h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: The Razor and the Curtain - A4179954
Author: Pinniped - U183682

I first asked nadia if she would write a collaborative piece with me back in the days when she was still Speckly.

I suggested Dadd's astonishing painting as the subject (a little tentatively, given its associations). nadia was more interested in the tragic man behind the picture. Most of the narrative here is hers. When she left, at the end of March, she gave me leave to build the Entry around it.

I've done my best, and I hope you enjoy it. Please feel free to criticise, so that we can frame these stunning evocations of mental illness as effectively as possible.

I wish you and lizardy happiness, nadia, and I hope come back, because you can teach us all so much.

Pin

Wow. What a story.
It gripped me. I spent a few minutes just looking around the internet about Dadd after reading this.
The painting itself is incredible.

Only one thing that I wonder about - is the Writing Guidelines, 2004 a placeholder or are you just displaying your brilliance in a way I don't understand?

That section, with it's tongue-in-cheek heading, is a personal note from nadia herself, of course.

I'm still not sure I should have put it in, but I think it helps to ground some of the writing that surrounds it.

The title is partly because writing guidelines are literally what these notes are, and partly to contrast h2g2's own rule-book. You lose so much when you make rules.

(It might have made a better PROD example than the Engine, you're thinking? Agreed, except that nadia's last word to an EG-attempt was an emphatic 'No')

I'm glad you like it. I'm as jealous as hell, actually. She's the best we've ever had.

Pin

Pin... this is breathtaking!

Moreover, it led me off to read Nadia's other work here, and now I'm left with the feeling I have missed something important in my life by never having made her acquaintance.

Although the story of Dadd is new to me, if there's any way at all I can help to keep this piece moving, *please* do not hesitate to say so.

m

phewf. I. um. yes, well.

Not good with words when stunned into silence. Pure class.

Hi md and HF

(md - did you read Rusalka? A2163791 - IMO the single best piece I know in hootoo)

The Pure Class here is nadia, remember.

I'd like to think that many people will read this one, and moreover read it carefully. There's far too much skim-reading in hootoo, but the best of the site is better than that.

I've offered it to the Post, but now hear that shazz is hospitalised. I hope she's OK.

Pin

Oh I read Rusalka. At the time I was writing a piece for the Edited Guide A2922176 and I so wanted to link it. But no, EG entries can't link to UG entries. *sigh*

Shazz is in Hospital?! Crikey, I too hope she is ok.

This was, as everyone has already said, brilliant.

Would it be worth replacing one of the links (can't remember which one) with this one which is a clearer, closer look at the painting?

http://www.sunsite.org.uk/sites/sunsite.dk/cgfa/d/p-dadd1.htm

Oh and Frood: F615?thread=655687

Thanks, Kat

I ummed quite a lot over which pic to link. The one I chose has got the expand button at bottom right, for close inspection, and is low enough res for a fairly brisk download non-broadband.

Not sure about its colour, though. Too blue? I think the original is darker (and so quite a lot darker than yours), and more reddish - hence the red tones in Morison's study at the beginning of the piece.

The other thing that's important to show up in the link is the high contrast of the foreground pool of light, which is the one feature from which the scene derives its depth. One 'fact' left on the cutting-room floor is that Dadd may never have seen a horizon for something like the last forty years of his life, and we can speculate that that's why he seems never to have painted one.

Howsabout a mention of the Terry Pratchett book 'Wee Free Men' which uses the Dadd painting as quite a major plot point?

I haven't the words to properly express the depth of this piece nor the feelings it invokes, though 'brilliant' and 'miss you' frame the unspoken with some small amount of clairity.

Masterful work Pin, you see true to the heart of it all.

It's very effectively disturbing, moving, upsetting and informative. I know more than I did when I got up this morning, I've a whole lot more background knowledge of an artist named Dadd and I've pored over a truly amazing picture I've never really looked at before. Like Jodan I wanted more and went googling for more paintings. I owe you, nadia, and Pin.



The 'Writing Guidelines, 2004' bit; it definitely added to it for me, I liked it there. But I knew how to interpret it. It is odd to find the writer's notes in the middle of a piece. I feel it needs more of a hook to hang it on, a reason for it to be there. Perhaps its own font? Top and tailing it with something that more explicitly shows it to be notes from one collaborator to the other, or from writer to editor? Extending the title on the lines of 'Writing Guidelines, 2004' (Collaborative entry on Richard Dadd)? Or, leave it just as is because most people commenting here have taken it in their stride.


The image links; the one you've used Pin, on my pc opens full size, (no expand button). I have to scroll to see it but it means seeing the detail immediately, which is good I think. Kat's link meant I could see the shape and size of the whole thing. They made a good pair.

This is a really good'un, thanks both.
Waz

Hi All

I thought about it, Cyzaki, and also about the Queen song based on the painting, but they're both a long way, I think, from what nadia saw in the story, or indeed from what the painting was to Dadd. My initial suggestion was an Entry about the painting itself, but the end result (and IMO a far superior idea) is the story of Dadd and his descent into madness, told through the vehicle of the painting.

Thanks, Spynxxx. I miss her too.

And Waz - don't be upset. I've come to think of obsession as a gift that underlies all of mankind's most wonderful creations. This is only one of the darker examples.

I'm going to leave those Guidelines just as they are, unless or until nadia chooses to change them. I think the bold font is the right one too, because it's the ambiguous one : Pin or nadia? Fact or fiction? Sane or mad?

Hows about writing an EG entry on this subject too? Or is there one already?

There isn't one.

I tried that with another Entry (about Babbacombe Lee). Both versions got their slot, one in the EG and one (pending) in the UG, but the italics declined to cross-link them - a poor decision IMO.

Another reason I'm disinclined to write an EG-version is that nadia (who's work this is; I just assembled the pieces) didn't much care for the EG.

The final and best reason, though, is that something that fitted the prevailing interpretation of the EG-Guidelines could never be this good.

Fair enough, just wondered if you'd considered it, which you obviously have

Hmm. I sounded a bit sharp there. Sorry

What could work in the EG maybe is an Entry on mad artists. Dadd could go in along with van Gogh, Munch and Pollock, off the top.

An EG entry on mad artists would be huge!

And I didn't think you sounded sharp, don't worry

Oh,

Don't let that pesky seal get away with shoving all the credit off on me. You all know he did more work than me, right?

I do miss this place, and all of you. The lack of internet access is the biggest (well, only) drawback to the move.

N

I claim a Nadia spotting!!! Ahem, I polished one of your entries within the last few months, that's why I know you but you don't know me