Witchcraft in Thomas Hardy’s “The Return of the Native” (1878)

In Thomas Hardy's "The Return of the Native" (1878), Eustacia Vye is attacked by her neighbor when she visits church: "Susan Nunsuch had pricked Miss Vye with a long stocking-needle [...]." Suspecting Eustacia of witchcraft, Susan responds with her own counterspell. Later, wandering the heath near Susan's house, Eustacia is visible "as distanct as a figure in a phantasmagoria", and Susan proceeds to make a beeswax effigy of her enemy, stick it full of needles, and hold it over her fire to melt and burn. In a storm later that night, Eustacia falls into a roaring stream and drowns, but nobody but Hardy's readers knows about Susan's burning of the effigy. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 31 August 2024)

Steve Silberman (1957-2024): The Grateful Dead, journalism, the history of autism, and a lively presence on social media

I first heard of Steve Silberman (1957-2024) at the latest in 1994, when he published "Skeleton Key: A Dictionary for Deadheads" with David Schenk. Later, I discovered him on Twitter, where I followed his sharp, insightful, and witty posts on a wide range of subjects, from queer issues to jam-band music, and especially the history of autism and the concept of neurodiversity that he explored in his 2015 book "Neurotribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity". Today, when I began listening to the latest episode of the Good Ol' Grateful Deadcast, it was sad and moving to hear his voice after the news that he died Wednesday night. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 30 August 2024) 

Ben Rhodes, the moment between the Trump assassination attempt and the Biden withdrawal, and our moment today

"How will we look back on this moment?", writes Ben Rhodes in the New York Review of Books of 15 August 2024. With its references to "the horrifying attempt to assassinate Trump" and a potentially "hastily chosen alternative" to United States President Joe Biden's candidacy for re-election, the article's "moment" was between 13 July (the assassination attempt) and 21 July (Biden's withdrawal in favor of Vice President Kamala Harris). Yet Rhodes's point remains in our new moment today: even if Donald Trump loses, "we still won't move beyond the ominous nature of our current predicament." A Harris win won't make Trump's supporters and their authoritarian threat to the United States disappear. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 29 August 2024)

 

German words hyphenated at the end of lines of print: “bein- / halten” and “Isotopenana- / lysen"

In the early 1990s, while working on my dissertation in Comparative Literature ("Observing Women: Doris Lessing, Christa Wolf, Marguerite Duras", University of Pennsylvania, 1995), I found a German word hyphenated at the end of a line of prose: "bein- / halten". I thought this had something to do with "holding" ("halten") a "leg" ("bein"), but that made no sense in context. Only after I looked it up did I see that the word combined the prefix "be-" and "inhalten" and recognize it as a verb meaning "comprise" or "contain". I remembered this just now when it took me several seconds to decipher "Isotopenana- / lysen" as "Isotopen-analysen" or analysis of isotopes. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 28 August 2024)

“Orangeade” in Marcel Proust's "Du côté de chez Swann" (1913) and the history of the word “orangeade”

In Marcel Proust's "Du côté de chez Swann" (1913), Mme Verdurin offers the young pianist at her salon a drink: "Allons, donne-lui de l'orangeade, il l'a bien méritée." The "-ade" ending for fruit-flavored drinks was introduced into English through the French loanword "limonade". French Wiktionary cites an earlier "orangeade" in Alexandre Dumas père's novel "Joseph Balsamo" (1853). And the Corpus of Historical American English has a reference from an 1855 article in Harper's that marks the word's French origin: "The French are, in a similar manner, famous, from of old, for their skill in the manufacture of refreshing beverages, which they call, from the fruits that are used, orgeade, orangeade, etc." (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 27 August 2024)

The origin of “cliffhanger” and moments of excellence in Thomas Hardy’s novels

In "The Secrets of Suspense" (The New Yorker, 27 May 2024), Kathryn Schulz mentions the origin of the word "cliffhanger" in Thomas Hardy's novel "A Pair of Blue Eyes" (1873), in which Henry Knight hangs on a cliff until his love interest Elfride Swancourt is able to rescue him. Schulz then adds, "I cannot in good conscience recommend 'A Pair of Blue Eyes' [...]". But then she admits that "the scene on the cliff is a tiny, self-contained masterpiece: smart, riveting, and, so to speak, completely over the top." That is what keeps me reading Hardy's novels in chronological order: even his weaker novels are full of such moments of excellence. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 26 August 2024)

 

Celebrating my 23rd birthday in 1987 at Angels Camp with David Lindley, Santana, and The Grateful Dead

I spent the weekend of 22-23 August, 1987, at Calaveras County Fairgrounds in Angels Camp, California. I didn't see any "celebrated jumping frogs", but there was an air show both days, and a few musicians gathered on stage to play many hours of music: first, David Lindley and his band El-Rayo X; then Santana; then The Grateful Dead, with Carlos Santana sitting in with them on two songs each night ("Good Morning Little Schoolgirl" and "In the Midnight Hour" on Saturday; "Iko Iko" and "All Along the Watchtower" on Sunday). It was a nice way to celebrate my birthday (23 on the Sunday) with my friends Sam Sandmire and Eric Williams. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 22 August 2024)

Le Corbusier’s Chapelle Notre-Dame du Haut in Ronchamp, France; the Second Vatican Council; and Georges Brassens

Today, my friend John Arbuckle and I visited the Chapelle Notre-Dame du Haut in Ronchamp, France (designed by Le Corbusier in 1955). During the mass held while we were there, visitors were allowed in but asked not to take any photographs. It was all in French, of course, and I first thought that when the church opened, the mass would still have been in Latin, as vernacular languages only began to used in Roman Catholic services after the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). And then I thought of French singer Georges Brassens (1921-1981) and his 1976 song "Tempête dans un bénitier": "Sans le latin, sans le latin, / La messe nous emmerde." (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 21 August 2024) 

Reverend Jesse Jackson, Sr., during Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s 2024 Democratic National Convention speech

For a couple of seconds during Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's speech at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago last night, the camera cut to the eighty-two-year-old Reverend Jesse Jackson, Sr., and I remembered two previous presidential elections: first, I voted for Jackson in the California presidential primary in 1984 (the first presidential election after I turned 18) and watched his televised speech at the DNC that July in San Francisco. Second, on election night in November 2008 in Chicago during Barack Obama's speech after his opponent John McCain conceded, there was a similar cut to Jackson crying at the sight of the first African-American to win the highest office in the United States. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 20 August 2024)

Nineteenth-century criticism of colonialism and enslavement by Lord Byron and US Catholics of the time

In "The British Museum’s Blockbuster Scandals" (The New Yorker, 13 May 2024), Rebecca Mead writes, "[...] the acquisition of the Elgin Marbles [in 1816] was controversial from the start (Lord Byron decried their removal from the Acropolis as vandalism)". And while reviewing "The 272: The Families Who Were Enslaved and Sold to Build the American Catholic Church", by Rachel L. Swarns (The New York Review of Books, 23 May 2024), Tiya Miles writes, "[...] every [antebellum] argument for slavery and human sale presented by a Jesuit priest or church leader was countered by other members of the faith". Such examples undermine claiming that criticism of past colonialism and enslavement constitutes "presentism". (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 19 August 2024)

 

Dictating poems in Spring 1997

In Spring 1997, I had a problem with my right wrist which made it hard to write. I spent the University of Basel semester break in Poitiers, where Andrea was teaching in the University's German Department. As I wanted to write poems, I bought a handheld dictaphone and tried out what it was like to dictate poems instead of writing them. Then I typed them up left-handed, which was also an interesting experience for someone who knows how to touch type. I found myself writing two poems in the voice of a seventeen-year-old girl, Erica, who was in trouble with her parents for having stayed out all night with her boyfriend. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 13 August 2024)

Andreas Schärer, Colin Vallon, and Mario Hänni will be at the Bird’s Eye in Basel on 13 and 14 August 2024

For my 30th and 31st concerts by Andreas Schärer, I'll go to the Bird's Eye in Basel tomorrow and Wednesday (13 and 14 August) to see him with Colin Vallon on piano and Mario Hänni on drums. I've only seen Vallon once before, with guitarist Rory Stuart at the Bird's Eye in July 2005. I've never seen Mario Hänni, but the first thing I found when I just looked him up was him performing Pink Floyd's "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" with Evelinn Trouble in a ten-piece band in Geneva in May 2023. That makes this Pink Floyd fan look forward to seeing him! Come and join me if you can! (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 12 August 2024)

 

Thomas Hardy’s “The Hand of Ethelberta” (1876)

A few days ago, I finished another Thomas Hardy novel: "The Hand of Ethelberta" (1876). While George Gissing considered it "surely old Hardy's poorest book", I thought it worked pretty well. While Hardy's two previous novels, "A Pair of Blue Eyes" (1873) and "Far From the Madding Crowd" (1874), had central female characters with three men wanting to marry them, the titular Ethelberta has four men after her in the course of the book (plus, she's already a widow). For me, its main flaw is the ending, which skips a number of years that could have offered a very interesting story of Ethelberta taking control of her spendthrift second husband's life. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 11 August 2024)

Epidemiologist Adrien Proust (1834-1903) in Simon Schama’s “Foreign Bodies” (2023)

As many readers of Simon Schama's "Foreign Bodies: The Terror of Contagion, the Ingenuity of Science" (2023) probably were, I was surprised that a chapter in a book on the history of vaccination was titled "Proust's Travels." But the Proust in question is not Marcel (1871-1922), the author of "À la recherche du temps perdu" (1913-1927), but his father Adrien (1834-1903), an epidemiologist whose journey all over Europe and Asia to try to organize a cooperative international response to cholera led him to be called "the geographer of epidemics". Like numerous figures in Schama's book, Adrien Proust clashed with political and nationalist resistance to public-health measures taken to combat infectious disease. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 10 August 2024)

“Oh give me a break”: Words from Donald Trump that Kamala Harris should use against him

Asked at a press conference yesterday about the size of the crowds at speeches by Democratic Party presidential candidate Kamala Harris and Vice Presidential cnadidate Tim Walz, former President and Republican Party candidate Donald Trump began his answer with colloquial exasperation: "Oh, give me a break." I hope to see this turned into a meme that can be used to respond to convicted felon Trump's many ridiculous statements, such as his subsequent lie at that press conference that "nobody died on January 6th" when the United States Capitol was stormed by his violent supporters in 2021. May Harris, Walz, and other Democratic politicians add "give me a break" to their rhetoric. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 9 August 2024)

Swifties in Vienna sing “Long Live” to defy terror

After the cancellation of the three Taylor Swift concerts scheduled in Vienna for 8-10 August, Anne Sauer (author of "Look What She Made Us Do", Rowohlt 2024) posted an Instagram video of Swifties singing "Long Live" (from "Speak Now", 2010). Swift wrote the song for her fans and the members of her band: "Long live the walls we crashed through / How the kingdom lights shined just for me and you / I was screaming, 'Long live all the magic we made' / And bring on all the pretenders / One day, we will be remembered." The Swifties in Vienna have made it into an anthem for joy and against terror. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 8 August 2024)

Scientific American summarizes the “dangers to science” in Project 2025, the policy blueprint for a second Trump administration

In July, Scientific American published "What to Know about Project 2025’s Dangers to Science", an article by four of their editors, Ben Guarino, Andrea Thompson, Tanya Lewis, and Lauren J. Young. With a focus on abortion, agriculture, climate change, education, the environment, health care, and technology, the article characterizes the devastating effects on science of policies proposed in Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation's blueprint for a second Trump administration in the United States. Among the project's many radical, dangerous, and ridiculous proposals is the elimination of the National Weather Service, a move that would cripple the country's warning system for such severe weather events as tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, and heat waves. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 7 August 2024)

 

Governor Tim Walz, the “weird” Republican leaders, and people in the United States as "WEIRD"

Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota, the nominee for Vice President on the Democratic Party ticket with current Vice President and presidential candidate Kamala Harris in the 2024 United States election, first drew significant national attention for his characterization of the leadership of the Republican Party: "These are weird people on the other side." While there are nice ways to be weird, Walz has offered the creepy examples of Republican politicians "taking books away" and being in the doctor's office. But I keep remembering anthropologist Joseph Heinrich's acronym WEIRD for "Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic" people. In these terms, from a global perspective, almost everyone in the United States is "weird". (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 6 August 2024)

The common swifts have left Basel, but there’s still another brilliant aerialist to observe

In the jet-lagged daze that I was (and actually still am) in after I returned to Switzerland last Wednesday, I did not think of looking into the sky to see if I could catch a last sighting of swifts before they head to Africa for the winter. Only on Saturday did they cross my mind, when they were almost certainly gone (at least the common swifts, as the Alpine swifts around the Basel Münster often leave later). But when I went on a walk this evening, I had several sightings of another magnificent aerialist: bats, whose insect-hunting flight through the same habitat as swifts has led them to evolve similar traits. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 5 August 2024)

XTC’s “Leisure” and the need for a universal basic income

"They taught me how to work / But they can't teach me how to shirk correctly": for the unemployed speaker in Andy Partridge's song "Leisure" on XTC's 1982 album "English Settlement", the powers-that-be ("they") failed to educate him for the life he is actually living. But in late twentieth-century capitalism, as well as today, "they" do not want workers to learn "how to shirk", that is, enjoy any leisure time, even in the face of chronic unemployment: "What a waste of breath it is / Searching for the jobs that don't exist." In 2024, I'm spinning this as an anthem calling for a universal basic income instead of a miserly dole. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 4 August 2024)

Judith Butler’s concept of the “phantasm” of gender as a way to understand the outrage directed at the women competing in Olympic boxing

While I was in the United States last month, I picked up Judith Butler's "Who's Afraid of Gender?" (2024). By now, I have read fifty-plus pages of it. As I expected, Butler uses some psychonanalytic terminology (which I am very skeptical about). But their identification of the term "gender" as a "phantasm" that "has to gather up a wide range of fears and anxieties – no matter how they contradict one another – package them into a single bundle, and subsume them under a single name." This week, I have found the concept of the phantasm useful in understanding the incoherent outrage directed at Olympic boxers Imane Khelif (Algeria) and Lin Yu-Ting (Taiwan). (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 3 August 2024)

The trinational background of my three children – and of United States Vice President Kamala Harris

Like Kamala Harris, the Vice President of the United States and the Democratic Party's presumptive nominee for the United States presidential election on 5 November, 2024, my children have three national backgrounds. Harris's parents were born and raised in India and Jamaica, while she was born and raised in the United States (and lived in Canada as a teenager). I was born and raised in the United States, and my wife Andrea in Germany. While our first child was born in Germany, our other two children were born in Basel, Switzerland, where all three have grown up. They all identify strongly with their three countries: the United States, Germany, and Switzerland. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 2 August 2024)

The binational background of Donald Trump’s children and the trinational background of Kamala Harris

Donald Trump was born in the United States in 1946. His first wife, Ivana Zelníčková Trump, was born in Czechoslovakia in 1949; this third, Melania Knauss Trump, in Slovenia in 1970. His children, Donald Jr. (b. 1977), Ivanka (b. 1981), Eric (b. 1984), and Barron (b. 2006), thus all have binational backgrounds. Yet all that doesn't keep Trump from spouting racist nonsense about the trinational background of Vice President Kamala Harris, his opponent in the 2024 United States presidential election: her father Donald J. Harris was born in 1938 in Jamaica, her mother Shyamala Gopalan was born in 1938 in India, and she was born in 1964 in the United States. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 1 August 2024)