Us and Them and We and They

Terry Pratchett's Discworld witches have been mentioned in several articles. There are many Discworld novels in which the witches don't appear; I have yet to read quite a few of them.

I decided to investigate Jingo, and I saw this:

“It was so much easier to blame it on Them. It was bleakly depressing to think that They were Us. If it was Them, then nothing was anyone's fault. If it was us, what did that make Me? After all, I'm one of Us. I must be. I've certainly never thought of myself as one of Them. No one ever thinks of themselves as one of Them. We're always one of Us. It's Them that do the bad things.”

This reminded me of  one of Rudyard Kipling's poems. Here is the opening verse of We and They, which was first published in Debits and Credits (1926):

Father, Mother, and Me,

    Sister and Auntie say,

All the people like us are We,

    And every one else is They.

And They live over the sea,

    While We live over the way, 

But - would you believe it? 

    -They look upon We 

    As only a sort of They!

... 

I wonder if Terry Pratchett was inspired by Kipling's poem.

These words may be seen as a kind of 'othering' based on distance and cultural differences. Some people do think in terms of insiders and outsiders; they project their negative qualities onto the latter group, and they look for pretexts to criticise, judge, condemn, dehumanise and sometimes even justify persecuting and destroying anyone they consider to be 'not one of us'. And the other side often does exactly the same!

A more positive interpretation is that these words are a sign of a developmental step or two in the right direction. They could be an indication that someone has gained objectivity and learned to put their lives into the context of the total picture.

The words could be a sign that someone has realised that the world doesn't revolve around them: they are just one human being among many. They may have learned to put themselves in other peoples' places and see things from different viewpoints and an enhanced perspective.

Either way, these extracts from Jingo and Kipling's poem are very thought-provoking. .

Elizabeth Taylor's wise words about the dangers of fantasy

Elizabeth Taylor's novel Angel is yet another book that unexpectedly contained enough material of interest to inspire a whole string of articles.

I intended to check her other works some time in the hope of finding some more quotable material. After learning that references to Jane Austen and Jane Eyre can be detected in her second novel Palladian (1946), I decided to investigate.

I found something that deserves to be highlighted:

“Fantasy can be damaging. Reality can't hold a candle to it; everyday life doesn't stand a chance.”

This immediately reminded me of something that Rachel Ferguson said in her novel The Brontës Went to Woolworths, which also inspired a whole string of articles: 

“Three years ago I was proposed to. I couldn’t accept the man, much as I liked him, because I was in love with Sherlock Holmes. For Holmes and his personality and brain I had a force of feeling which, for the time, converted living men to shadows.”

The real man who made the proposal certainly didn't stand a chance when compared with Sherlock Holmes! 

The article about books versus real life is also relevant to this topic. 

The quoted extract is the only material of interest that I could find in Elizabeth Taylor's Palladian.

Essential elements and timing: getting everything in phase

The post about wanting and getting was inspired by a comment by the science fiction writer Fred Pohl. He said that although he usually sooner or later got what he wanted, by the time he got it he sometimes didn't want it any more!

The two essential elements of wanting and getting were sometimes out of phase in his life.

Fred Pohl's words have reminded me of something that Louisa May Alcott wrote in her journal in 1874:

“When I had the youth I had no money; now I have the money I have no time; and when I get the time, if I ever do, I shall have no health to enjoy life.” 

Some essential elements were out of phase here too. Louisa May Alcott did indeed have bad health in later life. This prevented her from doing many of the things that she would have liked to do.

Two out of three might not be bad, but in such cases they are just not good enough: she needed time, money and good health – and all at the same time. 

In general, it is important for essential elements to come together in the same place at the same time – sometimes known as getting all the ducks in a row. 

In addition to time, money and good health, elements such as opportunity, inclination energy and coping ability may also be required.

Louisa May Alcott's sad words remind me that I too have had times in my life when the key elements I needed were very far from being all present and correct. 

On the other hand, a time came when I made a whole string of day trips and short breaks for which every single one of a whole string of essential and/or desirable elements came into place at the same time. These elements, which were both internal and external, included free time, a strong inclination to explore new places, very good weather and extremely cheap coach tickets and hotel rooms 

Miracles do sometimes happen! 

I may find some more article-inspiring material here:

The autumn equinox strikes again!

In 2022, I posted about some minor, rather disconcerting but also quite amusing, incidents at the time of the autumn equinox that involved two rather weird women I encountered when I went out shopping while feeling under the weather.

In 2023, I described a few more small incidents that happened at the same time of year. I also said this:

“It is possible that creating last year's article had the effect of reducing the negative effects of this year's autumn equinox; it will be interesting to see what, if anything, happens this time next year.”

For the next two years, I didn't go out much or make any special journeys around this key time. I stayed in and did a lot of work online instead.

This year, I decided to go out and see what, if anything, unusual happened. I hoped that this time, awareness, processing the previous happenings, getting it all down in writing and learning from experience would help me to get ahead of the game and prevent any more unwelcome incidents. 

How wrong I was! 

Once more, there were some minor incidents, and they happened over several days.

Two days before the autumn equinox, I made a special bus journey to revisit a place with rather sad associations from the past. I had been back there twice before in recent years, but this time I got confused and couldn't remember which way to go. I decided to go home, check the map and try again some other time. (I haven't got a smartphone.)

When I was on the bus going home, I suddenly remembered where the road I wanted to visit was and that I had brought a little map with me just in case!

I had waited a long time for a bus, then I decided to cut my losses and get a different bus from another stop – where I also had to wait a long time. An elderly gentleman got on and caused a long delay because he didn't seem to know exactly where he was or where he wanted to go! Some of the passengers tried to help: they asked him questions and told him where various places he mentioned were.

When I got home, I found that I couldn't connect to the Internet! I can't remember when this last happened. After one and a half very stressful hours, the problem fixed itself.

Today is the 17th anniversary of this blog

This is the fourth article to highlight an anniversary for this blog, which by chance was launched on the very symbolic day of Wednesday September 9th 2009. By coincidence, today, September 9th 2026, is also a Wednesday.

The first article marks the major milestone of the tenth anniversary.

The second milestone article was published on the occasion of the fifteenth anniversary. 

The third article was published on the occasion of the sixteenth anniversary. 

I still monitor the Blogger Stats as although I produce articles mainly for my own benefit, I like to see what people are reading - and in which countries. There have been a few changes since my previous report.

Benjamin Disraeli has disappeared from the top 10 Popular Posts. Rudyard Kipling is always popular, but for some reason the article about his green connections took off during the year and has become the third most popular post. I have no idea why this should have happened; I wonder how long it will last.

I have managed to keep to my commitment to produce two posts per month. 

I hope to find enough article material for at least one more year. This partly depends on whether or not I get any more inspiration from Woden aka Odin!

Two temptation scenes in Jonathan Stroud’s Bartimaeus books

There are several posts that describe and comment on temptation scenes in Jonathan Stroud's Lockwood books.  The first temptation article lists some elements that these scenes have in common with temptation scenes in books by other writers. The “you deserve better” ploy is just one example of this.

There are also some typical temptation scenes in Jonathan Stroud’s Bartimaeus books. A new angle here is that the tempted later becomes the tempter!

In this further extract from The Amulet of Samarkand, an old magician tempts the young apprentice magician Nathaniel, whose official name is John Mandrake:

“...there will soon be spaces, vacancies to fill in the higher reaches of the Government. We shall require talented new magicians to help us rule. Great wealth and the relaxations of power await our allies. Well now, you are young, Mandrake, but we recognize your ability. You have the makings of a great magician. Join with us, and we shall provide you with the apprenticeship you have always craved. Think about it—no more experiments in solitude, no more bowing or scraping to fools who are scarcely fit to lick your boots! We will test and inspire you, we will draw out your talent and let it breathe. And one day, perhaps, when Simon and I are gone, you will be supreme....”

There, we have the usual offer of immense power and the 'you deserve better' approach. 

Nathaniel rejects the offer – for a while.

What is of particular interest in this temptation scene from The Golem's Eye is that it is Nathaniel, aka John Mandrake, who is now a junior magician and working for the government, who does the tempting. His target is a girl called Kitty Jones:

“If you share this information with me,” Nathaniel said, “if you talk candidly about your time in the Resistance, I will do more than set you free.” ... “I can give you wealth, too,” he said. “Yes, and status beyond your wildest dreams. Commoners such as yourself—with brains, bravery, and aptitude to spare—can win roles at the heart of government, positions of real power. That’s no secret. You will work daily with the great ones of our society, and learn such things that will make your head spin. I can take you away from the drabness of your life, give you glimpses into the marvelous past, the days when the magician-emperors bestrode the world. Then you can become part of our own great story. When the current wars are won, for instance, we shall establish a renewed Colonial Office in America, and will need intelligent men and women to enforce our will. They say there are vast estates to be won out there, Ms. Jones, tracts of land with nothing on them but beasts and a few savages. Imagine—you as a great lady of the Empire …”

Flattery and offers of power, money, a better life, the chance to get in on something big...same old, same old...

A bingo card would be very useful in this and all those other temptation cases! 

Kitty Jones declines the offer. 

Some thoughts about wanting and getting

The American science fiction writer Frederik Pohl wrote a book of memoirs called The Way the Future Was. 

I read something in this book that made a big impression, got me thinking, and eventually inspired a small article:

“An observed fact of my life is that I have almost always gotten everything I wanted, sooner or later. Another observed fact is that sometimes by the time I get it I don’t want it any more.”

Fred Pohl's words contradict the proposition that nothing dies that is not lived out, or, in other words, you have to give it a go before you can give it up! In his experience, the desire for something can definitely die of its own accord before the object is achieved or obtained.

There are several reasons why people may lose interest in and any inclination for something that at one time they wanted very much. For example, they may have outgrown it or realised that it wouldn't be suitable and moved on. Perhaps the desired object came too late in life to be of any use to them.

Fred Pohl's words about almost always getting but sometimes no longer wanting something got me thinking about people who always want - or even need - something but never get it. That is a very painful position to be in. Some of them may well adopt a sour grapes attitude, persuading themselves that it isn't worth having; others may realise that they have little choice but to try to come to terms with things as they are, not as they would like them to be.

Fred Pohl's experience may seem rather sad, but the other situation is worse.