Mr.
Barrett’s Secret and Affairs of Death by Magister Ludi Sir Kingsley Amis,
author of Take A Girl Like You http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/06/take-girl-like-you-by-kingsley-amis-one.html and other superb novels
10 out of
10
This
collection of stories touches on a variety of subjects, from the military theme
of the first three, which include My Enemy’s Enemy http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/11/my-enemys-enemy-by-magister-ludi.html I Spy Strangers and Court of Inquiry,
tales that enlighten us as to what can go on in the army, during World War II,
when major Raleigh and others abuse their positions of power, taking to court
Frank Archer, because he had left behind a useless engine, just to make a
point, to Sf Drink yarns.
We have
seen Simpson travel in time to look at the prospects for humanity, wine and
drink in general and discovered that there will have been a nuclear war, that
had devastated an area the size of Europe, with vines, barley and other crops
gone, and the future humans are hard at work (well, some of them anyway) trying
to make up for lost traditions, ingredients, to have drink made of…shoe polish
in The Friends of Plonk.
Now Mr.
Barrett has a daughter, Elizabeth, who has had an ailment as a child that has
immobilized her and made the doctor prescribe opium, she is now soon to be thirty
nine, had had two volumes of poetry published and receives a letter from an
admirer, an esteemed poet himself, Mr. Robert Browning.
They meet
and find that they are not just compatible, but they are passionate about each
other, he wants to marry her, albeit the father, Mr. Barrett, is not favorable
to the idea, perhaps because of jealousy – though we are told that this is not
a perverted affection that he has for his daughter – but also because of his
doubts.
It is said
that Robert Browning has ancestors from The West Indies and this is 1855, the
Victoria era when racism was the rule apparently and Mr. Barrett has written
ten points which make him wish that the poet Robert Browning would not marry
Elizabeth – she has two sisters that suffer from the same ailment, but the
parent is not concerned with this possible genetic predisposition, but with
something else.
Elizabeth
is terribly upset by the opposition of her father – ‘papa, you seem to think
Mr. Robert Browning is a demon’- but she loves the poet, who has an original
style – his manner of writing is listed among the ten worrying points, which
make Mr. Barrett fear that he could have a grandson or granddaughter of color,
something that the Victorian age would treat with disdain and people would
discriminate against the child
We are told
that Alexandre Dumas pere has had a grandmother of color and Alexander Pushkin
has had a great grandfather who was not white…eventually, Elizabeth marries
Robert Browning and they travel to Italy – the father hopes that if the child
is born black, then they will be less hostile in Italy – she writes a poem that
mentions the Portuguese and the parent is again angry, because this was a
nickname that he used for her and he feels this as a sort of betrayal of their
intimacy and will keep away from Elizabeth Browning even later…
Affairs of
Death
In this
short story, we have the description of an interesting encounter, that of the
infamous Macbeth (I wonder if the idea that actors avoid saying this name,
because of superstition, it brings bad luck is real…not the ill omen, but just
that this is a habit they have I doubt, something that we could google for in
any case) and Pope Leo IX, taking place in 1049, after the pope had been
defeated in war.
Pope Leo IX
now wants to take e=revenge and has instructed his assistant to round up the
commanders responsible for the humiliating defeat in Sicily and southern Italy
suffered at the hands of the Norman invaders and they will be found, most of
them, and executed, those that have escaped will have people sent for them, an
expression of the cruelty, lack of humanity of this and other ‘holy fathers’
The King of
Scotland, Macbeth, had tried to see the pope before, when visiting Rome, but
Leo IX had been away…this time, he has pleased to hear that the Scottish king
is so determined to pay respects, the sovereign in Scotland has control over
the church and he could prove useful to the Pope, in plans he may have for the
British isles…Macbeth will explain that killing Duncan had been an execution
for Scotland, not a bloody murder…
Pope Leo IX
will be involved in the Great Schism, maybe we should say he is the one who
made it happen, given his position, and from 1054 we can talk of two major
religions in Europe, The Catholic and the Orthodox, we belong to the latter
branch, albeit in name only, since I am an atheist, but many, perhaps most
differences in attitudes, work ethic, achievements are sometimes put down to
the contrast between the protestant point of view and the easy going, too relaxed
views of the Orthodox around here.
Mason’s
Life is so short a story as to qualify as what they call ‘flash story’ and we
have a man called George Herbert Mason talking in his sleep about telephone
numbers, he is aware that he is sleeping, which is so rare as to be practically
impossible and he wants this experience to be shared in ‘real life’ when he is
conscious, he wants to call the man he had met in his unconscious state…if we
can call sleep that
http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html
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