John D. Rateliff's Blog, page 196
August 2, 2011
Stone of Invisibility
So, I've been reading one of the impulse buys I got in the book room at Kalamazoo, THE MAN IN THE MOONE by Francis Godwin, published posthumously in 1638. It's the story of a man who managed to reach the moon by harnessing a bunch of migratory geese together. As one of a cluster of 'visit to other planet' tales from that period,* it pulls together ideas from all over: Godwin's interest in long-range signaling and in secret languages/codes, the 'green children' legend, theories of gravity, &c. Two of Godwin's most interesting ideas involve lunar language and magical stones.
Godwin's explorer, a diminutive Spaniard named Gonsales,** finds that the lunar language consists of musical notes, so that they can communicate through singing melodies; he even uses musical notation to depict it [p. 109]. Later, when upon his return to Earth he finds he's landed in China, he suggests a lot of similarities between Lunar and Chinese (e.g., in the latter's emphasis on pitch and tone).
Gonsales also finds a new colour on the moon (shades of Lindsay's jale and ulfire, and of Lovecraft's Colour, and of Bierce):
. . . how to describe the colour of them . . .
It was neither blacke, nor white, yellow, nor redd,greene nor blew, nor any colour composed of these.
But if you aske me what it was, then I must tell you,it was a colour never seen in our earthly world,and therefore neither to be described unto us by any,nor to be conceived of one that never saw it.
For as it were a hard matter to describe unto a man born blind*** the difference betweene blew and Greene, so can Inot bethinke my selfe of any meanes how to decipher unto you this Lunar colour,having no affinitie with any other that ever I beheld with mine eyes.
Onely this I can say of it, that it wasthe most glorious and delightfull, that can possibly be imagined; neither in truthwas there any one thing, that more delighted me,during my abode in that new world, thanthe beholding of that most pleasing andresplendent colour. [p. 100]
A few hints made me suspect that this may have been one of CSL's source-books for OUT OF THE SILENT PLANET -- Gonsales' discovery that space is filled with light (apparently a common belief during the period), or that he discovers the Lunar inhabitants to be not just good Xians (Godwin was a bishop, after all) but in an apparently unfallen state, with no murders (it's simply too hard to kill each other, given Lunar vitality) and a peaceful acceptance of death when one's time has come. However, it's clear from editor Wm Poole's apparatus to the book (sixty pages of introduction and forty of appendices, bracketing not quite sixty pages of actual text) that Godwin's was part of a tradition, and I don't know enough about that tradition (though I plan to learn more).
One passage of Tolkienian interest was in Gonsales' description of the new types of rocks he found on the moon; here the editor notes that Godwin is drawing on THE BOOK OF SECRETS attributed to Albert Magnus; a reference to the creation of artificial shining stones might be worth following up on. Of particular relevance, though, is the passage about Stones of Invisibility:
I inquired then amongst them, whether they had notany kind of Iewell or other meanes to make a maninvisible, which mee thought had beene a thing of greatand extraordinary use.
And I could tell of divers of our learned menhad written many things to that purpose.
They answered that if it were a thing faisable, yet they assured themselves that God would not suffer it to be revealed to us creaturessubject to so many imperfections, being a thingso apt to be abused to ill purposes; and thatwas all I could get of them. [p. 112]
--all v. Platonic!
--John R.current book: THE MAN IN THE MOONE by Francis Godwin [1638]current audio book: THE DUNWICH HORROR, HPLHS 'radio-play' adaptation (just finished)
...................................
*which I suspect I'll start to read my way through, off and on, one by one, prob. stating with Kepler's SOMNIUM [1634]
**referred to on the title page as "Domingo Gonsales, The Speedy Messenger" -- a distant inspiration for Speedy Gonzales, perhaps?
***cf. C. S. Lewis's story of the same name.
Godwin's explorer, a diminutive Spaniard named Gonsales,** finds that the lunar language consists of musical notes, so that they can communicate through singing melodies; he even uses musical notation to depict it [p. 109]. Later, when upon his return to Earth he finds he's landed in China, he suggests a lot of similarities between Lunar and Chinese (e.g., in the latter's emphasis on pitch and tone).
Gonsales also finds a new colour on the moon (shades of Lindsay's jale and ulfire, and of Lovecraft's Colour, and of Bierce):
. . . how to describe the colour of them . . .
It was neither blacke, nor white, yellow, nor redd,greene nor blew, nor any colour composed of these.
But if you aske me what it was, then I must tell you,it was a colour never seen in our earthly world,and therefore neither to be described unto us by any,nor to be conceived of one that never saw it.
For as it were a hard matter to describe unto a man born blind*** the difference betweene blew and Greene, so can Inot bethinke my selfe of any meanes how to decipher unto you this Lunar colour,having no affinitie with any other that ever I beheld with mine eyes.
Onely this I can say of it, that it wasthe most glorious and delightfull, that can possibly be imagined; neither in truthwas there any one thing, that more delighted me,during my abode in that new world, thanthe beholding of that most pleasing andresplendent colour. [p. 100]
A few hints made me suspect that this may have been one of CSL's source-books for OUT OF THE SILENT PLANET -- Gonsales' discovery that space is filled with light (apparently a common belief during the period), or that he discovers the Lunar inhabitants to be not just good Xians (Godwin was a bishop, after all) but in an apparently unfallen state, with no murders (it's simply too hard to kill each other, given Lunar vitality) and a peaceful acceptance of death when one's time has come. However, it's clear from editor Wm Poole's apparatus to the book (sixty pages of introduction and forty of appendices, bracketing not quite sixty pages of actual text) that Godwin's was part of a tradition, and I don't know enough about that tradition (though I plan to learn more).
One passage of Tolkienian interest was in Gonsales' description of the new types of rocks he found on the moon; here the editor notes that Godwin is drawing on THE BOOK OF SECRETS attributed to Albert Magnus; a reference to the creation of artificial shining stones might be worth following up on. Of particular relevance, though, is the passage about Stones of Invisibility:
I inquired then amongst them, whether they had notany kind of Iewell or other meanes to make a maninvisible, which mee thought had beene a thing of greatand extraordinary use.
And I could tell of divers of our learned menhad written many things to that purpose.
They answered that if it were a thing faisable, yet they assured themselves that God would not suffer it to be revealed to us creaturessubject to so many imperfections, being a thingso apt to be abused to ill purposes; and thatwas all I could get of them. [p. 112]
--all v. Platonic!
--John R.current book: THE MAN IN THE MOONE by Francis Godwin [1638]current audio book: THE DUNWICH HORROR, HPLHS 'radio-play' adaptation (just finished)
...................................
*which I suspect I'll start to read my way through, off and on, one by one, prob. stating with Kepler's SOMNIUM [1634]
**referred to on the title page as "Domingo Gonsales, The Speedy Messenger" -- a distant inspiration for Speedy Gonzales, perhaps?
***cf. C. S. Lewis's story of the same name.
July 31, 2011
More on Horne
Well, I've now finished Mark Horne's shortish biography of Tolkien (#II.2932). And while Horne writes pretty well and has the occasional insight (such as suggesting [p. 89] that writing for his children enabled Tolkien to overcome the self-consciousness that paralyzed his more ambitious works), this biography has two things going against it. First, like most of the Tolkien biographies published in the last two decades, it's essentially a paraphrase of Carpenter (except for the two chapters which derive from Garth). Second, and more seriously, it has a lot of errors.
Most of these are relatively minor, such as the claim that Tolkien couldn't finish A MIDDLE-ENGLISH VOCABULARY without E. V. Gordon's help, or that the Tolkien-Gordon edition of SIR GAWAIN & THE GREEN KNIGHT set the standard for students of Old English for decades thereafter (it's in Middle English). Some are more problematic, such as the claim that Christopher Wiseman helped Tolkien create his invented languages (news to me, and I shd think unlikely -- at any rate, Wiseman never made any such claim to me). Or Horne's statement that Tolkien felt Lit. students shdn't have to study any philology [p. 84], which is the exact opposite of what Tolkien set out in the syllabus he got enacted at Oxford. And even minor errors add up when you keep making them.
And then there's the problem of focus. Horne spends most of his book on Tolkien's youth, a feature of juvenile and young-adult biographies (which assume the reader mainly wants to know what a famous person was like at their age and a bit thereafter); only about a dozen pages are devoted to the last quarter-century of JRRT's life. And this is a pity, because the latter chapters (regarding the writing of THE HOBBIT, LotR, and afterwards) are much the best part of this book: I suspect that Horne, a Presbyterian minister who's also published a study of the GOSPEL OF MARK, is good at bringing to life a well-known story. Another 'juvenile/young adult' feature is that several of the early chapters begin with fictionalized passages (or, as Horne puts it, scenes to which he's added "imagined conversational details"). There's certainly precedent for this: Carpenter devoted a central chapter in both TOLKIEN: A BIOGRAPHY and THE INKLINGS to a fictional re-creation of a 'day in the life'. But whereas H.C. synthesized information from many sources into a single smooth narrative; Horne just re-tells a single scene. Here's the longest such example, from the beginning to Chapter 3 (1910-1911):
"Watch this, Edith," the teenage boy said to the pretty girl sitting across from him as he picked upa sugar lump from the bowl at their table. To anyonlooker, he appeared handsome and athletic -- partially due toa hearty commitment to playing rugby with his schoolmates.But there were no onlookers here on the second floor.
The couple's favorite Birmingham tea shop had a balconyoverlooking the street below. From there they sat and sippedtea and watched the foot traffic beneath them, talking of trivialthings.
The boy was too mischievous to merely watch. He hadjust spotted a large, flowery hat parading below. It presenteda tempting target for a teenage boy who wanted to impressa girl. "Don't do it, Ronald." said Edith, in a tone that didnothing to make Tolkien hesitate in executing his plan. Hegently tossed the lump of sugar at the wide brim passing onthe steet.
Miss!
"Oh no," whispered Edith, ducking back behind the bal-cony rail.
But she didn't need to worry. The sugar lump hit the streetsilently, and neither the woman underneath the hat nor anyoneelse near her noticed it. Tolkien grabbed another fast, before thehat was out of range. "This time I'll make it."
He reached his target. Tolkien grinned and Edith giggled asthe lady walked away with an extra sugar lump decorating thebrim of her colorful hat.
"My turn," said Edith . . .[Horne, pages 26-27]
Harmless enough, but is it really worth devoted almost two pages out of such a brief book (only 130 pages of text before the endnotes & recommended reading)?
Oddly enough, for a book written by a pastor and published as part of a series called 'Christian Encounters', there's relatively little on religion in this book -- certainly no more than in Carpenter, and I'd say probably less.* Although there is one strange passage [p. 12] where the author suddenly denounces Unitarianism; in a podcast interview about his book** Horne speculates that Tolkien's mother appointed Fr. Francis her sons' guardian to keep them out of the hands of the "non-Xian influence" (!) of old John Suffield, their grandfather -- which seems to be overstating things. Horne also has theories about a strong corrolation between creative people and being orphaned, which he brings up twice [p. 6 & p. 17] but unfortunately muddles his math when trying to explain.
Finally, it turns out Horne has his own Tolkien blog, which is well worth checking out:***
http://www.hornes.org/mark/
In addition to this biography and the book on MARK, he's also written WHY BAPTIZE BABIES, co-authored UNNATURAL AFFECTIONS and a work rather alarming titled HOW TO KEEP THEM FROM TAKING YOUR CHILDREN AWAY, and contributed to A FAITH THAT IS NEVER ALONE, which is a response to 'the Westminster Seminary', whatever that is.
On the whole, I have to say that if you're only going to read one book about Tolkien, you should read Carpenter. But having read Horne's little biography, I think he shows enough flashes of insight that I find myself hoping that rather than another book he'll write some stand-alone essays on various Tolkienian topics.
--John R.****current reading: THE MAN IN THE MOONE by Francis Godwin [1638]
*but then Bishop Carpenter's son was interested in religion, if not particularly sympathetic to it.
**podcast link: http://trinitytalkradio.com/2010/05/life-of-tolkien/
***although be warned; he seems to be something of a Creationist, if you'd find that a sticking point.
****disclaimer: Horne does cite me in one footnote (regarding the corrected dating of Tolkien's letter about Sam Gamgee), though he doesn't mention my name [Note 8 to Chapter 4, pages 134-135]
Most of these are relatively minor, such as the claim that Tolkien couldn't finish A MIDDLE-ENGLISH VOCABULARY without E. V. Gordon's help, or that the Tolkien-Gordon edition of SIR GAWAIN & THE GREEN KNIGHT set the standard for students of Old English for decades thereafter (it's in Middle English). Some are more problematic, such as the claim that Christopher Wiseman helped Tolkien create his invented languages (news to me, and I shd think unlikely -- at any rate, Wiseman never made any such claim to me). Or Horne's statement that Tolkien felt Lit. students shdn't have to study any philology [p. 84], which is the exact opposite of what Tolkien set out in the syllabus he got enacted at Oxford. And even minor errors add up when you keep making them.
And then there's the problem of focus. Horne spends most of his book on Tolkien's youth, a feature of juvenile and young-adult biographies (which assume the reader mainly wants to know what a famous person was like at their age and a bit thereafter); only about a dozen pages are devoted to the last quarter-century of JRRT's life. And this is a pity, because the latter chapters (regarding the writing of THE HOBBIT, LotR, and afterwards) are much the best part of this book: I suspect that Horne, a Presbyterian minister who's also published a study of the GOSPEL OF MARK, is good at bringing to life a well-known story. Another 'juvenile/young adult' feature is that several of the early chapters begin with fictionalized passages (or, as Horne puts it, scenes to which he's added "imagined conversational details"). There's certainly precedent for this: Carpenter devoted a central chapter in both TOLKIEN: A BIOGRAPHY and THE INKLINGS to a fictional re-creation of a 'day in the life'. But whereas H.C. synthesized information from many sources into a single smooth narrative; Horne just re-tells a single scene. Here's the longest such example, from the beginning to Chapter 3 (1910-1911):
"Watch this, Edith," the teenage boy said to the pretty girl sitting across from him as he picked upa sugar lump from the bowl at their table. To anyonlooker, he appeared handsome and athletic -- partially due toa hearty commitment to playing rugby with his schoolmates.But there were no onlookers here on the second floor.
The couple's favorite Birmingham tea shop had a balconyoverlooking the street below. From there they sat and sippedtea and watched the foot traffic beneath them, talking of trivialthings.
The boy was too mischievous to merely watch. He hadjust spotted a large, flowery hat parading below. It presenteda tempting target for a teenage boy who wanted to impressa girl. "Don't do it, Ronald." said Edith, in a tone that didnothing to make Tolkien hesitate in executing his plan. Hegently tossed the lump of sugar at the wide brim passing onthe steet.
Miss!
"Oh no," whispered Edith, ducking back behind the bal-cony rail.
But she didn't need to worry. The sugar lump hit the streetsilently, and neither the woman underneath the hat nor anyoneelse near her noticed it. Tolkien grabbed another fast, before thehat was out of range. "This time I'll make it."
He reached his target. Tolkien grinned and Edith giggled asthe lady walked away with an extra sugar lump decorating thebrim of her colorful hat.
"My turn," said Edith . . .[Horne, pages 26-27]
Harmless enough, but is it really worth devoted almost two pages out of such a brief book (only 130 pages of text before the endnotes & recommended reading)?
Oddly enough, for a book written by a pastor and published as part of a series called 'Christian Encounters', there's relatively little on religion in this book -- certainly no more than in Carpenter, and I'd say probably less.* Although there is one strange passage [p. 12] where the author suddenly denounces Unitarianism; in a podcast interview about his book** Horne speculates that Tolkien's mother appointed Fr. Francis her sons' guardian to keep them out of the hands of the "non-Xian influence" (!) of old John Suffield, their grandfather -- which seems to be overstating things. Horne also has theories about a strong corrolation between creative people and being orphaned, which he brings up twice [p. 6 & p. 17] but unfortunately muddles his math when trying to explain.
Finally, it turns out Horne has his own Tolkien blog, which is well worth checking out:***
http://www.hornes.org/mark/
In addition to this biography and the book on MARK, he's also written WHY BAPTIZE BABIES, co-authored UNNATURAL AFFECTIONS and a work rather alarming titled HOW TO KEEP THEM FROM TAKING YOUR CHILDREN AWAY, and contributed to A FAITH THAT IS NEVER ALONE, which is a response to 'the Westminster Seminary', whatever that is.
On the whole, I have to say that if you're only going to read one book about Tolkien, you should read Carpenter. But having read Horne's little biography, I think he shows enough flashes of insight that I find myself hoping that rather than another book he'll write some stand-alone essays on various Tolkienian topics.
--John R.****current reading: THE MAN IN THE MOONE by Francis Godwin [1638]
*but then Bishop Carpenter's son was interested in religion, if not particularly sympathetic to it.
**podcast link: http://trinitytalkradio.com/2010/05/life-of-tolkien/
***although be warned; he seems to be something of a Creationist, if you'd find that a sticking point.
****disclaimer: Horne does cite me in one footnote (regarding the corrected dating of Tolkien's letter about Sam Gamgee), though he doesn't mention my name [Note 8 to Chapter 4, pages 134-135]
July 28, 2011
Well, This Is Weird
So, about the only lighter moment involved with the ongoing debt/default/government shutdown crisis is that over the last two days various Republican politicians have taken to accusing each other of being various characters in Tolkien's LotR.
It all started with a WALL STREET JOURNAL editorial which portrayed the House Republicans as naive "tea party hobbits":
It probably would have ended there, had not John McCain taken it up and read this same passage from the floor of the Senate (so this Tolkien analogy is now officially in the CONGRESSIONAL RECORD -- how weird is that?) on Wednesday; see the C-Span footage included under the following link:
http://www.thestreet.com/story/11202157/1/mccain-speaks-of-tea-party-hobbits.html
Things got even more complicated after that, with Rand Paul wandering into the fray, mildly observing that it's better to be a hobbit than a troll,** and the hapless Angle referring to the original "fable".
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0711/60151.html
But they reached apotheosis when Steven Colbert, who like Adam Savage has serious LotR geek credentials, had a go at it on his show; the Tolkien bit starts about a minute into the four-minute segment:
http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/393421/july-28-2011/the-republican-ring-of-power
And that seems to be a good place to leave it.
--John R.
*who herself is something of a Tolkien fan
**though it's weird in itself that anyone named after Ann Rand cd admire Tolkien's hobbits.
It all started with a WALL STREET JOURNAL editorial which portrayed the House Republicans as naive "tea party hobbits":
The idea seems to be that if the House GOP refuses to raise the debt ceiling, a default crisis or gradual government shutdown will ensue, and the public will turn en masse against . . . Barack Obama. The Republican House that failed to raise the debt ceiling would somehow escape all blame. Then Democrats would have no choice but to pass a balanced-budget amendment and reform entitlements, and the tea-party Hobbits could return to Middle Earth having defeated Mordor.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903591104576470061986837494.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTopIt probably would have ended there, had not John McCain taken it up and read this same passage from the floor of the Senate (so this Tolkien analogy is now officially in the CONGRESSIONAL RECORD -- how weird is that?) on Wednesday; see the C-Span footage included under the following link:
http://www.thestreet.com/story/11202157/1/mccain-speaks-of-tea-party-hobbits.html
Things got even more complicated after that, with Rand Paul wandering into the fray, mildly observing that it's better to be a hobbit than a troll,** and the hapless Angle referring to the original "fable".
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0711/60151.html
But they reached apotheosis when Steven Colbert, who like Adam Savage has serious LotR geek credentials, had a go at it on his show; the Tolkien bit starts about a minute into the four-minute segment:
http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/393421/july-28-2011/the-republican-ring-of-power
And that seems to be a good place to leave it.
--John R.
*who herself is something of a Tolkien fan
**though it's weird in itself that anyone named after Ann Rand cd admire Tolkien's hobbits.
July 26, 2011
The Even Newer Arrival
So, I'd no sooner posted about the three new books to find their way into our house (a thriller, a Tolkien biography, and translations from the Old English) than upon the doorstep arrives the long-awaited TOLKIEN AND WALES, by Carl Phelstead. This turns out to be a fairly slim volume -- just about 120 pages excluding the bibliography and notes (which extend its length by half again as much). I heard good things about this one at Kalamazoo, and got to see a copy when I was in St. Louis.
From what I've seen so far, it's a good example of a thorough treatment of an important subject which the author has been careful not to belabor: it's a good topic for a short book, not a massive one. Knowing when to stop is a good gift to have in a writer, and I'm looking forward to reading this one to seeing how well Mr. Phelpstead covers such an interesting topic. I strongly suspect it'll be a serious contender for next year's Mythopoeic Award.
The only thing I'd warn against is the price-point. Not for the trade paperback, which is out already, and v. reasonably priced (you can get it online for around $20). But the hardcover, which I got on the assumption that it probably wdn't have a US edition and any paperback wd be years down the road (quite wrong, as it turns out), comes in at a staggering $148 (sans tax). Here the outrageous pricing for books from university presses and equally outrageous prices for imported books seem to have run together into an ungodly result.
So, profit from (not following) my example. Time now to return to and finish up the Horne biography so I can move on to greener pastures . . .
--John R.current reading: RED EYE OF AZATHOTHcurrent audiobook: THE PICKWICK PAPERS [1837] (just finished!)
From what I've seen so far, it's a good example of a thorough treatment of an important subject which the author has been careful not to belabor: it's a good topic for a short book, not a massive one. Knowing when to stop is a good gift to have in a writer, and I'm looking forward to reading this one to seeing how well Mr. Phelpstead covers such an interesting topic. I strongly suspect it'll be a serious contender for next year's Mythopoeic Award.
The only thing I'd warn against is the price-point. Not for the trade paperback, which is out already, and v. reasonably priced (you can get it online for around $20). But the hardcover, which I got on the assumption that it probably wdn't have a US edition and any paperback wd be years down the road (quite wrong, as it turns out), comes in at a staggering $148 (sans tax). Here the outrageous pricing for books from university presses and equally outrageous prices for imported books seem to have run together into an ungodly result.
So, profit from (not following) my example. Time now to return to and finish up the Horne biography so I can move on to greener pastures . . .
--John R.current reading: RED EYE OF AZATHOTHcurrent audiobook: THE PICKWICK PAPERS [1837] (just finished!)
July 25, 2011
Nineteen Years (And Counting)
So, it was great to have guests, and to see family again, and to head out in a group to see the sights. But today's being our anniversary reminds us that it's also nice to have quiet time together, just the two of us. Yesterday we went out to High Tea at a teahouse we'd never been to before, thanks to the generosity of Mr. Miyagi's people, Ginger & Doug, from the last time we cat-sat him, expressed in the form of a gift certificate to the Village Eatery and Tea Company.
Now, both Janice and I love a good English High Tea, and have been to them at a variety of places over the years -- Bits of Britain in Milwaukee (long since gone, alas*), the Empress in Victoria (now there's some folks who really know how to throw a High Tea), Queen Mary's Tearoom in the U-district (which we had liked, but which changed recently, and not for the better), Secret Garden in Sumner (a fairly recent discovery, a year or two back, and our current favorite), and probably one or two others we tried in passing when we were visiting various cities.** So trying one of our favorite things in a new place seemed like a good 'something old/something new' thing to do for the anniversary.
The teahouse itself is way up in Bothell, on the far (north) side of Seattle from here, but easily accessible from 405 (once local construction let us get on 405, that is). It turned out to be part of a little faux-rustic pedestrian mall called Country Village -- a bit like Delevan's Miss Millie's Pancake House, but on a larger scale. The Tea itself was v. nice: mulligatawny soup (good, but surprised to see it as part of a Tea), tea sandwiches (which I naturally skipped) and fruit (which I v. much enjoyed), and a fine array of tea-cookies and pastries; the scone was particularly memorable, as was the pecan bar I picked up on the way out (which turned out to have some dried fruit in it; v. nice!). We didn't technically have their 'high tea', because (oddly enough) it turns out they don't serve high tea on Sundays. Still, what we had was the next step down (everything their High Tea wd have offered, except for a salad, and honestly who ever went to a High Tea for a salad?). The only thing lacking, actually, was the tea itself, which was generic to begin with and got increasingly bitter as it continued to brew in the pot throughout the meal. I bought a few small packets of loose tea to bring home afterwards (rather startled to find Bloody Mary pictured on one of them!), but they turned out to all be generic black tea under a variety of names.
Still, we had good fun, between the tea for two, exploring the neat toys-for-brainy-tots shop, admiring their v. calm ducks and wading crows, and seeing the weird chicken: a wandering rooster who seemed to have the run of the place, inside and out; with his mop-top of feathers he looked a bit like a secretary bird wearing a wig.
Then, as if this had not done our diet enough mischief, the next night we went down to Federal Way to have gnocchi (and bruschetta. and lasagna. AND dessert.). Another quiet meal together, reminiscing about how we wound up together. And since the story of my proposing to Janice is more fun when she tells it, I'll stop there.
--John R.
*I have a great picture of Janice and Taum on my desk, taken there many years gone by.
**I know there's a great one in Oxford I discovered on my last visit there which I'm really looking forward to introducing Janice to next time we're over there together
Now, both Janice and I love a good English High Tea, and have been to them at a variety of places over the years -- Bits of Britain in Milwaukee (long since gone, alas*), the Empress in Victoria (now there's some folks who really know how to throw a High Tea), Queen Mary's Tearoom in the U-district (which we had liked, but which changed recently, and not for the better), Secret Garden in Sumner (a fairly recent discovery, a year or two back, and our current favorite), and probably one or two others we tried in passing when we were visiting various cities.** So trying one of our favorite things in a new place seemed like a good 'something old/something new' thing to do for the anniversary.
The teahouse itself is way up in Bothell, on the far (north) side of Seattle from here, but easily accessible from 405 (once local construction let us get on 405, that is). It turned out to be part of a little faux-rustic pedestrian mall called Country Village -- a bit like Delevan's Miss Millie's Pancake House, but on a larger scale. The Tea itself was v. nice: mulligatawny soup (good, but surprised to see it as part of a Tea), tea sandwiches (which I naturally skipped) and fruit (which I v. much enjoyed), and a fine array of tea-cookies and pastries; the scone was particularly memorable, as was the pecan bar I picked up on the way out (which turned out to have some dried fruit in it; v. nice!). We didn't technically have their 'high tea', because (oddly enough) it turns out they don't serve high tea on Sundays. Still, what we had was the next step down (everything their High Tea wd have offered, except for a salad, and honestly who ever went to a High Tea for a salad?). The only thing lacking, actually, was the tea itself, which was generic to begin with and got increasingly bitter as it continued to brew in the pot throughout the meal. I bought a few small packets of loose tea to bring home afterwards (rather startled to find Bloody Mary pictured on one of them!), but they turned out to all be generic black tea under a variety of names.
Still, we had good fun, between the tea for two, exploring the neat toys-for-brainy-tots shop, admiring their v. calm ducks and wading crows, and seeing the weird chicken: a wandering rooster who seemed to have the run of the place, inside and out; with his mop-top of feathers he looked a bit like a secretary bird wearing a wig.
Then, as if this had not done our diet enough mischief, the next night we went down to Federal Way to have gnocchi (and bruschetta. and lasagna. AND dessert.). Another quiet meal together, reminiscing about how we wound up together. And since the story of my proposing to Janice is more fun when she tells it, I'll stop there.
--John R.
*I have a great picture of Janice and Taum on my desk, taken there many years gone by.
**I know there's a great one in Oxford I discovered on my last visit there which I'm really looking forward to introducing Janice to next time we're over there together
July 24, 2011
The New Arrivals
So, while we were on Whidbey Island (on Tues. the 19th), I got to stop by Kingfisher Books in Coupeville and renew acquaintance with their delightful bookstore cat Miss Broadway Billie, a pastel grey-orange longhair with long, soft fur and a placid, winning disposition (i.e., she purrs vigorously and licks your hand and her shoulder alternately when stroked).* I also took advantage of the brief visit to see if they still had a book I'd looked at and decided against when there two years ago: they did, so I picked it up this time.
That was a mistake, as it turns out. I'm glad to have supported an independent bookstore and all, but the book, despite its interesting premise, was seriously lacking. Called SEVERANCE PACKAGE (by Duane Swierczynski, 2008), it sounded more interesting than it is. Basically a company's staff is assembled for a meeting at which the boss announces there's good news and bad news. The company is being shut down, effective immediately, and they're all out of a job. That's the good news. The bad news is that they're secretly a front for an intelligence agency and they're all being terminated the lethal way: either drink the poisoned champaign or get shot dead; sarin bombs trap the exits for those inclined to make a run for it. What follows is a free for all in which various surviving employees hunt each other down one by one within the sealed-off building. That sounded like it had the potential to be THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR (the old Robert Redford movie) mixed with BATTLE ROYALE (by Koushun Takami, 1999, tr. 2003**), but instead it turned out to be filled with long, lingering descriptions of slow, painful deaths, with multiple characters surviving horrific injuries for improbable durations. It's rare that I definitely abandon a book unfinished (as opposed to putting it down and just never getting back to it, which happens quite frequently), but this one is an exception: back on the shelf it goes, for good.
Later that day, we returned home to find not one but two new books had arrived in the mail in our absence: the first a new biography of J. R. R. Tolkien, the other translations from the Old English.
The first of these, simply titled J. R. R. Tolkien, by Mark Horne [2011], is a new (young adult?) bio in the 'Christian Encounters' series from Th. Nelson -- a series that includes figures you might expect (Jn Bunyan), those who are rather unexpected but who you can easily make a case for being included (Jane Austen, daughter of a minister and sister to two more) or Isaac Newton (who spent a lot of his time trying to rediscover mystical Old Testament measurements), to those whose presence makes me scratch my head and wonder what they were thinking (Winston Churchill? really?). The Tolkien book comes out the same month as the one on one of my personal heroes, George Washington Carver, the man who invented peanut butter to solve a problem in sustainable agriculture practices.***
I'm currently about two-thirds of the way through the Horne book, so I'll hold off on any detailed critique, other than to observe that he does more fictionalizing than I'd like, seems to consider The Silmarillion of little importance to Tolkien's life or career, and has done relatively little research. Rather than a bibliography, he recommends five books as particularly "important, helpful, and enjoyable": Carpenter's biography (which he paraphrases throughout) and LETTERS OF JRRT (ibid), Garth's GREAT WAR (his source for his account of the TCBS and Tolkien's War service), Leslie Ellen Jones's Greenwood biography (which he often cites for facts which Jones herself derives directly from Carpenter), and Michael White (seemingly unaware of how controversial White's book was). You'd have thought a biography published in 2011 would have taken into account the masses of biographical information published five years earlier in Scull & Hammond's massive J. R. R. TOLKIEN COMPANION & GUIDE: CHRONOLOGY. But you'd be wrong; Horne doesn't even seem to be aware of its existence.
There also something strange going on with his citations: he often credits information readily available in Carpenter or LETTERS to some abstruse source -- as when he claims he found a quote from a JRRT letter not from Carpenter (who includes that exact passage to open a chapter which Horne synopsizes in his v. next paragraph) but in a book called THE MANY FACES OF VIRTUE by one Donald De Marco (Ch.2, Nt9). Similarly, he claims that the information about Tolkien requesting the names 'Beren' and 'Luthien' be carved on his tombstone came from Donald Clark Measels' MUSIC MINISTRY: A GUIDEBOOK, rather than Carpenter (whom he quotes in the following paragraph) (Ch 4, Nt28). I don't have Measels and De Marco's books to see if they in fact contain these quotes, but I find it incredulous to think Horne was forced to learn that information from such out-of-the-way sources when it's easily found in standard works he's paraphrasing immediately before and after.
As one additional oddity, Horne has an odd reluctance to name people. He thus refers on four separate occasions to "Edith's cousin" but never once tells us her name (Jenny Grove). And did Christopher Wiseman really help Tolkien co-create his invented languages, as Horne claims (p. 23)? I'd like to see a source for that.
Finally, the third book to arrive is the last of those I ordered at Kalamazoo back in May, being Craig Williamson's BEOWULF AND OTHER OLD ENGLISH POEMS, w. a Foreword by Tom Shippey (which frankly is what attracted me to the book and, after a quick skim, convinced me to buy it). Having several BEOWULF translations (including Tolkien's) but only a smattering of other OE poetry in translation -- e.g. Pope's SEVEN OLD ENGLISH POEMS and Kennedy's AN ANTHOLOGY OF OLD ENGLISH POETRY--I'm pleased to have a more extensive collection here. Williamson's volume includes "The Battle of Maldon", "Deor", "The Wanderer", "The Seafarer", The Wife's Lament, some Exeter Book riddles, Caedmon's Hymn, two Beastiary poems (including the one JRRT turned into "Fastitocalon"), and a smattering of other pieces, ending on the exceptionally high note of "The Dream of the Rood" (a work more read about than read, unfortunately; it was worth learning a little Old English just to have been able to read this in the original). More later when I get a chance to actually read Shippey's Foreword and Williamson's translations; I have high hopes for this one.
--JDRcurrent reading: J. R. R. Tolkien (Xian Encounters series) by Mark Horne [2011]....................................*all characteristics she shares with another store cat I got to revisit yesterday (Saturday), Miss Millie, the cat-in-chief at Wild Birds Unlimited in Burien, who looks enough like Billie to be her sister.
**itself the subject of the most pug-ugly manga adaptation I've ever seen.
***here's the full list given in the back of the Tolkien book of their "Close Encounters of the Christian Kind" (their header, not mine): Jane Austen, Anne Bradstreet, Wm F. Buckley, Jn Bunyan, Winston Churchill, Isaac Newton, St. Francis, St. Patrick, D. L. Moody, Sergeant York, Galileo, Geo. Washington Carver, & JRRT.
That was a mistake, as it turns out. I'm glad to have supported an independent bookstore and all, but the book, despite its interesting premise, was seriously lacking. Called SEVERANCE PACKAGE (by Duane Swierczynski, 2008), it sounded more interesting than it is. Basically a company's staff is assembled for a meeting at which the boss announces there's good news and bad news. The company is being shut down, effective immediately, and they're all out of a job. That's the good news. The bad news is that they're secretly a front for an intelligence agency and they're all being terminated the lethal way: either drink the poisoned champaign or get shot dead; sarin bombs trap the exits for those inclined to make a run for it. What follows is a free for all in which various surviving employees hunt each other down one by one within the sealed-off building. That sounded like it had the potential to be THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR (the old Robert Redford movie) mixed with BATTLE ROYALE (by Koushun Takami, 1999, tr. 2003**), but instead it turned out to be filled with long, lingering descriptions of slow, painful deaths, with multiple characters surviving horrific injuries for improbable durations. It's rare that I definitely abandon a book unfinished (as opposed to putting it down and just never getting back to it, which happens quite frequently), but this one is an exception: back on the shelf it goes, for good.
Later that day, we returned home to find not one but two new books had arrived in the mail in our absence: the first a new biography of J. R. R. Tolkien, the other translations from the Old English.
The first of these, simply titled J. R. R. Tolkien, by Mark Horne [2011], is a new (young adult?) bio in the 'Christian Encounters' series from Th. Nelson -- a series that includes figures you might expect (Jn Bunyan), those who are rather unexpected but who you can easily make a case for being included (Jane Austen, daughter of a minister and sister to two more) or Isaac Newton (who spent a lot of his time trying to rediscover mystical Old Testament measurements), to those whose presence makes me scratch my head and wonder what they were thinking (Winston Churchill? really?). The Tolkien book comes out the same month as the one on one of my personal heroes, George Washington Carver, the man who invented peanut butter to solve a problem in sustainable agriculture practices.***
I'm currently about two-thirds of the way through the Horne book, so I'll hold off on any detailed critique, other than to observe that he does more fictionalizing than I'd like, seems to consider The Silmarillion of little importance to Tolkien's life or career, and has done relatively little research. Rather than a bibliography, he recommends five books as particularly "important, helpful, and enjoyable": Carpenter's biography (which he paraphrases throughout) and LETTERS OF JRRT (ibid), Garth's GREAT WAR (his source for his account of the TCBS and Tolkien's War service), Leslie Ellen Jones's Greenwood biography (which he often cites for facts which Jones herself derives directly from Carpenter), and Michael White (seemingly unaware of how controversial White's book was). You'd have thought a biography published in 2011 would have taken into account the masses of biographical information published five years earlier in Scull & Hammond's massive J. R. R. TOLKIEN COMPANION & GUIDE: CHRONOLOGY. But you'd be wrong; Horne doesn't even seem to be aware of its existence.
There also something strange going on with his citations: he often credits information readily available in Carpenter or LETTERS to some abstruse source -- as when he claims he found a quote from a JRRT letter not from Carpenter (who includes that exact passage to open a chapter which Horne synopsizes in his v. next paragraph) but in a book called THE MANY FACES OF VIRTUE by one Donald De Marco (Ch.2, Nt9). Similarly, he claims that the information about Tolkien requesting the names 'Beren' and 'Luthien' be carved on his tombstone came from Donald Clark Measels' MUSIC MINISTRY: A GUIDEBOOK, rather than Carpenter (whom he quotes in the following paragraph) (Ch 4, Nt28). I don't have Measels and De Marco's books to see if they in fact contain these quotes, but I find it incredulous to think Horne was forced to learn that information from such out-of-the-way sources when it's easily found in standard works he's paraphrasing immediately before and after.
As one additional oddity, Horne has an odd reluctance to name people. He thus refers on four separate occasions to "Edith's cousin" but never once tells us her name (Jenny Grove). And did Christopher Wiseman really help Tolkien co-create his invented languages, as Horne claims (p. 23)? I'd like to see a source for that.
Finally, the third book to arrive is the last of those I ordered at Kalamazoo back in May, being Craig Williamson's BEOWULF AND OTHER OLD ENGLISH POEMS, w. a Foreword by Tom Shippey (which frankly is what attracted me to the book and, after a quick skim, convinced me to buy it). Having several BEOWULF translations (including Tolkien's) but only a smattering of other OE poetry in translation -- e.g. Pope's SEVEN OLD ENGLISH POEMS and Kennedy's AN ANTHOLOGY OF OLD ENGLISH POETRY--I'm pleased to have a more extensive collection here. Williamson's volume includes "The Battle of Maldon", "Deor", "The Wanderer", "The Seafarer", The Wife's Lament, some Exeter Book riddles, Caedmon's Hymn, two Beastiary poems (including the one JRRT turned into "Fastitocalon"), and a smattering of other pieces, ending on the exceptionally high note of "The Dream of the Rood" (a work more read about than read, unfortunately; it was worth learning a little Old English just to have been able to read this in the original). More later when I get a chance to actually read Shippey's Foreword and Williamson's translations; I have high hopes for this one.
--JDRcurrent reading: J. R. R. Tolkien (Xian Encounters series) by Mark Horne [2011]....................................*all characteristics she shares with another store cat I got to revisit yesterday (Saturday), Miss Millie, the cat-in-chief at Wild Birds Unlimited in Burien, who looks enough like Billie to be her sister.
**itself the subject of the most pug-ugly manga adaptation I've ever seen.
***here's the full list given in the back of the Tolkien book of their "Close Encounters of the Christian Kind" (their header, not mine): Jane Austen, Anne Bradstreet, Wm F. Buckley, Jn Bunyan, Winston Churchill, Isaac Newton, St. Francis, St. Patrick, D. L. Moody, Sergeant York, Galileo, Geo. Washington Carver, & JRRT.
July 23, 2011
Well, That Was Fun
So, over the last few days I had family in town (for only the second time in fourteen years of trying): my niece Misty, my nephew-in-law Allen, and their sons Logan (age 8) and Memphis (age 8 months). Horray!
Which meant we left town to go visit places and see the sites, since it's a kind of rule that you tend to go see local/regional landmarks when there are visitors to show them to. Among the sights, we
saw a waterfall -- and a spectacular waterfall at that: Snoqualmie Falls. A good reminder of how the Cascades got their name.
visited another country -- driving up to the Peace Arch at Blaine, where we saw the monument Sam Hill (the famous roadbuilder and pacifist*) put up to celebrate a century's having passed since the last time we were at war with England (1814/1914). Both the US and Canada share the park, so you can enter from either side without a passport, enjoy the park, and then exit back into yr own country again. I'd never been there before (though I suppose we must have driven by it during two of our three trips up to Vancouver); V. nice.
went whale watching -- taking a ship from Bellingham out to circle San Juan Island in a six-hour tour that actually lasted about seven & a half, given how good the whale-watching turned out to be. On the way there we saw a buoy that had two sea lions sunning themselves on it (one Stellar and one Californian, according to our on-board naturalist), and we'd seen what must have been a harbor seal from the restaurant the night before. Unfortunately I missed the Minke whale -- a pity, since they're fairly rare and I haven't seen one before -- but there were orcas a-plenty. We even saw a baby orca with its mom, and off Lime Kiln Lighthouse saw two orcas (or the same orca twice) on his back slapping the water w. his tail. Great fun all around, and much nicer than going down to Point Defiance (which'd been a back-up plan).
crossed a terrifying bridge and walked along the beach -- this being the high bridge connecting Whidbey Island to the mainland at its northernmost point, and the nearby West Beach.
explored an abandoned coastal gunnery station -- i.e., Fort Casey on Whidbey's western coast; a vast array of concrete bunkers intended to ward off imaginary Russian or Japanese fleets in the early years of the twentieth century: manned for decades and never fired a gun in anger. Now they're spooky underground rooms with rusty iron doors, a grass-grown hillside, and everywhere steps and ladders up and down all around.
rode the monorail -- something Janice had done but which I'd never been able to get my nerve up to before, due to the acrophobia. Not as bad as I expected, though the getting on and off wasn't pleasant (the flooring being that open gridwork that enables you to look down and see the street two or three floors below).
visited the market -- to see the fish fly, to pass by a spot apparently featured in SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE (which I'm beginning to believe is a much bigger deal everywhere outside Seattle than it is here), to sample street food (Mee Sum!), and generally to show off something you cdn't see in Waskom or Marshall or Shreveport. While at Totem Pole Park (at least that's what I call it; if it has an official name I've never heard it***) I enjoyed watching the bold little scavenger birds pouncing on each dropped crumb and was gummed by a horse named Officer Charlie. The one down side of the outing was that we ran into more panhandlers than I'd seen before, and those who weren't buskers or Real Change agents were much more aggressive than I've ever seen in Seattle. I mark it down to all the cuts in benefits during the current rotten economy.
waited while the rest went up the Space Needle -- see acrophobia, above. I may have been able to manage the monorail, but zipping up 500+ feet to a place full of glass windows displaying all the walls gravity cd get you just wasn't going to happen. Accordingly, I waited below enjoying a chai from Starbucks in Center House (how 'Seattle' can you get) and a visit with friend Sig, who just happened to be passing by as the others were leaving to head up.
No time, alas, for Schmitz Park (in West Seattle) or The Earth Sanctuary (on Whidbey Island). And, sad to say, the Mountain remained in hiding behind clouds the entire time of their trip.** Maybe next time. Interestingly enough, while we enjoyed all these activities, the down times of just sitting and visiting (e.g., showing Logan how to play CLUE) were great too. Kudos to Janice for having planned a successful trip.
And what did I do to relax after seeing our visitors off at the airport? Spent the next day looking after a strong-willed five-year-old while her new sister was busy being born. We had a blast. But that's a subject worthy another post.
--John R.
just finished: LEONARDE'S GHOST (1628)
started & abandoned: SEVERANCE PACKAGE (2008) [life's too short!]
..........................
*Hill also put up Fake Stonehenge down in southern Washington, on a beautiful spot overlooking the Columbia River Gorge; it's also a peace monument, this time to those killed in World War I. His mansion (now a museum) down in those parts is well worth a visit too.
**I'd thought that mountains and oceans being two things this region has to offer not to be found in their part of Texas, these wd be good to focus on. We wound up doing pretty good on the 'ocean' end, but had to give up on Mt. Rainer because (a) the snow was too deep for us to get to Paradise (a sentence that sounds really strange to type but is literally true)**** and (b) DELTA AIRLINES IS NOT OUR FRIEND, having delayed or cancelled or re-booked then to the extent that they lost a full day and a half on their way out. Perhaps the weirdest thing of all to them, in retrospect, might have been it's being forty degrees cooler here than what they'd left back home -- the temperature having hovered around sixty degrees the whole time they were here while much of the rest of the country was suffering 100+ degree days.
***Victor Steinbrueck Park, it turns out
****correction: Janice turns out we cd have gotten to Paradise, but not left the parking lot
Which meant we left town to go visit places and see the sites, since it's a kind of rule that you tend to go see local/regional landmarks when there are visitors to show them to. Among the sights, we
saw a waterfall -- and a spectacular waterfall at that: Snoqualmie Falls. A good reminder of how the Cascades got their name.
visited another country -- driving up to the Peace Arch at Blaine, where we saw the monument Sam Hill (the famous roadbuilder and pacifist*) put up to celebrate a century's having passed since the last time we were at war with England (1814/1914). Both the US and Canada share the park, so you can enter from either side without a passport, enjoy the park, and then exit back into yr own country again. I'd never been there before (though I suppose we must have driven by it during two of our three trips up to Vancouver); V. nice.
went whale watching -- taking a ship from Bellingham out to circle San Juan Island in a six-hour tour that actually lasted about seven & a half, given how good the whale-watching turned out to be. On the way there we saw a buoy that had two sea lions sunning themselves on it (one Stellar and one Californian, according to our on-board naturalist), and we'd seen what must have been a harbor seal from the restaurant the night before. Unfortunately I missed the Minke whale -- a pity, since they're fairly rare and I haven't seen one before -- but there were orcas a-plenty. We even saw a baby orca with its mom, and off Lime Kiln Lighthouse saw two orcas (or the same orca twice) on his back slapping the water w. his tail. Great fun all around, and much nicer than going down to Point Defiance (which'd been a back-up plan).
crossed a terrifying bridge and walked along the beach -- this being the high bridge connecting Whidbey Island to the mainland at its northernmost point, and the nearby West Beach.
explored an abandoned coastal gunnery station -- i.e., Fort Casey on Whidbey's western coast; a vast array of concrete bunkers intended to ward off imaginary Russian or Japanese fleets in the early years of the twentieth century: manned for decades and never fired a gun in anger. Now they're spooky underground rooms with rusty iron doors, a grass-grown hillside, and everywhere steps and ladders up and down all around.
rode the monorail -- something Janice had done but which I'd never been able to get my nerve up to before, due to the acrophobia. Not as bad as I expected, though the getting on and off wasn't pleasant (the flooring being that open gridwork that enables you to look down and see the street two or three floors below).
visited the market -- to see the fish fly, to pass by a spot apparently featured in SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE (which I'm beginning to believe is a much bigger deal everywhere outside Seattle than it is here), to sample street food (Mee Sum!), and generally to show off something you cdn't see in Waskom or Marshall or Shreveport. While at Totem Pole Park (at least that's what I call it; if it has an official name I've never heard it***) I enjoyed watching the bold little scavenger birds pouncing on each dropped crumb and was gummed by a horse named Officer Charlie. The one down side of the outing was that we ran into more panhandlers than I'd seen before, and those who weren't buskers or Real Change agents were much more aggressive than I've ever seen in Seattle. I mark it down to all the cuts in benefits during the current rotten economy.
waited while the rest went up the Space Needle -- see acrophobia, above. I may have been able to manage the monorail, but zipping up 500+ feet to a place full of glass windows displaying all the walls gravity cd get you just wasn't going to happen. Accordingly, I waited below enjoying a chai from Starbucks in Center House (how 'Seattle' can you get) and a visit with friend Sig, who just happened to be passing by as the others were leaving to head up.
No time, alas, for Schmitz Park (in West Seattle) or The Earth Sanctuary (on Whidbey Island). And, sad to say, the Mountain remained in hiding behind clouds the entire time of their trip.** Maybe next time. Interestingly enough, while we enjoyed all these activities, the down times of just sitting and visiting (e.g., showing Logan how to play CLUE) were great too. Kudos to Janice for having planned a successful trip.
And what did I do to relax after seeing our visitors off at the airport? Spent the next day looking after a strong-willed five-year-old while her new sister was busy being born. We had a blast. But that's a subject worthy another post.
--John R.
just finished: LEONARDE'S GHOST (1628)
started & abandoned: SEVERANCE PACKAGE (2008) [life's too short!]
..........................
*Hill also put up Fake Stonehenge down in southern Washington, on a beautiful spot overlooking the Columbia River Gorge; it's also a peace monument, this time to those killed in World War I. His mansion (now a museum) down in those parts is well worth a visit too.
**I'd thought that mountains and oceans being two things this region has to offer not to be found in their part of Texas, these wd be good to focus on. We wound up doing pretty good on the 'ocean' end, but had to give up on Mt. Rainer because (a) the snow was too deep for us to get to Paradise (a sentence that sounds really strange to type but is literally true)**** and (b) DELTA AIRLINES IS NOT OUR FRIEND, having delayed or cancelled or re-booked then to the extent that they lost a full day and a half on their way out. Perhaps the weirdest thing of all to them, in retrospect, might have been it's being forty degrees cooler here than what they'd left back home -- the temperature having hovered around sixty degrees the whole time they were here while much of the rest of the country was suffering 100+ degree days.
***Victor Steinbrueck Park, it turns out
****correction: Janice turns out we cd have gotten to Paradise, but not left the parking lot
July 16, 2011
Cahokia Mounds
NOTE: This post was originally much longer, but a glitch in the system deleted it when I hit 'send', so I'm having to reconstruct this from an earlier draft
So, one of the highlights of our trip to Missouri (aside from seeing friends, enjoying the fireflies, and seeing just how much rain could fall on us in the shortest possible time) was our visit to Cahokia Mounds. This is a place I'd heard about in a vague way several years back but that had come into sharper focus on my horizon with the desultory reading I've been doing on and off about the Caddo, having all been part of the same general mound-building agrarian culture that took in most of the lower Mississippi River valley (and its tributaries). Then I saw there was quite a lot about it (and also a little about the Caddo as well, and what De Soto did to them*) in Charles Mann's 1491: NEW REVELATIONS OF THE AMERICAS BEFORE COLUMBUS -- which I've still only skimmed but am v. much looking forward to reading in detail when things are a little less hectic (i.e., when multiple deadlines don't impinge). And, having made it to Toltec Mounds nr Little Rock a few years back (built by the Plum Bayou People), and the remnants of the mounds in Rockford just earlier this year,** being so close to Cahokia, the greatest of all North American mounds, was too good an opportunity to pass up.
I have to say I was impressed. I know that what survives is only about half at most of what was once there, but what survives is impressive: it's easy to forget that many of the most famous ancient monuments -- the Great Pyramid, the Sphinx, Stonehenge -- are similarly ruinous. And it's impressive in itself that any of it survived, the similar Mounds in St. Louis ('Mound City') having all been destroyed in the 1870s or thereabouts.*** Even with all its structures gone, Monks Mound is huge: about a hundred feet high (almost as high as England's Silbury Hill), with two tiers, and a great view of the whole site, from 'Woodhenge' to the Great Plaza and, once upon a time, the Stockade as well. It's pretty clear that the same impulses that organized the great Mezoamerican cities was at work here as well, and that it was civilization in every sense of the term.
One good thing about visiting Cahokia is that a few days later I got to see Ka-Do-Ha village nr. Murfreesboro, which is to Cahokia as Magnolia is to St. Louis is to Magnolia: a town or village as opposed to a city, but clearly part of the same overall agrarian/moundbuilding culture. Here you could walk around the (looted) mounds (I think what you'd call 'a self-guided tour'), visit their museum room, hunt for arrowheads in the most stone-less field of red dirt I've ever seen (Janice did find one small black stone, which we carried away in triumph). But the main attraction, aside from the mounds themselves, was the museum store. I'd learned about this site from their online presence, The Caddo Trading Company. In addition to some Caddo pots, many arrowheads, and a great 'Native America Mount Rushmore', the standout items for me were two Mayan vases, both of which I'd have snatched up like a shot if I had the money to do so: beautiful.
What I did come away with, aside from memories of walking around both sites and a greater than ever appreciation of the Caddo/Mississippian farming/moundbuilding culture, were (a) books and (b) a replica of the Birdman Tablet. The books were CAHOKIA: CITY OF THE SUN and CAHOKIA MOUNDS: AMERICA'S FIRST CITY and Thames & Hudson's THE MOUNDBUILDERS on the one hand and on the other THE STORY OF THE KA-DO-HA INDIAN VILLAGE AND THE KADOHADOCHO PEOPLE (a grand name for a sixteen page pamphlet), SAM DILLINGER: RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARKANSAS (about an archaeologist's struggles against the pot hunters, esp. those who looted Spiro Mound), and THE KENT AND JONNIE WESTBROOK COLLECTION (an artbook showing photos of many artifacts, mostly Caddo). So far I've only read the first items in each of these two lists, both of which suffer from state-speculation-as-fact disease, unfortunately. The tablet is a little four-inch-long piece of sandstone (nicely sized to fit in your hand) found on Monks Mound etched with the image of a bird-man (shades of Easter Isle!) that I found v. appealing.
So, I'd highly recommend a visit to Cahokia if you find yourself in the area, and I quite enjoyed Ka-Do-Ha village as well; it's a humbler site in every way, except that you can leave here with an actual artifact rather than a replica. For those who can't make the trip, here's a link to a site with some images that give a pretty good idea of the place; if you scroll down, on the right there's an image of the Birdman Tablet.
http://www.sacred-destinations.com/usa/cahokia
--JDR
current reading: LEONARDE'S GHOST
current audiobook: PICKWICK PAPERS (resumed -- finally nearing the end)
.................................
*back in my Boy Scout days I went for a week every summer to Camp De Soto, over nr. El Dorado (appropriately enough). Looking back on it now, knowing what I now know about De Soto, I think Camp Charles Manson would have been less egregious a honorific.
**reminiscent of the all-but-obliterated mounds in one of the lakefront parks in Milwaukee and of course at Lake Lawn Lodge (now sadly defunct) in Delavan.
***I see on the map that there's also a Mound City in Illinois nr Cairo, but I gather it's on a much humbler scale.
****almost as tall as Silbury Hill, in fact. Perhaps I'll get a chance to compare
So, one of the highlights of our trip to Missouri (aside from seeing friends, enjoying the fireflies, and seeing just how much rain could fall on us in the shortest possible time) was our visit to Cahokia Mounds. This is a place I'd heard about in a vague way several years back but that had come into sharper focus on my horizon with the desultory reading I've been doing on and off about the Caddo, having all been part of the same general mound-building agrarian culture that took in most of the lower Mississippi River valley (and its tributaries). Then I saw there was quite a lot about it (and also a little about the Caddo as well, and what De Soto did to them*) in Charles Mann's 1491: NEW REVELATIONS OF THE AMERICAS BEFORE COLUMBUS -- which I've still only skimmed but am v. much looking forward to reading in detail when things are a little less hectic (i.e., when multiple deadlines don't impinge). And, having made it to Toltec Mounds nr Little Rock a few years back (built by the Plum Bayou People), and the remnants of the mounds in Rockford just earlier this year,** being so close to Cahokia, the greatest of all North American mounds, was too good an opportunity to pass up.
I have to say I was impressed. I know that what survives is only about half at most of what was once there, but what survives is impressive: it's easy to forget that many of the most famous ancient monuments -- the Great Pyramid, the Sphinx, Stonehenge -- are similarly ruinous. And it's impressive in itself that any of it survived, the similar Mounds in St. Louis ('Mound City') having all been destroyed in the 1870s or thereabouts.*** Even with all its structures gone, Monks Mound is huge: about a hundred feet high (almost as high as England's Silbury Hill), with two tiers, and a great view of the whole site, from 'Woodhenge' to the Great Plaza and, once upon a time, the Stockade as well. It's pretty clear that the same impulses that organized the great Mezoamerican cities was at work here as well, and that it was civilization in every sense of the term.
One good thing about visiting Cahokia is that a few days later I got to see Ka-Do-Ha village nr. Murfreesboro, which is to Cahokia as Magnolia is to St. Louis is to Magnolia: a town or village as opposed to a city, but clearly part of the same overall agrarian/moundbuilding culture. Here you could walk around the (looted) mounds (I think what you'd call 'a self-guided tour'), visit their museum room, hunt for arrowheads in the most stone-less field of red dirt I've ever seen (Janice did find one small black stone, which we carried away in triumph). But the main attraction, aside from the mounds themselves, was the museum store. I'd learned about this site from their online presence, The Caddo Trading Company. In addition to some Caddo pots, many arrowheads, and a great 'Native America Mount Rushmore', the standout items for me were two Mayan vases, both of which I'd have snatched up like a shot if I had the money to do so: beautiful.
What I did come away with, aside from memories of walking around both sites and a greater than ever appreciation of the Caddo/Mississippian farming/moundbuilding culture, were (a) books and (b) a replica of the Birdman Tablet. The books were CAHOKIA: CITY OF THE SUN and CAHOKIA MOUNDS: AMERICA'S FIRST CITY and Thames & Hudson's THE MOUNDBUILDERS on the one hand and on the other THE STORY OF THE KA-DO-HA INDIAN VILLAGE AND THE KADOHADOCHO PEOPLE (a grand name for a sixteen page pamphlet), SAM DILLINGER: RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARKANSAS (about an archaeologist's struggles against the pot hunters, esp. those who looted Spiro Mound), and THE KENT AND JONNIE WESTBROOK COLLECTION (an artbook showing photos of many artifacts, mostly Caddo). So far I've only read the first items in each of these two lists, both of which suffer from state-speculation-as-fact disease, unfortunately. The tablet is a little four-inch-long piece of sandstone (nicely sized to fit in your hand) found on Monks Mound etched with the image of a bird-man (shades of Easter Isle!) that I found v. appealing.
So, I'd highly recommend a visit to Cahokia if you find yourself in the area, and I quite enjoyed Ka-Do-Ha village as well; it's a humbler site in every way, except that you can leave here with an actual artifact rather than a replica. For those who can't make the trip, here's a link to a site with some images that give a pretty good idea of the place; if you scroll down, on the right there's an image of the Birdman Tablet.
http://www.sacred-destinations.com/usa/cahokia
--JDR
current reading: LEONARDE'S GHOST
current audiobook: PICKWICK PAPERS (resumed -- finally nearing the end)
.................................
*back in my Boy Scout days I went for a week every summer to Camp De Soto, over nr. El Dorado (appropriately enough). Looking back on it now, knowing what I now know about De Soto, I think Camp Charles Manson would have been less egregious a honorific.
**reminiscent of the all-but-obliterated mounds in one of the lakefront parks in Milwaukee and of course at Lake Lawn Lodge (now sadly defunct) in Delavan.
***I see on the map that there's also a Mound City in Illinois nr Cairo, but I gather it's on a much humbler scale.
****almost as tall as Silbury Hill, in fact. Perhaps I'll get a chance to compare
July 12, 2011
The New Studio Ghibli
So, thanks to Janice, who thanks Anne, I've now seen the trailer for the newest Studio Ghibli film, ARIETTY, based on Mary Norton's THE BORROWERS. Looks good. Looks very good. Here's the link to the clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzBBIBSi2Vo&feature=share
Having been a bit disappointed by EARTHSEA and PONYO (though THE CAT RETURNS and HOWL were top-notch), I'm hoping this one marks a return to form. We'll soon see.
Definitely time for another anime night soon.
--John R.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzBBIBSi2Vo&feature=share
Having been a bit disappointed by EARTHSEA and PONYO (though THE CAT RETURNS and HOWL were top-notch), I'm hoping this one marks a return to form. We'll soon see.
Definitely time for another anime night soon.
--John R.
July 11, 2011
The New Arrivals: Eddas and Fanzines
So, Friday brought two long-awaited and strangely parallel publications to our doorstep. The first is the latest volume in Ursula Dronke's THE POETIC EDDA (Vol. III, rather confusingly subtitled 'Mythological Poems II). This is the third installment of a long-term project, Vol. I (Heroic Poems) having appeared in 1969 and Vol, II (Mythological Poems) almost thirty years later, in 1997. I first encountered Volume I in the Magnolia college library and have never been able to find a copy for myself (having been forced to fall back on a photocopy of the Suzzallo-Allen copy). And I somehow missed any announcement that Volume II had come out till some time after the fact, meaning that when I ordered a copy of that one all I got was a print-on-demand tome -- easier to reference than the photocopy of the first volume, but still a bit of a disappointment considering what I paid for it.
And now Volume III, which I actually did know about beforehand, having seen it advertised in a catalogue; I even pre-ordered it, paying for a copy at the Oxf. Univ. Press booth at Kalamazoo,* and have been eagerly awaiting its arrival ever since. Now that it's out, I see it's a much slimmer volume than the other two, Dronke having changed the plan she'd announced in Vol II whereby the remaining twenty Eddic poems wd be covered in Volumes III (the Helgi lays & Sigurd cycle**) and IV (the remaining misc and mythological pieces). Given that she'd only published thirteen of twenty-nine poems in the space of forty-two years,*** there's cause for concern whether she'll ever finish this superlative edition: we can but hope. Perhaps it'll become a multi-generational project, like James Murray's OED.
In any case, this new volume contains four more poems: HAVAMAL (the source of Fimbulfambi) and HYMISKVITHA (Thorr vs. the World Serpent), GRIMNISMAL (Odin on the Tree) and GROTTASONGR (the story of Frothi/Froda's mill). Text, translation, and extensive commentary mean this is a slim but substantial work of about 150 pages. I have to admit that, having devoted twelve pages of MR. BAGGINS to an essay about a character who doesn't actually appear as such in that book, I have a soft spot when I see that Dronke has similarly devoted a section (four pages) to a scene that doesn't appear in the poem she's editing ("The Missing Rowing Scene").
So, even though I'm not an Old Norse scholar, this one goes high up on the list of books to read -- though I'm strongly tempted to go back to that first volume and re-read that first, followed by Vol. II (which I've only read pieces of), culminating in Vol. III. So many books in proportion to the time available to read; we'll see.
As for the other new arrival, it too is the latest installment in a multi-volume work, although on a smaller scale, this being Gary Hunnewell's magisterial survey of Tolkien fanzines in chronological order. Having started from the beginning (November 1959 -- just a year or so after my own beginning!), he's now produced three of these: the first covering Tolkien fandom up to 1964, the next devoted to 1965, and now this to 1966; its formal title is THE YELLOWSKIN OF TUCKBOROUGH: TOLKIEN FANDOM REVIEW 1966. In it Gary lists the contents of each Tolkien fanzine, or other science fiction/fantasy fanzine that had Tolkien content, with a brief description of each essay or poem or editorial. It's the sort of project that requires encyclopedic knowledge, a superb collection to draw from, good organizational ability, and a great deal of stick-to-it-ness. Well done!
--John R.current reading: --THE MAN WHO MADE FRIENDS WITH HIMSELF -- Christopher Morley --CAHOKIA: CITY OF THE SUN
*thus getting a small but welcome discount against its staggering list price of $180 -- making it the most expensive book I'll buy this year, barring some spectacular used-book find, which I'm not expecting.
**i.e., the material Tolkien drew on for SIGURD & GUDRUN.
***not counting however many years' work went into the creation of that first volume, still my favorite of the set -- she mentions in her preface to it having finished work on one of its component poems in 1963.
And now Volume III, which I actually did know about beforehand, having seen it advertised in a catalogue; I even pre-ordered it, paying for a copy at the Oxf. Univ. Press booth at Kalamazoo,* and have been eagerly awaiting its arrival ever since. Now that it's out, I see it's a much slimmer volume than the other two, Dronke having changed the plan she'd announced in Vol II whereby the remaining twenty Eddic poems wd be covered in Volumes III (the Helgi lays & Sigurd cycle**) and IV (the remaining misc and mythological pieces). Given that she'd only published thirteen of twenty-nine poems in the space of forty-two years,*** there's cause for concern whether she'll ever finish this superlative edition: we can but hope. Perhaps it'll become a multi-generational project, like James Murray's OED.
In any case, this new volume contains four more poems: HAVAMAL (the source of Fimbulfambi) and HYMISKVITHA (Thorr vs. the World Serpent), GRIMNISMAL (Odin on the Tree) and GROTTASONGR (the story of Frothi/Froda's mill). Text, translation, and extensive commentary mean this is a slim but substantial work of about 150 pages. I have to admit that, having devoted twelve pages of MR. BAGGINS to an essay about a character who doesn't actually appear as such in that book, I have a soft spot when I see that Dronke has similarly devoted a section (four pages) to a scene that doesn't appear in the poem she's editing ("The Missing Rowing Scene").
So, even though I'm not an Old Norse scholar, this one goes high up on the list of books to read -- though I'm strongly tempted to go back to that first volume and re-read that first, followed by Vol. II (which I've only read pieces of), culminating in Vol. III. So many books in proportion to the time available to read; we'll see.
As for the other new arrival, it too is the latest installment in a multi-volume work, although on a smaller scale, this being Gary Hunnewell's magisterial survey of Tolkien fanzines in chronological order. Having started from the beginning (November 1959 -- just a year or so after my own beginning!), he's now produced three of these: the first covering Tolkien fandom up to 1964, the next devoted to 1965, and now this to 1966; its formal title is THE YELLOWSKIN OF TUCKBOROUGH: TOLKIEN FANDOM REVIEW 1966. In it Gary lists the contents of each Tolkien fanzine, or other science fiction/fantasy fanzine that had Tolkien content, with a brief description of each essay or poem or editorial. It's the sort of project that requires encyclopedic knowledge, a superb collection to draw from, good organizational ability, and a great deal of stick-to-it-ness. Well done!
--John R.current reading: --THE MAN WHO MADE FRIENDS WITH HIMSELF -- Christopher Morley --CAHOKIA: CITY OF THE SUN
*thus getting a small but welcome discount against its staggering list price of $180 -- making it the most expensive book I'll buy this year, barring some spectacular used-book find, which I'm not expecting.
**i.e., the material Tolkien drew on for SIGURD & GUDRUN.
***not counting however many years' work went into the creation of that first volume, still my favorite of the set -- she mentions in her preface to it having finished work on one of its component poems in 1963.
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