tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post2042056542428067572..comments2024-03-27T16:48:21.039-05:00Comments on Wuthering <br>Expectations: Don’t it want trimming, turning, furbishing up and polishing over? - Robert Browning the MediumAmateur Reader (Tom)http://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-22928391966111316942012-03-01T23:57:47.432-06:002012-03-01T23:57:47.432-06:00"Sludge" introduces Possession, really? ..."Sludge" introduces <i>Possession</i>, really? Of course it does. It has been at least 20 years since I read that book. It must be absolutely stuffed with Browning - the poet character is more or less mock-Browning, isn't he? I would have had no idea then, or almost none.<br /><br />One angle I did not pursue here, along Doug's suggestion, is that Hawthorne in his <i>Italian Notebooks</i> writes about his discussions of spiritualism with the Brownings (they're all in Florence, I think). Hawthorne would have been an obvious candidate to take on spiritualism one way or the other, but there was something about the subject that kept him at a distance despite a strong if skeptical interest. I am not sure what.<br /><br />Why am I not surprised to find a half-baked Wiki <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiritualism_in_fiction" rel="nofollow">Spiritualism in Fiction</a> page. <i>The Bostonians</i> looks like the prize.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-61904828386727115932012-03-01T23:01:05.139-06:002012-03-01T23:01:05.139-06:00I know Mr Sludge. Antonia Byatt excerpted a chunk ...I know Mr Sludge. Antonia Byatt excerpted a chunk of this poem to introduce her novel <i>Possession</i>, which book has themes of resurrecting the dead via their poetry and letters, sort of, and also references the Victorian spiritualist craze.scott g.f.baileyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05726743149139510832noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-30135037926173308422012-03-01T22:19:19.229-06:002012-03-01T22:19:19.229-06:00Lovely! Or, perhaps, Browning and Sludge are both...Lovely! Or, perhaps, Browning and Sludge are both mediums, who make possibly fictional spirits speak.<br /><br />Spiritualism seems like such a complicated social movement, filled with unreliable narrators and ambiguous motives on all sides. I'm surprised more writers didn't take it on. Maybe they did, and I just don't know them...Doug Skinnerhttp://www.dougskinner.netnoreply@blogger.com