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<DIV>This has turned out to be a much more interesting and rewarding discussion
than I anticipated.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>On a personal note, I would disagree with Conrad that “the main show [in
‘Lord Jim’] is not particularly interesting – or engaging”. The first half
is a tremendous plot, even though it is based on a true story. The
non-sinking of the boat, I mean. (For the second half, see below.)
While I don’t think plots are important, there are some plots I take to; a
wonderful plot is “Washington <SPAN
style="COLOR: ; mso-ascii-font-family: calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: calibri">Square”.
On the other hand, as a child I disliked “Huckleberry Finn” – the idea of
running away from home seemed ridiculous – not because my home was so happy
- because it seemed impractical to a ludicrous extent. A particular
</SPAN><SPAN
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style="WORD-SPACING: 0px; FLOAT: none; ORPHANS: 2; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px"><FONT
color=#111111>bête noire of mine is the isolated protagonist – increasingly
difficult to achieve in these days of social media and smartphones. The
dramatist is, of course, compelled to deal with this up to a point. Until
recently, films often moved people abroad to do this (“The Piano”, “Don’t Look
Now”, “Belly of an Architect”, and the extremely tedious “Lost in Translation” –
in fact, they were all tediously irritating to me).</FONT></SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
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color=#111111></FONT></SPAN></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; mso-pagination: none"><SPAN
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style="WORD-SPACING: 0px; FLOAT: none; ORPHANS: 2; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px">Anyway,
here’s another couple of “Lord Jim” –> VW:</SPAN></SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: "></SPAN></P>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>“’. . . how the time passes!’ Nothing could have been more commonplace than
this remark; but its utterance coincided for me with a moment of vision.” (ch.
xiii) Quoted in VW’s “Joseph Conrad” essay, E4 230).</DIV>
<DIV>Cf. “To the Lighthouse”</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>“You couldn’t distinguish the sea from the sky ...” (ch. x)</DIV>
<DIV>Cf. “The Waves”, 2nd sentence</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I may find others – if I ever manage to finish reading “Lord Jim” (this is
my entry for “Humiliation”).</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Stuart </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV
style='FONT-SIZE: small; TEXT-DECORATION: none; FONT-FAMILY: "Calibri"; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; COLOR: #000000; FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline'><B>From:</B>
<A title=vwoolf@lists.osu.edu>Jeremy Hawthorn via Vwoolf</A> </DIV>
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<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #f5f5f5">
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, April 22, 2020 9:43 AM</DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=vwoolf@lists.osu.edu>vwoolf@lists.osu.edu</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> Re: [Vwoolf] Woolf, Conrad, and bosse</DIV></DIV></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV></DIV>
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<P>Stuart -</P>
<P>Yes, This could very well be the "bosse" referred to in the French saying.
Apart from anything else, the examples you show are round, and thus could be
rolled. (I had wondered if a long cord of knots was to be rolled up, but this
makes much better sense.) <BR></P>
<P>Because of the lockdown I don't have access to specialist French dictionaries
of idioms, but I will pester my French friends on this.</P>
<P>Going back to Woolf, there was a discussion on the list a bit back in which I
suggested that Woolf's writing of a novel in which the central character is of
less interest than the characters with whom s/he interacts (<I>Jacob's Room</I>)
might have been partly inspired by her reading of Conrad. I found a couple of
comments in Conrad's letters in which he suggests that the title characters in
both <I>Lord Jim</I> and <I>Nostromo</I> are of limited interest compared to
their interaction with others. There is that passage in <I>Mrs Dalloway</I>
presenting Clarissa's thoughts that begins: "to know her, or any one, one must
seek out the people who completed them; even the places," and goes on in
Pirandello-like fashion to suggest that thus parts of a person might survive
"attached to this person or that, or even haunting certain places, after death."
Compare that to these comments by Conrad in letters about the characters Jim and
Nostromo.</P>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>And this brings me naturally to <I>Jim</I>. Perfectly right! Your criticism
is just and wise but the whole story is made up of such side shows just
because the main show is not particularly interesting – or engaging I should
rather say. I want to put into that sketch a good many people I've met – or at
least seen for a moment – and several things overheard about the world. It is
going to be a hash of episodes, little thumbnail sketches of fellows one has
rubbed shoulders with and so on. I crave your indulgence; and I think that
read in the lump it will be less of a patchwork than it seems now. (13
December, 1899 to Hugh Clifford)<BR><BR>But truly N[ostromo] is nothing at all
– a fiction – embodied vanity of the sailor kind – a romantic mouthpiece of
"the people" which (I mean "the people") frequently experience the very
feelings to which he gives utterance. I do not defend him as a creation. (To
R.B. Cunninghame Graham, 31 October, 1904.)</P></BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>Both letters can be found in the 9-volume Cambridge edition of Conrad's
letters.</P>
<P>Jeremy H<BR></P>
<P> </P>
<P>On 21.04.2020 23:02, Stuart N. Clarke via Vwoolf wrote:<BR></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE cite=mid:AFE26D26E1304DF9B2C86D9BDEF5A4C4@StuartHP type="cite">
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<DIV>This “corde à noeuds”, could it be what we call a turk’s head
knot?:</DIV>
<DIV><A title=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turk%27s_head_knot
href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turk%27s_head_knot"
moz-do-not-send="true">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turk%27s_head_knot</A></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV></DIV></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE><BR>
<P>
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