tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post8518819922123606068..comments2024-03-27T16:48:21.039-05:00Comments on Wuthering <br>Expectations: I'd give the dustman five shillings, to carry you off in the dust cart.Amateur Reader (Tom)http://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-63550774251357080792012-02-21T11:13:38.144-06:002012-02-21T11:13:38.144-06:00Thanks for visiting, Nana - same to you (meaning I...Thanks for visiting, Nana - same to you (meaning I read your posts whether or not I comment).<br /><br />You know, I had not connected the two, but I wonder if Armah knew <i>Our Mutual Friend</i>. <i>Beautyful Ones</i> and the Dickens novel share some imagery of the filthy city.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-71950398750134619472012-02-21T05:37:52.968-06:002012-02-21T05:37:52.968-06:00This is to say I do read your posts.This is to say I do read your posts.ImageNationshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06021414643103601330noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-82946664004716066732012-02-15T20:38:52.316-06:002012-02-15T20:38:52.316-06:00Now that is a good hobby.Now <i>that</i> is a good hobby.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-89699346053727631532012-02-15T20:36:04.515-06:002012-02-15T20:36:04.515-06:00Oh thanks.
Yes, poverty, the absence of money, is...Oh thanks.<br /><br />Yes, poverty, the absence of money, is a clear and meaningful position. Dickens is great at describing poverty, many kinds of poverty, poverty in every color and size.<br /><br />I am more ambivalent about his approach to other classes - whenever I have written about Dickens and the "gentleman," or the wealthy characters who believe in the Religion of Christmas, I'm trying to get at way Dickens changes his thinking over time. He changes a lot. His imaginative reach expands.<br /><br />The comparison with James is apt. Sometimes I think that Trollope and Balzac were the only 19th century writers who really knew how money worked.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-83077529557874913772012-02-15T20:30:20.478-06:002012-02-15T20:30:20.478-06:00That's OK, Tom, I can do dust and I'm occa...That's OK, Tom, I can do dust and I'm occasionally patient to boot (plus the absence of your Crazy Dickens post(s) actually gives me more time to read up on the Buenos Aires litmag wars from the 1920s--my new hobby). Cheers!Richardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01746599416342846897noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-39030721872306968932012-02-15T17:11:29.974-06:002012-02-15T17:11:29.974-06:00Kind of the anti-Henry James, then, whose characte...Kind of the anti-Henry James, then, whose characters generally have money but don't work. As if James himself had no idea where money came from or what work (as in <i>labor</i>) was. Which may be true.<br /><br />Maybe what I'm noticing in Dickens isn't either money or work, but poverty and class consciousness. I'm not sure. I'll have to read more Dickens and think about that.<br /><br />Your posts on Dickens' use of shadows was nice work, too. By the way.scott g.f.baileyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05726743149139510832noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-54639491202444657992012-02-15T16:02:37.758-06:002012-02-15T16:02:37.758-06:00The last 3 "big" novels - Bleak House, L...The last 3 "big" novels - <i>Bleak House</i>, <i>Little Dorrit</i>, and this one - all have similarly amazing symbolic backdrops, where Dickens takes a handful of rich but not by themselves complex markers (dust, fog, shadows) and does everything he can think of with them. And he can think of more than just about anyone.<br /><br />Dickens is actually kind of odd with money. It is almost an abstract force in his world. Trollope is the writer who knows the exact income of his characters and how they earn it, and who writes about characters who know as much as he does. Money is important to Dickens, but vague.<br /><br />Dickens is far more interested in <i>work</i> than in money or commerce.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-51838540419812362112012-02-15T10:39:33.495-06:002012-02-15T10:39:33.495-06:00This is really excellent, the symbolic backdrop of...This is really excellent, the symbolic backdrop of the tale. I should make this book the next thing I read.<br /><br />Money is so important in Dickens' writing. Possibly the most important thing. Or is commerce a metaphor for basic survival? Because there's money in <i>Tale of Two Cities</i>, but that book's central image is blood running in the streets, innit? And as I wrote that last sentence I finally <i>got it</i> about the duality of Carton/Darnay and the idea of good/bad being relative historical labels. So, progress, right?scott g.f.baileyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05726743149139510832noreply@blogger.com