From: "Ken Wolman" <[log in to unmask]>
> Any jerk can take off a
> convenience store; it takes skill to brandish a .57 calibre dueling
> pistol while not getting the hammer entangled in your silk cravat.
That's the sort of casual detail that I absolutely love.
> Indeed. Though Tristram Shandy absolutely rocked,
There was a theory (though I never tried this out on a professional 18thC
specialist) that Tristam Shandy was the first post modernist novel.
Though the one time Carol visited Shandy Hall, she was more interested in
the window that nearly circumcised (or was it castrated?) Tristram than
anything else. But then, who can fathom the mind of a Miltonist?
> We never talked about Wild as a political novel by any definition. I
> forget: is Wild a social climber who uses criminality as a way to buy
> himself up? Probably more complicated than that. I would not be
> surprised if Fielding were not using JW as a way to parody and attack
> some forgotten British PM or other minister.
Right on. Ask Mark. I think it was Walpole, but I can't be bothered to
check.
> About 2 weeks ago I heard a radio interview with Marianne Faithful, and
> they played a relatively recent recording she made of "Pirate Jenny"
> that made my skin crawl up and down my bones. Which is to say she was
> superb. "As tears go by" may be forgotten.
Must check that out.
< This was at the
> Lenya/Lemper/Stratas level where you inhabit Weill's music.
Depends on the time Lotte Lenya was singing -- the original thirties version
is magic, but by the fifties, her throat seemed to have gone into total
meltdown.
MacHeath
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