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

Hi nadia

I thought I'd got an occasional Convo going with you in your Space. Apparently not. Hope you don't mind this one.

After reading an Entry, I started thinking about a subject and I wondered whether you might be up for a collaborative effort.

The idea is a piece on Richard Dadd's painting "The Fairy-Feller's Master Stroke". I thought of you because it's Gorgon-like territory, and something you said about that piece made me resolve to talk to you if I went there again. It seems like your kind of subject too, tragic and strange and surreal.

The bipolar disorder thing (Dadd probably had it) is NOT the reason I'm asking. Maybe I didn't need to say that; I wasn't sure. It nearly put me off asking, in fact, but I suppose it's some of the reason why this idea feels like you should be part of it.

If you're up for it, I suggest we write our own Entries entirely separately, one concentrating on Dadd, the other on the painting. Then come together to fuse them. This is a subject which will be improved, if anything, if styles clash and the joins are visible.

So, what do you think? Let me know. Here's a link if you need one :
http://www.noumenal.com/marc/dadd/

Pin(hoping)

You are always welcome. We did have a convo going but it was over at lizardy's space.

I'd love to be involved, but I can't do it right now (see journal for details ). Can you hold for me for a week or so?

N - trying to remember what I said about Gorgon

Of course I'll wait, nadia. Hope all turns out OK. Maybe not a very subtle subject to be suggesting under the circumstances. Sheesh.
Pin

Nah, it's fine. I'm glad you did, it Looks like an interesting subject and I'm rather flattered that you asked

Things can't be too bad. It's Easter and I have a plentiful supply of kinder eggs.

N

Me too. Well, not Kinder ones, but similar. I think I'm going to be sick soon. You want reminding what you said about Gorgon, then? It was this : http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/brunel/F126831?thread=295873#p4194171 Not the trowel-praise (though I can live with that) - the remark about the nature of escape. That's what this story's crying out for. Till later Pin(for Lizardy too)

Hi nadia
Thought I'd better tidy up after that spot of yahoo fencing. I was going to say something over there, but Jodan cold-watered it, and maybe this is better anyhow.
I agree with pretty well everything you said. The Lode suggestion was a way round the position Jodan just declared (ie the AWW isn't ours to organise). That's all it was. Your way is clearly better, except that it's too head on to win acceptance.
That stuff about revolutionaries getting their hands dirty alarmed me a bit. Doesn't sound like the ones I know. It's probably different with you Firebrands in the Valleys. Remind me not to get into a proper fight with you, OK?
You still up for some collaborative writing? Life keeps throwing in these reminders that I'm better at writing than I am at making constructive administrative suggestions.
Let me know if anything's changed on that front. Hope you're still up for it. Just say when you feel ready to discuss it.
Pin
(Snob? Usually taken to mean someone who's excessively taken with wealth and social status, isn't it? In which case, not me. Can we settle for me being insufferably vain?)

I hope I haven't offended you too much. Obviously my tact filters weren't turned on at all and that post ended up being far more strongly worded than it should have been. Fortunately not a side of me that shows itself in public very often. I don't know, maybe that's not such a good thing.

Don't back away from discussing the AWW in the yahoo forum. Jodan's right that discussing the relative demerits of the EG is not appropriate or relevant (though feel free to do that here!) and we should try to keep the hair pulling and mud slinging to a minimum but that is exactly the place for healthy debate on the running of the UG.

One of the reasons I was so glad when you agreed to join up is because the project need forceful opinionated people. I know that I back away from conflict too readily . You are exactly what the UG needs.

Definitely still up for the collaborative bit. I'm looking forward to it. Things are a bit calmer with J and I was hoping to do it this week but I can't. I've just found out that I have a deadline for my next uni residential . Soon though.

Snob: yes, the most common usage does relate to financial and social status but it has a broader use relating to any form of elitism and that was the way I was (rather unfairly, apologies again) using it. You can be elitist but you're better than most and it comes with the territory. Not a damning criticism.

I still think fixing up the AWW is doable but it's going to need work and pressure. But I'll comment more on that over on yahoo.

N

You haven't offended me at all.
I'll just get my own back by starting a vicious rumour about your avocado bathroom suite.
What do you mean, you haven't got one? You have now...

The yahoo will have to wait a few days. My usual computer has blown up. This one is Scrofulina's (thank you, dear), but I can't get to yahoo etc because she uses a different ISP.

I was interested by what you said about being told off for giving criticism in AWW. Who was that, then? There's a nice-to-everyone culture around AWW that invites mediocrity, IMHO.

I'm trying to catch up on what's been debated and what hasn't during the history of the UG-formation. I'm at a bit of a disadvantage till I can avoid tilling old ground. The third draft Guideline, of EG-unsuitability has me beat. Sprout, deliberately or not, seems set to challenge that with the pate-pet piece.

That leads to a next trick that occurred to me : the writing of a perfect EG-Entry, preferably one taken from a Challenge h2g2 subject, only it gets offered to AWW instead of PR. If only I could be arsed...

Avocado bathroom suite, no the reality is much worse than that. Our bathroom is currently a terrible bloodthirsty dark orange due to an error of judgement by myself. I really should try to blame the lizard... No excuse for it either, have paint in a much less eye bleeding terracotta but haven't had time to re-paint.

Telling off wasn't for criticism in AWW. I criticised a pick, 'packrats', because I didn't think it was good enough and got jumped on for being rude. It's ancient history now but it smarted at the time. I agree though, that everyone is too nice in the AWW. Me as much as anyone. I try not to be insincere but I do compliment more than I should and I don't phrase criticism as firmly as I would like. Egos are more sensitive about creative pieces and tact is needed but there is a line between tact and molly coddling and we are on the wrong side of it.

Post to yahoo wasn't too inflamatory. I suggested that we should start with clearing out the worst and see what's left, that members of other groups who use the AWW should be involved in minesweeping and proposed an onsite space to monitor minesweeping and archive moves. I'm not going to have the time to shout at people this week, for which Jodan will undoubtedly be grateful. *waves to covert Jodan*

The problems with the AWW have been gone over before, more than once. There was a thread in community soapbox about it but it petered out. 'why is the AWW still such a dead end' or somesuch.

N

I've done the homework. I'd like to know your thoughts on him, the painting and what shape you want the piece to take. If you would rather continue the discussion offsite you can email me: [email protected]

Interesting subject.

N

Offsite? Not really necessary, I'd have thought.
If lurkers want to watch this strange process (as if...), that could be part of the fun.

Before I started reading about Dadd, I had him on a sanity-par with Blake, assuming he was locked away just because he'd killed his father. I now think he was mad.

The painting disturbs me, frightens me even. The faeries are not nice people, and they don't like us. Its reiteration and obsessive detail are going to be one of the main themes of the piece.

I've drafted a first few sentences if you'd like a look, my idea of how it starts. I didn't want to go too far without you. If we were to follow the basis of that excerpt, the full piece would be story-told (rather like Gorgon) only this time intercut with factual parts. I started thinking of the story parts in the first person as Dadd, and the factual cut-ins as third person. I don't have many qualms about a high degree of invention. This is not going to be an EG-piece, not if we do ourselves justice.

The little bit I've written is set in Morison's rooms. I've tried to give it a heavy and heady, edge-of-sleep atmosphere because that's what the painting suggests to me. The place is full of faeries, too, except only Dadd can see them. He thinks of them as his co-conspirators.

I have some ideas about weaving in a second story, actually inside the picture this time, and presenting each of the two tales as equally real and true, even overlapping them, perhaps. This would express the idea that Dadd might have found the world inside the picture every bit as real as the one outside.

I've got an idea for an end-twist too, but we should get into it before discussing stuff at that level, yeah?

Interested? I'll post the preliminary notes if you like, but I don't want to railroad. Your ideas are at least as good as mine.

Pin

Onsite it is. And no, this shouldn't be EG stuff. Not at all, not even close. There are too many powerful motifs and images for a factual style to come close to painting this picture.

I must confess that my knowledge of art is fairly basic so I think you should do the painting side of it. I do know quite a bit about folklore and mythology, particularly Celt and Slav stuff, so that might come in handy. My assessment of the painting is that it is drawing on the older forms of lore surrounding fairies as much as the Victorian preoccupation and corruption. It's specifically English folklore rather than the Irish sidhee but a form of it that puts the teeth and claws back in. That skewing back to older meanings reminds me of Goblin Market in some ways and they both have the surface appearance of somethng fit for children.

I don't know about 'not nice people'. Where otherness is so central the bounds of nice and not nice shift. And the Indifferance/cruel interest that wee folk of all types were supposed to exhibit for humanity is more interesting than simple dislike. One of the central motifs of this type of folk lore is that we are as animals to them but they are not ensouled. At once less and more, y'see. Having said that, I think whatever reading you come up with will be fine. There's depths to plumb and allusions that can work terrifically well given the context.

The obsessive detail interests me too. The time he spent on it and the compulsive detail in the painting made me think of the stories of possesion, enthrawlment and changelings that are such a feature of that type of folklore. Especially as those features in particular served as a primitive explanation for a range of human conditions and deformities including madness. There's a nice irony there.

Did you want to bring Osiris into it? I think it would muddy the waters and the imagery might be conflicting. Plus I only know the bare bones about Osiris . The upside would be in that the Osiris mythology, from what I can remember, would sit well with his family issues. Up to you, if you want to foreground that it's cool, but I think it might be a bit aresy. If you wanted to bring it in but not make an issue of it a few subtle drop in referances wouldn't be hard to do.

The aspect of the whole thing that has most caught me is the pre Bedlam stuff, throat slitting and boiled eggs. I can speculate on the euphoria, driven by paranoia, aggression and delusions. Compulsion and obsession too...and it didn't go away, just took another direction. *shudder*

What you've outlined for structure, third person focalised through Morison cut with first person Dadd, sounds good and very close to how I imagined it panning out. The bit I wasn't sure about was how to do the inner world of the picture but it sounds like you have some good ideas on that.

Lead on
N

By which I obviously meant to say, yes please, I would very much like to see what you've written so far and to hear your ideas on the piece.

No danger of me being cowed into not putting ideas forward.

N - cow not cowed

Like I said, I've not done much.
Here's what I wrote as notes - just this :

Late afternoon sunbeams dance orange in the crystal, and the oriel is bathed in faerie-light.

The gentle sussuration of his voice washes over me. My World is never so calm, but neither is the World beyond this room.

Morison sets down the sherry decanter in the burning red pool of the charger. He continues in his familiar soft growl, like a contended dog half-asleep at the fireside. He conjures this deceptive tranquility, an oasis of false reason in which he floats, but I forgive him for it. These vestiges of liberty rely on his trust, and he is my friend.

“None of this for you, Mr Dadd” he chides, raising the sparkling glass through the dying rays of crimson sun. He does not notice the sprites and atomies that fly from it. I try to ignore their buzzing, and fix all my attention on the soporific Scots burr.

“Now, the steward informs me that we must discuss this”, Morison continues, nodding towards the canvas. A shower of faeries bursts from the chandelier above, and they settle about the room, on drapes and antimacassars. Their singing is a distraction, and I know that they would have me remain silent. They and I both understand the importance of this thing.

"You began it for Mr Haydon more than three years ago, I am told. You paint over it again and again. Is this the product of boredom, Mr Dadd, or do you have some other purpose?”

The room is awash with the swell of summer eventide. The scent is of candlewax and leather, womb-warm, suffused by tones of blood. The pervasive chorus is sapping wakefulness. I remember nothing more. ___________________________________________________________________

…reiterated… until the painting’s surface heaves, and until the figures within it seethe and teem, and until the grass-stalks whiplash from its depths like razors. And even now he cannot stop.

(Idea of the painting as a window)

There is no comfort here. A thousand eyes return your gaze with relentless and sullen malice. The faerie-folk are deadly real, and they are vain and proud, and their contempt for you wrings your soul. Linger at their window and they will seize your dreams.

___________________________________________________________________

That's it, so far. I was thinking of putting Osiris in, as one of the asides. And the murder, and the flight to France, and the boiled eggs, as well as happier, earlier times. I thought we could maybe write the main themes, and then intercut the other facets of his life and the life of the picture. With madness as a theme, I'm hoping that the resulting dislocated feel will come out as an asset rather than a weakness.

Anyway, let me know what you think. Meanwhile, I'll try nail down the story within the picture. The descriptive stuff on the painting itself should be comparatively easy.

Talk soon
Pin

I see where you're going. Nice atmosphere but it is overwritten. That's fine, since it is an abbreviated form with a glut of description so filling out should fix that. It's not a done thing so I won't crit, or should I? Let me know if I should.

I think we need to firm the story up to a point where we can break down scenes and pick sections to write. Let's ignore chronological, write it in chunks and stitch it together after. It think you're right that the scars and textures will add to it, if we do it right. You're in charge for now. You know more about it and the idea is yours so you should be leading.

I'd like a scene of him painting. A great deal less lucid than he is in the room with Morison. Madness has many faces and we shouldn't romanticis it, or rather, that shouldn't be all we do. I'd like the unpalatable side of it in there too and I think when he is painting would be a good time to do that. Actually, we could have two scenes of him painting, or one that shifts tone and mental state quite abruptly. I think painting would be more than one thing for him. Salvation and curse at once.

We can't ignore the time it's set in but let's not let that get into the style *shudders at the thought of faux victorian realism*. There's a lot of mileage we can get out of that period though. The social calm and manners were paper thing and beneath the surface the world was boiling, erupting through in places like bedlam. Repression breeds passion, y'know. The fairies are perfect. The Victorian fascination with them was odd. They turned them into something safe and pretty and tied them to innocence and childhood but what they were before never went away. The veneer cracks and there is blood and fear beneath it. The fairies are a great representative of that time and more broadly of the tension between cultured society and human nature.

Forgive me, I'm rambling. I find that thinking as I type is a good way of throwing up ideas.

Lets do this right, honest and sharp, no ego massaging, so if I'm getting it wrong tell me.

N

I feel reassured that we've got a start, then.
You're not getting it all wrong (and I would say if I thought you were), and, yes, it's too early to crit.
If you want me to be in charge (not sure, but OK) then you should first write the bit that struck you most when you read the story. From what you said before, maybe concentrate on getting a pre-Bedlam story in something like a couple of thousand words. Start where you like, but maybe smoking opium in some soukh and getting headaches? Maybe culminating in the murder in the chalkpit?
I'm going to try get a story of similar length out of the picture. I have a notion of developing the obsession with sharpness, the FF's axe, the razor in the chalkpit echoed by the razor-like grass-stalks, the single-haired brush.
Let me know when you think you've got something, and we'll start a shared Entry and put what we've got in. I have a feeling the shape will then suggest itself.
Salvation and curse is right. You've seen the little bearded guy who hugs his knees? I've got him as a kind of narrator. I've got a few snatches where Dadd thinks the faeries are painting him, not the other way around.
Do you think you can carry non-lucid madness? I've been assuming that Dadd is superficially balanced, but that his framework is unreal.
Anyway, not too much analysis. You try that bit, I'll try mine. See where we end up next.
Pin

Right, I've made a start. I'm writing four 'episodes': Egypt, Rome, Paris and the chalk pit. It's not close to done but here's what I've got so far for Egypt.

***

Did he turn to look at me, from his lion bed of birth and death? I believe that I saw it, the tilt of his carved face, the shifting of the soot that hid him. Did Isis and Nephthys pause in their frozen motions of revival to flick an inscrutable gesture at me with their fingers? I do not know what I saw, I do not trust my eyes, but I am sure that I heard him. In the temple of Opet he spoke to me, he spoke truths too great to hold. That is why I do not remember his words. The ecstasy of his voice and meaning overwhelmed me but the words do not matter. I am his chosen and he suffuses me.

Days have passed; days in which I doubted the truth Osiris has given to me, and thought myself possessed of evil. But the truth of my fate is with me and I cannot doubt it.

Phillips is here with me now. His eyes are tiny and distant and I wonder if he too suspects the things that will be coming after us, but I think not. The air is greasy with the burnt caramel fetor of his pipe. I share his smoke and the world slows. For a moment I am calm and I grin foolishly at Phillips. That is when the burning begins but it is only in my eyes and I think that it is just the smoke. I rub at them and my fingers begin to sting. Phillips says something, he is asking if I am all right, his eyes focus on me through the haze of smoke and I try to say that I am fine. The words leave me, I feel them go, my mouth forms into communicative shapes and they are gone to swirl with the smoke, forming new patterns as they mingle and breed. I cannot hear them. I say 'I cannot hear the words' but those words flutter up with the others. Phillips is speaking again but his works do not hold any meaning, he has invented a new language, it is a trick his words have sound but no meaning, we must be opposites, he and I. It is a sign that he is my opposite. His moustache bristles, isn't that the word? That's what moustaches do, they bristle. Each hair is perfectly clear, I could count them if I wanted but my eyes will not stay still and they burn. The sweet taint of the opium is sitting on my mind, binding my thoughts like a tar. He is moving, Phillips is looming, getting closer. He touches my shoulder and says something in his new not language and that is when the crush of thoughts and the blanket of opium calm over them ignite into pain and I remember nothing more but the screams that tear at my throat.

***

N

That's good, really good.
I'm not entirely happy with my recent efforts, but nonetheless it's probably time to create a rough Entry we can use as a scrapbook.
I'll make one and call it 'FFMS Scrapbook'. It should appear in your Space, and you should be able to Edit it too. To check that out, try pasting in the Egypt passage.
Talk soon
Pin
(Hope you're OK. That Journal piece sounded pretty anguished )

Nope, only the person who creates the entry can edit it, so, you'll have to paste it together. I can either put stuff into this convo or create another entry to dump bits into for you to collect. Probably the latter.

The little guy huggin his knees is coming across really well, as is the feel of separate worlds clashing and bleeding into each other. I think it's going well.

I'll get on with the bit's I'm doing then take stock. If you want to asign more for me to do, or or give specific direction to the bits I've got planned you can, and I'll see what I can do.

N - doing better now.

You just carry on. I'd envisaged Egypt, Paris and the chalkpit. I'm intrigued to see what you do with Rome; maybe I've missed its significance.

The editing thing, yeah, now I remember running into this before. Unless I'm mistaken, there's a way to make a testfile that you'll be able to paste to, and it'll stick in the full A-entry. I'm going to go try find an example of the syntax (though I already copied and pasted your Egypt notes)

Glad you're doing better, too.
Pin