Philobiblon

This has been the topic of discussion on my email book group, and I’ve had to shame-facedly confess that I’ve hardly read any. (I’m talking about fiction here.)

The only one who immediately sprang to mind is LE Usher, who is an expatriate, so not sure if that counts. The central character of her “Miss” is a single female bookseller, just the sort you want on your street corner.

She says:

“I enjoy living over the shop, it soothes me to know that these books are underneath me. For they are mine. … I have chosen them, taken them into my hands, raked my eye over their every detail, opened them and smelt their secret smell, and chosen then to sit on my boookshelves….

On a number of occasions I have refused a sale simply because I didn’t like someone’s face or their hands. I have taken my book back from them, apologetically stating that actually this particular book is not for sale.

Understandably some of them argue – bemused tones turning to irritation and often belligerence. Most often they never return, which relives me of the task of saying no a second time.”

But then again, she might not be a great neighbour, since she becomes obsessed with female criminals of the past.

“I began to ask myself the question why, if women of such audacious criminal deeds had existed for centuries, did we find contemporary women murderers such a shockinh anomoly? … there appeared to me to be a strong historical precedent for the current crop of women who killed.”

And yes, she is tempted …

(The book boasts a rather good little biography of women criminals – original sources.)

This has been the topic of discussion on my email book group, and I’ve had to shame-facedly confess that I’ve hardly read any. (I’m talking about fiction here.)

The only one who immediately sprang to mind is LE Usher, who is an expatriate, so not sure if that counts. The central character of her “Miss” is a single female bookseller, just the sort you want on your street corner.

She says:

“I enjoy living over the shop, it soothes me to know that these books are underneath me. For they are mine. … I have chosen them, taken them into my hands, raked my eye over their every detail, opened them and smelt their secret smell, and chosen then to sit on my boookshelves….

On a number of occasions I have refused a sale simply because I didn’t like someone’s face or their hands. I have taken my book back from them, apologetically stating that actually this particular book is not for sale.

Understandably some of them argue – bemused tones turning to irritation and often belligerence. Most often they never return, which relives me of the task of saying no a second time.”

But then again, she might not be a great neighbour, since she becomes obsessed with female criminals of the past.

“I began to ask myself the question why, if women of such audacious criminal deeds had existed for centuries, did we find contemporary women murderers such a shockinh anomoly? … there appeared to me to be a strong historical precedent for the current crop of women who killed.”

And yes, she is tempted …

(The book boasts a rather good little biography of women criminals – original sources.)

… that I’m not in Australia at the moment, as little Johnnie Howard has just passed Hawke as the second longest-serving Prime Minister and the media is apparently falling over itself to “celebrate”.

As this article indicates, the fact that he even got elected in the first place was astonishing. But once there, he grasped the Daily Mail “scare ‘em silly with invented or grossly exaggerated dangers” tactic, and used that well. Still, Lady Luck, don’t you think this is enough?

As for the tsunami, well, what is there to say? It is a reminder that for all that the human race has accomplished in increasing its power over the environment, it is still puny in the face of the great natural forces. Greenhouse effect anyone?

On that subject, it is a pity that the US was unaffected – the demonstration might have done it good, at least if this London Review of Books article about the state of play on global warming in biology and politics is correct:

“A more sinister explanation for Washington’s resistance has to do with the centrality of military strategy in contemporary policy-making. Donald Rumsfeld and others like him have apparently calculated that climate change will enhance rather than detract from the country’s long-term security.

The US, with its flexible economy, temperate location, low population density and access to Canadian water, oil, natural gas and agriculture, would suffer less than other major countries as a result of climate change.

‘With diverse growing climates, wealth, technology and abundant resources,’ a report prepared last year for the Pentagon concluded, ‘the United States could likely survive shortened growing cycles and harsh weather conditions without catastrophic losses . . . even in this continuous state of emergency the US will be positioned well compared to others.’ (The report is available at www.s-e-i.org/pentagon_climate_ change.pdf.)

In comparison, China and India would struggle to cope with severe storms, decreasing agricultural production, energy shortfalls and mass population displacements, while the EU is ill prepared for the Siberian climate that would follow the collapse of the Gulf Stream, not to mention the waves of environmental refugees from North Africa, Central Asia and the Middle East that would hit European shores.

If the weakness of one’s opponents is as important as one’s own strength, the emissions generated in the US by SUVs and climate-controlled houses could be conceived as an insidious weapon in a ruthless struggle for power.

Finally, a little bit of sanity, in an article on Understanding Terror Networks someone has actually done some solid-looking quantitative research on the nature of al-Qaeda networks.

Happy New Year!

… that I’m not in Australia at the moment, as little Johnnie Howard has just passed Hawke as the second longest-serving Prime Minister and the media is apparently falling over itself to “celebrate”.

As this article indicates, the fact that he even got elected in the first place was astonishing. But once there, he grasped the Daily Mail “scare ‘em silly with invented or grossly exaggerated dangers” tactic, and used that well. Still, Lady Luck, don’t you think this is enough?

As for the tsunami, well, what is there to say? It is a reminder that for all that the human race has accomplished in increasing its power over the environment, it is still puny in the face of the great natural forces. Greenhouse effect anyone?

On that subject, it is a pity that the US was unaffected – the demonstration might have done it good, at least if this London Review of Books article about the state of play on global warming in biology and politics is correct:

“A more sinister explanation for Washington’s resistance has to do with the centrality of military strategy in contemporary policy-making. Donald Rumsfeld and others like him have apparently calculated that climate change will enhance rather than detract from the country’s long-term security.

The US, with its flexible economy, temperate location, low population density and access to Canadian water, oil, natural gas and agriculture, would suffer less than other major countries as a result of climate change.

‘With diverse growing climates, wealth, technology and abundant resources,’ a report prepared last year for the Pentagon concluded, ‘the United States could likely survive shortened growing cycles and harsh weather conditions without catastrophic losses . . . even in this continuous state of emergency the US will be positioned well compared to others.’ (The report is available at www.s-e-i.org/pentagon_climate_ change.pdf.)

In comparison, China and India would struggle to cope with severe storms, decreasing agricultural production, energy shortfalls and mass population displacements, while the EU is ill prepared for the Siberian climate that would follow the collapse of the Gulf Stream, not to mention the waves of environmental refugees from North Africa, Central Asia and the Middle East that would hit European shores.

If the weakness of one’s opponents is as important as one’s own strength, the emissions generated in the US by SUVs and climate-controlled houses could be conceived as an insidious weapon in a ruthless struggle for power.

Finally, a little bit of sanity, in an article on Understanding Terror Networks someone has actually done some solid-looking quantitative research on the nature of al-Qaeda networks.

Happy New Year!

“Sometimes, as I work at a series of patent and close rolls, I have a queer sensation; the dead entries begin to be alive. It is rather like the experience of sitting down in one’s chair and finding that one has sat on the cat.”
F.M. Powicke, Ways of Medieval Life and Thought, London, Odhams Press, 1950, p. 67.

He was “for many years was the Regis Professor of Modern History at Oxford” – you can just imagine him fitting into the stereotype, at least based on this quote.

I think this was a quote from somewhere else. I’ve lost the original reference, but it was such a nice quote I couldn’t resist posting it.

And yes, yippee, I have hit bottom on the piles of paper around the desk. I haven’t actually got into the desk yet, but I’ve got to buy some boxes for a new filing system tomorrow. And I might treat myself to an extra filing cabinet.

Can you guess one of my new year’s resolutions? It is one I make every year.

“Sometimes, as I work at a series of patent and close rolls, I have a queer sensation; the dead entries begin to be alive. It is rather like the experience of sitting down in one’s chair and finding that one has sat on the cat.”
F.M. Powicke, Ways of Medieval Life and Thought, London, Odhams Press, 1950, p. 67.

He was “for many years was the Regis Professor of Modern History at Oxford” – you can just imagine him fitting into the stereotype, at least based on this quote.

I think this was a quote from somewhere else. I’ve lost the original reference, but it was such a nice quote I couldn’t resist posting it.

And yes, yippee, I have hit bottom on the piles of paper around the desk. I haven’t actually got into the desk yet, but I’ve got to buy some boxes for a new filing system tomorrow. And I might treat myself to an extra filing cabinet.

Can you guess one of my new year’s resolutions? It is one I make every year.

I’m supposed to be doing a quick desk tidy, followed by lots of work … well you can guess where I’m at. But I did just stumble across the address for a wonderful website about the Megalithic temples of Malta.

The best book I’ve found is Malta Prehistory and Temples, D.H. Trump, Midsea, 2002.

It is a great place to visit about now, as I did last January. Oops, that means I haven’t really sorted out the piles around my desk since ….

Hi ho, hi ho …

I’m supposed to be doing a quick desk tidy, followed by lots of work … well you can guess where I’m at. But I did just stumble across the address for a wonderful website about the Megalithic temples of Malta.

The best book I’ve found is Malta Prehistory and Temples, D.H. Trump, Midsea, 2002.

It is a great place to visit about now, as I did last January. Oops, that means I haven’t really sorted out the piles around my desk since ….

Hi ho, hi ho …

I’m supposed to be having a massive desk clear-up and finish-off of various projects, so what am I doing ..

You’re Bettie Page!

What Classic Pin-Up Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

I have to confess that I’d never heard of her, but she did have an interesting life, certainly self-fashioning herself in an admirable way. Her take on it:

“I don’t know what they mean by an icon. I never thought of myself as being that. It seems strange to me. I was just modeling, thinking of as many different poses as possible. I made more money modeling than being a secretary. I had a lot of free time. You could go back to work after an absence of a few months. I couldn’t do that as a secretary.”

I’m supposed to be having a massive desk clear-up and finish-off of various projects, so what am I doing ..

You’re Bettie Page!

What Classic Pin-Up Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

I have to confess that I’d never heard of her, but she did have an interesting life, certainly self-fashioning herself in an admirable way. Her take on it:

“I don’t know what they mean by an icon. I never thought of myself as being that. It seems strange to me. I was just modeling, thinking of as many different poses as possible. I made more money modeling than being a secretary. I had a lot of free time. You could go back to work after an absence of a few months. I couldn’t do that as a secretary.”

Having discovered a new exclamation – Zounds, see post below – I’ve also stumbled across another long-term word survivor, Alsatia. I recently emailed someone on this subject:

“The designation “Alsatia” in London is most commonly used for the area north of the river that was covered by the White Friar’s monastery (to the south of the west end of Fleet St). That had, it is commonly said, arisen because the Alsace/Alsatia area of continental Europe was also lawless. (No idea if that was true or not, but it was what London thought.)

This Alsatia was a constant source of trouble well into the 19th century. In one case, in 1691, the benchers of the Inner Temple ordered that the gate between the two areas be bricked up. The “Alsatians” attacked the workers and killed one of them, and when the sheriff arrived at the scene they knocked him down and stole part of his chain of office.”

The term’s origins seem to be lost in the mists of time; it is probably approaching 1,000 years old. But the term, used more generally, also survived, I’ve just found, well into the 20th-century. From Margery Allingham’s The Tiger in the Smoke (first published in 1952).

“It was a market, Geoffrey saw, one of those small Alsatias which are still dotted about the poorer parts of the city, protected by ancient custom and the independence of their patrons. Ramshackle stalls roofed with flapping tarpaulin and lit with naked bulbs jostled each other down each side of the littered road; their merchandise, which ranged from whelks to underwear, was open to the sooty air, while behind them tottering shops, open-fronted and ill lit, cowered odorously.”
(p. 95 in my 1953 Reprint Society edition)

Living as I do on Leather Lane in central London, in which just such a market survives, I recognise the description immediately, although the “tottering shops” here have been, or are being, gentrifed, and the council chases out the pirate software vendors.

Having discovered a new exclamation – Zounds, see post below – I’ve also stumbled across another long-term word survivor, Alsatia. I recently emailed someone on this subject:

“The designation “Alsatia” in London is most commonly used for the area north of the river that was covered by the White Friar’s monastery (to the south of the west end of Fleet St). That had, it is commonly said, arisen because the Alsace/Alsatia area of continental Europe was also lawless. (No idea if that was true or not, but it was what London thought.)

This Alsatia was a constant source of trouble well into the 19th century. In one case, in 1691, the benchers of the Inner Temple ordered that the gate between the two areas be bricked up. The “Alsatians” attacked the workers and killed one of them, and when the sheriff arrived at the scene they knocked him down and stole part of his chain of office.”

The term’s origins seem to be lost in the mists of time; it is probably approaching 1,000 years old. But the term, used more generally, also survived, I’ve just found, well into the 20th-century. From Margery Allingham’s The Tiger in the Smoke (first published in 1952).

“It was a market, Geoffrey saw, one of those small Alsatias which are still dotted about the poorer parts of the city, protected by ancient custom and the independence of their patrons. Ramshackle stalls roofed with flapping tarpaulin and lit with naked bulbs jostled each other down each side of the littered road; their merchandise, which ranged from whelks to underwear, was open to the sooty air, while behind them tottering shops, open-fronted and ill lit, cowered odorously.”
(p. 95 in my 1953 Reprint Society edition)

Living as I do on Leather Lane in central London, in which just such a market survives, I recognise the description immediately, although the “tottering shops” here have been, or are being, gentrifed, and the council chases out the pirate software vendors.