The Jungle Book

[watervole]

My ebook reader is already changing my reading habits.

I've downloaded a load of classics, which is hardly surprising as they're free, but the big difference is that I'm actually reading them.

It's weight and convenience.  My collected volume of Kipling is big, heavy, and hard to keep open on my book rest.  That all makes it physically difficult for me to read. With my Sony ebook reader, I can take it anywhere, read anywhere and not strain my neck/shoulder by  holding the pages open.  I can even read it balanced on my knee, which I find impossible with hard copy.

Over the last few days, I've reread 'The Jungle Book':

I enjoyed this as an adult far more than I did as a child.  When young, I expected the whole book to be about Mowgli.  As an adult, I remembered that it was a collection of many things and thus wasn't disappointed.  In fact, some of my favourites were not Mowgli stories.  I particularly liked the story of the white seal.

 

Kipling has a real gift with words (reminds me a little of Ursula le Guin) and some of his tales read like myth.

 

I also appreciate the poems a lot more now.  Kipling has a wonderful sense of rhythm, which I totally failed to appreciate when younger, but now really love.

 

A small bonus for me was realising that the poem with 'Her Majesty's Servants' was set to the rhythm of several songs that I knew.  When he talks of the cavalry cantering to 'Bonnie Dundee', the metre is that of 'Bonnie Dundee'.  He also works 'British Grenadiers' and 'Lincolnshire Poacher' into the same poem.


Just read the poem here - and see the way he uses rhythm.  Each of the animals used by the army (elephants and bullocks hauling guns, mules carrying packs on hilly routes (a screw-gun was carried in parts and screwed together when used), camels carrying loads, and also cavalry horses) has its own rhythm.  Ideally, read it aloud.  Of all the poets I know, Kipling seems to benefit most from being read aloud.

Comments

[reapermum.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you've taken to your e-reader. I took to Kipling's poems as a child, probably because I'm tone deaf (I don't hear a difference in pitch until the notes are more than a full tone apart and it needs to be greater than that to be sure which is the higher frequency) I respond to rhythm. I hated it when someone read Harpsong of the Danewomen on Radio 4 and got the rhythm wrong and too fast, that one should go at a rate to row to.

Have you read the Mowgli story that's not in the Jungle Books? He's an adult, working for the forestry service, married to a Muslim and with several children.

[watervole.livejournal.com]

what's the story called? I'd like to find it and read it.

[reapermum.livejournal.com]

It's called "In the Rukh" from the collection "Many Inventions". It was the first Mowgli story written and the Jungle Book is back story for him.

Have you heard the Peter Bellamy settings of some of Kipling's verse?

[watervole.livejournal.com]

I don't have any recordings of Bellamy singing them, but I do have some good copies of other people singing them. Tom Lewis does a really good version of 'The Land' which almost makes my hair stand on end. http://www.tomlewis.net/lyrics/the_land.htm

I've also got 'The Widow's Uniform' which has most of the Barrack Room Ballads songs.

Are any of Bellamy's recordings still available?

[reapermum.livejournal.com]

Looks like Amazon has them. I bought mine on vinyl when they first came out.

[watervole.livejournal.com]

Annonyingly, I can't find the story online anywhere. Lots of other Kipling, but not 'In the Ruck'.

[reapermum.livejournal.com]

I found it here (http://www.telelib.com/authors/K/KiplingRudyard/prose/ManyInventions/rukh.html)

[vjezkova.livejournal.com]

Indeed! I tried to read the poem aloud - less than perfect but still, I could see that mastery with words. Jungle book has always been my favourite. Here, my generation knows mostly only Mawgli because on that had been alowed - otherwise Kipling was labelled as an imperialistic and hence harmful writer. Oh, I know about the "policy of white man" :-) but he IS and excellent writer. I can still remember that poem about Parvati and Vishnu. I haven´t got the book anymore, my brother snatched it (and never read).
I wish you many happy hours with your Sony!!!

[rgemini.livejournal.com]

Have you read Puck of Pook's Hill lately? It made me appreciate Kipling's mastery of language and rhythm, as well as illustrating how he thought about history. I recommends it, I does!

[watervole.livejournal.com]

Good thought.

Now downloaded.

Have you heard Tom Lewis's version of 'The Land'? http://www.tomlewis.net/lyrics/the_land.htm

An excellent recording, I bought it just before Xmas. He's done a couple of other Kipling songs as well.

[coth.livejournal.com]

I'm glad your Sony is letting you reread Kipling. He really is worth reading and rereading, stories and verse.

[watervole.livejournal.com]

Kipling has come to be my favourite poet. Both for his understanding of metre, and the fact that he writes about real people. So many of his poems work as songs - and the kind of songs that I like.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

I'm another e-book reader convert. So much easier on the shoulders than huge volumes!

[sue-bursztynski.livejournal.com]

I've just bought a lovely new iPad and, of course, have been using the e-book facility. There's a free app called "ebook search" which links you up to Project Gutenberg and some other free sites. I have just downloaded both Jungle Books and a collection of his ghost stories. I've read some before and loved them - they're less scary than sympathetic. If you loved the Jungle Books have you read neil Gaiman's tribute to them called The Graveyard Book? It's great!

[watervole.livejournal.com]

I read (and enjoyed) the Graveyard Book last year.