Miscellanea

[undyingking]

• "It was only when he did not get up to take a bow that anyone realised something had gone wrong."
  This is the sort of story that if you put it in a murder mystery game, it would be dismissed as too absurd. Well done, Mr Hoevels, especially for coming back on the following night.

• "Another stage-property that he pulled out of his box pretty frequently was the broken twig. He prized his broken twig above all the rest of his effects, and worked it the hardest. It is a restful chapter in any book of his when somebody doesn't step on a dry twig and alarm all the reds and whites for two hundred yards around."
  Mark Twain was an excellent writer himself, and a still more excelent journalist. Here he demolishes a considerably less excellent pen. This really is a supreme hatchet job; thanks to sturgeonslawyer for the link.

• "Using a variety of store-bought teddy bears as ‘species’ source material, I am reverse-engineering what their skulls look like and the differences and similarities between ‘breeds.’ My approach is to make up evidence and document, present, and interpret that evidence in a formal manner."
  I can't remember now where I heard of this artist who makes peculiar sculptures out of felted wool. More power to her needling elbow, say I.

• "fachys.ykal.ar.ataiin.shol.shory.cthres.ykor.sholdy
  sory.cthar.or.y.kair.chtaiin.shar.are.cthar.cthar.dan"
  I've been doing some reading recently about the Voynich manuscript, that most intriguing document. I hadn't realized that there had been so much respectable textual analysis of it. One day I'll work out a way of using this and other such cryptic artefacts in something creative, but for now it's just interesting to follow the existing delvings int it. (Former UNEXPLAINED players will note that this site is hosted in Nauru, of all places...)

Comments

[mr-malk.livejournal.com]

Wow. Now that's criticism. I have never read Deerslayer, (nor am I likely to) but that is a serious flaying. I don't know if Twain was as harsh in normal circumstances, but I would pity anyone who got on the wrong end of that pen.

"It was only when he did not get up to take a bow that anyone realised something had gone wrong."

Haha! We used that in the Baroque Picture Horror Show at 1897! Aubrey Beardsley got murdered by the actress playing Dorian Gray, (when his character, Basil Hallward was meant to be being murdered). We dragged him off-stage and only realised he wasn't hamming when he missed his curtain call!

(There was a certain amount of suspended disbelief at work here I admit, as neither I (Oscar Wilde) nor the murderess wished for the play to be cut short, just because one of the actors had been murdered).

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Excellent, life imitating art in such a way always nice to see.

I get the impression Twain partly earned his readership, living and reputation by piling in pretty vigorously when he saw a suitable target. I suspect he would have been a blogger today. He didn't dent Cooper's popularity significantly, but I don't suppose that was the point.