Notes to Virginia Woolf on Henry James's ghost stories, or, "Surely there are facts enough in the world to go round."

* Bible-steeped unbeliever that I am, I can't help but hear in that phrase echoes--so distant as surely to be unintentional--of Jesus's promise to his disciples in Matthew 18:20, "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." Where'er the significant o'erflows our powers of understanding, there . . . something is. In the best of horror, or even more gentle supernatural writing, the one thing we know about that something is that it sure isn't holy.

Notes to Shelving and Sorting

1 The Way It Wasn't, by James Laughton, page 147

2 Fantastic Mr. Fox, by Roald Dahl, page 30

3 Seven Types of Ambiguity, by William Empson, page 194

4 The Pritchett Century, by V. S. Pritchett, page 168

5 The Journal, 1837–1861, by Henry David Thoreau, page 300

6 Maps and Legends, by Michael Chabon, page 140

Notes to Reality Hunger and What's Next

* Okay, here goes:

"The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men
Gang aft agley."

Or,

"For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord cometh like a thief in the night."

Or,

"In the midst of life, we are in death."

Or, edging into inspirational poster territory:

"Live each day like it could be your last."

If you've read the novel, you'll see how ridiculous these seem, and what a joke they make of the whole enterprise of boiling the novel down to a pithy statement.

Notes to "What strange intoxication was it that he drew from books?"

* Mr Garnett is David Garnett, son of translator Constance Garnett. At the time of the publication of The Common Reader, David was running a bookshop near the British Museum and had received a lot of acclaim for Lady into Fox, a novel in which a man's young wife turns into a fox. It's one of those odd books that keeps popping up on the periphery of my reading, which means I really ought to give it a try. I see that the edition I've linked to is in the Collins Library series from McSweeney's, which is a very good sign.

** Mr Masefield, whom you most likely were more quick to identify, is John Masefield, author of, among other books, the children's classic The Box of Delights.

Notes to "The Glamorous World of Publishing, Revealed!"

* Ruk was played by Ted Cassidy, who at this point is better known from his earlier role as Lurch on The Adams Family. Cassidy would go on to appear in two other episodes of Star Trek, and in one of them he played yet another of the original series' many memorable villains, Gorn.

Or, more properly, Gorn!!!!!



Oh, it's also worth noting that the episode featuring Ruk, "What Are Little Girls Made Of?", was written by Robert Bloch.

Notes to "Lawrence thinks critics influential and should realize their responsibility," or, D. H. goes to parties

*Jeannette Winterson, in Art Objects, writes, of her Pentacostal upbringing,

I found it necessary to smuggle books in and out of the house and I cannot claim too much for the provision of an outside toilet when there is no room of one's own. It was on the toilet that I first read Freud and D. H. Lawrence, and perhaps that was the best place, after all.

Not what one thinks of as bathroom books, at least in publishing industry terms, but it's hard to argue with her thinking here.

Notes to "All that is required in studying them is patience," or, On youthful enthusiasm

* Which, speaking of enthusiasm, landed Richardson a wife! According to Richardson's Wikipedia entry,

He married Annie Dillard, after she wrote him a fan letter about Henry Thoreau: A Life of the Mind.

Now that's enthusiasm!