Comments on: Questions of Substance, Questions of Style http://blog.janehaddam.com/2009/07/26/questions-of-substance-questions-of-style/ Jane Haddam’s WordPress weblog Sat, 11 Feb 2012 23:27:35 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.4 By: Lee B http://blog.janehaddam.com/2009/07/26/questions-of-substance-questions-of-style/comment-page-1/#comment-1107 Lee B Tue, 28 Jul 2009 00:36:54 +0000 http://blog.janehaddam.com/?p=692#comment-1107 jd--once you go to the page, look at the line on the website right under the blue bar which has the title & author. There's a link near the right which says 'Plain text'. Just click that. You can also put 162 in the box in the middle of that same line, right next to the white with blue background right & left arrows. The first will get you to the table of contents, the second directly to the poem. Navigating Google Books is not very intuitive. jd–once you go to the page, look at the line on the website right under the blue bar which has the title & author. There’s a link near the right which says ‘Plain text’. Just click that. You can also put 162 in the box in the middle of that same line, right next to the white with blue background right & left arrows. The first will get you to the table of contents, the second directly to the poem.

Navigating Google Books is not very intuitive.

]]> By: jd http://blog.janehaddam.com/2009/07/26/questions-of-substance-questions-of-style/comment-page-1/#comment-1106 jd Mon, 27 Jul 2009 21:29:40 +0000 http://blog.janehaddam.com/?p=692#comment-1106 Lee's url worked for finding the book but I have no idea of how to switch to plain text in FireFox! :( Lee’s url worked for finding the book but I have no idea of how to switch to plain text in FireFox! :(

]]> By: Mique http://blog.janehaddam.com/2009/07/26/questions-of-substance-questions-of-style/comment-page-1/#comment-1105 Mique Mon, 27 Jul 2009 07:16:01 +0000 http://blog.janehaddam.com/?p=692#comment-1105 Thanks, Lee. Thanks, Lee.

]]> By: Lee B http://blog.janehaddam.com/2009/07/26/questions-of-substance-questions-of-style/comment-page-1/#comment-1104 Lee B Mon, 27 Jul 2009 01:39:53 +0000 http://blog.janehaddam.com/?p=692#comment-1104 PS--you'll need to switch to plain text before searching to get a linked table of contents PS–you’ll need to switch to plain text before searching to get a linked table of contents

]]> By: Lee B http://blog.janehaddam.com/2009/07/26/questions-of-substance-questions-of-style/comment-page-1/#comment-1103 Lee B Mon, 27 Jul 2009 01:36:22 +0000 http://blog.janehaddam.com/?p=692#comment-1103 For "Poems and Essays" by Jones Very (1886): http://tinyurl.com/nz39sk Then search for "Still-Born" in search box to left. Poem is on page 162 For “Poems and Essays” by Jones Very (1886):
http://tinyurl.com/nz39sk
Then search for “Still-Born” in search box to left. Poem is on page 162

]]> By: Mique http://blog.janehaddam.com/2009/07/26/questions-of-substance-questions-of-style/comment-page-1/#comment-1102 Mique Sun, 26 Jul 2009 23:04:06 +0000 http://blog.janehaddam.com/?p=692#comment-1102 Ditto, moi. It's not listed in any of the sites that collected Very's work. Ditto, moi. It’s not listed in any of the sites that collected Very’s work.

]]> By: jd http://blog.janehaddam.com/2009/07/26/questions-of-substance-questions-of-style/comment-page-1/#comment-1101 jd Sun, 26 Jul 2009 20:57:26 +0000 http://blog.janehaddam.com/?p=692#comment-1101 I tried to find The Still-Born with google. All that turned up was Hildegarde! That is impressively fast work by google! I tried to find The Still-Born with google. All that turned up was Hildegarde! That is impressively fast work by google!

]]> By: robert_piepenbrink http://blog.janehaddam.com/2009/07/26/questions-of-substance-questions-of-style/comment-page-1/#comment-1100 robert_piepenbrink Sun, 26 Jul 2009 17:38:38 +0000 http://blog.janehaddam.com/?p=692#comment-1100 Our reading of the cycles is somewhat different. Looking at promiscuity, illegitimacy and general unbelief, I'd have called this the Third Great Breakdown, at least in the English-speaking world. The first would be late Tudor (say Mary and Elizabeth) and was followed by the Puritans. The second was late Georgian (George III and IV) and followed by the Victorians. I don't know what will follow this one, but I expect my grandchildren to be quite a bit more strait-laced than my Boomer contemporaries. The new norms currently being enforced look to me more like Revolutionary France's "Republican virtue" and Goddess of Reason, or some of the similar programs in the Europe of the Dictators. Whether good or bad, they have no roots and tend not to last long. I expect Gaia worship to go the way of liberty trees, and crackpot (but credentialed!) psychology to be one with humors and bleeding. Have patience: phrenology wasn't discredited in a day. Note also that when you vastly expand the reach of government--and we have--every fanatic with a Cause now has an opportunity to impose his or her will on others. Often the others care only a little, but the fanatic cares a LOT. And there are a lot of fanatics, and a lot of Causes. As for plots, note I generally say "story." There is a tale that someone observed to Bach that soon all the possible music would be used up. He pointed to the sea and said "look! here comes the last wave." Heinlein said there were only three plots, but he wrote many more good stories than that. I've never seen a listing of "narative arcs" but I doubt that's an upper limit either. On the other hand, if the story is uninteresting, telling it in exceptionally clear English won't take me far into the second chapter. Larding it with obscure references won't even work that well. Story-telling is not the same as writing the London TIMES crossword. Our reading of the cycles is somewhat different. Looking at promiscuity, illegitimacy and general unbelief, I’d have called this the Third Great Breakdown, at least in the English-speaking world. The first would be late Tudor (say Mary and Elizabeth) and was followed by the Puritans. The second was late Georgian (George III and IV) and followed by the Victorians. I don’t know what will follow this one, but I expect my grandchildren to be quite a bit more strait-laced than my Boomer contemporaries.
The new norms currently being enforced look to me more like Revolutionary France’s “Republican virtue” and Goddess of Reason, or some of the similar programs in the Europe of the Dictators. Whether good or bad, they have no roots and tend not to last long. I expect Gaia worship to go the way of liberty trees, and crackpot (but credentialed!) psychology to be one with humors and bleeding. Have patience: phrenology wasn’t discredited in a day.

Note also that when you vastly expand the reach of government–and we have–every fanatic with a Cause now has an opportunity to impose his or her will on others. Often the others care only a little, but the fanatic cares a LOT. And there are a lot of fanatics, and a lot of Causes.

As for plots, note I generally say “story.” There is a tale that someone observed to Bach that soon all the possible music would be used up. He pointed to the sea and said “look! here comes the last wave.” Heinlein said there were only three plots, but he wrote many more good stories than that. I’ve never seen a listing of “narative arcs” but I doubt that’s an upper limit either.

On the other hand, if the story is uninteresting, telling it in exceptionally clear English won’t take me far into the second chapter. Larding it with obscure references won’t even work that well. Story-telling is not the same as writing the London TIMES crossword.

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