Dickensblog

7 Quick Takes Friday

• A "Dickens' Legacy" conference will be held tomorrow at Cambridge University.
• Simon Callow has come to terms with the fact that Shakespeare, not Dickens, will be "the chosen poster boy for British culture" during the London Olympics. (I, however, have not.)
• Portsmouth is doing special "Discover Dickens" tours in honor of the bicentennial.
• An art show in New Zealand is showing watercolors inspired by Dickens, by the artist Paul Braddon.
• Christopher Gellert, in the Washington Square News, dares to suggest that "in his day, [Dickens] might have been considered as campy as Stephanie Meyer." BITE YOUR TONGUE, SIR.
• In a more palatable comparison, the New Yorker's Maria Tatar examines the tradition of child deaths in literature, from Dickens to Stowe to The Hunger Games.
• The Gravesend Messenger reports on the new Charles Dickens Ale, created by The Leather Bottle pub that was featured in The Pickwick Papers.

7 Quick Takes Friday

• I called it, I called it! Just a week and a half after I suggested watching for Dickens references on CBS's Person of Interest, they obligingly gave us one. Harold Finch rattled off the title, author, publication dates, and a one-sentence summary of Our Mutual Friend after having been drugged, a feat I'm not at all sure I could accomplish myself. Well played, sir!
• BBC Daytime has commissioned an updated adaptation of Nicholas Nickleby, to air in the fall. Instead of a boarding school, Nicholas (or "Nick") will work in a home for the elderly.
• London is doing its first Cityread, and the book they've chosen is Oliver Twist. Read all about the event here!
• As it happens, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, is also featuring Oliver Twist in their One Book/One Community event. Danny Heitman of the Advocate has a nice piece about that here.
• A group of teen artists in New York has put together a special exhibit inspired by the bicentennial, called "Sketching the City."
• How's this for a prize? To raise money for the restoration of his Swiss chalet, the Rochester and Chatham Dickens Fellowship is raffling off a strand of Dickens's hair!
• Speaking of raffles, don't forget to enter ours! We don't have anything quite that cool, but we do have a copy of the Great Expectations miniseries, and your money will go to help either sick kids or human trafficking victims -- your choice.

Now that's dedication

To raise funds for the Alzheimer's Society, 61-year-old Iain Dempster will run the London Marathon dressed as a Victorian gentleman and reading aloud from the works of Dickens.

We haven't given out a Dickensblog Order of Merit in a while, but if Mr. Dempster doesn't deserve one, I don't know who does. Consider it bestowed. And on a more practial note, if you want to sponsor him in the marathon, you can do so at this link.

(Speaking of fundraising, watch this site for a new opportunity in the Dickensblog Charity Fundraiser, coming in the next few days!)

Dickensian rumor of the day

"Charles Dickens slept facing North. He thought it improved his writing."

So says the Pakistan Daily Times. I wonder if it's true. I mean, I know EVERYTHING is true on the Internet ;-) , but this is a new one on me.

Is 'Person of Interest' a Dickensian show?

I know what some of you are thinking: My Dickensian obsession has finally run away with me and made me start seeing echoes of Dickens everywhere. No, that's not it.

Or maybe you're thinking that I'm so excited about PoI becoming a success and getting renewed that I'm celebrating it everywhere, even on a blog about a totally different subject. That's not it either. (Well, maybe just a little.)

I actually first had the thought a few weeks ago. More and more on PoI, it's becoming clear that all institutions -- government, the military, the police, the business world -- are riddled with corruption, and that it's up to a few good individuals to counter the massive institutional evil. Sounds a lot like mid- to late Dickens, don't you think?  Think of "They went quietly down into the roaring streets, inseparable and blessed; and as they passed along in sunshine and in shade, the noisy and the eager, and the arrogant and the froward and the vain, fretted, and chafed, and made their usual uproar."

And we do know that J. J. Abrams is interested in Dickens, and that he and the other minds behind LOST worked references to Dickens into that show. It really does make me wonder if there are some Dickensian ideas at work here.

It's all conjecture right now, of course. But should we one day spot Michael Emerson's bookish Harold Finch with a copy of Little Dorrit under his arm -- let's just say, I won't be surprised.

Callow on Dickensian characterization

Simon Callow at Broadway.com: "Dickens’ conception of character is basically static whereas Shakespeare’s is entirely fluid."

Agree or disagree?

(Keep in mind that Callow is a HUGE Dickensian, so he's not saying "static" is necessarily a bad thing.)

7 Quick Takes Friday

• Edwin Drood screenwriter Gwyneth Hughes talks about the adapting experience in the Guardian (her theory: Dickens died so he wouldn't have to work on the book anymore). And the Daily Mail has a bunch of actor, producer, and director interviews. No trailer yet, but I'll put it up as soon as I find it. 
• Speaking of Edwin Drood, the Guardian also has a story about all the attempts made over the years to solve the mystery. They've got a couple of great (though rather grainy) pictures from the famous John Jasper trial held in 1914, with G. K. Chesterton as the judge and George Bernard Shaw as the foreman of the jury.
• The annual Riverside Dickens Festival is being held in Riverside, California, this weekend. It will focus on A Christmas Carol.
• The BBC News Magazine will be posting a Dickens quote every day this year. You can suggest quotes in the comment box on this page.
• British Tours Ltd is introducing a series of new Dickens tours.
• Mark Charles Dickens, the author's great-great-grandson, is backing a German campaign, named after Oliver Twist, that sends presents to needy children in Moldova.
• Author and professor Howard Jacobson loves Dickens but has issues with the BBC's treatment of him. Here, he explains why.

Benefits of the bicentennial year

The Globe and Mail predicts that in 2012 we'll stop talking about Charlie Sheen and start talking about Charles Dickens.

I can get behind that.

Is Stephen King the new Charles Dickens?

What do you think?

Charles Dickens, master of jurisprudence

A London judge turns to Bleak House to help him solve a property dispute.