H05028 MARCH 2005 NOTES AND QUERIES - 3/2/05 - HARDY FORUM ARCHIVES ____________________________________________________________________________
JOY OF READING HARDY (1)
MARRIAGE, MASCULINITY IN HARDY QUESTIONS (5)
DATING "AND THERE WAS A GREAT CALM" (3)
RETURN OF THE NATIVE DICE GAME (1)
DONALD HALL ON HARDY (1)
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From: pierre.breban@ntlworld.com
Subject: Re: RE:
Date: March 2, 2005 2:11:21 AM PST
What is it with Hardy? He is one of only two authors whose books I have re-read - the other is Orwell. I'm currently re-reading my favourite, 'The Mayor of Casterbridge'. I'm thinking of joining the Thomas Hardy Society and going to the annual conference in August. The only problem will be to get my wife to let me go for a week. Until the last couple of years, I've read very few novels. I've been rather blinkered as a former history student in the sense that I looked on novel reading as frivolous and always avidly read anything from the French Revolution to Vichy France and from the Great Depression to the New Deal. Now - with maturity - I recognise the joy of reading Hardy, Dickens and Orwell.Best Regards, Pierre.
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From: nataliefagan20@hotmail.com
Subject: Re: RE:
Date: March 2, 2005 3:16:19 AM PST
To: HARDY-L@csusm.edu
Reply-To: HARDY-L@csusm.edu
Hi there,
Does any body have any opinions on the role of marriage and masculinity within Return of the Native and Far From the Madding Crowd? I want to closely examine both themes within my dissertation.
Kind Regards
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From: mhemming@lineone.net
Subject: RE: RE:
Date: March 2, 2005 4:53:39 AM PST
Hi Nathalie
I suspect maybe I am not alone in being interested to hear whatever opinions
you have formed yourself on those matters having read the novels? If you
start the ball rolling I feel sure you will be rewarded with some valuable
input in response.
Regards,
Martin Hemming
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From: hardycor@owl.csusm.edu
Subject: Marriage, Masculinity
Date: March 2, 2005 6:41:51 AM PST
Natalie, this is the kind of very broad question that we are seeing
increasingly on the Forum and which, unfortunately, seldom gets much of a
useful scholarly response. Perhaps if you give us some idea of the
research you have already done on these two very different subjects, and of
the specific argument you wish to make about each them, you will find
Forum members more responsive and helpful. For example are you looking for
sources--books, articles, in support of your thesis? The resources of the
TTHA website should help you there, not to mention the obvious one--the
library. On the other hand if you are just seeking personal opinions from
members it would help greatly if you defined your questions more
narrowly--tell us where you are coming from--what have you uncovered
already.
On another note to all members, please do your fellow subscribers the
courtesy of signing your name, give your message a title, and eliminate
all the old messages you are responding to.
Best Wishes,
Betty Cortus
hardycor@owl.csusm
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From: nataliefagan20@hotmail.com
Subject: RE: RE:
Date: March 2, 2005 12:49:07 PM PST
Sorry that my question is a bit 'broad' but I_ve never really used this before so i don't know how to approach the forum, because i can never access the forum and randomly get sent some e-mails.
Basically, I_m focusing my argument on the role of marriage within FFMC and RONative. I am going to compare the role that some of the female characters had within society before they entered into marriage and the role that they take once they have become married. This is where my examining of the male characters comes into my essay as i want to focus how they treat their wives. An example of this, is the character of Troy, who presents himself as an admirable character who is closely linked to the Empire-connoting loyalty, respectability and honour. However, once he enters into his marriage with Bathsheba he merely reinforces the submissive and powerless position that women were expected to invoke.
These are the type of things which I want to explore within my essay. I don't know if anyone will reply to my e-mail, as i'm not asking for help just some either opposing or supporting comments
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From: jacky@wilkibob.me.uk
Subject: RE: RE:Thomas Hardy
Date: March 3, 2005 1:45:05 AM PST
Dear Natalie,
I think one of the best starting points for his topic would be Rosemarie
Morgan's 'Women and Sexuality in the novels of Thomas Hardy'. The way I tend to work initially is to read one book, such as the one mentioned above, and then use the bibliography of that book to lead me on to the next, and so forth. Another means is to browse the library shelves and look for topics related to your area. There are no easy paths, I'm afraid, the task of finding your 'working texts' is one of the main challenges of the diss, and you may find you go up several blind alleys, but will certainly learn in the process. A general
area you might want to explore further is, of course, patriarchy in Victorian England.
I hope this might be of use, and
Good luck in your search,
Jacky Wilkinson
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From: nataliefagan20@hotmail.com
Subject: RE: RE Thomas Hardy
Date: March 3, 2005 4:36:57 AM PST
Thankyou Jacky for contacting me, i really appreciate your advice.
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From: Carolyn.McGrath@newham.gov.uk
Subject: 'And there was a great calm'
Date: March 8, 2005 8:21:09 AM PST
Dear all
I've been searching on the internet for evidence of when Hardy wrote, "And
There Was a Great Calm", {on signing the Armistice 11th November 1918}' and
suddenly realised that someone on the Forum could probably help. I know it
was published in 'Late Lyrics and Earlier' in 1922 but does anyone know if
it was published elsewhere prior to that and what the date of composition
was? I've seen it referred to as an 'official poem' and wondered if it was
written for the first Armistice memorial day held at the Cenotaph, which was
in 1921.
Thank you for your help
Carolyn McGrath
EMA Advisory Teacher (KS3)
Ext:: 85024
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From: kgwilson@uottawa.ca
Subject: Re: 'And there was a great calm'
Date: March 8, 2005 8:42:45 AM PST
According to Purdy, Thomas Hardy: A Bibliographical Study, it "was written in November 1920 at the request of The Times and first printed in a special Armistice Day Section (p. iii) of The Times, 11 November 1920 (the day of the burial of the Unknown Soldier). See Later Years, pp. 214-15." (p. 211). Florence Hardy then had an edition of 25 copies privately printed as a pamphlet at the Chiswick Press, released in early 1921 under a December 1920 publishing date.
Best,
Keith Wilson
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From: Carolyn.McGrath@newham.gov.uk
Subject: 'And there was a great calm'
Date: March 9, 2005 1:48:28 AM PST
Thanks very much Keith. That seems to have covered everything. Purdy should
obviously be the next book on my shopping list.
all the best
Carolyn McGrath
EMA Advisory Teacher (KS3)
Ext:: 85024
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From: Rosemarie.morgan@yale.edu
Subject: New insights into the RN Dice Game
Date: March 17, 2005 4:20:36 AM PST
Hi everyone!
Remember last year that John Gould had a query - from his students -- about the dice game in *Return of the Native* and it's peculiar computing system?
Well - here's the latest - posted on News Update (for reasons of the attached image showing the game of Dorset dice).
http://www.yale.edu/hardysoc/updates.htm
All best,
Rosemarie
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Dear Rosemarie,
You may remember that last year, while I was teaching Return of the Native, I asked the [FORUM] list about the dicing game the reddleman plays. My students had asked about how the numbers could range from so low (1) to so high (in the 50s). I recently received this letter and photo from a woman in Canada. Perhaps this machine is the answer. As such, it might be of interest to the [FORUM}]ist as a whole.
The photo is important to understanding what's going on. Perhaps someone else will have more information on how the numbered channels worked. Anyway can this be more broadly displayed? Perhaps it could be put up on the website and an email with a link to the photo could be sent around?
Hope all's well with you.
All best, John
-----Original Message-----
From: Shirley J. Williams [<mailto:s-williams@sympatico.ca>mailto:s-williams@sympatico.ca]
Sent: Wed 3/9/2005 5:55 PM
To: John A Gould
Subject: Dorset Dice and The Return of the Native
Dear John,
We own a game of Dorset Dice which my father (from Swanage, Dorset) gave us in the 60s. It does have three dice, but they are the regular six-sided ones. I was looking on the web to see if anyone knew the rules, because none of us can remember them, even though we played it quite often when the children were young. The box, which is open, made of wood and without a lid, is about 8 x 8 x 1 1/2 inches, carpeted with green baize. One throws the dice in a space about 4 3/4 x 7 1/4, and the upper part of the box has nine divisions with numbers in them (1 to 9) and little pieces of wood slide up to cover the numbers. But how one is supposed to add the numbers, and how one wins, completely escapes us.
Has anyone else answered your query?
I just realized that, in this wonderful digital age, I can attach a photo. Too late for last year's tenth graders, I'm afraid, but perhaps you are doing The Return of the Native again this year.
Greetings from Canada,
Shirley Williams
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From: wwmorgan@ilstu.edu
Subject: Donald Hall on Hardy
Date: March 22, 2005 6:37:42 PM PST
I thought members of the Forum might enjoy a snippet about Hardy from Donald Hall's essay about his own growing old as a poet (he's now 76) in the most recent issue of American Poetry Review:
"It's strange, being old. One thing that's clear: Inspiration becomes rarer, and imagination less intense and spontaneous. . . . It used to be that several times in the year I would suffer and enjoy little meteor showers of imagery, phrases and even whole lines that leaned toward becoming poems. . . . Now I take it one note at a time, and more rarely. . . . Words gather themselves, sticking to each other like plaque in an artery. At some point lines may begin to resemble a poem. . . . It is generally not encouraging, pushing eighty, to read poets who have been there before you. Frost's last book contained two and a half good poems, but there is also Thomas Hardy. His Winter Words was posthumous in 1928, the year he died at eighty-eight [sic.], which is the year I was born. 'Proud Songsters' ought to provide encouragement to aging types:
The thrushes sing as the sun is going,
And the finches whistle in ones and pairs,
And as it gets dark loved nightingales
In bushes
Pipe, as they can when April wears,
As if all Time were theirs.
These are brand-new birds of twelve-months' growing,
Which a year ago, or less than twain,
No finches were, nor nightingale,
Nor thrushes,
But only particles of grain,
And earth, and air, and rain.
Hear it as it paces itself; a comma is as acute as a metaphor."
cheers,
Bill Morgan
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From: Rosemarie.morgan@yale.edu
Subject: Re: Donald Hall on Hardy
Date: March 22, 2005 7:15:48 PM PST
Gives me pause for thought, Bill -- how about a POTM sequence on Hardy and Birds --? (and thank you for this Donald Hall snippet)
What a beautiful phrase, Proud Songsters ( Gene ! -- I wish we had thought of this for the Mellstock Quire sessions at the Dorchester Conferences of yesteryear!)
Anyone want to start up a Proud Songsters choir for TTHA's Hardy Conference at Yale?
Cheers,
Rosemarie
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