weekly digest #25
june 15-21, 2026: the tenant of wildfell hall, minority report, jack ryan: ghost war, the vampire lestat, fried fish & fish earrings, a new sewing project
I’m sure I had something to say about this week, but now I can’t remember.
My mom was away for a few days, so I’ve just been hanging out with my dad, watching movies and Star Trek and eating various foods with gluten.
reading
I finished The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë (published 1848) (spoilers ahead). Gilbert Markham becomes fascinated with Helen Graham, the young, beautiful widow who moves into decrepit Wildfell Hall with her son. He eventually discovers that she’s not actually a widow, but hiding from her abusive husband. Under English law at the time, married women had no right to own property, sue for divorce, or take custody of their children.
Helen is a devout woman, and throughout the novel Christianity is both her only comfort and her torture. She truly believes in the sanctity of her marriage vows, and at first attempts to improve her husband’s behavior and lead him to a more righteous life – what she considers her duty as a wife. When she eventually chooses to leave him, it is for the sake of her son, who is being corrupted by his father’s influence; her responsibility to his soul supersedes her responsibility to her husband. In her isolation, she eventually falls in love with Gilbert, but refuses to have any kind of romantic relationship with him. She isn’t concerned about the social or legal consequences, but the spiritual, and reassures him that they will meet again in heaven. Gilbert is the only man she meets who understands her reasoning – no matter how badly her husband has failed, being unfaithful to him would be a sin. Ironically, the fact that he lets her go is the very reason she loves him.
The novel is fascinating both as a piece of literature and a historical artifact. While Brontë condemns the legal and social conditions that trap women like Helen, she clearly uses Helen as a mouthpiece for her own religious beliefs. She doesn’t see Christianity as another oppressive force, but as a guiding light, and speaks of Universalist ideas of eventual salvation for all sinners that would have been unusual at the time. It’s a perspective so alien to my own, so informed by a specific point in history, but reading the novel I felt I understood why she believed what she did.
I’m currently reading Winter Love by Han Suyin, which very annoyingly will not sync properly to my ereader. I could download it on my computer and then upload it to my ereader, but it’s short so I’m just reading it on the libby app on my phone.
watching
My dad picked two movies this week that we watched together, Minority Report and Jack Ryan: Ghost War. Minority Report (2002, dir. Steven Spielberg) stars Tom Cruise as John Anderton, the chief of D.C.’s pilot pre-crime program. Acting on predictions from three psychic “precogs,” his team stops murders before they happen – that is, until the next predicted murderer is Anderton himself. There are some fascinating ideas here (the movie is adapted from a Philip K. Dick novella) and I always love these sci-fi thought experiments – if you had the ability to predict murders, would you have a moral responsibility to prevent them? What if that information came at the cost of keeping three precogs suspended in a chemical sleep, experiencing visions of murder over and over again? What would you do with the would-be killers, who now haven’t committed any crimes? The movie has a pretty disappointing execution, though. It’s weirdly goofy at times, with jetpack fight scenes that I couldn’t take seriously and a weird slapstick sequence where Tom Cruise is temporarily blind and stumbling around a disgusting apartment, accidentally drinking rotten milk and eating a moldy sandwich. The movie is also extremely ugly, made up mostly of sad blues and grays.
Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan: Ghost War (what a mouthful) (2026, dir. Andrew Bernstein) is partially a flimsy spy thriller, partially an extended ad for Dubai, the CIA, and uber eats. John Krasinski’s Jack Ryan is for some reason still Jim from The Office, but with a machine gun. The CIA director gives one of the worst monologue I’ve ever heard. At least Sienna Miller is beautiful.
I also watched the first two episodes of the new season of Interview with the Vampire, which for whatever reason has been renamed The Vampire Lestat for season three. I don’t see why this was necessary since even with the shift in focus from Louis to Lestat, there’s still a vampire being interviewed. Lestat’s less interesting to me than Louis, and I generally prefer the historical flashbacks to the current day rock star stuff, but I’m still excited to see where the story goes. No other tv show is doing toxic gay divorce like this!!
listening
I’m still listening to Olivia Rodrigo’s new album, you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love. It’s grown on me the more I’ve listened to it.
eating & drinking
For dinner this week my parents made meatballs with tomato salad & green sauce, sheet pan mac & cheese with chicken and broccoli, focaccia grinders, aji de gallina, and bacon, apple, and date flatbreads. On Friday night my dad and I went out to dinner at the patio of the local gift shop/cafe, and I had my first fried fish of the season. The number one summer activity in Maine, as far as I’m concerned, is eating fish and/or ice cream outside by the water. The beginning of the season means the reopening of hundreds of seafood shacks and ice cream stands across the state.
I’ve also entered a new breakfast era, and have switched from off-brand raisin bran crunch back to off-brand corn chex. The raisin bran era lasted three months, and probably would have gone on for a couple more weeks if we hadn’t had a box of corn chex in the pantry already.
making
I’m continuing to make progress on the front panel of my scrappy sweater. The construction is the same as the back panel, just changing the neckline.
I also started making a mock up of the hinterland dress by sew liberated. Once I’m sure I like the fit, I’m going to make one in the fabric my mom got me for my birthday.
shopping/gifts
And that fabric has arrived in the mail! It’s a lovely deadstock seersucker gingham that I can’t wait to sew with.
kitsch corner
In honor of the haddock I was about to eat, I wore my possibly-vintage Betsey Johnson fish earrings to dinner on Friday night. I bought these on ebay five years ago for $4.641, which was a steal if you ask me.
See you next week.
xoxo,
Franny 💋🐟
i consulted my purchase history for the sake of accurate journalism
"there's still a vampire being interviewed" my thoughts exactly