From: DJ Vollkasko (DJ_Vollkasko_at_gmx.net)
Date: Fri Jan 06 2006 - 12:48:40 PST
January 6th, 2006
The Twelfth Day of Christmas
* So what if I've been lazy giving you your gifts this week,
Newtonia--you have been much lazier than I, and you are two thousand
times as many. But Christmas ain't the time to bear grudges, and I can
comfort myself with the fact that this Season's Christmas Challenge has
been proudly taken up by more than one meagre promille (as it was with
the Hallowe'en Challenge). No, as far as I can see a stunning TWO
promille have joined the effort to shower you, Oh Newtonia, with the
gifts you deserve (ye ole couch potato)--and which they suredly
deserve, too!
* Now, for the last day of Christmas, I give you six new books, all of
which I found to be very interesting. Three are from writers who
strongly influenced H.P. Lovecraft (who's well represented in this
Library, so this is a good occasion to see where some of his ideas
originate... and who even mentions these authors in some of his own
stories!), and three are about long-distance travels done in canoes
(you may be aware or not that I love few things better than spending my
time on the water with one of my vintage folding boat kayaks) on the
North American continent:
** Dunsany - The Sword of Welleran and Other Stories (1908)
***
http://www.stillnewt.org/library/_Fiction/_Fantastic%20Literature/
Dunsany,%20Edward%20John%20Moreton%20Drax%20Plunkett%20Lord%20of%20(1878
-1957)/
*** Dunsany's third book--a collection of Celtic-inspired fantasy short
stories that influenced Lovecraft's early writing (the
"Dreamland"-cycle).
** Arthur Machen - The Great God Pan (1894)
***
http://www.stillnewt.org/library/_Fiction/_Fantastic%20Literature/
_Horror/
*** A scientist tries an experiment to let a girl see beyond our
reality--with horrifying results... Met with much antagonism from
Machen's Victorian contemporaries because of its sensuality and
insinuations. Gave Lovecraft inspiration to his Dunwich Horror and
other stories.
** Fort, Charles Hoyt - Book of the Damned (1919)
***
http://www.stillnewt.org/library/_Nonfiction/
_Natural%20Sciences%20&%20Technology/
*** This book by the very man who put the "Fort" into "Fortean" is 100%
scientific and much scarier than anything Lovecraft ever wrote...
because it is all TRUE! Not neccesarily Fort's deductions of the
Super-Geography and the Super-Sargasso Sea, etc., but the observations
are all for real, and that science completely ignored most of these
events because of her helplessness to explain them is really scary. Is
there a conspiracy? ;=} Regarding Lovecraft--read about all the stuff
that fell from the heavens, and then read Lovecraft's Colour out of
Space (available in the Library as part of the Arkham Dossier), and
you'll see that weirder things have come down to us than we have been
told...
** Bishop, Nathaniel - Paper Canoe (1878)
***
http://www.stillnewt.org/library/_Nonfiction/
_Geography%20and%20Ethnography/
*** Bishop buys a light canoe made from paper which he can paddle or
row, and travels 2000 miles down the US East coast down and into the
Gulf of Mexico, all shortly after the Civil War. What fascinated me
were his observations about the living conditions of the people he met,
especially in the South. Illustrated.
** Neihardt, John G. - The River and I
***
http://www.stillnewt.org/library/_Nonfiction/
_Geography%20and%20Ethnography/
*** What we got here? Three men set out to build a sleek canoe,
motorize it (at least try to...) and start on down the Missouri.
Neihardt went on to become a well-known writer, and it all started with
this--originally serialized--travelogue down the central Northamerican
waterway. Very funny, lots of fotos, many historic places visited.
Classic Americana.
** Seton, Ernest Thompson - The Arctic Prairies: A Canoe-Journey (ca.
1908)
***
http://www.stillnewt.org/library/_Nonfiction/
_Geography%20and%20Ethnography/
*** This is one of the most fascinating paddling books I've ever read.
Seton sees so many things in the nature and the people around him, it's
really hard to believe. Quite an interesting guy, Seton
was--bestselling writer, founder of the US boyscouts, then separating
from the boyscouts because of their militarist tendencies and his more
individualistic and pacifistic views. Started his own all ages, all
gender, all people movement, the Woodcraft Indians. In this brilliant
book you see him roughing it out in the Arctic North, following the
tracks of moose and caribou, way beyond the line of tree growth, noting
every bird behind any shrub, every bug beneath every rock. Amazing, the
kind of eye he had--and how he could write it without boring the
reader.
Some really good stuff there. Enjoy it.
Thanks,
DJ Vollkasko
The Temporary Newton Library
http://www.stillnewt.org/library
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