In this issue:
Re: Lovecraft and Cleaver?!
Lovecraft
Re: Lovecraft
Re: Lovecraft
Today in Hostory - April 1
Chaney, Sr. and Jr. <WAS: Today in Hostory - April 1>
Re: Lovecraft and Cleaver?!
Re: Lovecraft and Marianne
Lovecraft...adjectivitis? Non!
Re: Lovecraft and Cleaver?!
Re: Chaney, Sr. and Jr. <WAS: Today in Hostory - April 1>
WWW etext avail: Not the Sherlock Holmes page
Re: Chaney, Sr. and Jr. <WAS: Today in Hostory - April 1>
Today in History - April 2
Re: Today in History - April 2
Etext avail: five old etexts resurrected
CHAT: Hornblower sails; Lost World still lost
Re: CHAT: Hornblower sails; Lost World still lost
Re: Re: CHAT: Hornblower sails; Lost World still lost
Re: CHAT: Hornblower sails; Lost World still lost
Re: CHAT: Hornblower sails; Lost World still lost
Re: Etext avail: five old etexts resurrected and Wister
Re: CHAT: Hornblower sails
Today in History - April 5
Re: WWW etext avail: Not the Sherlock Holmes page
CHAT: Lord Buckley website
Robert E. Howard, and Ululating Uvulae
-----------------------------THE POSTS-----------------------------
Date: Wed, 31 Mar 1999 17:18:17 -0500
From: JDS Books <jdsbooks(at)ameritech.net>
Subject: Re: Lovecraft and Cleaver?!
In his classic end of the world masterwork, THE PURPLE CLOUD,
M. P. Shiel gave his opinion of art for art's sake while paying tribute
to his friend Arthur Machen. In the novel Adam Jeffson returns alone
from the North Pole to a desolate world where every living creature
has been killed by a cloud of poison gas which circled the globe
following a volcanic eruption in the Pacific. When he wanders
across England searching in vain for survivors, he stops awhile:
...It was the house of the poet Machen, whose name, when I saw it, I
remembered well, and he had married a very beautiful young girl of
eighteen, obviously Spanish, who lay on the bed in the large bright
bedroom to the right of the loggia, on her left exposed breast being
a baby with an india-rubber comforter in its mouth, both mother and
child wonderfully preserved, she still quite lovely, white brow
under low
curves of black hair. The poet, strange to say, had not died with
them,
but sat in the sitting-room behind the bedroom in a long loose
silky-grey
jacket, at his desk-- actually writing a poem! writing, I could
see,
furiously fast, the place all littered with the written leaves--at
three o'clock
in the morning, when, as I knew, the cloud overtook this end of
Cornwall,
and stopped him, and put his head to rest on the desk; and the poor
little
wife must have got sleepy, waiting for it to come, perhaps sleepless
for
many long nights before, and gone to bed, he perhaps promising to
follow in a minute to die with her, but bent upon finishing that
poem, and
writing feverishly on, running a race with the cloud, thinking, no
doubt,
'just two couplets more' till the thing came, and put his head on
the desk,
poor carle: and I do not know that I ever encountered aught so
complimentary to my race as this dead poet Machen, and his race with
the cloud: for it is clear now that the better kind of those poet
men did
not write to please the vague inferior tribes who might read them,
but to
deliver themselves of the divine warmth that thronged in their
bosom;
and if all the readers were dead, still they would have written; and
for
God to read they wrote.... [Grant Richards, London, 1901, pp
205-206.]
The young Spanish bride & child he describes were Shiel's own, Carolina
Garcia Gomez and Lola. Machen was a witness at their marriage in London
in 1898.
As to Lovecraft, though Derleth mentioned him in several letters to
Shiel,
Shiel pointedly made no comment about him in any of his replies to Derleth I
have
read. I suspect Shiel would have been put off by Lovecraft's adjectivitis.
In
a letter to Malcolm Ferguson dated August 29, 1945 Shiel wrote:
So many thanks for yours, and especially for "Polar Vortex", which
I read with no little interest, though with some resentment at the
bad
typing, which is as illegible as scribble; and some of the sentences
are not very lucid--if you curse me now for saying it, you will
bless
me in ten years' time. This is what you need to concentrate on --
clearness of meaning -- lucidity; and cut out the adjectives, "the
adjective is the enemy of the noun, though it agrees with it in
number and gender" (Voltaire), but, this said, I have nothing but
admiration for the thing-- its achievement in tone and mood...
[original letter in my collection.]
"Polar Vortex" was published in the September 1946 "Weird Tales".
Shiel repeated the Voltaire adjective quote in many letters, often, as
with Ferguson, while urging his correspondents to strive for lucidity in
their own writing, advice some who find little lucidity in Shiel might
see as ironic.
Returning to the depths, I remain,
yours, etc.
John Squires
- -----Original Message-----
From: Alan Gullette <alang(at)creative.net>
To: Gaslight(at)MtRoyal.AB.CA <Gaslight(at)MtRoyal.AB.CA>
Date: Wednesday, March 31, 1999 3:27 PM
Subject: Lovecraft and Cleaver?!
>Deborah McMillion Nering wrote:
>
>>Somehow, knowing about Lovecraft the person, I don't think he was taking
>>the public into account at all. Maybe as a professional writer he should
>>have, but on the other hand--he did have quite a loyal following (and
still
>>does). His unique little group of followers, Derleth, Bloch, etc, may
have
>>been who he was really writing for. Not what the tv writers aim at in
>>their Lowest Common Denominator. And really, I admire him far more for
>>that.
>
>In my lengthy interview with S.T. Joshi, the Lovecraft scholar agreed that
>there was a contradiction in HPL concerning the "art for art's sake" pose
>that his gentlemanly stature required he assume toward his writing. A
>quote may be of interest here:
>
>AG: Oates said that, "Like Poe, Lovecraft died believing himself an
>ignominious failure." Is that true?
>
>STJ: Oh, yes. Absolutely. I am sure he would have never realized the
>extent to which his work is now popular, and would have been astounded that
>his friends -- and, quite honestly, complete strangers like myself and
>others --- would have taken the effort to resurrect his work and pay so
>much attention to it.
>
>AG: Isn't there an inconsistency here. He relied so much on the approval
>of his friends, other writers and the reading public, and yet he was always
>faithful to his own aesthetics of "art for art's sake."
>
>STJ: Oh, there is a clear contradiction, and I don't think Lovecraft either
>realized it or understood it emotionally. There is no reason why he should
>have needed this kind of reassurance form others -- especially from others
>whose opinion he didn't really respect that much, like the pulp readership
>or the pulp editors. Early in his life he said that "there are only seven
>people who really understand my work, and they're enough, and I would
>continue writing even if I were the only reader of my work." But he didn't
>seem to practice that principle. I think emotionally he needed this
>reassurance. I think he was maybe insecure or had some sort of inferiority
>complex.
>
>AG: Always, or did that become more a part of his character?
>
>STJ: Oh, I think it was always the case.
>
>AG: It wasn't a matter of running out of steam or getting too depressed by
>the rejections?
>
>STJ: No, because I think he got that assurance earlier on in his amateur
>years when he was a Titan in this extremely tiny little realm of amateur
>journalism, and initially he was the big fish in the pulp field as well.
>But as time went on and his time went on and his own work became simply too
>vast and complex for the pulp market that reassurance wasn't there.
>
>AG: So he never had a sense that he was writing for the future?
>
>STJ: It doesn't appear so. I don't think he expected his work to last.
>Maybe in some deep recess of his imagination he hoped that it might, but I
>think he was pretty convinced that it wouldn't -- simply because of all the
>failures that he had in getting his books and his work published during his
>lifetime.
>
>
>Peter Wood wrote:
>
>>including someone's favourite, "eldritch", (which always sounds to me
>>like the first name of a 1960's activist, but I have a free-associating
>>mind, it seems).
>
>That would be Eldridge Cleaver; this from Microsoft Bookshelf:
>
>Literature 1968 -- Black Panther leader Eldridge Cleaver flees to Cuba in
>November 1968 to avoid going to prison for parole violations. Cleaver
>begins a 7-year exile.
>
>"If a man like Malcolm X could change and repudiate racism, if I myself and
>other former Muslims can change, if young whites can change, then there is
>hope for America."
>Eldridge Cleaver (b. 1935), U.S. black leader, writer. Soul on Ice, "The
>White Race and Its Heroes" (1968).
>
>I only bother to quote because he was a California writer!! By the way,
>besides "parole violations" he fled to Cuba following a shootout with
>Oakland police... That devil in those details...
===0===
Date: Wed, 31 Mar 1999 15:32:24 -0700 From: Deborah McMillion Nering <deborah(at)gloaming.com> Subject: Lovecraft >He relied so much on the approval of his friends, other writers and the >reading >public, and yet he was always faithful to his own aesthetics of >"art for art's sake." Believe me, every artist needs validation on some level. No matter how you may disregard the public's opinion. You may be painting, writing, dancing your own work, your own vision and you'll do it regardless because to do anything else is a little death--but it is nice to know that someone understand it or empathizes in some way. It makes you feel a little less alone in the universe especially if you're thinking is a little off beat! I doubt Lovecraft would have been overwhelmed with absolute joy but it is nice to know that generations later someone, anyone, still values what you did. On any level that must validate you for yourself however secure (or insecure) you are. Deborah Deborah McMillion deborah(at)gloaming.com http://www.gloaming.com/deborah.html
===0===
Date: Wed, 31 Mar 1999 20:18:40 -0500 (EST) From: Zozie(at)aol.com Subject: Re: Lovecraft I have a marvelous opportunity with my first year grad students (looking for an Masters of Music as part of a Musical Theatre Division). They don't know Lovecraft. Imagine that, my friends. Clean page. I teach here a two-year, four-semester course ambiguously called "Cultural Perspectives." Are you salivating, all you eggheads out there? Well, the truth is, of course, not quite so radical. But one of my topics is the module on the Development of the Horror Genre. (You can salivate again.) They tend to be spooked by and to love Lovecraft. best, phoebe Phoebe Wray The Boston Conservatory zozie(at)aol.com
===0===
Date: Thu, 01 Apr 1999 01:40:36 -0800 (PST)
From: Jack Kolb <KOLB(at)UCLA.EDU>
Subject: Re: Lovecraft
>I have a marvelous opportunity with my first year grad students (looking for
>an Masters of Music as part of a Musical Theatre Division). They don't know
>Lovecraft. Imagine that, my friends. Clean page.
>
>I teach here a two-year, four-semester course ambiguously called "Cultural
>Perspectives."
>
>Are you salivating, all you eggheads out there?
>
>Well, the truth is, of course, not quite so radical. But one of my topics is
>the module on the Development of the Horror Genre. (You can salivate again.)
>
>They tend to be spooked by and to love Lovecraft.
>
>best,
>phoebe
>
>Phoebe Wray
>The Boston Conservatory
>zozie(at)aol.com
Many of our graduate students don't know very much, except theory. And that
they don't understand {grin}.
Jack Kolb
Dept. of English, UCLA
kolb(at)ucla.edu
===0===
Date: Thu, 01 Apr 1999 10:39:06 -0700
From: Jerry Carlson <gmc(at)libra.pvh.org>
Subject: Today in Hostory - April 1
1863
The first wartime conscription law goes into effect in the
U.S.
1865
At the Battle of Five Forks in Petersburg, Va., Gen. Robert
E. Lee begins his final
offensive.
Born on April 1
1815
Otto Von Bismarck, chancellor of Germany who founded the
German Empire. [Immortalized
by lending his name to a battleship, the capital of North
Dakota, a cream-filled donut, and the
German superhighway system (think about that one)]
1883
Lon Chaney, actor know as "man of 1,000 faces," remembered
for his movies
High Noon, and Phantom of Opera
===0===
Date: Thu, 01 Apr 1999 16:59:16 -0700
From: sdavies(at)MtRoyal.AB.CA
Subject: Chaney, Sr. and Jr. <WAS: Today in Hostory - April 1>
Jerry C. brings to our attn:
>Born on April 1
> 1883
>Lon Chaney, actor know as "man of 1,000 faces," remembered for his movies
>High Noon, and Phantom of Opera
The _High noon_ credit belongs to Chaney's son, Lon Chaney Jr., since the
original Lon died shortly after his first talkie in 1930.
I've never seen Chaney Sr.'s last film, _The unholy three_. Does he manipulate
his voice as well as he took on disguises?
Stephen D
mailto:SDavies(at)mtroyal.ab.ca
===0===
Date: Thu, 01 Apr 1999 19:20:23 -0500 (EST) From: Robert Kelly <kelly(at)bard.edu> Subject: Re: Lovecraft and Cleaver?! I want to say one thing about Lovecraft's style that needs saying. The gross overwriting & adjectivitis of which he stands accused, so that even those who affect to like him think nothing of disdaining his style, might well, now that we're past the naive New Criticism days of the 1940s and 1950s, be seen as in fact a deliberate artistic pressure on the texture of language itself to indicate/encode/signal the presence of the very horrors his overwrought adjectives mean to describe. Describe? Perhaps better to say that Lovecraft's language, right there, is trying to BECOME the vile, vast, proliferating, etc. overflowing turbid genetic excess his stories deal with. Language, in other words, is not describing the horror but impersonating it. This reading of his excessive language is supported by what we find in the beginnings and quiet passages of his stories -- a crisp, economical accuracy. As so often (as they did with Poe) the French have shown a better insight into the nature of Lovecraft's art, since they are not as obsessed as American middle-class education is with decorum and economy. And modern French theory liberates our reading of language from an expectation of mere equivalence between word and referent. Lovecraft's language is a substance, a "color" out of space that entrains in the reader the nausea and distress his characters experience. Far from dismissing HPL as an hysterical adjectivist, we should begin studying the different registers within his texts, in the hope of understanding the very nature of the cosmic obscenities he, more than any writer of his time, sensed coming over the boundaries of history. RK
===0===
Date: Thu, 01 Apr 1999 17:45:17 -0700 (MST) From: "p.h.wood" <woodph(at)freenet.edmonton.ab.ca> Subject: Re: Lovecraft and Marianne I am unqualified, by background or education, to respond to Robert Kelly's posting in any meaningful way. I find it fascinating though, that in his view - and I quote: <<As so often (as they did with Poe) the French have shown a better insight into the nature of Lovecraft's art, since they are not as obsessed as American middle-class education is with decorum and economy.>> From what I have read (and this is not extensive, I admit) in social histories and fictional works depicting 19C France, the French housewife of that time was noted for exactly those two qualities - "decorum and economy". I wonder if perhaps the renunciation of them by French literary critics is a predictable reaction by males to what they consider "woman's attitudes". Peter Wood
===0===
Date: Thu, 01 Apr 1999 17:57:32 -0700 From: Deborah McMillion Nering <deborah(at)gloaming.com> Subject: Lovecraft...adjectivitis? Non! > Far from dismissing HPL as an hysterical adjectivist Thank you for this supportive view of Lovecraft's style. Far from liking but disdaining his style, I fully adore the adjectivitis. But then, I love to read Henry James and Poe and Dunsany and William Morris and George MacDonald for all the same and different excesses. It is interesting though to think of the language being used as a tool to Become the horror. I like that. Merci for the Francais viewpoint! Deborah Deborah McMillion deborah(at)gloaming.com http://www.gloaming.com/deborah.html
===0===
Date: Thu, 01 Apr 1999 17:25:38 -0800 From: Patricia Teter <PTeter(at)getty.edu> Subject: Re: Lovecraft and Cleaver?! Robert Kelly had some very interesting comments on Lovecraft, among which he wrote: <<Perhaps better to say that Lovecraft's language, right there, is trying to BECOME the vile, vast, proliferating, etc. overflowing turbid genetic excess his stories deal with. Language, in other words, is not describing the horror but impersonating it.>> I agree completely. The language in Lovecraft is as much a part of the tale as the tale itself, as demonstrated in this last story. The first section is straight forward, reading like a guide book to Egypt, however, only in the second section, where appropriate to the story line, do the adjectives begin to multiply like rabbits, scattered so thick and lush the reader becomes almost overwhelmed, which is exactly what Lovecraft intended. <<As so often (as they did with Poe) the French have shown a better insight into the nature of Lovecraft's art, since they are not as obsessed as American middle-class education is with decorum and economy.>> Ah, this explains the existentialist preference for Jerry Lewis! <g> Patricia A. Teter
===0===
Date: Thu, 01 Apr 1999 21:35:46 -0500 (EST) From: TFox434690(at)aol.com Subject: Re: Chaney, Sr. and Jr. <WAS: Today in Hostory - April 1> In a message dated 4/1/99 6:02:52 PM Central Standard Time, sdavies(at)MtRoyal.AB.CA writes: Jerry C. brings to our attn: >Born on April 1 > 1883 >Lon Chaney, actor know as "man of 1,000 faces," remembered for his movies >High Noon, and Phantom of Opera The _High noon_ credit belongs to Chaney's son, Lon Chaney Jr., since the original Lon died shortly after his first talkie in 1930. I've never seen Chaney Sr.'s last film, _The unholy three_. Does he manipulate his voice as well as he took on disguises? >> In the climatic scene Chaney's character, disguised as a woman is on the witness stand undergoing cross-examination. at a critcal juncture his voice drops which gives his true idenity away. He was very good in the role and his untimely death was a great loss. Tom Fox
===0===
Date: Thu, 01 Apr 1999 22:15:49 -0700
From: sdavies(at)MtRoyal.AB.CA
Subject: WWW etext avail: Not the Sherlock Holmes page
(SLEUTHS.HTM) (Fiction, Chronos)
O. Henry's "The sleuths" (1911)
I've set up a Sherlock Holmes parody page, which includes the new
etext, "The sleuths" by O. Henry, and will link to more stories as
they are either produced by Gaslight, or found elsewhere on the Internet.
I'm very surprised that I couldn't find Twain's "Double-barrelled
detective story" on the 'net.
This page will expand to include some pastiches, such as Jerry Carlson's
"Adventure of the white plume".
Visit the Gaslight website at:
http://www.mtroyal.ab.ca/gaslight/parody.htm
Stephen D
mailto:SDavies(at)mtroyal.ab.ca
===0===
Date: Fri, 02 Apr 1999 07:26:05 -0800
From: Robert Birchard <bbirchard(at)earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: Chaney, Sr. and Jr. <WAS: Today in Hostory - April 1>
sdavies(at)MtRoyal.AB.CA wrote:
> Jerry C. brings to our attn:
>
> I've never seen Chaney Sr.'s last film, _The unholy three_. Does he
manipulate
> his voice as well as he took on disguises?
>
>
Chaney's voice is strong and versatile, despiet the fact he was dying of
lung
cancer at the time of the production. The voice he uses through the bulk of the
film has a bit of a gravel dge to it--not unlike the voice of Clark Gable, but
with
a bit more theatrical influence.
The 1930 "Unholy Three" plays on TCM occasionally.
- --
Bob Birchard
bbirchard(at)earthlink.net
http://www.mdle.com/ClassicFilms/Guest/birchard.htm
===0===
Date: Fri, 02 Apr 1999 10:45:09 -0700
From: Jerry Carlson <gmc(at)libra.pvh.org>
Subject: Today in History - April 2
1801
The British navy defeats the Danish at the Battle of
Copenhagen.
1865
Confederate President Jefferson Davis flees Richmond,
Virginia as Grant breaks Lee's
line at Petersburg. Travelers to wartime Richmond had a wide
choice of luxurious
hotels, inns and taverns.
1910
Karl Harris perfects the process for the artificial synthesis
of rubber.
1914
The U.S. Federal Reserve Board announces plans to divide the
country into 12
districts.
1917
President Woodrow Wilson presents a declaration of war
against Germany to
Congress.
Born on April 2
1805
Hans Christian Andersen, Denmark, author of 150 fairy tales
1840
Emile Zola, French novelist, reporter
1875
Walter P. Chrysler, founder of Chrysler automobile company
1891
Max Ernst, German painter and sculptor, founder of surrealism
===0===
Date: Fri, 02 Apr 1999 17:53:38 -0500 (EST) From: Zozie(at)aol.com Subject: Re: Today in History - April 2 1917 - Jeannette Rankin of Montana becomes the first US Congresswoman when the US House of Representatives convenes in a special session. phoebe
===0===
Date: Sat, 03 Apr 1999 16:03:45 -0700
From: sdavies(at)MtRoyal.AB.CA
Subject: Etext avail: five old etexts resurrected
From: Stephen Davies(at)MRC on 04/03/99 04:03 PM
To: Gaslight-announce(at)mtroyal.ab.ca
cc:
Subject: Etext avail: five old etexts resurrected
(AMONGCOW.HTM) (Nonfic, Chronos)
J. Ewing Ritchie's "Amongst the cowboys" (1885)
(EVOLCOWP.HTM) (Nonfic, Chronos)
Owen Wister's "The Evolution of the Cow-Puncher" (1895)
(EVERLAST.HTM) (Fiction, Chronos)
Ingulphus' "The Everlasting Club" (1919)
(FEAR.HTM) (Fiction, Chronos)
Louis Hemon's "Fear" (1923)
(BONITA.HTM) (Fiction, Chronos)
Owen Wister's "La Tinaja Bonita" (1896)
While I'm having trouble creating new etexts for Gaslight, here
are five older ones which are now mounted on the website.
amongcow.non
J. Ewing Ritchie's "Amongst the cowboys" (1885) is a part of
a travelogue thru Canada, this part describing, with disgust,
Calgary.
evolcowp.non
Owen Wister's "The Evolution of the Cow-Puncher" (1895) is an
essay about the cowboy, the last paragraph of which sums it up
so well.
everlast.sht
Ingulphus was the pseudonym for Sir Arthur Gray, and this story,
"The Everlasting Club" (1919), was prepared for us by Len Roberts.
fear.sht
Louis Hemon will never be forgotten in Canada for his novel _Maria
Chapdelaine_ (1922 English edition), but here is one of his short
stories, "Fear" (1923), which shows he could turn his hand in
other directions.
bonita.sht
Owen Wister again, but with a fictional piece. "La Tinaja Bonita" (1896)
presents an interesting Mexican/American triangle, and was prepared
for us by Bob Champ.
To retrieve all the original plain ASCII files send to: ftpmail(at)MtRoyal.AB.CA
with no subject heading and completely in lowercase:
open aftp.mtroyal.ab.ca
cd /gaslight
get amongcow.non
get evolcowp.non
get everlast.sht
get fear.sht
get boniat.sht
or visit the Gaslight website at:
http://www.mtroyal.ab.ca/gaslight/amongcow.htm
http://www.mtroyal.ab.ca/gaslight/evolcowp.htm
http://www.mtroyal.ab.ca/gaslight/everlast.htm
http://www.mtroyal.ab.ca/gaslight/fear.htm
http://www.mtroyal.ab.ca/gaslight/bonita.htm
Stephen D
mailto:SDavies(at)mtroyal.ab.ca
===0===
Date: Sun, 04 Apr 1999 21:44:28 -0500 (CDT)
From: James Rogers <jetan(at)ionet.net>
Subject: CHAT: Hornblower sails; Lost World still lost
Happy Easter, Gaslighters -
Since I have been a bit of a curmudgeon as to the recent
television productions that have come up the alley of our collective
interest, I am happy to say that I was quite entertained by the A & E
"Horatio Hornblower" episode. The pulpy action of the series is very well
suited to TV.....Some may recall that I also enjoyed the recent _Moby Dick_
and didn't issue sink on sight orders for _The Titanic_, so perhaps I need
to confess a slight fetish for sea stories which may affect my critical
perspective. I think not *too* much though and I suspect that some of us
will enjoy this series.
Though of course wanting to like it, I was only able to bear a
few minutes of _The Lost World_ "courtesy" of TNT. Really brutal treatment
of the Conan Doyle story would send even a teenager fleeing for the safe
harbor of the silent version. The only redeeming features, so to speak, were
the fetching Jungle Queen outfits worn by some of the non-actresses. Sadly,
even this was insufficient justification for the program. My heart goes out
to the Doyle addicts on the list.
Hopefully the recent slowdown on our reading schedule will allow
me some much-needed time to catch up.
James
James Michael Rogers
jetan(at)ionet.net
Mundus Vult Decipi
===0===
Date: Sun, 04 Apr 1999 23:04:51 -0400 (EDT)
From: Austin Dridge <adridge(at)panix.com>
Subject: Re: CHAT: Hornblower sails; Lost World still lost
James
Just to really cheer you up (read sarcasm) the Lost World movie was the
pilot show of a series starting this summer on cable and getting
syndicated this fall.
Austin
- -----------------------
adridge(at)panix.com
===0===
Date: Sun, 04 Apr 1999 23:47:43 -0400 (EDT) From: Zozie(at)aol.com Subject: Re: Re: CHAT: Hornblower sails; Lost World still lost In a message dated 4/5/99 3:05:13 AM, Austin wrote: << Just to really cheer you up (read sarcasm) the Lost World movie was the pilot show of a series starting this summer on cable and getting syndicated this fall.>> Aaargh... we are catapulted to the 50's with this icky thing. They obviously borrowed T. rex from Jurassic Park and the apemen from Deep Space 9... and, of yeah, those "natives." They, more than anything, reminded me of some of those schlocky things from the 50's. Hard to say who to cheer for. Myself, I was hoping for T. rex. (And are they going to work in a little of Bradbury's wonderful story The Sound of Thunder -- there was a big point made about not changing anything....) Like the Hornblower. Except, of course, that silly thing -- announcing a four-part serial and then asking if our hero will survive next week's episode, "The Fire Ships." Anyone else notice that the men are stooping below decks? Men were shorter back then -- wonder why the set didn't accomodate that. I can walk around anywhere on the USS Constitution (I'm 5 foot 3) but most of my friends have to duck... Best phoebe Phoebe Wray zozie(at)aol.com
===0===
Date: Sun, 04 Apr 1999 23:10:31 -0500 (CDT)
From: James Rogers <jetan(at)ionet.net>
Subject: Re: CHAT: Hornblower sails; Lost World still lost
At 11:04 PM 4/4/99 -0400, Austin Dridge wrote:
>James
> Just to really cheer you up (read sarcasm) the Lost World movie was the
>pilot show of a series starting this summer on cable and getting
>syndicated this fall.
> Austin
Arrgh. Pretty dire news but it explains a lot. Nonetheless, I predict
a sufficiently underwhelming response to the pilot so that the green
eyeshade folks will show mercy to Western Civ. as we know it (or recall it)
and shelve this bad boy. Lets face it, this made Xena look like "Seven
Against Thebes".
Phoebe, of course, is right to compare it to those old 50s/60s flicks
except that they were more fun, had Ray Harryhausen animation (when they
didn't use lizards with glued-on tail fins, that is), and occasionally
starred Raquel Welsh (Welch?) Plus I was quite a bit younger. Now, I make
it a point to watch ALL prehistoric monster flicks as a matter of principle,
but this one was just too insulting. Besides, why even drag Doyle's name
into it?
James
James Michael Rogers
jetan(at)ionet.net
Mundus Vult Decipi
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Date: Mon, 05 Apr 1999 09:07:26 -0700 From: Patricia Teter <PTeter(at)getty.edu> Subject: Re: CHAT: Hornblower sails; Lost World still lost With such a good review from James, I'm looking forward to viewing the Hornblower episode tonight. I suspect it would have to be terrible before I was too critical, since it, after all, is Napoleonic. I confess, I even enjoy the Gregory Peck Horatio Hornblower movie, which at times is plain silly. Too bad about the Lost World! I hear the version shown on TNT was not the Patrick Bergen version after all. I wish the original version would play rather than these recent remakes which somehow miss the point entirely! Patricia (upset with the History Chanel for not showing the remaining Sharpe's episodes; they get us hooked and then drop us mid-war!) Patricia A. Teter PTeter(at)Getty.edu
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Date: Mon, 05 Apr 1999 12:48:52 -0700 From: Patricia Teter <PTeter(at)getty.edu> Subject: Re: Etext avail: five old etexts resurrected and Wister Stephen, thanks for resurrecting the five texts, three of which I never read the first time around. I still vividly remember Wister's "La Tinaja Bonita" thanks to Bob Champ. Bob, did Wister write many short fiction westerns such as this? The Virginian was a full length novel, but was it originally published in serial form? Patricia
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Date: Mon, 05 Apr 1999 15:42:57 +0300 From: cbishop(at)interlog.com (Carroll Bishop) Subject: Re: CHAT: Hornblower sails I of course always saw Olivier as Hornblower, though I think Gregory Peck actually played the part in the film. I remember reading somewhere that Forester got the name Hornblower from Arthur Hornblow Jr. C. S. Forester is also of course the author of that wonderful riverine saga, THE AFRICAN QUEEN. James Agee did the film play, John Huston working with him on the script, according to my Golden Retriever. (That's the video guide which grades videos with bones.) Frasier Boa, a splendid Jungian analyst who was much involved with the film world, did a memorable lecture comparing Charlie Allnutt to Vulcan and Rosie to Venus. All that alchemy in the engine room and their funny, grown-up love affair. Sort of HEART OF LOVE instead of darkness. Carroll
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Date: Mon, 05 Apr 1999 15:30:39 -0600
From: Jerry Carlson <gmc(at)libra.pvh.org>
Subject: Today in History - April 5
1843
Queen Victoria proclaims Hong Kong a British crown colony.
1861
Gideon Wells, the Secretary of the Navy issues official
orders for the relief of Fort
Sumter in Charleston Harbor, S.C.
1865
As the Confederate army approaches Appomattox, it skirmishes
with Union army at
Amelia Springs and Paine's Cross Road.
1908
Japanese Army reaches Yalu River as Russians retreat.
1919
Eamon de Valera becomes president of Ireland.
Born on April 5
1827
Joseph Lister, English physician, founded the idea of using
antiseptics during surgery.
1839
Robert Smalls, black congressman from South Carolina, 1875-87.
1856
Booker T. Washington, a former slave who founded the Tuskegee
Institute.
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Date: Mon, 05 Apr 1999 14:52:12 -0700 From: Patricia Teter <PTeter(at)getty.edu> Subject: Re: WWW etext avail: Not the Sherlock Holmes page Working my way through a backlog of Gaslight email.... Stephen writes: <<I've set up a Sherlock Holmes parody page, which includes the new etext, "The sleuths" by O. Henry, and will link to more stories as they are either produced by Gaslight, or found elsewhere on the Internet.>> Great! Looking forward to browsing the page and stories. (Gaslight website is not responding at the moment, but I will revisit later.) Stephen writes: << This page will expand to include some pastiches, such as Jerry Carlson's "Adventure of the white plume".>> Jerry, this is a Holmes pastiche? What is the title of your excellent Brigadier Gerard pastiche and is it still on Gaslight? If so, may we link it to the Napoleonic page alongside the Doyle Brigadier Gerard? You are certainly a worthy successor to ACD! best regards, Patricia (obviously my memory is failing!)
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Date: Tue, 06 Apr 1999 01:19:02 -0400 (EDT)
From: Robert Champ <rchamp(at)polaris.umuc.edu>
Subject: CHAT: Lord Buckley website
The English language is a wonderful thing, capable of unending variations
and remarkable idioms. One of the more interesting users of it in the
1940s and 1950s was a comic performer named Lord Buckley. Lord Buckley's
speciality was translating well-known tales and events into the vocabulary
of the hipster. He performed hip versions of Mark Antony's speech in
Shakespeare's _Julius Caesar_ and of Poe's "The Raven." He told the story
of Jesus (well, some of it) in a monologue called "The Nazz" and recast
Lincoln's Gettysburg Address in hip. He also told folk-tales, like my
favorite of his monologues, "God's Own Drunk."
Some people might find such treatment offensive, but there is a sweetness
in Lord Buckley's monologues robs them of that quality. If you would like
to sample some of his best work (in text form, though there are also
directions about how to order recordings) and learn a little about this
most unusual man, go to this URL:
http://www.industrialhaiku.com/LBO/LBOPages/Welcome.html
Dig the cat. When Lord Buckley laid it down, it stayed.
Bob C.
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Robert L. Champ
rchamp(at)polaris.umuc.edu
Editor, teacher, anglophile, human curiosity
Whatever things are pure, whatever things are
lovely, whatever things are of good report, if
there is any virtue and if there is anything
praiseworthy; meditate on these things
Philippians 4:8
rchamp7927(at)aol.com robertchamp(at)netscape.net
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Date: Tue, 06 Apr 1999 12:58:15 -0600 From: Jerry Carlson <gmc(at)libra.pvh.org> Subject: Robert E. Howard, and Ululating Uvulae p.h. wood wrote: >Thanks for the kind words! I'd agree on Derleth, who was, I believe, a >lapsed Catholic, and might have some idea of the Manichaean heresy, but >not on R. E. Howard; according to what I know, "The Black Stone" is the >only Lovecraftian story he wrote, as he preferred the Conanical type of >tale. REH actually did write write a few non-Conanoid weird tales; most of them share the "lost race" aspect with Lovecraft, but these are mortal creatures, not evil gods. Gods and demons, when they come (mostly in the Conan stories and the like), come from outside. BTW - since somebody didn't seem sure on this point, the uvula is the bulb-shaped thingy that hangs down in the back of the throat. Jerry (eagerly awaiting the next Digest and Story of the Week [or is it "How Finley McGillis Held the Pier"?], now that I'm finally caught up thus far) gmc(at)libra.pvh.org ------------------------------ End of Gaslight Digest V1 #60 *****************************