how could I leave this behind
17 Jul 07
I’m working on a project in which my library is withdrawing a number of titles from its reference collection. The current phase of the project deals with print bibliographies, most of which were compiled in the 60s and 70s, are dusty, never used, and of almost no interest to scholarship.
I’m supposed to be giving the titles already identified (by others) for withdrawal a quick once-over, just because it’s been about three years since this project has been alive and kicking; but it’s turning out to be not so quick after all. I keep running into stuff like this. . .
Reisner, Robert George. Show Me the Good Parts: The Reader’s Guide to Sex in Literature. New York: Citadel, 1964.
. . . which includes this gem. . .
BODIN, PAUL. All Women’s Flesh. New York, Berkeley (paperback), 1957. 190 pp.
pp. 41-43: The man is mildly shocked when his wife runs off with his friend. Most of the surprise is why his friend should want her. He is comforted in his loss by many women, so he is in good shape. One source of solace is a waitress in a local restauraunt. He lavishes appreciative attentions on her slightly hypertrophied posterior. (66)
Who could withdraw such a thing? Not I.
Posted by pzed on July 17, 2007 at 3.52pm
House of Mirth follow-up
9 Jul 07
Looking back at my brief post after reading Wharton’s House of Mirth, I’m tempted to re-write it—the post, not the novel. Perhaps what I wanted to say about Lily was simply, How could she have been so stupid? Was her tragic flaw something as simple as thinking herself better than she was? Or better than those around her?
I’m at risk of going over old ground that I never had time to till properly, and has now laid fallow so long I wouldn’t know where to start working to bring things back to life (much like this increasingly painful farming analogy). I only started this post to make note of a couple Acephelous posts that discuss House of Mirth:
Argument? Check. Evidence? Check. Then What, Exactly, Is The Problem?
Posted by pzed on July 9, 2007 at 11.12am
cold mountain
5 Jul 07
Days and months slip by like water,
Time is like sparks knocked off flint.
– Snyder 17:5-6
Posted by pzed on July 5, 2007 at 9.33pm
