tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35950214106904222362024-03-05T15:01:53.919+00:00Clarice's Book PageMostly regarding literary fiction, but a few other 'art' subjects sometimes thrown in, and sometimes a left wing bias might be detected...Elizanniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15968498385486949779noreply@blogger.comBlogger23125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3595021410690422236.post-51871158643761821942015-05-11T13:13:00.000+01:002015-05-11T13:13:19.687+01:00History Lessons. Why really all should have voted for the Labour Party on May 7th.<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This blog is a joint production of the terrible twins <a href="http://rephidimstreet.blogspot.co.uk/">Elizannie</a> and Clarice and appears on both their blog sites. If that seems a little odd, well so do the events of May 7th to the writers.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As Elizannie has have been having a bit of a blog overload in the aftermath of May 7th, she has decided to let Clarice help out for this one. After all she should know more about History and English Lit having lectured for the <a href="http://www.wea.org.uk/">WEA </a>on both subjects [plus Popular Culture] for many years.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In a discussion with their cousin about what may come next after the May 7th result, it was decided that now history is not a compulsory subject on the school curriculum, perhaps not enough voters on Thursday realised what it was like to live in the patriarchal, capitalist society of the 19thC where money said everything about an individual down to the fact that the poor were showing God's disapproval by being poor and the rich his approval by their riches. This was further extended by having the 'deserving poor' - allowed to receive the charity of the rich [quite often the leavings from their table] and the undeserving poor. The rich were morally bound to reinvest their business profits/wages and by becoming even richer showed even more God's approval of their life style - which included of course their treatment of the poor and this would extend to the minimum wages paid to employees [dare I add zero contracts?] If an employee became ill/unable work, well basically hard luck. Obviously some sort of sinning somewhere along the line as God once again is showing his disapproval. [An awful lot of sibulance in that sentence. A bit more effort could do something with that]</span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">To reinforce this 'God Given Right', think of the words of the third verse of 'All Things Bright and Beautiful' by Mrs Alexander. Now no longer sung in our churches, it was sung by rich and poor alike in churches up until the 1970s/80s:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>The rich man in his castle,</i></span></div>
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The poor man at his gate,</div>
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God made them high and lowly,</div>
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And ordered their estate.</div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />This blog is also a homage to the wonderful singer and socialist, our mate <a href="http://roybailey.net/">Roy Bailey</a> and his 'gigging mate' the equally wonderful but sadly late <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/people/tony_benn">Tony Benn</a> . They used to perform a wonderful 'gig' which we saw on many occasions, singing along in our cracked voices, which was basically the history of dissent with songs provided by Roy and narration by Tony. Luckily everyone can still enjoy and learn from their inspiration by following this <a href="http://roybailey.net/shop/item/writing-on-the-wall">link</a> .</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So it was decided that perhaps a reading list should be provided of 19thC and early 20thC novels which would provide a fictional but accurate overview of the differences between rich and poor in this country, which was becoming more affluent in the light of the industrial revolution. But that affluence was not shared by all who produced it. To make a profit three parts are needed: production; investment; labour. The suppliers of the first two were enriched exponentially, the suppliers of the third actually became worse off it their living conditions and welfare is taken into account. And because there was an ever increasing pool of labour [sound familiar] due to the agricultural revolution with workers flooding into the newly growing industrial towns from the countryside, any industrial revolt would be pretty pointless.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Clarice has been awful lazy of late. So she promises that she will go through the list and 'review' each novel in turn in a socio historical way. And so she should. You will notice no Marx is included. Although he may be referred to in the footnotes... but only as are other 19th/20thC commentators and politicians.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So this is the list, no particular order, no particular preference:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><u>19th Century</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Mary Barton Elizabeth Gaskell<br />Shirley Charlotte Bronte</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A Christmas Carol Charles Dickens</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Felix Holt George Eiliot</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Sybil or Two Nations Benjamin Disraeli</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Hard Times Charles Dickens</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Nether World George Gissing</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A Child of the Jago Arthur Morrison</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Dombey and Son Charles Dickens</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><u>20th Century</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Ragged Trousered </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Philanthropists </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Robert Tressell</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Love on the Dole Walter Greenwood</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Tono-Bungay H.G.Wells</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">People of the Abyss J</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">ack London</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><u>Some, more modern, but giving a good historical overview:</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Rape of the Fair Country Raymond Cordell</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">How Green was my Valley Richard Llewellyn</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Animal Farm George Orwell</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Fame is the Spur Howard Spring</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> <br /><br /><span style="color: #cc0000;">Blog dedicated to all those Labour Activists who worked so hard in the weeks leading up to 7th May 2015 including Roy Bailey and Elizabeth Ann Mills. It was not in vain.</span></span>Elizanniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15968498385486949779noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3595021410690422236.post-49463510772562920602013-02-10T21:26:00.000+00:002013-02-10T22:16:26.274+00:00A Short Literary Tour of parts of Wales!<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img alt="" aria-busy="false" aria-describedby="fbPhotosSnowliftCaption" class="spotlight" height="719" src="https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/523294_10151485220192577_1249988015_n.jpg" style="height: 393px; width: 525px;" width="960" /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Photo of Dylan Thomas' home - The Boathouse - in Laugharne. Courtesy Paul Bailey.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Well I am sad to realise how long it is since I have put pen to paper metaphorically and written anything on this blog. Lot of good reasons like family weddings and christenings, prolonged tours of Great Britain and various activisms are really not good enough but here is a little catch up of one of our tours with appropriate reading material!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: large;">A winter tour of South and West Wales may seem inappropriate to many but sometimes winter excursions are more fun than a warm weather tour. Contrary yes, but despite the warm clothing it is easier to get around what can be in the summer heavily populated tourist spots and one gets to talk to curators, guides, stewards etc who in busier times one is lucky just to spot in passing!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: large;">There are lots of brilliant Welsh authors and this blog cannot be about all of them. Additionally, some of the books mentioned are not even by Welsh authors but this is just a 'postcard' from my holiday reading and pilgrimages [that last is a pun which will become obvious shortly...]</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: large;">We were snowed in for one afternoon and night in the lovely general area of Carmarthen. Luckily we had a bit of warning and although I had packed my kindle and some books I thought I had better buy some more books in the local Waterstones 'just in case' [a readeraholic does not need an excuse to buy more books after all!]</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><span style="font-size: large;"> <img class="fullScreen" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/81PGCpN%2Bt7L._AA1500_.jpg" style="height: 257px; margin-left: 212px; margin-top: 10px; width: 277px;" /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: large;">Waterstones have a book club so I stood looking at the display stand and chose a couple of titles. Got back to the warmth of the hotel as the snow began to pile up outside and opened <em><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Unlikely-Pilgrimage-Harold-Fry/dp/0552778095/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1360413022&sr=1-1">The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry</a></em> by Rachel Joyce. And I honestly didn't stop until I finished it. I grudgingly ate my dinner whilst still reading it and had a few warm drinks absent mindedly. Other Half watched what he liked on TV and had sole use of the laptop in the peace and quiet. A difficult book to describe - certainly a book about one man's road journey which is also about the journey he takes back into his past and to an extent the journey which his wife at home takes along a parallel road into her past. There is a lovely review of the novel and more about Rachel Joyce </span><a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2180333/Rachel-Joyce-My-darling-stoical-Dad--real-hero-novel-win-Booker.html#axzz2KPDNoOff"><span style="font-size: large;">here</span></a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: large;">We were staying not far from Dylan Thomas' last home in Laugharne. Despite spending a lot of time over the years in South Wales, I had never managed to get to Laugharne so we braved the snowy conditions to visit the Boathouse on a really cold day. The custodian said we were the first people for two days to arrive and we were able to sit with him and have a great chat -about Dylan Thomas, Bob Dylan and Welshness amongst other things. As I have taught Dylan Thomas I had most of the books on display and for sale but I did buy his daughter </span><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2009/aug/09/aeronwy-thomas-ellis-obituary"><span style="font-size: large;">Aeronwy</span></a><span style="font-size: large;">'s book <em>My Father's Places </em>which is a warts and all picture of her memories of her father, who died when she was only ten. Fascinating read.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: large;">Walking around Laugharne [despite the biting cold!] one could imagine the characters and places of Dylan's <em>Under Milk Wood</em> and if it had been warmer maybe I would have posed for some soppy looking pictures pretending to be various characters! However Other Half did catch a quite soulful looking snap of me looking out of Brown's Hotel window - where Dylan Thomas used to drink - although I was drinking hot milk rather than his favourite tipple of beer!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: large;">As a county Carmarthenshire of course has its share of great Welsh authors who were born or lived in the county [including </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Hughes_(writer)"><span style="font-size: large;">Richard Hughes</span></a><span style="font-size: large;">, </span><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-mid-wales-12841613"><span style="font-size: large;">Raymond Garlick</span></a><span style="font-size: large;">, just to start] Being me, of course, I am going to celebrate an obscure one: </span><a href="http://wbo.llgc.org.uk/en/s-PUDD-ADA-1836.html"><span style="font-size: large;">Anne Adalisa Evans</span></a><span style="font-size: large;"> who wrote under the pen name of Allen Raine.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: large;">Very few of her novels are in print, and a few more are available on kindle but if you can access them and are into Victorian fiction with a Welsh style giving a taste of life in the 19th century Welsh countryside and a side swipe of morality this is for you! Knowing that 'Allen Raine' was born in Newcastle Emlyn took us there sightseeing, where we found a charming village and a ruined castle which added to our delight!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: large;">When we are on one of our road trips we of course need to stop off at a few historic houses and </span><a href="http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/dinefwr/"><span style="font-size: large;">Dinefwr Park and Castle</span></a><span style="font-size: large;"> in Llandeilo could not be passed by. And what was more natural than I should spend some time perusing the bookshelves in the library to see what the toffs were reading in the last century?</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: large;">Samuel Smiles is of course nowadays mostly remembered for his work </span><a href="http://www.infed.org/thinkers/samuel_smiles_self-help.htm"><em><span style="font-size: large;">Self Help</span></em></a><span style="font-size: large;"><em> </em>which is so often quoted as epitomising 'Victorian Values' - especially those of the emerging middle class! A link to an etext can be found </span><a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/935"><span style="font-size: large;">here</span></a><span style="font-size: large;">. I often used to quote it when lecturing on Victorian Fiction. The book above, <em>Industrial Biography</em>, can be downloaded </span><a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/404"><span style="font-size: large;">here</span></a><span style="font-size: large;"> if, like me, you are interested in the Industrial Revolution and the men who led it.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: large;">Travelling along the M4 to further places in Wales, I had so often glanced longingly at </span><a href="http://cadw.wales.gov.uk/daysout/castell-coch/?lang=en"><span style="font-size: large;">Castell Coch</span></a><span style="font-size: large;"> and wished we could stop and visit. A TV programme a few years ago showed some of the brilliant restoration/decoration in the Arts & Crafts style that had been undertaken in the late19th century which had piqued my interest even more. So staying near by meant we could at last make a planned visit to the Castell, now in the guardianship of </span><a href="http://cadw.wales.gov.uk/splash;jsessionid=D48A278E19724D7EA4F8B95E5A0662AF?orig=/"><span style="font-size: large;">CADW</span></a><span style="font-size: large;">.</span></span><br />
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<a class="image" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Castell_Coch_frontside_January_midday.jpg"><span style="font-size: large;"><img alt="Castell Coch frontside January midday.jpg" height="225" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2d/Castell_Coch_frontside_January_midday.jpg/300px-Castell_Coch_frontside_January_midday.jpg" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2d/Castell_Coch_frontside_January_midday.jpg/450px-Castell_Coch_frontside_January_midday.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2d/Castell_Coch_frontside_January_midday.jpg/600px-Castell_Coch_frontside_January_midday.jpg 2x" width="300" /></span></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: large;">Castell Coch was one of those places where one wanted to just sit and look! for hours! We are great afficinados of the Arts and Crafts movement so the decorations are just to our taste [although they would look a bit over the top in our suburban house, although I am working on Other Half to finish our hallway in the style of, shown below]</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><img alt="Nice piece of Artex ceiling ?" class="scaledImageFitWidth img" height="200" src="https://fbcdn-photos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/s200x200/481947_10151495380712577_1658242007_a.jpg" width="133" /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: xx-small;">Courtesy Paul Bailey</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">One of those 'well I never knew that' moments occurred on reading the guide book. I found that that Disraeli had based his novel </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><em>Lothlair</em> on the then owner of Castell Coch, the Marquess of Bute who was responsible for the renovations and decorations. This is a Disraeli novel which I have never read so again the trusty kindle proved a good friend and I downloaded a copy! A link to an online text of the novel can be found <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/7835">here</a>.</span></span><br />
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<a data-ved="0CAUQjRw" href="http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=M-Fdd1OX98DLwM&tbnid=GHoEfxaphy2MgM:&ved=0CAUQjRw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.oldukphotos.com%2Fglamorgan_llangynwyd.htm&ei=2gYYUam-O4qX1AWa_YCQBA&psig=AFQjCNF2s9RDVp3Zm06f_b8IOmcbZEKJqw&ust=1360615379225315" id="irc_mil" style="border: 0px currentColor;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img height="260" id="irc_mi" src="http://www.oldukphotos.com/graphics/Wales%20Photos/Glamorganshire,%20Llangynwyd%20Church.jpg" style="margin-top: 0px;" width="416" /></span></a><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Photo courtesy of </span><a href="http://www.oldukphotos.com/glamorgan_llangynwyd.htm"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">http://www.oldukphotos.com/glamorgan_llangynwyd.htm</span></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: large;">A visit to the villages where my ancestors were born, baptised, married and are buried is always necessary when we are in Wales. And of course we have our favourite pub in one because it supplies such good food. Even our grandchildren know it now and the regulars! It is in the tiny mountain top village of </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Llangynwyd"><span style="font-size: large;">Llangynwyd</span></a><span style="font-size: large;"> and has its own literary connections. It was the home to </span><a href="http://wbo.llgc.org.uk/en/s-HOPC-WIL-1700.html"><span style="font-size: large;">Wil Hopcyn</span></a><span style="font-size: large;"> who is said to have written the haunting Welsh folk song Bugeilio'r Gwenith Gwyn about his doomed love affair with the </span><a href="http://wbo.llgc.org.uk/en/s-MADD-ANN-1704.html"><span style="font-size: large;">Maid of </span></a><span class="name"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://wbo.llgc.org.uk/en/s-MADD-ANN-1704.html"><span style="font-size: large;">Cefn Ydfa</span></a><span style="font-size: large;"> [Ann Thomas] Both Ann and Wil are buried in the village. The song lives on, is still taught to school children and has been recorded on many Welsh choral records as well as by stars like Tom Jones and bands like Catatonia. A really lovely recording by Mary Hopkins can be heard </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXpUkO600HU"><span style="font-size: large;">here</span></a><span style="font-size: large;">. It is one of the songs of my childhood.</span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: large;"><a data-ved="0CAUQjRw" href="http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=4s8JkJ6vmaHtUM&tbnid=1NJm5oQjNvEB5M:&ved=0CAUQjRw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tower.com%2Fblack-parade-jack-jones-paperback%2Fwapi%2F113741576%3Fdownload%3Dtrue%26type%3D1&ei=7woYUcqkEeeO0AWa3IDIDw&psig=AFQjCNErd2pkRW-a_u9QN1_76rWnfleGkg&ust=1360616553057812" id="irc_mil" style="border: 0px currentColor;"><img height="260" id="irc_mi" src="http://i43.tower.com/images/mm113741576/black-parade-jack-jones-paperback-cover-art.jpg" style="margin-top: 0px;" width="163" /></a></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Travelling home through the old coal mining valleys of the Rhondda and the Afan always reminds me of the writer who was once so popular but is now also mostly out of print - </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><a href="http://www.archiveswales.org.uk/anw/get_collection.php?inst_id=1&coll_id=280&expand=">Jack Jones</a>. The only book that I could find that is still in print on amazon.co.uk was <span id="btAsinTitle"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Black-Parade-Library-Wales-Jones/dp/1906998140"><em>Black Parade</em></a><em> . </em>I can remember my mother loving his books in the 1950s and borrowing them again and again from the local library.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: large;">One of the books I had packed to read on my travels had been purchased as a result of an earlier road trip when we visited Portmeirion in North Wales. We had never watched the cult 1960s TV series <em>The Prisoner</em> which was set in Portmeirion, but never the less had heard so much about the village that we wanted to visit. In the bookshop there at the time the latest 'Josephine Tey mystery' by Nicola Upson was prominently featured as it is set in the village in the 1930s. It is also surprisingly contemporary in that it features Alfred Hitchcock and Alma Reville - the subjects of the upcoming film <em>Hitchcock</em> [which however is set in the 1950s/60s] </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><a data-ved="0CAUQjRw" href="http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=veSCW1LqUEA8FM&tbnid=l48hK2K5qrl_pM:&ved=0CAUQjRw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbookoxygen.com%2F%3Fp%3D901&ei=VwgYUbrJI4WX0QXP7IGoBA&psig=AFQjCNHx8j5JeORHvz5w8WbhssWxJc-gIQ&ust=1360615832428723" id="irc_mil" style="border: 0px currentColor;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img height="260" id="irc_mi" src="https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQmykMUti3ZgXgQEa85SqliwxXnxw_64jabWaqQ1EH7PxX3VJbL" style="margin-top: 0px;" width="170" /></span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: large;">Portmeirion has other literary and artistic links, some of which are discussed </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portmeirion"><span style="font-size: large;">here</span></a><span style="font-size: large;">.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: large;">There are so many other Welsh authors to whom I haven't paid tribute. So many exciting new authors as well as older ones who stand the test of time. Subject for more blogs - I won't leave it so long next time....</span><br />
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Elizanniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15968498385486949779noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3595021410690422236.post-80225601789132929882012-03-16T10:04:00.006+00:002012-03-16T14:19:02.679+00:00Roger and Val Have Just Got In<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiixLQ4pbHgKGUlP-Zble2dQ5Q18YeOwMo_T4BvAmkVbn1jC9tlyw9LnzFaQvAgEK2-jAUug4v5nxdKxfpDzpo1AjmnME9-eb3V6MiL3Y6c2aFE9zCfF3NNdZhy6Nj-TNlY-GnDLGUWjKE/s1600/Roger+and+Val.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 178px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiixLQ4pbHgKGUlP-Zble2dQ5Q18YeOwMo_T4BvAmkVbn1jC9tlyw9LnzFaQvAgEK2-jAUug4v5nxdKxfpDzpo1AjmnME9-eb3V6MiL3Y6c2aFE9zCfF3NNdZhy6Nj-TNlY-GnDLGUWjKE/s320/Roger+and+Val.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5720439522869676082" /></a><br />To the disgust of Eldest Daughter, I have never been a great fan of Dawn French. Neither her comedic or straight acting. The first series of <em>Roger and Val Have Just Got In</em> made me think slightly differently, although I would have reserved any grand bouquets for Alfred Molina as 'Roger' for best actor and of course the writers Emma Kilcoyne and Beth Kilcoyne for such wonderful, intuitive writing. But whilst not forgetting that the idea for the series originated with Dawn French.<br /><br />The second series has been for me a real relevation. Dawn French has out acted everyone [well since there were only two of them, and since 'everyone' until the last episode comprised the fabulous Alfred Molina, that could sound like damning with faint praise. But Dawn French really was GREAT!]<br /><br />Goodness, I am using an awful lot of superlatives! But watching a series like this makes me wish I was still lecturing. If you haven't watched any episodes yet, you do have a treat in store. How do I describe <em>Roger and Val Have Just Got In </em>to you?<br /><br />Maybe it is easier to tell you what the two series [first one shown in 2010, second one finished this week, both on BBC2. I believe the first series is being re-shown on UK Gold at the moment] are not. They are not the sort of 'comedy/drama sit-coms' that one may expect. First of all no studio audience or canned laughter. Any humour is the gentle, embarassing sort - the sort of things that we might recognise from our own domestic lives. Secondly there are - apparently - no big issues over which the couple argue or spend time discussing. There are not any glamourous, 'set' scenes. No grand reconciliations when there has been a falling out.<br /><br />Each half-hour episode covers in real time the first half hour when the 'ordinary' married couple, Roger & Val, return home after their day out of the house - usually at their individual employments but sometimes other activities. It comprises the conversations and little quibbles that occur when two people who have lived together for years but are both tired, irritated maybe and also have underlying 'issues'. These are happening as small domestic jobs are carried out. Sound boring? It really isn't!<br /><br />However as the first series developed the viewer realised that there was something underlying this marriage that the death of Roger's father was bringing back to the surface, something very deep and important. And the last episode of the first series made one want to go back and watch it all again for all the 'clues' and revel in the clever writing and planning. [If I sound enigmatic it is because I am trying to keep to the 'spoiler alert' rules!]<br /><br />The second series started with the return from a family wedding. The balance between Roger and Val seemed to have shifted subtly because Roger is now trying to keep his job and Val is looking to promotion. But an additional underlying emotional,family 'issue' which sort of parallels but opposes that which surfaced in the last series begins to take over. Even Other Half got capitivated by this series and the final denouement was - and at the risk of sounding really over the top - was magical. [And had nothing to do with the fact that two old hippies were made very happy by hearing 'We Shall Overcome' being sung, albeit from inside a Wendy House] The connotation of the Wendy House with Peter Pan, the little boy who never grew up, and that implication was not missed. You can see why I wish I was still lecturing. I could have got this into both my English Lit courses <strong>and</strong> my Popular Culture days.....<br /><br />I really hope that there is not a third series. No-one should attempt to improve perfection. Thank you Dawn French.<br /><br /><br /><br />Another <a href="http://randomjottings.typepad.com/random_jottings_of_an_ope/2012/03/roger-and-val-have-just-got-in.html">blog</a> which shows that Essex girls appreciate great writing and acting. Elaine comes from the north of the County and I from the south east. She lives on the River Colne, I on the Thames Estuary. So don't believe all you see on TOWIE.... <br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Photograph courtesy of <a href="http://www.metro.co.uk/">Metro</a>Elizanniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15968498385486949779noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3595021410690422236.post-21889775254903944762012-02-07T09:43:00.006+00:002012-02-07T16:14:33.662+00:00Happy Birthday Mr Dickens!<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3dmHfbWufxbu1P0EvVe62eXT8LIlQhvBh_ysNki48dd6YFGopw2IGOpweM1DLPozZBwNVTDyVq4Liodnl3vX_N7AQm-5P2ODeqL5gTo9suKxKKrAw6nqA0stCXE7jiT1zJpN3ASB7N3BA/s1600/Dickens+surrounded+by+his+characters.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px; width: 256px; height: 197px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5706328396437823490" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3dmHfbWufxbu1P0EvVe62eXT8LIlQhvBh_ysNki48dd6YFGopw2IGOpweM1DLPozZBwNVTDyVq4Liodnl3vX_N7AQm-5P2ODeqL5gTo9suKxKKrAw6nqA0stCXE7jiT1zJpN3ASB7N3BA/s320/Dickens+surrounded+by+his+characters.jpg" /></a><div><span style="font-size:85%;">Dedicated to my friend Joan from the US, who stood with me at the National Portrait Gallery looking at the young Dickens with tears in her eyes. Hope you feel better soon.</span></div><div><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span></div><div><br /><br />Try to imagine a world if Charles Dickens had not been born 200 years ago today. Think of all those characters and the phrases associated with them, often referred to in ordinary conversation, that would have to be replaced:</div><div>Jarndyce and Jarndyce; Uriah Heep and his 'umbleness; </div><div>Mr Micawber and his famous quotation:</div><div><em><blockquote><em>Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds<br />nineteen and<br />six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual<br />expenditure twenty<br />pounds ought and six, result misery.</em><br /></blockquote></em></div><div> </div><div><br />Think about those characters whose names became household words or gave rise to things now enshrined in popular culture:</div><div>'Sarah Gamp' - whose surname became synomous for an umbrella.</div><div>'Dolly Varden' - who inspired a fashion style, which in turn gave rise to popular songs etc in the late 19th century.</div><div>'Sam Weller' and 'Samuel Pickwick' - between these two there have been over the years several household items named for them and the adjective 'Pickwickian' and several Christmas card scenes can be traced back to the book <em>The Pickwick Papers</em>!</div><div> </div><div><br /><br />Other authors could not always leave Dickens alone:</div><div>Oscar Wilde said: </div><div><em><em>One must have a heart of stone to read the death of little Nell without laughing.</em></em></div><div>William Thackerary, who was knonw to turn a harsh phrase at many a writer, said about <em>A Christmas Carol </em>that <blockquote>Who can listen to objections regarding such a book as this? It seems to me a national benefit, and to every man or woman who reads it, a personal kindness</blockquote><br />Anthony Trollope satirised Dickens as 'Mr Popular Sentiment' in <em>The Warden. </em><br /><br />Certainly Dickens detractors have criticised him for illustrating problems without proposing curative measures. But the mere fact he alerted Victorian Britain to its shortcomings meant others like Lord Salisbury picked up the baton and ran with it [Olympic metaphor in 2012] to lobby for and make the parliamentary changes.</div><div> </div><div> Dickens did a lot of charitable work himself, founding a <a href="http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/dickens/rogers/8.html">home for Fallen Women</a> with Angela Burdett-Coutts and Dickens did pick his targets. He wrote <em><a href="http://rephidimstreet.blogspot.com/2011/11/dickens-christmas-carol-and-its.html">A Christmas Carol</a></em> after several societal ills had been massing in his mind including the Royal Commission on on the working of the Cornish Tin Mines which showed the iniquity of children's working and his concerns on the conditions of the working classes generally. [Also in October 1843 Dickens had been fund raising for the Manchester poor, sharing a platform with Disraeli and Cobden, and speaking about Ragged Schools which he had visited during the previous month] <em>Little Dorrit</em> satirises the awful supplies system to the military in the Crimean War where stocks rotted not far away from where soldiers were dying from need. <em>Bleak House </em>illustrates the verbosity of a legal system which in the end favours only those who practise the law and not those who need its help.</div><div> </div><div><br /><br />Many biographical facts about Dickens are known now, thanks to the biographies written in the years since his death in 1870, which were unknown in his lifetime. F'r instance we now know that his childhood was not as happy as it could have been due to his father's 'liberality' with money [like Mr Micawber] and how Dickens was set to work in a factory at a very early age. This was a secret which Dickens guarded during his lifetime. We also are led to believe that Dickens was not a good husband and father, certainly he had a least one mistress in Ellen Ternan. However the affair with Ellen seems to have been a real love affair. When judging Dickens we should try to do it with 19th century eyes and taking all facts into consideration!</div><div> </div><div><br /><br />So I want to thank you Mr Dickens if you are listening to me for all the pleasure you have given me with your writings over the years so far. I miss you and may you sleep gently.</div><div> </div><div> </div><div>Further links:<br /><a href="http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/dickens/index.html">Dickens on the Victorian Web</a></div><div> </div><div><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Charles-Dickens-Life-Claire-Tomalin/dp/0670917672/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1328614913&sr=1-1">Latest biography by Claire Tomalin</a> </div><div> </div><div>Picture above courtesy of the <a href="http://www.dickensmuseum.com/">Charles Dickens Museum, London</a></div>Elizanniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15968498385486949779noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3595021410690422236.post-61627345253224377932012-01-19T12:59:00.006+00:002012-01-19T13:15:19.448+00:00If It Wasn't For The 'ouses In Between<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg16avsT_A8EU8aE0lAvVpaGkiWYiAOmNk5zlHBRHvSGAt_sdo-hwEp2zIgE7u7fGvPZIWn3Oz8YZw-_hTPSMHiweG0Ax3hfHQLTZbzoz_Sy8V3D-nX4oj3ha1UyF16ytjT_ioUPLCKxQ72/s1600/Gus_elen.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 220px; height: 279px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg16avsT_A8EU8aE0lAvVpaGkiWYiAOmNk5zlHBRHvSGAt_sdo-hwEp2zIgE7u7fGvPZIWn3Oz8YZw-_hTPSMHiweG0Ax3hfHQLTZbzoz_Sy8V3D-nX4oj3ha1UyF16ytjT_ioUPLCKxQ72/s320/Gus_elen.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5699329367339219090" /></a><br />Something my twin Elizannie has written on <a href="http://rephidimstreet.blogspot.com/2012/01/thames-estuary-airport-via-richard.html">her blog </a>inspired me to remind you all of this lovely old music hall song by Edgar Bateman and George LeBrunn. Sung in 1899 by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gus_Elen">Gus Elen</a> [photo courtesy of wikipedia as linked]<br /><br /><blockquote><strong>IF IT WASN'T FOR THE 'OUSES IN BETWEEN</strong><br />If you saw my little backyard<br />"Wot a pretty spot", you'd cry<br />It's a picture on a sunny summer day<br />Wiv the turnip tops and cabbages<br />Wot people doesn't buy<br />I makes it on a Sunday look all gay<br /><br />The neighbours finks I grow 'em,<br />And you'd fancy you're in Kent<br />Or at Epsom if you gaze into the mews<br />It's a wonder as the landlord<br />Doesn't want to raise the rent<br />Because we have such nobby distant views<br /><br />Oh! it really is a wery pretty garden<br />And Chingford to the Eastward could be seen<br />Wiv a ladder and some glasses<br />You could see to 'Ackney Marshes<br />If it wasn't for the 'ouses in between<br /><br />We're as countrified as can be<br />Wiv a clothes prop for a tree<br />The tub-stool makes a rustic little stile<br />Ev'ry time the blooming clock strikes<br />There's a cuckoo sings to me<br />And I've painted up "To Leather Lane A Mile"<br /><br />Wiv tomatoes and wiv radishes<br />Wot 'adn't any sale<br />The backyard looks a purfick mass o' bloom<br />And I've made a little beehive<br />Wiv some beetles in a pail<br />And a pitchfork wiv the 'andle of a broom<br /><br />Oh! it really is a wery pretty garden<br />And Rye 'Ouse from the cock-loft could be seen<br />Where the chickweed man undresses<br />To bathe 'mong the water cresses<br />If it wasn't for the 'ouses in between<br /><br />There's the bunny shares his egg box<br />Wiv the cross-eyed cock and hen<br />Though they 'as got the pip and him the 'morf<br />In a dog's 'ouse on the line-post<br />There was pigeons, nine or ten<br />Till someone took a brick and knocked it off<br /><br />The dust cart though it seldom comes<br />Is just like 'Arvest 'Ome<br />And we made to rig a dairy up some'ow<br />Put the donkey in the wash'ouse<br />Wiv some imitation 'orns,<br />For we're teaching im to moo just like a kah<br /><br />Oh! it really is a wery pretty garden<br />And 'Endon to the westward could be seen<br />And by clinging to the chimbley<br />You could see across to Wembley<br />If it wasn't for the 'ouses in between<br /><br />Though the gasworks is at Woolwich<br />They improve the rural scene<br />For mountains they would very nicely pass<br />There's the mushrooms in the dust-hole<br />With the cowumbers so green<br />It only wants a bit 'o 'ot 'ouse glass<br /><br />I wears this milkman's nightshirt<br />And I sits outside all day<br />Like the ploughboy cove what's mizzled o'er the Lea<br />And when I goes indoors at night<br />They dunno what I say<br />'Cause my language gets as yokel as can be<br /><br />Oh! it really is a wery pretty garden<br />And soapworks from the 'ousetops could be seen<br />If I got a rope and pulley<br />I'd enjoy the breeze more fully<br />If it wasn't for the 'ouses in between</blockquote>Elizanniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15968498385486949779noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3595021410690422236.post-88542466044362260402012-01-02T12:38:00.003+00:002012-01-02T12:51:50.007+00:00Happy New Year<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsQkkA0SXsnpcavgJLEtcuLcbLlgdcKxH33nO7eNMypspfwxBBeHd4acBbzxPEdMR3mEFuNlNlC2FphW9xTytve2tit024lO9lbsaXzmb1h8C6sP8sBrHusHGgWwGh0BUa52sVOQ-7velM/s1600/Ella+Wheeler+Wilcox.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px; width: 117px; height: 150px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5693015766971313410" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsQkkA0SXsnpcavgJLEtcuLcbLlgdcKxH33nO7eNMypspfwxBBeHd4acBbzxPEdMR3mEFuNlNlC2FphW9xTytve2tit024lO9lbsaXzmb1h8C6sP8sBrHusHGgWwGh0BUa52sVOQ-7velM/s320/Ella+Wheeler+Wilcox.jpg" /></a><br />I will let Ella Wheeler Wilcox<strong>*</strong> in her 1909 poem wish in the New Year 2012 to you all, she does it better than I can! Wishing you all Happiness, Joy, Peace and Love.<br /><br /><br /><blockquote><strong>New Year: A Dialogue</strong><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1909)<br /></span><br />MORTAL:<br /> “The night is cold, the hour is late, the world is bleak and drear;<br /> Who is it knocking at my door?”<br /><br />THE NEW YEAR:<br /> “I am Good Cheer.”<br /><br />MORTAL:<br /> “Your voice is strange; I know you not; in shadows dark I grope.<br /> What seek you here?”<br /><br />THE NEW YEAR:<br /> “Friend, let me in; my name is Hope.”<br /><br />MORTAL:<br /> “And mine is Failure; you but mock the life you seek to bless. Pass on.”<br /><br />THE NEW YEAR:<br /> “Nay, open wide the door; I am Success.”<br /><br />MORTAL:<br /> “But I am ill and spent with pain; too late has come your wealth. I cannot use it.”<br /><br />THE NEW YEAR:<br /> “Listen, friend; I am Good Health.”<br /><br />MORTAL:<br /> “Now, wide I fling my door. Come in, and your fair statements prove.”<br /><br />THE NEW YEAR:<br /> “But you must open, too, your heart, for I am Love.”</blockquote><br /><br /><br /><strong>*</strong><a href="http://www.ellawheelerwilcox.org/">Ella Wheeler Wilcox</a>, American Poet, 1850 - 1919. Photography courtesy of the website: <a href="http://www.ellawheelerwilcox.org/photos.htm">http://www.ellawheelerwilcox.org/photos.htm</a>Elizanniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15968498385486949779noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3595021410690422236.post-17664633951943105162011-11-29T11:16:00.005+00:002011-11-29T16:35:38.869+00:00A Christmas Carol<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXFdrCgOMqia9-C2R7JSxinVQshiJYprRWqJxKa8zNogIfxP7PK43UHzpzydMpg-vEVlPuxcbZ8PsPecbi3J16R5JhZzeu7QAL3MfZK-IOOtMC_Awh4iFvBoFwS6-DliRpmVWtuEsfTFPc/s1600/A+Christmas+Carol.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 211px; height: 248px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXFdrCgOMqia9-C2R7JSxinVQshiJYprRWqJxKa8zNogIfxP7PK43UHzpzydMpg-vEVlPuxcbZ8PsPecbi3J16R5JhZzeu7QAL3MfZK-IOOtMC_Awh4iFvBoFwS6-DliRpmVWtuEsfTFPc/s320/A+Christmas+Carol.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5680416225858187042" /></a><br /><div>Over on the Elizannie blog <a href="http://bit.ly/vpqpvM">a look at Dickens' story from the sociological point of view </a>has taken place, but lots of literary comments had to be left out, so here I am attempting to re-dress the balance!</div><div><br /></div><div><div><i>A Christmas Carol</i> was written in 1843, and it touched readers' hearts then and continues to do so today, although now it is not just through the written word but through stage and film adaptations, audio versions via CD and radio. Many people know the story of how a miserable man - Scrooge - who did not have any feelings of humanity or kindness towards others was shown the error of his ways by the Ghosts of Christmas and by the end of the story not only is filled with the spirit of Christmas Goodwill but became a better human being altogether.</div><div><br /></div><div><div>First of all let's start with a Trivial pursuit question! How many ghosts are there in <i>A Christmas Carol</i>? Most people answer three: The Ghosts of Christmas past, Christmas present and Christmas future/yet to come. However the 'official' answer in quizzes is four - including Marley of course. <b>But</b> when Marley leaves and Scrooge looks out of the window he sees many ‘spectres’ outside. And don’t forget the ghostly hearse going up the stairs as Scrooge enters his house! </div><div><br /></div><div><div>Although nowadays we think of a 'carol' as being a Christmas song, the definition of the word is a song of joy or praise. So the title <i>A Christmas Carol</i> must signify a joyful song about Christmas or the Christmas ideal. By the end of the story this certainly becomes true. The ‘Carol’ imagery is carried on throughout the story, with staves used instead of chapter headings. This was definately an interesting/unusual literary device for the time. [Something that Dickens’ friend Wilkie Collins - and other authors in other ways - would later do in a different way by laying out one of his novels like a play in ‘Acts’] But almost revolutionary for an author like Dickens to do this in 1843.</div></div><div><br /></div><div>Let's look at the three Christmas Ghosts a little more closely:</div><div><br /></div><div>· The Ghost of Christmas Past</div><div>Sounds somewhat like a candle which at the end their ‘trip’ together Scrooge snuffs out. It was a Christmas custom to light a candle on Christmas eve. This Spirit shows the reader the reason for Scrooge's actions but does not excuse him</div><div>· The Ghost of Christmas Present</div><div>A representation of Father Christmas*. Victorian Father Christmases were dressed in any colour robes. This ghost shows Scrooge what he is missing by his actions but also offers a warning in the shape of the two children: Ignorance and Want – Dickens’ warning about the effects of the squalid conditions of the Industrial Revolution and exploitation of labour could have on the very poor</div><div>· The Ghost of Christmas Future</div><div>An awful warning and also reminiscent of Old Father Time. And in fact he foretells Scrooge’s unmourned and lonely death unless he mends his ways. </div><div><br /></div><div>There are a lot of Dickens' autobiographical details in the story. Because the young Dickens experienced so much hardship and poverty during his early life, his writing about social inequalities is often based on his own past. It could be that the Cratchit’s house is modelled on the small house at 16 Bayham Street in Camden Town where Dickens lived at the age of ten and the six Cratchit children mirror Dickens' brothers and sisters - Tiny Tim may be based on Dickens' youngest, poorly brother who was known as “Tiny Fred”'. Dickens was a pupil at Wellington House Academy, Hampstead Road, London which may be the model for the school Scrooge went to. It is set in <blockquote>a little market-town . . . with the bridge, its church, and winding river.</blockquote> Johnson in “<i>About ‘A Christmas Carol</i>’” (<i>Dickensian</i> 1931) identifies this description as referring to Strood, Rochester, and the river Medway, where Dickens spent part of his childhood. Johnson also noted that Dickens erased the word “castle” from the original manuscript, an apparent reference to Rochester Castle. [<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Annotated-Christmas-Carol-Charles-Dickens/dp/0380017229/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1322569062&sr=8-7">Michael Patrick Hearn, <i>The Annotated Christmas Carol</i>, 88</a>] Like Scrooge, Dickens had a sister called Fan[ny]</div><div><br /></div><div><div>The women in A Christmas Carol are unusual for Dickens, who often had a ‘silly’ woman in his novels who probably represented his mother, Elizabeth Dickens – think of Mrs Nickleby, Dora Copperfield, Bleak House etc although these are often balanced by a strong woman like Agnes Copperfield, Betsy Trotwood etc. But in <i>A Christmas Carol </i>the woman are quite pro-active: Fan, Belle, Mrs Cratchit all speak up for themselves. Even the laundress and the cleaning women have a certain something! Victorian readers would have picked up ‘hints’ about the ‘interesting condition’ of Mrs Fred:</div><div><blockquote>‘Scrooge’s niece was not one of the blind–man’s buff party, but was made comfortable with a large chair and a footstool’</blockquote> and</div><div></div></div><blockquote><div><div>‘Dear heart alive, how his niece by marriage started. Scrooge had forgotten, for the moment, about her sitting in the corner with the footstool, or he wouldn’t have done it, on any account.’</div></div><div></div></blockquote><div><div>The children in <i>A Christmas Carol </i>are more typical of the 'Dickens' type of child', although like Rose in<i> Oliver Twist</i>, Tiny Tim does not die. However Tim is like many ‘too good to be true’ children in Dickens novels who do usually die: Paul Dombey, Little Nell. Tim is rather like Oliver Twist in that he seems to have an almost angelic streak. Dickens is playing up to the Victorian ‘ideal’ that children were born good or bad, and Tim – again like Oliver Twist and Paul Dombey – seems to have been born able to spout words of pious wisdom!</div></div><div><br /></div><div>Bear with me here, because I am going to talk about another little quirk of mine: Evidence of Time Travel in the story! The chronology of the story does not ‘work’ if we try to be sensible! Scrooge and Marley don’t part until 2 o’clock on Christmas morning and the first Ghost is not ‘due’ until one o’clock the next day [Boxing Day], the second at one o’clock on the 27th and the third at midnight on the 28th. Scrooge does say <blockquote>‘Couldn’t I take ‘em all at once, and have it over, Jacob?’ hinted Scrooge</blockquote>However Scrooge awakens at two o’clock and then at all the other times and finally awakes on Christmas morning, crying <blockquote>‘It’s Christmas Day!’ said Scrooge to himself. ‘I haven’t missed it! The Spirits have done it all in one night. They can do anything they like.’</blockquote></div><div>Another ‘hint’ for time travel: When the Ghost of Christmas past takes Scrooge to see himself as a child at school we read:</div><div><blockquote>“The panels shrunk, the windows cracked; fragments of plaster fell”</blockquote>This is the sort of 'effect' which suggests the image of 'unbuilding' of the apartment which surrounds Scrooge, taking it back in time in fact. This effect has been used in other novels and films, particularly by H. G. Wells in <i>The Time Machine</i> (1895) and in film versions of that book.</div><div><br /></div><div>For modern children, there are also suggestions of super hero qualities in the Ghosts' interactions with Scrooge because they have the power to: </div><div><ul><li>Look through walls and roofs </li><li>Change the future if not the past </li><li>Circle the earth </li><li>Do all these things in one night moreover!!!</li></ul></div><div><br /></div><div>There are so many Film/TV Versions of the Novel, nearly 100 at last count. I should be [but I am not] ashamed to say that I own about 6o, the earliest [version not the film] dating from 1901. There are of course also many audio/cassette versions and some can be downloaded from the internet and put on mp3 players.</div><div><br /></div><div>Of course dramatisations often either show scenes that are not in the original or omit ones which are:</div><div><br /></div><div>Not in the original story:</div><div>· Scrooge eating with the Cratchits: he didn’t and that would have ruined the scene on Boxing Day when Bob turns up late for work and Scrooge pretends to sack him!</div><div>· In the Alastair Sim version he is shown dancing with his housekeeper on Christmas morning – lovely thought though this is it didn’t happen! No housekeeper in the book! The whole point is that up until the spirits visit, Scrooge is alone. In the 1935 Seymour Hicks version a housekeeper is also shown [Athene Syler] bringing in his breakfast and again that is an ‘invention’.</div><div><br /></div><div>Omitted from the original story:</div><div>· Scrooge is not often shown eating alone in a tavern/coffee house on his way home from work on Christmas Eve. The Seymour Hicks version shows this.</div><div>· The couple who are not to be evicted because Scrooge has died are often omitted</div><div>· When the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come shows the grieving Cratchits it is often not made clear that Tiny Tim has only just died and is in fact still not yet buried and additionally this is not the same year that we are ‘seeing’ the grave stone etc of Scrooge – remember the Time Travel elements!</div><div><br /></div><div><div>The book is written with lots of allusions to light and dark/fog/shadows and looking into and out of scenes – in and out of windows and behind curtains for example. Thus it is very ‘filmic’ as it were - and although we know that Dickens loved theatricals and wasn’t averse to the odd bit of acting himself it is odd to think that he knew nothing about what a gift <i>A Christmas Carol </i>would be to film-makers. It has been filmed almost constantly since 1901. Sadly I own lots of versions... Rather than subject you all to a long dissertation on the relative merits of teach, here are just a few of my subjective comments!:</div><div>o<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span><b>Best</b>: Patrick Stewart 1999/ Muppets 1992 [where Dickens – played by Gonzo the puppet - is the narrator!]</div><div>o<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span><b>Worst</b>: <i>Brer Rabbit's Christmas Carol</i>/ <i>Carry on Christmas </i>1969</div><div>o<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span><b>Genre</b>: Ballet/Opera and apparently a County & Western version called <i>Skinflint</i>: A Country Christmas Carol (1979) (TV) which hardly anyone has ever seen…..</div><div>o<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span><b>Animated</b>: ‘Themed’ include: Mr Magoo, The Flintstones, All Dogs, Jetsons, Mickey Mouse and others</div><div>o<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span><b>Puppets</b>: The Muppets, Sesame Street</div><div>o<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span><b>Quirky:</b> <i>Scrooged, An American Christma</i>s [set in the 1920]s, <i>Ebenezeer</i> [a western with Jack Palance].</div><div>o<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>‘<b>Feminist</b>’: Where Scrooge is female [Mostly American] with <i>Ms Scrooge; Ebbie</i> 1995; <i>A Diva’s Christmas Carol; A Carol Christmas; A Bad Girls</i> Christmas special</div><div>o<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>The Disney 3D version, really good special effects but no use to those like me with neuro problems who are not allowed to watch 3D films.....</div><div>o A <b>'time travel'/sci fi</b> version with Dr Who</div><div>o<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>Some <b>subvert </b>the idea: <i>It’s a Wonderful Life, Black Adder’s Christmas Carol</i></div><div>o<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>There has even been an <b>Easter ‘sequel’</b>: <i>An Easter Carol </i>which was made an animation made in 2004</div><div><br /></div><div>The context of the times in which any version has been made can show in that adaptation.</div><div>Although I have been talking about the effect of <i>A Christmas Carol </i>continuing throughout our society across the years, the film versions show a reverse in the sense that what was prevailing at the times when a film adaptation was made often affected the way that adaptation was made. To illustrate, just a quick example from a few of the many films adaptations, some of which will certainly be shown over the new few weeks at a TV channel near you! Please note that titles such as ‘<i>A Christmas Carol</i>’ or ‘<i>Scrooge</i>’ may change/be interchangeable depending which side of the Atlantic one is on!</div><div><br /></div><div><b><i>Scrooge</i> [1935]: The ‘Sir Seymour Hicks version’</b></div><div>This was filmed at the time of the depression and the hunger marches and there is a scene where the poor/unemployed are looking through a window into the ‘other world’ of the rich at a function which could be somewhere like the Mansion House, where there is dancing and feasting. When the loyal toast is sung, those inside and outside sing ‘God Save the King’ - an attempt to show the 'unity' of the two groups. At Christmas 1935 King George had been ill for nearly a year and died in the January of 1936.</div><div><br /></div><div><b><i>Scrooge</i> [1951] aka <i>A Christmas Carol</i> – USA: The ‘Alec Guiness version’</b></div><div>This film was made at a time of optimism, at the time of things improving after a World War unlike the previous film which was heading toward a world war. Rationing was still about and that is reflected in the fact that food is not focused upon at all in any of the scenes as in the last film. But this was a time also of events like the Festival of Britain and Scrooge’s excitement and optimism at the end reflect that. The humour is quirky. It added in several scenes not in the book including a 'new' employer – Jorkins played by Jack Warner – who ‘poached’ Scrooge from Fezziwig and almost ‘taught’ Scrooge bad ways; the death scene of Fan, Scrooge’s sister and added to the school scene by claiming that Scrooge and Fan’s mother had died in childbirth with Scrooge when in fact Fan was the younger child. As said before, the housekeeper is fictitious – but all the more fun because she is played by Kathleen Harrison! </div><div><br /></div><div><b><i>Scrooge</i> [1970]: The ‘Albert Finney musical version’</b></div><div>This version was trying to capitalize on the success of <i>Oliver! </i>but kind of missed the boat – it has been said that the only good song is ‘<i>Thank you very much</i>’. In a lot of ways the musical does connote late 69s/early 70s musicals. It is not the only musical version but I do prefer that of the Muppets! Albert Finney is excellent as Scrooge although he seems to have based Scrooge on Albert Steptoe [if you remember him...] – but the fact that he is too young [34] for the part does shine through. Originally Rex Harrison [it was not that long after his success in <i>My Fair Lady</i>] was going to take the part but he had to rest on doctor’s orders. One wonders how different the film would have been with him as Scrooge. Richard Harris also rejected the part.</div><div><br /></div><div>There is a definite ‘Swinging 60s’ zeitgeist in the Ghost of Christmas Present sitting on a magnificent pile of food and in the crowd scenes when Anton Rogers leads the singing of ‘Thank You Very Much’ on the death of Scrooge and actually dances to it on Scooge’s coffin [bad taste!] An extra scene of Scrooge going to hell is very sci fi orientated [<i>2001 Space Odyssey </i>inspired?] with a wonderful Alec Guiness as Marley’s ghost. ‘<i>Thank You Very Much</i>’ becomes good taste when Scrooge dubiously decks himself out as Father Christmas at the end and gives away wonderful Christmas Presents to the Cratchit family and then goes out in the street and destroys everyones’ debts!</div><div><br /></div><div><b><i>A Christmas Carol</i> [1984]: The ‘George C. Scott version’</b></div><div>Filmed in Shrewsbury at a time when Merchant Ivory films were the vogue so it is ‘costume drama’ at its most intense – but is it Victorian ‘grubby’ enough? Made during Thatcher’s Britain, there is a reminder when we see the homeless of how for the first time for many years there was an increasing homeless population on the streets of our big cities. Does Scott’s Scrooge represent an 80s yuppie perhaps? The director, Clive Donner, was the film editor on <i>Scrooge</i> (1951). </div><div><br /></div><div><b><i>Scrooged</i> [1988]: Bill Murray</b></div><div>Probably to everyone’s disgust, this would be in my top two of the adaptations, but tying with the Muppets. [I am not sure about my number one. Probably Patrick Stewart] It portrays the 'tread on the others' business world of the 1980s yuppies and the Scrooge character as a businessman who cares more about success than his family and friends.</div><div><br /></div><div><b><i>A Christmas Carol</i> [1999]: The ‘Patrick Stewart version’</b></div><div>Although there are slight changes to the beginning – instead of saying ‘Marley was dead’ we are shown Marley’s funeral and the singing of Silent Night is an anachronism but does it matter because it is such a good adaptation! Stewart is a Dickens expert and put on a one man show of <i>A Christmas Carol</i> a few years ago in London to very good reviews. It is probably the most accurate and thoughtful and I personally love the scene on Christmas morning where Scrooge is trying to laugh for the first time in many years.</div><div><br /></div><div>Produced in 1999 it seems to be trying to be presenting the book in a faithful way – but also saying that although we may be 156 years on from the original book but we still have unemployed and those who need charities to help them through their problems. No longer workhouses perhaps but still jails. Still ‘two nations’ the rich and poor? At the end of Scrooge’s visit to the Cratchit’s during Christmas Present, Tiny Tim starts singing “Silent Night” so the sentimental feeling of the original story is still there in bucket loads.</div><div><br /></div></div><div><i>A Christmas Carol </i>be read on two levels? On one level as almost a fairy tale about a rich, selfish man who eats the wrong sort of supper, has a nightmare which is real enough to make him realise that he is wasting his life and the riches he is amassing and could lead a better and happier one helping others and when he wakes he does. The other level is a deeper warning about how laissez faire economics can eat away at society from within and whilst killing off ‘expendable parts’ in the form of ‘surplus population’ something more precious and vibrant – happiness and innocence – will also be lost unless the selfish giant [to borrow from the future yet to come, Oscar Wilde] becomes less selfish a sterile and unloving, uncaring society will develop. Is this the reason that the story is still popular – because deep down we all know that we cannot afford to forget it? Charity is not just good for those who receive it, it is good for the giver too?</div><div><br /></div><div>Lastly, please look at the punning word play in the last paragraph on the two sorts of spirits – alcohol and ghosts! So Dickens rounds off with a joke. The story may be about serious stuff and morals but is light-hearted too: <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 242); font-size: medium; "> </span><blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" >He had no further intercourse with Spirits, but lived upon the Total Abstinence Principle, ever afterwards; and it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless Us, Every One!</span></blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 242); font-size: medium; "></span></div><div>Yes, God Bless Us Every One!</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >Notes:</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >*Our red faced, jolly ‘Santa’ dressed in red robes trimmed with white fur is actually <a href="http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/heritage/cokelore_santa.html">an invention of the Coca Cola company</a></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><i>A Christmas Carol </i>is sometimes adapted/used for campaigning purposes as in: <span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 14px; background-color: rgb(187, 204, 238); "><a href="http://rephidimstreet.blogspot.com/2010/12/visteon-christmas-carol.html">http://rephidimstreet.blogspot.com/2010/12/visteon-christmas-carol.html</a></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >Some little quotes and paragraphs of this blog may also be found in Elizannie's <a href="http://rephidimstreet.blogspot.com/2011/11/dickens-christmas-carol-and-its.html">http://rephidimstreet.blogspot.com/2011/11/dickens-christmas-carol-and-its.html</a></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >Well we are twins!</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >The picture above is from the original 1843 illustrations and shows the Fezziwig ball. The original illustrator of the story was John Leech had become an artist to support himself after the bankruptcy of his family forced him to abandon the medical studies in which he had excelled in anatomical drawing. He joined the staff of Bentley’s Miscellany in 1840, and was the chief cartoonist for <i>Punch</i> from 1841-1861: approximately 3,000 drawings of his appeared in <i>Punch </i>during this period. Although most famous as an early Victorian satirist for this work, he also made extensive contributions to periodicals such as <i>The Illustrated London News</i> and produced drawings and etchings for numerous novels, short stories and children’s books. As well as those for <i>A Christmas Carol</i>, his best known book illustrations are found in the hunting novels of Surtees. [This information on Leech from </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><a href="http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/exhibns/month/dec1999.html">http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/exhibns/month/dec1999.html </a>]</span></div></div></div><div> </div><div> </div>Elizanniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15968498385486949779noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3595021410690422236.post-88044543418121546672011-11-11T10:45:00.004+00:002011-11-11T10:52:49.817+00:00For Remembrance Day: 'Attack' by Siegfried Sassoon<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyvkFk1O_m43FesT7H7NWhUiL7j3MZbs_xoEt9dyFIlHedUK7hMeE31LFk3LG9HIq1P8BuppaggWnwY5HwGkg38WX6rQxG-73Fr3Qp-iePMXsC2vUzLSi4an8bV9i1GPG313kAKj7Fi3M6/s1600/Siegfried+Sassoon.png"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 176px; height: 247px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyvkFk1O_m43FesT7H7NWhUiL7j3MZbs_xoEt9dyFIlHedUK7hMeE31LFk3LG9HIq1P8BuppaggWnwY5HwGkg38WX6rQxG-73Fr3Qp-iePMXsC2vUzLSi4an8bV9i1GPG313kAKj7Fi3M6/s320/Siegfried+Sassoon.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5673688281371983378" /></a><br /><blockquote><span style="font-weight:bold;">Attack</span><br /><br />AT dawn the ridge emerges massed and dun <br />In the wild purple of the glow'ring sun, <br />Smouldering through spouts of drifting smoke that shroud <br />The menacing scarred slope; and, one by one, <br />Tanks creep and topple forward to the wire. <br />The barrage roars and lifts. Then, clumsily bowed <br />With bombs and guns and shovels and battle-gear, <br />Men jostle and climb to meet the bristling fire. <br />Lines of grey, muttering faces, masked with fear, <br />They leave their trenches, going over the top, <br />While time ticks blank and busy on their wrists, <br />And hope, with furtive eyes and grappling fists, <br />Flounders in mud. O Jesus, make it stop!<br /><br />Siegfried Sassoon</blockquote><br /><br /><br />Photograph courtesy of wikipedia.orgElizanniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15968498385486949779noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3595021410690422236.post-91887984203935513332011-10-11T10:42:00.005+01:002011-10-11T16:30:07.922+01:00Poem by Bertolt Brecht<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtlIMS0XwzqTpKbEWSp4bI78t5_gv0AvNieYlBo1bOpg6XGfhL1EwlGVknhsqh5WE4naLOgbLuU5PO4mLXJ4mgKCHQmGIOAnNrDQpOBiQGJHNHjfgKDd5E3hqGeWZ6HKDZ44_k0gRVZ0SJ/s1600/225px-Bertolt-Brecht.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 220px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtlIMS0XwzqTpKbEWSp4bI78t5_gv0AvNieYlBo1bOpg6XGfhL1EwlGVknhsqh5WE4naLOgbLuU5PO4mLXJ4mgKCHQmGIOAnNrDQpOBiQGJHNHjfgKDd5E3hqGeWZ6HKDZ44_k0gRVZ0SJ/s320/225px-Bertolt-Brecht.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5662168491575949586" /></a><br /><br /><br />[Dedicated to all those protesting against all wars everywhere, especially all those who were in Trafalgar Square on Saturday and all the other linked demonstrations all over the world on Saturday. May Peace Prevail. <span style="font-style:italic;">Clarice</span>]<br /><br /><br /><blockquote>General, your tank is a powerful vehicle.<br /> It smashes down forests and crushes a hundred men.<br /> But it has one defect:<br /> It needs a driver.<br /> <br />General, your bomber is powerful.<br /> It flies faster than a storm and carries more than an elephant.<br /> But it has one defect:<br /> It needs a mechanic.<br /> <br />General, man is very useful.<br /> He can fly and he can kill.<br /> But he has one defect:<br /> He can think.<br /> <br /></blockquote><br /><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertolt_Brecht">Bertolt Brecht</a><br /><br />Photograph of Brecht courtesy of Wikipedia.orgElizanniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15968498385486949779noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3595021410690422236.post-55217620359965963292011-10-09T10:29:00.004+01:002011-10-09T13:50:19.283+01:00Prayer Before Birth by Louis Macneice<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5jS9Wpjzq_HknBoGSqE-v3_H3i4dEKAmtTqlH2hqyjjqiFW0G1ARUOJNUbxW8vWsvAbczqUD0-5rdDW7v-i80UC1W7210leRVC2xs-IhMr4uPo4JfqQg0lsBdqveztcg038BmyKh5b0sq/s1600/memorial+at+trafalgar+square.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 144px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5jS9Wpjzq_HknBoGSqE-v3_H3i4dEKAmtTqlH2hqyjjqiFW0G1ARUOJNUbxW8vWsvAbczqUD0-5rdDW7v-i80UC1W7210leRVC2xs-IhMr4uPo4JfqQg0lsBdqveztcg038BmyKh5b0sq/s320/memorial+at+trafalgar+square.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5661422296137191826" /></a><br /><br />The photograph shows a memorial to the fallen in Afghanistan and Iraq at the <a href="http://www.antiwarassembly.org/index.php/home">Antiwar Mass Assembly</a> in Trafalgar Square yesterday. It features the following very appropriate poem by Louis Macneice:<br /><br /><blockquote><span style="font-weight:bold;">Prayer Before Birth</span><br />I am not yet born; O hear me. <br />Let not the bloodsucking bat or the rat or the stoat or the <br />club-footed ghoul come near me. <br /><br />I am not yet born, console me. <br />I fear that the human race may with tall walls wall me, <br />with strong drugs dope me, with wise lies lure me, <br />on black racks rack me, in blood-baths roll me. <br /><br />I am not yet born; provide me <br />With water to dandle me, grass to grow for me, trees to talk <br />to me, sky to sing to me, birds and a white light <br />in the back of my mind to guide me. <br /><br />I am not yet born; forgive me <br />For the sins that in me the world shall commit, my words <br />when they speak me, my thoughts when they think me, <br />my treason engendered by traitors beyond me, <br />my life when they murder by means of my <br />hands, my death when they live me. <br /><br />I am not yet born; rehearse me <br />In the parts I must play and the cues I must take when <br />old men lecture me, bureaucrats hector me, mountains <br />frown at me, lovers laugh at me, the white <br />waves call me to folly and the desert calls <br />me to doom and the beggar refuses <br />my gift and my children curse me. <br /><br />I am not yet born; O hear me, <br />Let not the man who is beast or who thinks he is God <br />come near me. <br /><br />I am not yet born; O fill me <br />With strength against those who would freeze my <br />humanity, would dragoon me into a lethal automaton, <br />would make me a cog in a machine, a thing with <br />one face, a thing, and against all those <br />who would dissipate my entirety, would <br />blow me like thistledown hither and <br />thither or hither and thither <br />like water held in the <br />hands would spill me. <br /><br />Let them not make me a stone and let them not spill me. <br />Otherwise kill me.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Louis Macneice</span><br /></blockquote><br /><br />The poem is a plea from the future, from the child[ren]/generations yet unborn that we - the present generation - may provide them with a world free from all the problems that Man has created so far:<br />'Tall walls to wall me' - prisons<br />'Strong drugs dope me' - drugs that tranquilise and lull<br />'Wise words lure me' - lying politicians<br />'Black racks rack me' & 'in blood-baths roll me' - torture in the names of 'freedom' & 'truth' <br /><br />The future children ask the present generation to provide not material things but not to interfere with the natural gifts:<br />'water to dandle me' <br />'grass to grow for me' <br />'trees to talk to me'<br />'sky to sing to me' <br />'birds' <br />and lastly<br />'a white light in the back of my mind to guide me' - a faith or morality to live by<br /><br />The future children ask that they may be forgiven in advance: <br />'For the sins that in me the world shall commit'<br />'my words when they speak me' <br />'my thoughts when they think me' <br />'my treason engendered by traitors beyond me' <br />'my life when they murder by means of my <br />hands' <br />'my death when they live me'<br />But the use of 'my' as the first word and 'the world/they' as the <span style="font-style:italic;">perpetrator </span> shows the disgust that such things are done by 'the world/they' in the name of the innocent/yet to be born. Of course 'the world' represents the world leaders who always act in the name of 'their people', however much those people protest that it is <span style="font-style:italic;"><a href="http://www.notinourname.net/">Not in their Name</a><span style="font-weight:bold;"></span></span><br /><br />The future children ask <br />'rehearse me In the parts I must play' <br />'the cues I must take when: <br /><blockquote>old men lecture me<br />bureaucrats hector me <br />mountains frown at me<br />lovers laugh at me<br />the white waves call me to folly <br />the desert calls me to doom <br />the beggar refuses my gift <br />my children curse me'</blockquote> <br />- how to live in world where it is difficult to:<br /><blockquote>introduce new ideals<br />live within the often crazy laws<br />preserve the ecology<br />maintain dignity<br />remember the sea is stronger than man<br />remember the deserts show nature's power<br />remember charity is not always the answer<br />the future children's children will be as hard on their forebears as the future children will be on us.</blockquote><br /><br /><br />The future children ask that we, the present hear them <br />'Let not the man who is beast or who thinks he is God <br />come near me' - that those whose who think they have the answers but whose answers are flawed will keep away.<br /><br />The future children ask that they will be given: <br />'strength against those: <br /><blockquote>who would freeze my humanity<br />would dragoon me into a lethal automaton<br />would make me a cog in a machine<br />a thing with one face, a thing, and against all those who would dissipate my entirety, <br />would blow me like thistledown hither and thither or hither and thither <br />like water held in the hands would spill me'</blockquote> <br />- In other words those who would enlist humanity into soldiers, armies, fighting machines or enact violence 'in their name'.<br /><br />'Let them not make me a stone and let them not spill me. <br />Otherwise kill me.'<br />- If the future children become 'automaton' fighting machines/killing machines, they feel their lives will not be worth living.<br /><br />********<br /><br />This is only my 'interpretation'. I would welcome different views and discussions.<br /><br />Full lists of all those who died can be found here: <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-10629358">http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-10629358</a><br />May they sleep gently<br /><br /><br />For more photos taken by us at the Antiwar Mass Assembly go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/theotherbailey/sets/72157627846775502/Elizanniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15968498385486949779noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3595021410690422236.post-76348245306235730582011-10-05T18:41:00.005+01:002011-10-05T22:49:56.404+01:00The Times Aren't Always A-Changing<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKKb3NdF-IZUjOhIJ2IrJcYjwa9N7owjTs4XaW4dVdoKy9rjm2ooCB5kvHM3Ht5pAybekfq0L2cgvVVBm_GTiycFvZqaCQRkDijKQiRNQkVha_ERx9p1cqSNc49vgbopOp2w66xpHsRxZf/s1600/Ry+Cooder+Pull+up+some+dust+and+sit+down.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 115px; height: 115px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKKb3NdF-IZUjOhIJ2IrJcYjwa9N7owjTs4XaW4dVdoKy9rjm2ooCB5kvHM3Ht5pAybekfq0L2cgvVVBm_GTiycFvZqaCQRkDijKQiRNQkVha_ERx9p1cqSNc49vgbopOp2w66xpHsRxZf/s320/Ry+Cooder+Pull+up+some+dust+and+sit+down.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5660127091834660018" /></a><br />The blog title is obviously - to those who know their Bob Dylan - a bad misquote of his <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Times-They-Are--Changin/dp/B0009JK0R0/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1317836608&sr=8-2">famous song</a>. So why would I misquote one of musical heroes, who incidentally is 'up for' <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2011/oct/05/nobel-prize-literature-bob-dylan?newsfeed=true">a Noble Prize for Literature</a> tomorrow?<br /><br />Its been one of those afternoons when I have been conducting an interesting internet discussion which was both political and literary with an internet buddy, whilst at the same time writing an <a href="http://www.rephidimstreet.blogspot.com/">Elizannie</a> blog and also chatting to family on facebook and listening to a new CD. Which probably means that as usual I wasn't really doing any of those things very well.<br /><br />My internet discussion was around the fact that history repeats itself if we don't allow ourselves to learn the lessons that it can teach us. In this instance my buddy and I were using the instance that 19thC literature can show us what life was like before the Welfare State in the UK as in Gissing's <span style="font-style:italic;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nether-World-Oxford-Worlds-Classics/dp/019953828X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1317849890&sr=1-1">The Nether World</a> </span>[for the UK] or any of <a href="http://"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_Dreiser">Theodore Dreiser</a></a>'s books for pre 'safety net' facilities [for the US] The discussion also included references to two hymns, one a paen to Conservatism and another to Socialism [obviously the better one] and if you wish to sample these go to the Elizannie blog <a href="http://rephidimstreet.blogspot.com/2011/10/and-ordered-their-estate.html">here</a><br /><br />As always when discussing literature, which then leads to history, then on to politics, music crops up and as I was listening to the new <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/artists/a4e2650b-938b-4b72-95bc-6e229cd34601">Ry Cooder</a> album, <span style="font-style:italic;">Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down</span> I began to feel more than a bit sad and angry. I realised that the artiste was basically saying the same thing as my 'discussion buddy' and I, although even more harshly. To quote from this <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/ff8r">BBC review</a> of the album:<br /><br /><blockquote>When Ry Cooder recorded his first two albums, collections of songs by the likes of Lead Belly and Woody Guthrie that evoked the desperate times of the Great Depression, he could scarcely have imagined that 40 years later he’d be singing of the same old problems, but relating them to modern times.</blockquote><br /><br />As I have said to others, if you only buy/download one CD this year, make it this one. And learn and share with others the lessons Ry Cooder has written and sings.<br /><br />Photo of the CD, courtesy of amazon.co.ukElizanniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15968498385486949779noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3595021410690422236.post-73845143948462642902011-09-12T09:59:00.006+01:002011-09-12T10:50:55.234+01:00The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicucBl1qlrpNPYFC-fFA6e2kVMaZKP4w9pdHo-HjROpWgtx_D5lQfVS3jKKD6Upcs00XlniVkUOKv99Nn8WjFMZLCwC5mgrHGwzD9gUNgHandrd_UI-DWXnpefBHevPdp8EMRrD4ZL6t76/s1600/Henrietta+Lacks.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicucBl1qlrpNPYFC-fFA6e2kVMaZKP4w9pdHo-HjROpWgtx_D5lQfVS3jKKD6Upcs00XlniVkUOKv99Nn8WjFMZLCwC5mgrHGwzD9gUNgHandrd_UI-DWXnpefBHevPdp8EMRrD4ZL6t76/s320/Henrietta+Lacks.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5651395653008169826" /></a><br /><br />Sometimes a book appears that although one knows its official genre, that 'categorisation' refuses to sit well in one's brain!<br /><br />A friend rang a few days ago to talk about <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Immortal-Life-Henrietta-Lacks/dp/0330533444/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1315818015&sr=1-3">a book</a> she had just read. We have similar tastes so often recommend books to each other! As she explained about this book - a true story - it sounded so fascinating that it had to be immediately ordered from you-know-where. And when it arrived it proved to be one of those books that once started, refused to be put down. <br /><br />The author says in the first sentence: <span style="font-style:italic;">This is a work of nonfiction</span> . It is [in my opinion!] a biography, a science journal, a history book, a sociological study of America in the 1950s and race relations, a discussion of patient/doctor relationships that is relevant to the present day, a look at family relationships and more. [Please don't panic at the word 'science'. I did but understood those bits of the book perfectly thanks to the excellent writing]<br /><br /><a href="http://www.lacksfamily.com/">Henrietta Lacks</a> was an American woman who sadly died in 1951. Scientists took cells from the diseased parts of her body, 'grew' these cells and used them to experiment for other medical discoveries. Boring? Sounds it, to be honest. But these cells were the first that scientists had ever been able to 'grow' in a laboratory and from these cells - named 'HeLa'- all sorts of discoveries were and are still being made including the efficacy of the Salk polio vaccine, AIDS vaccines, blood pressure remedies - oh the list goes on and on.<br /><br />However, Henrietta's family were never informed about the 'immortality' of her cells and in fact lived in very poor conditions. When many years after her death they did find out snippets of information [or misinformation] about the use of her body samples it affected them in differing ways. The author writes with such compassion about the family members that the reader feels at the end of the book sorry to leave the family behind.<br /><br />If you get a chance to read this book I really hope you take it! The author, <a href="http://rebeccaskloot.com/">Rebecca Skloot</a>, established the <a href="http://henriettalacksfoundation.org/">Henrietta Lacks Foundation</a> before the book was published and some of the proceeds of the book are donated to that organisation.<br /><br />Photograph of the <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Immortal-Life-Henrietta-Lacks/dp/0330533444/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1315818015&sr=1-3">paperback edition</a> of the book courtesy of www.amazon.co.uk <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/"></a>Elizanniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15968498385486949779noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3595021410690422236.post-61042627093465331742011-05-25T12:05:00.005+01:002011-05-25T13:07:00.257+01:00Bob Dylan: Love Minus Zero/No Limit<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjEr5b8ENDiQcba3hnkoCPvSlIqK_MkZfDKSrdWNUhv5laP39BxEUwWbAVfZp-69c1w6RSIIkM7BtlROTVSOsW_VHbUvso0a2X7nVHpuvewAfSWS08hmdd3xL1zh3OQsxPIPTgzY5QTw51/s1600/Bringing+It+All+Back+Home.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 300px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 300px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5610621497909295266" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjEr5b8ENDiQcba3hnkoCPvSlIqK_MkZfDKSrdWNUhv5laP39BxEUwWbAVfZp-69c1w6RSIIkM7BtlROTVSOsW_VHbUvso0a2X7nVHpuvewAfSWS08hmdd3xL1zh3OQsxPIPTgzY5QTw51/s320/Bringing+It+All+Back+Home.jpg" /></a><br />Yesterday <a href="http://rephidimstreet.blogspot.com/2011/05/happy-birthday-bob-dylan.html">Elizannie published a blog to wish Bob Dylan </a>a happy 70th birthday. Amongst all his other skills, Dylan is a master at using words and his love of language shows in his songs and speech. So today I thought I would illustrate this by showing one of his early songs, written c1964 and recorded on his <em>Bringing It All Back Home* </em>Album in 1965: <em>Love Minus Zero/No Limit</em><br /><br />*{The album cover for <em>Bringing It All Back Home </em>is shown above. A proud possession as it is the first Dylan Album {LP} that I ever bought. It cost 30/-<br />[£1.50p] and I was still at school so to raise the funds I sold all my Cliff Richard LPs to Marion Richards. My friend Shirl still thinks I am mad.}<br /><br />Whilst LMZ/NL is a love song, written to his forthcoming wife Sara, it is for his fans an early 'showpiece' for Dylan's mastery of musical composition, his power with words and his influences by allusions to works including those by Blake, Edgar Allan Poe and also the Old Testament. It has been recorded by many other artistes including those as diverse as the Walker Brothers and Rod Stewart! Dylan has performed it on many tours over the years.<br /><br /><br />This is one of my favourite Dylan songs, but then I do have rather a lot of favourites...<br /><br /><br /><blockquote><strong>Love Minus Zero</strong>/No Limit<br />My love she speaks like silence,<br />Without ideals or violence,<br />She doesn't have to say she's faithful,<br />Yet she's true, like ice, like fire.<br />People carry roses,<br />Make promises by the hours,<br />My love she laughs like the flowers,<br />Valentines can't buy her.<br /><br />In the dime stores and bus stations,<br />People talk of situations,<br />Read books, repeat quotations,<br />Draw conclusions on the wall.<br />Some speak of the future,<br />My love she speaks softly,<br />She knows there's no success like failure<br />And that failure's no success at all.<br /><br />The cloak and dagger dangles,<br />Madams light the candles.<br />In ceremonies of the horsemen,<br />Even the pawn must hold a grudge.<br />Statues made of match sticks,<br />Crumble into one another,<br />My love winks, she does not bother,<br />She knows too much to argue or to judge.<br /><br />The bridge at midnight trembles,<br />The country doctor rambles,<br />Bankers' nieces seek perfection,<br />Expecting all the gifts that wise men bring.<br />The wind howls like a hammer,<br />The night blows cold and rainy,<br />My love she's like some raven<br />At my window with a broken wing. </blockquote>Elizanniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15968498385486949779noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3595021410690422236.post-2278962687272253202011-05-25T10:24:00.004+01:002011-05-25T10:36:48.011+01:00Slightly miffed!<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGEc45_MJkRsk4-gAK54ZJeKlzOZmFXWCwHrmzjEM1j6pBEt4N6Y5jLISUXtWQSZ13o1jGpbSWSCYRcG2hqG-n0A5tnGTDzYustU0X27aG0YCaYVyA5PaP4BOTxkdKe17JpEaQ1iGjvZz1/s1600/The+study.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 135px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGEc45_MJkRsk4-gAK54ZJeKlzOZmFXWCwHrmzjEM1j6pBEt4N6Y5jLISUXtWQSZ13o1jGpbSWSCYRcG2hqG-n0A5tnGTDzYustU0X27aG0YCaYVyA5PaP4BOTxkdKe17JpEaQ1iGjvZz1/s320/The+study.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5610585245909961970" /></a><br />Usually I write my blogs for my own satisfaction and it is a bonus if anyone else reads or comments on them. Well that is the official line, but I have to admit I do look at the stats every now and again.<br /><br />But it was rather galling to find that <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/theotherbailey/sets/72157626758313712/">the set of photos </a>that Other Half had taken of my study [one shown above] has had more views than most of mine or my twin sister Elizannie's blogs!:<br /><br />http://www.flickr.com/photos/theotherbailey/sets/72157626758313712/<br /><br />And yes, a copy of <em>Blogging for Dummies </em>can be seen on one of the shelves....Elizanniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15968498385486949779noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3595021410690422236.post-12176104472160441662011-05-18T10:18:00.007+01:002011-05-18T11:36:55.507+01:00Someone at a Distance / Persephone Books<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1qSxTx2WMcOZU5ayRxpqMskyEVBIC2cYz47b93i-fQxwPtFEipDgqIZzn2nhEbn3nu8vlWMwfphW1t4nlYTyjyZRtcSv-0I8B3jwGQzg9nkxmajGr_dnSHM26Bi7iR4seKOGNW8IAZ8XF/s1600/Someone+at+a+Distance.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 300px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 300px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5607989216975076178" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1qSxTx2WMcOZU5ayRxpqMskyEVBIC2cYz47b93i-fQxwPtFEipDgqIZzn2nhEbn3nu8vlWMwfphW1t4nlYTyjyZRtcSv-0I8B3jwGQzg9nkxmajGr_dnSHM26Bi7iR4seKOGNW8IAZ8XF/s320/Someone+at+a+Distance.jpg" /></a><br />Just as in the years since 1973 when <a href="http://www.virago.co.uk/">Virago Books </a>first brought a different kind of [feminist] publishing to our attention and introduced many of us to new and previously 'forgotten' authors, <a href="http://www.persephonebooks.co.uk/index.asp">Persephone Books </a>have been doing a similar thing for a number of years. This extract from the 'mission statement' on their website explains the sort of authors Persephone publish:<br /><em><br /><br /><blockquote><br /><br /><p>Persephone Books reprints neglected classics by C20th (mostly women) writers..........</p><br /><br /><p></p><br /><br /><p></p></blockquote></em><br /><br />Just as I know when picking up a Virago book I am in for a good read, the distinctive Persphone book covers offer the same 'temptation'! So when I recently bought <em>Someone at a Distance </em>by Dorothy Whipple I settled down for a 'good read' and I wasn't disappointed!<br /><br />I suppose that because I also taught Social History as well as English Literature this novel is a real 'double whammy' for me! It is a snapshot of England in the years just after the second world war, an England that has faded away and probably will not be recognised by anyone under thirty five! An England that had definite divisions between those that had 'daily women' and those who <strong>were</strong> the 'daily women'. It looks at the social mores and how society looked at divorces and the divorced and how women regarded their place and positions in society.<br /><br />In the preface to the book, the novelist Nina Bawden describes it as a<br /><br /><blockquote>a fairly ordinary tale about the destruction of a happy marriage </blockquote><br />does the writing an enormous injustice if taken out of context. Bawden goes on to add<br /><blockquote>it makes compulsive reading</blockquote><br />with which I certainly agree! Elsewhere in the preface Whipple is compared to Mrs Gaskell and to me the minutae of the North family life as written by Whipple is as fascinating as that of the Cranford villagers as written by Gaskell!<br /><br />Apparently, although Dorothy Whipple had been a successful novelist, this was her last novel and her least successful - probably because post war Britain was on the cusp of the big changes that were to come and thus the book was notthen considered modern enough. But perhaps to us sixty years later this novel moves into a different genre, maybe into the 'historical novel' mode? I loved it and have already looked into finding more novels by Dorothy Whipple, to add to my list of loved authors of this time and earlier: Mollie Panter-Downes; Marghanita Laski; Elizabeth Taylor; Winifred Holtby and more. Thank goodness for Virago and Persephone Books!<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Picture of the Persephone edition courtesy of <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/">amazon.co.uk</a>. The book can also be purchased directly from the Persephone website.Elizanniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15968498385486949779noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3595021410690422236.post-70052407601107227642011-03-23T16:28:00.012+00:002013-07-15T13:48:37.299+01:00Bread and Roses<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcHzYoCT6qXnGBi66XQ7RHgL3LtxV2uDNZjWb_2KimCtlxwcKIde8g6Q5TmeIs303V5s9oi6-Nyy3p9E7dWF27OXWbPfPkvqkQcSNgrp4MDHlk2ofYO32NoxkMoZb-tqF7ioN369FGSbF5/s1600/mayday_card1.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5587314605761679522" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcHzYoCT6qXnGBi66XQ7RHgL3LtxV2uDNZjWb_2KimCtlxwcKIde8g6Q5TmeIs303V5s9oi6-Nyy3p9E7dWF27OXWbPfPkvqkQcSNgrp4MDHlk2ofYO32NoxkMoZb-tqF7ioN369FGSbF5/s320/mayday_card1.jpg" style="float: right; height: 152px; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px; width: 230px;" /></a><br />
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18.12.2011 Just found another link for Joan Baez and Mimi Farina singing the inspirational song:<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/LWkVcaAGCi0" width="420"></iframe><br />
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<strong>Original Blog</strong>:<br />
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Whilst 'blog surfing' in my Elizannie hat, I came across a quote from <em>Bread and Roses</em> on Jon Rogers excellent political blog: http://jonrogers1963.blogspot.com/<br />
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This is the quote, [on a MayDay card which I have reproduced on the right]:<br />
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<blockquote>
Our lives shall not be sweated from birth until life closes;<br />
Hearts starve as well as bodies;<br />
Give us bread, but give us roses.</blockquote>
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This was so redolent of so many memories and ideas to me that I thought it might be interesting to explore it further on this page!<br />
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The poem <em>Bread and Roses </em>was originally written by James Oppenheim (1882-1932), an American poet and writer. He was the founder and editor of <em>The Seven Arts</em>, an early 20thC literary magazine. He wrote about labour struggles troubles [including suffragist themes] in his 1911 fiction book <em>The Nine-Tenths </em>(1911) and in the poem <em>Bread and Roses </em>was also written in 1911 but I suppose came to prominience as a motif for the 1912 textile workers' strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts and as such is associated with the womens' movement because those involved with the strike were mainly women.<br />
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The 1912 Lawrence Textile Strike was Union led [by the Industrial Workers of the World] and the immigrant workers were mostly women. One employer lowered wages when the working week was shortened by law,and the industrial action eventually spread to twenty thousand workers at nearly every mill within a week. The strike, despite preidctions of other American trade unions that the workforce of a true downtrodden minority - that of ethnically diverse and mostly women workers - could not be organized, was successful. Sadly over time the union collapsed and workers rights once more were eroded.<br />
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The 'Bread and Roses' in the refrain stand for the way that workers lives are made up of more than just the struggle for work and the struggle for beauty has to take place too - other wise work has no inner meaning. To progress is not just for material gain but for emotional and spiritual beauty in our lives!<br />
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The term 'Bread and Roses' has since been associated with political strife and was the title of the 2000 Ken Loach film about the right to form a union of Mexican labourers in Los Angeles.<br />
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Here is the poem:<br />
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As we come marching, marching in the beauty of the day,<br />
A million darkened kitchens, a thousand mill lofts gray,<br />
Are touched with all the radiance that a sudden sun discloses,<br />
For the people hear us singing: "Bread and roses! Bread and roses!"<br />
As we come marching, marching, we battle too for men,<br />
For they are women's children, and we mother them again.<br />
Our lives shall not be sweated from birth until life closes;<br />
Hearts starve as well as bodies; give us bread, but give us roses!<br />
As we come marching, marching, unnumbered women dead<br />
Go crying through our singing their ancient cry for bread.<br />
Small art and love and beauty their drudging spirits knew.<br />
Yes, it is bread we fight for -- but we fight for roses, too!<br />
As we come marching, marching, we bring the greater days.<br />
The rising of the women means the rising of the race.<br />
No more the drudge and idler -- ten that toil where one reposes,<br />
But a sharing of life's glories: Bread and roses! Bread and roses!</blockquote>
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For me, there is another memory link. In 1976 Mimi Farina, sister to Joan Baez, set the song to music. I have never been able to find a recording of this but here is a YouTube link<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/oYRcCa-ddOo" title="YouTube video player" width="480"></iframe><br />
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Here is Mimi's adaptation:<br />
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<blockquote>
As we go marching, marching, in the beauty of the day,<br />
A million darkened kitchens, a thousand mill lofts gray,<br />
Are touched with all the radiance that a sudden sun discloses,<br />
For the people hear us singing: Bread and Roses! Bread and Roses!<br />
As we go marching, marching, we battle too for men,<br />
For they are women's children, and we mother them again.<br />
Our lives shall not be sweated from birth until life closes;<br />
Hearts starve as well as bodies; give us bread, but give us roses.<br />
As we go marching, marching, unnumbered women dead<br />
Go crying through our singing their ancient call for bread.<br />
Small art and love and beauty their drudging spirits knew.<br />
Yes, it is bread we fight for, but we fight for roses too.<br />
As we go marching, marching, we bring the greater days,<br />
The rising of the women means the rising of the race.<br />
No more the drudge and idler, ten that toil where one reposes,<br />
But a sharing of life's glories: Bread and roses, bread and roses.<br />
Our lives shall not be sweated from birth until life closes;<br />
Hearts starve as well as bodies; bread and roses, bread and roses. </blockquote>
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Read, listen and reflect. And always question!<br />
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Links for this blog:<br />
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Oppenheim <br />
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bread_and_Roses<br />
http://www.marxists.org/history/usa/unions/lawrence-strike/index.htmElizanniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15968498385486949779noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3595021410690422236.post-79148171754499324222011-02-11T13:34:00.007+00:002011-02-11T15:07:26.035+00:00Bellowhead<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRdw20U_lioXzexbOvuYvr2hm2WYdabbiiUsTPldtsBau0ksCWVOt1Nf9W0V3MZKtTaChM9xaWm9-f6aEgI41obxxE12sMdnczk-YvqwJY-9mlCwZa7WZ-GMfXnHZ0aTuOFHDGloZm2LaL/s1600/Bellowhead+hedonism.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 115px; height: 115px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRdw20U_lioXzexbOvuYvr2hm2WYdabbiiUsTPldtsBau0ksCWVOt1Nf9W0V3MZKtTaChM9xaWm9-f6aEgI41obxxE12sMdnczk-YvqwJY-9mlCwZa7WZ-GMfXnHZ0aTuOFHDGloZm2LaL/s320/Bellowhead+hedonism.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5572429439778762546" /></a><br />Yes I know that this is allegedly a literary blog. But whilst reading I often listen to music! And all art forms encroach on other art forms, don't they? Well two good excuses for talking about a favourite band - Bellowhead.<br /><br />Actually this is also a topical post because the band was at the Radio 2 Folk Awards last Monday evening, having been nominated for 'Best Group' - they won! - [I may be alone in preferring to say 'Band' rather than 'Group'], 'Best Tradtional Track' for 'New York Girls', 'Best Live Act'- another win - and 'Best Album' for 'Hedonism'.<br /><br />I have been a 'folkie' all my life and am actually quite a good singer [as long as there is no one within earshot] To make up for having no sense of rhythm, hearing for tone or pitch I instead play music very loudly thus when singing along being unable to even hear myself accompanying it.<br /><br />Of course it depends on one's mood what goes into the cd player but on a grey, damp day outside like today Bellowhead's <em>Hedonism</em> playing of exuberant workings of traditional folk tunes make me hop, skip and jump around my housework [metaphorically perhaps!] Two tunes in particular stand out for me: <em>New York Girls, </em>a 'traditional' song arranged by Bellowhead's two founders and <em>Amsterdam</em>, the lovely Jaques Brel song [also performed gorgeously by Rod McEwan - anyone else remember him?], the Mort Shuman translation arranged by another Band member.<br /><br />So if the damp weather is getting you down, sample a few tracks from this lovely, rocking folk album and enjoy!<br /><br /><br /><br />BTW it was also sad to hear at the Folk Awards ceremony that Norma Waterson is seriously ill, and that her lovely voice is - temporarily I hope - quiet. Get well soon Norma and be able to sing some more lovely songs soon, please.<br /><br />Bellowhead website: http://bellowhead.co.uk/site.html<br /><br />If you would like to read about all of the Radio 2 Folk Awards with snippets of the performers [not necessarily from the evening however] go to: http://www.folkradio.co.uk/2011/02/bbc-radio-2-folk-award-winners-2011/Elizanniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15968498385486949779noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3595021410690422236.post-88391121616157315912011-02-03T23:00:00.006+00:002011-02-03T23:23:01.505+00:00Robert Tressell and 'The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists'<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqSG4OnNo3sR4r1kjAlvEJcnP2dBHQIONZPBz-e3DokwqxoxnHfFlvm_KczKZ5taV1ozOp1YLlQrOeAQUS7DxhK269Ph26dO_a9bfX6jspub5Hjak8MSwk8znrwuHR-0Qk4NO0IFRTUqzv/s1600/The+ragged+trousered+philanthropists.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 115px; height: 115px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqSG4OnNo3sR4r1kjAlvEJcnP2dBHQIONZPBz-e3DokwqxoxnHfFlvm_KczKZ5taV1ozOp1YLlQrOeAQUS7DxhK269Ph26dO_a9bfX6jspub5Hjak8MSwk8znrwuHR-0Qk4NO0IFRTUqzv/s320/The+ragged+trousered+philanthropists.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5569607306491407298" /></a><br />Most of this blog first appeared on Elizannie: www.rephidimstreet.blogspot.com earlier today<br /><br />Today is the centenary of the death of Robert Tressell. 31 MPs have put down an Early Day Motion:<br /><br /><br /><blockquote>That this House notes the centenary of the death of Robert Noonan (Tressell) on 3 February 2011 interred in a pauper's grave in Walton, Liverpool; recognises the significance of his seminal work, The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists within the wider Labour movement; and applauds both the work of the Robert Tressell Society and the commemorative programme of events organised by Liverpool City Council to appropriately recognise his historical and literary importance,</blockquote>To see who signed this edm go to http://www.edms.org.uk/edms/2010-2011/1303.htm<br /><br />Who was Robert Tressel?<br /><br /><br />Many of those on the Socialist spectrum of the political scene will revere Tressell. Many others - including Socialists - will never have heard of him. I could just point you to the Tressell website go to: http://www.1066.net/tressell/ [with lovely music!]<br /><br />I have 'lived with him' since I was a child. He was a kind of bard 'oft quoted' in the Socialist household in which I was raised. As soon as I was old enough I read the book The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists and cried a lot and thanked goodness and the Socialist movement that such times as described would never return. I made pilgrimages later in life to Hastings ['Mugsborough' of the novel] to see his fabulous art work - firstly in the basement of the Town Museum and then later in the [proper] displays dedicated to him when at last Hastings honoured and realised what a great man it had not looked after all those years before and had tried to forget for many years after.<br /><br />The <em>Ragged Trousered Philanthropists </em>is the story of workers in the house decorating business in Edwardian England, before the Welfare State and even the most basic Old Age Pension existed. It is based on the conditions that Tressell himself endured when working in the 'trade' - he is the 'Frank' of the novel. It shows how the workers are oppressed and exploitated by their employers, the State and the Capitalist System. It also shows the awful way in which they are expected to conduct their lives in the 'genteel' town of Mugsborough [Hastings]<br /><br />As this coalition government seems intent on punishing the poor for being poor, this book should be read again, or listened to on audio tape, as an awful warning from History. What it was like to live before the Welfare State. Before even a most basic Old Age Pension. The comedian Johnny Vegas was responsible for an excellent production of this a couple of years ago on the BBC and the audio tape can be bought. I wrote a 'summer reading' blog on this last May and make no apology for republishing it here.<br /><br />The book is recommended by people as diverse [and lovely!] as Ricky Tomlinson and the MP Stephen Twigg. It was been chosen as his book for a Desert Island on 'Desert Island Discs' by Johnny Vegas.<br /><br />It is *not* a great work of literature but it is never the less a seminal work. Books that affect lives are always important to remember. So I decided to cross-post it here from the Elizannie page at www.rephidimstreet.blogspot.com <br /><br /><br />I wrote a blog about this last May on the Elizannie site:<br />25th May 2010 http://rephidimstreet.blogspot.com/2010/05/ragged-trousered-philanthropists.html<br /><blockquote>Have decided to become dictatorial and recommend summer reading on facebook, twitter, various blogs by other people and here on my own: The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell http://amzn.to/dBjzQD Many 'Old Labour' party members claim it changed their lives/caused them to become Socialists. I worry that the Condem government policies may see a return to many of the problems highlighted in this novel, albeit in a more 'modern' form {OK so we may not have workhouses anymore but some form of state interference may cause pensioners to lose all that they have saved before any State help becomes available} </blockquote><br /><br /><br />Picture courtesy of amazon.co.uk [Kindle edition - yes I have one of my kindle! And two in the cupboard!]Elizanniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15968498385486949779noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3595021410690422236.post-78270739273901231242011-01-18T19:11:00.004+00:002011-01-18T19:41:46.336+00:00Happy the Man - John Dryden<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLZXpLd6U6HlkBl8foIELXgFETIzIfLCfgz2bwQLOji0UM7SM1u6P_-LO8Dg6RTUXKOLiauZY96x3liv72Yarn4nHsOCx_u6BjL-2hy3goJa72xfavAbUAf-0VEEjI8TB_4Zmaa_DWNoDQ/s1600/John_Dryden_portrait.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 235px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLZXpLd6U6HlkBl8foIELXgFETIzIfLCfgz2bwQLOji0UM7SM1u6P_-LO8Dg6RTUXKOLiauZY96x3liv72Yarn4nHsOCx_u6BjL-2hy3goJa72xfavAbUAf-0VEEjI8TB_4Zmaa_DWNoDQ/s320/John_Dryden_portrait.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5563607683204580914" /></a><br /><strong>Happy The Man</strong><br /><em>In memory of Bill Wells</em><br /><blockquote><br />Happy the man, and happy he alone,<br />He who can call today his own:<br />He who, secure within, can say,<br />Tomorrow do thy worst, for I have lived today.<br />Be fair or foul or rain or shine<br />The joys I have possessed, in spite of fate, are mine.<br />Not Heaven itself upon the past has power,<br />But what has been, has been, and I have had my hour. <br /><br /></blockquote><br />John Dryden <br />1631-1700 <br /><br /><br />In loving memory of Bill, 1946 - 2011. Sleep gently friend.<br />Chosen by Bill's son Kirk to be read at his funeral<strong></strong><strong></strong>Elizanniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15968498385486949779noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3595021410690422236.post-38410606442053197112011-01-15T22:09:00.000+00:002011-01-15T22:33:26.398+00:00The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxBt5AQ0PHyfAAaZkrNZ0fKsPfgYhVSl9ye6WGoeT8GSfItXe6Io7q9p3vcg56Bqz_Kj0HEAAgPjJ4iJ1lKrYG6iqEWyuZlGGDCqgcj8J8jP7vyRYoaCo750DbzTCMPTnLQXUT9bLHXYSQ/s1600/Robert+Tressell%2527s+grave.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 190px; height: 265px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxBt5AQ0PHyfAAaZkrNZ0fKsPfgYhVSl9ye6WGoeT8GSfItXe6Io7q9p3vcg56Bqz_Kj0HEAAgPjJ4iJ1lKrYG6iqEWyuZlGGDCqgcj8J8jP7vyRYoaCo750DbzTCMPTnLQXUT9bLHXYSQ/s320/Robert+Tressell%2527s+grave.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5562542413270192082" /></a><br />We often talk about 'books which change lives'. This is one which has certainly had a great influence on mine.<br /><br />I cannot let the opening pages of this blog go without reference to <em>The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists</em>. This is <strong>not</strong> a great work of English Literature but can truly claim to be a book that has changed many lives. For instance several 'Old Labour' party members claim it changed their lives/caused them to become Socialists. The comedian Ricky Tomlinson claimed it made him into a 'proper' political activist.<br /><br />It is the story of working people in the 1900s, before any form of welfare state was introduced and how easily the whims of fortune or their employers could reduce them to destitution and the workhouse.<br /><br />We may be 100 years away from the time setting of this novel but if government policies cause a return to many of the problems highlighted in this novel, albeit in a more 'modern' form {we may not have workhouses anymore but some state proposals may mean pensioners will lose all savings before State help becomes available, student fees are rising, disability living allowance is being cut etc etc} Tressell will be spinning in his grave.<br /><br />Tressell himself died in poverty in Liverpool just before he could board a boat to America, looking for a new life and work. His book was not published until a few years after his death. Tressell was originally buried in an marked pauper's grave along with 12 others. A headstone was erected on this grave honouring not only Tressell but also those with him in 1977 by subscription of Socialists and Trade Unionists.<br /><br /><br />First 'published' in a slightly different form in the Elizannie blog, Thursday, 27th May 2010Elizanniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15968498385486949779noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3595021410690422236.post-16250263173359026042011-01-15T13:34:00.000+00:002011-01-15T15:09:55.546+00:00Room by Emma Donoghue<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEgd6vn1tniR9hqJuvucfAoAa07AhE8tdUwLTi-iMSHfHNvWTQpUn1WCUTOpVITNPfn8jadeH_QoZeJw_WnzG0PWbq3LbFMhZEJX85d3v3iE7980nfKLsDIv7Xcwc-_SHYEKPDUCdbMCKT/s1600/room+by+emma+donoghue.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 115px; height: 115px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEgd6vn1tniR9hqJuvucfAoAa07AhE8tdUwLTi-iMSHfHNvWTQpUn1WCUTOpVITNPfn8jadeH_QoZeJw_WnzG0PWbq3LbFMhZEJX85d3v3iE7980nfKLsDIv7Xcwc-_SHYEKPDUCdbMCKT/s320/room+by+emma+donoghue.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5562429196084782002" /></a><br />Its a big decision, what to discuss in my first 'literary' blog. I thought a short piece on a poem would be a good way to ease myself and any prospective readers into the idea of a new blog and started a piece on Blake's 'Jerusalem'. The short piece turned into a rather baggy monster due to my passion for both Blake and the poem and still needs a lot of work although I am promising myself to cut it back to a presentable length soon.<br /><br />Anyway, having made this decision I sat down, finished the latest who dunnit I was reading [Ian Rankin's <em>The Compaints</em>, rather good actually but I still miss Rebus] and thought it about time I made inroads into the 2010 Booker Short List which to my shame I haven't yet started despite having received all six for Christmas.<br /><br />On a sort of 'eeny,meeny, miny, mo' basis - because they are all great books written either by authors I have read and enjoyed previously or if not are books which have received very interesting reviews - I chose Emma Donoghue's <em>Room</em>. I don't usually read the blurb on the back of a book jacket in case it gives away too much of the story but accidentally managed to read a comment on the front [!] this time:<br /><blockquote><em>Room</em> is a book to read in one sitting. When it's over you look up: the world looks the same but you are somehow different and that feeling lingers for days</blockquote>This is by Audrey Niffenegger, author of The Time Traveler's Wife, a book that also makes one look at the world in a different way.<br /><br />The first thing I would say is that, having in the past taught adults English Literature for the Workers' Educational Association [WEA] I know that there are lots of people who do not like novels written in the first person - I do like novels written in the first person narrative for the immediacy they give and Room is such a novel. This is the only way the story could possibly have been told.<br /><br />A young child [Jack] is the narrator so the reader has to view the world through Jack's eyes and perceptions. There is a literary device called defamiliarisation* where something familiar is described in unfamiliar terms and the reader needs to 'work' to 'find' the familiar object. So in <em>Room</em> the reader has to look at and understand Jack's world through his descriptions. But it doesn't just stop there as Jack's language and vocabulary is may appear slightly odd at first.<br /><br />If this all sounds off putting it is not meant to be. As Nifenegger implies, this book is difficult to put down. As the reader's understanding of Jack's world becomes clearer his world changes and again the reader has to understand both Jack's world and the world and customs of Everyman.<br /><br />This book really is a book that one races to finish - but once finished it intrudes into 'everyday' life and there is a sense also of a sadness that Jack and Ma are left behind.<br /><br />The picture above shows the paperback edition.<br /><br /><br />*A good example of defamiliarisation is shown below in Craig Raine's poem <em>A Martian Sends A Postcard Home</em>. This poem was a forerunner of the <br />1970/80s 'Martian Poetry' movement.<br /><br /><strong>A Martian Sends A Postcard Home </strong> <br /><br />Caxtons are mechanical birds with many wings<br />and some are treasured for their markings -- [books]<br /><br />they cause the eyes to melt [cry]<br />or the body to shriek without pain. [laugh]<br /><br />I have never seen one fly, but<br />sometimes they perch on the hand.<br /><br />Mist is when the sky is tired of flight<br />and rests its soft machine on ground:<br /><br />then the world is dim and bookish<br />like engravings under tissue paper.<br /><br />Rain is when the earth is television.<br />It has the property of making colours darker.<br /><br />Model T is a room with the lock inside -- [car]<br />a key is turned to free the world<br /><br />for movement, so quick there is a film [view from the windscreen]<br />to watch for anything missed.<br /><br />But time is tied to the wrist [watch]<br />or kept in a box, ticking with impatience. [clock]<br /><br />In homes, a haunted apparatus sleeps, [baby]<br />that snores when you pick it up.<br /><br />If the ghost cries, they carry it<br />to their lips and soothe it to sleep<br /><br />with sounds. And yet they wake it up<br />deliberately, by tickling with a finger.<br /><br />Only the young are allowed to suffer [bowel movements/<br />openly. Adults go to a punishment room lavatory]<br /><br />with water but nothing to eat.<br />They lock the door and suffer the noises<br /><br />alone. No one is exempt<br />and everyone's pain has a different smell.<br /><br />At night when all the colours die, <br />they hide in pairs <br /><br />and read about themselves -- dreams]<br />in colour, with their eyelids shut. <br /><br />Craig RaineElizanniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15968498385486949779noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3595021410690422236.post-90627627525200071032011-01-05T16:08:00.001+00:002011-01-05T16:21:15.363+00:00Jane Austen and my new year intentions....<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpopcou7jdgnmqXSqllIQSZBH0Kc3fC0Tcxl2Ab_npf87FYnqyQCUYvB5WayAJwpIqrmWsMj_ImUmbdk6LVSaTH_ip52qGasC0-AwDItYgPl5EwN3UooG__2doZ0i0CbZcdn5H0hlo6wGu/s1600/Jane+Austen.bmp"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 142px; height: 196px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpopcou7jdgnmqXSqllIQSZBH0Kc3fC0Tcxl2Ab_npf87FYnqyQCUYvB5WayAJwpIqrmWsMj_ImUmbdk6LVSaTH_ip52qGasC0-AwDItYgPl5EwN3UooG__2doZ0i0CbZcdn5H0hlo6wGu/s320/Jane+Austen.bmp" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5558737574529288402" /></a><br />Well, I should have guessed this would happen! As soon as I announced my intention of starting a literary blog lots of things rushed in to take up my time, especially in my 'alter ego' of Elizannie and I have been posting, replying, communicating about events at <a href="http://www.rephidimstreet.blogpot.com/">www.rephidimstreet.blogpot.com</a> !<br /><br />However I have been following up on another New Year intention and reading along with a dear friend at http://misssylviadrake.livejournal.com/ who is re-reading Jane Austen's letters. This is where my kindle comes in handy as I do not have time to go book shopping so have 'bought' a kindle version of the book and am now enjoying reading along with the blog!Elizanniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15968498385486949779noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3595021410690422236.post-73039703373486203252011-01-02T12:03:00.000+00:002011-01-02T12:25:01.946+00:00New Year's Eve 2010<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1qbY5G6yZjKDtGJIFLdmOCekxIWyk0zcK1dwWPK9pvpVEVpfQtLSMMfi9QwteNHL2acNjQ74u5frrkMqEHLVwzXkAfWfJo2M4PBdvaX2gquBf5v_4QpJfjdSr_RVWUPvW_VicUtcvbUw3/s1600/New+Year%2527s+Eve+2009.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 266px; height: 190px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1qbY5G6yZjKDtGJIFLdmOCekxIWyk0zcK1dwWPK9pvpVEVpfQtLSMMfi9QwteNHL2acNjQ74u5frrkMqEHLVwzXkAfWfJo2M4PBdvaX2gquBf5v_4QpJfjdSr_RVWUPvW_VicUtcvbUw3/s320/New+Year%2527s+Eve+2009.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5557559856377649698" /></a><br /><strong>New Year's Eve, 2010</strong>. At a lovely party with some family and friends. About half an hour before midnight everyone in the room states their 'New Year Resolutions'. I don't do 'Resolutions' - they sound so stern and furthermore are easy to break. I go for 'Intentions', and one that has been brewing in my mind for a while is to start a new blog with mainly literary postings. So here it is.<br /><br /><strong>January the second, 2011</strong>. I fall at the first post trying to find a name for my new blog. The name that I stayed awake trying to 'originate' on New Year's morning and thought wonderful proves to have already been taken so spend an hour thinking up this one and hoping that my Aunty Clarice will approve. Now I just have to think up a subject for my first proper post. This may take some time....Elizanniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15968498385486949779noreply@blogger.com0