#byron journal

[burningvelvet]

Sense you are my resident Byron expert, I was wondering if you've read Byron: The Flawed Angel by Phyllis Grosskurth. I haven't read it yet but a friend of mine recommended it.

I personally am reading Wildly Romantic by Catherine M Andronik. Haven't finished but I've liked what I've read so far

I don't think I've read the whole thing but I would firmly categorize it in the section of pop history Byron books (and therefore probably not entirely trustworthy to accurately assess a historical figure). From what I remember of it, I think the below quotation summarizes my thoughts.

From John Clubbe's 2002 article Byron in Our Time, published in The Byron Journal:

"What does Byron have to offer us in the new century? On the evidence of biographies that have appeared in recent years, SexPower--that is, predation, prowess, performance, deviations, titillations--would seem the compelling draw. Full-length lives--Phyllis Grosskurth's Byron: The Flawed Angel (1997), Benita Eisler's Byron: Child of Passion, Fool of Fame (1999) and now Fiona MacCarthy's Byron: Life and Legend (2002)--rival each other in degrees of luridness and in the copious detail, some of it undocumented or mere surmise, in which they itemize and analyze Byron's amours with old and young, male and female, kith and kin. The authors' obsession with Byron's sex life seems more financially than intellectually driven; oddly, it is conjoined with censorious dislike of their subject. Even including sex, these books tell us little we did not know before. Why, except for sex, we should be interested in Byron today is beyond these authors' ability to grasp. Neglected when not forgotten completely in the three biographies are Byron's impressive feats as a writer, feats that for nearly two centuries have fired the hearts and souls of countless readers and shaped imaginative and political life in Britain, Europe, America, Japan, and elsewhere."

As an alternative to her book I recommend the books and resources that I list here in these posts:

https://www.tumblr.com/burningvelvet/698853736137768960/here-are-a-lot-of-the-biographical-sources-ive

https://www.tumblr.com/burningvelvet/716180738717925376/i-love-the-romantics-esp-2nd-gen-and-was

[silverystardustt]

my life is one big unfinished diary entry

[terryboot]

My bullet journal for November. Did something a little different this time.

If youve been following me for a while then you'll know i love Mary Shelley and her contemporaries, especially those who were with her at Villa Diodati in the summer of 1816. But in the last week or so i've been particularly drawn to them. I read The Villa by Rachel Hawkins which is partly inspired by the Villa Diodati gang and havent stopped thinking about them since.

Doing a Romantic Era poets theme has been in the back of my head for a while but this is the first time i've actually thought of a way to do it and i'm pretty happy with how its turned out! Each week will feature a different member of the group but of course Shelley herself had to be first!

[rini-descartes]

"To feel anything deranges you. To be seen feeling anything strips you naked."

— Anne Carson

[pensiveant]

tumblr user @drops-of-universe // Letters and Journals of Lord Byron, Thomas Moore // tumblr user @introspectivescorpio, // Sweet Movie, Alisha Dietzman

[hanabeeri]

doing my assignments with genuine tears in my eyes

then i remembered my period will begin soon and suddenly my moodiness made sense

[lord-byrons-ghost]

Spilt scorching coffee over my trousers, thanks to the amusing memory of Polidori breaking an ankle by jumping off... was it a balcony or a bannister? Damnably similar things when I've recently woken. - it was at Lake Geneva in any case, and I cannot help but laugh at the memory.

[soulmaking]

Ralph Waldo Emerson, Emerson in His Journals

[shitcomscriptwriter]

A (non exhaustive) list of Whitestone related dreams I’ve had. Please note this is all in the span of about four months. I will elaborate upon request.

The whitestone church camp dream where The Briarwoods and Anders found Jesus and banded together with Cass and Percy to try and lead Anna Ripley to God’s love.

The one where Delilah Briarwood had to talk to my therapist for me (and neither of us knew who that therapist even was). Mystery therapist informed me that everyone has an owl, a snake, a lion, and a skunk in their brain, and that they must learn to work together if we wanted to get anywhere in this life. In this same dream, Delilah looked at me with a mix of pity and exasperation upon learning that I had 50 brothers who were all dancing gangsters.

The one where it was literally just the basic plot of whatever happened in whitestone during the Briarwood occupation, except it took place in the house from American Horror Story and one of the side characters was played by Jack Black.

I forgot the actual plot, but I do know it included weeping angels-esque glass statues, pike blasting a demon horse with the everlight, a really crazy apartment complex, and Percy levelling up to become the almighty Percival.

The dream where both percy and dr Ripley very seriously informed me that marine biology was a huge red flag

The one where Delilah worked for a couples therapy/conflict resolution agency and was telling this married couple to remember to use “I” statements and be honest about their feelings. Then the dream jump cut to the room being set on fire and everyone shooting laser guns.

Fish abortion.

The one where Ripley and Cass were on some secret mission and Ripley insisted on using the pseudonym “Hannah Ripley”, swearing that no one would ever guess it was really her.

[armandjolras]

Byron: I admire Walter Scott so much he’s one of the greatest contemporary poets for sure

Walter Scott, deciding to give up poetry because of Byron’s success, sobbing: what if I just killed myself

[burningvelvet]

i thought nothing could be worse than the burning of byron’s memoirs but i stand corrected after reading jane austen’s poor wikipedia page

because at least we still have thousands of byron’s letters and journals which are mostly uncensored and which reveal his personality in all of it’s aspects, flaws and all, and everyone in his circle documented every detail of his life because he was a huge celebrity. his letters are considered some of the most brutally transparent ever written. i'm just using him as an example; him and austen shared the same publisher, lived during the same time, both very studied.

but with jane austen? we don’t get that honesty or that truly full picture. her relatives are the main sources of information, and all her surviving letters were carefully selected by them to portray her according to a specific agenda which would favor them, and so the true extent of her personality can never be as fully ascertained.

but at the same time... i don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. she doesn't seem to have wanted attention for herself but to have likely preferred privacy, and her books have gotten more acclaim that she ever could have comprehended -- her books are the way we access her, her life, her thoughts and her voice. i think that about all writers, though i do love biographical criticism and biography.

some writers we know nothing about and some writers we know everything about -- at least they all live on in their writing, yes. but on the one hand, i'm grateful all writers live on in their work (as a fan of history and literature) and on the other hand, my unquenchable curiousity does get annoyed with the lack of available information. i would really love to read an extensive series of austen diaries. there is something sort of voyeuristic about this, i know, but there is also a love of preserving the niche parts of history, the parts that others overlook, the undervalued parts (letters, diaries, receipts, notes, scraps, drafts, juvenilia, etc.)

marcus aurelius wanted his diaries burned but perverse curiousity, likely driven by excessive admiration, led to their preservation, and thus we have his meditations which is now one of the most valued pieces of literature ever. so i think letters and diaries, and any piece of writing, does have immense value, even when it borders on a violation of privacy or has the potential to ruin a reputation.

i think this all simply ties in to the fact that i don't believe in book-burning in any form. embarrassing love letters from 1812 ARE important, depressing diary entries from 1818 ARE important. i could go on and on and on but the point is that i think all words and all history are imporant. in my classes we've discussed how archival technology is at the forefront of all human knowledge: what do we keep, what do we preserve, what do we spend more time on salvaging?

it just kills me that so much has been burned and destroyed, regardless of all the intense ethical discussions which could derive from all this, which could go on for a million years. my point is that it is tragic that so much of austen's work was destroyed, and it is tragic that byron's memoirs were destroyed even though we have so much of his work any way. any loss of writing is a loss to posterity.

[maximastrange]

New pages in MY LITTLE GOTH JOURNAL III.

[excerptum]

She walks in beauty, like the night

Of cloudless climes and starry skies;

And all that's best of dark and bright

Meet in her aspect and her eyes

Lord Byron, She Walks in Beauty

[batgovernor]

Using form: Ottava Rima: Max Gutmann, 'Conscious Agents' (from Don Juan Finish'd)

You sages aren’t surpris’d to learn that cowardice Is courage. Truths illumine and conceal. The dulcet affirmation and the sour diss Can equally be true. That’s no big deal. The world is full of paradox — and now word is That even space and time may not be real. We only think we see and smell and touch things. The “world” is like, say, Donkey Kong and such things. It’s all just icons on an…

[subsidystadium]

Former San Diego councilman talked to city leaders about a sports arena. Forgot to mention being a paid consultant for the project.

Last night, I saw a very interesting article on a site called LaPresna.org. In it, they discuss a former San Diego Councilman (Byron Wear) going in front of the city four different times to push hard on approving a development project that would involve a new sports arena district. This in itself is not that odd. Except, in this case, it was a bit different since he wasn’t telling anyone that he…

[devonellington]

Tues. Dec. 6, 2022: A Richly Busy Weekend

Tues. Dec. 6, 2022: A Richly Busy Weekend

image courtesy of Jill Wellington via pixabay.com Tuesday, December 6, 2022 Day Before Full Moon Chiron, Uranus, Mars Retrograde Rainy and cold Curl up and get comfy, and we’ll have a catch-up. There’s a post over on the GDR site about looking back at November and forward to December. Friday was a lot of fun. Mailed bills on the way out of town, and headed down to Great Barrington. I found…