On Wings of Song/Part Two - Revision history

Eb: /* Most of the village's former residents lived in Worry now */

2025-07-15T06:02:17Z

Most of the village's former residents lived in Worry now

← Older revision		Revision as of 00:02, 15 July 2025
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	=== Most of the village's former residents lived in Worry now ===		=== Most of the village's former residents lived in Worry now ===

	Worry seems to be a cross between several kinds of historical communities: a feudal estate, where Grandison Whiting is in effect the local government for the 500 tenants whose land he owns~~; a walled city~~; and the company towns that were common in early 20th century industry.		Worry seems to be a cross between several kinds of historical communities: a walled city; a feudal estate, where Grandison Whiting is in effect the local government for the 500 tenants whose land he owns; and the company towns that were common in early 20th century industry.

	=== His nose and forehead ... straight out of the most arrogantly lovely Ghirlandaio ===		=== His nose and forehead ... straight out of the most arrogantly lovely Ghirlandaio ===

Eb at 23:06, 25 January 2025

2025-01-25T23:06:48Z

Eb at 18:07, 24 January 2025

2025-01-24T18:07:25Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 12:07, 24 January 2025
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	The name of Grandison Whiting's neo-feudal estate is never explained, and could be assumed to refer generally to the anxieties that accompany money and power.		The name of Grandison Whiting's neo-feudal estate is never explained, and could be assumed to refer generally to the anxieties that accompany money and power.

	However... ''if'' it's a more specific joke or reference that Disch just didn't feel like unpacking (and I have no reason to think so, except that it would've been in character), then one possible candidate would be the saying "Worry is interest paid on trouble before it falls due," commonly misattributed to {{wp\|William Ralph Inge}}. Even though Inge wasn't the original author<ref>{{cite article\|author=Popik, Barry\|title=Worry is interest paid on trouble before it falls due\|url=https://barrypopik.com/blog/worry_is_interest_paid_on_trouble_before_it_falls_due\|publication=The Big Apple\|date=July 4, 2012\|accessed=January 4, 2025}} Garson O'Toole at ''[https://quoteinvestigator.com/2024/12/20/worry-debt/ Quote Investigator]'' adds more details; the misattribution was spread by ''Reader's Digest''.</ref>, Disch wouldn't necessarily have known that... and Inge would fit ~~very well not just~~ with Whiting's ~~Anglophilia~~, ~~but also with his~~ praise of inequality and ~~disdain for democracy~~. This is admittedly a stretch.		However... ''if'' it's a more specific joke or reference that Disch just didn't feel like unpacking (and I have no reason to think so, except that it would've been in character), then one possible candidate would be the saying "Worry is interest paid on trouble before it falls due," commonly misattributed to {{wp\|William Ralph Inge}}. Even though Inge wasn't the original author<ref>{{cite article\|author=Popik, Barry\|title=Worry is interest paid on trouble before it falls due\|url=https://barrypopik.com/blog/worry_is_interest_paid_on_trouble_before_it_falls_due\|publication=The Big Apple\|date=July 4, 2012\|accessed=January 4, 2025}} Garson O'Toole at ''[https://quoteinvestigator.com/2024/12/20/worry-debt/ Quote Investigator]'' adds more details; the misattribution was spread by ''Reader's Digest''.</ref>, Disch wouldn't necessarily have known that... and Inge would fit with Whiting's disdain for democracy, praise of inequality, and Anglophilia. The saying itself is normally understood to mean something like "don't bother worrying about things that may never happen"—but a cynical businessman like Whiting assumes trouble ''will'' fall due, and could regard worry as a prudent expense in advance. This is all admittedly a stretch.

	=== What Eisenstein had done for Stalin, what Riefenstahl had done for Hitler ===		=== What Eisenstein had done for Stalin, what Riefenstahl had done for Hitler ===

Eb: /* The Elmore Roller-Rink Roadhouse */

2025-01-23T20:45:29Z

The Elmore Roller-Rink Roadhouse

← Older revision		Revision as of 14:45, 23 January 2025
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	=== The Elmore Roller-Rink Roadhouse ===		=== The Elmore Roller-Rink Roadhouse ===

	{{wp\|Elmore, Minnesota}} is a very small town (slightly larger in 1979, but not much) that is right up against the state border to ~~Iowa~~.		{{wp\|Elmore, Minnesota}} is a very small town (slightly larger in 1979, but not much) that is right up against the state border to Iowa—about 30 miles from Disch's childhood home of {{wp\|Fairmont, Minnesota\|Fairmont}}.

	[[File:OWOS-rink-club.jpg\|thumb\|right\|300px\|The Rush in Cottage Grove, MN, circa 2007—example of a former roller rink that went through many changes<ref>{{cite article\|author=Shaw, Bob\|date=February 6, 2015\|title=‘The Rush’ is over: Cottage Grove to demolish former nightclub\|url=https://www.twincities.com/2015/02/16/the-rush-is-over-cottage-grove-to-demolish-former-nightclub/\|publication=Twin Cities Pioneer Press}}</ref>]] The Roadhouse here is described as having once been a roller rink, "long ago", which makes it sound like a reference to a real place Disch had seen; if so, it wasn't in the Elmore area, which as far as I can tell never had enough population to keep such a business active. But roller skating went through multiple periods of great popularity in the Midwest—not only in the disco era, but earlier in the 1880s—and it's natural for any building with a large central space to be repurposed for various uses over the years.<ref>{{cite article\|author=Millett, Larry\|title=One of the quirkiest buildings in downtown Minneapolis began as a roller rink\|url=https://www.startribune.com/one-of-the-quirkiest-buildings-in-downtown-minneapolis-began-as-a-roller-rink/572992342\|publication=The Minnesota Star-Tribune\|date=November 7, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite article\|title=Rink History: Minnesota\|url=https://rink-history.weebly.com/minnesota.html\|publication=International Roller Skating Rink History Foundation\|accessed=January 19, 2025}}</ref>		[[File:OWOS-rink-club.jpg\|thumb\|right\|300px\|The Rush in Cottage Grove, MN, circa 2007—example of a former roller rink that went through many changes<ref>{{cite article\|author=Shaw, Bob\|date=February 6, 2015\|title=‘The Rush’ is over: Cottage Grove to demolish former nightclub\|url=https://www.twincities.com/2015/02/16/the-rush-is-over-cottage-grove-to-demolish-former-nightclub/\|publication=Twin Cities Pioneer Press}}</ref>]] The Roadhouse here is described as having once been a roller rink, "long ago", which makes it sound like a reference to a real place Disch had seen; if so, it wasn't in the Elmore area, which as far as I can tell never had enough population to keep such a business active. But roller skating went through multiple periods of great popularity in the Midwest—not only in the disco era, but earlier in the 1880s—and it's natural for any building with a large central space to be repurposed for various uses over the years.<ref>{{cite article\|author=Millett, Larry\|title=One of the quirkiest buildings in downtown Minneapolis began as a roller rink\|url=https://www.startribune.com/one-of-the-quirkiest-buildings-in-downtown-minneapolis-began-as-a-roller-rink/572992342\|publication=The Minnesota Star-Tribune\|date=November 7, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite article\|title=Rink History: Minnesota\|url=https://rink-history.weebly.com/minnesota.html\|publication=International Roller Skating Rink History Foundation\|accessed=January 19, 2025}}</ref>

Eb at 20:44, 23 January 2025

2025-01-23T20:44:25Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 14:44, 23 January 2025
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	~~= UNDER CONSTRUCTION! =~~		{{#addbodyclass: tiled-toc}}

	{{SummaryCollapsed \|		{{SummaryCollapsed \|

Eb: /* in the airline's own magazine, an article about trout fishing written by one of the country's top novelists */

2025-01-20T23:22:31Z

in the airline's own magazine, an article about trout fishing written by one of the country's top novelists

← Older revision		Revision as of 17:22, 20 January 2025
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	=== in the airline's own magazine, an article about trout fishing written by one of the country's top novelists ===		=== in the airline's own magazine, an article about trout fishing written by one of the country's top novelists ===

	This may be a joke referencing Richard Brautigan's ''{{wp\|Trout Fishing in America}}'' (1967), a highly digressive novel that is not especially about trout fishing~~. Brautigan wouldn't by any means be considered a "top novelist" in Iowa, and his work is singularly unsuited to an airline magazine~~.		This may be a joke referencing Richard Brautigan's ''{{wp\|Trout Fishing in America}}'' (1967), a highly digressive experimental novel that is not especially about trout fishing.

	=== He had chosen Mahler's ''Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen'' ===		=== He had chosen Mahler's ''Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen'' ===

Eb: /* interpretations of a Duparc song */

2025-01-20T20:36:25Z

interpretations of a Duparc song

← Older revision		Revision as of 14:36, 20 January 2025
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	=== interpretations of a Duparc song ===		=== interpretations of a Duparc song ===

	Probably {{wp\|Henri Duparc (composer)\|Henri Duparc}} (1848-1933), who set texts by several Romantic poets to music. One of those was Baudelaire's "L'invitation au voyage" from ''Les fleurs du mal'', a text that is especially appropriate to ''On Wings of Song'' (and also the source of the phrase "luxe, calme et volupté", which Disch referenced in ''[[The Businessman#Chapter 27\|The Businessman]]''). ~~William Aggeler's [https://fleursdumal.org/poem/148~~ translation] renders part of it as: "Think of the rapture of living together there .... The misty sunlight of those cloudy skies .... There all is order and beauty, luxury, peace and pleasure."		Probably {{wp\|Henri Duparc (composer)\|Henri Duparc}} (1848-1933), who set texts by several Romantic poets to music. One of those was Baudelaire's "L'invitation au voyage" from ''Les fleurs du mal'', a text that is especially appropriate to ''On Wings of Song'' (and also the source of the phrase "luxe, calme et volupté", which Disch referenced in ''[[The Businessman#Chapter 27\|The Businessman]]''). One English translation renders part of it as: "Think of the rapture of living together there .... The misty sunlight of those cloudy skies .... There all is order and beauty, luxury, peace and pleasure."<ref>{{cite book\|author=Baudelaire, Charles\|translator=William Aggeler\|date=1857\|title=The Flowers of Evil\|url=https://fleursdumal.org/poem/148\|location=Fresno\|publisher=Academy Library Guild\|pub-date=1954}}</ref>

	=== the great castrato Ernesto Rey ===		=== the great castrato Ernesto Rey ===

Eb: /* interpretations of a Duparc song */

2025-01-20T20:31:37Z

interpretations of a Duparc song

← Older revision		Revision as of 14:31, 20 January 2025
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	Probably {{wp\|Henri Duparc (composer)\|Henri Duparc}} (1848-1933), who set texts by several Romantic poets to music. One of those was Baudelaire's "L'invitation au voyage" from ''Les fleurs du mal'', a text that is especially appropriate to ''On Wings of Song'' (and also the source of the phrase "luxe, calme et volupté", which Disch referenced in ''[[The Businessman#Chapter 27\|The Businessman]]''). William Aggeler's [https://fleursdumal.org/poem/148 translation] renders part of it as: "Think of the rapture of living together there .... The misty sunlight of those cloudy skies .... There all is order and beauty, luxury, peace and pleasure."		Probably {{wp\|Henri Duparc (composer)\|Henri Duparc}} (1848-1933), who set texts by several Romantic poets to music. One of those was Baudelaire's "L'invitation au voyage" from ''Les fleurs du mal'', a text that is especially appropriate to ''On Wings of Song'' (and also the source of the phrase "luxe, calme et volupté", which Disch referenced in ''[[The Businessman#Chapter 27\|The Businessman]]''). William Aggeler's [https://fleursdumal.org/poem/148 translation] renders part of it as: "Think of the rapture of living together there .... The misty sunlight of those cloudy skies .... There all is order and beauty, luxury, peace and pleasure."

	~~* MUSIC LINK? *~~

	=== the great castrato Ernesto Rey ===		=== the great castrato Ernesto Rey ===

Eb: /* interpretations of a Duparc song */

2025-01-20T06:14:58Z

interpretations of a Duparc song

← Older revision		Revision as of 00:14, 20 January 2025
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	=== interpretations of a Duparc song ===		=== interpretations of a Duparc song ===

	Probably {{wp\|Henri Duparc (composer)\|Henri Duparc}} (1848-1933), who set texts by several Romantic poets to music. One of those was Baudelaire's "L'invitation au voyage" from ''Les fleurs du mal'', a text that is especially appropriate to ''On Wings of Song'' (and also the source of the phrase "luxe, calme et volupté", which Disch referenced in ''[[The Businessman#Chapter 27\|The Businessman]]''). William Aggeler's [https://fleursdumal.org/poem/148 translation] renders part of it as: "Think of the rapture of living together there .... The misty sunlight of those cloudy skies .... There all is order and beauty, luxury, peace and pleasure.""		Probably {{wp\|Henri Duparc (composer)\|Henri Duparc}} (1848-1933), who set texts by several Romantic poets to music. One of those was Baudelaire's "L'invitation au voyage" from ''Les fleurs du mal'', a text that is especially appropriate to ''On Wings of Song'' (and also the source of the phrase "luxe, calme et volupté", which Disch referenced in ''[[The Businessman#Chapter 27\|The Businessman]]''). William Aggeler's [https://fleursdumal.org/poem/148 translation] renders part of it as: "Think of the rapture of living together there .... The misty sunlight of those cloudy skies .... There all is order and beauty, luxury, peace and pleasure."

	* MUSIC LINK? *		* MUSIC LINK? *

Eb: /* His nose and forehead ... straight out of the most arrogantly lovely Ghirlandaio */

2025-01-20T02:49:44Z

His nose and forehead ... straight out of the most arrogantly lovely Ghirlandaio

← Older revision		Revision as of 20:49, 19 January 2025
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	=== His nose and forehead ... straight out of the most arrogantly lovely Ghirlandaio ===		=== His nose and forehead ... straight out of the most arrogantly lovely Ghirlandaio ===

	[[File:Pala degli innocenti, ghirlandaio, autoritratto.jpg\|thumb\|right\|300px\|Ghirlandaio, probably, in a detail from ''Adoration of the Magi'' (1488)]] This could be any of the four Ghirlandaio brothers who were Renaissance painters, but probably the most successful one, {{wp\|Domenico Ghirlandaio}}. His figures were often portraits of aristocratic patrons placed in roles of religious legend~~. This is a somewhat odd choice—handsome young men~~ were not ~~a very frequent subject in Ghirlandaio's work—but Boadicea is seventeen and may have had a limited view of art history. Or she might be thinking of Ghirlandaio's~~ own face~~, as he painted it~~ on background characters in a few paintings.		[[File:Pala degli innocenti, ghirlandaio, autoritratto.jpg\|thumb\|right\|300px\|Ghirlandaio, probably, in a detail from ''Adoration of the Magi'' (1488)]] This could be any of the four Ghirlandaio brothers who were Renaissance painters, but probably the most successful one, {{wp\|Domenico Ghirlandaio}}. His figures were often portraits of aristocratic patrons placed in roles of religious legend, most of whom were not handsome young men—but the artist also painted his own face on background characters in a few paintings, so Boadicea might be thinking that Daniel looks like Ghirlandaio himself.

	=== degrees of bon ton ===		=== degrees of bon ton ===

← Older revision		Revision as of 17:06, 25 January 2025
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	The name of Grandison Whiting's neo-feudal estate is never explained, and could be assumed to refer generally to the anxieties that accompany money and power.		The name of Grandison Whiting's neo-feudal estate is never explained, and could be assumed to refer generally to the anxieties that accompany money and power.

	However... ''if'' it's a more specific joke or reference that Disch just didn't feel like unpacking (and I have no reason to think so, except that it would've been in character), then one possible candidate would be the saying "Worry is interest paid on trouble before it falls due," commonly misattributed to {{wp\|William Ralph Inge}}. Even though Inge wasn't the original author<ref>{{cite article\|author=Popik, Barry\|title=Worry is interest paid on trouble before it falls due\|url=https://barrypopik.com/blog/worry_is_interest_paid_on_trouble_before_it_falls_due\|publication=The Big Apple\|date=July 4, 2012\|accessed=January 4, 2025}} Garson O'Toole at ''[https://quoteinvestigator.com/2024/12/20/worry-debt/ Quote Investigator]'' adds more details; the misattribution was spread by ''Reader's Digest''.</ref>, Disch wouldn't necessarily have known that... and Inge would fit with Whiting's disdain for democracy, praise of inequality, and Anglophilia. The saying itself is normally understood to mean something like "don't bother worrying about things that may never happen"—but a cynical businessman like Whiting assumes trouble ''will'' fall due, and could regard worry as a prudent expense in advance. This is all admittedly a stretch.		However... ''if'' it's a more specific joke or reference that Disch just didn't feel like unpacking (and I have no reason to think so, except that it would've been in character), then one possible candidate would be the saying "Worry is interest paid on trouble before it falls due," commonly misattributed to {{wp\|William Ralph Inge}}. Even though Inge wasn't the original author<ref>{{cite article\|author=Popik, Barry\|title=Worry is interest paid on trouble before it falls due\|url=https://barrypopik.com/blog/worry_is_interest_paid_on_trouble_before_it_falls_due\|publication=The Big Apple\|date=July 4, 2012\|accessed=January 25, 2025}} Garson O'Toole at ''[https://quoteinvestigator.com/2024/12/20/worry-debt/ Quote Investigator]'' adds more details; the misattribution was spread by ''Reader's Digest''.</ref>, Disch wouldn't necessarily have known that... and Inge would fit with Whiting's disdain for democracy, praise of inequality, and Anglophilia. The saying itself is normally understood to mean something like "don't bother worrying about things that may never happen"—but a cynical businessman like Whiting assumes trouble ''will'' fall due, and could regard worry as a prudent expense in advance. This is all admittedly a stretch.

	=== What Eisenstein had done for Stalin, what Riefenstahl had done for Hitler ===		=== What Eisenstein had done for Stalin, what Riefenstahl had done for Hitler ===

	There's a double irony here: not only Boadicea is comparing her beloved father to Stalin and Hitler, but her metaphor doesn't exactly work even for someone who thinks that's OK. {{wp\|Sergei Eisenstein\|Eisenstein}} had a complicated relationship with the Soviet government, and when he was commissioned to direct the propaganda film ''October: Ten Days that Shook the World'', he ended up having to drastically re-edit the film to keep Stalin happy—after which the government called his film a failure anyway.<ref>{{cite article\|author=Landler, Edward\|title='October' Surprise: The Revolution Will be Edited\|url=https://cinemontage.org/october-surprisethe-revolution-will-edited/\|publication=CineMontage\|date=December 8, 2017\|accessed=January 4, 2025}}</ref> {{wp\|Triumph of the Will\|Riefenstahl}} had much better luck in terms of Hitler's approval of her worshipful film, but ''Triumph of the Will'' was not widely seen in Germany after its original theatrical run, and clips from it were often used outside Germany in ''anti''-Nazi propaganda.		There's a double irony here: not only Boadicea is comparing her beloved father to Stalin and Hitler, but her metaphor doesn't exactly work even for someone who thinks that's OK. {{wp\|Sergei Eisenstein\|Eisenstein}} had a complicated relationship with the Soviet government, and when he was commissioned to direct the propaganda film ''October: Ten Days that Shook the World'', he ended up having to drastically re-edit the film to keep Stalin happy—after which the government called his film a failure anyway.<ref>{{cite article\|author=Landler, Edward\|title='October' Surprise: The Revolution Will be Edited\|url=https://cinemontage.org/october-surprisethe-revolution-will-edited/\|publication=CineMontage\|date=December 8, 2017\|accessed=January 25, 2025}}</ref> {{wp\|Triumph of the Will\|Riefenstahl}} had much better luck in terms of Hitler's approval of her worshipful film, but ''Triumph of the Will'' was not widely seen in Germany after its original theatrical run, and clips from it were often used outside Germany in ''anti''-Nazi propaganda.

	=== Iowa Council of Churches ===		=== Iowa Council of Churches ===
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	{{wp\|Elmore, Minnesota}} is a very small town (slightly larger in 1979, but not much) that is right up against the state border to Iowa—about 30 miles from Disch's childhood home of {{wp\|Fairmont, Minnesota\|Fairmont}}.		{{wp\|Elmore, Minnesota}} is a very small town (slightly larger in 1979, but not much) that is right up against the state border to Iowa—about 30 miles from Disch's childhood home of {{wp\|Fairmont, Minnesota\|Fairmont}}.

	[[File:OWOS-rink-club.jpg\|thumb\|right\|300px\|The Rush in Cottage Grove, MN, circa 2007—example of a former roller rink that went through many changes<ref>{{cite article\|author=Shaw, Bob\|date=February 6, 2015\|title=‘The Rush’ is over: Cottage Grove to demolish former nightclub\|url=https://www.twincities.com/2015/02/16/the-rush-is-over-cottage-grove-to-demolish-former-nightclub/\|publication=Twin Cities Pioneer Press}}</ref>]] The Roadhouse here is described as having once been a roller rink, "long ago", which makes it sound like a reference to a real place Disch had seen; if so, it wasn't in the Elmore area, which as far as I can tell never had enough population to keep such a business active. But roller skating went through multiple periods of great popularity in the Midwest—not only in the disco era, but earlier in the 1880s—and it's natural for any building with a large central space to be repurposed for various uses over the years.<ref>{{cite article\|author=Millett, Larry\|title=One of the quirkiest buildings in downtown Minneapolis began as a roller rink\|url=https://www.startribune.com/one-of-the-quirkiest-buildings-in-downtown-minneapolis-began-as-a-roller-rink/572992342\|publication=The Minnesota Star-Tribune\|date=November 7, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite article\|title=Rink History: Minnesota\|url=https://rink-history.weebly.com/minnesota.html\|publication=International Roller Skating Rink History Foundation\|accessed=January 19, 2025}}</ref>		[[File:OWOS-rink-club.jpg\|thumb\|right\|300px\|The Rush in Cottage Grove, MN, circa 2007—example of a former roller rink that went through many changes<ref>{{cite article\|author=Shaw, Bob\|date=February 6, 2015\|title=‘The Rush’ is over: Cottage Grove to demolish former nightclub\|url=https://www.twincities.com/2015/02/16/the-rush-is-over-cottage-grove-to-demolish-former-nightclub/\|publication=Twin Cities Pioneer Press}}</ref>]] The Roadhouse here is described as having once been a roller rink, "long ago", which makes it sound like a reference to a real place Disch had seen; if so, it wasn't in the Elmore area, which as far as I can tell never had enough population to keep such a business active. But roller skating went through multiple periods of great popularity in the Midwest—not only in the disco era, but earlier in the 1880s—and it's natural for any building with a large central space to be repurposed for various uses over the years.<ref>{{cite article\|author=Millett, Larry\|title=One of the quirkiest buildings in downtown Minneapolis began as a roller rink\|url=https://www.startribune.com/one-of-the-quirkiest-buildings-in-downtown-minneapolis-began-as-a-roller-rink/572992342\|publication=The Minnesota Star-Tribune\|date=November 7, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite article\|title=Rink History: Minnesota\|url=https://rink-history.weebly.com/minnesota.html\|publication=International Roller Skating Rink History Foundation\|accessed=January 25, 2025}}</ref>

	=== a new polka had started up ===		=== a new polka had started up ===
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	=== we began, some twenty years ago, to make the prisons ... less congenial places ===		=== we began, some twenty years ago, to make the prisons ... less congenial places ===

	Probably not even Grandison Whiting really believes that they were ever ''congenial'', but the history of prisons in Iowa did include a series of incremental reforms over the course of the 20th century. Two that might have particularly irritated Whiting: in 1918 Iowa outlawed the practice of leasing prisoners as labor to private industry, and in the 1940s counseling programs were introduced.<ref>{{cite article\|author=McKay, Joyce\|title=Reforming Prisoners and Prisons: Iowa's State Prisons—The First Hundred Years\|url=https://pubs.lib.uiowa.edu/annals-of-iowa/article/4324/galley/113206/view/\|publication=Annals of Iowa\|date=2001\|pub-date=Spring 2001\|accessed=January 4, 2025}}</ref>		Probably not even Grandison Whiting really believes that they were ever ''congenial'', but the history of prisons in Iowa did include a series of incremental reforms over the course of the 20th century. Two that might have particularly irritated Whiting: in 1918 Iowa outlawed the practice of leasing prisoners as labor to private industry, and in the 1940s counseling programs were introduced.<ref>{{cite article\|author=McKay, Joyce\|title=Reforming Prisoners and Prisons: Iowa's State Prisons—The First Hundred Years\|url=https://pubs.lib.uiowa.edu/annals-of-iowa/article/4324/galley/113206/view/\|publication=Annals of Iowa\|date=2001\|pub-date=Spring 2001\|accessed=January 25, 2025}}</ref>

	Since the novel is deliberately vague about when it's set, here's no indication as to whether "twenty years ago" is in our present, past, or future. In 1979, the incarceration rate had already begun to rise due to the War on Drugs but was nowhere near today's level, and privatized prisons did not yet exist.		Since the novel is deliberately vague about when it's set, here's no indication as to whether "twenty years ago" is in our present, past, or future. In 1979, the incarceration rate had already begun to rise due to the War on Drugs but was nowhere near today's level, and privatized prisons did not yet exist.