Something Light

[Irene Wilde]

I wrote this back in October when the stock markets were plummeting and the media prognosticators were project doom and gloom, which may be what awaits us, but anyway, here it is a little levity for your weekend reading pleasure...



Friday morning, the little television panel in the elevator going up to the office, the one normally tuned into CNBC, was tuned to Sesame Street. It made me laugh. Since things are not greatly improved from Thursday, may as well carry on in the same vein... Maybe I?m challenging my inner drag queen again, but I say when life gets you down, throw on some extra sequins and another feather boa. PG Wodehouse agreed with me. In ?The Code of the Woosters? when Bertie is stuck between an Aunt and an Aberdeen terrier, and life seems to be aiming right for his jugular, Jeeves suggests donning the white tie and tails for dinner, just to lift the spirits. It works.

Dashiell Hammett understood this as well. In the 1930s, when all seemed bleak, the hardest of hard-boiled mystery writers created Nick and Nora Charles, the whimsical twosome who made being married actually look attractive, and did most of their most daring detecting deeds at cocktail parties, and who wouldn?t given the choice? The pair were brought to the screen in 1934 and portrayed by William Powell and Myrna Loy. Hammett may have meant to model Nick Charles on his own sweet self, but William Powell gave the character life and breath and dimension beyond the prototype. He was a perfect anecdote to breadlines and market crashes. Yes, he could give the bad guys a sock in the kisser when needed, but he much preferred the quiet life of drinking away his wife?s money with style, grace, and elegance. No world could be that bad if William Powell managed to look that good in the white tie and tails while in it. He had enough machismo to satisfy convention, but still had the good sense to wear a dressing gown, never scratched his dangly bits in public, and named the family dog Asta ? not Rex or Butch or Max. Sadly, Hammett did not live up to the William Powell model, failed to comprehend the difference between a couple of cocktails and lifetime of drunkenness, and for all I know scratched his dangly bits in public often and with enthusiasm.

Wodehouse maintained this sensible outlook throughout his long and prolific career. All through the bleak years of depression, war, movies about giant insects, and leisure suits, Wodehouse remained true to his world of country houses and cocktails. Everyone dresses for dinner, whether they?ve just lost their shirts at the races, become engaged to a woman who drips infantile sentimentality with every step, or pinched a police constable?s helmet, the dinner jacket is slipped into before descending into the dining room for the evening?s mayhem.

There?s a time for cold-eyed steely resolve, for grim-faced gumshoes and whiskey taken neat, and I?ve got Hammett?s Continental Op and a bottle of Jack Daniels on the shelf in case we reach that time. But for now and until I can think of a reason to do otherwise, I?m slipping into my fancy evening dress, lifting my chin and my spirits, and blogging about books, writers, cocktails, elixirs, concoctions, and anything else that makes life colorful, sparkling, and interesting. Jeeves! Another brandy. (http://www.wodehouse.co.uk/cocktail.php)

[titania7]

Thanks, Irene. I just picked up a copy of Hammett's The Thin Man at a library sale. Having been hooked on the "Thin Man" films since childhood, I can't wait to read the book. I can't believe I've found another fan of Nick and Nora Charles! Wasn't Myrna Loy something else? She and William Powell made such a savvy and sophisticated team. Heavens, they just don't make movies the way they used to, do they? Ah, how I oft-times long for the days of Clark Gable and Carole Lombard.....Cary Grant and Jean Harlow.....Kate Hepburn
and Spencer Tracy....the list goes on and on!

~Titania

PS You're making me think I oughtta check out some of P.G. Wodehouse's work.

[Irene Wilde]

Thanks, Irene. I just picked up a copy of Hammett's The Thin Man at a library sale. Having been hooked on the "Thin Man" films since childhood, I can't wait to read the book. I can't believe I've found another fan of Nick and Nora Charles! Wasn't Myrna Loy something else? She and William Powell made such a savvy and sophisticated team. Heavens, they just don't make movies the way they used to, do they? Ah, how I oft-times long for the days of Clark Gable and Carole Lombard.....Cary Grant and Jean Harlow.....Kate Hepburn
and Spencer Tracy....the list goes on and on!

~Titania

PS You're making me think I oughtta check out some of P.G. Wodehouse's work.

Hammett's Nick Charles is darker than the film version -- a little more Sam Spade than the one William Powell created on screen, but very definitely worth a reading.

And by all means read some PG Wodehouse. Here's (http://www.pgwodehousebooks.com/lauriesaved.htm) a glowing recommendation that backs me up. Douglas Adams was also a big Wodehouse fan and so is Christopher Buckley, so I feel in pretty good company

[Beth]

Must dash into something dressy. Jeeves is preparing a Black Russian!

[Ramblingsid]

I must admit that I am also a big fan of Wodehouse with all his wonderfully silly plots and a cast of a thousand hilarious characters - Bertie Wooster, Gussie Fink-Nottle, Boris Johnson.....


What? Boris Johnson isn't a Wodehouse character? Are you sure? Isn't he usually at the Drones? "What ho! Bertie!" He's a real person you say? The Mayor of London? That can't be right. He's the one that was at the Beijing Olympics - made a complete ass of himself - surely a real person wouldn't do that? Oh Boris would you reckon. Well, what can I say? except Cripes! Crikey!

Also I also recommend unreservedly to those few that haven't come across them the comic novels of Jasper Fforde - especially those featuring his fiction-bending, time travelling heroine Tuesday Next. "The Eyre Affair" to "First Among Sequels".

And there's another light read that I can't resist simply because of it's title - "Aberystwith, Mon Amour" !

Shall I shut up now? Am I too silly for this forum? :D

[Irene Wilde]

I must admit that I am also a big fan of Wodehouse with all his wonderfully silly plots and a cast of a thousand hilarious characters - Bertie Wooster, Gussie Fink-Nottle, Boris Johnson.....


What? Boris Johnson isn't a Wodehouse character? Are you sure? Isn't he usually at the Drones? "What ho! Bertie!" He's a real person you say? The Mayor of London? That can't be right. He's the one that was at the Beijing Olympics - made a complete ass of himself - surely a real person wouldn't do that? Oh Boris would you reckon. Well, what can I say? except Cripes! Crikey!

Also I also recommend unreservedly to those few that haven't come across them the comic novels of Jasper Fforde - especially those featuring his fiction-bending, time travelling heroine Tuesday Next. "The Eyre Affair" to "First Among Sequels".

And there's another light read that I can't resist simply because of it's title - "Aberystwith, Mon Amour" !

Shall I shut up now? Am I too silly for this forum? :D

Augustus Fink-Nottle is one of the great names of literature. Boris would require the appropriate nickname, like "Catsmeat" or "Pongo" or "Stinker" to be named in such company. Otherwise his name is simply too short and lacking in musicality. He's really at a disadvantage saddled with a surname like Johnson.

[Mirabell]

silliness is highly recommended.

haven't read fforde but I like rankin a whole lot.

for whatever reason wodehouse also somehow passed me by. probably the huge oeuvre. stuff like that tends to seen forbidding to me with what not knowing what to read etc

speaking of silly I love love love DR. Seuss. I own five books of his and they are among my favorite.

speaking of silly I love so far DBC Pierre's second novel. Delightfully mad!

[Mirabell]

speaking of boris johnson, I recommend Dr. Seuss masterful political pamphlet Marvin K Mooney will you please go now

[Irene Wilde]

speaking of boris johnson, I recommend Dr. Seuss masterful political pamphlet Marvin K Mooney will you please go now

:D

I think I had "The Cat in the Hat" memorized by the time my daughter was 4. Multiple nightly readings. It's still trapped in my memory

"This mess is so big and so deep and so tall, we cannot pick it up. There is no way at all." Good times.

[Sybarite]

Augustus Fink-Nottle is one of the great names of literature. Boris would require the appropriate nickname, like "Catsmeat" or "Pongo" or "Stinker" to be named in such company. Otherwise his name is simply too short and lacking in musicality. He's really at a disadvantage saddled with a surname like Johnson.

However, his full name is Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson.

[Irene Wilde]

de Pfeffel, that's just a hop, skip, and a jump from Psmith! The Boy holds promise yet! :)

[Max Cairnduff]

The Thin Man is huge fun, glamorous and slightly decadent, not at all Hammett's usual fare but very hard not to love (and why would you want not to anyway?).

I love the Continental Op to his pudgy little socks, but The Thin Man is an absolute delight. Nice post Irene.

And Wodehouse is wonderful, well worth checking out.

[Irene Wilde]

The Thin Man is huge fun, glamorous and slightly decadent, not at all Hammett's usual fare but very hard not to love (and why would you want not to anyway?).

I love the Continental Op to his pudgy little socks, but The Thin Man is an absolute delight. Nice post Irene.

And Wodehouse is wonderful, well worth checking out.

Thank you, sir. I do hope we are encouraging Titania to pick up "The Code of the Woosters" or "Carry on, Jeeves." I just know she'll love them.

[Eric]

Quite, Sybarite (#10). I used the fact that few know his full name to good effect during my translation workshop at the SoA in June, when I asked the workshop participants to look at an anonymous text to see whether it was a translation or an original text in English. They to-ed and fro-ed a bit, but didn't come to any conclusive conclusions, although the Greenham Common women were mentioned, one detail that few foreign authors would surely know about, let alone use.

I had pulled something out of the novel entitled "Seventy-Two Virgins", telling the workshop later that the author was Alex de Pfeffel. Nobody twigged, till I wrote the full name up on the flip-chart, underlining the Boris and Johnson bits. It's quite a light and funny novel, really, though the idea of terrorists holding the House of Commons hostage may not be everyone's idea of a joke. But he wasn't Mayor of London when he wrote it.

[titania7]

I do hope we are encouraging Titania to pick up "The Code of the Woosters" or "Carry on, Jeeves." I just know she'll love them.

Irene Wilde, you have done it this time. That is, you have completely twisted my arm, you incorrigible thing you! ;) I just dropped by the library's online site and ordered myself a copy of Carry on, Jeeves. The time has come for me to include a bit of Wodehouse in my literary diet. I'm sure you're right about my loving him. I'd better love him, at any rate, after how I've let you and Max persuade me into reading him!!

Cheers,
Titania ;)

[Eric]

I've somehow missed out on Wodehouse. I saw a few of the TV adaptations when I was too young to appreciate them, but feel that after quite a dose of Anthony Powell, Wodehouse might be fun, before going on to more serious authors, such as Waugh. I'm in the mood for something jolly English, after all my various forays into foreigndom. But something light, as Irene expressed it, too.

So, where do you start with Wodehouse? Are these two books picked out especially, Irene, or are they a fairly random choice? I'm sure I can find a few Jeeves & Bertie Wooster books, even here in Holland.

[Irene Wilde]

I've somehow missed out on Wodehouse. I saw a few of the TV adaptations when I was too young to appreciate them, but feel that after quite a dose of Anthony Powell, Wodehouse might be fun, before going on to more serious authors, such as Waugh. I'm in the mood for something jolly English, after all my various forays into foreigndom. But something light, as Irene expressed it, too.

So, where do you start with Wodehouse? Are these two books picked out especially, Irene, or are they a fairly random choice? I'm sure I can find a few Jeeves & Bertie Wooster books, even here in Holland.

Not random, but two good introductions to the world of Jeeves and Wooster. "The Code of the Woosters" is my favorite. I have friends with whom we only have to say "silver cow creamer" and we get the giggles. "Carry On, Jeeves," is more like a sampler, several short stories including one actually narrated by Jeeves instead of Bertie. Either will tell you whether Wodehouse is your cup of tea, or g&t, as the case may be.

[Ramblingsid]

I was reminded the other day of another splendidly silly author - Flann O'Brien (not sure I remembered that aright) who I think wrote a couple of humourous novels.

But I remember him as a sort of Irish Beachcomber. I believe he must have had a column in a Dublin newspaper over many years in the middle of the 20th Century.

I still turn in moments of stress to an anthology of his journalism produced in the 1970s under the title The Best of Myles (his pen name was also I think Myles na Gopaleen - even less sure I have that right) with all it's slightly insane inventiveness (The Brother, The Catechism of Cliche, The Da' etc etc) At one stage he solemnly assures the Reader that many years before he had read in manuscript and recommended for publication a work by an unknown author - T Olstoy - called I think "Warren Piece". :)

[Jayaprakash]

'If fewer people went about the place pretending to be lizards,' said Packy, 'this would be a better and sweeter world.'
-PG Wodehouse, Hot Water

It's hard not to love a writer capable of casually inserting this sort of profundity into his work. I'd say jump in anywhere, except perhaps the school stories which tend to go on about sports.

[Sybarite]

'If fewer people went about the place pretending to be lizards,' said Packy, 'this would be a better and sweeter world.'
-PG Wodehouse, Hot Water

That'd shaft George W Bush, Elizabeth II, Kris Kristofferson and Boxcar Willie (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Icke).

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r206/Bear-45-70/Emoticons/RoflLg.gif

[Jayaprakash]

What a prescient man, old Plum! Although that's more a case of lizards going around pretending to be people.

[jackdawdle]

wodehouse, woe dee house, no that can't be. again. bawdy house...sorry just thinking out loud.