Just business as usual...nothing to see here.
Sunday, August 28, 2022
Tuesday, August 23, 2022
DDR: Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens
Preliminary research indicates that in this novel I will find a (one) beguile[d] the time, nightcaps, beer, and boiled beef. No references to wrestling, Vienna, or bears, though.
Speaking of this so-called Prelimary...perhaps owing to the fact that I had a short reading in The Old Curiosity Shop today (about 20 pages), I felt compelled to nibble at Barnaby Rudge, thus this is still DDRD 1,757.
In this CENTENNIAL EDITION of said Barnaby Rudge, the first volume contains an Introduction and Preface of XXI pages and 429 pages of text (which includes 3 pages of notes). The second volume contains 416 pages of text (1 page of which are notes). That's a grand total, then, of 866 pages.
Today I read the Introduction and Preface. In the Introduction, written by one Kathleen Tillotson, reference is made to a group known as the "Pussyites." Needless to say I felt the need to look into this immediately (no pun intended). I found this information at https://www.finedictionary.com/Puseyite:
So no relation to Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, then. Disappointing.
In the Preface, written by Dickens, we are told a bit about two ravens which he owned, and which jointly inspired the raven in this novel. Apparently this raven was the one which inspired Poe to write his famous poem. So there you have it.
Also in the Introduction, Dickens refers to himself as "one who has no sympathy with the romish church...." (XIX) Which kind of surprised me. Not that he was a Protestant, as that pretty much goes without saying for his time period, but that he was actually anti-Catholic, or so it seems to me from this comment, since I expect great men to rise above the petty provincialisms of their times.
Day 2 (DDRD 1,758) August 24, 2022
Read to page 30.
You know, when I opened this volume up, it actually creaked and resisted...and I can only conclude that this is the first time it has ever been opened. And despite that, it's already showing stress signs on the cover binding, and if I were a betting man I would put a couple thousand bucks down on the spine ripping free of the cover before I finish reading this one. I'll try to avoid that happening, of course, as I am not an abuser of books...not even when there's big money involved...but I'd say this is a sure thing.
In other news, check out the curious name on this fellow:
Sounds familiar for some reason.
The style of this novel seems quite different from the previous four. A bit more serious, a bit darker. In fact, it reminded me more than a little bit of Edgar Rice Burroughs...especially the ERB of The Rider.
Day 3 (DDRD 1,759) August 25, 2022
Read to page 60.
We (finally) meet Barnaby Rudge on page 36, and shortly thereafter he is described. One of the more bizarre aspects of this description is that there is an "absence of the soul" in him. Two pages later he is referred to as an "idiot." So I'm guessing that he is mentally retarded or possibly even autistic--though autism per se did not "exist" at that time. But Barnaby is very verbal, and very bizarre in his manner and content of speech...and also makes some strange body movements, so autism seems like a likely diagnosis to me.
I checked, and the LFPL has a tv mini-series of Barnaby Rudge courtesy of the 1960 BBC, and yes, I did put in a request for it. In the description of the series, it alludes to Barnaby as "a sweet, simple-minded youth"...a far cry from the rough and rude description we meet in the book. Also at the LFPL is an audio disc set of the book, which contains 20 cds and has a total running time of 24 hours. (The BBC tv series has a running time of 6 hours and 40 minutes, so there's a substantial savings there, ennit?)
News as it happens.
And now this:
So it begins.
Day 4 (DDRD 1,760) August 26, 2022
Read to page 91 (end of Chapter VIII).
So the Amazing Coincidence of meeting the strange guy on the road, then again in London, continues, as the same Strange Guy happens to come to the house where Barnaby and his mother live. It doesn't just strain credulity, it absolutely banishes it. In other news, Mr. Simon Tappertit seems to have a Hidden Life as the head of an underground group. Said group seems to be little more than children playing at being renegades, but my guess it that they--and their Black List of masters who have wronged their apprentices--will turn to some dangerous ways in later pages.
Day 5 (DDRD 1,761) August 27, 2022
Read to page 120. The spine seam split is getting pretty bad now...even though I'm only 112 pages (about 1/4th of the way) through, and am pretty sure this is the first time the book's been opened.
I suppose that at this point I don't need to say Fuck Heron Books anymore, but...Fuck Heron Books, man.
Here's a rather puzzling line that I read in Today's Thirty:
"God help the man whose heart ever changes with the world, as an old mansion when it becomes an inn!" (105)
I find it a little difficult to wrap my brains around this one, but I think if you start with the second part--how an old mansion would "feel" if it were turned into an inn...which would be very disappointed and possibly humiliated--then it can be taken back to part the first, suggesting that a man who felt the pain of that kind of transformation would be worthy of God's pity and in need of His help.
Maybe.
Day 6 (DDRD 1,762) August 28, 2022
Read to page 150.
"...I hate and despise myself and all my fellow-creatures as every practicable Christian should." (139)
Day 7 (DDRD 1,763) August 29, 2022
Read to page 182, the end of Chapter XVII. Barnaby's mom uttered a prayer at the end of the chapter which I found touching...and to which I could relate:
‘Oh Thou,’ she cried, ‘who hast taught me such deep love for this one remnant of the promise of a happy life, out of whose affliction, even, perhaps the comfort springs that he is ever a relying, loving child to me—never growing old or cold at heart, but needing my care and duty in his manly strength as in his cradle-time—help him, in his darkened walk through this sad world, or he is doomed, and my poor heart is broken!’
Pretty much sums it up for the parent of a special needs child.
Day 8 (DDRD 1,764) August 30, 2022
Read to page 211.
And now this:
Hit me today that this book, while it definitely has its charms, is not nearly so compelling at the previous four Dickens novels I've recently read. For one thing, it seems darker, more serious. But there's another element as well which I can't put my finger on. Perhaps it's just the fact that this was actually Dickens' first novel, so he hadn't quite blown the carbon off of his spark plugs. Which is not to say that I'm not interested, because I am. But I'm a bit more conscious of the turning of the pages, for sure, and sometimes the goal of thirty pages per day seems a bit long.
Oh, ran across the one "beguile[d] the time in today's reading. So there's that.
Day 9 (DDRD 1,765) August 31, 2022
Read to page 241 (end of Chapter XXIII).
Today's reading included a rather harrowing description of a sexual assault upon Dolly by Hugh. It was frustrated in the end, but was pretty unnerving up until then...and ended with Hugh threatening Dolly with vicious reprisals if she told anyone about it. It also got me to thinking about Women in Dickens / Victorian Times, so I Googled "Sexual Assault in Barnaby Rudge by Dickens" to see if there was anything out there, and lo and behold--"The Erotics of Barnaby Rudge" by Natalie McKnight in Dickens Studies Annual Vol. 40 (2009), pp. 23-36. So I hopped over to the LFPL and dialed up JSTOR, and ¡Whoomp! Si Lo Es! So I'll be checking that out in a minute.
I also picked up the aforementioned BBC tv series based on Barnaby Rudge (1960) and watched the first (of thirteen) episodes. It was very low budget and more than a bit stilted, but seemed faithful enough to the book, at least to this point. Jennifer Daniel as Dolly Varden caught my eye, so I checked her imdB resume out...and found that she never really got very far in the business, although she did have 65 credits, ranging from 1959 to 2012, so that's something. The only movies I could locate were Hammer Horror films, though, alas. Tried to watch one of them on tubi, but (1) it was dubbed in Spanish and (2) it was incredibly love budget and unrelentingly awful.
P.S. Also just did some calculations, and it looks like if I can stick to 30 pages a day for the next 234 days--which will take me to DDRD 2,000--that I will have read twice as many pages during my second Thousand Days as I did in my first. Yowza. And of course I like taking aim at that kind of goal, you know.
ADDENDUM: The baby I was sitting for actually decided to take a nap today, so I got a little extra reading in...to page 263. So THAT made for a big (50+) day.
Here's a thing that made me think a little bit:
"The despisers of mankind - apart from the mere fools and mimics, of that creed - are of two sorts. They who believe their merit neglected and unappreciated, make up one class; they who receive adulation and flattery, knowing their own worthlessness, compose the other. Be sure that the coldest - hearted misanthropes are ever of this last order." (242 - 243)
I have to admit that I am at least occasionally a despiser of mankind, and I'm sorry to confess that I at least sometimes fall into the first "sort" or "class" that Dickens delineates. Mostly in terms of my writing. I really think that my writing warranted at least a little more success than I've managed to grasp. Which doesn't make me feel good, but...there it is.
Another thing: on page 245, Dickens makes reference to "suiting the action to the word." So that's another bit of Shakespeare that lodged in his craw (to go along with the numerous "beguile the times" references). And no doubt there have been others that I either didn't notice or didn't note...which becomes the same thing after a little time has passed, after all.
Day 10 (DDRD 1,766) September 1, 2022
Read to page 300.
"...as hollow vessels produce a far more musical sound in falling then those which are substantial, so it will sometimes be found that sentiments which have nothing in them make the loudest ringing in the world, and are the most relished." (274)
Also...
Day 11 (DDRD 1,767) September 2, 2022
Chapter XXXII ends with this: "And the world went on turning around, as usual, for five years, concerning which this narrative is silent." (326)
Which I thought was a funny bit of meta-fiction, and also an interesting way to jump ahead five years.
And here's another new word: emulous. Which dictionary.com tells us means
1 desirous of equaling or excelling; filled with emulation:
boys emulous of their fathers.
2 arising from or of the nature of emulation, as actions or attitudes.
3 Obsolete. jealous; envious.
So there's that.
Current page total for 2K DRD is 20,830.
To double the pages read count from 1K DRD I need to read 26,898 pages.
Which means that I need to read 6,068 more pages in the next 232 days, which would mean I'd need to average 26.16 pages per day. So I'm thinking that that's doable.
But time will tell.
P.S. I really do need to get around to reading The Complete Samuel Beckett sometime soon.
Day 12 (DDRD 1,768) September 3, 2022
In today's 30 (-ish), we meet Lord George Gordon * and his retinue for the first time...around page 350. ** Which seems strange, in that he seems to be a character very much central to this story, so you'd think we'd have had a hint of him earlier on. And speaking of main characters, it has been quite awhile since we had any glimpse of Barnaby Rudge.
Here's a bit of information I'd not been previously aware of: "...Protestants are very fond of spoons...." (359)
And though it's rather long, I thought that this paragraph so perfectly summed up the current state of politics in the United States of America that I had to copy it in its entirety:
"If a man had stood on London Bridge, calling till he was hoarse, upon the passers-by, to join with Lord George Gordon, although for an object which no man understood, and which in that very incident had a charm of its own,—the probability is, that he might have influenced a score of people in a month. If all zealous Protestants had been publicly urged to join an association for the avowed purpose of singing a hymn or two occasionally, and hearing some indifferent speeches made, and ultimately of petitioning Parliament not to pass an act for abolishing the penal laws against Roman Catholic priests, the penalty of perpetual imprisonment denounced against those who educated children in that persuasion, and the disqualification of all members of the Romish church to inherit real property in the United Kingdom by right of purchase or descent,—matters so far removed from the business and bosoms of the mass, might perhaps have called together a hundred people. But when vague rumours got abroad, that in this Protestant association a secret power was mustering against the government for undefined and mighty purposes; when the air was filled with whispers of a confederacy among the Popish powers to degrade and enslave England, establish an inquisition in London, and turn the pens of Smithfield market into stakes and cauldrons; when terrors and alarms which no man understood were perpetually broached, both in and out of Parliament, by one enthusiast who did not understand himself, and bygone bugbears which had lain quietly in their graves for centuries, were raised again to haunt the ignorant and credulous; when all this was done, as it were, in the dark, and secret invitations to join the Great Protestant Association in defence of religion, life, and liberty, were dropped in the public ways, thrust under the house-doors, tossed in at windows, and pressed into the hands of those who trod the streets by night; when they glared from every wall, and shone on every post and pillar, so that stocks and stones appeared infected with the common fear, urging all men to join together blindfold in resistance of they knew not what, they knew not why;—then the mania spread indeed, and the body, still increasing every day, grew forty thousand strong."
And here is yet another example of Dickens being such a gigantic weirdo that he can't help himself from slipping into surrealism:
"The man who now confronted Gashford, was a squat, thick set personage, with a low, retreating forehead, a coarse shock head of hair, and eyes so small and near together, that his broken nose alone seemed to prevent their meeting and fusing into one of the usual size." (374)
How can you not love the guy?
* No relation.
** Technically on page 346, but he's not identified by name until page 349.
Day 13 (DDRD 1,769) September 4, 2022
Here's a bit that sounds very familiar and frightening:
"Shall we go and have a look at doors that we shall make a pretty good clattering at, before long—eh, brother?’
Hugh answering in the affirmative, they went slowly down to Westminster, where both houses of Parliament were then sitting. Mingling in the crowd of carriages, horses, servants, chairmen, link-boys, porters, and idlers of all kinds, they lounged about; while Hugh’s new friend pointed out to him significantly the weak parts of the building, how easy it was to get into the lobby, and so to the very door of the House of Commons; and how plainly, when they marched down there in grand array, their roars and shouts would be heard by the members inside; with a great deal more to the same purpose, all of which Hugh received with manifest delight." (483 - 484)
In fact, there were several times that things in this book have made me think of January 6th. Which I suppose just goes to show that we are condemned to repeat our history, doesn't it? In fact, Wikipedia's entry on The Gordon Riots--
The Gordon Riots of 1780 were several days of rioting in London motivated by anti-Catholic sentiment. They began with a large and orderly protest against the Papists Act 1778, which was intended to reduce official discrimination against British Catholics enacted by the Popery Act 1698. Lord George Gordon, head of the Protestant Association, argued that the law would enable Catholics to join the British Army and plot treason. The protest led to widespread rioting and looting, including attacks on Newgate Prison and the Bank of England[1][2][3] and was the most destructive in the history of London.
Violence started later on 2 June 1780, with the looting and burning of Catholic chapels in foreign embassies. Local magistrates, afraid of drawing the mob's anger, did not invoke the Riot Act. There was no repression until the Government finally sent in the army, resulting in an estimated 300–700 deaths. The main violence lasted until 9 June 1780.
The Riots occurred near the height of the American War of Independence, when Britain, with no major allies, was fighting American rebels, France, and Spain. Public opinion, especially in middle-class and elite circles, repudiated anti-Catholicism and lower-class violence, and rallied behind Lord North's government. Demands were made for a London police force.There appeared painted on the wall of Newgate prison a proclamation that the inmates had been freed by the authority of "His Majesty, King Mob". The term "King Mob" afterwards denoted an unruly and fearsome proletariat.
Edmund Burke later recalled the riots as a dangerous foretaste of the 1789 French Revolution:
Wild and savage insurrection quitted the woods, and prowled about our streets in the name of reform.... A sort of national convention ... nosed parliament in the very seat of its authority; sat with a sort of superintendence over it; and little less than dictated to it, not only laws, but the very form and essence of legislature itself.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Riots
--could serve as a stand-in for January 6th in pretty much every way except for the duration.
Another dose of Dickens' humor:
"Oh mim! oh sir. Raly it’s give me such a turn,’ cried the susceptible damsel, pressing her hand upon her side to quell the palpitation of her heart, ‘that you might knock me down with a feather.’
"The locksmith, after glancing at Miss Miggs as if he could have wished to have a feather brought straightway...."
Several times during the course of Volume I of this novel I've had the passing thought that Gabriel Varden seemed a bit too affectionate with his daughter, Dolly, but Dickens put the exclamation point to that when he observed in narration, that Dolly stood beside her father "in a most distracting dishabille." Distracting To Whom??? Well. I suppose it is time to read that article on The Erotics of this novel, ennit?
Day 14 (DDRD 1,770) September 5, 2022
I'm pretty sure that this volume has never been read before, either. It has the creak of a first time opened book, there's not a hint of writing in it, and the spine looks perfect:
We'll see how that holds up.
Meanwhile, some very exciting stuff in the first thirty pages of Volume II. Lots of anti-Catholic sentiments, but also a Catholic character who distinguishes himself by his brave reaction to a mob which threatens him. The hatred and anger continues to remind me of the political situation in our current political situation.
And also The Return of Barnaby and his mom. And it's pretty clear that there's a big backstory here, which is only hinted at for now.
Day 15 (DDRD 1,771) September 6, 2022
Meanwhile....Dickens used the phrase "harping on," which made me wonder where that came from, and a Google later I ended up on https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/172400.html, where I found this:
What's the origin of the phrase 'Harp on'? from A disputacion of purgatorye, a 1531 work by the English priest John Frith: "Se how he harpeth all of one stringe."
In other news...I've been watching the Barnaby Rudge BBC mini-series a little at a time. Just finished Episdoe 7, and have not yet caught up to where I am in the novel. It's a very low budget production, but the actors do a pretty good job of it. I am particularly taken with Timothy Bateson, who plays the part of Simon Tappertit, and does a pretty marvelous job of it. So I took a look to see what else Mr. Bateson had done, and was impressed by the fact that he had 212 credits listed--the last of which, in 2007, was as the voice of Kreacher in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. (Mr. Bateson died in 2009.) He also played in quite a few other Dickens adaptations: Oliver Twist, Hard Times, A Christmas Carol, Great Expectations, David Coperfield, Bleak House and The Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. He also had three parts in Labyrinth (The Worm / The Four Guards / Goblin), did a couple of turns in Doctor Who (1978 edition), and made three appearances in Midsommer Murders (S1.E2 "Written in Blood," S2.E1 "Death's Shadow," and
S8.E3 "Orchis Fatalis." Quite an impressive career, extending over the course of sixty years (1947 to 2007).
Day 16 (DDRD 1,772) September 7, 2022
Day 17 (DDRD 1,773) September 8, 2022
"Yes. Here was the bar—the bar that the boldest never entered without special invitation—the sanctuary, the mystery, the hallowed ground: here it was, crammed with men, clubs, sticks, torches, pistols; filled with a deafening noise, oaths, shouts, screams, hootings; changed all at once into a bear-garden, a madhouse, an infernal temple: men darting in and out, by door and window, smashing the glass, turning the taps, drinking liquor out of China punchbowls, sitting astride of casks, smoking private and personal pipes, cutting down the sacred grove of lemons, hacking and hewing at the celebrated cheese, breaking open inviolable drawers, putting things in their pockets which didn’t belong to them, dividing his own money before his own eyes, wantonly wasting, breaking, pulling down and tearing up: nothing quiet, nothing private: men everywhere—above, below, overhead, in the bedrooms, in the kitchen, in the yard, in the stables—clambering in at windows when there were doors wide open; dropping out of windows when the stairs were handy; leaping over the bannisters into chasms of passages: new faces and figures presenting themselves every instant—some yelling, some singing, some fighting, some breaking glass and crockery, some laying the dust with the liquor they couldn’t drink, some ringing the bells till they pulled them down, others beating them with pokers till they beat them into fragments: more men still—more, more, more—swarming on like insects: noise, smoke, light, darkness, frolic, anger, laughter, groans, plunder, fear, and ruin!"
The one word sentence followed by a paragraph long sentence...a use of syntax that really pushes into the reader's (or at least this reader's) emotional perimeter, carries them along with the violence of the crows. And as for that crowd:
"The great mass never reasoned or thought at all, but were stimulated by their own headlong passions, by poverty, by ignorance, by the love of mischief, and the hope of plunder." (106)
Kind of says it all about our political scene today, doesn't it?
Collage: Public Domain picture of The Gordon Riots (by Charles Green) with picture of the January 6th riot by Tyler Merbler (from the United States - DSC09156) superimposed.
If I were doing a movie script, I'd start with the scene where John Willet is tied in a chair in the midst of his ransacked bar.
Day 18 (DDRD 1,774) September 9, 2022
Poor Barnaby (now center stage) has been pulled into the riots, and is now a full-fledged Believer In The Cause.
Day 19 (DDRD 1,775) September 10, 2022
And here's another bit of Dickens being seriously weird:
'You helped to make the lock of the great door.’
‘I did,’ said the locksmith. ‘You owe me no thanks for that—as you’ll find before long.’
‘Maybe,’ returned his journeyman, ‘but you must show us how to force it.’
‘Must I!’
‘Yes; for you know, and I don’t. You must come along with us, and pick it with your own hands.’
‘When I do,’ said the locksmith quietly, ‘my hands shall drop off at the wrists, and you shall wear them, Simon Tappertit, on your shoulders for epaulettes.’
Yowza!
Day 20 (DDRD 1,776) September 11, 2022
In other news, I finished reading "The Erotics of Barnaby Rudge" Natalie McKnight and finished part 10 (of 13) of the BBC tv mini-series. And?
Well, the essay by Ms. McKnight was quite interesting. This bit, for instance:
"In Barnaby Rudge [contrasts] tend to align themselves around the polarities of masculine and feminine, with the dangerous streets of London, the violent mob, the tyranny of fathers, and the seriousness and intellectual weight of history all resonate with stereotypical maleness; while the pastoral scenes, the wombish Mapole Inn, the relative helplessness of children, and the emotional excesses of melodrama suggestive of stereotypical femininity." (25)
As soon as I read that, I thought, "And when the pole crashes through the window of the 'wombish Maypole Inn,' that's a giant penis penetrating the womb!" And sure enough, a few paragraphs later, that's were McKnight went, too. Though if you think about it, it really doesn't work as well as you'd like it to. Since the pole was part of the Maypole Inn already, it's hard to see it (no pun intended) as an invading Giant Penis. To achieve that, the crowd should have brought a giant pole to the inn. Still, it's an interesting point, and the whole urban male / pastoral female thing does seem to play out for the most part.
There's also a bit that McKnight quotes (from one Polhemus *) which I found to be interesting: "...the sex drive undermines civilization and...the greatest achievements of humans come from its sublimation, which is not the same thing as its repression." I am hearing echoes of the Freud thing we used to read in Great Books... an exerpt from a letter he wrote to Einstein which was entitled :Why War?"...but I'm not feeling energetic enough to go look it up, so you'll have to trust me on that bit...or look it up yourself.
As with most scholarly articles, there were a few times when I thought McKnight was Procrustean Bedding her argument, but I still found it an interesting bit of discourse. It reminded me of how much I once loved reading literary criticism and commentary, and made me think that I ought to spend a little more time at play in the fields of that lord.
Oh, I almost forgot The Sash. McKnight talks about how the illustrator of Barnaby Rudge, Hablot Knight Browne (Phiz) paid careful attention to both the overt and implied sexuality of Dickens' prose. So, for instance, in a picture illustrating Dolly helping her father tie his sash, we get this:
And...well, I don't have to SAY it, do I? Let's leave it at what I've noted before: for a father / daughter relationship, there seems to be an awful lot of sexual tension between these two characters.
And as for the BBC tv series...I'm coming near to the end of it, and even though the production values are very low and the budget was obviously extremely limited, I've enjoyed it and would recommend it. It also helps to solidify some things in my mind. So, for instance, even though the line isn't in the novel, when the Mayor, who has just been informed that the riots in the streets must be supressed, says, "I see no rioting. I see no rioting at all."--it immediately fits with the character in the novel...and, of course, evokes the spirit of the Republican congressmen who say that the January 6th insurrection was the equivalent of a tourist visit.
The same thought goes with a line that is from the novel, when a man tries to give the blue feather, the symbol of the rioters, to a man traveling into the city: "It's necessity and not choice that makes me wear it." Thus do many hide from the ferocity of those who act violently and without reason.
And speaking of the novel proper, here's a paragraph in which Dickens (1) skewers my heart, (2) shows the hypocrisy of some so-called Christians, and (3) re-emphasizes the obsequious nature of the aforementioned Mayor:
"At this same house, one of the fellows who went through the rooms, breaking the furniture and helping to destroy the building, found a child’s doll—a poor toy—which he exhibited at the window to the mob below, as the image of some unholy saint which the late occupants had worshipped. While he was doing this, another man with an equally tender conscience (they had both been foremost in throwing down the canary birds for roasting alive), took his seat on the parapet of the house, and harangued the crowd from a pamphlet circulated by the Association, relative to the true principles of Christianity! Meanwhile the Lord Mayor, with his hands in his pockets, looked on as an idle man might look at any other show, and seemed mightily satisfied to have got a good place." (246)
Powerful stuff indeed.
* Robert M. Polhemus, whose book Lot's Daughters: Sex, Redemption, and Women's Quest for Authority (1) looks interesting, (2) is available at the LFPL, and (3) will soon be winging my way--from Remote Shelving, of course. I'm pretty sure that I should be appointed as the Saint of Remote Shelving.
Afterthought: You know, you could make a hell of a class based on this novel. It would include artwork (the painting of Dolly), sexuality, history via The Gordon Riots themselves, and lots of other stuff I haven't yet thought of. It would be a very interesting and cohesive bit of study, I think. I'd actually like to do that. Might even be tempted to put a syllabus together. Just for myself, of course.
Day 21 (DDRD 1,777) September 12, 2022
Day 22 (DDRD 1,778) September 13, 2022
P.S. Speaking of that painting of Dolly...I don't think I ever got around to talking about that. So here it is: in the "Erotics" essay, Ms. McKnight makes reference to a painting by one William Powell Frith which emphasizes the sexuality of Dolly Varden. Well...apparently WPF did several paintings of Dolly. I found five...as well as quite a few pictures of fish. (For some reason there seems to be a fish named after the character.) None of the paintings fit my bill of a red hot momma, but maybe I'm just peculiar that way.
 |
| Public Domain |
Day 23 (DDRD 1,779) September 14, 2022
Picked up these beauties from the library yesterday--
--all of them related to Barnaby Rudge in some way. Or at least so I thought. I took Poetry of Witness with me to Jacqueline's choir practice and started looking for The Gordon Riots there...and found neither hide nor hair of it. Looks like an interesting anthology, but probably not what I'm looking for right now. And I've got plenty of other stuff to read, for sure.
P.S. Just as I was thinking, "I'm going to get to the end of this Volume without the spine splitting!" I heard THAT noise, and when I looked, sure enough...
Sigh.
Also read a few more pages whilst babysitting, so now I'm at page 380, which means that tomorrow should do it. And then? Yes, I think I will read Master Humphrey's Clock.
Day 24 (DDRD 1,780) September 15, 2022
Onward.
Oh, P.S. On the very day that I read the story about Rep. Lauren Boebert confusing the words "wanton" and "wonton" while reading a passage from the Bible, I read this:
Thanks for that, God.
DDR Day 1 to 1,000: 13,449 pages read
DDR Day 1001 to Day 2000:
(1) Leviathan 63 days, 729 pages
(2) Stalingrad 27 days, 982 pages
(3) Life and Fate 26 days, 880 pages
(4) The Second World War 34 + 32 + 40 + 43 + 31 + 32 days = 212 days, 4,379 pages
(5) Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming 10 days, 572 pages
(6) The Great Bridge 25 days, 636 pages
(1) Leviathan 63 days, 729 pages
(2) Stalingrad 27 days, 982 pages
(3) Life and Fate 26 days, 880 pages
(4) The Second World War 34 + 32 + 40 + 43 + 31 + 32 days = 212 days, 4,379 pages
(5) Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming 10 days, 572 pages
(6) The Great Bridge 25 days, 636 pages
(7) The Path Between the Seas 29 days, 698 pages
(8) Blake: Prophet Against Empire, 23 days, 523 pages
(9) Jerusalem 61 days, 1,266 pages
(10) Voice of the Fire 9 days, 320 pages
(11) The Fountainhead 15 days, 720 pages
(12) The Pacific Trilogy: Pacific Crucible 23 days, 640 pages
(8) Blake: Prophet Against Empire, 23 days, 523 pages
(9) Jerusalem 61 days, 1,266 pages
(10) Voice of the Fire 9 days, 320 pages
(11) The Fountainhead 15 days, 720 pages
(12) The Pacific Trilogy: Pacific Crucible 23 days, 640 pages
(13) The Pacific Trilogy: The Conquering Tide 28 days, 656 pages
(14) The Pacific Trilogy: Twilight of the Gods 31 days, 944 pages
(15) Jazz: Its Evolution and Essence 13 days, 304 pages
(16) Toward Jazz 18 days, 224 pages
(17) The Worlds of Jazz 13 days, 279 pages
(18) To Be or Not...to Bop 14 days, 571 pages
(19) Kind of Blue 4 days, 224 pages
(20) Kind of Blue: Miles Davis and his Masterpiece: 5 days, 256 pages
(21) Miles: The Autobiography 16 days, 445 pages
(21) A Love Supreme: The Story of John Coltrane's Signature Album: 8 days, 287 pages
(22) Ascension: John Coltrane and His Quest 8 days, 304 pages
(23) Living With Music: Ralph Ellison's Jazz Writings 11 days 325 pages
(24) The Pickwick Papers 28 days, 983 pages
(25) Oliver Twist 16 days, 542 pages
(26) Nicholas Nickleby 27 days, 1,045 pages
(27) The Old Curiosity Shop 22 days, 753 pages
(28) Barnaby Rudge __ days, 866 pages
2nd 1K Total: 21,353 (includes BR); Grand Total: 34,802. Average Pages Per Day:
Sunday, August 14, 2022
Evil Season 3
Well...at the end of Season 2 of Evil, I was feeling through with this show. The season finale did more than disappoint me, it angered me. (HERE)
I'm just so tired of the Priests Are Not Good Men trope. And that weariness is magnified by the fact that this Priest, Father David (played by Mike Colter), has been defined by his goodness from the get-go, and having him turn in the second season finale felt very untrue to the character, a capitulation on the part of the writers to the exigencies of sensationalism.
Unfortunately (I thought), I couldn't stop watching the show when Season 3 came around, though, because it's a show that #2🌞 really wants me to watch with him. I wasn't happy about it...until I was.
At least mostly.
On the one hand, my complaint about erasing the tension between Is It Real or Is It Just A Confusion? still stands. I suppose. Put it this way: while some of the paranormal events depicted in the show are shown to be illusions of one sort or another, there are also clearly real, true evil things as well. Demons. Cavorting demons, no less. But I don't feel quite the same way about it that I did a year ago. Part of that is because of the character of Sister Andrea...played to perfection by Andrea Martin. She is just so No Shit, Of Course There Are Demons...And I'm Going To Kill Them With This Shovel that she has made my objection there disappear.
And Father David's sexual indiscretions with Kristen? Well...no spoilers (beyond that), but let's just say that my fierce objection to that stuff has completely disappeared.
And I find myself once more captivated by this show.
Just in time for the end of Season 3, so now there's a long wait ahead.
So the short of it is this: if you listened to my advice to give up on Evil, then start back up. There is plenty of good stuff waiting for you in Season 3.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)