A grammatical sculptor

There are many great writers in the english literary tradition. Dickens characterisations for example are unarguably glorious, Austen's social commentary unmatchable and on a more recent note Pratchett's humorous set pieces often glorious. Occasionally however you come accross an authorial voice that is both sublime and distinct. P.G. Wodehouse is one such. Not so much a writer as a literary sculptor. There is not a wasted word or a spare similie in the writing. We do not often encounter perfection in life but when we do all we can do is bathe in it's glories, so that's what I shall be doing today - letting the wonderful world of Jeeves & Wooster wash over me. i can only hope you are having as much fun as I shall be in this paragon of Englishness!

Byron's haemarrhoidal graffiti

This following ode is graffiti left in a toilet attributed to Byron -

O Cloacina, goddess of this place,
Look on thy supplicants with smiling face.
Smooth and consistent may their offerings flow;
Neither rashly swift, nor insolently slow.

And to think he could have gone for Byron waz ere! Also notable that the young man who was 'mad, bad and dangerous to know' was as engaged with people's motions as my grandparent's generation who seemed fantastically obsessed by one's cloacal tendencies.

The sesquipedalian verbosity of Mr Stephen Fry

I have recently been reading Stephen Fry's 'paperweight' covering much of his work from radio, periodicals and newspaper. I can recommend it to anyone who loves to see the english language opened up in all of it's humorous and intellectual glory. Here is a man who can stretch a point thus;

"capable of describing a scintilla of an iota of a shadow of a suspicion of an atom of a fraction of a ghost of a tithe of a particle of my horror, shame and pitiable distress"

I won't spoil it for any narrative explorer who hopes to later sail the Amazon of words that flow around this sentence by giving away the context. I merely highlight it as an example for you entertainment, delight and possible edification.

An absence of pretence

One cannot help but look upon the feline outlook with some envy. Not for them the awkward social constructs necessitated by human society. If they think little of you they are happy to express it. I am sat typing & it is abundantly clear from the expression on my cat's face that as far as he is concerned I am the last bastion of an evolutionary dead end that should be curtailed as soon as possible. Thank goodness he needs to be fed every now and again or I wouldn't rate my survival chances too highly! Occasionally I feel that we should be more feline in openly expressing our views on the merits of others, perhaps that way as a society we wouldn't have supported the inexplicable emergence of 'talents' that have dominated tabloid headlines down the years. Then again who else could we have sat at home and wondered in our own smugly feline way if they weren't just the sort of evolutionary dead ends the cat judges me to be?

Hello

HI! Welcome to my new blog where I'll be posting random bits of stuff that are of interest to me and hopefully occasionally to you too!