Dentist this morning, well, at noon to be precise. I hate going to the dentists even just to be checked over, but prevention is better than cure as my mother always said. Anyway, no problems but I was told, as usual, that excessive smoking stains the teeth and that I should clean more frequently. I have always used toothpowder with a stiff bristle brush but the dentist recommends a paste which can be bought in tubes apparently. Sounds like a commercial gimmick to me. Speaking of my mother, she claimed that, as a girl, she used soot as a dentifrice. I was consistently appaled by the notion but I supose it would work if one could get over the initial repulsion. Evidently the Romans used tooth powder. What remarkable people they were. I think sometimes that if they had only had the good fortune to hit on the idea of steam for motive power then the industrial revolution would have started 1,500 years earlier than it did. And where would we be now? On the moon I shouldn't wonder!
I have just finished reading "Melmoth" by Sarah Perry. Perry is the author of "The Essex Serpent" which I read and enjoyed a year or so ago. I don't think this second book is quite so good, but good enough. It is a 'gothic' novel: mysterious figures, ancient documents, omens and signs ..... that sort of thing. At times Perry intervenes with direct observations to the reader. I don't know why she does that, and I don't think it really works. It seems to me that if you are going to write a 'gothic' novel then best to go for it full throttle. This one has all the elements but is not quite adequately true to its genre. Some interesting characters and effective atmospheres, of which more could have been made. Essentially the book is about inhumanity and makes the point that inhumanity very much includes sins of omission as well as sins of commission. Perhaps, thinking about it, it may be that the author's desire to get across a message detracted (at least for me) from the gothic experience I had anticipated.
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