HARDY FORUM ARCHIVE  H0020  2/7/00  "NOTES AND QUERIES"
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Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2000 10:41:17 -0800
From: Betty and/or John Cortus <hardycor@mailhost2.csusm.edu>
Subject: Hardy, God, and Sex


While reading Lawrance Thompson's biography of Robert Frost recently I came
across the following curious passage in a letter of advice Frost sent to an
aspiring young writer:

"All that makes a writer is the ability to write strongly and directly from
some unaccountable and almost invincible personal prejudice like Stevensons
in favor of all being happy as kings no matter if consumptive, or Hardy
against God for the blunder of sex, or Sinclair Lewis' against small
American towns, or Shakespeare's mixed, at once against and in favor of
life itself.  I take it that everybody has the prejudice and spends some
time feeling for it to speak and write from.  But most people end as they
begin by acting out the prejudices of other people."

Of course Frost is being deliberately tongue-in-cheek with this rather
back-handed compliment to these writers, but what do you make of Hardy
blaming God for the blunder of sex?

Betty Cortus
hardycor@mailhost2.csusm.edu

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Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2000 16:20:47 -0500
From: jgould@andover.edu (John Gould)
Subject: The Voice, Music, and POTM

This is a combination of announcement and call for contributions:

I have just put a musical setting of "The Voice" on the latest volume of
The Thomas Hardy Miscellany, written and performed by Sean Vernon, a
singer-songwriter from the Amherst area of Massachusetts.  I have also
written a short posting for Bill Morgan's "Poem of the Month" discussion
group about the poem (which was featured a year ago, in February, 1999).

Earlier postings on POTM talked about the musical qualities of "The Voice";
here is a remarkable opportunity to hear what a young, thoughtful composer
has done with that text.  There are two ways to participate:

(1) you may go to The Miscellany, pasting this URL into your browser:

(http://www.andover.edu/english/hardymisc/misc4.html)

 Listen to the song there, and then navigate to the POTM page of the Thomas
Hardy Association (a link will be set up just under the setting).

OR

(2) you may go to the page of the Poem-of-the-Month page dedicated to "The
Voice":

(http://netforum.ilstu.edu/cgi-bin/netforum/ths/a/14--15.8.1)

In the discussion thread identified as "A Musical Setting of" you will find
some introductory words I've written, including a link to the Miscellany
and the setting.  Thus you can toggle back and forth between the sites.
And you can add to the discussion.  Since Bill is working on closing the
discussion on the Emma poems, your contribution should happen sooner rather
than later.

One point:  You will need a Real Audio plug-in to hear the song.  A free RA
player can be obtained from the RA site.  The page containing the setting
has a hot button (link) to the site.  Stick with it.  It will be worth the
effort.

John Gould

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