Seven Interests Meme

[tree_and_leaf]

flourish asked me to talk about seven of my interests. Comment and I'll give you seven if you like.

1. anglo-catholicism
2. bryn terfel
3. guide stories
4. mishearings
5. real ale
6. swallows and amazons
7. tat

1. Anglo-Catholicism is a particular kind of Anglicanism, which has its roots in the mid ninetheenth century high church revival associated with John Keble, JH Newman (who eventually became a Roman Catholic, a cardinal, and will probably be canonised soon). The most obvious characteristics of Anglo-Catholicism is the liturgical style, as it favours "High Mass", with colourful vestments, bells, incense, and generally looking... very catholic. This is the result, more or less, of the combination of a strong emphasis on the sacraments (all seven of them) with a wish to revive the ancient traditions of the church before, or at any rate immediately after, the Reformation - though in practice this tends to mean 'what romantic Victorians thought was mediaeval'; there's a certain cross-over in sensibility with the Pre-Raphaelites. The other thing about Anglo-catholicism is that they place a very strong emphasis on the idea of the Incarnation, that is God becoming human in Christ, which has often been accompanied by involvement in social justice issues. Actually some people dislike the label, either because they dislike giving themselves any kind of label other than "Anglican" or because they're worried that people will assume that they're against the ordination of women, but although I am not, I tend to just call myself Anglo-Catholic, because unless you're already well informed about Anglicanism, terms like 'catholic Anglican ' or 'in the Catholic tradition' just confuse people even more. Though I have also been known to refer to myself as a spike, which is antiquated slang for Anglo-Catholics, because it amuses me.

Anglo-Catholics also tend to be a bit weird and geeky, but usually in a good way.

2. Bryn Tyrfel Welsh baritone. Sings opera and Lieder, particularly English early twentieth century stuff, very well, and has also dabbled in the crossover market with some show tunes and Welsh folk songs (in both cases, I think, out of genuine love for the material rather than bandwaggon jumping). My fondest Bryn memory is of him singing 'Rule Britannia' at the Last Night of the Proms. Just before the second verse, he tore off the robe thing he was wearing, to reveal an Welsh rugby shirt and a stuffed dragon.

3. Guide stories. As a Scout (but formerly a Guide) and someone with a great fondness for the classic school story, I combine the two things with old fashioned girls' stories about Girl Guides (which Americans call Girl Scouts). They are very like school stories of the golden age, only centring on Guide patrols and companies rather than school forms, and tend to be called jolly things like 'The Swallows See It Through' (not a lost volume of Ransome, alas), or 'Patrol Leader Judy' or 'The Madcap Marigolds', and contain lots of camping and woodsmoke. They are, perhaps unsurprisingly, no longer written or published, but I inherited my mother's.

4. Mishearings. There's not much I can say about these, but I find them funny and interesting - apart from anything else, they're quite revealing of how the brain works. Like the very proper lady who couldn't understand "The bit about the horse" in Paul Simon's 'The Boxer'.

5. Real ale. Yum. Real ale, in Britain, is defined as ale (i.e. top-fermented beer) made with traditional ingredients and matured in a cask in the old fashioned way, thus avoiding the heavy processing and chemical nastiness that makes British beer from the conglomerates so boring-to-nasty. There is a tremendous diversity of real ale available, much of it excellent. For some reason the names are often a bad pun. I have resolved that life is too short to drink any beer that isn't either real ale, or a proper Central European pilsner. You can learn more about real ale than you probably wanted to here.

6. Swallows and Amazons - a series of marvellous children's books by Arthur Ransome, written in the twenties and thirties, and describing the adventures, real and imagined, of a group of children in the Lake District and elsewhere. Some of the best things ever written for children - memorable characters, humour, excitement, and all done in excellent, spare but evocative prose. It's truly magnificent writing - in some ways, it's a bit like Hemingway. Except Ransome could write memorable women (well, most of them are girls), in particular Nancy Blackett, captain of the Amazon pirates, and a girl of great resource and toughness...

7. Tat. And we're back to Anglicanism, because in this case, 'tat' is Anglican slang (or maybe it's used in other denominations too?) for vestments, i.e. the special garments used in church by the ministers. There are, or can be, a baffling variety of these; some of them are beautiful, and some of them are in appallingly poor taste. 'Tat' is a piece of self-mockery, especially among Anglo-Catholics, who are sometimes suspected of getting too excited about such fripperies, and missing the point. Calling it tat is, I think, partly a safeguard against that. See also the disparaging term 'tat queen', i.e. someone who you feel is overly precious about it (or, alternatively, a bit too keen on lace). I find vestments interesting, partly because I am high church and like traditions, and also because I'm interested in fabrics, embroidery and needlework.

Comments

[wychwood]

Hahaha - I think I still own a copy of Patrol Leader Judy! And I definitely have The Marigolds Make Good, which I loved as a child and discovered, serendipitously, in the charity bookshop at the Plain end of St Clements. Is there another book about them? *looks hopeful*

(I also own a complete set of the Swallows and Amazons books, plus Old Peter's Russian Tales, Racundra's First Cruise, two spare copies of Swallows and Amazons, and old-school paperbacks of Missee Lee, Great Northern, and Secret Water, but my Arthur Ransome fixation is a conversation for another time *g*).

[tree_and_leaf]

Alas, I meant "The Marigolds Make Good".

Swallow and Amazons are love, and one day I will replace all my grotty pbs with the facsimile Jonathan Cape ones. I also have a "We didn't mean to go to sea" mug.

I've never read Racundra's First Cruise, but I'd love to.

Swallows and Amazons copies

[cesy]

Are the Jonathan Cape ones the green hardbacks? I've got some duplicates, though I'm missing dustcovers on a lot of them.

Re: Swallows and Amazons copies

[tree_and_leaf]

Well, they're facsimiles of them, and have the original dust-jacket. They aren't desperately expensive - just on the cheap side of normal hb price.

[wychwood]

Alas.

I love those Jonathan Cape covers! It has long been a minor tragedy of my life that I had returned several of the originals to the children's library just days before some bugger set fire to it - If Only I Had Known, etc etc. I am also desperately jealous of your mug!

I could lend you my copy of Racundra, if you like? I haven't read it in a while *g*, but I do remember enjoying it.

[tree_and_leaf]

Yes please!

As far as interests go: antarctica; cyberpunk; elizabeth moon; geomatics; shwi-isot; vir cotto; x men

[wychwood]

Send me an address, and I'll get it posted - maybe even today! :) My @livejournal email works.

[flourish]

Well and now I want to spend lots of time reading Ransome and Guide stories, which I had never heard of. They sound delightful!

[tree_and_leaf]

Ransome in particular is fabulous (he was an interesting bloke, too; reported on the Russian Revolution for the Guardian, collected a book of Russian folk tales, and married Trotsky's secretary).

[tree_and_leaf]

And on interests, please tell me of: acafen; being the loyal opposition; supernatural; journal style rpgs; pennance; white wolf; organic intellectuals

[flourish]

Annnd done!

Guide stories

[cesy]

I'd love to read some Guide stories. I'm currently working my way through the Chalet School books for the first time, and loving them. Can you recommend any more titles that might be found in second-hand bookshops or from Girls Gone By?

Re: Guide stories

[tree_and_leaf]

Hm... off the top of my head, the only other title that occurs is "Scout Family Robinson", which despite the title pays as much attention to the female family members as the male. That's a particularly interesting example of the genre, actually, because it's about a working-class family. I'll let you know if any more occur to me (I don't have those books away with me).

[watersword]

Ale is delicious. Unfortunately, it is too early here to go drink any. Damn.

[tree_and_leaf]

Here, too. Which is a pity.

[concernedlily]

I love the sound of Guide stories! I remember my time in Guides very fondly.

[tree_and_leaf]

They are good fun!

[tree_and_leaf]

Interests: please tell me, if you would, something about blankets, byzantine court politics, florence, lfc,shameless, supernatural, and syncretism without repetition, hesitation or deviation.

[ineptshieldmaid]

Anglo-Catholics also tend to be a bit weird and geeky, but usually in a good way.

AHAHHAHA YES. I have much fond amusement for anglo-catholics. And a good deal of enthusiasm, because of the weird situation in Australia where the High Church, liturgically 'conservative' Anglicans are far more likely to be pro-women's-ordination, queer-friendly, social-justice oriented and theologically well-educated. It's the low-church, 'modern' lot you've got to be wary of... *shudders*don'ttalktomeaboutPeterJensen*shudders*
(Am not Anglican, haven't been Anglican since I was about two, but have developed an entertaining habit of Anglican-watching, much as other people Pope-watch.)

Er, this was supposed to be about the weird geekiness of Anglo-Catholics. Friend of mine, who maintained as long as I knew him that I was merely an Anglo-Catholic waiting to happen: I met him when he was working for the Uniting Church chaplaincy at my uni, and he turned out to be living at the Anglican boys college behind me. Eventually he figured out where my window was, and would come past and throw rocks at it on his way home. And then we'd have shouted conversations from my window down into the main courtyard about such delightful topics as phallocentric language in religious discourse. :D

[tree_and_leaf]

Friend of mine, who maintained as long as I knew him that I was merely an Anglo-Catholic waiting to happen

I had a friend like that once; I used to laugh at him when he said that, but it turned out he was right...

British Anglo-Catholics are split on the women's ordination issue, actually, but generally it's only the antis- who get any attention (also, a lot of the pro- camp don't call themselves Anglo-Catholics because they don't like the label, but would call themselves 'catholic Anglicans', or whatever. I think this is unnecessarily confusing) And, of course, A-C's have a long and extremely honourable tradition of involvement in social justice - and many of our conservatives stand in that tradition as well. (Not to mention that many of them are gay, so...)

*shudders*don'ttalktomeaboutPeterJensen*shudders*

*shudders with you*

Re:

[ineptshieldmaid]

The Peter Jensen effect has driven a lot of political lefties into the arms of Anglo-Catholicism, in Australia (although the setup is older than Jensen, I think). Most dioceses are down with women's ordination - the fight's moved on to bishopry, except in Sydney and one or two other dioceses (I think Orange?), where you're lucky if a woman can lead freakin' bible study. Also, if my mother's experience is anything to go by, most of the non-metropolitian dioceses are... higher church than the Uniting Church, at least, since we shifted denominations because she couldn't deal with "bells and smells".

I loved (still love) the Uniting Church to TINY LITTLE PIECES. Can't imagine being in any other church, and the only reason I left is that I woke up one morning and realised I'd somehow lost the crucial 'belief in Jesus Christ my lord and savior' bit. I suppose it's possible I could come to a Great Anglo-Catholic Revelation in the future... whereupon I'm sure Stuart will beam smugly if he ever hears of it.

Also, I don't know who's worse: Jensen or Pell. SHOWDOWN OF THE ODIOUS ARCHBISHOPS, Sydney city, 10am Sunday!

[tree_and_leaf]

Passing swiftly over the Odious Archbishops, please tell me about

bare: a pop opera, chevalier au lion, crucible trilogy, dogma, hagiography, sara douglass, sggk.