For Philip Young’s Scoop! Meme
Several weeks after Serge asked me to participate in Philip Young’s Scoop! meme (here are the official guidelines), I am finally adding my contribution of “journalists in UK/European fiction” to the list. (Philip, if, due to an oversight on my part, I’ve missed that this novel is already mentioned, please let me know and I’ll find another one.)
George Gissing’s New Grub Street follows the lives of a group of novelists and journalists as they struggle to find their personal and professional paths in the late nineteenth century.
The novel contains a mix of sympathetic, less sympathetic and relatively pathetic characters. Jasper, a writer, falls in the latter category:
“It happened to catch my eye in the paper yesterday that someone was to be hanged at Newgate this morning. There’s a certain satisfaction in reflecting that it is not oneself…
I could curse the brutality of an age that sanctioned such things; or I could grow doleful over the misery of the poor fellow. But those emotions would be as little profitable to others as to myself. It just happened that I saw the thing in a light of consolation. Things are bad with me, but not so bad as that."
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Lee Hopkins, Lee’s new and improved Better Communication Results
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Donna Papacosta, Trafcom News
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Jack Yan, The persuader
Thanks for this Andrea. New Grub Street is on my (sizeable) re-read for Scoop! pile. I was going to do a round-up of all the contributions as well as a reflection on the whole meme thing this weekend.
Elizabeth Albrycht and I are still trying to find of a better word for passing these things on than ‘tag’ - I think we are favouring ‘nudge’ at the moment…
Anyway, I look forward to hearing from Lee, Donna and Jack.
Consider it on my reading list for the months to come…
Thanks, Andrea! I’ll read the guidelines now and learn how to do this. I was mentioned on one person’s four things (Cat Morley) but didn’t really know what to do (I feel out of it some days on the blogosphere).
Philip: Sorry for the delay. I really like the term “nudge.” It’s sounds so much more polite than “tag,” doesn’t it?
Serge: The novel’s a good read and, with the link I provided, you can even read it online, as I did.
Jack: Thanks for being a good sport.
Ford Prefect for his substantial addition to the Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy entry about Earth.
http://leehopkins.net/2006/03/27/scoop-2/
Lee: Thanks for getting on top of this so quickly.