“Herself, and not her music”: Emily Dickinson goes to a Jenny Lind concert, 3 July 1851

On 3 July 1851, twenty-year-old Emily Dickinson went to a concert in Northampton, Massachusetts, by the Swedish singer Jenny Lind (1820-1887). Three days later, she wrote about it to her brother Austin, who was then living in Boston: The singer, not her singing, was what captured Dickinson's attention: "Herself, and not her music, was what we seemed to love – she has an air of exile in her mild blue eyes, and a something sweet and touching in her native accent which charms her many friends." Yet Dickinson could not name what charmed her about Lind: she "seemed to love" her, with that vague "air of exile" and "something" about her accent. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 20 November 2024)

Participating in and attending events at the BuchBasel literature festival, 15-17 November 2024

At this weekend's BuchBasel literature festival, I had the pleasure of participating in a panel on Taylor Swift with moderator Svenja Reiner and writer Anne Sauer, author of the recently published book "Look What She Made Us Do: Anne Sauer über Taylor Swift". But I also heard superb talks by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (at the opening ceremony on Friday), by photographers Johny Pitts and Eddie Otchere on Otchere's photography, by Carolin Emcke on "queer life", and by Pitts and poet Roger Robinson on their collaborative book of photographs and poems, "Home is not a Place". Pitts and Robinson's title also came up as a theme in the other events I heard. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 17 November 2024)

Turning 22,000 days old

On my 60th birthday in August this year, I wondered how many days old I was. I found an internet page to calculate it: I was 21,915 days old. That made me wonder when I would turn 22,000 days old, so I used that page to calculate it: 16 November 2024 (today). Then I forgot about it, until yesterday, when I was reminded of the number by a calendar alert that I had set up and then forgotten. If all goes well, I'll make 23,000 days on Friday, 13 August 2027, 25,000 days on Wednesday, 2 February 2033, and 30,000 days on Friday, 12 October 2046, at the age of 82. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 16 November 2024)

Don Q speaks to crowds and empty rooms

Don Q told crowd after crowd what he saw, and they saw what he said he saw. As he kept speaking and speaking, the crowds thinned out until the rooms were empty, but he kept speaking to the crowd he still saw before him. The former members of the crowd had left, but they kept seeing what he said he saw, and they told others about what they saw that he said he saw, until half the people saw what others said they saw that he said he saw. Meanwhile, Don Q left an empty room, went outside, and was followed by the crowds that saw what he said he saw. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 15 November 2024)

A “tattoo” in Thomas Hardy’s “The Trumpet-Major” and the annual Basel Tattoo

In Thomas Hardy's "The Trumpet-Major", the Royal Army's Dragoons show up in the village of Overcombe, and Anne Garland hears them break the silence of the night: "Louder sounds [...] came from the camp of dragoons, were taken up further to the right by the camp of the Hanoverians, and further on still by the body of infantry. It was tattoo." The "tattoo" is a military signal played on drums or bugles, but I only learned the term in 2006 with the first Basel Tattoo, a show of military bands that has taken place every summer since then (except for 2020 and 2021, when it was cancelled due to the pandemic). (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 14 November 2024)

The trolley problem, Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”, the television series “The Good Place”, and allegory and literature as thought experiments

This morning, on my way to teaching a session on Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" (1948), I passed a classroom where I spotted a slide from a presentation on "the trolley problem", philosopher Philippa Foot's 1967 thought experiment. In class, then, we discussed "The Lottery" itself as a literary thought experiment akin to the trolley problem and the scientific thought experiments of Albert Einstein or Erwin Schrödinger. But I also referred to the vivid, macabre presentation of the trolley problem in episode 6 of the second season of the television series "The Good Place". Ultimately, we linked "The Lottery" as a thought experiment to allegory in particular and to literature in general. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 13 November 2024)

Screenshot from Season 2, Episode 6 of The Good Place

The playwright “Colman” and the actor “Bannister” in Thomas Hardy’s “The Trumpet-Major” (1880)

In Thomas Hardy's "The Trumpet-Major" (1880), which is set during the Napoleonic Wars, the main characters go to see a play in Budmouth: "To-night it was one of Colman’s, who at this time enjoyed great popularity, and Mr. Bannister supported the leading character." Charles Bannister (1738-1804) was an English actor and singer who was widely celebrated for his performance as Caliban in William Shakespeare's "The Tempest". "Colman" is probably George Colman the Younger (1762-1836), whose play "The Iron Chest" premiered in 1799 with Bannister in the cast. But it could also be his father George Colman the Elder (1732-1794), if any of his plays were still being produced after his death. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 12 November 2024)

Update, 13 November 2024: A friend on Facebook quoted the manuscript of Hardy’s novel, which names Colman’s play as “The Heir at Law”, and added that “Bannister” is more likely to be Charles’s son John Bannister (1760-1836).