Ironic, as we watch the original Moby Dick in a sr. lit. class - screen play by Mr. B, they can't get his stories right with him right here for advice. Yet, he did Mr. Melville justice in the way he captured the great White Whale and the crazed Ahab.

Why don't they think, then just sit down and ask him how the butterfly should have died, the books might be burned, or the dandelions wined?

(...and Royal Dano was "Elijiah" and "Tom Fury." I had almost forgotten!)

[This message has been edited by fjpalumbo (edited 10-28-2005).]

Royal Dano was one of the great character actors of all time. Orson Welles was terrific as the preacher, too. Pretty true to the book, but, of course, pared down to fit a feature-length film time frame.
One time when I saw Ray, he said that you can see his screen play-writing inspiration kick in right after Ahab nails the coin to the mast...

Braling, the St. Elmo's fire is always an interesting topic to discuss with students. They usually have no idea what it is. Then, when they view this scene, it brings about great reactions.

The more I read of RB, even after all these years, the more I sense influences of other timeless writers in his writings and interpretations.

What do you think? Ahab on deck with the men, the coin to the mast, and the "fire" covering the Pequod: quite Shakespearean.
IE, Julius Caesar - Cassius in the street challenging the "storm," with so many Romans being illumned by St. Elmo.

[This message has been edited by fjpalumbo (edited 10-31-2005).]

Haven't they read their Laura Ingalls Wilder? I thought St. Elmo's fire appeared in one of the "Little House" books, though possibly under a different name.

Dandy,
I don't recall the references in Wilder, but here are a few references by other authors:

Last night I saw St. Elmo's stars
With their glittering lanterns all at play.
On the tops of masts and the tips of spars.
And knew we should have foul weather today.

from: The Golden Legend
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow


The light thou beholdest, streams through the Heaven,
In flashes of crimson, is but my red beard.
Blown by the night wind, afrighting the nations.

from: The Challenge of Thor
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow


Sometimes I'd divide
And burn in many places; on the topmast,
The yards and bowsprit, would I flame
distinctly, then meet and join.

from: The Tempest
William Shakespeare


About, about, in reel and rout
The death-fires danced at night;
The water, like a witch's oils,
Burnt green, and blue and white.

from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Samuel Taylor Coleridge

All the yardarms were tipped with a pallid fire, and touched at each tri-potential lightning rod with three tapering white flames, each of the three tall masts was silently burning in that sulphurous air, like gigantic wax tapers before an altar....in all my voyagings seldom have I heard a common oath when God's burning finger has been laid on the ship...
from Moby Dick
Herman Melville

Oh, wow, that's impressive. I will try to find the Laura Ingalls Wilder passage. She may not have used that particular word for it.

ray bradbury is sooo sexy!

OK, Sundance!
So, I says to myself, "What's in a name?" A quick search brings me to so many dead ends. I go to "images" and what do I get, a Fine picture of Larry! April Fools, indeed!

"Where does it come from?" I asks.
Well, see, I have a hunch it is Mr. B playing his tricks on us again. Being the digger of all treasures from the far distant past and even far more reaching future (think Halloween Tree and The City), he might have been needing for a good name for the unhappy husband and his overly-wise scheme of a tick, tick, ticker down in the basement.

So, I get all posseed up and do some serious chasing of my own. And what do I find, all hidden and hard to find? Right! "Braling" 200 plus years ago. You think!?? Interesting, at least!

See: 2nd class listing of names, bottom of pg.~ http://www.ourfamilyhistories.com/hsdurbin/greene/mil-recs.html

[This message has been edited by fjpalumbo (edited 02-10-2006).]

Is this your family history or Ray's?

No, not me, nor Mr. B's. After several searches that produced very little on the name "Braling," the below sites pertaining to the Revolutionary War Second Class James Braling showed up a few times: http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/pa/cumberland/military/17808bn.txt http://www.ourfamilyhistories.com/hsdurbin/greene/mil-recs.html

The most frequent hits for non-RB site "braling" were at German sites (?translation) and from automotive sites, where website constructors had misspelled "braking."

My interest is that the name is not that common, and often Mr. Bradbury uses names as a part of his metaphoric construct in his stories. This name is unusual and has not shown up in anything else I have read pertaining to RB or in his stories.

I thought somehow there might be an inside scoop.