tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424364424049242300.post7590838199106044813..comments2023-06-21T18:53:11.897+10:00Comments on Pykk: in a manner inconsequent and unfounded; the visitor feltUmbagollahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14556344092820711893noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424364424049242300.post-79057356189433593262010-12-28T04:12:01.109+11:002010-12-28T04:12:01.109+11:00From Going Into a Dark House? Dang, I wish I had m...From <i>Going Into a Dark House</i>? Dang, I wish I had my Gardams with me. She can do amazing things with tone. She can turn a story around on a coin. I discovered her <i>Bilgewater</i> when I was a teenager, and Bilgie was the only teen protagonist, in any book, ever, who seemed to be speaking. The rest were speaking through an author, but she seemed to <i>speak</i>. Recent Gardam has flattened out, but in her early work she has the gift of sounding like no one else. <br /><br />Sue: you might like her short story <i>The Sidmouth Letters</i>. Austen makes a guest appearance.Umbagollahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14556344092820711893noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424364424049242300.post-51313144038062071612010-12-27T14:13:18.391+11:002010-12-27T14:13:18.391+11:00I cannot understand why Jane Gardam is not more wi...I cannot understand why Jane Gardam is not more widely admired. There is a short story of hers called something like Blue Poppies that I especially love.zmkchttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08972549292961948240noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424364424049242300.post-50519864939921783292010-12-25T04:27:13.831+11:002010-12-25T04:27:13.831+11:00Thanks, and to both of you too. (Travelling around...Thanks, and to both of you too. (Travelling around Australia with Les Murray is easy. You dangle a 1960s university academic from a fishing pole and the big man will roar at your heels all the way from Broome to Yunck.)<br /><br />Jane Gardam can whip out a good Very. I don't remember how she is with Nice, or if she uses it at all. But I've seen her pull of Very a couple of times. Good at dialect. Good at voices.<br /><br />I caught the news again last night and it turns out I was lying about the weather. The extreme north-west of the state is suffering from rain (cue footage of house being swept away, cue footage of the house's former owner saying, "Well we thought the worst was over, and then we got a phone call saying, "You'd better get down here ..."") and it's snowing in Prescott. Prescott was still billing itself as the Christmas Capital when we went through. I'm not sure how it got its hands on this designation (sheer force of will?) but they had two columns of festive activities listed on a billboard downtown -- elf celebrations, a walk-through Bethlehem, the nightly illumination of the courthouse, and so on.Umbagollahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14556344092820711893noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424364424049242300.post-39855383269539232972010-12-25T04:25:03.076+11:002010-12-25T04:25:03.076+11:00This comment has been removed by the author.Umbagollahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14556344092820711893noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424364424049242300.post-48803897426503990052010-12-24T16:56:34.966+11:002010-12-24T16:56:34.966+11:00Yes, it is a tone thing and I don't think real...Yes, it is a tone thing and I don't think really that it comes across in some of the places I've been using it but I like to persevere because "nice" has been so maligned and I like to think we can still use it usefully!<br /><br />That sounds like Arizona - particularly the area you are in. I loved living in the southwest - the only thing I missed, really, was autumn. It's a lovely season here ...<br /><br />Anyhow, I'll just ditto zmkc and say I hope you have a good one.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424364424049242300.post-4428205635047747622010-12-24T08:44:59.740+11:002010-12-24T08:44:59.740+11:00I spent the night in Prescott once - it described ...I spent the night in Prescott once - it described itself, puzzlingly, as 'Christmas capital of America' at the time. My husband tells me the launderette there was very good. I am assuming Around Australia in 22 Days wasn't also written by Les Murray? If it was, I'm going on Abebooks to find a copy - wandering the country for 22 days in the great man's company sounds appealing. Have a very happy Christmas and new year.zmkchttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08972549292961948240noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424364424049242300.post-9364075217612140242010-12-24T05:29:25.789+11:002010-12-24T05:29:25.789+11:00The weather in Arizona is fine, fine, and more fin...The weather in Arizona is fine, fine, and more fine. Last night we had the first significant rain I've seen since we arrived here -- about three-quarters of an inch, and this morning there is almost nothing left but a smell of damp and two flower pot stands filled with water. <br /><br />To the west California is under water and to the north the roads are coated with snow, ice, and frozen cars but we only hear about these things secondhand. Arizona is all sunshine and beautiful sunsets. The state weather report every night consists of a man in a WE RULE t-shirt saying "Heh heh heh," to the camera and dancing offscreen shaking a pair of maracas.<br /><br />About 'nice': it's a tone thing, the forceful use of 'nice', nowadays, anyway, away from the old meaning of Exact. There are some authors, typically British and usually women, who can pull it off, and 'very' as well, but it seems to be indigenous to the person. I wonder if it could taught, or if it's like that American judge's definition of porn: "I know it when I see it"(in other words, it needs to be <i>produced</i> before it can identified). <br /><br />About the Ambassadors: I gave up too, the first time I tried one of James Last Big Three. Mine was the Golden Bowl and I was in the bath. By page eighty I realised that I had no memory of anything I'd just read, so I ditched it for a few years, read Dove, and came back to it again. The older he got, the more seems to have moved into the stage-wings of his own stories and peeped at them, which puzzled me, because I was waiting for something to happen -- and everything was, but not in <i>front</i> of me.Umbagollahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14556344092820711893noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424364424049242300.post-24960753272497637632010-12-23T03:59:34.484+11:002010-12-23T03:59:34.484+11:00So much to comment on here, I don't quite know...So much to comment on here, I don't quite know where to start - so let's start with the weather. How is it over there?!<br /><br />The ambassadors was the first ever Henry James I attempted and I never did finish it. I gave it a second half-hearted attempt a few years ago and gave up then too. I have read some other, earlier I admit, James and liked them but this one? <br /><br />I like your reference to Austen, her exactness and the example of "nice". I find myself using "nice" more often lately and using it (in my mind) with some of its lesser used meanings - as in neat, precise, to the point - but I have a feeling that I've fallen on deaf ears and think I should give it up.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com