Burial of the Rats pg 26
Added 2017-01-09 05:53:10 +0000 UTCJust how did Chauncey manage to not lose his hat thus far?
What do they say in screen/play writing? Something about if there's a gun used in the final act, it needs to be introduced in the first act? To be fair, hats were ubiquitous until fairly modern times, so I suppose this could be overlooked. A reader from a hundred years ago would just assume that everyone has a hat on.*
This is the page that got me up to my neck in researching the fashion of the day... I wanted to know that the hat I was putting on him was the appropriate one. The "boater" was very in vogue with the upper-class men of London around 1900, and would be considered appropriate wear for a wealthy, stylish british vacationer on a stroll. It would be some years before they became big in the states, and here be worn by all... not just the upper class. I could tell you a thing or two about the "homburg" as well, which was the big thing just prior to the boater and we today would probably confuse with a fedora.
*I would never wish reading Moby Dick upon anyone, because it is basically 3 books in one, alternating chapters. There's one third of the book that is an outstanding, exciting narrative, one third that's dull as dishwater, and another third that is a textbook about the intricacies of whaling. It seems totally anal and unnecessary when you are reading it, but it does also mean that someone could pick it up 500 years from now and know exactly what is going on, because Melville spells it out for you precisely. Compared to this, Stoker's writing in "Burial..." seems a bit lacking in consistency and continuity.
