More comments on the Evelyn Waugh post:

Today's Writer's Almanac had a piece about Evelyn Waugh, whose birthday it is today.Toward the end, they tell us of Waugh, "In his later life, he grew to hate everything about the modern world--modern music, modern art, modern inventions. He never drove. Heused an antique pen that had to be constantly re-dipped into ink, and when his hearingwent bad, he refused to buy one of the new hearing aids. Instead, he started carryingaround a giant horn that he held up to his ear...Waugh lived in a huge house out in theEnglish countryside, as far away from the modern world as he could get, and he kept apet pig named Glory."
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Ann,
I just had to respond to this. When I went to school in Germany we had inkwells and "real" pens. We even made pens out of duck and geese (goose) feathers. My Opa "grandpa" lived with us and we had to talk to him through a horn. I really don't think it was that big but probably 10 to 12 inches long. He died when I was about five years old. The one strong memory I have of him is when he would slaughter a goose. I would watch him and learn from him. When he died my mother was with him and he said, as he was dying, in German, "I can see the light." What a memory for me and what a testimony.

I can't wait to get away from this modern world when we move to our new home. I won't have a pig but probably chickens, rabbits and maybe a goat or two to keep the weeds trimmed.
--P.W.

And then this (from my mom):

Just finished reading your latest...what I have to add probably doesn't mean anything, but it is something I have been thinking about, probably because something recently made me remember last fall's visit to Winchester Cathedral (now my favorite) where Jane Austen is buried. As you know, she is my favorite author, and has been since 1954, when I was "forced" to read Pride and Prejudice in a college lit class. She is kind of the "in thing" right now, but I mention that to show I am not just "flopping along with the flow." When I mentioned, in that long-ago lit class, that I thought she was very funny, most of the others thought I was crazy. But she is, subtly, very funny. And in a very modern way. Jane lived about 200 years ago, yet her work is still very fresh, and very true to human nature, which she seemed to understand as well, and better, than anyone since. She wrote under the most difficult conditions, scratching her excellent novels out in quill pen, hastily shoving the pages out of sight if anyone came into the room, because writing novelswas not what well-bred young ladies did in those years. Apropos of what you were saying, I'm not sure how this fits in, except Jane was very forward-thinking in her day, to the point that after 200 years she is still not out of date. But she didn't have any modern technology to aid her, nor even any societal (is that a word?) approval. It humbles me, I guess, because I think I like to write, but today, even a manual typewriter seems too difficult, my time seems too limited, and I like to be more sure of eventual rewards! I admire you, in that respect, because I can't seem to write "on spec." I have hardly ever written anything that I wasn't pretty sure would be published, and me paid for. I don't know if this makes any sense at all....

P.S. Eccentrics like Evelyn Waugh are the "spice" of life, but wouldn't do for most of us for the day-to-day grind.