tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11272782175420748772024-03-13T13:36:11.802-04:00Archimedes ForgetsSarah Rettgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00520851723152425929noreply@blogger.comBlogger338125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1127278217542074877.post-8825175550625862212013-06-16T10:27:00.002-04:002013-06-16T10:27:44.826-04:00Invisibility as a form of respectOn Friday, Fresh Air replayed part of a <a href="http://www.npr.org/2012/11/26/165913371/mantel-takes-up-betrayal-beheadings-in-bodies">Hilary Mantel interview</a>. It included this bit on Mantel's experience of life in Saudi Arabia:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"But of course I was never introduced to her husband. And if we happened to pass in the common hallway, then his reaction was to look straight through me and at the wall. As if I was invisible, for all my newly gained flesh. And by doing this, he was showing his respect for me. Now, you have to work hard to get your head around that, that making someone invisible is a form of respect. I wasn't wearing a black veil, but he was dropping one over me."</blockquote>
Being able to understand and accept the validity of an idea like that, without accepting it as true, is a writer's skill I'm still working on.Sarah Rettgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00520851723152425929noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1127278217542074877.post-61517990356479441512013-05-08T10:32:00.000-04:002013-05-08T10:32:06.102-04:00Links: not dormant, just distracted<ul>
<li>Sara Zarr takes on L'Engle's <a href="http://lareviewofbooks.org/article.php?id=1479">Austin family</a></li>
<li>The <a href="http://abffesilentauction.wordpress.com/">ABFFE Silent Auction</a> has an online presence this year (all credit to the fab Kristen Gilligan Vlahos!)</li>
<li>Buildings <a href="http://inhabitat.com/beautiful-buildings-made-from-whole-trees/">made from trees</a> -- as in trees, not lumber</li>
<li><a href="http://www.typographyforlawyers.com/"><i>Typography for Lawyers</i></a></li>
<li>Analyzing the <a href="http://www.poynter.org/how-tos/newsgathering-storytelling/writing-tools/211904/boston-globe-reporter-shows-how-news-writing-can-unfold-like-a-story-in-a-book/">narrative features</a> of breaking news</li>
<li>For everyone who liked my "<a href="http://sarahrettger.blogspot.com/2013/02/can-i-flirt-with-my-bookseller.html">how to flirt with your bookseller</a>" post -- <a href="http://edwardianpromenade.com/etiquette/the-edwardian-flirt/">Edwardian flirting</a>!</li>
<li>(Some) <a href="http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2013/indie-bookstore-sales-of-kobo-ebooks-dwarf-google-still-small">actual numbers</a> on independent bookstores and e-books</li>
<li>Trying to make <a href="http://chronicle.com/article/History-Is-Scholarship-Its/47055/">academics</a> write better</li>
<li>Book <a href="http://www.booktrust.org.uk/writing/online-writer-in-residence/blog/558/">snobbery</a> smackdowns</li>
<li>How <a href="http://meoskop.blogspot.com/2013/04/master-of-his-domain.html">privilege</a> might apply to reading romance</li>
<li>The <a href="http://travel.nytimes.com/2013/03/10/travel/ambling-among-londons-odd-and-empty-corners.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0">historical fiction</a> fan's tour of London</li>
</ul>
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Sarah Rettgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00520851723152425929noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1127278217542074877.post-55564948755821020902013-02-26T13:31:00.001-05:002013-02-26T13:31:45.242-05:00WiNot: Blog edition<a href="http://minionsofisidore.tumblr.com/post/43747741600/watching-my-coworkers-leave-for-winter-institute">Minions of Isidore</a> is spot on. (On so many things. I don't know who's behind this blog, but s/he is brilliant.)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt2YmxFhYZUFgqrIhmBvGtkRl4R0N5HGbuzC8Lu4VbzVjijFXh-kEF9k0IzSoGFUSWeTQJHwvjW-5Yt14R87M2nC-gQroHNfoUBgiyjFm61bwIbPL2pEJcvcvVbwSP0PLybCbIdHjuVqas/s1600/Capture.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="157" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt2YmxFhYZUFgqrIhmBvGtkRl4R0N5HGbuzC8Lu4VbzVjijFXh-kEF9k0IzSoGFUSWeTQJHwvjW-5Yt14R87M2nC-gQroHNfoUBgiyjFm61bwIbPL2pEJcvcvVbwSP0PLybCbIdHjuVqas/s320/Capture.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
This is the third year now that I haven't been at Winter Institute, and oh yes I miss it. Two years ago, those of us in the Boston area who didn't make it to the main event in DC met up at Porter Square Books for the <a href="http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ar/theshelf/2011-01-25/image_of_the_day_winottweetup.html">#WiNot Tweetup</a>. This year, I just followed along via Twitter.<br />
<br />
It's not the same as being there, especially when nuance is required. But there's still quite a lot to think about.<br />
<script src="//storify.com/SarahRettger/wi8-1.js"></script><noscript>[<a href="//storify.com/SarahRettger/wi8-1" target="_blank">View the story "Wi8" on Storify</a>]</noscript>
Sarah Rettgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00520851723152425929noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1127278217542074877.post-56217043082753199332013-02-19T10:44:00.001-05:002013-02-19T10:44:14.205-05:00Links<ul><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAIhdY4Xfu3T3pOjdXM7F322ytSyNwoPcONPbZusTZYrRiCqEBY4UPVoXLPfxwiczOrCnvQANErIZXbr3jVufO62gV12oHVI8ZdIy6rLyHNva4v40VrqaRhvl2ENDt8JYMSFMyHWcsqXYM/s1600/058+(2).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAIhdY4Xfu3T3pOjdXM7F322ytSyNwoPcONPbZusTZYrRiCqEBY4UPVoXLPfxwiczOrCnvQANErIZXbr3jVufO62gV12oHVI8ZdIy6rLyHNva4v40VrqaRhvl2ENDt8JYMSFMyHWcsqXYM/s320/058+(2).JPG" width="320" /></a>
<li>On being an introvert: <a href="http://www.stackedbooks.org/2013/02/doing-disservice-to-introversion.html">Kelly</a>, <a href="http://blogs.slj.com/teacozy/2013/02/08/speak-up-already/">Liz</a>, <a href="http://charlotteslibrary.blogspot.com/2013/02/my-introverted-take-on-being-called-on.html">Charlotte</a></li>
<li>On discoverability: <a href="http://loudpoet.com/2013/02/11/discovery-is-only-a-problem-for-publishers-not-readers/">Guy</a>, <a href="http://paidcontent.org/2013/02/15/heres-the-problem-with-publishers-book-discovery-problem/">Laura</a>, <a href="http://www.brettsandusky.com/2013/02/12/is-discoverability-even-a-problem/">Brett</a></li>
<li>Leila is hosting <a href="http://bookshelvesofdoom.blogs.com/bookshelves_of_doom/2013/02/are-you-a-fan-of-elizabeth-peters-andor-barbara-michaels.html">Petersweek</a></li>
<li>James Fallows on the latest <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/02/the-annotated-2013-state-of-the-union/273176/">State of the Union</a> speech</li>
<li>Worst neologism of the week: "<a href="http://www.themachinestarts.com/read/2013-01-in-search-of-authenticity-how-web-remixing-high-street">boutique revivalism</a>"</li>
<li>An <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/09/opinion/how-the-post-office-made-america.html">appreciation</a> of the Post Office's social impact</li>
<li>On writing for <a href="http://chronicle.com/article/Historians-Get-Advice-on/136489/">readers</a> in an academic context</li>
<li>From the <a href="http://edwardianpromenade.com/war/addie-hunton-on-the-ymca/">perspective</a> of an African-American WWI YMCA canteen worker</li>
<li>Journalism <a href="http://jacklimpert.com/2013/02/the-key-to-writing-good-novels-you-use-the-reporting-skills-of-a-good-journalist/">skills</a> for novelists</li>
</ul>
Sarah Rettgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00520851723152425929noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1127278217542074877.post-76821431236160394352013-02-08T13:00:00.001-05:002013-02-08T13:00:12.066-05:00TBR alertFrom today's <a href="http://publishersmarketplace.com/">Publishers Lunch</a>: "Caitlin Fitz's OUR SISTER REPUBLICS, about how the early United States'
enthusiasm for foreign revolutions shaped popular U.S. understandings of race, rebellion, and republicanism"<br />
<br />
Yes, please. Sarah Rettgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00520851723152425929noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1127278217542074877.post-52827154686267554372013-02-05T15:20:00.001-05:002013-02-05T15:21:09.807-05:00Can I flirt with my bookseller?<br />
<br />
With Valentine's Day around the corner, this is the question that is naturally on every book lover's mind: When I go into my local bookstore, am I allowed to start flirting with the staff?<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFU3pMBzrParaLlOT63RTKdm4To9I9_Y-AhPoHQCNq9pm4pvK8ujvSu0Y6Cmn6mGWXqQ9T4e4Ii9Njq26KwUDFgW5vY4e_xl85_4jUma3JTzj0rZT8Ly9F7uGRO4Tco-46Hufx4iQ-dPan/s1600/004+(4).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFU3pMBzrParaLlOT63RTKdm4To9I9_Y-AhPoHQCNq9pm4pvK8ujvSu0Y6Cmn6mGWXqQ9T4e4Ii9Njq26KwUDFgW5vY4e_xl85_4jUma3JTzj0rZT8Ly9F7uGRO4Tco-46Hufx4iQ-dPan/s320/004+(4).JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
Short version: Of course! Booksellers are lovely people (not that I'm biased), and often enjoy chatting with other book lovers. Many of them are also single and looking. But even if they're not, they may well be open to innocent flirtation.<br />
<br />
Longer version: As long as you're not stupid about it. Aim to amuse yourself and others, not to get yourself banned from the bookstore. Please review these examples of <a href="http://whatever.scalzi.com/2012/08/09/an-incomplete-guide-to-not-creeping/">what not to do</a> if you are in any way uncertain as to what constitutes inappropriate behavior.<br />
<br />
1. If someone encourages you to get a room, you're doing it wrong. Listen to <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=Q348PWE1p6MC&printsec=frontcover&dq=miss+manners+guide+to+excruciatingly+correct+behavior&hl=en&sa=X&ei=MV8RUfrZBuWA0AGQ5YHADA&ved=0CDAQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22proper%20flirtation%22&f=false">Miss Manners</a>:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"The tone should be 'Ah, had I but met you earlier -- had I but known that someone like you existed,' as opposed to 'How about giving it a whirl and seeing if it works?'"</blockquote>
Which is not to say that the bookseller is necessarily averse to giving it a whirl, at some future point.<br />
<br />
2. Buy something. The ideal time to begin the flirting process is when you hand over your item to check out. You've got a solid thirty seconds or so to make an impact, more if you do a good job and the bookseller isn't swamped. <br />
<br />
3. Be aware of your surroundings. If there's a line behind you, your chance for flirtation is over as soon as you've collected your change. The bookseller's going to ignore you and move on to the next person waiting to give her money, because that's why she's there. (Hint: If there's already a line, spend a few minutes wandering the store. There's often a herd tendency around the cash wrap area, with everyone deciding to check out at once, followed by a five-minute lull.)<br />
<br />
(Corollary: If you're attempting to flirt shortly before Christmas, Mother's Day, Father's Day, or major school vacations, it's probably not worth trying. The bookseller may be too swamped to even realize your intent, and even if she does, she'll be too overwhelmed to manage an appropriate reply until ten minutes after you've left the store. It's a missed opportunity for everyone.)<br />
<br />
4. Talk about books. Not only is this appropriate to your surroundings, it also gives both you and the bookseller an easy starting point. You both like books. You both know books. Surely you can find a way to talk via books.<br />
<br />
5. Be funny. This is banter, not Don Juan's greatest hits. Funny is charming, especially when it involves books.<br />
<br />
6. Watch for signals. If the bookseller looks ready to end the conversation, let it go. Don't make her resort to "Sorry, I've got to go organize books in the back room" to get away from her. It's always easier for you to walk away than it is for the bookseller. (Assuming you've already paid. Don't forget that step.)<br />
<br />
7. That means positive signals too. If the flirtation is going well, there may well be an option to extend it. If you mention that being single leaves a lot of time for reading, and the bookseller's response doesn't include "Well, somehow my husband finds time for it" or "I've got to go organize books in the back room," that may well be a positive signal.<br />
<br />
8. Take a number. Remember Point 1? Don't push things too far in this first round. If you think the flirtation has a chance of moving on to bigger and better things, ask for the chance to try for it later on. As in "Hey, maybe we could get together sometime and see what 90s sci fi we've both read. Can I give you a call?" Which gives the bookseller an easy way to say "No, I really only want to talk to you when there's a substantial wooden barrier between us," or else "Sure, but texting me's the best way to get a response. Here's the number."<br />
<br />
At that point, you're on your own.Sarah Rettgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00520851723152425929noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1127278217542074877.post-33737843034031863832013-01-22T10:50:00.003-05:002013-01-22T10:50:53.509-05:00The link harvest is good this week<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtQCOqVjzlGFxxuFPAFvjth2BM8xtCmw41O-2qaRxoo5Xin467As2vzWtxujL6VCYyHO0cjIY7YTROOcfP1vqEH9zJTa_Ijm4Y7TCRjj8hsuEg3n_ORUV7FdKZERkbpL2UOjOevNGYj5-N/s1600/Europe+Trip+176-editB.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtQCOqVjzlGFxxuFPAFvjth2BM8xtCmw41O-2qaRxoo5Xin467As2vzWtxujL6VCYyHO0cjIY7YTROOcfP1vqEH9zJTa_Ijm4Y7TCRjj8hsuEg3n_ORUV7FdKZERkbpL2UOjOevNGYj5-N/s320/Europe+Trip+176-editB.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<ul>
<li>Medieval Judeo-Persian <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/15/world/middleeast/documents-illuminate-jewish-life-in-ancient-muslim-empire.html">manuscripts</a> have been discovered</li>
<li>Elizabeth Wein on <a href="http://writingteennovels.com/2013/01/02/some-themes-for-teen-novels-by-elizabeth-wein/">what makes</a> a novel YA</li>
<li>The <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/civil-war-hero-robert-smalls-seized-the-opportunity-to-be-free/2012/02/23/gIQAcGBtmR_story.html">story</a> of Robert Smalls</li>
<li>Wharton <a href="http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=3167">takes on</a> Barnes & Noble</li>
<li>Justine Larbalestier on <a href="http://justinelarbalestier.com/blog/2013/01/17/hating-whole-genres/">genre</a>-bashing</li>
<li>Reading a book at the <a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2013/01/is-there-a-right-age-to-read-a-book">right age</a> (to which I say "yes and no")</li>
<li>On <a href="http://stevebuttry.wordpress.com/2013/01/17/linking-and-checklists-could-have-prevented-journalists-from-manti-teo-girlfriend-hoax-embarrassment/">digital fact-checking</a> (and the importance of links)</li>
<li>Brett Sandusky <a href="http://www.brettsandusky.com/2013/01/15/elephants-in-the-room/">says</a> many smart things</li>
<li>On the idea of <a href="http://www.murderati.com/blog/2013/1/14/selling-or-selling-out.html/">selling out</a> (or not)</li>
</ul>
(Post pic: just because.) Sarah Rettgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00520851723152425929noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1127278217542074877.post-74027370474330618922013-01-08T13:56:00.004-05:002013-01-08T13:56:53.755-05:00Highlights of last year's reading<ul>
<li>Best vintage smackdown: <a href="http://www.librarything.com/work/87864/book/81728433"><i>Domestic Manners of the Americans</i></a>, Fanny Trollope</li>
<li>Runner-up: <a href="http://www.librarything.com/work/162191/book/90478024"><i>The Invention of Tradition</i></a> (specifically, Hugh Trevor-Roper's chapter on the kilt) </li>
<li>Most beat-up ARC by the time I got it: <a href="http://www.librarything.com/work/8895486/book/84643137"><i>Bitterblue</i></a>, Kristin Cashore</li>
<li>Should have read this when it first came out: <a href="http://www.librarything.com/work/9209435/book/87412317"><i>Wolf Hall</i></a>, Hilary Mantel </li>
<li>Runner-up: <a href="http://www.librarything.com/work/1638/book/81484781"><i>Holes</i></a>, Louis Sachar</li>
<li>Well, now I have to read the whole series: <a href="http://www.librarything.com/work/11116434/book/92028549"><i>Island of Bones</i></a>, Imogen Robertson</li>
<li>Runner-up: <a href="http://www.librarything.com/work/350290/book/92687668"><i>Some Danger Involved</i></a>, Will Thomas</li>
<li>Most awesome cover design: <a href="http://www.librarything.com/work/12770322/book/87457871"><i>One Came Home</i></a>, Amy Timberlake</li>
<li>Best dishy history: <a href="http://www.librarything.com/work/139656/book/85096161"><i>To Marry an English Lord</i></a>, Gail MacColl and Carol McD. Wallace</li>
<li>Best setup for the last book in the series: <a href="http://www.librarything.com/work/12549813/book/92373501"><i>Speaking from Among the Bones</i></a>, Alan Bradley</li>
<li>Most worth slogging through a weak beginning for: <a href="http://www.librarything.com/work/12748111/book/91638870"><i>The Fire Horse Girl</i></a>, Kay Honeyman</li>
<li>Journalism degree between two covers: <a href="http://www.librarything.com/work/11687710/book/84396184"><i>Deadline Artists</i></a></li>
<li>Perfect for high-school me: <a href="http://www.librarything.com/work/11647041/book/83880046"><i>Watergate</i></a>, Thomas Mallon</li>
</ul>
Sarah Rettgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00520851723152425929noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1127278217542074877.post-82641342572242308572012-12-15T10:14:00.003-05:002012-12-15T10:14:39.670-05:00Links (short version)<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.badreputation.org.uk/2012/11/09/found-feminism-hands-off-womens-self-defence-1942-style/">Self-defense</a> for women in 1942</li>
<li>For those of us doing <a href="http://io9.com/5963305/how-to-tell-if-the-first-draft-of-your-novel-just-isnt-worth-salvaging">revisions</a>, even of the non-NaNo variety</li>
<li>Lee Child on <a href="http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/08/a-simple-way-to-create-suspense/?smid=tw-share">writing</a> suspense</li>
<li>File under <a href="http://radioboston.wbur.org/2012/06/15/new-england-succession">things</a> I don't know enough about: the War of 1812</li>
</ul>
Sarah Rettgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00520851723152425929noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1127278217542074877.post-32248837783563641902012-11-27T14:06:00.000-05:002012-11-27T14:06:01.185-05:00Great Expectations, post the secondChapter 4<br />
<ul>
<li>Spoke too soon. The Gargery-Pirrip family will be going through the Christmas rituals after all.</li>
<li>"So, we had our slices served out, as if we were two thousand troops on a
forced march instead of a man and boy at home; and we took gulps of milk
and water, with apologetic countenances, from a jug on the dresser."</li>
<li>"Mrs. Joe was a very clean
housekeeper, but had an exquisite art of making her cleanliness more
uncomfortable and unacceptable than dirt itself."</li>
<li>"I was always treated as if I
had insisted on being born in opposition to the dictates of reason,
religion, and morality, and against the dissuading arguments of my best
friends."</li>
<li>"I opened the door to the company,—making believe that it was a habit
of ours to open that door,—and I opened it first to Mr. Wopsle, next
to Mr. and Mrs. Hubble, and last of all to Uncle Pumblechook. N.B. I was
not allowed to call him uncle, under the severest penalties."</li>
<li>" the
Pumblechookian elbow in my eye"</li>
<li>If you've gotten this far into the book and are not feeling profoundly sorry for Joe Gargery, I'm not sure we're on speaking terms any more. That man needs a hug. And while I don't remember all the details from the last time I read the book, I'm fairly sure he's not going to get one.</li>
<li>For the moment, things look bad for Pip, as it turns out he didn't water down the brandy to cover what he gave the convict, he poured the infamous tar-water into it.</li>
<li>There's another reference to the fact that Pip is looking back and telling this story, and it's a curiously phrased one: "I moved the table, like a Medium of the present day, by
the vigor of my unseen hold upon it." But I guess the paranormal stuff didn't really get started until the last third of century.</li>
<li>This is one of the rare occasions in literature where the arrival of soldiers bearing handcuffs is actually a good thing. In a way. </li>
</ul>
<br />
Chapter 5<br />
<ul>
<li>For a character who never gets a name of his own, the sergeant is a rather clever bit on Dickens' part. He knows just what to say to everyone -- and manages to flirt with Mrs. Joe while keeping a straight face.</li>
<li>Poor Joe. Everyone else gets to sit around and drink wine while he has to follow his Christmas dinner with a stint at the anvil.</li>
<li>"I thought what terrible good sauce for a
dinner my fugitive friend on the marshes was."</li>
<li>I love that Pip now thinks of the man as "my particular convict."</li>
<li>Curiouser and curiouser: When they catch the two convicts down at the marshes, Pip's convict makes a point of noting that he captured the other one. When the sergeant points out it's not likely to get him any time off, "'I don't expect it to do me any good. I don't want it to do me more good
than it does now,' said my convict, with a greedy laugh. 'I took him. He
knows it. That's enough for me.'"</li>
<li>Clearly there's a history between these two men. Otherwise, wouldn't they put a little more effort into dealing with the fact that the soldiers have recaptured them?</li>
<li>"It had been
almost dark before, but now it seemed quite dark, and soon afterwards very
dark."</li>
<li>And Pip's convict is demonstrating his humanity here, claiming he stole the food Pip brought him. This chapter is really just a stroke of luck for Pip. </li>
</ul>
<br />
Chapter 6<br />
<ul>
<li>This is an excessively short chapter.</li>
<li>Why Pip doesn't make a confession of his own: "The fear of losing Joe's
confidence, and of thenceforth sitting in the chimney corner at night
staring drearily at my forever lost companion and friend, tied up my
tongue."</li>
<li>And there's the theme, right there: "In a word, I was too cowardly to do what I
knew to be right, as I had been too cowardly to avoid doing what I knew to
be wrong. I had had no intercourse with the world at that time, and I
imitated none of its many inhabitants who act in this manner. Quite an
untaught genius, I made the discovery of the line of action for myself." </li>
</ul>
<br />
Don't forget, Leila's got the full list of posts over at <a href="http://bookshelvesofdoom.blogs.com/bookshelves_of_doom/2012/11/great-expectations-charles-dickens-index.html">Bookshelves of Doom</a>! <br />
Sarah Rettgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00520851723152425929noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1127278217542074877.post-59344593927274353142012-11-20T11:50:00.002-05:002012-11-20T11:50:34.385-05:00Great Expectations, post the firstLeila is blogging <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1400/1400-h/1400-h.htm"><i>Great Expectations</i></a>. Which is awesome. (<a href="http://bookshelvesofdoom.blogs.com/bookshelves_of_doom/2012/11/great-expectations-charles-dickens-index.html">Follow her posts here</a>.)<br />
<br />
I haven't read it all the way through since high school.<a href="http://www.blogger.com/note1"><sup>1</sup></a> So let's see how far this attempt goes.<br />
<br />
Chapter 1<br />
<ul>
<li>Dickens knew his openings: "My father's family name being Pirrip, and my Christian name Philip, my
infant tongue could make of both names nothing longer or more explicit
than Pip. So, I called myself Pip, and came to be called Pip." It doesn't make a lot of sense (or rather, parents who stick their kid with the name Philip Pirrip don't make sense, though they're certainly plausible), but the way he says it suggests there's more to it.</li>
<li>It's always struck me as odd when adults in nineteenth-century fiction call each other by their married names, especially when they grew up together (e.g. "my sister Mrs. Norris), but Pip only thinking of his sister as Mrs. Joe? Totally makes sense. </li>
<li>I am a sucker for marshes. Have I mentioned that before?</li>
<li>Also skillful: first-person narration that keeps its distance from the narrator: "At such a time I found out for certain that
this bleak place overgrown with nettles was the churchyard; and that
Philip Pirrip, late of this parish, and also Georgiana wife of the above,
were dead and buried; and that Alexander, Bartholomew, Abraham, Tobias,
and Roger, infant children of the aforesaid, were also dead and buried;
and that the dark flat wilderness beyond the churchyard, intersected with
dikes and mounds and gates, with scattered cattle feeding on it, was the
marshes; and that the low leaden line beyond was the river; and that the
distant savage lair from which the wind was rushing was the sea; and that
the small bundle of shivers growing afraid of it all and beginning to cry,
was Pip"</li>
<li>The convict? Utterly terrifying. And yet we're not very much in Pip's head here; we get lines like "I earnestly expressed my hope that he wouldn't."</li>
<li>The w-for-v substitution in "wain" and "wittles" -- what dialect is that supposed to be?</li>
<li>More great writing: "The marshes were just a long black horizontal line then, as I stopped to
look after him; and the river was just another horizontal line, not nearly
so broad nor yet so black; and the sky was just a row of long angry red
lines and dense black lines intermixed." </li>
</ul>
<br />
Chapter 2<br />
<ul>
<li>Does Mrs. Joe have any redeeming qualities? We certainly don't find out about them when we first meet her.</li>
<li>Of course, Joe has his merits, but Dickens isn't too kind to him either: "a sort of Hercules
in strength, and also in weakness."</li>
<li>"Tickler was a
wax-ended piece of cane, worn smooth by collision with my tickled frame."</li>
<li>Pip gets tucked into the chimney and then out onto a stool in a matter of sentences. There is clearly room for exploration here if you're turning this into a film.</li>
<li>Mrs. Joe's bread-and-butter preparations? Oh, my. What a look into the household.</li>
<li>Secreting one's bread in one's trouser leg is never a simple operation: "The effort of resolution necessary to the achievement of this purpose I
found to be quite awful."</li>
<li>"At the best of times, so
much of this elixir was administered to me as a choice restorative, that I
was conscious of going about, smelling like a new fence."</li>
<li>It's Christmas Eve. And we're only just now finding this out. The Germans have definitely not made their impact on English traditions yet. (Because, after all, Pip is looking back to his youth, which must have been pre- or proto-Victorian.)</li>
<li>"But she never was polite
unless there was company."</li>
<li>"from Mrs. Joe's thimble having
played the tambourine upon it, to accompany her last words" </li>
</ul>
<br />
Chapter 3<br />
<ul>
<li>Does this remind anyone else of the troll in Harry Potter? "I had seen the damp lying on the
outside of my little window, as if some goblin had been crying there all
night, and using the window for a pocket-handkerchief."</li>
<li>"One black ox, with a white cravat on,—who
even had to my awakened conscience something of a clerical air"</li>
<li>Pip's definitely identifying with the convict here. First the bread down his trousers reminds him of the leg irons, and now it's the way the cold attaches itself to his feet.</li>
<li>"Something clicked in his throat as if he had works in him like a clock,
and was going to strike."</li>
</ul>
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1127278217542074877" name="note1"><sup>1</sup></a> During which I remember being less than impressed with it. I definitely remember making the argument that this was basically a soap opera, and the only reason those got sneered at while this got studied was that it was Dickens who wrote it. Which fact I do not remember my teacher appreciating.<br />
<br />Sarah Rettgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00520851723152425929noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1127278217542074877.post-58699491167133654442012-11-17T17:59:00.004-05:002012-11-17T18:00:10.580-05:00Reading break linksI'm halfway through Paul Shackel's <i>Memory in Black and White</i>, so I've put down the notebook for a few minutes so I can post some links instead: <br />
<ul>
<li>An <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/10/scenes-from-world-war-ii-photoshopped-onto-todays-streets/264013/">excellent use</a> of Photoshop</li>
<li>Mr. Rogers in <a href="http://bookshelvesofdoom.blogs.com/bookshelves_of_doom/2012/10/mister-rogers-infographic.html">infographic</a> form (side note: if your Facebook friends weren't among those reposting the picture of <a href="http://www.koko.org/kidsclub/teachers/mister_rogers.html">Mr. Rogers with Koko the gorilla</a>, you don't have enough sentimental nerds in your life) </li>
<li>Created land is <a href="http://www.manhattanpast.com/2012/manhattan-evacuation-plan-reveals-islands-old-contour/">poorly drained</a>? Who would have thought?</li>
<li>What <i>Turing's Cathedral</i> <a href="http://kcoyle.blogspot.pt/2012/11/turings-cathedral-or-women-disappear.html">leaves out</a></li>
<li>Digital <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/in-the-sinai-a-global-team-is-revolutionizing-the-preservation-of-ancient-manuscripts/2012/08/30/1c203ef4-ca1f-11e1-aea8-34e2e47d1571_print.html">humanities</a> in action: making ancient documents legible </li>
<li>Alexander McCall Smith on early <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/why-do-we-enjoy-reading-about-female-detectives-8289961.html">female</a> detectives</li>
<li>Someday I'm going to write about why <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/print/1996/02/why-americans-hate-the-media/305060/">James Fallows</a> is a brilliant writer, but for now just read for yourself</li>
<li>I was totally hooked by Henry Wiencek's book teaser in <i>Smithsonian</i>, so the <a href="http://boston1775.blogspot.com/2012/10/reviews-of-master-of-mountain.html">reviews</a> (especially from my historian-hero <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2012/10/henry_wiencek_s_the_master_of_the_mountain_thomas_jefferson_biography_debunked.single.html">Annette Gordon-Reed</a>) are fascinating </li>
<li>The reading skills <a href="http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2010/09/17/teaching-journalists-to-read/">journalists</a> need</li>
<li>An <a href="http://www.racialicious.com/2012/11/13/dr-quinn-medicine-woman-and-the-state-of-period-dramas">in-depth look</a> at the first show I ever got hooked on</li>
</ul>
<br />Sarah Rettgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00520851723152425929noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1127278217542074877.post-5746909394622505772012-11-04T10:44:00.000-05:002012-11-04T10:44:03.173-05:00Why I VoteIt sounds glib, but I'm voting because there is absolutely no reason not to.<br />
<ul>
<li>It's legal. Nothing stopping me there.</li>
<li>I'm registered in Massachusetts. Even that was almost frictionless. I filled out a form at a table set up directly in front of my T stop on <a href="http://nationalvoterregistrationday.org/">National Voter Registration Day</a>, and a week or two later, my confirmation arrived in the mail.</li>
<li>I have time. Polling stations here are open from <a href="http://www.sec.state.ma.us/ele/">7 AM to 8 PM on Tuesday</a>. (Yes, Tuesday. Apparently there are robocalls in the area suggesting otherwise. Nope.) I start work at 9 and get out of class by 6:30. </li>
<li>I know who I'm going to vote for. None of that undecided business here. (And I care about the outcome of the two important races on the ticket.)</li>
<li>My polling place is easy to get to. I walk down the street two blocks, turn the corner, and I'm there. (It is not, however, the closest I've ever lived to where I vote. When I lived in Wisconsin, I voted at the DMV branch directly across the street from my apartment. Wisconsin also had same-day registration, which was great.)</li>
</ul>
I don't deny that I tend toward laziness (see: amount of note-taking I still have to do for Tuesday's class). But -- especially compared to <a href="https://twitter.com/WPLGLocal10/status/264855789284519936/photo/1">these people</a> -- voting is an easy thing for me to do. So look for my "I voted" sticker.Sarah Rettgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00520851723152425929noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1127278217542074877.post-36956538275264518712012-10-31T19:23:00.000-04:002012-10-31T19:23:00.399-04:00Need a writing prompt?This guy works with <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/18/science/a-robot-with-a-delicate-touch.html?_r=2&hp&">robots</a>, and he thinks that "at some point, we have to get over" emergency shutoff buttons.<br />
Speaking of which: robot <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/trending/2012/10/03/robot_bees_designed_to_take_over_for_declining_bee_populations_in_2015_.html">bees</a>. <br />
"I can tell you, it's strange to write a <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/10/the-best-way-to-find-aliens-look-for-their-solar-power-plants/263217/">research proposal</a> and have half your bibliography be science fiction."<br />
Forget parrots, this <a href="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2012/10/22/noc-white-whale-beluga-human-speech-sounds/">beluga </a>is trying to speak human.<br />
A transcript of the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/26/business/transcript-of-1944-bretton-woods-meeting-found-at-treasury.html">Bretton Woods</a> conference was just rediscovered. <br />
<br />Sarah Rettgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00520851723152425929noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1127278217542074877.post-17294019885879767222012-10-23T20:41:00.002-04:002012-10-23T20:42:00.363-04:00All I have time for is links<ul>
<li>One of those times you can't improve on the headline: "<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/18/science/orca-mothers-coddle-adult-sons-study-finds.html?ref=science">Orca Mothers Coddle Adult Sons, Study Finds</a>"</li>
<li>On the <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/09/an-exasperated-plea-to-newspapers-more-exciting-headlines-please/262188/">other hand</a>: boring headlines abound</li>
<li>Apropos of the romance post: <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/a-shakespearean-romance-novelist-who-truly-plays-many-parts/2012/09/12/f1d01f2a-efc6-11e1-adc6-87dfa8eff430_story.html">Eloisa James</a> on her dual identity</li>
<li>How <a href="http://www.mitaliblog.com/2012/09/andrew-karre-on-editing-in-ya-boom-era.html">Andrew Karre</a> defines YA</li>
<li>What we need more of: <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/monica-edinger/philip-pullman-duke-of-ci_b_1851525.html?utm_hp_ref=tw">made-up</a> nobility</li>
<li>Go read <a href="http://fomagrams.wordpress.com/2012/09/17/on-the-necessity-of-spoilers-in-reviews/">David</a> on spoilers</li>
<li><a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/09/why-the-first-laptop-had-such-a-hard-time-catching-on-hint-sexism/262220/">Laptops</a> and latent sexism</li>
<li>A <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/past/issues/82jul/fallows.htm">1982 paean</a> to computers in journalism</li>
<li>The <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/print/1976/01/cbs-the-power-and-the-profits/305304/">early days</a> of CBS News</li>
<li>Marketing <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/print/1982/02/have-you-ever-tried-to-sell-a-diamond/304575/">diamonds</a> (trust me, it's worth the read)</li>
<li>Best <a href="http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/04/my-thoughts-on-e-book-pricing-let-me-draw-you-a-picture/">amicus brief</a> ever?</li>
<li>Beatrix Potter's <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2207911/Never-seen-Beatrix-Potter-recipe-book-auction.html">recipes</a> (not for rabbit pie)</li>
<li><a href="http://blog.schoollibraryjournal.com/teacozy/2012/10/06/social-reading/">I'm with Liz</a> on social reading</li>
<li>The problem with <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/10/new-rule-lets-ban-the-term-small-businesses-from-all-future-debates/263256/">talking about</a> "small business"</li>
<li>Amateur scientists, totally new solar system <a href="http://www.wbur.org/npr/162952704/citizen-scientists-discover-a-strange-planet-in-four-star-system">configuration</a> -- what's not to love?</li>
<li>Digitized <a href="http://twonerdyhistorygirls.blogspot.com/2012/10/a-fabulous-gift-to-readers-from.html">dresses</a> to drool over at the Met</li>
<li>Backlist-<a href="http://blogs.publishersweekly.com/blogs/shelftalker/?p=9115">midlist</a> conflict</li>
</ul>
Sarah Rettgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00520851723152425929noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1127278217542074877.post-73180662182975964772012-09-29T07:00:00.000-04:002012-09-29T07:00:05.933-04:00Bookstores and romance<span id="internal-source-marker_0.2143393413475193" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1. A couple years back, I agitated for -- and then organized -- a </span><a href="http://www.bookweb.org/events/institute/wi5schedule.html"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">romance-focused session</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
at Winter Institute. An RWA staffer and a couple booksellers from
member stores that offered decent romance sections told booksellers what
romance readers expect, and why they should care.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">2.
I’m a fan of romance without actually being a big reader of it. The
truth is, I’m kind of a prude. Also, I’m a bitter single lady. We offer
full disclosure here at Archimedes Forgets!</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">3. There have been versions of </span><a href="http://dearauthor.com/ebooks/how-independent-booksellers-failed-to-recognize-the-buying-power-of-the-mass-market-reader/"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">this post</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
written every few months, with the same sort of arguments hashed out in
the comments. And to be fair, I’m probably not saying anything new here
either.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">4.
Don’t even get me started on the difficulty of trying to apply any sort
of absolute to the independent bookstore sector. Which is not to say I
haven’t done it before, because it’s human nature to look for the
defining characteristics of a group.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">5.
What I feel reasonably confident in saying about indie booksellers as a
class is that they don’t like being told what to do. I think that, even
more than platitudes we throw around like “a passion for books,” is why
people are willing to make sacrifices to run or work for small retail
enterprises.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">6.
When I talk about independent bookstores, I mean the ones that sell
entirely or primarily new books. I know next to nothing about the used
book business.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">7.
Romance readers have, in general, been poorly served by many
independent bookstores over the past decade. (Quite probably before
that, too.) I’m not arguing with that premise. I’m not saying that
romance readers should feel any sense of obligation to stores that don’t
meet their needs.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">8.
We -- readers -- don’t make coldly practical economic decisions when it
comes to books. If I’m talking about a clothing store that carries
dresses outside my price range or below my size, I can be fairly
dispassionate about it, but if a bookstore doesn’t carry the authors and
genres I like -- especially if there’s an indication that they actively
disdain them -- there’s more of a sense of judgment. Psychology people,
have at it.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">9.
Booksellers are used to hearing complaints about their selection. Last
week a customer told my coworker that he hated our store because we
don’t carry computer books. A couple months back, a customer told me
that she had stopped shopping with us because we carry too many new
bestsellers and commercial fiction writers. It’s easy to accept that you
can’t please everyone, but there are days when it feels like you can’t
please anyone.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">10.
Shelf space is always a problem. Even stores that want to increase
their romance (or whatever) inventory have trouble finding a place to
stock it. Part of the problem is that bookcases are large pieces of
furniture with fixed dimensions. It doesn’t help your picture book
overflow if you’re able to free up half a shelf in memoir and one shelf
in sports.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">11. I don’t know what fraction of the book-browsing population notices, but </span><a href="http://gutenberggirls.com/permanence-matters/"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">cheap paper does not age well</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.
The groundwood used in pretty much all mass-markets (along with an
increasing number of trade paperbacks) turns yellow very quickly. If
something’s been sitting on the shelves for a while, it shows.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">12.
There’s often a significant overlap between a store’s customers and its
employees -- many booksellers started out as customers. So a store that
isn’t drawing romance-reading customers is unlikely to acquire
romance-reading employees unless they look elsewhere. (Thanks to </span><a href="http://www.booksonthenightstand.com/"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Ann Kingman</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> for pointing this out in the comments to a </span><a href="http://www.booksquare.com/"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Booksquare</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> post, ages and ages ago.)</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">13.
Romance readers are well-served by e-books. Independent bookstores are
not. This gap in interests may prove to be unbridgeable.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">14.
No store can be right for everybody. If you’re looking for an
inexpensive book to read once and get rid of, a used bookstore is
probably the best fit. This isn’t the “fault” of the independent
bookstore selling new books at their cover price, it’s just another gap
in interests.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">15.
There are, without question, a non-trivial number of book snobs working
in independent bookstores. (And probably chain stores as well.) Some of
these people have no compunctions about sharing their snobbery with the
objects of it. Which sucks, because it’s very easy for a bad experience
in a single store to color a customer’s feelings about independent
bookstores in general. (Which brings us back to #5.)</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">16.
For the record, I’m far from perfect, but I do try really hard not to
display any judgment on people’s reading choices. (I wanted to say “not
to pass judgment,” but who am I kidding? I judge based on footwear,
hairstyle, and whether you understand the proper use of “literally.” I
just try not to show it.) I’m no fan of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Fifty Shades of Grey</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
(see prudery reference above), but I’m not going to mock you for asking
for it. Even if you’re the one saying derogatory things about it.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">17.
I don’t see any grand solution to the romance reader-independent
bookstore divide. I’m not sure there is one. I think there are stores
that could benefit from making themselves more amenable to the wants of
romance fans, and I think there are stores for which it would be more
trouble than it’s worth. And I know I can’t tell any store what to do
with its inventory. But I can add my own whinging to the mix when I hear
the same complaints again and again.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(Post format shamelessly cribbed from </span><a href="http://www.chasingray.com/"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Chasing Ray</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">. When La Colleen starts numbering her paragraphs, watch out.)</span>Sarah Rettgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00520851723152425929noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1127278217542074877.post-8163699291931676352012-09-07T10:56:00.001-04:002012-09-07T10:56:00.466-04:00This week's links<ul><li>A book on <a href="http://marthawells.livejournal.com/479995.html">women in early Hollywood</a>? Yes, please.</li><li>More problems with cities below sea level: when <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/08/this-drought-is-so-bad-salt-water-is-flowing-up-the-mississippi-threatening-nolas-water-supply/261688/">saltwater</a> enters the aquifers.</li><li><a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/08/when-you-supervise-a-woman-the-1940s-instructional-manual/261619/">How-to-manage-women manuals</a> that are really more about dealing with all employees.</li><li>Was the <a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/08/debunking-a-great-new-england-sea-serpent">Gloucester sea serpent</a> just a whale in a fishing net?</li><li>I don't completely agree with David's <a href="http://fomagrams.wordpress.com/2012/09/02/what-have-i-got-against-sticker-books-a-rant-in-five-fits/">anti-sticker-book rant</a>, but I do admire his passion.</li></ul><br />Sarah Rettgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00520851723152425929noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1127278217542074877.post-24001294752636897652012-09-04T14:56:00.000-04:002012-09-04T14:56:00.377-04:00The Adventure of the Reigate SquireAlso known, in the Project Gutenberg edition, as "<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/files/834/834-h/834-h.htm#2H_4_0006">The Reigate Puzzle</a>."<br /><br />Sherlock Holmes has definitely not made it into popular memory as a fragile man, but that's almost the image Watson paints in the opening paragraph:<br /><blockquote>"It was some time before the health of my friend Mr. Sherlock Holmes recovered from the strain caused by his immense exertions in the spring of '87."</blockquote>But of course Watson can't actually tell us what those exertions were, because they're "too intimately concerned with politics and finance to be fitting subjects for this series of sketches."<br /><br />Besides the Conan Doyle's ongoing "everything you see here is real" conceit, with all the dashed-out names and "oh, I couldn't possibly tell you but I know you'd recognize the reference if I did" moments, these digressions from the narrator make the Holmes universe that much bigger. It's not just fifty-some little stories, it's so many adventures Watson couldn't possibly manage to write them all down, even if he were allowed to.<br /><br />Anyway. On April 14, 1887 (Watson specifies), Holmes is suffering from "nervous prostration" after the conclusion of a particularly grueling case. It takes some cajoling, but Watson manages to drag him off to a friend's country house.<br /><br />Tell me, does this sound like the kind of houseguest you want?<br /><blockquote>"A little diplomacy was needed, but when Holmes understood that the establishment was a bachelor one, and that he would be allowed the fullest freedom, he fell in with my plans"</blockquote>After he's had some time to mope around, Holmes perks up when he hears that there's been a burglary in the area, with unusual results:<br /><blockquote>"The thieves ransacked the library and got very little for their pains. The whole place was turned upside down, drawers burst open, and presses ransacked, with the result that an odd volume of Pope's 'Homer,' two plated candlesticks, an ivory letter-weight, a small oak barometer, and a ball of twine are all that have vanished."</blockquote>Which gives us a chance to watch our two protagonists in opposition. Holmes, as always, zeroes in on an oddity that makes perfect sense to him, while Watson has no idea what he's talking about and dismisses the whole thing -- in this case, by reminding Holmes that detecting isn't much help in a rest cure.<br /><br />You can just hear the long-sufferingness in Watson's narration when Holmes inevitably gets involved in the case:<br /><blockquote>"It was destined, however, that all my professional caution should be wasted, for next morning the problem obtruded itself upon us in such a way that it was impossible to ignore it, and our country visit took a turn which neither of us could have anticipated."</blockquote>The burglars, it turns out, have now taken in a second estate, adding murder to their rap sheet. And it just happens that the two targeted houses happen to belong to landowners with a persistent grudge between them.<br /><br />Of note: Holmes' experiences with the police have resulted in an amusingly low level of expectations of their competence:<br /><blockquote>"I have made inquiries," said the Inspector. "William received a letter by the afternoon post yesterday. The envelope was destroyed by him."<br /><br />"Excellent!" cried Holmes, clapping the Inspector on the back. "You've seen the postman. It is a pleasure to work with you..."</blockquote>Recourse to Google: Watson observes that the house "bears the date of Malplaquet upon the lintel of the door." For those of us who lack his grounding in English history, that would be the 1709 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Malplaquet">Battle of Malplaquet</a>, part of the Wars of Spanish Succession.<br /><br />And a lesson: Whenever Watson thinks that Holmes is losing his touch, you can be pretty sure a major clue has just been unearthed. This story's example:<br /><blockquote>"I was pained at the mistake, for I knew how keenly Holmes would feel any slip of the kind. It was his specialty to be accurate as to fact, but his recent illness had shaken him, and this one little incident was enough to show me that he was still far from being himself. He was obviously embarrassed for an instant, while the Inspector raised his eyebrows, and Alec Cunningham burst into a laugh. The old gentleman corrected the mistake, however, and handed the paper back to Holmes."</blockquote>Also, this week in the insights of Sherlock Holmes:<br /><blockquote>"It is of the highest importance in the art of detection to be able to recognize, out of a number of facts, which are incidental and which vital. Otherwise your energy and attention must be dissipated instead of being concentrated."</blockquote> Sarah Rettgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00520851723152425929noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1127278217542074877.post-5632935878113576432012-08-24T07:57:00.001-04:002012-08-24T07:57:00.534-04:00Meet Stompy (and other links)<ul><li>Apparently Boston's getting a new <a href="http://www.wbur.org/2012/08/08/robotic-hexapod">robotic</a> neighbor</li><li>Mars <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/08/from-sojourner-to-curiosity-a-mars-rover-family-portrait/260779/">exploration</a> family portrait</li><li>"Would you ever <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2010/12/hillary_clinton_asked_what_des.html">ask a man</a> that question?"</li><li>Elephants <a href="http://www.petridishnews.com/news/scientists-elephants-may-use-song-for-communication/">communicate</a> with infrasounds</li><li><a href="http://blog.oup.com/2012/07/rosalind-franklin-sister-memoir-dna/">Rosalind Franklin</a>'s sister has written a book</li><li>The Times <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/science/species-readers-photos.html#index">presents</a> backyard animals</li><li>Go check out the <a href="http://issuu.com/angryrobot/docs/blackwood-sample-chapter?mode=window&backgroundColor=%23222222">beginning</a> of the lovely <a href="http://www.gwendabond.com/bondgirl/">Gwenda</a>'s new book!<br /></li></ul>Sarah Rettgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00520851723152425929noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1127278217542074877.post-28059256932541803232012-08-23T14:58:00.001-04:002012-08-23T14:58:00.398-04:00Holmes Project: The Adventure of the Dancing Men<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/files/108/108-h/108-h.htm#H2H_4_0003">This time</a> we're opening with a bit of authorial soliloquizing on Watson's part:<br /><blockquote>"Holmes had been seated for some hours in silence with his long, thin back curved over a chemical vessel in which he was brewing a particularly malodorous product. His head was sunk upon his breast, and he looked from my point of view like a strange, lank bird, with dull gray plumage and a black top-knot."</blockquote>And then the strange, lank bird proceeds to explain to Watson how it's totally obvious he's not going to be investing in South African securities -- which, by the way, seem to be a favorite choice of Conan Doyle's investment-minded characters.<br /><br />By the time his little game is over, the latest client has arrived, a Mr. Hilton Cubbitt, "a tall, ruddy, clean-shaven gentleman, whose clear eyes and florid cheeks told of a life led far from the fogs of Baker Street."<br /><br />Holmes sets up the framing this time: "You gave me a few particulars in your letter, Mr. Hilton Cubitt, but I should be very much obliged if you would kindly go over it all again for the benefit of my friend, Dr. Watson." And so Cubbitt gets to tell his own story, although he begins by denigrating his own narrative abilities. Always fake confidence, Hilton. It's the secret of success.<br /><br />But actually, he starts off by giving us a clue. It doesn't seem that way at first, just an example of the traditional emphasis on family connections, but in this case it turns out to matter.<br /><blockquote>"I'll begin at the time of my marriage last year, but I want to say first of all that, though I'm not a rich man, my people have been at Riding Thorpe for a matter of five centuries, and there is no better known family in the County of Norfolk... You'll think it very mad, Mr. Holmes, that a man of a good old family should marry a wife in this fashion, knowing nothing of her past or of her people, but if you saw her and knew her, it would help you to understand."</blockquote>Just in case you don't understand straight off that one of the themes of the story is the value of maintaining family pride -- and Englishness -- Conan Doyle keeps hammering the point.<br /><blockquote>"He was a fine creature, this man of the old English soil—simple, straight, and gentle, with his great, earnest blue eyes and broad, comely face. His love for his wife and his trust in her shone in his features."<br /><br />"She has spoken about my old family, and our reputation in the county, and our pride in our unsullied honour"<br /><br />"Dear, dear, one of the oldest families in the county of Norfolk, and one of the most honoured."</blockquote>Also of note: Mrs. Hudson makes an appearance here only in a most indirect fashion:<br /><blockquote>"Ah! here is our expected cablegram. One moment, Mrs. Hudson, there may be an answer."</blockquote>We're back in the Austen zone of servants who spend most of the story invisible.<br /><br />The actual mystery here is of less interest to me than the sociological aspect. Short version, Holmes cracks a murder case by solving a substitution cipher that involves the dancing men of the title -- not too difficult for someone who's written "a trifling monograph upon the subject."<br /><br />Sarah Rettgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00520851723152425929noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1127278217542074877.post-14069075560496719652012-08-22T14:58:00.002-04:002012-08-22T14:58:00.495-04:00Holmes Project: The Adventure of the Norwood BuilderHolmes gets to speak first in <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/files/108/108-h/108-h.htm#H2H_4_0002">this story</a>. What does he do with his opener? He bemoans the lack of criminal masterminds since he got rid of Moriarty.<br /><blockquote>"With that man in the field, one's morning paper presented infinite possibilities. Often it was only the smallest trace, Watson, the faintest indication, and yet it was enough to tell me that the great malignant brain was there, as the gentlest tremors of the edges of the web remind one of the foul spider which lurks in the centre. Petty thefts, wanton assaults, purposeless outrage—to the man who held the clue all could be worked into one connected whole. To the scientific student of the higher criminal world, no capital in Europe offered the advantages which London then possessed."</blockquote>When he puts it like that, he's almost got a point, you know?<br /><br />Before the substance begins, Watson tosses in another reminder that in this version of London, all the stuff that he writes about really happened:<br /><blockquote>"His cold and proud nature was always averse, however, from anything in the shape of public applause, and he bound me in the most stringent terms to say no further word of himself, his methods, or his successes—a prohibition which, as I have explained, has only now been removed."</blockquote>And then the client arrives, introducing himself as "the very unhappy John Hector McFarlane."<br /><br />To which Holmes replies with both a put-down and a demonstration of his own abilities: "You mentioned your name, as if I should recognize it, but I assure you that, beyond the obvious facts that you are a bachelor, a solicitor, a Freemason, and an asthmatic, I know nothing whatever about you."<br /><br />You can't beat the English when it comes to putting a person in his place.<br /><br />What Holmes' itinerary doesn't include is that McFarlane is also accused of murder, which is of course the bit that appeals here: "This is really most grati-- most interesting."<br /><br />Conan Doyle chooses the form of a newspaper article to convey the salient details, but McFarlane is the one reading the paper aloud, so in a way he's telling his own story, in headline format. Watson gets to read the actual text of the article. It's very long, so here's the short version: Jonas Oldacre is missing, presumed dead, and McFarlane, his last known visitor, is the leading suspect.<br /><br />Inspector Lestrade arrives before we return to McFarlane's story, this time in his own words. Because there's one other crucial detail here: Oldacre hired McFarlane, out of the blue, to prepare a will in which he leaves all his possessions to McFarlane, despite the fact that they had never met.<br /><br />Lestrade is ready to wrap up the case right there, but Holmes delivers another verbal smackdown:<br /><blockquote>"'It strikes me, my good Lestrade, as being just a trifle too obvious,' said Holmes. 'You do not add imagination to your other great qualities, but if you could for one moment put yourself in the place of this young man, would you choose the very night after the will had been made to commit your crime? Would it not seem dangerous to you to make so very close a relation between the two incidents? Again, would you choose an occasion when you are known to be in the house, when a servant has let you in? And, finally, would you take the great pains to conceal the body, and yet leave your own stick as a sign that you were the criminal? Confess, Lestrade, that all this is very unlikely.'"</blockquote>Lestrade, of course, has an answer for all of those points, even if it means leaving Occam's Razor on the shelf.<br /><br />Holmes dashes out for a spot of investigating, and though he isn't pleased by anything he's turned up, we do learn that McFarlane's mother was once engaged to Oldacre, but gave up on him when she realized that cruelty to animals was not an attribute she wanted in a husband.<br /><br />Also, we get this gem of a description of Oldacre's close-mouthed housekeeper: "But she was as close as wax."<br /><br />In conveying the housekeeper's words through Holmes' retelling of his investigations, Conan Doyle turns to a technique called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_indirect_speech">free indirect speech</a>. (Hat tip to David Shapard and his annotated Jane Austen series for introducing me to the term.) Holmes doesn't quote the housekeeper directly, but he essentially repeats her words, shifted from first person to third person:<br /><blockquote>"Yes, she had let Mr. McFarlane in at half-past nine. She wished her hand had withered before she had done so. She had gone to bed at half-past ten. Her room was at the other end of the house, and she could hear nothing of what had passed. Mr. McFarlane had left his hat, and to the best of her belief his stick, in the hall. She had been awakened by the alarm of fire. Her poor, dear master had certainly been murdered. Had he any enemies? Well, every man had enemies, but Mr. Oldacre kept himself very much to himself, and only met people in the way of business. She had seen the buttons, and was sure that they belonged to the clothes which he had worn last night. The wood-pile was very dry, for it had not rained for a month. It burned like tinder, and by the time she reached the spot, nothing could be seen but flames. She and all the firemen smelled the burned flesh from inside it. She knew nothing of the papers, nor of Mr. Oldacre's private affairs. "</blockquote>Is it cheating to have your character reuse a technique that's worked for him in the past? Because that's what Conan Doyle does here, doing the same "pretend there's a fire and flush out what the criminal loves most" trick he pulled in "A Scandal in Bohemia," with the difference that in this case the flushed out object was the criminal himself, the not-murdered Jonas Oldacre.<br /><br />And then, in the closing paragraph, Holmes gets one more chance to remind us that he's going to be a character in a story someday: "By the way, what was it you put into the wood-pile besides your old trousers? A dead dog, or rabbits, or what? You won't tell? Dear me, how very unkind of you! Well, well, I daresay that a couple of rabbits would account both for the blood and for the charred ashes. If ever you write an account, Watson, you can make rabbits serve your turn."<br /><br />If? Hah.<br />Sarah Rettgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00520851723152425929noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1127278217542074877.post-67998337681998556312012-08-21T14:56:00.002-04:002012-08-21T14:56:00.035-04:00Holmes Project: The Adventure of the Musgrave RitualConan Doyle allows Watson to open <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/files/834/834-h/834-h.htm#2H_4_0005">this story</a> in a bit of a snit -- after all, to Watson, Holmes is not just the subject of well-received stories, he's a roommate, and one with more than a few irritating habits.<br /><blockquote>"although in his methods of thought he was the neatest and most methodical of mankind, and although also he affected a certain quiet primness of dress, he was none the less in his personal habits one of the most untidy men that ever drove a fellow-lodger to distraction"</blockquote>"Untidy" in this case extends to a general disregard for furnishings, even if there is something almost noble about "proceed[ing] to adorn the opposite wall with a patriotic V. R. done in bullet-pocks."<br /><br />But the untidiness provides the framing for today's tale, because among the debris muddling up the Holmes-Watson household are piles and piles of notes from Sherlock Holmes' pre-Watson cases. When he realizes what they are, Watson is interested at once.<br /><blockquote>"'These are the records of your early work, then?' I asked. 'I have often wished that I had notes of those cases.'"</blockquote>For Holmes, the inquiry is both an opportunity to brag about what he did "done prematurely before my biographer had come to glorify me," and also an excuse to delay the tidying even more. But mostly to show off.<br /><blockquote>"A collection of my trifling achievements would certainly be incomplete which contained no account of this very singular business."</blockquote>The business is brought to young Holmes by one of his university classmates, "a man of an exceedingly aristocratic type." There's a brief overview of his aristocratic connections, and then a line that's only significant when you know what follows:<br /><blockquote>"Something of his birth place seemed to cling to the man, and I never looked at his pale, keen face or the poise of his head without associating him with gray archways and mullioned windows and all the venerable wreckage of a feudal keep."</blockquote>Conan Doyle sets Reginald Musgrave up as one of the less objectionable varieties of English aristocrat -- sure, there's a touch of arrogance, but he's not ruining himself at the track or running with the Marlborough House set. He's been staying at home, keeping up the traditions of the Musgraves reaching back to antiquity: "I have of course had the Hurlstone estates to manage, and as I am member for my district as well, my life has been a busy one."<br /><br />Except there's trouble. It's servant trouble, essentially, courtesy of a now-dismissed butler who had been flirting with the maids and snooping into the family papers, where he was reading up on "the singular old observance called the Musgrave Ritual." And then the butler disappeared. And a couple days later, so did one of the maids.<br /><br />It takes Holmes about two seconds to figure out that the Musgrave Ritual is in fact a verbal map, and that the butler had figured it out and gone looking for whatever was hidden.<br /><br />Holmes' conversation with Musgrave as they explore Hurlstone brings up an extremely fortunate coincidence: one of the trees given as an indicator in the Musgrave Ritual has been gone for years, but Musgrave just happens to remember its precise height, because back in the day his tutor made him practice trigonometry al fresco, by calculating heights all over the estate. Which is so creative I'm almost willing to give Conan Doyle a pass on his use of coincidence here.<br /><br />And with a touch of trigonometry himself, Holmes manages to solve the Musgrave Ritual and locate the missing butler, rather too late to do the man any good, but he still pulls it off.<br /><blockquote>"'You know my methods in such cases, Watson. I put myself in the man's place and, having first gauged his intelligence, I try to imagine how I should myself have proceeded under the same circumstances."</blockquote><br /><br />Sarah Rettgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00520851723152425929noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1127278217542074877.post-90517903135126538562012-08-20T12:19:00.000-04:002012-08-20T12:19:00.864-04:00A little learning is a good thingCan we triangulate Elizabeth George Speare's take on education from her writing? It may just be possible.<br /><br />As Exhibit A, we have Nat, the winning male in <a href="http://www.librarything.com/work/11990/book/21021249"><i>The Witch of Blackbird Pond</i></a>'s love triangle:<br /><blockquote>"It's these Puritans," Kit sighed. "I'll never understand them. Why do they want life to be so solemn? I believe they actually enjoy it that way."<br /><br />Nat stretched flat on his back on the thatch. "If you ask me, it's all that schooling. It takes the fun out of life, being cooped up like that day after day. And the Latin they cram down your throat! Do you realize, Kit, that there are twenty-five different kinds of nouns alone in the <i>Accidence</i>? I couldn't stomach it.<span style="display: block;" id="formatbar_Buttons"><span class=" down" style="display: block;" id="formatbar_CreateLink" title="Link" onmouseover="ButtonHoverOn(this);" onmouseout="ButtonHoverOff(this);" onmouseup="" onmousedown="CheckFormatting(event);FormatbarButton('richeditorframe', this, 8);ButtonMouseDown(this);"><img src="http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif" alt="Link" class="gl_link" border="0" /></span></span><br />"Mind you," he went on, "it's not that I don't favor an education. A boy has to learn his numbers, but the only proper use for them is to find your latitude with a cross-staff. Books, now, that's different. There's nothing like a book to keep you company on a long voyage."</blockquote>Exhibit B stars Pierre, the loser in one of the two love triangles in <a href="http://www.librarything.com/work/6830/book/21021241"><i>Calico Captive</i></a>:<br /><blockquote>Pierre bristled. "What do you take me for, a monk who spends his life with his head in a book? I told you, when I was ten years old my grandfather took me out of school to go into the trade. I can read well enough to tally up my year's accounts, never fear."</blockquote>What she's telling us, I suppose, is go to school but not too much, and don't you dare start dissing reading.<br />Sarah Rettgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00520851723152425929noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1127278217542074877.post-64587882720788070202012-08-10T14:55:00.001-04:002012-08-10T14:55:00.207-04:00Holmes Project: The Adventure of the Stockbroker's ClerkThe phrasing used to open <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/files/834/834-h/834-h.htm#2H_4_0003">this story</a> is not exactly familiar to a modern US reader. (Have not consulted with any Brits on this; anyone want to tell me if "connection" is still used in this context?)<br /><br />Watson announces that shortly after his marriage, he "bought a connection in the Paddington district." The rest of the paragraph reveals that he's talking about a medical practice. Which is by way of distancing him from Holmes' detective work, right before Conan Doyle turns around and brings them back together.<br /><br />They meet up, Holmes shows off a bit ("'I am afraid that I rather give myself away when I explain,' said he. 'Results without causes are much more impressive.'"), and he brings Watson along with him on a case.<br /><br />The client of the moment is<br /><blockquote>"a smart young City man, of the class who have been labelled cockneys, but who give us our crack volunteer regiments and who turn out more fine athletes and sportsmen than any body of men in these islands"</blockquote>Let's pause a moment to look at the language here. First, look how the use of "but" sets up cockney as a pejorative term -- clearly Conan Doyle is not going for the "person born within earshot of Bow Bells" definition. And second, "these islands?" Ireland was solidly part of the Empire.<br /><br />This time Conan Doyle has Holmes have the client tell his story to Watson -- with a caveat that feels like an authorial wink:<br />"I'm not very good at telling a story, Dr. Watson, but it is like this with me"<br /><br />(Incidentally, Pycroft? Was it really necessary to give a client a name just one letter different from Holmes' brother? Did Conan Doyle have as much trouble remembering which letter to type?)<br /><br />Anyway. Pycroft is a stockbroker's clerk who was lured away from a respectable-enough new job with promises of a much bigger salary elsewhere. But elsewhere turned out to be rather sketchy, so he asked Holmes to look into things.<br /><br />(Note: I am not inclined to include racial slurs here even when they're someone else's words. But I will say that Conan Doyle throws in an utterly gratuitous one here. And the context makes it worse. Go to the story, do a Ctrl + F for "with a touch of the", and you can see for yourself.)<br /><br />Suffice it to say this wasn't one of my favorites.Sarah Rettgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00520851723152425929noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1127278217542074877.post-45543441432772138542012-08-08T14:55:00.001-04:002012-08-08T14:55:00.983-04:00Holmes Project: The Adventure of the Yellow Face<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/files/834/834-h/834-h.htm#2H_4_0002">This time</a>, Conan Doyle starts us off with an author's note. (Or, I suppose, a narrator's note, since it's very much in Watson's voice.)<br /><blockquote>"[In publishing these short sketches based upon the numerous cases in which my companion's singular gifts have made us the listeners to, and eventually the actors in, some strange drama, it is only natural that I should dwell rather upon his successes than upon his failures. And this not so much for the sake of his reputation—for, indeed, it was when he was at his wits' end that his energy and his versatility were most admirable—but because where he failed it happened too often that no one else succeeded, and that the tale was left forever without a conclusion. Now and again, however, it chanced that even when he erred, the truth was still discovered. I have noted of some half-dozen cases of the kind; the Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual and that which I am about to recount are the two which present the strongest features of interest.]"</blockquote>With that framing device, we're set loose with Holmes and Watson experiencing a bit of nature, urban version, otherwise known as taking a walk. Watson goes to lengths to point out how unusual this whole exercise thing is for Holmes, but on one level, it's very much of a piece with their day-to-day life:<br /><blockquote>"For two hours we rambled about together, in silence for the most part, as befits two men who know each other intimately."</blockquote>And then of course a client enters the scene. He appears indirectly at first; he's been waiting for Holmes, gone off in frustration, and left his pipe behind. Holmes, of course, knows all manner of things about the man after a quick glance at the abandoned pipe. (Incidentally, when the man himself puts in an appearance, Watson notes that he's holding a "wide-awake" hat. For those who are as baffled by the term as I was, <a href="http://www.villagehatshop.com/bollman_140_1860s_wide_awake_hat.html?cagpspn=pla&gclid=CPmc1MOH1LECFQFx4AodpnIAcg">there are pictures</a>.)<br /><br />The client, Grant Munro, gets in a pretty good line before things get much further:<br /><blockquote>"It seems dreadful to discuss the conduct of one's wife with two men whom I have never seen before."</blockquote>Tell me, how did Oscar Wilde never steal that for an epigraph?<br /><br />But gradually -- after a fair bit of nagging on Holmes' part -- he tells the story of the trouble with his wife, with what seems to me an overly-precise description of the financial aspects of his marriage.<br /><blockquote>"that she had a capital of about four thousand five hundred pounds, which had been so well invested by him that it returned an average of seven per cent"<br /><br />"I have an income of seven or eight hundred"<br /><br />"a nice eighty-pound-a-year villa at Norbury"</blockquote>Naturally, the mystery involves what follows his wife's request for money, but Munro's close attention to sums never draws any particular scrutiny. That's a little surprising, since I'd though we'd reached the point in Anglo history when it became gauche to discuss money with mere acquaintances, but whatever.<br /><br />So his wife's using money for something she won't tell him, and then strangers turn up in the neighborhood. And at least one of them sounds like something out of Buffy:<br /><blockquote>"It was of a livid chalky white, and with something set and rigid about it which was shockingly unnatural."</blockquote>And then his wife sneaks out and lies about it. So let's recap the layers here. We've got:<br /><ul><li>the wife's false story</li><li>inside the husband's version of events</li><li>inside the narrative as recounted by Watson</li><li>inside the text written by Arthur Conan Doyle</li></ul>Not too shabby.<br /><br />There's a nice long bit of Q & A without dialogue tags, which is always fun (and it is a long bit, so click through to read it; I'm not going to fill the page here), and Holmes sends Munro off with assurances that he'll stop by the next day.<br /><br />Then he lays out his theory for Watson: the wife is hiding her first husband down the road from her current one. He admits that it's not conclusive, "But at least it covers all the facts."<br /><br />The next day, we learn that it doesn't.<br /><br />Hiding behind the mask is, in fact, a "coal-black negress," Mrs. Munro's child from her first marriage. This is the big secret she's been keeping from her husband, with about the weakest excuse a mother ever had for child abandonment. (Semi-abandonment. She left her daughter with a nurse in the US "because her health was weak." And then she made her wear a mask.)<br /><br />Mrs. Munro spends some time trying to justify herself, or perhaps to elicit sympathy:<br /><blockquote>"I had to choose between you, and in my weakness I turned away from my own little girl."</blockquote>And when her husband has a chance to process the fact that he's now a stepfather, Conan Doyle rewards him with another great line.<br /><blockquote>"I am not a very good man, Effie, but I think that I am a better one than you have given me credit for being."</blockquote>Sarah Rettgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00520851723152425929noreply@blogger.com0