KEV67

Is it a Hard Case Crime publication?

Interesting to me, if not to you, I was reading letter 40 (only 497 to go) of Clarissa by Samuel Richardson, 1748, when Clarissa uses the word 'misogynist' in relation to a Sir Oliver. Sir Oliver who? The notes do not say. Mr Solmes, a fictional character, used his arguments, so presumably Sir Oliver was a real person. I thought the term 'misogynist' was a recent lab release from a social science faculty. When I first started hearing it, I looked it up and it meant someone who hated women, although now it seems a synonym for 'sexist'.

The Hay Festival is on again this year. According to the website you can camp. However,I have had a look at the line up and I don't want to go.

Clarissa is having a hard time. I am on her side. I think her family are behaving very unreasonably. I am surprised how much she writes. Apparently, she not only writes long letters, but she makes copies of all those she sends. I do not know how this book was originally published. I suspect the best way of reading it was to read a letter in every edition of a newspaper, like Bridget Jones' Diary. But a letter would have to be published every day, not every week or it would take ten years to finish.

I think The Virginian might be a Western that is not very violent. I don't know for sure, but I doubt there will be any wars with Indians or Mexicans in this. I said previously Owen Wister knew more about horses than a modern author likely would. The latest chapter I read was dedicated to an eccentric hen. However, I think her behaviour was probably a bit fictionalised as I doubt a hen would try adopt another bird's chicks because chicks imprint on the first living thing they see, which is usually it's mother. Could be wrong though. Still, I doubt Cormac McCarthy or Larry McMurtry would write about a hen for a whole chapter.

I have started reading The Virginian (who I am sure would have been played by a young John Wayne). I was surprised to read it was written in 1902, which must have made it one of the earlier Westerns. One thing that struck me is that Owen Wister knew horses better than contemporary writers. According to him, horses can be mischievous and even malicious. Another thing that struck me is that he used terms that have fallen into misuse. For instance he talks write about drummers. These are travelling salesmen. He talks about Dutchmen, who are Germans.

Yes, it's paper. I know I had trouble finding it. I either ordered it from Amazon or I bought it from the massive Waterstones near Picadilly Circus. I think it was the Waterstones.

I have started reading Clarissa by Samuel Richardson. It is huge. 1700+ pages. It is an epistolary novel, so it has letters instead of chapters. While I was reading the introduction to Tom Jones by Richard Fielding several years ago, that book was repeatedly compared to Clarissa, but so far (three letters) I have found them very different. I am not sure I am going to like this as much as Tom Jones, which I thought was a great book. The style is a little heavy. I was amused by the one of Clarissa's letter sign-offs. I read Humphrey Clinker years ago, which was like a fictionalised travelogue through 18th century Britain. That was my an epistolary novel too. The best (alright maybe the second best) thing about it were the witty letter sign-offs.

I hear Morrissey is playing Las Vegas. God, I wish I could see that.

I have not started Clarissa yet, but I will do by April. I think what's putting me off is that I am still reading another long book about Churchill. I don't want to tote around two massive books in my man bag.

If it was a redneck bar I doubt I'd have done that. I did however play Gary Glitter's It's Good to be Back on a jukebox. Two people walked out, but I don't suppose it was anything to do with the song.

The afterword by Andrea Ashworth is quite interesting. Jean Rhys sounds like she led quite an interesting life, if living as a bad-tempered, drunken, recluse in Devon can be considered interesting. That was only one part of her life. Some of her other books sound quite interesting, but not fluffy or feel good, so not chick lit.

Still ploughing through Churchill by Andrew Roberts. I find it heavy going, so I do not read it every day. It is nearly 1000 pages long. Andrew Roberts does not blame Churchill for the Bengal famine in 1943. Personally I find it difficult to believe he deliberately allowed 3 million Bengalis to starve like Mukajee claimed. Churchill could be ruthless, but he was not when he did not have to be (in his judgement). I think the devolved governments in India deserved much of the blame, but Churchill should not escape his fair share. He made many other contentious decisions, e.g. area bombing of German cities,; returning Russian Nazi collaborators to Russia where they were all executed; the Dardanelles campaign (although that might have worked if resourced adequately), trying to keep the Gold Standard, breaking the General Strike, partitioning Ireland,, partitioning other countries. The only issue that bothers me was the Bengal Famine.

I was left a bit confused, as if I had not been paying enough attention. The Rochester's honeymoon did not seem to last very long. He never seemed to use his extensive wooing powers on young Antoinette. He seemed pretty cold all the way through. I suppose the letter poisoned his mind. I don't know why he hated her. Sure he married her for money, but she did not seem that objectionable in herself to start. I don't know why he insisted on calling her Bertha, when it was not her name and she objected to it. I suppose it is what is called gas-lighting behaviour. In the last section of the book Antoinette does seem to have gone potty, which undermines the 'she was not really mad' hypothesis. It is a beautifully written book, but everyone in it is horrible. If I had lived in Jamaica as it was described, I would not have been able to leave quick enough.

Does Wide Sargasso Sea count as chick lit? I remember my mother having a copy in the 70s. It is about Bertha Mason from Jane Eyre, who in this book is called Antoinette Mason. TBH, I am a bit confused. I remember Bertha Mason having a brother, but in this I am not sure whether he is a brother or half-brother. Bertha Mason is a big, strong Amazonian woman in Jane Eyre, but in this she is rather gracile. She may be tall. Mr Rochester does not chat away ten to a dozen like he does in Jane Eyre, but he is writing from his point of view, I am only about half way through at present. It is all prettily written. There is a lot about race. The nature of Miss Mason's madness is not clear. Maybe she's not mad. I expect you don't get an A in your English Literature essay for writing that. As a stand-alone book, I think it is a good book. It is a bit dreamy. It has a fair bit to say about racial resentment in the West Indies. As a prequel to Jane Eyre I do not think the characters are consistent.

I am in a pub and I noticed someone has tied up in string six books by Adrian Goldsworthy. They are set in the Napoleonic Wars. The hero is an a soldier. He looks to be the exact opposite of be Sharpe, a gentleman who fights in the ranks. He wears a red tunic, so he's not a chosen man. Probably fires a musket rather than a rifle.

I am sure I read a couple of Noddys, but it did not make an impression. I am sure it was on the telly. Later on I got seriously into The Famous Five.

I completed an OU BSc in Technology. I studied a module in Digital and Analogue Electronics. I found it so time-consuming and boring I stopped studying after the first year. A few years later everyone seemed to be talking about the internet, so I took another module called Digital Communications. Then I studied Relational Databases, because we used them at work, and I think Logic Design to brush up on my electronics. By then I was over half way there. I could have traded in my HND for some points towards my degree, but the OU started to bring out named degrees. Previously I think they had only offered BA Open and BSc Open. I wanted a BSc Technology so I had to do a couple of specific modules. Then I realised I only needed one more level 2 pass to get a 1st, so I did another two modules. Open University study was quite cheap back then. It was before they introduced student fees in universities. One problem was you did not get much practical experience. They used to you send home experiment kits, but it is not the same as working in a lab with plenty of equipment and bench space. Another problem was that courses went from February to September, so you had to work while the sun was shining outside. Another problem was that you were mostly working alone. It was not a real university experience. Occasionally you met up at seminars with your tutor and other students on your course. There used to have week long summer courses at universities. I only went to one at UMIST in Manchester, before they became optional. When I finished my last exam, I wanted to go to the pub and celebrate, but I did not know anybody, and everyone else drove back to home or work. Personally I thought some of the courses were quite good, and others were pretty simple. I was a computer programmer, and I took a computing course, but it was so simple I wished I had studied something else, but I was running out of technology modules to study. Probably should have done the optics module instead.

A colleague had to explain to me what POETS day was. <CENSORED> Off Early, Tomorrow's Saturday.

Hello Suzanne. I flounced off a cycling website because one of the moderators implied I was drunk, which I was not on that occasion.

I am reading A Midsummer Night's Dream. I am still keen on doing a read-along this year, but I wanted to stick with my plan of reading a Midsummer's Night Dream first. I have never read it before or seen any film/TV adaptation or watched it as a play. I am enjoying it more than Richard II and Othello, which I read last year and the year before. For a so-called comedy it is not funny, but it is pleasant poetry. I like the Arden book. I have not started reading the introduction, but I have looked at some of the pictures. They are very artistic. There is a frame from a 1935 film adaption of the fairy folk. There is a photograph of Bijou Fernandez dressed up as Robin Goodfellow in 1888. She looks a minx. My favourite is a sculpture by Dutch artist, Arie Teeuwisse: https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.manvantaal.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2021%2F04%2F04hezenes5.jpg&f=1&nofb=1 I might actually watch that 1935 film. It looks great. Up and down, up and down I will lead them up and down I am feared in field and town Goblin, lead them up and down

There are probably more books connected with Churchill than any other historical figure except Jesus Christ. I am a fan, but the only thing that concerns me is the Bengal Famine, and how much he was to blame for the 2.9 million deaths. I am not bothered about other controversial stuff he was involved with: Gallipoli, the partition of Ireland, Sidney Street, suppression of the General Strike, even trying to keep the Gold Standard. The Bengal Famine occurred in 1943, and I have not got to that bit yet.

Hi, what sort of books do you like?

Really, I thought you'd been here years.

Looked postmodern up on the internet. One webpage said the difference was that in pre-modern times the source of truth was religion; in modern times, science, and in post-modern times there is no objective truth. I think this is the social science perspective. Postmodernists are sceptical of people claiming objective fact. They think fact and truth is what an individual perceives it to be. There is also modernism and post-modernism in architecture. Modernist buildings are all form-follows-function with no fancy bits (so I understand). Post-modern architects might throw in a Doric Arch or two. So what does that make a building like The Gherkin, which was definitely designed to look good as well as being reasonably functional? I read The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. It was about this architect who designed very well proportioned, but very functional buildings. He refused to draught columns or crenelations or any other decorative features on his buildings. So he would be a Modernist architect. So does that make Ayn Rand a Modernist author?