SARS has hit the Middle East: “Global health officials are closely following a new respiratory virus related to SARS that is believed to have killed at least one person in Saudi Arabia and left another person in critical condition in Britain… Health officials don’t know yet whether the virus could spread as rapidly as SARS did […]
Read More →Archive for September, 2012
Haunted: Syphilis and Corruption
The corruption from Oedipus Rex and Arthur Mervyn follows us to Ibsen’s Ghosts… The Alving household is built on corruption and lies. These constituents do not simply subside and die with Captain Alving. Instead, they lead to the appearance of ghosts who inhabit the house and prevent the past from being forgotten. Therefore the ghosts are […]
Read More →Poetry and Delirium
I felt there was a neat connection between some of the poems found here and the Second Part to Arthur Mervyn, (shades of Arthur Mervyn and his being shot) “Doctors raving and disputing, death’s pale army still recruiting– What a pother One with t’other! Some a-writing, some a-shooting.” – Philip Freneau Philadelphia, 1793 however what is more revealing […]
Read More →Black(s) Coffee
Here is a link to Historical Views on Contagion… in this case, Yellow Fever in Philadelphia. It outlines some of the beliefs surrounding the disease at the time, for example Benjamin Rush thought that the origin of the disease was a pile of rotting coffee beans and that Blacks were immune to yellow fever… neither […]
Read More →Mervyn’s men and women
As you’re wrapping up the second volume of Arthur Mervyn this week, I want you to mull over a couple paragraphs from Norman Grabo’s early and influential book The Coincidental Art of Charles Brockden Brown (1981). In his chapter on Mervyn he notes that the whole second part … turns on [Mervyn’s] relationship with women […]
Read More →decipi frons prima multos
Never judge a book by its cover. This popularly overused proverb never ceases to lose its relevance; it is, indeed, hard to argue against. Appearances often can be deceiving. Can anyone claim that when meeting new people he/she does not pay attention to their appearances and the notorious ‘social status’? Everyone has a snapshot evaluation […]
Read More →Social Networks Predict Epidemics
The “gradually swelling rumors” of the future: (I know it’s kind of long, so see approximately 5:53-13:45 for the most applicable/interesting bits if you’d like, though you’ll miss out on a little of the context/terminology)
Read More →Some Arthur Mervyn follow up
First, be sure you don’t miss Christy’s post below and the link Caroline put in comments earlier. Second, I just wanted briefly to follow up on today’s discussion by asking for some comments from you. Anyone can chime in. (And by anyone, I even mean people who’ve read the novel who aren’t in the actual […]
Read More →1790s Philadelphia
Here are four pictures that portray several aspects of the city during the Yellow Fever in Philadelphia. Statistics from the photo on the left shows the abundance of women in the city as “Wives were deserted by husbands” and “Men were seized by the disease in the streets” (pp.99). […]
Read More →Moral Plagues on a Beachy Day
As we were reading Arthur Mervyn on the pristine sands of the Corniche, we could not help but be distracted by the azure Gulf waters and the towering skyline of Abu Dhabi. In a moment of reflection, we realized how our new life at this Arab Crossroad shared several key themes with that of Brown’s […]
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