tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post4257788580856699123..comments2024-03-29T03:04:00.853-05:00Comments on Wuthering <br>Expectations: The Young Visiters by Daisy Ashford - my life will be sour grapes and ashes without youAmateur Reader (Tom)http://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-86989363773465978512012-12-07T15:42:52.385-06:002012-12-07T15:42:52.385-06:00Amazing - from 1920. An insta-parody.Amazing - <a href="http://www.archive.org/stream/youngimmigruntsw00larduoft/youngimmigruntsw00larduoft_djvu.txt" rel="nofollow">from 1920</a>. An insta-parody.<br /><br />Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-19456189721900944632012-12-07T13:24:26.442-06:002012-12-07T13:24:26.442-06:00Daisy seems to have lost interest in writing after...Daisy seems to have lost interest in writing after she finished "The Hangman's Daughter" at 13. A pity! I bet her adult writing would have been lively.<br /><br />Ring Lardner parodied her in a piece called "The Young Immigrunts" (a road trip as told by his son). Come to think of it, Lardner's narrators sometimes sound a lot like her. <br /><br />Doug Skinnerhttp://www.dougskinner.netnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-38731757755958771502012-12-06T16:30:49.075-06:002012-12-06T16:30:49.075-06:00The Aira connection is metaphysically plausible. ...The Aira connection is metaphysically plausible. Both writers were likely working on the same "forward only, no going back" restraints. In Ashford's book, unlike Aira's, everyone's gender is stable.<br /><br />I remember where I heard of this book, as an aside in an article about Jane Austen, something about her juvenilia. Then, offhand, a mention of the greatest novel ever written by a nine year old. "No way" I thought, then I tracked it down and swallowed it whole. <br /><br />My understanding is that Daisy did not have help from adults, at least. Her siblings might have offered suggestions - they were the audience. <br /><br />Almost thirty years after she wrote it, Ashford (who was not at all a writer as an adult) came across the "manuscript," a notebook, and showed it to a friend who showed it to a friend who was a publisher. This is in the book Doug recommends (<a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=dSEmAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=daisy+ashford&hl=en&sa=X&ei=-hjBUM2hIanY2AXzioGADA&ved=0CD4Q6AEwAg#v=onepage&q&f=false" rel="nofollow">at Google Books</a>).<br /><br />J. M. Barrie wrote the preface to <i>The Young Visiters</i> - it's easy enough to see why he would like this. Like C.B. says, it is just youth. But this is exactly the period when artists, writers as well as painters, were investigating free writing and "primitive" art and anybody else who had somehow and in some way shaken off the baggage, even if it is just spelling or capital letters. Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-91578456976807640342012-12-06T11:51:50.291-06:002012-12-06T11:51:50.291-06:00She was nine? She seems to write both like and unl...She was nine? She seems to write both like and unlike a child. The placard and the strawberry ice are things a kid would come up with but to write them so well is really amazing. I wonder if she had any adult assistance? Stefaniehttp://somanybooksblog.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-10248293613642206012012-12-06T06:13:55.665-06:002012-12-06T06:13:55.665-06:00I've been away from this site for too long. Th...I've been away from this site for too long. This review is a good example of why I like your blog as much as I do. Who ever heard of this book or this author? While I am taken by the passages you quote above, I wonder how much of what you call avant gardism is really just youth. I often see passages like this in my own students writing, though not quite up to this quality. Have you read her adult work? Is there any available?Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06906212382849291562noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-19534856379514516842012-12-05T23:38:56.357-06:002012-12-05T23:38:56.357-06:00A second volume was published in 1920 ("Daisy...A second volume was published in 1920 ("Daisy Ashford: Her Book"), containing her other childhood writings, including her most ambitious work, "The Hangman's Daughter." And a story by her sister Angela! It's worth seeking out; she was a vivid writer, whatever her age.Doug Skinnerhttp://www.dougskinner.netnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-37452630774829952032012-12-05T23:09:45.684-06:002012-12-05T23:09:45.684-06:00Your perceptive declaration about audacity, the ch...Your perceptive declaration about audacity, the child writer thing, the strawberry ice, the "silly dash of avant-gardism" all make me think you could be referring to César Aira's <em>How I Became a Nun</em> instead of this alleged nine-year old's "dual-plot novella." C'mon, Tom, fess up already!Richardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01746599416342846897noreply@blogger.com