BS: WalkaboutsVerse Anew

Subject: RE: BS: WalkaboutsVerse Anew
From: Amos
Date: 04 Dec 09 - 07:05 PM

"It takes a heap of living
To make a house a home...."

N'est-ce pas?



A

Subject: RE: BS: WalkaboutsVerse Anew
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 04 Dec 09 - 07:03 PM

Thanks, Amos, but whether it's for the best, as Stu says, or not, I've retired from versification - save the occasional SLIGHT change, sometimes via feedback from here and other forums, etc.

Just back from a folk singaround/playaround, and off to bed.

God bless.

Subject: RE: BS: WalkaboutsVerse Anew
From: Bill D
Date: 04 Dec 09 - 06:27 PM

One either needs to study some poetic styles, or to get so bad it's classic...like

(even Edgar A. Guest had a few redeeming poems... let me think.......)

Subject: RE: BS: WalkaboutsVerse Anew
From: Amos
Date: 04 Dec 09 - 05:53 PM

David:

I am sorry if I offended you; I can only bite my tongue so long. There are many principles and secrets to really good poetry. I would like to offer you one able reference toward a better understanding these truths hidden in the art. I am no master of them, mind you, just struggling along with them as you are. But I think you need the road map.

Understanding Poetry by Robert Penn Warren and Cleanth Brooks.

Warren was the first Poet Laureate of the United States and one of the strongest poetic voices in American literature.

You could do far worse than emulate his sparse but insightful style. Your own concatenation of observations could stand some serious rework by these standards. I hope this is helpful, as it meant to be.

Regards,

Amos

Subject: RE: BS: WalkaboutsVerse Anew
From: s&r
Date: 04 Dec 09 - 05:14 PM

David

Most people are kind and will say kind things about your writing. This is particularly true of 'friends' on myspace and similar sites which indulge in some sort of mutual self gratification.

The best thing about your poetry is that you have stopped writing it. The worst is that there are thirty zillion copy pastes of examples of it spamming (sic) the WWW.

Stu

Subject: RE: BS: WalkaboutsVerse Anew
From: ToeRag
Date: 04 Dec 09 - 03:17 PM

I hope,at any rate,it will taste better than the last;

Subject: RE: BS: WalkaboutsVerse Anew
From: mandotim
Date: 04 Dec 09 - 03:08 PM

If you don't have statistics, stop using statistical assertions to give bogus scientific verity to your nauseous views. Statistics without backup are generally referred to as 'lies'.
Now; answer the question about gender stereotyping please, without posting any more of your piss-poor 'poetry'.

Subject: RE: BS: WalkaboutsVerse Anew
From: CLETUS HARDDINGER
Date: 04 Dec 09 - 02:49 PM

You doant pay no tenshun to AMos an Catspaw   I think yur poatree iz rite gud. Ta tell ya tha truth Wallsabut Vase, I like it a lot exceptin for that godhed thing what wuz roat sum wayz back. That wun wuz sorta messt up. But the utherz is nice.    CLETUS

Subject: RE: BS: WalkaboutsVerse Anew
From: catspaw49
Date: 04 Dec 09 - 02:40 PM

LMAO......Can you spell "morons"?

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: WalkaboutsVerse Anew
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 04 Dec 09 - 02:03 PM

Other than hearing, a year or two ago, that 1/3 children here now have to grow-up in broken families, I don't have statistics re. morals, Tim - but I do watch the news, current affairs, etc. And I don't have statistics on all my websites, Amos, but numbers seem to be growing and some folks take the time to say the opposite of you.

Subject: RE: BS: WalkaboutsVerse Anew
From: ToeRag
Date: 04 Dec 09 - 02:00 PM

I think we shall have a storm before long; do you
see those heavy clouds coming up against' the wind?
Its a sure sign of thunder; it will be very refreshing.

Subject: RE: BS: WalkaboutsVerse Anew
From: Amos
Date: 04 Dec 09 - 01:47 PM

SIgh. The poetry is seriously flawed, David.



A

Subject: RE: BS: WalkaboutsVerse Anew
From: mandotim
Date: 04 Dec 09 - 12:47 PM

You haven't answered me, WAV, you've posted more piss-poor poetry. What does women reading the thread have to do with anything? Piss-poor is an expression in common use, and dates back to Norman England. It was thought vulgar (though not obscene) in Victorian times, but not during other eras. The word 'piss' appears frequently in Shakespeare's work, for example. Please answer the questions I asked you; you claimed that morals were, on average, better in previous times. That is a statistical assertion, and I asked you to justify it in statistical terms. Please do so.
I also asked you to justify your propensity towards gender stereotyping, when the culture you claim to be a part of generally condemns such stereotyping. I would assert that women reading the thread would find your insulting and patronising attitude to their gender far more offensive than the use of an accurate descriptor of your literary efforts. Again, please answer without more piss-poor poetry.

Subject: RE: BS: WalkaboutsVerse Anew
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 04 Dec 09 - 04:18 AM

(I feel I've answered you, Tim; and, again, Ps and Qs - there may be ladies reading this thread.)

Didsbury is in Manchester - NOT Liverpool, which is usually associated with the River Mersey...

Poem 111 of 230: THE MERSEY AT DIDSBURY - SPRING 2000

(TUNE:

Eb F G Ab G
D F G Ab G
D F G Ab G
D G Ab Bb Ab
D G Ab Bb Ab
D F G Ab G)

Took bus one-four-three,                        
    From Piccadilly,
Along Oxford Road;
    Passed the old uni's,
Those shops with saris,
    And my first abode.

At Didsbury Village,
    The Old Parsonage
Looked neat, and gave sound,
    As I walked the way,
At about midday,
    To a Mersey mound.

From atop this bank,
    No longer a blank
Was the strong river,
    Nor the wide fairways -
Where I'd filled two days,
    Twelve years earlier.

I then headed back,
    On Stenner Woods' track
(Hearing more birdsong,
    And seeing mossed stumps
Plus well-layered clumps),
    To a human throng.

This throng was viewing -
    Justly pursuing -
The smart Rock Gardens,
    Sloped on Fletcher Moss,
Which I, too, did cross,
    Before homeward wends.

From http://blogs.myspace.com/walkaboutsverse (e-book)
Or http://walkaboutsverse.sitegoz.com (e-scroll)
(C) David Franks 2003

Subject: RE: BS: WalkaboutsVerse Anew
From: mandotim
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 11:04 AM

Still waiting for an answer, not a piss-poor poem...

Subject: RE: BS: WalkaboutsVerse Anew
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 09:25 AM

I think you'll find people are fundamentally decent, WAV - OLD values (?) or not.

Subject: RE: BS: WalkaboutsVerse Anew
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 08:40 AM

In the late 90s, when I wrote that poem, S., I was living in London and there WAS a trend of advertising posters using models who appeared as if they were drugged. Also, remember the media began to use the term "nanny state" re. New Labour's response to the social problems, that I believe were partly caused by the New attitudes, in the first place. And "restart" "SOME" of our old values, i.e.

On a lighter note, I did watch, and quite enjoyed, thanks, that movie - is the moral of the story: never refuse a game of golf whilst on holiday!?

Subject: RE: BS: WalkaboutsVerse Anew
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 07:04 AM

I can't post it here as it's one of my shaped poems, but you may like to check #70

Okay...

The Filthy Street posters (Youth are viewers): Girls drugged or posed so; How low business can go.

Here you seem to be suggesting here that the advertising models have been somehow drugged into appearing in imagery that you regard as too pornographic for general viewing. Otherwise, too subjectively prudish a statement however much I might baulk at the objectification of beauty, I might at least acknowledge that no one is forcing anyone to do anything, and the real shame here is not nudity per se, but the idealisation of body types. Nothing new though I can assure you.   

Gays - yes; but a surrogate Kid for gays - that we tolerate?

Why not tolerate it? The sex of the parents is immaterial; what matters is love and all the other wonderful things of parenting that are in no way guaranteed by heterosexual parenting. Again, this is too subjective to be of any use and reveals nothing of society, rather of your own reactionary prudishness & homophobia. Does it directly effect you? Have you any evidence that it effects anyone? In which case - mind your own business. I could quote you chapter and verse on the evils of monogamous heterosexual parenting.

A Prime Minister now forced to preach - What tolerance-rung do some aim to reach?

I don't even know what that means, WAV - explanation please???

Long returned, I think it's gone too far, And youth are beginning to scar.

Are they really? The only thing wrong with kids is that adults have forgot what it's like to be young as some of the threads here make abundantly clear.

Less individualism; Regulationism; And some old values We all could use.

The way I see it there's way too much compliance and normalcy; too much by way fitting in and not enough by way of free-floating individualism. Who does the regulating? No thanks, WAV. And old values are the veneer of the hypocrisy that gave rise to them, as I pointed out in my post HERE - these are the foundations of your precious Old Values, the same things you oppose elsewhere.   

From my heart, Restart, 'Dart.

Again you've lost me.

*

I think in future when asked for your opinion on things, best just explain it without resorting to your poetry which is too subjective and ill-considered by way of balance - fine for polemics, but not much use for sensible debate. We all know England is a crumbling shit-hole; just as we all know it's never been any different - not 50, not 100, not 1000, not 2000, not 4000 years ago.

Hope you enjoyed Oh Whistle anyway; a taste of the glory days of English Television when maybe ratings weren't such an issue and true art could triumph.

Subject: RE: BS: WalkaboutsVerse Anew
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 05:06 AM

I can't post it here as it's one of my shaped poems, but you may like to check #70, Tim - and please note "SOME old values".

Poem 61 of 230: WORSLEY VILLAGE

Where earliest of coal-canals meet,
    And have their waters ochred
By the seepage of old-deep-mine earth;
    Where mock-Tudor is a treat,
And classic boats are newly coated
    At dry-docks before rebirth;

Where miners made tough risky efforts,
    Working seams for hours non-stop -
Cramped, often without the room to stand;
    Where security experts
Now fill the Nailmakers Workshop -
    On a canal-made island;

Where offices come from granaries,
    And granaries from a forge -
Wheel-powered through a brook's tillage;
    Where coal moved down arteries,
And sandstone was quarried to a gorge:
    Lies antique Worsley Village.

From http://blogs.myspace.com/walkaboutsverse (e-book)
Or http://walkaboutsverse.sitegoz.com (e-scroll)
(C) David Franks 2003

Subject: RE: BS: WalkaboutsVerse Anew
From: mandotim
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 04:08 AM

Thanks so much for the reply, WAV. Perhaps you could answer the questions I asked, rather than the one you wanted to talk about? Specifically;
- How do assess an average, statistically speaking, for morals? (bearing in mind, of course, that morals are usually understood to be an individual psycho-social construct)
- What is your evidence for this moral shift? (Not opinion, evidence)
- Our Own Good Culture frowns on gender stereotyping. Why do you want to introduce it? Surely this would be an unwelcome change to the culture?
- Why do you keep proposing change to our culture From Now On, when (judging by your outpourings in 'verse') your 'ideal' culture is unchanging and rooted in values and mores the predate your birth?

Subject: RE: BS: WalkaboutsVerse Anew
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 02 Dec 09 - 04:29 AM

In some fields, Tim, attitudes are better now - e.g., overall, there is less cruelty to animals; but, in other ways, such as mentioned just above, they were better before; whilst still others, amongst some people, definitely need changing...

Poem 161 of 230: AT THE CAPTAIN COOK BIRTHPLACE MUSEUM - SUMMER 2001

I listened and looked and read, then wrote,
    Within the remarks book, this brief note:
"Aborigines - first there/worst off"...
    And received a "Rule, Britannia" cough.

From http://blogs.myspace.com/walkaboutsverse (e-book)
Or http://walkaboutsverse.sitegoz.com (e-scroll)
(C) David Franks 2003

Subject: RE: BS: WalkaboutsVerse Anew
From: mandotim
Date: 01 Dec 09 - 05:39 PM

Statistically speaking, how do you produce an average for morals? What is your evidence for the statement that morals in England were better before you were born? Are you claiming a causal relationship here; WAV gets born, morals decline as a result?
I'm not sure the comments above were about morals as such; as usual, you missed the point. The offensive bit is the attempt at gender stereotyping that is such a recurrent theme in your work. The culture you are trying so hard to be a part of generally frowns upon such things. Why are you suggesting it should be changed? Doesn't that constitute pollution of our Own Good Culture, that dreadful act that you condemn so roundly? In fact, why do you keep proposing change From Now On, since the entire point of your arguments seems to be the preservation and stasis of culture, preferably as it was pre-1950.
There are a number of points here WAV, hopefully some of them will provoke you to think about what you are promoting on these threads. Go and have a lie down in a nice dark room, take your medication, and come back when you have some sensible answers. Or don't come back. Either would be fine with me.

Subject: RE: BS: WalkaboutsVerse Anew
From: Will Fly
Date: 01 Dec 09 - 04:25 PM

Brilliant! Thanks SO'P - it's not quite how I envisaged it when I first saw it, but still a great interpretation. I shall be watching...

Subject: RE: BS: WalkaboutsVerse Anew
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 01 Dec 09 - 04:18 PM

Thanks, S. - I shall record that and have a look later...still looking out for The Wicker Man, too.

Subject: RE: BS: WalkaboutsVerse Anew
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 01 Dec 09 - 03:11 PM

TONIGHT!!!! BBC4!!!!!

WHISTLE & I'LL COME TO YOU - Jonathan Miller's masterful 1968 adaptation of M.R.James classic ghost story. Is the best TV ever?

Preceded by a documentary on TV ghosts.

Subject: RE: BS: WalkaboutsVerse Anew
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 01 Dec 09 - 08:50 AM

People tend to support their own generation, but I think morals, on average, were better, in my country of birth, BEFORE I was born - whether said with or without jest.

Subject: RE: BS: WalkaboutsVerse Anew
From: mandotim
Date: 01 Dec 09 - 06:25 AM

I'm sure if this 'poem' made sense it would be offensive...

Subject: RE: BS: WalkaboutsVerse Anew
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 01 Dec 09 - 06:19 AM

For fuck's sake, WAV - you don't do yourself any favours do you?

Subject: RE: BS: WalkaboutsVerse Anew
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 01 Dec 09 - 05:23 AM

So much for flower-power, English females now get cauliflower ears from wrestling and playing rugby, and, in Afghanistan, they are...

Poem 211 of 230: AT FRONT LINES

I can't suckle a baby -
    God planned on some divisions;
Women are with war-weapons -
    We have fallen morally.

From http://blogs.myspace.com/walkaboutsverse (e-book)
Or http://walkaboutsverse.sitegoz.com (e-scroll)
(C) David Franks 2003

Subject: RE: BS: WalkaboutsVerse Anew
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 30 Nov 09 - 05:53 AM

I've heard of the auld alliance and the "great" McGonagall, but "Monsieur"!?

Subject: RE: BS: WalkaboutsVerse Anew
From: GUEST,Monsieur McGonagall
Date: 30 Nov 09 - 05:33 AM

That's a lovely Scottish one. Here's what it reminded me of - in fact all your poems remind me of the great McGonagall

BEAUTIFUL Railway Bridge of the Silvery Tay !
With your numerous arches and pillars in so grand array
And your central girders, which seem to the eye
To be almost towering to the sky.
The greatest wonder of the day,
And a great beautification to the River Tay,
Most beautiful to be seen,
Near by Dundee and the Magdalen Green.

Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silvery Tay !
That has caused the Emperor of Brazil to leave
His home far away, incognito in his dress,
And view thee ere he passed along en route to Inverness.

Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silvery Tay !
The longest of the present day
That has ever crossed o'er a tidal river stream,
Most gigantic to be seen,
Near by Dundee and the Magdalen Green.

Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silvery Tay !
Which will cause great rejoicing on the opening day
And hundreds of people will come from far away,
Also the Queen, most gorgeous to be seen,
Near by Dundee and the Magdalen Green.

Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silvery Tay !
And prosperity to Provost Cox, who has given
Thirty thousand pounds and upwards away
In helping to erect the Bridge of the Tay,
Most handsome to be seen,
Near by Dundee and the Magdalen Green.

Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silvery Tay !
I hope that God will protect all passengers
By night and by day,
And that no accident will befall them while crossing
The Bridge of the Silvery Tay,
For that would be most awful to be seen
Near by Dundee and the Magdalen Green.

Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silvery Tay !
And prosperity to Messrs Bouche and Grothe,
The famous engineers of the present day,
Who have succeeded in erecting the Railway
Bridge of the Silvery Tay,
Which stands unequalled to be seen
Near by Dundee and the Magdalen Green.

Subject: RE: BS: WalkaboutsVerse Anew
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 30 Nov 09 - 05:03 AM

Happy St. Andrew's Day, and good luck to those pushing for an independent Scotland...

Poem 66 of 230: TO SCOTLAND, AGAIN

By coach from central Manchester -
    In-between stops at Bolton,
Carlisle and Hamilton -
    To Glasgow, these are sights I saw...

Some sheep, blotched vividly with blue,
    Filing down a well-worn path,
Did form a long woolly lath,
    Aimed at a lusher greener hue.

A farmer on a four-wheeler:
    His canine friend close beside.
A horse not on call to ride:
    On leave - a no-shoe non-heeler!

Convex pastures with heath-moorland;
    And flatter grain-planes below:
Cropped, awaiting till-and-sow -
    Perhaps with grazing beforehand.

Passed Edwin Waugh territory,
    Cumbria's sharp forms and tones
Compelled sense off seat-cramped bones
    To their well-honed long-read story.

Further north, farms of slighter falls:
    One a black-sheep specialist,
With some Friesians on the list -
    All held between old dry-stone-walls.

The Lakes behind, a strong Scotch mist
    Changed the sun to a full-moon
And hid scenery, till soon -
    Light, and the wide scenes on Burns' list.

New farms harnessing the wind's blow,
    Old white-and-grey-cottage views;
Plus pines, espousing the hues -
    In distinct leaf-tones - of Glasgow.

From http://blogs.myspace.com/walkaboutsverse (e-book)
Or http://walkaboutsverse.sitegoz.com (e-scroll)
(C) David Franks 2003

Subject: RE: BS: WalkaboutsVerse Anew
From: GUEST,mandotim at work
Date: 30 Nov 09 - 03:35 AM

An Advent poem? Didn't stop you posting it in July on this very thread, did it? It's bad enough that you shamelessly use the thread for promoting your nauseous poetry and ideologies, but there are now many repeats of your doggerel on the thread; come up with something original and new, or stop posting.

Subject: RE: BS: WalkaboutsVerse Anew
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 29 Nov 09 - 05:33 AM

It's Advent again, and again I've purchased gifts (calendars by the Northumbrian Scribes) from, in North East England...

Poem 199 of 230: BEDE'S WORLD - WINTER 2002/3

During Advent, I returned to Bede's World,
    Where I, already read, was further schooled,
Via walks through the museum, the farm,
    The ruins, and the church with its old arm,
Plus the herb garden - raised beds, kept with care:
    Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme all there.
With gifts, I left, after some four hours,
    To round off, at home, my thoughts on ours.

From http://blogs.myspace.com/walkaboutsverse (e-book)
Or http://walkaboutsverse.sitegoz.com (e-scroll)
(C) David Franks 2003

Subject: RE: BS: WalkaboutsVerse Anew
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 28 Nov 09 - 04:56 AM

Did some storytelling in Barrow once about 15 years ago; never been back but I see it most every day, and night, the distant light glistening across the bay...

By the old Fleetwood Pavilion, lookin' northward to the sea,
There's a Barrow girl a-settin', and I know she thinks o' me;
For the wind is in the chimneys, and the mobile ring-tones they say:
"Come you back, you storyteller; come you back Barrow way!"
Come you back Barrow way,
Where the old car ferries lay:
Can't you 'ear their propellors chunkin' from Larne to Morecambe Bay?
On the road out Barrow way,
Where the flat-fishes they play,
An' the dawn comes up like thunder outer Fleetwood 'crost the Bay!

Just a thought...

Subject: RE: BS: WalkaboutsVerse Anew
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 28 Nov 09 - 04:11 AM

Poem 164 of 230: BARROW-IN-FURNESS, SEEN WITH A PAL - SUMMER 2001

Forest, wind-farm, fell-views and sands behind,
    The train, crossing Barrow's waters, startled
Some of the swans and ducks bridge-side aligned.

Soon seen as we walked from the train station:
    Two huge jibs, each over its new warship;
And works - largest we'd viewed in the nation.

Neat roundabouts link busy dockside streets;
    In the docks, a foreign-flag submarine,
And, in the museum, miniature fleets.

A tasteful town-hall of pitted red stone;
    And, snap-viewed from a left-side train-window,
Furness Abbey ruins - on the way home.

From http://blogs.myspace.com/walkaboutsverse (e-book)
Or http://walkaboutsverse.sitegoz.com (e-scroll)
(C) David Franks 2003

Subject: RE: BS: WalkaboutsVerse Anew
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 27 Nov 09 - 04:36 AM

Following sadly devastating floods in Cumbria, on the news yesterday, I heard locals urging tourists to keep visiting what is a beautiful part of England...

Poem 159 of 230: WINDERMERE - SUMMER 2001

Some thirteen years from my first visit
    (Then, dropped from hitching, just near;
This time, by train and a downhill walk),
    I arrived at Windermere:

On the ferry Miss Cumbria Three,
    A chill-out trip to Ambleside -
Viewing the trees, the farms, the fells,
    And the more sporty ways to ride.

Once there, an uphill walk through the shops
    Led to a leaf, rock and root track,
With a stalactite-like mossy falls,
    And a bridge - starting the way back.

Track-side, gripping the ghyll, ancient woods
    Shaded what was a sunny day,
And the falling stream gave sound strongly -
    Calming the soul a further way.

Then home - again charmed by the thin-stone
    Minimum-mortar kept buildings,
The surrounds of England's largest lake,
    And movie train-window viewings.

From http://blogs.myspace.com/walkaboutsverse (e-book)
Or http://myspace.com/walkaboutsverse (e-scroll)
(C) David Franks 2003

Subject: RE: BS: WalkaboutsVerse Anew
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 26 Nov 09 - 06:26 AM

Wow! Yes please!

Subject: RE: BS: WalkaboutsVerse Anew
From: Will Fly
Date: 26 Nov 09 - 06:22 AM

Hi SO'P - I've just bought myself a cheap-ish Sony Walkman cassette player as the one in my very expensive, but now quite old, Teac system is buggered and only plays at double speed.

The player arrived a few days ago so, as it happens, I'm now in the process of transferring some audio books to my laptop and thence to CD.

If you'd like a CD copy of the James stories, just let me know and PM me an address - my pleasure.

Subject: RE: BS: WalkaboutsVerse Anew
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 26 Nov 09 - 05:24 AM

Poem 104 of 230: ALONG WITH THE INGENUITY

Let us not forget,
    If we should visit
The world's grand buildings,
    Such as those for kings,
The underlying
    Human suffering,
And inequity,
    Of facades we see.

From http://blogs.myspace.com/walkaboutsverse (e-book)
Or http://walkaboutsverse.sitegoz.com (e-scroll)
(C) David Franks 2003

Subject: RE: BS: WalkaboutsVerse Anew
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 25 Nov 09 - 09:08 AM

CS - Did you mean The Mezzotint? Or was it a film? Monty said The Mezzotint was the same idea as The Haunted Dolls House - an oxymoron if ever there was one; aren't all dolls houses haunted? There's a beauty in the museum in Preston which gives me the shivers even on a sunny day.

Then there's this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oSJs7vSthk

Of the recent TV adaptations I felt A View from a Hill faired rather better than Number 13 - what I wouldn't give for a pair of binoculars like those for wandering the ruined abbeys of our green & unpleasant countryside.

You digitised those Michael Hordern tapes yet, Will? Still something I've yet to get round to!

Subject: RE: BS: WalkaboutsVerse Anew
From: Will Fly
Date: 25 Nov 09 - 08:47 AM

Nearly all of James's ghost stories, when read in the original, are pretty scary. "The Mezzotint" is wonderful, as is "Number 13" and, for a sheer getting-under-the-bedclothes-'cos-it's-great-to-be-scared experience, "An Episode of Cathedral History" takes some beating.

I've not yet found a perfect film version of any of James's stories, though many think the "Casting The Runes" and "Oh Whistle And I'll Come To You" films are very good. They don't quite to my expectations, though they haven't been bettered yet by any other versions.

Subject: RE: BS: WalkaboutsVerse Anew
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 25 Nov 09 - 07:23 AM

Crowsister, is that The Mezzotint ? That story used to scare the bejaysus out of my daughter when she was little.

Subject: RE: BS: WalkaboutsVerse Anew
From: Will Fly
Date: 25 Nov 09 - 07:02 AM

Charles Dickens used to put ghost stories into Christmas editions of his magazine "Household words" and as separate stories-within-stories in his Christmas books. I'm unsure as to whether he started that tradition or whether he continued an existing tradition. However, I think it's true that the "traditional" Victorian Christmas as we see it on cards, for example - the snow, holly, coaches, robins, fir trees, lamplit windows, ladies & gents strolling through snowscapes - is very much a product of Dickens' influence.

Subject: RE: BS: WalkaboutsVerse Anew
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 25 Nov 09 - 06:59 AM

Dr Terror's House of Horrors is one of the best films I have EVER seen.

MR James - brilliant.

Subject: RE: BS: WalkaboutsVerse Anew
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 25 Nov 09 - 06:18 AM

SO'P What's that one with the painting of the house with the light in the window, where someone's spirit becomes trapped? I aught to get some of these old films on DVD, because though I always used to stay up late as a kid to watch them (well past my bedtime, round Nanna's house on a Friday night) they never seem to put the buggers on anymore, so my memory is a pretty hazy.

Subject: RE: BS: WalkaboutsVerse Anew
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 25 Nov 09 - 06:06 AM

Both TST & QATP are seminal influences on my general philosophy of Life, The Universe & Everything - as an atheist I don't believe in the supernatural, but I do believe that there is a whole lot more to material reality that accounts for what we humans in our sensory deprivation think of as being supernatural. This, for me, is where the horror kicks in.

By bogus paganism in TWM I mean the Frazerian folkoric foundations of Summerisle which underlie much neo-paganism today. What's specific in TWM is that those ideas have been used to repress humanity into placid compliance much as they were in Nazi Germany - see my post HERE for more on this. The bogus science of Kneale is the sci-fi language; in the worlds of TST & QATP the science is real, but in the world of The Wicker Man we are left in no doubt that the paganism is indeed a sham - the opiate by which the islanders have been coerced into lumpen passivity.

Christmas Ghost Stories? M R James, and The Signalman - and maybe a little Rolt I think! Be nice to see a season of old dark British cinema - stuff like Dead of Night and The Rocking Horse Winner. Hell, I'd even be happy with Dr Terror's House of Horrors in which we Lee & Cushing alongside Allan 'Fluff' Freeman and Roy Castle, who explores similar themes to The Mighty Boosh regarding the true The Spirit of Jazz.

Staying into Re-Imagined Village territory here I think.

Encounter anything spooky on your travels, WAV?

Subject: RE: BS: WalkaboutsVerse Anew
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 25 Nov 09 - 05:11 AM

"Interesting how in Britain it's Christmas for ghosts, not Halloween."

Didn't the Victorians start that tradition?
I'd like to know more about it actually, as reading/watching ghost stories are one of the remaining things about Xmas tradition, I rather enjoy - it feels so old fashioned and 'grounding' in the midst of all the excess.

Saw Tim Burtons 'Sweeney Tod' t'other day, thought it would make an ideal kitch musical horror for Xmas.

Subject: RE: BS: WalkaboutsVerse Anew
From: GUEST,Richd in work
Date: 25 Nov 09 - 04:55 AM

I think one of the (many) interesting things about both The Stone Tape and Quatermass and the Pit is that in the end both science and religion are both inadequate to contain the supernatural. Perhaps this is less so in Quatermass and the Pit. But in The Stone Tape both clearly fail (e.g. the final shot of Brock listening to Jills' screams). The second point, that the The Wicker Man contains no supernatural element is interesting, although a silmilar argument can be made that Quatermass and the Pit and The Stone Tape contain no supernatural elements either- only misunderstood science. This is also interesting because there seem to be thematic similarities between the three male characters- Summerisle, Quatermass, and Brock. They are all misunderstood scientists! The final point about totalitarianism and the dark human mind- yes, I'm sure that's there. But that describes many films from many times and many genres: what's specific to The Wicker Man? Again the 'bogus pagan' element is there, as there is a 'bogus science' element to QTP and TST but that's not all that's there. It might not even be the most important thing that's there. An interesting question is what these 'bogus' elements do in these particular examples. Films, even horror films, are capable of complexity, and the interplay of the different themes and ideas within The Wicker Man is one of the most interesting things about a film I think is flawed and quite weak.

Mark Gatiss. Hmm- I wish they'd show The Signalman this year. Interesting how in Britain it's Christmas for ghosts, not Halloween.

Subject: RE: BS: WalkaboutsVerse Anew
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 25 Nov 09 - 04:14 AM

Poem 14 of 230: NIGHT OR DAY?!

In the far north of Sweden,
    A "Land of the Midnight Sun,"
A strange thing chanced upon me -
    And I'll tell you, just for fun.

Got off a train late-morning
    (Had to catch same one next day)
And trudged far to the Youth Hostel -
    Paying for a one-night stay.

I spent the afternoon sightseeing,
    Then, after a latish dinner,
Returned to my own small bedroom -
    The comfy bed proving a winner.

For I soon dozed into dreamy sleep -
    Waking what was just two hours hence;
But my watch was an analogue,
    And night or day I couldn't sense!

I quickly packed all my things
    (My train an hour or thirteen on)
And hurried out the bedroom -
    The bright sky a sneaky con.

I wandered down the track a bit
    (The Hostel office empty),
Before a smiling helpful local
    Did kindly enlighten me.

From http://blogs.myspace.com/walkaboutsverse (e-book)
Or http://walkaboutsverse.sitegoz.com (e-scroll)
(C) David Franks 2003