#ReadingTheStone S2 Episode 5: On Love and Death in the House of Jia

[Originally recorded on 2-11-2023]

The theme of this morning's #ReadingTheStone live chat began earlier, with Kate's Twitter poll on where readers fell on The Baoyu-Daiyu-Baochai ship, and whether Daiyu's quiet off-stage demise in the midst of a wedding was unbefitting the exit of a central character. Some other forked paths of conversation centered around Chapters 96-100 of Hongloumeng: Daiyu's final utterance, the business of Baoyu's lost jade, idealized polygamy, destroying traces of oneself as gesture of moral purity or willful self-destruction, bowderlizing sad endings to please one's audience, and of course, muzak. 

Thanks for listening! Find us at readingthestone.com or @ReadingTheStone on Twitter.