Hoot Gibson

            On Monday morning I skipped translations and memorizations, and shortened my song practice so I could start finishing my essay sooner. I had time to proofread a few pages and make a couple of corrections before leaving for English in the World class. 

            I got my mark back for my first English in the World essay and I got 82%, which is an A minus.

            I weighed 85.8 kilos before breakfast, which is the heaviest I've been in the morning in two months. 

            I chatted with Chuanqi and Frank outside the classroom about the poem "der poop" and about my disagreeable experiences with Indigenous Studies. We got so caught up in our conversation that Professor Percy arrived before we went into the room. 

            On Wednesday there'll be no class as we'll be writing our midterm paper at home. There is a 25-hour limit. She wants no more than 400 words for each of the three answers. Cite page numbers and secondary sources. 

            We looked at the poem "der poop" by Sky Dancer. 

            Sky Dancer Louise Halfe is Canada's poet laureate, the official title being Parliamentary Poet.

            The poem was published in 1994. 

            The outhouse could be analogized with a confessional. 

            I said the accent she uses for the poem is nothing like I've ever heard any First Nations person speak, and I've spoken to hundreds. My ex-girlfriend Whitefeather was from north of Fort McKay, Alberta and she had a similar conversational accent to Sky Dancer. But the poem's accent seems to be an extreme exaggeration. I suggested that since most Cree that are Christians are Catholic, maybe she feels that if she's going to make scatological fun of the pope she should also make fun of the Cree. 

            I suggested that her phrase "hand Marys" would be a reference to using the rosary because one uses the beads to count how many Hail Marys one does. 

            Someone said that Robert Service had a poem where he mentioned using the bible as toilet paper. I don't think he would have written about something like that but I find one by him about using Bible pages for rolling papers: 

The Ballad of Salvation Bill 

'Twas in the bleary middle of the hard-boiled Arctic night,

I was lonesome as a loon, so if you can, 

Imagine my emotions of amazement and delight 

When I bumped into that Missionary Man. 

He was lying lost and dying in the moon's unholy leer, 

And frozen from his toes to finger-tips' 

The famished wolf-pack ringed him; but he didn't seem to fear, 

As he pressed his ice-bond Bible to his lips. 

'Twas the limit of my trap-line, with the cabin miles away, 

And every step was like a stab of pain; 

But I packed him like a baby, and I nursed him night and day, 

Till I got him back to health and strength again. 

So there we were, benighted in the shadow of the Pole, 

And he might have proved a priceless little pard, 

If he hadn't got to worrying about my blessed soul, 

And a-quotin' me his Bible by the yard. 

Now there was I, a husky guy, whose god was Nicotine, 

With a "coffin-nail" a fixture in my mug; 

I rolled them in the pages of a pulpwood magazine, 

And hacked them with my jack-knife from the plug. 

For, Oh to know the bliss and glow that good tobacco means, 

Just live among the everlasting ice . . . 

So judge my horror when I found my stock of magazines 

Was chewed into a chowder by the mice. 

A woeful week went by and not a single pill I had, 

Me that would smoke my forty in a day; 

I sighed, I swore, I strode the floor; I felt I would go mad: 

The gospel-plugger watched me with dismay. 

My brow was wet, my teeth were set, my nerves were rasping raw; 

And yet that preacher couldn't understand: 

So with despair I wrestled there - when suddenly I saw 

The volume he was holding in his hand. 

Then something snapped inside my brain, and with an evil start 

The wolf-man in me woke to rabid rage. 

"I saved your lousy life," says I; "so show you have a heart, 

And tear me out a solitary page." 

He shrank and shrivelled at my words; his face went pewter white; 

'Twas just as if I'd handed him a blow: 

And then . . . and then he seemed to swell, and grow to Heaven's height, 

And in a voice that rang he answered: "No!" 

I grabbed my loaded rifle and I jabbed it to his chest: 

"Come on, you shrimp, give me that Book," says I. 

Well sir, he was a parson, but he stacked up with the best, 

And for grit I got to hand it to the guy. 

"If I should let you desecrate this Holy Word," he said, 

"My soul would be eternally accurst; 

So go on, Bill, I'm ready. You can pump me full of lead 

And take it, but - you've got to kill me first." 

Now I'm no foul assassin, though I'm full of sinful ways, 

And I knew right there the fellow had me beat; 

For I felt a yellow mongrel in the glory of his gaze, 

And I flung my foolish firearm at his feet, 

Then wearily I turned away, and dropped upon my bunk, 

And there I lay and blubbered like a kid. 

"Forgive me, pard," says I at last, "for acting like a skunk, 

But hide the blasted rifle..." Which he did. 

And he also hid his Bible, which was maybe just as well, 

For the sight of all that paper gave me pain; 

And there were crimson moments when I felt I'd go to hell 

To have a single cigarette again. 

And so I lay day after day, and brooded dark and deep, 

Until one night I thought I'd end it all; 

Then rough I roused the preacher, where he stretched pretending sleep, 

With his map of horror turned towards the wall. 

"See here, my pious pal," says I, "I've stood it long enough... 

Behold! I've mixed some strychnine in a cup; 

Enough to kill a dozen men - believe me it's no bluff; 

Now watch me, for I'm gonna drink it up. 

You've seen me bludgeoned by despair through bitter days and nights, 

And now you'll see me squirming as I die. 

You're not to blame, you've played the game according to your lights... 

But how would Christ have played it? - Well, good-bye..." 

With that I raised the deadly drink and laid it to my lips, 

But he was on me with a tiger-bound; 

And as we locked and reeled and rocked with wild and wicked grips, 

The poison cup went crashing to the ground. 

"Don't do it, Bill," he madly shrieked. 

"Maybe I acted wrong. See, here's my Bible - use it as you will; 

But promise me - you'll read a little as you go along... 

You do! Then take it, Brother; smoke your fill." 

And so I did. I smoked and smoked from Genesis to Job, 

And as I smoked I read each blessed word; 

While in the shadow of his bunk I heard him sigh and sob, 

And then . . . a most peculiar thing occurred. 

I got to reading more and more, and smoking less and less, 

Till just about the day his heart was broke, 

Says I: "Here, take it back, me lad. I've had enough I guess. 

Your paper makes a mighty rotten smoke." 

So then and there with plea and prayer he wrestled for my soul, 

And I was racked and ravaged by regrets. 

But God was good, for lo! next day there came the police patrol, 

With paper for a thousand cigarettes. . . 

So now I'm called Salvation Bill; I teach the Living Law, 

And Bally-hoo the Bible with the best; 

And if a guy won't listen - why, I sock him on the jaw, 

And preach the Gospel sitting on his chest. 

            I said that her use of poop and piss while writing to the pope is a release of that which is unclean inside. The cleansing experience could be compared to confession. When she says, "that's all for now poop" she is done pooping. There is no more poop. 

            We took a break. 

            I told the professor that we used an outhouse until I was ten and we had a TV six years before we had an indoor toilet. I said I knew a guy my age who grew up in London, England and they had an outhouse. 

            Spelling.  

            Spelling doesn't reflect pronunciation. It reflects history and preserves form. 

            "gh" goes back to old English and it's never at the beginning. 

            The "h" in honour is silent because it comes from French. 

            Adding a syllable on the end changes the "house" "s" sound to a "z" sound. 

            English spelling has been fairly stable for a long time, since 1700. I think that's around the time newspapers started being published. I suggested that literacy and its appearance in print would have solidified the spellings. I would think if English stayed oral it would change constantly. 

            If people do things together norms arise. 

            Sometimes spellings were wrong because the research was wrong. 

            Korean anglicizes "c" with "k". 

            Webster changed US norms. He used "honour" and then changed it to "honor" which is more like Latin. 

            "Glamor" in the US or "glamour"? Glamor gets 25.3 million results. Glamour gets 2.4 billion. Glamour is five times more common in the US. 

            "Tyre" in Britain. 

            I talked about when I took Biology in an adult high school class. I had a conflict with the teacher because he kept using "or" endings rather than "our". He was South Asian and it seemed to be a protest against the British. When I corrected him he would say, "Oh, so you are still ruled by the British!" 

            Nobody knows the origin of the word "calypso". She was the island nymph who detained Odysseus for seven years. Originally Trinidad English, an alteration of kaiso, perhaps ultimately of African origin; Allsopp 1996 suggests Ibibio ka iso (“come on”), used to urge dancers on. The spelling reflects a later folk-etymological assimilation with the mythological name. 

            Apostrophizing plurals. I said that's illogical. The apostrophe shouldn't make it plural. Originally the apostrophe was for missing letters more than for possessives. 

            "Impostor" and "imposter". Impostor gets 46.7 million results. Imposter gets 79.9 million results. Historically “impostor” was always the far more common of the two. That gap closed in the 20th century, as Britain, Australia and New Zealand embraced the “imposter” spelling. Today however, with the US domination online, “impostor” is most common everywhere once more – except in Australia and New Zealand. 

            Word of the year. Vax in 2021. 

            Capitalizing "Black" small casing "white". That seems to me like a can of worms. Whether upper or lower they should be the same if one doesn't want to make ordinary white people angry. 

            I weighed 84.9 kilos before lunch at 13:50. 

            I weighed 85.3 kilos at 16:09. 

            I started the home stretch of my essay at around 17:00 and finished around 19:00. The Medieval Literature course is weird because there is no mechanism online for uploading assignments and one has to email them to the professor. 

            Here's my essay: 

                                    Against the Wealthy in Beowulf, Grendel is a Rebel 

                                    

                                    he hated the world on your behalf - Leonard Cohen 

            In the poem Beowulf, Grendel is an economic revolutionary on a mission to destroy the upper class of Scylding society by eliminating the king's wealthiest warriors.

            Because Grendel's attacks on the mead hall appear on the surface to be manifestations of uncontrolled hatred, I will begin by showing how they are really purposeful, politically driven operations. But his actions are considered by the non-objective narrator to be motivated by an enraged response to joy (87-90). I will argue against that claim by showing that if that were the case, the common people that serve Hrothgar's kingdom would be Grendel's first choice of prey. Further, as his targets for slaughter are the thanes closest to the king, this points to Grendel's deeper aim of demoralizing their ruler. As Hrothgar and his thanes represent the acquisition and flow of material wealth, I will illustrate how Grendel is not only symbolic of an extreme indifference to such commodities, but is a rebel against the system that is based upon their acquisition. I will show that Grendel's economic indifference is far more offensive to the Vikings than his murders of their kind. It is because of this that the Scylding system of payment, a force greater than its warrior prowess, is ultimately used against Grendel as it outsources its police work to a mercenary franchise, led by Beowulf (378-384). Beowulf is shown to be the ultimate warrior in the service of capitalism just as Grendel stands as a force against it. The battle between Beowulf and Grendel's kind is one of the opposing values of capitalism and art, with Grendel representing the raw destructive force out of which creativity rises. 

            Grendel's actions cannot be explained simply as those of a savage man-eater because they are fixed on Hrothgar's thanes and no one else (137-138)). If all he needs to do is to feed upon humans he could do so more easily without going anywhere near the mead hall. Hrothgar is the ruler of a kingdom, and some of his thanes must be the land barons that govern the properties thereof. Although the poem does not mention any common people, logic dictates that there would be a surrounding population of peasants, farmers, fishermen, tradespeople, and slaves to attack and kill in their undefended homes. But instead Grendel chooses to raid the heavily guarded gathering place of the king's greatest warriors (64-69). He wants "no peace with any man of the Danish army (154-155)". Grendel is at war with the Danes and fights only the king's officers. As Grendel only ravages those that Hrothgar has made rich, his actions are a revolution against the wealthy and those who rule. Grendel, unlike the Vikings that he marauds, does not fight for profit. He opposes the proto capitalism of Viking society, to terrorize and punish only the wealthy who revel in power. Grendel is an angry rebel against the praise of greed.

            Grendel is tortured by the loud sounds of joy and the songs of the poet storytellers that emanate daily from Hrothgar's mead hall (87-90). But he could not be offended by just any exuberant expressions. As Grendel has the ability to hear, even from the bottom of the very deep lake, the reveling of the king's men, he must also hear the sounds coming from those who live outside of Heorot (1357-1361, 1495-1507). He would hear, especially during festivals, the laughter and singing of nearby farmers, peasants, slaves, and the even more joyful shouting of common children. Yet nowhere in the poem is it mentioned that Grendel attacks anywhere but the mead hall. What truly tortures Grendel are the particular reasons that inspire the exuberance of the king's warriors. He hears their glee of self congratulation over the acquisition of wealth through conquest, as can be heard in some of the verses of songs like Beowulf, that tell of slaying "a tribe of giants (421)." And in stories of lordly heroes such as Sigemund and Fitela that tell of the racist slaughtering of giants and other "misbegotten things" like Grendel and his species (111, 875-884). If Grendel and his mother are the only survivors of a holocaust, he has reason to be offended by songs and stories that glorify it. 

            But Grendel's animosity runs deeper than being a reaction to the elated self congratulations of greedy warriors. He selects for assassination those closest to the king (115-124), and when the thanes escape from Heorot to its outbuildings, he tracks and finds them there (138-140). Given Grendel's ability to hunt down and cull the king's thanes with no effective resistance, he could easily find Hrothgar, and kill him anytime he wants. But Grendel never directly assaults Hrothgar, and rather leaves the king unmolested to suffer unhappiness as he grieves for his thanes (129-134). The Scylding ruler is then Grendel's long term psychological target as he continues to humiliate him (473-475). Grendel's mother carries on her son's mental and emotional torture of Hrothgar and cuts him even deeper by killing his closest thane when she attacks the mead hall (1294-1299,1323-1329). 

            During Grendel's raids of Heorot, it is within his power to carry away all of its riches, but he ignores the treasures that the Danes value (169). The ancient sword in Grendel's mother's cave is so priceless that to his mind the Danish treasures must be comparatively worthless. It is "the best of weapons … ring-marked … bright with gems", the work of giant "wonder-smiths" who value art over treasure and booty, and far superior to what humans could craft (1557-1562,1564,1614-1616,1681). On "the hilt of the old heirloom … was written the origin of ancient strife" of "the race of giants" who value their history and write it into their art (1687-90,1694-1697). Further evidence of the pricelessness of the sword may be shown by the fact that Grendel's mother chooses to attack Beowulf with her knife instead of that "victorious" weapon (1545, 1557). It is possible that it is so sacred to her that she is loath to soil its blade on human flesh. The Danes and Geats, who practice a highly profitable philosophy of plunder, see the work of the giants to be good, while the giants themselves are repeatedly declared to be bad. It easier to justify the theft of possessions of others if one first devalues their morality and thinking. 

            Grendel's thoughts are considered to be "hateful", but it is not merely because he brutally attacks and sometimes devours Hrothgar's thanes (475). It is because Grendel's thinking does not correspond with that of the Vikings in the assessment of what is valuable. This is evidenced when the poet suggests that if Grendel was to offer settlements of money as compensation for the thanes he kills, then his brutality would be more acceptable (156-158). Grendel not only lives outside of the Viking monetary system and its culture of payment, but he deliberately undermines that system by refusing to offer financial redress for his attacks on the wealthy. 

            As the rich require protection against Grendel while wealth itself does not, the ability to spend treasure is a strength of Hrothgar that is never depleted by Grendel's attacks. This monetary power is used to pay for a warrior to fight Grendel. Beowulf is a mercenary, marketed as a soldier for hire, with his prowess advertized by the Geats to "those who brought … gifts and money" as having "thirty men’s strength ...in battle." The Scyldings have a business account with the Geats paid into by "past favors" that arranges for protection (457-458). Beowulf is offered all he desires as a bonus for killing Grendel (660). But Beowulf is an agent of the mercenary franchise of the Geats, and so all that he personally desires is small by comparison with the reward of "ancient riches" that is placed on the head of Grendel's mother (1380). Because the Scyldings of Beowulf have only ruled four generations, the treasures they have crafted cannot be ancient (4, 18, 57, 61). So any ancient treasures would need to have been taken from ancient people such as the giants. Such an invaluable reward needs to be fed back into the Geat profit machine and Beowulf makes this clear to Hrothgar before he begins the mission in case he dies during its execution (1477-1483). 

            Hrothgar's proto-capitalistic gift giving is the motivating factor for Beowulf's actions (1866-67). If the king had no reputation for paying his warriors well, Beowulf would not have come to help him against Grendel. Proof that Beowulf is fighting for profit is shown in the textual weight that is given to his list of material rewards as opposed to any descriptions of a sense of moral satisfaction over having defeated what is considered to be an immoral enemy (2101-2103, 2142-2143). Beowulf relates that Hrothgar "promised me reward … should I do a noble deed (2131-2134)." Beowulf is being paid to behave in an honourable manner. The fact that he enjoys his violent métier does not mean that he would sail across the sea with a ship full of warriors to do it for nothing. 

            Beowulf is offered payment to kill the only entity in the poem who cares nothing for treasure. Grendel is the hole in the system, and like the gold and gems the Vikings prize, he exists beneath and outside of their world. His attacks are the remains of a war between the old self-generated wealth of fine craftsmen and the upstart wealth of treasure thieves such as Hrothgar and Beowulf. This fact about Grendel renders him Other more than his savagery. Beowulf shows he can match Grendel for ferocity, but Grendel demonstrates a lack of regard for material treasure that sets him apart from Beowulf and everyone else in the poem (169). If he is simply a beast, his indifference to material acquisition could be dismissed with analogies such as "pearls before swine" but this is not the case. Unlike an animal Grendel shows that he recognizes wealth by only brutalizing the wealthy. Millenia before Jean-Jacques Rousseau allegedly coined the phrase, Grendel is on a mission to "eat the rich" (Eat the Rich). 

                                                                    Work Cited 

           Beowulf. Translated by R.M. Liuzza. The Broadview Anthology of British Literature:Concise edition, Volume A, 3rd Edition, Edited by Black Joseph, L. Conolly, K. Flint, I. Grundy, D. LePan, R. Liuzza, J. McGann, A. Prescott, B. Qualls, C. Waters, Broadview, 2019, pp. 85-113, lines 4-2143. 

           "Eat the Rich." Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 1 September 2022, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eat_the_rich. 

            I had a potato with gravy and a slice of roast pork while watching season 2, episode 9 of The Beverly Hillbillies. 

            Jake and Opal Clampett are freeloading off of Jed Clampett under the pretense of Jake being his cousin. Jake is also pretending to be a movie star and that impresses Elly and Jethro so much they wait on them hand and food. 

           Granny is not impressed because Jake and Opal seem lazy and never even offer to help out. Granny wonders why if Jake is a movie star he doesn't know who Hoot Gibson is. He also doesn't know Dustin Farnum, Ken Maynard, or Jack Hopsy. Jake wants to make a picture with Marlon Brando and Jed thinks it's nice that he wants to give an unknown actor a chance. 

           Granny asks, "How do you know he's your cousin?" "Because he says so and the word of a Clampett is good enough for me!" "His being a Clampett doesn't make him your cousin!" "No, but his saying so does!" "How Come?" "Cause he's a Clampett and the word of a Clampett is good enough for me!" 

           Jethro wants to be a movie star now instead his previous choice of a brain surgeon so Jed asks Jake to help him and offers him $10 million in exchange. Jake tells Jethro to go and watch a Marlon Brando movie and study everything Brando does. When Elly May hears that Jethro is going to be a movie star, she wants to be one too. So Jake has Opal taker her downtown for a makeover. Jethro watches The Wild One and then gets a motor cycle and a leather jacket. Elly comes back looking like Marilyn Monroe in a tight, shiny, sequined dress, but her behaviour and voice has changed drastically as well. She moves way too smoothly in high heels for someone who's never worn them. Jake has changed Elly's name to Venus Adore. 

            Jake figures if he can get around Granny he'll have all the Clampetts eating out of his hand. He asks his wife if she's ever heard of Hoot Gibson and she says her mother told her that he was a star of silent western films. So Jake tells Granny he's going to have her appear as Straight-Shooting Jean the dance hall queen for a new Hoot Gibson picture. He tells Opal to take her downtown and Granny jumps in the car and says, "If Hoot needs me he's got me!" 

            When Mr. Drysdale comes back from his business trip and hears what's been going on he fires Jane, but tells her she's fired after she drives him to the Clampetts. Drysdale and Jane have a talk with Jed and he says he wants his family back to normal. Jane asks Drysdale if she solves the problem, can she have her job back? He says, "With a raise!" 

           The family is told that Jed wants to become a star like them and so he comes in wearing gold lamé with a double necked guitar and singing a rock and roll song with lyrics that are just, "Well Baby, Well Baby", over and over again as he does a crazy legged dance. Seeing the rock of the family behave like that everybody comes to their senses and they chase Jake and Opal out of the house. 

            Hoot Gibson died two years before this episode. He was a rodeo star who was cast in a supporting role in Pride of the Range in 1910 because the director wanted authentic cowboys. He continued his rodeo work and won the steer roping world championship at the Calgary Stampede in 1912. After serving in WWI he returned to movies. From the 1920s to the 1940s the only western star that outsold him at the box office was Tom Mix. By the 1950s his star had faded and he was financially ruined because of bad investments and lavish spending. 

            I searched for bedbugs and found none.