reading (Mencken & Sara)

I started "Mencken & Sara: A Life in Letters" on the train headed down to Florida and finished it on the 1st. The beginning of the book contains an extensive introduction which summarizes the lives of H. L. Mencken and Sara Haardt. I found the introduction to be informative since I was unfamiliar with their history. It did go on a little long and get into quite a bit of detail, but it was worthwhile. The letters where fun and easy to read.

There are footnotes at the bottom of many of the letters explaining who or what was being referred to. I found these very helpful and overall they enhanced the experience. Except when they were missing! Yes, periodically, especially in the second half of the book there would be a little one or two and not small print down at the bottom corresponding to the one or two. Obviously the softcover edition I have was not proofed as carefully as it could have been.

The story of H. L. Mencken and Sara Haardt is a wonderful romance, a tragedy, and a comedy all mixed up together. Reading their letters lets you see some of the affection and the humor that they shared. The tragedy is that at a time Mencken should have been slipping out of the limelight to spend time with his wife, he was slipping out of the limelight because of waning popularity and burying his wife.

1. "Mencken & Sara: A Life in Letters" edited by Marion Elizabeth Rodgers

ETA: I found it particularly interesting to see how Mencken wrote when criticizing Sara's work (he as an editor, she as an author). The way he manages to keep a business voice separate from the personal voice was interesting. Authors and beta readers might be well served to read the letters just to understand and internalize that separation.

reading (The Man Upstairs)

I finished reading P. G. Wodehouse's "The Man Upstairs" on the train yesterday or was it night before last, they kind of blended in together. Anyway, I had originally started reading this collection of short stories when I was in Connecticut on business, but had set it aside and forgotten about it. This isn't the strongest of Wodehouse's short story collections. Many of the stories seem uninspired. Many of Wodehouse's stories follow the same line, but generally his phrasing is so perfect it doesn't matter. In these stories the characters are less inspired than usual, the plots are flatter than usual, and the phrasing just can't carry the whole show. They weren't all clunkers and even a Wodehouse clunker beats most writers, but you might be better off rereading one of the other Wodehouse collections rather than picking up this one.

2. P. G. Wodehouse "The Man Upstairs"

reading (In Defense of Women)

I finished reading H. L. Mencken's "In Defense of Women" on the train on the way north yesterday. It's really mis-titled. Mencken was a true stirrer of mud, he wrote things that would piss people off. In this book he takes swipes at almost everyone. Men, politicians, suffragettes, and modern Christians take the brunt of the criticism, but don't worry, ordinary women get a fair share of insults. He mixes in sharp social criticism with flawed logic and off the cuff assumptions which take a lot of the sting out of his basic criticism.

It's really tough for me to sort out where Mencken is being sincere and where he's propping up a rather silly looking straw man. The attitudes today are so much different than they were at the time of the writing, that even the most progressive sounding passages are tainted with language that today would get an author strung up with a rope made of used pantyhose. There was one chapter that I thought might still fly today, maybe.

Are there things in here that are sage and true? Yes. But Mr. Mencken was a product of his time and this makes him look like a hick in ours. There are a lot of cringe worthy assumptions that you have to get through to see any progressive thought.

3. H. L. Mencken "In Defense of Women"

happy blue beard

As you may have noticed, we're back from vacation. Had a nice visit with a goodly proportion of my family. On the unfortunate side, my brother-in-law has a tumor in his kidney (severity yet to be determined) and lesions on his liver (origin and severity yet to be determined). He went in for more tests the day we left. I haven't heard the results yet.

Florida was warm and sunny and typical Florida. Every now and then I'm tempted by the thought of enduring warmth, my body deals less and less well with the cold. Then I realize what an awful place it is in so many ways and suddenly the cold isn't so bad anymore.

Tomorrow it's back to work. Like clockwork, dreaming about work came back as soon as I got back to Maine. Really subconscious, I don't get paid to be there in my dreams, cut it out.

No firm New Year's resolutions. I do feel I was rather poor about communicating with friends and relatives this year and I have the intention of doing better this year. So some of you may actually hear from me this year. If that is something that thrills and excites you let me know and I'll move you toward the top of the list. If it disgusts and terrifies you let me know and I'll move you to the bottom of the list where you'll be safe.

I had a big long thing running in my head about friendship and attraction, but the allergy meds I took over an hour ago are kicking in big time and coherent sentences are rapidly becoming untenable. Goodnight.