Much Madness is Divinest Sense – Page 140 – Books, Poetry, Quilting, Baking, Life, the Universe, and Everything

Lord Byron

Posted on July 5, 2005September 19, 2015 by Dana

Lord Byron On this day in 1824 Byron’s body arrived in London, returned home for burial from Missolonghi, Greece, where the poet had died ten weeks earlier.

Lord Byron, the sexiest Romantic poet. Kay Redfield Jamison profiled Byron in Touched With Fire. Her contention is that Byron most likely was bipolar, which fits very well with everything I’ve read about him.

His last poem, “On This Day I Complete My Thirty-Sixth Year” in some way explains why he was in Greece.

I also found it it interesting that on this day in 1821, Byron was apparently ruminating over the passions of poets:

I can never get people to understand that poetry is the expression of excited passion, and that there is no such thing as a life of passion any more than a continuous earthquake, or an eternal fever. Besides, who would ever shave themselves in such a state?
Lord Byron, in a letter to Thomas Moore, 5 July 1821

You can read more Byron at this site, which has a large collection of links.

I'm Giving Up on Blackwood Farm

Books I Can't Live Without, Part Two

Reading Update

How the WWW is Changing the Way We Read

Posted on July 4, 2005September 19, 2015 by Dana

The Web is changing how people read.

Take “Hamlet.” A decade ago, a student of the Shakespeare play would read the play, probably all the way through, and then search out separate commentaries and analyses.

Enter hamletworks.org.

When completed, the site will help visitors comb through several editions of the play, along with 300 years of commentaries by a slew of scholars. Readers can click to commentaries linked to each line of text in the nearly 3,500-line play. The idea is that some day, anyone wanting to study “Hamlet” will find nearly all the known scholarship brought together in a cohesive way that printed books cannot.

I have to admit this sounds exciting to me, as an English teacher. Having so much knowledge at our fingertips could really enhance our knowledge. I know many people believe that books are on the way out, set to be replaced by all the online reading we do. No matter how much time I spend each day, curled up in my computer chair, in front of the computer screen, and checking the RSS feed tracker I use to see which blogs I read have updated, I still can’t see books being replaced. I just can’t read longer works online. There is something about the feel of books in your hand, about the way they smell, that can’t be replaced by a computer screen.

Barnes and Noble and Borders are crowded every time I go there.

Madame Bovary's Ovaries

Confessions of a Pagan Nun

NPR's 100 Best Beach Books Ever

Ernest Hemingway

Posted on July 2, 2005September 19, 2015 by Dana

On this day in 1961, Ernest Hemingway committed suicide. Suicide runs in his family. One glance at his family history must be a textbook example of a genetic link to mental illness. Hemingway’s own father Clarence, his brother Leicester and sister Ursula, and his granddaughter Margaux all also committed suicide. While his death cannot be termed a suicide, Hemingway’s youngest son Gregory died a transsexual who called herself Gloria in a women’s jail cell in 2001 after having been arrested for indecent exposure. Gregory’s daughter Lorian Hemingway blamed his substance abuse problems for the revocation of his medical license. One can only imagine what Papa himself might have made of “Gloria.” You can read more about Gregory Hemingway at The Strange Saga of Gregory Hemingway.

My favorite Hemingway work is The Sun Also Rises. This is probably my favorite passage:

I lay awake thinking and my mind jumping around. Then I couldn’t keep away from it, and I started to think about Brett and all the rest of it went away. I was thinking about Brett and my mind stopped jumping around and started to go in sort of smooth waves. Then all of a sudden I started to cry. Then after a while it was better and I lay in bed and listened to the heavy trams go by and way down the street, and then I went to sleep.

Which is followed at the end of the same chapter by a related passage:

This was Brett, that I had felt like crying about. Then I thought of her walking up the street and stepping into the car, as I had last seen her, and of course in a little while I felt like hell again. It is awfully easy to be hard-boiled about everything in the daytime, but at night it is another thing.

Somehow, I felt like those two passages defined something about human nature, or at least my nature. I just thought those passages were so pretty.

Hemingway links:

Ernest Hemingway: His Life and Works
Hemingway Resource Center
The Ernest Hemingway Foundations of Oak Park
Heminway Home and Museum (Key West)
Wikipedia: Ernest Hemingway
Michael Palin’s Hemingway Adventure

Move Over, Mr. LeTourneau...

The Woman in White

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Jewish History and Culture

George Sand

Posted on July 1, 2005July 19, 2006 by Dana

Have you ever heard of George Sand? George Sand was the pen name of Amandine-Aurore-Lucile Dupin, Baroness Dudevant, a novelist and proto-feminist who lived in 19th century France. She wore men’s clothing, which was considered shocking for the time. I can’t remember anymore how I first heard of her, but I remember when. I was a freshman in college, and I had come across some writings from her journal after her parting from Alfred de Musset. I remember being so affected by what I read. This was a woman in pain — so in love and so forlorn. Clearly, I thought, she would never love another. Then I discovered she was Chopin’s lover until shortly before his death.

Right after I became aware of George Sand, it seems, a movie called Impromptu starring Judy Davis and Hugh Grant as Sand and Chopin, respectively, was released. It was OK. I ran out and bought a bunch of Sand novels, but I only ever read one: Indiana. Maybe it was the translation (probably not the translation linked, as I couldn’t find it on Amazon), but I thought it was awful, and I wondered if the author’s unconventional life might not be the only reason it’s even still available.

If you can read French, several of her works are available from Project Gutenberg. Her letters and journals are well worth checking out. In a letter to Frederic Girerd, she wrote:

People think it very natural and pardonable to trifle with what is most sacred when dealing with women: women do not count in the social or moral order. I solemnly vow — and this is the first glimmer of courage and ambition in my life! — that I shall raise woman from her abject position, both through my self and my writing, God will help me!…let female slavery also have its Spartacus. That shall I be, or perish in the attempt.

Honore de Balzac wondered, “What will become of the world when all women are like George Sand?”

Update: A weird bit of serendipity… July 1, when I posted this entry, was George Sand’s birthday.

R.I.P. Challenge

Wicked

Barbara Kingsolver on World Book Club

The Ghost Writer

Posted on June 30, 2005September 19, 2015 by Dana

I finished The Ghost Writer by John Harwood this evening, and it’s probably one of the creepiest, most thought-provoking books I’ve ever read. The story centers around Gerard Freeman, an Australian librarian who lives with his mother — a clingy, obsessive woman afraid above all that Gerard will leave her. His only real friend is a pen-friend, Alice Jessell, an English woman with an injury which confines her to a wheelchair. Though the two have never met, they have been corresponding since they were 13 and eventually fall in love.

Gerard is intensely curious about his mother’s past in England at a country manor called Staplefield, where she lived with her grandmother Viola, who raised her. Gerard finds a photo of a strange woman and a Victorian ghost story written by V.H., who turns out to be Viola.

Gerard eventually makes his way to England, where he begins to unravel his mother’s past, meanwhile discovering more ghost stories written by his great-grandmother which oddly seem to intertwine with the lives of her descedants.

John Harwood does a masterful job creating suspense in the manner of Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw, to which he alludes in the name of Gerard’s penfriend — “Where, my pet, is Miss Jessel?” Viola’s Victorian ghost stories are interwoven with the plot in a rather impressive plot construction; it would have been all too easy in the hands of a less-gifted writer, for the plot to go astray when the ghost stories “interrupt” the action of the novel. As it is, they hardly seem like interruptions, and indeed, they are so good that they might stand on their own. “The Gift of Flight” was terrifying and reminded me a Twilight Zone episode I once saw called “The Living Doll.” You’ve probably seen it… “My name is Talky Tina… and I’m going to kill you.” *Shivers*

This isn’t Stephen King. This is much, much better. If you liked the Victorian creepiness of The Turn of the Screw, Great Expectations (also alluded to in The Ghost Writer), or even A.S. Byatt’s Possession, which was both very different and very similar in subject matter (which I know makes no sense), then you’ll enjoy this book. Gerard’s mother’s home in England reminded me of the house in The Others. Once you pick this book up, you may find it hard to put down. The ending is a bit confusing. I had to read it twice, and I still think what I think happened is very much open to interpretation. Then again, the best scary stories are like that.

Literature Carnival, Eighth Edition

The Virgin Blue

Susan Vreeland

HuffEnglish.com

Posted on June 28, 2005September 19, 2015 by Dana

I hesitate to post a link to an incomplete web site, but I am slowly but surely getting HuffEnglish.com online. The site will have an education blog, classroom ideas, lesson plans, and a classroom blog. Thought perhaps you English teacher types who read this blog might be interested. Mind you, it is extremely bare bones for right now. In the future, I will probably put most of my reflections about education on that site, while this blog will remain more personal.

First Week

Boston #3

Interview-o-rama

The Egyptologist

Posted on June 24, 2005December 10, 2011 by Dana

I have spent an entertaining few days reading The Egyptologist by Arthur Phillips. Phillips walks the fine line between humor and pathos quite successfully, and he manages to pull off a bit of a mystery that will keep you turning pages — not so much because you won’t figure out what happened, but, as reviewer Barbara Mertz in The Washington Post concluded, how it happened. The story is told through letters and the journal of his main character, Ralph M. Trilipush, a man I loved to hate and hated to love — self-absorbed and exceedingly arrogant, but naive — and you just have to admire his determination (or obsession? you decide). One of the major themes of the novel is the legacy we leave behind and our quest to become immortal — a different method for each character, yet somehow it all comes down to the same conclusion. What that conclusion is, I’ll leave you to discover. The ending is probably one of the most tragicomic things I’ve ever read. I wanted to laugh and cry at the absurdity of it. Indeed, one could accuse Phillips of bathos, but then, I think that’s what he was really after. That’s kind of what life is, in the end.

A warning to the reader: this book will require patience. It unfolds slowly, layer by layer, through the words of two irritating narrators. However, it is the preciseness with which Phillips captures “that sort of person” that makes the outlandish events believable. I enjoyed the writer’s style, but it might not appeal to everyone. Of course, you can always read a few pages at Amazon or check out an excerpt at the book’s website.

The Fellowship of the Ring

In Search of Harold Loeb

The Myth of You and Me

The Average Blog

Posted on June 23, 2005September 19, 2015 by Dana

I was surfing Globe of Blogs, which is something I remember to do about once a year, usually in the summer, when school is out and I have more time. There are a lot of blogs out there. Sometimes a description interested me, and I clicked the link, only to discover the blog was defunct.

Blogcount.com keeps track of blogging statistics, and some of them are fairly interesting. From March 14:

The number of blogs Technorati tracks doubled every 5 months for the last 20 months. [Useful for planning server purchases, I bet.] If the trend continues (and we don’t know why it should), Technorati should be tracking 15 million blogs by August, 30 million by January.
Technorati discovers 30-40 thousand blogs daily.

From February 5:

There are 1 million active MovableType and TypePad users.
When you combine all the [Six Apart] properties, including LiveJournal, there are 6.5 million registered and 3.5 million active users.

In “The Blogging Geyser,” Perseus reported in April that there were “31.6 million hosted blogs,” which they projected would grow to “53.4 million by year end.” In their own list of caveats, they admit that their survey “does not cover nonhosted blogs” (blogs that exist on their their own servers or domains — like this one). They concluded that LiveJournal, BlogSpot, and Xanga are the leading hosts, while they describe my former host, Diaryland, as a “niche player.” LiveJournal’s figures may be skewed high, because the data included syndicated feeds (this blog has a syndicated LJ feed: Much Madness Log; click to subscribe).

An often cited statistic says that the average blog only lasts six months. If that is true, even if you don’t count my years at a hosted service, I have managed to stand the test of time, as it were. In 2003, in “The Blogging Iceberg,” Perseus reported that there were 4.12 hosted blogs, 66%, or 2.72 million, of which had not been updated in more than two months. Further, 1.09 million blogs had only one entry or only lasted one day (there is a difference between the two, but Perseus did not distinguish). The average staying power of the hosted blog at that time was four months.

I wonder if it is even possible to conduct an accurate survey of the blogosphere. This is what I would like to know:

How many blogs are out there?
How many blogs are active, updated with some regularity?
How long does the average blog really last?
What do age demographics for bloggers look like?

Also, what about quality? This is even more intangible. I personally don’t like to read chatspeak, and I have issues with LiveJournal, which seems like a very closed community — it is not easy for non-LJ users to comment on LJ blogs (you have to declare yourself anonymous, and some users do not accept anonymous comments) or read locked or “friends only” blogs, for instance. Political blogs are arguably the most popular, but I don’t read any. Do you? Speaking of quality, the TTLB has an ecosystem ranking blogs in evolutionary terms. However, I find that the so-called A-list blogs are often just not that interesting. I have tried reading a few of them to see what the fuss was about, but I just didn’t stay. By the way, I harbor no illusions that this blog is interesting or even mildly entertaining, but I decided long ago that the number of visitors didn’t matter to me, or else I’d write about things that would bring more traffic. Actually, I am sometimes jarred by new readers — not that I don’t welcome you, if you’re new. My first thought is usually why are you here?

So before I went off on a tangent about my own insignificance in the blogosphere, I was wondering about good blogs. How many really good blogs are out there? Do you know of one you think I’d like?

And while I’m asking you questions, dear reader, what is your take on all of this?

Benjamin Disraeli said, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.”

Moving Lament

I Am the Master of My Domain

Book Blogger Appreciation Week Meme

A Summer of Faulkner

Posted on June 21, 2005June 5, 2016 by Dana

Steve and I took Dylan and Maggie out on Father’s Day. We had dinner and went to the local Barnes and Noble to peruse the shelves. I noticed in the summer reading section that three William Faulkner volumes were enclosed in a slipcase with the title “A Summer of Faulkner” across it. Wow, I thought. That’s pretty interesting. Not many people feel up to taking on Faulkner during what is supposed to be beach book season. I didn’t really look over the slipcase, because there were some people blocking my way to it, and later I forgot as Dylan and Maggie became increasingly restless.

I also haven’t watched Oprah in, oh, forever, so I didn’t realize that she was connected with “A Summer of Faulkner.” I think it is wonderful that Oprah tackled Faulkner, but I wonder what her book club fans will think. He’s not exactly light reading. I’m reading Absalom, Absalom! right now, and it’s hard. I have to keep putting it down to clear my head, then come back. I didn’t say I didn’t like it. I do. I love Faulkner. It just taxes my brain to read him.

The reading selections for “A Summer of Faulkner” include As I Lay Dying for June, The Sound and the Fury for July, and Light in August for August. The Sound and the Fury is unquestionably a masterpiece, but it is really hard. I didn’t understand what in the hell was going on the whole time Benjy narrated. Maybe I need to re-read that one and see if that is still the case. I actually haven’t read Light in August, yet.

I think it is odd that I told my students I was going to tackle Faulkner again this summer, and wouldn’t you know so did Oprah. Okay, not that odd. A small bit of synchronicity.

Anyway, serious students of Faulkner may be helped by Oprah’s site, which includes a biographical section, a Faulkner 101 section, and sections for each book. There are even videos of professors discussing the works. I hope she leaves it up so I can use it next year when I teach Faulkner.

Madame Bovary's Ovaries

Review: The Horse and His Boy, C. S. Lewis, narrated by Alex Jennings

Adding to the List

The Black Crowes

Posted on June 19, 2005June 5, 2016 by Dana

I have been a fan of the Black Crowes ever since their commercial debut, Shake Your Money Maker. I remember listening to their album nonstop and talking enthusiastically about them to my friend, Sheila. “They just sound like Atlanta,” I enthused. She laughed. Ever since then, I have felt a bit like the voice crying in the wilderness. I love the band, and I don’t feel they’ve ever received the recognition or attention they deserve. Of course, it doesn’t help that the lineup is shaky, and the sibling rivalry between Chris and Rich Robinson is notorious. Still, I think they have a solid sound — crunchy, raunchy guitar and plenty of blue-eyed soul.

I decided to shake up my radio blog with a Black Crowes set list that serves as a good introduction to the band. Or it serves as a list of some of my favorites, anyway.

Go Faster
Wiser Time
Sometimes Salvation
A Conspiracy
Ten Years Gone
Can’t You Hear Me Knocking
High Head Blues
My Morning Song
Cypress Tree
Bad Luck Blue Eyes Goodbye

What’s not on my list? The overplayed and somewhat trite “She Talks to Angels.” If that’s what you know about the Crowes, you are better served by a listen to my radio blog than commercial radio. As much as I love Shake Your Money Maker, I don’t think it’s their finest album, and I didn’t include any tracks from it here.

The Black Crowes have a great website. It is really appealing to the eye. Call me weird, but I think it’s fun that the guitar is somewhat interactive. If you want to get a really good taste of their music, they play clips of LOTS of their songs, plus there is video footage (although low quality and slow to load) and concert recordings.

All of this plus Rich Robinson is ~~cute~~ not as cute as Steve — Happy Father’s Day, Steve!

Enjoy!

Related posts:

I'm Giving Up on Blackwood Farm

Books I Can't Live Without, Part Two

Reading Update

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Madame Bovary's Ovaries

Confessions of a Pagan Nun

NPR's 100 Best Beach Books Ever

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Move Over, Mr. LeTourneau...

The Woman in White

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Jewish History and Culture

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R.I.P. Challenge

Wicked

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The Virgin Blue

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Boston #3

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The Fellowship of the Ring

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Moving Lament

I Am the Master of My Domain

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Review: The Horse and His Boy, C. S. Lewis, narrated by Alex Jennings

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