The Journal of John Woolman: Part 3

As every Degree of Luxury hath some Connection with Evil, The Journal of John Woolman: Part 3

Bonus: 

Sometimes, I don't watch these. I just pick something that looks WTF worthy and paste 'em in.

Summary: Woolman gets married, England and France are fighting (again), refusing to write wills is apparently a very effective means of abolition.

Commentary:

I'm going to to milk this John Woolman is a serial killer thing as long as I can:

His Marriage—The Death of his Father—His Journies into the upper Part of New-Jersey, and afterwards into Pennsylvania

If you swap two words you get: His Marriage—Of Death The Father—His Journies into the upper Part of New-Jersey, and afterwards into Pennsylvania 

And it sounds like he married the Grim Reaper and wandered around the Mid-Atlantic states doing some murder.

Describing his wife as a Damsel (and thus, by default, in distress) doesn't help any. 

I think it was noted in one of the prologues that I read of this that it's less a single coherent journal, and more of a collection of letters, etc. with his journaling in between, but a very large part of this one was the one letter about war between England/American and France.

A charitable benevolent Man, well acquainted with a Negro, may, I believe, under some Circumstances, keep him in his Family as a Servant, from no other Motives than the Negro's Good

Slavery bad. Racism okay.

About this Time, an ancient Man, of good Esteem in the Neighbourhood, came to my House to get his Will written; he had young Negroes; and I asked him privately, how he purposed to dispose of them? He told me: I then said, I cannot write thy Will without breaking my own Peace; and respectfully gave him my Reasons for it: He signified that he had a Choice that I should have written it; but as I could not, consistent with my Conscience, he did not desire it: And so he got it written by some other Person. And, a few Years after, there being great Alterations in his Family, he came again to get me to write his Will: His Negroes were yet young; and his Son, to whom he intended to give them, was, since he first spoke to me, from a Libertine, become a sober young Man; and he supposed, that I would have been free, on that Account, to write it. We had much friendly Talk on the Subject, and then deferred it: A few Days after, he came again, and directed their Freedom; and then I wrote his Will.

I feel like this is the most interesting thing in the whole Journal, and it's just kind of snuck in as one paragraph.

You've got the whole refusing to do business over politics question, then you have Woolman actually (apparently) talking someone into freeing their slaves. But the part that I think is most odd is the fact that he agrees to free them after his death, and that's just fine with everyone. He's not upset about depriving his son of them, Woolman isn't upset about him waiting however long (and until it won't matter to him). I guess there's some element of not letting the perfect be the enemy of the good, but it feels very lah-de-da. Maybe they talked about it in more depth (they did have "much friendly Talk" but it seems weird that he's so okay with, "I'll free the slaves... eventually."

As every Degree of Luxury hath some Connection with Evil, those who profess to be Disciples of Christ, and are looked upon as Leaders of the People, should have that Mind in them which was also in Christ, and so stand separate from every wrong Way, as a Means of Help to the Weaker.

You better not have ever worn a scarf, John Woolman. Your neck can just be cold. I'll allow shoes, I guess. But not nice ones.

The Journal of John Woolman: Part 2

 The Journal of John Woolman: Part 2

Bonus: 

What it's like going to a new Quaker meeting, apparently.

Summary: John Woolman gets permission to travel, and his sister ejaculates a letter at him.

Commentary: I think the most interesting thing I learned from this was about Quaker Travel/Removal Certifications, which are basically just letters of introduction, but slightly more fancy/official. Can't get married without one.

Not super thrilled with this one, but not quite enough to drop it. We'll see. I think my willingness to suffer through stuff is waning after the Young Jedi Knights debacle.

The Mountain Whippoorwill by Stephen Vincent Benét (1925)

 "The Mountain Whipporwill"

Bonus: 

The poem

Double Bonus

Summary: Hillbilly wins fiddle contest sounds like the punchline of a joke.

Commentary: We're doing Frankenstein at work. Frankenstein is, bar none, my least favorite book of all time. I've been assigned it I don't know how many times for classes and I've never made it through. Maybe this year will be my year.

As far as I can tell, it's just a really shitty version of Faust, where the doctor pretends he's not evil, and with as much repetition and over writing as possible. People joke about Dickens never using one word where he could five, but Mary Shelley never writes five words when she could write two identical paragraphs.

Anyway, Faust worked its was to O Brother Where Art Thou? which worked its way to The Devil Went Down To Georgia. Apparently, it's based on this poem. Actually a good poem, which is not an opinion I hold often. It has a plot, which always helps. The parenthetical lines really work for the "hillbilly storyteller" aspect, and the italicized portions fit as fun little mini songs. Also, not atrocious fake rhymes or anything.

Fun poem for a light Friday night. 3/5 on the obnoxious classic scale.

The Journal of John Woolman: Chapter 1

 The Journal of John Woolman: Chapter 1

Bonus: 

Hopkins is, of course, brilliant. But I've always thought Jodie Foster's performance is underrated.

Summary: BIRD MURDER! And weird capitals. 

Commentary: This is much more "old timey" than Franklin's Autobiography, despite not being that much older. 

A Thing remarkable in my Childhood was, that once, going to a Neighbour's House, I saw, on the Way, a Robin sitting on her Nest, and as I came near she went off, but, having young ones, flew about, and with many Cries expressed her Concern for them; I stood and threw Stones at her, till, one striking her, she fell down dead: At first I was pleased with the Exploit, but after a few Minutes was seized with Horror, as having, in a sportive Way, killed an innocent Creature while she was careful for her Young: I beheld her lying dead, and thought these young ones, for which she was so careful, must now perish for want of their Dam to nourish them; and, after some painful Considerations on the Subject, I climbed up the Tree, took all the young Birds, and killed them; supposing that better than to leave them to pine away and die miserably: And believed, in this Case, that Scripture-proverb was fulfilled, "The tender Mercies of the Wicked are cruel." I then went on my Errand, but, for some Hours, could think of little else but the Cruelties I had committed, and was much troubled. Thus he, whose tender Mercies are over all his Works, hath placed a Principle in the human Mind, which incites to exercise Goodness towards every living Creature; and this being singly attended to, People become tender hearted and sympathising; but being frequently and totally rejected, the Mind becomes shut up in a contrary Disposition.

I include the above a sample, both of the old fashioned writing, and also because THE MAN IS ON THE WAY TO BEING A FUCKING SERIAL KILLER!

Also, the German style capitalizing half the nouns.

 

The Journal of John Woolman: Part 0?

 The Journal of John Woolman: Part 0?

Bonus: 

The book

Summary: RIP John Woolman

Commentary: This is actually at the end of the Harvard Classics version, but the beginning of the Gutenberg. Finding the particular editions that're in T5FSOB can be a challenge, but I don't think I'm invested enough in this one to look too much harder. Not going to comment too much since I'm here for the Woolman, not the other people talking about Woolman.

Wrapping Up The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

This might be the first time I've actually read The Autobiography all the way through. I've read sections here and there (mostly the virtues, since that gets reprinted/assigned constantly), but the only time I maybe read the whole thing was an American Lit class in undergrad.

I found the front half a lot more interesting. I think this is a combination of two things:

1. The stakes are higher, or at least more relevant/personal. Ben maybe not getting a horse for some general isn't exciting. Ben maybe starving because his printing business is having issues is.

2. The stories there are a lot more to the point, and usually tie in with some kind of interesting philosophy/personal development. More of the later stories are just there for their own sake. (I admit that this is me flipping my usual rage against didactic stores.)

3. I imagine these parts are probably more edited by Franklin. At the very least, the final few sections seem to have been unfinished at the time of his death, while the first few had been at least drafted over a decade earlier.

Overall, interesting story combined with some very digestible philosophy. I still think this was a great first pick for 15MAD and a logical starting point for a modern American trying to dip their toe into the classics. 4/5 on the obnoxiously hard to ace classics scale.

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin: Part 19

 The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin: Part 19

Bonus: 

And the lowest seat

Summary: The mail takes forever, and a preview of some of the arguments Franklin will make in the declaration (among other places)

Commentary: There's quite a bit in here about the power of the King vs the Assemblies, making sure grants are paid, etc. that resonates today. 

“You Americans have wrong ideas of the nature of your constitution; you contend that the king’s instructions to his governors are not laws, and think yourselves at liberty to regard or disregard them at your own discretion. But those instructions are not like the pocket instructions given to a minister going abroad, for regulating his conduct in some trifling point of ceremony. They are first drawn up by judges learned in the laws; they are then considered, debated, and perhaps amended in Council, after which they are signed by the king. They are then, so far as they relate to you, the law of the land, for the king is the Legislator of the Colonies.” I told his lordship this was new doctrine to me. I had always understood from our charters that our laws were to be made by our Assemblies, to be presented indeed to the king for his royal assent, but that being once given the king could not repeal or alter them. And as the Assemblies could not make permanent laws without his assent, so neither could he make a law for them without theirs.

[...]

This is the purport of what I remember as urged by both sides, except that we insisted strongly on the mischievous consequences that must attend a repeal, for that the money, £100,000, being printed and given to the king’s use, expended in his service, and now spread among the people, the repeal would strike it dead in their hands to the ruin of many, and the total discouragement of future grants, and the selfishness of the proprietors in soliciting such a general catastrophe, merely from a groundless fear of their estate being taxed too highly, was insisted on in the strongest terms. 

  

This is like the people who are always writing, but are really just redoing their playlist for the 12th time that week:

 “I have called here by order every morning these two weeks past for his lordship’s letter, and it is not yet ready.” “Is it possible, when he is so great a writer? for I see him constantly at his escritoire.” “Yes,” says Innis, “but he is like St. George on the signs, always on horseback, and never rides on.” 

Being in charge is a pain. But fixing someone else's mistakes is worse: 

 Shirley was, I believe, sincerely glad of being relieved from so burdensome a charge as the conduct of an army must be to a man unacquainted with military business. [...] some chairs having been borrowed in the neighborhood, there was one among them very low, which fell to the lot of Mr. Shirley. Perceiving it as I sat by him, I said, “They have given you, sir, too low a seat.” “No matter,” says he, “Mr. Franklin, I find a low seat the easiest.”

That closes out The Autobiography. I'll put some closing notes tomorrow, and then take a couple days catching up the other blogs.