tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post7874546145537631957..comments2024-03-27T16:48:21.039-05:00Comments on Wuthering <br>Expectations: And a-heaving and a-heaving with what? - two M. R. James storiesAmateur Reader (Tom)http://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-71838195229220728102012-10-18T23:37:31.733-05:002012-10-18T23:37:31.733-05:00Yes, that was amusing, that the Professor was such...Yes, that was amusing, that the Professor was such a bad - totally irresponsible - archaeologist. How curious that you immediately encountered the identical device. James seems maybe just a little bit narrow.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-73089675579533316072012-10-18T18:14:23.781-05:002012-10-18T18:14:23.781-05:00I was going to say an irreverent thing about golf ...I was going to say an irreverent thing about golf being enough of symbol but... oh never mind. <br /><br />Another thing I liked about this story was the sort of mix-and-match academics in it. He's a Professor of Ontography (which I suppose gives him a certain interdisciplinarity), but then goes off amateur sleuthing among the ruins at the behest of an archeologist - and rather clumsily too. The other James story I read, "Canon Alberic's Scrapbook," also features an academic with a side interest, in cathedrals this time, and who also wanders off with a precious relic, one with onotological (even ontologigraphical?) qualities as well as an accompanying curse. To reduce looting, they should teach M. R. James in archeology courses.seraillonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17654593356535433945noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-91258352118193117482012-10-18T17:03:23.129-05:002012-10-18T17:03:23.129-05:00Oh sure, long close ups of the Professor blowing t...Oh sure, long close ups of the Professor blowing the whistle. I understand the challenge - the story has to be about <i>something</i>, right?<br /><br />Although I am pretty sure "Professor of Ontography" is a more significant clue.<br /><br />You are right that the linen ghost may suggest a shroud. In the story, the ghost is not himself made of a sheet but merely wears it. The 'orror is whatever is under the sheet. Same with "Rats," actually. It's moving, it's moving!<br /><br />I guess I have not seen <i>The Ghost and Mrs. Muir</i>. Good cast!Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-88522984720134744492012-10-18T15:18:27.032-05:002012-10-18T15:18:27.032-05:00'the ghost turns out to be evil ambulatory bed...'the ghost turns out to be evil ambulatory bedclothes <br />... a horrible, an intensely horrible, face of crumpled linen.'<br /><br />Does this reflect a change in language, perhaps? I think in James's day many people would have associated a 'face of crumpled linen' with a mummy or a corpse in a shroud.<br /><br />Jonathan Miller did a T.V. adaptation of "Oh Whistle" which interpreted the ghost as a symbol of repressed homosexuality or masturbation or both.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-32239415993601843112012-10-18T09:31:29.740-05:002012-10-18T09:31:29.740-05:00A gamble, I happened to read just last night "...A gamble, I happened to read just last night "Oh Whistle" and also noted that wonderful line leaving it up to golf fans to fill in the necessary details - one of the niftiest things I've ever found in a short story (if I were a fiction writer and had to write about golf, I wouldn't have had the patience either). <br /><br />I like your new means of categorizing ghost stories. It puts <i>The Ghost and Mrs. Muir</i> starkly at the far right end of the spectrum. seraillonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17654593356535433945noreply@blogger.com