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Grex > Books > #77: The Mysterious Quote - Fall 1998 Edition | |
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| 25 new of 207 responses total. |
remmers
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response 169 of 207:
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Dec 7 19:38 UTC 1998 |
It's difficult to deduce the period from the quotes, but if the
author could have known London, that pins it down to late 19th
or earlier 20th century. The spelling of "humours" suggests that
the author is from somewhere in the British Commonwealth.
I'll guess Robert Louis Stevenson. The dates and nationality are
about right.
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polygon
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response 170 of 207:
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Dec 7 20:52 UTC 1998 |
Lawrence Durrell.
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rcurl
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response 171 of 207:
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Dec 7 21:22 UTC 1998 |
Stevenson is correct. This is one of the 'lesser known' short stories
published by Stevenson, titled _Olalla_, in 1885, when he was in poor
health in Bournemouth. During the same period he also wrote _Kidnapped_
and _The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde_. Of course I picked
Olalla as being more obscure than those two. I thought I had diverted
attention from Stevenson with the (less widely known) information that he
had lived (in San Francisco) near London (in Monterey) when London was ca.
3 years old.
Your turn, John.
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remmers
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response 172 of 207:
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Dec 8 01:15 UTC 1998 |
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..."
Um, no, too easy.
<remmers ponders>
Okay, here goes:
Helena came over on a hot July day. She was of that
particular breed which has always made me feel in-
adequate. Tallish, so slender as to be almost, but
not quite, gaunt. The bones that happen after a few
centuries of careful breeding. Blond-gray hair,
sun-streaked, casual, dry-textured, like the face,
throats, backs of hands, by the sun and wind of the
games they play. Theirs is not the kind of cool
that is an artifice, designed as a challenge. It is
natural, impenetrable, and terribly polite. They
move well in their simple, unassuming little two-
hundred-dollar dresses, because long ago at Miss
Somebody's Country Day School they were so thor-
oughly taught that their grace is automatic and
ineradicable. There are no girl-tricks with eyes
and mouth. They are merely there, looking out at
you, totally composed, in almost exactly the way
they look out of the newspaper pictures of social
events.
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remmers
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response 173 of 207:
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Dec 8 15:11 UTC 1998 |
One hint for now: Author is dead American male.
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aruba
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response 174 of 207:
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Dec 8 18:16 UTC 1998 |
Random guess: John Cheever?
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kaifiyat
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response 175 of 207:
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Dec 8 18:53 UTC 1998 |
a wild guess - JFK
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rcurl
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response 176 of 207:
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Dec 8 20:24 UTC 1998 |
John Updike.....whoops, he's probably still alive.
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remmers
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response 177 of 207:
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Dec 8 21:07 UTC 1998 |
Updike is indeed alive and still writing.
Not John Cheever, not JFK.
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polygon
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response 178 of 207:
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Dec 8 21:40 UTC 1998 |
Robert Penn Warren.
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remmers
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response 179 of 207:
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Dec 9 01:42 UTC 1998 |
Not Robert Penn Warren.
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remmers
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response 180 of 207:
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Dec 9 12:17 UTC 1998 |
Another quote from the same work. I've suppressed the name of the
locale in the last paragraph because... because... well, because
that's just the way I am.
I hung up wondering why they didn't think about the
bottom of the lake. She'd had a try at about everything
else except jumping out a high window. What was the word?
Self-defenestration. Out the window I must go, I must go,
I must go...
Then some fragment of old knowledge began to nudge at the
back of my mind. After I had the eleven o'clock news on
the television, I couldn't pay attention because I was
too busy roaming around the room trying to unearth what
was trying to attract my attention.
Then a name surfaced, along with a man's sallow face,
bitter mouth, knowing eyes. Harry Simmons. A long talk,
long ago, after a friend of a friend had died. He'd added
a large chunk onto an existing insurance policy about
five months before they found him afloat, face-down, in
[name of location deleted].
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wgm
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response 181 of 207:
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Dec 9 22:23 UTC 1998 |
Sounds like it might be Raymond Chandler (The lady in the lake?)
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remmers
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response 182 of 207:
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Dec 10 00:47 UTC 1998 |
Not too bad a guess, except that the passage refers to eleven
o'clock TV news. There was no such thing in the 1940's when
_Lady in the Lake_ was written. In any case, it's not Chandler.
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wgm
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response 183 of 207:
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Dec 10 01:02 UTC 1998 |
Shucks. Did they have the news at 10, then, because people went to bed
earlier?
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remmers
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response 184 of 207:
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Dec 10 02:52 UTC 1998 |
Nah, the just didn't have TV to any great extent.
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wgm
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response 185 of 207:
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Dec 10 21:35 UTC 1998 |
So to zero in on dating, we need to know that it was late enough for TV news
and early enough that $200 was a lot of money for clothes.
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sjones
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response 186 of 207:
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Dec 11 10:10 UTC 1998 |
late sixties early seventies? john d macdonald, by any chance? and boy
did i have to rack my brain to remember, probably in vain...)
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sekari
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response 187 of 207:
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Dec 11 10:45 UTC 1998 |
To my knowledge John D Macdonald is still alive. But that may be the
other one, I think there are two of them in the literary field. I know that
one of them is a rather obscure author of young-adult sci-fi books. Hmm,
I'll have to do some checking on that the next time I'm at the library.
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remmers
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response 188 of 207:
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Dec 11 12:19 UTC 1998 |
Re #186: Bingo! John D. MacDonald it is. You got the time period right
too. Quotes are from _The Girl in the Plain Brown Wrapper_ ("A Travis
McGee Novel"), published in 1968. Excellent literary detective work by
wgm and sjones. Shucks, I was hoping it would be harder.
John D. MacDonald passed away a few years ago - sometime in the 1980's,
I think. Although best known for crime novels, especially the Travis
McGee series, he did write a bit of scifi and fantasy (_The Girl, the
Gold Watch, and Everything_, _Ballroom of the Stars_). Nothing
young-adult as far as I know, so sekari's probably thinking of a
different MacDonald.
The location I concealed in the second quote was Biscayne Bay. I felt
that revealing a Florida setting might be too big a clue.
Okay, sjones is up for the next quote.
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jep
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response 189 of 207:
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Dec 11 13:40 UTC 1998 |
No, John D. MacDonald did write some young adult science fiction novels.
I have one of them, though I don't remember the name of it. I'd read it
as a kid, then later tracked it down in a used bookstore.
A lot of well-known authors have written science fiction. Dean R.
Koontz was a B-grade science fiction author in the 1950's and 60's.
(They were *awful*. They gave me hope; if those novels got published, I
figured I too would be able to write salable science fiction. When I
discovered he was a best-selling horror writer, I was pretty surprised.)
Howard Fast wrote some wonderful science fiction novelettes.
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mcnally
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response 190 of 207:
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Dec 11 17:47 UTC 1998 |
Perhaps some of you are thinking of the science fiction author/editor
MacDonald and not Remmers' detective-fiction writing MacDonald.
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jep
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response 191 of 207:
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Dec 11 19:37 UTC 1998 |
I happened to be in Dawn Treader a little while ago, and I looked to see
if they had the MacDonald book I mentioned earlier. They didn't, but
they did have a few books in the science fiction section by John D.
MacDonald. I opened one of them, and saw a list of his other works,
including the Travis McGee series. This isn't proof of anything -- I
wasn't familiar with the book I opened, or any other books I saw there
by MacDonald -- but maybe it's some indication.
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sekari
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response 192 of 207:
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Dec 11 19:43 UTC 1998 |
Yeah, I think we are. I am rather sure that there are two of them because
I read a book by the sci-fi one and then saw a bunch of books by an
author of the same name and wondered about it. I will be going to the
library tomorrow, I'll check this out and report back.
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sjones
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response 193 of 207:
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Dec 11 20:59 UTC 1998 |
well i never! what a set of mixed emotions - i was delighted when
sekari said he was still alive, and then secretly rather glad he was
dead after all since it meant i was right... sorry, john d! definitely
more by luck than good judgement, i must admit, although i've enjoyed
the travis mcgee ones i've read - really excellent characterisation, i
think. very dark, though, aren't they? in terms of the violence, i
mean.
okay, here's something from a book i was surprised to see on sale at a
ridiculously cheap price today, which lead to me buying it and taking it
round to the dinner party i was on my way to, and being rather less
social than i should have been...
'And now there was an end of path or road. More than ever the camel
seemed insensibly driven; it lengthened and quickened its pace, its head
pointed straight towards the horizon; through the wide nostrils it drank
the wind in great draughts. The litter swayed, and rose and fell like a
boat in the waves. Dried leaves in occasional beds rustled underfoot.
Sometimes a perfume like absinthe sweetened all the air. Lark and chat
and rock-swallow leaped to wing, and white partridges ran whistling and
clucking out of the way. More rarely a fox or hyena quickened his
gallop, to study the intruders at a safe distance. Off to the right
rose the hills of the Jebel, the pearl-grey veil resting upon them
changing momentarily into a purple which the sun would make matchless a
little later. Over their highest peaks a vulture sailed on broad wings
into widening circles. But of all these things the tenant under the
green tent saw nothing, or at least, made no sign of recognition. His
eyes were fixed and dreamy. The going of the man, like that of the
animal, was as one being led.'
well, i hope *some* of that will prove to be misleading...)[but of
course that statement itself might be a double bluff...)]
ps i think i'd rather be simon than sjones - would i have to go back and
create a new account altogether to be able to do that, or is there any
way i could shortcut it?
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