Is there anything better than spending the morning at the Library, with no agenda? I wanted to write a bit, but there was no urgency. I decided to see if there were any books about writing that might be interesting, and sure enough, I found The Writing of Fiction, by Edith Wharton, now in its 5th or 6th printing.
You may recall that Edith Wharton was a friend of Corinne Roosevelt Robinson, and helped her with her poetry and writing. Since I wasn’t that familiar with Edith Wharton, I grabbed her book, The Age of Innocence, as well.
I started reading The Age of Innocence. To my amazement the story line seemed to be similar to that from the TV series The Gilded Age! Have you seen it?
The Gilded Age premiered on Edith Wharton’s birthday, January 24th. It was no coincidence! I found this article from the Atlantic:
“Not only does the drama [The Gilded Age] borrow Wharton’s milieu of 1880s New York City, but the show’s creator is also a self-proclaimed Whartonite. Julian Fellowes—or the Lord Fellowes of West Stafford, as he’s known in his native Britain—has said that The Custom of the Country, Wharton’s strikingly modern 1913 novel about a ruthless social climber, inspired him to start writing.”
Sophie Gilbert, writing in The Atlantic, January 22, 2022.
So I am enjoying The Age of Innocence and Edith Wharton immensely. If you haven’t watched The Gilded Age you might want to tune in. The costumes, shown above, are magnificent.
This lead to a discussion over lunch about female authors v. male authors. Can a male writer accurately draw a female character? Who are the female fictional characters who were best drawn out in a novel? Most were written by women!
Male authors write best about male characters. Joseph Conrad, John Steinbeck. And the best female fictional characters are drawn by female authors. To be continued!
Time out for a Political Announcement!
Early voting is well under way here in Oakland County, Michigan. We cast our absentee ballots some weeks ago, but many have not yet voted. Today I met the mother of one of the candidates for judicial office, Gwen Huddleston. She was passing out flyers to voters at the Bloomfield Hills Library.
Above: I had a lovely chat with Gwen Huddleston. She was passing out campaign literature.
Her daughter, Nicole, is running for Circuit Court Judge in Oakland County, Michigan. I was pleased to be able to tell Gwen that my wife and I had already voted for her Nicole. I am happy to endorse her for the primary, and hope that you can vote for her as well. If she wins this primary she will be up for election in the fall.
It can be difficult to maintain judicial independence and integrity while standing for election. Judges often must rely on others to carry their message. As a trial attorney I often was called on to support someone for election to judicial office. Sometimes I regretted my choice. I learned the hard way that people don’t change their stripes.
Lawyers who spend their careers advocating on behalf of big businesses and corporations generally lack the necessary compassion for and understanding of those individuals who appear before them. They can’t help it. But Nicole has the compassion, intelligence, diligence and experience that we need on the bench.
Let’s VOTE People~!
By the time you read this we will most likely be on our way to Niagara-on-the-Lake.
Above: Cenotaph at Niagara-on-the-Lake, credit CreativeCommons. It was erected in memory of those residents who died in action in World War I. [A cenotaph is a memorial erected in memory of those who are buried elsewhere. It was a new word for me.]
Do you know what a NOTLer is? It’s a demonym! Tune in tomorrow, when we will discuss demonyms!
Still waiting for the race results, but we didn’t do very well, starting 5 minutes late because of a technical problem. But it sure was fun! Details coming up soon.
My wife got me interested on the Gilded Age TV series-after visiting Biltmore in Asheville and following the history of that time period got me hooked. I really enjoy the castles across the country. Another great visit is Hearst Castle in San Simeon California which was built by the Hearst family was the 1st I ever visited in my youth back in 1966. As a kid from a small Midwest town I was amazed and anytime I get a chance I try to visit when I can-so much history and architecture imported from all over the world.
Maybe you eschew you tube but you might enjoy a glimpse of Mapperton Live,it's Like and Julie in their ancient manor house home. Luke's Mum and Dad now live in The Old Rectory and he is Lord and Mum is Lady Sandwich. Their,or Dads ancestor invented the snack names from him and a different one was Samuel Pepys boss. Why I particularly recommend it is that Julie or Lady Hinchingbrooke as she never calls herself but she does have her own American Viscountess you tube channel,is American,from somewhere near Chicago. Even more she is everything we Brits imagine Americans to be(the good side,warm,funny,enthusiastic,into weird health stuff,caring,madly funny and a communicator par excellence. And she is fascinated by that Golden Age since finding out her husband's great-great grandmother was one of those dollar princesses,Alberta. Julie has done a degree in history and wrote her dissertation on Alberta. She found hundreds of letters from circa 1910 no one had ever looked at and she has put Alberta in the spotlight. Luke and Julie started their you tube channel in COVID with no visitors,so no income. It was and is a huge,and totally deserved hit.