This week in Drawing Conclusions, we look at the death of Ken Lay ... and make jokes. Poor guy, doesn't anybody shed a tear for him? (Check out the trivia question at the very end.)
And Nellie visits Pamplona, which really was a pretty sleepy place until some Yank poseur made the rounds and wrote a book about it.
http://www.nelliebly.org
Quite a good book, actually.
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorites, but the research on this was instructive -- I hadn't read his newspaper reports before. (Two of them from before the historic trip from which the novel sprang.)
ReplyDeleteHe sure became an expert on a complex cultural aspect of a different culture awful darn fast. The original Nellie Bly was one of the most egotistical self-promoters who ever wrote, but even she would quote other people in this sort of story, rather than claim to have the knowledge and expertise herself.
But, of course, Hemingway is still being read today, while Nellie Bly's work is only dug up by hopeless geeks ...