1984 (2,4) The Smiles and the Tears

Winston sits on the bed facing the window, giving Julia the privacy to prepare her romantic voodoo, and he notices that stout prole woman, again, doing her laundry.

_ _ _

Winston gazed abstractedly through the muslin curtain. Down in the yard the red-armed woman was still marching to and fro between the washtub and the line. She took two more pegs out of her mouth and sang with deep feeling:

They sye that time 'eals all things,
They sye you can always forget;
But the smiles an' the tears across the years
They twist my 'eart-strings yet!

She knew the whole drivelling song by heart, it seemed. Her voice floated upward with the sweet summer air, very tuneful, charged with a sort of happy melancholy. One had the feeling that she would have been perfectly content, if the June evening had been endless and the supply of clothes inexhaustible, to remain there for a thousand years, pegging out diapers and singing rubbish.

_ _ _

Winston goes on to observe that you would never catch a Party member singing like that, as it would seem “slightly unorthodox, a dangerous eccentricity”, but this is one of those notes that strike me as sour, going too far, veering into caricature. One imagines that there would be approved songs that celebrate the love of Big Brother. Nevertheless, it is part of Orwell’s masterpiece, and he may have felt it was important to emphasize the harsh minimization of the individual ego and to give his Oceania that distinctive, claustrophobic atmosphere.

In any case, I think sweet Julia is almost ready.

1984 (2,4) The Smiles and the Tears

Winston sits on the bed facing the window, giving Julia the privacy to prepare her romantic voodoo, and he notices that stout prole woman, again, doing her laundry.

_ _ _

Winston gazed abstractedly through the muslin curtain. Down in the yard the red-armed woman was still marching to and fro between the washtub and the line. She took two more pegs out of her mouth and sang with deep feeling:

They sye that time 'eals all things,
They sye you can always forget;
But the smiles an' the tears across the years
They twist my 'eart-strings yet!

She knew the whole drivelling song by heart, it seemed. Her voice floated upward with the sweet summer air, very tuneful, charged with a sort of happy melancholy. One had the feeling that she would have been perfectly content, if the June evening had been endless and the supply of clothes inexhaustible, to remain there for a thousand years, pegging out diapers and singing rubbish.

_ _ _

Winston goes on to observe that you would never catch a Party member singing like that, as it would seem “slightly unorthodox, a dangerous eccentricity”, but this is one of those notes that strike me as sour, going too far, veering into caricature. One imagines that there would be approved songs that celebrate the love of Big Brother. Nevertheless, it is part of Orwell’s masterpiece, and he may have felt it was important to emphasize the harsh minimization of the individual ego and to give his Oceania that distinctive, claustrophobic atmosphere.

In any case, I think sweet Julia is almost ready.

"Chuck"

Just as I'm coming out of my nap, I hear a heavy vehicle. Could it be UPS? Yes, it is! I went into my nap feeling a little pissed that the mailman didn't have my package, and it looked like that two-day delivery deal wasn't going to work. I sucked it up: what's one more day? It's not like I paid for it. But I now have "Chuck" on my laptop player.

It's a crazy show, with all that super-spy stuff toned down to network TV, making it seem a little like a kiddy show, but it takes me in and I always want to see what happens next. Of course, if you were to take Yvonne out of the equation, I don't think it would work for me. But she is there and I am bewitched. And I have a lot of fun video-streaming entertainment on my hands.

Thanks, Susanna!

"Chuck"

Just as I'm coming out of my nap, I hear a heavy vehicle. Could it be UPS? Yes, it is! I went into my nap feeling a little pissed that the mailman didn't have my package, and it looked like that two-day delivery deal wasn't going to work. I sucked it up: what's one more day? It's not like I paid for it. But I now have "Chuck" on my laptop player.

It's a crazy show, with all that super-spy stuff toned down to network TV, making it seem a little like a kiddy show, but it takes me in and I always want to see what happens next. Of course, if you were to take Yvonne out of the equation, I don't think it would work for me. But she is there and I am bewitched. And I have a lot of fun video-streaming entertainment on my hands.

Thanks, Susanna!

Hamlet (1,5) Smiling, Damned Villain

The ghost has left, and Hamlet is in a nervous, agitated state of shock and mania, taking in all that has been told, and accepting the call to kill his uncle-king and his mother’s husband.

_ _ _

Ham:
O all you host of heaven! O earth! what else?
And shall I couple hell? O, fie! Hold, hold, my heart;
And you, my sinews, grow not instant old,
But bear me stiffly up. Remember thee?
Ay, thou poor ghost, while memory holds a seat
In this distracted globe. Remember thee?
Yea, from the table of my memory
I'll wipe away all trivial fond records,
All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past,
That youth and observation copied there;
And thy commandment all alone shall live
Within the book and volume of my brain,
Unmix'd with baser matter: yes, by heaven!

O most pernicious woman!

O villain, villain, smiling, damned villain!

My tables,--meet it is I set it down, [writing]

That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain;
At least I'm sure it may be so in Denmark.

[Marcellus and Horatio finally catch up to the action and are startled to find a much changed prince, finding him full of “wild and whirling words”, yet secretive too. Hamlet keeps his message to himself, and demands that they swear not to speak ever about the ghost at all.]

Hor:
O day and night, but this is wondrous strange!

Ham:
And therefore as a stranger give it welcome.
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

[Hamlet further insists that they keep to themselves in the event that he may feel the need “to put an antic disposition on” and otherwise act questionably, that they not speculate aloud about what is going on and how this may be related to a certain ghostly visitation, for instance. Even the ghost commands from the netherworld that they swear to Hamlet, and what else could they do? And Hamlet closes the scene.]

Ham:
Let us go in together;
And still your fingers on your lips, I pray.

The time is out of joint: O cursed spite,
That ever I was born to set it right!

Hamlet (1,5) Smiling, Damned Villain

The ghost has left, and Hamlet is in a nervous, agitated state of shock and mania, taking in all that has been told, and accepting the call to kill his uncle-king and his mother’s husband.

_ _ _

Ham:
O all you host of heaven! O earth! what else?
And shall I couple hell? O, fie! Hold, hold, my heart;
And you, my sinews, grow not instant old,
But bear me stiffly up. Remember thee?
Ay, thou poor ghost, while memory holds a seat
In this distracted globe. Remember thee?
Yea, from the table of my memory
I'll wipe away all trivial fond records,
All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past,
That youth and observation copied there;
And thy commandment all alone shall live
Within the book and volume of my brain,
Unmix'd with baser matter: yes, by heaven!

O most pernicious woman!

O villain, villain, smiling, damned villain!

My tables,--meet it is I set it down, [writing]

That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain;
At least I'm sure it may be so in Denmark.

[Marcellus and Horatio finally catch up to the action and are startled to find a much changed prince, finding him full of “wild and whirling words”, yet secretive too. Hamlet keeps his message to himself, and demands that they swear not to speak ever about the ghost at all.]

Hor:
O day and night, but this is wondrous strange!

Ham:
And therefore as a stranger give it welcome.
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

[Hamlet further insists that they keep to themselves in the event that he may feel the need “to put an antic disposition on” and otherwise act questionably, that they not speculate aloud about what is going on and how this may be related to a certain ghostly visitation, for instance. Even the ghost commands from the netherworld that they swear to Hamlet, and what else could they do? And Hamlet closes the scene.]

Ham:
Let us go in together;
And still your fingers on your lips, I pray.

The time is out of joint: O cursed spite,
That ever I was born to set it right!

Quote of the Day

Quote of the Day