tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post8888386276368993942..comments2024-03-29T03:04:00.853-05:00Comments on Wuthering <br>Expectations: Going for a swim with Thomas Hardy - some social realismAmateur Reader (Tom)http://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-70143998456511260722014-09-30T09:47:34.580-05:002014-09-30T09:47:34.580-05:00I had not seen that, or, worse, I don't rememb...I had not seen that, or, worse, I don't remember it. Herbert was so sharp.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-9261820797991462232014-09-30T09:12:03.832-05:002014-09-30T09:12:03.832-05:00Somehow we've lost the taste for the epic, may...Somehow we've lost the taste for the epic, maybe the movies and the telly satisfy that need these days, or maybe we've come to the point where we can only appreciate ironic things:<br /><br />First there was a god of night and tempest, a black idol without eyes, before whom they leaped, naked and smeared with blood. Later on, in the times of the republic, there were many gods with wives, children, creaking beds, and harmlessly exploding thunderbolts. At the end only superstitious neurotics carried in their pockets little statues of salt, representing the god of irony. There was no greater god at that time.<br /> Then came the barbarians. They too valued highly the little god of irony. They would crush it under their heels and add it to their dishes.<br />[Zbigniew Herbert]Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-83079162733510519822014-09-29T16:14:45.643-05:002014-09-29T16:14:45.643-05:00None of these stories had anything to match Old Fa...None of these stories had anything to match Old Father Time, but they had plenty of fine Hardyish misery. I'm glad to see he kept it p in <i>The Dynasts</i>.<br /><br />Greatest literary work of the first third of the 20th century - a magnificent opinion. I am not mocking it but rather marveling about the change in values that causes a massive historical epic in verse to be driven from readers' hands by, for example, a comic novella about a guy who turns into a bug.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-91404300223746692172014-09-29T14:37:58.127-05:002014-09-29T14:37:58.127-05:00A certain one volume American Encyclopedia from th...A certain one volume American Encyclopedia from the '30s listed Hardy's The Dynasts as the greatest literary work, up to that moment, of the 20th. Century. In that work we find Hardy again engaged with the current subject matter:<br />"-I can tell you a word or two about it. It is about His victuals. They say that He lives upon human flesh, and has rashers o' baby every morning for breakfast--for all the world like the Cernal Giant in old ancient times!<br /><br />-Ye can't believe all ye hear.<br /><br />-I only believe half. And I only own--such is my challengeful character--that perhaps He do eat pagan infants when He's in the desert. But not Christian ones at home. Oh no--'tis too much."Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-34392357845216498282014-09-29T09:45:48.086-05:002014-09-29T09:45:48.086-05:00The poor family in this story is stupefied, beast-...The poor family in this story is stupefied, beast-like. When the children are discovered playing with their doll, there is a line involving the corpse's eyes which is the one I alluded to as a mild but real violation of good taste.<br /><br />I think "her marine experiences" means that she has been out on boats. She grew up on an island. It is as if Hardy searched for the oddest possible way to say that.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-26858859689989912382014-09-29T08:55:42.169-05:002014-09-29T08:55:42.169-05:00So glad the baby didn't end up in the turnips,...So glad the baby didn't end up in the turnips, but being played with as a doll? That's a bit less gruesome but still, makes the people seem stupid as though they can't tell the difference between a dead baby and a toy.<br /><br />Hardy on the other hand, "her marine experiences," what a hoot! What the heck does that mean? And at least there is no danger of a dead baby being mixed up in his turnip pies.Stefaniehttp://somanybooksblog.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-39686937630720192522014-09-28T15:56:06.265-05:002014-09-28T15:56:06.265-05:00Didn't Hardy really want to be a poet in the f...Didn't Hardy really want to be a poet in the first place? Maybe it all worked out for the best.<br /><br />I could actually see Lobo Antunes enjoying that flexuous / marine experiences line more than I do. <br /><br />I will give you the other clue about the baby. This comes before the bit I quotes by a little less than a page, back when the naive reader is unsuspicious: <br /><br />"In the kitchen I passed through on my way upstairs, a pair of Hodds, of too tender an age to be at school, were seated on a sack - again a sack! - spread before the fire, and were playing with a large battered doll."Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-6461806157112701862014-09-28T07:03:05.978-05:002014-09-28T07:03:05.978-05:00I don't particularly like Hardy, but Lobo Antu...I don't particularly like Hardy, but Lobo Antunes does, and I'm sure it's because of his depressing outlook.<br /><br />And damn it!, Tom, I want to know what happens to the baby.LMRhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08538873868140070018noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-13408279790447998942014-09-26T18:11:42.099-05:002014-09-26T18:11:42.099-05:00Poor Hardy, he became so upset and bitter about pu...Poor Hardy, he became so upset and bitter about public and critical reactions to his prose after a while that he abandoned the efforts and moved on to poetry. I admire his versatility. I have enjoyed many of his efforts in all genres. R.T.https://www.blogger.com/profile/13220814349193561823noreply@blogger.com