Great Essay by Edward Hoagland

[John Cole]

If you haven't read Ed Hoagland, then you are missing one of America's finest essayists. Here's his essay Circus Music

[MMMMMM]

That is superb. Colorful, panoramic, insightful, thought-provoking--I'll have to read more Edward Hoagland, never read him before. Thanks.



P.S. It sounds as if the old-time circuses might have had more carnival-like elements than those of today?

I went to carnivals a few times in my life--gathered a couple funny stories of rigged contests and how they were rigged--won three humongous beautiful stuffed animals at the triple-milk-bottle-softball throw for only a few dollars-- the stuffed animals were each nearly as large as a person--one for me, one for my girlfriend at the time, and one for a lady who asked if I could win one for her (it took two throws for hers so it only cost her a dollar[img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img])...but...the next night they changed the setup on me so it was impossible to win: one milk bottle repeatedly skidded backwards without falling over and I blew about $30 before realizing what was going on. The stuffed animals, a white lion and a 6-foot tiger, were gorgeous though and still worth it I think. Five years later, in another state I saw a kid about 11 years old running a quoit toss: he would surreptitiously jostle the platform with his elbow if it looked like your quoit was about to land on the spindle...

I could never take the carnival atmosphere for more than a few hours, but it was fun on occasion. "Roundup" was a cool ride, though I didn't like many of the other rides.

[John Cole]

M,

I think it was Hoagland who once likened the sound of a mountain lion (or panther) leaping from a tree to an anvil wrapped in a blanket falling to the ground.

After I read the essay, I thought of a student I had a couple years ago in a composition course. She ran away from home at fifteen years old and joined the circus, working as a showgirl. I'm not sure if circuses have changed all that much.

[MMMMMM]

Something about this essay reminded me of Truman Capote's Other Voices, Other Rooms. Perhaps it was the "Cloud Swing" ("Cloud Hotel"), or the vivid descriptions and carnival atmosphere, or the insight into human natures and lives; maybe it was more, too. For tremendous prose, Other Voices, Other Rooms has always awed me. Hoagland's essay reminds me of that book in ways I can't quite even isolate.

As for circuses, I wouldn't necessarily expect that they have changed a great deal. The times I attended a circus were...let's see...when I was about six, and again around twenty. (Of course, there have been other circuses which I have attended, but those were in other places such as poker rooms;-)) So I really wouldn't know to what degree circuses may have changed. Maybe circuses have changed more than the people who work for them...