Sipu – Page 9 – Boadicea's Chariot

A Literary Quiz

Earlier this week, I came across a book called ‘Wrotten English’ which contained some interesting references to the literary world. Below is a list of rejected titles for some well known novels. Can you work out which they are?

First Impressions – Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen – Ara, PG and Google, with objections by CO!
Novel Without A Hero – Vanity Fair, W M Thackery FEEG
Two and Two Are Four – HArd Times, Charles Dickens – Araminta
1805 – War and Peace. Leo Tolstoy – Papaguniea
The Body and Soul of Sue – Tess of the Durbervilles, Thomas Hardy – Araminta
John Thomas and Lady Jane – D H Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover – Araminta
Four Years of Struggle Against Lies, Stupidity and Cowardice – Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf – Bearsy
Ba! Ba! Black Sheep – Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell – Araminta
Something That Happened – Of Mice and Men , John Steinbeck – Theroyalist
Zounds, He Dies – Farewell My Lovely, Raymond Chandler, Araminta.
The House of Faith – Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh – Araminta
The Last Man in Europe – George Orwell’s 1984 – Araminta
If Wishes Were Horses – From Here to Eternity, James Jones – Araminta
The Kingdom by The Sea – Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov – Araminta.

Try not to Google if you can help it. I think it would be more fun to work it out. If it is necessary, I will provide the names of the authors, in a random manner, as a clue.

Thanks Soutie. OK here are the missing authors:

James Jones
Thomas Hardy
Charles Dickens
Jane Austen
Vladimir Naobokov
John Steinbeck
Raymond Chandler
Evelyn Waugh
~~Margaret Mitchell~~

Thank you all.

Use and Misuse of Language

Following on from certain posts on this site concerning swearing and an article in yesterday’s Telegraph about the fact that students will lose marks for poor grammar, you will be delighted to know that I have decided to give my attention to the use of language in its various forms.

In broad terms, the purpose of language, I hope we can all agree, is for the communication of ideas, feelings and information. Leaving aside signing (and possibly other forms), language falls into two main categories, spoken and written. Within this context, we have several tools at our disposal that enable us to communicate more effectively. Continue reading “Use and Misuse of Language”

‘David Starkey is ill-suited to hold forth on topics other than the Tudors.’ Discuss.

Boadicea. Perhaps you would like to start the conversation.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/8722917/David-Starkeys-views-on-race-disgrace-the-academic-world-say-historians.html

The Riots and what to do about them.

I started writng this in response to Ana’s post but then felt it warranted a separate entry.

Ana has written an interesting post. However, I can’t help feeling that she has gone against her own advice and that rather than “stand back from such events before forming a definite judgement, simply to allow the facts to settle”, she has reached a conclusion. “It’s no more than hooliganism, based on forms of avarice that would shame even the greediest banker.”

It is of course easy to say that and is probably true. But what it does not reveal is that given the right environment, avarice and hooliganism are present in most human beings. You do not have to be hard up to be greedy. The various financial bubbles, Tulips, Louisiana, South Sea, Dot-Com, Credit etc. have all proved that greed is present even in the most ‘civilized’, affluent and well educated individuals. Just consider some of the high profile divorce cases to see how wives such as Heather Mills or Linda Evangelista try and screw every undeserved penny out of their ‘errant’ husbands. Or those who have sued their employers for sexual harassment stemming from a pat on the bum. Or look at those people from companies such as Enron, WorldCom, Tyco etc to see how with little regard for others, they plundered their companies’ resources and ruined the lives of tens of thousands of employees and shareholders. As for the Credit Bubble, everybody from the unemployedAtlantasingle mother on benefits who took a mortgage she could not begin to afford right up to the likes Fred Goodwin and Alan Greenspan, was guilty of greed and hubris. Continue reading “The Riots and what to do about them.”

5th Poetry Competition

I thought it might be interesting and the results amusing, to ask Charioteers to write some Clerihews. I am sure most are familiar with the form, but if not, here is some background, pinched shamelessly from Wikipedia.

Form

A clerihew has the following properties:

It is biographical and usually whimsical, showing the subject from an unusual point of view; it pokes fun at mostly famous people
It has four lines of irregular length (for comic effect); the third and fourth lines are usually longer than the first two
The rhyme structure is AABB; the subject matter and wording are often humorously contrived in order to achieve a rhyme
The first line consists solely (or almost solely) of the subject’s name.

Clerihews are not satirical or abusive, but they target famous individuals and reposition them in an absurd, anachronistic or commonplace setting, often giving them an over-simplified and slightly garbled description (similar to the schoolboy style of 1066 and All That). Continue reading “5th Poetry Competition”

Fetid fields

I don’t know if you have noticed, but I seem to be getting up people’s noses a bit. I sometimes think that my contributions are not welcome. I cannot imagine why. Today, two of my comments attached to a post that seemed to be advocating freedom of expression, were deleted by the author without explanation. It is of course the right of authors on this site to edit their posts as they see fit. In this instance, though, I thought it delightfully ironic and a little curious. But you know me; I am not one to get into slanging matches. Play the ball, not the man is my motto. Now where else have I heard that expression? Continue reading “Fetid fields”