D - Decorated Initial

If, like me, you enjoy looking at illuminated manuscripts, you have probably noticed that the first letter of a passage is often (a) larger than the rest of the text, (b) decorated in some way, and (c) truly beautiful.

The word for this first, larger letter is 'Initial'.  Initials come in three types:

Decorated (the most basic type), Inhabited (incorporating a picture) or Historiated, which has a scene from the story or subject of the text, incorporated in it.

The design or embellishment of a Decorated Initial generally has nothing to do with the subject of the text and is, as they say, 'just for pretty.'

The scribe appears to have liked Morning Glories...

Click here to Go to the A to Z Challenge

Celebrations - April 3, 2015

Welcome to the April 3 edition of the Celebrating the Small Things blog hop, started by VikLit and now run by Lexa Cain, our fearless new leader and her two wonderful co-hosts L.G. Keltner @ Writing Off The Edge
Katie @ TheCyborgMom

I am celebrating several things, in ascending order:

1. This has been a busy week and I accomplished a great deal (for myself)
2. Winter is broken and yesterday I saw the first shoots of daffodils.  I know we have crocuses coming up at the front of the house, purple and yellow.
3. Writing is coming along well, I'm finishing my first finished draft of VENGEANCE, which is the second book in my Paris 1834 series, and...
4. Today is the beginning of the days leading to Easter, a day I love.  It is, as well, the first day of Passover.  

 I'm home alone this weekend with a real yen to cook and (I gasp at this admission from a confirmed 'pantser') to actually do a chapter outline of this story and the next in the series, as well as my other, Egyptian work in progress.  I've done this in a desultory fashion (hm...  A word I can use in my going-along-with-the-A to Z-blog-fest-when-I-have-the-time.  No, wait.  D, for me, is Decorated Capital.  Ah, well.

Joy, good weather and blessings to all of you.  Have a wonderful weekend!

C is for Circumlocution

CIRCUMLOCUTION: 

elaborate, roundabout, or indirect speech or writing. 

Also known as Periphrasis.

He was dispatched to his Final Reward somehow sounds nicer than The Feds shot him away. (this is also known as a euphemism)

The fact that we are taking a muscular stance does not require that we must ride that horse to the bitter end and go down with it. (I did a blog post on this one, uttered in a meeting, which had me so delighted, I had to write it down before I forgot it.  It would have been better if he had said, "We have taken this stand, but we don't have to die for it.")
 

Circumlocution is often used in order to avoid saying outright something that might be painful.  "My cat crossed the Rainbow Bridge" seems somehow less tear-making than "I had to have my cat euthanized."  

Damon Runyon's stories about the seamier side of New York City involved a lot of circumlocution:

If I have all the tears that are shed on Broadway by guys in love, I will have enough salt water to start an opposition ocean to the Atlantic and Pacific, with enough left over to run the Great Salt Lake out of business. But I wish to say I never shed any of these tears personally, because I am never in love, and furthermore, barring a bad break, I never expect to be in love, for the way I look at it love is strictly the old phedinkus, and I tell the little guy as much.

 In Runyon's case, the circumlocution serves to illuminate a certain sort of character.  And here, for a wonder, is a scene from the movie Guys and Dolls with Marlon Brando and Frank Sinatra, where their words are drawn out and ornate and the speech (Brando's, I mean) is one of my favorite in literature.  He speaks of advice from his father:

 

"Son, you are now going out into the wide, wide, world to make your own way, and it is a very good thing to do, as there are no more opportunities for you in this burg. I am only sorry that I am not able to bankroll you to a very large start, but not having any potatoes to give you, I am now going to stake you to some very valuable advice, which I personally collect in my years of experience around and about, and I hope and trust you will always bear this advice in mind. Son, no matter how far you travel, or how smart you get always remember this: Some day, somewhere, a guy is going to come to you and show you a nice brand-new deck of cards on which the seal is never broken, and this guy is going to offer to bet you that the jack of spades will jump out of this deck and squirt cider in your ear. But son, do not bet him, for as sure as you do you are going to get an ear full of cider.

Click here to Go to the A to Z Challenge

B = Beasts of Battle

The 'Beasts of battle' is a motif found in old Norse and old English literature. It involves three creatures, the Wolf, the Raven and the Eagle. In legend, these accompany warriors and feast on the bodies of the slain. You will find them in the old Norse Poetic Edda as well as several Old English poems.

Eagle

Wolf

 


Crow

Such concepts are fascinating to know.  If you are reading, say the Edda, or an old English poem (if you can understand them) You can san "ah=HAH!! Lookee there!  A crow, an eagle and a wolf!  Battle's coming!"  Usually you'll be right and you can either impress everyone or have them rolling their eyes, depending on where you are.  Personally, I seldom have people hanging over me when I'm reading old poetry.

 

Jeremy the Crow

...But what if you throw in some details?  How does that change things?  What if you have, say, Jeremy the Crow from The Secret of Nimh , Akela the Chief Wolf from The Jungle Book and Sam the Eagle from The Muppet Show? 







You could have a lot of fun, that's what.  Just imagine the three of them moving along down a road.  Strasbourg (Alsace - France) is behind them and they're heading east into Germany.  They are chatting pleasantly: Akela runs a tight ship and Sam the Eagle believes in correctness. 



Akela the Wolf

Two of the three companions are moving slowly along the winding lane.  Jeremy has been flying forward, performing reconnaissance.  "France is behind us now," says Akela.  How strange: this looks so much like the mountains where the Seeonee Wolf Pack hunted in India. ...I wonder how Mowgli is." 
 

 



"I wonder if there's a place we can get some food!" Sam grumbles.
 

Akela nods thoughtfully.  "There is always that concern..." 

Jeremy comes gliding in.  "I just saw a crowd of people heading this way!" he squawks.  "They look festive!"

Akela lifts his head.  "We can ask about watering holes," he says.

The road straightens just then and they face a crowd of people carrying noisemakers and flowers, singing...  "Germans," Akela says.  "Either that or they have indigestion from the noise they are making..."  He steps forward, his head raised, and speaks with the voice he used at the Pack Councils.  "My friends, if you could, of your goodness, direct us-"

The crowd scrambles to a halt.  Jaws drop, eyes move over the three creatures in the road. 

"Verdammte scheiße!"

"I beg your pardon?" Akela says.

Round eyes, screams,  "Führen Sie für Ihr Leben!" the people turn and run, their forms growing smaller and indistinct through the dust in the road.

Sam shakes  his wing at them.  "You're all a pack of weirdos!" he shouts.

Akela turns away with a sigh.  "You would think they expected us to eat them!" he says.  "Let's turn and go back to France.  The thought of Biftek tartare  appeals to me...

Click here to Go to the A to Z Challenge

 

 



A = Alarums and Excursions

If you have not had your head in the sand during the past two months, you will know that this is the eve of the A to Z blog fest, held annually during the month of April. Hundreds (literally) of bloggers all participate in the alphabet-themed blog, posting weekdays and Saturdays in alphabetical order. One poster I really enjoyed was a master crocheter. Her contribution was a blog of crocheted flower patterns from a to z. The flowers were delightful, beautiful, charming. Another had a collection of legendary creatures, from basilisks to … well, I forget what Z was. It is great fun and exhausting if, like me, you don’t have the sense to sit down a couple months ahead of time and plan things out. 

I signed up but ultimately bowed out, since I have a major project that I am working on and simply can’t commit to the level of activity that comes with this wonderful hop.

I can post, as much as I can, with the letter of the day, and send folks over to the A to Z site to check the list of bloggers and their themes. It’s fun, informative, enjoyable, delicious. Do check them out, read, comment, maybe start following. There is lots to see and enjoy.
 

Click here to Go to the A to Z Challenge

A =Alarums and Excursions

I remember reading Shakespeare in college (a dangerous activity, actually, since prolongued reading will have you thinking in Iambic Pentameter) and running across that term.  I knew what it meant from the context: martial goings-on, lords coming and going and a lot of literal sabre-rattling. 

Alarums and Excursions, by golly!

We don’t all live in Elizabethan times, but I’m sure we’ve all experienced the sort of clamor and hoo-haw that I, at least, would give that name to.  Having lived on a military base for a stretch of times, I saw a lot of it.

Another meaning is clamor, excitement and feverish or disordered activity.  Rather like the Black Friday sales at Wal-Mart in the US. 

The older version was more fun.

DEFINITION:
1:martial sounds and the movement of soldiers across the stage —used as a stage direction in Elizabethan drama

2: clamor, excitement, and feverish or disordered activity

Example:  <I'm not sure I'm up to the alarums and excursions that'll come with Sally's wedding>

Alarums and excursions was first used in 1605

 

Celebrations 20 March 2015 - Skipping (Reading Essentials)

Welcome to the March 20 edition of the Celebrating the Small Things blog hop, started by VikLit and now run by Lexa Cain, our fearless new leader and her two wonderful co-hosts L.G. Keltner @ Writing Off The Edge
Katie @ TheCyborgMom

Today I am celebrating a wonderful reading (and writing) tip:

 

SKIPPING

Skipping Through Books...

I have a terrible confession to make.   It has required a lot of courage on my part to take this step, especially on a public forum (more or less, since mine is not the most widely read blog by a long shot).   I don't know too many people who would willingly admit to it, at least not in this modern world where people take pride in reading every single word of a book.  Certainly, only one other person I know will admit to this particular practice.

The thing is, the practice has enabled me to circumvent unpleasant things and get to the meat of a book and then, armed with confirmation of the book's quality, go back and have another go at the unpleasant parts.  Since I have seen the whole of the book, I can now inspect its separate parts.

What am I talking about?

Skipping.

One of my favorite authors (C. S. Lewis) has this to say:

It is a very silly idea that in reading a book you must never "skip." All sensible people skip freely when they come to a chapter which they find is going to be no use to them. In this chapter I am going to talk about something which may be helpful to some readers, but which may seem to others merely an unnecessary complication. If you are one of the second sort of readers, then I advise you not to bother about this chapter at all but to turn on to the next.

Lewis was speaking of philosophical and theological subjects, but I have found that the advice is equally valid to those who are trying to plow through a passage of purple prose that threatens to derail them (Dickens has a lot of this), or who are having heavy going with a particular scene that has no apparent bearing on the rest of the book, (Melville's digression on the history of whaling in Moby Dick, for example) or the discussion of gardening practices in Lady Chatterly's Lover, per the reviewer in Field and Stream.

Just look at what not skipping does to your face!

I have gone skipping through most of Dickens, happily thumbing past his description of the nasty things that the law did to the fellow who they decided had killed the happily late Marquis de Saint-Evremond, and his various disquistions in all his books on society, injustice and the method a gentleman should employ while chasing a runaway hat on a windy day.

With this useful, and previously forgotten, technique, I am able to sit down, pick up The Pickwick Papers , and read what I enjoy, going back when I have more fortitude to suffer through enjoy  the parts I skipped.

That's worth celebrating, don'tcha think??

So what are you  celebrating?  (And have a wonderful weekend!)

Insecure Writer's Support Group - March 4, 2015

The Insecure Writer's Support Group

If, unlike me, you do not live in the Land of Oblivia, and (like me)you are, or think you may be, a writer, the first Wednesday of the month is the time for the Insecure Writer's Support Group blog hop. This is the once-a-month blog hop started by Alex J. Cavanaugh .

IWSG = Insecure Writers' Support Group (click for the link).  We share our insecurities and support each other with empathy, sympathy and  practical suggestions. 
Visit the site - and visit the co-hosts:
Chemist Ken,  Suzanne Sapseed, and Shannon Lawrence!


It is time for admissions.  I've been mulling things over and maybe I can give some enjoyment and, perhaps, get some nods, if I make a confession or two.

You see, I have a fundamental problem with 'bettering' myself as a writer.  That doesn't mean I will succumb to it.  It does mean that once in a while I look up and find that pet...fear, if you like...staring me in the face.  It's like this:

We are supposed to 'hone our craft', to read books about our craft, to attend seminars regarding our craft, to participate on discussion boards centered about our craft.  We are supposed to speak knowledgeably about our craft, and use words that indicate our knowledge about our craft (you know...  The stuff that proves that you are knowledgeable): 

"Each book in the series has its own story that opens up the changes to the MC as the events of the book pertain to them.  In the first book, XX is unstoppable in his own sphere.  He is assured, capable, brilliant, unflappable...  But then a chink develops.  Someone loves him and he confesses, however fleetingly, the fear that he only admits to himself when he is drunk awake in the wee small hours of the morning with no one to hear him.  The second book sees the widening of that chink until that moment where the unstoppable, unflappable hero is brought to a standstill and realizes that it is he  who needs support and protection given by others . And the third book... well, that particular weakness is gone, but there is more.  Oh - and the megatheme that over-arches the entire trilogy is the relationship between XXX and YYY."

...And your listeners look at you and say, "Huh?" and write you off as a nut case.

All these things we are supposed to do to make ourselves better.  Listen, learn, think...  Admit it, they can be uncomfortable.

What if, for example, I crack open John Truby's book The Anatomy of Story, which I bought recently, and discover that I have been going about my writing, which I love, which gives me a reason to value myself, which has made of many a wasteland of a bad day a time of enjoyment and increase, all the wrong way, that all I do is wrong or wrong-headed or just plain stupid and inept, and I will need to scrap everything?  What if my attendance at seminars and workshops and critique groups leads me to the aghast realization that what I offer for others to read and enjoy not only will not sell, but will be judged laughable by "real" writers and thoughtful readers?

What if I conclude that I am a phony?  That I only have a dream, and that having it doesn't mean that it is any good?  What if I might as well scrap things and resign myself to holding a place in the might-have-beens?

 

The Tragic Fate of a Might-Have-Been

...We are, after all, talking about insecurities, right?

 
We can linger and peer at them and choose not to venture away from our own little patch of endeavor.  Goodness knows, the temptation is to just leave well enough alone.
 
The movie  Notting Hill has a moment that, for me, expresses the fear of failure:  Anna Scott, the famous star, has decided to submit an argument about why she should get the last brownie, which is supposed to be awarded to the person with the most pathetic story:

Anna: I've been on a diet every day since I was nineteen, which basically means I've been hungry for a decade. I've had a series of not-nice boyfriends, one of whom hit me. Ah, and every time I get my heart broken, the newspapers splash it about as though it's entertainment. And it's taken two rather painful operations to get me looking like this.

Honey: Really?

Anna: Really. [indicates nose and chin] And, one day, not long from now, my looks will go, they'll discover I can't act and I'll become some sad, middle-aged woman who looks a bit like someone who was famous for a while. 

 

The correct response to this internal dialogue is, as in the movie, 'Nice Try, Gorgeous.'  And you have a good laugh at yourself and get on with it.

 

That's what it's all about , isn't it?  Acknowledging your insecurities and getting on with it?  That's what we're all doing.

 

In fact, Truby's book is interesting and while I'm learning from it, I'm also nodding my head and saying, 'Yep.  I'm doing that.  Good to know!'  And I'm looking for a seminar or two to go to.

 

Now excuse me.  I have a megatheme to scrutinize.