In this issue: The Cater Street Hangman Etext avail: K&H Prichard's Flaxman Low Cater Street Hangman Murder Most Foul Re: Murder Most Foul Flaxman Low story confusion Today in History - Dec. 15 <FWD>Subject: Re: Orczy's 3 -ages of man Delmonico's CHAT: CBC Radio schedule items of interest CHAT: Too much rope!!! [none] Current Schedule: <WAS: Re: Flaxman Low story confusion> Re: Re: Konnor Old House An exchange of posts Today in History - Dec. 16 Re: Konnor Old House Verne show Re: Konnor Old House Re: Verne show Today in History - Dec. 17 Re: Today in History - Dec. 17 Real Audio Re: Real Audio Yand Manor House Re: Konnor Old House -----------------------------THE POSTS----------------------------- Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1998 13:52:05 -0600 From: Debbie Payton <clue1(at)fbtc.net> Subject: The Cater Street Hangman Bob C., I understood fully what you meant by "rubbishy," and am in complete agreement with you as it pertains to the dramatization on A&E. You may also be pleased to know that the ending as portrayed in the drama, was a significant deviation from the actual book ending. Unfortunately, there was a lot of liberty taken in this production. I'm sure there are viewers who enjoyed it immensely, but personally, I don't tend to enjoy productions that deviate too much from the book or incident they're supposedly based upon, or, as in this instance, use artistic license to a detriment. Clearly I'm uncertain as to whether or not you would enjoy her particular writing style, as that is a matter of personal taste. All I can say is that if you find yourself with nothing else to read (yeah right!), give her a try. Debbie Payton
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Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1998 14:11:30 -0600 (MDT)
From: "STEPHEN DAVIES, MT. ROYAL COLLEGE" <SDAVIES(at)MtRoyal.AB.CA>
Subject: Etext avail: K&H Prichard's Flaxman Low
The next two months of Gaslight stories are prepared but
are slow coming out because I am laid up at home with
send-only email capability. Please be patient if I am
slow in responding to any of your posts, because I do
not have full email access at home and cannot read my
messages. I will make a trip from time to time to get
them from work.
This week's stories for discussion will be two by the
mother/son writing team Katherine and Hesketh Prichard,
who often wrote as A. & E. Heron.
Two newly prepared stories featuring Flaxman Low have been
added to the Gaslight website, thanks to assistance from
Deborah McMillion Nering. The new stories are "The story
of the Yand Manor House" (1898-jun) and "The story of
Konnor Old House" (1899-apr).
They can be found at:
http://www.mtroyal.ab.ca/gaslight/prchdmen.htm
I can't remember if I mounted the ASCII stories at the FTP
address. They should be called flaxmanf.sht and flaxmanj.sht
if I did. If I haven't done so, they will appear in a few
days.
This is the last week when the stories will be announced on
such short notice, since the rest of the stories for the next
two months have been prepared with the assistance of various
Gaslight listmembers.
Stephen D.
mailto:Sdavies(at)mtroyal.ab.ca
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Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1998 15:03:29 -0800 (PST)
From: Ginger Johnson <ferret(at)eskimo.com>
Subject: Cater Street Hangman
It's been years since I had read Anne Perry's novel. I saw the television
show and kept wondering if I'd mis-remembered it.
I had not. I sat down and reread the novel today and boy, what a
difference. Here are a few points that are in the the novel.
1. The servant Lily was in in no way related to the butler (described as
being about 35, by the way)
2. Charlotte was always described as being very handsome.
3. Every time Charlotte meets Pitt, it is indoors.
4. Charlotte goes to the police station to meet Pitt, not a pub (good
grief,
what an unlikely idea that one was)
5. The murderer had a real motive.
6. The murderer was not shot, but arrested.
7. There was a real point to the murder weapon - there's a lovely scene
when Charlotte realizes what it is).
8. Nothing is made of Pitt's being low class.
9. No, Bob, the romantic clinch at the end doesn't happen. The pair are
clinging together in shock and horror.
And these are in the last half hour of the television program. Yikes.
Now, since I've gnawed on *that* show, what about "They Hanged My
Saintly Billy?" I managed to come in part way on it and liked what I saw.
Ginger Johnson
"An oyster may be crossed in love."
- Sheridan
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Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1998 21:35:08 -0500 (EST)
From: Robert Champ <rchamp(at)polaris.umuc.edu>
Subject: Murder Most Foul
Tonight--last day of the semester for me, minus grading final papers--
I picked up the following tome at the library:
Murder Most Foul: The Killer and the American Gothic Imagination
The author is Karen Halttunen, a history professor at UCalDavis.
Here are the flap notes:
<< Confronting murder in the newspaper, on screen, and in sensational
trials, we often feel the killer is fundamentally incomprehensible
and morally alien. But this was not always the popular response to
murder. In _Murder Most Foul_, Karen Halttunen explores the
changing view of murder from early New England sermons read at the
public execution of murders, through the nineteenth century, when
secular and sensational accounts replaced the religious treatment
of the crime as the manifestation of sinful human nature, to
today's fascination with socio-psychological anatomies of murder.
The early narratives were shaped by a strong belief in original
sin and spiritual redemption, by the idea that all murders were
natural manifestations of the innate depravity of humankind. In
a dramatic departure from that view, the Gothic imagination--with
its central conventions of the fundamental horror and mystery of the
crime--seized upon the murderer as a moral monster, separated from
the normal majority by an impassable gulf. Halttunen shows how
this perception helped shape the modern response to criminal
transgression, mandating criminal incarceration and informing a
scoial-scientific model of criminal deviance.
The Gothic expressions of horror and inhuanity is still the
predominant response to radical evil today; it has provided a
set of conventions surrounding tales of murder that appear to be
natural and instinctive, but in fact are rooted in the nineteenth
century. Halttunen's penetrating insight into her extraordinary
treasure trove of creepy popular crime literature reveals how
our stories ave failed to make sense of the killer and how that
failure has constrained our understanding and treatment of
criminality today.<<
Here are Dr. Halttunen's chapter headings:
1. The Murderer as Common Sinner
2. The Birth of Horror
3. The Pornography of Violence
4. The Construction of Murder as Mystery
5. Murder in the Family Circle
6. The Murderer as Mental Alien
I couldn't resist checking such a book out. Has anyone on Gaslight
read it or any reviews of it? It is, I must say, a book I simply
could not pass by.
Bob C.
_________________________________________________
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Robert L. Champ
rchamp(at)polaris.umuc.edu
Editor, teacher, anglophile, human curiosity
Those who are alive receive a mandate from those
who are silent forever. They can fulfill their
duties only by trying to reconstruct precisely
things as they were and by wresting the past
from fictions and legends.
--Czeslaw Milosz
rchamp7927(at)aol.com robertchamp(at)netscape.net
_________________________________________________
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
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Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1998 22:04:12 -0500 (EST) From: Zozie(at)aol.com Subject: Re: Murder Most Foul Bob and Gaslighters... Yes. This is a most interesting book. I've read it and used it as background for the part of my grad level Cultural History studies on the emergence of the horror genre. It's a fascinating read. A little stilted writing at times. But worth the effort. best, phoebe
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Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1998 08:58:43 -0700 From: Deborah McMillion Nering <deborah(at)gloaming.com> Subject: Flaxman Low story confusion Stephen, Are we reading the two Flaxman Low stories as an extra this week? On my original schedule I have them slated for mid-January. Confused. Deborah Deborah McMillion deborah(at)gloaming.com http://www.gloaming.com/deborah.html
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Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1998 11:14:42 -0700
From: Jerry Carlson <gmc(at)libra.pvh.org>
Subject: Today in History - Dec. 15
1862
Nathan B. Forrest crosses the Tennessee River at Clifton
with 2,500 men to raid the
communications around Vicksburg.
1862
In New Orleans, Union Major General Benjamin F. Butler
turned his command over to
Nathaniel Banks. The citizens of New Orleans held farewell
parties for Butler, "The
Beast," but only after he had already left.
1864
The battle at Nashville begins.
1890
In an attempt to arrest Sitting Bull at his Standing Rock,
South Dakota, cabin, shooting
breaks out and Lt. Bullhead shoots the great Sioux leader.
1899
In South Africa the Boars defeat the British at the Battle
of Colenso.
1903
Parliament places a 15-year ban on whale fishing in Norway.
Born on December 15
1832
Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel, designed and named the tower in
Paris.
1883
William A. Hinton, developer of the *Hinton Test* for
diagnosing syphilis.
1892
J. Paul Getty, American oilman and art collector.
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Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1998 21:37:16 -0700 From: sdavies(at)MtRoyal.AB.CA Subject: <FWD>Subject: Re: Orczy's 3 -ages of man Date: Fri, 11 Dec 1998 14:59:06 -0600 (CST) From: "Idys W. Cox" <icox(at)lonestar.jpl.utsa.edu> Subject: Re: Orczy's 3 -ages of man I agree, my family name hasn't had that much publicity since they hung an Uncle for stealing a rope, he failed to see the horse on the end of it. Waynne Cox surely a knave On Fri, 11 Dec 1998, Richard L. King wrote: > Sam: > > > > > > > Finally, it would be funny to send this message a couple extra times, just > > to scare people, but I cannot bring myself to do it. > > ONLY if you include the words "astute" and "Richard" in the first sentence > again--I kind of liked seeing that 30 or 40 times! > > Now I'm off to read "The Duffield Peerage Case." Sounds like another good > detective story. > > Richard King > rking(at)indian.vinu.edu > >
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Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1998 00:36:22 -0500 (EST)
From: Robert Champ <rchamp(at)polaris.umuc.edu>
Subject: Delmonico's
I hear that the fabled restaurant of the 1890s is reopening its
doors in the 1990s, and offering some of the same fare as in
its heyday. (If only we had Lillian Russells, Mark Twains, and
Oscar Wildes to fill it!)
Bob C.
_________________________________________________
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Robert L. Champ
rchamp(at)polaris.umuc.edu
Editor, teacher, anglophile, human curiosity
Those who are alive receive a mandate from those
who are silent forever. They can fulfill their
duties only by trying to reconstruct precisely
things as they were and by wresting the past
from fictions and legends.
--Czeslaw Milosz
rchamp7927(at)aol.com robertchamp(at)netscape.net
_________________________________________________
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
===0===
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1998 23:32:43 -0700
From: sdavies(at)MtRoyal.AB.CA
Subject: CHAT: CBC Radio schedule items of interest
For those who have or who have been good this year and will be getting
acess to Internet radio:
**
Sunday, 1998-dec-27
CBC Radio One
3 p.m. _Writers & Co._
Host Eleanor Wachtel speaks
with the "Sherlock Holmes of
Literary Criticism," England's
John Sutherland. His own books
are titled _Is Heathcliffe a
murderer?_ and _Can Jane
Eyre be happy?_
**
Bank of Montreal
Stratford Festival series
presents
Oscar Wilde's
_The Canterville Ghost_
a holiday special starring
Stephen Ouimette as The Ghost
CBC Radio One December 28 at
10 a.m. Repeated at 8 p.m.
**
_In Performance_ CBC Radio Two
Robert Everett Green
looks back at the music
of 1899 in a four part special.
8 p.m. 1999-jan-6,13,20,27
Stephen
===0===
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1998 23:33:54 -0700
From: sdavies(at)MtRoyal.AB.CA
Subject: CHAT: Too much rope!!!
The current edition of _Saturday night_ opens with a short
article about the provenance of the rope which hung Louis
Riel.
We've talked before about Riel, the hero/anti-hero of Canada's
North-west rebellions in 1873 and 1885, which became such
an impetus in the creation of the North-West Mounted Police
(N.W.M.P., now R.C.M.P.).
Despite the many justifications for the rebellion, Riel was
hung for treason. Bits of the hanging rope were sold for
souvenirs (Newgate fashion), and three pieces have been on
display at the Mountie museum in Regina since the 1930's.
Because of the modern reversal of opinion, now more
favourable to Riel, the museum was challenged for glorifying
the execution. Was the museum insensitive, or are the scraps
of rope the subject of political interference and revisionism
of history?
Museum acting director, Bill Mackay, says only two of the three
pieces have any kind of provenance. One piece was supposed to
have been bought at train station in Regina. It's not known
when or by whom. Mackay says "It looks a little too thin to
have been used for hanging." The other piece with any kind of
story is said to have been donated to the museum by a juror on
the Riel trial. This is unconfirmed.
Rather neatly, the museum, instead of altering the intent of its
displays, has chosen to remove the ropes pending their
authentication. The rope pieces are now languishing in the
RCMP forensic lab where the exasperated manager, Gary Mcleod,
says: "There's no damn way we can link any suspect rope to
Louis Riel. We can't even determine age. There's no way we can
authenticate a piece of hemp rope."
End of story?
Stpehen D
===0===
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1998 00:08:43 -0700
From: sdavies(at)MtRoyal.AB.CA
Subject: [none]
[With apologies for x-posting to Hounds-L, Victoria, Dorothyl,
Horror, Gaslight, and ELCS-L]
GASLIGHT is a discussion list which studies one story a week,
written between 1800 and 1919, in three loose genres: mystery,
adventure and The Weird.
Here is the suggested reading list for December 1998/January 1999:
1998-December
December
07: Charles Reade's "The Knightsbridge mystery" (1884 ed.)
also: "The history of an acre"
14: K & H Prichard's Flaxman Low in two _Real ghost stories_:
"Story of the Yand Manor House" (1898) and "The story of Konnor Old House"
(1899)
prepared with assistance from Deborah McMillion Nering
21: Gabriel Dante Rossetti's incomplete story "St. Agnes"
We'll take submissions for finishing this story.
Presented by Deborah Mattingly Conner
27: Cave people stories by H.G. Wells, Stanley Waterloo and Jack London
January
04: Baroness Orczy's The man in grey (1919)
11: Amelia B. Edwards' "In service of danger" (1873)
Prepared by Patricia Teter
18: Fitzhugh Ludlow's "The music essence" (1861)
Prepared by Robert Champ
25: J.S. Le Fanu's Haunted lives, pt. 1 (1868-may)
Prepared by Robert Garni, et al.
For more information contact the list coordinators at Mount Royal
College, Calgary:
Stephen Davies and Diana Patterson
Gaslight-safe(at)mtroyal.ab.ca
tho responses will be slow in coming in December,
or visit the Gaslight website at
http://www.mtroyal.ab.ca/gaslight
===0===
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1998 00:18:50 -0700
From: sdavies(at)MtRoyal.AB.CA
Subject: Current Schedule: <WAS: Re: Flaxman Low story confusion>
Deborah Mc.-N,
I altered the reading schedule from the draft which I had previewed
among the current contributors.
I haven't been able to get into work lately, and have had to
substitute the less important stories with little reading time left, even
tho they were prepared long ago.
The good news is that, altho I have yet to creat plain ASCII versions
of most of these stories, I have mounted all of the next two months' worth
of stories on the website. The lone exception is Orczy's _Man in grey_
which I seem not to have brought with me tonight, but which Patricia Teter
proofread for me last summer.
The upshot is that we are discussing Flaxman (without the
illustrations so far) this week.
Stephen
===0===
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1998 08:19:09 -0500 From: "Richard L. King" <rking(at)INDIAN.VINU.EDU> Subject: Re: As usual, Stephen, a great lineup of reading for us all. I think the idea of writing our own ending to St. Agnes is intriguing! Best wishes to all, Richard
===0===
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1998 08:42:35 -0700 From: Deborah McMillion Nering <deborah(at)gloaming.com> Subject: Re: >As usual, Stephen, a great lineup of reading for us all. I think the idea of >writing our own ending to St. Agnes is intriguing! A story by Rossetti I haven't read--glad we get this now. And I highly recommend the Flaxman Low's, not because I scanned them--but because I scanned them, I read them and they are greatly creepy and considerable spooky fun. I hate to blow the ending until a few more readers have caught them. Deborah Deborah McMillion deborah(at)gloaming.com http://www.gloaming.com/deborah.html
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Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1998 12:25:11 -0500 From: "Richard L. King" <rking(at)INDIAN.VINU.EDU> Subject: Konnor Old House I read "The Story of Konnor Old House" last night and my first impression was on the surface it is a rather amusing, fun little tale of haunted house terror solved by one of those lessor Sherlock Holmes types that we run across from time to time. My second impression, however, is what a couple of racist, anglocentric old buggers Katherine and Hesketh Prichard must have been. I usually can get past such bigoted attitudes and vocabulary contained within the tale and focus on the story, but in this case it took quite a little doing on my part to achieve that "oh well, consider the time it was written" frame of mine. I think the symbolism is a little heavier here than usual. Maybe "Konnor Old House" is typical of Flaxman Low stories (I haven't read but one other, and I can't recall it now) in that the focus is on how science triumphs over superstitution and logical explanations can be offered. But I wonder if there is an unintended subtext paralleling upper-class (in this case) Western humans' fear and shame regarding their exploitative contact with African nations throughout the past several centuries. Those who read this story will note with interest how the ghost of the black servant is inversely viewed as "the tall figure of a man, absolutely white and shining," in total opposite to how people apparently saw him in life. He is thought to be the ghost of an (apparently ungrateful) African whose life was saved by Sir James Mackian. Mackian's pretty daughter apparently (for some unexplained reason) did not like the man and would beg her father to send the man away. I won't comment further on the plot to avoid spoilers, other than to proclaim that the world shown within "Konnor Old House" is a fairly sick little place in which the suicide of Mackian's daughter seemed to have something (unexplained--though perhaps there is a sexual reason as whatever happened occurred when Sir Mackian was away from the house for several days) to do with her relationship with the African. The racist overtones persist as everything in the white man's house is covered with disgusting African fungal mystery (deadly spores) that poisons everything within the house and leaves only one (cliched even in 1899, surely) solution to purge the foreign taint. Guess what that is? As white men throughout the years attempt to solve the mystery of the Shining Man they find their minds ruined, their bodies shattered with ill health, until Flaxman Low and Western Science triumphs over Third World "secrets of nature." That's what can happen when you let them into your homes, might be the message here. I don't think I like the Prichards very well (based on this story--who knows--maybe this is a lapse or study and they were wonderful open-minded champions against bigotry, but I kind of doubt it), but stories like this should certainly be studied in a thoughtful manner to help us learn about different viewpoints from out of our past--even if they reflect a mindset and culture infected by a mold far more insidious than fungus from the interior of Africa. This story no doubt would appear in the Weird category, but I'd probably lower it a tad to the Too Weird category. I'm going to read the other story, "The Story of Yand Manor House," with interest. I looked up Hesketh Prichard in a library literary reference book and discovered how as an infant he was attracted by the caribou he saw in the Zoological Gardens in Regent's Park--he would grow up to kill caribou for sport. Somehow, I'm not surprised. Richard King rking(at)indian.vinu.edu
===0===
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1998 12:31:22 -0500 (EST)
From: Robert Champ <rchamp(at)polaris.umuc.edu>
Subject: An exchange of posts
Thought I would pass on two posts from the Nostalgia tv list that
discuss the relationship between Frank Capra's _It's A Wonderful
Life_ and Dickens's _A Christmas Carol_. Any commentary as we
approach the festive season?
Bob C.
Post 1
I was thinking yesterday about Its A Wonderful Life. It occurred to
me the movie was an imaginative retelling of Dickens' Christmas Carol.
Mr. Potter is Scrooge. George Bailey and his family are the Bob
Kratchit family. George's encounters with the various situations
that show what would have happened had he not lived, are the Capra
equivalents of Scrooge's encounters with Marley's Ghost and the
Ghosts of Christmas Past. In Capra, however, Scrooge (Mr. Potter)
is not redeemed. It is George who takes the fall, and then rises
like a phoenix.
Post 2
There are some serious fundamental differences, the most important being
that Mr Potter does not employ George and, although he exerts a continuing
subtle influence on George Baily's career and decisions, George does not
depend on him for anything (until he is driven in a state of desperation
to seek his help).
You could make the case that, given a few minor changes, the movie doesn't
need Potter at all. Uncle Billy could have misplaced the money (the act
that brings the crisis) in many other ways. But you can't imagine A Xmas
Carol without Scrooge (and Cratchit could be written out of that story as
well - Hollywood aside, the main reconciliation of book's Scrooge is with
his family).
The deux ex machina of divine intervention is similar but occurs in other
stories as well (Cinderella, etc)
Challenge: what other movies/books/tales would be more likely antecedents
for IAWL?
_________________________________________________
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Robert L. Champ
rchamp(at)polaris.umuc.edu
Editor, teacher, anglophile, human curiosity
Those who are alive receive a mandate from those
who are silent forever. They can fulfill their
duties only by trying to reconstruct precisely
things as they were and by wresting the past
from fictions and legends.
--Czeslaw Milosz
rchamp7927(at)aol.com robertchamp(at)netscape.net
_________________________________________________
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
===0===
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1998 11:05:10 -0700
From: Jerry Carlson <gmc(at)libra.pvh.org>
Subject: Today in History - Dec. 16
1835
A fire in New York City destroys property estimated to be worth
$20,000,000. Beginning
in a store at Pearl and Merchant (Hanover) Streets, it lasts
two days, ravages 17 blocks
(52 acres), and destroys 674 buildings including the Stock
Exchange, Merchants'
Exchange, Post Office, and the South Dutch Church.
1863
Confederate General Joseph Johnston takes command the Army of
Tennessee, replacing
Lt. General William Hardee.
1864
Union forces under General George H. Thomas win the battle at
Nashville.
1904
Japanese warships quit Port Arthur in order to cut off the
Russian Baltic fleet's advance.
Born on December 16
1770
Ludwig Von Beethoven, deaf German composer best known for his
9th Symphony.
1775
Jane Austin, novelist who wrote Sense and Sensibility and Pride
and Prejudice.
===0===
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1998 13:16:55 -0500 (EST)
From: Robert Champ <rchamp(at)polaris.umuc.edu>
Subject: Re: Konnor Old House
On Wed, 16 Dec 1998, Richard L. King wrote:
> centuries. Those who read this story will note with interest how the
> ghost of the black servant is inversely viewed as "the tall figure of a
> man, absolutely white and shining," in total opposite to how people
> apparently saw him in life.
I haven't read the story yet, Richard, so I can't presume to comment
on it, but in this instance I believe our authors might be reflecting
a belief common to many Africans: white is the color of death. In
some tribal ceremonies, members will appear in white to signify that
they represent the souls of the departed.
On the other hand, I have never read any account of the African dead
which refers to "shining."
Bob C.
_________________________________________________
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Robert L. Champ
rchamp(at)polaris.umuc.edu
Editor, teacher, anglophile, human curiosity
Those who are alive receive a mandate from those
who are silent forever. They can fulfill their
duties only by trying to reconstruct precisely
things as they were and by wresting the past
from fictions and legends.
--Czeslaw Milosz
rchamp7927(at)aol.com robertchamp(at)netscape.net
_________________________________________________
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
===0===
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1998 11:55:55 -0700 From: Deborah McMillion Nering <deborah(at)gloaming.com> Subject: Verne show 12:24pm ET, 16-December-98 USA To Air Verne Miniseries USA Network has finalized a development deal with Hallmark Entertainment to create a four-hour miniseries based on Jules Verne's classic SF book Journey to the Center of the Earth. The cable company is hoping to capitalize on the success of Moby Dick, an earlier miniseries produced by Hallmark that scored big ratings for USA. The Verne miniseries will follow the adventures of two men who set out to find a rich socialite's husband in New Zealand and instead discover a netherworld beyond imagination. During their journey they come across such wonders as a tribe of people who are half human and half dinosaur, and an unusual plant that yields an all-healing medication. Deborah (excerpted from Scifi-Wire) Deborah McMillion deborah(at)gloaming.com http://www.gloaming.com/deborah.html
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Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1998 14:07:25 -0500 From: "Richard L. King" <rking(at)INDIAN.VINU.EDU> Subject: Re: Konnor Old House That may well be, but wouldn't this equally reflect a racist culture's beliefs that white is good, black is bad, no matter what its origins? In Western culture, isn't white the symbolic color of redemption, goodness, the afterlife, whereas black is the color of evil, death, and hell, or at least sadness in mourning (though this is probably generalizing too much and there no doubt are always exceptions)? This would fit into my interpretation that "Konnor Old House" is a story from a racist culture (at least in subtext). Richard Robert Champ wrote: > On Wed, 16 Dec 1998, Richard L. King wrote: > > > centuries. Those who read this story will note with interest how the > > ghost of the black servant is inversely viewed as "the tall figure of a > > man, absolutely white and shining," in total opposite to how people > > apparently saw him in life. > > I haven't read the story yet, Richard, so I can't presume to comment > on it, but in this instance I believe our authors might be reflecting > a belief common to many Africans: white is the color of death. In > some tribal ceremonies, members will appear in white to signify that > they represent the souls of the departed. > > On the other hand, I have never read any account of the African dead > which refers to "shining." > > Bob C. > > _________________________________________________ > (at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at) > > Robert L. Champ > rchamp(at)polaris.umuc.edu > Editor, teacher, anglophile, human curiosity > > Those who are alive receive a mandate from those > who are silent forever. They can fulfill their > duties only by trying to reconstruct precisely > things as they were and by wresting the past > from fictions and legends. > --Czeslaw Milosz > > rchamp7927(at)aol.com robertchamp(at)netscape.net > _________________________________________________ > (at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)(at)
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Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1998 12:39:57 -0700 (MST) From: "p.h.wood" <woodph(at)freenet.edmonton.ab.ca> Subject: Re: Verne show In the words of "Punch", commenting on the annoouncement of a forthcoming rock concert: "We are grateful for the warning". Peter Wood On Wed, 16 Dec 1998, Deborah McMillion Nering wrote: > USA To Air Verne Miniseries > USA Network has finalized a development deal with Hallmark Entertainment to > create a four-hour miniseries based on Jules Verne's classic SF book > "Journey to the Center of the Earth". The cable company is hoping to > capitalize on the success of Moby Dick, an earlier miniseries produced by > Hallmark that scored big ratings for USA. > The Verne miniseries will follow the adventures of two men who set out to > find a rich socialite's husband in New Zealand and instead discover a > netherworld beyond imagination. During their journey they come across such > wonders as a tribe of people who are half human and half dinosaur, and an > unusual plant that yields an all-healing medication. > Deborah (excerpted from Scifi-Wire)
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Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1998 12:00:17 -0700
From: Jerry Carlson <gmc(at)libra.pvh.org>
Subject: Today in History - Dec. 17
1861
The Stonewall Brigade begins to dismantle Dam No. 5 of the C&O
Canal near
Martinsburg, W.Va.
1886
At a Christmas party, Sam Belle shoots his old enemy Frank
West, but is fatally wounded
himself.
1903
Orville Wright makes the first recorded flight at Kittyhawk,
North Carolina.
Born on December 17
1778
Humphrey Davy, English chemist who discovered the anesthetic
effect of laughing gas.
1903
Erskine Caldwell, U.S. novelist
1908
Willard Frank Libby, American chemist who won a Nobel Prize for
his part in creating the
carbon-14 method in dating ancient findings.
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Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1998 14:18:25 -0500 (EST) From: Zozie(at)aol.com Subject: Re: Today in History - Dec. 17 Born today, in 1901, the splendid Marlene Dietrich. smiling phoebe
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Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1998 15:48:12 -0500 (EST) From: MMaryET(at)aol.com Subject: Real Audio Would someone please send or post the URL to download REAL AUDIO? I think that is the correct name of what I would like. Thanks for any help. Mary T MMaryET(at)aol.com http://members.aol.com/MMary111/index.html
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Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1998 16:18:21 -0500 From: "Richard L. King" <rking(at)INDIAN.VINU.EDU> Subject: Re: Real Audio I got the latest Realaudio freeware at http://www.real.com/products/player/ --you might give it a try. Best wishes, Richard MMaryET(at)aol.com wrote: > Would someone please send or post the URL to download REAL AUDIO? > I think that is the correct name of what I would like. > Thanks for any help. > Mary T > MMaryET(at)aol.com > http://members.aol.com/MMary111/index.html
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Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1998 21:56:08 -0500 From: "Richard L. King" <rking(at)INDIAN.VINU.EDU> Subject: Yand Manor House Staving off the terrors and boredoms of finals week, I stayed up late and polished off "The Story of Yand Manor House," by Katherine and Hesketh Prichard, last night, and must say I enjoyed this fine (though particularly gruesome) little vampire story much more than I did the somewhat racist "Konnor Old House" I reported on yesterday. In "Yand" Flaxman uses science to solve an occult mystery, but rather than explaining away the ghostly happening as having a logical explanation, his science bolsters the view that an occult occurrence does exist. It isn't our belief or unbelief in such arcane matters that is significant, it is simply whether our science is advanced enough for us to *understand* such events. Flaxman doesn't explain it away as poppycock, but helps us understand the mystery through intellectual exploration. I think "Yand" is one of those stories that represents the fictions of a Victorian society (published 1898) uneasy about the advances of the Industrial Revolution, as people turned to Spiritualism, seances, mesmerism, and liked to believe that all was not scientifically explained and categorized under the sun. Flaxman Low, who is more open-minded and advanced than most (he even says the phrase "most singular case," which reminds one of You Know Who with the pipe and Deerslayer), helps quell some of this uneasiness while leaving the possibilities for more human advancement and knowledge open. Those of you who haven't had time to read this one, put away your mounds of paper-grading for a bit and prepare yourself for a queasy, clastrophobic, smothering moment or two, read "The Story of Yand Manor House," and reflect upon the entertainments of another century. Richard King rking(at)indian.vinu.edu
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Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1998 00:13:26 -0500 (EST)
From: Robert Champ <rchamp(at)polaris.umuc.edu>
Subject: Re: Konnor Old House
The "Konner Old House" tale, if I read it correctly, conceals almost
as much as it reveals. As Low says, we don't know what Jake was doing
with those spores, other than cultivating them. The early implication
is that the servant had murdered his master and mistress, and turned to
magical practices to do it. But it is also possible that the spores
had some medicinal property, as poisonous plant do at times. The Scottish
climate differing a good deal from the African one, something could easily
have gone wrong in Jake's calculations, causing the death of both father
and daughter, and of course Jake himself.
Because of this, I don't know that I can wholeheartedly agree with
Richard's view that this tale smacks of a racist society. The
mysteriousness of Africa is at the heart of the story; Flaxman Low himself
apparently believes he has something to learn from Africans and has plans
to visit the continent to undertake a study, which he has obviously
already begun. He can't therefore be placed on the same level as Sullivan
and Naripse. (Notice that he avoids their term "nigger" for the more
correct and acceptable "negro." Moreover, he doesn't seem to have much
respect for the mentality of his companions. "My dear fellow," he says to
Naripse at one point, "you have such an excitable and superstitious
person that I hesitate to put your nerves to any further test." Low must
know that excitability and superstition were then considered basic
qualities in the makeup of black people. Here he turns that charge back on
the whites in the story.
This story might well be a caution against the view that Africa and
Africans had nothing to teach civilized Europeans. If we take our cue
from the hero, Low, rather than from the lesser beings around him, it is
possible even to read our authors as anti-racist.
Bob C.
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Robert L. Champ
rchamp(at)polaris.umuc.edu
Editor, teacher, anglophile, human curiosity
Those who are alive receive a mandate from those
who are silent forever. They can fulfill their
duties only by trying to reconstruct precisely
things as they were and by wresting the past
from fictions and legends.
--Czeslaw Milosz
rchamp7927(at)aol.com robertchamp(at)netscape.net
_________________________________________________
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End of Gaslight Digest V1 #32
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