To: ALL Date: 04/10
From: SEZG73A STEVE WARBASSE Time: 11:18 AM
**********ESSAYS OF E.B. WHITE**********
This one is coming down the pike toward us on the
Slo-Mo list for discussion at some point in the near
future, I understand. Since I bear some responsibility
along with Ruth for the placement of it on the list, I
thought I would try to generate a little motivation on the
part of others to try it. We are of course talking
non-fiction here. The genre is the personal essay, and
White is an acknowledged American master of this form.
I urge some of you who might otherwise bypass this one
to give it a try. The beauty of this book is that you
certainly need not read all of it. I found the essays at
the beginning of the book to be far less satisfying than
those toward the end, particularly in the section titled
"Memories." (Richard, the piece called "The Years of
Wonder" concerning his shipping out for Alaska in his youth
is a delight.) The essay at the end of that section is
perhaps his most famous, "Once More to the Lake." And if
you've never read his tribute to Will Strunk that appears
at the beginning of Strunk & White's ELEMENTS OF STYLE, you
really out to try it. It is an inspiration for more
careful and thoughtful writing.
E.B. White is the easiest, most comfortable reading
you will ever do. The writing is so apparently effortless,
one gets in the rhythm of it very quickly, and the
experience is much like a good conversation. Again, no
need to read the whole thing. Do a healthy sampling when
you get the chance. I look forward to discussing some of
these pieces with a few of you.
Steve 4/10/97 9:17AM CT
=============== Reply 1 of Note 45 =================
To: SEZG73A STEVE WARBASSE Date: 04/10
From: WSRF10B SHERRY KELLER Time: 1:12 PM
Dear Steve,
Here I was coming onto the board with the purpose of putting
up a note about WHITE and you've gone and done it. I have
read about a third of these essays and they are wonderful.
They're moving in ways that will surprise you. Let's start
discussing this for real in about two weeks. Is that enough
time? Or now, if we want.
Sherry
=============== Reply 6 of Note 45 =================
To: SEZG73A STEVE WARBASSE Date: 04/11
From: KDEX08B RUTH BAVETTA Time: 1:09 PM
Steve, I was pleased to see your post about the ESSAYS OF EB
WHITE. I've been hoping that this bit of non-fiction
wouldn't be an onion among the petunias.
For those of you who will poke around and read hither and
thither in this book, I second Steve's nomination of White's
trip to Alaska (YEARS OF WONDER) and the poignant ONCE MORE
TO THE LAKE. I'm also particularly fond of THE DEATH OF A
PIG, which has been much anthologized. Other favorites of
mine are THE EYE OF EDNA, THE GEESE (a love story) and the
first essay in the book, a short one called GOODBYE TO 48TH
STREET, which captures that strange mood of expectation and
regret that we all go through when we move.
FAREWELL, MY LOVELY, White's paean to the Model T should
appeal to the car people amongst us. SAINT NICHOLAS LEAGUE
has tidbits about famous writers who wrote as children's
contributors to a well-known children's magazine. A SLIGHT
SOUND OF EVENING is a meditation on Henry Thoreau. You'll
find the subject of egg color covered in RIPOSTE. (I prefer
brown over white, myself.) The circus, the South and
segregation come together in THE RING OF TIME.
Ruth, stopping before she names every essay in the book
=============== Reply 16 of Note 45 =================
To: SEZG73A STEVE WARBASSE Date: 04/19
From: DHGK37A ERNEST BELDEN Time: 0:08 AM
To All, I am not quite sure how my posting fits in since it
is not a response to any of the previous postings. I have
given it a try to read as many as I had time to read, but
you people are better typists, faster readers and mainly
have more time for posting, probably by means of the bb off
line manager that I heard so much about.
I found White's writing skillful, intelligent and sometimes
more and sometimes less interesting. I should say I enjoyed
most of the essays, but the one that appealed to me the
most are the one's named under the subtitles of Memories and
Divsersions and Obsessions.
The Years of Wonder truly stands out in my mind. I can well
identify with the young man who leaves Seattle after his job
folded to spend time on a ship, first class and stearage, so
to speak. His fascination with being close to the guys that
make the ship go, the fireman, stewarts, etc., I can
understand as I identify with his curiosity about people and
about life, raw as it is and undisguised.
Another thing I liked about it was that he gave the reader
the benefit of the notes made during his journey, though
they are characteristically those of a young, inexperienced
and somewhat pretensious person.
I was truly struck and shocked reading The Sea and the Wind
that Blows. So I am not the only one with the obsession for
sailing. He describe the precise feelings that I experience
when I sail, a compulsion I can not resist in spite of
apprehension or even fear. Teaching myself most everything
there is to know about sailing and preference for sailing on
my own. Just these last couple of years I take my 13 year
old grand daughter along as she enjoys sailing and after a
turn on the tiller puts on the walkman and goes to sleep in
the cabin. She does not bother me a bit. Sailors claim
that it is not the person who seeks out the sea, but that
the sea seeks out the person and with this I agree. Ernie
=============== Reply 17 of Note 45 =================
To: SEZG73A STEVE WARBASSE Date: 04/20
From: DHGK37A ERNEST BELDEN Time: 0:45 AM
Steve, could not help myself but read the whole book and
loved most of it. With you I found the memory part most
interesting. I ended up liking the person (E.B. White) as
much as his writing. As I wrote before, the obsession with
sailing struck home, I am as obsessed with the same
ambivalence as White, fear and love - what a combination!
Ernie
=============== Reply 18 of Note 45 =================
To: DHGK37A ERNEST BELDEN Date: 04/20
From: ZRPD32A RICHARD HAGGART Time: 1:27 AM
Ernie: You took the words right out of my mouth -- the
essays made me like E. B. White, the man. His sharp-edged,
but still gentle humor, and that fierce, unerring eye for
detail as he sat quietly (well, he claimed he was sitting
quietly) on a farm in Maine. I didn't remember from previous
White experiences what an environmental enthusiast he was --
damning the oil companies and their nefarious plots to bring
refineries and tankers to the New England coast. It all had
a tinge of 'not in my backyard' which usually annoys me, but
which in this case, seemed quite alright, particularly given
his age and that fact that he had an extra-nice yard. I was
also struck by the comments so far on everyone's favorite
essays -- White's young man's trip to Alaska has been
mentioned several times. I can say that it's evident White
really made the trip and captured the nuance of a working,
sea-going vessel very well. However, he largely fails with
the grandeur of Alaska, which is interesting, since he is so
clearly the master of his Maine farmstead and the few square
miles he inhabits. I worked as a seaman in those same waters
when I was 18 and 19 and even as a native Alaskan was
absolutely stunned at the beauty and scope of that
wilderness coastline and a sea that was (then) so full of
life and so empty of pollutants. I wonder if we humans
aren't somewhat like cameras -- some of us are better at
big, scenic shots, and others exell at portraits and
minatures. No matter, I wouldn't change a word the man ever
wrote -- what a gift he had and what a gift he gave.
Dick in Alaska, a little ruffled that we weren't more
ardently admired but otherwise pleased as punch
=============== Reply 19 of Note 45 =================
To: DHGK37A ERNEST BELDEN Date: 04/20
From: TQWX67A ANN DAVEY Time: 10:41 AM
Ernie,
I read the essay on sailing after seeing your note. How very
interesting -- I had always assumed that people who sail,
unlike me, have no fear of the ocean. Thanks for pointing me
to this essay. I'm picking and choosing as the mood hits me.
Right now my favorite is "The St. Nicholas League", about a
children's magazine for aspiring young writers.
Ann
=============== Reply 20 of Note 45 =================
To: TQWX67A ANN DAVEY Date: 04/20
From: KDEX08B RUTH BAVETTA Time: 12:11 PM
Ann, when I was a kid I was given a bound volume of old St
Nicholas League Magazines. I'd never heard of them and the
mag had died long before. Now I wish I'd kept the book. I
was too young, then, to have recognized any fledgling famous
authors. This essay was fun for it's name-dropping aspect
and a peek into the writing life of some later well-known
writers, but it's not one of my favorites.
The first essay in the book is one that resonates with me.
That strange mixture of anticipation and regret that we go
through as we prepare to move. And the way that belongings
seem to attach themselves to us in a way that makes it in-
creasingly difficult to vest ourselves of them. Both
phenomena have some connection to our urge to nest, I'm
thinking.
Ruth, in California where it looks like the sun is going to
come out
=============== Reply 21 of Note 45 =================
To: SEZG73A STEVE WARBASSE Date: 04/20
From: TDVK46B M LUTTENEGGER Time: 3:51 PM
Have started on page 1 of Essays and find it such an
enjoyable book. I'm reading it from front to back (as
opposed to picking and choosing and skippig around), anxious
to read the parts so many of you have found especially
interesting. White is so readable and so seemingly
effortless in his writing. I'm finding myself so much more
in tune with everything around me this weekend, as I enjoy
E.B and the glorious Colorado mountains...mel, ensconced on
a lake that Mr. White would be able to describe deliciously
=============== Reply 22 of Note 45 =================
To: KDEX08B RUTH BAVETTA Date: 04/20
From: KDEX08B RUTH BAVETTA Time: 4:47 PM
Make that DIvest. R.
=============== Reply 23 of Note 45 =================
To: KDEX08B RUTH BAVETTA Date: 04/20
From: NCSH82B BARBARA MOORS Time: 8:40 PM
I started reading this one from front to back but found the
style of the first ones getting a little repetitive. Even
though I liked them, my mind was wandering. Then, I reread
Steve's note, in which he said that he liked the later ones
a bit more than the earlier ones....so, now, I'm skipping
around. And, have found that I agree with him.
However, one of my favorite lines from the book thus far
is in the first essay, "Good-bye to Forty-Eighth Street",
that Ruth mentioned. He notes that the typical New Yorker
moves a lot looking for the perfect place..."And, in every
place he abandons he leaves something vital, it seems to
me, and starts his new life somewhat less encrusted, like a
lobster that has shed its skin and is for a time soft and
vulnerable."
Isn't that a compelling image?!? Also, I notice this
theme in many of his essays, this attempt to clean out all
the "stuff" that's accumulating in his life.
And, is ELEMENTS OF STYLE still available? His essay on
Will Strunk makes me want to check at the bookstore...for
myself and my sons. Barb
=============== Reply 24 of Note 45 =================
To: NCSH82B BARBARA MOORS Date: 04/20
From: KDEX08B RUTH BAVETTA Time: 9:03 PM
Absolutely ELEMENTS OF STYLE is available. It's the Bible
of many freshman English courses.
Ruth, who gave a copy to each of her kids in high school
=============== Reply 25 of Note 45 =================
To: NCSH82B BARBARA MOORS Date: 04/21
From: SEZG73A STEVE WARBASSE Time: 9:52 AM
Barb, I can't quite put my finger on the reason I
preferred the last essays in this book over the the first
ones. It is true though. I think the fact that there is a
sampling of something from every point in his career has a
little to do with this, in the sense that we ourselves
may prefer different ones at different points in our lives.
And the grouping in this book just happened to come out in
a way that at my stage of the game, I liked the last ones.
Certainly, as Ruth has said, ELEMENTS OF STYLE is
quite available. MacMillan. Cost you about six bucks plus
tax. If one has any hope of interesting young people in
the use of the English language, this is the way to go. It
is TINY. Not an imposing book at all. But you will love
reading it, I think.
"Farewell, My Lovely" may be one of the great tributes
to a mechanical thing, in this case the Model T. I am old
enough to have known some folks who spoke with this sort of
reverence for that car.
I would have to say that another of my favorites is
the piece on Thoreau and WALDEN. It is a great review of
the work, even unto pointing out Thoreau's preachiness.
Kinda has me worked up to revisit that one after many, many
years.
Personally, I really like the Foreward where he
talks about the nature of essay writing. Nice piece. (We
are just throwing out our general likes and dislikes right
now, I hope. When Sherry drops the green flag in another
week or so, I look forward to getting down to the
nitty-gritty on some of these.) However, a different
foreward would have been more appropriate. Divina has
provided me with a tribute to White written in 1938 by his
friend and colleague, James Thurber. At a little less than
eight pages, it ought to have been the Forward to this
book, although I am sure White's modesty precluded that.
It concludes with this paragraph:
"Some years ago White bought a farm in Maine and he
now lives there the year around with his wife, who was
Katharine Angell [his first editor at THE NEW YORKER]. He
spends most of his time delousing turkeys, gathering bantam
eggs, building mice-proof closets, and ripping out old
fireplaces and putting in new ones. There is in him not a
little of the spirit of Thoreau, who believed 'that the
world crowds round the individual, leaving him no vista,
and shuts out the beauty of the earth; and that the
wholesome wants of man are few.' Now and then, between
sunup and milking time, Andy White manages to do a casual
or a poem for THE NEW YORKER, or write a book. Many of the
things he writes seem to me as lovely as a tree--say a
maple after the first frost, or the cherry hung with snow.
What he will go on to do I have no idea. If he simply
continues to do what he has always done, it will be all
right with me."
Steve 4/21/97 8:45AM CT
=============== Reply 26 of Note 45 =================
To: SEZG73A STEVE WARBASSE Date: 04/21
From: WSRF10B SHERRY KELLER Time: 3:30 PM
Dear Steve and all,
I see no reason whatsever not to drop the green flag NOW.
You all seem to be far enough along on the Essays to start
in on them. Ready....set.....GO.
Sherry
=============== Reply 27 of Note 45 =================
To: WSRF10B SHERRY KELLER Date: 04/21
From: ZRPD32A RICHARD HAGGART Time: 3:45 PM
Sherry: I think my favorites may have been the essays about
the farmhouse kitchen and the one about the death of the
goose and the fate of the old gander. From my frozen vantage
point, those gentle and poignant stories about life on a
farm were downright exotic.
Dick in Alaska, where the thought of something growing,
other than in his refrigerator dishes, is enticing
=============== Reply 28 of Note 45 =================
To: ZRPD32A RICHARD HAGGART Date: 04/21
From: FAVB99B JANE NIEMEIER Time: 9:43 PM
Sherry and all,
I have read about 100 pages of this book and am thoroughly
enjoying each essay as I go. His view of New England makes
me nostalgic for the old days in Indiana. My father and
aunts talk about life on the farm every time they get
together. I also love EBW's gentle sense of humor. Some of
his phrases reminded me of a certain gentleman who lives in
Alaska. Are you listening, Sir R? It is interesting that
the word "essai" in French means a trial or a testing of
something. It can also mean a sample. Perhaps, it meant
all three to EBW. I will post more when I finish. Jane in
brisk and breezy Colorado.
=============== Reply 29 of Note 45 =================
To: FAVB99B JANE NIEMEIER Date: 04/22
From: YHJK89A CATHERINE HILL Time: 0:28 AM
I'm just getting into this, though it's lighter than most of
my lunchtime reading. The description of the highway in
"Home-Coming" made me think about how those highways have
changed in so comparatively few years. I went down
Murfreesboro Road the other day to avoid a jam on the
freeway - the way we always went when we took Daddy to work
so we could keep the car. There were busy motels along it -
those now remaining are generally hot bunks. A beautiful
white frame house with turrets stood on a hill, with an old
fashioned springhouse about halfway down. That's now the
interstate changeover. One building I remember has remained
much the same, though without the sign that puzzled me when
I was a kid. It said "Chinchillas Yes, Chihuahuas No" -
what the devil a chinchilla trader was doing on Murfreesboro
Road I don't know. Anyway, I asked Mama about the sign, and
she rather embarrassedly explained that people were calling
and asking for chihuahuas when they really wanted something
else - enterprising prostitution ring we had here!
Anyway, White's great for rousing and stretching gentle
nostalgia.
Cathy
=============== Reply 30 of Note 45 =================
To: YHJK89A CATHERINE HILL Date: 04/22
From: NDKB53A THERESA SIMPSON Time: 0:37 AM
Cathy - what the heck are "hot bunks"? Do they have
anything to do with chinchillas/chihuahuas? And what is the
connection between those animals and prostitution? (If the
answer is really graphic, go right ahead and e-mail me.)
Theresa
=============== Reply 31 of Note 45 =================
To: NDKB53A THERESA SIMPSON Date: 04/22
From: KDEX08B RUTH BAVETTA Time: 0:46 AM
Don't you dare e-mail Theresa you answer Cathy. I want to
read it to.
Ruth, curiouser and curiouser
=============== Reply 32 of Note 45 =================
To: YHJK89A CATHERINE HILL Date: 04/22
From: SEZG73A STEVE WARBASSE Time: 9:09 AM
You're correct, Catherine, it is light reading. Yet,
such a pleasure for me. I love the tone of these. White
doesn't take himself too seriously, while at the same time
doesn't play the role of the boob.
As I recall, his wife, Katherine, is the mother of my
favorite baseball writer, Roger Angell, who appears in THE
NEW YORKER regularly--and not always on the subject of
baseball. I think he was a child of her previous marriage,
however, if I remember correctly. (What's the deal there,
Sara? Are you finished with that massive paper yet?)
Catherine, I have a request. Would you make sure that
your Daddy reads that essay on the Model T, "Farewell, My
Lovely?" And then would you ask him to write down his
impressions of it and post them here? I know you're busy,
busy. Well, actually, I owe them a letter. I will write
them today and ask him myself. Will you renew the book and
lend it to him when you're done? I know your Mama would
love that essay about Forebush and his birds, too.
Steve 4/22/97 7:15AM CT
=============== Reply 33 of Note 45 =================
To: NDKB53A THERESA SIMPSON Date: 04/22
From: ZRPD32A RICHARD HAGGART Time: 11:50 AM
Theresa: 'Hot bunking' is (at least) a Navy term referencing
the fact that the large size of naval crews at one time
exceeded the number of bunks available, particularly on
small vessels and submarines and crewmembers shared bunks,
with one sleeping while the other was on watch. Hence, you
were always getting into 'a hot bunk'. Now how that relates
to chihuahuas/chinchillas and prostitution on the
Murfreesboro Road, I'm at an utter loss.
Dick in Alaska, ready to provide instruction on the 'Navy
shower' as well
=============== Reply 34 of Note 45 =================
To: SEZG73A STEVE WARBASSE Date: 04/22
From: KWWP63A SARA SAUERS Time: 6:19 PM
Steve, here's the deal as I understand it: Katharine
Angell had two young children, Roger & Nancy, and a
husband, when she met and fell in love with White at the
New Yorker. After sorting out the usual mess this kind of
situation creates, and the required three months in Reno,
she and White were married. What I always heard was that
they were tremendously fond of each other. Together they
had one son, Joel.
Any readers of White's STUART LITTLE out there? As a child
this book actually had me pretty convinced I might some day
risk giving birth to a mouse. A true nightmare book. -Sara
=============== Reply 35 of Note 45 =================
To: KWWP63A SARA SAUERS Date: 04/22
From: MXDD10A DALE SHORT Time: 7:27 PM
Divina: Is this Roger Angell, as in the baseball writer?
CBJ
=============== Reply 36 of Note 45 =================
To: KWWP63A SARA SAUERS Date: 04/22
From: KDEX08B RUTH BAVETTA Time: 8:30 PM
From everything I've read the marriage of EB & Katherine was
an exceedingly happy one.
Never read STUART LITTLE, but CHARLOTTE'S WEB made me cry as
an adult. Actually, CW is responsible for my son's quantum
leap into the literate reading public. The summer he after
finished the first grade I started to read it to him. He
loved it so much that he took it to bed with him. The next
morning he didn't come out of his bedroom until very late,
whereupon he emerged and announced, "I finished it". From
then on he was hooked. Three cheers for ol EB.
Ruth, in sun and 85 degrees
=============== Reply 37 of Note 45 =================
To: KWWP63A SARA SAUERS Date: 04/22
From: VMMN97A FELIX MILLER Time: 8:36 PM
Sara,
Oh yes, I was a devoted fan of Stuart Little, and liked to
imagine myself sailing on the Central Park lake in a little
sailboat. Being a mouse seemed an excellent idea, much
better than being a boring little boy.
Regards from the mountain,
Felix Miller
=============== Reply 38 of Note 45 =================
To: ZRPD32A RICHARD HAGGART Date: 04/22
From: VMMN97A FELIX MILLER Time: 8:37 PM
Oh wonderful, something I know!
"Hot bunk" I believe is a variation on the "hot pillow"
description of motels where the beds were in use for short
periods of time, probably a derivation of Dick's naval
bunks. But thus the connection with prostitution, hot
pillows and clean towels for rent, along with the main
attraction.
Hinting around, on the mountain,
Felix Miller
=============== Reply 39 of Note 45 =================
To: VMMN97A FELIX MILLER Date: 04/22
From: ZRPD32A RICHARD HAGGART Time: 11:01 PM
Felix, you do surprise me. Knowledge of 'hot bunks' (solely
in the naval context, of course) is a manly, moral kind of
information. This 'hot pillow' concept, on the other hand,
seems distinctly questionable. Perhaps we could construct an
argument that the moral strength of civilization along the
coastline (i.e. nearer the navy) is stronger than in the
morally tepid interior (nearer the hearts of darkness,
perhaps?) I guess, it does seem pretty flimsy; however, good
dissertation topics are terribly scarce these days, and I
keep trying to think of Marty's future.
Dick in Alaska, lucky to have a pillow at all
=============== Reply 40 of Note 45 =================
To: KWWP63A SARA SAUERS Date: 04/22
From: UPDQ58A PEGGY RAMSEY Time: 11:08 PM
Sara,
Chalk me up as a Stuart Little fan -- though I never found
it scary. I always thought it would be cool to be one of
those little creatures....
And I'm a *big* fan of Elements of Style -- it's the only
one I've kept from college. My favorite piece of advice:
"Just because a word is in the dictionary doesn't mean you
have you use it."
Peggy, still waiting for ESSAYS from the library -- but
THREE COFFINS is in
=============== Reply 41 of Note 45 =================
To: KDEX08B RUTH BAVETTA Date: 04/23
From: KXBZ24A ANNE WILFONG Time: 10:19 AM
Ruth, CHARLOTTE'S WEB was my launching pad into reading at
the age of 5 or 6. I recently reread it and also cried.
What adults can learn from these "children's"
books...they're for us all along, aren't they? Anne
=============== Reply 42 of Note 45 =================
To: KXBZ24A ANNE WILFONG Date: 04/23
From: TDVK46B M LUTTENEGGER Time: 12:20 PM
as someone noted earlier in this chat...you may start out
reading from front to back (as I did) but skipping around
has its merits. got hung up on EBW's 'preaching' in his
essays on the bomb, the war...decided to skip ahead and now
am back on track...his essay (and thank you Jane for
translating the french meaning of essay, always interesting)
entitled 'bedfellows' (I think, don't have my copy on hand)
was a grat story about his dog, maybe it's having two funny
pups of my own that made it such a winner for me. Mel, a
huge fan of Charlott's Wed, Elements, and Stuart...
=============== Reply 43 of Note 45 =================
To: TDVK46B M LUTTENEGGER Date: 04/23
From: KDEX08B RUTH BAVETTA Time: 12:36 PM
Mel, I tired of those "preachifying" political essays, too.
And felt guilty for doing so. After all, here was just
about my favorite writer, talking about important issues
from a viewpoint that I mostly agreed with. It was my duty
to like this stuff. But I was bored. It's in the details
of everyday life that White shines, I think. And the
ability to make the details of his life connect to the
details of our lives, and all of this connect to the great
scheme of things.
Ruth, too old to have read Charlotte's Web as a child
=============== Reply 44 of Note 45 =================
To: TDVK46B M LUTTENEGGER Date: 04/23
From: KDEX08B RUTH BAVETTA Time: 12:43 PM
Mel, continuing with an afterthought. It was William Carlos
Williams I believe, who said "No ideas but in things."
White's homey essays are full of the things of everyday life
and the ideas come in willy-nilly. The political essays are
full of ideas, without the personal and the concrete to tie
them to.
I'm glad you brought this up and made me think about my own
reactions
And I'm perfectly aware that in the first paragraph I ended
a sentence with a preposition. It sounds stilted if I write
it correctly. Even White himself, co-author of the revered
Elements of Style, condoned an occasional prepositional
ending, quoting the remark of his young son as White arrived
to read the ritual bedtime story, "What did you bring that
book I didn't want to be read to from out of up for? Six
preps, count 'em.
Ruth, on a beautiful southern California day, headed for the
90's
=============== Reply 45 of Note 45 =================
To: KDEX08B RUTH BAVETTA Date: 04/23
From: FAVB99B JANE NIEMEIER Time: 9:52 PM
Ruth and mel,
I agree about the bomb essays. I kept thinking that I should
appreciate them more, but they brought back some scary
moments from my childhood. Most of you will remember when
neighbors were building bomb shelters and stocking them with
provisions.
I love the every day essays, just as you do. I am in the
middle of the one about NYC. You can really get the feel of
those neighborhoods. R., I loved you phrase with all of the
prepositions! Jane in breezy Colorado.
=============== Reply 46 of Note 45 =================
To: MXDD10A DALE SHORT Date: 04/24
From: KWWP63A SARA SAUERS Time: 0:45 AM
CBJ/Shaman: Yep, this is the same Roger Angell, as in the
baseball writer. (Don't you read EVERY WORD the Wild Man
writes?? Ha!)
-Sara
=============== Reply 47 of Note 45 =================
To: KDEX08B RUTH BAVETTA Date: 04/24
From: WSRF10B SHERRY KELLER Time: 11:55 AM
I finished Whites ESSAYS yesterday and agree with most of
you. His observations about home and animals and human
foibles hold up much better than his essays on politics. I
think that's the key. Politics is changeable and ages about
as well as lettuce in a crisper. Human foibles are universal
and hold meaning for us whether they are described by
Shakespeare or by Dave Barry.
I thought his Christmas in Florida piece "What Do Our Hearts
Treasure?" was particularly moving. Maybe it made an
impression on me because my Christmases have gone through
many changes--once I was a child surprised, then I surprised
a child, and now I surprise no children and have very few
surprises myself. When the fir branch arrived and it felt
like Christmas, I knew just what he meant.
I also cried when the pig died.
I couldn't wait for the hurricane to come.
I wanted to see his coon come down the tree.
And I wanted to say to him that my senior English teacher's
two favorite phrases were "Simplify, simplify, simplify" and
"Delete to strengthen."
Sherry in Milwaukee
=============== Reply 48 of Note 45 =================
To: WSRF10B SHERRY KELLER Date: 04/24
From: MXDD10A DALE SHORT Time: 7:05 PM
Sherry & All: The essay in COLLECTED E.B. WHITE that took
the top of my head off (passionate readers know what I
mean...) when I first read it, and continues to do so on
re-reading, is a very short one called "The Ring of Time,"
about visiting the summer quarters of a circus in Florida.
Within the essay's small frame, I think White ambitiously
takes on some of the same ideas Virginia Woolf does in TO
THE LIGHTHOUSE: the realization of our mortality, and the
elastic ways in which humans experience the passage of time.
He notes that the young girl doing acrobatics on the horse
"is at that enviable moment in life when she believes she
can go once around the ring, make one complete circuit, and
at the end be exactly the same age as at the start... The
girl wasn't so young that she did not know the delicious
satisfaction of haing a perfectly behaved body and the fun
of using it to do a trick most people can't do, but she was
too young to know that time does not really move in a circle
at all.
"I thought, 'She will never be as beautiful as this
again,'--a thought that made me acutely unhappy--and in a
flash my mind (which is too much of a busybody to suit me)
had projected her twenty-five years ahead, and she was now
in the center of the ring, on foot, wearing a conical hat
and high-heeled shoes, the image of the older woman holding
the long rein, caught in the treadmill of an afternoon long
in the future."
Many, many other memorable lines in this piece, I think.
As hard as it hit me when I first read it, it continues to
resonate even more as mortality lines up its players against
mine each day with an increasingly formidable defense...
Dale, caught in the treadmill of an afternoon in Ala.,
enjoying the White thread (white thread...get it? :)
=============== Reply 49 of Note 45 =================
To: KDEX08B RUTH BAVETTA Date: 04/24
From: DHGK37A ERNEST BELDEN Time: 8:50 PM
Ruth, I like your term preachifying. Never heard it before
but have been preached to by many. I also agreed with
White's political views and was equally bored by them. I
kept on wondering why I enjoyed the non-poltical stuff,
based on his observations and experiences. He came alive so
to speak. It is not at all surprising that he had a fine
marriage. Look at the type of guy he was, a fine, gentle,
observing person and yes there is an element of love when he
describes lakes, coons, etc. Ernie
=============== Reply 50 of Note 45 =================
To: DHGK37A ERNEST BELDEN Date: 04/24
From: YHJK89A CATHERINE HILL Time: 10:28 PM
Steve, so noted. Felix, you're right about the hot bunks.
I learned it in the course of business; our engineers had to
inspect some to see they didn't get TOO hot at the wrong
times. (There was one embarrassing case of a couple who got
out of a fire without their clothes.) Our auditors told us
some of these places were leasing each room at least three
or so times a day. Some of the outlying towns have a
standard rate of $50 for four hours.
Even down here, we've gotten a little more sophisticated
than asking the cab driver where to find a chihuahua, but
that was the standard procedure at one time - phone up for a
chihuahua. Now I'm grown, the chinchilla business in the
smallish brick building (still there) at the edge of the
motor court (now converted, I think) seems a little fishy,
but it was probably another kind of scam they had going.
Sara, honestly the first thing I thought about the idea of
accidentally giving birth to a mouse was "It would be so
much cheaper!!!" Of course, I've never understood why the
nurse became frightened and dropped the infant Pan so that
Mercury had to snatch him up. I think a baby Pan would be
cute. You wouldn't know whether to diaper it or give it a
litter pan (awk!!), but I can't see being scared of it.
I'm somewhat farther along with the White, and I have
noted in political matters and even in matters of technology
how dated it is. All in all, it reflects a gentler world,
though it didn't seem so gentle when I lived in it. Compare
his radio announcers with today's television antics!! I
liked the bits about the coons, too and can add
authoritatively that a coon will peacefully amble off if
slapped on the nose by a quite small feline kitten.
Cathy
=============== Reply 51 of Note 45 =================
To: MXDD10A DALE SHORT Date: 04/25
From: SEZG73A STEVE WARBASSE Time: 10:29 AM
I couldn't agree more with you about the essay "Ring
of Time," Dale. There are two masterpieces in there (I am
at my office desk and don't have the book immediately
available). "Ring of Time" is one of them. The other one,
in my estimation, is "Once More to the Lake." And in both
cases mortality is the theme.
It is ironic, I think, that to the extent that E.B.
White makes it into English and literature courses in
educational institutions, it is with one or both of these.
Yet, how can a young person possibly hope to appreciate the
real depth of either? A certain age is required to get the
full effect of them. It is not necessarily an entirely
pleasant effect either, but his meaning and his state of
mind comes through to us as if we are directly wired into
his head. The commonality of human experience is an
interesting, interesting thing, most particularly when
someone like E.B. White has the ability to exploit it with
language.
Steve 4/25/97 9:21AM CT
=============== Reply 52 of Note 45 =================
To: SEZG73A STEVE WARBASSE Date: 04/25
From: MXDD10A DALE SHORT Time: 4:03 PM
Steve: Goodness, I'd forgotten what a gorgeous piece of work
White's "Once More to the Lake" is, until rereading it just
now upon your mention. Down to the beautiful and terrifying
last line, that grips me...well, exactly in the place that
line's talking about.
So many great descriptions along the way, like the "school
of minnows that swam by, each minnow with its small
individual shadow, doubling the attendance, so clear and
sharp in the sunlight."
And how many writers could turn out a paragraph like this
one, seemingly without breaking a sweat:
***
We went fishing the first morning. I felt the same damp
moss covering the worms in the bait can, and saw the
dragonfly alight on the tip of my rod as it hovered a few
inches from the surface of the water. It was the arrival of
this fly that convinced me beyond any doubt that everything
was as it always had been, that the years were a mirage and
that there had been no years. The small waves were the same,
chucking the rowboat under the chin as we fished at anchor,
and the boat was the same boat, the same color green and the
ribs broken in the same places, and under the floorboards
the same fresh-water leavings and debris--the dead
helgramite, the wisps of moss, the rusty discarded fishook,
the dried blood from yesterday's catch. We stared silently
at the tips of our rods, at the dragonflies that came and
went. I lowered the tip of mine into the water, tentatively,
pensively dislodging the fly, which darted two feet away,
poised, darted two feet back, and came to rest again a
little farther up the rod. There had been no years between
the ducking of this dragonfly and the other one--the one
that was part of memory. I looked at the boy, who was
silently watching his fly, and it was my hands that held his
rod, my eyes watching. I felt dizzy and didn't know which
rod I was at the end of...
***
I agree with whatever reviewer at the Washington Post says
on the jacket of my copy, "Some of the finest examples of
contemporary, genuine American prose. White's style
incorporates eloquence without affectation, profundity
without pomposity, and wit without frivolity or hostility.
Like his predecessors Thoreau and Twain, White's creative,
humane and graceful perceptions are an education for the
sensibilities."
A worthy goal, I think.
Dale in Ala.
=============== Reply 53 of Note 45 =================
To: KWWP63A SARA SAUERS Date: 04/25
From: MXDD10A DALE SHORT Time: 4:04 PM
Divina: Never doubt that I have each word the Consigliere
has posted here engraved on the tablets of my heart,
especially his words of wisdom regarding the fairer sex.
It's the tablets of my *brain* where things get a little
sketchy, though, so I hope you'll pardon an occasional
lapse.
But the big question remains: Who's the better baseball
writer, Roger Angell or Roger Kahn? I've flipflopped on this
over the years, but mostly have converted to Kahn, I think.
Opinions, anybody?
CBJ, putting iodine on his heart engravings
=============== Reply 54 of Note 45 =================
To: MXDD10A DALE SHORT Date: 04/25
From: WSRF10B SHERRY KELLER Time: 4:10 PM
Dale,
All that portion needs are line breaks and it would be
poetry. Oops, better not get started.
Sherry
=============== Reply 55 of Note 45 =================
To: MXDD10A DALE SHORT Date: 04/25
From: KDEX08B RUTH BAVETTA Time: 6:22 PM
Dale, that paragraph you quoted is so beautiful. Clean, and
clear as the water he writes of. I said this earlier in
this thread, but it's a good example of William Carlos
Williams said, "No ideas but in things." That whole
paragraph is a graceful, gliding description of things, the
water, the boat, the minnows, etc. Then all he does is
sprinkle on a little salt of human understanding... Jeeze,
he makes writing seem so simple, like a Matisse drawing with
a few elegant lines.
Ruth
=============== Reply 56 of Note 45 =================
To: WSRF10B SHERRY KELLER Date: 04/25
From: QFKA95A HELEN FINNIGAN Time: 7:35 PM
"Delete to strengthen" -- what perfectly worded advice.
Who was it who said, "If I had more time I would have
written a shorter letter?"
=============== Reply 57 of Note 45 =================
To: QFKA95A HELEN FINNIGAN Date: 04/25
From: WSRF10B SHERRY KELLER Time: 8:22 PM
"Delete to strengthen" was the warcry of Ms. Emily
Reminschneider, my blue-haired tiny, mean as a cuss 12th
grade English teacher. Do they make that kind any more?
Sherry
=============== Reply 58 of Note 45 =================
To: WSRF10B SHERRY KELLER Date: 04/25
From: KDEX08B RUTH BAVETTA Time: 8:37 PM
They didn't make that kind at Canoga Park HS in the early
fifties. My 12th grade English teacher was evidently bowled
over his bootsies by finding someone (me) who could use
sixty-dollar words and complicated sentences. That profuse
flowering of syntax and gobbledeeism I wrote didn't get
chopped off at the ankles until I got to college.
Ruth, in California, gloriously sunny, warm and windless
(the weather, that is)
=============== Reply 59 of Note 45 =================
To: KWWP63A SARA SAUERS Date: 04/26
From: VRCH78A ALLEN CROCKER Time: 0:12 AM
Sara, your description of STUART LITTLE mirrors the
reaction I had to the story, many years ago. Though I've
never read the book, when I was ten or thereabouts I saw
part of a televised live-action dramatization (I recall
a race of model sailboats in Central Park), and I
distinctly remember finding the rather bizarre premise to
be more than a little disquieting. (Considering how small
a newborn mouse is, you have to wonder how that poor woman
even knew she was pregnant. On the plus side, she must have
had a fairly easy time of it in labor.)
I wish I could put my hand on the column I read in a
newspaper or magazine a few years ago, in which the author
imagined Stuart's human siblings reacting to the miraculous
event: "Gee, I dunno....it looks kind of like a rat."
Just wanted you to know you weren't the only one
weirded out by the idea!
Allen
=============== Reply 60 of Note 45 =================
To: ZRPD32A RICHARD HAGGART Date: 04/26
From: VRCH78A ALLEN CROCKER Time: 0:13 AM
Like many of you here, I also had mixed reactions to
the ESSAYS OF E.B. WHITE. Do you suppose that the essays
in the section "The Planet" have aged so poorly because
they deal largely with dead issues, or is it just that
this kind of writing wasn't EBW's strong suit. (I suspect
it's mostly a case of the former exacerbated by the
latter.) Unlike most of you, I felt the pieces centered on
his place in Maine to be, on the whole, quite tedious, for
reasons I could go into in some detail but which I'll let
pass. Suffice it to say that it seemed to me that the
essays in "The Farm" had about as much to do with life in
New England as a Norman Rockwell painting ever had to do
with life in the United States.
In general, I found that when he's dealing with a sub-
ject with some intrinsic interest for me, he can hold my
attention, and when he isn't, he can't. My favorite of all
the essays was "The Years of Wonder", just for the story
it tells; the gritty details he supplies of his time as a
mess boy among the ship's fireman were quite a refeshing
contrast to his droning on about raccoons and geese.
"Once More to the Lake" is another high point, partly for
some very similar memories of my own it brings back. It
contains my favorite moment of the book, where EBW has that
epiphany where he suddenly sees himself as his own father
and as himself at his son's age. This must be something
countless parents have experienced, but I've never seen
it captured so delicately and tellingly as White does here.
The most delightful surprise was the last essay in the
book, "Dr. Forbush's Friends." I was amazed to find this
piece about BIRDS OF MASSACHUSETTS, which I've been meaning
to use as the basis for a thread for a couple of years
(sic) now. White does a better job of encapsulating the
qualities of Edward Howe Forbush's magnum opus than I ever
could, but since I only intended to use Forbush as a bridge
to something else anyway, I've posted that long-delayed
note by itself under heading UNEXPECTED PLEASURES IN
READING.
Overall, I guess my reaction was about 75% positive --
not so much that much that I'm immediately going to be
looking for more of White's work, but enough to convince
me that he's worth further attention at some later date.
Many thanks, therefore, to Ruth for commending this
collection to our attention.
Allen
=============== Reply 61 of Note 45 =================
To: KDEX08B RUTH BAVETTA Date: 04/26
From: YHJK89A CATHERINE HILL Time: 0:17 AM
I'll get some more scoop on the Model T's later; Daddy was
remembering the little wire and ring device that allowed you
to choke the thing while you were cranking. Larry recently
reminded me of the family Model A story, though, which is
worth a tell.
In the spring of 1939, the Isaac Litton junior/senior
picnic was at a state park in nearby Clarksville, accessible
by tolerably dangerous 2 lane highway. On such occasions,
Mama usually drove her family's Model A, but she was double
dating with Daddy and HIS girlfriend and riding with them in
his 60 hp '38 Ford. To allow my aunt to go, their father
kindly allowed her date, a longtime family friend, to drive
the Model A. Each car had two couples.
Naturally, the two cars wound up racing. Daddy was
extremely irritated at his father's choice of vehicle,
reputed in the vernacular to be unable to drag a certain
limp organ out of the mud. He couldn't do more than 70 on
the straight, and the Model A was beating him.
My aunt's date had actually pulled out to pass when a car
appeared from the other direction. Daddy immediately fell
back, expecting to have to pick kids up off the road. Young
O'Mara kept his head, though, after a fashion. He took that
Model A THROUGH A CORNFIELD, apparently at about 70 mph.
This really blew my mind. That would tear the undercarriage
out of most vehicles, but apparently the Model A suffered no
damage my grandfather could see. I don't imagine either
grandfather ever learned the truth about that race -
certainly I hope not.
Cathy
=============== Reply 62 of Note 45 =================
To: YHJK89A CATHERINE HILL Date: 04/26
From: KDEX08B RUTH BAVETTA Time: 1:20 AM
Cathy, my parents drove a Model A until 1950. I'm sure it
couldn't have gone 70 miles an hour to save its little tin
heart. That must have been some souped up job in your
story.
Ruth, with fond memories of that ah-ooooooga
=============== Reply 63 of Note 45 =================
To: MXDD10A DALE SHORT Date: 04/26
From: SEZG73A STEVE WARBASSE Time: 10:24 AM
Roger Kahn or Roger Angell, Dale? This is a dead heat
if there ever was one. As I mentioned here long ago, I
really do believe THE BOYS OF SUMMER, Kahn's book about the
old Brooklyn Dodgers is a masterpiece. On the other hand
its been a long time since I missed one of Angell's
baseball articles in THE NEW YORKER. These are
periodically collected in anthologies and published in book
form, as I'm sure you know. There was one particular
piece that sticks in my mind. I think it is in the
anthology titled THE LONG SEASON, or something like that
(it's at the farm). It is an article about a Pittsburg
Pirate pitcher of some reknown, whose name escapes me.
Perhaps Allen will recognize who I am talking about. In
any event this pitcher suddenly and inexplicably lost his
control--and I mean really lost his control. Here was a
pitcher who had made it to the big leagues with a
reputation for perfect control of his pitches, and all of
the sudden he was throwing them ten feet over the catcher's
head and into the screen--routinely. Bizarre. Never
regained his control, and was quite soon out of baseball.
Angell did a brilliant article on this sad phenomenon. He
had interviewed this pitcher, his coaches, his friends, his
family--everyone close to him, all of whom were heartbroken
and frustrated and mystified as to what happened. It was a
brilliant article, a psychological piece pondering the
cruelty of the fates. And all in the context of baseball.
Both George Will and David Halberstam (THE BEST AND THE
BRIGHTEST) write some pretty mean baseball stuff, but they
are not in the same league and Kahn and Angell.
Steve 4/26/97 9:22AM CT
=============== Reply 64 of Note 45 =================
To: SEZG73A STEVE WARBASSE Date: 04/26
From: SEZG73A STEVE WARBASSE Time: 10:37 AM
That pitcher's name was Steve Blass, who in 1972
pitched 250 innings, won 19 and lost 8 with a 2.49 ERA. In
1971 he had pitched 240 innings, won 15 and lost 8 with a
2.85 ERA.
Then in 1973 he pitched 89 innings, won 3 and lost 9
with a 9.85 ERA. In 1974 he appea============== Note 4
five innings that resulted in an ERA of 9.00--and was gone
forever.
Steve 4/26/97 9:39AM CT
=============== Reply 65 of Note 45 =================
To: MXDD10A DALE SHORT Date: 04/26
From: SEZG73A STEVE WARBASSE Time: 9:56 PM
In rereading my earlier note, Dale, it occurred to me
that I should make clear that THE BEST AND THE BRIGHTEST is
not a baseball book.
Steve 4/26/97 8:55PM CT
|
E.B. White
|
