By popular demand:
A thread to discuss all things Secret Society Girl related, reserved for people who have read the book. White text not required. No censorship of spoilers or plot twists or anything else. Discuss what you will.
(Note: those of you who have read advanced copies of Under the Rose, wait your turn. Under the Rose spoiler thread to come in June.)
Naturally, if you haven’t read the novel, peruse the comments section at your peril.
Enjoy!
May 19th, 2007 at 9:05 pm
Yay! Spoiler thread! I especially like when aliens show up in chapter 11. (Kidding! Kidding!) I lurve the whole thing, actually. I don’t want to spoil it. If you haven’t read it, why not?? Go get it. Now! Hurry, before the sequel comes out!!!
P.S.
Fine, fine, I’ll make comments after all. (But I won’t be the one who starts the spoiling. *g) In SSG, I [heart] GHP. He can call me ‘boo anytime. (Although I did think B was a good guy and felt a bit sorry for him at times. Especially the scene where he confronts A about the bar incident and says, “I think I know what you’re going to say…” and is devastated to learn he’s right. Aww.) Also made me want to try pomegranates, which I had previously never had. (OT: Today I had pomegranate vinaigrette at Uno’s with Kelly R and it was very tasty.) Also made me wish someone would send me messages via paper airplane. (Er, SSG made me wish that, not Uno’s.)
P.P.S.
What does it mean when my P.S. is longer than my actual comment? =)
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May 20th, 2007 at 8:48 am
I also {heart} GHP. I thought the bit about the hit dictionary was hilarious.
Also, a friend to whom I lent the book (she’d never read it if she had to -gasp!- buy it, so I’m trying to spread the love) and I are in agreement that P is a total creep. The character you love to hate. But hey, everyone needs a good pseudo-villain. I’m very interested in what’ll happen to him next. (Is it a sign of my character that I’m interested in the meanies?)
I feel so bad for B. If A doesn’t want him, can I have him?
P.S. to the P.P.S.- Just that your afterthoughts are full thoughts in themselves, Erica.
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May 20th, 2007 at 3:18 pm
Q: Is it an Ivy League thing or a Yale thing or just an Eli thing that juniors/seniors still live in the dorms? Or do I have some misunderstanding of the way the whole thing works??
Love GHP myself. A bad boy/womanizer (so to speak) after my own heart.
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May 20th, 2007 at 6:04 pm
Hey, Kelly!
I don’t know if it’s an Ivy League thing, but at Yale (and therefore at Eli, which is Bizarro-Yale), most undergrads (88%) *do* live on campus. They are REQUIRED to live on campus for the first two years (remember one of the the things Amy makes fun of Clarissa about is that her dad paid for both on campus and off campus housing her freshman year), so that’s 50% right there.
(Sailor Boy, math whiz, tells me that means 76% of juniors and seniors live on campus.)
I think there are several reasons for this:
1) Campus housing is guaranteed all four years. A lot of schools don’t do this, but Yale does. If you know you have a guaranteed spot to live, you’re less likely to even think about searching elsewhere.
2) Campus housing is NICE. Really, really nice, especially for juniors and seniors. We’re talking big common rooms, fireplaces, hardwood floors, lead veined windows… I had a wall lined with bookshelves and a built in desk. Sailor Boy’s room was nicer than any place we’ve lived since.
3) The “college system” fosters a community that you don’t want to leave. You’re likely to be better friends with your college-mates than with anyone else, so it’s not as if you have to leave campus housing to live with them. This is part of the reason, we surmised, that living on campus was required for the first two years. You’re supposed to bond with your college mates.
4)There isn’t a whole lot of non-campus housing available. It’s a supply and demand thing. I’m sure at schools where most people do live off campus, there are a ton of local businesses devoted to the housing market for undergrads. At yale there are apartment buildings, but i only knew a handful of people who weren’t grad students that lived in them.
5) Campus is very compact and centralized. If you live on campus, all your classes (unless you majored in science) are within five minutes of your living space (I lived in one of the “farthest” colleges.) I remember one year, briefly entertaining the thought of moving off campus with a friend. We found two apartments within a fifteen minute walk of central campus that fit into my on campus housing budget (my parents’ rules). If I could get a nicer place, where I wouldn’t have to furnish it OR pay for utilities, in a much closer area, why wouldn’t I choose that?
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May 20th, 2007 at 8:04 pm
Thanks for the enlightenment. Every school can be so different when it comes to housing. Both schools I attended (undergrad/grad) had v. different housing situations, but living on campus all 4 years wasn’t common at either, so it made me wonder about Yale/Bizzaro-Yale a/k/a Eli.
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May 21st, 2007 at 11:17 am
I had someone come up to me at the NEC meeting yesterday and say she’d read SSG and really enjoyed it. Thought the initiation stuff was funny. Then she got all serious and said…”What’s the deal with Brandon? Does he come back for the second book? I just wasn’t sure about his ending.” I kind of looked at her funny. I didn’t want to give away anything from the second book, so I told her to just read the next book! = )
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May 21st, 2007 at 12:04 pm
Bizarro-Yale! I love it! Or, to use Erica’s favorite term, lurve it! Now I know why the whole place seemed so unreal after four years as an undergraduate in Cambridge. (Where we, by the bye, lived in “Houses”, not “Colleges”. Much more sophisticated.)
A curious fact relating to the House/College system: When Edward Harkness first proposed funding the College system at Yale, he was turned down flat. So he went north to Cambridge, where A. Lawrence Lowell received him with open arms. After seeing the elegance of Harvard’s neo-Georgian Houses, Yale came crawling back on hands and knees to Mr. Harkness, asking if perchance there was any more $$$ left, and if so, whether they could change their mind? Luckily for Yale, there was, and they could. And that’s how it came to pass that James Gamble Rogers ran amok “Gothicising” Yale, using an architectural style that no one had ever seen before – or since.
Additional factoid: neither Harkness (Wolf’s Head) nor Rogers (Scroll & Key) belonged to Rose & Grave.
My favorite scene was, is, and forever shall be the one at the Eli Club in NYC, where Amy stands up for Clarissa against her unspeakable father, and then proceeds to tell the other old farts in the room where to get off. I read that scene over and over to try to figure out why it “works” so well, and in the end gave up. That’s why they call it art, I guess.
IMO, Diana has made Bizarro-Yale ten times better than the rather mundane reality…but there we are again, back at the mystical process that transmutes everyday life into art. At which Diana is better than anyone since Jane Austen, if y’all will permit me a brief editorial observation.
Whatever Random House/Dell is paying you, Diana, it’s not enough!
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May 22nd, 2007 at 12:56 pm
All I have to say is, damn you, Diana and your fabulous writing.
I was supposed to organize and straighten and unpack in the new house this weekend but I picked up UNDER THE ROSE and started reading and couldn’t put it down.
It’s SO GOOD! Everyone needs to buy this one when it hits the shelves next month. I think it’s even better than SSG…
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January 21st, 2010 at 3:08 pm
SECRET SOCIETY GIRL is a decent update on STOVER AT YALE. I’m hopeful W.H.S. would offer a spot among the gods and goddesses to the “GIRL”.
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January 29th, 2011 at 8:49 pm
A curious fact relating to the House/College system: When Edward Harkness first proposed funding the College system at Yale, he was turned down flat. So he went north to Cambridge, where A. Lawrence Lowell received him with open arms. After seeing the elegance of Harvard’s neo-Georgian Houses, Yale came crawling back on hands and knees to Mr. Harkness, asking if perchance there was any more $$$ left
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December 13th, 2011 at 4:19 am
that article is really useful for the females
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February 9th, 2012 at 1:21 pm
When I find a show I like I involve family and friends as I’m passionate about the shows I enjoy and I like to watch them on TV when they air…
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