Forever Amber

A friend recently introduced me to I Heart Radio, a website dedicated to hosting various podcasts. In addition to contemporary podcasts, the website also hosts several radio programs from the heyday of  broadcast radio.

I'm particularly fond of the Jack Benny programs;  I was a fan of the television show as a child. Although the radio show was before my time, I'm familiar with most of the cast from the radio days, as they were later brought over to the TV show.

I was listening to a podcast a few days ago in which Jack had walked to a pubic library near his home. There was a bit of commotion in the "library" caused by the radio programs' musical quartet singing the Lucky Strike jingle inside. Of course, Jack apologized to the librarian, who told him that there hadn't been that much of a row in the library since they put "The Kinsey Report" on the shelf next to "Forever Amber".

This joke received a big laugh from the studio audience. Not being familiar with "Forever Amber", the joke went over my head.

Naturally, I had to do a web search for Forever Amber. Wikipedia says it is an historical romance novel written by Kathleen Winsor and set in 17th-century England during the reign of Charles II.

The article goes on to say that the novel, published in 1944, was banned in fourteen U.S. states as pornography. The Massachusetts attorney general cited "70 references to sexual intercourse, 39 illegitimate pregnancies, 7 abortions, and 10 descriptions of women undressing in front of men as reasons for banning the novel". The novel was condemned by the Catholic Church for indecency, which naturally helped boost sales.

The novel was also banned in Australia in 1945.

I assumed that the banning of the novel was simply due to the prudish attitudes of folks in the 1940's. Naturally, I had to find a copy and read it for myself.

As I write this, I've read 80% of the novel. This being the last day of the year, it's unlikely I will finish reading the novel in time to include it in my list of novels read in 2020.

The portions of the novel which cover the history of 17th century England are very well written. The story not only deals with the life of  the fictional "Amber St. Clare", but with life within the court of Charles II.  In the novel, Amber manages to survive the Great Plague of London,the Great Fire of London and the Second Anglo-Dutch War.

Although not blatantly pornographic, the novel does indeed have the "70 references to sexual intercourse, 39 illegitimate pregnancies, 7 abortions, and 10 descriptions of women undressing in front of men" mentioned as reasons for the banning. Amber has sex with and/or marries successively richer and more important men as a way to get to the top of English society. She is involved in the murder of one of her husbands and has at least 2 abortions and three illegitimate children. With no morals to speak of, Amber St. Claire is certainly no role model.

Forever Amber  was the best-selling US novel of the 1940s. It sold over 100,000 copies in its first week of release, and went on to sell over three million copies. The book's success is another example of how well sex sells.

Sixteen Million Views

 

This past October, I mentioned on two of my blogs [robertsimms.blogspot.com/2020/10/fifteen-million and sorryalltheclevernamesaretaken.blogspot.com/2020/10/15-million-views] that the photos I've uploaded to Google Maps had received in excess of 15 million views. Now, in late December, I've learned that these photos have received more than 16 million views.

Naturally, I'm proud of this accomplishment.

I hadn't been checking the stats of late, so I don't know when the number had passed the 16 million mark. Of course, I have uploaded a few photos since October, though not enough to warrant this additional number of views.

I did notice that my photo of what was then known as Silliman University Anthropology Museum was the number one viewed photo in October and December. This photo has been my most viewed photo since, at least, 2018.

In October, the number two spot was held by Negros Oriental State University - Main Campus with St. Paul University Dumaguete in third. Now, the two schools have switched places.

Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus

 

Back in April, during the early days of the COVID pandemic, like many others, I thought it was an appropriate time to reread Albert Camus' The Plague . Finishing the novel, I was still in the mood for dystopian, plague novels to read. After searching the web, I came upon The Last Man. This particular novel was written by the author of Frankenstein - Mary Shelley.

According to the wikipedia article, The Last Man was first published in 1826 whereupon it received terrible reviews. " Individual reviewers labelled the book 'sickening', criticised [sic] its 'stupid cruelties', and called the author's imagination 'diseased'."

The novel would not be reprinted until 1965, when it received better treatment.

I downloaded the novel from Project Gutenberg and transferred it to my Kindle. Sadly, I did not finish reading the novel. In spite of a fairly decent review in wikipedia, the novel was boring and a bit tedious. The novel did put Mary Shelley in my head, and I thought I might reread Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus this year. I put the novel in the queue.

I had just finished reading four novels (and a short story) by Yukio Mishima with plans to return to the tetralogy, The Sea of Fertility sometime in 2021, and I thought now would be the time to go in a different direction. I began rereading Frankenstein.

Since 2011, I've kept a record of the books I've read. According to my list posted in January, 2012, I last read Frankenstein in 2011. I even posted a review in September 17, 2011. I wrote:

I was sure that I'd read the book years ago, but as soon as opened the file, I knew right away that I hadn't after all. Since downloading the book, I've been reading a few pages every evening. The story starts slowly.......I was all set to proclaim the novel "cheesy"; had I written a review after getting to the death of Victor Frankenstein's brother, William, I would have given the book a very low rating. I'm further along now and it's getting better (though the monster's narrative of the De Lacey family was a bit tedious at times).

Honestly, as I began this reread, I had forgotten most of what I'd read nine years ago. Reading the novel this 2nd time, I don't believe I can be as generous with my review as I had been in 2011. The novel just drags on and on. It could stand a severe editing. It would work better with 140 pages rather than 280. Frankenstein's traveling to Scotland to create a mate for the monster seems a waste of time. Shelley could have left the story in Switzerland, saving a lot of unnecessary chatter. The same can be said for her dragging the story to the North Pole.

The iconic 1931 film adaptation did well to drastically change the story.

Yukio Mishima's Dark Side

 

After writing mostly positive reviews on the work of Yukio Mishima , I want to write of those areas of Mishima's life and actions which I find most disturbing.

I've already mentioned the uncomfortable elements found in his second novel, Confessions of a Mask, concerning homosexuality and sadomasochism. 

I recently watched the 1985 American biographical drama film based on his life and work - Mishima - A Life In Four Chapters - which uses portions of Confessions of a Mask as a description of Mishima's early life, while the novel, Runaway Horses and Mishima's short film, Yûkoku (Patriotism - The Rite of Love and Death) were used for describing his later life and as an explanation, of sorts, for the end drama of his life.

Mishima had formed his own private army, which he planned to use in a coup d'etat. On November 25, 1970, Mishima and four members of his army attempted to take over a military base in central Tokyo. They barricaded the office of commandant Kanetoshi Mashita and tied the commandant to his chair. With a written manifesto and a banner listing his demands, Mishima stepped out onto the balcony outside the commandant's office to address the soldiers.

The soldiers were not receptive to Mishima's manifesto.

After finishing his speech, Mishima went back into the office and committed seppuku (harakiri).

Mishima had planned his suicide for at least a year. He had often mentioned that he would die after completing The Decay of the Angel, the final novel in his The Sea of Fertility tetralogy. The novel was completed just before his suicide.

Ayanna Pressley's Contradictory Views on Human Life

 

There was a time,many years ago, when I supported the death penalty. I've changed my mind, thanks to the teachings of Pope John Paul II. Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis have followed his lead in condemning capital punishment.

Pope Francis wrote:

"Saint John Paul II stated clearly and firmly that the death penalty is inadequate from a moral standpoint and no longer necessary from that of penal justice. There can be no stepping back from this position. Today we state clearly that ‘the death penalty is inadmissible’ and the Church is firmly committed to calling for its abolition worldwide."

It's been recently reported that dozens of Democrats have called on the incoming Biden administration to end federal executions once Biden is inaugurated. Considering the fact that the US Justice Department has restarted the practice of federal executions after a 17-year hiatus, I see that as a step in the right direction. President Trump has done many positive things in the area of criminal justice reform, but restarting federal executions certainly wasn't one of those.

One of the Democrats calling for the end of federal executions is Massachusetts congresswoman Ayanna Pressley .

"Ending the barbaric and inhumane practice of government-sanctioned murder is a commonsense step that you can and must take to save lives," said Pressley in a letter to Joe Biden.

A link to Congresswoman Pressley's letter to the POTUS elect can be found on her Congressional webpage.

Unfortunately, also found the the Congresswoman's webpage is a letter calling for eliminating the Hyde Amendment. Sadly, in spite of her call for ending the death penalty, Ayanna Pressley is overwhelmingly pro-abortion. She believes abortion care is health care and that health care is a fundamental human right.

As someone who is pro-life, I know that it is difficult for many who oppose abortion to accept the killing of innocent human beings while ending the death penalty for obviously guilty offenders.

Pressley would get much more help from the pro-life community if her stance on abortion was as "pro-life" as her stance on capital punishment. Obviously, Pressley holds "two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values at the same time" which would be a case of Cognitive dissonance if she felt any stress or anxiety over having those contradictory views.

Yukio Mishima

 

When I recently wrote a short blog post on the novel, The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea , it had not been my intention to go on to write a series of posts dealing with the Japanese writer, Yukio Mishima, but after having read two additional novels by Mishima following that post, I feel almost driven to do so.

As I mentioned in a post on another blog in late August of last year, I discovered Mishima quite by accident in what I believe is a fine example of serendipity.

I had been watching a number of movies featuring James Cagney. One movie was the 1931 comedy The Millionaire, in which Cagney had a small role. One of the stars of the film was Canadian-American actor, David Manners who is best remembered for his role as John Harker in the 1931 horror classic Dracula, which of course, starred Bela Lugosi.

Learning that Manners was in Dracula led me to hunt for that film on the Internet. It had been ages since I'd watched this classic movie, and luckily I was able to locate it at vimeo.com. Sadly, the film has since been removed from that website, due to a complaint of copyright infringement. In 1999, Lugosi's Dracula was released for home video, with an updated soundtrack composed by Philip Glass and performed by the Kronos Quartet. I was so impressed by Glass' composition that I had to search for more work by the composer.

One of the works composed by Glass that I found on Spotify, was the film score for Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters - a film based on the life and work of the Japanese writer. Of course, now I had to learn more about Yukio Mishima.

Again, after a search on the Internet, I was able to download 13 books written by Mishima and available as mobi.

Normally, when approaching a writer new to me, I start at his or her earliest work and proceed to the end. This had been my approach with Elizabeth von Arnim, E. Phillips Oppenheim , Wilkie Collins , and many, many more. However, with the work of Yukio Mishima, I began with his final work - the tetralogy, The Sea of Fertility. The four books in this work are Spring Snow, Runaway Horses, The Temple of Dawn, and The Decay of the Angel.

Each of the novels depicts what the protagonist, Shigekuni Honda comes to believe are successive reincarnations of his school friend Kiyoaki Matsugae.

Although I had downloaded 13 ebooks, I did not start right away on other works by Mishima following The Sea of Fertility. It was only recently that I came back to Mishima with the reading of The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea. The two novels which I began immediately after were Confessions of a Mask and After the Banquet.

Confessions of a Mask was Mishima's second novel and launched him to national fame in his early twenties. The novel is very disturbing. The protagonist is homosexual, and much of the novel deals with his fantasies involving homosexuality and sado masochism. Although upsetting, I finished reading the novel. However, I doubt I would have gone on to read Mishima's other novels had I read this work first.

After the Banquet is very different than Confessions of a Mask ( to say the least). It is actually very different in tone from the other works I'd read by the writer. Perhaps it was due to the translation, but the novel seemed to be almost non Mashimaesque, if I may coin a word. On the other hand, the difference I see in After the Banquet may be, that when compared to much of Mishima's writing, this novel has a relatively happy ending.

The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea - the Film.

In spite of the location and setting being very different, the plot of the 1976 film, The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea doesn't stray too terribly far from the novel by Yukio Mishima. Being made in 1976, I can understand why the film's producers may have felt that having the film take place in England - with well known actors - rather than in Japan, may have been a better move from a commercial viewpoint. Personally, I would rather the film adaptation take place in Japan, with Japanese actors.

I could very well cope with English subtitles.

I didn't care for Kris Kristofferson in the film. I never found him to be a credible actor, and his eye makeup in this film was too distracting for me.

The film version wasn't bad  but I don't know if I would have gone on to read the novel had I seen the film first. To me, the novel compares favorably to one of my favorite novels - Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment. This film, however, certainly doesn't rate as one of my favorite films.

The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea

In August of 2019 I had serendipitously discovered the work of Japanese writer, Yukio Mishima. Mishima is considered one of the most important Japanese authors of the 20th century.

I was so impressed by what I had read about Mishima that I went into his work head-on, beginning with his tetralogy, The Sea of Fertility. Even before I had finished reading the four novels in the tetralogy, I downloaded every e-book of Mishima's work that I could find.

I have a list of novels that I return to every few years, and The Sea of Fertility is definitely on the list.

I recently finished another of Mishima's novels, The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea. Parts of the novel are quite disturbing, but the novel has become one of my favorites - along side, if not surpassing Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment.

I'm recommending the novel, however, I'm not inclined to give a synopsis. I'm afraid any description from me would contain "spoilers".

In 1976, the novel was adapted into a film starring Kris Kristofferson and Sarah Miles. The setting was changed from Japan to England. The film is available on OK.RU.  I've plans to watch the film in a day or so.

Lennon vs Zappa

 

During the first few days of December, we remember two musical icons who died this month; John Lennon, who was murdered on December 8, 1980 and Frank Zappa, who died of prostate cancer on December 4, 1993.

Lennon and Zappa were both born in 1940 and came of musical age in the 1960's. The two grew up listening to Rhythm and Blues, although they went off in different directions.

In the '60's, when the Beatles were playing , I preferred their music over the music being created by Zappa and his Mothers of Invention. Over the years, I have completely changed my views on Lennon and Zappa.

Lennon was obviously more well known and certainly more commercially successful. Unfortunately, I don't think Lennon was able to cope with fame and fortune, and as he became more involved with drugs, his music suffered.

Zappa, on the other hand, was anti-drug - with the tragic exception of nicotine. Zappa's music continued to grow and evolve through out his life, and today, twenty seven years after his death, his music is continuing to be released from his archives.

For several years after the break up of the Beatles, Lennon isolated himself and basically retired from the music scene, until just before his death. One obvious difference I see between the two artists was the way they each approached performing. Zappa was able to orchestrate and lead his group of musicians in a performance of Lennon's "I Am the Walrus".....something Lennon would not have been able to do. The orchestration of the Beatles' version was done by producer George Martin. Lennon would not have been able to to perform the song in concert.

Additional Thoughts on My Acupuncture Treatments

I last wrote about my acupuncture treatments on November 28. That was before I had completed all 10 of the scheduled treatments and my view of the the treatments were mostly positive at the time.

Not long after that post, and before the final treatment, I was feeling much better, with no sciatic pain.....just a bit of numbness in my foot. I was even feeling well enough to drive the car to my last three sessions.

It's been one week today since I finished the treatments, and I'm less enthusiastic about the results. The woman administering the acupuncture treatments told me there would continue to be numbness for about a week. My foot still continues to "tingle" with numbness and occasional pain in my right lower leg and foot.

I'm having difficulty sleeping - the pain seems to be worse at night.

Perhaps, over time there will be continued improvement, but as I said, I'm not as gung-ho about acupuncture as I was last week.

Catholic Church Statement on Freemasonry

I recently found myself involved in a bit of a kerfuffle on Facebook......hard to imagine, right?

There was some discussion of a 18 story tower that is being constructed in Quezon Park in Dumaguete. The person who started the discussion was against the tower for aesthetic reasons ; the tower would overwhelm every structure and landmark in the area. An illustration follows below.

 

With a few exceptions, most commenting (myself included) held a negative view of the proposed tower. My objection comes from the fact that the tower is a "Masonic tower" and thereby shouldn't be constructed in a Catholic community. I wrote:

"The Masons are an anti Catholic group. ...Catholics are forbidden to join the Masons. A Masonic tower is not proper in this Catholic city".

Almost immediately, I was accused of spreading a lie. A man said that the Catholic church allows Catholics to become Freemasons. I knew this man was either misinformed, or lying himself. I took a look at his own Facebook page and it is filled with Masonic symbols. I would not consider him objective.

As proof that the Catholic Church forbids Catholics from joining the Masons, I left a quote, as well as a link to the Vatican websites. The statement on the website reads :

CONGREGATION FOR THE DOCTRINE OF THE FAITH
DECLARATION ON MASONIC ASSOCIATIONS

It has been asked whether there has been any change in the Church’s decision in regard to Masonic associations since the new Code of Canon Law does not mention them expressly, unlike the previous Code.
This Sacred Congregation is in a position to reply that this circumstance in due to an editorial criterion which was followed also in the case of other associations likewise unmentioned inasmuch as they are contained in wider categories.
Therefore the Church’s negative judgment in regard to Masonic association remains unchanged since their principles have always been considered irreconcilable with the doctrine of the Church and therefore membership in them remains forbidden. The faithful who enrol in Masonic associations are in a state of grave sin and may not receive Holy Communion.
It is not within the competence of local ecclesiastical authorities to give a judgment on the nature of Masonic associations which would imply a derogation from what has been decided above, and this in line with the Declaration of this Sacred Congregation issued on 17 February 1981 (cf. AAS 73 1981 pp. 240-241; English language edition of L’Osservatore Romano, 9 March 1981).
In an audience granted to the undersigned Cardinal Prefect, the Supreme Pontiff John Paul II approved and ordered the publication of this Declaration which had been decided in an ordinary meeting of this Sacred Congregation.
Rome, from the Office of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, 26 November 1983.

Joseph Card. RATZINGER
Prefect

+ Fr. Jerome Hamer, O.P.
Titular Archbishop of Lorium
Secretary

Anyone doubting my word on this can check the Vatican website themselves.