Books

[Keith Davis]

Sorry. Have to reference the book for that. I didn't remember it, but now I
do. Thanks for the elucidation.

On Wed, Sep 5, 2012 at 4:21 PM, jochen stremmel <jstremmel at gmail.com> wrote:

> You didn't say anything about my mentioning Clough - perhaps you
> didn't know what I was talking about?
>
> I had to go a long way in the 70s to identify the poem - and then for
> quite a time I asked friends, quoting it, what they thought when it
> was written: nobody said even 19th century.
>
> I just found that in the www:
>
> I saw a car with a vanity plate the other day spelling out "Phat Kat."
> This is my attempt at a sketch of the fantasy that ensued when I was
> reminded of the 19th century English poet, A. H. Clough, whose 1850
> poem "Dipsychus" includes these lines.
>
>     I drive through the streets, and I care not a damn;
>     The people they stare, and they ask who I am;
>     And if I should chance to run over a cad,
>     I can pay for the damage if ever so bad.
>     So pleasant it is to have money, heigh ho!
>     So pleasant it is to have money.
>
> We're once again becoming as sharply divided between rich and poor as
> they were during Victorian times, and it's getting worse. If you've
> got it, many people seem think, you might as well flaunt it -- they've
> got theirs, and other people really aren't their concern.
>
> "I didn't come across Clough's poem on my own. I first read these
> lines many years ago in The Quiet American, where Greene's protagonist
> and narrator Fowler reads them to the American, Pyle.
>
>     "That's a funny kind of poem," Pyle said with a note of disapproval.
>
>     "He was an adult poet of the nineteenth century. There weren't so
> many of them" I looked down into the street again. The trishaw driver
> had moved away.
>
> Greene felt no need to identify the poet, probably because the
> reference would have been clear to an educated British reader of the
> time. As for Americans -- well, that was the point, wasn't it? But the
> lines stuck in my mind even when I didn't know who had writen them.
> Tracking down obscure references like this was difficult in the days
> before Google. If your edition of Bartlett's didn't have it, you were
> out of luck -- or in for a lot of work. Now, of course it's easy.
>
> While search methods have changed, economic reality hasn't changed all
> that much. The fault lines have just become more visible. In good
> times, when the American pie is big enough for most everyone to get at
> least enough of a slice to keep hope alive, it's easy to forget who
> owns what and how much. Now we're being reminded all over again, with
> a callousness that's appalling.
>
> Keep your eyes open -- or you might get run over."
>
> 2012/9/5 Keith Davis <kbob42 at gmail.com>:
> > Cool. This is your site? Nice.
> >
> >
> > On Wed, Sep 5, 2012 at 2:23 PM, Bekah <bekah0176 at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> >>
> >> https://beckylindroos.wordpress.com/
> >>
> >> Bek
> >>
> >> On Sep 5, 2012, at 8:20 AM, Keith Davis wrote:
> >>
> >> > After finishing M & D a couple weeks ago, I decided to read some
> shorter
> >> > stuff.
> >> >
> >> > The Quiet American by Graham Greene, I'm sure many of you have read.
> Saw
> >> > the movie with Michael Caine and Tarzan (never
> >> > can remember that guy's name) last year, and didn't realize it came
> from
> >> > this book. Great read.
> >> >
> >> > The Long Fall by Walter Moseley. Detective fiction. Good page turner.
> >> > I'll read more of his stuff.
> >> >
> >> > Breaking and Entering by Joy Williams. Anyone familiar with her? Kind
> of
> >> > strange and dark, but good.
> >> >
> >> > Slowly reading a book of short stories by Hughes Rudd, because I don't
> >> > want it to end. Really dark and twisted and excellent.
> >> >
> >> > Then some Borges and Hunter S. Thompson thrown in.
> >> >
> >> > Ascension by Eric Nisenson, about the music of John Coltrane.
> >> >
> >> > Next? Conrad, "The Secret Agent", Alison Lurie, Barbara
> >> > Kingsolver....suggestions?
> >> >
> >> > --
> >> > www.innergroovemusic.com
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > www.innergroovemusic.com
>



-- 
www.innergroovemusic.com
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