Tuesday 7 August 2012

LOSING THE PLOT?


I am fascinated by eccentrics and eccentricity (I cannot imagine why!) Over the past year or so I have been taking a literary journey around the lives of odd bods - I sincerely believe that the most interesting and creative people in the world are a little bit "different". This journey started after I watched a documentary about the poet R.S.Thomas, made for TV by his biographer Byron Rogers.


Thomas, a writer of beautiful though austere verse, was quite a serious curmudgeon who would not allow his wife a hoover because of the noise (hmm, I know someone like that...) and whose first action, on moving into an ancient draughty Welsh cottage, was to rip out the central heating. He wasn't keen on fridges, washing machines or televisions either.
Reader, I read the book and travelled on, via many stops - Henry James, The Bloomsbury Group, Anne Lister, Emily Dickinson, Laurence Sterne, J.L.Carr etc. - biographies, autobiographies and novels. I've just arrived back in Yorkshire and now I'm reading The Plot by Madeleine Bunting...

                                                       
... an engrossing account of English history told through the story of The Plot  and its setting in the landscape, and also a memoir of a talented but difficult man, the sculptor John Bunting, who became obsessed with this small piece of Yorkshire where he built a memorial chapel. The writer, his daughter, gives detailed instructions of how to reach the area, including map references, so the idea of visiting whilst reading the story was irresistible.


Hambleton Street is an old drovers road with Roman origins and The Plot lies  just off it at Scotch Corner,a bend on this wide green track. We found the Street just off the A 170, near the top of Sutton Bank, and followed it through a mixture of old hedgerows, forestry plantations and bilberry bushes down to the small clearing.


Whatever significance this quiet spot had for its owner and his family, for us on that cool morning it had considerable magic, peopled as it was with silent figures.
                                                         






You can walk on down Hambleton Street to Oldstead and Wass, but we chose to drive to Coxwold and visit Shandy Hall, once home to Laurence Sterne who wrote The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, a teasing, comic novel telling the inconsequential story of a host of eccentric characters. 


                                                        
The curator of the Hall brought Sterne to life for us and I realised that he (Sterne) was having fun and enjoying his celebrity as a writer - but he was perhaps not an eccentric himself.




***

You may be interested in an "eccentricity test" I have found. According to studies there are 18 distinctive characteristics that differentiate a healthy eccentric person from a healthy ordinary person (although some may not always apply). The first 5 are in most people regarded as eccentric:

Nonconforming attitude
Idealistic
Intense curiosity
Happy obsession with a hobby or hobbies
Knew very early in his or her childhood that they were different from others.
Highly intelligent
Opinionated and outspoken
Unusual living or eating habits
Not interested in the opinions or company of others
Mischievous sense of humour

Oh well, who wants to be ordinary anyway?

                                                      ***

25 comments:

  1. Hi Nilly,
    What a interesting post.
    I am glad to say, that I don,t appear to have any of the above characteristics, well not at the moment any way!People are fascinating aren,t we just! Just popped back to look at the beautiful Dear on one of the photographs and then noticed you also....
    I love that you came across our Dean on You tube!Thank you for always leaving me lovely comments, yep we are very excited at the moment, but also nervous for Dean too...
    Love Mariax

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Maria, you must be a rare and serene woman. The most of us admit to being on the eccentric side of normal!

      Delete
    2. Hello again, Maybe I am just not admitting Nilly....hehe..
      Have a lovely rest of week!

      Delete
  2. Sorry Nilly, my spelling is dreadful as I should be wearing my husbands reading glasses, when typing on here...Of course it should read DEER, rather than dear...Take Care, Maria x

    ReplyDelete
  3. While I on the other hand, have to admit to quite a few of the above charactoristics. Some of those books look very interesting, I will search them out. And can I just say.....I almost always seem to enjoy the company of an oddball type, never a dull moment!! While "normal" can sometimes be a bit of a bore.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Me too! By the way, the book about Emily Dickinson is really interesting - such passions behind the tidy curtains of Amherst!

      Delete
  4. Another very interesting post and how incredible to visit whilst reading the book, did it give you a sense of connection? I love eccentricity and would have to admit to meeting more than a couple of the criteria. I have always felt like a square peg in a round hole but actually don't mind. Glad you had a lovely visit. jayne x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, it is really added to the story in many ways. The Scotch Corner I mentioned, by the way, is NOT the one we know on the A1 near Darlington - I didn't know there were two!

      Delete
  5. I've come to the conclusion that if you're wealthy you're classed as eccentric and if you have no money you're classed simply as "mad"!
    x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh dear, what does that make me...?

      Delete
  6. This post has made my day - thank you Nilly. There is only one of the above I can honestly say doesn't apply to me... so I'm HAPPY.
    Mad as a box of frogs - me!

    LLX

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ha ha!
      Those characteristics all sound completely normal to me! Mr N can't find one that he isn't proud to have.

      Delete
  7. oooh, what a great post. and some great reading ideas, if i only had time away from all my obsessions to actually read.
    i'm not too curious.....just sort of. but the rest of the list is spot on!!! i have a label to be proud of....but i hate labels.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lovely comment!
      I'm similar to you, but my curiosity knows no bounds.

      Delete
  8. Love this post Nilly. One of the things that I enjoy about our own country is that we have eccentrics in abundance. One of your contributors said that she was glad she did not appear to have any of the characteristics. I on the other hand can claim to know that I have at least 5 of them, but I insist I am not eccentric although I think I would be happy to be so. I think that eccentrics do not know that they are eccentric. You must have been so excited when you actually found Buntings magic spot with this eclectic collection of things near Scotch Corner. I love that Eric Gill style statuary over the doorway, presumably done by John Bunting.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, it is by John Bunting and I agree he does seem influenced by Eric Gill. The chapel is open a couple of times a year and contains more sculptures so I hope we are free the next time.

      Delete
  9. Fab post and great reading ideas. I have always wandered a different path, in mind at least and occasionally for real. Love the list of that which sets us apart from the ordinary. Ordinary is so very boring. Life and the world is so very full of wonderful things to discover and experience and oh so many special people.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I do agree - I think this is why we are all exploring this ever-expanding world of the internet.

      Delete
  10. Replies
    1. Yes - I'm about 8/10 too - I don't think I eat or live in an unusual way - and I love company.

      Delete
  11. Half 'n' half me ... Interesting post. M x

    ReplyDelete
  12. And some interesting comments too! Love your Olympic photos. Nx

    ReplyDelete
  13. Sorry to be late in commenting on this most interesting post, Nilly. As you might guess I read a lot of books featuring eccentrics too. Do you know "A lifetime in the building : the extraordinary story of May Savidge and the house she moved" by Christine Adams? I could list many others! Your mention and pictures of Shandy Hall reminded me of my early posts on miladysboudoir and the fact that I have now been posting for a year! Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Glad you liked this (I hoped you would!) I have not read the book about May Savidge and I will put it on my ever increasing list. I do know about her having seen her on TV. I'm sure, like me, you find that reading one book leads to many others.

    ReplyDelete
  15. That is so true, Nilly. I missed the TV programme :-( but well done remembering it! Maybe not worth reading the book in that case. I found it fascinating ... I have long lists of others, I'm sure.

    ReplyDelete