A Confederacy of Dunces

 This will be brief.

A Confederation of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole is advertised as humorous.

Some background. A publisher was beset by a mother whose son committed suicide in 1969 at the age of 39. He had written a book on Big Chief tablets, and she begged him to read it. He gave in and started the ordeal of having to read the stack of tablets with some of the words practically unreadable. It caught his interest and started laughing at some parts. It became a Pulitzer Prize winning book.

There are seven book clubs all on different days and times at Books on the Bosque. The only one that fits my schedule is on Thursdays at noon. This was the book chosen. It looked interesting so I bought it and got the audio book as well.

I started listening and switched to the paperback. The conversations of some of the characters were so inane I went to the hard copy to skip over them.

Ignatius J. Reily is 35 tall and very fat and has a black mustache. The book starts with him standing outside a store waiting for his mother to come out. He's wearing a large red coat over a blue sweatshirt with a blue muffler under a green hat with ear flaps and heavy boots. He chooses to dress like this because it's comfortable.

A Police patrolman starts asking him what he's doing there. He doesn't answer but gives in his booming voice a diatribe with large words, so the officer decides to arrest him. This draws a crowd and soon the officer is surrounded. An old man starts calling everyone around him communists the police officer panics and arrests the old man.

Ignatios's mother comes out and gets involved with the officer to help the old man, Mr. Claude Robichaux. Officer Mancuso leads Robichaux away. 

Inez, Ignatios's mothers, takes her son into the Joy Bar where the readers become acquainted with a number of weird characters.

Inez has an accident in her car where she plows into the wooden supports of a balcony over a business, she then gets sued by the owner and she has no way to pay the damages. She insists Ignatios get a job. She had used up all of her inheritance to pay for his college and master's degree and he needs to make money.

She spends time with friends and Mr. Robichaux, and they all tell her to admit Ignatios into an asylum. 

Ignatios gets a job at a blue jeans factory and finding out how little everyone is getting paid forms a union which gets him fired. He then starts selling hot dogs in a pirate costume from a cart near the French Quarter of New Orleans.

In both jobs he uses large words and insults everyone, but they don't understand a word he says.

That's as much as I'll give away on the story.

When I went to the book club mostly middle-aged women another elderly man like me and the manager who's a little younger. I wanted to hear what they thought of the book. They started telling some of the antics and were laughing. Then they asked me. I guess I didn't see it like they did.

I told them that Ignatios obviously had Aspergers syndrome, but in 1960 they didn't know what it was. That my daughter has the same problem, and I didn't find it funny. 

Ignatios was arrogant, pompous, and clueless. At the end of the book where he's invited to a costume ball wearing his pirate outfit, they start pushing him into and on top of others thinking they were having a good time at his expense. I could see where others might find that funny I didn't.

One of the ladies said she's read the book three times, when she was younger and laughed through it. A few years later she read it again and thought it was dark humor, and now this time she agreed with me it stopped being funny after she aged and had more life experience.

My life experience was being bullied in Junior High, then teaching 7th and 8th grade English where I made sure there was no bullying in my classes physical or verbal also when I was in the hallways.

I'm afraid I put a damper on the discussion, but they understood my point of view.

The next book the owner doesn't have out yet, but she said it was about two scientists that start working in genetics. 

    

The United States Exploring Expedition of 1838-42

 

Also known as the Great Expedition and sometimes the Wilkes Expedition.

Sorry Google has mucked up how to post pictures. 

A great expedition was proposed by John Quincy Adams to explore the South Pacific. It was ignored by Congress.

Towards the end of his first term, Andrew Jackson decided he needed something splashy to help with his re-election. Jackson decided to revive Adams proposal. Titian Ramsey Peale explained the expedition to congress.

Peale said this was to carry out James Smithson’s bequest “to fund an institution for the increase of knowledge.” It would also be a way to thwart British ambitions from California to Nootka Island, Canada. Congress appropriated the money.

The expedition was named The United States Exploration Expedition (United States Ex Ex) but is also named the Wilkes Expedition.

 Jackson was re-elected and he left the enterprise in the hands of someone unable to fathom what it would entail, Secretary of the Navy Mahlan Dickerson. 

Dickerson and the Board of Commissioners couldn’t agree on how to spend the money. For two years nothing was decided. The Board was bickering on the issue of civilian scientists on naval vessels. Would they be subject to military discipline? Will the scientific results belong to the civilians or the Navy?  Jackson lost patience and overriding everyone, appointed Thomas ap Catesby Jones as commander.

Jones took command and requisitioned five ships for the expedition. He was going to make Macedonia his flag ship. He then chose subcommanders to captain the ships. He submitted the list to the Board of Commissioners expecting routine approval.

Dickerson chose his own men, Charles Wilkes from the Depot of Charts and Instruments, and Alexander Slidell. Both had scientific strengths, and they were senior to some on Jones’s picks on the list but did not have experience commanding a ship much less a Squadron.

The Board sided with Dickerson mainly because they would keep the civilian “scientifics” under control and maybe off the ships. 

 Dickerson muddied the waters concerning Wilkes and Slidell putting things on hold. He undermined Jones by naming three lieutenants, two of them with senior service to Macedonia. 

In the spring of 1837, the Macedonian was being outfitted for sail. The largest ship, it would berth the “Scientific Corps,” and also store all the specimens and collections acquired on the voyage. The secondary mission was to protect whalers and traders. undermining the original specified mission.

The scientists squabbled amongst themselves over keeping their discoveries secret instead of combining the knowledge. The purpose of the expedition was the share the knowledge not just among scientists, but to the whole world. 

Commodore Jones was eager to get all the ships outfitted and ready to sail. 

Wilkes was in charge of the Depot of Charts and Instruments. The chronometers and other instruments needed by the ships were not delivered. Wilkes’s excuse was that they needed to be rated before being delivered.

Jones ordered Wilkes to turn over instruments, saying,

 “There is no excuse for detaining the chronometers twenty days longer at Washington to obtain Wilkes rates of those delicate instruments, for they must all be tested by the new ratings after they are returned to this place (Hampton Roads) and put on board their respective vessels, and this indispensably preliminary may require several weeks at this season.”

Wilkes wasn’t at the depot. He was preparing to sail on Porpoise ahead of the rest of the expedition. The instruments were in New York.

Wilkes was technically superior to Jones in command, but as Commodore, Jones had the power to order him not to sail. The expedition was at a stalemate.

Dickerson placed the custody of the ships under the commands of Commodore’s Hull, Biddle, and Aulick. The secretary then offered the post of commanding the expedition to numerous officers.  All turned him down. 

Now President Martin Van Buren stepped in to get things back on track. He directed Secretary of the Army, Joel Poinsett, to clean up the mess.

Poinsett met with congressman John Quincy Adams asking for his advice. The papers gave the former president’s reply, “All I want to hear about the exploring expedition is that it’s sailed.”

Poinsette met with many officers high and low trying to untie the Gordian Knot.  Poinsett asked each commander to make a list of those that would make the best commanders. None of them named themselves.

Poinsette was disillusioned and gave in to Dickerson. He named Wilkes commander, which is why Wilkes sabotaged the endeavor for years.

This decision did not set well with the Navy. Wilkes’s rank was for one ship, he was given command of a whole squadron. Many lieutenants refused to serve under him. 

Poinsette also reduced the mission to charting the seas, astronomy, and navigation. This reduced the number of scientists from thirty-two to eight.

Jones gave illness as a reason to resign his command. One man stymied the careers of the best officers in the navy.

 Setting Sail

 August 18,1838 the squadron set sail from Hampton Roads. (all ships start USS) It comprised the Vincennes—sloop-of-war, Peacock—sloop-of-war, Relief—full-rigged ship, Porpoise—brig, Sea Gull—schooner, Flying Fish—schooner.

On the first part of the journey the squadron left Hampton Roads, traveled to Madeira then to Rio de Janeiro. The Relief was late and delayed the expedition.

They sailed to Tierra del Fuego and bested Captain Cook’s farthest point South at 71⁰10’. Flying Fish reached 70^0. From there they sailed to Valparaiso. On May 10, the Sea Gull was reported missing. The squadron reached San Lorenzo off Callao for repair and provisioning. Wilkes sent Relief back to America.

June 21, they sailed into the South Pacific. They reached Reao of the Tuamotu group of islands and Tahiti on September 11. They sailed to Samoa then Sydney, Australia. From there they sailed south to Antarctica. Then north, wintering in the Sandwich Islands (Hawai’i).

Once refitted they sailed to other islands. In July 1840 Lieutenant Underwood and Wilke’s nephew Midshipman Henry were killed on Fiji’s Malolo Island. Eighty Fijians were killed, and two villages burned to the ground in reprisal.

The squadron separated for three months to widen their search and regrouped on August 9 at Macuata. They visited Palmyra Atoll, the first expedition to visit it.

They were welcomed warmly by the King Kamehameha in Honolulu. The ships were then sent to explore the other islands in the group. There were a were incidents with the natives on some of the islands with natives killed and villages burned.

The squadron then sailed north to the coast of North America. They explored into Canada. The Peacock went aground in the Columbia River and was abandoned. No loss of life. They made a map of upper California. They visited a number of forts belonging to the Hudson Bay Company and native tribes.

The squadron spent more time in Honolulu, leaving on November 17. On the way back to home they visited Wake Island, Philippines, Singapore, Polynesia, and Cape of Good Hope. Entering New York Harbor June 10, 1842.

Wilkes was not a respected commander. He overstepped his authority by flogging-around-the-fleet not allowed in the American navy, where the man was placed in a boat and lashed while going alongside each ship. He also exceeded the limit of 48 lashes.

Upon landing Wilkes filed court martial charges against most of his commanders, and they filed charges against him. He was court marshalled but found not guilty.

 

Results

 

The ships brought back a treasure trove of marine, animal, plant specimens as well as meteorological and, geological, and hydrological information. The question was what was to become of them. 

The natural place would be the Smithsonian Institute. The original reason for the expedition. The head of the institute was Joseph Henry. He thought of the institute as a place scholarly learning and study. With the mass quantity of specimens, it would turn the institute into a museum. He vigorously fought allowing them in, but Congress, knowing there wasn’t any place else to put them, ordered him to accept them.

  With the help of the expedition's scientists, 280 islands, mostly in the Pacific, were explored, and over 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) of Oregon were mapped. Of no less importance, over 60,000 plant and bird specimens were collected. 

A staggering amount of data and specimens were collected during the expedition, including the seeds of 648 species, which were later traded, planted, and sent throughout the country. Dried specimens were sent to the National Herbarium, now a part of the Smithsonian Institution. There were also 254 live plants, which mostly came from the home stretch of the journey, that were placed in a newly constructed greenhouse in 1850, which later became the United States Botanic Garden. Other contributions were three reports by James Dwight Dana on Zoophytes, Geology, and Crustacea. The Smithsonian Institution has digitized the five-volume narrative and the accompanying scientific volumes.

 By June 1848, many of the specimens were lost or damaged and many remained unidentified. Asa Gray was hired to work on the botanical specimens and published the first volume of the report on botany in 1854, but Wilkes was unable to secure the funding for the second volume.

While away congress had created the first National Observatory, and included meteorology, hydrology, charts and instruments in the newly constructed building in Foggy Bottom. He was angry that the post for the observatory was given to Matthew Fontaine Maury.

Maury would use the hydrology, geological and meteorology findings to help create the first comprehensive wind and weather charts published by the United States becoming the Father of Oceanography.

 

Aftermath

 

From 1844-1861 Wilkes started writing his expedition report. Twenty-eight volumes were planned, but only nineteen were published as: Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition, during 1838, 1839, 1840, 1841, 1842, Hydrography and Meteorology.

Wiles also published Western America, including California and Oregon, Around the World, and Theory on Winds.

 In 1861 Acting Rear Admiral Charles Wilkes commanding the San Jacinto, stopped the Royal Steamer Trent and removed Confederate commissioners Mason and Slidell. It nearly caused a war with England. President Lincoln disavowed the incident. The commissioners were released and went on to England. In 1864 Wilkes was court marshalled and removed from duty for insubordination but found not guilty. In 1866 he was commissioned a Rear Admiral. He died February 8, 1877.

The House on the Cerulean Sea

 Well, I'd like to show you the picture of the book, but Blogger in its infinite Google wisdom has changed how to post a picture, and I haven't figured it out yet.

There's a new bookstore on the West Side of the city called Books on the Bosque. They have a table with seven stacks of books, you can choose a book, buy it and then meet with others of the "book club" on a certain day and time and discuss the book. It sounded intriguing so I bought The House on the Cerulean Sea, wish I could show you the cover it is really interesting, by CJ Klune. 

I met with the book club there were thirteen of us and we had wonderful lively discussion. Today the author will be at the bookstore for a signing and to talk about and sign the sequel to the book.

I have difficulty reading hard copy and after a chapter or two where I kept falling asleep, not due to the book, but strain on my eyes, I bought the audiobook. This is the best way to deal with the book. Each character has a his/her/whatever voice, and this is important for there are a number of different very different characters.

The book is for Young Adults, but its message is just as important for an old curmudgeon like me.

Linus Baker is an inspector for DICOMY (Department in Charge of Magical Youth). The department oversees orphanages to make sure that magical children are well cared for, and don't become a problem to other students. He's worked at this job for many years and has memorized DICOMY's Rules of Conduct and goes strictly by the book.

Linus is a bit of a wreck; it brings to mind Barney Fife of the Andy Griffith Show. He's in his element doing his investigation and making out his reports but has few people skills and they make him nervous, especially in the office with co-workers and his boss who bullies him.

After finishing his day's investigation, he heads back to his office to file his report. His supervisor meets him with a memo from Extremely Upper Management. Everyone in the office assumes he's going to be fired. He's to report to them first thing in the morning.

When he rises up to the top floor he's shaking in fear. When he meets with EUM he's in bright light and can barely see the committee. Instead of being fired they find him perfect for the job. they are sending him to an island with an orphanage of monsters. He is to conclude if the house at Marsayus Island is to remain opened or shut down.

He's given the files of the six children and Arthur Parnassos, the master of the house.

Linus goes home to pack a few belongings and take his cat, Caliope.

Relieved at not being fired, but a nervous wreck as he's going to investigate monsters. He's so nervous he refuses to read the files, for fear he won't go.

When he gets to the train station, he has some time to wait for a ride to the island he reads the first file to find the child is named Lucifer and is the child of Satan. He passes out until awakened by the lady giving him a ride to the ferry. He didn't read the other files.

They pass through a village where he's told DICOMY pays them to not talk about the island. The people are afraid of the monsters.

Getting to the island he finds the children are on their own. He encounters Talia, a female garden Gnome with full beard while walking through her garden. She comes at him with a shovel and plans to dig a hole and bury him in it for desecrating her garden. 

Theodore, a Wyvern steps in and leads Linus towards the house. They encounter Chaucey who is partially human with tentacles instead of arms. He inspires to be a bell hop. He insists Linus tip him. The only thing Linus has in his pocket is a button, so he gives it to Chaucey much to the boy's delight. as he's never had anything brass before. 

Next, he meets Sal, a shape shifter. He frightens him and he turns into a Pomeranian. If in dog, form he touches someone they shift too. Then Phee, a forest sprite who hides to protect her treasure.

In the house they hear a booming voice threatening Linus scaring him out of his wits. Then a small boy of eight years comes in with Arthur Parnases. Lucifer called Lucy, the son of Satan is admonished by Parnases, and he is no longer threatening. 

Linus takes Arthur outside and chides him for letting the children run amok. Arthur tells him it was play time for them and being on an island they can't be harmed.

As Linus spends time with the children and Arthur, he comes to know them they come to trust him that he won't close down the island and he comes to appreciate each of the children and their true nature, even Lucy. 

I don't want to give too much away, suffice to say that after three weeks he changes his nervousness to confidence, and he and Arthur grow close. Linus advises Arthur to let the children go to the village. It doesn't go well, but it's a start.

Linus goes back to the city to submit his report a much-changed man when he gives his report. He gives EUM both barrels.

Now for a critique.

At first, I was put off by the depiction of Linus in the beginning of the book. I've dealt with by-the-book inspectors, and they are not the Barney Fife types. They are humorless, drab, drones. Zombies without being dead and eating brains. The last thing they do is get nervous and shake with fear. After reading the rest of the book I concluded if Linus was depicted this way, no one would get past the first ten pages. So, Barney Fife it is.

The children make the story, they come so alive, and I became attached to them, why it was better to hear their voices on audio instead of imagining how they would sound. Talia the Gnome was my favorite. When Linus comes back to the island, she meets him and starts digging his hole as she's mad, he left. She's very impetuous but cools down when he tells her they can stay. 

When Arthur gets mad at the villagers, he reveals he's a phoenix and starts to heat up to destroy them. Linus puts his hands on Arthur's face and cools him down showing how much he's changed and the closeness they've developed. It's subtle how their romance becomes. Not too sure this book would be allowed in certain states school libraries, but it should be.

The next book club meeting is the 29th and I'm reading A Confederation of Dunces, also on audio.