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A Short Hour To Fret Upon The Stage

Sep 25, 2019
by Caroline Miller
"Catcher in the Rye", "The Lost Yearling", "The Yearling", Lauren Graff, Marjoire Kennan Rawlings, Mark Twain, To Kill a Mockingbird
1 Comment

Courtesy of Rutherford Classics.cm

“…only a lucky writer can write a classic, and it’s only a rare classic that can be perennially relevant.” So writes Lauren Groff in her essay, “The Lost Yearling” (Harper’s, Jan. 2014, pgs. 89-94), a eulogy of sorts, for the fading Pulitzer prize book, The Yearling, written by Marjorie Kennan Rawlings and published in 1938. Whereas other classics like, To Kill a Mockingbird, or The Catcher in the Rye have continued to sell copies in the tens of thousands, Rawlings’ book has sold a scant 6,000 in the most recent annual count.

 Groff struggles to understand why the book, which tells the tale of a boy living in poverty in the wilds of Florida and who is forced to kill his beloved pet, should be falling into obscurity. The work, she notes, is well written; its descriptions of the natural world – nearly lost to Florida’s burgeoning population – are “transcendental”; and the story honors the lives of homespun people with straight forward realism. (Ibid pg. 90) Nonetheless, the times seem to be against the work. Not only does The Yearling recall a lost world but also a way of life no longer acceptable in modern times. Its setting is the Depression, a period when the rural poor lived exclusively off the land and where killing a bear for food was celebrated without any thought to ecology. “Nigger” is a constant reference in the book — a term used without excuse or apology and without the element of respect which can be found in the works of Mark Twain. The world, it seems, has spun so far from Rawlings’ depiction that it seems inevitable The Yearling must die. Groff honors that passing by shining a last and loving light upon a book that was once held with reverence in the public’s mind.

In response to Groff’s essay, I confess I’ve often wondered why we expect art to be eternal. Perhaps it’s our wish to embrace immortality. Perhaps that’s why we preserve every jotting, every scribble, every musical note ascribed to paper in a futile attempt to preserve the human record. But consider, would earth have lost its place in the universe if the whole of Rembrandt’s paintings had been lost to us in a fire? If Homer’s tales had not miraculously been passed down through the ages would the sunshine less brightly? if Shakespeare had been denied his hour to strut and fret upon the stage would the stars twinkle less?

Frailty, thy name is man.

(First published 1/20/2014

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Courtesy of wikipedia.com)

 

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One Comment
  1. John C Briggs September 25, 2019 at 4:09 pm Reply
    The world would be a meaner, flatter place without Shakespeare, whose influence has been so prodigious we do not know its true dimensions or depth. "Banish Falstaff, and banish all the world." We would not know what we were missing except in our thirst. And indeed, we thirst today more than ever. That the earth is a poorer place for its loss of so many other possibilities should give us pause: there are good things to come if we are ready to receive them. Those great sources of light we have and do not have remind us that there are more things in heaven earth than our poor and indispensable imaginations have yet to conceive or even adequately appreciate.

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Contact Caroline at

carolinemiller11@yahoo.com

Portland, Oregon author Caroline Miller had distinguished careers as an educator, union president, elected official and artist/advocate.

Her play, Woman on the Scarlet Beast, was performed at the Post5 Theatre, Portland, OR, January/February 2015

Caroline published a serialized novelette, Marie Eau-Claire, on the website, The Colored Lens.  She also published the story Gustav Pavel,  a parable about ordinary lives, choice and alternate potential, on the website Fixional.co.

Caroline has published four novels

  • Ballet Noir
  • Trompe l’Oeil
  • Gothic Spring
  • Heart Land

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