Snapshots: American War Novels

A number of American novels dealing with the general theme of war would be suitable for the Three-Books Project. In addition to Heller's Catch 22 (already featured here), these three provide a unique look at Americans at war, the aftermath of war, and the sometimes-absurdity of war. You'll notice that each was written in a different decade in the 20th century.

Slaughterhouse Five (1969) by Kurt Vonnegut
Chaplain's Assistant Billy Pilgrim, an ill-trained American soldier, is captured by the Germans during the Battle of the Bulge and taken to a prison in Dresden. The Germans put Billy and his fellow prisoners in a disused slaughterhouse, known as "Slaughterhouse number 5." The POW's and German guards alike hide in a deep cellar; because of their safe hiding place, they are some of the few survivors of the city-destroying firestorm during the Bombing of Dresden in World War II. Billy has come "unstuck in time" and experiences past and future events out of sequence and repetitively. He is kidnapped by extraterrestrial aliens from the planet Tralfamadore. They exhibit him in a zoo with B-movie starlet Montana Wildhack as his mate. The Tralfamadorians, who can see in four dimensions, have already seen every instant of their lives. They believe in predestination. They say they cannot choose to change anything about their fates, but can choose to concentrate upon any moment in their lives, and Billy becomes convinced of the correctness of their theories. [ review ]

Johnny Got His Gun (1939) by Dalton Trumbo
Joe Bonham, a young American soldier, is hit by a mortar shell on the last day of World War I. He lies in a hospital bed in a fate worse than death --- a quadruple amputee who has lost his arms, legs, eyes, ears, mouth and nose. He remains conscious and able to think, thereby reliving his life through strange dreams and memories, unable to distinguish whether he is awake or dreaming. He remains frustrated by his situation, until one day when Joe discovers a unique way to communicate with his caregivers -- by banging his head on his pillow in Morse code. His wish is that he may be put in a glass box and tour the country, to show people the true horrors of war. As he drifts between reality and fantasy, he remembers his old life with his family and girlfriend, and reflects upon the myths and realities of war. He also forms a bond, of sorts, with a young nurse who senses his plight... [ review ]

The Caine Mutiny (1951) by Herman Wouk
Willie Keith, with a low opinion of the ways of the Navy, misses his ship when it leaves on a combat assignment, and rather than catch up with it, ducks his duties to play piano for an admiral who has taken a shine to him. But guilt-stricken by a last letter from his father, who has died of melanoma, he reports aboard the Caine. He immediately disapproves of its decaying condition and slovenly crew, which he attributes to a slackness of discipline by the ship's longtime captain, Lieutenant Commander William De Vriess. Willie's lackadaisical attitude toward what he considers menial and repetitive duties brings about a humiliating clash with De Vriess when Willie neglects a communications message. While Willie is still pouting over his punishment, De Vriess is relieved by Lieutenant Commander Philip Francis Queeg... [ review ]

Word of the Day: Somnambulism

Somnambulism: a condition that is characterized by walking while asleep or in a hypnotic trance; also known as: hypnobatia, noctambulism

If you're looking for an interesting and curious story to read in preparation for All Hallow's Eve, you might want to read "Somnambulism: A Fragment" by Charles Brockton Brown (1771-1810), a pioneer of the American novel.

Here's an excerpt from a review (explication) of the story:

Benjamin Franklin Made Me Do It!
In "Somnambulism: A Fragment" Charles Brockden Brown uses the gothic style to convey an unharnessed terror in a single vision: Young Althorpe, while sleepwalking in a forest, murders the woman he desires. But the story is more than a ludicrous curiosity, to read it thus would miss its elegantly stated manifesto against the dangers of Benjamin Franklin's megalomaniacal ideals of industry and pragmatism. The story exploits Franklin's example of the studious, dutiful, useful young man and turns him into a monster. Browns' mode of style is strategic, subversive, infiltrating the reader and earnest student of the eighteenth century by mixing the ordinary with the grotesque, the intelligent with the very wrong.

"Somnambulism scares because it is surrounded with the normal, because its central character, its killer, is not the usual deviant monster, but a sharp, educated young man, not very far removed from the ideals of Franklin himself. As a cue of his hunger to learn, his desire for accurate information, Althorpe uses an elevated language (example: "The family retired to sleep. My mind had been too powerfully excited to permit me to imitate their example.")...

read entire article...

Snapshot (+Reminder): Franny & Zooey by J.D. Salinger

Reminder: Please keep in mind that now, while your reading load is very light, you should be exploring potential books for your Three-Book Term project. You will need to have determined which books you will be reading and writing about by mid-second quarter. This research paper is a very significant part of the course.

In case you've forgotten, here's the intro sheet to the project:
Intro Sheet to Three-Books Project [ PDF ]

Meanwhile, I'll continue to present some snapshots of American works we won't be studying together during the year. This time on to J.D. Salinger's Franny and Zooey. Here's an excerpt from a seminal review in The New York Times by John Updike in 1961:

...and now "Franny" and "Zooey" have a book to themselves. These two stories--the first medium-short, the second novella- length--are contiguous in time, and have as their common subject Franny's spiritual crisis.

In the first story, she arrives by train from a Smith-like college to spend the week-end of the Yale game at what must be Princeton. She and her date, Lane Coutell, go to a restaurant where it develops that she is not only unenthusiastic but downright ill. She attempts to explain herself while her friend brags about a superbly obnoxious term paper and eats frogs' legs. Finally, she faints, and is last seen lying in the manager's office silently praying at the ceiling.

In the second story, Franny has returned to her home, a large apartment in the East Seventies. It is the Monday following her unhappy Saturday. Only Franny's mother, Bessie, and her youngest brother, Zooey, are home. While Franny lies sleeplessly on the living-room sofa, her mother communicates, in an interminably rendered conversation, her concern and affection to Zooey, who then, after an even longer conversation with Franny, manages to gather from the haunted atmosphere of the apartment the crucial word of consolation. Franny, "as if all of what little or much wisdom there is in the world were suddenly hers," smiles at the ceiling and falls asleep.

read the entire review...

Puritan Poetry -- No Kidding!

Anne Bradstreet is one of America's first female writers. Her work is simple and accessible and this particular piece very illustrative of Puritan values and beliefs.

ON THE BURNING OF OUR HOUSE
by Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672)

In silent night when rest I took
For sorrow near I did not look,
I wakened--'twas with thundering noise--
And piteous shrieks of dreadful voice.
The fearful sound of fire and fire
Let no man know is my Desire.
I started up, the light did spy
And to my God my heart did cry
To strengthen me in my distress
And not to leave me succorless.
Then coming out beheld a space
The flame consume my dwelling place,
And when I could no longer look
I blessed His Name who gave and took,
That laid my goods now in the dust
Yea so it was, and so 'twas just.
It was his own it was not mine
Far be it yet I should repine,
He might of All justly bereft,
But yet sufficient for us left.
When by the Ruines oft I pass
My sorrowing eyes aside did cast
And here and there the places spy
Where oft I sat and long did lie,
Here stood that trunk, and there that chest
There lay that store I counted best
My pleasant things in ashes lie
And them behold no more shall I.
Under thy roof no guest shall sit,
Nor at thy table eat a bit.
No pleasant tale shall 'ere be told
Nor things recounted done of old.
No candle 'ere shall shine in thee
Nor bridegroom's voice 'ere heard shall be.
In silence ever shalt thou lie
Adieu, adieu, all's vanity.
Then straight I 'gin my heart to chide,
And did thy wealth on Earth abide,
Didst fix thy hope on mouldering dust,
The arm of flesh didst make thy trust?
Raise up thy thoughts above the sky
That dunghill mists away may fly.
Thou hast a house on high erect,
Framed by that mighty Architect,
With glory richly furnished
Stands permanent though this be fled.
It's purchased and paid for, too
By Him who hath Enough to do.
A prize so vast as is unknown
Yet by his Gift is made thine own.
There's wealth enough--I need no more,
Farewell my pelf, farewell my store.
The world no longer let me love
My hope, my treasure, lies above.

Puritans Made Things Painful (For Those who Broke the Rules)

Pillory stocks, used for public humiliation

As I mentioned in class, most of the punishments used by the Puritans of Massachusetts -- stocks, whippings, and hangings -- were public, with the punishment serving to shame the lawbreaker and remind the public that to disagree with the state's decisions is to disagree with God's laws and will. That being said, public punishment was not a product of the Puritan age, but it played a large part in the village life of the Massachusetts Bay colony. We'll see this up close when we study The Scarlet Letter next month.

For now, here are a few examples of public punishments in use during the late 17th century -- in both Massachusetts and in Europe.

The Shrew's Fiddle

The barrel pillory

Here's an excellent article on the subject from The Salem News, published in 2004:

Punishments in 17th-century Massachusetts were diverse, creative, and often cruel. They ranged from simple fines to maiming to burning at the stake, although the latter was never used in Essex County. Instead, locals convicted of murder, like Dorothy Talby of Salem who capped a career of deviant behavior by killing her daughter, met their respective ends on the gallows.

The pillory and stocks mentioned by Hawthorne, along with the whipping post, were fixtures in many local communities until they were outlawed in Massachusetts in 1813. The pillory could be a most uncomfortable instrument. The criminal's neck was placed in a stretched position in a hole between two pieces of hinged wood (in extreme cases, the offender's ears might be nailed to the pillory frame). Two smaller openings trapped the miscreant's hands, preventing him or her from warding off the rotten eggs or other foodstuffs thrown by onlookers.

Recommended: read whole article

Snapshot: A Separate Peace by John Knowles

A Separate Peace, written by John Knowles, begins as a story of innocent boys at a summer boarding school in New England and ends as a tale bigger than war and almost as deep as evil itself.

The story is set mainly at Devon, a beautiful, heavily-wooded boarding school in a quiet seashore town. Taking place in the 1940's, war has just begun to take hold of the school in its summer months. Gene, the mild-mannered, introverted narrator, is befriended by Phineas, his opposite. Outgoing, honest, popular, and athletic, Phineas is the star of school that summer. Both boys are seniors, just ripening to be drafted. But after an unfortunate "accident," the summer ends with a shock and Gene is thrown into adulthood with optimistic Phineas left as the victim.

The story that comes from the events of that summer is thick with grief, with potent images and strikingly diverse characters who all struggle within themselves to live in a world where boys like them are taken daily to war. The book itself is not amazing because of its storyline, but because of the remarkable character development which paints an entirely new picture of a world at war, and how this world can invade the quiet lives of innocent New England boys.

Much of this character development is derived from the active tension between Phineas and Gene. Both highly competitive, much of the book is the inner struggle for Gene to accept that Phineas is not out to hurt anyone. The novel reads very quickly, not simply because of its short length but also due to the rising and falling of Gene's inner psyche unfolding onto the page. This inner struggle is known only to Gene, and as his one greatest secret comes to light, that struggle is projected outward and into brutal boys in a hard, war-bound world.

read full review...

Goody Glover Day?

Remember Goody Glover, the Irish washerwoman who was hanged for witchcraft in the Goodwin affair recounted by Cotton Mather? It seems that Cotton Mather's account of the Goodwin children's afflictions and possessions is in dispute -- by the Boston City Council. On November 16, 1988 the Boston City Council recognized "the injustice done to Ann Glover 300 years earlier," and proclaimed that day “Goody Glover Day”, condemning what had been done to her.

Modern day Bostonians claim that Glover was a victim of anti-Catholic persecution:

The last woman to be hanged in Boston as a witch was Goodwife “Goody” Ann Glover, an Irish laundress. This North End resident was wildly accused in 1688 of practicing witchcraft by the infamous Reverend Coton Mather, pastor of the old North Church. Her Puritan accusers were caught up in a witch mania that was part of the rigid Puritanism of the time, attaching supernatural causes to things they couldn't explain, especially medical conditions.

Glover was an Irish slave, sold to the Barbados by Englishman Oliver Cromwell, during the occupation of Ireland in the 1650s. Persecuted for his own religious beliefs, her husband died there. By 1680 she and her daughter were settled in Boston, employed as housekeepers by John Goodwin. In the summer of 1688, four of the five Goodwin children fell ill. Their doctor concluded "nothing but a hellish Witchcraft could be the origin of these maladies." Martha, the 13-year-old daughter, confirmed the doctor's diagnosis by claiming she became ill right after an argument with Glover.

Glover was arrested and tried as a witch. In the courtroom there was confusion over Glover's testimony, since she refused to speak English, even though she knew the language. According to Mather, "the court could have no answers from her, but in the Irish, which was her native language." The court convicted Glover of witchcraft and sentenced her to be hanged.”

Robert Calef, a Boston merchant who knew her, says "Goody Glover was a despised, crazy, poor old woman, an Irish Catholick who was tried for afflicting the Goodwin children. Her behaviour at her trial was like that of one distracted. They did her cruel. The proof against her was wholly deficient. The jury brought her guilty. She was hung. She died a Catholick."

Author James B. Cullen wrote, "she was drawn in a cart, a hated and dreaded figure, chief in importance, stared at and mocked at, through the principal streets from her prison to the gallows….The people crowded to see the end, as always; and when it was over they quietly dispersed, leaving the worn-out body hanging as a terror to evil-doers."

During the trial Coton Mather called Glover "a scandalous old Irishwoman, very poor, a Roman Catholick and obstinate in idolatry." A decade after Glover was hanged Mather was still preaching against "idolatrous Roman Catholicks," trying to preserve a parochial society in a world that was quickly changing. Many other Irish immigrants came to America as bond slaves or "redemptioners" and were not as steadfast in their Faith as Goody Glover, and drifted into Protestantism.

read full entry

Horrid Bushes of Vanity

Increase Mather (left) and Cotton Mather (right) disagreed on wigs.

Soulofdiscretion asked if anyone has yet discovered whether the wild hairdo from Cotton Mather's is his own or a wig. Reading through "A History of Wigs" I came across an entry regarding 17th century Puritan views on the subject claiming that the Puritans believed that wigs were "horrid bushes of vanity." In fact, Cotton Mather's father (Increase Mather) is credited with coining this phrase. Yet it seems that Cotton, perhaps on account of his Christian name, rebelled against his father's parochial view on men's wig fashion. Excerpt:

The seventeenth century was one of dramatic change for men. Though the Puritan Parliament faction (called “Roundheads” for their short, somber haircuts) railed against wigs, and some Puritan pastors even refused to allow anyone wearing a wig into the church, this century saw the widespread use of wigs for men for the first time since the days of the ancient Egyptians... In the New World, despite protests from Puritan ministers such as Increase Mather (President of Harvard University), the wig craze spread. While Mather argued that wigs were “horrid bushes of vanity,” his son Cotton and many clergy adopted the fashion. Wigs were also popular in the South, and wealthy plantation owners and bricklayers alike wore them. Even slaves who could not afford authentic wigs made wigs from cotton wool and goat hair.

There you have it. Mystery solved. Cotton Mather ushered in the "wig craze" for Puritan ministers. Now, just for trivia's sake, did you know that King Louis XIII's baldness was the reason for the wearing of powdered white wigs so popular with America's founding fathers:

French King Louis XIII wore a wig to conceal his baldness, and when French King Louis XIV’s hair started to thin when he was 35, he shaved his head and wore a large wig. As a compliment to the Sun King, all his courtiers began to wear yellow wigs. Later, in old age, Louis wore an enormous wig, thickly covered with perfumed and white powder. Men and women (who were more likely to wear extensions), both old and young began to copy him as looking old became “in.”

read full entry...

Crucible: Flying Betty Scene

Winona Ryder as Abigail

Here's a clip from the movie adaptation of The Crucible. It dramatizes the scene we read today on pages 18-19 between Abigail, Mary Warren, Mercy, and flying Betty. Winona Ryder's performance of Abigail quite captures the girl's more despicable qualities. Cleopatra and Gabby can correct me, but it seems the girls' dress is on the too colorful side. I believe they were in reality more drab.

WATCH: View the three-minute film clip on Youtube

Book Review: The Wonder of Wiffling

Did you know that one who makes umbrellas is called a mushfaker? If not, read on. Here's a review from the Irish Independent of The Wonder of Wiffling:

...a new book offers rich pastures for even those with the gift of the gab. In its pages, office underlings can find fresh terms of abuse for their overlords, disgruntled husbands will discover new words to describe the mother-in-law and the wag in the pub need never be silenced again.

There are gems such as a seagull used to describe the kind of manager who flies in, makes a lot of noise, craps over everything and then leaves, or a shubie, one of those sorry souls who buys all the latest surfing gear but doesn't surf.

The Wonder of Whiffling, which is published today, takes readers on a delightful tour of the extraordinary words in the English language, from ancient and now disused words to trailer park slang. Its chapters include rarely used terms such crambazzled -- to be aged prematurely through drink -- to words we have sadly lost from everyday use such as mushfaker -- someone who repairs umbrellas -- and stadge -- the date of issue stamped on a coin....

The book helps to keep wordsmiths up-to-date with the latest editions to the language, such as ham, used to describe legitimate email, as opposed to spam and popular textonyms, the name given to predictive text software coming up with the wrong word, such as 'book for cool', 'carnage for barmaid' and 'poisoned for Smirnoff'.

Read on...

Usage Tip: Historic vs. Historical

Lee's surrender at Appomattox -- historic or historical?

Recent events have made us very conscious of the fact that we are making history. But are we witnessing historic events or historical events?

My Associated Press Stylebook offers a very simple answer: “A historic event is an important occurrence, one that stands out in history. Any occurrence in the past is a historical event.”

The surrender of Robert E. Lee at Appomattox is a historic event.

What people were doing around the courthouse may be of some historical interest.

One source I found offers a helpful mnemonic device: “it ‘al’ happened in the past.” (By the way, a mnemonic device is one that aids the memory.)

Who Was Cotton Mather?

Mather's Old North Church, Boston

From University of Missouri:

Cotton Mather, the minister of Boston's Old North church, was a true believer in witchcraft. In 1688, he had investigated the strange behavior of four children of a Boston mason named John Goodwin. The children had been complaining of sudden pains and crying out together in chorus. He concluded that witchcraft, specifically that practiced by an Irish washerwoman named Mary Glover, was responsible for the children's problems. He presented his findings and conclusions in one of the best known of his 382 works, "Memorable Providences." Mather's experience caused him to vow that to "never use but one grain of patience with any man that shall go to impose upon me a Denial of Devils, or of Witches."

Mather's Old North Church, interior

As it happened, three of the five judges appointed to the court of oyer and terminer that would hear the Salem witchcraft trials were friends of Mather and members of his church. Mather wrote a letter to one of the three judges, John Richards, suggesting how they might approach evidentiary issues at the upcoming trials. In particular, Mather urged the judges to consider spectral evidence, giving it such weight as"it will bear," and to consider the confessions of witches the best evidence of all. As the trials progressed, and growing numbers of person confessed to being witches, Mather became firmly convinced that "an Army of Devils is horribly broke in upon the place which is our center."

read on...

Salem Witch Trials -- Resouces

Map of Salem, 1692

In preparation for reading and studying Arthur Miller's Crucible, you'll be researching an assigned topic pertaining either to Miller, Puritanism, Witchcraft trials, 17th century New England, or McCarthyism. You may find the following sites helpful:

Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive
Includes historical maps, trial transcripts, original trial documents, biographies of notable people, etc.

Famous American Trials, Salem 1692
Includes loads of documents about the accusations, the trials, and the evidence as well as extensive background information about Salem and a history of witchcraft persecutions prior to Salem

The Cotton Mather Home Page
About all things Cotton Mather -- writings, biographies, pictures

Fire and Ice: On Puritanism
Puritan writings, history, and biographies

Book Review: Her Fearful Symmetry

2 Generations of Twins, a Family Secret, and a Soul Unable to Rest in Peace
Review from The New York Times Book Review

Time and the supernatural are at the center of Audrey Niffenegger’s new novel, an entertaining but not terribly resonant ghost story about two generations of twins.

Audrey Niffenegger’s wildly successful first novel, “The Time Traveler’s Wife” (recently turned into a movie), used an old sci-fi device as a springboard for a high-flying meditation on the uncertainties and dislocations of life. In recounting the story of Henry, an involuntary time traveler, and his wife, Clare — who patiently waits for him to return home from his Odysseus-like wanderings through the calendar — Ms. Niffenegger not only conjured two memorable characters, but also created an affecting story about the magical ability of love to transcend time.

Time and the supernatural are also at the center of her new novel, “Her Fearful Symmetry,” an entertaining but not terribly resonant ghost story about two generations of twins, which like all ghost stories, addresses the hold that time past exerts over time present.

Whereas “The Time Traveler’s Wife” simply used the premise of time travel as a device to look at a couple’s efforts to sustain their love through all sorts of trials and tribulations, “Symmetry” buys into the literary and cinematic ghost story genre whole hog, embracing all of its best-known traditions, no matter how hokey or contrived. The novel’s got a haunted house (well, a haunted apartment), a creepy cemetery, a family with a bizarre secret in its past and two naïve young women at the mercy of unearthly forces. True to form, the familiar daylight world of contemporary life is penetrated by a spirit from the great beyond, while the obvious Freudian implications of haunting and being haunted are dutifully explicated and explored.

With “Symmetry,” Ms. Niffenegger has streamlined her storytelling to the point of slickness. This novel charges ahead in a much more straightforward manner than “The Time Traveler’s Wife,” creating suspense through its formulaic adherence to old genre conventions. Although the reader is pleasantly carried along by the author’s ability to create credible characters and her instinctive narrative gifts, the novel lacks the emotional depth of its predecessor; none of the relationships in this novel have the intensity or poignancy of Clare and Henry’s liaison in “The Time Traveler’s Wife.” What’s more, the psychological underpinnings of a crucial decision made by one of this novel’s heroines are fuzzy and unpersuasive — a fundamental flaw that undermines the cogency of the overall story.

continue reading...

Geoffrey Crayon: "The Art of Bookmaking"

You've read the three most renowned stories from Irving's Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon (1819). If you ever wondered about some of the other stories, here's a preview of one in which Irving satirizes the fledgling bookmaking industry and the fears of plagiarizing dead authors:

In one sketch, "The Art of Book Making," Geoffrey Crayon's musings on the "extreme fecundity of the press, and how it comes to pass that so many heads, on which nature seemed to have inflicted the curse of barrenness, should teem with voluminous productions" lead him to conjure a phantasmagoric scene of dispossession and revenge. Having wandered into the reading room of the British Museum library, he discovers "many pale, studious personages, poring intently over dusty volumes, rummaging among mouldy manuscripts, and taking copious notes of their contents." These, he gradually discovers, "were principally authors and in the very act of manufacturing books." But after musing on the ethics of literary borrowing, he falls asleep and dreams that these authors are "a ragged, thread bare throng" of untutored bumpkins, borrowing the "garments" of classic writers in a ridiculous display of "vulgar elegance" (fig. 4). The victims of this literary rapine, a cadre of long-dead authors arrayed in dour portraits on the library walls, then come to life and rise up in a fierce counterrevolution "to claim their rifled property" and chase the plunderers out of the library.

From The Other Panic of 1819

Irivng Tests + Data Sheets

The Irving essay exam is graded. Out of 14 tests, ranging from 53%-104%, the mean score was 84.5%, which is a middling A in the Honors grading scale used in this course.

I've prepared a sample answer key to the Irving essay exam. The answers on this sample key are taken from answers supplied by you, the students, on the test you took Wednesday. All of these are exemplary or near-exemplary responses to the questions posed. Each received the full 10 points. Again, you would do well to study these answers in order to understand the "how" of taking this type of test and what is expected of you.

Available in PDF here: Washington Irving Essay Test - KEY.

Your tests and data sheets will be returned to you Friday morning.

Pertinacious Pedagogue's Capacious Vocabulary Gambol

Yes, this is a vocabulary challenge!

The prize: Five extra-credit points on Tuesday's vocabulary test.

The object: To use as many of this week's Washington Irving vocabulary words in a single sentence. Semicolons not allowed!

The rules:
1. You may use any words in the English language in order to compose your sentence, but only the Irving vocabulary words are counted for the purpose of the competition.

2. The sentence, however silly it may be, must be grammatically sound.

3. The sentence has to make some sense: It cannot be complete nonsense. Silly and likely never to be used in the normal course of human conversation is okay. Here is an example of an "unlikely" and "silly" (and grammatically correct) sentence that avoids being classified as complete nonsense:

"Hold the bilious termagant's arms akimbo, urchin, or the shad virago will addle my galligaskins."

That sentence counts for 8 vocabulary words. I'm sure you can beat that.

4. Sentences should be written here in the comments box for this post!

5. Contest entries should be posted BEFORE Monday, September 28, at 9:00 p.m. Enter as many sentences as you like.

Word of the Day: Hardscrabble

Hardscrabble: (adj.) Earning a bare subsistence, as on the land; yielding little by great labor, marginal: the sharecropper's hardscrabble life; meager, meagerly, meagre, scrimpy, stingy

Hardscrabble is formed from hard (from Old English heard) + scrabble (from Dutch schrabbelen, "to scratch").

I remember it being green and humid, nothing like this hardscrabble land.

-- Elmore Leonard, Cuba Libre

Most inhabitants scratched out a living from hardscrabble farming, yet these newcomers were hopeful and enterprising.

-- Ron Chernow, Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.

A scenic town fed by rich snowbirds who reside a few months a year in gated communities, High Balsam also is home to the hardscrabble residents who frequent Margaret's food-pantry giveaways.

-- Deirdre Donahue, "A sweet 'Evensong", USA Today, December 2, 1999

Related adjectives: amain, elaborate, energetic, epitonic, faffle, hard at work, hardscrabble, industrious, insudate, laboriferous, laboring, laborious, laboristic, moliminous, on the stretch, operose, painstaking, palestric, panurgic, strained, strenuous, toilsome, trusatile, uphill, wearisome, womanfully

Snapshot: My Ántonia by Willa Cather

H.L. Mencken once wrote, "No romantic novel ever written in America, by man or woman, is one half so beautiful as My Ántonia." Later in the year we will read Willa Cather's excellent short story "Neighbour Rosicky," which is also about Bohemian immigrants to the Nebraska plains . My Ántonia is as close as one can get to a classic American romance that rivals English counterparts the Brontes or Austen. The following is from a review by Melanie Rehak:

First published in 1918, and set in Nebraska in the late 19th century, this tale of the spirited daughter of a Bohemian immigrant family planning to farm on the untamed land comes to us through the romantic eyes of Jim Burden. He is, at the time of their meeting, newly orphaned and arriving at his grandparents' neighboring farm on the same night her family strikes out to make good in their new country. Jim chooses the opening words of his recollections deliberately: "I first heard of Ántonia on what seemed to be an interminable journey across the great midland plain of North America," and it seems almost certain that readers of Cather's masterpiece will just as easily pinpoint the first time they heard of Ántonia and her world. It seems equally certain that they, too, will remember that moment as one of great light in an otherwise unremarkable trip through the world.

Ántonia, who, even as a grown woman somewhat downtrodden by circumstance and hard work, "had not lost the fire of life," lies at the center of almost every human condition that Cather's novel effortlessly untangles. She represents immigrant struggles with a foreign land and tongue, the restraints on women of the time (with which Cather was very much concerned), the more general desires for love, family, and companionship, and the great capacity for forbearance that marked the earliest settlers on the frontier.

"Optima dies ... prima fugit" that Cather uses as the novel's epigraph. "The best days are the first to flee"--this could be said equally of childhood and the earliest hours of this country in which the open land, much like My Ántonia, was nothing short of a rhapsody in prairie sky blue.

Usage Tip: Alternate vs. Alternative

An article said a utility "plans to freeze its electric rates for five years, and by 2003 will allow all its customers to buy power from alternate sources." The writer almost certainly wanted "alternative," meaning providing a choice among options. "Alternate" means by turns, or every other, as in "alternate Sundays."

If you want to book a particular room in a hotel and you find that the room is already booked, the hotel could offer you alternative accommodation.

If a shop is not open every day but say on Monday/Wednesday/Friday, you would say it was open alternate days in the week.

Word of the Day: Agitprop

Soviet agitprop poster circa World War II

agitprop [AH-jit-prop] n. -- a political message, particularly one that is declared in drama, literature, music or other art forms. The creator may intend the agitprop to educate and inform, but the audience may feel an attempt is being made to indoctrinate them. As a result, this word typically has a negative connotation.

The word agitprop is Russian, an abbreviation of the conjunction of agitatsiya (agitation) and propaganda. These strategies for revolution were first twinned by Marxist Georgy Plekhanov. His ideas were later elaborated upon by Lenin in the 1902 pamphlet "What is to be Done?" These ideas prompted Communist leadership in the early 1920's to form an Agitation and Propaganda Section of the Central Committee. The shorthand term for this department was the agitprop bureau. Even today, every unit of a Communist party will have an agitprop section.

The Spectre Bridegroom in Gothic Literature

Did you know that the "spectre bridegroom" motif is quite common in Gothic literature?

Adapted from folklore and folk ballad, the motif ususally runs something like this: a young man, on the verge of being married to his true love, dies suddenly, but returns from the grave to claim his bride, who typically has "betrayed" him by marrying another man. There are lots of variations on this basic idea, including the betrayal of the woman by the man, among others. A number of Gothic-tradition writers have turned their hand to this theme. It carries the dramatic power of a romance tale, of course — love beyond the grave, love gone bad, all that sort of thing — but also has the capacity to engage issues of gender dynamics, of the balance of cultural power between men and women.

Here's a list of "spectre bride/groom" works:

William Harrison Ainsworth (attributed), "The Spectre Bride"
Göttfried Bürger, "Lenore"
F. Marion Crawford, Man Overboard!
Nathaniel Hawthorne, "The Wedding Knell"
William Hunt, "The Spectre Bridegroom"

See the note to "The Suffolk Miracle" ballad, below.

Washington Irving, "The Spectre Bridegroom"
Joseph Sheridan LeFanu, "Strange Event in the Life of Schalken the Painter"
Jack London, "Even Unto Death" and "Flush of Gold"

The latter is an expanded version of the former.

Matthew Lewis, "Alonso the Brave and the Fair Imogene"

One of the poems from Lewis' famed Gothic novel The Monk.

Charles Maturin, "Leixlip Castle"
E. Nesbit, "John Charrington's Wedding"
Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, "That Never Was on Sea or Land"
Edith Wharton, "Bewitched"
Sarah Wilkinson, "The Midnight Embrace"

Odenwald & "The Spectre Bridegroom"

In reading through "The Spectre Bridegroom" did you wonder exactly what Odenwald means and what it is? Did you look it up? Here are some clues:

First, oden means odes (as in sagas) and wald means forest; thus odenwald means forest of sagas. That's significant because the Odenwald is a place filled with many traditional German legends, particularly ghost stories. Irving's choice of setting is not incidental.

The Odenwald is located in southwestern Germany.The northern and western Odenwald belong to southern Hesse, with the south stretching into Baden. In the northeast, a small part lies in Lower Franconia in Bavaria. People from Hesse, of course, are called Hessians. The Hessians rented out mercenaries to the English to fight the American rebels in the American Revolutionary War. You will recall that the Headless Horseman of legend was a Hessian soldier.

Three-Book Term Paper Project

I mentioned at the beginning of the course that during the third quarter you will be writing a term paper. Next quarter, I will give you more exact details of what that term paper will entail. For now, I want you to be aware that you will be choosing three significant novels from American literature as your primary sources for the literary term paper. The three novels should be somehow inter-related either by theme, by author, by setting, by literary movement, etc. For example:

-- Three novel by William Faulkner
-- Novels by three different authors dealing with the theme of the "American dream"
-- Three dystopian novels by three different authors
-- Three novels by three different Romantic authors
-- Three novels exploring frontier life

The three books you choose may NOT be any of the novels we are reading together in class this year. That means that you should start familiarizing yourself with other American novels, authors, and themes. To that end, I will be featuring snapshots of American novels that may interest you. I've done the first one below: Catch 22 by Joseph Heller. If you have a request for a novel you'd like to see included in a snapshot, let me know!

Snapshot: Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

There aren't many titles of novels that actually become "catch phrases" or popular idioms, but Joesph Heller's Catch-22 is one of them. Americans use the phrase Catch-22 to indicate a situation in which a desired outcome or solution is impossible to attain because of a set of inherently illogical rules or conditions. It is a no-win dilemma or paradox. Here's the most famous Catch-22:

You can't get a job without experience, but you can't get experience unless you have a job--it's Catch-22.

In the 1961 war novel, John Yossarian is a U.S. Army Air Forces bombardier, who wishes to be grounded from combat flight duty. To be grounded, he must be officially evaluated by the squadron's flight surgeon and then found "unfit to fly." Unfit would be any pilot who is actually willing to fly such dangerous missions: as one would have to be mad to want to take on such missions. But the "catch" is that to be declared unfit, he must first "ask for evaluation," which is considered a sufficient proof for being declared sane. These conditions make impossible being declared unfit. The "Catch-22" is that "anyone who wants to get out of combat duty, isn't really crazy." Hence, pilots who request a fitness evaluation are sane, and therefore must fly in combat. And at the same time, if an evaluation is not requested by the pilot, he will never receive one, i.e., he can never be found insane, meaning, he must also fly in combat. Catch-22, then, ensures that no pilot can ever be grounded for being insane - even if he were.

Here's the definitive review of Heller's Catch-22, written by Robert Brustein in 1961, in which he calls the novel a "superlative work of comedy" and "one of the most bitterly funny works in the language." Read on...

Usage Tip O' the Week: i.e. versus e.g

The abbreviations i.e. and e.g. are commonly misused -- but that does not make it acceptable. Each has a distinct and limited usage. They are both abbreviations for Latin terms. I.e. stands for id est and means roughly "that is." E.g. stands for exempli gratia, which means “for example.” Both are used to introduce parenthetical statements.

An easy way to remember which is which: think of i.e., as meaning “in other words,” and e.g., which starts with e, means “for example.” I = in other words. E= example.

e.g. means “for example,” so you use it to introduce an example or examples: I like card games, e.g., bridge and crazy eights. Because e.g. is used, you know a list of examples of card games is provided.

i.e. means “in other words,” so you use it to introduce a parenthetical clarification: I'm going to the place where I work, i.e., the university. The place where I work is the university.

In American English, it is standard to use a comma after i.e. and e.g.

Word of the Day: hoi polloi

hoi polloi [ HOY puh-LOY] -- n. pl -- commoners, great unwashed, minions, multitude, mob, plebeians, proletariat, rabble, rank and file, riffraff, the common people, the herd, the many, the masses, the plebs, the peons, the working class

The expression is most often used as a term of contempt describing the common people, the rabble. Example: "The rich ate caviar and drank champagne, but it was bread and water for us hoi polloi."

Caricature: Ichabod Crane vs. Brom Bones

Disney actually does a decent job of effectively portraying Brom Bones and Ichabod Crane in due caricature. Recall how Irving caricatures both protagonist and antagonist:

Ichabod Crane: "The cognomen of Crane was not inapplicable to his person. He was tall, but exceedingly lank, with narrow shoulders, long arms and legs, hands that dangled a mile out of his sleeves, feet that might have served for shovels, and his whole frame most loosely hung together. His head was small, and flat at top, with huge ears, large green glassy eyes, and a long snipe nose, so that it looked like a weather-cock perched upon his spindle neck to tell which way the wind blew. To see him striding along the profile of a hill on a windy day, with his clothes bagging and fluttering about him, one might have mistaken him for the genius of famine descending upon the earth, or some scarecrow eloped from a cornfield."

Brom Bones: "The most formidable was a burly, roaring, roystering blade, of the name of Abraham, or, according to the Dutch abbreviation, Brom Van Brunt, the hero of the country round, which rang with his feats of strength and hardihood. He was broad-shouldered and double-jointed, with short curly black hair, and a bluff but not unpleasant countenance, having a mingled air of fun and arrogance. From his Herculean frame and great powers of limb he had received the nickname of BROM BONES, by which he was universally known. He was famed for great knowledge and skill in horsemanship, being as dexterous on horseback as a Tartar. He was foremost at all races and cock fights; and, with the ascendancy which bodily strength always acquires in rustic life, was the umpire in all disputes, setting his hat on one side, and giving his decisions with an air and tone that admitted of no gainsay or appeal. He was always ready for either a fight or a frolic; but had more mischief than ill-will in his composition; and with all his overbearing roughness, there was a strong dash of waggish good humor at bottom."

Watch the animated clip of Brom Bones telling the story of the legendary headless horseman at the Van Tassel estate. Does Ichabod seem like an eligible bachelor?

Word of the Day: Facetious

facetious: (adj.) not meant to be taken seriously or literally; lacking serious intent; concerned with something nonessential, amusing, or frivolous; tongue-in-cheek, blithe, capering, droll, flippant, frivolous, indecorous, ironic, irreverent, jesting, jocose, jocular, pulling one's leg, punning, putting one on, salty, sarcastic, satirical, smart, sportive, sprightly, waggish, whimsical, wisecracking, witty, wry

Origin: 1592, from the French facétieux, from facétie "a joke," from Latin facetia, from "witty, elegant," of unknown origin, perhaps related to facetusfacis "torch." It implies a desire to be amusing, often intrusive or ill-timed.

Jacky was being facetious when she said, "Yes, let's all go to Iraq for my birthday party!"

Tidbit: Along with abstemious, facetious is one of two words in the English language containing all five vowels in alphabetical order.

The Real Sleepy Hollow

John Quidor oil painting
from Smithsonian American Art Museum

Explore the real town of Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow in Westchester County, New York. You can see that Irving's "Legend of Sleepy Hollow" still lives on in the imaginations of the residents there.

Rip Van Winkle as Cautionary Tale

We decided that it is difficult to make the case for "Rip Van Winkle" functioning as a "morality tale," but it can be viewed as a cautionary tale. We had a few examples of those when we read The Canterbury Tales last year.

In simple terms, a cautionary tale is a traditional story told in folklore with the purpose of warning its hearer of a particular danger (e.g., playing with matches). The cautionary tale consists of three essential parts.

1. A taboo or prohibition is stated: some act, location, or thing is said to be dangerous.

2. The narrative itself is told: someone disregarded the warning and performed the forbidden act or acted in a prohibitive way.

3. Finally, the violator comes to an unpleasant fate, which is frequently related in large and grisly detail.

So, what is the taboo or danger that Irving warns his readers about in "Rip Van Winkle"? No, he doesn't warn against a life of idleness. He doesn't counsel us not to drink liquor with little people who have large beards and small piggish eyes. His warning is directed to wives: Wives, do not henpeck your husbands. Dame Van Winkle is the termagant transgressor who has henpecked her husband to a point that he wants to escape his intolerable domestic life. We might even consider that she's the cause of Rip's laziness around his house and farm, especially since the other village wives put him to work quite easily around their own homesteads, doing work they can't get their own husband's to do.

And, in the end, who comes to a "bad" end? Not Rip, but the no-name Dame Van Winkle. Her homestead goes to wrack and ruin; she loses her husband, and dies an early death.

Irving based some of his folklore stories on the German folklore tradition, which has a long lineup of short cautionary tales written in verse. You may enjoy some of these from Heinrich Hoffmann such as Cruel Frederick, The Dreadful Story of Pauline and the Matches, The Story of the Inky Boys, The Wild Huntsman, and Slovenly Peter:

See Slovenly Peter! Here he stands,
With his dirty hair and hands.
See! his nails are never cut;
They are grim'd as black as soot;
No water for many weeks,
Has been near his cheeks;
And the sloven, I declare,
Not once this year has combed his hair!
Anything to me is sweeter
Than to see shock-headed Peter.

Word of the Day: Zeitgeist

Zeitgeist [ ZYTE-gaist] -- (n) the popular outlook -- intellectually, morally, and culturally - in a particular period or generation. Scholars maintain that each era has a unique spirit distinguishing it from other periods. The pervasive cultural climate is described as the Zeitgeist. It is most often reflected in the music, movies, literature, and philosophy of the time.

First introduced in the English language in the late 19th century, Zeitgeist is another loaner from German. Literally translated Zeitgeist means "spirit of the times" since zeit is time and geist is spirit.

Rip Van Winkle from 1896

Here is, without a doubt, the earliest film adaptation of Irving's "Rip Van Winkle." Very primitive indeed, replete with dramatic hand gestures, but worth watching because of the eerie resemblance of the Catskill gnome (not the one pictured above) to our resident Larry.

View the 4 minute silent film...

Word of the Day: Schadenfreude

schadenfreude [ SHAW-den-froy-duh] -- (n.) taking malicious satisfaction in another person's troubles or suffering; epikhairekakia

The Book of Proverbs mentions an emotion similar to that now described by the word schadenfreude: "Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth: Lest the LORD see it, and it displease him, and he turn away his wrath from him" (Proverbs 24:17-18).

Sometimes capitalized, schadenfreude is a compound of two German words: schaden (damage) and freude (joy). Although this word was in use in the German language early in the 19th century, its first appearance in English is thought to be 1895.

As I noted today, German words can get to be very long, since many of them are compound nouns. We see this, for example, in "The Spectre Bride" with Starkenfaust (strong fist) and Katzenellenbogen (cat elbow). Ah, but these are just puny words, compared to some German compound nouns, such as:

Parkzeitüberschreitung:
expired parking meter

Berufungsgerichtsverfahren:
court of appeal procedure

Lehrgangsteilnahmebestaetigung:
training course participation confirmation

Supermarkteinkaufstütenbeschriftung:
Supermarket purchase bag inscription

Death By Books (and Other Stuff)

Speaking of urban legends, American literary light E.L. Doctorow (author of Ragtime) has published a new novel based on the urban legend of the Collyer brothers, Homer and Langley, who were literally crushed to death by the books (and other paraphernalia) they collected in their Manhattan brownstone. From the review this week in The New York Times:

The subject of E. L. Doctorow’s gentle, enveloping new novel, Homer & Langley, is one that might easily come to any deskbound writer who spends his days amid mounting piles of books, newspapers and magazines. It’s the Collyer brothers, Homer and Langley — wealthy, reclusive Manhattan pack rats who lived for decades in squalor in a Fifth Avenue brownstone and died within a labyrinth of trash: towers of news­papers, battlements of books, mountains of boxes and heaps of chandeliers and debris (human organs in brine, pianos, a Model T Ford). After their deaths, in 1947, investigators had to break an upstairs window to gain entrance. Burrowing through walls of clutter, they soon found Homer’s body, but it took weeks to locate Langley’s, which lay within 10 feet of his brother’s, crushed beneath a booby trap he’d set for prowlers. After both Collyers were extracted, more than 100 tons of refuse was removed from the building.

Though their story is entirely true, the Collyers have become the stuff of urban legend; as such, they’ve inspired many commemorations before this one. A few years ago, Franz Lidz wrote a riveting, fact-filled nonfiction account of the brothers, Ghosty Men, interwoven with reminiscences of his uncle (also a compulsive hoarder). In 1954, the impetuous writer and critic Marcia Davenport (she titled her autobiography Too Strong for Fantasy) mined their biography for melodrama in her novel My Brother’s Keeper, in which a passionate opera singer drives two brothers to disposophobic lunacy. The peculiar pair have also popped up, by name or reputation, in plays, television shows and films, as well as in the horror and crime genre — from Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot, in 1975, to Linda Fairstein’s “Lethal Legacy,” published last February.

Read on...

Usage Tip: Who vs. That vs. Which

Which of the following sentences is correct?

a. He's the man that sold me that clunker.
b. He's the man who sold me that clunker.

A simple grammar rule-of-thumb applies here: you use who when you are talking about a person and that when you are talking about an object. Stick with that rule and you'll be safe.

That being said, the rule-of-thumb isn't hard-and-fast. The American Heritage Dictionary says,

It is entirely acceptable to write either the man that wanted to talk to you, or the man who wanted to talk to you. [emphasis added]

Even Chaucer did it, for example.

Now, that vs. which is a bit more complicated -- a more hard-and-fast a grammatical rule. That introduces essential clauses while which introduces nonessential clauses. Some examples:

Essential: I do not trust products that claim "all natural ingredients" because this phrase can mean almost anything. (We would not know which products were being discussed without the that clause.)

Non-Essential: The product claiming "all natural ingredients," which appeared in the Sunday newspaper, is on sale. (The product is already identified. Therefore, which begins a nonessential clause.)

Word of the Day: Salmagundi

You'll note on the background information you were given about Washington Irving that he and his brother wrote an anthology of stories called Salmagundi. So, I imagine everyone is wondering about this word. Doubtless, many of you have already looked up the word on your own, but for those who have not:

Salmagundi: (n) -- A mixture or miscellany; potpourri, smorgasbord, witch's brew, farrago, gallimaufry, hodgepodge, hotchpotch, melange, mingle-mangle, mishmash, oddments, odds and ends, omnium-gatherum, ragbag

According to World Wide Word's Michael Quinion: Though this is now used mainly in a figurative sense, it was first attached in English to a dish of chopped meat, anchovies and eggs, garnished with onions, lemon juice, oil and other condiments. A right dog’s breakfast, in fact.

N.B. Consider the reasons that Washington Irving may have written under the pseudonyms "Jonathan Oldstyle" and "Geoffrey Crayon."