James Wright's "Autumn Begins in Martins Ferry, Ohio." I almost gave myself a swirlie for that one.

total swirlie.

Do you know who Larry Levis was?

Oooh... I can't believe I left Roethke off my list. DOH.

Do you know who Larry Levis was?

Nope.

Paging Steph! Have you read the second Skulduggery Pleasant book? I just ordered it and wanted to know what you thought.

Not Steph, but I liked the second one as much as the first. Skulduggery is still essentially a very thin Remmington Steele with added magic, so it's all good. (Indeed, I sort of want someone to write Remmington Steele/Skulduggery crossover fic, which joins up the dots. 'Cause after all, we don't know what he looked like with his skin. And Pierce Brosnan is Irish...)

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Meanwhile (and I realise that there's a valid argument to be made for me asking this question over in Other Media, but the thing is it's SO VERY MUCH a lit geek thing): who's read The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen? And, more specifically, its latest incarnation: The Black Dossier? Because on the one hand, Moore just blows me away. And I want to talk/write/think about what he's doing in relation to Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next novels.

But also, the gollywog is pretty damn problematic, and I'm still mulling over how I feel about what Moore is doing (or rather, failing to do) with race in the books. But of course, there's the fact that he and Kevin are reflecting the societal attitudes and Western canon of the various periods they're writing about - I really wouldn't want some kind of Doctor Quinn, Medicine Woman whitewashing of prejudice. But... the gollywog? Ngah. Head go boom.

Apparently he and Kevin are consciously trying to rehabilitate the image of the gollywog. Which... yeah, I'm not sure about that. I mean, I still remember being pole-axed when I heard that Robinsons Jam were no longer going to have the golly as their logo, because it was seen as racist - I had never ever, until that point, registered that gollywogs were supposed to represent actual humans. But that was as a child; as an adult, it's pretty disingenuous to pretend that it isn't a parody of a black man. I've just spent some time reading a very articulate and well-researched essay in response to the inclusion of this character, which filled me in on the history of minstrelsy (and I can still remember when the Black And White Minstrels were on telly in England every week) and its role in race relations. And - yeah. I think if Moore and O'Neill wanted to bring this in, then there might have been better ways to do it. It's pretty damned jarring, within a setting where (since Nemo left in Book II) everyone else is white.

That discomfort aside, though, this is a FABULOUS piece of work. I love the fact that the texture of the paper varies depending upon which 'found object' you're reading, I love the 3D section, I resent the fact that the vinyl disk that was supposed to be included was NOT included; the Bertie Wooster Meets Cthulu section made me laugh out loud, the Shakespeare folio was great - just the whole thing, structurally and as a game of spot-the-reference was terrific. And, Jesus, so densely packed! I've been reading frame-by-frame annotations thanks to the miracle of the Internet, and there are SO many things that went over my head (although lots that I did get, thank goodness).

....anyone?

...Bueller?

But of course, there's the fact that he and Kevin are reflecting the societal attitudes and Western canon of the various periods they're writing about

He does try to address this somewhat by having Nemo be unequivocally Not Western.

I think, if anything, Moore is hyperconscious about the tropes of genre. Particularly the historical (problematic) tropes.

Though he's been less focused in dealing with racial tropes than he has with sexist ones.

the Bertie Wooster Meets Cthulu section made me laugh out loud

When we first got our copy of The Black Dossier, Pete read that part out loud to me. Yes, doing character voices. He had to pause at one point while I tried to catch my breath because I was laughing so much.

I love the League of Extraordinary Gentlmen but I haven't yet picked up The Black Dossier... and now I gotta!

I'm not sure that "rehabilitate" is the right word for what Moore's doing with any of the characters. The Fu Manchu storyline in the first volume isn't subverting the idea of The Sinister Oriental, y'know? I think that a some of his interest is based on the idea that the pop culture gives you a grounds-eye view of the world that a factual description doesn't.

And the rest of his interest is in taboos, and making what is implied into something explicit... so as soon as you say he shouldn't do that, it's guaranteed he will.

Black Dossier has its moments but I feel that the narrative quality was hampered by the experimental nature of the book. Or to put it simply, I preferred books 1 & 2.

I'm looking forward to book 4 though, which I believe is called 'Century'.

Ah, bollocks - I just wrote a great long reply, and the interpipe ate it.

Ngah.

Potted version: The Black Dossier is set in 1950s Britain, but it gives centuries of backstory for the LoEG-verse. Nemo only crops up fleetingly in flashbacks - it's pretty much All About White People. Which is understandable, since most of the Western Canon is all about white people, and a fair bit is overtly racist too - which Moore shows, and fair play to him.

But the Gollywog? I can see why they've done it - he's a fitting inhabitant of The Blazing World, not least because most white Brits genuinely weren't consciously seeing gollywogs as representations of black people - that's how totally and utterly Other the blackface dolls are. It didn't occur to me that they were supposed to be human.

But I found this blogger's perspective quite compelling.

Notwithstanding that, though, my GOD, it's a fabulous creation. (I've found Jass Nevins' annotations invaluable.)

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I'm not sure that "rehabilitate" is the right word for what Moore's doing with any of the characters

My understanding is that he's explicitly stated that this is his intention wrt the gollywog, a figure which has fallen into considerable disrepute in my lifetime. When I was a child, it was generally perceived (by white people) as an innocuous toy, on a par with a teddy bear. It was an iconic figure associated with Robinson's Jam, and you could send off for shiny enamel gollywog badges. Now it's generally seen as an expressly racist figure, and the gollywogs have been removed from new editions of Enid Blyton's Noddy books, and Robinson's Jam have kicked Golly to the curb as a figurehead. He is persona non grata.

I really DO think that rehabilitate is the appropriate word for what Moore is attempting to do with this character. I wouldn't use that term to describe his depiction of anyone else - and indeed, I enjoy the fact that he ISN'T whitewashing James Bond, or Bulldog Drummond. But I think that the gollywog is a problematic figure.

As such, of course, it does fit in very well with the whole idea of censorship and becoming an unperson.

With "wog" still being bandied around as an insult on a par with "nigger", I'm actually good with today's children NOT growing up with golliwogs, or being read Little Black Sambo. So...yeah. Problematic, I think.