Writing, As A Woman.

A little over 3 weeks ago, my wife had a fall, resulting in a broken wrist. This, in turn, means I have to

do a lot more of the domestic tasks. I’ve generally done a few things around the house and made the car and garden my particular responsibility. But we’ve always shared the load between us. What I’ve come to realise, however, is just how much my wife does silently in the background whilst I’m tapping away at the keyboard.

This has educated me a little more in the difficulties that must be faced by many women writers, especially those who have children and/or another job. I’ve always been employed as well as doing my writing, at least until I retired from employment a few months ago. So, I’ve had some understanding of the way a writer must juggle other tasks with writing: not always easy and never very satisfactory. But this experience with my wife effectively out of action (though her independent spirit means she’s still tackling anything she can manage with one hand!) has shown me just how hard it must be for those women who write whilst caring for a family. We have only one daughter, now at university, but currently at home for the holidays and working in a local hostelry.

I’ve found myself washing up (glasses and pans) – a task I’ve previously done only occasionally. Organising the dish-washer for the ordinary crockery and cutlery. Washing clothes and hanging them out to dry ( a time-consuming job). Ironing (also time-consuming). Preparing meals (another job I’ve done from time to time rather than regularly). Shopping (neither of us likes this one, but we’ve generally done it together to make sure neither of us gets lumbered). Preparing packing up for Kate on her work days (yes, she could do it herself, but she has the social life of a student and she’s doing research for her dissertation, so I’d rather she concentrated on being a student at present). So far, I’ve not used the vacuum cleaner, as Valerie insists she can manage that one-handed. And the dust is starting to collect, so I’ll have to get that duster out soon. The weather has been generally kind, so the car has managed without a clean for a few weeks. But the grass keeps growing, so that has to be tamed, of course. And, if I don’t get out there with a trowel, the weeds will soon become a veritable jungle.  And, because she can’t drive, I’m also the chauffeur for when Valerie wants or needs to go places. There are lots of other ‘little’ jobs, of course, but it would be boring to enumerate them all. It all eats into the writing time.

But this is all temporary, of course. Once that pot comes off her arm, I know Valerie will go back to doing all these things and encourage me to spend more time writing. It’s those women who have no such relief from the daily grind that I’ve come to sympathise (dare I go as far as ‘empathise’?) with more over these few weeks. I’ve also come to admire them more. To continue day after day and still get those words down: that’s quite an achievement, ladies.

So, let me just say: Well done to all those women (and the few men) who write in spite of caring for their families. I admire your effort, concentration and spirit of determination. More power to you all.

Related articles

• Author Interview with Stuart Aken
• A Lot To Do Or Just No Time?
• Reminder: Special Issue of Women's Writing "19thC Women Writers & the Rise of the Bestseller" (9/2/2013)
• Self-Confidence: How do you feel about your writing?

The Old Ones, by Arnold Wesker, Reviewed.

First performed at the Royal Court Theatre in London, 1972, this two-acter from a wise playwright fell

into my hands through a library sale. I’d enjoyed his ‘Chips With Everything’, and thought I’d see what he had to offer here.

This is a play, as the title suggests, about old people. Though the definition of ‘old’ has probably shifted since the writing of the play, since the eldest character is only 72. Personal viewpoint, probably, but as someone only 7 years junior to that character, I don’t consider myself ‘old’. It’s also about Jewish people, with the preparation and performance of a Jewish ceremony running as a thread through the performance. But the observations about aging, relationships and the generation gap are universal, of course. Where I do find a slight disagreement with the author is in his implicit suggestion that wisdom is the sole province of the old. It’s true that he shows foolishness and senility lie there as well, but he has no representatives of wisdom amongst the young. My own experience of life has shown me that age and wisdom are not always bedfellows. In fact, I’ve experienced wisdom at the hands of youth very frequently. And I’ve witnessed foolishness in the actions and thoughts of the old on too many occasions to record.

That said, the play is entertaining and does encapsulate certain attitudes without turning them into clichés. There are moments of great insight, moments of sadness, spells of conflict and periods of harmony. I could have done without the biblical quotes, which, for me, added nothing to the structure of the play and seemed no more than seasoning to flavour the Jewishness of the characters. Other quotes and philosophical meanderings I found instructive and illuminating, however.

Youth is shown only as uncaring, selfish, destructive and ignorant, which is a real shame and no accurate rendition of reality as I find it. The senility is early onset in current terms, but was probably accurate contemporaneously. Nowadays, we expect people to demonstrate senility in general terms when eighty or older.

There’s some demonstration of the basic hypocrisy of religion, but I couldn’t decide whether this was unconscious, ironical, or a deliberate uncovering of this unfortunate quality. No matter, it served the purpose of revealing the unfortunate habit of many religious people of saying one thing whilst doing something else entirely.

I think I’d enjoy this play in performance. On the page there’s humour, which, allowed the right sort of actors, would probably turn the work into a very good work piece of philosophical comedy. A good read.

Acid Drops, by Kenneth Williams, Reviewed.

Kenneth Williams, of ‘Carry On…’ fame for many, was a troubled character. Clever but socially handicapped, he lived a mostly solitary life. It comes as no surprise, then, that his collection of witty quips and quotes is entirely made up of the sort of put-downs that leave the victim feeling bad. Of course, the title gives a clue to the nature of the assortment; his selection is pungent with acerbic witticisms.

As an optimist and, bearing a philanthropic nature, I found only a few of these short forays into wit amusing. Many are cruel. At best, most are caustic. I laugh easily; it’s in my nature. But I didn’t laugh at many of these. Though I can admire the intelligence that created them. And Williams’ short accompanying accounts of how the quips came to be are quite amusing and informative.

Of course, this is a book intended to be dipped into rather than read, as I did, at one sitting. Perhaps I was overwhelmed by the nastiness of much of the material.

I have no doubt that those of a misanthropic or sour disposition will find plenty to enjoy here. But, for me, there was a little too much acid to make the book enjoyable. This is a volume that illustrates that beauty is very much in the eye of the beholder. For me, it was distinctly ugly, but clever. So a mixed review. If you like your wit with a cutting edge and little mercy, this will suit you.

Related articles

• Ashes Remembered - Kenneth Williams

Do You Love Words?

Regular visitors will know I love words. As a reader and a writer, I'm fascinated by these small
packets of information that allow us to communicate, imagine and to explore our world. Here is a website I came across recently that I think will interest those with similar interests. I've copied the most recent of the weekly newsletters, with, of course, the permission of the site owner, Michael Quinion. Have a read, and if you're intrigued like me, you can easily sign up for the newsletter by going to this link: http://www.worldwidewords.org/

Newsletter 843

Saturday 3 August 2013

Contents

1. Culprit.

2. Pony up.

3. Sic!

4. Useful information.

1. Culprit

This is a common word with a strange genesis, arising out of an old legal abbreviation, compounded by popular etymology.

When England was conquered by the Normans at the Battle of Hastings, French became the language of the law. It remained in use among lawyers even after the language of the courts changed to English in the fourteenth century, latterly in a stylised and degenerate form called law French. Fragments of law French survive even to this day in parliamentary proceedings.Culprit is another survivor.

The records are sparse, but the usual explanation goes like this: if a prisoner in a medieval court pleaded not guilty to the charge, the prosecutor would respond with the words, Culpable: prest d’averrer nostre bille, which may loosely be translated as “We believe him to be guilty and I am ready to prove the charge”. This was recorded in the court rolls as cul prest or cul prist.

The two key words are culpable and prest. The former remains in English in the sense “deserving of blame”, ultimately from Latin culpa, blame or fault.Prest is Anglo-Norman, meaning “ready”, which survived in English until the eighteenth century, but which has become prêt in modern French (as inprêt à manger, ready to eat, or prêt à porter, ready to wear).

The abbreviation cul prest became modified down the years and was somehow misunderstood very late on in the history of law French to be the way that the accused was to be addressed. It turns up first in the record of the trial in 1678 of the Earl of Pembroke for murder; he was asked: “Culprit, how will you be tried?”

Culprit became part of the language in the sense of the accused person. During the following century people came to believe that it meant a guilty person, perhaps in part because of a confusion with culpa.

2. Pony up

Q From David Shapiro: Where does pony up come from?

A This is a classic American expression, but one now widely known in other parts of the English-speaking world. To pony up means to pay what you owe or settle your debt. It usually refers to a smallish sum of money:

The promotion offers Virginians 16 and older the chance to fish without a license for three days in the hopes some of those folks will have so much fun they’ll decide to pony up a few bucks for the privilege of fishing for the next 12 months.

The Roanoke Times (Roanoke, Virginia), 2 Jun. 2013.

It dates from the early nineteenth century. This is the earliest example so far known:

The afternoon, before the evening, the favoured gentlemen are walkingrapidly into the merchant-tailors shops, and very slowly out, unless they ponied up the Spanish.

The Rural Magazine and Farmer’s Monthly Museum, May 1819.

(Spanish here is slang for money, a term known a little earlier in Britain — Francis Grose recorded it in the 1788 edition of his Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. It’s short for Spanish money, from an association of Spain with rich treasure fleets, doubloons and pieces of eight.)

It seems very likely that pony similarly derives from English slang. It appears in several works at about the same time, including the 1796 edition of Grose’s book. It also turns up in another famous work, which will expand even further your knowledge of long-obsolete slang terms for money:

It’s everything now o’days to be able to flash the screens — sport the rhino — show the needful — post the pony — nap the rent — stump the pewter.

Tom and Jerry, by W T Moncrieff, 1821.

The presumption is that it comes from the equine pony because it was a small horse, as relatively small as the sums of money which users were concerned with. Among the moneyed classes a pony at this time meant 25 guineas (later 25 pounds), a very large amount at the time by most people’s standards, but presumably not thought excessive by individuals who paid their bills in guineas. Horses for courses, you might say.

3. Sic!

• “The quote below,” emailed Hal Norvell, “is from a local newspaper here in central Maine. The source is the Associated Press. ‘A court in Cameroon found two men guilty under the country’s law banning gay sex on Tuesday, a lawyer said ....’”

• Nancy Miller found this in the Premier Traveler magazine for June & July, reviewing ANA business class: “The meal was expertly finished off with a decedent Pierre Hermé Paris dessert: vanilla and dulce de leche ice cream with raspberry sauce.”

• Speaking of decedents, the New York Times obituary of 26 June for the photographer Bert Stern contained this sentence, Kate Schubart reports: “His death was confirmed by Shannah Laumeister, a longtime friend, who said she and Mr. Stern had been secretly married since 2009. No cause was given.”

• It-could-have-been-better-punctuated department: in a story about acute oak decline, a bacterial disease which is afflicting British trees, the Guardian on 16 July referred to “Brian Muelaner, an ancient oak adviser at the National Trust.”

• Detlef Pelz read a Reuters report dated 1 August on the website of The Agein Australia: “Mr Chong’s lawyers have said that he was arrested at the home of friend during a raid by a drug enforcement task force investigating an ecstasy trafficking ring that included DEA agents, sheriff’s deputies and San Diego police officers.”

4. Useful information

World Wide Words is copyright © Michael Quinion 2013. All rights reserved. You may reproduce this newsletter in whole or part in free newsletters, newsgroups or mailing lists online provided that you include the copyright notice above. You need the prior permission of the author to reproduce any part of it on Web sites or in printed publications. You don’t need permission to link to it.

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July, a Month of Change and Progress

Click on the chart to open in a new window at a larger size

It’s been a mixed month. The weather, always an important component of British life, has been largely hot and fine, which is fine with me: I detest wet and cold. But, of course, we get so few hot days that we feel we must make the most of them. So, the garden has been well attended, and we’ve had a couple of trips out. Relatives and friends have been visited. It all takes time out of the writing calendar. Unfortunately, my wife had a fall (at her bowls club, slipping on a wet floor) and broke her wrist in two places. She’s in plaster and still in some pain, which means I’m doing more of the household tasks than normal.

As for the writing, which is the purpose of this post, that has been going relatively well. I sent the first 3,000 words of book 1 of the adult fantasy to a publisher and, within a few days, Fantastic Books Publishing asked to see the whole MS. That involved a little bit of final tweaking, of course (you have to make it as good as you can). And, as a result of their interest, I decided to prepare book 2 for publication, just in case. I’m now awaiting their decision, but, as you know, the wheels of publishing turn slowly. So, watch this space.

In the meantime, I started book 3 in earnest and have, to this date, written 24,131 words. Not as much as I’d hoped, but the emergency with Valerie’s broken wrist and subsequent hospital visits have eaten into my days, of course. I was planning on 3,500 words a day to get the first draft completed before a specific date in September. It’s looking as though that is now unlikely, but so be it.

As for what I’ve achieved this month: I’ve written the first 6 chapters of book 3 and edited the final 10 chapters of book 2, read and reviewed 3 books, posted 11 posts on here, and submitted 1 short story to a contest. I also discovered another way to present the writing contest information I thought I’d have to abandon last month. If you look under the ‘Writing Contests’ tab above, you’ll find it there. I don’t have as much time to update this as I did before, so it’ll probably only be done once a month or so, but I will endeavour to keep the information current for you.

So, not a bad month. How has July gone for you? Let us know through the comments. Oh, and if you’re not yet following the blog, I’d appreciate a follow. And, by all means, connect with me on the other social networking sites: the links are all in the side bar to the right.

The chart, explained:

'Writing' - initial creation of stories, blog posts, reviews and longer works.

'Editing' - polishing of all written work to make it suitable for readers.

'Research' - discovery of info for story content, market research, contests and blog posts.

'Reading' - books and writing magazines.

'Networking' - emails, Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, and comments.

'Admin' - story submission, blog posting, marketing, organisation, tax, and general admin tasks.