icepixie | Jul. 14th, 2008

Jul. 14th, 2008

I'm reading 84, Charing Cross Road, and it is DELIGHTFUL.

I came across this passage in one of Helene's letters to the bookshop*, and figured some of you out there would appreciate it.

Is there such a thing as a modern-English version of the Canterbury Tales? I have these guilts about never having rad Chaucer but I was talked out of learning Early Anglo-Saxon/Middle English by a friend who had to take it for her Ph.D. They told her to write an essay in Early Anglo-Saxon on any-subject-of-her-own-choosing. "Which is all very well," she said bitterly, "But the only essay subject you can find enough Early Anglo-Saxon words for is 'How to Slaughter a Thousand Men in a Mead Hall.'"

...She speaks the truth. (Although I think you could write a very short essay on being lost at sea, too. Oh, and religious devotion. Can't forget that.) Can you imagine Klein ever telling us to do that?

I do hope Helene eventually makes it over to England. It's been ten years in book-time since she started writing to the people in the shop, and they've been discussing it for like seven or eight years.

ETA: ...I guess not. Those of you who've read it before were smiling sympathetically when you read that last line, weren't you? *sniffles a bit*

* The book is a collection of letters from Helene Hanff to the people at Marks & Co., at the address in the title, in the two decades after WWII. Apparently she couldn't get nice-looking copies of books in New York City, so she mailed away for them and struck up an epistolary relationship with one of the clerks in the shop.

Current Mood: amused

Profile

icepixie

March 2023

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
			1	2	3	4
5	6	7	8	9	10	11
12	13	14	15	16	17	18
19	20	21	22	23	24	25
26	27	28	29	30	31

Links

Tags

adventures in cookery [16]
amusements on the intertubes [158]
ankylosing spondylitis [12]
apartment [1]
art [2]
article [1]
austen h8 [10]
ballet [3]
ballroom dancing [39]
birds [10]
birthday [7]
books [157]
- harry potter [8]
- lotr [10]
- vorkosigans [10]
buying a house [1]
choir [16]
college [74]
comps [22]
contra dance [1]
crack [7]
crazy fic ideas [22]
dead of cute [3]
dear yuletide writer [5]
dog [14]
doooooooom [4]
ehlers-danlos [2]
england [3]
england is strange [26]
exeter [38]
fail [2]
fake tv show [2]
fandom [47]
fandom addiction fairy [4]
fanvids that live in my head [3]
fic [120]
fic series
- closet idealism au (b5) [12]
fic
- snippets [4]
figure skating [207]
- spectating [33]
gardening [2]
geekery [9]
glee [23]
gonna need an ark [12]
grad school [177]
graduation [2]
grammar goddess [1]
gre [4]
grrr argh [61]
gynecological adventures [32]
health [39]
heh [43]
history [2]
holiday cards [3]
housekeeping [7]
humane society [2]
i am english major hear me analyze [26]
i have awesome friends [4]
i wonder [1]
ibook saga [7]
icons [13]
job search [5]
kenyon [93]
klutz [14]
knoxville [4]
laura roslin is my role model [1]
lazy academic [1]
library [2]
life [307]
little post of horrors [4]
media
- thrilling adventure hour [3]
- welcome to night vale [1]
meme [94]
mock mock mock [2]
mood themes [2]
movies [73]
- fred and ginger [31]
- sky captain [4]
- the cutting edge [7]
- the thin man [6]
museum [2]
music [141]
musicals [5]
my illustrious publishing career [4]
nashville [55]
octorhymo [1]
pealers [2]
photography [7]
photos [133]
picspam [1]
poetry [12]
- mine [3]
pollage [15]
puns [15]
recs [40]
scapercon
- vsc [1]
scary [15]
science fiction [6]
senior week [5]
shiny [16]
skating [1]
skiffy [2]
tea [5]
teaching [46]
thesis [58]
tooth saga [5]
trains [4]
travel [64]
- bath [4]
- bristol [1]
- california [1]
- chicago [5]
- cornwall [4]
- dartmoor [5]
- dawlish [3]
- denver [2]
- dover [2]
- edinburgh [3]
- exmouth [1]
- glastonbury [2]
- ireland [6]
- kent [2]
- london [12]
- lucerne [3]
- new york city [2]
- northumbria [1]
- oxford [1]
- paris [2]
- salisbury [1]
- salzburg [2]
- scotland [3]
- seattle [2]
- st. andrews [2]
- stourhead [1]
- stratford [1]
- topsham [1]
- totnes [2]
- washington dc [2]
tv
- agent carter [15]
- alias [5]
- atlantis [26]
  - sheppard/weir [6]
- babylon 5 [149]
  - ivanova/delenn [2]
  - ivanova/garibaldi [25]
  - ivanova/marcus [3]
  - ivanova/talia [1]
- ballykissangel [10]
- bbc [8]
- body of proof [44]
- bones [44]
- brisco county [1]
- bsg [93]
  - adama/roslin [3]
- bunheads [3]
- burn notice [26]
- caprica [1]
- carnivale [6]
- caroline in the city [6]
- castle [80]
- chilling adventures of sabrina [1]
- china beach [29]
- corner gas [21]
  - karen/davis [1]
- crusade [6]
- cupid [30]
- doctor who [86]
  - charley pollard [3]
  - doctor/rose [1]
  - eight [17]
  - eight/charley [10]
  - five [5]
  - five/tegan [6]
  - four [10]
  - four/romana [2]
  - four/sarah jane [2]
  - nine [9]
  - sarah jane smith [1]
  - six [1]
  - ten [32]
- due south [72]
  - fraser/thatcher [30]
  - yukon fic [7]
- earth 2 [1]
- farscape [25]
- firefly [4]
- firely [1]
- forever knight [3]
- fringe [96]
- futurama [2]
- ghosts [1]
- horrible histories [1]
- lois and clark [2]
- mad men [7]
- middleman [1]
- misc [36]
- miss fisher's murder mysteries [3]
- moonlighting [4]
- nashville [5]
- nikki & nora [2]
- northern exposure [56]
- orphan black [2]
- pushing daisies [33]
- rizzoli & isles [10]
- robson arms [3]
- sajv [7]
  - jules/rebecca [1]
- sg-1 [35]
  - daniel/janet [1]
  - sam/jack [12]
- sleepy hollow [3]
- slings and arrows [17]
- spaced [4]
- star trek [4]
  - discovery [2]
  - ds9 [7]
  - enterprise [1]
  - voyager [11]
- stranger things [4]
- supernatural [2]
- the americans [5]
- the crown [1]
- the invisible man [1]
- the librarians [2]
- torchwood [1]
- wandavision [1]
- warehouse 13 [24]
- wings [1]
- wonderfalls [14]
- x-files [24]
- xena [4]
useful things [4]
victorian [17]
vidding [26]
vids [30]
weird [3]
when i am old i shall wear purple [2]
work [22]
writing [133]
wrong [2]
wtf [15]
year in review [3]

Page Summary

Ofslog!

Style Credit

Style: Philosopher for Dusty Foot by timeasmymeasure

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags

Page generated Dec. 25th, 2025 09:01 am

Powered by Dreamwidth Studios