the muse's mirth

[marycatelli]

So I was scribbling along on a story at lunch and went dry -- went poking among the old stories --

Nothing much seemed to flow.

Poking at an old outline.  It started to flow.

So I made some character name notes, and winced.  Because the names were Minette (the heroine), Madame Miranda Magnifico, Minerva the owl, and Mistress Violetta Mysterio.  (Oooo -- a V!)

And those are literally the only characters whose names I know.

I think the muse thinks this is funny.

Comments

Yah, well, about that Funny business

[baron-waste.livejournal.com]

The Smile Revolution: In Eighteenth Century Paris 1st Edition

http://www.amazon.com/The-Smile-Revolution-Eighteenth-Century/dp/0198715811/ref=pd_bxgy_14_2/191-8305687-9462115?ie=UTF8&refRID=00MPVBMMJ0EM620AR8FM

You could be forgiven for thinking that the smile has no history; it has
always been the same. However, just as different cultures in our own day
have different rules about smiling, so did different societies in the past.
In fact, amazing as it might seem, it was only in late eighteenth century
France that western civilization discovered the art of the smile. In the
'Old Regime of Teeth' which prevailed in western Europe until then, smiling
was quite literally frowned upon. Individuals were fatalistic about tooth
loss, and their open mouths would often have been visually repulsive. Rules
of conduct dating back to Antiquity disapproved of the opening of the mouth
to express feelings in most social situations. Open and unrestrained
smiling was associated with the impolite lower orders.

In late eighteenth-century Paris, however, these age-old conventions
changed, reflecting broader transformations in the way people expressed
their feelings. This allowed the emergence of the modern smile par
excellence: the open-mouthed smile which, while highlighting physical
beauty and expressing individual identity, revealed white teeth. It was a
transformation linked to changing patterns of politeness, new ideals of
sensibility, shifts in styles of self-presentation - and, not least, the
emergence of scientific dentistry. These changes seemed to usher in a
revolution, a revolution in smiling. Yet if the French revolutionaries
initially went about their business with a smile on their faces, the Reign
of Terror soon wiped it off. Only in the twentieth century would the
white-tooth smile re-emerge as an accepted model of self-presentation.

In this entertaining, absorbing, and highly original work of cultural
history, Colin Jones ranges from the history of art, literature, and
culture to the history of science, medicine, and dentistry, to tell a
unique and untold story about a facial expression at the heart of western
civilization.

Re: Yah, well, about that Funny business

[marycatelli]

My muse goes right past smiles to insane fits of giggles.