Wednesday! Readings! Memes! (baaa...)

[larryhammer]

What I've recently finished since my last post:

Harry Heathcote of Gangoil by Anthology Anthony Trollope, a novella/short novel of Australian bush life circa 1870. Trollope is not always successful with character development in his shorter works, and in this case all the most important characters except the title character change, which is a problem only because he's the one set up with a specific character flaw -- in a way that, in his longer novels, would get hammered on till he cracked. Still worth it for the local color.

Captain's Courageous by Rudyard Kipling, a reread of one of his surprisingly few (given his general preoccupations) stories about a young prat who grows into A Man through adversity, in this case being washed overboard an ocean-liner and picked up by a Grand Banks cod fisher. A less subtle writer would have had all the character development incidents take place at sea, returning to land only for the recognition of his Growth & Change -- by delaying the last incident to after the recognition, Kipling created a more effective story. Not his best ever, but a fine sample of the master at his craft ("he struck into a tune that was like something very bad but sure to happen whatever you did"; of a boat's hold: "the place was packed as full of smells as a bale is of cotton") and entertaining. Especially if you like details about how work gets done.

Adoption: A Brief Social and Cultural History by Peter Conn, and it feels a bit petty to complain about the thinness of the treatment when it says "brief" right there on the tin. Still worth it for:

In the words of one adopted Korean woman, "blood is thicker than water, but love can be thicker than blood."

Poems of Places volume VII -- another hank of Scotland, which feels very much like the previous hank. How many "(name of place) is bonnie because (name of lass) said Yes to me" poems did the world really need? (Er, don't answer that.) OTOH, I now want to reread The Lady of the Lake.

What I'm reading now:

Dragons and Other Fantastic Creatures in Origami by John Montroll, a follow-up of sorts to my favorite origami book. Ten different dragon variations (with one, two, or three heads, both with and without wings, et cet.) plus several animals made fantastic by sticking wings on them (winged horse, lion, wolf, unicorn, ... ). There's a running story of sorts running through the model descriptions that might appeal to those of an age to discover D&D or M:tG. Have done, oh, maybe 2/3 of the models.

Poems of Places volume VIII, being the fag-end of Scotland plus Scandinavia. It is amusing to read praises of the Tay River in the context of McGonagall.

What I officially Did Not Finish:

The Mother's Nursery Songs by Thomas Hastings, a 1835 collection published in New York ostensibly intended to teach children how to sing by providing moralizing songs for mothers: by turns lullabies, nursery rhymes, didactic songs, and devotional works. Starting with the second part, the moralizing gets rather heavyhanded:

See that heathen mother stand
Where the sacred currents flow,
With her own maternal hand,
Mid the waves her infant throw.

begins one of the didactic ones, which ends with a call to send Bibles to pagan lands (followed by study-guide-style questions that call into question the efficacy of this). Er, no thanks. The earlier lullabies, though, include a few nice tunes. By turns fascinating and abhorrent, and I abandoned ship with the explicitly devotional.

The Connected Child by Purvis, Cross, & Sunshine, which is aimed more at parenting small children than young toddlers -- keeping it at as a potential resource, though.

What I might read next:

Poems of Places volume XXIV, being Africa -- which sounds dire, yes, but Africa apparently consists largely of Egypt, which might contain the direness somewhat.

---L.

Comments

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

plus several animals made fantastic by sticking wings on them (winged horse, lion, wolf, unicorn, ... )

I am amused by the implication that unicorns are totally ordinary unless you stick wings on them. :-)

[larryhammer]

I was wondering if anyone would catch that (and the reverse implication about pegasuses).

---L.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

I haven't yet eaten today, so pegasi had not crossed my mind. :-)

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Anthology Trollope?

[larryhammer]

ROFL!

I even autotyped Anthology instead of Anthony when editing the post. LOLOLOL.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

My dyslexic brain kept seeing it right, except it wasn't right, then I wasn't sure it was wrong, it had to be me misreading as I often do, so I shut one eye and spelled it out loud. Yep, Anthology.

[larryhammer]

I simply Did Not Notice multiple times, as I accumulated draft notes for the post. It's like having two "the"s in a headline.

---L.

[rymenhild.livejournal.com]

I'd like to hear more about this writer, Anthology Trollope!

The Mother's Nursery Songs sounds impressively awful.

[larryhammer]

Despite the name, he rarely shows up in review volumes of Victorian literature.

"Impressive" is one word for it. The sad (?) thing is, the verse is all technically quite competent. A fair amount is cribbed (with attribution) from Jane "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" Taylor and other Real Poets. But oh dead gods, the content of those well-shaped containers ...

---L.

[gillpolack.livejournal.com]

I'll put the Trollope on my to-read list, I think. I don't normally like Trollope, but in the stuff he wrote about his Australian visit, he had some interesting things to say about Australia.

[larryhammer]

I'd be interested in an Aussie's take on it -- how "authentic" it feels.

---L.

[gillpolack.livejournal.com]

His NF on Australia suggests that he was looking as an outsider the whole time. Mostly sympathetic, but always an outsider. I say this now, because it may be a while before I have time to read it (though I now possess an e-copy) and I would hate to leave you entirely in limbo.

[larryhammer]

That matches his other travel writing I've read, where it makes it clear he's observing from the outside. FWIW, two of the three most important characters in Harry Heathcote (including Harry himself) were born in England and emigrated as adults.

---L.

[gillpolack.livejournal.com]

That would be the vast bulk of non-Indigenous Aussies at that stage, though. Currency vs Sterling, they were called (I probably should check out when those labels were in and out of fashion, rather than just asserting it - but the principle applies - Sterling was British born and Currency were local born), and there were more Sterling than Currency for a fair while. The bit of me that is English was Sterling, still, around then, though they migrated some years before. In other words, his characters are not necessarily unrealistic in the place of their birth and upbringing.

[larryhammer]

I know the population through the 19th century had a high percentage of first-generation immigrants, but am vague on the ratio with second-and-later generations over time.

BTW, I assume you're aware that a significant portion of John Caldigate is set amid the Gold Rush of the 1870s? Much of it in flashback, as it's structured as something of a mystery novel around the question of what the deuce actually happened while Caldigate was prospecting.

---L.