Attn: Litererary Nerds and Snark Lovers....
Try and track down a Smithsonian Magazine for June 2009. Read the article on the last page, Words to Remember.
It's a great little article about Amanda McKittrick Ros, an author who died in 1939, whom I'd never even heard of before....
Excerpts from the little one-page article:
"The Oxford Literary Group 'The Inklings,' which included C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkein, held competitions to see who could read her work aloud longest while keeping a straight face."
"...She refers to eyes as 'globes of glare,' legs as 'bony supports,' pants as a 'southern neccessary,' sweat as 'globules of liquid lava,' and alcohol as the 'powerful monster of mangled might.'"
"Consider this passage: 'Speak! Irene! Wife! Woman! Do not sit in silence and allow the blood that now boils in my veins to ooze through cavities of unrestrained passion and trickle down to drench me with its crimson hue!'"
....This shit is EPIC FAIL. In a way that entertains and horrifies. I'm seriously considering going around the internets looking for more excerpts from her stuff.
ETA:>
Ooh. Google search for her, the web abounds with tasty articles as well as fansites...
More ETA:
Ok. Here's another passage of hers. HAD to share it.
"(she) had a swell staff of sweet-faced helpers swathed in stratagem, whose members and garments glowed with the lust of the loose, sparkled with the tears of the tortured, shone with the sunlight of bribery, dangled with the diamonds of distrust, slashed with sapphires of scandals..."
Further ETA:
...The characters of that book that the above passage is from (Helen Huddleson) are mostly named after fruits.
Lord Raspberry (and his sister Cherry), Sir Peter Plum, Christopher Currant, and the Earl of Grape.
Anime that names its chars after food is following a GRAND LITERARY TRADITION
.,..I am seeing Sorcerer Hunters crossfic....
It's a great little article about Amanda McKittrick Ros, an author who died in 1939, whom I'd never even heard of before....
Excerpts from the little one-page article:
"The Oxford Literary Group 'The Inklings,' which included C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkein, held competitions to see who could read her work aloud longest while keeping a straight face."
"...She refers to eyes as 'globes of glare,' legs as 'bony supports,' pants as a 'southern neccessary,' sweat as 'globules of liquid lava,' and alcohol as the 'powerful monster of mangled might.'"
"Consider this passage: 'Speak! Irene! Wife! Woman! Do not sit in silence and allow the blood that now boils in my veins to ooze through cavities of unrestrained passion and trickle down to drench me with its crimson hue!'"
....This shit is EPIC FAIL. In a way that entertains and horrifies. I'm seriously considering going around the internets looking for more excerpts from her stuff.
ETA:>
Ooh. Google search for her, the web abounds with tasty articles as well as fansites...
More ETA:
Ok. Here's another passage of hers. HAD to share it.
"(she) had a swell staff of sweet-faced helpers swathed in stratagem, whose members and garments glowed with the lust of the loose, sparkled with the tears of the tortured, shone with the sunlight of bribery, dangled with the diamonds of distrust, slashed with sapphires of scandals..."
Further ETA:
...The characters of that book that the above passage is from (Helen Huddleson) are mostly named after fruits.
Lord Raspberry (and his sister Cherry), Sir Peter Plum, Christopher Currant, and the Earl of Grape.
Anime that names its chars after food is following a GRAND LITERARY TRADITION
.,..I am seeing Sorcerer Hunters crossfic....