Names have values embodied in them. They carry baggage.

(John Sutherland, Who betrays Elizabeth Bennet?, 1999)

Curiosities of Literature by John Sutherland is a feast for book and fact lovers. Here’s a few Who knews? I have handpicked for you:

• Bovril was named from the word vril used by Bulwer-Lytton in his pioneer sci-fi text The Coming Race
• There is a strong connection between asthma and genius
• Ian Fleming has a gold plated Royal typewriter
• The first writer to attract publicity  for writing using a computer was Desmond Bagley in the 70s. General ignorance was such that some people thought the computer wrote the books. Too much watching of 2001 perhaps.
• The worst novelist ever might well be Amanda McKittrick Ros. Her novels were vanity published, with a bit of a alliteration fetish (novels included Delina Delaney and Helen Huddleston) and her books of poetry delightfully titled Fumes of Formation and Poems of Puncture.
• A Void (La Disparition) – Georges Perec wrote this 300 page ‘thriller’ without once using the letter ‘e’.  As Sutherland says, Well done Gorgs Prc.
• Alexandre Dumas – drank up to 40 cups of super strength coffee a day. When that wasn’t enough he would eat coffee grounds raw.
• The most popular novel in the American Civil War was Les Miserables by Victor Hugo.

John Sutherland, assisted for a time by his wife Susan, entertained an attentive, appreciative audience at the Tin Hut last night. John and Susan walk that musical line where folk, Blues and country meet and share a common ancestry. Their acoustic set featured the songs of Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly, and Eva Cassidy, among others, but all were treated with equal respect and had the feeling of “tradition”, for want of a better word, running through them.

It was a relaxed, very enjoyable evening and, hopefully, won’t be the last we see of these two.

Jasper is not a reassuring name, and from its overtones alone I deduce that John Jasper did indeed murder Edwin Drood. It could, however, be a case of ‘give a dog a bad name and hang him’.

(John Sutherland, Who betrays Elizabeth Bennet? 1999)

‘Fred’ … seems to bring with it associations of weakness: as in Fred Vincy (Middlemarch) and Fred Neville (An eye for an eye), two of the weakest-kneed heroes found in the novel of the period.

(John Sutherland, Who betrays Elizabeth Bennet?, 1999)

Someone sent me a link to this political blog after noticing who produced the vintage political cartoon posted there:

I never knew Harding College produced cartoons!

Anyway, with government involvement in various industries today, and with all the current discussion on conservative talk radio about communism and socialism being forced on America, this cartoon is making the rounds again.

John Humphrys, respected journalist and host of BBC Radio 4’s Today programme found himself verbally scrambling twice this week.

Those of us who appreciated his timely and humourous book, ‘Lost for Words’, certainly felt for him.

First of all on Thursday Humphrys, in an interview with a Conservative MP was surprised to be asked, on air, how much he earned. He didn’t oblige. The Times said he ‘stuttered’. Fair enough.

Then on Friday, he was again struggling to find the right one when he let slip a swear word on air.

Although he apologised for it, he also, with the apology, exonerated himself on two counts:

Firstly, by claiming it was a simple error (mistakenly using one consonant instead of another. No, seriously! According to the Telegraph he said, ‘it came out slightly differently and had a ‘b’ at the front instead of an ‘r’), and secondly by bringing star witness, Professor of English Literature (University College London), John Sutherland to give evidence that the mistakenly pronounced word was nevertheless ‘entirely innocent.’

Has this particular ‘swear word’ therefore officially passed into general ‘innocent’ usage? Also, as with many of these public apologies, do the words ‘an apology’ mean anything beyond the suggestion of moral weakness in those who feel they may require one?

One of the most surprising assertions in ‘Lost for Words’ is that journalists themselves are the ‘guardians’ of language. I must admit, although I greatly enjoyed the book, and have recommended it, I did laugh then. I had wondered what the poets, novelists, playwrights, preachers and English professors might think of that.

His appeal to a Professor of English in this instance may reveal that he is no longer as certain, and that we can breathe a sigh of relief that journalists are not our linguistic guardians after all.

The moral of this story for anyone regularly involved in public speaking is surely the statement in the Book of Proverbs 10:19 ‘When there are many words, transgression is unavoidable, but he who restrains his lips is wise.’

I am not suggesting that Humphreys acknowledged transgression is so serious, but simply that even the most experienced communicators get lost for words, get tangled in linguistic gymnastics(!).

The funniest instance of this I ever heard was from Simon Pettit, a minister, who, when conducting a wedding gave out this mind-boggling spoonerism: ‘We are here today to witness Gareth and Nadine being joyfully loined in holy matrimony!’ The congregation tried, but could not repress their laughter for long until Simon was forced to ask, ‘Why are they laughing?’

Being lost for words can produce embarrassed silence, an outburst of laughter or the need for a humble apology all in one week, one day, even in one conversation! Maybe we shouldn’t be too hard on good Mr. Humphrys after all.

A review of Humphrys’ ‘Lost for Words’ can be read here
You can also purchase ‘Lost for Words’ here

© 2009 Lex Loizides

by Greg Mayer

A paper in this week’s Nature (abstract only; here’s a NY Times piece on it) reports fascinating and important work on prebiotic synthesis of the building blocks of RNA by Matthew Powner and colleagues at the University of Manchester.

Building on an idea that can be traced back to Darwin’s notion of a “warm little pond“, chemists have sought for the origins of life in the chemistry of simple molecules– water, ammonia, methane, etc.– in an early Earth environment. Much progress has been made. It was found that lipids spontaneously aggregate into cell-like bilayers, that organic compounds are found in meteorites left over from the early history of the solar system, and, in a type of now classic experiment first conducted by Stanley Miller and Harold Urey, that quite a variety of organic compounds, including a number of biologically important ones, could be generated from these simple molecules under hypothesized early Earth conditions.  Despite this progress, much remained to be understood.  In particular, most life worked with DNA as the information-containing molecule, proteins as the work-horse molecules catalyzing chemical reactions, and RNA as a medium for transferring the information from the DNA to the proteins. But DNA needed proteins for its information to be expressed, and proteins needed the information from DNA to be produced– which came first?

In the 1980s, Thomas Cech and Sidney Altman indpendently discovered what seems to be the answer (or at least part of it): RNA cannot only carry information, it can also catalyze chemical reactions: it can perform the job of both DNA and proteins!  Prior to the modern DNA-RNA-protein scheme, there was a living world of RNA alone, the so-called (by Wally Gilbert) “RNA World”.  This was a major observational and conceptual step in our understanding.  The prebiotic origin of RNA thus became a major problem.  That’s where Powner et al. come in.

RNA, like DNA, is composed of many repeating units which come in four varieties (the sequence of the four types is how the information is stored), and in RNA these units are called ribonucleotides. Each of the repeating units is composed of a sugar, a nitrogenous base, and a phosphate group. For many years, attempts to find a synthetic pathway to ribonucleotides from simpler precursors were, at best, incomplete.  These attempts tried to assemble the three components, but could not join the sugar with the base.  What Powner et al. have done is cut this Gordian knot, and arrived at a synthesis from simpler precursors that proceeds via intermediate molecules which are neither sugars nor bases (2-amino-oxazole, then arabinose amino-oxazoline, to be precise).  Under plausible conditions of pH, temperature, etc., a high yield of ribonucleotides can be had.

There are still many steps in the origin of life that need to be understood– polymerizing the ribonucleotides into a proper RNA molecule, for starters– but this is undeniably a key finding.  Some hypothesize that even simpler information/catalytic molecules– the “Pre-RNA World”– preceded RNA; only future work will tell. John Sutherland, one of Powner’s coauthors, and in whose lab the work was done, worked on the problem for twelve years before he found the solution.  What if he had given up after ten? Could we have concluded that no synthesis was possible? No. This work demonstrates the futility of all the various sorts of arguments– the argument from design, the God of the gaps, the argument from personal incredulity– that rely on ignorance as their chief premise.

Scientists closer to finding origins of life is the title of an article in today’s NZHerald (dated 15 May 2009). Looks like they are getting really close now, considering how confident they are.

“Scientists have developed an experiment which demonstrates how the very first life may have formed about four billion years ago.”

Wow; what is this about?

“Dr Sutherland believes that he has shown how it was possible to make all the building blocks of RNA from the simple chemicals that would have existed on Earth four billion years ago.”

Amazing! Let’s read on:

“”We haven’t yet made the RNA molecule itself but we’ve made two of the four sub-units or building blocks. It suggests that making the molecule is possible,” he said.”

(Oops!)

The RNA World hypothesis just got a big boost.

This article at the NY Times is reporting that two of the four building blocks of RNA have been synthesized more or less “from scratch” in a “primordial soup” similar to what was thought to exist on earth before life began by a team of scientists led by organic chemist John Sutherland.

This problem has been a real brain-breaker over the last 20 years. Getting “half way there” was seemingly understood. There was a plausible mechanism for getting the three components of an RNA nucleotide: a base, a sugar, and a phosphate group. But figuring out how these three could be combined to form an RNA nucleotide proved to be elusive. Turns out there’s another route. Instead of constructing these three parts of the nucleotide and then attempting to combine them:

They make a half-sugar/half-base (11), add another half-sugar (12) and then a half-base to make an intermediate (13) that easily becomes ribo-cytidine phosphate.

Ultra-violet light converts ribocytidine to the uracil-containing nucleotide.

Two down, two to go.

This hypothesis is not without dissent, and I don’t mean the typical creationist variaty of dissent.

From Chemistry World (of the Royal Society of Chemistry)
this story entitled “Insight into RNA origins”

However, Robert Shapiro, professor emeritus of chemistry at New York University disagrees. ‘Although as an exercise in chemistry this represents some very elegant work, this has nothing to do with the origin of life on earth whatsoever,’ he says. According to Shapiro, it is hard to imagine RNA forming in a prebiotic world along the lines of Sutherland’s synthesis.

‘The chances that blind, undirected, inanimate chemistry would go out of its way in multiple steps and use of reagents in just the right sequence to form RNA is highly unlikely,’ argues Shapiro. Instead, he advocates the metabolism-first argument: that early self-sustaining autocatalytic chemosynthetic systems associated with amino acids predated RNA.

Carl Zimmer does a great job of explaining it on his blog, “The Loom” The comments and bibliography there are worth checking out as well.

I probably should have linked to Carl Zimmer’s entry first, rather than to the NY times, as Carl seems to have been onto this story before the research was even completed.

Via Carl Zimmer’s blog, here is the link to the abstract, Synthesis of activated pyrimidine ribonucleotides in prebiotically plausible conditions, in Nature.

Note: I myself know Jack Squat about organic chemistry, so don’t take my word for it.

The Jane Austen book sleuth is happy to inform Janeites that many Austen inspired books are heading our way in April, so keep your eyes open for these new titles. 

Nonfiction 

Jane’s Fame: How Jane Austen Conquered the World, by Claire Harman 

This highly anticipated cultural biography of Jane Austen’s rise to fame and admiration by the masses has already raised an academic kerfuffle before it has even hit book stores. *ahem* It is on the top of my to be read pile, and I can not wait to dive in. Publisher’s description: This is a story of personal struggle, family intrigue, accident, advocacy and sometimes surprising neglect as well as a history of changing public tastes and critical practices. Starting with Austen’s own experience as a beginning author (and addressing her difficulties getting published and her determination to succeed), Harman unfolds the history of how her estate was handled by her brother, sister, nieces and nephews, and goes on to explore the eruption of public interest in Austen in the last two decades of the nineteenth century, the making of her into a classic English author in the twentieth century, the critical wars that erupted as a result and, lastly, her powerful influence on contemporary phenomena such as chick-lit, romantic comedy, the heritage industry and film. Part biography and part cultural history, this book does not just tell a fascinating story – it is essential reading for anyone interested in Austen’s life, works and remarkably potent fame. Here is my previous preview post about it. 

Canongate Books Ltd, Hardcover, ISBN: 978-1847672940 

Literature and Dance in Nineteenth-Century Britain: Jane Austen to the New Woman, by Cheryl A. Wilson 

We all know that Henry Tilney considers “a country-dance as an emblem of marriage. Fidelity and complaisance are the principal duties of both; and those men who do not choose to dance or marry themselves, have no business with the partners or wives of their neighbours.” Enuff said. Jane Austen loved dancing herself and included many scenes in her novels with characters engaged in this important social communion. If one understands the dance and its significance in 18th and 19th century society, then you are in a fair way to understanding love. From the publishers website: Literary critics often pursue analyses of music or painting and literature as ’sister arts’, yet this is the first full-length study of the treatment of social dance in literature. A vital part of social life and courtship with its own symbolism, dance in the nineteenth century was a natural point of interest for novelists writing about these topics; and indeed ballroom scenes could themselves be used to further courtship narratives or illustrate other significant encounters. Including analyses of works by Jane Austen, W. M. Thackeray, George Eliot, and Anthony Trollope, as well as extensive material from nineteenth-century dance manuals, Cheryl A. Wilson shows how dance provided a vehicle through which writers could convey social commentary and cultural critique on issues such as gender, social mobility, and nationalism. 

Cambridge University Press, Hardcover, ISBN: 978-0521519090 

Jane Austen: An Unrequited Love, by Dr. Andrew Norman 

Well, this shall certainly raise a few eyebrows! Dr. Andrew Norman has conducted a bit of Austen romance sleuthing. Touted as “The first book to reveal the identity of the mystery lover Jane Austen met in Devon in 1802,” we have read an excerpt that did not reveal who it is, but it looked promising, at least in the light of a good mystery. From the publishers website: Jane Austen is regarded as one of the greatest novelists in the English literary canon, and recent film and television adaptations of her works have brought them to a new audience almost two hundred years after her untimely death. Yet much remains unknown about her life, and there is considerable interest in the romantic history of the creator of Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy. Andrew Norman here presents a new account of her life, breaking new ground by proposing that she and her sister, Cassandra, fell out over a young clergyman, who he identities for the first time. He also suggests that, along with the Addison’s Disease that killed her, Jane Austen suffered from TB. Written by a consummate biographer, Jane Austen: an Unrequited Love is a must-read for all lovers of the author and her works. 

Hardcover, The History Press, ISBN: 978-0752448749 

Jane Austen’s Narrative Techniques: A Stylistic and Pragmatic Analysis, by Massimiliano Morini 

It is a truth universally acknowledge that Jane Austen can put a sentence together like no other, so if you are curious how she does it so eloquently, you might enjoy this scholarly treatise that delves into the linguistic and narrative techniques of her style. For serious scholars, we are quite certain that linguistics Prof Henry Higgins Churchyard, creator of the Jane Austen Information Page will be enthralled. From the publishers website: Examining a wide range of Austen texts, from her unpublished works through masterpieces like Mansfield Park and Emma, Morini discusses familiar Austen themes, using linguistic means to shed fresh light on the question of point of view in Austen and on Austen’s much-admired brilliance in creating lively and plausible dialogue. Accessibly written and informed by the latest work in linguistic and literary studies, Jane Austen’s Narrative Techniques offers Austen specialists a new avenue for understanding her narrative techniques and serves as a case study for scholars and students of pragmatics and applied linguistics. 

Ashgate Publishing, Hardcover, ISBN: 978-0754666073 

Fiction (prequels, sequels, retellings, variations, or Regency inspired) 

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, by Jane Austen & Seth Grahame-Smith 

The Internet frenzy that the announcement of this novel created may have been a huge surprise to us all, including its author and publisher, but it has caught the imagination of the public, who must be hungry for this kind of fare. Get ready to experience Pride and Prejudice as you have never read it before, resplendent with bone crunching zombie mayhem and ninja warriors. Oh dear. We all know that Elizabeth Bennet does not mind a bit of mud on her petticoat, but blood and brain matter might be a bit too much for propriety to bear.  Read my previous preview post here. Publisher’s description: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies features the original text of Jane Austen’s beloved novel with all-new scenes of bone-crunching zombie action. As our story opens a mysterious plague has fallen upon the quiet English village of Meryton and the dead are returning to life! Feisty heroine Elizabeth Bennet is determined to wipe out the zombie menace but she’s soon distracted by the arrival of the haughty and arrogant Mr. Darcy. What ensues is a delightful comedy of manners with plenty of civilized sparring between the two young lovers and even more violent sparring on the blood-soaked battlefield as Elizabeth wages war against hordes of flesh-eating undead. Complete with 20 illustrations, this insanely funny expanded edition will introduce Jane Austen’s classic novel to new legions of fans. 

Quirk Books, Trade paperback, ISBN: 978-1594743344 

Pemberley Manor: Darcy and Elizabeth, for better or for worse, by Kathryn L. Nelson 

In this new continuation of Pride and Prejudice after the nuptials, we are given an intimate view of Darcy and Lizzy as newlyweds at Pemberley, and a haunting discovery of skeletons in the closet. Read my review here. Publisher’s description: How does “happily ever after” really work? As marriage brings an end to a romantic tale, it begins a new story: how does “happily ever after” really work? While Jane Bennet and Charles Bingley might be expected to get on famously, Mr. and Mrs. Darcy will surely need to work on their communication skills. What forces in Darcy’s past would give such a good man so difficult a public demeanor? The author posits an imaginative family background for Darcy from which he would have inherited his sense of social superiority and duty to the family name. When Darcy reverts to type, will Elizabeth’s stubborn optimism win the day after the honeymoon is over? While they say that opposites attract, how long can Lizzy and Darcy’s fundamentally different personalities get along without friction? Can they learn to understand each other? Can their love prevail over the inevitable clashes? 

Sourcebooks Landmark, Trade paperback, ISBN: 978-1402218521 

The Nonesuch, by Georgette Heyer 

Sourcebooks continues on their quest to re-issue all of Georgette Heyer’s beloved novels with one of her better known Regency era romances. This engaging story presents finding love at any age as we are introduced to the mature Sir Waldo Hawkridge, whose reputation as a ‘Nonesuch’ precedes him. When an inheritance includes a property in Yorkshire, he travels there and meets Tiffany Wield, a spoiled and selfish heiress and her far more appealing older companion, Ancilla Trent. Along for the ride in this Regency era comedy of manners is Sir Waldo’s young cousin, Lord Lindeth, who is a bit of neighborhood Casanova, falling in and out of love on a whim. When Miss Wield’s bad behavior culminates in a flight to London, Miss Trent entreats Sir Waldo’s help to retrieve her wayward charge before her reputation is ruined. He in turn must convince her that it is not above her station as a governess to fall in love with him. 

Sourcebooks, Casablanca, Trade paperback, ISBN: 978-1402217708   

Cotillion (Popular Classics) Naxos Audio Book, by Georgette Heyer, read by Claire Willie 

I am so encouraged that Naxos Audiobooks is venturing into Heyerland with their first audio recording of one of Georgette Heyer’s most beloved novels Cotillion, considered one of the greatest Regency romances of all time. Up until this new recording, Heyer audios could only be obtained through sources in England, at astronomical prices. This abridged audio is read by Clare Willie and contains four CD’s. Hopefully, if it sells well, they will in future bring us additional unabridged versions. Publisher’s description: Young Kitty Charing stands to inherit a vast fortune from her irascible great-uncle Matthew–provided she marries one of her cousins. Kitty is not wholly adverse to the plan, if the right nephew proposes. Unfortunately, Kitty has set her heart on Jack Westruther, a confirmed rake, who seems to have no inclination to marry her anytime soon. In an effort to make Jack jealous, and to see a little more of the world than her isolated life on her great-uncle’s estate has afforded her, Kitty devises a plan. She convinces yet another of her cousins, the honorable Freddy Standen, to pretend to be engaged to her. Her plan would bring her to London on a visit to Freddy’s family and (hopefully) render the elusive Mr. Westruther madly jealous. Thus begins Cotillion, arguably the funniest, most charming of Georgette Heyer’s many delightful Regency romances. 

Naxos Audiobooks, Abridged audio CD’s, ISBN: 978-9626348970 

Austen’s Oeuvre 

Pride and Prejudice (Naxos Young Adult Classics), by Jane Austen, read by Jenny Agutter 

This abridged audio recording of Pride and Prejudice read by English actress Jenny Agutter also includes impressive selection of extras as a great introduction to young students. Publisher’s description: “Pride and Prejudice” is a key title for the new Naxos AudioBooks series “Young Adult Classics”. An abridged recording with music makes this Regency novel much more accessible to the 21st century young adult keen to get to grips with the classics. “Pride and Prejudice” is a leading title for “Young Adult Classics”, being one of the pillars of English Literature, and Jenny Agutter’s friendly reading bridges the gap between the films and the book. This edition includes a bonus CD-ROM which contains the abridged and unabridged texts, and Top Teacher’s Notes by high profile English teacher Francis Gilbert. 

Naxos Audiobooks, Audio CD’s, ISBN: 978-9626349571 

Austen’s Contemporaries  

Samuel Johnson: The Major Works (Oxford World’s Classics) 

Some scholars believe that Samuel Johnson, above all other writers, had the greatest influence on Jane Austen’s writing. Her family declared in later biographies that Johnson was her “favourite author in prose.” This extensive collection of his works tops out at a whopping 880 pages, so if you are inspired to know who influenced Austen the most, I would say it is a must read. Publisher’s description: Samuel Johnson’s literary reputation rests on such a varied output that he defies easy description: poet, critic, lexicographer, travel writer, essayist, editor, and, thanks to his good friend Boswell, the subject of one of the most famous English biographies. This volume celebrates Johnson’s astonishing talent by selecting widely across the full range of his work. It includes “London” and “The Vanity of Human Wishes” among other poems, and many of his essays for the Rambler and Idler. The prefaces to his edition of Shakespeare and his famous Dictionary, together with samples from the texts, are given, as well as selections from A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, the Lives of the Poets, and Rasselas in its entirety. There is also a substantial representation of lesser-known prose, and of his poetry, letters, and journals. 

Oxford University Press, Trade paperback, ISBN: 978-0199538331 

Mary and The Wrongs of Woman (Oxford Worlds Classics) , by Mary Wollstonecraft 

Even though Jane Austen and Mary Wollstonecraft were contemporaries, we have no evidence (that I am aware of) from her letters or family memoirs that she read her works. Scholars like to think she did. I find this a bit amusing. What they do share in common is the belief that women are equal to men in many ways. This edition could shed some light of the possibility of Austen’s subliminal feminist thinking by her characters. Publisher’s description: Mary Wollstonecraft is best known for her pioneering views on the rights of women to share equal rights and opportunities with men. They are expressed here in two novels in which heroines have to rely on their own resources to establish their independence and intellectual development. Strongly autobiographical, both novels powerfully complement Wollstonecraft’s non-fictional writing, inspired by the French Revolution and the social upheavals that followed. New to this edition is a completely rewritten introduction that incorporates the latest scholarship and features a consideration of the social formation of Wollstonecraft as a Revolutionary feminist and her literary-political career, as well as a critical account of the two novels. A new bibliography includes all the latest critical writing on Wollstonecraft, while heavily revised notes link her fiction to her extensive reading, her other writings and major events and issues of the day. In addition, the text has been completely reset, making it easier on the eyes. It is by far the highest quality edition available, and a great choice for readers interested in pre-Victorian literature and feminist history. 

Oxford University Press, Trade paperback, ISBN: 978-0199538904 

Austen Ephemera & Fun 

So You Think You Know Jane Austen?: A Literary Quizbook (Oxford Worlds Classics), by John Sutherland & Deirdre Le Faye 

In this fun and challenging re-issue of the ultimate Jane Austen quiz, Austen authorities Le Faye and Sutherland challenge your Austen knowledge with engaging questions on her life and works brimming facts and trivia. Publisher’s description: How well do you really know your favorite author? In this reissue of the 2005 edition, ace literary detective turned quizmaster John Sutherland and Austen buff Deirdre Le Faye challenge you to find out. Starting with easy, factual questions that test how well you remember a novel and its characters, the quiz progresses to a level of greater difficulty, demanding close reading and interpretative deduction. What really motivates the characters, and what is going on beneath the surface of the story? Designed to amuse and divert, the questions and answers take the reader on an imaginative journey into the world of Jane Austen, where hypothesis and speculation produce fascinating and unexpected insights. The questions are ingenious and fun, and the answers (located in the back of the book), in Sutherland’s inimitable style, are fascinating. Completing the book guarantees a hugely improved knowledge and appreciation of Austen. Whether you are an expert or enthusiast, So You Think You Know Jane Austen? guarantees you will know her much better after reading it. 

Oxford University Press, Trade paperback, 978-0199538997 

Until next month, happy reading! 

Laurel Ann

Copyright kills innovation (via No Rock And Roll Fun). During my masters in 2005, we had a tutorial about digital publishing and one of the texts for the class was this 1999 article by John Sutherland. After some descriptions of sharp practice by academic publishers, Sutherland gets down to the meat of what’s bothering him: the LRB, the TLS and the Guardian have all started republishing his work digitally, without paying a further fee. I don’t remember there being much sympathy for Sutherland among the aspiring young academics in the room. For one thing, I think most of us would have accepted publication on much worse terms than Sutherland was getting, and happily. For another, Sutherland’s distinction between the online and paper versions of a journal seemed absurd: the Guardian is the Guardian, whether it’s published in paper and ink or zeroes and ones. And lastly, I thought at the time of the seminar that there was something rather greedy about expecting to be paid in perpetuity for any piece of work. Sutherland’s final flourish in the article felt unearned:

One has to weigh advantages. The growth of databases and electronic archives is something to be encouraged. On the other hand, it would be unnatural not to feel alarmed at the commercial stranglehold which their creation permits. [...] Freelance authors, as the romantic name for them implies, are less constrained than employees. Subservience is as corrosive in journalism as it is in academic research. Freedoms of thought and expression are at risk. Is this a price worth paying for the new conveniences of knowledge?

As students, the benefits of accessible knowledge were pretty obvious to us; the dangers of John Sutherland feeling “subservient”, not so much. After all, if knowledge isn’t accessible, it doesn’t matter how excellent it is. And as someone now trying to make money from writing, I’m more frustrated by my work being held offline than I am by the idea that there are people reading my words for free: I want to be able to use earlier work to advertise myself for new jobs, and I can’t do that through a convenient website when the publisher owns the copyright. I’m not denying that there’s a case for copyright, but the difference between my feelings and those expressed by Sutherland is that I expect being a writer to involve, you know, writing – rather than ticking along on the royalties from past work.

STEPHEN SPENDER
a centenary conference

Friday 27 February 2009

organised by the Institute of English Studies and the Stephen Spender Memorial Trust

Speakers: John Sutherland, Barbara Hardy, Val Cunningham, Peter McDonald, Mark Rawlinson, Alan Jenkins, Stephen Romer, Mike Scammell

Sir Stephen Spender (1909–1995), poet, translator, literary critic and editor, was born in London and educated at Oxford, where he first became associated with such other outstanding British literary figures as W. H. Auden, Christopher Isherwood, C. Day Lewis and Louis MacNeice. His book The Thirties and After (1979) recalls these figures and others prominent in the arts and politics and his Journals 1939–1983 , published in 1986, are a detailed account of his times and contemporaries. Knighted in 1983 for services to literature, Stephen Spender is the only Briton ever to have held the post of Poetry Consultant to the Library of Congress, as the American equivalent of Poet Laureate was then called.

His passionate and lyrical verse, filled with images of the modern industrial world yet intensely personal, is collected in volumes such as Twenty Poems (1930), The Still Centre (1939), Poems of Dedication (1946), Collected Poems, 1928–1985 (1986) and New Collected Poems (2004). World Within World , Stephen Spender’s autobiography, World Within World, is recognised as one of the most illuminating literary autobiographies to come out of the 1930s and 1940s.

Stephen Spender’s other works include literary and social criticism, short stories, novels and the heavily autobiographical The Temple (set in Germany on the 1930s) as well as translations of the poetry of Lorca, Altolaguerra, Rilke, Hölderlin, Stefan George and Schiller. From 1939 to 1941 he co-edited Horizon magazine with Cyril Connolly and was editor of Encounter magazine from 1953 to 1967.

Stephen Spender’s teaching at American universities during the 1960s was followed by a six-year stint from 1970 in the English department of UCL, when he and Grey Gowrie were appointed to chairs by Frank Kermode, who wanted (in the words of John Sutherland) ‘to reconnect the department with the living world of London letters’. During this time Spender’s passionate concern for the rights of banned and silenced writers to free expression led to his founding Index on Censorship. John Sutherland has written the authorised biography of Stephen Spender, published by Penguin in 2004. The New Collected Journals are scheduled for publication by Faber in late 2009.

Conference papers will explore Stephen Spender’s poetry, fiction and non-fiction, his relationship to the political and historical developments of his time, and will reassess his achievement in the light of recent archival research and new critical perspectives.
Full programme to be confirmed and registration to open in the New Year.

Enquiries: Jon Millington, Events Officer, Institute of English Studies, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU; tel +44 (0) 207 664 4859; Email jon.millington@sas.ac.uk

The City course sometimes feels like a journalistic version of the X Factor boot camp: industry mentors, tough challenges and some stiff competition. By this logic, Tuesday afternoons must be our equivalent of ITV’s live Saturday night showdowns (although perhaps with slightly less hairspray).

Every week, there is a special guest, and every week, the mentors are expecting the performance of a lifetime. At City, the special guest is an interviewee and the performers are three students, each assigned a specific topic and given 15 minutes to grill the guest. The catch is that all of this takes place in front of a 40-strong audience of eagle-eyed classmates and tutors, who then offer feedback that sits somewhere between advice and character assassination.

Just as Simon Cowell strutting around on stage singing “Baby One More Time” is something I don’t expect to see in my lifetime, our tutors happily admit they wouldn’t attempt our interviewing exercise “in a million years”. And unlike X Factor’s special guests, ours can’t get away with miming. Superintendent John Sutherland said that being interviewed by Ben, Katrina and Tommy (about gun crime, race and the Stockwell Enquiry respectively) felt like “taking all [his] A-levels at once”.

The Andrew Marr Show this morning made me wonder if Marr might benefit from spending a Tuesday or two with us. Marr was interviewing Home Secretary Jacqui Smith on, among other things, the arrest of Damien Green. Smith answered in obfuscated soundbites about the “sensitive and confidential” nature of Home Office work and the “operational independence” of the police. So far, so press release.

When Andrew met Jacqui: the Home Secretary on the Andrew Marr Show

But Marr pressed her: what about the allegations that Green was bugged? As Home Secretary, she would have had to sign a warrant for that to happen, wouldn’t she? Smith started to run out of soundbites. “Andrew… no,” she tried. Marr pressed her again. She hesitated again. “Home Secretaries don’t confirm or deny which warrants they have or haven’t signed,” she said. Marr tried again: “So you didn’t sign such a warrant?”. Smith got agitated. “We are getting totally into conspiracy theory territory here,” she said.

Smith was clearly uncomfortable with the line of questioning and starting to deviate from her mental script. As anyone who has spent a Tuesday afternoon at City would know, this is the point when interviews start to get interesting. But Marr gave up. “Okay, you didn’t sign such a warrant,” he said, and moved swiftly on.

What was that? Marr, if you’d done that at City, you would have been accosted by a lynch mob of trainees and tutors for a spectacularly wasted opportunity. He committed the cardinal sin of putting words into Smith’s mouth and handing her a rather convenient ‘Get out of jail free’ card. The summary of the interview on Politics Home now states that Smith said she did not sign a warrant. Actually, she consistently dodged the question. Marr somehow answered it for her.

I have watched Jacqui Smith’s media appearances with increasing interest since starting a specialism in Home Affairs at City this term, taught by BBC correspondent Danny Shaw. A few weeks ago, we visited the Home Office’s press office, which is the largest PR outfit of any Government department. Our guide told us about the behind-the-scenes processes involved in the launch of the identity card scheme, which included an awful lot of time spent “choosing what the Home Secretary should wear so she didn’t clash with the cards”. Time which, if this morning is anything to go by, would have been better spent improving Smith’s interview handling technique. She wasn’t so much taking her A-levels as struggling with her SATs.

But today’s failure, ultimately, was Marr’s. If he’s free on Tuesday afternoon, I’m sure he would be very welcome to pop into City. He might just learn a thing or two.

]]> http://austenprose.wordpress.com/2008/05/24/apple-blossoms-in-june-austens-literary-mystery/ Sat, 24 May 2008 22:12:49 +0000 Laurel Ann http://austenprose.wordpress.com/2008/05/24/apple-blossoms-in-june-austens-literary-mystery/

It was a sweet view — sweet to the eye and the mind. English verdure, English culture, English comfort, seen under a sun bright, without being oppressive…It might be safely viewed with all its appendages of prosperity and beauty, its rich pastures, spreading flocks, orchard in blossom, and light column of smoke ascending. Emma, Chapter 42 

An orchard in bloom in June? Did Jane Austen get her seasonal timing wrong? Most fruit trees bloom in May, as my apple-trees in the Pacific Northwest will confirm. This anomaly is unusual, since Austen is so correct with other facts throughout her novels according to scholar R. W. Chapman. Many have questioned this slip-up, including Jane Austen’s brother Edward, who pointed out the discrepancy to her, ‘Jane, I wish you would tell me where you get those apple-trees of yours that come into bloom in July?‘ Well, Edward, it was June but we’re splitting hairs here. 

There are two possible explanations; one by a scholar and the other by a meteorologist. In the book Is Heathcliff a Murderer: Great Puzzles in Nineteenth-Century Fiction  (new edition 2002), author John Sutherland questions Austen’s timing in chapter two, Apple blossoms in June?  His creative theory prompted a few polite objections from leading authorities; Dr. Claire Lamont and Deirdre le Faye, which are included in the next volume in the series, Who Betrays Elizabeth Bennet?: Further Puzzles in Classic Fiction (1999). They pretty much shoot holes in his theory. You can read the discussion here and draw your own conclusions, but honestly, I was so relieved to discover that a meteorologist Euan Nisbet of the Royal Holloway College in London was a Janeite, and has closely studied Jane Austen’s astute observance of accurate weather in her novels and wrote this enlightening article.  

Dr. Nisbet solved the mystery, to my satisfaction, by comparing Austen’s mention of dates and weather in Emma and scientifically comparing it to a book The Climate in London  written by Luke Howard in 1833, one of the founding texts on meteorology. Here is a passage from Nisbet’s article of particular merit. 

Is it presumptuous to attempt to match the weather to the novel? Possibly – an author has the right of imagination. But Austen is accurate. If she says the orchard was in bloom, then it surely was in bloom. Her meteorological sense is acute, accurately recording the passage of fronts. The perfection of the book comes from the quality of the observation; the science makes the art. Each graduate student should be set to read an Austen novel before starting a thesis. 

This may all sound like severe minutiae; – and attempting to find fault with Austen’s writing is an arduous business, but it is satisfying to my sensibilities that so many people fuss over her.

TIP: Even though author John Sutherland and scholar Deirdre le Faye were on opposite sides of the fence on the Austen blooming orchard debate, they joined forces to create the engaging, diverting and informative So You Think You Know Jane Austen?: A Literary Quizbook . Test your knowledge and be surprised by new facts. It’s good to know that there is always more to learn!!!

If you have ever flipped through a Portland weekly music section this past year, it ain’t no surprise that The Builders and the Butchers won the “Best New Band” poll ran by the Willamette Week. We all saw it coming…and I’m sure recent recording sessions with members of The Decemberists didn’t hurt much. I really should have put my money where my mouth was and bet on TBATB’s inevitable success. Not to say they don’t write good songs and put on a fun, interactive live show… In fact, I’m actually listening to them right now.

But…
I tend to root for the little guys/gals, anyways.
Here is how I voted:

(ps. read how the WWeek Best New Band poll works)

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Chores
Listen to “Wine Buzz (live at Holocene)”:

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Slutty Hearts
Listen to “Beep”:

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Autopilot is for Lovers
Listen to “No One Will Know”:

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John Sutherland

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Sick Sick Sister
Listen: “Devilfruit”

Sick Sick Sister has come a long way over the years and the current lineup is hot. Gnarly, girl-grunge-grit that flashes me back to the days when I LIVED for Hole’s “Live Through This”.

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The WWeek only lets you vote for 5 bands tops but here are some others I would have voted for if I had more options and if I had known they existed at the time

1. Purple Rhinestone Eagle – Purple Rhinestone Eagle just moved to Portland not too long ago so they need to do more time before they get crowed “Best New Band”….but after that time is spent y’all better lay some money down!

2. Grandpa’s Ghost Stories – featuring an all star queer lineup, GGS, just played it’s first secret show…watch part of it here. They blend metal with catchy vocal melodies….think Pat Benetar meets Black Sabbath.

3. Porches – I so would have voted for this band if I had known they existed at the time! Porches makes covered-wagon pioneer music that will make young men cry into their beards:

Laila Lalami recommends How to read a novel of John Sutherland:

So books like John Sutherland’s How to Read a Novel, which came out last fall and which I started reading two days ago, seem necessary to me. This is meant for the general reader who may not always be aware of what is going on in the world of books, but there are some juicy literary tidbits, too. I love the examples he uses to make his points. For instance, to highlight divergent reader reactions, he brings up Disgrace–I can’t tell you how many arguments I’ve had about that novel with people. Occasionally, though, his sense of humor reminds me of my dad’s. (Commenting on the popularity of iPods, he says “Head implants, doubtless, are on the way, for the dedicated music lover. Seattle is working on it.” Har, har, Dad.) Still, his love for books comes across on every page, so even if you didn’t already love books, you’d love them by the time you were done with this tome.

Take a look!

The Orange Prize for Fiction is exclusively awarded to women for contributions to literature. According to Orange, the reason for this is:

When setting up the prize, we wanted to celebrate women’s critical views as well as their writing. And it makes an interesting point of difference with other prizes.

The Times today reported that celebrated author, A.S. Byatt has denounced the prize, saying that “Such a prize was never needed.” Indeed, both A.S. Byatt and Booker prize (actually called the Man Booker Prize, but both men and women are equally eligible!) winner, Anita Brookner have declined offers to enter their books for the Orange prize.

Byatt has a point. Positive discrimination is just that, discrimination. Putting the word “positive” in front of it does not make it a good thing!

The Orange prize does no favours for either men or women. As John Sutherland says: “ghettoising women writers did them more harm them good.”

Feminism was always about asserting equal rights, and being judged on an equal footing with men. Setting up a separate prize for women is not only outdated, it is also extremely patronising. In the modern era, and in a meritocracy, men and women should be judged equally, based on talent, not gender.

For example, the 2005 prize was awarded to Lionel Shriver’s “We Need to Talk About Kevin,” which is one of my favourite books. I would highly recommend it, and anyone who has read it knows that it stands on its own merits and does not need to be commended simply because its author is female.

If we want to celebrate women’s fiction, the way to do it would be to judge their writing according to a universal standard. I can only imagine the backlash if there was a separate prize exclusively for men. It seems ironic that in the 19th century, female authors such as the Brontë sisters had to write under male pseudonyms to compete with their male counterparts, and yet in 2008, such discrimination (“positive” or otherwise!) still exists.

If you recognise the title of this post, then you have probably come across the bibliophile world of John Sutherland. He has written biographies of Walter Scott and Stephen Spender, but what I know him best for are his series of “literary puzzle” books.

They are a fun and intelligent read, the kind of book you can dip in and out of – the catalogue has them listed under the subject “literary recreations” which is as good a description as any.

• Where was Rebecca shot? : curiosities, puzzles and conundrums in modern fiction
• Who betrays Elizabeth Bennet? : further puzzles in classic fiction
• Can Jane Eyre be happy? : more puzzles in classic fiction
• Is Heathcliffe a murderer? : great puzzles in nineteenth-century literature

Some of the neat puzzles and questions in the books:

• Who invented cyberspace? (William Gibson, Neuromancer)
• Why does Patrick Bateman wear two ties? (Bret Easton Ellis, American psycho)
• When exactly does Rents read Kierkegaard?
• Why is Moll’s younger brother older than she is? (Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders)
• What English novel is Anna reading? (Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina)
• Why the “single print of a foot”? (Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe, 1719)
• Is Black Beauty gelded? (Anna Sewell, Black Beauty, 1877)

I started thinking about these wonderful books again when I heard John has published his memoir The Boy who loved books. Ian Sansom gives it a great review in The Guardian and says of Sutherland:

He is a thoroughly brisk, likeable, no-nonsense sort of critic, more interested in sketching in contexts and explaining careers than in the niceties and delicacies of language. “‘A literary sociologist’, I liked to think of myself over the following decades,” he admits. “It helped mask the fact that I wasn’t much of a critic.”

He’s being modest, of course: he is rather a lot of a critic. As well as his academic work he writes columns for newspapers and magazines, and the series of books – Is Heathcliff a Murderer? (1996), Can Jane Eyre Be Happy? (1997), and Who Betrays Elizabeth Bennet? (1999) – in which he hunts out and explains inconsistencies in classic novels, may be the closest thing there’s ever been to bestselling literary criticism.