#Martha Ostenso

[asfaltics]

putterings, 302

  about haphazard trifles about his tool cabinet that was nailed about the house, or sitting by himself in the darkness on the veranda   about simply something more than a singing bird about the pump under the windmill usually right here, or puttering about in my garden   spring tumult, he was convinced Production, in any true sense of the word, was at a standstill.

—

puutterings     |     their index     |     these derivations     |     20230530  

[puutterings]

about haphazard trifles, at a standstill

  about haphazard trifles ₁ about his tool cabinet that was nailed ₂ about the house, or sitting by himself in the darkness on the veranda ₃   about simply something more than a singing bird ₄ about the pump under the windmill ₅ usually right here, or puttering about in my garden ₆   spring tumult, he was convinced Production, in any true sense of the word, was at a standstill. ₇  

all from fiction by Martha Ostenso, as follows —

1, 2 Wild Geese (1925) 3 The Young May Moon (1929) 4 The Stone Field (1937) 5 The Mandrake Root (1938) 6, 7 Milk Route (1948)

An instance in her novel The Dark Dawn (1926) was used previously : link (20230519)       This is the succinct derivation of an omnium gatherum of Martha Ostenso’s usages of “puttering,” viewable at 302.

20230530  

[kimium]

What are some books you wish more people read? Doesn't have to be your top recommendations or your favourites, it can be some you think are cool and wish got more attention or even newer books that haven't been out very long yet. I'm curious 💜 (please feel free to answer about as many books as you like!)

Hi friend! I love this ask! Thanks for sending it to me! There are so many books I enjoy but aren't my favourites. It's nice to have a moment to talk about them.

As said in the ask, this isn't about my favourites. Which, is an entirely different list. Regardless, all of these are books I've read and have enjoyed.

My Top Books I Wish More People Read

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

We start this list off with a book that I don't think is obscure. It was on many recommended lists in bookstores when it first came out. Yet, I still added it to this list because I am certain there is still a large audience who hasn't read this story.

What I enjoyed the most about it was how it's a story largely focuses on character journey. It's languid and slow, with mostly introspective elements on philosophy, religion, and questioning the meaning of life. It's the kind of book to reread twice: once blindly and once knowing where the journey will end up.

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

This is another book I don't know if I need to say much about. Yet, I want to recommend it because I'm excited for the next book.

In case you haven't heard of this story, the novel is set in a sort-of futuristic, dystopian China. There are giant robots similar to any giant Mecha anime. The main character is hellbent on revenge and actually Does Something About It no guilt present. She's also in a threesome polycule. It's great and honestly I don't want to spoil too much. All I can say is: I enjoyed it and want others to read it!

Wendy Darling and Hooked by A.C Wise

These two books are together because they're a series. On the surface, Wendy Darling follows the trend of retelling a classic story (Peter Pan, though it has some elements of Disney's Peter Pan 2 mixed in) with a slightly darker twist. When I first read Wendy Darling I thought it was fun and satisfying.

However, the reason why these books are on the list is because of the sequel, Hooked. In it, we follow Captain Hook and that's where I think the story truly stretches its creative wings. I am utterly fascinated by how the author has imagined their version of Captain Hook. I think it's unique and captivating. I highly recommend these two books, even if it's mostly due to the sequel.

Wild Geese by Martha Ostenso

(I had to sneak one Canadian author onto this list!)

Okay. Listen. On the surface this story is one I would have NEVER picked up based on summary. However, it was a novel I read in a University class. While I could have Not Read and Faked It, I ended up reading the novel... and surprisingly enjoying it??

To sum this book up envision this, if you will. The book is set in 1920s rural small town Manitoba (not sure where in Manitoba, sorry). There are two different stories going on: a story of a teacher and a farmhand finding love and a story of a family suffering with abusive husband and father.

Present within the novel are some old-timey ways of thinking sprinkled in the novel (it was published in 1925 after all). Nothing too aggravating, just "Can't Divorce because Catholic" and "Getting Pregnant Out of Wedlock?? You're shunned by the community" sprinkled in the background of the novel.

Anyways, the characters were interesting (mostly the eldest daughter, Judith) and there is a satisfying conclusion.

Is this a novel I'll read often? No, but sometimes I find myself itching to reread it, hence why I added it to this list. Also, this can give you that "Literature(TM) Credit".

The King of Infinite Space by Lyndsay Faye

I already talked about this novel in a Top Favourite Books list, but I'll recommend it again. Look, it's a modern retelling of Hamlet. Horatio is 100% gay and had a relationship with Hamlet (named Ben in the novel). Ophelia actually does things too! All in all, it's an amazing novel and I cannot recommend it enough.

Phantom Tales of the Night by Matsuri (manga)

(I had to slip one manga series into this list!)

First, Phantom Tales of the Night has a gorgeous traditional Japanese aesthetic going on. Next, the story heavily features Japanese myths/yokai, which is always a great time.

However, what makes me recommend this over a saturation of series with similar aesthetics is the darker elements. There is beauty in the supernatural but also danger with some fun Classic Fairy tale/ Fae myth with a cautionary underbelly accompaniment.

To make a comparison, this story has some similarities to XXXHolic by CLAMP (best known for Cardcaptor Sakura and Chobits). However, the shopkeeper is far less benevolent than Yuuko. Definitely far crueller but cruel in the same way Fae granting wishes don't always benefit the human making the wish.

And there you have it! My list of books that I wish more people read. Not a list of my favourites but still great books! I hope you enjoyed this list friend!

[gotham--fc]

Chocolate and birthday cake pls

Chocolate: when was your first kiss?

I had my first boyfriend in kindergarten and we used to sneak off in recess to kiss

Birthday cake: favourite books?

I have so many!!!

Green grass running water by Thomas king is my most favourite book ever

We’ve also got the deptford trilogy by Robertson Davies, secret history by Donna tartt, Antoinette de mirecourt by Rosanna leprohon, wild geese by Martha ostenso, I could list a million books but I’ll stop there

[violettesiren]

Who will come here when I am gone, And who will visit the fay, And hear the laugh of the leprechaun After my day?

Who will follow the nimble path And the footprints of white birch leaves? Who will flee the hazel elves’ wrath And lurk where the witch owl grieves?

Who will lie and laugh in the sun ’Neath clusters of bursting blue Where the sweet globes of wild grapes run Through aisles of shadow and dew?

And who will have dreams of mist and silk in the pool where the gold fins sleep? And who will dip feet as white as milk Where the pool lies emerald deep?

White Feet by Martha Ostenso

[ecstasyinstants]

As they passed each other, they exchanged the furtive survey of strangers meeting in lonely parts.

Wild Geese, Martha Ostenso

[litteraturedesannees1920-blog]

Quand la guerre a fini, c'était l'heure du Canada de briller. C'était un nouvel âge de romans, de poèmes, de dramaturges et de talents en général. La créativité était répandue dans tout le pays. Il y a des nouveaux auteurs qui ont été introduits, y compris: Mazo de la Roche, L.M. Montgomery, Martha Ostenso,  Leslie Macfarlane, Stephen Leacock, Grace Jones Morgan, F.R. Scott, UN M. Klein, Leo Kennedy, A.J.M. Forgeron, Merrill Denison, Gwen Pharis Ringwood, Herman Voaden, Frederick Philip Grove. Ces auteurs ont écrit pour l'inspirer et façonner une génération entière.

[adelinecrossing]

The grass below them leaned up the hill, like the smoothly combed hair of a persons head. Lind regarded it closely. The air was strung with humming insects, poised like little black periods in the light. Occasionally a bluebottle sailed majestically past, the tissue of its wings gathering the sun. A droning bee blundered into a swarm of tiny jigging gnats, disentangled itself and soared lazily on to a distant flower, unconscious of the excitement it caused. Below them, a few feet away, stood the grey, picked cone of an ant hill; up and down its slope the ants twinkled, providential absorbed. A tiny world of intense life.

'Wild Geese', Martha Ostenso

[tryintolivelifetothefullest]

BOOK REVIEW - "Wild Geese" by Martha Ostenso

BOOK REVIEW – “Wild Geese” by Martha Ostenso

Original Publication Date: 1925

Summary from the back cover: In a farming community on the windswept plains of northern Manitoba, the fiery Judith Gare struggles for freedom from her father’s brutal, controlling rule. Told with vigour and lyric beauty, Wild Geeseis a powerful and erotic evocation of life stripped to its fundamentals, and a poignant exploration of passion, need, and isolation. A…

[asfaltics]

putterings, 298-294

                                      it was no mere curiosity, however that brought spring from nowhere right out of thin air                                       hold that thought Sophronia, of sound mind, did not answer.                                       context not worth uttering                                       Miles drift. Sometime strand somewhere, I expect. For the present, drift.   “like a man in a book” of unknown origin

—

puutterings     |     their index     |     these derivations     |     20230520  

[puutterings]

it was no mere curiosity, however

  Sometimes he would spend the whole night puttering about the barn, startling the drowsy beasts in their stalls with the sudden ghostly nimbus of his lantern; or mending broken implements in the wagon shed where his fingers would become cracked and swollen with cold. His ear would be ever alert to catch a sound, a footfall, a voice.

ex Martha Ostenso, The Dark Dawn (1926) : 61 : link

first encountered in Hearst’s International Combined with Cosmopolitan (July 1926), thus —

Sometimes he would spend the whole night puttering about the barn , startling the drowsy beasts in their stalls with the ... It was no mere curiosity, however, that brought Peter Strand and Karen from their farm to the east, nearly a... page 50 : link

(the search was for “puttering” + “strand”)

the novel ran in six issues, June through November 1926, under the head (in the first installment) : “Dark Dawn, A New Novel by Martha Ostenso who won fame overnight with her first novel ‘Wild Geese’” Illustrations by W. Smithson Broadhead (1888-1960)

1 80:6 (June 1926) : 24-31, 191-200 : link 2 81:1 (July 1926) : 48-53, 179-186 (50) : link 3 81:2 (August 1926) : 64-69, 199-206 : link 4 81:3 (September 1926) : 54-57, 160-164 : link 5 81:4 (October 1926) : 72-75, 131-140 : link 6 81:5 (November 1926) : 98-101, 108-118 : link

An e-edition of the text is also available via Faded Page : link

—

The Dark Dawn and its author are briefly treated by Grant Overton in “A Novelist from Nowhere,” in The Mentor (June 1927) : 56-57 : link In the caption to an illustration (provided by Dodd, Mead & Co.) that accompanies that piece, Hattie Murker is oddly and inaccurately described as the “heroine” of the novel.

Overton devotes a chapter to Ostenso in the second edition of his The Women Who Make Our Novels (1928) : 245-252 : link

The story’s melodramatic tone was noted and regretted in a review in The New York Times under the head “A Domineering Woman” (October 24, 1926) : link (paywall) In that review, it is suggested that Ostenso might well study the narrative technique of Willa Cather, “for it isn’t necessary to resort to melodrama to write persuasively of simple people.”  

There was a cozy, earthy disorder about the tool shed that comforted him. W. Smithson Broadhead illustration, in first installment of The Dark Dawn in Hearst’s International Combined with Cosmopolitan (June 1926) : link the passage is from page 42 in the novel : link  

[violettesiren]

What need have I Of a fine house shining Under the sky, When a green tree is twining A roof and four walls for me, Tenderly, dreamingly?

What could I do With satins and laces When the gold and the blue Of sun-woven places Clothe me each hour In the grace of a flower?

What wine is there I could buy me with money— As a wood-pool clear, Golden as honey? And these two come to me From the rain and the bee.

But what need have I Except of sweet living? Were tree, flower and sky Not beauty-giving, Love, you would be All of beauty to me.

What Need Have I by Martha Ostenso

[ecstasyinstants]

Wild Geese, Martha Ostenso

[puutterings]

on a farm?

        “And won’t you be leaving this work soon and coming to stay with us?” King asked of Keith McBain when they had come almost to the camp.       “What — leave this and go puttering about on a farm?” he replied. “No, boy, no. As long as I can give the call to ‘roll out’ in the mornings I’ll stay with it. When I’m through — I’ll quit here — with my men!”       The remainder of the walk to camp was made in silence.

ex Douglas Durkin, The Heart of Cherry McBain (Musson, 1919; Harper & Brothers, 1920) : 324 : link (UC Copy, via hathitrust)

—

Douglas Durkin (1884-1967) wikipedia : link

Durkin is perhaps best known (apart from his writing partnership with Martha Ostenso) for his novel The Magpie (1923), which I am reading — with great interest — now via archive.org : link the 1974 U Toronto reprint, with Peter E. Rider’s introduction, is available (borrowable) also at archive.org : link

Two recent putterings posts involve Martha Ostenso : 289 and 302.  

[violettesiren]

High hangs the gauntlet on the wall, Grey with dust— The white steed stabled, The glimmering scimitar sheathed in rust. Oh, for the dream that knows no fading, The quest that knows no broken trust!

Far are the hills, and vision-blue, The window barred, The strong door bolted. Argosies of ivory, amber and nard. . . . Oh, for the wind that knows no prison, Oh, for the sea that knows no guard!

Adventure now but a flame in a grate— Fear but fear Of a hungry morrow. Gather in from the storm for cheer. . . . But oh, for the kiss that is not for comfort, And the unwept sorrows of yesteryear!

Romance by Martha Ostenso

[violettesiren]

Here the lichens cling To the grey rocks Like the faltering Ragged locks Of an old she-fox.

Here a narrow band Of water flows No broader than a hand: A black crow’s Quill sailing goes.

Here’s a wrinkled grape Like a blue knot On a thread—the shape Of life caught In the death rot.

Here—listen long— By windy word Of reed, nor lacy song Of wild bird Is the dumb air stirred.

Here a man may own His bare soul instead Of a beauty blown Rose, ’tis said. But his soul is dead.

Wasteland by Martha Ostenso