"just a small-town girl / living in a lonely world / she took a midnight train / going anywhere"

[larryhammer]

1. Department of It Never Changes -- the opening of P.G. Wodehouse's A Damsel in Distress, published in 1919:

Inasmuch as the scene of this story is that historic pile, Belpher Castle, in the county of Hampshire, it would be an agreeable task to open it with a leisurely description of the place, followed by some notes on the history of the Earls of Marshmoreton, who have owned it since the fifteenth century. Unfortunately, in these days of rush and hurry, a novelist works at a disadvantage. He must leap into the middle of his tale with as little delay as he would employ in boarding a moving tramcar. He must get off the mark with the smooth swiftness of a jack-rabbit surprised while lunching. Otherwise, people throw him aside and go out to picture palaces.

You would think that when people say "You can't afford a leisurely start to your story any more" that they would start dropping the "any more" given they've been saying it for at least almost a century.

B. In the first three seasons of The Muppet Show, the most successful guests were not those who good-naturedly went along with the muppety chaos around them, however amusing they might find it. Instead, it was those who dived into the scrum and threw the ball right back into their felt faces. John Cleese and Spike Mulligan are prime examples of outdoing the hosts at their own game, but other less anarchic guests like Danny Kaye who actively controlled the pace and disorder of their scenes did just as well. And for that matter Raquel Welch, though she used *cough* rather different tactics.

iii. Is it wrong of me to look at Heike monogatari and Genji monogatari beside each other on a shelf and wonder, even if only briefly, whether the equally fat volumes on either side ought really to be called Clarissa monogatari and Bloom monogatari?

d. Speaking of which books, a poll:

[Poll #1728399]
V. ... don't stop believin' / hold on to the feelin' / streetlights, people / don't stop believin' / hold on

---L.

Comments

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Holding on ^_^

Your quote up at the top made me chuckle. Plus ca change indeed.

[larryhammer]

I've told you about the letter from the Sumerian father, yes? (I tell this one so often I forget to whom, and so worry I'm repeating myself.)

---L.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

No, not me, and I want to hear! Please share!

[larryhammer]

So we have this cuneiform clay tablet somewhere, I forget what museum, that's been dated to 1850 BCE give or take a few generations. It's a letter from a merchant in a Sumerian city writing to his son in another city, who had evidently written home for more money. The gist of the letter is, "No, because all kids these days care about is fashionable clothes and partying, unlike in my day when we all worked HARD to get to where I am today" -- I can't remember whether the "no more money till you buckle down" was stated or only implied.

The kids these days have been going downhill for FOUR THOUSAND YEARS. It's a wonder we haven't fallen off the cliff at the bottom yet ...

---L.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Hahaha! Fall any lower and we've going to break through the floor at the bottom and end up on top again.

[larryhammer]

It is entirely possible that we've done that several times already.

---L.

[behindpyramids.livejournal.com]

whoa. i want to read the books on your poll too! let me know which one you pick...I might follow suit. XP

[larryhammer]

Will do.

---L.

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

Yes, but hasn't that method of opening a story been intentionally comedic for the same length of time? I mean, that's Wodehouse, and the other example I can think of is Paarfi, who is hilarious.

[larryhammer]

It was not an uncommon Victorian opening, both for serious and comic purposes. Trollope spent the entire first serial number with the background at least once (Orley Farm), and regularly all of the first chapter or two.

---L.

[stevendj.livejournal.com]

Your poll respondents are clearly Tex-Mex fans.

[larryhammer]

Oy -- we do enchiladas Sonoran-style around here as well. Not as often as burros, but still.

---L.

[movingfinger.livejournal.com]

Kinda surprised that you haven't read the Kalevala already...

[larryhammer]

I've read about half of it. Ditto Genji, and all of an abridged Clarissa.

---L.

[stevendj.livejournal.com]

Speaking of which, are you familiar with the Kalevipoeg (http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19438)? Deliberately cobbled together from Estonian folklore as a national epic. I don't know how it compares to the Kalevala.

[larryhammer]

No, hadn't noticed that. I do have loaded Pumpurs's Bearslayer, a late-Romantic Latvian national epic but haven't started it.

*bookmarks*

---L.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

When I say "abridged," I mean, "read it one or two fat volumes," not "read a single slim volume."

[larryhammer]

Noted. I have on hand a slim verse abridgment and a prose whole enchilada, both by Bengali translators.

---L.

[starlady38.livejournal.com]

Now I want enchiladas.

I should note too that the best Genji translation (Tyler) isn't public domain, unless you're thinking of reading it in the original--though some of the modern Japanese versions might be, come to think of it.

mmm -- enchiladas

[larryhammer]

I'm not really up for even a modern version, at this point. I'm working towards reading 銀河鉄道の夜 by the end of the year (or that's the goal).

None of the three complete English translations are PD, actually. If I do go Genji I'd likely buy the Tyler, though still hold onto this Seidensticker.

---L.

[kate_nepveu]

Though Seidensticker is online minus footnotes (which are all poetry and nothing else): http://www.globusz.com/ebooks/Genji/00000010.htm

[larryhammer]

I did find that (or a mirror). But at that point, I'd use my existing paper copy.

---L.

[kate_nepveu]

I sucked it down to my Palm back in the days of reading_genji, as it had the virtue of being searchable and I didn't find the footnotes useful.

Le sigh. I am _still_ just 12 chapters from the end of that and I may never finish because I don't remember who anyone is now.

[larryhammer]

Being who I am and doing what I am, the footnotes are now more useful to me than ever ...

I stopped about halfway through, and also would have to start over.

---L.

[kate_nepveu]

And the problem is? I don't actually _like_ Genji.

Which is a real reducer of motivation to do that much work all over again.

[larryhammer]

"Genji" = Hikaru Genji or Genji monogatari?

The former, yeah. I don't either.

---L.

[kate_nepveu]

The person.

[larryhammer]

Hmph -- Tyler's complete isn't available as an ebook, only an abridgment.

---L.

[janni.livejournal.com]

One of us should read Heimskringla eventually.

actually, I menat to include that one in the poll and forgot

[larryhammer]

And we do have the Dover edition ...

---L.

[fujinokumo.livejournal.com]

If you're reading the Tale of Genji right now, I hope you're enjoying it. :)

I saw your commentary on the Kokinshu. It seems like we have some things in common, since I've been working on the Shinkokinshu myself. XD Would it be all right if I friend you?

[larryhammer]

Oo! I've been wanting a translation of the Shinkokinshu.

I have an open friending policy -- feel free to friend/unfriend any time. May I in return? Your translations look interesting (and useful). FWIW, I also post first drafts of my translations on my Dreamwidth agcount, as a sort of sandbox, before porting them here.

And instead of Genji, I went with the Kalevala. But another attempt at the Shining Prince will come soon, I think.

---L.

[fujinokumo.livejournal.com]

Thank you, and of course! :D I'm working through the Shinkokinshu somewhat slowly, and for the time being most of my translations will only be of Jien's poems because I need them for my MA thesis, but if that doesn't bother you then go ahead. :D

Oh cool, I haven't read the Kalevala yet. When you do check out Genji, I suggest the Waley translation. It seems to stick closest to the original, though I've only read the first chapter in classical Japanese. Seidensticker's isn't bad either, though he adds a lot of extra description to an already lengthy book. XD

[larryhammer]

Slow and steady does the trick.

Walley is what I grew up bouncing off of, while Seidensticker is what I got halfway through, lo those many years ago. I'm considering Tyler, as it's coming highly recommended. I want to get the second volume of Cranston's doorstoppers of translations, as it includes all the poems from Genji, and I like his translations -- indeed, they were what spurred me to start learning classical Japanese. Maybe one day it'll get a paperback edition ...

---L.

[fujinokumo.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've heard good things about Tyler as well. I probably should revisit Genji sometime soon. It's so long with so many similar episodes (which makes it different than the "Bloom Monogatari" as you put it, I suppose XD) that I had forgotten many scenes by the time I reached the end, haha.

[larryhammer]

In line with so many similar poems about cherry blossoms scattering, I suppose ...

---L.