The poetry of place names! Ouagadougou, Chipping Sodbury, Alice Springs, Slough, Pasadena, Billericay, Kuala Lumpur, Rusholme……
A friend recently returned from a trip around the Balkans and mentioned that he was very near the Sanjak of Novi Pazar. When he was doing O level history in Cumbria back in the day, the rather exotic name of this obscure Ottoman province had stuck in his memory.
It rung vague bells for me too, so I started to investigate.
The Sanjak inspired a short story by an author who I enjoyed a lot in my 6th form years, Saki (a.k.a. H. H. Munro). A padre visits a condemned man in his cell and he tells the bizarre story of how he got there. Saki was a mischievous, witty Edwardian writer with a black sense of humour. (Until today I did not know that he died in the trenches of WW1 or that he was gay.)
Novi Pazar is also mentioned in The Eagle of Tooting, a song in Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow. I’ve only read his wonderful novella, The Crying of Lot 49, and did not realise that in Pynchon’s novels characters frequently sing imaginary songs that he has written the lyrics for. There are about 100 of them In Gravity’s Rainbow and there’s been an on-line project to set some of them to music. Erudite, obscure, eccentric and elusive: Pynchon is an intriguing chap who very few people seem to have actually met.
Finally a peculiar twist. Prior to the mega-festival of 1969, there were a few mini festivals held in Woodstock featuring artists such as Tim Hardin, Don Mclean, Blues Magoos and Cat Mother and the All Night Newsboys (me neither!) which were dubbed the Sound-Outs. Wikipedia claims that on the bill was a band, inspired by the Fugs and the Mothers of Inventions, called Sanjak of Novi Pazar and names the members. After Googling extensively I have found no further evidence of its existence and am convinced this is an elaborate hoax by a Pynchonite.
So, has anybody here visited the Sanjak of Novi Pazar or read Saki or Pynchon? Or perhaps there is a place name that has fascinated and delighted you for many years?
In the London Docklands, there used to be many buildings named after the exotic ports of the world. I lived briefly in the wonderfully named Malacca House. Not an address for a Greek. μαλάκας is the Greek for wanker.
Kaisfatdad says
Cat Mother and The All Night Newsboys existed! And were very popular in New York in the late 60s: they were the house band at the Electric Circus.
mikethep says
The Sanjak of Novi Pazar has passed me by, though I’ve read Saki and Pynchon. Any relation to Count Ivan Skavinsky Skavar, I wonder?
BTW, I’ve never managed to get even 100 pages in to Gravity’s Rainbow. The solution, I’ve discovered, is to listen to the audio book. Absolute magic.
Kaisfatdad says
From what I remember Pynchon is not the easiest of reads. An audio book sounds like a fine solution, Mike.
Thanks for Abulbul.
Mike_H says
I’ve tried on a couple of occasions to read Laurence Sterne’s “The Life And Opinions Of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman” but found it very hard going, both in print and on my kindle.
There was a marvellous BBC Radio adaptation, quite a few years back, that was aired late at night. Great listening while driving home from the late-finishing job I was working on at the time.
Maybe I need to find an audiobook version.
Kaisfatdad says
The Hindu Kush! Another marvellous place name. It’s a ramge of mountains known to me thanks to Eric Newby’s A short walk in the Hindu Kush.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/a-short-walk-in-the-hindu-kush-by-eric-newby-2125188.html
A wonderful travel writer that everyone should read!
Kaisfatdad says
Here are the lyrics for The Eagle of Tooting. Shame that he didn’t write more “real” songs.
https://www.flashlyrics.com/lyrics/the-thomas-pynchon-fake-book/the-eagle-of-tooting-97
Laurie Anderson asked TP for permission to write an opera based on Gravity’s Rainbow. He gave his permission on the condition that it was scored for solo banjo! She took this as a polite refusal.
ratbiter says
It appears that I actually lived in the Sanjak of Novi Pazar.
I spent a couple of months in Mitrovica, Kosovo, which I today learned used to be part of the Sanjak.
Kaisfatdad says
My friend will be deeply impressed, Ratbiter.
So in Eurovision this evening Ishould lookout for theKosovo entry? If there is one.
ratbiter says
Due to the geopolitics of the region (I wouldn’t rule out war in the next five years), Kosovo aren’t in Eurovision. But all the Kosovo Albanians will support Albania. And all the Kosovo Serbs will support Serbia. And both will be awful, because in threee years of living in the Balkans, I never heard music that didn’t make me want to rip my ears off.
Kaisfatdad says
Sounds dire. Let’s see if this Aussie can get you to milden your verdict…
http://rustywoodger.blogspot.se/2012/12/rustys-top-10-balkan-songs.html?m=1
Noboru Wataya says
Like you, KFD, I’ve read and enjoyed The Crying of Lot 49, but I’ve also read/enjoyed Gravity’s Rainbow and V. These are, as you suggest, not the easiest of reads – the periodic breaking into song can take a bit of getting used to, but I bought into it and it became one of the things I loved about Pynchon’s writing.
Nothing much to add, other than that I recently heard Mark Mothersbaugh say on WTF that the lyrics of Devo’s Whip It were an attempt on Gerald Casale’s part to write a Pynchon-style song. Oh, and have a go at Gravity’s Rainbow.
Kaisfatdad says
Thanks Noboru. GR is now on my must read list. I read Lot 49 many years ago, so it will be interesting to re-visit his writing.
More Pynchonesque trivia.
The name of W.A.S.T.E., the Radiohead fan page, is taken from an acronym in The Crying of Lot 49: We Await Silent Tristero’s Empire. Thom Yorke is a big fan of the elusive novelist.
BigJimBob says
The Great Rann of Kutch
Kaisfatdad says
You hit gold there, BJB. Not only does it have a fabulous name, the Great Rann is a remarkable place:
“The Great Rann of Kutch is a seasonal salt marsh located in the Thar Desert in the Kutch District of Gujarat, India and the Sindh province of Pakistan. It is about 7,505.22 square kilometres (2,897.78 sq mi) in size and is reputed to be one of the largest salt deserts in the world.[1] This area has been inhabited by the Kutchi people.”
The sort of place one expects to find David Attenborough investigating the wildlife.
So, have of you salty dogs visited it? Or lived there?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkhusVWvTRA
Kaisfatdad says
What a shame there is no marathon in Gujarat! They could call it The Great Run of Kutch.
Sniffity says
If there was a revolution led by babies, it’d be the Kutchi Coup.
Kaisfatdad says
So true, Sniffity. And no shortage of bluesmen in that salt desert! Hoochie Kutchi men abound.
But those mountains I mentioned are surprisingly cacophonous.
No hush in the Hindu Kush!
Locust says
I’m no Pynchon – and not having read any Pynchon I didn’t know about his made-up song lyrics – but in one of my ongoing writing projects I’ve written lots of song lyrics in different styles which pop up in the text throughout. It’s the fictional history of a city told through its musical and cultural history (told in a humorous style). It’s lots of fun writing a mock-folk song one day, a punk lyric the next, and then invent a new musical genre as a treat!
Kaisfatdad says
Amazing! You never cease to surprise, Locust! That sounds like a very ambitious project and great fun too. When do you have time to sleep??
Novelist Laura Barnett took another approach to Pynchon. Instead of having imaginary songs, she got Kathryn Williams in to co-write the songs featured in her novel Greatest Hits.
http://www.folkradio.co.uk/2017/04/kathryn-williams-common-ground-greatest-hits/
hubert rawlinson says
This place has held a special place in my heart.
Boggarts’ Roaring Holes
Kaisfatdad says
If ever there was a place waiting for HMHB to write a song about it!
Kalamazoo is another gift of a name for songwriters.
Kaisfatdad says
Having mentioned the CSI Ambleside Hitmakers, I found this: Half Map Half Biscuit.
A list of all the place names mentioned in HMHB songs.
http://halfmanhalfbiscuit.uk/half-map-half-biscuit/
Kaisfatdad says
Just stumbled across this excellent piece on Saki: the missing link between Wilde and Wodehouse?
https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2009/sep/14/short-story-saki-hh-munro
As VS Pritchett put it: “Saki writes like an enemy. Society has bored him to the point of murder. Our laughter is only a note or two short of a scream of fear.”
Kaisfatdad says
Another piece on Saki which points him out as a predecessor of the black humour of Roald Dahl.
https://www.lrb.co.uk/v38/n16/katherine-rundell/ferrets-can-be-gods
Moose the Mooche says
He was darker than Roald. He was black Dahl-ier.
Kaisfatdad says
Ouch!
Dahl of course was writing darkly for kids whereas Saki’s audience were the debonair gents and ladies of Edwardian society.
I’ve just learnt that, like Molly and Nick Drake, he was born in Burma and that he had some very odd bees in his bonnet. He adored the Russian Empire, for example.
https://edwardianculture.com/2014/09/05/review-reading-saki/