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Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is the debut novel by British writer Susanna Clarke. Published in 2004, it is an alternative history set in 19th-century England around the time of the Napoleonic Wars. Its premise is that magic once existed in England and has returned with two men: Gilbert Norrell and Jonathan Strange. Centred on the relationship between these two men, the novel investigates the nature of "Englishness" and the boundaries between reason and unreason, Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Dane, and Northern and Southern English cultural tropes/stereotypes. It has been described as a fantasy novel, an alternative history, and a historical novel. It inverts the Industrial Revolution conception of the North–South divide in England: in this book the North is romantic and magical, rather than rational and concrete.

The narrative draws on various Romantic literary traditions, such as the comedy of manners, the Gothic tale, and the Byronic hero. The novel's language is a pastiche of 19th-century writing styles, such as those of Jane Austen and Charles Dickens. Clarke describes the supernatural with careful detail. She supplements the text with almost 200 footnotes, outlining the backstory and an entire fictional corpus of magical scholarship.

Clarke began writing Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell in 1992; ten years later she submitted the manuscript for publication. It was accepted by Bloomsbury and published in September 2004, with illustrations by Portia Rosenberg. Bloomsbury were so sure of its success that they printed 250,000 hardcover copies. The novel was well received by critics and reached number three on the New York Times Best Seller list. It was longlisted for the 2004 Man Booker Prize and won the 2005 Hugo Award for Best Novel.

Volume I: Mr Norrell
The novel opens in 1806 in northern England with The Learned Society of York Magicians, whose members are "theoretical magicians" who study magical texts and history, after the decline of magic in England several hundred years earlier. The group is stunned to learn of a "practical magician", Mr Gilbert Norrell. Norrell proves his skill as a magician by making the statues in York Cathedral speak, thereafter compelling the society to disband. John Childermass, Mr Norrell's servant, convinces a member of the group, John Segundus, to write about the event for the London newspapers.

Segundus's article generates interest in Mr Norrell, who moves to London to revive practical English magic. He enters society with the help of two gentlemen about town, the superficial Christopher Drawlight and the shrewd Henry Lascelles, and meets a Cabinet Minister, Sir Walter Pole. To ingratiate himself, Mr Norrell attempts to recall Sir Walter's fiancée, Emma Wintertowne, from the dead. He summons a fairy—"the gentleman with thistle-down hair" —who strikes a bargain with Norrell to restore Emma: half of her life will be spent with the fairy. After news spreads of Emma's resurrection and happy marriage to Sir Walter, magic becomes respected, and the government seeks Norrell's aid in their ongoing war against Napoleon.

While living in London, Norrell encounters Vinculus, a street-magician, who relates a prophecy about a "nameless slave" and two magicians in England, but Norrell dismisses it and has Vinculus banished. While travelling, Vinculus later meets Jonathan Strange and recites the same prophecy, prompting Strange to become a magician. Meanwhile, the gentleman with thistle-down hair takes a liking to Stephen Black, Sir Walter's butler, and promises to make him a king. Emma (now Lady Pole) lapses into lassitude; she rarely speaks and is distraught by music and parties. Each night she and Stephen are forced to attend balls held by the gentleman with thistle-down hair in the Faerie kingdom of Lost-Hope, where they dance all night long; their attempts to communicate their situation are confounded by magic.

Volume II: Jonathan Strange
In 1809, Strange learns of Mr Norrell and travels to London to meet him. They immediately clash over the importance of John Uskglass (the legendary Raven King) to English magic. Strange argues that "without the Raven King there would be no magic and no magicians" while Norrell retorts that the Raven King abandoned England and should be forgotten. Despite their differing opinions and temperaments, Norrell acknowledges Strange's magical ability and takes him on as a pupil, but deliberately keeps some knowledge from him.

The Stranges become a popular couple in London. Lady Pole and Strange's wife, Arabella, become friends; during a visit, Arabella meets the gentleman with thistle-down hair, whom she assumes is a relative. The Cabinet ministers find Strange easier to deal with than Norrell, so they send him to assist the Duke of Wellington on his Peninsular Campaign. For over a year, Strange helps the army: he creates roads, moves towns, and makes dead men speak. After he returns, he fails to cure George III's madness, but manages to save him from the gentleman with thistle-down hair, who is determined to make Stephen a king. Strange then helps defeat Napoleon at the horrific Battle of Waterloo.

Upon returning to England, Strange finds that Drawlight has been stealing money from English citizens with prospects of fulfilling their wishes through Strange's magic. Drawlight's schemes are publicized and he is arrested. Norrell strongly wishes for him to be hanged for magic-related crimes, but has insufficient political influence. Lascelles becomes closer to Norrell, challenging the relationship between Childermass and his master.

Frustrated with being Norrell's pupil, Strange pens a scathing review of a book outlining Norrell's theories on modern magic; in particular, Strange challenges Norrell's views of the Raven King. The English public splits into "Norrellites" and "Strangites". Norrell confides to Strange that he wasted years attempting to summon the Raven King, but Strange disagrees that the effort is futile; the two part company, although not without regret. Strange returns home and works on his own book, The History and Practice of English Magic. Arabella goes missing, then suddenly reappears, sick and weak. Three days later she dies.

Volume III: John Uskglass
In 1816, Lady Pole attempts to shoot Mr Norrell. Childermass takes the bullet himself but is not killed. Lady Pole is sent to the countryside and cared for by John Segundus, who has an inkling of the magic surrounding her. During travels in the north, Stephen meets Vinculus, who recites his prophecy: "the nameless slave shall be a king in a strange country ..." Stephen believes it applies to him, but the gentleman with thistle-down hair argues that it applies to the Raven King.

Strange travels to Venice and meets Flora Greysteel. They become fond of each other and Strange's friends believe he may marry again. However, after experimenting with dangerous magic that threatens his sanity to gain access to the Faerie kingdom, he discovers that Arabella is alive and being held captive alongside Lady Pole in Lost-Hope; he realizes the bargain Norrell struck with the fairy. The gentleman with thistle-down hair curses Strange with an Impenetrable Darkness, a pillar of darkness that engulfs him and follows him wherever he goes. Thereafter, Strange's strenuous efforts to rescue Arabella take their toll: his letters to his friends appear crazed and his public reputation suffers. At Strange's request, Flora moves with her family to Padua and secludes herself, along with a mirror given to her by Strange. Drawlight is sent by Lascelles and Norrell to Venice to find out more about Strange's activities and Strange magically brings Drawlight before him. Strange instructs him to deliver messages to Norrell, Childermass and the magical community within England before dismissing him. Strange then re-invokes the old alliances that exist in England between the forces of nature and John Uskglass. This sparks a magical renaissance, reopening roads to Faerie and causing many to spontaneously perform magic, but Norrell fails to grasp its significance.

Drawlight attempts to deliver the messages but is intercepted by Lascelles, who murders him, as Norrell learning the truth would damage Lascelles' control over Norrell. Strange, bringing the Darkness with him, asks Norrell to help him undo Arabella's enchantment by summoning John Uskglass. Childermass explores a corner of Faerie and stumbles upon a castle where he is challenged to a duel by its guardian; he declines the duel. Lascelles challenges the guardian himself, wishing to preserve English honour, and succeeds in killing him, but is magically entrapped into the position of the guardian himself.

Meanwhile, Childermass eventually receives the message meant for him by Strange; he and Segundus use magic to break the enchantment over Lady Pole. Enraged by this, the gentleman with thistle-down hair intends to place a second deadly curse on Lady Pole, as Faerie tradition demands. En route, he murders Vinculus after they encounter him, with Stephen Black forced to watch. During these events, Norrell and Strange attempt a spell that would cause the natural forces of England to pay homage to John Uskglass. Not knowing his true name, they dedicate it to the "nameless slave". However, instead the power is vested in Stephen, who uses his momentary control of all of English magic to destroy the man with thistle-down hair. Then, leaving England forever by one of the Faerie roads, Stephen sheds his name and becomes the new king of the now-blossoming Lost-Hope.

Childermass discovers Vinculus's body and notes that it is tattooed with the last work of John Uskglass. A man appears; he calls Childermass his servant, though Childermass does not recognize him, then brings Vinculus back to life and performs other feats of magic with ease. The mysterious man, heavily implied to be John Uskglass himself, then disappears, removing Childermass's and Vinculus's memories of the encounter.

As a result of the imprecision of the fairy's curse, which was placed on "the English magician", Norrell and his library are trapped along with Strange in the Darkness, and they cannot move more than a certain distance from each other. Upon the gentleman with thistle-down hair's death, Arabella comes through the mirror in Padua, where Flora is waiting for her upon instruction of Strange. Childermass informs The Learned Society of York Magicians that their contract is void, and they can study magic again. He shows the now-restored Vinculus as proof that John Uskglass's book of magic remains, tattooed upon his body. Two months later, Strange has a conversation with Arabella, who is still living in Padua. He explains that he and Norrell are studying magic together and intend to learn to remove the Darkness they are both trapped in, but will adventure into other worlds in the meantime. Neither wishes to take Arabella to Faerie again, so he instead promises to return to her when he has dispelled the darkness and tells her not to be a widow till then, which she agrees to.

Characters

 * Gilbert Norrell: England's first "practical magician" in centuries. He keeps a large collection of "books of magic", which he has spent years purchasing to keep out of the hands of others, in his library at Hurtfew Abbey in Yorkshire.
 * Jonathan Strange: a young gentleman who has recently inherited his father's property in Shropshire, who becomes England's second magician and Mr Norrell's pupil. He marries Arabella Woodhope.
 * Stephen Black: Sir Walter Pole's butler and the head servant of the Pole household. He is of African descent, born to a woman enslaved on Sir Walter's grandfather's estate in Jamaica. He catches the attention of the gentleman with thistle-down hair.
 * Emma Wintertowne (Lady Pole): Sir Walter Pole's wife; she is raised from the dead by Norrell with the help of the gentleman with thistle-down hair, who keeps her under an enchantment.
 * Arabella Woodhope: a young lady who marries Jonathan Strange around the time he begins to practise magic. She befriends Lady Pole, and is later enchanted and stolen away by the gentleman with thistle-down hair.
 * John Childermass: Mr Norrell's man of business and an important influence on Norrell, opposed to Drawlight and Lascelles; he is also a practical magician, and a devoted follower of the Raven King.
 * John Segundus: A new member of the York Society, who sets off the events that lead to Norrell's going to London by asking him why no more magic is done in England.
 * The gentleman with thistle-down hair: a powerful fairy whom Mr Norrell first summons to revive Lady Pole. He is the ruler of several Kingdoms in Faerie, including Lost-Hope, where he hosts balls each night.
 * Vinculus: A vagabond and street magician; he recites the Raven King's prophecy to Norrell and others.
 * John Uskglass, the Raven King: Originally an English child kidnapped by fairies, he was King of Northern England from 1110 to 1434 and created English magic. By Vinculus's prophecy he describes the revival of English magic through Norrell and Strange.

Composition and publication

Clarke first developed the idea for Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell during a year spent teaching English in Bilbao, Spain: "I had a kind of waking dream ... about a man in 18th-century clothes in a place rather like Venice, talking to some English tourists. And I felt strongly that he had some sort of magical background – he'd been dabbling in magic, and something had gone badly wrong." She had also recently re-read J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and afterwards was inspired to "trying writing a novel of magic and fantasy".

After she returned from Spain in 1993, Clarke began to think seriously about writing her novel. She signed up for a five-day fantasy and science-fiction writing workshop, co-taught by writers Colin Greenland and Geoff Ryman. The students were expected to prepare a short story before attending, but Clarke only had "bundles" of material for her novel. From this she extracted "The Ladies of Grace Adieu", a story about three women secretly practising magic who are discovered by the famous Jonathan Strange. Greenland was so impressed with the story that, without Clarke's knowledge, he sent an excerpt to his friend, the fantasy writer Neil Gaiman. Gaiman later said, "It was terrifying from my point of view to read this first short story that had so much assurance ... It was like watching someone sit down to play the piano for the first time and she plays a sonata." Gaiman showed the story to his friend, science-fiction writer and editor Patrick Nielsen Hayden. Clarke learned of these events when Nielsen Hayden called and offered to publish her story in his anthology Starlight 1, which featured pieces by well-regarded science-fiction and fantasy writers. She accepted, and the book won the World Fantasy Award for best anthology in 1997.

Clarke spent the next ten years working on the novel in her spare time, while editing cookbooks full-time for Simon & Schuster in Cambridge. She also published stories in Starlight 2 and Starlight 3; according to the New York Times Magazine, her work was known and appreciated by a small group of fantasy fans and critics on the internet. She was never sure, however, if she would finish her novel or if it would be published. Clarke tried to write for three hours each day, beginning at 5:30 am, but struggled to keep this schedule. Rather than writing the novel from beginning to end, she wrote in fragments and attempted to stitch them together. Clarke, admitting that the project was for herself and not the reader, "clung to this method" because "I felt that if I went back and started at the beginning, [the novel] would lack depth, and I would just be skimming the surface of what I could do. But if I had known it was going to take me ten years, I would never have begun. I was buoyed up by thinking that I would finish it next year, or the year after next." Clarke and Greenland moved in together while she was writing the novel. Greenland did not read the novel until it was published.

Around 2001, Clarke "had begun to despair", and started looking for someone to help her finish and sell the book. Giles Gordon became her agent and sold the unfinished manuscript to Bloomsbury in early 2003, after two publishers rejected it as unmarketable. Bloomsbury were so sure the novel would be a success that they offered Clarke a £1 million advance. They printed 250,000 hardcover copies simultaneously in the United States, Britain, and Germany. Seventeen translations were begun before the first English publication was released. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell was first published in the United States on 8 September 2004, in the United Kingdom on 30 September, and in other countries on 4 October.

Style

Clarke's style has frequently been described as a pastiche, particularly of nineteenth-century British writers such as Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, and George Meredith. Specifically, the novel's minor characters, including sycophants, rakes, and the Duke of Wellington, evoke Dickens' caricatures. Laura Miller, in her review for Salon, suggests that the novel is "about a certain literary voice, the eminently civilized voice of early 19th-century social comedy", exemplified by the works of Austen. The novel uses obsolete spellings—chuse for choose and shewed for showed, for example—to convey this voice as well as the free indirect speech made famous by Austen. Clarke herself notes that Austen's influence is particularly strong in the "domestic scenes, set in living rooms and drawing rooms where people mostly chat about magic" where Dickens's is prominent "any time there's more action or description". While many reviewers compare Clarke's style to that of Austen, Gregory Feeley argues in his review for The Weekly Standard that "the points of resemblance are mostly superficial". He writes that "Austen gets down to business briskly, while Clarke engages in a curious narrative strategy of continual deferral and delay." For example, Clarke mentions Jonathan Strange on the first page of the novel, but only in a footnote. He reappears in other footnotes throughout the opening but does not appear as a character in the text proper until a quarter of the way through the novel.

In Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Clarke infuses her dry wit with prosaic quaintness. For example, the narrator notes: "It has been remarked (by a lady infinitely cleverer than the present author) how kindly disposed the world in general feels to young people who either die or marry. Imagine then the interest that surrounded Miss Wintertowne! No young lady ever had such advantages before: for she died upon the Tuesday, was raised to life in the early hours of Wednesday morning, and was married upon the Thursday; which some people thought too much excitement for one week." As Michel Faber explains in his review for The Guardian, "here we have all the defining features of Clarke's style simultaneously: the archly Austenesque tone, the somewhat overdone quaintness ('upon the Tuesday'), the winningly matter-of-fact use of the supernatural, and drollness to spare." Gregory Maguire notes in The New York Times that Clarke even gently ridicules the genre of the novel itself: "[A gentleman] picks up a book and begins to read ... but he is not attending to what he reads and he has got to Page 22 before he discovers it is a novel – the sort of work which above all others he most despises – and he puts it down in disgust." Elsewhere, the narrator remarks, "Dear Emma does not waste her energies upon novels like other young women." The narrator's identity has been a topic of discussion, with Clarke declaring that said narrator is female and omniscient rather than a future scholar from within the real storyline as some had suggested.

Clarke's style extends to the novel's 185 footnotes, which document a meticulous invented history of English magic. At times, the footnotes dominate entire pages of the novel. Michael Dirda, in his review for The Washington Post, describes these notes as "dazzling feats of imaginative scholarship", in which the anonymous narrator "provides elaborate mini-essays, relating anecdotes from the lives of semi-legendary magicians, describing strange books and their contents, speculating upon the early years and later fate of the Raven King". This extensive extra-textual apparatus is reminiscent of postmodernist works, such as David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest (1996) and Thomas Pynchon's Mason & Dixon (1997), particularly as Clarke's notes humorously refer to previous notes in the novel. Clarke did not expect her publisher to accept the footnotes.

Feeley explains that Romantic poet John Keats's "vision of enchantment and devastation following upon any dealings with faeries" informs the novel, as the passing reference to the "cold hillside" makes clear. The magic in Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell has been described as "wintry and sinister" and "a melancholy, macabre thing". There are "flocks of black birds, a forest that grows up in the canals of Venice, a countryside of bleak moors that can only be entered through mirrors, a phantom bell that makes people think of everything they have ever lost, a midnight darkness that follows an accursed man everywhere he goes". The setting reflects this tone, as "dark, fog, mist and wet give the book much of its creepy, northern atmosphere". According to Nisi Shawl in her review for The Seattle Times, the illustrations reinforce this tenor: "Shadows fill the illustrations by Portia Rosenberg, as apt as Edward Gorey's for Dickens' Bleak House." Author John Clute disagrees, arguing that they are "astonishingly inappropriate" to the tone of the novel. Noting that Clarke refers to important nineteenth-century illustrators George Cruikshank and Thomas Rowlandson, whose works are "line-dominated, intricate, scabrous, cartoon-like, savage and funny", he is disappointed with the "soft and wooden" illustrations provided by Rosenberg.

Genre

Reviewers variously describe Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell as a fantasy novel, an alternative history, a historical fiction, or as a combination of these styles. Clarke herself says, "I think the novel is viewed as something new ... blending together a few genres – such as fantasy and adventure and pastiche historical – plus there's the whole thing about slightly knowing footnotes commenting on the story." She explains in an interview that she was particularly influenced by the historical fiction of Rosemary Sutcliff as well as the fantasies of Ursula K. Le Guin and Alan Garner, and that she loves the works of Austen.

In his review for The Boston Globe, John Freeman observes that Clarke's fantasy, like that of Franz Kafka and Neil Gaiman, is imbued with realism. He argues that the footnotes in particular lend an air of credibility to the narrative: for example, they describe a fictional biography of Jonathan Strange and list where particular paintings in Norrell's house are located. In an interview, Clarke describes how she creates this realist fantasy: "One way of grounding the magic is by putting in lots of stuff about street lamps, carriages and how difficult it is to get good servants." To create this effect, the novel includes many references to real early-nineteenth century people and things, such as: artists Francisco Goya, Cruikshank, and Rowlandson; writers Frances Burney, William Beckford, "Monk" Lewis, Lord Byron, and Ann Radcliffe; Maria Edgeworth's Belinda and Austen's Emma; publisher John Murray; politicians Lord Castlereagh and George Canning; The Gentleman's Magazine and The Edinburgh Review; Chippendale and Wedgwood furnishings; and the madness of King George III. Clarke has said that she hopes the magic is as realistic as that in Le Guin's Earthsea trilogy. This realism has led other reviewers, such as Polly Shulman, to argue that Clarke's book is more of an historical fiction, akin to the works of Patrick O'Brian. As she explains, "Both Clarke's and O'Brian's stories are about a complicated relationship between two men bound together by their profession; both are set during the Napoleonic wars; and they share a dry, melancholy wit and unconventional narrative shape." Shulman sees fantasy and historical fiction as similar because both must follow rigid rules or risk a breakdown of the narrative.

As well as literary styles, Clarke pastiches many Romantic literary genres: the comedy of manners, the Gothic tale, the silver-fork novel, the military adventure, the Byronic hero, and the historical romance of Walter Scott. In fact, Clarke's novel maps the literary history of the early nineteenth century: the novel begins with the style and genres of Regency England, an "Austenian world of light, bright, sparkling dialogue and well-mannered gentility", and gradually transforms into a dark, Byronic tale. Clarke combines these Romantic genres with modern ones, such as the fantasy novel, drawing on the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, Philip Pullman, T. H. White, and C. S. Lewis. As Maguire notes, Clarke includes rings of power and books of spells that originate in these authors' works. In contrast, Sacha Zimmerman suggests in The New Republic that while Tolkien's world is "entirely new", Clarke's world is more engaging because it is eerily close to the reader's. Although many reviewers compare Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell to the Harry Potter series, Annie Linskey contends in The Baltimore Sun that "the allusion is misleading": unlike J. K. Rowling's novels, Clarke's is morally ambiguous, with its complex plot and dark characters.

Friendship
Reviewers focus most frequently on the dynamic between Norrell and Strange, arguing that the novel is about their relationship. In her review for the Times Literary Supplement, Roz Kaveney writes that the two illustrate Harold Bloom's notion of the "anxiety of influence" in addition to romantic friendship. The two are a "study in contrasts", with Norrell "exceptionally learned but shy and fussy" while Strange is "charming, young, fashionable and romantic". As one reviewer remarks, "Clarke could have called the book Sense and Sensibility if the title weren't already taken."

Reason and madness
The novel is not about the fight between good and evil but rather the differences between madness and reason—and it is the fairy world that is connected to madness (mad people can see fairies, for example). Lady Pole, who is taken away into the fairyland of Lost-Hope every night, appears insane to those around her. She is hidden away, like the character type examined by Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar in their seminal book The Madwoman in the Attic (1979). Developing a "divided consciousness", she is passive and quiet at home, but at the same time is vengeful and murderous in the fairy land.

Englishness
Clarke's book is identified as distinctively English not only because of its style but also because of its themes of "vigorous common sense", "firm ethical fiber", "serene reason and self-confidence", which are drawn from its Augustan literary roots. The "muddy, bloody, instinctual spirit of the fairies" is equally a part of its Englishness, along with "arrogance, provincialism and class prejudice". The fairy tradition that Clarke draws on is particularly English; she alludes to tales from children's literature and others which date back to the medieval period. As Feeley notes, "The idea of fairies forming a hidden supernatural aristocracy certainly predates Spenser and Shakespeare, and seems to distinguish the English tales of wee folk from those of Scotland and Ireland." In these medieval English stories, the fairies are depicted as "capricious, inconsistent in their attitude toward humankind, [and] finally unknowable", characteristics which Clarke integrates into her own fairies. Clarke notes in an interview that she drew the idea of unpredictable, amoral fairies from the works of Neil Gaiman.

In an interview with Locus, Clarke explains why and how she integrated the theme of "Englishness" into Jonathan Strange: "I wanted to explore my ideas of the fantastic, as well as my ideas of England and my attachment to English landscape. ... Sometimes it feels to me as though we don't have a fable of England, of Britain, something strong and idealized and romantic. I was picking up on things like Chesterton and Conan Doyle, and the sense (which is also in Jane Austen) of what it was to be an English gentleman at the time when England was a very confident place". In particular, "it's the sort of Englishness which is stuffy but fundamentally benevolent, and fundamentally very responsible about the rest of the world", which connects Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes to Clarke's Jonathan Strange.

Historical otherness
Using techniques of the genre of alternative history, Clarke creates events and characters that would have been out of place in the early nineteenth century. She also explores the "silencing" of under-represented groups: women, people of colour, and poor whites. Both Strange and Norrell suppress the voices of these groups in their rise to power. Mr Norrell, for example, attempts to buy up all the books of magic in England to keep anyone else from acquiring their knowledge. He also barters away half of Emma Wintertowne's (Lady Pole's) life for political influence, a deal about which, due to an enchantment, she cannot speak coherently.

Clarke explores the limits of "English" magic through the characters of Stephen Black and Vinculus. As Clarke explains, "If you put a fairy next to a person who is also outside English society ... suddenly the fact that there is this alien race seems more believable, because you've got another alien and the two of them can talk about the English in this very natural way." The gentleman with the thistle-down hair idealizes Stephen as a noble savage and enslaves him by taking him to the Lost-Hope—like Lady Pole, Stephen is silenced. Both "suffer under a silencing spell that mimics gaps in the historical record". Furthermore, the gentleman's desire to acquire Stephen for his dancing hall is reminiscent of the objectification of black slaves in European society. Stephen vows to eternally hate all white men after he hears the circumstances of the death of his enslaved mother, but when the thistle-down haired gentleman kills the white Vinculus in front of Stephen, he weeps. Both Strange and Norrell see the essence of Englishness in the Raven King, a character who was raised by fairies and could not speak English. As Elizabeth Hoiem explains, "The most English of all Englishmen, then, is both king and slave, in many ways indistinguishable from Stephen Black. This paradox is what ultimately resolves the plot. When Strange and Norrell summon 'the nameless slave', the Raven King's powerful alliances with nature are transferred to Stephen Black, allowing Stephen to kill the Gentleman and free himself from slavery." In the end, it is Strange and Norrell who are trapped in everlasting darkness while the silenced women, people of colour, and poor whites defeat the antagonist.

Reception
To promote Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Bloomsbury—who also published the Harry Potter series—launched what The Observer called "one of the biggest marketing campaigns in publishing history". Their campaign included plans for newspaper serialisations, book deliveries by horse and carriage, and the placement of "themed teasers", such as period stationery and mock newspapers, in United States coffeeshops. 7,500 advance readers' copies were sent out, a limited number wrapped in paper and sealed with wax. These sold for more than US$100 each on eBay in England in the weeks leading up to publication. By 2005, collectors were paying hundreds of pounds for signed copies of a limited edition of the novel.

The book debuted at No. 9 on the New York Times Best Seller list, rising to No. 3 two weeks later. It remained on the list for eleven weeks. Four weeks after the book's initial publication, it was in Amazon's top ten. Clarke went on a 20-city tour to promote the novel, after its near-simultaneous publication in 20 countries. Endorsements from independent booksellers helped the book sell out its first printing; by the end of September 2004, it had gone through eight printings.

The novel met with "a crackle of favorable reviews in major papers". On Metacritic, the book received a 83 out of 100 based on 25 critic reviews. According to Book Marks, the book received "positive" reviews based on 12 critic reviews with 5 being "rave" and 2 being "positive" and 4 being "mixed" and 1 being "pan". The New Republic hailed it as "an exceptional work", both "thoughtful and irrepressibly imaginative". The Houston Chronicle described Clarke as "a superb character writer", and the Denver Post called her a "superb storyteller". The reviews praised Clarke's "deft" handling of the pastiche of styles, but many criticised the novel's pace, The Guardian complaining that "the plot creaks frightfully in many places and the pace dawdles". In his review for Science Fiction Weekly, Clute suggested that "almost every scene in the first 300 pages should have been carefully and delicately trimmed" (emphasis in original) since they do little to advance the story. He argued that, at times, Clarke's Austenesque tone gets in the way of plot development. On the other hand, The Baltimore Sun found the novel "a quick read". Complaining that the book leaves the reader "longing for just a bit more lyricism and poetry", The Washington Post reviewer noted, with others, that "sex plays virtually no role in the story ... [and] one looks in vain for the corruption of the innocent". The New Statesman reviewer, Amanda Craig, praised the novel as "a tale of magic such as might have been written by the young Jane Austen – or, perhaps, by the young Mrs Radcliffe, whose Gothic imagination and exuberant delicacy of style set the key." However, she also criticised the book: "As fantasy, it is deplorable, given that it fails to embrace the essentially anarchic nature of such tales. What is so wonderful about magicians, wizards and all witches other than Morgan le Fay is not just their magical powers, but that they possess these in spite of being low-born. Far from caring about being gentlemen, wizards are the ultimate expression of rank's irrelevance to talent". However, reviewers were not in universal agreement on any of these points. Maguire wrote in the New York Times:

"What keeps this densely realised confection aloft is that very quality of reverence to the writers of the past. The chief character in Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell isn't, in fact, either of the magicians: it's the library that they both adore, the books they consult and write and, in a sense, become. Clarke's giddiness comes from finding a way at once to enter the company of her literary heroes, to pay them homage and to add to the literature."

While promoting the novel, Neil Gaiman said that it was "unquestionably the finest English novel of the fantastic written in the last 70 years", a statement which has been read hyperbolically by Clute. However, Clute explains what Gaiman meant was that Jonathan Strange is "the finest English novel of the fantastic since Hope Mirrlees's great Lud-in-the-Mist (1926), which is almost certainly the finest English fantasy about the relationship between England and the fantastic yet published". Gaiman himself concurred with this view, stating that he had had Lud-in-the-Mist in mind when making his promotion and that, when asked about Tolkien's place in English fantasy, "I would explain that I did not, and do not, think of The Lord of the Rings as English fantasy but as high fantasy". Clute writes that "a more cautious claim" would be: "if Susanna Clarke finishes the story she has hardly begun in Strange ... she may well have then written the finest English novel of the fantastic about the myth of England and the myth of the fantastic and the marriage of the two ever published, bar none of the above, including Mirrlees."

Film
On 15 October 2004, New Line Cinema announced that it had bought a three-year option on the film rights to Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. Clarke received an undisclosed "seven-figure sum", making the deal "one of the biggest acquisitions of film rights for a book in recent years". New Line chose Christopher Hampton, whose adaptation of Dangerous Liaisons won an Academy Award, to write it; New Line executives Mark Ordesky and Ileen Maisel were overseeing the production. On 7 November 2005, The Daily Telegraph reported that Hampton had finished the first draft: "As you can imagine, it took a fair amount of time to work out some way to encapsulate that enormous book in a film of sensible length ... [b]ut it was lots of fun – and very unlike anything I have ever done before." At that time, no director or cast had yet been chosen. As of June 2006, Hampton was still working on the screenplay. Julian Fellowes then took over writing duties before the collapse of New Line Cinema.

Television
A seven-part adaptation of the book by the BBC began broadcast on BBC One on Sunday 17 May 2015. The book was adapted by Peter Harness, directed by Toby Haynes, and produced by Cuba Pictures and Feel Films. A number of co-producers joined the project, including BBC America, Screen Yorkshire, Space and Far Moor, and it is to be distributed by Endemol Worldwide Distribution.

Pre-production began in April 2013, and filming later in the year, including locations in Yorkshire and Canada.

Audio book
The 32-hour audio book of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell was released by Audio Renaissance in 2004. According to a review in The Boston Globe, reader Simon Prebble "navigates this production with much assuredness and an array of accents. ... Prebble's full voice is altered to a delicate softness for young ladies of a certain breeding, or tightened to convey the snarkiness often heard in the costive Norrell." Prebble interrupts the main text to read the footnotes, announcing them with the word footnote. According to the AudioFile review, the "narrative flow suffers" because of these interruptions and the reviewer recommends listening "with text in hand". Each note is on its own track, so listeners have the option of skipping them without missing text from the main narrative. When doing public readings, Clarke herself skips the notes.

Sequel
In 2004, Clarke mentioned that she was working on a book that begins a few years after Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell ends, intended to centre on characters such as Childermass and Vinculus who, as Clarke says, are "a bit lower down the social scale". She commented in 2005 and 2007 that progress on the book had been slowed by her ill health. In 2006 it was reported that she suffered from chronic fatigue syndrome, although she has since received a wide assortment of diagnoses. In promotional interviews for her second novel, Piranesi, she commented that her illness would have made the effort required to research and write another book of the same scope "insurmountable" even when partially recovered, and that she had instead devoted her time to an older, "much more feasible" idea, which became Piranesi. The sequel, she said, is "a long way off":

"I think it may be a feature with chronic fatigue that you become incapable of making decisions. I found it impossible to decide between one version of a sentence and another version, but also between having the plot go in this direction and having it go in that direction. Everything became like uncontained bushes, shooting out in all directions. That's the state that the sequel to Jonathan Strange is in. It's almost like a forest now."

title: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell


text:
Janel Moloney

Janel Moloney (born October 3, 1969) is an American actress, best known for her role as Donna Moss on the television series The West Wing, a role for which she received nominations for Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2002 and 2004. From 2014 to 2017, she starred on the HBO drama The Leftovers.

Television
Her early work included television guest roles on ER, Sports Night, The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr., and Murder, She Wrote. Starting in 1999, Moloney had a main role on The West Wing as Donna Moss, beginning as an assistant to Deputy White House Chief of Staff Josh Lyman (Bradley Whitford) before pursuing further ambitions in the next election. Moloney was originally credited only as a guest star, but she appeared in every episode of the first season. From the second season onward, Moloney was listed in the main credits. Moloney has received two Emmy Award nominations, one in 2002 and one in 2004, for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama.

Moloney appeared in the television film Bang Bang You're Dead with Thomas Cavanagh and Randy Harrison, which was first broadcast on October 13, 2002, on Showtime. She played the part of Amber Frey in the made-for-TV movie Amber Frey: Witness for the Prosecution, broadcast May 25, 2005 on CBS. In 2007, Moloney played Dana Chase, who has a relationship with Tommy Caffee (Jason Clarke) in six episodes of the second season of Brotherhood.

In 2008, Moloney appeared in one episode ("It's a Wonderful Lie") of House M.D. In 2008, she guest-starred in an episode of 30 Rock. Moloney appeared in the 3rd installment of the Lstudio.com web series Puppy Love.

In 2009, she appeared in the US series Life on Mars as Professor Pat Olsen in the episode "Revenge of the Broken Jaw". She also appeared in the episode "Faithfully" of Law & Order: Criminal Intent as Allison Wyler.

Theatre
In 2007, Moloney made her Off-Broadway stage debut as Theresa in the Playwrights Horizons production 100 Saints You Should Know, written by Kate Fodor and directed by Ethan McSweeny. She appeared in the Off-Broadway play Love, Loss, and What I Wore in September through October 2, 2011.

Film
Moloney starred in the 2010 feature film Armless, as Anna. She made a brief appearance as Earlene in the 1995 Walter Hill directed western Wild Bill, and appears in the 2013 film Concussion.

Personal life
Moloney has a son, Julius, with composer Marcelo Zarvos.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Janel Moloney


text:
Column (database)

In a relational database, a column is a set of data values of a particular type, one value for each row of a table. A column may contain text values, numbers, or even pointers to files in the operating system. Columns typically contain simple types, though some relational database systems allow columns to contain more complex data types, such as whole documents, images, or even video clips. A column can also be called an attribute.

Each row would provide a data value for each column and would then be understood as a single structured data value. For example, a database that represents company contact information might have the following columns: ID, Company Name, Address Line 1, Address Line 2, City, and Postal Code. More formally, a row is a tuple containing a specific value for each column, for example: (1234, 'Big Company Inc.', '123 East Example Street', '456 West Example Drive', 'Big City', 98765).

Field
The word 'field' is normally used interchangeably with 'column'. However, database perfectionists tend to favor using 'field' to signify a specific cell of a given row. This is to enable accuracy in communicating with other developers. Columns (really column names) being referred to as field names (common for each row/record in the table). Then a field refers to a single storage location in a specific record (like a cell) to store one value (the field value). The terms record and field come from the more practical field of database usage and traditional DBMS system usage (This was linked into business like terms used in manual databases e.g. filing cabinet storage with records for each customer). The terms row and column come from the more theoretical study of relational theory.

Another distinction between the terms 'column' and 'field' is that the term 'column' does not apply to certain databases, for instance key-value stores, that do not conform to the traditional relational database structure.

title: Column (database)


text:
John Crawford Brown

John Crawford Brown ARSA (1805 – 8 May 1867) was a Scottish landscape painter.

Life
He was born in Glasgow and resided in London for some time after travelling in the Netherlands and Spain. He then returned to his native city, before settling in Edinburgh.

He was an associate of the Royal Scottish Academy. His picture 'The Last of the Clan' was engraved by W. Richardson for the Royal Association of Fine Arts, Scotland, in 1851.

In 1833, he exhibited at the Royal Academy, No. 278, 'A Scene on the Ravensbourne, Kent'; at this period he resided at 10 Robert Street, Chelsea. He also exhibited two other landscapes in this same year at the British Institution and the Suffolk Street Exhibition.

Crawford lived at 10 St Vincent Street in Edinburgh's Second New Town.

He died in Edinburgh on 8 May 1867. He is buried with his wife, Margaret Strang, and children in Warriston Cemetery in the north of the city. The granite tombstone is vandalised. It lies close to the now sealed eastern entrance gate on the south side of the main east–west path.

Family
He was married to Margaret Strang.

Their eldest daughter Margaret Pollok Brown (d.1917) married David Currie of HM Customs.

Known works
see
 * Shipwrecked
 * Return from Waterloo

title: John Crawford Brown


text:
Haltdalen

Haltdalen is a village in Holtålen municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. The village is located along the river Gaula, about 15 km northwest of the village of Renbygda and about 7 km southwest of the village of Aunegrenda. The village of Haltdalen has approximately 600 inhabitants (2004). It is situated along the Rørosbanen railway line connecting the town of Røros and the village of Støren.

From 1838 until 1972, the village was the administrative centre of the old municipality of Haltdalen. Haltdalen is known for the old Haltdalen Stave Church that was built in the 12th century. The original can be seen at the Trøndelag Folkemuseum at Sverresborg in Trondheim. In 2004, a copy of the old stave church was constructed on the grounds of the Haltdalen Church. Also, a replica of the Haltdalen stave church was built in Heimaey in Vestmannaeyjar, Iceland as a gift from Norway to Iceland. Haltdalen-Røros-Brekken is home to the Haltdalen Training Center, which is used as a training camp for cold-weather warfare by Norwegian and American forces.

title: Haltdalen


text:
Hinotori

Hinotori (Japanese for Phoenix) may refer to:

 * Hinotori (satellite), an astronomical satellite
 * Hinotori (video game), a 1987 video game
 * Hino Tori, a manga series by Osamu Tezuka
 * The brand name of the Kintetsu 80000 series train type
 * "HINOTORI", a song by Takanashi Kiara from Hololive English from her album Point of View

title: Hinotori


text: Category:Competitive dance

title: Category:Competitive dance


text:
Jack and Jill (dance)

Jack and Jill is a format of competition in partner dancing, where the competing couples are the result of random matching of leaders and followers. Rules of matching vary.

The name and format were created by Jack Carey at Hank & Stans in Norwalk, California in the early 1950s to encourage a variety of dancers to enter competitions. The gender-ambiguous term Pat and Chris has been used, particularly in LGBT dance venues, to refer to events where the gender of lead and follow isn't specified. In the swing dance community, the name Mix & Match (M&M) is now used as a gender-neutral, more inclusive name.

In dance competitions J&J is included as a separate division (or divisions, with additional gradations). J&J is popular at Swing conventions, as well as at ballroom dance competitions in the US.

J&J competitions are intended to test social dance skills, whereas fixed partner "showcase" competitions test performance dance skills.

Rules
Rules vary, depending on country and dance style.

In the UK, it is normal to randomly assign fixed couples, and then keep those couples fixed throughout the competition (for example, if there are multiple rounds). Thus, the winner is largely decided by luck of the draw, with the winning couple often being regular dance partners who were lucky enough to be paired together. As a result, DWAS (Dance With A Stranger) competitions are not taken as seriously as fixed partner competitions.

In the US, Jack & Jill contests are extremely popular in the national West Coast Swing and Lindy Hop communities. Rules vary in events across the country but three rules seem to be standard in most Jack & Jill contests: 1) no choreography is allowed, 2) no costumes are allowed, and 3) no lifts or drops are allowed.  However, at the Champion or Invitational level, event organizers will occasionally opt for an "anything goes" Jack & Jill in which no rules apply. Music for each dance is selected at random without the participants' prior knowledge, though some competitions will allow them to select the tempo (speed) or a sub-style within their dance's music (e.g. Blues or contemporary within West Coast Swing).

Although it is not the case in every Jack & Jill contest, it is somewhat typical for dancers to be judged individually, then dancers who make any elimination rounds redraw for new partners. Depending on rules specific to the event/competition, a Jack & Jill competitor may or may not be allowed to dance with their regular competition partner (one that they compete with in a choreographed division). At some events/competitions they are required to redraw; and some events that don't have the redraw rule give dancers the option to decline if they draw their regular competition partner but do not require them to do so. Some dancers who draw their regular [choreographed division] partner see this "luck" as more of a competition handicap, feeling that the crowd and possibly the judges will more closely scrutinize them, expecting even more of their competition performance than competitors who do not draw their regular partners.

One of the key elements of a Jack & Jill contest in the US West Coast Swing and Lindy Hop communities is the element of improvisation, which is why choreography is not allowed. This improv-based feature can prove to be extremely entertaining as dancers try to coordinate dancing with this new partner while dancing to the specific characteristics of a random song or "expressing musicality". Since the spirit of improvisation can possibly be dampened by the dancers having drawn their partner, it is often more difficult for the dancers to perform to the expectations of the spectators and the judges. Some dancers, however, are able to perform at or above the expectations depending on various factors, usually unpredictable factors such as the song, the consistency of the dance floor, or even just the simple factor of how they feel at that particular time. This can be compared to the American football adage "(on) Any Given Sunday".

title: Jack and Jill (dance)


text:
Talk:Amarna letters

Untitled

 * 24 of which have been recovered since the Norweigan Assyriologist J.A. Knudtzon's landmark edition, Die El-Amarna Tafeln (vol. 1 Leipzig, 1907; vol.2 Leipzig, 1915).

I do not understand this sentence. Burschik 07:28, 5 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * Fair enough. I revised it to this: "The known tablets currently total 382 in number, 24 further tablets having been recovered since the Norwegian Assyriologist J.A. Knudtzon's landmark edition of the Amarna correspondence, Die El-Amarna Tafeln in two volumes, (1907 and 1915)." Easier to chew? ;) Wetman 07:39, 5 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Enthusiastic new edits
I don't know how to revise the rash of new edits from User:172.155.0.29 into neutral encyclopedic tone tied to some references without hurting feelings. It has to be accomplished somehow. --Wetman 04:01, 26 August 2005 (UTC)
 * I've moved them out of the introduction - I'm not sure how much they actually add to the article though! Markh 17:02, August 26, 2005 (UTC)

 * I have deleted all of the newly added paragraphs. I understand that it would be best to try and integrate them, but, having read them, I feel there is nothing worthwhile in the text. Oswax 14:23, 22 September 2005 (UTC)

This article gives the reign of Akhenaton/Amenhotep IV as 1369-1353 BC. However, it says the letters also encompass Amenhotep III's reign. When I link to Amenhotep III, his reign overlaps the time that A IV supposedly reigned. Specifically, A III's reign is given as 1389-1351 BC or 1391-1353 BC. Please make Wikipedia more internally coherent. Someone (with a lot of ambition/time) may want to review all the dates given for the reigns of different pharaohs.
 * Sadly different chronologies (long/middle/short) have been used for different articles in wikipedia. It needs much work to get them together. That academic opinions on the chronologies are always changing does not help matters. Oswax 13:03, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

Abbreviations
I've seen a number of articles use the abbreviation "EA" in referring to documents from the Amarna Letters, but nowhere is this terminology explained. I would add this explanation myself, but at the moment I'm at work & don't have the necessary books at hand. -- llywrch 16:55, 7 February 2006 (UTC)

 * EA is for "Tell el-Amarna". (However, the British Museum also numbers its museum items  "EA".)    The Amarna Letters are EA 1 thru EA 382, "el Amarna" 1, etc.   --MMcAnnis,YumaAZMmcannis 04:15, 10 February 2006 (UTC)

 * I wasn't asking for an explanation for my use: I have the books at home with the answer. I was asking that an explanation be added to the article, hopefully one based on a quotable source. I only noticed this oversight in the article because I was away from my library, & I consulted this article in search for a quick answer. -- llywrch 04:54, 10 February 2006 (UTC)

 * I understand; I see now what you meant.-MichaelMcAMmcannis 21:43, 10 February 2006 (UTC)

Possible scope issue
Hello Wetman and others, I see the article currently is planning a summary of all the letters, presumably all 300+ of them. I just wonder if this really is something Wikipedia should undertake, especially since a link to a summary is included under external links. I'm sure it is not beyond Wikipedia but it might be beyond this article. I'm only proposing the questions, is it desirable and is this the place?Dave 16:15, 24 March 2007 (UTC)

 * If you only knew how important each letter is... and how it interwikis to other people and events, and placenames. When EA26 says: "and to address this hurdle of the messengers", and the word 'hurdle' is the word for mountain, ...It is all about "words", and the phrases, idioms, and the actual  'Soap–opera Events'  involved with each letter. "MyOpinion"..from the SonoranDesert of AZ,usa ..-Mmcannis 03:26, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

 * And this Period, is one important "nodal point" for linking other events. Hasn't anyone noticed that the Hapiru, disappear, and then the history of Judaism, and the bible begins? ..SonDesert ..-Mmcannis 03:26, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

Map must be changed
Doesnt represent its era, crete was center of a seperate civilisation Minoan unrelated with greeks probably close to luwians, Greeks invaded the island after the Troyan catastrophe. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Doganaktas (talk • contribs) 21:39, 26 April 2008 (UTC)
 * Uhm, no. By the mid-14th century BC, the Mycenaean Greek invasion of Crete had already taken place. There is no single historical "Trojan catastrophe". Troy VII postdates the 14th century BC. --Florian Blaschke (talk) 16:26, 2 June 2014 (UTC)

Disposition of the letters today
This source [] doesn't match what the article says.

Change a link
In the intro the link from Amurru goes to the god not to the people. I'd change it if I knew how but beg ignorance. Nitpyck (talk) 00:14, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

Mitanni king to Palestine kings
a little history revising here? I have come to believe from wikipedia itself that the name was coined in the first century by the romans please be conservative using potential plo soap 109.66.17.64 (talk) 09:12, 26 April 2010 (UTC)

Linguistic significance
The language of the Amarna letters is known among semitists for its coloring by many "Canaanisms", which have helped to shed invaluable light on the proto-stage of the Canaanite languages, including pre-biblical Hebrew. It would be useful to add a section on this topic to the page. Drabkikker (talk) 14:51, 19 March 2015 (UTC)

 * Added. Drabkikker (talk) 15:37, 19 March 2015 (UTC)

title: Talk:Amarna letters


text: Category:Dance technique

title: Category:Dance technique


text:
Talk:Shimabara Rebellion

Untitled
I have a question. Which chronology is right? I 've found this: http://www.keikyo.com/museums/museums/kumamoto/amakusa_shiro/

Oct. 24 Amakusa/Shimabara peasants' representatives convene a secret meeting on Yushima island (in modern Oyano Town); Amakusa Shiro is elected leader.

Oct. 25 Forceful uprising begins in Shimabara

Oct. 27 Forceful uprising begins in Amakusa Dec.5 Amakusa-Shimabara forces link up and occupy Harajo castle on the Shimabara peninsula

Dec. 20 40,000 men of the Shogunte army attack Harajo area and are beaten back

Jan. 1 Shogunate army again fails in an assault on the castle. Their Supreme Commander Shigemasa Itakura is killed in the battle

Jan. 4 Nobutsuna Matsudaira assumes command of the Shogunate forces

Jan. 13 Dutch ships commence firing on the castle

Feb. 27 Shogunate forces again lay siege to the castle

Feb. 28 Harajo falls to Shogunate forces

Picture Accurate?
There is a picture of beheaded jizos. Is this statue-beheading really from the rebellion in question? There are beheaded buddhist statues all over the Japan from the Meiji period when there was considerable anti-Buddhist vandalism and violence (in the name of Shinto and the splitting of Shinto and Buddhism)...what is the source of this?

Jizo
These may be the jizo statues located in one of the main temples of Shimabara City, which is where the sacking of the temples occurred in the riot shortly before the rebellion, as I understand it. However, historians have rightly pointed out that there were many periods of presecution of Buddhism in the area, which frequently led to the beheading of jizo. Beheaded jizo are scattered throughout the area, but many of them were not beheaded by Christians. So there is good reason to question this photo as long as its origin is not known.

On Chronologies
The chronology you have listed above is how the Japanese would write it according to the old calendar, which is about two months off from the modern one. April 11th is the actual date of the fall of Hara Castle according to the modern Gregorian calendar. The same day was the 28th day of the 2nd month according to the Japanese calendar of the time. Very often when the chronologies are translated straight from the Japanese the dates are not adjusted, which is terribly confusing to non-Japanese!

Criticism
Based on this article in the NYTimes: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/21/education/21wikipedia.html?_r=1&oref=slogin The Jesuits were not really supporting the rebellion. So I have put a citation needed there Londenp 10:21, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

 * Perhaps Prof. Neil Waters can come and fix up the article in the spirit of collaboration etc. - Tragic Baboon (banana receptacle) 12:04, 21 February 2007 (UTC)
 * He doesn't have to. He can still criticize and not contribute. --Jerome Potts 19:15, 25 February 2007 (UTC)

 * The Story seems to make its way around the globe.One of Germany's leading online magazins is featuring it as well Heise.de (German). --Nemissimo II 12:31, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

The offending sentence from the article was (now deleted):
 * ..the rebels themselves were backed by the foreign power of the Jesuits and the Roman Catholic Church.

which is in fact accurate, but ambiguous. The students at Middlebury took it to mean physical backing (troops, supplies, money, etc..) which is wrong - when the original author (I assume) meant it to mean the Jesuit's were "rooting" for the rebels to win (obviously). Just a case of poor writing on Wikipedia, but the facts were not wrong. With that said I support Prof. Neil Waters in not allowing Wikipedia, or any encyclopedia, to be cited by history students - professional historians don't cite encyclopedias. -- Stbalbach 05:19, 22 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Exceedingly poorly worded. "Backed by" implies something much stronger than moral support; and even if read as Stbalbach would read it, is fatally unambiguous and unsourced. (No, it isn't obvious that the Jesuits would be in favor of it; the result was in fact disastrous for Christianity in Japan, and they may have foreseen the consequences of defeat.) Septentrionalis PMAnderson 23:05, 22 February 2007 (UTC)
 * How is the removed sentence accurate if what you say is correct? The sentence asserts that the rebels were backed by the foreign power of the Jesuits.  If the students at Middlebury took that to mean physical backing rather than "rooting for,", they have successfully mastered logical implications and the English language.  There's no plausible argument that foreign power means "rooting for," rather than using actual power.  What is power? 67.184.178.2 06:20, 23 February 2007 (UTC)
 * That is a good point. I didn't write it originally, and can only speculate on what the original author intended to mean - since we know it was poorly worded to begin with, we can't assume they used the word "power" correctly either (literally or analogous). I supposed we could look through the archives and track down who wrote it and try and find out. -- Stbalbach 15:17, 23 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Professional historians don't cite general encyclopedias because you cannot plagiarize "common knowledge" -- which most authorities define as information you could find in a general encyclopedia. As long as you aren't quoting verbatim, you don't have to cite general encyclopedias. However, the question of whether Wikipedia is a bona-fide "general encyclopedia" is up for debate, both because its content isn't traditionally vetted, and because it covers some topics in much greater detail than a normal encyclopedia would. There is, therefore, no compelling reason why a ban on citing general encyclopedias should apply to Wikipedia as well. Solemnavalanche 23:07, 25 February 2007 (UTC)

I find it difficult to understand why a professional who makes his living by disseminating his knowledge would want put his effort to edit at a place like here. Everything you put in here become GFDL. You can't even quote it as your own work once you do that. That's fine for amateurs, but what incentive does the professional have for such a "collaboration"?--75.28.163.95 05:24, 23 February 2007 (UTC)
 * See Professional amateur for a good explanation of the phenomenon behind Wikipedia, and the relationship between amateurs and professionals. Also recommend this excellent article on how amateurs and professionals (historians) can collaborate and benefit all.  -- Stbalbach 15:17, 23 February 2007 (UTC)
 * The Professional amateur article doesn't seem relevant here. It's about hobbyists (albeit ones doing high-quality work); User:75.28.163.95 was talking about professionals. 165.123.89.237 18:42, 23 February 2007 (UTC)
 * User:Stbalbach was talking about professional amateurs, not professionals, as being the phenomenon behind Wikipedia. -- Stbalbach 21:41, 23 February 2007 (UTC)
 * One incentive for a professional is that he or she can (and should!) cite his or her own published work in the article. 68.115.172.154 16:05, 24 February 2007 (UTC)Mike
 * That is against Wikipedia policy, it is considered self promotion. If your looking for a monetary incentive than Wikipedia is not the place. Articles written on Wikipedia get more exposure and readers than most published books because of the Google search factor. If you write a really good quality article it will in time reward you indirectly in any number of ways. -- Stbalbach 16:13, 24 February 2007 (UTC)
 * One should be careful when citing one's own work (and expect to have the contribution vetted) but it would be absurd to prevent experts from contributing from their own work. --17:04, 24 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Interesting! So, if I'm understanding this correctly, Wikipedia policy would prohibit, let say, Noam Chomsky from adding to an article on Linguistics and citing one of his own peer-reviewed publications? That's much more stringent than scientific journals where authors frequently reference their prior work. No wonder it's hard to get professionals to contribute. 68.115.172.154 17:16, 24 February 2007 (UTC) Mike
 * This isn't the policy at all. From the conflict of interest guidelines:
 * You may cite your own publications just as you'd cite anyone else's, but make sure your material is relevant and that you're regarded as a reliable source for the purposes of Wikipedia. Be cautious about excessive citation of your own work, which may be seen as promotional or a conflict of interest. When in doubt, discuss on the talk page whether or not your citation is an appropriate one, and defer to the community's opinion.
 * Cmprince 19:17, 24 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Sorry my mis-understanding, thanks for the correction.  -- Stbalbach 20:17, 24 February 2007 (UTC)
 * I'm a professional (not on Japan) and I work on Wikipedia because I like to correct other people – oops, scratch that; because I like to publicize worthwhile ideas. And correct people.  And it's fun to explain things.  People have all kinds of incentives besides self-aggrandizement. – Zaslav 09:50, 25 February 2007 (UTC)

Jesuits?!
"And yes, back at Wikipedia, the Jesuits are still credited as supporting the Shimabara Rebellion."

Why hasn't it been changed? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.0.152.205 (talk) 15:22, 23 February 2007 (UTC).

 * Please quote from the article any concerns you have. -- Stbalbach 15:34, 23 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Or to be clearer; it was changed almost as soon as the NYTimes article was published; we didn't catch it before that (which is what the Times means). One editor reverted, once, and was counter-reverted. Septentrionalis PMAnderson 18:29, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

You aren't finished yet. What kind of a nonsense sentence is this, in the first paragraph overall??

"Both areas had been under heavy Jesuit missionary activity during the previous Christian daimyo Konishi Yukinaga."

This is illiterate, and does nothing to clarify what Jesuit involvement may have been. How many Jesuits were even there? Mr. So 21:15, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

"We need to edit the new york times."

Why, because the NYT is wrong? No, sorry, Wikipedia is wrong and undoubtedly will be again - when one of the numbnuts students who uses it as a source (despite the clear indications that that it should not be used as such) decides to "correct" this entry. Ianbetteridge 22:41, 23 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Yes, the NYT is often wrong, thats why they have a 'corrections' department

Thought I would simply add that the NYT article and the phenomena of Wikipedia itself, call into question the concept of truth and knowledge. On the whole, it seems we are in the midst of a movement that is altering the way people seek truth and by doing so, we alter the truth itself. The idea of a collaborative internet Encyclopedia creates additional levels of responsibility and moral choice that do not exist with simply bound book encyclopedias. It is incredible, but always requires close attention.

For the person that wrote the paragraph directly above this one- I would have to disagree with your assertion that "Thought I would simply add that the NYT article and the phenomena of Wikipedia itself, call into question the concept of truth and knowledge." The people criticizing Wikipedia, for the most part, say it is inaccurate in its facts not in its portrayal of reality, or truth. There is only one truth, yet many ways of looking at it. Incorrectly citing historical facts, is not truth- it is just plain false.

We need to edit the new york times.

Here is the article in question: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/21/education/21wikipedia.html?em&ex=1172379600&en=ad418204e5130dd2&ei=5087%0A Given how clearly it shows a fault in this article, as well as highlighting the good and bad of wikipedia's nature, this entire article should be sourced. Rapidly. ThuranX 01:11, 24 February 2007 (UTC)

 * wow. That's fast. I just read the article on NYT and it's already been mentioned here __earth (Talk) 03:27, 25 February 2007 (UTC)

Reassessment
Re: this NYT article

It is not clear that the Wikipedia article was incorrect. In all likelihood not only were "foreign" Jesuits present, there were Japanese converts ordained as Jesuit priests or in lay roles. For example, "In Japan, confrarias [communities] were established shortly after the Jesuits arrived; in the long years of persecution and isolation they functioned as underground cells of Japanese Christians, sustaining their faith, while their leaders acted as lay pastors …"[http://www.jesuit.org/sections/sub.asp?SECTION_ID=194&SUBSECTION_ID=548&PARENT_ID=489#notes

Jesuits functioned in secular roles. "…the Society of Jesus would prove to be the main protagonists in ensuring the continuance of Portuguese interests in Japan. This was achieved both by means of their role in overseeing the commerce between Macau and Nagasaki, as well as by the fact that they were an indispensable element in the integration of Japan into the Portuguese Padroado in the East." http://cham.fcsh.unl.pt/engl/bulletin2_e.htm

The Jesuit secular roles included technology transfer in fields such as printing and, notably, artillery. "…the Jesuits introduced …Western Style Artillery in the 1580’s. Projectile incendiary mortar shells rendered all previously constructed Japanese military fortifications obsolete. http://www.columbia.edu/itc/ealac/V3613/overview/html/foreigners.html

Assessment

The Shimabara Rebellion was the last major event in the rise and fall of Christianity in medieval Japan. Any Jesuits alive in Japan at the time of the last major rebellion almost certainly were with their flock and supported them with whatever resources they could. Whether Jesuits (or lay participants) smuggled in weapons or other materials from Macau during the months of the rebellion itself as opposed to long before is an open question, but clearly they had brought in weaponry and other material of war. Whether Jesuits were present in sufficient numbers and did enough to justify the statement that the rebels were "backed by the foreign power of the Jesuits and the Roman Catholic Church" depends on interpretation and is far from being an egregious error. The students at Middlebury perhaps deserve a recount. Fultonwilcox 15:48, 26 February 2007 (UTC)

Changes posted without sources
Hello! I've made a lot of changes to the page today. Sources are forthcoming. In the meantime, if you feel compelled to revert, please make sure to bring it up for discussion first.

The Kakure Christians, incidentally, are a totally separate sect that spun off of the original underground Christians. They were so isolated from the other Christian communities and became so esoteric in their practices that they evolved into a different religion from what they started with. They were mostly located several hours north of the Shimabara area. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Yazuzazu (talk • contribs) 04:45, 16 September 2007

Reworking in progress
Just thought I'd post here and indicate that I am presently in the process of translating content from the Japanese article on the rebellion, and also inserting sources where possible. This article really needs to be seriously reworked, and I'd like to do my part. -Tadakuni 02:03, 7 November 2007 (UTC)
 * I'm almost done reworking the article. Anyone care to give it a preliminary review? -Tadakuni 03:25, 7 November 2007 (UTC)

Shimabara vs. Shimbara
I have seen just about everywhere that Shimbara Rebellion and Shimabara Rebellion are used as synonyms in both 'historical' sites and commercial ones and was wondering if either spelling is correct or if one is preferred over the other...if both are correct, perhaps it would be helpful to add "(also Shimbara)" to clear things up. Katlover86 (talk) 04:49, 3 May 2008 (UTC)
 * There's no such thing as a "Shimbara Rebellion." The Japanese kana syllabary system spells the name of the place out as shi-ma-ba-ra. There is no kana for "m". However, sometimes you might see m's where they don't belong, but because it makes it easier to pronounce in English (I guess), for example Tanba is sometimes written as "Tamba" in English, even though this is incorrect and in Japanese it is spelled Ta-n-ba. If this was the case, the "Shimbara" you mention would have to be "Shinbara," and there's no such thing as the Shinbara Rebellion. I chalk it up to misspelling, is all. -Tadakuni (talk) 20:45, 14 August 2008 (UTC)

Causalities?
The infobox states "1900 killed, 11000 wounded" for the shogunate. Both numbers appear to be unsourced, and Shimabara Rebellion mentions over 2000 killed on February 3, 1638 alone. My suspicion would be that the infobox is wrong, but I don't have a source to use in updating it. 16:59, 24 October 2016 (UTC)

Numbers
Infobox stated attackers strength as 200K while article itself stating 125K (Japanese article states 124, so it is probably a correct one), whatever is right it cannot be both, please fix it. Also, isn't professional armies at the time was pretty compact, around 25-30K? Pretty sure there wasn't any conscription from peasants until Meiji reforms. 176.116.142.150 (talk) 07:51, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

Rebel Death Toll
The info box said that the rebel death toll was 27,000+. However the source cited only gives the number 35,000-37,000. I have changed the number to 37,000. But both the body of the article and the source used for the infobox give the number 37,000 for the number beheaded after the rebellion, not the total number of rebels that died during the rebellion, which was presumably not zero. So we still the total number of rebels that died. My correction moves the number in the right direction, but is still not accurate LastDodo (talk) 09:55, 16 November 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Shimabara Rebellion


text:
Wet Tropics of Queensland

The Wet Tropics of Queensland World Heritage Site consists of approximately 8,940 km2 of Australian wet tropical forests growing along the north-east Queensland portion of the Great Dividing Range. The Wet Tropics of Queensland meets all four of the criteria for natural heritage for selection as a World Heritage Site. World Heritage status was declared in 1988, and on 21 May 2007 the Wet Tropics were added to the Australian National Heritage List.

The tropical forests have the highest concentration of primitive flowering plant families in the world. Only Madagascar and New Caledonia, due to their historical isolation, have humid, tropical regions with a comparable level of endemism.

The Wet Tropics rainforests are recognised internationally for their ancient ancestry and many unique plants and animals. Many plant and animal species in the Wet Tropics are found nowhere else in the world. The Wet Tropics has the oldest continuously surviving tropical rainforests on earth.

Indigenous Peoples
On 9 November 2012, the Australian Government also acknowledged the Indigenous heritage of the area as being nationally significant. The Aboriginal Rainforest People of the Wet Tropics of Queensland have lived continuously in the rainforest environment for at least 5000 years, and this is the only place in Australia where Aboriginal people have permanently inhabited a tropical rainforest environment.

Geography
The Wet Tropics of Queensland stretches in part from Townsville to Cooktown, running in close parallel to the Great Barrier Reef (another World Heritage Site).

The terrain is rugged. The Great Dividing Range and a number of small coastal ranges, highlands, tablelands, foothills and an escarpment dominate the landscape.

The heritage site contains the northern section of the Queensland tropical rain forests including the Daintree Rainforest. 16 different structural types of rainforest have been identified.

The World Heritage area includes Australia's highest waterfall, Wallaman Falls. In total it spans 13 major river systems including the Annan, Bloomfield, Daintree, Barron, Mulgrave, Russell, Johnstone, Tully, Herbert, Burdekin, Mitchell, Normanby and Palmer River. Copperlode Falls Dam, Koombooloomba Dam and Paluma Dam are found within the World Heritage Area.

Protected areas
15% of the area is protected as national park. Among the national parks included within the Wet Tropics are: and over 700 protected areas including privately owned land.
 * Barron Gorge National Park
 * Kalkajaka National Park
 * Cedar Bay National Park
 * Daintree National Park
 * Girramay National Park
 * Girringun National Park
 * Kirrama National Park
 * Kuranda National Park
 * Macalister Range National Park
 * Wooroonooran National Park

The Wet Tropics Management Authority was established in 1983; it is responsible for managing the site according to Australia's obligations under the World Heritage Convention. The agency employed 20 staff in 2012 as a unit within the Department of Environment and Heritage Protection. It is headed by a board of directors responsible to the Wet Tropics Ministerial Council which contains both Queensland and Federal Government representatives.

Flora
The site contains many unique features such as over 390 rare plant species, which includes 74 species that are threatened. There are at least 85 species that are endemic to the area, 13 different types of rainforest and 29 species of mangrove, which is more than anywhere else in the country. Of the 19 families of primitive flowering plants worldwide, 12 are found in the Wet Tropics including two families found nowhere else. This includes at least 50 individual species which are endemic to the area.

90 species of orchids have been noted. The large rare trees Stockwellia or Vic Stockwell's Puzzle Stockwellia quadrifida (Myrtaceae) grow only in restricted areas of "well developed upland rain forest" in the Wet Tropics. They continue living today as descendants of, and very similar to, the ancient Gondwanan fossil species considered one of the Eucalypts' fossil ancestors, which diversified into so many different species forms of all the Eucalypt plants today. 65% of Australia's fern species are protected here, including all seven of the ancient fern species.

Fauna
370 species of bird have been recorded in the area. 11 species of those are found nowhere else.

The southern cassowary and rare spotted-tailed quoll are some of the many threatened species, while the musky rat-kangaroo is one of 50 animal species that are unique to this area. The musky rat-kangaroo is significant because it represents an early stage in the evolution of kangaroos. Other rare animals include the yellow-bellied gliders and brush-tailed bettong. 107 mammal species have been identified. Australia's rarest mammal, the insectivorous Flores tube-nosed bat (Murina florium), is also found here. One quarter of Australia's rodent species are found within the Wet Tropics.

113 species of reptiles including 24 endemic species are found in the area and there are 51 amphibian species, of which 22 are endemic. One reason for the very high level of endemism is that the geomorphology is diverse, resulting in habitat islands where distinct subspecies have evolved. Some species are endemic to a specific mountain or groups of mountains.

Around 225 species of butterflies have been discovered in the area, with six endemic species and 14 endemic subspecies. It constitutes approximately 57% of the entire Australian butterfly fauna.

Climate
Rainfall in the area varies considerably, with elevation and orientation of the coastline being the major influences. Rainfall averages from 1,200 millimetres (mm) to over 8,000 mm annually. The highest mountains along the escarpment between Cairns and Tully receive the highest rainfall, mainly owing to orographic factors. Mount Bellenden Ker is the wettest recording station in the area with other high peaks and eastern slopes favouring high rainfall. Most of the rainfall occurs from November to April. Tropical cyclones may impact the area.

Environmental threats
The expansion of the sugarcane industry in lowland plains poses a significant threat to some endangered ecosystems. Some are fragmented and their natural vegetation is degraded. Invasive pest species are another concern along with internal fragmentation by road and power lines. Insect and mite species are of particular concern because some of them are hard to detect. Some areas are off-limits to the general public to prevent the introduction of Phytophthora. The southern cassowary is often killed by motor vehicles.

title: Wet Tropics of Queensland


text:
Wāpuro rōmaji

, or kana spelling, is a style of romanization of Japanese originally devised for entering Japanese into word processors (ワードプロセッサー) while using a Western QWERTY keyboard.

In Japanese, the more formal name is, literally "Roman character kana conversion". One conversion method has been standardized as JIS X 4063:2000 (Keystroke to KANA Transfer Method Using Latin Letter Key for Japanese Input Method); however, the standard explicitly states that it is intended as a means of input, not as a method of romanization.

Wāpuro rōmaji is now frequently employed in general-purpose computer input as well as word processing, but the name lives on. Wāpuro-style romanizations are also frequently used by native speakers of Japanese in informal contexts, as well as by many fans of anime and other aspects of Japanese culture. A common characteristic of these (often online) cases is the avoidance of hard-to-type circumflexes or macrons. Also, some ambiguities in spelling may exist. Spellings are seen that would fail to produce the desired kana when typed on a computer, for example failure to distinguish between ず (properly entered as "zu") and づ (properly entered as "du").

Spelling conventions
In practice, there are as many variants of wāpuro rōmaji as there are manufacturers of word processing and IME software. Many aspects of Hepburn, Kunrei and Nihon-shiki romanizations are accepted, so that both si (Kunrei/Nihon-shiki) and shi (Hepburn) resolve to し. Some conventions, however, differ from standard romanizations:
 * Owing to the difficulty of entering diacritics like macrons or circumflexes with standard keyboards (as well as the ambiguity of ō, etc., which in Hepburn can represent either おう or おお) long vowels are almost universally entered following kana spelling rules; thus, kou for こう and koo for こお.
 * The Nihon-shiki forms of romanization take precedence over other romanizations. Thus du usually produces づ rather than どぅ.
 * Small kana can be entered by prefacing them with an x or l, e.g. xa for ぁ, or ltu for っ. This is commonly employed for modern katakana combinations like ティ, which would be entered texi, thi, or  t'i . However, on some systems l is treated the same as r when followed by a vowel or "y".
 * じゃ, じゅ and じょ may also be romanized as jya, jyu and jyo respectively. This matches the kana closely, but is used by neither Nihon-shiki/Kunrei (which would be zya, zyu, zyo) nor Hepburn (ja, ju, jo).
 * The Hepburn spelling tchi for っち may be rejected, and tti may be required instead.
 * The Hepburn spelling mma is likely to be rendered っま, not the intended んま (nma). This is not an issue for revised Hepburn, which eliminates the -mm- forms in favor of -nm-.
 * Moraic n, ん, can be entered as nn, n or  n' . While moraic n can be typed in simply as n in some cases, in other cases it is necessary to type in a non-ambiguous form to prevent the IME from interpreting the n as belonging to a kana from the na column (な na, に ni, ぬ nu, ね ne, の no).
 * Phonetic names can often be used for Japanese typographic symbols not found on standard keyboards. For example, in some IMEs ～ can be entered as nami (wave) or kara (from) and an ellipsis (...) can be entered as tenten (point point).

Phonetic accuracy
Unlike Kunrei and Hepburn, wāpuro style is based on a one-to-one transcription of the kana. Wāpuro thus does not represent some distinctions observed in spoken Japanese, but not in writing, such as the difference between (long vowel) and  (o+u). For example, in standard Japanese the kana おう can be pronounced in two different ways: as meaning "king" (王), and as  meaning "to chase" (追う). Kunrei and Hepburn spell the two differently as ô and ou, because the former is a long vowel while the latter has an o that happens to be followed by a u; however, wāpuro style simply transcribes the kana and renders them both as ou. Likewise, the irregularly spelled particles wa (は), e (へ) and o (を) must be entered as written (ha, he and wo respectively), not as pronounced (unlike Kunrei and Hepburn, which transcribe the pronunciation).

title: Wāpuro rōmaji


text:
David Hall (Australian politician)

David Robert Hall (5 March 1874 – 6 September 1945) was a politician and lawyer in New South Wales, Australia. He came from a political family which included Maggie Hall and he went to leading positions including Attorney General of New South Wales.

Life
Hall was born in Harrietville, Victoria. His sisters were Margaret Cable Hall who was known as Maggie, Jeanette and Marion and he had several brothers. His parents, Marion and Thomas had a guest house which was used for political meetings including a visit by Ramsay MacDonald.

He studied law at the University of Sydney before becoming a barrister in 1903. By that time, he had already become involved in state politics, having been elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly as the member for the rural electorate of Gunnedah in 1901.

Hall made a switch to federal politics at the 1906 election, contesting the House of Representatives seat of Werriwa for the Labor Party. He was successful, defeating Alfred Conroy, the sitting Free Trade Party member. Hall represented the electorate until 1912, when he resigned mid-term to return to State politics. At the subsequent by-election, the new Labor candidate, Benjamin Bennett, once again defeated Conroy.

On 2 April 1912 New South Wales Premier James McGowen appointed Hall to the Legislative Council and as Minister of Justice. Two days later he was also appointed Solicitor General. Hall moved to the Legislative Assembly when he won the seat of Enmore in December 1913, holding it until 1920. He was Attorney General between 1914 and 1919. Hall was Attorney General in the Holman Labor ministry from 1914 until November 1916 when Holman and his supporters, including Hall, were expelled from the Labor Party for supporting conscription. Holman continued as Premier with the support of the Liberal Reform Party, and Hall continued to be Attorney General, but was no longer Minister of Justice. In 1919 he became Minister for Housing and Vice-President of the Executive Council until February 1920.

Hall was appointed Agent-General for New South Wales in London in February 1920, but this appointment was cancelled in April by the incoming Storey Labor government.

Hall subsequently had a successful career as a solicitor and ran unsuccessfully for the United Australia Party in the Senate in 1937.

He died in Vaucluse on September 6, 1945.

title: David Hall (Australian politician)


text:
File:LouderThanBombs.jpg

Summary
Cover of The Smiths album Louder Than Bombs (1987).

title: File:LouderThanBombs.jpg


text:
User:Carl S Bj

Full name: Carl S. Bjurstedt Phone (+47) 71 69 61 24 home / 907 70 908 mobile / 71 69 92 33 work Born 1956

Biologist / plant physiologist by education, master degree 1988. Worked with local environmental management since then, except 2 years for Dovrefjell council, with management plan for Dovrefjell-Sunndalsfjella National Park and 2009 - end 2010 park manager / superintendent for Dovrefjell-Sunndalsfjella national park and secretary general for the Dovrefjell council. From 2011 back as environmental consultant in the municipality of Sunndal.

Broad outdoor life experience, formerly active in numerous NGOs on environmental issues.

Lives in municipality of Sunndal, Norway.

title: User:Carl S Bj


text:
Wide Awake (1998 film)

Wide Awake is a 1998 American comedy-drama film written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan and produced by Cathy Konrad and Cary Woods. The film stars Denis Leary, Dana Delany, Joseph Cross, and Rosie O'Donnell.

Plot
During his fifth grade year, ten-year-old Joshua A. Beal begins a personal search to find answers about life and death — a journey triggered by the passing of his beloved grandfather.

Josh attends Waldron Mercy Academy, a private Catholic boys' school in Philadelphia. He says that boys who wear a uniform do not smile much. His best friend Dave is often up to mischief, finding ways to cut class. Small for his age, he often gets picked on.

Very close to his grandfather, he misses him terribly. The adults in his world have not been able to convince him that he is in good hands, so he sets out on a personal mission to find God.

In their varying ways Josh is guided on his metaphorical journey by Dave and a Philadelphia Phillies-loving nun who teaches at Waldron. Dave creates a distraction so that Josh can sneak into the girls' school to meet the cardinal, who he hopes can help him with his faith. However, seeing him up close makes him see that he's a fragile old man. Josh tries to convince his family to travel to Rome over the winter break, but his parents quickly realise it's part of his quest for God and shoot down his proposal.

Hope, a girl who helps him in the girls' school, becomes Josh's first crush. They meet again at a boy's birthday party, and he confesses his feelings for her. Another day, when the boys' school is invited to watch a ceremony in which the girls' school offer flowers to the virgin, Hope gives her rose to Josh for his quest.

A series of events happen with Josh's classmates. One oddly kidnaps the school's framed portrait of the pope, his bully has to leave the school for insufficient funds, after getting stuck in a turnstile with Frank he finally agrees to spend time with him and Dave is diagnosed with epilepsy.

Cast
In addition, Julia Stiles appears as Neena Beal, while Michael Craig Bigwood plays the little boy who Joshua learns is an angel.

Production and release
The script was written in 1991. Shyamalan has described Wide Awake as a comedy that he hoped would also make people cry. While the film was completed in 1995, problems arose upon Shyamalan's submission of his final cut with Harvey Weinstein voicing his intentions to recut the film. Shyamalan and Rosie O'Donnell confronted Weinstein about his decision and the film was buried until 1998 when it was given a very limited release after Shyamalan's high profile sale of the spec script for The Sixth Sense.

Reception
Wide Awake received mixed reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a approval rating based on  reviews, with an average score of.

Awards and accolades
Wide Awake was nominated for "Best Family Feature – Drama" and "Best Performance in a Feature Film – Leading Young Actor" at the 1999 Young Artist Awards.

title: Wide Awake (1998 film)