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from the bibliophile's file: an episode

Last week I received another package. I opened it to find a book-sized something wrapped in brown paper with a crude but cute woodcut flower design. How lovely! And environmentally friendly.

It was accompanied by the receipt for the book, which the receipt said was The Episodes of Vathek by William Beckford. O good! I was happy to find it at Alibris, and was now happy to receive it. Upon the receipt, written in long-hand, was a note from the seller, from Happy Hippy Books. He wrote "Thanks for your order. Enjoy your book!" Handwritten! Such nice sentiments. I don't know about you, but I'm more likely to come back when I get nice notes like that.

Then I tore away the brown paper flower, nice as it was, to get at my new book, published, I now see, by Dedalus European Classics. Wow! What a great cover, featuring a really interesting (slightly soft-pornish) collage by Lise Weisgerber.* I would reproduce the cover here, except that it's kind of risque.

I opened it to find that the editor was the same Malcolm Jack who does the decent introduction to the Penguin Classic version of Vathek. This introduction, though good, is much shorter. And there isn't much other critical apparatus. Still this is not an easy book to find. Thank you Dedalus Books for publishing it!

The book was written by William Beckford, a writer of polymorphous perverse Gothic tales in the late eighteenth century. Imagine my excitement!

What is this book about? It's a series of three tales told by damned souls in Eblis--hell, in Islam. The tales were meant as an extension of Beckford's claim to fame, Vathek, published in 1786, which is also a story of damnation (Vathek is the audience for the three tales). The tales themselves feature homosexuality, transvestism, incest, all forms of lust, not to mention great abuses of power. Just the thing, right?

I should state for the record that Vathek in on my reading list for my comprehensive exam, so I have a good excuse for owning this book. It's OK, honey--he's a SCHOLAR.

I took it with me on an errand and read the first tale in pizza-by-the-slice place on 18th St., in Adams Morgan, DC, thinking it was the best equivalent for Eblis, since pizza-by-the-slice places are havens for junkies and drunks, the damned souls of our day--but all that is another story.

I just want to say that now I am a happy hippy with my new, risque copy of The Episodes of Vathek.

JB

*Who I now find, after Googling her, was a French collage artist who did many covers for this publisher and was a member of a cultish group working on artificial intelligence called the London A.I Club. Apparently she was murdered by another member of the group, and the group's leader later committed suicide, expecting to be "resurrected by superintelligence." That's terrible. But very Beckfordian.

from the bibliophile's file: my own dr. johnson

I would like to submit another piece of evidence, from my own life, that suggests a digital world need not mean the death of the book.

Last week I went online to order some used books. I need them for my reading list, for comps part 2, coming up sometime this fall. I'd already read these books, but I wanted my own copies (that I can annotate), and ones with a good critical apparatus (such as Oxford World Classics, and Penguin Classics), which were missing on my first reading.

I ordered them at Alibris.com, which is basically an online database of used-book stores, with many bookstores throughout the English-speaking world participating. So there's a wide selection, though the shipping is expensive, and shipping dates vary by country (from England, of course, takes longer, etc.).

Most of the books have arrived. One good thing about having the books shipped from different places is that they come separately, which means you get to open many packages of books! For me, always exciting, and worth the postage.

Yesterday James Boswell's Life of Johnson arrived.

This is a book every proto/pseudo/prospective English grad student should have. Especially a hard-back version, thought I didn't think I could afford it, because the Life of Johnson is a voluminous book (the full version, that is; there are many abridgements. Bibliophiles, DO NOT get an abridgement: some of the most interesting things about the book-qua-book are generally left out of the abridgements, such as Boswell's extensive and fascinating notes). But this one was only $6.95!

Yes, you read that right: a hard-bound version of a classic, in two volumes, at the low, low price of $6.95! I thought I might get a piece (or pieces) of crap, but it was worth the risk at that price.*

And it's not a piece (or pieces) of crap! It's a beautiful edition, with only a slightly cracked binding making it less than perfect. There is a gold-gilt cover! There is a dual-cover title page! There is also this little bonus for bibliophiles: the cover page is stamped by the original owner! That owner was a one Ilan Stavchansky (I'm guessing this came from an estate sale). He must have had an impressive library if he went to the trouble of getting one of those fancy stamps that creates an embossed image (he also stamped it--previously, I assume--with a cheaper ink stamp). This man loved books!

Granted, this edition does not fulfill my academic criteria in that there is an introduction, but it is a very dated one. And there are no editor notes, nor appendixes, etc. But it's my own Life of Johnson! I can make annotations (that is if the ghost of Ilan Stavchansky does not haunt me for doing so).

And I didn't even mention the plates! There are some beautiful engravings here, along with reproductions of etchings. Worth at least $6.95. And I think they're out of copyright, but I can't know for sure (without a little sleuthing, because the books bears no publication date).

I was so excited about the engravings that I immediately scanned a couple of them and (I'm giving it away here) Photoshoped them together (immediately below). They seemed to demand to go together, and suggested one of the many tete-a-tetes between Dr. Johnson is his assiduous disciple, James Boswell. I may use the images some day for the design when I create my database/XML version of this book!

*I am not unaware that this low, low price is not the greatest news for books in that it denotes the low status of books in general, and classics in particular. But there are plenty of more modern versions out there, it's not out-of-print, some book people are still making money on James Boswell and Dr. Johnson. So let's not worry too much.

review of The Lady in the Water

I haven't done a lot of film "reviews" lately. That's mostly because I haven't been seeing many current films, choosing to do DVDs at home, rather than risk rude patrons at a movie theatre. I mention that because Wallace and I had to switch seats three times at the theatre where we saw the film here reviewed because, apparently, many people thought it was some kind of summer splatter-fest film).

The Lady in the Water, written and directed by M. Night Shyalaman IS NOT A SPLATTER-FEST FILM. It is, as advertised, a "bedtime story," though perhaps a little too suspenseful for children. A bedtime story for adults, then, to help us dream of another, more peaceful world. A message well worth hearing at this moment in time.

Part of my motivation for blogging about it is I'm afraid this film is not going to get the audience it deserves (and my two or three readers will, of course, tip the balance), once everyone finds out this film is NOT A SPLATTER-FEST FILM. It is, instead, a very suspenseful story, using very simple, even child-like elements, with a message of universal peace and understanding. I wish more Hollywood films had such non-gore appeal.

The tightly-plotted, well-written, M. Night Shyalaman story is what was got me into the theatre (unlike many viewers and critics, the supposedly-sub-parThe Village made a Shylaman fan out of me). That, and his imaginative directorial style. He does not disappoint. In fact, he supplements his writing and and directing credits with a substantial (more-than-cameo) acting job that I found impressive (though he does make himself...but I better not, in case you want to actually see the film).

The set is really well-done, though it didn't make me think suburb of Philadelphia. The special effects, especially the dastardly scrunk, are, of course, a highlight. Very realistic and something, at least, for the splatter-fest crowd (the Tartutic were kind of disappointing: like anorexic Ents). The acting, especially Paul Giamatti as Cleveland Heep, is top-notch. I especially liked Bob Balaban, as Harry Farber, in this movie, playing a cynical, pop-culture-weary film critic, who sounds like many of the academics I encounter--self-reflexively, ironically post-modern, even in the face of...well, you'll have to see the movie.

And kudos especially to Freddy Rodriguez, who, if he really did buff up one side of his body and not the other in order to play the freakish but benevolent Reggie, deserves a special award. If not, the award goes to the make-up, special effects folks.

I found the movie website well-done, with great navigation design, high-quality visuals, innovative multimedia, and good information. I liked the film-book tie-in, though maybe the site was a little too synergistic for my tastes (with all the links to Lady in the Water-related sweepstakes offers). I wonder how much Shyalaman was involved in the website design (or the movie trailer, for that matter)--I would think it would be hard for such an auteur to keep his hands off!