‘The two twin souls gazed into each other’s eyes. There is no surer foundation for a beautiful friendship than a mutual taste in literature.’
P.G. Wodehouse
(Strychnine In The Soup) Continue reading P.G. Wodehouse recommends: A Reading List for World Book Day
Bertie Wooster once said: I’m not absolutely certain of my facts, but I rather fancy it’s Shakespeare who says that it’s always just when a fellow is feeling particularly braced with things in general that Fate sneaks up behind him with the bit of lead piping. Jeeves and the Unbidden Guest So it was in February; I was sitting happily at my keyboard, brow furrowed with concentration as I worked on a delightful series of blog pieces on the theme of Wodehouse and love, in anticipation of Valentine’s day – the anniversary of Wodehouse’s death. The first three chapters of … Continue reading Wodehouse and the stuffed eel-skin of Fate
Originally posted on The Soul Tamagotchi:
I suppose the fundamental distinction between Shakespeare and myself is one of treatment. We get our effects differently. Take the familiar farcical situation of someone who suddenly discovers that something unpleasant is standing behind them. Here is how Shakespeare handles it in “The Winter’s Tale,” Act 3, Scene 3: ANTIGONUS: Farewell! A lullaby too rough. I never saw the heavens so dim by day. A savage clamour! Well may I get aboard! This is the chase: I am gone for ever. And then comes literature’s most famous stage direction: “Exit pursued by a bear.”… Continue reading Exit pursued by a bear
Originally posted on EMSWORTH:
We don’t mean this in a negative way, but the fact can’t be avoided: the Master wasn’t comfortable with sex. Not once in dozens of comic novels and hundreds of short stories with romantic plots, does any P. G. Wodehouse character indulge in the carnal passions, on-stage or off. Considering that people probably joke about sex more than anything else, it’s almost astonishing how well Wodehouse got by as a comic writer without it. Wodehouse wasn’t prudish in other respects. Bertie Wooster and his fellow Drones drink themselves silly, commit petty burglaries, fritter money away at… Continue reading Was P. G. Wodehouse squeamish about sex?
Originally posted on EMSWORTH:
It would be a joy to read Wodehouse even if his stories didn’t have more ingenious poetic allusions than there are stars in the sky. On the latest of our many happy passes through The Code of the Woosters — perhaps the very best of the Jeeves and Wooster novels — we started taking inventory. Wodehouse starts with a taste of Keats on the very first page, as Jeeves tells Bertie Wooster, “There is a fog, sir. If you will recollect, we are now in Autumn — season of mists and mellow fruitfulness.” A few pages… Continue reading What P. G. Wodehouse learned from Macbeth
What Ho! I have started this blog as part of a lifelong quest for Utopia. Unfortunately, the quest hasn’t been going so well, ever since I took that wrong turn at Bass Strait. Tasmania is pretty in places, but I don’t fit in here. I feel much as Alice anticipated she might upon reaching the end of the rabbit hole. How funny it’ll seem to come out among the people that walk with their heads downwards! The antipathies, I think – Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland It has been suggested to me by some presumably well-intentioned people that my … Continue reading In Search of Plumtopia
Plumtopia 