The shameful lack of posts over the past week has spurred me to provide, along with today's quiz, a brief and fascinating excurison into what is a doubtless a properly ignored province of literary history. Go and reheat your coffee before we get started.
All set?
In 1839, Philip James Bailey published an epic poem entitled Festus, inaugurating a (for a time) wildly popular movement in Victorian poetry that influenced, but didnÕt include, poets like Tennyson. Bailey and his followers wrote gargantuan, sprawling poem-treatises which were meant to illuminate the Òvast completeness of one master mind.Ó BaileyÕs poem, seems to have been composed of a stew-like combination of Byron, Goethe, and Milton, and sets for its scenes various corners of the universe, and was admired so greatly that nine years after its publication there was an American collection of excerpts entitled Beauties of Festus Compiled with a Copious Index by a Festonian. One of Bailey's followers, Alexander Smith, sums up the movementÕs philosophy and questionable use of imagery when the protagonist of his Life Drama calls poetry Òthe grandest chariot within which king-thoughts ride.Ó
The movement rose to its dizzy peak in 1853, when Sydney Dobell produced the poetic drama Balder, which contained the memorable lines:
Ah! ah! ah!
Ah! ah! ah! ah! ah! ah! ah! ah! ah! ah!
By Satan! This is well. What! Am I judged?
The satirists got to work quickly thereafter, and the ÒschoolÕsÓ poetic credentials were revoked.
Still waiting for the actual question? Patience, my friends.
What was the name by which this poetic school Ð in all seriousness Ð came to be known?
HINT: The answer has an etymological connection with the name of one of the most memorable characters from Ivan ReitmanÕs brilliant 1979 Arcadian fantasy of youthÕs exuberance, Meatballs.
No Googling, of course, or references to Jerome BuckleyÕs classic work The Victorian Temper, to whom todayÕs quiz owes much. First correct answer posted to comments wins a cup of tea and a photocopy of KeatsÕs very worst sonnet.
What is "the kid from 'My Bodyguard?'"
What is the proper punctuation for the above?
What, is everyone (east coast style) sleeping in on Fridays?
Posted by: teenidol on July 26, 2002 09:54 AM>>What is "the kid from 'My Bodyguard?'"
>>What is the proper punctuation for the above?
Is it bad style to quote yourself? I believe I misused the punctuation and the correct phrasing of my incorrect reply should have read:
What is "the kid from 'My Bodyguard'"?
since the quotation itself is not a question.
I left my grammar text at home. But according to this resource, if I were in Great Britain, Canada or an English speaking location that is influenced by the King's English then rules about quotation marks (at least in regard to commas and periods) are somewhat reversed.
Posted by: teenidol on July 26, 2002 10:31 AMThe spastics? Spaztites? The-fat-kid-who-hung-out-with-Spazadents?
Oh, man, I've got this one this time.
Morty?
Posted by: teenidol on July 26, 2002 11:25 AMI couldn't concentrate enough to read the whole question.
I've never seen "Meatballs." I saw "Spaceballs," or, at least, part of it. It sucked.
There was a school of painting called "Ash Can," so I'll guess "Ash holes."
Posted by: BoxJam on July 26, 2002 11:59 AMOh, wait - "Meatballs" was the Bill Murray comedy - the archetype for the summer camp movie - I have seen it.
I'm gonna guess the Rabbit school, because I don't remember any other characters' names, and I don't know any other word that shares an etymology with "rabbit."
Posted by: BoxJam on July 26, 2002 12:30 PMI hesitate to interfere, so I will remain aloof for a time. Then I will descend in a chariot with my king-thoughts to enlighten you all.
Spaceballs sucked indeed. It is sad to be reminded even of its very existence, for I saw it in a theater, and yea, paid money to witness its very great lameness. For I trusted Mel Brooks, and sorely was I rebuked for it.
Posted by: BT on July 26, 2002 12:40 PMDon't get Bootsy started on Robin Hood: Men in Tights.
The One-Girl-From-The-Girls'-Camp-Across-The-Lake-That-Was-Really-Nice-To-Spaz Collective?
Dogma 1839?
Posted by: hackly_fracture on July 26, 2002 12:51 PMTrippers?
Day trippers?
Jack Trippers?
Wasn't a young Paul Ruebens the bus driver?
The Pee-Wees?
Posted by: teenidol on July 26, 2002 01:15 PMOnce again, El Hackly is on the correct track. But I'm afraid that exactitude is everything.
Posted by: BT on July 26, 2002 01:25 PMI, on the other hand, think exactitude is highly overrated, and often end sentences not with the end of a sentence but with hands gesticulating in a way that's somehow supposed to indicate "you know who I mean . . . that guy!"
Have I mentioned that Dale Peck annoys me? And but so I guess it's pretty obvious why, huh?
Oh, OK: The Spastics.
***irritating, soul-wrenching buzzer sound***
Posted by: BT on July 26, 2002 01:48 PMHackly is assuming BT's hint points toward Spaz. But Hackly also mentions the girl from the other camp, so...
Mohawks?
Sleeping Morty and the Mohawks? (good band name)
Spastic is as spastic does, J-bruskhack.
Dale Peck is the worst critic of his generation.
Ah, Cary Elwes. I'm still waiting for the gay porno version ("Men in Tighty-Whites.")
Posted by: bootsy on July 26, 2002 02:26 PMWell, the buzzer sound may be soul-sucking, but the vibrations on the bum make it all worthwhile.
Posted by: hackly_fracture on July 26, 2002 02:32 PMDang, this is just like that time Pat Boone shot Abe Lincoln. OK, y'all, let's just start throwing spaz like names at BT 'til he cries "Uncle."
Spazatomites!
Guru and Spazmatazz!
Ectospasm!
Spazmodicas!
Ow, these spasms in my chest are really painful!
(anyone wanna take a guess what the cruel nickname for me circa 8th grade was? Why not?)
Spasmatics?
Spaz Attacks?
The Spazmanian Devils?
White Shoes and Spaz?
Spaz and the Man?
Spaz Orlando and Dawn?
Wendy O. Williams and the Spazmatics?
But enough of what they called Hackly.
Posted by: teenidol on July 26, 2002 03:01 PM>>White Shoes and Spaz?
I meant "Tenspeed and Spaz."
Slayer RULES!
Posted by: teenidol on July 26, 2002 03:03 PMYou are all, of course in the ballpark. But the answer is "The ________ School", where the blank is filled in by a standard English word, which we have yet to see here.
(I know, it's irritating. It's my nature.)
Posted by: BT on July 26, 2002 03:08 PMSpasticulan? Spasmotic? Spastish? Spazalicious?
Posted by: bootsy on July 26, 2002 03:12 PM"The Spasmodic School"
"The Spa School"
"The School for Scandal"
or it may be a trick and acutally be:
"The ________ School"
No wait - Epileptic? The Fear and Trembling School? (no wait, that's where i teach...)
Posted by: bootsy on July 26, 2002 03:14 PMspasm?
Posted by: teenidol on July 26, 2002 03:16 PMOh, yeah, methinks teenidol got it: "The Spasmodic School." And, he is correct about Slayer ruling, as well.
What a spastastrophe.
Posted by: hackly_fracture on July 26, 2002 03:28 PMCommunication clarification: I do not *know* that teenidol got it. Guess on, macduffs.
Posted by: hackly_fracture on July 26, 2002 03:30 PMBT - the spastific Billerium Tremens - would shakedown the final queasitum, no?
D or T?
Posted by: bootsy on July 26, 2002 04:25 PMI don't think anybody quite guessed simply, "The Spastic School," so I'll go with that.
And, as internet etiquette requires, I note that "The Spastic School" would be a good name for a punk band.
Posted by: BoxJam on July 26, 2002 05:05 PMPlaying tonight and one night only, exclusively at the wombatfile:
The Spastic School
Sleeping Morty and the Mohawks
and
Slayer!
(devil horn handsigns abound)
Posted by: teenidol on July 26, 2002 05:09 PM"The Spasmodic School" is correct, teenidol; although you should share your prize with Hackly, especially since you've been on a winning streak. Consider yourself awarded the key to the chariot, and give free reign to your mighty king-thoughts.
There aren't a lot of obvious web resources about this, but here's a summary.
Apologies for the delay in posting -- I got home last night to discover our Internet connection was down, and this is the first time it's been working since (my service is Road Runner;insert obligatory AOLTW revenue-inflation joke here).
Posted by: BT on July 27, 2002 06:36 PMTension erupted from my pimples all weekend long!
Posted by: bootsy on July 28, 2002 04:33 PM