Library Books

We've been away the last three weeks to France in the motorhome.  As usual I didn't advertise our absence on this blog.  I will of course be writing about our time in and around Paris, but first I will mention the stack of reading material I took.

Vivien had saved up and given me a bunch of the magazine inserts from her Sunday papers.  I really enjoyed reading those.  Truth be known, those are always my favourite parts of the newspapers.  Frivolous of me, I know.  I also took a box of pages ripped from magazines over the past 15 or so years filed under 'General interest'.  These were less enthralling but I'm not sure why...may be that my interests have changed.  

From the new library in Whitley Bay, I took all that I was allowed.  I love the new machines where you swipe your library card and then put the stack of books on a shelf under the scanner.  It can read through all the books and print a list of items in the stack along with the due date!  This has probably been around for ages in lots of other places, but this is the first I've encountered it here and I think it's too fun!

Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris

 



I got all the way through several books:


The Gentleman's Daughter, by Amanda Vickery.  I have to agree with the single review listed in this link.  This was published before Vickery's other book, Behind Closed Doors and is not nearly as easy or entertaining a read.  It is very much a research book and some chapters were more difficult to absorb than others.  There was, however, some very interesting information in these pages and I found it worth persevering.

If Walls Could Talk:  an intimate history of the home, by Lucy Worsley.   This is another presenter on BBC who specialises in historical material.  We always enjoy her shows and that was the main reason I picked this book.  I was right, Bill read it cover to cover.  I was astounded that she was able to write so much and not duplicate the material - at least that I recall - in Bill Bryson's book, At Home:  A short history of private life.

I found it interesting that Worsley quoted Vickery and they both quote Thorstein Veblen!  I felt quite at home in both their books.

Debts of Dishonour, by Jill Paton Walsh.  Since JPW's books about Peter Wimsey are by far my favourite over those written by his creator, Dorothy L. Sayers, I pick up anything she's written.  Even though this book was set in modern day Cambridge, I do find her writing style feels quite old-fashioned - in a good way.

How to Read Fashion, by Fiona Ffoulkes (yes, that's two 'f's).  It may be a serious fashion textbook given that it explains what history period various designers referenced in which of their collections, but I viewed it as a fun little book full of beautiful photographs...and maybe even half a dozen items I could imagine wearing.

The rest of the books I just dipped in and out of and will have to re-check them to get finished.

How to Use, Adapt and Design Sewing Patterns, by Lee Hollahan.  

Sew Step by Step, by Alison Smith.  This is one that Vivien's husband gave her for Christmas and she recommends it.

Troublesome Words by Bill Bryson.  This reads very like a dictionary and I didn't get far.  It was interesting in the way that I used to get distracted in the dictionary, looking up a word and finding loads of others so fun to read about I would sometimes forget what word I'd originally sought.  Most of the few entries I read in this book were not problematic for me, but I'm sure that when it comes to conjugating certain verbs I'll find plenty to be embarrassed about.  As if 'it's instead of its' isn't bad enough.

A Force to be Reckoned With:  A history of the Women's Institute, by Jane Robinson.  I have struggled with this book, but am determined to be able to report on it to the WI sooner or later.  I read in the cover that it was supposed to be funny and that may be part of the problem, my not fully appreciating British humour.  Also, she writes in detail at the beginning about many other women's groups back in the late 1800s / early 1900s that were not to develop into the Women's Institute, even though some may have had those words in their name.  The way she tells it, and I'm sure she's correct, it's a miracle that the WI ever did get started up here in Britain given (a) it was a Canadian institution to begin with; (b) rural people were skeptical of new things; (c) women didn't have the vote and they didn't do much without their husband's permission; (d) rural men were particularly skeptical about their wives getting 'educated'; (e) there were strict class divisions and the idea of pulling everyone from all classes together was very unusual and - shock - it might not be the vicar's wife who was elected President.  I haven't got much further than the very bare beginnings, so I'm hoping that it picks up from here on.

Do you take lots to read when you are on vacation?

Part XXXVIII - Modern Economic Institutions

This is a series about a book, Theory of the Leisure Class, published in 1899.  Its author was an American economist named Thorstein Veblen.  Chapter Nine was titled The Conservation of Archaic Traits

Veblen likes to categorise people and institutions, but I suppose this habit goes hand in hand with formulating theories and the like.  As mentioned before, he groups people and their temperaments, work and its respectability, into two groups, which I've attempted to summarise with the words he applies to each.

Savage	Barbaric
Working class	Leisure class
Peaceable	War like
Common good	Individual good
Workmanship	Conspicuous waste
Industry	Conspicuous leisure
Vulgar work	Honorific exploits
Production	Ownership
Industrial	Pecuniary

I’m currently  re-reading Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South.  One of the characters talks about Labour and Capital.  These terms also fit neatly into these groups. 

Veblen describes modern businesses as being either industrial or pecuniary; the aptitudes required and training received differ widely between the two. 

He begins by describing how pecuniary pursuits foster the predatory character, which we’ll see in a moment.  As to the working classes, those occupied in the manual operations of production, their life is not habituated to ‘the emulative and invidious motives of the pecuniary side of industry.’  They think more about the ‘coordination of mechanical facts and sequences’.  For them, their education and selection moves them in the direction of the ‘non-invidious purposes of the collective life… therefore, it hastens the obsolescence of the distinctively predatory aptitudes and propensities carried over by heredity and tradition from the barbarian past of the race.’

However,

“Entrance to the leisure class lies through the pecuniary employments.”

Pecuniary employments conserve and cultivate predatory aptitudes and motivations both through education and through elimination of unsuitable individuals.  Habits of thought are shaped by the competitive process of acquisition and tenure, by the ownership of wealth, by management and financiering; and this shaping accentuates the predatory temperament.  If in earlier days ownership was achieved by forcible seizure, Veblen goes so far as to say that in modern times  

“…the pecuniary employments give proficiency in the general line of practices comprised under fraud…”

If at the top of business are found the ‘captains of industry’, the administrators of acquisition and ownership, lower down we find those involved with the more mechanical involvement with the details of production and organisation, the subordinates of a ‘less “practical” turn of mind — men who are possessed of a gift for workmanship rather than administrative ability.’

The thought has just crossed my mind about what the supposed classical education young men received at the Oxbridge colleges had to do with sharp business practices.  Of course, the classics probably are a sideline in modern times, and in any case, Veblen was probably writing with the American aristocracy, the Astors, the Vanderbilts, etc., in mind, not so much those in England. However it also came to me that ‘knowing one’s place’ could also mean knowing that one belonged on top of the heap and how to stay there…

Movie Costumes

My friends and I were planning our next day out and I remembered a leaflet I'd seen about a costume display at Woodhorn Colliery Museum in Northumberland.  One doesn't normally associate such things with a coal mining museum, but I guess they are branching out.  It had to do with textiles, so I figured I would enjoy it.  Lucy, Vivien and I were joined by a former colleague for the day, Ros.  

Its funny how different people are in retirement or even in semi-retirement.  I perceive people as more relaxed of course, but one sees a completely different side that was perhaps always there but hidden.  I found myself telling Ros I wasn't particularly star-struck, my motives for wanting to see this were more about appreciating clothing design and the craftsmanship, not to mention the luxurious fabrics (even if I couldn't touch them).  At some point after reading the titles of some of my best loved films I had to admit that perhaps I was a bit star-struck.  

I think we all were taken with how tiny Helena Bonham Carter was or surprised Hugh Grant wasn't as tall as we expected.  But at some point when the costumes weren't ones I could imagine wearing myself, it wasn't just the textiles but the stars who had worn them, the amazing stories the films told, the number of people who had been taken into another world watching these costumes.  That was a different feeling to the one I had at the beginning.  

On the whole, I prefer the part where I dream of wearing or - even better  - making one of those lovely dresses.  I hope you enjoy the photos.

The Duchess.  I think Vivien has loaned me this film before.  I know I've read the book, which I would highly recommend.  I've long been fascinated by the Devonshire's.  This film is about Georgiana, the wife of the 5th Duke.  She did have a rather amazing and peculiar life.  The 11th Duke married Deborah Mitford, and you know I'm mad about the Mitfords. 

Hamlet. I can't say I'm particularly a fan of Laurence Olivier, but who hasn't heard of him?  I look at this jacket and see Chanel, with all her pearl necklaces!  

Worn by Lawrence Olivier

It's been years since I saw Room with a View.  Must look that up again.

Worn by Helena Bonhan Carter

The King's Speech.  Helena Bonham Carter gets to wear some of the best clothes!  This dress, worn by HBC as the wife of George VI, was Vivien's favourite of them all.  I must admit I wouldn't mind wearing it either, only I'd make it just below knee-length and shorten the jacket in proportion.  It's the flounce at the neckline and the drape of the jacket collar I love best.

Worn by Helena Bonham Carter

Young Victoria.  Bill bought me a box set with The Queen, Young Victoria and The Kings Speech for Christmas.  He nearly didn't get a word out of me for the next week, I watched them over and over. This film makes me almost like Victoria, but not quite.  Like Elizabeth I, she dealt with a lot before coming to the throne.  She may have been a different woman had Albert not died so young; as it was, she was quite irrational and I can't forget that the Irish famine occurred during her reign.  Still, it's an enjoyable film.

Worn by Emily Blunt and Rupert Friend

Howard's End.  This was my favourite dress of the lot.  Not that I'm that big on the military look, just that the wool fabric was heaven and I loved all the complicated tucks and the covered buttons. The skirt had its own tucks and the back of the jacket was beautiful as well.  This was the sort of thing I came to see.

Worn by Emma Thompson

The cut of the jacket looked quite flattering as well.  

Even the darts are tucks!

You can see I was quite taken with it!

Sense and Sensibility.  It wasn't very long ago that I watched the film again and then read the book again just after.  Seems a silly thing to do, but it is a great story and it was fun to find the few bits where the two didn't match.  This isn't my favourite of the costumes.  I love the little pinafore / apron that Emma Thompson removes after gardening, in preparation for a momentous visit...

Worn by Emma Thompson

Worn by Hugh Grant

Death on the Nile.  I've not seen this film. Apparently Bette Davis wasn't impressed with shooting on location and the early screen calls:  

"In the older days, they'd have built the Nile for you. Nowadays, films have become travelogues and actors stuntmen."  

I kind of like that jacket, though, weird as all those buttons are..

Worn by Bette Davis

Shakespeare in Love.  I have this film, too, and re-watch it occasionally (happy to loan it to you Vivien!).  Judi Dench won an Oscar for Best Support Actress in her role as Queen Elizabeth I, which I thought was remarkable considering the brevity of her part, though I'm not arguing the strength of her performance.  Sandy Powell won an Oscar for her costume design.  Seeing this dress I can't help but think Powell helped Dench win her award, it is so phenomenal.

Worn by Judi Dench.

Elizabeth.  I'll tell you another thing that's phenomenal and that is that I've never seen this film, not in its entirety.  Right, I've just come back from adding it to my wish list.  Seeing another film about Elizabeth, Young Bess, at an impressionable age led me to read all about Henry the VIIIth and Elizabeth I and sparked my fascination with British history.  

Worn by Cate Blanchett

Worn by Joseph Fiennes.

Grand as this and the other QE gown is, I'd rather wear Joseph Fiennes' leather jacket!

If you like this sort of thing, there are any number of websites about movie costumes.  I happened upon this one in writing this post.  And I followed this one for a long time.

After doing our tour, we played a bit in the children's section, well, Vivien and I did.  They had great stencils to trace and fabulous dress up boxes, one for girls and one for boys.  Vivien posed behind one of those cardboard costume things, but she'd not thank more for sharing that photo, I'm sure!

 Worn by very lucky girls!!!

Day Out at Durham

So, to continue the story I got distracted from...

Spiky bits on right are cathedral; flatter building on left is castle.

Vivien and I spent a day wandering through the charity shops in Durham.  It made a change from our usual haunts.  I love going on the train for pleasure now that I don't have to get an 0600 train to London and return to Newcastle well wrung out at 2100 with still another half an hour to home, all my energy and my evening gone.  Perhaps I should be grateful for those weary journeys because it was those days that truly brought home to me the real exchange I was having to make for my nice pay cheque.  But thankfully that is all past, and in any case the train journey from Newcastle to Durham is all of 15 minutes...

I was keen to get photos of the cathedral and the castle (obviously mine aren't as good as these links I've given you).  I knew from the many times I'd passed through Durham that the view from the station was good.  The castle and the cathedral each rightly deserve their own post, to be fair.  I got distracted in my last post because Durham castle now belongs to the University and serves as halls of residence to about 100 students.  Tough life, eh?  




Railway arches always impress me, they are at once so intimidating but also somehow graceful.  



Vivien noticed this interesting old water fountain, just a niche in the wall by the arches.  

Hard to imagine a time when everyone didn't have running water in their own homes.

The River Wear (rhymes with dear).

We had a list of shops, most of which were on one main street, and then we wandered along to find lunch at what turned out to be a cozy pub beside the market place.  





The market was amazing, too, sort of a series of tents within a building, all stuffed to the gills with merchandise.  






A person would need neither department store nor internet very often with access to markets like this and the one in Newcastle.   Some folks are sniffy about markets, though.  Their loss.

View from the pub window, down onto the market!

Loved this bookshelf wall paper!

Probably the most fun place we found was Oxfam's 'Boutique', where the cream of the donations had obviously been collected.  The prices reflected the special nature of the items, but sadly neither of us were in the market for anything we found.  I think it would likely be aimed at the affluent students of the university.




We walked way up a hill to find a shop that probably never existed, but we figured the exercise was good for us and the street was full of lovely old Victorian houses that were a delight.  You can see it yourself, just go to Google maps, ask for Albert Street Durham, put the little yellow man on the road and 'walk' along the street, up the hill.  The pretty houses start with the ivy on the left...  For that matter you could walk all around Durham should you wish.  I love Google maps!

Left:  Old Dun Cow Pub; Right:  former Masonic Hall

Vivien worked in Durham at one time and she took me up Old Elvet street towards the Durham prison and the court.  It was a lovely green, peaceful place, but Durham prison has a reputation that is chilling, to say the least.  

Durham courts.

My general impression is that between Britain's welfare system and its somewhat permissive legal system, a person has to go a long way to land in prison, so the people there are a bit scary.  Also, I'm thinking that prisons stand at the far end of the queue for public money and so conditions there are harder than most.  By the end of a prison sentence, I reckon 'that which didn't kill you made you meaner'. In with the fear, I do have a bit of compassion.  I've had glimpses of life at the bottom of the heap and can't say I'd make all the right decisions had I started there.  I've had a relatively soft life and I know it.  

One of the first buildings we passed was an enormous red brick building, far too large to even attempt a photo.  It was a former County Hall for Durham, called the Old Shire Hall.  It's not particularly old for the area, built in 1895, but it is listed as an historical building to be protected.  It is for sale and will likely be turned into flats.  Some people think this is sad, but I say better than to tear it down.  Also, it might be a fun place to live!

Vivien pointed out these two remarkable buildings which, like the name of the Old Shire Hall, have taken me all morning to discover.  Bill recognised the Old Dun Cow, but the building next to it is the old Masonic Hall. So far as I can tell it is no longer associated with the Masons (and of course I got distracted trying to figure out if women are allowed to join...I lost interest before I got to the bottom of it.  I'll still with the craft groups for now).

Tiles on the Half Moon Pub

From their website; doesn't capture the romance, somehow.

Old Elvet is an amazing street and I'm thinking I'd like to take this article and walk back up it one day.  (And of course, you can use Google maps and do the same...)

Part XXXVII – The Diligence Dichotomy

This is a series about the book, Theory of the Leisure Class, by American economist Thorstein Veblen, published in 1899.  Chapter Nine is titled The Conservation of Archaic Traits.

It appears that Veblen, as an economist, was also interested in the ideas of his day provided by anthropology and sociology.  He seems more concerned with individual personality traits relating to how predatory and war-like individuals were.  And though what he called the barbarian culture has survived up until even today, I would argue, there are sufficient peaceable types around that even the fierce competition for resources has not extinguished them.  That said, what would be the point of being the upper class if there were no lower classes?  So even the barbarian system has to support the lower classes to some extent.  (My logic, not Veblen’s theory).  Veblen feels that the barbarian nature has more variation than in the past because modern life doesn’t support the predatory temperament in its fullest.  Modern industry, for example, requires more peaceable types. 

I was able to satisfy my curiosity about why Veblen said that the institution of the leisure class arrested the spiritual development of a community.  He uses the term ‘spiritual’ in the following way, in discussing the peaceable, savage culture:

“…the dominant spiritual feature of this presumptive initial phase of culture seems to have been an unreflecting, unformulated sense of group solidarity, largely expressing itself in a complacent, but by no means strenuous, sympathy with all facility of human life, and an uneasy revulsion against apprehended inhibition or futility of life.”

“Among these archaic traits that are to be regarded as survivals from the peaceable cultural phase, are that instinct of race solidarity which we call conscience, including the sense of truthfulness and equity, and the instinct of workmanship, in its naive, non-invidious expression.”

In this chapter Veblen seems concerned with explaining how it is that the less predatory type people have survived throughout the stages of barbaric culture.  He is also beginning to talk about more modern ways of life, modern in his time (1857-1929) or the time of his book (1899).  Much as Veblen doesn’t particularly seem to admire the leisure class, the predatory types, he doesn’t exactly exalt the savage temperament either: 

“At his best he is “a clever, good-for-nothing fellow.” The shortcomings of this presumptively primitive type of character are weakness, inefficiency, lack of initiative and ingenuity, and a yielding and indolent amiability, together with a lively but inconsequential animistic sense. Along with these traits go certain others which have some value for the collective life process, in the sense that they further the facility of life in the group. These traits are truthfulness, peaceableness, good-will, and a non-emulative, non-invidious interest in men and things. 

The traits which characterize the predatory and subsequent stages of culture, and which indicate the types of man best fitted to survive under the regime of status, are (in their primary expression) ferocity, self-seeking, clannishness, and disingenuousness — a free resort to force and fraud. 

In ‘modern’ times, economic life has evolved in the industrial communities such that the interests of the community no longer coincides with those of the individual.  That is, communities no longer have to compete for the means or right to live, except as the ruling classes are inclined to keep up the tradition of war and pillage.  Communities aren’t hostile to one another, except for ‘circumstances of tradition and temperament’; this made me think of the rather wry habitual disparagement of all things French, by Brits.  The world has moved on and the success of one community is not dependent upon getting the better of another.  The same is not true for individuals and their relationships with others. 

“The collective interests of any modern community center in industrial efficiency.”

Individuals who are efficient in the so-called vulgar, productive employments are the most useful. 

“This collective interest is best served by honesty, diligence, peacefulness, good-will, an absence of self-seeking, and an habitual recognition and apprehension of causal sequence, without admixture of animistic belief and without a sense of dependence on any preternatural intervention in the course of events. Not much is to be said for the beauty, moral excellence, or general worthiness and reputability of such a prosy human nature as these traits imply; and there is little ground of enthusiasm for the manner of collective life that would result from the prevalence of these traits in unmitigated dominance."

Veblen doesn’t really like anyone, does he?  We're all either dishonest or stupid.  This reminds me of a blog I used to read but have lost track of.  The woman wrote brilliantly about the many dichotomies of preference, ie, are you a dog person or a cat person; long hair or short?; salty or sweet tooth? 

Are you savage or barbarian?