In this issue: Re: End of the James controversy Mowing lawns Today in History - Feb. 23 Re: Mowing lawns Re: Mowing lawns Re: Mowing lawns Re: Mowing lawns Pickford movie with immobile sheep <WAS: Re: Mowing lawns> Re: Today in History - Feb. 23 Fannie Farmer <Was: Re: Today in History - Feb. 23> Etext avail: Mrs. Wood's eulogy "An Egyptian Cigarette" Re: Pickford movie with immobile sheep <WAS: Re: Mowing lawns> Re: Pickford movie with immobile sheep <WAS: Re: Mowing lawns> Re: "An Egyptian Cigarette" Re: "An Egyptian Cigarette" Re: "An Egyptian Cigarette" Re: "An Egyptian Cigarette" Re: "An Egyptian Cigarette" Re: "An Egyptian Cigarette" Re: "An Egyptian Cigarette" Re: "An Egyptian Cigarette" "The Ballad of Reynardine" Re: Today in History - Feb. 23 Re: "The Ballad of Reynardine" Today in History - Feb. 25 Re: "An Egyptian Cigarette" Re: Casting the Runes -----------------------------THE POSTS----------------------------- Date: Tue, 23 Feb 1999 07:41:30 -0500 From: "Richard L. King" <rking(at)INDIAN.VINU.EDU> Subject: Re: End of the James controversy Thanks for the Jesse James report, Bob. Fascinating! Richard King rking(at)indian.vinu.edu
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Date: Tue, 23 Feb 1999 09:11:25 -0600 From: Chris Carlisle <CarlislC(at)psychiatry.wustl.edu> Subject: Mowing lawns >>> Robert Champ <rchamp(at)polaris.umuc.edu> 02/23/99 12:16AM >>> > I also wondered aloud when the lawnmower was invented and what people did, before >it came along, to keep the grass cut. Bob C. First of all, I want to say HI!! to the list. I'm back after a long absence, with a new job and enough time to read mail. I've missed you! Now, as to the grass.... well, until say, the 1870's or so, at least in the U.S., not many people, except for the extremely wealthy, HAD lawns. Since there was no way to water such an expanse of greenery during hot summers, city folks at least didn't have grass near their houses, as it was a fire hazard. One had rolled and sprinkled pounded dirt or a paved courtyard with a flower bed or two. Of course, around the great houses of England drought wouldn't be a problem, and labor woudn't either. Those who did have grass plots kept them scythed or sometimes kept a goat or sheep to keep them nibbled. (I'm not kidding!! How did you think the Sheep Meadow in Central Park got named?) Kiwi Carlisle (note new address!) carlislc(at)psychiatry.wustl.edu
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Date: Tue, 23 Feb 1999 08:54:07 -0700
From: Jerry Carlson <gmc(at)libra.pvh.org>
Subject: Today in History - Feb. 23
1836
The Alamo is besieged by Santa Ana.
1846
The Liberty Bell tolls for the last time, to mark George
Washington's birthday.
1847
Forces led by Zachary Taylor defeat the Mexicans at the Battle
of Buena Vista.
1854
Great Britain officially recognizes the independence of the
Orange Free State.
1861
Texas becomes the seventh state to secede from the Union.
1885
John Lee survives three attempts to hang him in Exeter Prison,
as the trap fails to open.
1901
Britain and Germany agree on a boundary between German East
Africa and Nyasaland.
1904
Japan guarantees Korean sovereignty in exchange for military
assistance.
1916
Secretary of State Lansing hints that the U.S. may have to
abandon the policy of avoiding
"entangling foreign alliances".
Born on February 23
1685
George F. Handel, German composer, best remembered for his
Messiah. [Yes, I know he's not Gaslight, but he
stirred too good a memory. In 1985, in honor of Handel's 300th
birthday as well as George Washington's
birthday, "A Prairie Home Companion" featured "Music by Famous
Georges"- George Handel, George M.
Cohan, George Gershwin, and Boy George.]
1868
W.E.B. [William Edward Burghardt] Du Boise, U.S. historian and
civil rights leader who
founded the National Negro Committee which eventually became
the National Association
for the Advancement of Colored People.
1883
Victor Fleming, director of the movie classics "The Wizard of
Oz" and "Gone With the
Wind"
1904
William Shirer, CBS broadcaster who wrote The Rise and Fall of
the Third Reich.
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Date: Tue, 23 Feb 1999 14:04:22 -0500 From: "Richard L. King" <rking(at)INDIAN.VINU.EDU> Subject: Re: Mowing lawns Welcome back, Kiwi! You were missed. Richard King rking(at)indian.vinu.edu Chris Carlisle wrote: > >>> Robert Champ <rchamp(at)polaris.umuc.edu> 02/23/99 12:16AM >>> > > I also wondered aloud when the lawnmower was invented and what people > did, before > >it came along, to keep the grass cut. > > Bob C. > > First of all, I want to say HI!! to the list. I'm back after a > long absence, with a new job and enough time to read mail. > I've missed you! > > Now, as to the grass.... well, until say, the 1870's or so, > at least in the U.S., not many people, except for the extremely > wealthy, HAD lawns. Since there was no way to water such an > expanse of greenery during hot summers, city folks at least didn't > have grass near their houses, as it was a fire hazard. One had > rolled and sprinkled pounded dirt or a paved courtyard with a > flower bed or two. Of course, around the great houses of > England drought wouldn't be a problem, and labor woudn't > either. > > Those who did have grass plots kept them scythed or sometimes > kept a goat or sheep to keep them nibbled. (I'm not kidding!! > How did you think the Sheep Meadow in Central Park got > named?) > > Kiwi Carlisle > (note new address!) > carlislc(at)psychiatry.wustl.edu
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Date: Tue, 23 Feb 1999 12:51:48 -0800 From: Patricia Teter <PTeter(at)getty.edu> Subject: Re: Mowing lawns Welcome back, Kiwi. We missed your interesting comments on Gaslight! Patricia Patricia A. Teter PTeter(at)Getty.edu
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Date: Tue, 23 Feb 1999 18:18:30 -0600 From: Marta Dawes <smdawes(at)home.com> Subject: Re: Mowing lawns Lots of old prints show sheep wandering all over the massive English estates; they were used exactly for that purpose, as Kiwi said. Marta Patricia Teter wrote: > > Welcome back, Kiwi. We missed your interesting comments > on Gaslight! > > Patricia > > Patricia A. Teter > PTeter(at)Getty.edu
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Date: Tue, 23 Feb 1999 20:30:31 -0500 (EST) From: Zozie(at)aol.com Subject: Re: Mowing lawns Interesting to think of those lawns and gardens in America a couple of centuries ago. When I was doing some genealogy research, I found a note that a grandmother about 7 times removed was chastised for her flower garden. Point was, there was no time to tend such frivolities in a new town in a new country -- this is in New Hampshire (then part of Massachusetts) end of 17th century. Cannot imagine there was a lawn. But thought it nice that Grandmother+ Sarah wanted roses. With my lovely big backyard, I would welcome a goat. Like them anyway. Feisty devils. best phoebe
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Date: Tue, 23 Feb 1999 18:59:11 -0700
From: sdavies(at)MtRoyal.AB.CA
Subject: Pickford movie with immobile sheep <WAS: Re: Mowing lawns>
I apologize if I've told this secondhand anecdote before. Richard K., the
shepherd, will remember if I have.
During a Mary Pickford movie shoot, a scene was required where Mary sat in a
barn and a pastoral scene was visible outside the doors. Unfortunately, the
movie crew could not get the sheep to stay put in the background; they kept
wandering out of shot. The crew could not tether the sheep without being
obvious.
The solution seems a beautiful example of Hollywood excess. The crew rebuilt
the barn on high stilts, created little islands of grass up on poles outside the
barn doors and placed the sheep on them, via a ladder. The sheep stayed put,
well within frame, for the duration of the shooting.
There's pictures of this in Kevin Brownlow's _The parade's gone by_, (1968)
(which my library seems to have considered a book too old to keep!!!!)
Stephen D
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Date: Tue, 23 Feb 1999 20:52:23 -0500 (EST) From: Zozie(at)aol.com Subject: Re: Today in History - Feb. 23 And I love this one... Birthday today, Fannie Merritt Farmer, the author who standardized cooking measurements, in 1857. mmmmm Fannie Farmer cream chocolates! smiling, phoebe
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Date: Tue, 23 Feb 1999 19:27:10 -0700
From: sdavies(at)MtRoyal.AB.CA
Subject: Fannie Farmer <Was: Re: Today in History - Feb. 23>
I was reading the copyright on the Farmer cookbook (I couldn't believe the
appendix which said a cinnamon bun had fewer calories than something or other),
and was surprised to see that Farmer only issued a few editions before dieing in
1915. The cookbook has been updated and controlled by the Fannie Farmer
Cookbook Inc. (now published by Knopf).
See also: http://food2.epicurious.com/e_eating/e05_farmer/ffbio.html
Stephen D
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Date: Tue, 23 Feb 1999 20:16:30 -0700
From: sdavies(at)MtRoyal.AB.CA
Subject: Etext avail: Mrs. Wood's eulogy
(WoodX3.HTM) (Nonfic, Chronos)
Charles Wood's "Mrs. Henry Wood, in memoriam: part three" (1887-jun)
WoodX3.non
This completes the three-part eulogy that Charles Wood published
when he took over the editorship of the _Argosy_ from his mother.
To retrieve all three 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 WoodX1.non
get WoodX2.non
get WoodX3.non
or visit the Gaslight website at:
http://www.mtroyal.ab.ca/gaslight/WoodX1.htm
http://www.mtroyal.ab.ca/gaslight/WoodX2.htm
http://www.mtroyal.ab.ca/gaslight/WoodX3.htm
Stephen D
mailto:SDavies(at)mtroyal.ab.ca
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Date: Wed, 24 Feb 1999 00:56:54 -0500 (EST)
From: Robert Champ <rchamp(at)polaris.umuc.edu>
Subject: "An Egyptian Cigarette"
If that neurotic young woman, Edna Pointellier, had gotten
hold of some of these funny cigarettes, would she have crumpled
them up, as our narrator does here? Or been so willing to commit
suicide afterwards? I only bring it up because, in the narrator's
dream, we find some of the same imagery that Chopin uses
in _The Awakening_: the circling bird, for instance. (I really do
think that Edna, ever the rebellious one, might have become an
opium junkie if she had had the opportunity.)
I greatly admire Chopin's ability to tell a tale within a few short
pages--anyone who has read "Desiree's Baby" knows how effective
she can be in communicating a great deal with a minimum of words.
But I wish there had been a little more to this tale. Somehow, when
the narrator says that hours seemed to pass during her intoxicated
state, I didn't feel it was so. It is difficult to tell about a langorous
dream fugue in the brief sentences and paragraphs Chopin employs.
I don't think, though, that Chopin has any more sympathy for drug states
than her heroine. The whole point of the story is the latter's
throwing the Egyptian cigarettes away, despite all the temptations
to explore further. Perhaps this is the first "Just say, No" story.
I am curious about the Architect having "smuggled" in his
cigarettes in from far Egypt (today he would have probably been
nabbed by a drug-sniffing dog). He could no doubt have gotten
them from some wizened Oriental in the city--perhaps New Orleans,
where Chopin lived. But that would have introduced complications
that Chopin would not have wanted to deal with. But it would have
been interesting if the source was the city, leaving our narrator to
battle her curiosity.
It may well be that Chopin is replying to the Romantic interest in
drugs. She was not, by any means, a Romantic herself. Indeed, I have
always felt that her principle work, _The Awakening_, is an anti-
Romantic work that throws us off the scent by the adoption of a
highly Romantic style.
One hopes, in any case, that the Architect's cup of coffee bucked
up our narrator.
Bob C.
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
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: Wed, 24 Feb 1999 01:47:12 -0800
From: Robert Birchard <bbirchard(at)earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: Pickford movie with immobile sheep <WAS: Re: Mowing lawns>
sdavies(at)MtRoyal.AB.CA wrote:
> I apologize if I've told this secondhand anecdote before. Richard K., the
> shepherd, will remember if I have.
>
> During a Mary Pickford movie shoot, a scene was required where Mary sat in a
> barn and a pastoral scene was visible outside the doors. Unfortunately, the
> movie crew could not get the sheep to stay put in the background; they kept
> wandering out of shot. The crew could not tether the sheep without being
> obvious.
>
> The solution seems a beautiful example of Hollywood excess. The crew rebuilt
> the barn on high stilts, created little islands of grass up on poles outside
the
> barn doors and placed the sheep on them, via a ladder. The sheep stayed put,
> well within frame, for the duration of the shooting.
>
> There's pictures of this in Kevin Brownlow's _The parade's gone by_, (1968)
> (which my library seems to have considered a book too old to keep!!!!)
>
> Stephen D
Don't know if you'd call it Hollywood excess. The art director on
"Sparrows"
was Harry Oliver whos was noted for his atmospheric settings and controlled
environments. In fact the German expressionist learned a bit from Harry Oliver
(and
not the other way around). One of Oliver's specialties was recreating really
believeable exterior locations on the back lot--New England snow scenes on a
Culver
City lot in the middle of summer for "The Face of the World," 1921, the back
streets
of Paris for "7th Heaven," 1927, and even an entire swamp--also for "Sparrows"
(1926)--which one would swear was a Louisiana location.
Oliver's lasting monument (although it is periodically threatened) is the
famed
"witch's house" in Beverly Hills, which was originally built as the
administration
building of the Willat Studio in Culver City in 1921 and later moved to its
present
location after the studio closed.
Oliver got fed up with Hollywood after sound came in and retired to the
desert
where he periodically published "Harry Oliver's Desert Rat Journal" for a
number of
years.
- --
Bob Birchard
bbirchard(at)earthlink.net
http://www.mdle.com/ClassicFilms/Guest/birchard.htm
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Date: Wed, 24 Feb 1999 08:52:36 -0500 From: "Richard L. King" <rking(at)INDIAN.VINU.EDU> Subject: Re: Pickford movie with immobile sheep <WAS: Re: Mowing lawns> Nice sheep story, Stephen. That Brownlow book is essential and a classic. I can't believe it would ever be weeded from the library collection. More likely it was either stolen or perhaps discarded after being found covered with sticky cola. He wrote more in his silent film series, too, and I have several of them. Richard
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Date: Wed, 24 Feb 1999 10:35:43 -0700 From: Deborah McMillion Nering <deborah(at)gloaming.com> Subject: Re: "An Egyptian Cigarette" >would she have crumpled them up, as our narrator does here? Not having ever smoked or taken hallucinatory drugs I can't completely empathize with the narrator here. But I do believe if I had been so foolish to have smoked these mysterious cigarettes (possibly laced with an Egyptian version of opium or other hallucinatory drug) I would have crumpled them up, too. No telling what each successive 'experience' would have brought. I was interested that the smoker was a woman--certainly an odd time period for a woman smoker of such intensity and ritual. Perhaps someone else who is/was a great smoker can tell us if they might have been tempted by a box of god-knows-what wrapped up in paper? >anyone who has read "Desiree's Baby" knows how effective Yes, Bob--actually I just read this last week and the ending, that ending!--it profoundly affected me for days. I simply couldn't shake its effect. >One hopes, in any case, that the Architect's cup of coffee bucked >up our narrator. Or given the Architect a case of the shakes for passing those cigarettes on! Deborah Deborah McMillion deborah(at)gloaming.com http://www.gloaming.com/deborah.html
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Date: Wed, 24 Feb 1999 12:42:46 -0500
From: lpv1(at)is2.nyu.edu
Subject: Re: "An Egyptian Cigarette"
At 10:35 AM 2/24/99 -0700, you wrote:
- - a new woman certainly, smoking while lounging
in the men's smoking-den to get away from the incessant chatter of women...but
Chopin does bow to the Victorian sensibilities by having "madam" destroy the
rest of the cigarets.
The architect calls the narrator Madam -- does it mean that this is
a mature woman -- in her 30s? Or were even young ladies called madam if
married?
Also, I got the feeling that the Narrator and Madam were old friends,
and this
is not the first time she's tried something that he had to offer her with
the same
adventurous results.
Ah, I could almost feel the ennui of a 20s flapper... the lounging, the
languid cigarette smoke
curling up
I notice the story is from Vogue --- is that the same magazine as today's
Vogue?
LuciePaula
>>One hopes, in any case, that the Architect's cup of coffee bucked
>>up our narrator.
>
>Or given the Architect a case of the shakes for passing those cigarettes on!
>
>Deborah
>
>Deborah McMillion
>deborah(at)gloaming.com
>http://www.gloaming.com/deborah.html
>
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Date: Wed, 24 Feb 1999 11:52:51 -0600 From: athan chilton <ayc(at)UIUC.EDU> Subject: Re: "An Egyptian Cigarette" > > >Perhaps someone else who is/was a great smoker can tell us if they might >have been tempted by a box of god-knows-what wrapped up in paper? I haven't had a chance to read the story yet, and have never been a cigarette smoker. However, smoking or otherwise ingesting cannabis was a commonly prescribed treatment for all manner of ills, esp. women's ills, in the Victorian period, so partaking of a 'mysterious cigarette' might not have been considered quite as risky as we would think it now. This strikes me as another case of 'telling detail' in an historical tale, because neither occasional opium (laudanum) or cannabis use in that era carried quite the stigma such habits do today--and neither one was illegal, being common elements in the pharmacopoiea of the day. > Now I'd better go read the story so I know what I'm talking about! athan ayc(at)uiuc.edu
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Date: Wed, 24 Feb 1999 12:13:20 -0600 From: Chris Carlisle <CarlislC(at)psychiatry.wustl.edu> Subject: Re: "An Egyptian Cigarette" Oh, yes you have, Athan!! I remember when it was first available, but not discussed. You sent me a message saying "What was in those cigarettes, anyway?" I believe, btw, that Vogue is quite an old magazine, a successor to the dear old Godey Lady's Book. Kiwi
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Date: Wed, 24 Feb 1999 11:28:37 -0700
From: sdavies(at)MtRoyal.AB.CA
Subject: Re: "An Egyptian Cigarette"
A friend recenlty wrote an English paper on "Cigarette", contrasting the story
with Victoria Cross' "Theodora: a fragment" (both out of Showalter's _Daughter's
of decadence_ (1983?).
Her position followed that of Edward Said (_Orientalism_ (1978), &c.) in viewing
all Victorian/Edwardian representation of the Orient (i.e. Middle East to the
Pacific) as necessarily skewed. The colonists (and somehow the Americans don't
deviate from this point of view, perhaps not until Chopin) represent the Orient
as either deficiently backward or as connivingly evil. The perpetuation of
these two stereotypes reduced any objection to the colonization of these
territories.
Chopin, however, represents a lush, passionate environment which overwhelms and
frightens the Narrator. The cigarettes must come directly from Egpyt to
demonstrate the direct connection with that culture, and the Narrator's brush
with it. The drug contained therein is not so much a mind-alterer as a
substance which infuses the Narrator with a new feeling for the Orient. That it
should be a "new woman" who experiences this is yet another wrinkle, one for
which I can't suggest an explanation.
Stephen D
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Date: Wed, 24 Feb 1999 12:42:50 -0600 From: athan chilton <ayc(at)UIUC.EDU> Subject: Re: "An Egyptian Cigarette" > >>>One hopes, in any case, that the Architect's cup of coffee bucked >>>up our narrator. >> >>Or given the Architect a case of the shakes for passing those cigarettes on! Ah, now I've read the story (and a brief little one it is, too). Reading it, it struck me that it might well have been based on a true experience--that is, the author smoked something unfamiliar, with the result that she experienced a drug dream of sorts, no doubt conjured by the supposed Egyptian origin of whatever was in the cigarettes. Doesn't sound like opium; her experience was too brief. More likely kif, which in the Middle East was and probably still is routinely mixed with tobacco before being smoked...Or 'kat' which was and is a very common, mild hallucinogen, a social drug, in that part of the world. Stranger things have happened, and been written down as 'fiction'... The effects of Orientalism were certainly widespread and far-reaching in Victorian society. This often-mistaken passion for sometimes wholly imaginary scenes and sorts of people nonetheless engendered changes in everything from art to literature; saw the exportation to the West of Middle Eastern dance forms (oh! the shock!) and music; affected the development of movements as diverse as Art Nouveau and, later, the Prairie style in architecture (which owed something to the clean horizontal linear qualities of Japanese architecture). I find it interesting that the author, or the narrator, seemed to be rebelling against this pervasive aura--and yet succumbs wholly to it for at least a moment. Her entire dream is an Orientalist pastiche, an event so romanticized as to bear no relation to anyone's reality, Egyptian or otherwise...in fact it was a little Victorian-era romantic tragedy set in an Orientalist never-never land... I didn't quite know what to make of this little story, other than that I enjoyed the writing, and wished it had gone on longer; I felt the disjointed, emotionally volatile tone of the 'drug dream' was appropriate and well-written. athan ayc(at)uiuc.edu
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Date: Wed, 24 Feb 1999 13:46:07 -0500 (EST)
From: Robert Champ <rchamp(at)polaris.umuc.edu>
Subject: Re: "An Egyptian Cigarette"
On Wed, 24 Feb 1999, Deborah McMillion Nering wrote:
>
> Not having ever smoked or taken hallucinatory drugs I can't completely
> empathize with the narrator here. But I do believe if I had been so
> foolish to have smoked these mysterious cigarettes (possibly laced with an
> Egyptian version of opium or other hallucinatory drug) I would have
> crumpled them up, too. No telling what each successive 'experience' would
> have brought. I was interested that the smoker was a woman--certainly an
> odd time period for a woman smoker of such intensity and ritual.
It seems that there is some disagreement about the kind of drug involved
in the story. I suspect that the drug is opium because the narrator
talks about a dream, which means that she was asleep or at least in
a drug-induced stupor. Opium is a CNS depressant and would have this
effect. Cannabis indica, on the other hand, is a stimulant that might
produce hallucinations or waking fantasies, but not dreams.
Opium is not a hallucinatory drug.
It would be interesting to find out if Chopin ever experimented with
funny cigarettes or knew anyone who did. Is there a good biography of
Chopin floating around?
Bob C.
_________________________________________________
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
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: Wed, 24 Feb 1999 13:22:20 -0600 From: athan chilton <ayc(at)UIUC.EDU> Subject: Re: "An Egyptian Cigarette" >Oh, yes you have, Athan!! I remember when it was first available, but >not discussed. You sent me a message saying "What was in >those cigarettes, anyway?" well, come to think of it, I do vaguely (not Voguely) remember that. But I didn't remember while reading the story except for thinking it seemed kind of familiar... Must be short-term memory loss or something (snide grin). ayc
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Date: Wed, 24 Feb 1999 19:05:49 -0500 (EST)
From: Robert Champ <rchamp(at)polaris.umuc.edu>
Subject: "The Ballad of Reynardine"
I'd like to encourage Gaslighters to read the story "The Ballad of
Reynardine" by fellow listmember Athan Chilton. Athan's story
is well-plotted and succinctly told, and it recreates deftly some of the
atmosphere surrounding Donn Byrne's "Reynardine" (one of
my all-time favorite Gaslight tales). There also moments of shock that
make the story well-worth downloading and perusing.
I enjoyed the tale very much, Firefly.
Bob C
_________________________________________________
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
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: Thu, 25 Feb 1999 00:28:20 -0500 (EST)
From: Robert Champ <rchamp(at)polaris.umuc.edu>
Subject: Re: Today in History - Feb. 23
On Tue, 23 Feb 1999, Jerry Carlson wrote:
> 1885
> John Lee survives three attempts to hang him in
>Exeter Prison, as the trap fails to open.
And was there a fourth attempt, or did prison officials give up,
frustrated by what was apparently a fiat of fate?
Bob C.
_________________________________________________
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
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: Thu, 25 Feb 1999 08:39:19 -0600 From: athan chilton <ayc(at)UIUC.EDU> Subject: Re: "The Ballad of Reynardine" >I'd like to encourage Gaslighters to read the story "The Ballad of >Reynardine" by fellow listmember Athan Chilton. Athan's story >is well-plotted and succinctly told, and it recreates deftly some of the >atmosphere surrounding Donn Byrne's "Reynardine" (one of >my all-time favorite Gaslight tales). There also moments of shock that >make the story well-worth downloading and perusing. > >I enjoyed the tale very much, Firefly. Firefly quotes Bob's note in its entirety and sez 'Thanks Very Much!' Bob has supported all of my writing that he's seen. I only wish he were a publisher so I could see these stories in print somewhere besides fanzines. And I'd also like to 'publicly' thank Linda Anderson for giving me an idea that led to one of the 'moments of shock' in this story. Also, I'd like to remark briefly on the story's origins. Although it does touch on Byrne's setting, and a character of the same name, I had no knowledge of Byrne's story when I began to write mine. In fact, seeing Byrne's story here on Gaslight set off a veritable chain of firecrackers in my mind. My only reference for the name 'Reynardine' and the character himself (not herself, as in Byrne's tale) came from the Fairport Convention recording of the ballad 'Reynardine', which I'd heard in the late 60s/early 70s when it first was released, and which seemed to hint at a character with supernatural attributes. (It did seem odd that the only description of Reynardine in the song consisted of the line "his teeth so bright did shine"). After I created a 'Marcel de Reynardine' for my vampire novel in the early 90s, I started getting more interested in the character of the ballads. Why did he have ballads written about him? Why did of the variants seem to point at a supernatural being? Why was he pursued by government agents? Was he a known criminal, a scofflaw--or something more deadly? There are several stories in my Reynardine collection now; Ballad of Reynardine, The View-Holloa, and Immortality in Oils. And very likely there will be more! And I also wonder if Byrne knew, and was influenced by, the various ballads...? Athan aka Firefly ayc(at)uiuc.edu
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Date: Thu, 25 Feb 1999 09:34:15 -0700
From: Jerry Carlson <gmc(at)libra.pvh.org>
Subject: Today in History - Feb. 25
1804
Thomas Jefferson is nominated for president at the
Democratic-Republican caucus.
1815
Napoleon leaves his exile on the Island of Elba, intending to
return to France.
1831
The Polish army halts the Russian advance into their country at
the Battle of Grochow.
1836
Samuel Colt patents the first revolving barrel multi-shot
firearm.
1862
Confederate troops abandon Nashville, Tenn., in the face of
Grant's advance. The ironclad
Monitor is commissioned at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
1865
General Joseph E. Johnston replaces John Bell Hood as Commander
of the Confederate
Army of Tennessee [Of course, the Army of Tennessee was in
South Carolina at this time
&8-{) ].
1910
The Dalai Lama flees from the Chinese and takes refuge in India.
1913
The 16th Amendment to the constitution is adopted, setting the
legal basis for the income
tax.
1919
Oregon introduces the first state tax on gasoline at one cent
per gallon, to be used for road
construction.
Born on February 25
1841
Pierre Auguste Renoir, French painter and founder of the French
Impressionist movement.
1856
Charles Lang Freer, U.S. art collector
1873
Enrico Caruso, Italian operatic lyric tenor who excelled in
operas such as Pagliacci.
1888
John Foster Dulles, Secretary of State to President Eisenhower
[According to Mad's
"History of the Middle Twentitieth Century", reprinted in _The
Self-Made Mad_, Eisenhower
was elected President in 1952, innaugurated in 1953, reelected
in 1956, and took over the duties
of the Presidency upon Dulles' death in 1959. &8-{) ]
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Date: Thu, 25 Feb 1999 21:06:12 -0500 (EST)
From: Robert Champ <rchamp(at)polaris.umuc.edu>
Subject: Re: "An Egyptian Cigarette"
On Wed, 24 Feb 1999 sdavies(at)MtRoyal.AB.CA wrote:
>>
Her position followed that of Edward Said (_Orientalism_ (1978), &c.) in
viewing all Victorian/Edwardian representation of the Orient (i.e. Middle
East to the Pacific) as necessarily skewed. The colonists (and somehow
the Americans don't deviate from this point of view, perhaps not until
Chopin) represent the Orient as either deficiently backward or as
connivingly evil. The perpetuation of these two stereotypes reduced any
objection to the colonization of these territories. >>
I think we can safely say that any culture has a "skewed" perception of
another culture. What I think is interesting is the use to which artists
put Eastern things and the homage to the East paid by nineteenth
century artists in both America and Europe. This is especially true
of Japanese culture, which was much in vogue at the beginning and end of
the nineteenth century. (Note, for instance, the influence on the
paintings of Whistler and the stories of Hearn, and the very large
influence on decorative arts.) India also had adherents--look, for
example, at the importance of Buddhism to the transcendalist movement.
The Middle East also had its impact, for example in Fitzgerald's highly
popular translation of the "Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam." All of this
material was, of course, strained through a Western sensibility, but
I don't know that anyone supposed that the inhabitants of Eastern and
Middle Eastern cultures who produced these works were backward or evil.
I do think that the idea of Asian imagery might have been suggested
by the geographical source of drugs like opium and cannabis, and that the
literature that grew up around drug-use (e.g., _The Confessions of an
English Opium-Eater" and "Kubla Khan"), which had many Eastern themes, had
its influence on later writers, many of whom may never have taken opium
or cannabis themselves.
I can't see how Chopin's story does much to change the view of the East.
Her narrator experiences some of the same imagery, both pleasurable and
painful, that we are accustomed to in DeQuincy--except that it isn't
anywhere near as extraordinary. And I don't see her final rejection
of the drug as so much an abandonment of Western ideas about the East
as an indictment of the glorification of drug use by Romantic artists.
I do believe, in any case, that a new perception of the East cannot
be laid at the door of Chopin alone--at least not on the evidence of
"An Egyptian Cigarette."
Bob C. (who's very glad to see Stephen back at the helm)
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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: Fri, 26 Feb 1999 11:28:12 -0800 (PST) From: Jack Kolb <KOLB(at)UCLA.EDU> Subject: Re: Casting the Runes Thanks to Bob and Marta for their replies (I often read in reverse: hence this anachronistic response). Of course some of these programs (not "Escape," so far as I can tell) are offered by the Wireless and Signals (PBS/NPR) catalogs. But usually it's a hodgepodge. Cheers, Jack (kolb(at)ucla.edu). >Jack Kolb wrote: >> >> I'm assuming that I'm not alone in this group in confessing my addiction to >> the rebroadcasting (in L.A. on the CBS News station KNX) of old radio >> dramas. I was recently delighted to catch one broadcast in the series >> "Escape": an adaptation of M. R. James' "Casting the Runes." I'm about to >> reread the story to see how well it was adapted. Unfortunately I didn't get >> to tape it, but I imagine it might ultimately be repeated. Amusingly, the >> KNX program guide lists the title as "Casting the Ruins." Sigh. >> >> Jack Kolb >> Dept. of English, UCLA >> kolb(at)ucla.edu > >I'm with you, Jack. I still mourn the loss of CBS Radio Mystery Theater, >which used to broadcast in LA on KNX. Hyman Brown, the producer/director >of the show, was one of the last of the old pros from golden age radio. >I interviewed him once on the phone for a story that never got written >or published; he was an interesting and impressive man, not surprising >given the quality and breadth of his show. Does anyone out there know >what the status of those shows is? I assume he's not still working, but >I wonder if any stations around the country are re-broadcasting the >show; or whether the shows are sold on cassette. > > >Bob Eldridge > ------------------------------ End of Gaslight Digest V1 #47 *****************************