• J.B. Priestley and Lost Empires.
• Non-fiction within fiction. Wheels within wheels.
• Parlor game. Except for the Marx Brothers, very much like a quiz.
• The book trade. At the beginning, the end
• The electricity and internal combustion crises. I am writing this on my bike just before sundown

J.B. Priestley and Lost Empires

In a novel attention goes to the plot and story lines while the scene, the place within which the action unfolds, recedes like the negative space around the prime image in a photograph or painting. For some readers this context is the message. It is possible to read fiction for its non-fictional values.

J.B. Priestley. "LOST EMPIRES. Being Richard Herncastle's account of his life on the Variety stage from November 1913 to August 1914 together with a Prologue and Epilogue" is ostensibly about coming-of-age. A young man joins his uncle's magic act, tours the variety theatres of England, and learns about life as the world falls into the great war. The action takes place within the soon to disappear institutions of Variety and Vaudeville. Customs, organization, and motives of this "Empire" come alive again in the narrative. Anyone interested in the history of show business and theatre should be attracted to this book.

Priestley himself is something else. Collecting his works could be a full-time project. An informal bibliography lists over 120 book titles and doesn't even mention the ephemera of magazine articles, journalism, book reviews. See http://www.miskatonic.org/jbp/biblio.html

He was born in 1894 and died in 1984, about a month before his 90th birthday, and he seems to have scribbled all the way. He had an American connection, traveling in the southwest and writing scripts for Hollywood, but the broad range of his work is more likely to be readily available in the UK and Canada. Tracking him down might be fun. Over 4,000 used copies of his books are on sale on the internet.

For a good short biography of Priestley (with another selected bibliography attached) see http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/priestle.htm You'll also find a list of longer biographies about Priestley here.

LOST EMPIRE was made into a dramatic series for TV in seven parts and was shown on public TV in the U.S in 1987. See http://www.geocities.com/hollywood/cinema/1280/le.html

Non-Fiction within Fiction

A little more on non-fiction within fiction: Beside the genre novels of history, religion, and war there are very specific descriptions of the so-called real world. A few examples:

• Alington. MR EVANS, a Cricketo-Detective Story "Murder around the Cricket pitch" (http://continentalbooks.com/books.cgi?bk=7497)
• Boyle. THE ROAD TO WELLVILLE "Early days of manufacture of breakfast cereal"(http://continentalbooks.com/books.cgi?bk=4843)
• Cunningham. CEREMONY IN THE LINCOLN TUNNEL "Sand hogs at work under the Hudson River"(http://continentalbooks.com/books.cgi?bk=7462)
• Dunning. BOOKMAN'S WAKE... .Book trade. Contains a vivid description of scouting for books... (http://continentalbooks.com/books.cgi?bk=3011)
• Goldman. THE MAN FROM GREEK AND ROMAN...Backstage at the Metropolitan Art Museum in NYC... (http://continentalbooks.com/books.cgi?bk=4830)
• Graves. CLAUDIUS THE GOD... At the center of the Roman Empire and all that... (http://continentalbooks.com/books.cgi?bk=5661)

Parlor Game

Consider the work of fiction as a series of dreams based on the fantasy of its author. For the LOST EMPIRE the prime fancy is that a youth moves into the world under the aegis of a benign mentor. On reflection this pattern is not unusual. It is repeated, for example, in Graham Greene TRAVELS WITH MY AUNT and in Charles Dickens GREAT EXPECTATIONS. Character and gender vary but the dream remains the same.

So we have the possibility of interpretation as a parlor game.

A small group of up to fifteen friends and colleagues gather in a circle. They have selected several familiar works of fiction before hand and now they agree, in the first phase of the game, on the modes of analysis they will employ: Freud or Jung, Marx or the Marx Brothers, Plato or Derrida. There is no limit: Local sports announcer. Famous politician. The method of comparison (as above). Philosophies aplenty. Your choice. Pick two or three very different ways.

Second phase: Someone in the group should summarize the plot of the selected novel and identify the dream.

Third phase: Investigate the work as you would an auto engine. Take it apart. Reverse gender, change character, convert context. See what it tells you about the necessities of the original. Look at social class, morality, culture. Stay loose. Get real and surreal. Think of the text as "Sweet Georgia Brown" and you as Charlie Parker. Stop when discovery is exhausted. Stop when confusion is rampant. In any case stop after an hour.

Fourth phase: Relax until everyone has recovered.

Fifth and last phase: The group meets as a committee of the whole and evaluates the outcome and assigns itself a numerical score. This is then divided by the number of participants and each takes home his or her share of the number as prize.

The Book Trade

So there I was with a fellow who worked academic journals out of a garage over in New Jersey, drinking coffee at a sandwich shop on Union Square. He had Tourette Syndrome. It wasn't a part of popular knowledge then, and he had to explain the sudden facial contortions and the moments of nasty language. No big deal. He was actually a pleasant and interesting man, and he took time to talk me into the trade.

When I finally confessed that I was going to collect and sell books, hell or high water, he put down his cup and quietly said. "You'll die holding."

"What?"

"You'll die holding."

"What is this?" I thought, "Some arcane part of the bookseller's creed. Be scrupulously honest. Guard your reputation. Recognize the informal fraternity of those engaged in the trade. And take care to finish your task. Don't die holding. Sell your last book on your last day. About as likely as winning the lottery. Or (musing) is it hold back, retain some stock for yourself and your estate. Hold on, that is"

"Yes." I said, "I'll be holding. But so will you, Pal. So will you."

A little more on Tourette Syndrome "A teacher's response to a TS student" http://www.adfl.org/ade/bulletin/N124/124029.htm

For a medical explanation of TS http://www.mentalhealth.com/dis/p20-ch04.html

The Electricity Crisis

My wife used to note that there are recurring news stories that like the moon and the planets circle around and always come back. They are featured, again and again, as new events, as though we readers never notice that it is the same old moon, the same old crisis. Famous troubles: Illegal immigration over every coast and every border; illegal drugs accompanied by street crime and gigantic police busts, and now electrical energy and its buddy the internal combustion engine.

A boost for alternate energy sources: It is obvious that they will have an important, if currently unsung, part in resolving the continuing flap over energy and environment.

• http://solstice.crest.org/ Center for renewable energy & sustainable technology.
• http://www.afdc.nrel.gov/ The alternative fuels data center of the U.S. Dept of Transportation
• http://www.eren.doe.gov/ Energy efficiency and renewable energy network of U.S. Dept. of Energy

If you decide to join what is left of show biz, become a stage hypnotist, say; you could do worse than tuck HYPNOCOP, http://continentalbooks.com/books.cgi?bk=165 into your kit.

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Copyright Alvin Katz 2001