Literary Miscellany: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Literature
By Alex Palmer
3/5
()
About this ebook
When Did Literature Finally Get Sexy?
Is Coffee or Opium Better for Literary Creativity?
Why Are the Best Autobiographies so Embarrassing?
Why Do Some Detectives Use Their Minds and Others Their Fists?
Who knew that bestseller lists and children’s books could be the source of intense controversy? Or that even the biggest writers had to scrape by, with odd jobs and inventions like the Mark Twain Self-Pasting Scrapbook? In Literary Miscellany, examine the trend of fake memoirs,” with a list of who lied about what, and a rogues’ gallery of hoaxers dating back centuries. From epic poetry and Homer to pulp fiction and Harry Potter, Literary Miscellany is a breezy tour through the literature of today and yesterday, packed with enough interesting facts to entertain both the erudite professor and pleasure reader.
Alex Palmer
Alex Palmer is a Canberra based novelist who took up writing full time when she was made redundant from the Australian Public Service. Her first crime novel Blood Redemption won the Ned Kelly for Best First Crime Novel and the Sisters-in-Crime Davitt Award for best crime novel by a woman.
Read more from Alex Palmer
Weird-o-pedia: The Ultimate Book of Surprising Strange and Incredibly Bizarre Facts About (Supposedly) Ordinary Things Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Food Weird-o-Pedia: The Ultimate Book of Surprising, Strange, and Incredibly Bizarre Facts about Food and Drink Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAlternative Facts: 200 Incredible, Absolutely True(-ish) Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Tattooed Man Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBlood Redemption Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Labyrinth of Drowning Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Related to Literary Miscellany
Related ebooks
Curiosities of Literature: A Feast for Book Lovers Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Secret Library: A Book Lover's Journey Through Curiosities of Literature Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Incredible History Trivia: Fun Facts and Quizzes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWomen of Interest: The Ultimate Book of Women's Trivia Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUnbelievable!: The Bizarre World of Coincidences Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWriting on Roots Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Ultimate Pub Quiz Book Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWord Fugitives: In Pursuit of Wanted Words Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Kent Urban Legends: The Phantom Hitchhiker and Other Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5From Rags to Ricketts and Other Essays on Circus History Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Book To Love: Favourite Guests of ABC TV's First Tuesday Book Club Share Their Most Loved Books Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Books and Reading: A Book of Quotations Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5It Takes a Certain Type to Be a Writer: And Hundreds of Other Facts from the World of Writing Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/51,001 Things You Didn't Know You Wanted to Know Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBig Book of New York Ghost Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIs Santa Claus Super?: The Obligatory Everything But Imaginary, #2 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhy Does Coffee Make You Poop?: The Ultimate Collection of Curious Questions and Intriguing Answers Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Writing for Children - A Manual for Writers of Juvenile Fiction Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUnder the Covers and between the Sheets: Facts and Trivia about the World's Greatest Books Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5From the Ridiculous to the Sublime Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSimiles Dictionary Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Apex Magazine: Issue 27 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMama's Big Book of Little Lifesavers: 398 Ways to Save Your Time, Money, and Sanity Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLife In "E" motion Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIt's Not My Fault: A Pangolin's Manifesto Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings1,124 Facts about the World that you Should Know Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5On This Day: 365 Tales of History, Mystery, and More Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Fairy Mythology: Illustrative of the Romance and Superstition of Various Countries Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings21st Century Dodos: A Collection of Endangered Objects (and Other Stuff) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Big Book of Senior Moments: Humorous Jokes and Anecdotes as a Reminder That We All Forget Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Literary Criticism For You
The 48 Laws of Power: by Robert Greene | Conversation Starters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Reader’s Companion to J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Man's Search for Meaning: by Viktor E. Frankl | Conversation Starters Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/512 Rules For Life: by Jordan Peterson | Conversation Starters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Great Alone: by Kristin Hannah | Conversation Starters Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Art of Seduction: by Robert Greene | Conversation Starters Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5As I Lay Dying Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis | Conversation Starters Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBehold a Pale Horse: by William Cooper | Conversation Starters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain | Conversation Starters Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Turtles All the Way Down: by John Green | Conversation Starters Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Letters to a Young Poet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killers of the Flower Moon: by David Grann | Conversation Starters Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Oscar Wilde: The Unrepentant Years Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Book of Virtues Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5One Hundred Years of Solitude: A Novel by Gabriel Garcia Márquez | Conversation Starters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself by Michael A. Singer | Conversation Starters Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine: by Gail Honeyman | Conversation Starters Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Gulag Archipelago: The Authorized Abridgement Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Literary Miscellany
9 ratings1 review
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Palmer has put together an interesting little volume loosely covering a history of literature. This is not an overly academic volume, it is much more "fun" reading. Typical format in a chapter discusses the history of a literature type (epic poem, novel, gothic, romance, sci-fi, etc), includes references to important authors and works, and then includes lots of trivia and miscellaneous facts. Although I would not recommend reading this volume for the academic research - Palmer has included a great selected bibliography that may be well worth the price of this volume!
Book preview
Literary Miscellany - Alex Palmer
PART I
WRITERS
The lives, habits, and bizarre personalities of the greats
e9781616080952_i0006.jpgWHAT DO HOMER AND JAY-Z HAVE IN COMMON?
Bards and epic storytelling
Before novelists, publishers, or Amazon.com existed, bards, or oral poets, ruled the literary scene. So this seems like the right topic to begin with. Proliferating through medieval Europe, and Britain in particular, until around the seventeenth century, these poets were multitaskers, composing and memorizing stories and reciting them for their audience, often while playing a harp, lyre, or some other ancient instrument.
Their tales celebrated the deeds of great men, catalogued the genealogies of kings and princes, and relayed the exciting historical events and victories of the tribe down through the generations. They preceded the rhapsodes and king’s poets of later generations, but also share some striking similarities with another type of performer prevalent today: rappers and hip-hop stars.
Bards were boosters. Like a rapper giving love to his music label or mentor, a bard would weave in positive stories about the wealthy royals who sponsored him and offer eulogies and tales of glory about his employers’ ancestors. Since it was almost entirely an oral culture, it was up to the bards to remember the key details of past glories and family history and to pass these on to the rest of their tribe—so the leaders of the day made sure to take care of their poets.
e9781616080952_i0007.jpgTerms for the oral poets varied by region, with different class designations for each. In Ireland, bards ranked below the class of poets known as fili. To become a fili required more formal learning. A fili could move up the ranks as he learned more stories and improved his skill, the highest level being the ollam, who could recite 350 stories, which took some twelve years to learn:
ollam—350 stories
drnuth—175 stories
clí—80 stories
cano—60 stories
doss—50 stories
macfuirmid—40 stories
fochlocon—30 stories
drisoc—20 stories
toman—10 stories
oblaire—7 stories
In Wales, bards shared similarities with the Irish fili—receiving the level of respect that a smith, cleric, or other highly trained professional earned. The Welsh had just three levels of bards, the highest of which was pencerdd (master-poet
or chief of song
). To avoid getting too technical, in this chapter the term bard
will encompass all these terms.
Once they graduated from this learning, the poets would travel from house to house and village to village, getting VIP treatment from those they dropped in on. The poets traveled with an entourage of assistants and lower bards (the Welsh sometimes dubbed these lower bards bardd teulu, or bard of the bodyguard
).
As with rappers, bards proved their skills by competing with each other, sometimes in highly publicized events. The national Eisteddfod, an annual festival that began in Wales as far back as 1176, developed into the biggest of such events. Over a period of several days, bards performed their songs and poems before judges. The one chosen as the winner received a carved oak chair, which he used to tell stories and instruct young poets.
This served as both a test for young bards and a proving ground for the already established poets. The Eisteddfod was discontinued in the late seventeenth century, but then revived a century later. The annual National Eisteddfod is still a huge cultural event for Wales; more than 6,000 poets competed in the 2006 summit, which welcomed 150,000 visitors—more fans than a typical Jay-Z concert can boast!
e9781616080952_i0009.jpgDid You Know?
John Dryden once famously played host to his own poetry competition. He and a group of wits, including the earls of Dorset and Buckingham, decided to each write a selection, with Dryden selecting the best one. After reviewing most of them, he got to the Earl of Dorset’s and immediately awarded him the prize. His poem? I promise to pay John Dryden, / or order on demand, / the sum of 500 pounds.
Villagers treated a bard well when he went on tour, because someone who disagreed with a poet (or with his employer) could wind up in one of the poet’s derisive satires. If a host acted rudely, or a patron neglected to pay what he had promised, the poet called him out in a glam dicin, ensuring a rotten reputation as a cheapskate or worse. Some believed that a really pointed satire caused boils to appear on the target’s face.
Despite—or perhaps because of—this fear, not everyone loved the bards. When Edward I conquered Wales in 1277, he supposedly sent hundreds of the poets to their deaths in an attempt to keep them from inciting rebellion and retelling a version of history he would rather not hear.
How did epic storytellers remember all those lines?
A bard earned respect for his ability to remember lengthy stories full of historic details as much as how well he told his tales. So how did he remember all that? Historians believe bards learned formulas of specific meter and alliterative rhyme, which gave their works a consistent, memorable flow. This explains the regular, repeated phrasing and episodic structure of epics like The Iliad and Beowulf. Like lyric-heavy rap songs with catchy hooks, these formulas allowed them to transition easily from one part to the next, making their storytelling smooth and casual.
e9781616080952_i0010.jpgWe don’t know much about any bards, but Homer may be the most mysterious of them all. While it is widely agreed that he lived in the eighth century BC in Ionia (what is now considered Turkey), that is about all that is agreed on. It is unclear that The Iliad and Odyssey were written by the same person, as they are significantly different tales, though there is not enough evidence to disprove this, either.
Because he delivered his work orally, Homer almost certainly borrowed (or perhaps sampled) ideas and anecdotes from his contemporaries. However, he imbued his epics with his unique sense of narrative and tone, just as a musician might remix elements of other songs. As critic Daniel S. Burt explains in The Literary 100, To achieve the dramatic unity and coherence of his epics ... is almost unthinkable and a testimony to Homer’s unmatched skill as a poet and storyteller.
Did You Know?
The novelist Samuel Butler studied Homer extensively and, after considering the historical and geographical information in the poem, as well as the poet’s particular techniques, determined Homer must have been a very young woman
living in Sicily. He published The Authoress of the Odyssey, outlining this theory, in 1897.
The extensive literary and cultural traditions built around oral poetry helped ensure its longevity, and it thrived from generation to generation for centuries. After the Frenchspeaking Normans conquered England in 1066 and eventually took control of Ireland and Wales, the poets were incorporated into the court as entertainers and genealogists. The Gaelic culture waned, and the duties of the bards shifted to involve written literature; their function evolved into the roles of court poet and troubadour, with the more familiar patron/artist relationship becoming the standard (see next chapter). By the mid-seventeenth century, the role of oral poets, with their emphasis on the social function of their work, had largely been ceded to the individualism and private enterprise of the new class of poets.
e9781616080952_i0012.jpgCalling All Poets
The term bard
has also come to mean any serious poet, the bestknown example being William Shakespeare, also known as The Bard of Avon.
Many other poets have been dubbed with much snappier titles. These include:
The Blind Bard
Homer (c. 750 BC) was called The Blind Bard,
but there is little actual evidence that he was blind. Some believe the character of the blind poet Demodocus in the Odyssey is meant to represent the work’s author himself.
The Bard of Democracy
Walt Whitman, who wrote The Democratic Review (1841–1845) and Democratic Vistas (1871).
The Bard of Hope
Thomas Campbell, the author of The Pleasures of Hope (1799).
The Bard of the Imagination
Mark Akenside, author of The Pleasures of the Imagination (1744), a long didactic poem about the enjoyment of beauty, philosophy, and the study of man.
e9781616080952_i0013.jpgHOW DID STARVING WRITERS PAY THE BILLS?
The patrons, odd jobs, and odder merchandising of the masters
William Somerset Maugham once said, Money is like a sixth sense—and you can’t make use of the other five without it.
Making a living as a writer has never been easy, and throughout the history of literature, authors and poets have engaged in some surprising, and sometimes embarrassing, gigs to keep food on the table as they pursued their passion.
For centuries, writers did not have the option of making a living solely from writing. From the fourteenth to the seventeenth centuries, writers, such as bards and kings’ poets, focused their energies on finding patrons who would support their work, developing a two-way relationship: the patron paid the writer’s way, while a great writer helped boost the aristocrat’s prestige or political strength. Since power and glory could be fleeting things, members of the court saw immortalization in a poem as a valuable thing worth a decent amount of cash. The job was not all courtly poetry and grand odes; working for a patron could often involve writing inscriptions and histories or serving as a tutor or diplomat when the occasion required.
e9781616080952_i0014.jpgDid You Know?
Legend has it that when Edmund Spenser failed to receive payment from his patron, he sent a piece of paper to Queen Elizabeth reading, I was promised on a time, / To have reason for my rhyme; / From that time unto this season, / I received nor rhyme nor reason.
The writer and his patron had an intricate relationship, with the writer’s work influenced by his employer’s tastes. The classical relationship between Virgil and his patron, Maecenas, was held as the ideal, based on an ancient epigram