Reading Rambo

In that fragmentary firmament which Charles Dickens called The Mystery of Edwin Drood the stars shine on, and I may still fix my gaze upon them, seeking for the letters I have yet to learn. Richard M. Baker...is a giant nerd. And I love him. In 1948, he published a series of essays called The Drood Murder Case: Five Studies in Dickens's Edwin Drood , which I have just finished after having it out from the library for eight months (to exactly no one's surprise, no one else requested it during this time). He basically describes himself as a giant Dickens dork who really loves Edwin Drood and so he researched the shit out of it. And oh. Yes he did. For those unaware, The Mystery of Edwin Drood was Dickens's last novel and only half of it was completed when Dickens died, leaving almost no clues as to the ending. This has prompted many scholars to try to piece it together (WHAT'S THE MYSTERY NOW, DICKENS), write books, write novel-form continuations, AND, of cours...

This weekend I frolicked in the rain with my roommate. Yeah, it was freezing rain, and by frolic I mean 'ran pell-mell through the streets of Chicago with one arm covering my library books while yelling 'AHHHHH!' and grabbing onto his hand so I didn't fall on my ass on the ice-covered sidewalk,' but I'm gonna call that 'fun and whimsical' in my head. I'm still on my Edwin Drood bender. The only time I get seriously serious about academic research is when my subject is something along the lines of "DOES THE TEXT PROVE THAT THESE TWO CHARACTERS WANT TO MAKE OUT?"  I did this for the opera Carmen (I have a theory using textual proof that Carmen totally does love Don Jose, despite what her outward actions might indicate), Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors (ANTIPHOLUS AND ADRIANA FOREVS), and now Drood with Helena/Rosa. It's the only kind of subject that gets me jazzed enough to put real effort into it. I blame growing up with ...

Obviously I picked up The Mystery of Edwin Drood again. Obviously. I'm not very far in (that'd be crazy) but since I know the whole story anyway, I skimmed ahead to see if Helena Landless, Indian (India-Indian) and twin sister of Neville Landless (who I think figures largely in Drood ), is in fact a character in the book, or just made up for the musical by Mr. Rupert Holmes because he is awesome. And she is totally in the book! And the FIRST thing I found for her was a scene at Rosa Bud's boarding school where I guess they're rooming together. Rosa Bud is engaged to Edwin Drood and has been since childhood. Because of the childhood thing, they're not so into each other, and eventually become more like BFFs. So there's that. Here Helena and Rosa are settling down for the evening and fricking Dickens writes this: "I can answer for you," laughed Helena, searching the lovely little face with her dark fiery eyes, and tenderly caressing the small figu...