{"id":119,"date":"2006-01-16T03:25:47","date_gmt":"2006-01-16T08:25:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/s265039441.onlinehome.us\/philpaine\/?p=119"},"modified":"2018-08-24T01:27:55","modified_gmt":"2018-08-24T05:27:55","slug":"stephen-leacock-behind-the-beyond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=119","title":{"rendered":"(Stephen Leacock) Behind the Beyond"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have not read all of Leacock\u2019s old humour books, yet. There were quite a few of them, not to men\u00adtion var\u00adi\u00adous col\u00adlec\u00adtions and omnibus\u00ades. This 1916 vol\u00adume, in gen\u00aderal, is a sharp falling off in qual\u00adity from the genius of Sun\u00adshine Sketch\u00ades <\/em>. But it does con\u00adtain two fine items. One is \u201cThe Retroac\u00adtive Exis\u00adtence of Mr. Jug\u00adgins\u201d whose fate is com\u00adpre\u00adhen\u00adsi\u00adble to any\u00adone who has set out to sharp\u00aden a pen\u00adcil and end\u00aded up spend\u00ading three hours at it, or start\u00aded to study Gravity\u2019s Rain\u00adbo<\/em>w and end\u00aded up read\u00ading Beowulf<\/em>. All of Jug\u00adgins\u2019 exis\u00adtence is like that, and in the end we find him pass\u00ading \u201cback through child\u00adhood into infan\u00adcy, and present\u00adly, just as his annu\u00adity runs to a point and van\u00adishes, he will back up clear through the Cur\u00adtain of Exis\u00adtence and die, or be born, I don\u2019t know which to call it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But even bet\u00adter is \u201cHomer and Hum\u00adbug\u201d. Lea\u00adcock pokes inge\u00adnious fun at his own thor\u00adoughly Clas\u00adsi\u00adcal edu\u00adca\u00adtion. He knows he is sup\u00adposed to mourn the absence of the miss\u00ading books of Tac\u00adi\u00adtus, but admits that \u201cif the books that Tac\u00adi\u00adtus lost were like those he didn\u2019t, I wouldn\u2019t.\u201d. He knows that many famous and pow\u00ader\u00adful men have claimed that read\u00ading the Clas\u00adsics \u201cmade them what they are\u201d \u2015 but states flat\u00adly that \u201cIn my opin\u00adion some of these men would have been what the are, no mat\u00adter what they were.\u201d And he ends with a won\u00adder\u00adful par\u00adody of the \u201ccat\u00ada\u00adlog of ships\u201d in the Ili\u00adad <\/em>, trans\u00adlated into a cat\u00ada\u00adlog of loco\u00admo\u00adtives in the New York Cen\u00adtral Railway:<\/span><\/p>\n

They say her engi\u00adneer some time ago<\/em>
\nLived on a farm out\u00adside of Buffalo<\/em>
\nWhere\u00adas his fire\u00adman Hen\u00adry Edward Foy<\/em>
\nAttend\u00aded school in Spring\u00adfield, Illinois.<\/em>
\nThus does the race of man decay or rot.<\/em>
\nSome men can hold their jobs and some cannot. <\/em><\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>The Clas\u00adsics are only prim\u00adi\u00adtive lit\u00ader\u00ada\u00adture. They belong to the same class as prim\u00adi\u00adtive machin\u00adery and prim\u00adi\u00adtive music and prim\u00adi\u00adtive med\u00adi\u00adcine.\u201d He only half meant it, but Lea\u00adcock loved to tug at aca\u00add\u00ade\u00admic legs. <\/span>
\n contents:<\/span><\/p>\n

14545. (Don\u00adald Cameron) Intro\u00adduc\u00adtion [pref\u00adace]<\/span>
\n 14546. (Stephen Lea\u00adcock) Behind the Beyond, A Mod\u00adern Prob\u00adlem Play [arti\u00adcle]<\/span>
\n 14547. (Stephen Lea\u00adcock) With the Pho\u00adtog\u00adra\u00adpher [arti\u00adcle]<\/span>
\n 14548. (Stephen Lea\u00adcock) The Den\u00adtist and the Gas [arti\u00adcle]<\/span>
\n 14549. (Stephen Lea\u00adcock) My Lost Oppor\u00adtu\u00adni\u00adties [arti\u00adcle]<\/span>
\n 14550. (Stephen Lea\u00adcock) My Unknown Friend [arti\u00adcle]<\/span>
\n 14551. (Stephen Lea\u00adcock) Under the Barber\u2019s Knife [arti\u00adcle]<\/span>
\n 14552. (Stephen Lea\u00adcock) The Advan\u00adtages of a Polite Edu\u00adca\u00adtion [arti\u00adcle]<\/span>
\n 14553. (Stephen Lea\u00adcock) The Joys of Phil\u00adan\u00adthropy [arti\u00adcle]<\/span>
\n 14554. (Stephen Lea\u00adcock) The Sim\u00adple Life in Paris [arti\u00adcle]<\/span>
\n 14555. (Stephen Lea\u00adcock) A Vis\u00adit to Ver\u00adsailles [arti\u00adcle]<\/span>
\n 14556. (Stephen Lea\u00adcock) Paris at Night [arti\u00adcle]<\/span>
\n 14557. (Stephen Lea\u00adcock) The Retroac\u00adtive Exis\u00adtence of Mr. Jug\u00adgins [arti\u00adcle]<\/span>
\n 14558. (Stephen Lea\u00adcock) Mak\u00ading a Mag\u00ada\u00adzine [arti\u00adcle]<\/span>
\n 14559. (Stephen Lea\u00adcock) Homer and Hum\u00adbug [arti\u00adcle]<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have not read all of Leacock\u2019s old humour books, yet. There were quite a few of them, not to men\u00adtion var\u00adi\u00adous col\u00adlec\u00adtions and omnibus\u00ades. This 1916 vol\u00adume, in gen\u00aderal, is a sharp falling off in qual\u00adity from the genius \u2026<\/p>\n

Read more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[946,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-b-reading","category-bu-reading-2006"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=119"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9806,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119\/revisions\/9806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}