Some months ago I attended a meeting about the future renovation of my parish set for 2009. Our pastor gave the talk and then took all questions. I caught him off guard with a query about the 1989 renovation when Immaculate Conception was first changed. You see the second renovation means restoring high altar plus moving the tabernacle back to the middle of the sanctuary. Besides stone floors, this renovation undoes the 1989 renovation. (Though one should add that IHM fared worse in the renovation department. Monsignor Connors ((may he rest in peace)) did far more to change that ekklesia for the worse when he refurbished that interior, according to Mary Wolff. Oh, and Monsignor Connors also briefly had liturgical dancing in tony Scarsdale’s Catholick sanctuary. Yup.) The current altar—really just an old adult baptismal font with a thin slab of stone atop it—will be moved further back into the presbyterium so that more pews can be put in and also straightened. So twenty years later, those parishioners who fought the renovation all the way to Cardinall O’Connor, can smile. And New York’s Archbishop actually agreed with the congregation but did not dare to contradict a fellow priest who was the Monsignor pastor. For my part so long as bispecies Communion continues I shall attend when in Eastchester. (Thence the reason I usually do not attend mass at Immaculate Heart of Mary.) As for sources, consult the privately published history of my parish. Should you require more photographic documentation, my christening, done by a priest famous in my parish, was in the pre-rennovated Immaculate Conception.
Three Works that Should Not Be for Publick Consumption January 11, 2008
This feature should be recurring I hope. It is my hope to document first drafts of works, discardèd versions of art, original recording of music, and other forms of art that should never have seen the light of day. Because too much information is not a good thing.
1. The Green Dwarf by Charlotte Brontë
Why perhaps it seemed like a good idea to release: Miss Charlotte is well-regardèd by the readers of English literature. A little work like the Green Dwarf is easy to publish. Thus it stands to be potentially profitable and insightful about the works of the future Mrs Nicholls.
How then I came to read the work: Having read some of Jane Austen’s Juvenalia naturally one would think that reading an author’s younger work might not be such a bad idea. And I had positive readings of the Brontë sisters in the past. A few eves a fortnight, I would go to the local Borders, to read it. And at first I was in hysterics; then the laughter became painful as the horror set in slowly.
The catch: This novella happens to be laden with cliché not to mention poor plotting. Worse than those elements, the green dwarf’s identity makes for the horrible twist-ending; heck Charlotte Brontë does not in truth understand what makes a dwarf.
Why it is worse than you think: Branwell Brontë with his sisters wrote more stories along such lines in small form. With their simplistic writing and easy concepts it would be not hard for some publisher to mass market these tripe. And so millions of readers would be horribly biased against that family.
Possible bronze lining: Would make an exciting Errol-Flynn-style film if heavily revised.
2. Memoirs by William Butler Yeats
Why perhaps it seemed like a good idea to release: Sealed up in an envelope, marked as not for publication, and forgotten; thus it must be the lost masterpiece!
How then I came to read the work: In an attempt to become a great scholar–yes of Yeats–I wantèd to read all material by WB Yeats–to ”understand” him–that I could get my hands on now. I went to the library to take it out and read the first draft of his autobiography.
The catch: This book, which promises insight into Yeats, covers his life from 1884-1899, and I wish it had endèd sooner. Yeats goes on and on about symbols and the meaning of dreams, instead of actual events in his life, that one would be forgiven for thinking this volume was a treatise, attempting to combine psychoanalysis and semiotics. And when he does finally discuss his life, it is almost all sexual, almost pornographic at times. Yeats either nearly dies of requitèd lust, leading him to nearly throw himself at women, so he can be ravished, or has become so deludèd that one is cheering Maude Gonne to leave him forever. And the parts about “Diana Vernon,” his mistress (aka Olivia Shakespear) are trite and sentimental.
Why it is worse than you think: It can not get much worse.
Possible bronze lining: Maybe Yeats wrote poorly in this case but improved with his later published autobiography.
3. Original Recordings of Charles Ives Singing His Music and Performing on the Piano
Why perhaps it seemed like a good idea to release: Charles Ives was an innovative American composer. Therefore any access the people can have to his genius almost first-hand must be great!
How I came to hear the works: I wantèd to listen to some early grammaphone recordings transferred to CD and Ives seemed like a good choice. Then an agonizing, underwhelming began that took days for recovery.
The catch: Ives like Schubert cannot play his own work well on the piano. Heck he just does not cut it as a pianist. His voice is also out of key.
Why it is worse than you think: Remember when I said that Ives was a great composer? He however may give aid and comfort to soloists out there who also have no talent and encourage them.
Possible bronze lining: I really can not see one at this present time.
