the compleat Angler is 'a boring load of tosh'... apparently...

[RBTraditional]

I think what John is getting at is not the quirkyness, no matter how contrived it seems, but the sense of exclusivity that seems to have grown up around it, probably fostered more by fisherman fans than those associated with the gsc. Obviously not on a par with the Houghton, that bastion of wealth and privilege, a terrible anachronism in this unequal society of ours. But anything that has that slightly bitter taste of exclusivity I feel uncomfortable with too.

There's bugger all wrong with wealth and privilege nor inequality......I'm quite happy with serfdom, I knows my place.....

[Kevin]

To BB or not to BB.

[Paul D]

To BB or not to BB.

Oh very good Sir

[Kev Parr]

Shakespeare is not hard to understand once one gets used to drama in verse. How about this from Hamlet for a sunrise:

But, look, the morn, in russet mantle clad,
Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastward hill:

Compare that with your favourite fishy descriptions. Incidentally, on the archaic language, one or two fishing writers have been fond of using it in modern times, BB for one.

I totally agree. It is a beautiful use of words.

It's just that my mind takes its time to consider them, so while I so enjoyed reading that quote, I was still turning it over thirty seconds later. So by the time my attention comes back to the plot, the sun is already setting over Denmark.... My problem isn't with the understanding as much as the keeping up!

[Kev Parr]

To BB or not to BB.

Yes! Very good indeed!

[Kev Parr]

....and I've reread that Hamlet quote at least half a dozen times now Firebird.....it is a lovely example....

[Nigel Rainton]

I have read The Complete Angler, it was plagiarised. I found it boring but then I was scarred for life by being forced to translate Chaucer.

There's nothing wrong with inequality, it's inspiring. The Golden Scale Club is an institution, a bit like the Privy Council, thoroughly English and rightly exclusive.

[Nobby]

Ah, so Yatesy has finally been outed.....or Tovarisch as I call him. It was the beard that gave it away to me.....


And of course the Colonel is really Comrade Colonel, but I'm sure you all knew that one.....?


The Sheringham Society is of course a weak attempt by MI6 to keep an eye on the lot of them and what they're up to on the HA.

http://www.sheringham.mistral.co.uk/index.html

[JAA]

I've read it cover to cover and it is hard work by modern standards, but then almost nobody could read when it was written and the 'English' language itself was even spoken differently by the educated and the uneducated.

But however you look at it it has historical and cultural specificity by the boatload. Which is to say, that for the readers of the time (the few well educated those who could actually read) it might well have been the best thing they'd ever read. Equally, if allegory, then it might have made perfect sense to the reader of the day.

To dismiss it as tosh because it doesn't read as well 400 odd years later is missing the point hugely, allegorical or not.

[JohnClyde]

TCA boring? I found the whole hitting on the lone milkmaid in a field bit a real page turner. I think its a really joyful elegaic book full of that same slightly convoluted passion and barmy preoccupation that still plagues today. I catch myself thinking back to it quite a lot on the river bank wondering what sort of strange recipe Walton would suggest for a fat chub, what the landscape would have looked like in his day.