All posts by Phil

Fiction, Reviews

Jill the Reckless, by P.G. Wodehouse

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I just finished a free ebook version (functional formatting and scattered erroneous letters) of P.G. Wodehouse’s trans-Atlantic rom-com Jill the Reckless. It was published in 1921 in the United Kingdom after a couple serializations, under the name, The Little Warrior, in American and Canadian magazines the year before. To cut to the chase, I enjoyed it overall, but I can’t say I lapped it up.

Jill, a delightful young lady with far more impetuous bravado than ladies usually indulge at her age, is the focus on Sir Derek Underhill’s affections and anxiety. He loves her, but he’s worried his mother will not accept her. Derek’s close friend and life-long admirer, Freddie Rooke, understands the unyielding terror that Derek’s mother is and hopes to rally round his friend to support him against this maternal fiend. No, it doesn’t go well. Well is precisely how it doesn’t go, but that isn’t the event that turns Lady Underhill against Jill. That event occurs later that evening when a theatre burns to the ground and Jill, becoming separated from the Underhills, ends up dining with another man a couple tables away from her finance.

That’s the first half of act one, so there’s a lot more to love. In acts two and three, Wodehouse draws us into the world of musical theater, where most managers are human and no one expects to be treated fairly. Wodehouse worked in this world with some famous names, so I can’t help thinking he is revealing some of his personal experiences. His description of the office boy species sounds informed by an explorer’s chronicle.

I say I didn’t lap it all up, because this work doesn’t carry the light-hearted air consistently throughout. At a couple points, it gets rather serious. I can’t say I have any favorite scenes, though Bill the Parrot’s Big Adventure comes to mind. Still it’s as charming reading as I’m sure Jill is herself. If you don’t mind paying for it, I recommend the print version for ease of use.

Authors

Returning to the Joy in Writing

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In The Rabbit Room, Jeffrey Overstreet talks about quitting his dream jobs in order to make time to telling good stories. “It was surprising and disillusioning to discover that, even if you publish a four-book epic fantasy series and earn a spotlight on Barnes and Noble’s ‘Notable Fiction’ displays, you’re not going to find the bills much easier to pay,” he says.

“It’s time to clean the slate and start over. I need to “go back to Square One” and rediscover the ability to dream.”

Creative Writing

Browsing

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Scanning new sci-fi titles, I feel someone’s eyes on me, but I am alone in the aisle. The books near me begin beeping and flashing. Are these interactive novels? A metal hand grabs at my finger. Eyes on tentacles spring from the novels at my feet, a gurgling cry at my back! I dash out through waving space gloves.

Between the aisles, I catch my breath.

Maybe I can find something to read among the thrillers.

Authors, Poetry

Seamus Heaney, "Keeper of Language," Dies

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seamus HeaneyIn his Nobel Prize lecture, poet Seamus Heaney said, “The form of the poem, in other words, is crucial to poetry’s power to do the thing which always is and always will be to poetry’s credit: the power to persuade that vulnerable part of our consciousness of its rightness in spite of the evidence of wrongness all around it, the power to remind us that we are hunters and gatherers of values, that our very solitudes and distresses are creditable, in so far as they, too, are an earnest of our veritable human being.”

Heaney, 74, died this morning just prior to a medical procedure.

Ireland Taoiseach Enda Kenny said, “For us, Seamus Heaney was the keeper of language, our codes, our essence as a people.”

This article quotes a 1995 Irish Times piece on Heaney’s publishing success: “Book sales may not mean much in the areas of fiction or biography, but for a poet to sell in the thousands is remarkable proof to his ability to speak in his poems to what are inadequately called ‘ordinary people.’”

You can hear the poet reading or reciting some of his poems here.

Fiction

The Incredible Hulk, More Werewolf than Hero

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I wish I could say I thought of this myself, and maybe I did (along with you), but I never articulated it, so I can’t take credit even on my own blog.

The typical scenario Dr. Bruce Banner finds himself in, at least on film, is being the victim of gang abuse. Wrong place, wrong time or maybe he chose to stand up to someone who responded with a gaggle of thugs. They beat on him or kick him down an elevator shaft, and he hulks out.

That’s the rage-monster-as-hero idea, but Banner/Hulk is more complicated than that, as these guys point out in the middle of a long list of interesting details on Marvel’s The Avengers. If you’ve seen the movie, note #13-14. Joss Whedon sees the big guy as the beast Banner is trying to contain.

I saw a wag, making cracks about this movie, laugh at how convenient it is that Banner can control his power just when the story calls for it, but he’s missing the point. Whedon’s Hulk isn’t one who can’t be summoned; he’s one who can only barely be contained. In this movie, Banner knew he was holding a very dangerous hair trigger. He isn’t telling us, “Don’t make me angry. You wouldn’t like me when I’m angry.” He’s telling us, “Let’s keep things under control, because when I get pushed over the edge, very bad things can happen.”

Uncategorized

Old, Yea, Ancient Words

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Here’s a list of 18 old words that I can’t see regaining usage on 21st century tongues, these folks can: Snoutfair, Pussyvan, Wonder-wench, Lunting, California widow, Groak, Jirble, Curglaff, Spermologer, Tyromancy. There are a few others. Now, I can see bookwright as a useful word. It was apparently a bit of an insult. The others have shortcomings. Follow the link for definitions (via Lintefiniel).

Uncategorized

"No Ice Cream, No Key"

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The Ancient Keys - #247 So some friends are role-playing a fantasy game, arguing about how to get into a temple in the middle of a wasteland, and the game master’s daughter walks in from another room: “I’ve got the key I can sell you.”

The father writes: Now, most groups would probably drop out of “game mode” at this point, humor her, and get back to playing. I don’t play with most groups.

The player says to her (still in character) “What do you want for it?”

“Five thousand gold” she replies, “and an ice cream cone.”

“An ice cream cone?! What’s that? More to the point, where do I find one.”

Read the rest on this forum.

Authors, Poetry

Arron Belz: Poet for Hire

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Craigslist Ad: “Poet available to begin work immediately. Capable in rhyme and meter, fluent in traditional and contemporary forms. Quotidian observations available at standard rate of $15/hour; occasional verse at slightly higher rate of $17/hour. Incomprehensible garbage $25/hour. Angst extra.”

It’s funny, but he isn’t joking. He is writing poems on request, even to insult the requester, ala Lane Severson. Observe:

“Now a mere pawn in the house of bishops

He can manage neither a coherent theology

Nor back-to-back-to-back pushups,

Having spent the past eight years

Generating five poorly behaved children

With one wife who, worn out, loathes him

And can’t stop staring at his poorly combed hair.”

That’s only a bit of it, but the point is Lane paid for that abuse.

Authors

Murder Cop and How the South Was Ruint

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Betsy Childs says Mark Bertrand (who does not go by Russell, if you happened to pick up that nasty rumor) doesn’t write Christian Fiction. “Bertrand’s allegiance is to his genre, characters, and plot, not to a fictional conversion narrative or religious epiphany. He’s just writing good crime fiction.”

That very author is taking issue with another author, Mark Twain, who charges Sir Walter Scott with laying the groundwork for the American Civil War. “… when Twain decided to take up the mantle of Cervantes and skewer medieval chivalry, it was a Connecticut Yankee and not a Southern Gentleman he had to send back in time. The Southerner, presumably, would have been right at home and all too pleased to leave things as he found them.”

That seems simplistic to me, but books do condition minds. Perhaps Twain’s argument is a good one to some extent. Many other ideas bore their fruit in this time as well. Scott didn’t dehumanize people, did he? That idea came from outside Ivanhoe.