Flame, Glass and Ink are Poems, essays, and reading notes by Stefania Joori Suh

Tag: history

  • Strange Tales of the Sea by Jack Strange

    Strange Tales of the SeaStrange Tales of the Sea by Jack Strange

    My rating: 4 of 5 stars

    The sea is a mystery to wonder; one never knows when the placid sea will turn into a tempest of mad waves with gale force wind. The sea also brings with its spectral vessels manned by phantom crew and its uncanny creatures, all of which still exist in folktales, legends, and even some nautical documents. This book by Jack Strange consists of these tales of the sea he has gleaned from exhaustive research on such wondrous topics that are all the more entertaining and stimulating.

    As someone who is very keen on the tales of haunted ships and their phantom crew, I was immediately drawn to the chapters of the haunted ghosts and the ill-fated vessels that had been cursed to sail on until the end of the world. Take the case of the American Joshua Slocum, the first man who sailed around the world by himself on Spray in the 19th century. While he was struggling to fight with all his might against the furious tempest and high waves on Spray, he was helped by a spectral crew who introduced himself as a member of Pinta, one of the ships commanded by Christopher Columbus in expedition to the New World. After Spray got back on the track, then the benevolent ghost vanished into the air with a smile.

    Ghost vessels always pique people’s curiosity, such as Griffon & Edmund Fitzgerald haunting the Great Lakes between Canada and the U.S, not to mention the infamous “Flying Dutchman” and “Lady Lovibond ,” born of the death of jilted lovers. One might say that all these phantom ships are result of optical illusion, which is a reasonable speculation. However, the case of U-65, the Imperial German Navy submarine of the First World War is based on official naval documents in which a ghost of German officer on the deck of the submarine standing with his arms folded was frequently recorded both by the British and the U.S. naval forces during the war. I wonder if it was this optical illusion that made all of those soldiers, including the officers of high intellectual capacities and excellent health, spot the ghost German officer.

    The book also has a whole chapter devoted to “The Crimp,” a kind of boarding house where unscrupulous masters or mistresses supplied seamen to ships without their pay. Also, there are chapters about mermaids and various sea monsters reported by seamen. Mr. Strange also lets us know that in Scotland, Thursdays were regarded as a lucky day for launching a new ship.

    This book by Mr. Strange perks up the reader’s imaginations further to the realm of terra incognita on uncharted seas where mermaids are swimming merrily and the Octavious, the ghost ship with her frozen icy crew is adrift off the Western coast of Greenland. It bestows pleasure of being familiar with the peculiarities of the sea without scaring the reader with mind-boggling horrors or preposterous hyperbole of the absurdities. Hence, a heartfelt kudos to Mr. Strange’s extensive research of the maritime tales made possible by his passion for all things unique and strange -as it is by his name and nature.

  • Daily Life in Victorian London by Lee Jackson

    Daily Life in Victorian London: An Extraordinary AnthologyDaily Life in Victorian London: An Extraordinary Anthology by Lee Jackson

    My rating: 5 of 5 stars

    This book is a fruitful archive of personal diaries, newspaper/magazine articles, letters both official and private, and other historical records, all of which portray a glimpse of the everyday life of the Victorian Londoners – the poor, the middles class, and the middlings in between – minus the poshness of Downton Abbey. In this book, the reader will peep into many lives of different folks, kinds of job they had, the work conditions, and the places they went for recreations on holidays, and feel empathic towards their victorian kindred spirits. However, this is not a book of insalubrious living conditions for the proletariat, nor the litany of existential woes in living hard lives. In fact, reading this book is like reading a Charles Dickens’s story featuring an Oliver Twists, a Pip, a David Copperfield, and many others of interesting characters working for odd jobs . This book is about the humble but vibrant in Victorian London who were never the boring.

  • Eichmann in Jerusalem by Hannah Arendt

    Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of EvilEichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil by Hannah Arendt

    My rating: 5 of 5 stars

    This book is about a famous trial of Adolf Eichmann, a former German Nazi SS lieutenant colonel who was in charge of collecting and deporting the Jews from all over Europe to concentration camps, written by Hannah Arendt, one of the most brilliant thinkers and intellectuals of the modern time. Originally written as a trial report for the New Yorker, Arendt described the scenes of the trial held in the court of Jerusalem, the characteristics and physiognomy of Eichmann, and the general ambiance of the trial without sentiments or belle lettres. Her narration style is more of journalism than of storytelling in evident consideration of the fact that she wrote it as a series of report for The New Yorker. And the languages she used to portray the whole trial and Eichmann were so highly academic and philosophically intricate that the reader might find this book abstruse to completely absorb the content in one sitting. And yet, it is worth finish reading it because the author provides the reader with her stoic and disinterested opinions on the nature of the trial and on the accused as what she observed during the trial based on facts and reason.

  • Adventures of American Girl in Victorian London by Elizabeth L. Banks

    Adventures of an American Girl in Victorian LondonAdventures of an American Girl in Victorian London by Elizabeth L. Banks

    My rating: 5 of 5 stars

    If this book had been written in an armchair perspective of a priggish journalist who would only report by hearsay or with cavalier attitude toward working class, then I would not have even bothered to pick it up in the first place. What attracted me to this book was an excerpt bespeaking the author’s telltale recounting of the story as an ambitious, enterprising journalist who dared to work undercover as a domestic maid and a laundry worker in Victorian London during which the social conditions of the working class, not to speak of women’s social positions, plummeted to a dismal low as the rise and the prosperity of the bourgeoisie was skyrocketed especially in London. Although Ms. Bank’s motivation of writing this book arose from her achievement of journalistic ambition, her candor, analytical mind, and diligence should be esteemed highly in the discourse of her artless recounting of working experience. In fact, this book itself is a valuable historical and anthropological record of social conditions and cultural aspects of the 19th century London., guiding readers to her veni, vidi vici adventure thereof.