Sir Walter Raleigh

            On Tuesday morning I worked out the chords for the eleventh verse of "Sans blague" (No Joke) by Boris Vian. 

            I published my translation of "Trompe d’érection" (Missed Erection) by Serge Gainsbourg on Christian's Translations and Facebook. I memorized the first verse of his 1983 song "Fuir le bonheur de peur qu'il ne se sauve" (I Flee Pleasure for Fear of its Removal). The melody felt like Gainsbourg lifted it from a classical source, so I looked it up and found that indeed it uses the melody from Bach’s "Prelude N°4 in C-sharp major", but I couldn't recognize it on most recordings because the Bach piece is played so fast. I did a search for a slowed down version of the Prelude and found that the melody matches. 

            I weighed 85.6 kilos before breakfast. 

            I left for English in the World class at 10:20. 

            We talked some more about The Boy Who Loved Ice Cream. 

            I said if the mother is open to change and the father is not then he would have reason to fear that she might want to change from him. 

            The mother uses T stopping, using t or d as in "tank you" and "mout". 

            The story is compared to "Araby" by James Joyce, but I don't see it. 

            I said the stream of consciousness works well to reflect Benjy's confusion at the end. In this world he never made in which he's been made to desire something he's never had and fear it at the same time, during his moment of hesitation the object of his desire is accidentally taken away by his father's fear of Benjy's mother's beauty. 

            We looked at "Sprung rhythm" by M NourbeSe Philip she chose the middle name herself.

            Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote the original "Sprung Rhythm". 

            "There" is romanticized in a way that she could not do except from "here". 

            I said a "sprung rhythm" is not synonymous with syncopation. 

            There are images from inside the womb and around pregnancy and birth. 

            The Sir Walter Raleigh reference to him laying his coat down for Queen Elizabeth doesn't feel like a mockery even though she says it is. She's made to feel queenly by the carpet of flowers that she walks on. Her idea that it's a mockery seems like an adult after thought. 

            I dug up some info on Raleigh: Walter Raleigh was a soldier from his teens. He fought in civil wars in France and put down a rebellion in Ireland where he became a mayor of Munster and had 40,000 acres there. . He became a favourite of Queen Elizabeth and she knighted him in 1585. He was sent to explore Virginia. 

           He was arrested for getting the queen's handmaiden pregnant and secretly marrying her without permission. He was released and gradually returned to favour after leading several expeditions for the queen. He went looking for El Dorado in South America. 

           His neighbour and friend in Munster was Edmund Spenser and they traveled together when Spenser presented "The Faerie Queen" to Elizabeth. 

            After Elizabeth died he was arrested for plotting against King James I. He was later pardoned and sent on another expedition to look for El Dorado. Later he was imprisoned again and ultimately beheaded. 

            Raleigh did a lot of writing, especially in the Tower. Lots of poetry, and some scholars believed he was the real author of all of Shakespeare's plays. He was working on a history of the world when he was beheaded. The cover of his book depicts the figure of magistra vitae (the teacher of life) holding aloft a map of the world, crushing the skeletal figure of death and oblivion under her feet. She is flanked either side by a Venus-like figure of Truth, and the withered crone Experience. Between them are four columns, which correspond to the passage from Cicero: "History is indeed the witness of time, the light of truth, the life of memory, the teacher of life, the messenger of antiquity: by what other voice, than that of the orator, can it be passed into immortality?" 

            The actor Hugh Grant is a direct descendant of Walter Raleigh. 

            I took my Marie de France books back to Robarts. 

            I stopped at Freshco on the way home where I bought one bag of grapes, a can of Folger's coffee, and a pack of Sponge Towels. 

            I weighed 85.1 kilos before lunch. I had saltines with seven-year-old cheddar and a glass of lemonade. 

            I weighed 84.9 kilos at 17:20. 

            I was caught up with my lecture notes at 18:53. 

            I wrote my exit slip survey for today's class. 

            I started reading the story "Turning Christian" by Samuel Selvon, which seems to be set just after slavery was abolished in Trinidad when indentured workers from India replaced the African slaves. 

            I made pizza on a slice of Bavarian sandwich bread with Bolognese sauce, a beef burger sliced in half, and seven-year-old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching episode 26 of The Beverly Hillbillies. 

            Mildred Drysdale and Priscila Standish arrive at the Clampett mansion and ring the doorbell. Jed asks Jethro if he asked his fifth-grade teacher what causes the music just before someone knocks on the door. Jethro says he learned that someone pushes a button and he figures there's a lookout on the roof who sees someone coming to the door and pushes the button. 

            When Priscilla arrives she is excited to learn that Granny is grinding corn. Jed gives Mildred a chitlin and she asks what it is. He says Granny's chitlins are made from possum innards. I can't find any reference to chitlins or chitterlings being made out of possum. I see them served with possum or some biproduct of possum but they are usually made from hog intestines. 

            Mildred tells Jed that her car and chauffeur are at Pearl's disposal. When Pearl comes down he asks her why she's using Mrs. Drysdale's car. She says she can't be seen in the old truck anymore now that they are high society. She explains that the earlier your kinfolk got here, the higher in society you are. Jed says the high society folk must be the Indians since they were here first. Pearl says, "It don't work that way." "How come?" "Let's not try to change the rules. Let's just start enjoying the game." 

            In the kitchen, Mildred and Priscilla are grinding corn. Granny says back home they'd get their corn ground at the gristmill, but since there's no gristmill in Beverly Hills they have to do it like they learned from the Indians. Mildred can't stand it and says she has to meet her husband. Since Pearl has her car she wants to call a cab but Jed insists she ride in the truck. While she's riding, a goat eats her hat. She's so upset and disheveled when she gets to the bank that Milburn Drysdale thinks she's drunk.

            Pearl comes back from the beauty salon looking like Mae West and she has clothes for everyone. Priscilla wants the Clampetts to pose for a portrait and so Pearl, in her warped understanding of high society, has what she considers to be appropriate costumes for everyone. She gets Jed in a polo outfit, Granny as a big game hunter, and Elly May and Jethro as ballet dancers. But she's got them both wearing tutus. 

            The family dances with Priscilla to the Virginia reel when Priscilla gets a phone call from the Women's Federation for the Preservation of the Perpetuation of the First Family Traditions of America. She tells Jed that if his great grandfather was named Ezekiel he will be meeting the president and addressing congress. His name will be in every paper from coast to coast. Jed lies and says his great grandfather was named Jeremiah. When Granny asks why he lied he says he wouldn't know how to live in high society. 

            I searched for bedbugs and dug one out of a crack at the upper left corner of the frame of the old exit door at the head of my bed.