Moby Dick, Section 1

Here's a link to the first section of Moby Dick. It ends with chapter 1. Chapters 2-5 will follow shortly. If you have questions, please make note of them and bring them to our next meeting. I want this to be as easy to understand as possible, so don't be afraid to ask something even if it seems weird.
You can read the text online, but it's not terribly clear, so you can also just download the pdf from the site.

Confederate Casualties

Click here for an article from The Wall Street Journal about new research into which Confederate state had the most casualties.

Tradition has it that North Carolina had the most dead, but that's starting to look doubtful according to Josh Howard.

Sergio Leone

Italian director Sergio Leone, famous for his film The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly, had an unrealized ambition: directing a big-budget remake of Gone with the Wind.

From Secret Lives of Great Filmmakers by Robert Schnakenberg

Inherit the Wind

Here's an article from Time magazine about Gone with the Wind. The subtitle of the book is "At 75, Gone with the Wind is still mistaken for a romance. It's actually a gritty eulogy."

Time article

Clark Gable

Director Howard Hawks once went on a hunting trip with actor Clark Gable and author William Faulkner.
He said of his companions: "I don't think Gable ever read a book, and I don't think Faulkner ever went to see a movie."

According to Secret Lives of Great Filmmakers by Rob Schnakenberg, later in the trip "Gable asked Faulkner who his favorite authors were, 'Thomas Mann, Willa Cather, John Dos Passos, Ernest Hemingway, and myself,' Faulkner replied, with characteristic modesty. Gable was taken aback. 'Oh, do you write, Mr. Faulkner?' he asked. 'Yeah,' retorted Faulkner. 'What do you do, Mr. Gable?"

Collector's Edition

Warner Brothers sells the 70th anniversary Gone with the Wind DVD complete with lots of bonus features. There are also downloads, videos and pictures available through their website.

Jezebel

Click on the picture for info on the movie

Rock Island

Click here for info on Rock Island, the prison camp where Ashley is held after being captured by the Yankees.

Brent

Click here for the obituary of Fred Crane who played one of the Tarleton twins in the movie.

Uniforms

Click here for some pictures and info on Civil War uniforms. The website mentions homespun as well as Zouave.

Quoting Shakespeare in GWTW

In one of Ashley's letters to Melanie, he tells her his opinion of the war and criticizes the men who would "seek the bubble reputation, even in the cannon's mouth". It's a line from As You Like It. The entire speech is below.

It's a good example of Ashley's education. And the fact that Melanie must understand the reference, while Scarlett does not, cements the idea that "like should marry like".

The Seven Ages of Man
~ William Shakespeare

All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players,
They have their exits and entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
Then, the whining schoolboy with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden, and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice
In fair round belly, with good capon lin'd,
With eyes severe, and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws, and modern instances,
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose, and pouch on side,
His youthful hose well sav'd, a world too wide,
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,
Turning again towards childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

Southern Fiction

Click here for the short story An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce. I mentioned it at our last meeting as another good piece of literature about the South during the Civil War.

Gone with the Wind

Margaret Mitchell got the title from the poem Cynara by Ernest Dowson.

Click here for more info on Mitchell and the writing of GWTW.

Zouave

A picture of a Zouave uniform. The red of the pants is one of the colors considered by the Tarleton twins' troop.

Cravat

Click here for pictures and a description of a cravat, like the one Gerald O'Hara wears.

Trailer

Click here for the GWTW movie trailer.

Margaret Mitchell

Click on the picture for info on Margaret Mitchell

Tequila Mockingbird

In case you missed the movie night, here is the recipe to make your own Tequila Mockingbird.

Behold

Look at that face. Look at it.
And click on it for the imdb.com page on the movie.

Charlotte

Click here for a history of Charlotte cakes.