September 30, 1990: We did a 69 with me standing. It looked great in the mirror

Thirty years ago today

            Nancy and I made up and made love. We did a sixty nine in the mirror with me standing up and it looked fantastic in the mirror. 

            Nancy left for work while I was still in bed. 

            I got up at around 11:30. I had cheese and almond butter on toast with coffee and juice for breakfast. I went for a walk and found one lawn sale around Dufferin and Queen, but no goodies. 

            In the early afternoon I went downtown to the CKLN radio station at Ryerson University. I got there at around 14:00. I bought a big coffee and was all ready to start recording my DJ demo tape when I found out that they'd just gotten new equipment that wasn't yet ready to be used. 

            I was pissed off. I walked down to Queen Street in the pouring rain with my cold coffee and caught the streetcar home. When I got back I drank my beer. 

            Elaine called.

Faith Domergue

            On Tuesday morning I worked out the chords for the first two verses of “Barcelone” by Boris Vian. 

            I finished memorizing "Privé" by Serge Gainsbourg and looked for the chords. Since nobody had posted them I started figuring them out myself. 

            Just before 11:00 I logged onto Blackboard for the Introduction to Canadian Literature lecture.

            There were 39 students when Professor Kamboureli started speaking but more came later. There were at least ten students less than last week though. 

            Based on the student survey she has eliminated some of the required reading, including Jacques Cartier and two of Pauline Johnson’s poems. The lecture recordings will now be posted for two weeks rather than one. 

            She said that during the pandemic there may be financial assistance from the university for students that need to upgrade their internet service. 

            Some people had said in the survey that they find the two hour lecture with only one break too much and so she had us take a poll to vote for or against an extra break in addition to the one at half time. I voted "No" but the vote was almost split down the middle with a slight majority favouring a break. She said we would have an extra one this time but we didn’t. 

            She asked us for feedback on our meeting with Thomas Wharton last week. 

            She said that authors after writing a book approach it as a reader. He had to re-read the story before our interview with him and was surprised. 

            After a certain point stories write themselves. 

            We began the lecture looking at the Postmodern elements in Thomas Wharton’s Icefields, which she says are echoed in Robert Kroetsch's "Stone Hammer Poem". 

            Postmodernism consists of a wide range of reactions to the assumed certainty of science and objectivity as being able to explain reality. Reality is not simply mirrored in human understanding. Postmodernism throws into doubt assumptions and cultural codes. It’s a response to assumptions about values. Postmodernism is aware that all systems of meaning are constructed. There are no universal values and there is a plurality of meanings. There are no single interpretations. Postmodernism moves from Truth to truths. It engages with and subverts conventions. It denaturalizes what we assume to be natural. It questions the messianic faith of Modernism. Progress is not automatically a good thing.

            Questioning universal values automatically questions authority and stresses self reflexivity. 

            She asks us for examples of Postmodernism from the novel. 

            I raised my hand and started speaking but she pointed out that there is something wrong with my microphone, that there is a lot of static and she has trouble hearing me. She said that this was a problem last week as well. When I checked later with my sound recorder the mic sounded fine. I’ve yet to listen to the lecture recordings so maybe there’s an incompatibility between my equipment and Blackboard. There were other students whose mics were very bad. 

            On the subject of postmodernism in Icefields I asked if the moment when we learn that Sara is not Indigenous but Indian was postmodern. But Professor Kamboureli seemed to misunderstand my question and talked about Sara drawing attention to the making of stories being postmodern.

            Postmodernism doesn’t necessarily come out of modernism as there are writers from before modernism that could be considered in retrospect postmodern. 

            Postmodernism began in architecture. Old looking buildings were designed but with new elements. Old styles are reproduced in a different context and denaturalized. 

            Postmodernism is self conscious and often uses metafiction. Metafiction is fiction that talks about its own fictionality. Language constitutes and creates reality rather than only reflecting it. 

            The author is no longer the authority. The author does not authorize the meaning of the work. The author has become a writer. It is the reader that creates the meaning. The author is also the reader.

            Text comes from the Latin “tissue" and the word earlier related to that which was woven such as textiles. From product to text. 

            Postmodernism is intertextual and citational. Icefields contains text inside of text. 

            I asked that if in postmodernism it’s the reader that creates the meaning, doesn’t that make interviewing a postmodernist author a useless activity? 

            Postmodern texts are polyphonic, with many voices. 

            Are parody and satire the ultimate postmodern literatures? 

            The aesthetic devices of postmodernism are: collage, parody , irony, self reflexivity, story making, a synthetic approach (with political implications). 

            Postmodernism is preoccupied with history. 

            Historiographic metafiction. Metafiction plus historic novel - (Linda Hutcheon). Knowledge of the past transmitted through language. 

            Postmodernism as literature cannot be fully divorced from postmodernism as philosophy.

            Parody and irony are the two most important tropes. Parody- repeating to make fun serves to unsettle. Irony parodies nations of single understanding. Self reflexivity is a way to parody and ironize. It draws attention to story making. Collage and synthetic approach are similar. There is always more than one point of view. 

            I offered a quote from my Psychology 101 professor from ten years ago: “Reality is a story the brain tells itself”. 

            We started looking at Robert Kroetsch’s "Stone Hammer Poem", but first Professor Kamboureli revealed that Kroetsch was her husband. She and the prairie writer met in the United States where he was teaching and she came to Canada because of him. He also taught in Manitoba. They separated but remained close. He died in a car accident in 2011. 

            The stone hammer is in his archives. 

            Linda Hutcheons called him “Mr Canadian Postmodernism". 

            His grandfather was a Bavarian pioneer to the Prairies. He had a strong sense of local pride like William Carlos Williams. 

            He had a comic vision. 

            “No name" is my name (channelling Homer?). Writers tend to have the Adamic impulse to be namers and to create boundaries. 

            I said that all writers are namers. When not naming they are readers.

            Writers create a new world. 

            Giving a name could be an act of forgetting. 

            Kroetsch parodies archaeology in his collection called Field Notes. He echoes the post modern but his approach is also archaeological. Archaeology can be a method of reading and coming to terms with the limits of official history. “Field" can refer to location but also the field of language or page. Knowledge from found fragments has to be recreated. Official histories have to be uninvented. He draws attention to the complexity of memory. 

            In section six of the “Stone Hammer Poem" he asks "?What happened" but puts the question mark at the beginning.

            He looks at the patriarchal history of inheritance. 

            In the title: “Stone Hammer Poem" each word has its own materiality. The stone as stone object; the stone as stone hammer tool; the stone hammer as textual poem. I think the poem also serves as a metaphorical hammer. 

            He begins with the demonstrative pronoun “This”. 

            He creates ambivalence. 

            I said that he deliberately makes the poem primitive like the stone hammer itself with simple language and words but she didn’t agree with the word "primitive". I don’t know if she thought referring to an Indigenous stone hammer that’s thousands of years old as “primitive” was politically incorrect or if she didn't think the poem tried to emulate the primitiveness of the hammer. Certainly a similar hammer found in Europe would be considered primitive. 

            He does not say the stone became a hammer but “become hammer". 

            The references to skulls and bone reflect the skeletons in Canada’s closet. 

            Paperweight. Paper refers to materiality. Weight. 

            Writing is an archaeological moment. Non linear postmodern logic says that there is always something missing. 

            For lunch I had roasted seaweed and potato chips with salsa. 

            I spent the afternoon finishing transcribing my British Literature notes and starting my Canadian Literature notes. 

            I had a potato and two chicken drumsticks with gravy for dinner while watching The Count of Monte Cristo. 

            This story was set in 1834 when the count’s companion Mario is still alive. An old friend of the count named Morrell holding three Napoleon coins meets a man in a remote location to learn the details of a plot against the king of France to replace him with Napoleon III and is surprised that the man is his daughter’s fiancé Paul De Villefort. The coins serve as a secret password between the members of the plot and Morrell hopes to use them to expose the leaders of the revolt. Paul reveals that he is the leader and then stabs Morrell. As Morell is dying he places the three coins in a small musical snuff box. Morrell’s daughter Renee brings the box to the count because that is what he had instructed her to do if anything were to happen to him. But the count denies having known her father. After she leaves Jacopo and Mario are puzzled. The count explains that letting Renee know that he is really the Edmund Dantes that her father used to know could cost them all their heads. They convince him that he should again defend the victims of injustice. They ride to an inn where the count asks the landlord for three bottles of Chateau Dubree. The innkeeper is surprised but tells the count that perhaps he would like to come to the cellar to select the bottles himself. The landlord leads him downstairs and leaves him there. The count goes to the wine rack and calls for Dubree, who comes out through a secret passage. The count reminds Dubree that he once saved his neck and so Dubree tells him that the three coins are a password among the rebellious nobles. He says that a Baron Von Stupen is coming to Vichy from Strasbourg late that afternoon. The count and his friends intercept the baron’s carriage and tie him to a tree. The count takes the baron’s papers introducing him to Paul De Villefort and assumes the baron’s identity. Paul receives the count as the baron and says that the plans will be revealed at a party for his honour that night. Meanwhile Paul introduces the “baron” to his fiancée Renee and of course they are surprised to see each other. That night when they are alone Renee insists on an explanation from the count and threatens to expose him. She does not believe that Paul would be behind her father’s murder but the count convinces her to wait the night for him to provide proof. Meanwhile the real baron has gotten free and arrived there. The baron meets with Paul who tells him that the impostor is obviously after the papers containing their plans and the names of their co-conspirators. He removes the papers from a chest to show the baron just as the count appears, catches the plans with his sword and then leaves by the window. He jumps into a wagon driven by Mario but as they are driving away Mario is seriously injured. The count takes Mario to the inn and gives the papers to Jacopo to take to the authorities. Meanwhile the count tries to save Mario’s life by removing the bullet. Paul arrives with three men and the count fights them and is winning when the police arrive. The count asks the captain to allow him to deal with De Villefort personally and so they duel until Paul is disarmed. 

            Renee was played by Faith Domergue, who just after her high school graduation, in the days before seatbelts her face was slammed into a windshield and she had to spend 18 months receiving reconstructive surgery. By the age of seventeen had signed with Warner Brothers. That year she met Howard Hughes at a party on his yacht. He immediately bought out her contract with Warner Brothers and signed her to his own studio RKO Pictures. The movies that Hughes put her in didn't do well and so he lost interest in her. In the 1950s she began to freelance and is most remembered for three science fiction movies: “This Island Earth”, "It Came from Beneath the Sea" and "Cult of the Cobra". 

            Before bed while I was flossing my teeth I started bleeding as if I'd cut my gums with a knife. There was so much blood that it became too messy to spit and so just swallowed it until I stopped bleeding.

September 29, 1990: I said something about Nancy's mother and she hit me in the face, so I left

September 29, 1990

            There were some interesting people after midnight at the Claremont. In particular was a very pretty but sad looking black lesbian. 

            As usual I danced until 2:00 and walked home to bed. 

            I got up at around 11:00 and went lawn saling. I bought a sweater and a book on a mystical subject.

            I stopped for a coffee and a spinach pie and called Nancy. We we arranged to meet at 14:30. 

            At another sale I got some tumblers and more books. 

            I met Nancy, Susan and Mia by the 7-11 and we went to more garage sales. Nancy got a pitcher and some baby books; Susan bought a lunchbox and a robe and I picked up a couple of blank tapes.

            We went to eat at Andy Capp's at around 16:30. 

            I said something about Nancy's mother and she hit me in the face so I got up and left.

Lita Milan

            A little after 10:00 on Monday I thought I’d get an early start watching this week’s Introduction to British Literature lecture. It’s a good thing I did because it took me over three hours to get through it while taking notes. 

            In video one the professor told us that the instructions for our short assignment would be posted soon. 

            While the earliest forms of Old English literature came from a mix of Roman and Germanic cultures, the later Romantic poetry comes from a different set of cultural influences. 

            The key to these works is the way that the texts handle secrets using covert signs and complex symbols as a way of foregrounding the problem of literary interpretation. 

            Video two looks at early Welsh literature. The Franks Casket features none of the cultures that were in Britain before the Romans. We now look at the Celts of the western side of England. With the Romans gone they have to deal with the Germanic invasions. The Welsh people are the direct descendants of the Celts of Britain. 

            The earliest Welsh poem is Y Goddodin (uh godothin). A king gathers men from neighbouring tribes to attack a Germanic settlement but they lose. Most of the poem consists of elegies for the Celts that died. 

            “Lludd and Llefelys” is a Middle Welsh prose tale from the 11th Century, around the time that “Judith” was written. It was published in the Mabinogion collection of British stories in the 19th Century. The story reads like a fairy tale. Lludd’s brother Llefelys becomes the king of France through marriage. 

            The story tells of three plagues that descend upon Britain. 

            The first comes after the arrival of the Coraniaid people on the island. They can hear every word that is spoken throughout England. 

            The second plague comes from a scream that carries through the land that causes women to miscarry, men to lose strength, young people to lose their senses and all plant and animal life is stripped of the ability to reproduce. 

            In the third plague even a years supply of food becomes only enough for one night. 

            With the aid of a brass horn that prevents the Coraniaid from hearing what he is saying, Llefelys offers solutions to each plague. 

            The Coraniaid can be killed by a mixture maid from insects. It cannot harm Britons and so it is thrown over everyone, thus eliminating the enemy. 

            The scream is caused by two dragons in combat. Lludd lures them to Oxford, the exact centre of England, puts them to sleep with mead and buries them underground in a stone chest. 

            The food disappearance is caused by a wizard who puts everyone to sleep each time he raids their stored. Lludd uses a vat of cold water to keep himself awake while he defeats the magician. 

            The stories are allegories of the real invasions that threatened the Celtic identity. Within each is the aspiration that the Welsh can regain control of the island. 

            The time of conflict between the Celts and the Germans was also a time of migration. In the 5th and 6th Centuries some Celts went to France. The Breton language in France descended from the Bretonic Celtic language of Britain. 

            Some Vikings moved to France in 911 and the Carolingian King Charles III allowed them to stay to protect northern France from further invasions. They were first known as North Men but that shortened to Normans. They assimilated into French culture and converted to Christianity. 

            The poem “The Death of Edward the Confessor” was written in the same style as “Judith”. He died in 1066, the year that British history and literature changed drastically. As Edward had no heirs his brother in law Harold became king of England. He successfully repelled a Viking invasion at Stanford Bridge in Northern England. Two weeks later William the Bastard, the Duke of Normandy invaded England from the south. Harold fought William and died at the Battle of Hastings. The battle is depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry. William conquered England on Christmas Day of 1066. 

            The Norman conquest brought about an upheaval of the political and social order. Over the next twenty years the German elites were displaced and most of the land in central and southern England was owned by Norman lords. 

            The Normans only spoke French but gradually the Anglo-Norman language developed as used by the elites. The Old English words for “meat” came to refer to the livestock that the English raised while the French equivalents referred to prepared meat for the Norman nobles' dinners. 

            Anglo Norman became the literary language of England with subjects from both domestic and imported sources. Some of the new immigrants from France were descended from the British Celts that had gone to Brittany and so the new culture also made use of Celtic narratives. It was this melting pot that bubbled up Marie de France. 

            Video four talks about the lais (song tales) of Marie de France. 

            Marie de France was educated and could speak Latin, French and Middle English. Some say that she was the Abbess Marie Beckett, the sister of St Thomas Beckett, the Archbishop of Canterbury.

            Her literary audience was clearly a courtly one. Up until Marie de France none of the poets of Britain identified themselves. She basically argued that if one has it one should flaunt it with good will.

            She decided that translating Latin stories into French had been done and that there was no fame to be had in that. She settled upon putting the lai songs into writing. The lai songs were invented by the Celtic minstrels of Brittany. So inadvertently the Normans ended up bringing stories of England from France back to England. Marie’s poems are between song and writing and are aware of the multiple languages and cultures within them. 

            “Bisclavret” or “The Werewolf” is one of Marie’s twelve lais. Bisclavret is the Briton word for “werewolf” but within the text she also uses the Norman French “Garwaf”. 

            “Chevrefoil” meaning “Honeysuckle” is the name of another Marie’s lais and she says it is called “Gotelef” in English. 

            The Breton lai is a short verse romantic adventure in French or English with themes of love and the supernatural. 

            A romance is a narrative genre characteristically focusing on a hero and his adventures. It gives an account of knightly behaviour in a remote time and place where magic continues to work. Romances are idealized but address contemporary issues and so there is a balance between the otherworldly and the topical. They tend to have a three part structure: integration, disintegration and reintegration. This definition is influenced by Northrop Frye. 

            The Old French poet Jean Bodel said that for the man of understanding there are only three romantic subjects: Roman stories are educational, French stories provide historical knowledge, and British romances are empty but pleasant and tend to be all about King Arthur and his court. 

            Geoffrey of Monmouth’s “History of the Kings of Britain” was written in Latin around 1136. A lot of it is fictional. He drew on Welsh and Breton sources to conclude that the first king of Britain was a direct descendant of Aenaeas named Brut. After the fall of Troy Aenaeas went to Italy where he fathered Ascanius, who begat Sylvius, who was the father of Brutus, who went to Britain and named it after himself. The legends say that King Arthur was a direct descendent of Brutas but there probably was no King Arthur. 

            Arthur is said to have driven out the Saxon invaders and then created a British Empire that conquered even Egypt. He invited the finest knights from distant kingdoms to his court thereby creating a culture in Camelot that influenced far off lands. Arthur defeats the Roman armies and is about to conquer Rome itself when he receives word that his nephew Mordred has taken over the English throne and adulterously forced Guenevere to be his consort. Arthur returns to England but is mortally wounded in his battle with Mordred and taken to the island of Avalon. Because of the death of Arthur his kingdom loses control of England and the Saxons return. The story is a form of wishful thinking on the part of the Welsh, who believe they once almost controlled the world but were betrayed. 

            Monmouth’s history spread and carried with it the milieu the other characters that resided in Arthur’s court. Professor Teramura says that the Arthurian universe is like the Marvel universe in that each character gets his own spin-off. 

            In the stories the ideal code of conduct is both promoted and challenged. Britain’s first big literary export was Marie de France. 

            In video five we learn that Marie’s lais were in the chivalrous Arthurian milieu but were not all Arthurian. Milun is from Wales but travels throughout the British Isles. Milun’s lover’s son travels to Mont Saint Michel in France for the tournaments. His meeting with his father symbolically takes place on this island between France and England. 

            The genre of the chivalric Romance is most interested in the distances between people and the psychological complexity of the spaces between the conflicting obligations within the hero’s self. They are stories of self discovery. But they also reveal the conditions under which women were forced to live. 

            Marie’s lais are about secrets. Lanval keeps his fairy love a secret. In Milun a swan is used as a vessel for transporting a secret. There may be a pun of two languages hidden in the use of the swan to carry messages or secret signs. The Anglo Saxon word for swan is “cigne” while the French word for sign is “signe”. In Bisclavret there must be a reason for the wolf’s actions. 

            In “Chevrefoil” the Arthurian knight Tristram while having an affair with the Cornish queen arranges to leave a carved hazel branch for her to find on the road and to decode its message. The narrative depends on her intellectual ability to read secret signs. 

            Under the feathers of the text are the secrets of the lai. 

            Marie thought that preserving the lais does not keep the stories from changing. They are made obscure and invite interpretation so that wise folk can add their intelligence. Readers can get more and expand the stories for themselves. 

            Marie de France’s lais have two audiences. One is in the future and the other is King Henry II of England. Is she instructing him? 

            In video six we learn that the setting of Lanval is Arthurian. Arthur and his knights are in the town of Carlisle in a part of England where the Scots and Picts are threatening invasion from the north. There is a thematic significance to this location and time. 

            It is the time of the celebration of Pentecost and Arthur has given gifts to everyone except for Lanval, whom he forgot. Lanval is the son of the ruler of a poor kingdom. 

            Arthur’s court is a world of competition and jealousy. People act one way socially but have secret motivations. People pretend to love Lanval to conceal their jealousy. 

            Lanval goes for a walk and encounters two beautiful women who take him to their mistress. The Demoiselle’s tent is more opulent than the richest castle. A metaphor for internal value. She tells Lanval that she loves him and will be with him but her condition is that their affair must be kept secret. The two faced world of Arthur’s court conflicts with this world of the Demoiselle which he is not even sure is real. 

            He becomes rich and at a party the king’s wife Guenevere comes on to him. He chivalrously turns down her advances but her response is to accuse him of being homosexual. She declares that his presence in court could corrupt Arthur. Lanval breaks his vow and tells Guenevere that he has a lady lover and that even her maids are more beautiful than she is. His insult to the queen angers Arthur but the king nonetheless decrees that Lanval should have a fair trial. If he can prove that his Demoiselle is more beautiful than Guenevere than no insult will be taken. The trial assesses Lanval’s interior. 

            During Lanval’s trial two of the Demoiselle’s maidens enter the court. They are so beautiful that he is asked if one of them is his lady but he refuses to break his vow twice. Two more maids arrive with the same reaction from the knights and the same lack of response from Lanval. The real Demoiselle shows up. In the story this moment takes a long time. It is a delayed revelation. Another test is for him to resist declaring that she is the one he had spoken of. 

            The poem is a study in threat. Placing the story in Carlisle where physical threat is present becomes a metaphor for the internal threat presented in the poem. The biggest threat is Arthur’s emotional response to the alleged insult to his wife, but he tempers his rage and follows the counsel of his advisors. 

            There are two senses of a court: the legal and the royal. Is there justice in Arthur’s court? What is justice? Lanval is unjustly neglected and so the injustices are not only criminal but also social. 

            Only the Demoiselle sticks up for Lanval, showing the insight that Arthur should have had. She arrives at the trial as the personification of justice and order. Her presence is evidence of the truth revealed about the queen. 

            If political counsel is required it perhaps comes from the lais. 

            Video seven is an introduction to the lat 14th Century poem “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”.

            It comes from the northwest midlands near Wales. It has illuminations and also survived the same fire as the Old English poems like Beowulf. 

            It descends from the Arthurian Romances but is longer than Marie's lais. Hers are like postcards while this is a canvas. Gawain is a hybrid synthesis of the French literary tradition of Marie’s lais and of the English Beowulf. Beowulf is alliterative while Gawain has alliterative stanzas followed by a rhyming verse with a first short line called a bob and the last four lines called a wheel. The full rhyme scheme is ababa. Gawain is part of the late 14th Century alliterative revival. 

            Video eight was narrated by one of the TAs Una Creedon-Carey. She is very loud and has a very informal style of lecturing that makes it sound more like she’s tending bar. 

            Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was written between 1375 and 1400 and comes from a manuscript that includes three other poems that seem to be by the same author. The poem is not fully reverent of nobility. 

            There was a graphic novel version published in 2017. 

             A year after beheading the Green Knight and seeing the Green Knight pick up his own head and ride away, Gawain goes looking for him to fulfill his end of the bargain. He gets lost and finds the castle of Lord Bertilak where he is welcomed and allowed to stay while resting. Bertilak engages Gawain in a game whereby Gawain stays in the castle all day, promising to give him whatever he catches while doing so while Bertilak goes hunting and gives Gawain whatever he catches outside. While Lord Bertilak is out Lady Bertilak flirts with him and gives him a kiss and so when Lord Bertilak returns Gawain gives him a kiss. This goes on for a few days until Lady Bertilak gives Gawain a kiss and a magic green girdle that will protect him from harm. Since Gawain is about to leave to face the axe of the Green Knight, he cheats and keeps the girdle, only giving Lord Bertilak another kiss. So Gawain goes to face the Green Knight and with the help of the girdle manages to withstand his attack but it turns out that the Green Knight is really Bertilak and that Lady Bertilak was really Morgan le Fey and that this was part of a plot by her to undermine King Arthur, the knights of Camelot and Queen Guenevere. Gawain is ashamed for his deception and wears the green girdle for penance but all the other knights think it looks cool and each gets one for himself to wear. 

            The last video talks about the pentangle on Gawain’s shield being an emblem of fidelity that represents Gawain’s understanding of his own character prior to being tested in this adventure. 

            The figure is described when Gawain goes looking for the Green Knight before and after his change of character: 

            For it is a figure that holds five points

            where each line overlaps and in other locks

            On whole it is endless and in England is called

            overall as I hear, the endless knot 

            The pentangle can’t be unravelled and is supposed to correspond with the reality of how the world works. Each point of the pentangle represents a trait of Gawain’s character and each of those corresponds to five other points. 

            She points out that the rhyming verses at the end of each stanza also has five lines but that may be a coincidence. 

            The five groups of five are: the five fingers of the body; the five senses which one must not let take control.

            But Gawain picked his body over his morals. He both accepts and denies failure. 

            Faultless five senses

            Never failed five fingers 

        

            And all his affluence was in the five wounds

            That Christ caught on the cross as the creed tells 

            And wheresoever this man in melee would stand

            His thorough thought was in that through all other things 

            That all his fortitude came from the five joys

            That the holy heaven queen had for her child 

 

            These five joys are Gawain’s focus and so there is an image of Mary facing him always on the inside of his shield. Christ was committed to his own execution but Gawain refused to make such a sacrifice.

            The fifth five that I find that the freak used

            Philanthropy and friendship in all things

            His cleanness and courtesy never did crack

            And pity that passes all points: these pure five 

            Were higher heaped on that human than on any other 

            The line “His cleanness and courtesy never did crack" might cast doubt. 

            Gawain controls his body and mind but fails the test. 

            This is the token of untruth that I am tied in

            And I must needs wear it while I may last 

            If the pentangle is a symbol of truth then the girdle represents untruth. The girdle has no symmetry and it can be easily unknotted. 

            But Arthur’s court does not care and so they all take up wearing green girdles. They control the world by making the symbols mean what they want them to mean. Symbols are hard to live up to but they keep trying. 

            The story has some major homoerotic elements. 

            The Green Knight movie is being filmed and is coming soon.

            It was already 13:17 when I finished listening to the lecture. 

            I had some roasted seaweed and chips and salsa for lunch. 

            In the afternoon I worked on transcribing my lecture notes. I still had ten pages to go when it was time for dinner. 

            I had a potato and two chicken drumsticks with gravy for dinner while watching The Count of Monte Cristo. 

            In this story the count and Jacopo travel to Sardinia in answer to an urgent message from Mario. While riding to Mario’s home they stop a fight between a farmer named Patrini and the Count Boris Madroff. Patrini says Madroff helped the Marquess d’Alba steal his land from him. The count continues on to Mario’s home where he meets Mario's niece Teresa, who tells him that Mario has been murdered by an unseen archer. Suddenly Carlo walks into the room saying it’s been a long time since they'd seen each other. But this story is set in 1935 and the previous stories featuring Carlo also took place in the same year. I guess they might have gotten the story timeline mixed up in their releases and maybe this is supposed to be the first appearance of Carlo in the series. Carlo turns out to be Mario’s cousin, who has come upon hearing that Mario died. After visiting Mario's grave the count explores Mario's property, trying to figure out why Madroff and D’Alba want to take it over, since it’s not good farmland. He finds a rock that seems heavier than usual and suddenly Carlo pushes him out of the way of an arrow. Next Patrini, Teresa’s fiancé is arrested for attempting to kill Madroff. The count shows his friends an order for the farmers to pay their back taxes within one week or lose their land. It turns out that D’Alba is also the tax collector and the local magistrate. D'Alba tells the count that Patrini will be hanged at sundown. Just before the hanging the count and his friends rescue Patrini. The count learns from Teresa that before he was killed Mario had been studying local rocks by treating them with acid. The count goes to Mario’s home to see his rocks but they are confronted by Madroff and Alba. They escape and double back. They find the rocks and Mario's acid and escape again. After treating the rocks with acid the count discovers that Madroff and Alba want the land because it is rich in silver. A public bill is posted in which patrini challenges Madroff to a duel at the hangman’s scaffold at sundown. At sundown the count arrives to meet Madroff and says he will take Patrini’s place. Madroff says he doesn’t care what weapons are used. The count chooses bows and arrows but Madroff refuses. The count then chooses pistols and since Madroff refused the first choice he must agree to a special method of using the pistols. There are two nooses set up on the scaffold. The count and Madroff must place them around their necks and stand over the trap doors. Each trap door is supported by a tension rope and each rope has a candle mounted against it. The candles are lit and it will take two minutes for the candles to burn through the ropes to cause the trap doors to open. Each man has two pistols, each with one bullet. Each man has two chances to shoot out his candle before it burns through the rope. The count shoots out his candle with his first shot but Madroff misses twice. As the flame eats the rope the count tells Madroff that he can save him with his last bullet if he confesses to murder and theft of land. He confesses and so the count shoots out the candle. 

            Teresa was played by Lita Milan, who trained as a dancer from an early age and started in show business as a Las Vegas chorus girl. She became a magazine model and then started working in films, mostly playing senoritas and “Indian" maidens in B westerns. Her most remembered role was as Paul Newman’s leading lady in The Left Handed Gun. In 1958 she ran off with Ramfis Trujillo, the playboy son of Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo. Her husband seized power when his father was assassinated in 1961 but they were forced to flee. They lived in exile in Madrid until Ramfis died in the crash of his Ferrari in 1969. She continued on living a very rich party lifestyle in Madrid.

September 28, 1990: We unloaded peat moss and the boss bought us beer

Thirty years ago

            At work we unloaded a bunch of peat moss and the boss bought us beer. 

            I got off at around 15:00 and went to the Manulife Centre to cash my cheque. 

            I walked down Yonge to Dundas, west to Baldwin and then across to Kensington looking for that Eddy Murphy record. 

            I bought groceries and German beer. 

            I drank three beers and then took a nap for a while.

            I got up and took a shower without shaving and then got ready to go to the Claremont. I missed the streetcar and walked as far as Gladstone, getting to the club at about quarter to midnight. I was glad to find it wasn't crowded but it was a very young group it seemed, with nobody there that I recognized.

Fortunio Bonanova

            On Sunday morning I memorized the last verse of “Privé” by Serge Gainsbourg. All I have left to nail down is the final chorus. 

            I had Triscuits and cheddar for lunch. 

            I read most of part one of the Old English poem “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”. That's only a little over half of the reading of that story that's required this week for my British literature class. There are also still some texts by Marie de France to read as well. “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" takes longer to read than usual assignments because I’m also reading the Old English text along with the translation and taking time with each line to think of how it could have been done more faithfully to the original. A lot of Old English is fairly intuitive and sounds like modern English except that the arrangement of words is sometimes different. It seems to me that the translator sacrificed some of the alliteration and some of the rhythm just to dumb down the text for the modern reader. For instance he uses “French sea” instead of "French flood" even though “French flood" is fairly obvious and only needs a short foot note for clarification. 

            The story takes place in King Arthur’s court during the New Years feast. Suddenly a giant knight with green hair and beard and wearing green and gold while riding a green horse rides into the dining chamber. He is carrying a massive battle axe and offers a challenge for any knight willing to take his axe and strike him with it. He will then leave but the knight that strikes him must seek him out in a years time to allow him to deliver the same blow to him. Sir Gawain volunteers, takes the axe and chops off the Green Knight’s head. But the Green Knight merely picks up his head and while holding it the head tells Gawain that he can find him in one year at the Green Chapel. Then the Green Knight rides away with his own head under his arm. 

            It’s funny that I’d never heard this story before since it’s so old and so unique. 

            For dinner I heated two pork patties and had them on a toasted bagel with a beer while watching The Count of Monte Cristo. Suddenly the count has a new companion named Mario, replacing Carlo who only recently replaced Rico. 

            In this story a mysterious revolutionary pamphleteer named Veritas is striking fear in corrupt government officials. One of the pamphlets is nailed to the door of General Jean Beauclair and it reads, "People of Paris, The ways of life are strange indeed when politicians have agreed to steal the millions you provide, the gold for which you slaved and died. The key to this corruption rare is army General Jean Beauclair.” Upon reading this the general shoots himself. Next the count arrives at a casino where Minister of Justice Bonjean is waiting to gamble with him. Bonjean is winning but suddenly receives news of the suicide and leaves. We learn that Bonjean and Beauclair had appropriated two million francs of army funds. Beauclair before he died left a note for Bonjean telling him he’d learned that the Veritas pamphlets are being printed by a printer named Dubois. When the police come to get him he sends his daughter Charmaine out the back door where the count and his friends find her and take her to safety. She learns from the count that he is Veritas. Meanwhile Dubois is being tortured by Bonjean and his men so he will tell them the identity of Veritas. Bonjean needs to make two million francs to cover what he stole and so he goes to the casino. The count joins him in a game of Baccarat. The betting starts at 50,000 francs and the count keeps losing but since he’s the richest man in the world I guess he can bide his time so the bet keeps going up until Bonjean has won a million francs. The count bets a million and this time Bonjean loses. As Bonjean is leaving he is approached by Charmaine who says she will tell him the identity of Veritas if he will let her see her father. He agrees and upon hearing that Veritas is the Count of Monte Cristo he orders his immediate arrest. Bonjean is surprised when he comes home to find the count sitting and waiting for him. He tells Bonjean that he is finished and hands him his latest pamphlet, which reads: “The ways of life grow stranger still when by the stroke of one small quill the minister of justice true can steal two million francs from you. So men of Paris rise and fight. Rise in your wrath, demand your right.” Bonjean tells the count that he is under arrest but the count draws his sword. Bonjean reminds him that he is the finest duellist in Paris. They cross swords until Bonjean disarms the count. Bonjean takes the count and Charmaine to where he is holding Dubois. Bonjean then draws his sword and plans to kill the count even though his wrists are bound together. He argues that since he had already disarmed the count it is still fair. But suddenly Jacopo and Mario arrive and free the count. The count reveals that Charmaine’s betrayal was staged in order to bring about the duel which the count deliberately lost in order to locate Dubois. The count says they can finish their duel from where they left off with the count’s sword on the ground. The count holds up a pen as Bonjean tries to strike but the count parries once with the pen then quickly picks up his sword. They fight until Bonjean is disarmed and forced to sign a confession.

            Charmaine was played by Mary Ellen Kay, who co-starred in “The Girl in Room 17” and “The Streets of Ghost Town”. 

            Bonjean’s girlfriend was played by Patricia Wright, who was in “Trail Guide”, “Chained for Life” and the Three Stooges short “Cuckoo on a Choo Choo”. 

             Mario was played by then sixty one year old Fortunio Bonanova, who started out as a baritone opera singer and was a star in that genre before he turned to acting. He starred in the silent film “Don Juan Tenorio” in 1922. He moved to the United States in 1936. He played the singing instructor in “Citizen Kane” and in 1955 he played the opera fan who had his priceless Caruso records smashed by Mike Hammer in “Kiss Me Deadly”.

Stone Hammer

            On Saturday morning I started working out the chords to “Barcelone" by Boris Vian. 

            I finished memorizing the second chorus of “Privé” by Serge Gainsbourg. 

            At around midday I went to No Frills where I bought five bags of red grapes, eight apples, mouthwash, and a pack of rice crackers. In the supermarket there was a woman wearing a festive looking eye mask in addition to her red facemask. She was also talking to herself very loudly. 

            For lunch I had Triscuits with cheddar. 

            I wrote an analysis of the meaning derived from the repetitions that are found in Robert Kroetsch's "Stone Hammer Poem” and uploaded it to Blackboard: 

In Robert Kroetsch’s "Stone Hammer Poem" the repetitions of certain words not only provide emphasis of the meanings of those words but their repeated rhymes also draw associations of meaning between the words and their rhymes. The frequency of the appearance of these words also renders it unnecessary for the rhymes to appear in rhythmic juxtaposition as they would in a traditionally composed rhyming verse poem. The repetitions of "stone" and “maul"; and of their rhymes "gone”, “poem" “bone” and "skull" expose these words as the thematic vital organs of the composition. These words carry through the fragments of the poem to reflect in each one a different piece of loss. For example, the repeated rhyming of “stone" with "gone" creates a sense of loss symbolized by the stone maul. The shards of loss that we find in the poem as we follow these repeated words through it are of lost history, lost people, lost culture, lost land, lost buffalo, lost time, lost family, lost youth and lost livelihood. But also repeating like the echoed banging of a hammer throughout the poem is the ironic persistence of the stone maul itself which although symbolic of loss also becomes the focal point for the maintenance of memories associated with it. The keeping of the maul becomes an ironic symbol for all that is not lost as well as the creation of the new poem inspired by it. 

            I read the Prologue of the “The Lais of Marie France” and from the collection, the poetic story "Milun". Milun is a story of a couple that fell in love by letter and then continued in person. The lady is not named but Milun got her pregnant. Since she could not remain a lady and have a child out of wedlock the child was sent away with a ring and a letter to remind him of where he came from. The lady was forced to marry a lord but she and Milun continued their affair through letters buried in the feathers of a swan. The swan was trained to know that it would only be fed after it flew to either the lady or Milun. Meanwhile their son grew up elsewhere to be a brave and skilled knight who gained a reputation as a jouster named Sans Peer. Milun heard of Sans Peer’s exploits and chose to meet him at a tournament and to challenge him. Milun shattered San Peer’s shield but the Sans Peer unhorsed Milun. When Sans Peer saw under his helmet how old Milun was he didn't want to fight him. Suddenly Milun recognized Sans Peer’s ring and realized he was his son. They travelled together and soon received word that the lord that married San Peer’s mother had died. They went to her and lived happily ever after. 

            I grilled eight pork sausage patties and had one on a bagel with a beer while watching The Count of Monte Cristo. 

            In this story the Duke of Renaldi is on his way with his friend Charcot to marry his love Marguerite when he is abducted. One of the men, posing as a French border guard is Rabat, who takes a fancy to the duke’s ring and steals it. This is part of a plot by the lawyer Charcot and Marguerite’s guardian Uncle Bardet . The will of Marguerite’s father has stated that if Marguerite is unmarried by a certain age then Bardet would inherit his estate. That deadline is now only a few days away. Charcot and Rabat arrive at the Bardet chateau and report to Marguerite that Renaldi has been killed. But on Rabat’s finger Marguerite notices the ring that she gave to her fiancé. She goes to her neighbour the Count of Monte Cristo who was an old friend of her father. The count comes through the window of Rabat’s bedroom and forces him to reveal that Renaldi is alive but has been taken to the Chateau D’if. The Chateau D'if is the island prison where the count spent twelve years in solitary confinement. He tells the story again of how long before he became a count he was falsely charged with treason and thrown into a dungeon where he languished for years without seeing another human. But one day he heard the sound of digging from another cell and he began chipping away at the wall in that direction. Eventually there emerged the old Abbé Faria. They became friends and for the next few years Faria was his teacher. Before Faria died he revealed to Dantes the location of a vast treasure. When the old man passed away and the prison guards wrapped Faria in a shroud, Dantes took the place of the old man and was tossed into the ocean. He freed himself and swam to the Island of Monte Cristo where he found the treasure, used it to buy a countship and used his wealth to be a force for justice. Now the count must again travel to the Chateau D’if, this time to rescue the duke. Unrealistically there is only one guard outside the prison gate, who the count easily overcomes. The halls are empty leading to the office of Lantin, the prison director. The count tries to force Lantin to lead him to the cell of Renaldi but suddenly the guards burst in along with Charcot, who says they’ve been expecting him. The count is taken to a cell but by a convenient coincidence it’s the same cell that he’d occupied years before and the hidden tunnel is still there. The count hides in the tunnel so that when the guard comes and finds him gone he leaves the cell door open as a search of the prison is begun. The count returns to Lantin’s office and this time forces him to free Renaldi. They are trying to fight their way out of the dungeon when Jacopo and Carlo arrive disguised as prison guards to help them escape. On the day of the deadline Bardet and Charcot are celebrating that Bardet will now have ownership of his brother’s estate but suddenly Marguerite walks in with Renaldi to announce that they were married the day before. Renaldi introduces the witnesses, the count, Jacopo and Carlo. Then Bardet and Charcot are arrested. 

            Carlo is played by Canadian born actor Henry Corden, who had a long career of supporting roles in movies and television but his greatest success was doing voices for cartoon characters, especially that of Fred Flintstone which he took over after the original voice, Alan Reed died in 1977. Corden made the Flintstone voice closer to its original inspiration, that of Jackie Gleason’s Ralph Cramden of the Honeymooners. 

            Marguerite was played by Nancy Hale, who co-starred in the TV series “Whirlybirds".

September 27, 1990: Susan paid me to do her creative writing homework

Thirty years ago today

            I made a decision that later that night I would try to get in touch with Elaine to apologize for upsetting her. 

            After work I went looking in record stores along Queen for that Eddy Murphy soundtrack album.                

            When I got home I went to Nancy's place because I'd forgotten my key. She and her sister were making sushi. Susan gave me $5 for the "space person viewing Earth" paragraph I wrote for her and told me there were some other creative writing projects for high school that she wanted to hire me to do for her. 

            Nancy and I had a long streetcar ride to the Fox theatre in the Beaches to see "The Icicle Thief". She thought it was one of the best movies she'd ever seen. 

            I called Elaine when I got home and told her that I was sorry.

The First Black Sitcom

            On Friday morning I looked for the chords to “Barcelone” by Boris Vian but no one posted any, so I’ll have to be the first. 

            I got caught up on my journal. 

            In the early afternoon I finished all this week’s required reading for my Canadian Literature course. The text I read today were excerpts from Jacques Cartier’s journals. It was interesting how they got saved from scurvy by the Indigenous people. 

            I did my exercises while listening to part two of the BBC documentary, “The Real Amos and Andy". The kind of serialized radio show that Amos and Andy pretty much invented and which was so popular during the depression, was suspect in the war years. Broadcasting executives decided that radio soap operas would have a negative effect on women during a time when everyone was supposed to be hopeful. In 1941 Amos and Andy became one of the first sitcoms. That meant that Freeman Gosden and Charles Correl would not be the sole writers anymore. Writers were hired and so Gosden and Correl had less control over the product. The laughter of studio audiences was measured and the stories were directed towards whatever drew the most laughs. It was still in the top ten for a few years and then the top twenty but it was no longer the traffic stopping phenomenon that it had been in the serial years. When a movie was made starring Gosden and Correl as Amos and Andy in blackface it did fairly well but audiences were shocked to learn that the actors weren’t black. When the TV series was made in the 50s with real African American actors it was the first of its kind and did well. But the problem was that the premier aired on the night of the NAACP convention. The civil rights leaders gathered for the convention watched the show and then blasted it. One of the main reasons was the class element. African Americans were trying rise up in society and critics felt this show was a negative portrayal that worked against that goal. The TV show also gave the beloved figures less depth until they weren’t much more than cartoon characters. After 78 episodes the TV show was cancelled. It took almost fifteen years for networks to want to take the risk of putting black characters in starring roles on television again when Bill Cosby became the co-star of “I Spy". 

            I started doing an analysis of the use of repetition in “Stone Hammer Poem” by Robert Kroetsch. 

            I had a potato, two chicken drumsticks and gravy while watching The Count of Monte Cristo. First of all the opening credits have suddenly changed for this 29th episode of the series. While before is said, “Starring George Dolenz, with Nick Cravat” now it says, “Starring George Dolenz and Nick Cravat”. Also after 27 episodes Rico is no longer the count’s second companion as he has been inexplicably replaced by Carlo. At least there was an introduction when Rico first appeared. This story treats Carlo as if he’d always been on the team. 

            The story begins with Victor Hugo walking the streets one night in 1835 when he is attacked by three masked assassins. He is fighting them off when the count and his friends arrive to chase the killers away. It turns out that the count and Hugo are friends. The assassin leader runs to a place where a horse and a change of clothing are waiting. He leaves his criminal garb in the bushes and a man named Cambrai who happens to be nearby is arrested. Back at Hugo’s home the count is told of a letter that the author recently received reporting about a traffic in galley slaves. It is signed by Girrard, the chief of the Bourget police. The police arrive with Cambrai to show Hugo that an arrest has been made. Cambrai declares that he is innocent and begs for his life. He says that since he had previously been arrested for stealing a loaf of bread and spent five years in the galleys as punishment, it is automatic that he will receive the guillotine for this conviction. Hugo is convinced Cambrai is guilty but the count argues that he knows from personal experience that innocent men condemned before. Hugo has faith in the French justice system and does not believe the innocent have anything to fear from it. The count learns that Cambrai was sentenced to the galleys by Magistrate Polineaux in Bourget. The count leaves to try to prove the man innocent while Hugo goes to find who hired him to kill him. Hugo visits Chablon, the director of prisons and show him the letter he’d received. Chablon calls in De Crissac, the chief inspector of prisons who turns out to be the real leader of the assassins that attempted to kill Hugo. Meanwhile the count learns from Cambrai that when he was a galley prisoner the young and strong among them were sold as slaves to Barbary pirates and that Bourget was the shipping out point. Chablon and De Crissac persuade Hugo to go and see the Bourget chief of police that night but to go in disguise. At the same time the count and his friends set out with the same destination. Hugo arrives at Captain Girrard’s office to find him dead, stabbed with the same dagger that was used earlier to try to kill him. While Hugo is holding it the police come in and arrest him for murder. When the count arrives he learns of the chief’s death and that the murderer is at that moment being tried by Judge Polineaux. The count and his friends enter the courtroom. The magistrate sentences Hugo to life in the galleys. The count stands up to address the court. The magistrate asks the count if he can confirm that the prisoner is Victor Hugo but the count teases Hugo and only says there is a resemblance. He says that since Victor Hugo has said that an innocent man could not possibly find himself in the situation the prisoner is now in, this can’t logically be Victor Hugo. Then the count rubs his ring signalling Jacopo and Carlo to attack and tosses a pistol to Hugo. They overwhelm the guards and then smash their way out the window. Outside of Bourget they stop and hide the horses. When the gendarmes begin searching for them the count happens to capture the sergeant in command. He leads the count to the magistrate’s files and incriminates Chablon, De Crissac and Polineaux for running a slave trade. Cambrai is released and the count makes him the caretaker of one of his little farms. Victor Hugo decides there is something he must also do for Cambrai and so he decides to make him immortal. He begins writing a story about a man enslaved for stealing a loaf of bread and calls it, “Les Miserables".

September 26, 1990: Elaine called to hear my soothing voice but our viewpoints wrestled and she hung up unhappy

Thirty years ago today

            I was a couple of minutes late for work. 

            After work I looked for the Eddy Murphy album in which he suggests that white people must dance to the words of a song since they can't dance to the music, but no luck. 

            I went to Mr Grocer but they were all out of pasta so I got some tortellini at Maatco. 

            I forgot to buy the paper. 

            Elaine called to tell me she was stressed out over the papers she was writing for law school and just wanted to hear my soothing voice. But as usual we started wrestling our opposite points of view and she seemed unhappy when we were finished talking. I hated to make people I cared about unhappy. I hoped that I hadn't blown it with her. I went to bed at midnight shaking my head over the situation.

September 25, 1990: I found a copy of Mein Kampf in the garbage in a Jewish neighbourhood

Thirty years ago today

            At work in a Jewish neighbourhood I found some ROM posters and a copy of Mein Kampf by Adolph Hitler in the garbage. 

            I called Yvette and we talked for a while. She gave me shit about my love life and my lack of planning with a baby on the way. I told her I couldn't do much unless Nancy wanted to go along.

            I phoned Sebastian but she wasn't home so I left a message. 

            I started rearranging my book shelf. I got some other stuff done and a little cleaning up.

            Nancy called me from school. She told me her father was in the German army during world war two and he also has a copy of Mein Kampf. 

            Nancy spent the night at her parents' place. 

            I went to bed at around 23:00.

Missing Indigenous Jasper

            On Thursday morning I finished memorizing “Barcelone” by Boris Vian and the third and fourth verses of "Privé" by Serge Gainsbourg. 

            Just before 11:00 I logged onto Blackboard for my Canadian Literature tutorial. 

            We were informed that the survey of online classes is up for us to take before Sunday. Kelly began by inviting comments. I offered a critique of Wharton’s lack of presentation of Indigenous people in his portrayal of Jasper. I pointed out that there was an Indigenous population in the area until 1906 when they were pushed out for the establishment of the national park. Since that year is in the middle of the timeline of the novel it seems extremely negligent that the author didn’t mention it. It could have been easily included in the plot without changing it. 

            Some students agreed with me but others thought that the exclusion of Indigenous people was deliberate to reflect their historical erasure. That seems like a stretch to me. 

            Kelly said that Wharton admitted that he wasn’t a historian but I argued that he’s from Jasper and so he would have known. She said that it isn’t a given that he would have known. He researched a lot of other history of the area, such as famous people that visited there and so it seems odd that he would have left that out. 

            The instructions for our short close reading essay are up under “Files” on Quercus and the themes are “Form" and "The New Woman". 

            What the passage means is the thesis and the rest concerning how the meaning is conveyed is the essay. Get deep into form and find the meaning. Form is everything to do with the written work. Use form as evidence to support the thesis. 

            An example thesis: By the end of the novel Icefields ceases to be the subject of Byrne’s obsession and to become the form of his character. 

            We did close reading of a passage about Byrne and his father working as physicians when the dead body of a young woman is brought in. Byrne’s reaction is clinical while his father is grief stricken over a stranger’s death. One could conclude that Byrne is becoming like the Ice Fields. 

            I pointed out that Byrne doesn’t say "my father” but rather "Father" capitalized as if his father is this large form that he cannot claim as his own. 

            I had time to do the dishes before lunch and tidy up a bit. 

           When I took out my garbage I noticed that the new tenant in apartment one had been too lazy to put the leftovers from his Popeye’s take-out three meters away to the garbage bin. Instead he'd left it in a bag outside his back door and the raccoons that strewn everything all over the deck in that area. Cesar stuck his head out of his window above me to complain about it. He also sad the restaurant should have but their vents higher so tenants don’t have to smell the greasy deep frying smell. I don’t know how they could have made it higher. 

            I had a cold chicken drumstick with hot sauce and some yogourt with honey.

            In the afternoon I headed out to the supermarket. In front of our building Cesar was chatting with Benji about the garbage situation. Cesar says he’s not getting any water pressure on the third floor since Popeye's moved in on the first. He also complained about our next roof neighbour Taro smoking marijuana. I said may be the raccoons are smoking marijuana and getting the Popeye’s munchies. 

            At Freshco the grapes were cheap but too ripe. I got three bags anyway along with two half pints of raspberries, three containers of Greek yogourt, one of raspberry skyr and a pack of paper towels. 

            I got caught up on my journal. 

            I grilled eight chicken drumsticks. 

            I read some poems for my Introduction to Canadian Literature course: The Stone Hammer poems by Kroetsch; The White Judges by Marilyn Dumont; A Cry from an Indian Wife, The Song My Paddle Sings; and Canadian Born by Pauline Johnson; and excerpts from the journals of Knud Rasmussen. 

            For dinner I had a potato, two chicken drumsticks, gravy and yogourt with maple syrup for dessert. While eating I watched The Count of Monte Cristo.

            In this story set in 1835 the plague has struck Paris. The count’s friend Dr Rousse says that the disease is mostly concentrated in Montmartre. The North Well waters Montmartre and not long ago the sewer system broke down. He suspects that the North Well has been contaminated. During the pandemic Perrier, the prefect of police has issued a command that everyone in Paris must by the pills issued by Marcel, the director general of hospitals. Rousse has had the pills analyzed and they are nothing but sugar tablets. The count and Rousse go to see Perrier, and Marcel joins the meeting. The count offers two million francs to the hospitals of Paris on the condition that Rousse is given a free hand to treat the hospitalized patients and that none of the money be spent on the pills that have been issued. The count and Rousse go to inspect the North Well but Marcel has arranged for three city workers to attack them there. The count and Jacopo manage to fight the men off but one of the assassins falls in the well and is infected with the plague. Rousse takes some samples of the well water back to the count’s chalet. He boils some of the water and leaves the other half untreated. Under a microscope one can see the microbes alive in the untreated water but the boiled water is clear. The police come to arrest the count and the doctor but in the next scene the count, Jacopo and Rousse walk in on Perrier and Marcel, explaining that the police have been tied up. Pierre and Marcel are tied up as well and guarded by Jacopo while the count and Rousse go and blow up the North Well. Then Perrier and Marcel are taken to the count’s chateau. The count presents two carafes of water, both from the North Well, but one boiled and one not. He offers Marcel a glass of the unboiled water to drink and to prove that he is right. Marcel declares that he won't drink the water but the count draws his sword and tells him he must either drink the water or confess that his pills are only sugar tablets. He finally admits it and one assumes Perrier has him arrested. 

            This is the first episode of The Count of Monte Cristo in which Robert Cawdron did not appear as Rico. He also starred in the TV series Triton and co-starred in the series Treasure Island and Dixon of Dock Green. 

            Madame Rousse was played by Ruth Swanson, co-starred in "So Big".

September 24, 1990: It was frustrating talking with Elaine sometimes but I got a warm feeling when I thought about her

Thirty years ago today

            I didn't get home from work in time to go shopping at Mr Grocer and so I went up to the Maatco. I bought fettuccine, pasta sauce, cheese and juice. 

            I found a whole bunch of kitchen utensils in the garbage. 

            I made fettuccine for dinner. 

            I called Elaine but her mother told me that she was at the library. I shaved, showered and went to bed to wait for her to get back to me. She phoned a little later and we talked for a long time about Michael Jackson. 

            I told her I missed her and she said she'd been thinking about me. I told her that it was very frustrating talking with her sometimes but in retrospect I got a warm feeling in my heart when I thought about her.

Grendel's Mother

            On Wednesday morning I was dreaming about a shape shifting digital hostess for a pornographic site. She was mostly various forms of petite and Asian but sometimes she only had half a body split vertically but unevenly. It was almost time for me to get up but I kept fading in and out of this dream because I wanted to see what she was going to do. 

            I got all but the final line of “Barcelone” by Boris Vian memorized and I finished memorizing the first chorus of “Privé" by Serge Gainsbourg. 

            Just before 10:00 I logged onto Blackboard for my first Introduction to British Literature tutorial. 

            Our TA is Alexandra Atya and she studies 15th Century drama and Spanish. 

            She split us up into small chat rooms for a couple of minutes to introduce ourselves. I was put with two people. Two of us used mics and one used text. Muhammad talked a bit but I was the one that had to fill the awkward silence. 

            Then Alexandra had the whole class introduce themselves and state their pronouns. Everyone was pretty specific about their pronouns. Only one woman said she also used “they". I was the only one who said they didn’t care what pronoun was used. 

            By Tuesday at 18:00 we each have to post to the discussion board the line and page number for a passage we would like to discuss along with a question about it. The question can also be about the text as a whole. If one is not able to do the pre-tutorial assignment one can alternatively do the post tutorial assignment by posting 250 words to the discussion board. We will not be penalized for technical issues. We can participate in tutorials in whatever way possible. 

            We had a fairly vigorous discussion on the question of “what is literature?" I said that literature is the creation of language and creation in language and that even a graphic novel without words can be literature because we use language in our minds to read the story. 

            Some people disagreed about the graphic novel but another person pointed out that each frame in the comic could be a symbol. I agreed and compared it to hieroglyphs which could be seen as a graphic novel at the very roots of literature. 

            We talked about Beowulf. The question was what are the respective environments of Beowulf and Grendel? I said Grendel, his mother and the dragon live in nature while Beowulf, the Danes and the Geats live in fancy buildings. 

             Grendel’s mother lives under the water and so she is beneath the humans at least in their assessment. But it’s also a magical world where water can burn. 

             Grendel was angered by the noise and light of the human environment. The text speaks of the sounds of joy but I suggested that maybe humans are just too noisy. 

             Alexandra said there is a new translation of Beowulf by Maria Headly with a different take on Grendel’s mother. There are subtleties of language that can be interpreted differently. In this version Grendel’s mother is not "bloodthirsty" and Beowulf is an invader in her realm. 

             I enjoyed the discussion. 

             I had time to tidy up before lunch. 

             I had Ritz crackers with cheddar and an orange juice. 

             In the afternoon I got caught up on transcribing my lecture notes and on my journal. 

             I wrote two responses to the Canadian Literature tutorial questions for this week: 

             Hal speaks of not being able to put words to form, whether that form is the war or Freya. War and anything else large, complex and cataclysmic turns from subject to form when it falls back in the memory. Perhaps of necessity for the survival of one’s peace of mind these things become landscape. When Hal speaks of Freya he uses some of the same language that is more at home in descriptions of war, such as “battles” and "arrows". Hal's inability to describe form is echoes by that of a watercolourist who says he cannot capture the ice fields. Byrne's scientific notes on the glacier are far more poetic than any of Hal’s writing that we see. This suggests that for a true poet there is always subject in form. 

             Sara is calm and lives in a relationship with one place while Freya is always in mercurial motion. Both of them are in a sense untouched. Sara is as aloof as the mountains while Freya is involved with her environment but only dancing through it like the wind. The link between these two women is that they have both come in close and perhaps sexual contact with Byrne, although that intimacy is in both cases ambiguous. Compared with Frey, Sara is under described in this story, but it seems that she and Freya are bookends holding up one book. Sara as Saraswati the daughter of Brahma the creator presides over the beginning of the story while Freya’s death serves as a harbinger for the end. 

             For dinner I heated my last burger and put it on a toasted whole wheat bagel. I had it with a beer while watching The Count of Monte Cristo. 

             This story is set in 1837 in Toulon where the Baron Danglar and his niece Simone live in exile under assumed names. Danglar is one day looking out the window of Simone’s sculpture studio and he shows Simone that the ship the Marietta is coming into port. He tells her that it is not only the key to their returning to their true stations in Paris but also for Simone’s revenge against the murderer of her father, the Count of Monte Cristo. The Marietta is owned by Paulo Vittorio who is at this moment meeting on board with the count who has hired it to deliver marble for his new chateau. After the count leaves Vittorio decides to inspect the cargo although the captain says he shouldn’t. When he opens a crate he finds rifles and then the captain pulls a pistol on him. He tells Vittorio that his daughter Rena is already being held prisoner and he will be joining her. That night the count is scheduled to meet Vittorio at the Two Anchors tavern and to be introduced to his daughter. When he arrives Simone is there posing as Rena and crying while saying that her father is missing. She tells the count that her father found out that the Marietta is being used to smuggle arms and she urges the count to investigate. As they are leaving Simone leaves her handkerchief on the table and so Jacopo retrieves it for her. The count goes back to the ship but it’s a set-up as the police arrive on a tip to inspect the cargo. When they discover arms they are about to arrest the count when Rico and Jacopo hold them at bay so the count and them can escape. Now they are wanted by the police and hiding out. Jacopo tells the count that Rena’s handkerchief was dry when he picked it up. The count concludes that it wasn’t Rena after all. The count returns to the tavern and forces the landlord to reveal the identity of the woman who posed as Rena. It is the family name that the Danglars are using in exile. The count and his friends sneak into their home. On the wall is a coat of arms that the count recognizes. Simone steps into the room with a pistol. She reminds the count that he murdered her father but he denies it and says they were friends. He admits that he did ruin her uncle because he was one of the people that caused him to be imprisoned on false charges. He tells her that her father came to him for help when he learned that her uncle was embezzling him. The count informs Simone that it was her uncle that killed her father. He reminds her that her uncle has also been smuggling arms but Simone believes only enough arms were placed on the ship to trap the count. He tells her that he is sure that an entire shipment of arms is in her uncle’s basement along with the imprisoned Vittorio and Rena. Keeping the gun on him she takes him to the basement just to prove him wrong but there she finds he is right. Just then her uncle arrives with a pistol and with his men behind him. The count kicks a stool at Danglar’s hand and causes him to fire wild. Jacopo and Rico hear the shot and come running. The big fight scene ensues and Simone shoots one of her uncle’s accomplices to save the count. The police arrive and arrest the bad guys. The count hires Simone to make all the marble sculptures for his new chateau.