Miss Pym and a Friend
Saturday, February 18, 2012
The Woman in Black
I am dying to see this film, and I would love to hear from anyone who has. It is based on a book by Susan Hill, who wrote a sequel to Rebecca, Mrs. DeWinter. She writes about Pymian topics, but often represents the dark side. I also love the gothic setting, and there are a few dolls and mechanical toys used as props. I love a good scare, and this seems like good, old fashioned, gothic horror. I'm not a slasher/blood&guts kind of girl, and I like suspence. The Innocents, based on Henry James, is my idea of a good, scary film. Anyone else have any ideas?
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
What would Miss Pym and Marcia Say?
I read a blurb in Readers Digest this morning; a woman was worried because her elderly mother was saving cardboard tubes from paper towels. "I hate to throw them away," the mother allegedly said, thereby implying she had a future use. Or, perhaps she was going to recycle. RD thought she should be "a little worried." They were hinting at, horror of horrors, "hoarding," something that did not exist before reality TV became Big Brother and invaded everyone's space along with DIY surveillance devices, phones with cameras, reocrders, you name it. Big Brother and the Mechanical Hound of Farenheit 451 are alive and well.
As I Read, I thought of Marcia in Quartet in Autumn; and of her creator. Would would she and Miss Pym say? Marcia is that well-known collector of plastic bags, carefully stored and folded, certain milk bottles [those that don't conform are discarded], and string. And Pym, who believed in home arts, cooking and crafts, and whose characters loved their bits and pieces and jumble sales? There Bring and Buys? I think she would have approved of saving something for future use, and not wasting.
There is a different between those who have to save their garbage, and can't throw anything away, and those who like to collect, or recylce, or collect to make things. I knew an avid knitter who had a whole room in her very big house devoted to yarn. She also never threw a book away, and ran an excellent paperback trading store. She was a beloved mother, friend,teacher, volunteer for Arc. No one would have called her a hoarder, and there was a run on her yarn and her book inventory when she met a sudden, and untimely death, a little like Marcia's. [Yes, Marcia had cancer, but did you really expect her to die at the end of the novel?]
RD gave a definition of a hoarder as someone who stores chicken bones in the bathtub. Well, it's their tub and they have a place for it. Are the founders of the Smithsonian hoarders? Those who collect to sell on eBay, or for their shops? I do know artists who boil and preserve chicken and other animal bones to make jewelry and to carve as art.
Our local SERV store has dozens of crafts made this way in Africa, Central America, India, and other parts of the world. There are nativity sets made of rolled newsppaer, angels carved from soda cans, dolls made of bent clothes hangers and scraps, figures made from dried orange peels, other dolls dressed in mirror work, where bits of broken rear view mirrors are sewed into the fabric.
We live in a society that tells us what to do all time, and then exposes us. We are admonished to recyle, to look for cash in the attic, to support American Pickers, to buy second hand to save money, and then we are chastised for having no where to put it, or for living within our means. When we try to recylce, we shouldn't do it "too much." My neighbor hoards wood, and garbage. She and her prof. hubby scavenge what they can from anyone, so they dont' have to pay for it. They are celebrated as environmentalists. Go figure.
Well, I will collect my dolls, and be a fan of Marilyn Karp, author of In Flagrante Delicto, and I will read my books, and give them to my studens and take them to my friend Juli for her paperback trade store. I will give to Good Will and the Salvation Army, and I will continue to find shelves and plan my museum.
RD, I love you for many things, but you are off base this time.
As I Read, I thought of Marcia in Quartet in Autumn; and of her creator. Would would she and Miss Pym say? Marcia is that well-known collector of plastic bags, carefully stored and folded, certain milk bottles [those that don't conform are discarded], and string. And Pym, who believed in home arts, cooking and crafts, and whose characters loved their bits and pieces and jumble sales? There Bring and Buys? I think she would have approved of saving something for future use, and not wasting.
There is a different between those who have to save their garbage, and can't throw anything away, and those who like to collect, or recylce, or collect to make things. I knew an avid knitter who had a whole room in her very big house devoted to yarn. She also never threw a book away, and ran an excellent paperback trading store. She was a beloved mother, friend,teacher, volunteer for Arc. No one would have called her a hoarder, and there was a run on her yarn and her book inventory when she met a sudden, and untimely death, a little like Marcia's. [Yes, Marcia had cancer, but did you really expect her to die at the end of the novel?]
RD gave a definition of a hoarder as someone who stores chicken bones in the bathtub. Well, it's their tub and they have a place for it. Are the founders of the Smithsonian hoarders? Those who collect to sell on eBay, or for their shops? I do know artists who boil and preserve chicken and other animal bones to make jewelry and to carve as art.
Our local SERV store has dozens of crafts made this way in Africa, Central America, India, and other parts of the world. There are nativity sets made of rolled newsppaer, angels carved from soda cans, dolls made of bent clothes hangers and scraps, figures made from dried orange peels, other dolls dressed in mirror work, where bits of broken rear view mirrors are sewed into the fabric.
We live in a society that tells us what to do all time, and then exposes us. We are admonished to recyle, to look for cash in the attic, to support American Pickers, to buy second hand to save money, and then we are chastised for having no where to put it, or for living within our means. When we try to recylce, we shouldn't do it "too much." My neighbor hoards wood, and garbage. She and her prof. hubby scavenge what they can from anyone, so they dont' have to pay for it. They are celebrated as environmentalists. Go figure.
Well, I will collect my dolls, and be a fan of Marilyn Karp, author of In Flagrante Delicto, and I will read my books, and give them to my studens and take them to my friend Juli for her paperback trade store. I will give to Good Will and the Salvation Army, and I will continue to find shelves and plan my museum.
RD, I love you for many things, but you are off base this time.
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Memoir; Writing your Life Story: Broken for You
Memoir; Writing your Life Story: Broken for You: This is a wonderful book, written in parts as if it were a memoir, with Margaret, the main character, reviewing her life through her collect...
Friday, February 3, 2012
Barbara Pym Meeting and Conference 2012
This is just a friendly reminder that the annual North American Barbara Pym Society conference is now only six weeks away. Early registration has been heavier than usual, with over 40 signed up already, and we'll be getting some free publicity in the Boston Sunday Globe on February 12, when the books column will feature the conference along with a photo of Barbara. So if you are planning to come and have not yet done so, I urge you to register soon so there's no chance of disappointment.
It promises to be a weekend of fun, fellowship, and outstanding presentations. Details are on our web site, www.barbara-pym.org
I hope you will be able to join us.
Tom Sopko
North American Organizer
It promises to be a weekend of fun, fellowship, and outstanding presentations. Details are on our web site, www.barbara-pym.org
I hope you will be able to join us.
Tom Sopko
North American Organizer
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: Dolls That Played Hard to Get, Wuthering Heights, ...
Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: Dolls That Played Hard to Get, Wuthering Heights, ...: I stepped out this morning and looked back at my little brick house shrouded in mist and fog. You could barely see its gables, even a few f...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)