post-cleaning frenzy

[ricardienne]

All the books are moved. It's rather amazing, but Camp now has a library. We have about 8 boxes of stuff to get rid of, from which I rescued a mouse-eaten 1840's Vergil and a Cicero. In the former, they have the poetry rearranged into standard (English) word order in the margins. Tee hee, but it does make it easier. I love old books.

I also found a fountain pen. It is much easier to get pretty flourishes and curlicues (I have been feeling ashamed of my ugly handwriting since looking at so many old copperplate-written journals) with a proper nib. It's also much easier to smudge the ink, though. It makes one realize that it wasn't just a love of conformity and superstitions about the sinister side that made them switch lefties -- before ball-point pens there was a very good reason for writing right-handed.

I was rereading Anne of Windy Poplars yesterday, and I made a Harry Potter discovery. Well, at potential one at least. Windy Poplars is the one where Anne has a three year stint as a principal in another (larger) town while Gilber is at medical school. It has always struck me as very episodic -- one eccentric family with whom Anne becomes entangled after another. One of these is Miss Minerva Tomgallon. Tomgallon is not an exact anagram from McGonagall, of course, but the characters not dissimilar. There was one particularly striking scene with her cat. Miss Tomgallon is the last of an illustrious family and lives all alone in the old family mansion, full of dusty rooms,old portraits, and six generations of hair-raising stories. A slightly less dark version of Grimauld Place, perhaps. I'm almost sure JK Rowling pulled a few things from here. Or perhaps it's all a coincidence. Are the Anne books even popular in Britain, or are they a North American phenomenon?

Comments

[st-egfroth.livejournal.com]

Oh, I've just rediscovered my long-lost fountain pen and have been happily writing out lots of things on paper that I would ordinarily type up (which is bad for organisational purposes, cause I'll only lose all the bits of paper, whereas my computer file systems are comparatively tidy). I feel sorry for my left-handed boyfriend who's never been able to write with any sort of inky pen, let along nibs that are designed for right-handers. (Discovering this made me realise that ball-points were actually a useful technological development, as opposed to a horrid invention, which was my previous insensitive opinion!)

[st-egfroth.livejournal.com]

And yes the Anne books are popular in Britain (or at least they were when I was little) -- I'd find it very hard to believe that J.K. Rowling hadn't come across them, though obviously not necessarily read that particular one.

[achyvi.livejournal.com]

I remember I used to go through stints of writing with fountain pens. Crowquill was my personal favourite, but they break so easily!

As a tip, if you need more nibs, go to a Michael's (if you can). I use the fountain pen my dad gave me, so it's well over 50 years old, and they fit my pen just fine. They have a nice selection, and lots of different inks.