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

May's Create Challenge was "anything to do with plants or flowers".

Last night it occurred to me that one of the songs I am working on with my singing teacher is "Das Veilchen" - a tragicomic ditty by Goethe, in a version set to music by Mozart (who catches the comedic melodrama perfectly). Loads and loads of others set this poem to music. Veilchen is German for violet. At 11 pm last night I started to investigate other works of the period about flowers. There are many. Wordsworth and his daffodils, of course, and Goethe wrote a few others.

Further investigation showed that the subject is enormous. In those days, much more was read into symbolism and flowers all had characteristics and meanings. Just look at the use of different flowers in paintings, I'm sure the lily, the rose, the climbing rose, the columbine, the daisy etc. all have deeper meanings attributed to them, more or less artificially.

The violet in the song is, for example, shy and self-deprecating. Violets have a distinctive rich colour and a charming smell, but are so close to the ground that you have to bend down very low, or pick one, to get a whiff of it.

There is another poem of Goethe's in which a rose, a lily and a violet have a sort of conversation. And his very famous poem, which has become a folk song "Das Heideröslein", in which a young man picks a rose, I found, on further investigation, can be interpretated as a metaphor for rape (deflowering).

This is why I baulk at writing entries. Once you get started on a subject it seems so infinite that you don't know what to leave out. Plus which, I know next to nothing about German literature,not even Goethe, and I'd need a degree in German literature to even attempt to do it the way I'd like to.

Seconds too late??? I've realised since getting up this morning that May has 31 days, today being the 31st! - so perhaps I still have time to cobble something together before midnight tonight.

Possible topics:
Why the men of the Enlightenment were so interested in flowers
flowers and plants in the science and arts of the enlightenment (at that time inseparable anyway)
folklore about flowers (note to self, don't branch out into medicinal herbs, or you'll be here all day)
Some examples of poetry, music, paintings
advances in biology at the time
what has remained with us today (in language, traditions..)

I looked at a few versions of "Das Veilchen" on Youtube. My favourite was Kathleen Battle's version.

(If I post this journal I suppose I am committing myself to producing something, however superficial it turns out in the shortness of the time available.)

Keep it simple. Aim for something twice the length of the journal you have just published.

TC. Looking forward to seeing where you go with this.

OK - I think I can narrow it down. There'll have to be a lot of speculation because I haven't got time to read much now (have already bookmarked a 300-page treatise on Goethe's scientific writings - maybe later....) and I have a lot to do today as well as all that!

Oh dear - I've done a basket of ironing and cleaned out the cupboard I keep the coffee mugs in, practised my music, but not done any writing.

Maybe next month. But I might still follow up the subject of the Enlightenment and Botany. Or silly rhymes about flowers. Maybe Create will do that subject again.

You could go ahead and write it anyway, even if it's not for Create. It sounds like it could be a really interesting one.

Yes, I may. The gestation period of an entry for me seems to average at about 8 years - that's only brought down because of the Fried Eggs and the last one about Meals on time. Easy, everyday stuff which is written in a lunch break. Meals on Time was particularly satisfying because I wrote it all freehand, GuideML and all, in Editor and plonked it into the entry and it parsed first go!

I thought one of the purposes of Create was to inspire people. Not just for the Create Challenges, but for entries too. So, don't let a deadline stop you *whoosh*