palimpsest

[sardith]

bamaboy56,

I'm sorry for your loss. My condolences. <3

[bamaboy56]

sardith, thanks. I appreciate it.

[Stargzer]

It is true, but then he did say,
"Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar."

Rudyard Kipling had other words about cigars.

[MTC]

Regarding "The Betrothed" on Stargzr's link, see my explication of Kipling's poem in which appears the infamous line, "And a woman is only a woman, but a good Cigar is a Smoke."

My Explication:

Recently, I went back and reread The Betrothed to see if there was something I had missed through the thick haze of cigar smoke.

Kipling intended his poem to be humorous, but as it often has been said, “Nothing is so revealing about a person’s character as his humor.” For comic effect Kipling sets up the eternal love triangle with a twist---Kipling, woman and cigar. Confronted with an ultimatum by his betrothed, Maggie, Kipling must decide whether to give up his mistress, the cigar, or keep Maggie. Which lover will Kipling choose? In the poem we can almost see Kipling as he sinks into a Victorian Chesterfield Sofa in his Gentlemens' Club, silently deliberating about his fiancée’s ultimatum--cigars or me. In the process we learn a lot about Kipling's character and his attitude toward women, marriage and love. Kipling treats Maggie as a lifeless cardboard cutout, "pretty to look at" and "a loving lass." These tired but at least positive clichés are offset by negatives: "At fifty" Maggie will be "grey and dour and old." Her affection for Kipling is dismissed as a "wee little whimpering love." Notably absent is any expression of love for Maggie. Love itself is a phantom, a “Will-o’-the-Wisp.” Kipling speaks of marriage pejoratively as "bondage" and styles himself as only a "servant of love." Clearly, he fears losing control. In contrast, Kipling openly lusts after his cigars which he transforms into an exotic male sexual fantasy, "a harem of dusky beauties" "ripe" "brown and mild" who fabulously replenish themselves. Unlike Maggie who disturbs the status quo, cigars bring "peace" and "calm." And unlike Maggie they do not seek to control him, asking nothing in return for their favors, "(w)ith only a Suttee's passion-- to do their duty and burn." Kipling infamously concludes his deliberations with "A million surplus Maggies are willing to bear the yoke; And a woman is only a woman, but a good Cigar is a Smoke."

In the process of his ostensibly humorous deliberations Kipling reveals a negative attitude toward women, marriage and love: Women are best treated as dispensable sexual toys; Marriage is a prison; Love is illusory.

On a deeper level The Betrothed is about addiction which Kipling describes in sexual language. (The addictive nature of tobacco was well recognized in Kipling's time.) And it’s also about the inertia of personality—the unwillingness to change.

The poem is ironic only in a historical sense. Kipling probably saw himself as a sophisticated Victorian gentleman, affecting a cigar. Modern readers are more likely to see him as a pathetic addict who had a problem with women.

MTC

[sardith]

Excellent work, MTC!

Boy, do I wish I could've traded my sophomore English teacher for someone like YOU!

[MTC]

Thanks, sardith. I only hope that doesn't make me sophomoric!

[LukeJavan8]

That's right. We cannot judge a word by its appearance anymore than we can judge a book by its cover.

What's a book?, he said sadly over the demise of Borders.

[sardith]

Hey LukeJavan8,

Borders bit the dust?

When I showed my Internist my 'Nook', he told me that he thought that and the 'Kindle' would eventually put all bookstores out of business.

I want to disagree because there are readers who will always like the feel of a book in their hand, and don't wish to get used to the technology required to use those devices.

Nevertheless, I do disagree, because there will always be some tenacious authors who will not agree with putting their tomes on those devices.

What do you think?

Sardith

[LukeJavan8]

I was being sarcastic.
I totally agree. I would never buy a kindle. Would not
accept one if given to me. I despise the technology
that has created it.
I love the feel of a book in my hands.
In my house there is no living room/dining room.
I call it my "war room" and there are 14 book shelves
on that level alone.
I also inherited from my grandfather all his books and
the glass door enclosed bookcases they are in. Well
over 100 years old, beautiful leatherbound books.
Shakespeare, Cooper, Hawthorne, Alcott, Twain, etc.

Yup, Borders and B.Dalton filed chapter One or whatever
it is called.

I think, hope kindleesque stuff hits a level and then
backs off.

Sorry for the sarcasm.
I love books. Will never replace them myself. And I hope
there will be authors who stick to it as you say. Please God.

[Audiendus]

I love the feel of a book in my hands.
In my house there is no living room/dining room.
I call it my "war room" and there are 14 book shelves
on that level alone.
I also inherited from my grandfather all his books and
the glass door enclosed bookcases they are in. Well
over 100 years old, beautiful leatherbound books.

Reminds me of the current Group Poem in the Res Diversae forum.

[LukeJavan8]

Thanks for the reminder, have not been there in a long time.

[sardith]

How wonderful that you have all of your Grandfather's books! What a treasure and a heritage for you and your progeny.

My husband gave me the 'Nook', because there are hundreds of classics that I do not possess, nor have I read, that can be accessed for free~like the library, except you don't return them. That is where I accessed, 'Little Women', where I found the great words, 'harum-scarum', 'fetlock', 'bijouterie', etc., to add to the suggestion box.

However, I have my favorite books, still in hand, that I would never give up. I love the feel and turning the pages as well.

There will always be bookstores, albeit small ones.

"While I breath, I hope." ~Latin Proverb~

[LukeJavan8]

Then, that makes them all the more special for those
of us who love them.

[bamaboy56]

A life without books? Heaven forbid! What an escape a book can be. One of my favorites? "The Last Ship" by William Brinkley, despite its post nuclear theme. I wish there were a sequel to it, like the last few lines lead you to believe. Oh, well.

[LukeJavan8]

Heaven forbid. I agree. But fewer bookstores will make them
harder to find.