disappointed but not surprised

l’amica geniale / the graduate

[literatureaesthetic]

obligatory neapolitan novels post — just started reading book three, and already i'm underlining like a madman. we all know i'm obsessed with this series, but i have to reiterate that elena ferrante truly is such a special author ✨️

➛ neapolitan playlist

[beljar]

She went like that saint who, although she still has her head on her shoulders, is carrying it in her hands, as if it had already been cut off.

Elena Ferrante, from Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay, 2013

[paunchsalazar]

on the last book of The Neapolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante

[fallenalienz]

L’amica Geniale S03E08 “Those Who Leave, Those Who Stay”

[tutyayilmazz]

― Elena Ferrante, Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay

[therefugeofbooks]

Finishing Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay like Lenù, sweetie, what are you doing? 🥲