There IS a connection: free books, Bartleby the Scrivener, The Encantadas, Dinosaurs, Hobbits, and Edward Gorey.
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When I was in college (a long time ago now), I had an English professor I really liked who actually got me interested in Herman Melville and Henry James----neither the most accessible writers in history. "Bartleby the Scrivener" remains one of my favorite short stories in life (though I only got through Moby Dick by skipping large chunks of it) and "The Encantadas" really made me understand the mystique of the Galapagos. As for James, he's one of my favorites, period.
And it was all thanks to this one quite young professor. I can't remember anything particular that he said; only that he somehow reminded me that there is a reason that the classics are classics and that the great works are considered great. He gave us a list at the end of the year of books he felt that every educated person should read; and assured us that we would find them entertaining, as so well as edifying. And he was right.
Thanks to him, I was never intimidated by dusty old books with library covers and my life has been infinitely richer than it would have been if I'd stumbled into someone else's "Survey of American Literature" class. I wish I knew where he is now, because I would like to thank him.
Thanks to masterpiece theater, A & E, and the BBC, many young people are learning---via television, yes, but whatever breaks down the barriers between the 21st century reader and Trollope, Eliot, and Dickens (to name three at random) is a great thing---just how enthralling the great novels really are.
And Melville's tale of The Galapagos, "The Encatadas"---one of those stories that manages to be simultaneously boring and exciting--makes the connection to my next topic.
NEW GIANT DINOSAUR SPECIES DISCOVERED IN BRAZIL.
I don't have anything to add to the article except....interesting. Further news on the paleontological front: WILL THE HOBBIT ARGUMENT EVER BE RESOLVED?
Apparently, there is an interesting controversy apparently "raging" in the scientific community about the nature of the tiny hominid to whom a set of tiny bones belonged.
[quote begins from article in "News at Nature.com" by Michael Hopkin]
For the past two years, researchers have been hotly debating (and coming dangerously close to fighting over) whether the fossils of a diminutive hominin found in Indonesia are those of a previously unknown species. The publication this week of some long-standing doubts over the 'hobbit' fossils show the debate is far from over.
The dispute over the bones of Homo floresiensis has involved allegations of name-calling, nationalistic motives, and wilfully damaging specimens. One camp insists that the tiny inhabitants of the Indonesian island of Flores were a unique species; the other claims that the bones are of a diseased Homo sapiens pygmy.[quote ends]
Sadly, the controversy may get in the way of their finding further specimens to argue about, at least for a time. "The prospects for finding any more fossils look bleak, however. Political wranglings have led to a ban, for the time being, on excavations at Liang Bua, the cave where the hobbits were uncovered. Negotiations to reopen the site next year are ongoing."
Finally, there's this in PhysOrg.com: Ancient Raptors Likely Feasted on Early Man.
[quote begins from article]
Archaeologists discovered the skull of a 31⁄2-year old ape-like child in a cave in South Africa in 1924. Researchers believed this child, called the Taung child (Australopithecus africanus), had been killed by a predatory cat. But McGraw said that puncture marks on the monkey skulls he examined closely resemble those found on the skull of the Taung child.
“Eagles leave very distinctive beak and talon punctures around the face and in the eye sockets,” “The skull of the Taung child has these same kinds of puncture marks.”[quote from article ends]
This doesn't surprise me as much as it apparently surprised the archaeologists; I guess I assumed that this sort of thing has happened from time to time in human history. Won't eagles eat anything they can get their talons around?
In Edward Gorey's The Beastly Baby, the beastly baby (who, among much
nastier traits, had a nose that seemed to be several years older than
the rest of it) gets carried off by an eagle, though not---I
believe---eaten. It's been years since I read it---I lost Amphigorey
Too in my 1988 divorce---but it seems to me that "there was a wet sort
of explosion" and that was the last anyone ever saw of the Beastly Baby.
Apparently, these archaeologists have never read Edward Gorey's unique oeuvre. But anyone who watches PBS has seen the titles he drew for Mystery. I must buy another copy. I have Amphigorey---I do not believe I could live a full life without constant access to The Unstrung Harp or to his macabre limericks---but how have I managed all these years without his subsequent works?
Speaking of which, I must retrieve my copy of Amphigorey from the friend to whom I lent it. Predictably, she disliked it; so many people do not appreciate Gorey's particular sense of humor. Here is a sample---this is one I committed to memory many years ago---though without the accompanying illustration it's only half as, um, poignant.
"The partition of Vavasour Scowles
Was a sickener; they came on his bowels
In a firkin; his brain
Was found clogging a drain,
And his toes were inside of some towels."
And one more:
The first child of a Mrs. Keats-Shelley
Came to light with its face in its belly.
Her second was born
With a hump and a horn
And her third was as shapeless as jelly.
And to get the impact of this one, you really must see the illustration.
"I suppose it's "British humor,"" said my friend disparagingly. But! Though it's a common misconception, Gorey was not only NOT English; according to the Wikipedia article cited above, he never even visited England. He was 100% American.
I do find this last hard to believe; particularly so because I have a very old paperback edition of Kingsley Amis's Lucky Jim with a cover illustration that I would swear is by Gorey. And then, there are those titles for Mystery; and the Mr. Earbrass story (The Unstrung Harp), and all the illustrations which are obviously set in the Vicwardian England of country houses located in places called "Collapsed Pudding" and which are so English in style and tone. E.g., "To Angus--Shall we ever forget the bloaters?"
But since I myself was an "armchair anglophile" till I married Nick, I suppose I ought to believe that Gorey may have been the same. Sadly, he is no longer with us.
Ah, Mr. G. Ah, humanity!
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