Under the Harrow

A review of Under the Harrow by Mark Dunn. Dunn also wrote Ella Minnow Pea, one of my favorite books of all time. Evidently Dunn's publisher is barely solvent. I am not even sure if the hard cover version of this book is available. I read the Kindle edition. I supposed this also explains why the book has had no publicity

Dunn's books are all completely different, from Ella Minnow Pea, an epistolary novel where successive letters are dropped from use in the text, to Ibid, which consisted totally of footnotes from a fictional biography. You could say that his fiction tends towards the experimental.

Under the Harrow could be summed up as a Victorian, mystery, thriller, which is quite a combination. Set in the Dingley Dell in the early 2000's. All of the inhabitants of the Dell are descended from a group of orphans, who in the let eighteen hundreds were abandoned by all the adults. For over 100 years they have lived cut off from the outside world. A few, select residents do have contact with the outside world for purposes of trade, but other than this—for reason that the residents can only speculate on—there have been no outside influences on the residents of the Dell for over 100 years.

When abandoned the orphans were left with the Ninth Edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, and a complete set of Charles Dickens' novels. Thus everyone chooses a name from Dickens. They also have an atlas, but they are not exactly clear where the Dell is located, other than that it is in a mid-latitude coal region. Some think they are in Australia, others England, and others Pennsylvania.

There are attempts by some to escape to the outside world, but those who try this either never return, or, if they do return, they must be locked up in an asylum.

After a century of living stuck in the late Victorian age, the novel picks up as the entire community is about to come to a cataclysmic end. In the novel, these events are recounted by Frederick Trimmers several years after the demise of the Dell. As events in the Dell begin to careen out of control, Trimmers becomes involved with a small group of residents who—disguised as a poetry society—are determine to figure out what is happening to their society.

The story has a large number of characters, from a few who attempt to escape the Dell, to their relatives who have been left behind, and are determined to discover what has happened to the attempted escapees. As a couple characters leave the Dell for the outside, the narrative also follows their interaction with the outside world, where the Dickens characters meet the modern world. Given the need to establish all of these characters, the novel starts out fairly slow. But as the reader becomes familiar with the characters the pace picks up until is ends in a mighty crescendo.

In the vein of Dickens, the novel deals with the relationships of different social classes. Even though everyone is descended from the same group of orphans, the society has become very stratified, from the members of the Petit-Parliament down to the outcast apricot eaters, who barely make out an existence on the edge. There is also the relationship of the few elite, who have limited interaction with the outside world, and may in fact know what is about to happen, with the rest of the society, who are totally in the dark about the outside world and the coming events. Added to this are numerous family conflicts.

As in many situations, the main internal conflict is should I stay or should I go. In this book this conflict becomes very literal.

I have not read Dickens for quite a few years, so I cannot say how closely Dunn's writing style follows Dickens, although the book is clearly meant as a homage to him. At the same time given that the novel deals with an old world inside the current world, it definitely has a post-Dickensian, if not post-modern, structure.

I tend to like shorter fiction, so I cannot say that I liked this book as much as Ella Minnow Pea. That being said, it is very original, a whole raft of characters are portrayed very comprehensibly, and once the pace gets moving it becomes very gripping.

One final point, in addition to the clear homage to Dickens, one of the characters in the world outside the Dell has a striking resemblance to Senator Arlen Specter. So even though Specter is about to lose his Senate seat, maybe his consolation prize can be that he has gained a place in literature.

The Raven

For Halloween, a Christopher Walken reading of Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven. Illustration used in the video are by Gustave Dore.

People Who Became Nouns

From LIFE, a set of images representing 51 people whose names live on as references to cars, scientific measurements, prostitutes and various and sundry other things. Since it is election time, I am including the picture of the infamous Elbridge Gerry below on the link. The image of the Gerry-Mander may well have been reproduced in more history books than just about any other image.

People Who Became Nouns

White House in Pictures

From the White House blog, a post with photographs that represent the last year in pictures.

Pete Souza's Ten Favorites

Picture ot the Day - 10/26/2010

This is one of the cornices at the top of the United States Appraisers' Stores Building in downtown Baltimore. Built in 1932.

Pictures of the Day - 2010

Museo Subacuático de Arte

Some photographs and a video of Jason deCaires Taylor's Museo Subacuático de Arte. Large concrete sculptures submerged off the coast of Mexico, with the dual purposes of providing a place for new coral reefs to grow, and reducing damage to natural reefs by luring tourist away from them. It is planned to eventually contain over 400 permanent life-size sculptures.

La Evolución Silenciosa

Holland Island House Collapses

The Baltimore Sun has published an in depth article on the collapse of the final remaining house on Holland Island in the Chesapeake Bay. It is good to see that the Sun is still capable of doing journalism once in a while.

Here is a link to the photographs that go with the article.

Chesapeake Bay island vanishes

Picture ot the Day - 10/22/2010

I took this photograph last night from Federal Hill after the O'Malley Rally ended. Sunset over the Ravens' stadium.

Pictures of the Day - 2010

Campaigning on Federal Hill

Photographs from the rally for Gov. O'Malley today on Federal Hill. Main event was Bill Clinton, with numerous supporting characters.

Note: Once the slide show opens, if you click at the top where it says "Show Info" the descriptions should appear with the photographs.

Campaigning on Federal Hill - 10/21/10

The Great Gatsby

Roger Ebert's latest blog entry is about Bill Nack, author of the book that the movie Secretariat is based on. In the post, The storyteller and the stallion, Ebert discusses his long friendship with Nack, a fellow University of Illinois alumnus. The post contains a very interesting four part video of Nack discussing Secretariat. Also included is this video of Nack reciting the closing lines of The Great Gatsby.



See my previous post on Secretariat for more on the brawl between Ebert and Salon critic Andrew O'Hehir over the movie.

Ansel Adams' Photos of Manzanar

From the Denver Post's PLOG, a collection of Ansel Adams' photographs taken at Manzanar War Relocation Center in California, where nearly 10,000 Japanese Americans were interned during World War II.

From the Archive: Japanese Internment at Manzanar

Sleep Inducing Milk

An article, from guardian.co.uk, about a German company that has patented "nocturnal milk". That is milk with super high levels of melatonin.

German night milk may aid insomniacs

Four Seasons in Yosemite

The Los Angelos Times' Mark Boster spent a year photographing Yosemite National Parks. Here are highlights from his journey.

Four Seasons in Yosemite

Barbara Billingsley, RIP

Here is Baltimore Sun TV critic David Zurawick's write up on Barbara Billingsley, a very succinct summary of her impact on American society.

Barbara Billingsley, definitive '50s TV mom, dead at 94

Charlotte's Web Cover Art

Charlotte's Web cover art sells for more than $155,000.

'CHARLOTTE'S WEB' cover art snares $155K at auction

Baltimore Reflections

Here is a set of photographs that I took today. Every photograph in this set is a reflection, most in glass, but a couple in the water. The photograph below is the clock face of the Bromo Seltzer Tower reflected in a window of a hotel across the street, but it almost looks like the clock is on the wall of the hotel.

Actually these pictures are all dependent on chance, based on where you can stand in relationship to the angle of the sun. Some of them look almost like the actual image, and some appear to be abstract.

Note: Once the slide show opens, if you click at the top where it says "Show Info" the descriptions should appear with the photographs.

Baltimore Reflections - 10/17/10

Extraordinary, Ordinary Family

Here is Condoleezza Rice's appearance at the National Press Club to promote her book Condoleezza Rice: A Memoir of My Extraordinary, Ordinary Family and Me. A very fascinating talk about growing up in Birmingham, Alabama in the 50's and 60's.

Note the first 5 minutes is introduction, so you can skip over that.

King Herod's Theater Box

An article and photographs about the excavation of King Herod's theater box. Left out of the article is whether or not he watch beheading from this box.

King Herod's VIP Box Excavated

Maryland Water Crossings

A two part video from the Maryland State Highway Administration on water crossings in Maryland, including the Casselman Bridge and Montgomery Meigs' Union Arch Bridge.

Glenna Goodacre - Clay Masher

In the two weeks I have photographed two of the most important works by the American sculptor Glenna Goodacre. I have created a set that include photographs of both the Vietnam Women's Memorial, part of the Vietnam War Memorial on the National Mall, and The Irish Memorial, located at Penn's Landing in Philadelphia. Below the link to the photos, I have included the documentary Clay Masher. In the film she discussing both of the works I have photographed, as well as her work creating the image of Sacagawea that appears on the one dollar coin.

Glenna Goodacre

Ed Burtynsky - Oil

A set of photography's of the Deep Water Horizon oil spill by photographer Ed Burtynsky. The photographs accompany this article on guardian.co.uk. Following the link to the photographs is a video on Burtynsky's exhibit Oil that was at the Corcoran Gallery of Art last year.

Deepwater Horizon: Drilling deep, drilling dumb

Edward Burtynsky: Oil from Corcoran Gallery of Art on Vimeo.

Rare Roman Helmet

From National Geographic:

A rare Roman helmet dating to the late first to second century A.D. fetched nearly $3.6 million dollars at a London auction on October 7.

The bronze helmet and face mask was discovered in May 2010 by a treasure hunter using a metal detector in a field in Cumbria, a county in northwestern England.

The helmet was described by Christie's auction house as "an extraordinary example of Roman metalwork at its zenith."

Both the sellers and winning bidder have remained anonymous.

Secretariat

I saw Secretatriat today, and while I wouldn't say it is a great film, it was entertaining. Highest marks go to the sound track for including both the Staple Singers singing "I'll Talk You Their" and the Edwin Hawkins Singers performing "Oh Happy Day". And the songs went really well with the scenes they accompanied. As expected, Diane Lane does a great job portraying Penny Chenery, Secretariat's owner. The Horse who portrays Secretariat does a great job also, but he does not seem to be credited.

[Added 10/12/10: I see from this Slate article that it was actually ten horses who played Secretariat.]

Almost more entertaining than the film though is the brawl that erupted last week over the film between Andrew O'Hehir of Salon.com and Roger Ebert. O'Hehir wrote a review ripping the film and comparing it to Nazi propaganda. Then Ebert wrote a scathing retort implying that the original review was insane, and O'Hehir responded back. I have to say that I agree mostly with Ebert. Sometimes a movies about a horse is just a movie about a horse. I mean it is a Disney film after all, not exactly a major source of social criticism. Here are the articles.

O'Hehir's review

Ebert's response

O'Hehir's rebuttal

Here is video of the real Secretariat winning the Belmont stakes followed by the trailer for the movie.

The Social Network

Today I saw The Social Network, the film about the creation of Facebook starring Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg, the Harvard student behind the worldwide phenomenon. Andrew Garfield plays Eduardo Saverin, Zuckerberg's friend who provided the initial capital to start the site when it was originally open only to Harvard student. Of the films that I have discussed on this site, this is the third one that Garfield has starred in, having performed in both Never Let Me Go and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. He is beginning to make quite a name for himself.

Back to this film. It has deservedly been given rave reviews. I accept that the facts have been played with rather loosely. But even if it does not stand as an historical record of the creation of Facebook, it is still a superbly crafted film. It probably has one of the best scripts written in recent years, and I doubt that many films of this length have squeezed in so much dialog. It seems to me that this film could have easily careened out of control, but the director, David Fincher, has managed to turn out a very coherent and tight film. This is all the more of an achievement given that the film is composed of flashbacks interspersed with scenes from depositions for the law suits that were spawned out of the entire endeavor. The integration of these two sequences is seamless, and I never felt lost going back and forth.

A lot of the talk has been about how much of an asshole Zuckerberg is portrayed as. I would say that Zuckerberger is portrayed as rather human. While he may be a bit insensitive, I am not sure that he acts that much worse than most other 20 year old's would in his situation. On the other hand, if I were the Winklevoss twins I think I would be more that a little upset. These are the two brothers who end up suing Zuckerberg alleging that he stole the idea for Facebook from them. I can only hope that they are not the same ninnies in real life, that are portrayed in the film. But they certainly add mirth to whole thing. My favorite scene is when the Winklevoss twins go to visit Mr. Tactless himself, then Harvard President Larry Summers.

While I liked just about everything about the film, I would have to say that the film could not have succeeded without Jesse Eisenberg's adept performance. Many actors can give sympathetic performance for sympathetic characters, but it takes a lot more skill when you have a less than sympathetic character to start with.

I had forgotten until I was watching the film that the outdoor scenes of Harvard were actually shot at Johns Hopkins. I remember now that some of the students were upset at the time of the filming. They found it a bit disrespectful to be made to play the stand in for Harvard. Regardless of that, I thought the University looked pretty good.

A couple clips:

Never Let Me Go

I was able to see Never Let Me Go last weekend. This is the film that I thought I was going to see when I went to see Easy A. This time I got the right film.

The film is based on the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro—which I have not read—and stars Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley and Andrew Garfield. The characters played by these three actors are all donors who have been apparently cloned, and raised so that their organs can be harvested and used to save the lives of regular members of society. The donations will continue until the donors no longer are able to survive without the organs they have donated and then, in the words of the film, they complete.

The film starts when the characters are school children being raised at a cloistered boarding school in England. At a point fairly early in the film the children find out the truth about their situation, which up until this time they have been oblivious to.

The film then jumps ahead several years to when the three have graduated from the school, and are sent out into the real world to wait to be called to begin their donations. Of course, having been raised without any contact with the outside world, they are ill prepared for this change.

The film has gotten mixed reviews, with only a 65% on Rotten Tomatoes. However, I have to say that I liked it quite a lot. Some of criticism has centered on the fact that the film deals mostly with the relationships of the three main characters, and the ethical issues raised by the entire situation that has created them is not really dealt with in the film. This is a valid criticism, but I appreciated the fact that the film focused on the outstanding performances of the three actors, and did not go for the sensationalism that could easily have been generated in a film on this topic. The film does have a languid pace, so if you want a fast moving, melodramatic film skip this one. If you want to see some great acting, and a finely directed film you probably could not do better. On top of that Charlotte Rampling play the headmistress of the school.

Picture ot the Day - 10/8/2010

One hell of a long extension ladder. This is on the back side of the District of Columbia Courts Building

Pictures of the Day - 2010

British wildlife photography awards

A set of photographs on guardian.co.uk of the British Wildlife Photography Award winners.

British wildlife photography awards 2010

Small Change

Malcolm Gladwell's contrarian New Yorker article about the social impact of Twitter has set off a reaction in the blogosphere. I am not sure if I agree that the impact of Twitter on social change is so much smaller than popularly believed, but Gladwell always makes good arguments. Here is a link to the article.

Small Change: Why the revolution will not be tweeted

Philadelphia

A few downtown Philadelphia photographs from last weekend, mostly buildings and sculptures. Independence Hall is currently encased in scaffolding so I did not take any photographs of it.

Philadelphia 10/10

Civil War Photos to LOC

Tom Liljenquist has donated his collection of almost 700 Civil War photographs to the Library of Congress. The Washington Post has an article with complete details.
Here is a slide show of some of the photographs.

During Civil War, scenes of innocence and idealism

Picture ot the Day - 10/4/2010

No this is not a fountain of Pepto-Bismol. This is a version of Richard Indiana's Love sculpture, in front of the fountain in Love Park, Philadelphia. The fountain has been dyed pink for Breast Cancer Awareness.

Pictures of the Day - 2010

Flooding at the Fairmount Water Works

I was in Philadelphia last Friday and went to Fairmount Park on the Schuylkill River. This was just as a tropical rain—dropping over 10 inches of water upstream—was ending. The dam at the Fairmount Water Works usually has a fairly gentle water fall, but when I was there the water was gushing over the dam, flooding the water works and creating quite a mess. It is hard to capture in photographs how dramatic the scene was, particularly since the way the place is built you can stand right at the edge of the dam and look straight down into it. Here are some pictures of the flooding and some other scenes around the park.

Fairmount Park & Water Works - 10/1/10

Best Environmental Photographs

From the National Geographic, the Best Environmental Photos of 2010.

Best Environmental Photos of 2010 Named

NYC by Alfred Stieglitz

A collection of photographs of New York City. taken by Alfred Stieglitz in the late 19th and early 20th century.

New York City by Alfred Stieglitz