[Vwoolf] "short story in the new manner", by Pont

[Mark Hussey]

VW and KM always getting blamed for what JJoyce was up to. Ha ha.

 

From: vwoolf-bounces at lists.service.ohio-state.edu [mailto:vwoolf-bounces at lists.service.ohio-state.edu] On Behalf Of Stuart N. Clarke
Sent: Sunday, March 30, 2014 6:09 PM
To: woolf list
Subject: [Vwoolf] "short story in the new manner", by Pont

 

I wanted to reprint this in the “Virginia Woolf Bulletin”, but my colleagues wouldn’t let me.

 

“. . . the old carpet sweeper . . . three pieces . . . all in bits . . . what on earth did we ever buy that for . . . if i shut my eyes i can see kingscrossstation . . . i wonder why that is . . . somebody told me once . . . i must think . . . no time to think . . . through the trapdoor i can see janet with the featherduster but if i shut my eyes i can see kingscrossstation . . . hullo janet there you are . . . hullo mum there you are now then janet ive spokentoyouaboutthatbefore . . . let us throw all these things out of the skylight . . . but not that or these and certainly not that i bought it the year freddie felldownthestairs mrs henry tuddy . . . mrs henry tuddy . . .oh yes i remember now the woman with the arms . . . if i shut my eyes now i can see mrs tuddys arms . . . what exceptionally fine arms mrs tuddy had . . . the boxes might come in useful janet . . . i said the boxes might come in yes in . . . idiot the girl is . . . i wonder what she did to have suchveryfinearms . . . no janet i said these things in this trunk look like somethingorother palms . . . palms . . . PALMS . . . why mum they look more to me like your old fur coat . . . that is exactly what they are janet . . . dear mrs tuddy . . . i have been wondering all day . . .”

 

From “The British Character Studied and Revealed” (London: Collins, 1951 [1938]), 58.  ‘Pont’ was the pen-name of Graham Laidler (1908-1940), Punch cartoonist.  According to Judy Giles and Tim Middleton, who reprinted this piece, the ‘unintelligibility ascribed to much modern writing is captured in Pont’s wonderful satire of the kind of prose to be found in the short stories of Katherine Manfield or the novels of Virginia Woolf’, “Writing Englishness, 1900-1950: An Introductory Sourcebook on National Identity” (London & NY: Routledge, 1995), 151. 

 

Stuart 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.osu.edu/pipermail/vwoolf/attachments/20140330/161f61ce/attachment.html>