the day's dilemma ~

[lookingland]

my whole victorian titling thing isn't working out. not only am i bad at titling, but the titles (necessarily editorial or expository in nature) are proving intrusive and are interrupting the flow from one section to another in a way that the quotes weren't.

i'm out of brilliant ideas on this one. though i considered the whole faulkner thing (with the names as "headers"), i think that only worked for him because As I Lay Dying is a relatively short book. i think in a longer work (and this is gonna be a lulu), i think it would get very irritating after a while.

so i'm back to quotes and i'm just going to let it stand as that for the time being.

which means i need a set of quotes or a text to quote from for James. it can't be military and it can't be musical. so i came up with three options:

1. something literary ~ what would make the most sense would be something obscene, but i don't know that obscene works are all that easily recognizable at a glance (i was initially considering Fanny Hill). i'm hesitent about this because i think James is perveted enough without emphasizing that particular trait (it could work against other things I'm trying to do witht he story if we have cause at all to speculate about the extremity of his predilictions). i also considered other literature, specifically Moby Dick, but i don't really feel like pawing through Moby Dick for quotes and i think it would be sort of red-herring in its juxtaposition. The Iliad or such classic ilk would be suitable except it's too erudite. Even Shakespeare would be too erudite. i think James is far too lazy to care about the classics even if he is versed in them. if he were alive today he'd read popular fiction; john le carré, for example.

2. game rules ~ metaphorically this is very apropos. i was considering particularly baseball, cards, checkers, and/or billiards. problem is i don't have any texts for these things (not pre-1862). it would take some digging.

3. almanac ~ good ol' faithful. i've no doubt James reads the almanac regularly, especially if it's sensational and prurient (like the one i have from 1838). the little snippets of bizarre information on hypnotizing chickens, recipes for contraceptives, and accounts of space aliens would be hilarious. but perhaps too eccentric. it works for the Leverettsville Gazette because we're operating from an off-base base to begin with. for the purposes of this project we're just meeting James for the first time and i think it's really during the war that he especially cultivates his weirdness. i don't want to present him as crazy (because he's not). i want to present him as a machiavelli (but no, no The Prince).

given all this, i think the game thing is the way to go. now i have to find a text (or texts) to quote from. drat. i was trying to avoid that.

if anyone knows of any 19th century rule books online, point me to 'em. later i'll do some googling myself.

Comments

hmmmm....

[inkidink.livejournal.com]

I’m not sure, try these:

http://www.gamesmuseum.uwaterloo.ca/

http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/games/

http://www.thehouseofcards.com/card_history.html

http://www.logicmazes.com/games/hoyle.html


I wonder if NARA would have anything or the governments Memory something-or-other project (hahahhaha now THAT'S helpful)

Anyway, good luck!

m.

Re: hmmmm....

[inkidink.livejournal.com]

Me again, I just remembered, I *think* Gaskell's has some stuff about games --at least some card playing etiquette --might be worth a look if your copy is handy --mine's covered in painting tarps or I'd check.

bye,
m.

Re: hmmmm....

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

i thought of Gaskills, actually ~ the idea of representing James with something that's so proprietous as a resource could almost work in a highly ironic way, but i think that may be too subtle even for me ~ hahahahaha ~

: D

Re: hmmmm....

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

p.s. ~ doh! the other reason i nixed gaskell's was because it's 20 years too late (1882). i need something pre-1862.

thank you for the links, moo!

: D