dispell

[truepenny]

Right. The dissertation has a structure.

I. Introduction
II. Pamphlets of haunting, 1643-1683
III. Seneca
IV. The Spanish Tragedy
V. Richard III and Titus Andronicus
VI. Hamlet
VII. The Atheist's Tragedy, The Second Maiden's Tragedy, The Changeling, The Revengers Tragedy
VIII. Conclusion (still mostly unwritten)

The introduction is still a wallowing chaotic mess--although it does now have most, if not quite all, of its bits in, since heres_luck kindly pointed out to me that great wodges of it had somehow migrated into the Titus Andronicus section. I have been through the first five chapters, trying to bring the language into line so that the fact--also pointed out by HL--that I do have a coherent thematic, if not quite an argument, will be visible to the naked eye.

This feels like progress.

Comments

Intriguing.

[wintersweet.livejournal.com]

You must tell us what pamphlets of haunting are!

Re: Intriguing.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Pretty much what they sound like. Little tracts which report--or allege themselves to report--incidents of hauntings. Some of them seem, to a cynical modern eye, fairly patent fabrications; some of them, like the one involving ""a great thing like a Catt," described by witnesses as being "as bigg as any Mastiff Dog; but they could not perceive that it had any Leggs," which "seemed to slide off the Dresser, giving a thump on the Boards, and so vanished away," have a more genuinely unheimlich air about them.

Re: Intriguing.

[wintersweet.livejournal.com]

Oh my! How delightful!

Re: Intriguing.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

I was going to say that seeing '"a great thing like a Catt," described by witnesses as being "as bigg as any Mastiff Dog"' could have come from almost any recent British tabloid newspaper as we have sightings of mysterious wild panthers pop up on a regular basis. But then you said that it had no "leggs" and slid off the dresser, which immediately made it very much unlike. The modern manifestations only appear deep in the countryside at night. Perhaps they've been forced there by modern electric lighting and a more sceptical and better educated populace?

Hmmm... There might be the seed of a short story in that...

Re: Intriguing.

[oursin.livejournal.com]

There's a book by Gillian Bennett, an anthropologist, Traditions of Belief: Women and the Supernatural (1988), which, as I recall, has some interesting things to say about where and when ghostly beasties are likely to be encountered in the course of contemporary life.

Re: Intriguing.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Which has a "New, Expanded, and Extensively Revised Edition": "Alas, Poor Ghost!": Traditions of Belief in Story and Discourse. Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press, 1999. I've read bits of it, and it's fascinating (though I think the "punchier" title was a mistake).

Re: Intriguing.

[oursin.livejournal.com]

Sounds good - Bennett waa a friend of a friend, so I heard secondhand about the constraints that publishing the 1988 version as a Pelican paperback involved. I must look out for it. (SMB, SLT)

Re: Intriguing.

[pameladean]

Oh! This type of thing will be the origin of the one produced by Shirley Jackson and her husband, to the complete puzzlement of their neighbors.

Pamela

[vass]

It sure sounds like progress to me.

[heresluck]

Silly Truepenny -- the introduction didn't migrate to the Titus chapter; it grew there in the first place, and then you forgot to transplant until now. It's clearly been happily flourishing away in its little greenhouse and will probably be very happy to be transplanted to its proper pot. Or climate? Crap, I've lost track of my metaphor.

[calanthe-b.livejournal.com]

You lucky thing. You're depressing me greatly.

The introduction is still a wallowing chaotic mess

Yours and mine both. I think it's the nature of Introductions. Wallowy, messy, and designed to torment. ~glares at Introduction draft~

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry. I don't mean to be depressing.

[calanthe-b.livejournal.com]

~g~ Don't worry, you're not. It's just that I'm so jealous...

[oracne.livejournal.com]

Woo!

And once you have an intro, some of that will be the seeds of the conclusion chapter, right?