Sunday Sundries, 243

1. AOTW: An easy one this week--an entitled dude in the health club locker room, a dude who spread his gear along the entire length of the bench that is supposed to be available for everyone in that area; then he went in for a sauna, leaving his gear occupying the bench. I was not the only one who believed the dude (40s? 50s?) belongs in the AOTW Hall of Shame.

2. I finished two books this week.

     - One was a short, compact, focused book about the history and use of the ... semicolon: Semicolon: The Past, Present, and Future of a Misunderstood Mark (2019) by Cecelia Watson.

It dates back to the 15th century, when it was invented by an Italian printer. As Watson shows, its uses have been many--though in our day usage manuals (like this one I used years ago at Western Reserve Academy) have narrowed the functions of the semicolon.

The uses, says Warriner's, are these:

• to separate independent clauses (groups of words that could stand alone as a complete sentence) (e.g., I love semicolons; I love ice cream.)
• to separate independent clauses that feature words like therefore, moreover, etc. (e.g., You hit me; therefore, I killed you.)
• to eliminate confusion in a list whose items include commas (e.g.,  I saw a duck, which had no wings; a bat, which had no ball; a dog, a very handsome beast; a cat, whose tail was gone.)

Teachers generally red-mark other uses of the semicolon. But, as the author shows, uses have been many throughout history (Dickens, et al. routinely violated the "rules" I've listed). And today many professional writers have become more and more creative with its use; cool.

     - The second book was Brock Clarke's new novel, Who Are You, Calvin Bledsoe? (2019),  a carnival-ride of a novel based loosely on Graham Greene's Travels with My Aunt (1969).

Let me back up a bit and tell you some about Brock Clarke. I'd not heard of his work until September 2007 when, paging through the most recent issue of Kirkus Reviews, a book title leapt out at me: An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England, a new novel by Brock Clarke.

At the time I was teaching at Western Reserve Academy, and I liked to end the year by having the kids read a brand-new novel--something relevant to what we'd been doing in my English III class. Well, English III was, principally, American literature (+ Hamlet, that great American hero), so I realized my students would feel like geniuses as they read the novel that dealt with, oh, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, and others.

I bought the book; devoured it; then read his earlier books (here's his page at Bowdoin College, where he teaches, so you can see the titles of his earlier--and later--work).

He was teaching at the University of Cincinnati at the time, and I invited him to spend a day at our school--visit classes, address the entire school community. And he did--April 28, 2008. He was great with the kids, and they loved his novel ...

Some pics from that day ...

He's had several books since then--and I've devoured them, as well, and we have stayed in touch via social media.

Anyway, Calvin Bledsoe ... I don't want to give away too much, because so much of the pleasure in this novel comes from Surprise, and if you read it (which I hope you do), you should do so in a loud place because you're gong to be laughing obnoxiously.

Calvin Bledsoe is kind of a nebbish, a man who is a blogger for a pellet-stove company. His marriage has collapsed; he seems to have no reason to live, really. His late mother had been an authority on John Calvin (thus, Bledsoe's given name). He now lives in the family home in a small Ohio town; his neighbors seem a bit odd (as he is, of course).

And then--swooping into his life--an aunt, a woman he didn't even know existed. And she, a dominant personality (to say the least!) whirls off with him, and they go ... ain't tellin' you. And go ... ain't tellin' you. And go ... ain't tellin' you. And ...

Let's just say that Calvin's life changes--how could it not? And by the end ... ain't tellin' you.

The book, as I've said, is funny (as Clarke so often is in his fiction), but there are also moments deeply felt. Moments when your tears have nothing to do with your laughter.

Read it.

Years ago, Joyce and I were both reading a lot of Graham Greene, and we bought Travels with My Aunt, which has been sitting on our shelf for nearly a half-century.

our copy

After I finished Calvin Bledsoe, I started Travels (have read about 75 pp so far), and I understand why Brock Clarke was so taken with this novel--so taken that he has taken his readers on an equally but very different, wacko journey with a bizarre aunt. Where the destination, you learn (slowly, slowly), is you.

3. We finished all the available episodes of CB Strike--which we really liked--and we hope Cinemax is planning to do more! (The series is based on the detective novels of "Robert Galbraith" (J. K. Rowling), and there is one more novel not yet filmed. I'm reading it right now.)

4. Last Word--a word I liked this week from one of my various online word-of-the-day providers ...

     -  from wordsmith.org

semplastic (es-em-PLAS-tik)

MEANING: adjective: Having the capability of molding diverse ideas or things into unity.

ETYMOLOGY: Coined by poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834), apparently inspired by German Ineinsbildung (forming into one). From Greek es- (into) + en, neuter of eis (one) + plastic, from Latin plasticus (related to molding), from Greek plastikos, from plas­sein (to mold). Earliest documented use: 1817.

USAGE: “I once told Giselle she was the essence of the esemplastic act, for as she was giving me the curl of her tongue at that moment, she would pause to speak love words to me in three languages.”

William Kennedy; Very Old Bones; Viking; 1992.