Most of today was spent in the museum and their annex at the riverside (of the river Exe), carrying bones and skulls and teeth of ...
elephants and hippopotamuses, from...
Somerset!
Some twenty years ago they were constructing a new highway bypass somewhere in Somerset (I forgot the name of the place, sorry), and hit upon a mass of bones. Paleontologists got four days to dig up the lot: there was no time to document the configuration the bones where found in, or to store them away properly... so now they have to do all that, and we had to pick up some of these bones from a horribly ill-conserving depot (inadequate package, labels, atmosphere, etc.) and drove them up to the museum, carrying them through the backyard, over dodgy fire escape stairs (very romantic, but unsuitable for our job... elephant jaws can be quite heavy you know), through the museum, to the 'secret cellar' where we work (which of course isn't secret at all, but is hidden away so well that I was completely surprised on the first working-day to suddenly find myself in a huge basement, which had been unvisible from the outside. I'm afraid this sounds rather vague; maybe this makes it more clear: in the middle of one of the galleries four pieces of plywood form a tiny room. However, behind its door are deep winding stairs, leading to this, well, sort of secret, cellar. I love it!).
By the way: I found a decent pop/rock/country/whatever music radio station: BBC radio 2.
About racing horses (see http://nican-nicuica.blogspot.com/): it appears that not only was the horse well-loved, named Best Mate, and did he suffer from a fatal heart-attack at Exeter racecourse, but his owner expressed the wish to bury him in this same race ground. However, gov leg sadly demands him to be cremated... Want more? Have a look at the fascinating site of horseandhound.co.uk: Home of Equestrianism! (I guess it's similar to the Dutch magazine arts&auto.)
In the meantime, November storms have broken here. I heard similar mentions about London, but how are things in La Patrie? (Speaking about which: another evidence that expats are 'roomser than the pope', in other words more nationalistic than 'pats': http://www.patrie.net/. Which might be a bad sign for me own future...
After a full year of voluntary abstinence I have returned to vampirism. Or at least: I have started reading (the rest is private) in my Penguin book of vampire stories, received from Sinterklaas almost a year ago now. I will report to you:
Lord Byron (the famous one) wrote one of the first vampirs stories in the English language (of course the German romantics were way ahead of him). Don't read it. (Except if you have a scientific interest in the image forming of the modern literary vampire, as I happen to have.) Dr. Polidori did a better job, probably parodying Lord Byron himself in the figure of his vampire Lord Ruthven. Then we have Varney the Vampire, a hugely popular "penny dreadful" that appeared in weekly portions for over two years (!). No need to say the author, or at least the publisher, made big money. And that's exactly what it is: an easy way to make money. It's vulgar, sometimes even ridiculous. and of no literary interest whatsoever; exploiting the sexual anxieties of its audience (in this case: fear of rape) for cheap effect. (You see: I'm practicing for my future as a cultural entrepeneur). But again, interesting for cultural historians.
But now for the good part: I found one sentence in Varney I would like to share with you: "The dread trumpet of eternity could not more effectually have awakened any one". Think Apocalypse. Think Book of Revelation. See http://members.aol.com/Wisdomway/revelations2.htm#anchor2702820 under The Seven Trumpets for an explanationon and http://bible.cc/revelation/1-1.htm for full-text and commentaries.
Good part Part II: Good Lady Ducayne is an okay story about the companion-girl of a vampire lady, but you should certainly read Carmilla. It's short and conveniently published on www.gutenberg.org/etext/10007 . It is from 1872, but, like the other ones, pretty explicit sexually. What's more, it's explicit homosexually. Who would have thought to find the following?
“I took her hand as I spoke. I was a little shy, as lonely people are, but the situation made me eloquent, and even bold. She pressed my hand, she laid hers upon it, and her eyes glowed, as, looking hastily into mine, she smiled again, and blushed” (10). Somewhat later Carmilla (the vampire) asserts that Laura needs not be afraid of death: “‘But to die as lovers may - to die together, so that they may live together. Girls are caterpillars while they live in the world, to be finally butterflies when the summer comes’” (16).
and "she would press me more closely in her tembling embrace, and her lips in soft kisses gently glow upon my cheek". Etcetera.
(Actually, I found all this a year ago, working on a long paper, and that's why I had to take some time off from vampires.)
That's how fare I have come. Next in the Penguin Book is "The mysterious stranger (1860) Anonymous". Sounds good.
I was planning to write about "what I study" as well today , but I'm sure you've had enough by now, so I bid you goodnight.
elephants and hippopotamuses, from...
Somerset!
Some twenty years ago they were constructing a new highway bypass somewhere in Somerset (I forgot the name of the place, sorry), and hit upon a mass of bones. Paleontologists got four days to dig up the lot: there was no time to document the configuration the bones where found in, or to store them away properly... so now they have to do all that, and we had to pick up some of these bones from a horribly ill-conserving depot (inadequate package, labels, atmosphere, etc.) and drove them up to the museum, carrying them through the backyard, over dodgy fire escape stairs (very romantic, but unsuitable for our job... elephant jaws can be quite heavy you know), through the museum, to the 'secret cellar' where we work (which of course isn't secret at all, but is hidden away so well that I was completely surprised on the first working-day to suddenly find myself in a huge basement, which had been unvisible from the outside. I'm afraid this sounds rather vague; maybe this makes it more clear: in the middle of one of the galleries four pieces of plywood form a tiny room. However, behind its door are deep winding stairs, leading to this, well, sort of secret, cellar. I love it!).
By the way: I found a decent pop/rock/country/whatever music radio station: BBC radio 2.
About racing horses (see http://nican-nicuica.blogspot.com/): it appears that not only was the horse well-loved, named Best Mate, and did he suffer from a fatal heart-attack at Exeter racecourse, but his owner expressed the wish to bury him in this same race ground. However, gov leg sadly demands him to be cremated... Want more? Have a look at the fascinating site of horseandhound.co.uk: Home of Equestrianism! (I guess it's similar to the Dutch magazine arts&auto.)
In the meantime, November storms have broken here. I heard similar mentions about London, but how are things in La Patrie? (Speaking about which: another evidence that expats are 'roomser than the pope', in other words more nationalistic than 'pats': http://www.patrie.net/. Which might be a bad sign for me own future...
After a full year of voluntary abstinence I have returned to vampirism. Or at least: I have started reading (the rest is private) in my Penguin book of vampire stories, received from Sinterklaas almost a year ago now. I will report to you:
Lord Byron (the famous one) wrote one of the first vampirs stories in the English language (of course the German romantics were way ahead of him). Don't read it. (Except if you have a scientific interest in the image forming of the modern literary vampire, as I happen to have.) Dr. Polidori did a better job, probably parodying Lord Byron himself in the figure of his vampire Lord Ruthven. Then we have Varney the Vampire, a hugely popular "penny dreadful" that appeared in weekly portions for over two years (!). No need to say the author, or at least the publisher, made big money. And that's exactly what it is: an easy way to make money. It's vulgar, sometimes even ridiculous. and of no literary interest whatsoever; exploiting the sexual anxieties of its audience (in this case: fear of rape) for cheap effect. (You see: I'm practicing for my future as a cultural entrepeneur). But again, interesting for cultural historians.
But now for the good part: I found one sentence in Varney I would like to share with you: "The dread trumpet of eternity could not more effectually have awakened any one". Think Apocalypse. Think Book of Revelation. See http://members.aol.com/Wisdomway/revelations2.htm#anchor2702820 under The Seven Trumpets for an explanationon and http://bible.cc/revelation/1-1.htm for full-text and commentaries.
Good part Part II: Good Lady Ducayne is an okay story about the companion-girl of a vampire lady, but you should certainly read Carmilla. It's short and conveniently published on www.gutenberg.org/etext/10007 . It is from 1872, but, like the other ones, pretty explicit sexually. What's more, it's explicit homosexually. Who would have thought to find the following?
“I took her hand as I spoke. I was a little shy, as lonely people are, but the situation made me eloquent, and even bold. She pressed my hand, she laid hers upon it, and her eyes glowed, as, looking hastily into mine, she smiled again, and blushed” (10). Somewhat later Carmilla (the vampire) asserts that Laura needs not be afraid of death: “‘But to die as lovers may - to die together, so that they may live together. Girls are caterpillars while they live in the world, to be finally butterflies when the summer comes’” (16).
and "she would press me more closely in her tembling embrace, and her lips in soft kisses gently glow upon my cheek". Etcetera.
(Actually, I found all this a year ago, working on a long paper, and that's why I had to take some time off from vampires.)
That's how fare I have come. Next in the Penguin Book is "The mysterious stranger (1860) Anonymous". Sounds good.
I was planning to write about "what I study" as well today , but I'm sure you've had enough by now, so I bid you goodnight.
posted by Anna P.H. Geurts | 12:39 am
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