Walter Scott, Old Mortality: Reading Notes, Part Seven
Henry returns incognito from refuge in Europe; with ascension of William and Mary, political and religious situation has now reversed, with the Whigs in power and the Jacobites insurgent. Claverhouse has become a rebel, fighting with the Highlanders.
Dietary advice from Henry's aged maid: "I would approve o' your eating butcher-meat maybe as often as three times-a-week -- it keeps the wind out o' the stamack."
Surveying the Inn at Howff after the absence of many years -- and with many lives lost in the interim -- Henry observes melancholically how "the scene was another and yet the same . . . let the tide of the world wax or wane as it will, enough will be found to fill the places which chance renders vacant; and in the usual occupations and amusements of life, human beings will succeed each other as leaves upon the same tree, with the same individual difference and the same general resemblance."
The rural dram house keeper (significantly, she has gone blind) Mistress Maclure has extended her charity to those on both sides of the conflict -- "blaming nane and condemning nane" -- and only suffered for doing so.
Balfour, become a delusional hermit, holds some secret that allows him to control the fate of the Bellenden property, now in the hands of a usurper, Basil Olifant.
Of Olifant, Balfour confides: "These lands are a bit between his jaws and a hook in his nostrils, and the rein and the line are in my hands to guide them as I think meet."
In final confrontation, it is the amoral, apolitical, irreligious Cuddie who fires the shot that brings everything to right.
Poking fun at his own pat narrative resoultions and happy endings, Scott's stand-in in the book's conclusion opines: "every volume of a narrative turns less and less interesting as the author draws to a conclusion; just like your tea which, though excellent hyson, is necessarily weaker and more insipid in the last cup."
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
Showing posts with label Scotland. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Scotland. Show all posts
Monday, January 19, 2009
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Dining with General Claverhouse
Walter Scott, Old Mortality: Reading Notes, Part Six
Upon breaking-up nest of Cameronians and thus rescuing Henry, Claverhouse orders summary execution of armed rebels and, in tone that suggests it is a legal nuisance, interrogation of unarmed preacher (Macbriar).
Upon breaking-up nest of Cameronians and thus rescuing Henry, Claverhouse orders summary execution of armed rebels and, in tone that suggests it is a legal nuisance, interrogation of unarmed preacher (Macbriar).
Then, in a sentence that suggests Morton's status is now that of an indulged and favored beast, Claverhouse instructs his orderly "let Mr Morton be civilly used and see that the men look well after their horses; and let my groom wash Wildblood's shoulder with some vinegar, the saddle touched him a little."
Claverhouse dines as the insurgents are executed. Noting Henry's distress, he philosophises: "in the beginning of my military career I had as much aversion to blood spilt as ever man felt; it seemed to me to be wrung from my own heart; and yet, if you trust one of those whig fellows, he will tell you I drink a warm cup of it every morning before I breakfast."
Claverhouse continues: "Men die daily -- not a bell tolls the hour but it is the death-note of some one or another; and why hesitate to shorten the span of others, or take over anxious care to prolong our own? It is all a lottery."
In transit the next day, Claverhouse expounds on what he sees as the difference between those killed by Balfour of Burley and the blood he and his troops shed: "There is a difference, I trust, between the blood of learned and reverend prelates, of gallant soldiers and noble gentlemen, and the red puddle that stagnates in the veins of psalm-singing mechanics, crack-brained demagogues, and silly boors; some distinction, in short, between spilling a flask or generous wine, and dashing down a can full of base muddy ale."
Claverhouse mock-distraught at Henry's lack of knowledge of chilvaric literature: "Did you ever read Froissart?" No. "I have half a mind to contrive you should have six months' imprisonment in order to procure you that pleasure."
Claverhouse maintains a "Black Book" with information on individual citizens, whether insurgent or not, much of it gathered by "loyal" ministers. Henry remonstrates: "Does it not revolt a mind like yours to follow a system that is supported by such minute inquiries after obscure individuals?"
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
"Thou art unwise Henry Morton"
Walter Scott, Old Mortality: Reading Notes, Part Five
Henry reflects on how "our best and most praiseworthy feelings" become degraded: "the liberal principles of one man sink into cold and unfeeling indifference; the religious zeal of another hurries him into frantic and savage enthusiasm."
Balfour correctly guesses and highly disapproves Henry's motives for wanting to remain near the besieged castle -- to protect his beloved, Edith, and his mentor, Major Bellenden.
Balfour: "thou art unwise, Henry Morton, to sacrifice this holy cause to thy friendship for an uncircumcised Philistine, or thy lust for a Moabitist woman." Henry: "I neither understand your meaning, Mr. Balfour, nor relish your allusions."
Later, Henry remonstrates with Balfour on the zealot's plan to summarily execute Evandale: "we are in arms to put down such cruelties, not to imitate them."
Prevailing unworldliness at the front lines of the insurgent army does not inspire confidence : "their piquets and patrols were more interested and occupied in disputing the true occasion and causes of wrath, and defining the limits of Erastian herecy, than in looking out for and observing the motions of their enemies."
Sectarianism undermines insurgent army. When Henry seeks to save the bridge crossing from falling into the hands of Claverhouse, the Cameronian (zealot) dominated cavalry will not follow him as he has been condemned by the maniac Mucklewrath as an Erastian.
Fleeing from the royal troops, Henry and loyal Cuddie find themselves amid some of the most ardent Cameronians, including Macbriar and Mucklewrath.
Looking for a celestial cause for the defeat, they look threatenly at Henry, believing that God has delivered him into their hands. Cuddie: "they'll kill him, the murdering loons, and think they're doing a gude turn."
Having decided to murder Henry at the expiry of the Sabbath, the zealots begin a vigil to look for a sign of heavenly approbation for the slaughter.
Henry freed when Cuddie enlists Claverhouse to break-up the Cameronian nest.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
Henry reflects on how "our best and most praiseworthy feelings" become degraded: "the liberal principles of one man sink into cold and unfeeling indifference; the religious zeal of another hurries him into frantic and savage enthusiasm."
Balfour correctly guesses and highly disapproves Henry's motives for wanting to remain near the besieged castle -- to protect his beloved, Edith, and his mentor, Major Bellenden.
Balfour: "thou art unwise, Henry Morton, to sacrifice this holy cause to thy friendship for an uncircumcised Philistine, or thy lust for a Moabitist woman." Henry: "I neither understand your meaning, Mr. Balfour, nor relish your allusions."
Later, Henry remonstrates with Balfour on the zealot's plan to summarily execute Evandale: "we are in arms to put down such cruelties, not to imitate them."
Prevailing unworldliness at the front lines of the insurgent army does not inspire confidence : "their piquets and patrols were more interested and occupied in disputing the true occasion and causes of wrath, and defining the limits of Erastian herecy, than in looking out for and observing the motions of their enemies."
Sectarianism undermines insurgent army. When Henry seeks to save the bridge crossing from falling into the hands of Claverhouse, the Cameronian (zealot) dominated cavalry will not follow him as he has been condemned by the maniac Mucklewrath as an Erastian.
Fleeing from the royal troops, Henry and loyal Cuddie find themselves amid some of the most ardent Cameronians, including Macbriar and Mucklewrath.
Looking for a celestial cause for the defeat, they look threatenly at Henry, believing that God has delivered him into their hands. Cuddie: "they'll kill him, the murdering loons, and think they're doing a gude turn."
Having decided to murder Henry at the expiry of the Sabbath, the zealots begin a vigil to look for a sign of heavenly approbation for the slaughter.
Henry freed when Cuddie enlists Claverhouse to break-up the Cameronian nest.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
The council of the zealots
Walter Scott, Old Mortality: Reading Notes, Part Four
Henry's moderation and neutrality: he finds nothing to admire either in the oppressed religious zealots with their "gloomy fanaticism" and the "envenomed rancor of their political hatred" or in their military oppressors "the misrule, license, and brutality of the soldiery, the executions on the scaffold, the slaughters in the open field."
Henry's moderation and neutrality: he finds nothing to admire either in the oppressed religious zealots with their "gloomy fanaticism" and the "envenomed rancor of their political hatred" or in their military oppressors "the misrule, license, and brutality of the soldiery, the executions on the scaffold, the slaughters in the open field."
If the Bible in Lewis' "The Monk" is a compendium of all that is sinful, in "Old Mortality" it is a justification for extreme, ruthless, and ecstatic violence. For Balfour and Mause, the Bible demands the exercise of violence.
Henry cites to Balfour (Burley) his own respect for scripture as a guide to behavior but protests the Dissenters "wrest[ing] of certain passages out of their context" in order to justify killing.
Motive for Balfour's attempt to lure Henry into the insurgent camp is revealed in aside to the fanatical preacher Macbriar: that they must temporarily abide "Laodiceans and Erastians" in order to mass sufficient numbers against the Government.
Scott makes clear the personal ambition that underlies Balfour's militant religiosity.
Erastianism = "subjection of the church of God to the regulations on an earthly government."
In reading papers of the deceased Bothwell, Henry sees a once honorable man driven by failed love and adversity into depravity and coarseness. In the same documents, Balfour sees the myriad forms of Satan's influence.
Council of the insurgents a raucous event, theological rather than political or military. "The smoke . . . formed over the heads of the assembled council a clouded canopy as opaque as their physical theology."
(Turgenev will also use "smoke," in novel of that name, as a metaphor for the unsubstantiality of Revolutionary ideology).
Heated dispute between moderate (Poundtext) and radical (Kettledrumle) clerics broken-up by Balfour; the silenced divines "continued to eye each other like two dogs who, having been separated by their masters while fighting, have retreated, each beneath the chair of its owner . . . each indicating by occasional growls, by the erected bristles of the back and ears, that their discord is unappeased."
Theological debate reignited by ravings of bloodthirsty, apocalyptic madman Habakkuk Mucklewrath: "slay, slay -- smite -- slay utterly -- let not your eye have pity! slay utterly, old and young"
Henry agrees to serve with insurgents, with goal of "softening the horrors of Civil War" and opposing atrocities.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
"Thou shall be zealous even to slaying"
Walter Scott, Old Mortality: Reading Notes, Part Three
Claverhouse, the military commander and scourge of the Dissenters, rides a horse without a single white hair -- said by those he pursues to be "a gift from the Prince of Darkness" himself.
Lady Bellenden's breakfast for the visiting military host of the archaic variety: "the priestly ham, the knightly sirloin, the noble baron of beef" and flagons of beer, wine, and mead.
Lady Bellenden so seduced by rank that she cannot see Bothwell's degradation. In her own way, she is as single-mindedly deluded as her bible-quoting former servant Mause.
Claverhouse has a soft and courtly exterior that hides "a spirit unbounded in daring and ambition." He is "careless in facing death and ruthless in inflicting it on others."
Claverhouse's regiment has, as ornaments, black trumpeters: "six negroes in white dresses, richly laced, and having massive silver collars and armlets."
Claverhouse leads his troops against body of insurgents led by Balfour.
Balfour kills officer sent to treat for peace, horrifying his companions. To which Balfour replies: "is it not written, Thou shall be zealous even to slaying?"
Balfour fights with and kills Bothwell. Bothwell says: "Base peasant churl, thou hast spilt the blood of a line of kings"
Balfour replies: "Die bloodthirsty dog! Die as thou hast lived! Die like the beasts that perish -- hoping nothing -- believing nothing!"
And Claverhouse's whispered aside to the news of Bothwell's death: "the King has lost a servant and the Devil has gained one."
Claverhouse moves through melee untouched: "the awe on the insurgents' minds was such that they gave way to Claverhouse as before a Supernatural being."
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
Claverhouse, the military commander and scourge of the Dissenters, rides a horse without a single white hair -- said by those he pursues to be "a gift from the Prince of Darkness" himself.
Lady Bellenden's breakfast for the visiting military host of the archaic variety: "the priestly ham, the knightly sirloin, the noble baron of beef" and flagons of beer, wine, and mead.
Lady Bellenden so seduced by rank that she cannot see Bothwell's degradation. In her own way, she is as single-mindedly deluded as her bible-quoting former servant Mause.
Claverhouse has a soft and courtly exterior that hides "a spirit unbounded in daring and ambition." He is "careless in facing death and ruthless in inflicting it on others."
Claverhouse's regiment has, as ornaments, black trumpeters: "six negroes in white dresses, richly laced, and having massive silver collars and armlets."
Claverhouse leads his troops against body of insurgents led by Balfour.
Balfour kills officer sent to treat for peace, horrifying his companions. To which Balfour replies: "is it not written, Thou shall be zealous even to slaying?"
Balfour fights with and kills Bothwell. Bothwell says: "Base peasant churl, thou hast spilt the blood of a line of kings"
Balfour replies: "Die bloodthirsty dog! Die as thou hast lived! Die like the beasts that perish -- hoping nothing -- believing nothing!"
And Claverhouse's whispered aside to the news of Bothwell's death: "the King has lost a servant and the Devil has gained one."
Claverhouse moves through melee untouched: "the awe on the insurgents' minds was such that they gave way to Claverhouse as before a Supernatural being."
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
Saturday, January 17, 2009
"A piece of lighted match betwixt the fingers"
Walter Scott, Old Mortality: Reading Notes, Part Two
At the miser Milnwood's table, all members of the household are watched "by sharp, envious eyes which seemed to measure the quantity that each dependent swallowed . . . In its progress from the lips to the stomach."
The robust appetite of the recently-arrived Cuddie causes Milnwood to regard him as a "cormorant."
Dinner interrupted by entry of the opportunist Bothwell and his troops in search of the religious fanatic Balfour: "in they tramped, a tremendous clatter upon the stone floor with the iron-shod heels of their large jack boots and the clash and clang of their long, heavy basket-hilted broadswords."
All members of the household -- for guilt or conscience or fear of being plundered -- find reason to fear Bothwell's domiciliary intrusion.
As part of interrogation, Bothwell threatens to torture Henry "by tying a piece of lighted match betwixt your fingers."
Cuddie's mother Mause an endless font of Biblical imprecation.
Riding with Henry as his prisoner, Bothwell affably explains how a soldier gets his fill of brandy at every household -- served by the Royalists out of affection, by the moderates out of fear, and by the radicals through force.
The royal-blooded but disenfranchised Bothwell on why he has not been recognized by James II: "his most sacred majesty is more engaged in grafting scions of his own than with nourishing those planted by his grandfather's grandfather.
Henry to be tried by: "the military commission, to whom it has pleased our king, our privy council, and our parliament that used to be tenacious of our liberties, to commit the sole charge of our goods and our lives."
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
At the miser Milnwood's table, all members of the household are watched "by sharp, envious eyes which seemed to measure the quantity that each dependent swallowed . . . In its progress from the lips to the stomach."
The robust appetite of the recently-arrived Cuddie causes Milnwood to regard him as a "cormorant."
Dinner interrupted by entry of the opportunist Bothwell and his troops in search of the religious fanatic Balfour: "in they tramped, a tremendous clatter upon the stone floor with the iron-shod heels of their large jack boots and the clash and clang of their long, heavy basket-hilted broadswords."
All members of the household -- for guilt or conscience or fear of being plundered -- find reason to fear Bothwell's domiciliary intrusion.
As part of interrogation, Bothwell threatens to torture Henry "by tying a piece of lighted match betwixt your fingers."
Cuddie's mother Mause an endless font of Biblical imprecation.
Riding with Henry as his prisoner, Bothwell affably explains how a soldier gets his fill of brandy at every household -- served by the Royalists out of affection, by the moderates out of fear, and by the radicals through force.
The royal-blooded but disenfranchised Bothwell on why he has not been recognized by James II: "his most sacred majesty is more engaged in grafting scions of his own than with nourishing those planted by his grandfather's grandfather.
Henry to be tried by: "the military commission, to whom it has pleased our king, our privy council, and our parliament that used to be tenacious of our liberties, to commit the sole charge of our goods and our lives."
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
Old Mortality: Portrait of a Fanatic
Walter Scott, Old Mortality: Reading Notes, Part One
Story presented as told by an itinerant craftsman who travels from gravesite to gravesite -- thus his nickname "Old Mortality" -- restoring inscriptions on headstones of forgotten Presbyterian martyrs.
Jacobite royalists enforce recreation -- sports, dancing -- as well as military drills for young men in order to seduce them from severity of Covenanter society.
"To compel men to dance and make merry by authority, has rarely succeeded even on board slave ships where it was formerly sometimes attempted by way of inducing the wretched captives to agitate their limbs and restore their circulation during the few minutes they were permitted to enjoy the fresh air upon deck."
May Day celebration includes traditional game of shooting the "Popinjay": brightly feathered target suspended from a pole at great distance from the contestants.
Scott's account of rivalry of green-caped gentry and fashionable noble to hit Popinjay will be told by him again, much more elaborately, in archery contest won by Robin Hood in "Ivanhoe."
Scott introduces two zealots: the crude Royalist bully Bothwell (of royal blood, but disposessed) and the uncompromising dissenter Balfour, on the run having assassinated the Archbishop. (Later he will introduce the almost Satanic Claverhouse as the polar opposite to Balfour; the consummate cynic to Balfour's true believer).
Scott's hero Henry Morton, winner of the Popinjay contest, tries to navigate between the two extremes, but in a brave manner, like his dead father, rather than a cautious one, like his penurious uncle.
Uncompromising covenanters such as Balfour (also known as Burley) see the "indulged" Presbyterian ministers as tools of the Royalists: "a fighting of the wars of darkness with the swords of the children of light."
The brave fanatic (one could say terrorist) Balfour on his eventual fate: "my hour is not yet come. That I shall one day fall into their hands and be honorably associated with the saints whom they have slaughtered, I am full well aware. And I would that hour were come; it will be as welcome to me as ever wedding to bridegroom."
For all his ardor and certitude, Balfour still expresses doubt to Henry as to the source of an inspiration that causes him to violate "feelings of natural humanity" in order to serve divine will.
Balfour to Henry: "think ye our conquests must be only over our corrupt and evil affections and passions? No; we are called upon, when we have girded our loins, to run the race boldly, and when we have drawn the sword, we are enjoined to smite the ungodly, though he be our neighbor, and the man of power and cruelty, though he were of our own kindred, and the friend of our own bosom."
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Reading Notes on The Antiquary
Reading Notes: Walter Scott, The Antiquary
November 22-25, 2008. Transcribed from Twitter.
Scott's "The Antiquary" begins as lampoon of reverance for the past: Oldbuck's false Roman ruins and Sir Arthur's exaggerated family heroism 10:21 AM Nov 22nd, 2008 from txt
King Alphonso of Castile quoted as life needful of: "old wood to burn, old books to read, old wine to drink, old friends to converse with" 10:26 AM Nov 22nd, 2008 from txt
Oldbuck on the parasitic professions: "the clergy live by our sins, the medical faculty by our diseases, the law gentry by our misfortunes." 9:10 AM Nov 23rd, 2008 from txt
At ruined Abbey: Oldbuck, Sir Arthur, Dousterswivel each see a different lost paradise in Monkish past: scholarly, orthodox, alchemical. 9:18 AM Nov 23rd, 2008 from txt
The mendicant/beggar and former poacher Edie Ochiltree wanders homeless by choice, witnessing that which others gossip or speculate over 2:56 PM Nov 23rd, 2008 from txt
Edie on the once formidable, now demented Elspeth: the remaining areas of her mind are all the more majestic for being surrounded by ruins 6:15 PM Nov 23rd, 2008 from txt
Oldbuck on Edie's role in community: "the oracle of the district ... genealogist, newsman, master of revels, doctor in a pinch, or divine" 7:28 AM Nov 25th, 2008 from web
More of Oldbuck on the wise vagrant Edie: "he is so far a true philosopher as to be a contemmer of all ordinary rules of hours and times." 7:31 AM Nov 25th, 2008 from web
Sir Arthur, ruined, sees himself "a fallen lamb" who will not lie on the heather for ten minutes before ravens and crows pick out his eyes" 9:12 AM Nov 25th, 2008 from web
Sir Arthur undervalues Oldbuck as too penurious to lend money and thus likely to give only "scraps of misanthropy and quaint ends of Latin" 9:36 AM Nov 25th, 2008 from web
To work with just 20 pp. left of The Antiquary" Maddening, even as it is clear how it will end: love and virtue rewarded; fortune assured 9:48 AM Nov 25th, 2008 from web
"The Antiquary" opposes the Monkish/Peaceful ideology of Oldbuck and Edie with the Martial/Aristocratic ideology of Sir Arthur and Hector. 5:39 PM Nov 25th, 2008 from web
Scott's de-centered hero, Lovell, unites both ideologies in that he is both studious and brave (and also, as revealed, a legitimate heir). 5:44 PM Nov 25th, 2008 from web
November 22-25, 2008. Transcribed from Twitter.
Scott's "The Antiquary" begins as lampoon of reverance for the past: Oldbuck's false Roman ruins and Sir Arthur's exaggerated family heroism 10:21 AM Nov 22nd, 2008 from txt
King Alphonso of Castile quoted as life needful of: "old wood to burn, old books to read, old wine to drink, old friends to converse with" 10:26 AM Nov 22nd, 2008 from txt
Oldbuck on the parasitic professions: "the clergy live by our sins, the medical faculty by our diseases, the law gentry by our misfortunes." 9:10 AM Nov 23rd, 2008 from txt
At ruined Abbey: Oldbuck, Sir Arthur, Dousterswivel each see a different lost paradise in Monkish past: scholarly, orthodox, alchemical. 9:18 AM Nov 23rd, 2008 from txt
The mendicant/beggar and former poacher Edie Ochiltree wanders homeless by choice, witnessing that which others gossip or speculate over 2:56 PM Nov 23rd, 2008 from txt
Edie on the once formidable, now demented Elspeth: the remaining areas of her mind are all the more majestic for being surrounded by ruins 6:15 PM Nov 23rd, 2008 from txt
Oldbuck on Edie's role in community: "the oracle of the district ... genealogist, newsman, master of revels, doctor in a pinch, or divine" 7:28 AM Nov 25th, 2008 from web
More of Oldbuck on the wise vagrant Edie: "he is so far a true philosopher as to be a contemmer of all ordinary rules of hours and times." 7:31 AM Nov 25th, 2008 from web
Sir Arthur, ruined, sees himself "a fallen lamb" who will not lie on the heather for ten minutes before ravens and crows pick out his eyes" 9:12 AM Nov 25th, 2008 from web
Sir Arthur undervalues Oldbuck as too penurious to lend money and thus likely to give only "scraps of misanthropy and quaint ends of Latin" 9:36 AM Nov 25th, 2008 from web
To work with just 20 pp. left of The Antiquary" Maddening, even as it is clear how it will end: love and virtue rewarded; fortune assured 9:48 AM Nov 25th, 2008 from web
"The Antiquary" opposes the Monkish/Peaceful ideology of Oldbuck and Edie with the Martial/Aristocratic ideology of Sir Arthur and Hector. 5:39 PM Nov 25th, 2008 from web
Scott's de-centered hero, Lovell, unites both ideologies in that he is both studious and brave (and also, as revealed, a legitimate heir). 5:44 PM Nov 25th, 2008 from web
Sunday, November 09, 2008
Reading Notes on Private Confessions and Memoirs of a Justified Sinner
Reading Notes: James Hogg, Private Confessions and Memoirs of a Justified Sinner
November 8-9, 2008. Transcribed from Twitter
Cold drizzle. Made first fire of the year: slow to start but roaring now. Starting Hogg's "Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner" 8:44 AM Nov 8th from txt
"The ways of heaven are altogether inscrutable and soar as far above and beyond the works and comprehension of man as the sun flaming in majesty, is above the tiny boy's evening rocket" 10:00 AM Nov 8th
Rife w/ doubles, specters. Book's dilemma: "we have nothing on earth but our senses to depend on; if these deceive us, what are we to do?" 12:38 PM Nov 8th from txt
Mrs Logan on Robert Wringham: "I believe he sees every one of his actions justified before God, and instead of having stings of conscience for these, he takes great merit to himself in having effected them" Calvinst belief in predestination becomes demonic. 1:25 PM Nov 8th from txt
In Confessions, Robert addresses readers as "wicked of the world." Non elect's names "written on the red letter side of the book of life" 2:33 PM Nov 8th from txt
Robert's demon similar to Dostoevsky's "Double" in his antic capering and his visibility to others. But also intimate, like Twain's No. 44 8:45 AM Nov 9th from txt
Robert warned: "There is not an error into which man can fall, which he may not press Scripture into his service as proof of the probity of" 9:09 AM Nov 9th from txt
The devil Gil-Martin places veil of mist betw Robert + heaven, similar to demonic fog George sees vying with the rainbow atop Arthur's Seat 10:05 AM Nov 9th from txt
Link to "Jeckyl and Hyde" clear in how Robert sleeps while other does mayhem. Duality in several registers: theology, psych, social, folk. 2:32 PM Nov 9th from txt
In story of ultra-godly town of Auchtermuchty, only the unbeliever -- who knows the language of crows -- can see the new Minister is a devil 2:46 PM Nov 9th from txt
Robert Wringhim also somewhat recalls Frederic's Theron Ware in that he takes spiritual doctrine as applicable to real life. 7:33 PM Nov 9th from txt
Scene shifts to a printing office (presaging Twain's #44). Robert intends to publish his Confessions in the guise of a Bunyanesque allegory. 10:01 PM Nov 9th from txt
Confessions ends with no clear determination of what truly occurred: epic of delusion? supernatural visit? or hypocritical "justification"? 8:42 AM yesterday from web
Also interesting in Confessions to think of the religiously "justified" sinning (+ murder) in relation to the dubious concept of "just" war about 22 hours ago from web
November 8-9, 2008. Transcribed from Twitter
Cold drizzle. Made first fire of the year: slow to start but roaring now. Starting Hogg's "Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner" 8:44 AM Nov 8th from txt
"The ways of heaven are altogether inscrutable and soar as far above and beyond the works and comprehension of man as the sun flaming in majesty, is above the tiny boy's evening rocket" 10:00 AM Nov 8th
Rife w/ doubles, specters. Book's dilemma: "we have nothing on earth but our senses to depend on; if these deceive us, what are we to do?" 12:38 PM Nov 8th from txt
Mrs Logan on Robert Wringham: "I believe he sees every one of his actions justified before God, and instead of having stings of conscience for these, he takes great merit to himself in having effected them" Calvinst belief in predestination becomes demonic. 1:25 PM Nov 8th from txt
In Confessions, Robert addresses readers as "wicked of the world." Non elect's names "written on the red letter side of the book of life" 2:33 PM Nov 8th from txt
Robert's demon similar to Dostoevsky's "Double" in his antic capering and his visibility to others. But also intimate, like Twain's No. 44 8:45 AM Nov 9th from txt
Robert warned: "There is not an error into which man can fall, which he may not press Scripture into his service as proof of the probity of" 9:09 AM Nov 9th from txt
The devil Gil-Martin places veil of mist betw Robert + heaven, similar to demonic fog George sees vying with the rainbow atop Arthur's Seat 10:05 AM Nov 9th from txt
Link to "Jeckyl and Hyde" clear in how Robert sleeps while other does mayhem. Duality in several registers: theology, psych, social, folk. 2:32 PM Nov 9th from txt
In story of ultra-godly town of Auchtermuchty, only the unbeliever -- who knows the language of crows -- can see the new Minister is a devil 2:46 PM Nov 9th from txt
Robert Wringhim also somewhat recalls Frederic's Theron Ware in that he takes spiritual doctrine as applicable to real life. 7:33 PM Nov 9th from txt
Scene shifts to a printing office (presaging Twain's #44). Robert intends to publish his Confessions in the guise of a Bunyanesque allegory. 10:01 PM Nov 9th from txt
Confessions ends with no clear determination of what truly occurred: epic of delusion? supernatural visit? or hypocritical "justification"? 8:42 AM yesterday from web
Also interesting in Confessions to think of the religiously "justified" sinning (+ murder) in relation to the dubious concept of "just" war about 22 hours ago from web
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Reading Notes on Guy Mannering
Reading Notes: Walter Scott, Guy Mannering
September 13-16, 2008. Transcribed from Twitter.
Rainy morning, reading Walter Scott, "Guy Mannering." Advice: "fools should not have chapping sticks." 10:34 AM Sep 13th, 2008 from txt
"Guy Mannering": remarkable character of the lawyer Mr. Pleydell, intimate of the. E'burgh elite (Hume, J. S. Mill), devotee of High Jinks ... 9:26 PM Sep 14th, 2008 from txt
More Pleydell: Law's like laudenum; it's much more easy to use it as a quack does, than learn to apply it like a physician. 8:12 AM Sep 16th, 2008 from web
In "Guy Mannering," describing the scheming Gossin: "his mind teeming with schemes of future deceit to cover former villany." 8:15 AM Sep 16th, 2008 from web
The gypsy sibyl Meg Merrilees to Mannering: "you are a good seeker, but a bad finder." 8:34 AM Sep 16th, 2008 from web
September 13-16, 2008. Transcribed from Twitter.
Rainy morning, reading Walter Scott, "Guy Mannering." Advice: "fools should not have chapping sticks." 10:34 AM Sep 13th, 2008 from txt
"Guy Mannering": remarkable character of the lawyer Mr. Pleydell, intimate of the. E'burgh elite (Hume, J. S. Mill), devotee of High Jinks ... 9:26 PM Sep 14th, 2008 from txt
More Pleydell: Law's like laudenum; it's much more easy to use it as a quack does, than learn to apply it like a physician. 8:12 AM Sep 16th, 2008 from web
In "Guy Mannering," describing the scheming Gossin: "his mind teeming with schemes of future deceit to cover former villany." 8:15 AM Sep 16th, 2008 from web
The gypsy sibyl Meg Merrilees to Mannering: "you are a good seeker, but a bad finder." 8:34 AM Sep 16th, 2008 from web
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
