I read RWAV while riding on Amtrak last weekend (interrupted alot) and then I spent the rest of this week sick so I think I need to look through the book again before I discuss literary matters coherently!ARWAV - a historical tidbit
Posted by Carolyn B on February 20, 1998 at 19:58:34:
I read RWAV while riding on Amtrak last weekend (interrupted alot) and then I spent the rest of this week sick so I think I need to look through the book again before I discuss literary matters coherently!
A historical tidbit:
When I took a course in Renaissance Italy in grad school, the prof told us that the "creatures with black hoods" who show up to retrieve the Italian man's body (you see them in the movie wearing all black and pulling the man away in a cart) are members of one of the many confraternities that developed in Italian cities during the time of the bubonic plague. These were voluntary charitable organizations formed by men from various backgrounds (i.e, certain craftsmen might form an org. together or rich noblemen might form their own org.) who, among other things, would start hospitals and gather the sick and dead off the streets. Apparently they were still operating in the early 20th C. but I have no idea what their status is today. (Also it's been several years since I took the class so I may have garbled the exact nature of the confraternities, but you get my drift.)
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