call me silly, but call me

[gurdonark]

I love that 6 people on LiveJournal have listed Dorothy L. Sayers' wonderful mystery novel character Harriet Vane among their 150 interests. I think that Harriet Vane is grand--someone I'd actually want to meet. My "characters from fiction that might be fun to meet" list would include Ms. Vane, Ford Madox Ford's Christopher Tietjens, CP Snow's George Passant, and of course Bertie Wooster. That 6 people put HV on their interests list is just cool. She's perhaps the most attractive woman in any popular novel--though the author spends (rather too much) time assuring us she is physically plain.

Once I stumbled upon this bit of whimy, I had to play with the search engine a bit. I found 7 people have listed Harper Lee's challenged Boo Radley, from To Kill a Mockingbird, although the existence of a rock band by that name may skew the results. One of our dogs is named Scout, for a reason. Interestingly, something like 17 listed Eleanor Rigby on their interests list.

I'd put some pithy close to this, but I want to see how many people put "comfortably numb" among their interests.

Comments

[jenny_evergreen]

I don't have Ms. Sayers listed in my interests, but it was one of the things listed in yours that I jumped at. I wish she'd written more, I love Lord Peter and Harriet. =)
(I also love To Kill a Mockingbird, for the record. =)

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

You know, it's funny, there's a debate among Sayers' "purists" (of whom I am not one) over whether the pre-Harriet or the post-Harriet books are better. I think that Strong Poison and Gaudy Night are both wonderful, so to me both are wonderful. I think Harriet's character is a breath of fresh air, especially in a mystery novel of that era. It's always made me a little sad, though, that in the short story Sayers wrote about "what finally happened" to this couple, she couldn't give Harriet a more interesting story.

I like To Kill a Mockingbird, too. But not as much as I like my dog Scout :)

[circebleu.livejournal.com]

Oh wow! I never saw Lloyd Cole on your interest list! He's great. I put his picture on The Magician card in the Tarot deck I'm working on. Penguin Cafe Orchestra....years ago??....did they do "Milk"?

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

When I think of great artists whose attempts to be famous cut against their art, I think Lloyd Cole is the poster boy.
I think that Rattlesnakes is such a great album, but every album since, he's often having to switch styles, trying to be "popular", when to me he is best as a simple singer songwriter.

Just my opinion, and worthless.

Penguin Cafe Orchestra has done so many great songs, although they all have odd little titles and features instrumentals that are melodic and yet somewhat different than one might expect.

[geisa.livejournal.com]

harper lee and truman capote were both very good friends of my family. truman would be driven out to my grandfather's office, usually by a family member, in rural alabama and have long visits with him when he was in monroeville, al. visiting his family. truman usually came to monroeville once a year throughout his life, i never saw him again after the mid 70's as i didn't travel to my grandparents house, or stay as long, as i got older, but truman usually came in the summer...that's how i got to see him, as i would be visiting my grandparents during summer vacation as a child. i remember him as a kid, because he was this little man with the hat and odd clothes that talked so funny and used to carry on and on about everthing with everybody. he would just barge in and literally radiate. everybody was attracted to him. he also loved cokes in the small 6 1/2 ounce bottles, and i used to bring them to him the whole time he was there. i liked doing that because i was SO fascinated by this funny little man that acted so strange, in hindsight like a woman, but i never really thought that then. actually, i didn't know what to think. he was so strange yet so self-assured and confident. i just thought that he was really funny and intriguing, and i always wanted to hear everything that he was saying and he almost NEVER shut up, unless he was listening to my grandfather. i thought he was great, and i didn't even know that he was a famous author. i knew he wrote books, but i didn't know anything else. his personality was just so overwhelming. sometimes we would take rides in the country and go deep into the dark woods, he, my grandfather and me along as well, hovering over the front seat so i could hear everything that he said. truman was just fascinated with the deep south, as you can tell in his best literature. and he really captured the dark, gothic part of the south that i find so natural, aesthetically appealing and accurate, just a brilliant, brilliant writer and fascinating personality. he and my grandfather were quite a pair. little did i know then, that his first novel "other voices, other rooms" would end up being my favorite book of all time. i admit it is probably because of my bias of having known him, even though as a child, and seeing and experiencing the beauty of a part of america that he so eloquently wrote about and described when writing about the deep south. his books are dead on!!!

harper lee is the most reclusive person that i have ever known. she would call my grandfather and let him know that she was coming, and she would slip in the back door of his office. both doors that lead to my grandfather's office from the front would be closed and locked. she would quietly slip away and disappear after long conversations with my grandfather. she never wanted a coke.

also, i have never thought that "to kill a mockingbird" was as great as everybody else does, seemingly. i always preferred capote and his mastering of the descriptive writing style in relation to the south and ability to write so descriptively on the surface with SO much going on underneath, "other voices, other rooms" is an excellent example of this. i'll never forget truman, "oooohhhh deeeaaaaarrr, ooohhhhh evvvvvveerrryyyyythinnnngggg isss juuuuuusssst looooovvveelllllyyy, sweeeeeetieeeee willllll yoooooouuuu pleeeeeaaaaaase briiing meeee aaannothhhaaa coooooke. oooohhhhh, thaaaank youuuuu dahhhhlinnnn!!!" truman was a trip and a half!!!;)

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

That is very interesting. I have never really known any celebrities, if we discount the man who owns the Charles Atlas Company. I like To Kill a Mockingbird, but the Capote stuff is also grand. What a character it sounds like he must have been.
I think both of them saw a gothic part in the south, and told it well. I wish some of their imitators did not try to make the "new South" quite so gothic as those novels did. My own childhood town had some gothic moments, but in general would not be at home in either novelists' works.

[geisa.livejournal.com]

in these parts, there is no way to escape the gothic. it is a dark place and that is it's appeal. i also see it in the works of others like faulkner and flannery o'connor. in order to capture it accurately, you cannot ignore that characteristic. i grew up in the southwest, but i have been exposed to and lived in the deep south almost all of my life and very little changes here. that dark, majestic concept of where i am is expressed through my lj name, "ghost of wonderland". this is the most timeless place that i know. i can drive into a southern gothic novel landscape in a matter of minutes. in fact, in an hour i can be in the exact south that lee and capote saw and wrote about. nothing of relevance has changed, and i love that.

also, i don't know if you are aware of this, but the residents are actually from louisiana, a very dark and mysterious place. capote spent much time there, as well as mississippi. i don't think that the south CAN be changed, and i am glad. i like the darkness, the reclusive, alienation. the strong connection to nature, which is so overwhelming in it's presence, and the true catalyst for this phenomenon. i have been to alot of beautiful places, but i always return to wonderland, full of spirits, tall trees, thick menacing forests, mosquitos, beautiful bayous and beaches, and eccentric characters. i hope that this place never changes. and i am sure that it won't, because nature will not allow it.

long live the dark, dark south.

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

The Residents are from Shreveport, which is the part of Louisiana culturally nearly identical to the place I grew up. I have always thought they were more Louisiana than SF, in fact. There were some gothic notes in my home town--during hayrides we had to duck so that crazy Cecil D. would not take a shot at us--but there were lots of other strains, too.

[geisa.livejournal.com]

yep, shreveport is where they are from. you can hear the south in their music very prominantly, atleast i have always thought so. you were very close to "wonderland" actually it sounds like you may have been in it!!!;)

i have family in shreveport, alexandria, new orleans, and franklin, la. have you ever seen the movie "the apostle"?! i haven't, but the "home" scenes, i guess, when they were in louisiana, were filmed in my uncle's house. i used to play there much as a kid. he had a little honda 50 mini-bike that one of my older cousins had long out grown, but my uncle don kept it there for me and PLENTY of gas, i would ride that thing forever!!! and you talk about creepy, gothic territory...that cane territory is HARD-CORE!!! i haven't been in years. but i have many fond memories. my family there owns a sugar plantation with a huge sugar mill, i guess is what you would call it. i used to eat lunch with the factory workers also. it was so much fun. there was a little house next to the mill that was converted into an eating place for the workers at lunch. and when you walked in all there was were rows of picnic tables with checkered table clothes and cooks preparing BIG meals for the workers and it was GREAT!!! i thought that was so much fun...great food too!!!;) old school, the best!!!

awe, ole crazy cecil d. probably only had "bird shot" in his gun anyway...sounds terribly EXCITING to me!!!;) but then...i like stuff like that...it's a "southern" thing!!!;)

Journal?

[(Anonymous)]

Hey, this whole journal idea is pretty cool. How can I start up my own?

Re: Journal?

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

It really comes to either having a code that you get from someone you know who does a journal, or
you buy a code from LJ, which is not that expensive.
Then you follow software so easy even I can use it, and set it up.

Re: Journal?

[(Anonymous)]

I don't know anybody on here yet. Do you have a code?

Re: Journal?

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

Some folks with codes are a little leery of
passing them out to strangers, because some kids get them and use them to hassle others.
I tend not to be too doctrinaire, and if you can drop me an e mail assuring me you're not that and telling me how you came to be looking at my page,I'll see what I can do.