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Remembered Today:

David Jones' In Parenthesis - map?


Simon_Fielding

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One of my favourite poems which is a triumph as modernist literature and memoir IMHO.

I didn't know a sketch map was included in early editions - I found a small picture of the original map here -

http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/collections/jones

but could anyone scan the published map for a poor impoverished Jonesian??

Simon

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Hi Simon,

I have done a screen dump of the sketch if thats ok for you. If you PM your E-mail addy I'll pas sit onto you.

Regards

Will

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That's great Will - I'm rediscovering Jones after a trip to Mametz!

Simon

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Hi Simon,

It's done, also I'm going to try the newly increased picture size uploader for attachements to see if you can now get better picture clarity for maps on here now. Yep the new 250 size is much better thanks admin team!!!!

Regards

Will

post-51029-0-67056500-1342517033_thumb.j

Edited by Will I Davies
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Wow thanks Will - is this similar to the map as published in early editions of IP?

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Hi Simon,

This was just taken from the website link you sent me. All I did was enlarged and did a screen crop/dump.

Will

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Much much appreciated!!!

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Hi Simon,

No thank you too for the link, everything that highlights the RWF regiments activities during WW1 is always most appreciated. PS are you still doing work in Hightown?

Regards

Will

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?? Think you might be thinking of someone else - I'm a 6th form teacher in Gloucestershire....

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Simon,

Just to know that the first edition of 1937 did have a, if not the, map in. The catalogue record (on http://www.copac.ac.uk/search) for copies at Birmingham University, The London Library, and V&A Libraries, among others, mentions it.

sJ

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?? Think you might be thinking of someone else - I'm a 6th form teacher in Gloucestershire....

Oops :blush: , my mistake Sir!! Carry on the good work.

Will

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Thanks for the tip sJ; no problem Will - there's a lot of us Simons about - I blame my parents watching The Saint in the 1960s!!

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Nice to find another David Jones enthusiast :)

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:thumbsup: Likewise! I have a lovely old 70s Penguin Classics copy of the Mabinogion which has a detail of his 'Four Queens' as the cover....never looked back...I agree with Tim Kendall that "In Parenthesis has strong claims to be the literary masterpiece of the War. " :poppy:
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Simon, you prompted me to look at the cover of my old copy of the Mabinogi but sadly there was no David Jones illustration. I too am an enthusiast. In Parenthesis is thrilling and profound on so many levels of our sensibilities. I have sometimes thought that if David Jones were to publish it today there would be those on internet forums who tore it to pieces for being too imaginative and emotional.

Jane, thank you for the link to Copac, which could be very useful. I assume that inter-library loan can work with one's small local library.

Gwyn

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Gwyn - yes. Simon - had that edition for years & never registered the cover artist. Tsk me.

Dare I tell you I own a DJ engraving? Unused illustration for The Ancient Mariner.

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Blimey!! Seriously impressed! Any chance of a photo?? The last pieces I saw were in the Kettle's Yard gallery in Cambridge...he was a good friend of the founders...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/301202/3754336397/

http://recollection.kettlesyard.co.uk/taxonomy/term/55

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Oh yes, I've been to Kettle's Yard several times, though not recently.

Years ago I was taking tea in the Tate Gallery and found myself sitting at a table next to two engravings by him, a crucifixion and Christ before Pilate, both with the Roman soldiers wearing what looks like WW1 helmets: but I've never seen them again. His Aphrodite in Aulis has classical soldiers dressed the same way http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/jones-aphrodite-in-aulis-t02036

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Wow...you're right. More than a whiff of 'Guernica' in the composition?

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Wow...you're right. More than a whiff of 'Guernica' in the composition?

Never thought of that - must ask my brother (art historian).

Added: this is a fuzzy photo of a print from a DJ engraving called "Westward Ho": http://www.cambridgeprints.com/artists/j/E1.jpg

At the risk of going off on a tangent: William Soutar (who served in the RN in the GW before he was invalided out) wrote this poem which I'm fairly sure is a response to Guernica (rather than, as the commentator says, the Battle of Britain) http://pentiment.blo...01_archive.html

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A contemporary map.

http://swanseabattal...id=30&Itemid=53

Bernard

Thanks for that Bernard. Is anyone clever enough to post that and the David Jones map side by side? Would be interesting to compare directly.

sJ

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Simon, thank you for the link to Tim Kendall's piece. The links he includes are well worth following and I'll enjoy perusing the Flashpoint page.

Has anyone, do you know, explored the relevance of the Welsh mind in his writing? I know he was London Welsh but from a Welsh background through his father. When I first discovered In Parenthesis I was heavily into early Welsh literature - I was doing something on its influence on Anglo Saxon culture - and I immediately identified with his half-Welshness, his written voice and the thin filaments which were tying his writing into early history and weaving the two together while growing into the twentieth century events, a bit like a creeper growing into tree bark. I also knew I didn't need to understand it - it had an effect beyond analysis. I get the same effect from hearing someone read Gogynfeirdd poetry properly, particularly laments - the intricacy, metre and tone works beyond the need to comprehend, which I have to say I don't fully. And it also tied into the Welsh folk tales which my grandad used to tell me and who peopled my childhood.

If this sounds pseudy, it's because I'm trying to put into words something which is very difficult to explain without sounding mad or shallow. It's anathema to the latent academic in me to say that you don't need to understand or analyse, just let it work on you. I'm also recovering from being in hospital early in the week and my brain is still vaguely sedated. I'll probably read this anon and think I was crackers.

Gwyn

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