H05014 DISCOVERING HARDY - 2/25/05 - HARDY FORUM ARCHIVES ____________________________________________________________________________
From: JOHN.SPAETH@highland.edu
Subject: I regret that I can't get out to the college everyday
Date: February 25, 2005 12:09:09 PM PST
I regret that I can't get out to the college everyday to discuss Hardy
with everyone. I don't have internet at home and I must bike several
miles to get to college.It's also pretty cold going into the wind this
time of year. I have suffered and experienced enough of life to have
hopefully wrung all the insincerities out of me. My life has been one
long preparation for eventually reading Hardy. He is the only person who
has ever been able to define how Iv'e felt about life. Now when I need
to express myself clearer to those close to me I read them Hardy. I have
tried my best on my own to express myself and I will continue but this
is the start of trying to explain why Thomas Hardy means more to me than
any other author including Shakespeare.I'm reading "Laodicean" now and
right off the bat I can identify with the horse that bucks and trys to
get free but always feels the rope of the handler holding it back.(p10?)
Sincerely, John.
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From: hardycor@owl.csusm.edu
Subject: Re: I regret that I can't get out to the college
Date: February 25, 2005 4:48:55 PM PST
John, commiserations on your cold commute to college! I believe your
identifying with Hardy's questionings about life will resonate with many of
the Forum's members. Many of us, I feel, have felt a universality about
the human condition in his writings that struck home in some way, and I
would like to hear from some of our other subscribers about how they first
came to Hardy, and how his work became important to them. Why does he
touch us in the strangely poignant way he does? Let's hear from you Forum
Members!
My Best,
Betty
hardycor@owl.csusm.edu
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From: fsiedow@omniglobal.net
Subject: Re: I regret that I can't get out to the college
Date: February 25, 2005 9:17:34 PM PST
Dear Ms Cortus:
Well, I'll bite, with a quickie. I bought a book in a used bookstore about cats, and of course, in it was LAST WORDS TO A DUMB FRIEND, and I was totally emotionally absorbed/taken aback at the understanding, cleverness, compassion, and empathy incorporated into that little gem. I resonated with it, and wanted to know when this was written, and what were the circumstances -- what kind of death, what kind of cat, how did he treat it before, etc. It took me quite a while of research, but I finally found the date, and that he was english. I found about Florences bios, and Millgates, ordered them from other libraries, and read those -- not many clues, but I DID learn about their caring for animals, and many of his philosophical insights and discoveries. Those amazingly matched mine, so I became more interested, and ordered more books.
Now, after reading Evelyn Hardy's biog, Purdy, J.O. Bailey's, Dearest Emmie, Some Relollections, Weber's Hardy and the Lady, Emma & Florence's Letters, and vol. 2 & 3 of TH's Ltr's, the Collected Poems, parts of Seymour/Smith's biog, Blunden's biog, Gittings' biog, --- A-A-A-A-CK ! All since mid Sept.! Sometimes I feel like I know all those people in all those letters, crushes, outings, etc., and have suffered with Emma & Florence at the cruelties of Max Gate, etc. Well, I have learned a lot, and have thought of writing a little book of my own, on the Hardys and their Cats, but don't know if anyone would care, or that I could even make it interesting. So, we'll see. I still need more info, though, and have to figure out how to get into the deeper levels of available data. I have ordered TH's Ltrs vol 4.
I may decide to send another reply citing specific examples of philosophical items I have been struck by. One biggie is his idea of the Immanent Will -- my phrase for it is Universal Spirit. He has developed his to a greater degree, but I see it as not so much a driving force, but as the collective laws of physics (which includes chemistry, astrophysics, etc.), with all things obeying these, and statistical rules and happenstance taking place. I guess I am open, but don't completely believe yet, in a spiritual aspect -- it realy does seem to be there, and if it is, then there is probably a "Master Spirit" which we (our spirit part) all are a part of. Or, at least connected to. This is the Universal Spirit. We all are a little point of concentration of it.
I wonder how many here know of Scientology? -- the founder, L Ron Hubbard discovered ways of talking with people which promoted their healing, and thru research into the mechanics of that found that most all people had, at the deepest levels, memories of being dropped on rocks and eaten by birds, and various similar things. These were totally unsolicited responsed by the subjects, so LRH had to change his ideas 100% and adopt the idea of the Spirit (& reincarnation) as being real. That is one set of data which lends credence, for me.
This turned out to be WAY more than a quickie; that's typical of me, I guess. Thanks for your invitation. Fred Siedow
How it became important: Taught me about literature, more slices of life, gave me a bunch more experiences in life. Gave me many new avenues of thought and perception, and openess, I'd say.
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From: hardycor@owl.csusm.edu
Subject: Re: I regret that I can't get out to the college
Date: February 26, 2005 6:59:55 AM PST
Thank you Fred. You have certainly done your homework reading all that
secondary material in such a short space of time.
Best Wishes,
Betty
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From: jacky@wilkibob.me.uk
Subject: RE: I regret that I can't get out to the college
Date: February 26, 2005 9:15:56 AM PST
'Tha shud read Thomas 'ardy's 'Far Fromt Madding Crowd' Nah that's a really
good book!' This was the advice of my dear Dad, a Lancashire cotton weaver
for whom the public library was a haven on earth. This advice was given in
response to my sixth reading of 'Wuthering Heights' during the twelve months
between my thirteenth and fourteenth birthdays. My Dad had bought me
'Wuthering Heights' from Woolworths for my thirteenth birthday and proceeded
to buy 'Far From the Madding Crowd' for my fourteenth birthday. I think his
decision was somewhat affected by my constant visits to the moors above
Haworth where my voice would be carried across the moors by the wind as I
shouted for Heathcliffe. I used to say that when I had a son I would call
him Heathcliffe, to which my father's rejoinder was: 'Heathcliffe?
Heathcliffe? Ah wunt call a dog that!'
Thus Hardy called me to his side, and so began my fifty year love affair. It
burned slowly at first, progressing from dear Gabriel Oak at secondary
school to poor benighted Tess and puzzling Jude at Training College, to the
bewitchment by Eustacia and the fond love for erring Henchard in later
years, but always, in the background was my initial love - Far From the
Madding Crowd. I taught young teenagers to love Oak and Bathsheba, Boldwood
and Fanny, and to be fascinated by Troy's scarlet flame for many years in
preparation for their examinations. On a personal level I became
increasingly fascinated by the reversal of melodrama roles in Hardy's novel.
In melodrama the squire is a villain, the shepherd or yokel is the village
idiot, who never gets the heroin whom he loves in vain; the dashing soldier
is depicted as the hero, and the heroin herself is peaches and cream and
helpless and certainly not headstrong, nor capable of riding a horse
backwards! In his quiet, inimitable way Hardy tossed Victorian conventions
to the wind. For me, his novels fascinate because they reflect the
overwhelming combined influences in of Greek tragedy, in which the gods hold
all the cards and hubris is duly punished and, the Shakespearian pastoral,
comic. And tragic conventions, in which the rustics provide the chorus, and
even, on occasions, allow the audience to go home with a warm feeling of
wellbeing.
My teaching career was cut short by visual problems and severe arthritis,
but the twin forces of Hardy and my husband urged me on to do first my
degree (1st class honours) and my MA, my ongoing dissertation dealing with -
- - -'The Carnivalesque and the Grotesque in Thomas Hardy's 'Far From the
Madding Crowd', a fitting tribute to my dear Dad. This, in turn, has
inspired me to apply to do a PhD, looking at the carnivalesque and the
grotesque across his major novels.
Unlike Fred, my love affair with Hardy has burned slowly but with increased
intensity over the years, and now there are three of us in this marriage -
myself, my dear husband, and Thomas himself. . . . . . . although, I can
still be heard calling for Heathcliffe on occasions!
Jacky Wilkinson
jacky@wilkibob.me.uk
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From: hardycor@owl.csusm.edu
Subject: RE: I regret that I can't get out to the college everyday Date: February 26, 2005 9:40:33 AM PST
Jacky, your reminiscences were delightful. Thank you so much for sharing them.
Best Wishes,
Betty
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From: fsiedow@omniglobal.net
Subject: How We Came to Hardy
Date: February 26, 2005 5:22:44 PM PST
Well, Jacky: That sure was a great story in itself! Thanks for sharing it. It's great hearing from a Native.
Fred S.
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From: jacky@wilkibob.me.uk
Subject: RE: I regret that I can't get out to the college everyday Date: February 27, 2005 2:20:23 AM PST
How did you come to Hardy, Betty?
Jacky Wilkinson
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From: hardycor@owl.csusm.edu
Subject: Discovering Hardy
Date: February 27, 2005 7:01:09 AM PST
Jacky, my first experience with Hardy was being assigned _The Trumpet
Major_ in the ninth grade back in Sydney where I grew up. I loved it
then, and after rereading it recently still do, even though most critics
deem it a "minor" novel. I did not discover his poetry until I was an
undergraduate English major at the University of Minnesota, and it had an
impact on me like no other poet since my teenage crush on the Romantics.
The more I read of the poetry the more drawn to its fierce honesty, and the
quaint beauty of its language I became. In Graduate School I took every
class that offered a section on Hardy, and even although there were no real
Hardy experts on the faculty at CUNY I had no hesitation in choosing
Hardy's poetry for my doctoral dissertation subject.
I recently bought the two-CD set of _Winter Words: Poetry and Personal
Writings of Thomas Hardy_. The poems and prose pieces are beautifully read
by Bruce Alexander, Janet Maw, and Neville Jason. I would recommend it to
anyone interested in the poetry. After all these years of reading them over
and over I still choke up on hearing the Emma poems read. Hardy has
become a life-long inspiration to me.
Thank you for reminding me of all this Jacky,
Betty
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