just my spirit floating through ~

[lookingland]

for the 50bookchallenge:

no. 32 ~ Dark Union by leonard f. guttridge, ray a. neff, and ray d. neff. oh boy. hahahahahahahahahaha ~ this is the kind of book that just makes you fall down laughing. every bit as bad as steers's review says it is, with appalling scholarship and ludicrous confabulation throughout. wow. bad.

no. 33 ~ A Court for Owls by richard adicks. another haha ~ this one is mostly funny for how lame it is (and the author's "creative license" excuses at the end just make it even worse). it was interesting to see a characterization (albeit brief) of Mr. Poppet by someone else's hand, but frankly i think this writer hasn't a clue who he's dealing with. i guess i should be glad this is such a lead zeppelin since i'm covering some of the same territory. this book is a good example of exactly what i don't want to do with my own writing: make a lot of crap up and not even use the "cool" stuff available to augment the story-telling! (in adicks defense, some of the current scholarship wasn't available then, but even so, it's no excuse for him making an otherwise riveting tale into a snoozefest.

and in extremely irritated news: innerliberry loans delivers and disappoints all on the same day.

got my history of the 4th pennsylvania (doesn't get more obscure than that). score!

but also got a notice that i have to buy Mr. Hanty's letterbooks from the commonwealth of pennsylvania ~ which i already knew and could have done four weeks ago! arghhhh ~ let this be a lesson for all of you who want something for nothing.

so now i have to order the dang thing (it'll cost me $50 ~ yikes) and then i have to wait another 4-6 weeks before i will even get it. then i have to find the time and fundage to make a hard copy of the blasted thing (it's on microfilm). all this and i have no idea what it actually contains or if it will be of any use whatsoever.

so i am not happy. already wasted a lot of time, but i'm convinced that i must have this because without it i'd be overlooking the key piece of a rather complicated puzzle. and without having seen the stupid thing and being able to say i read it, i could never in good conscience write this book.

so foo.

and piffle.

crab crab crab

i am exhausted.

: o p

Comments

Re: Welcome Home!

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

hahahahahaha ~

i initially balked at the matthew broderick suggestion but i think you're exactly right: someone who can play just the right sort of naivete/ingenuousness without coming off cluck-stupid. someone you have confidence in but also sorta feel sorry for.

he's the right sort of maladroit for the role (though goodness, it's hard to believe he's fifteen years too old ~ where does the time go?).

re: Hanty's letter books ~ we shall see what there is to see! i don't anticipate anything earth-shattering, but i've lost confidence in other historians saying that there's nothing of interest in there. i feel the need to see for myself.

p.s. i feel compelled to tell you that i found out that Poppet's father buillt and owned the Moravian Woolen Mill where all the chitlins worked and it was possibly sold/dispersed/something when he died in 1860, then burned down in 1862. it was later rebuilt, but the family no longer owned it.

Re: the p.s.

[(Anonymous)]

How modest of the death notice, calling him a "factory worker" but definitely explains ma's healthy bank account in the census after his death.

Re: the p.s.

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

that whole family seems to suffer from that sort of modesty ~ all of Poppet's writing is extremely modest (to the point that when he does express a personal opinion, it really stands out).

it must be a moravian thing.

: D