Looking over to my mantel reminds me of the titular book, one of Robert Graves', who apparently was of assistance, not just through his published works but personally, to Gaddis when he was writing his first novel. After having wanted it, off and on, for long enough that I can't really recall why anymore (though I can recall the origin of the desire; it came from reading Miranda Seymour's biography of Graves), I located it by chance at Green Apple and bought it right up. Then about a week ago or I discovered that exactly that stamp numbers among Frank Sinisterra's successful forgeries, an example he brings up in excoriating his absent son Chaby, who probably doesn't even know what puce is. This is no work for a bum!
But what I set out to say is that, while it's interesting to learn that there's a play about Sir Francis Galton, it's even more interesting to learn that he wrote a utopian novel and gave it the title "Kantsaywhere". I have no idea how many of More's contemporary readers had Greek enough to decipher "Utopia" (probably lots—people were educated back then), and "Erewhon", though not a precise reversal of its inspiration, isn't all that hard to figure out. But at least they don't hit you over the head, and have some pleasantness of their own.
Comments