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.

Doris Lessing on books, reading and public libraries

This blog contains many posts about books, reading and public libraries. Some articles feature writers' words on these topics of interest; L. M. Montgomery and the compulsion to read and write is just one example.

I recently came across some relevant quotations from the writer Doris Lessing. Although her words were new to me, they are similar to some material that was already on here.

This is interesting:

“I didn't go to school much, so I taught myself what I knew from reading.”

Isaac Asimov said something similar, and being mostly self-taught also applies to me.

Doris Lessing is yet another writer who has nothing but praise for public libraries and promotes the positive effects of reading:

“A public library is the most democratic thing in the world. What can be found there has undone dictators and tyrants: demagogues can persecute writers and tell them what to write as much as they like, but they cannot vanish what has been written in the past, though they try often enough...People who love literature have at least part of their minds immune from indoctrination. If you read, you can learn to think for yourself.”

This is interesting in the context of the article about cults that restrict their members' reading. 

In her novel The Golden Notebook, Doris Lessing advises readers to be very selective when deciding what to read:

“There is only one way to read, which is to browse in libraries and bookshops, picking up books that attract you, reading only those, dropping them when they bore you, skipping the parts that drag—and never, never reading anything because you feel you ought, or because it is part of a trend or a movement.“

I mentioned skipping some off-putting material in the final article about Elizabeth Goudge's Valerians. 

I mentioned browsing the shelves as a way to find something good to read in the article about the reader's dilemma of so many books, so little time.

There is no harm in just taking a quick look at recommended and fashionable books though: our radar will soon tell us whether or not a book is worth reading! 

Doris Lessing with some books:

Something about Jonathan Stroud’s magicians

Terry Pratchett's wise words about magic and witches have been featured or mentioned in several articles. I said this in More magic and witch wisdom:

“The points he makes and the warnings he gives have a much wider application than to just his imaginary world and characters.”

The above extract has a wider application than to just Terry Pratchett: it has relevance to Jonathan Stroud and his magicians, an elite group who operate in an alternative modern London that is ruled by magic.

The Amulet of Samarkand, the first book in Stroud's Bartimaeus series, has been referenced in an article about William Gladstone and in one about disowning unworthy people in favour of books. I have selected some more material from The Amulet in order to highlight some of what Stroud says about his magicians. 

While Terry Pratchett respects and is fond of his witches, Jonathan Stroud obviously dislikes and despises most of his magicians. They certainly seem to be a very unpleasant bunch indeed; they remind me of David Icke's reptilians! 

Some characteristics of magicians
Jonathan Stroud's magicians are very status conscious. They seek out opportunities for social climbing. Image is everything; they are fixated with the trappings of wealth. They are always greedy for more. 

The magicians are hierarchical and authoritarian; they flatter their superiors and are arrogant with anyone they see as their inferior. They have nothing but contempt for ordinary people or 'commoners', i.e. those with no magical abilities.

Who is being described here?
These extracts remind me of another group of people:

“With magicians it's usually pretty simple: they fall into three distinct types, motivated by ambition, greed, or paranoia.”

“Magicians are the most conniving, jealous, duplicitous group of people on earth, even including lawyers and academics. They worship power and the wielding thereof, and seek every chance they can to undercut their rivals.“

“You believed in the notion of the honourable magician, who takes responsibility for his actions. Mere propaganda. Such a thing does not exist. There is no honour, no nobility, no justice. Every magician acts only for himself, seizing each opportunity he can. When he is weak, he avoids danger—which is why second-raters plod away within the system.”

This sounds rather like something that Taylor Caldwell  would say about politicians!

Another edition of this entertaining book:

Archy and Mehitabel: the cockroach and the cat

Archy and Mehitabel (usually written as archy and mehitabel) are the names of two fictional characters created in 1916 by Don Marquis (July 28 1878 to June 16 1937), who was a columnist for The Evening Sun newspaper in New York City. 

I first came across these two endearing characters during my schooldays; memories of them surfaced from the depths recently and inspired a short article.

Great friends Archy, a cockroach, and Mehitabel, an alley cat, appeared in hundreds of humorous verses and short stories in Marquis’s daily column. The cartoonist George Herriman was the main illustrator. This material was later published in book form.

Archy the cockroach is the reincarnation of a poet; he produces his work on a typewriter, in lower case as he can't manage the shift key. There are few rhymes and no punctuation; he writes in free verse. I recommend taking his creations in small doses!

Mehitabel the cat has a 'past' in more ways than one! She claims to be the reincarnation of Cleopatra. She sings and dances, and Archy transcribes her words. She often uses the expressions 'wotthehell' and 'toujours gai'.

Archy and Mehitabel:

Mehitabel has, she says, come down in the world. She tells Archy about her glamorous past and he types it all up. She may be exaggerating a little!  Here, Archy says “And then, what did the 'Duke' say to you?”:

Mehitabel talks about herself
In this short extract from the rather long "song of mehitabel" as  recorded by Archy, Mehitabel the former queen finds freedom from the royal life:

“i have had my ups and downs

but wotthehell wotthehell

yesterday sceptres and crowns

fried oysters and velvet gowns

and today i herd with bums

but wotthehell wotthehell

…

do you think that i would change

my present freedom to range

for a castle or moated grange

wotthehell wotthehell

cage me and i d go frantic

my life is so romantic

capricious and corybantic

and i m toujours gai toujours gai“

Archy talks about himself
This is an extract from “the wail of archy”, in which he complains about having to live as a cockroach:

“i once was a vers libre poet

i died and my spirit migrated 

into the flesh of a cockroach

gods how i yearn to be human 

neither a vers libre poet

nor yet the inmate of a cockroach 

a six footed scurrying cockroach

given to idiot hexameters 

longfellowish sprawling hexameters 

rather had i been a starfish

to shoot a heroic pentameter

gods i am pent in a cockroach

i with the soul of a dante

am mate and companion of fleas

i with the gift of a homer

must smile when a mouse calls me pal

tumble bugs are my familiars

this is the punishment meted

because i have written vers libre”

Anyone who would like to see some more of the same can find it in books such as these:

Some pessimistic words about politicians from Taylor Caldwell

Taylor Caldwell's wise words on political matters appear in several articles, most recently in one that quotes what she said in Captains and the Kings: The Story of an American Dynasty about the sinister forces that operate behind the scenes.

There may not be much that is particularly original in what she has to say - it may often seem that she is just stating the obvious - but the way she expresses her ideas really brings the depressing messages home.

This proposition comes from the same book:

“A politician, as we know, who serves the people, really serves them out of conviction and idealism, is eventually despised by them as a naïve imbecile. But a scoundrel of color, who can invent a few deadly aphorisms of his own, and can laugh and twinkle and joke, gets their adoration, and even if he is later exposed for what he is—a thief, a time-server, a liar—the public becomes hysterical at the 'attacks' on him. In fact, the public will attack the outraged attackers of their darling.”

This makes me think of a few scoundrelly but colourful politicians, past and present, in the UK! Such people do indeed get away with a lot because of their charming and amusing personas.

Another edition of Taylor Caldwell's best-selling historical novel, which was first published in 1972: