NO, MY LAST NAME IS JORDAN, BUT THE MANNINGS HAVE ALOT OF LAND AROUND HEATHWOOD AND THE SEWAGE TREATMENT PLANT, I WENT THERE BACK IN THE 80s FOR MAYBE A YEAR OR TWO, AND THE HAMPTONS HAVE A CRAZY AMOUNT OF LAND IN COLUMBIA TOO. MY GRANDFATHER WAS FRIENDS WITH BERL MANNING, I DONT KNOW IF HE IS STILL ALIVE THOUGH.

bokb...10 years? Makes you wonder how Joyce was able to finish these books w/o losing it. The man had focus.


Exuinox, I read that quote and it goes to that point I made about being po'd and in awe at the same time. Exhausting but inspiring. I'll look those books, no problem when you finish Portrait. I may join you, Ive had an urge to at least go over all my notes along with skimming the book, if at all possible, for over a year now.

Thanks for your Arthur Miller comment.
Remember Peter Coyote the prankster turned actor? The 1st time I saw The Crucible was a field trip with my junior high drama class at SF's American Conservatory Theatre. Peter was the lead actor in the play. I didn't get the whole Red Scare connection until much later but I'm sure Peter did...I told Arthur about this one day and he chuckled, one the few times I saw him smile.

I can't believe I didn't mention Tony Hillerman. His mystery novels take place in the Southwest and include much about Native American lifestyle and Shamanism.

Thanks for all the recommendations, my list is growing..

Well, it's nice to meet your cyberself Mr. Jordan.

I've thought about writing a book about my experiences in SC, but I haven't
because it would certainly turn into a Look Homeward Angel situation.

My own family pretty much wrote me off since I started touring with the Grateful Dead. After the last visit, I told everyone I wasn't coming back unless there was a funeral or a wedding.

Still love them!

sjfgreenman wrote:


I said I started reading that 10 years ago. It's an intense endeavor to undertake for "pleasure!" Kinda like deciphering Dead lyrics, we'll be doing that forever. Another fun undertaking is The Sound & the Fury by Faulkner. Most of his stuff is like that too, super dense. I dig the challenge, but have difficulty w/ the discipline!

ITS GOOD TO MEET YOU TOO, IS YOUR LAST NAME HAMPTON??? I DONT FREQUENT THERE EITHER, GOT SENT OFF TO SCHOOL OUT OF STATE WHEN I WAS 14, BUT I STILL LOVE MY FAMILY THERE TOO. WHAT YEAR DID YOU START DEAD TOUR? DID YOU MAKE IT TO THE HALLOWEEN SHOW IN 85 AT THE CAROLINA COLISEUM??? BOTH OF MY UNCLES WERE THERE. I'VE HEARD A COUPLE RUMORS, BUT I WANT ASK YOU FIRST, WHY DO YOU THINK THE DEAD ONLY PLAYED SC ONE TIME???

... Ms. Hampton encouraged my writing when I was young.

PS Interesting question regarding the GD in Columbia SC...but the answer will take us too far off the topic of this thread...perhaps you could start a new thread about the subject?

Bokb I hear you, I like to wade through the thick brush to find the inspiration, too. I like Faulkner as well. Did you see the Bradstreet poem I started the poetry thread with? It's pretty dense as well as long and loaded with food for thought.

I'm curious, have you taken a stab at Ulysses? It might seem like child's play after a decade of Finnegin's.

I'm not sure I'd ever read Bradstreet before. I was an English major and one of my required courses had to do with early English writers but most of that was devoted to Chaucer and Beowulf.

It's quite a reamarkable poem, much like nature itself in that it follows an unerring growth but on its own unique course.

Pretty much encompases everything, I'd say. Kind of like that old observation about seeing eternity in a single blade of grass.

And once again we're back to nature...

PMoondancer wrote:


What kind of writing? And what have you done with it?

Bradstreet was a fiery figure especially considering the role women had at the time. Her husband was a governor in the colony and was often advised to reel his wife in a bit. Her poem is in the Norton Anthology of English Lit..the Old English vol 1..,.which I am sure you know very well (why is that damn print so small?) but I could see how you'd miss it if you were doing Chaucer.

When I went back to college and decided to go for an English minor I started to see nature references everywhere, like Campbell and myth. I became obsessed, certain that I was on to something. It helped I had OH degrees, was a gardener.
I decided to write a term paper on the regeneration theme in nature, hence the Greenman tag. I found Greenman existed in many cultures and this theme of rebirth was everywhere I looked in some form or another, tied to nature.

I also realized nature, music, architecture, math, physics all have the same foundation..rhythm..1's, 3's and 5's seem to hit the spot. Garden design is based on these relationships. Same with the others.

^hey, don't miss the Crucible-Miller story I left for you up there^

I did see your Crucible story. I was so blown away by the poem I neglected to comment. That's wild you got to see Coyote in person, I think it's interesting, and maybe not so surprising, that a number of Pranksters (Coyote, McMurtry, Robert Stone) have made significant inroads into mainstream culture.

I also got to see the Crucible in high school but it was actually put on by the students. Good, activist Quaker education at work there. When I was a senior, in the fall of '75, there was a meeting of all the males in the class where one of the teachers explained how to become a conscientious objector should we be drafted. He also mentioned that if any of us didn't want to go that route, the school could get us into Canada. Thankfully the draft was discontinued the next year.

Interesting observation on the rhythms of life. I'd point out that language belongs in there too. Take away its internal rhythms and all one really hears is noise. Have you read any of Mickey Hart's books? I read Drumming at the Edge of Magic last year and was very impressed. He obviously has a talented collaborator but he does make a very strong case for the central role that rhythm has played in human development through the ages.

Ah, the Norton Anthologies! I did have that particular one but yes, the focus was on Chaucer. As I posted elsewhere in this thread, my department lacked imagination.

And I've seen that connection between English and gardening before. As I've mentioned, my mother taught English at the college level. But her other great passion was gardening and my family was blessed with a property which my dad bought in the 50s that abutted a farm, which to this day has never been developed. She could experiment to her heat's content and she had a deep, natural connection with plants. By the end of her life she'd become a major judge at the Philadelphia Flower Show.

@ PMMOONDANCER

YEA, THATS A GOOD IDEA FOR A NEW THREAD. JAMES DICKEY ALSO PLAYED A SMALL PART IN THE MOVIE DELIVERANCE, THE SHERIFF. AGAIN, GOOD TO MEET YOU, COLUMBIA IS A WICKED SMALL PLACE, EVERYBODY KNOWS SOMEONE THAT YOU EITHER KNOW OR KNOW OF, YADA YADA YADA. TAKE CARE.