LITERARY COMPARISONS

I hope readers will indulge me with just one more post on the subject of literary comparison. I love battles between writers. The way to do it is the way it's done here, with two paragraphs side by side, and with each writer describing the same thing. Battles like this get bloody. Reputations are won and lost. It's not for the faint of heart.

Here's the first comparison, from Ayn Rand of all people. In an essay In "Romantic Manifesto" Rand compares a passage by literary novelist Thomas Wolfe (above, top right),  and one by down-and-dirty pulp novelist Mickey Spillane (above, top left). She prefers Spillane. See what you think. Both writers attempt to describe New York city at night. 

Thomas Wolfe: "The city had never seemed as beautiful as it looked that night. For the first time he saw that New York was supremely, among the cities of the world, a city of night. There had been achieved here a loveliness that was astounding and incomparable, a kind of modern beauty, inherent to its place and time, that no other place nor time could match."

Mickey Spillane: "The rain was misty enough to be almost foglike, a cold gray curtain that separated me from the pale ovals of white that were faces locked behind the steamed-up windows of the cars that hissed by. Even the brilliance that was Manhattan by night was reduced to a few sleepy yellow lights off in the distance" 

Rand comments: "There is not a single emotional word or adjective in Spillane's description; he presents nothing save visual facts; but he selects only those facts, only those eloquent details, which convey the visual reality of the scene and create a mood of desolate loneliness." Wolfe, she argues, uses only estimates, "and in the absence of any indication of what aroused these estimates, they are arbitrary assertions and meaningless generalities."

Here's (below) another interesting comparison, two versions of the first paragraph of Genesis. I'm only comparing line number two ("And the Earth..."), but I'll start with the first four lines just to put everything in context: 

<< Genesis 1 >> King James Version 1In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 2And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. 3And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. 4And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. Okay, here's the comparison: GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995) The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep water. The Spirit of God was hovering over the water. King James Bible And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. Obviously the King James version is superior...but why? Well for one thing, "formless and empty" is merely descriptive. The KJ version milks more drama by dividing "formless" into two words, and contracts "empty" into the more masculine, one-syllable word, "void," creating more contrast, and giving us a deeper sense of loss. "Darkness was upon the face of the deep" is pure genius. Who'd have thought the deep could have a face, but it works. Anything that does something to a face gets our attention.   "The spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters" is even purer genius! Imagine the spectacle of a miles long face of God cruising at awesome speed above the sea, regarding what He created. And there's that word "face" again! If only it were possible to know who wrote/translated this version! I wish there was a whole book of comparisons like this. Imagine how much you could learn from it! BTW: Don't confuse Thomas Wolfe (above), the novelist who wrote "Look Homeward, Angel",  with Tom Wolfe, the author of "Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test."

MY FAVORITE POEM

Greetingth, Poetry Loverth! I thought I'd post my new favorite poem...if you can call it a poem...."The Rose of Sharon" from Song of Solomon 2:1, in The King James Bible. I'd have preferred a good dramatic reading on film, but I couldn't find any...nothing first-rate anyway. I couldn't find any masterpieces of painting to illustrate the subject, either. It's odd that one of the world's greatest love poems inspired no great art. I put up some only vaguely relevant pictures of Solomon above and below, and I guess they'll have to suffice. Oh, well...we have the text, and that's the important thing: << Song of Solomon 2 >> King James Version 1I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys.2As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters. 3As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste. 4He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love. [Note: The rose of Sharon? The lily of the valleys? Boy, this author has a knack for words that stick in the mind. "So is my love among the daughters" is so much better than the merely factual "So is my love among the young women." The metaphor of the apple tree is terrific, and so is "his banner over me was love." A couple of random points: some of the words in the body of the poem are italicized...I don't know why, since emphasizing them buggers up the sound. And if you're reading the poem out loud, I would emphasize the second syllable in "Sharon" because it sounds better that way.] 5Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples: for I am sick of love. 6His left hand is under my head, and his right hand doth embrace me. 7I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, till he please. [Note: "Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples" is pure word music. I assume that "sick of love" means something like "dizzy with love," which is a good thing. Charging by the roes and hinds is a brilliant formulation. It seems to acknowledge the magical  power and beauty of nature. Her command to the other women has great force because she summons nature to back her up.] 8The voice of my beloved! behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills. 9My beloved is like a roe or a young hart: behold, he standeth behind our wall, he looketh forth at the windows, shewing himself through the lattice. 10My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. 11For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; 12The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land; [Note: As a cartoonist, line 8 is skewered for me because I can imagine the way Don Martin would have drawn it. It's still a beautiful image, though. I forgive the "voice of the turtle" reference...turtles don't have voices, do they?...but why quibble?] 15Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes. 16My beloved is mine, and I am his: he feedeth among the lilies. 17Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bethel. [Note: That's it, that's the end. I have no idea why the boyfriend wants to take vine-eating foxes with him, but the word music here is so powerful that it transcends literal meaning. I deleted lines 13 and 14 just to make the passage shorter. You can read the whole passage here:  http://kingjbible.com/songs/2.html (Forgive the weird spacing above...I'm having computer problems) A beautiful poem, huh? I wish poetry readings were sometimes done by professional actors reading classic poems like this one. If they were, maybe they'd be better attended. BTW: if you follow the link to the site that I stole this from, you'll discover that clicking on the blue line numbers in the King James Version will take you to a long list showing how other translators handled the same line. Boy, what a difference! If you're a student of good writing, I know of no better textbook than these comparisons! Also BTW:  Animation Insider just put up an interview of me on their site: http://www.animationinsider.com/2011/07/eddie-fitzgerald/

"THE POET"

Oh Man, I'm in heaven! Commenter and famed illustrator Kellie Strom told me how to recover this accidentally deleted photo story and the advice was good as gold! Here it is in all it's funky glory. I'm tempted to change a few things, and I wish I didn't look so fat in it, but I'll leave it as is, just to be safe.

The story:

"Now to write this thing...."


"Let's see....hmmm....Love...our love..."

"Our love is such that..."

"No, no....our love runs...runs and swims... "

"No... we swim into love with...we swim into the swimming hole of love...we swim..."

"Oh, the heck with it!"

GLURP! GLURP!

"We swim...we dive...we swan dive..."

"Blp!"

"We SWAN DIVE into the VOLCANO BURNING!!!!"

"We're CREATURES of FIRE..."

"Mingled male and female yearning..."

"Yearning for...for...YEARNING for THE HEAT!"

"For the SWEET EXPLOSION of DESIRE!"

"I SPLASH into the PLEASURE, all consuming..."

"A-l-l c-o-n-s-u-m-i-n-g..."

"...and now...and now... I'm happy...really happy...I'm..."

"I'm just incredibly happy...I'm um..."

"Blf!"

GAGORK! GAGORK! GAGORK!

GLURG! GLURG! GLURG! GLURG!

"I'm JOYFULLY INSANE...insane with...with..."

GLURGGLURGGLURGGLURGGLURG!!!!!

"...INSANE with KISSING your TENDER FEET!"

Yes, the TENDER FEET are REALLY NEAT!!!!"

"DONE!"

"Whew!"

"Now for the reward! I think I've earned a little nip!"

NOTE: This is a bowdlerized version of what I assume is a famous poem but I don't have the name at hand.

NOTE 2: Many, many, many, many thanks to Kellie for the much needed computer help!!!!!!!

Kellie's impressive blog: "Airforce Amazons":
http://airforceamazons.blogspot.com

GLOOM!!!!

Nothing today, I'm afraid. I've been having computer problems so I figured I'd buy some time by reposting one of my very favorite photo stories, the one where a poet writes a romantic poem (2007). I loved that story, even though I looked fat in it.

Well, Blogger just erased it (no, the back button wouldn't recover it).

Things like that don't happen with Blogger the way it's currently set up, but way back in 2007 it happened all the time. Blogger had real stability issues back then, and users who fiddled with a previously posted blog risked losing it. I should have known better than to mess with the old stuff.

I've gotta take a day off to mourn.

TIKI HOUSES

I just stumbled on a TV reality show called "Monster House," where a homeowner allows a friend to completely redo his house. In this case (above) the friend was artist Kim Larson (and company), and she decided to give the house a Tiki look.

She fashioned this fireplace out of chicken wire and insulating foam. I think she did all the work in this room in a day, which isn't bad considering that she wasn't used to the materials. She also changed the shower so it would deliver lots of mist rather than a steady stream of water. That's an interesting idea. Could you get clean that way? Would breathing all that mist be good for you? I'm not sure. I'd like to try it, though.

She also rigged up a mister and a big, Hollywood wind machine on the roof, looking down onto the pool. The idea was to simulate tropical storms. Fascinating!

Larson was apologetic about the fireplace sculpture. She wanted to do something more detailed like the green fireplace above, but had to settle for something that could be done fast. She only had five days to do everything.

The show made me curious to see what renovations other people did on a Tiki theme, so I googled it. What came up were mostly computer images like this one (above). It looks like the Tarzan/Swiss Family Robinson house at Disneyland. I love stuff like this! I even like the way it's on an island or a sand bar. Very nice as long as the weather's okay. 

Here's (above) another beach-style house built over water. Nice. Imagine a house like this built in the suburbs over an artificial deep pond. Imagine tunas swimming in the water. Not very realistic, but fun to think about.

Here's (above) a novel idea for a beach house...I think the caption called it a "Tahiti Wind House." Fascinating! I wouldn't mind a wind house if the furniture was weather proof and nailed down, and the structure was sturdy. Imagine sitting in your walless living room while a thunderstorm raged all around you. Imagine the waves smashing against the nearby rocks. Sigh! But it's impractical, I know.

I can't help thinking, though, that one day it will be possible. One day you'll be able to walk around your walless, temperature controlled house in your pajamas, and nobody walking by will be able to see you. All they'll see in the window slots will be black.

You, on the other hand, will be able to observe passersby as if there was no barrier at all between you and them. Total security, too. No one enters unless you want them too. How will all this be done? That's for the people after us to figure out.

Let them figure this one (above) out, too. A tree house offshore in the ocean! How do you tease a forest tree like this one to grow in the ocean shallows? I don't know. I figure that just about anything we can think of will become possible sooner or later.

DICK VAN DYKE: SLAPSTICK COMEDIAN

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I'm too sleepy to post now, but I thought I'd put up an interesting video as a placeholder: it's the first episode of the old Dick Van Dyke Show from the early 60s. There's no need to watch the whole thing...it was the first show and they didn't quite get the rhythm right... but you have to see Dick's drunk routine which starts at 19:45. Watch it even if you don't like drunk sketches. It's great!

I'm reading Dick's autobiography. It's not very revealing, and he doesn't talk about how he acquired that famous personality and rubbery slapstick technique, but that's par for the course for biographies. I did come across one interesting tidbit, though...he said Stan Laurel told him that he got that cool walk by having the heels removed from his shoes. Where are my shoes? I'm getting them modified!

One final thought: I said they didn't get the rhythm of the whole show right, and that's true. Even so, watch how expertly most of the entire party sequence is shot and cut. Watch how that sequence is paced and how well the music was laid in. PRO-fesh-ee-yon-nal!!!!

P.S. For some reason the YouTube video above isn't embedding. Here's a link to the site:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIn8mPy5_jA