Find Something Beautiful Today

[Photo by Bernhard at Unsplash] 

Memorable Fictional Characters from Novels

 Sydney Carton, Natasha Rostova, Tom Joad, Raylan Givens, Phileas Fogg, Rutherford Calhoun, Skink, Atticus Finch, Hercule Poirot, Long John Silver, Tom Jones, Miss Jane Pittman, Scarlett O'Hara, Jackson Lamb, Madame Defarge, Sir Harry Flashman, George Smiley, Sam Weller, Hannibal Lecter, Sam Spade, Huckleberry Finn, Jeeter Lester, Jack Aubrey, Uriah Heep, Augustus McCrae, Joel Cairo, Woodrow Call, Fagan, Donald "Sully" Sullivan, Rub Squeers, Mr. Micawber, Becky Sharp, Flem Snopes, Sherman McCoy, Sherlock Holmes, Count Dracula, Pierre Lambert, Captain Ahab, Edmond Dantes, Shane, Smike, Dirk Pitt, Pierre Bezukhov, Harriet and Guy Pringle, Robinson Crusoe, Anton Rider, Quasimodo, Ben Gunn, Hondo, Alec Leamas, Arkady Renko, Edgar J. Watson, Aurelio Zen, Blue Duck, Ma Kettle, Pearly Soames, Perry Mason, Stephen Maturin, Queequeg, Penrod Schofield, Reverend Reginald Bacon, Rhett Butler, Jay Gatsby, Adrian Mole, Ebadiah Slope, Elmer Gantry, Father Hugh Kennedy, Boo Radley, Joe (The Fat Boy), Philip Marlowe, John Galt, Toad of Toad Hall, Jack Torrance, Victor Frankenstein, Sam Fong, Florentino Ariza, Don Corleone, Wackford Squeers, Mr. Bumble, Rooster Cogburn, Bilbo Baggins, Captain Nemo, Jack Price, Don Quixote, Charlie Carmody, Norman Bates, James Bond, Tarzan, Peter Pan, Rip Van Winkle, Piscine Molitor "Pi" Patel, Dr. Doolittle, Holly Golightly, Ebenezer Scrooge, Gandalf, Dirk Struan, Oliver Twist, Dr. Reo Symes, Casper Gutman, Prince Yakimov, John Blackthorne, Claude Lebel, Josef Roubiček, Sammy Glick, Captain Queeg, Dobie Gillis, Auntie Mame, Charlie Chan, Dr. No, Frank Skeffington, Francis Prescott, Jamie McPheeters, Italo Bombolini, Passepartout, Winston Smith, Miss Jean Brodie, and, of course, Julian Fabius.

Happy Halloween!

 

The scariest novel I have ever read is Ghost Story by Peter Straub.

[Photo by Maryam Sicard at Unsplash+]

The Busy Mr. Bate

It does not surprise me that The Man Who Never Sleeps is also an artist.

Compared to him, I am a towering castle of sloth.

Fiscal Update

 

First Paragraph

Shortly before Easter in the year 1188 CE, an English archbishop of Canterbury went to Wales on a recruitment drive. Thousands of miles away, war had broken out in the eastern Mediterranean and the archbishop, whose name was Baldwin of Forde, had been tasked with recruiting several thousand able-bodied fighting men to join an army that was being deployed there.

- From Crusaders: The Epic History of the Wars for the Holy Lands by Dan Jones

Slow Horses

 

Read the books by Mick Herron. 

Watch the series starring Gary Oldman.

Great stuff.

The Global Antimanagerial Revolution

Elite rule within liberal democracies has been noted for many decades, with few analyses more insightful on this score than James Burnham's 1941 study, The Managerial Revolution (which influenced, among others, George Orwell as he was writing 1984). Burnham described this revolution as a different kind of realization of a Marxist vision: the propertied (aristocratic) class was in the process of being replaced by a new class who perceived that power lay no longer in static property but in the manipulation of ideas and production processes. The new "managerial elite" would maintain the appearance of what Burnham called "Parliamentary control," but power would be pooled in public and semipublic agencies and bureaus. The new ruling elite would govern a state-managed economy in which a nation's (and, eventually, the world's) wealth would necessarily flow through these agencies, enriching the managerial class. The simultaneous cry against the corruption of Washington, D.C. - surrounded by so many of the nation's wealthiest counties - and the lack of any national dedication among ostensibly American corporations was a reflection of a revolution from below against the "managerial elites" Burnham described. What is conventionally called a populist revolution is better described as a global antimanagerial revolution.

- Patrick J. Deneen, Why Liberalism Failed

Cultural Offering's 9 Books

Here is Kurt's excellent list. 

I'm still thinking about mine.

Poems, Novels, and Values

 I was thumbing through an old and treasured book that I probably snared at a rummage sale while in grade school: One Hundred and One Famous Poems.

It was published in Chicago by The Cable Company in 1926. In addition to some very nice poems, it includes the Declaration of Independence; the Gettysburg Address; President Lincoln's Letter to Mrs. Bixby; the Magna Charta; The Ten Commandments; and Patrick Henry's "Give me liberty or give me death" speech.

It also has "Rules for Choosing Books" which provide guidelines for parents. Among them are:

"Does this book lay stress on villainy, deception or treachery?"

"Are all the incidents wholesome, probable and true to life?"

"Does it show young people contemptuous toward their elders and successfully opposing them?"

"Do the young characters in the book show respect for teachers and others in authority?"

"Are these characters the kind of young people you wish your children to associate with?"

"Does the book speak of and describe pranks, practical jokes and pieces of thoughtless and cruel mischief as though they were funny and worthy of imitation?"

"Is the English good and is the story written in good style?"

Although I have a great deal of sympathy for the character-building nature of the guidelines, I can think of many good books that could fall below their standards.

How would Oliver Twist fare? Or Huckleberry Finn? Or Treasure Island?