tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536.post516070084078960684..comments2024-03-25T00:18:14.319-07:00Comments on Against The Wicked City: From the Diaries of Mr Alfred Tennyson, 1848Joseph Manolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05387275537008858939noreply@blogger.comBlogger17125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536.post-26832699159479033582018-07-18T04:22:00.438-07:002018-07-18T04:22:00.438-07:00https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopian_Serenaders...https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopian_SerenadersAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536.post-70355645036885159452018-07-11T18:34:11.402-07:002018-07-11T18:34:11.402-07:00I will take a look at his earlier work. I do feel ...I will take a look at his earlier work. I do feel something of a fool judging some of the greatest writers who have lived but with so many hours in the week for reading some form of triage is necessary.<br /><br />I think it was Jeeves who put me onto Browning. I picked up a nice Limited Editions Club edition, if you live in the states the LEC are the best value for money books in circulation imo.Kenthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11165997449776226774noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536.post-91155240760065907652018-07-11T16:05:03.040-07:002018-07-11T16:05:03.040-07:00Oh, wow, I hadn't known about The Iron Tonic. ...Oh, wow, I hadn't known about The Iron Tonic. Those are *wonderful*!Joseph Manolahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05387275537008858939noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536.post-71870296421804131892018-07-11T16:03:10.048-07:002018-07-11T16:03:10.048-07:00Well, 1830s style psychiatry didn't have much ...Well, 1830s style psychiatry didn't have much in common with modern psychoanalysis. The kind of psychological thinking that led to Freud mostly kicked off in the 1850s and 60s, so your guess was pretty close... <br /><br />I don't think 'Idylls' is his best work. Take a look at his earlier Arthurian stuff - 'Morte D'Arthur' and 'The Lady of Shallot' - and see what you think.<br /><br />And it's good to know that someone out there is still reading Browning!Joseph Manolahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05387275537008858939noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536.post-92209399988677884102018-07-11T13:44:57.212-07:002018-07-11T13:44:57.212-07:00Thank you for these journal entries, JM. I wish E...Thank you for these journal entries, JM. I wish Edward Gorey had had the idea to illustrate these when he was alive. I can imagine something like The Iron Tonic coming from them. Karel Machahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00753758856975674463noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536.post-83133403773660229612018-07-10T14:13:07.351-07:002018-07-10T14:13:07.351-07:00==it also saw the rise of a new medicalised psychi...==it also saw the rise of a new medicalised psychiatry<br /><br />I didn't realise psychiatry began that early, I would have guessed 1860 or so. You have identified a neat tension between the two groups. I have often thought that poets should make good psycho-analysts but of course the ideal patient is the artist, like those you have described, so I'm really imagining a dialogue between equals. You don't need to be a poet to listen sympathetically to a neurotic housewife. <br /><br />The kind of poetry I prefer is that which puts me in awe of the language being used, I'm open when it comes to content. I really wanted to get a handsome edition of Idylls of the King but I wasn't impressed by his language in the way I am by Wordsworth's or Browning's.<br />Kenthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11165997449776226774noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536.post-43490067928364937732018-07-10T06:07:32.291-07:002018-07-10T06:07:32.291-07:00The second quarter of the 19th century saw the ris...The second quarter of the 19th century saw the rise of 'Romantic' ideas of poetic genius - the idea that being a true poet meant possessing the kind of mystic visionary insight into reality written about by Wordsworth and Shelley. But it also saw the rise of a new medicalised psychiatry which was swift to interpret all kinds of unusual states of consciousness in medicalised and pathological terms.<br /><br />So imagine you're Tennyson in 1830-ish. You keep having these weird trances, and you want to be a poet. Your poetic idols tell you that visions and trances are exactly the kind of experiences that true poets should be having - but, at the same time, they're building this huge new asylum down the road, and you know that you've got a family history of insanity, and people keep publishing books about how uncontrolled imagination can threaten your mental health. So how do you interpret your trances and intuitions? Are they mystical insights, or symptoms of incipient insanity? The various ways in which the poets of the period worked through this question forms the subject of the book. <br /><br />I do like Tennyson, but I like his earlier work more than the poems he produced as Victoria's poet laureate. I think 'Ulysses', 'Le Morte D'Arthur', 'St Simeon Stylites', and 'Maud' are all great poems. But he's a very depressive writer, so if you prefer poems about people actually doing things rather than poems about people standing around feeling anxious and sad then you're likely to find him rather frustrating!Joseph Manolahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05387275537008858939noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536.post-14171339419855112502018-07-09T16:08:48.277-07:002018-07-09T16:08:48.277-07:00==I'm trying to finish a book on poetry and in...==I'm trying to finish a book on poetry and insanity in the early nineteenth century<br /><br />Can you unpack 'poetry and insanity'? is it poets deliberately unhinging themselves, or attracted to marginal figures or cracking unambiguous language?<br /><br />I have been put off Tennyson by the more charismatic guardians of the canon, whom I admire, and have not read his work. Perhaps his journals are more interesting! Do you like him?Kenthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11165997449776226774noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536.post-61538424470178976832018-07-08T14:46:23.278-07:002018-07-08T14:46:23.278-07:00Some of these are complete entries. Others are ext...Some of these are complete entries. Others are extracts from slightly longer entries, but none of the entries are more than a few lines long. My main editorial intervention has been to cut the entries for the less interesting days.<br /><br />And I agree that they're very M.R. Jamesian. Although, as Patrick's pointed out, Tennyson seems to lack the fatal curiosity that undoes so many of James' protagonists.Joseph Manolahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05387275537008858939noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536.post-68525793696693385642018-07-06T18:39:47.822-07:002018-07-06T18:39:47.822-07:00Are his entries that terse or did you do your own ...Are his entries that terse or did you do your own extracting?<br /><br />I'm reminded more of MR James, A Warning to the Curious perhaps.Kenthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11165997449776226774noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536.post-74061986106254833882018-07-05T06:45:27.281-07:002018-07-05T06:45:27.281-07:00That's a brilliant way of describing it, actua...That's a brilliant way of describing it, actually. He'd be a terrible player in a 'Call of Cthulhu' game. <br /><br />'Spooky happenings at the old ruin, you say? OK, I thank the mysterious old man politely, leave town on the next train, and carry on with my seaside holiday...'Joseph Manolahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05387275537008858939noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536.post-23734676991107761052018-07-05T04:36:40.395-07:002018-07-05T04:36:40.395-07:00Oh god it's like a horror movie keeps trying t...Oh god it's like a horror movie keeps trying to start but Tennyson just doesn't give a fuuccck. He is baiting entropy.<br /><br />The little girls playing in the cave, angry waves, wierd cliffs, slaughter bridge, the theme music starts to rise but Tennyson has already fucked off over the hill, oblivious, and the cast is left standing around.pjamesstuarthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13288777018721199748noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536.post-61607386394913011222018-07-04T13:01:20.446-07:002018-07-04T13:01:20.446-07:00I know, right? 'Strange sights through microsc...I know, right? 'Strange sights through microscope' is the kind of hint that just begs for fictional elaboration...Joseph Manolahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05387275537008858939noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536.post-75597080433226993372018-07-04T09:16:23.544-07:002018-07-04T09:16:23.544-07:00Oh. This is fantastic, seems like the formula for...Oh. This is fantastic, seems like the formula for a Tim Powers novel.<br />Drewhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08057182508701974364noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536.post-43598305134987310522018-07-03T13:43:26.996-07:002018-07-03T13:43:26.996-07:00Yep -- just after his Cthuloid point crawl.Yep -- just after his Cthuloid point crawl.Johnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10910170906278532034noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536.post-35047203414542344532018-07-03T13:40:23.583-07:002018-07-03T13:40:23.583-07:00In Memorian was completed in 1849, so the timing i...In Memorian was completed in 1849, so the timing is almost spot on...Jacobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11292062128781092862noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536.post-391318939650875072018-07-03T12:50:00.967-07:002018-07-03T12:50:00.967-07:00 The hills are shadows, and they flow
From ... The hills are shadows, and they flow<br /> From form to form, and nothing stands;Johnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10910170906278532034noreply@blogger.com