From slighcl at wfu.edu Sat Feb 2 05:10:03 2008 From: slighcl at wfu.edu (slighcl) Date: Sat, 02 Feb 2008 08:10:03 -0500 Subject: [ilds] Pre-war Corfu stories relieve winter blues Message-ID: <47A46BAB.3010709@wfu.edu> Dear Listserv: A dispatch on the Brothers Durrell from one of those "storied" newspapers from the North. Thank you, Canada. You recall us to our better selves. Charles *** Toronto Star http://www.thestar.com/printArticle/298507 Pre-war Corfu stories relieve winter blues TheStar.com - living - Pre-war Corfu stories relieve winter blues February 02, 2008 Brent Ledger Every year at this time -- this cold, gloomy, Toronto-at-its-worst time of year -- I think of my Grade 6 teacher, Miss Ritter. She was young, blond, outgoing and she drove the coolest car imaginable at the time, a Volkswagen Bug. She let us keep a bunny in the classroom and she invited the entire class to her home for a Christmas party. (Try to imagine that happening these days. The liability issues! Every parent would have to sign in triplicate.) But of all the things she did for me (aside from driving me to the edge of a child-sized nervous breakdown, so eager was I to please her), the greatest was introducing me to Gerald Durrell and /My Family and Other Animals./ I mention this now because Durrell's memoir of his early years in Corfu is absolutely, indubitably, the best book to read at This Time of the Year. The adult Durrell was a great naturalist and zookeeper and his love of animals shines through every page of this now-classic comedy, but that's the least of its charms. Set in Corfu during the late 1930s, it's charming, funny and filled with wonder. Fleeing rainy England for sunny Corfu, Gerald, his widowed mother and three siblings find a kind of comic paradise in one magical home after another. First the Strawberry-Pink Villa, then the Daffodil-Yellow Villa, "a tall, square Venetian mansion ... (that) stood on a hill overlooking the sea, surrounded by unkempt olive groves and silent orchards of lemon and orange trees." Get the picture? Forget Tuscany and Provence. Durrell's childhood Corfu is my dream scene. Durrell went on to write more than 30 other books, mostly about his life with animals, and all of them were lovable and funny, but none of them had quite the same charm, perhaps because they lacked /My Family/'s stellar supporting cast. While young Gerald spent his time gambolling about the Greek countryside, poking under rocks for new bugs, slugs and other critters, his family devoted themselves to their own highly individual passions; his mother to cooking, teenage Margo to boys, 19-year-old Lesley to guns, and 23-year-old Larry to writing. Wildly different, they quickly get on each other's nerves and the clash of character makes for some great comedy, particularly when Larry enters the scene. Affectionately portrayed as a self-involved twit, the budding writer comes across as one of those annoying people who talks more than he writes, but in this case the joke is on the reader, for Larry did go on to become a writer and a rather famous one at that. Lawrence Durrell's writing is slightly out of fashion just now, his style too beautiful for contemporary tastes. But 20-odd years after his experience on Corfu he went on to write another account of Brits-on-the-Mediterranean that to my mind is one the most entrancing books ever written. Set mostly in pre-war Alexandria, the four novels of the /Alexandria Quartet /are not only a sensual depiction of several intense love affairs, they are also, for their time (the late 1950s), amazingly open to gay experience. A gay Jewish doctor named Balthazar narrates the second -- and, in some ways, most entertaining -- book in the quartet and there are several other minor gay characters, both comic and serious. Lawrence's work is very different from Gerald's, achingly voluptuous where /My Family /is light and loving. But both books share openness to sensual pleasure and sunnier climes that we in parka-bound Toronto can only envy. Thank you, Miss Ritter. /Brent Ledger appears every second / /Saturday. You can reach him at/ / living at thestar.ca ./ -- ********************** Charles L. Sligh Department of English Wake Forest University slighcl at wfu.edu ********************** -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.uvic.ca/pipermail/ilds/attachments/20080202/4ff290db/attachment.html From slighcl at wfu.edu Sat Feb 2 05:17:48 2008 From: slighcl at wfu.edu (slighcl) Date: Sat, 02 Feb 2008 08:17:48 -0500 Subject: [ilds] Durrell's decadent and sensitive characters Message-ID: <47A46D7C.5000002@wfu.edu> Dear Listserv: Several glances at Durrell here below, courtesy of Sir John Ure. Enjoy-- Charles *** *The Telegraph http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/main.jhtml?xml=/travel/2008/02/02/et-cruise-med-102.xml Cruising the Mediterranean's troubled waters Last Updated: 12:01am GMT 02/02/2008 Sir John Ure is fascinated by the region's bloody history while on a cruise in the eastern Mediterranean.* 'The Cockpit of Europe" is a term usually applied to those much fought-over lands that lie between France and Germany, but it could equally be applied to the islands, coastlines and sea routes of the eastern Mediterranean - at least since the time of the Greek-Trojan wars (around 1300BC). Statues in the ancient city of Cyrene, Cruising the Mediterranean's troubled waters The ancient city of Cyrene overlooks the Mediterranean and is rich with statues and mosaics When visiting the region from the comfort of a small but luxurious ship, we had to revise our itinerary more than once to avoid the aftermath of the Lebanon-Israel conflict and a brief spate of terrorist bombings in Turkey. So where were we to go? The answer was to some fascinating and delightful, though historically troubled, places. First was Crete, home to the Minoan civilisation and the imposing, if somewhat over-restored, site of Knossos. It was here that Theseus grappled with the Minotaur and Ariadne provided the thread to lead him out of the Labyrinth in which the monster lived and devoured Athenian maidens. But in Suda Bay, at the western end of the island, we were sharply reminded of a much more recent conflict: the battle for Crete in 1941. At this distance in time it is fair to wonder why Crete was so important a military objective - strategically essential to the cause of the Western Allies in the eastern Mediterranean. But with Greece lost to the Germans, and with Rommel's Afrika Korps battling with Wavell and the Eighth Army for Egypt and the Suez Canal, it was a vital link in the supply chain. The German parachute attack on the island - the first of its kind - resulted in a battle that left Suda Bay the site of a large and meticulously maintained war cemetery on what is surely one of the most beautiful inlets in the Mediterranean. This would be my chosen "corner of a foreign field" for any fallen loved one: the encircling mountains behind, the blue sea in front and the spirit of Byron and England's (as well as New Zealand's) help to Greece hovering eternally over the bay. advertisement Soon we were at sea again heading for Africa. Allied survivors of the battle for Crete had been ferried to Alexandria by British warships at huge hazard to the latter. But the Royal Navy does not let the British Army down in a tight spot. As its commander, Admiral Cunningham, remarked as he put his sailors and ships at risk: "It takes the Navy three years to build a new ship. It would take 300 years to build a new tradition. The evacuation will continue." More than 30,000 troops were saved. Our first African port of call was not Alexandria but Dernah on the Libyan coast. These seas are turbulent, as any reader of the Acts of the Apostles will remember from the tales of St Paul's shipwrecks, and when we approached the harbour it was closed as being too dangerous in such weather. We pressed on down the north African coast to Tobruk. Just as Vietnam in the 1970s was, for the Americans, a war rather than a country so, for anyone old enough to remember the Second World War, Tobruk is a battle rather than a city. Its old scars are still visible: dusty, half-built or half-destroyed buildings line the pock-marked streets; a litter of wrecked vehicle parts and plastic bottles fringe the pavements; and the museum is more like a discarded spare-parts store for Rommel's desert army than a showcase for a memorable campaign - old tin helmets, a broken dispatch-rider's bicycle and rusted rifles. Military might has never looked shabbier or shoddier than here. Three hours' drive west, though, was a much more inspirational site: the ancient Hellenic and Roman city of Cyrene. High on its plateau overlooking the blue Mediterranean and rich with its forum, temple to Zeus, columns and mosaics (surely they must stop visitors trampling over these soon?), it imposes a classical order on a desert landscape. One of the dividends of the Italian colonial period in Libya during the 1920s and 1930s was the work done by Mussolini's archaeologists, who - it has to be admitted - showed themselves more sensitive than Sir Arthur Evans at Knossos. From Tobruk we sailed east to Alexandria, perhaps the most exotic of all north African cities, being the site of the lighthouse that was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and itself the playground of the fevered society immortalised by Lawrence Durrell in his Alexandria Quartet. Where once the lighthouse stood there is now a fort, but close to the site of the celebrated library ("the memory of the ancient world") there is today a modern library of outstanding elegance, its sloping waterside glass panels rivalling in impact the roof of that most famous of contemporary waterside buildings, the Sydney Opera House. It was from here that Cleopatra scanned the horizon in vain for the return of her own and Mark Antony's fleet from the battle of Actium, only to conclude that "the soldier's pole is fallen" and clasp an asp to her bosom. Exploring the centre of Alexandria and its modern port complex is a heartening experience, but the two-hour drive west to the battlefield of El Alamein is less so: the road follows the coastline, which consists of an unbroken chain of holiday complexes, each one a gated compound of concrete-looking blocks filling the space between highway and beach. This, it was explained, was the air-vent for the hundreds of thousands of citizens of Cairo who came for their annual respite from the heat, noise and tension of the capital; be that as it may, one felt that Durrell's decadent and sensitive characters - Justine, Bathazar, Clea et al - would hardly have recognised this as their milieu. The museum at El Alamein is everything that Tobruk's is not. Elegantly laid out around a courtyard overlooking the war cemetery and, beyond that, the battlefield itself, separate light and airy rooms are devoted to each of the main participating armies in the battle. Busts of Rommel and Montgomery dominate their respective galleries and sand-table models of the north African coast help to make the campaign intelligible. Inside, uniforms, portraits and equipment are accompanied by informative captions; outside, there are full-size specimens of the tanks, guns and armoured transport vehicles deployed. advertisement The battlefield beyond gives ample evidence of the terrain best suited to a tank battle: there are no trees to conceal infantrymen with anti-tank weapons, only an expanse of rolling gravel, sand and scrub bordered to the north by the sea and to the south by the impenetrable Qattara Depression - a treacherous region of quicksands. This was the perfect arena for a decisive clash of arms: no villages or towns, civilians or settlements. Indeed, hard fought as they had been, the battles of the Western Desert were a relatively gentlemanly affair compared with the messy and indiscriminate engagements of the Russian and even west European fronts, where civilian populations often suffered as severely as the combatants. These were professional armies fighting professionally: when British doctors and nurses were captured while tending German wounded, Rommel personally thanked them individually and had them repatriated promptly through the Red Cross. We paid our tribute at the vast Allied war cemetery and I was invited to lay a wreath while the Scottish bagpiper from our ship played The Flowers of the Forest (the 51st Highland Division suffered sorely) and there were few dry eyes among the visitors. From Alexandria we sailed north to the largest island of the eastern Mediterranean, Cyprus. Even here - among the gently rolling hills and the lush citrus groves (Durrell's Bitter Lemons) - the restlessness of the region had left both ancient and modern reminders of confrontation. The early conversion of Cyprus to Christianity is commemorated in the icon-rich church of St Lazarus on the outskirts of Larnaca - also a reminder that Lazarus (he who was raised from the dead) was the first Christian bishop of the island; he invited the Virgin Mary to visit him there towards the end of both their lives because (in John Julius Norwich's memorable phrase) "he wanted to see her before he died again". The Venetian empire is commemorated in its fortresses - all eventually captured by the Ottoman Turks. The British empire is more modestly commemorated by its yellow pillar boxes, still bearing King George VI's imperial cipher. If ever there was a land where the hymn line "empires rise and wane" was visibly true, this must be it. Even now, with its UN-umpired "green line" dividing the Turkish and Greek-Cypriot sectors of the island, the division of Islam and Christianity, of East and West, continues to be sadly visible. Can we hope the 21st century will see the long overdue turning of a new page in the eastern Mediterranean? Meanwhile, perhaps the Greek-Cypriots have the last word about how to adapt the fruits of one culture to the nomenclature of another: as we hastened to the airport we were offered boxes of "Cypriot Delight" to sweeten our departure. *Essentials Sir John Ure, author and former ambassador, travelled around the eastern Mediterranean as a guest lecturer on the Hebridean Spirit, one of the two small cruise ships of Hebridean International Cruises (www.hebridean.co.uk, 01756 704704; similar cruises of six-12 nights, from ?3,392 per person, including private charter flight from London Stansted ). * *-- * ********************** Charles L. Sligh Department of English Wake Forest University slighcl at wfu.edu ********************** -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.uvic.ca/pipermail/ilds/attachments/20080202/f22a54a9/attachment.html From dtart at bigpond.net.au Sat Feb 2 12:57:28 2008 From: dtart at bigpond.net.au (Denise Tart & David Green) Date: Sun, 3 Feb 2008 07:57:28 +1100 Subject: [ilds] beautiful writing Message-ID: <003501c865de$392043a0$0201a8c0@MumandDad> Lawrence Durrell's writing is slightly out of fashion just now, his style too beautiful for contemporary tastes. Indeed. The age of monosyllabic prol writing is upon us. Much as I like most of Tim Winton's work, it is self consciously 'working class'. Durrell wrote in an age before the proletarian scholars and the kind of modern writing that eschews classical learning and scholarship and prefers 'plain English' to latinate modes of expression and in which words of one syllable appear very frequently; the impact of journalese is very evident. Thanks Charles for keeping the list going during thje bleak northern winter. We, for our part are having heat, rain and humidity; wettest summer for about twenty years. DG Denise Tart & David Green 16 William Street, Marrickville NSW 2204 +61 2 9564 6165 0412 707 625 dtart at bigpond.net.au -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.uvic.ca/pipermail/ilds/attachments/20080203/b88e297d/attachment.html From slighcl at wfu.edu Sat Feb 2 13:28:18 2008 From: slighcl at wfu.edu (slighcl) Date: Sat, 02 Feb 2008 16:28:18 -0500 Subject: [ilds] beautiful writing In-Reply-To: <003501c865de$392043a0$0201a8c0@MumandDad> References: <003501c865de$392043a0$0201a8c0@MumandDad> Message-ID: <47A4E072.2080402@wfu.edu> On 2/2/2008 3:57 PM, Denise Tart & David Green wrote: > > Thanks Charles for keeping the list going during thje bleak northern > winter. We, for our part are having heat, rain and humidity; wettest > summer for about twenty years. You are welcome, David. I find my mind turning to Durrell so often in my day, so this is hardly a difficult pleasure. Hang in there. My home state of Texas has had something of the same turn in the climate. By the way, the responses to the /Times /"50 Greatest Writers" have shown a healthy voicing of "Hey, Hey: Where is Durrell?" (I count at least 6 postings. My own posting championing Durrell and Powys and other writers not 'cookie cutter neat' has not appeared as of now.) And I really like the following post from down-under, which counts as "Durrellian" by proxy: > Wot, no travel writer ? The very descriptive Michael Haag on > Matters Egyptian ( The River Nile, Alexandria, etc , with > brilliant photographs ) should be on the list. > > Bettina Maskelyne, Brisbane Queensland, Australia > > http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article3130859.ece If you know Bettina, David, tell her that her mates here in the (formerly colonial) state of North Carolina voice her a hearty "Cheers." ("Maskelyne" is too good to be true, I think.) Here's to it-- Charles -- ********************** Charles L. Sligh Department of English Wake Forest University slighcl at wfu.edu ********************** -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.uvic.ca/pipermail/ilds/attachments/20080202/52523d10/attachment.html From slighcl at wfu.edu Sat Feb 2 18:23:55 2008 From: slighcl at wfu.edu (slighcl) Date: Sat, 02 Feb 2008 21:23:55 -0500 Subject: [ilds] Lawrence Durrell: a Writer at the Crossroads of Arts and Sciences Message-ID: <47A525BB.70001@wfu.edu> Dear Listserv: Some news about the Paris conference. Charles *** Lawrence Durrell: a Writer at the Crossroads of Arts and Sciences July 1st - 5th, 2008 Mis en ligne par : Murielle Philippe , Corinne Alexandre-Garner . Mise ? jour: 22 January 2008. ON MIRACLE GROUND. THE INTERNATIONAL LAWRENCE DURRELL CONFERENCE http://www.lawrencedurrell.org/parisXV.htm http://anglais.u-paris10.fr/spip.php?article1090 Successivement organis? par l?Universit? de Cincinnati (Ohio) en 1998, l?Universit? de Corfou (Gr?ce) en 2000, l?Universit? d?Ottawa (Ontario) en 2002, l?Universit? de Rhodes (Gr?ce) en 2004, l?Universit? de Victoria (Canada) en 2006, le colloque international Lawrence Durrell 2008, ? On Miracle Ground XV ?, se tiendra ? l?Universit? Paris X- Nanterre du 1er au 5 juillet 2008, organis? par le Centre de Recherches Espaces Ecritures (CREA EA 370) en partenariat avec : - l?Universit? de Toulouse ? Le Mirail (Isabelle Keller-Privat) - la Soci?t? Internationale Lawrence Durrell (International Lawrence Durrell Society) - Louisiana Tech University (Donald Kaczvinsky) - University of Victoria (James Gifford) - University of Arkansas (Paul Lorenz) Les participants sont invit?s ? explorer les relations qu?entretient l??uvre de Durrell avec les arts et les sciences. Sont susceptibles de participer : - George Charpak (physicien, laur?at du prix Nobel de physique en 1992) Penelope Durrell (la fille de Lawrence Durrell) Michael Haag (photographe, ?diteur et ?crivain il travaille actuellement ? une nouvelle biographie de Lawrence Durrell) David Harrer - Virginia Kirby-Smith Carruthers (sp?cialiste de l??uvre de Lawrence Durrell, University of Baltimore) - Anthea Morton-Saner (agent litt?raire de Lawrence Durrell) - Michael O? Driscoll (sp?cialiste de l??uvre de Lawrence Durrell) - George Steiner (critique litt?raire et philosophe, sp?cialiste de l??uvre de Lawrence Durrell) - Gore Vidal (romancier) CALL FOR PAPERS On Miracle Ground XV Universit? Paris X - Nanterre CREE (CREA EA 370) in partnership with the University of Toulouse Le Mirail and the International Lawrence Durrell Society "The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true arts and science," Albert Einstein, "What I believe," 1930. The aim of this conference is to explore Lawrence Durrell?s universe at the crossroads of arts and science, but also to investigate the world of Paris between the wars as the artistic and intellectual magnet that drove so many artists to become expatriates. The sessions will focus on the relationships between Durrell?s works and the aesthetic context as well as the development of scientific research. Contributions dealing with the Parisian intellectual and artistic crucible, the arts of politics, artistic intertextuality (drama, music, painting, philosophy), the scientific fabric (Durrell?s investigations into quantum theory and psychoanalysis) are particularly welcome. But other proposals on wider fields will be examined as well. Submissions for papers including a 250-word abstract, a short biography, and possibly a bibliography, as well as any request for specific material (recorder, videoprojector or other) should be sent by March 15th, 2008 to: Durrellconference2008 at u-paris10.fr Postal submissions: Corinne Alexandre-Garner UFR d??tudes anglo-am?ricaines Universit? Paris X - E101 200, avenue de la R?publique 92001 Nanterre Cedex A selection of the best papers will be published by the Presses Universitaires de Paris X in the year following the conference. PROVISIONAL PROGRAMME ON MIRACLE GROUND XV - JULY 1st-5th 2008 - UNIVERSITE PARIS X-NANTERRE - PROVISIONAL PROGRAMME Plenary sessions and workshops will take place in the morning from 8.30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and will be followed by lunch and relevant cultural events in Paris in the afternoon. WORK SESSIONS 8.30am - 1pm Tuesday, July 1st 2007 8.30-10.30 Suggested topic: Representation of the Parisian intellectual and artistic crucible between the wars 10.30-11 coffee break 11am-1pm Suggested topic: The arts of politics 1.30pm-2.30pm lunch at Nanterre Wednesday, July 2nd, 2007 8.30-10.30 Suggested topic: Lawrence Durrell at the crossroads of literature and philosophy 10.30-11 coffee break 11am-1pmSuggested topic: Performing Durrell: Durrell on stage 1.30pm-2.30pm lunch at Nanterre Thursday, July 3rd 2007 8.30-10.30 Suggested topic: Lawrence Durrell at the crossroads of literature and painting 10.30-11 coffee break 11am-1pm Suggested topic: Performing Durrell: Durrell?s music 1.30pm-2.30pm lunch at Nanterre Friday, July 4th 2007 8.30-10.30 Suggested topic: The Scientific Fabric: the science of fiction and the fiction of science 10.30-11 coffee break 11am-1pm Meeting of the International Lawrence Durrell Society? 1.30pm Lunch at the Procope http://www.procope.com/ Saturday, July 5th 2007 " "Ma Boh?me" One-day visit of Giverny (Monet?s house and gardens) http://www.fondation-monet.com/ EXCURSIONS Tuesday, July 1st 2008 "Paris, a Moveable Feast" Afternoon: Guided tour through literary and artistic Paris. Montparnasse, Mus?e Zadkine, Villa Seurat , Closerie des Lilas , Tea at the Coupole http://lacoupoleparis.com/ Evening Performance of Sappho (free) followed by cocktail (espace Reverdy) Wednesday, July 2nd 2008 "East, West" Afternoon: Mus?e Guimet, Institut du monde arabe, Tea (and poetry reading?), (museum, Turkish baths) Evening: Dinner at the Mosque or Le Souk (1, rue Keller Paris XI?me) Thursday, July 3rd 2008 "Patrimony" Afternoon: Mus?e Mus?e d?Orsay : Centre Georges Pompidou, Tea at Dame Tartine, (Fontaine Stravinsky) Free evening Friday, July 4th 2008 "E= mc2" Afternoon: Cit? des Sciences at La Villette , The G?ode Free evening Saturday, July 5th 2008 Evening Banquet: dinner-cruise on the Seine www.lecapitainefracasse.com POETRY CONTEST An international poetry contest on the theme of " crossroads / chemins crois?s " has been launched on the occasion of the international Lawrence Durrell conference to be held at Nanterre University from 1st to 5 July 2008. It is open to students, teachers and administrative employees. Poems (maximum length: 1,000 characters, spaces included) must be submitted by February 25th 2008 to : V?ronique Maylin, biblioth?que Lawrence Durrell, E101 or (by e-mail) to: concourspoesie at u-paris10.fr The winning poems, selected by a panel of international poets, will be read at the ? Printemps des Po?tes ? (March 3rd-16th 2008) and published in the new Paris X collection "Chemins crois?s". REGISTRATION INFORMATION ON MIRACLE GROUND XV An International Conference The International Lawrence Durrell Society University Paris X CREE - CREA EA 370 Lawrence Durrell: A Writer at the Crossroads of Arts and Sciences July 1st-5th, 2008 Conference room, building B Please note that this form must be sent to both : Paul Lorenz paullorenz at sbcglobal.net (International Lawrence Durrell Society) and V?ronique Maylin veronique.maylin at u-paris10.fr (Universit? Paris X Nanterre) (please enter all names and titles as you want them to appear on badges) Title: Name: Affiliation / University: Mailing Address: City: State/Province: Postal Code: Country: E-mail: Phone (and country code): Fax: REGISTRATION FEES You are a member of the International Lawrence Durrell Society: please contact Paul Lorenz: paullorenz at sbcglobal.net Full conference package : BEFORE 15 March 2008 $100 US AFTER 15 March 2008 $140 US Reduced conference fees for students. The full registration package includes: - registration to the four conference days (July 1st to July 4th) - the performance of Sappho on Tuesday night, followed by a welcome cocktail - a 5-day ? Paris Visit ? transport pass - gourmet coffee breaks on conference days Other events and excursions are available at an additional cost (see below). If you would like to renew / begin your membership in the International Lawrence Durrell Society: Student single membership is $10.00 a year. Regular single membership is $15.00 a year. Double membership (two people, one address) is $20.00 a year. TOTAL (conference registration and membership): ----------------------------------------- Cancellations must be received 14 days prior to the start of the conference or participants will be charged an administrative fee of $30. Mail this form and your check or money order in U.S. dollars payable to the International Lawrence Durrell Society to: Paul Lorenz International Lawrence Durrell Society 3201 S. Beech Street Apt. #40 Pine Bluff, AR 71603 For other information concerning the conference, please contact V?ronique Maylin: veronique.maylin at u-paris10.fr ORGANISATION OF THE CONFERENCE Plenary sessions and workshops will be organized every morning at Nanterre University (conference room, building B) from 8.30 to approximately 1.00 p.m. and will be followed by lunch and relevant cultural events in Paris in the afternoon. LUNCH AT NANTERRE (wine included) Lunch (Tuesday, July 1st 2008) 10 euros number of attendees: Lunch (Wednesday, July 2nd 2008) 10 euros number of attendees: Lunch (Thursday, July 3rd 2008) 10 euros number of attendees: Student rate: 5 euros EVENTS AND EXCURSIONS (optional) The performance of Sappho and the welcome cocktail are free for conference participants. Other events and excursions are available at an additional cost and are payable in euros to the Universit? of Paris X ? Nanterre, Agent comptable (colloque Durrell) ligne 904 11 C483. Participants are required to register for the following excursions and restaurant lunch and dinner, so that bookings can be made accordingly. Guided walk through literary and artistic Paris ( in English) (Montparnasse, mus?e Zadkine, Villa Seurat, Closerie des Lilas) : Tuesday July 1st, 2008 Price : 8 euros Number of participants Lunch at the Procope (on Friday July 4th 2008) to celebrate July 4th at the famous restaurant founded in 1689 where philosophers of the Enlightenment used to meet and where Benjamin Franklin drafted the American constitution (www.procope.com) Price : 35 euros Number of attendees One-day visit of Giverny (Monet?s house and gardens) ; access by train and bus, or possibility to rent a bus from the conference hotels at an additional cost http://www.fondation-monet.com/ Price : 5.5 euros Number of participants Groups (booking necessary) : 4 euros Dinner-cruise on the Seine (Saturday July 5th 2008): a once in a lifetime experience http://www.lecapitainefracasse.com/ Price : 50 euros (no alcohol) Number of participants: 69 euros (with cocktail, wine mineral water and coffee) TOTAL (events and excursions) : ---------------------------------------------------------------------- payable in euros to the Universit? of Paris X ? Nanterre, Agent comptable (colloque Durrell) ligne 904 11 C483 Hotel reservations must be made directly with the hotels as early as possible. Please keep in mind that this will be a busy season. SPONSORS The conference is generously sponsored by the International Lawrence Durrell Society, Louisiana Tech University, and the University of Paris X Nanterre (the Department of English / UFR d??tudes anglo-am?ricaines, the Ecole Doctorale Lettres , Langues, Spectacles and the CREA, Centre de Recherches des Etudes Anglophones) and the Centre de Ressources Langues. CONTACT If you have any questions regarding registration, please contact: Paul Lorenz: paullorenz at sbcglobal.net Should you have any queries about the organisation of the conference itself, please contact: V?ronique Maylin: veronique.maylin at u-paris10.fr Du m?me groupe de recherche... Lawrence Durrell : un ?crivain ? la crois?e des arts et des sciences [22 janvier] Marges et Confins (II) [Juin 2006] Borderlines and Borderlands (II) [October 2005] N?XXVI - Lawrence Durrell / Borderlands & Borderlines [Septembre 2005] Centre Espaces/Ecritures, CREE [D?cembre 2003] Cliquer pour la suite: 0 | 5 -- ********************** Charles L. Sligh Department of English Wake Forest University slighcl at wfu.edu ********************** From slighcl at wfu.edu Sat Feb 2 18:42:01 2008 From: slighcl at wfu.edu (slighcl) Date: Sat, 02 Feb 2008 21:42:01 -0500 Subject: [ilds] A paper knife of the well-known British novelist Durrell In-Reply-To: <47A525BB.70001@wfu.edu> References: <47A525BB.70001@wfu.edu> Message-ID: <47A529F9.2030000@wfu.edu> More to follow. . . . Charles **** Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Research Centers, Manuscript Museum, Personal Effects of Celebrities http://www.bibalex.gov.eg/English/researchers/ManuscriptMuseum/collection/personal.htm The Section houses a collection of personal effects of eminent figures, chief among them are: a- Kavafis (1279-1352 H., 1863-1933 AD) Some possessions of the renowned Greek poet Kavafis. The collection includes a pair of reading glasses, sunglasses, rosaries (chaplets), a thermometer, pipe stems, and an alarm clock, in addition to, a copper mask of Kavafis by the Greek artist Michalis Vafiadis. Donated to the Bibliotheca Alexandrina by the Greek-Egyptian Friendship League. *b- Lawrence Durrell (1330-1410 H., 1912-1990 AD) A paper knife of the well-known British novelist Durrell, the author of The Alexandria Quartet. His wife, Eva Durrell donated his complete works to the Bibliotheca Alexandrina amongst which was this paper knife made of scented sandalwood.* The Four Seasons Four sculptures made of white Italian marble in the thirteenth century of the Hijra. (19th c. AD). Each statue represents one of the four seasons of the year, following the concepts and standards of ancient Greek sculpture. This collection was in the possession of John Antoniadis (Antoniadis palace and garden). Donated to the Bibliotheca Alexandrina by the Regional Authority for Tourism Promotion, Alexandria. Two Gala Uniforms Two gala uniforms of Sa?i-d Pasha (father of the painter Mahmu-d Sa?i-d) embroidered with golden threads. -- ********************** Charles L. Sligh Department of English Wake Forest University slighcl at wfu.edu ********************** -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.uvic.ca/pipermail/ilds/attachments/20080202/d43f5b3c/attachment.html From slighcl at wfu.edu Sat Feb 2 18:47:35 2008 From: slighcl at wfu.edu (slighcl) Date: Sat, 02 Feb 2008 21:47:35 -0500 Subject: [ilds] "Impressions of Alexandria" In-Reply-To: <47A525BB.70001@wfu.edu> References: <47A525BB.70001@wfu.edu> Message-ID: <47A52B47.7040907@wfu.edu> Try these. . . . Charles **** *http://www.bibalex.gov.eg/english/artsmuseums/exhibitions/impr/overview.htm "Impressions of Alexandria" is a collection of original engravings, lithographs and maps that reveal artists and travelers, impressions of Alexandria from the 15th to the 19th centuries. It also includes rare photographs of the city from the early 19th century to the mid-20th century, and highlights the cultural life in the cosmopolitan city as portrayed by its prominent writers and artists. The Exhibition is therefore a vivid documentation of the ?city, half-imagined (yet wholly real)?, as Durrell describes it in The Alexandria Quartet. Alexandria as seen by Artists and Travelers* http://www.bibalex.gov.eg/english/artsmuseums/exhibitions/impr/travelers.htm *Cosmopolitan Alexandria: Photographic Memory* http://www.bibalex.gov.eg/english/artsmuseums/exhibitions/impr/photogr.htm -- ********************** Charles L. Sligh Department of English Wake Forest University slighcl at wfu.edu ********************** -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.uvic.ca/pipermail/ilds/attachments/20080202/8d9b6215/attachment.html From dtart at bigpond.net.au Sat Feb 2 18:44:38 2008 From: dtart at bigpond.net.au (Denise Tart & David Green) Date: Sun, 3 Feb 2008 13:44:38 +1100 Subject: [ilds] Bettina Message-ID: <007401c8660e$b88cce30$0201a8c0@MumandDad> Charles, Bettina appears to be either a journalist for the Brisbane Courier Mail (newspaper), a social commentator/blogger or a prolific ratbag of some other classification. Maybe she needs to be on the list. I will ring the Courier Mail for details if poss. (must be a rainy afternoon) DG Denise Tart & David Green 16 William Street, Marrickville NSW 2204 +61 2 9564 6165 0412 707 625 dtart at bigpond.net.au -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.uvic.ca/pipermail/ilds/attachments/20080203/c880e985/attachment.html From slighcl at wfu.edu Sat Feb 2 19:02:16 2008 From: slighcl at wfu.edu (slighcl) Date: Sat, 02 Feb 2008 22:02:16 -0500 Subject: [ilds] lost durrelliana In-Reply-To: <47A52B47.7040907@wfu.edu> References: <47A525BB.70001@wfu.edu> <47A52B47.7040907@wfu.edu> Message-ID: <47A52EB8.9060509@wfu.edu> I would be grateful for any news of sightings of the following items, which are mentioned in a footnote to the University of Iowa Special Collections Gawsworth Holdings: > *(2) /The Oxford Book of Suppressed Verse --/ Lawrence Durrell > once intended to publish; this ribald compilation is sadly > lost. (3) /Liber Amicorum/ (1935-49) was a manuscript album of > verse gathered from 44 friends, including Durrell, de la Mare, > James Stephens, and Seumas O'Sullivan. It also is lost.* > http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/spec-coll/Bai/eng.htm The first anthology would have made sense and would be not at all impossible to believe, given Durrell's friendship with the Ridlers. Perhaps one or both of these will turn up one day in some grandmother's attic in Oxford. . . . Charles -- ********************** Charles L. Sligh Department of English Wake Forest University slighcl at wfu.edu ********************** -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.uvic.ca/pipermail/ilds/attachments/20080202/aeb3d2c4/attachment.html From dtart at bigpond.net.au Sat Feb 2 16:38:09 2008 From: dtart at bigpond.net.au (Denise Tart & David Green) Date: Sun, 3 Feb 2008 11:38:09 +1100 Subject: [ilds] beautiful writing References: <003501c865de$392043a0$0201a8c0@MumandDad> <47A4E072.2080402@wfu.edu> Message-ID: <005101c865fd$0d4d7350$0201a8c0@MumandDad> And I really like the following post from down-under, which counts as "Durrellian" by proxy: Wot, no travel writer ? The very descriptive Michael Haag on Matters Egyptian ( The River Nile, Alexandria, etc , with brilliant photographs ) should be on the list. Bettina Maskelyne, Brisbane Queensland, Australia Charles, I don't know Bettina but I will look her up. I'd Say she works out of Uni of Queensland - a long way north of my home town. By the way, the responses to the Times "50 Greatest Writers" have shown a healthy voicing of "Hey, Hey: Where is Durrell?" (I count at least 6 postings. My own posting championing Durrell and Powys and other writers not 'cookie cutter neat' has not appeared as of now.) Denise and I were looking at the 50 greatest British Writers since 1945 and decided Durrell was not on the list because the compilers 'snubbed' him for not really being British. He was born in India (a colony) albeit to British parents He hardly lived in England and did not much write about the place - even though British Characters inhabit his novels as ex pats and fellow 'travellers'/free spririts. In in life he made his dislike of 'pudding island' well known and claimed Irishness rather than Englishness. I think Durrell had as much chance of getting on the list as an Aussie, Canadian or even North Carolinan writer. one can just imagine the terse conversation "Now, what about this Durrell Chap?" "Mnyess, well, not really British is he? Indian born. Lived in bloody wog countries. Didn't much like us and .... well, claimed to be Irish anyway. Next..........." DG Denise Tart & David Green 16 William Street, Marrickville NSW 2204 +61 2 9564 6165 0412 707 625 dtart at bigpond.net.au -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.uvic.ca/pipermail/ilds/attachments/20080203/8db49503/attachment.html From odos.fanourios at gmail.com Sun Feb 3 10:06:20 2008 From: odos.fanourios at gmail.com (James Gifford) Date: Sun, 03 Feb 2008 11:06:20 -0700 Subject: [ilds] lost durrelliana In-Reply-To: <47A52EB8.9060509@wfu.edu> References: <47A525BB.70001@wfu.edu> <47A52B47.7040907@wfu.edu> <47A52EB8.9060509@wfu.edu> Message-ID: <47A6029C.5030303@gmail.com> It seems to me more likely that it will turn up in some library that hasn't digitized its Special Collections catalogue... Still, I'm curious about how they know about it -- I'd assume through the Durrell-Gawsworth correspondence, but how extensive is the reference, and do we know how far LD got in the projects? The latter, however, seems to be Gawsworth's lost work, and for that, who knows! Those who saw the Gawsworth documentary in Victoria know how lucky we are he didn't misplace everything. It'll take something like the Joyce industry to actually track 'em all down. Still, I'm game. Cheers, Jamie slighcl wrote: > I would be grateful for any news of sightings of the following items, > which are mentioned in a footnote to the University of Iowa Special > Collections Gawsworth Holdings: > >> *(2) /The Oxford Book of Suppressed Verse --/ Lawrence Durrell >> once intended to publish; this ribald compilation is sadly >> lost. (3) /Liber Amicorum/ (1935-49) was a manuscript album of >> verse gathered from 44 friends, including Durrell, de la Mare, >> James Stephens, and Seumas O'Sullivan. It also is lost.* >> http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/spec-coll/Bai/eng.htm > > The first anthology would have made sense and would be not at all > impossible to believe, given Durrell's friendship with the Ridlers. > Perhaps one or both of these will turn up one day in some grandmother's > attic in Oxford. . . . > > Charles > > -- > ********************** > Charles L. Sligh > Department of English > Wake Forest University > slighcl at wfu.edu > ********************** From Smithchamberlin at aol.com Sun Feb 3 13:40:01 2008 From: Smithchamberlin at aol.com (Smithchamberlin at aol.com) Date: Sun, 3 Feb 2008 16:40:01 EST Subject: [ilds] ILDS Digest, Vol 11, Issue 2 Message-ID: In the USA the real age of proletarian literature was the 1930s, viz. Michael Gold and other CP-oriented writers, Henry Roth, some of Steinbeck, Hem's To Have and Have Not, Dos Passos' USA, James T. Farrell's Studs Lonigan trilogy and Danny O'Neill tetrology, Odet's play Waiting for Lefty, Richard Wright's Native Son, and the like. Durrell's style is definitely not a contemporary one, alas. Brewster In a message dated 2/3/2008 3:00:34 PM Eastern Standard Time, ilds-request at lists.uvic.ca writes: Message: 1 Date: Sun, 3 Feb 2008 07:57:28 +1100 From: "Denise Tart & David Green" Subject: [ilds] beautiful writing To: "Durrel" Message-ID: <003501c865de$392043a0$0201a8c0 at MumandDad> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252" Lawrence Durrell's writing is slightly out of fashion just now, his style too beautiful for contemporary tastes. Indeed. The age of monosyllabic prol writing is upon us. Much as I like most of Tim Winton's work, it is self consciously 'working class'. Durrell wrote in an age before the proletarian scholars and the kind of modern writing that eschews classical learning and scholarship and prefers 'plain English' to latinate modes of expression and in which words of one syllable appear very frequently; the impact of journalese is very evident. Thanks Charles for keeping the list going during thje bleak northern winter. We, for our part are having heat, rain and humidity; wettest summer for about twenty years. DG **************Biggest Grammy Award surprises of all time on AOL Music. (http://music.aol.com/grammys/pictures/never-won-a-grammy?NCID=aolcmp003000000025 48) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.uvic.ca/pipermail/ilds/attachments/20080203/dfb62fae/attachment.html From slighcl at wfu.edu Sun Feb 3 14:32:38 2008 From: slighcl at wfu.edu (slighcl) Date: Sun, 03 Feb 2008 17:32:38 -0500 Subject: [ilds] an assassin of polish In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <47A64106.6090606@wfu.edu> On 2/3/2008 4:40 PM, Smithchamberlin at aol.com wrote: > Durrell's style is definitely not a contemporary one, alas. > > > Date: Sun, 3 Feb 2008 07:57:28 +1100 > From: "Denise Tart & David Green" > > Lawrence Durrell's writing is slightly out of fashion > just now, his style too beautiful for contemporary tastes. > So here is the Old Stylist himself, surely at this moment thinking over the difficult midwifery of the "Justine" manuscript: > > Durrell, Lawrence : STYLE [from Collected Poems: > 1931-1974 (1985) , Faber and Faber ] > > > > Something like the sea, > Unlaboured momentum of water > But going somewhere, > Building and subsiding, > The busy one, the loveless. > > Or the wind that slits > Forests from end to end, > Inspiriting vast audiences, > Ovations of leafy hands > Accepting, accepting. > > But neither is yet > Fine enough for the line I hunt. > The dry bony blade of the > Sword-grass might suit me > Better: an assassin of polish. > > Such a bite of perfect temper > As unwary fingers provoke, > Not to be felt till later, > Turning away, to notice the thread > Of blood from its unfelt stroke. > > 1955/ /1955/ > I like the points of contrast that Durrell observes--supposing that this is even about writing, not living or lovemaking. Moving back and forth between the tide-like, "unlaboured momentum of water" and writing as "an assassin of polish"--I would hang Durrell's style on those two horns. (I am thinking of /Justine/, of course, which I admit is not Durrell's only prose style.) I am also thinking about the strong early pronouncements upon Durrell's "style"--especially Burgess in 1967 > > If is a prose-poetry whose rhythms tend to flaccidity and > which sometimes > > melts info a romantic wash a little too close to the old > lending-library sadistic-sentimental > > exotic escapism beloved of the dreaming shop-girl. For all that, > > there are passages which are powerful and masterly-sharply and > exactly observant. > > But the final impression is of something shimmering in a > rather old-fashioned > > fin de si?cle way, suggesting languor and satiety after > elaborate self-indulgence. > > The decadence smells of stale incense. > > (/The Novel Now: A Guide to Contemporary Fiction/ 97) > and George Steiner, who declared that "style is, in fact, the vital center of Durrell's art" (/Language and Silence/ 280). Steiner goes to some length to break down and analyze specific moments in Durrell's prose, which he finds "precise and luminous," filled with "a complex aural music" (281). He especially single out the memorable descriptive jotting, "The clicking of violet trams," which I am guessing other Durrellians will instantly recall. Perhaps we should undertake that sort of particularizing investigation here? Distinctively Durrellian paragraphs, sentences, phrases, fragements, or words, anyone? Charles -- ********************** Charles L. Sligh Department of English Wake Forest University slighcl at wfu.edu ********************** -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.uvic.ca/pipermail/ilds/attachments/20080203/088a2dc1/attachment.html From slighcl at wfu.edu Sun Feb 3 15:49:21 2008 From: slighcl at wfu.edu (slighcl) Date: Sun, 03 Feb 2008 18:49:21 -0500 Subject: [ilds] an assassin of polish In-Reply-To: <47A64106.6090606@wfu.edu> References: <47A64106.6090606@wfu.edu> Message-ID: <47A65301.2040501@wfu.edu> I feel responsible for the way in which my copying-and-pasting from a pdf doc made a hash of Burgess's prose. Here is a corrected version-- > >> It is a prose-poetry whose rhythms tend to flaccidity and >> which sometimes >> >> melts into a romantic wash a little too close to the old >> lending-library sadistic-sentimental >> >> exotic escapism beloved of the dreaming shop-girl. For all that, >> >> there are passages which are powerful and masterly-sharply >> and exactly observant. >> >> But the final impression is of something shimmering in a >> rather old-fashioned >> >> fin de si?cle way, suggesting languor and satiety after >> elaborate self-indulgence. >> >> The decadence smells of stale incense. >> >> (/The Novel Now: A Guide to Contemporary Fiction/ 97) >> Just as a quick reaction to Burgess's pronouncements, I would ask Burgess--or perhaps his frittering shade in Hades, supplicated by small ponds of bourbon--to point out where the "flaccidity" occurs. If Burgess is thinking of /Justine/, then it all gets a bit more complicated. Context is all. Durrell has written his prose under multiple masks (Darley, Arnauti, Pursewarden, &c.), thus creating the "out" or the explanation that it is the prose style of the /Creatures/, not the Creator, that has gone "flaccid." Once Durrell creates the fiction that /Balthazar /is to follow /Justine/, then this game truly becomes genius--revision and self-criticism of style as storyline and drama. Seen in these terms, I think, we can better understand that the "plot" of /Justine /is in its prose "style"--when and how the style starts, when and how it eddies, when and how it returns to start afresh, and when and how it finds or does not find its way to new resources. Did "shop girls" read such things? Oh dear. . . . Charles -- ********************** Charles L. Sligh Department of English Wake Forest University slighcl at wfu.edu ********************** -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.uvic.ca/pipermail/ilds/attachments/20080203/62c1fe10/attachment.html From odos.fanourios at gmail.com Sun Feb 3 16:04:54 2008 From: odos.fanourios at gmail.com (James Gifford) Date: Sun, 03 Feb 2008 17:04:54 -0700 Subject: [ilds] an assassin of polish In-Reply-To: <47A65301.2040501@wfu.edu> References: <47A64106.6090606@wfu.edu> <47A65301.2040501@wfu.edu> Message-ID: <47A656A6.6080808@gmail.com> As someone who likes Burgess and even teaches _Clockwork Orange_ (although I *do not* think it is a "great" novel), isn't the response here obvious? If Burgess wants to find, ahem, prose that "melts into a romantic wash a little too close to the old lending-library sadistic-sentimental exotic escapism beloved of the dreaming shop-girl," couldn't he look at that sentence itself? I think the answer fall far closer to home. Burgess saw himself in much this same guise, and that made Durrell direct competition. Also, I have to agree with Charles. The polyphonic voices of the text make it difficult to hammer it down to a single narrator. After all, how could we link the narrative voice of the first page of _Monsieur_ with that of the first pages of _Justine_? Perhaps in the word "brndled," but in little else. Even within the Quartet, the duckshoot seems to have found its own, while Arnauti is given to dramatics that seem to vanish by the time _Balthazar_ arrives. The voices here differ, and that would also answer Burgess' challenge in provocative ways. Still, what of a stylistic analysis of Burgess' _Clockwork Orange_ against _Justine_. Wipe away the rather simplistic (though appealing) social commentary in Burgess' novel, and I think style is clearly accorded first position in both books -- on that level, Burgess creates one catchy voice, but I think Durrell goes a bit further. Still, I liked the reminder of Steiner's comments on Durrell's style. That seems spot on. Best, James slighcl wrote: > I feel responsible for the way in which my copying-and-pasting from a > pdf doc made a hash of Burgess's prose. Here is a corrected version-- >> >>> It is a prose-poetry whose rhythms tend to flaccidity and >>> which sometimes >>> >>> melts into a romantic wash a little too close to the old >>> lending-library sadistic-sentimental >>> >>> exotic escapism beloved of the dreaming shop-girl. For all that, >>> >>> there are passages which are powerful and masterly-sharply >>> and exactly observant. >>> >>> But the final impression is of something shimmering in a >>> rather old-fashioned >>> >>> fin de si?cle way, suggesting languor and satiety after >>> elaborate self-indulgence. >>> >>> The decadence smells of stale incense. >>> >>> (/The Novel Now: A Guide to Contemporary Fiction/ 97) >>> > Just as a quick reaction to Burgess's pronouncements, I would ask > Burgess--or perhaps his frittering shade in Hades, supplicated by small > ponds of bourbon--to point out where the "flaccidity" occurs. If > Burgess is thinking of /Justine/, then it all gets a bit more > complicated. Context is all. Durrell has written his prose under > multiple masks (Darley, Arnauti, Pursewarden, &c.), thus creating the > "out" or the explanation that it is the prose style of the /Creatures/, > not the Creator, that has gone "flaccid." > > Once Durrell creates the fiction that /Balthazar /is to follow > /Justine/, then this game truly becomes genius--revision and > self-criticism of style as storyline and drama. > > Seen in these terms, I think, we can better understand that the "plot" > of /Justine /is in its prose "style"--when and how the style starts, > when and how it eddies, when and how it returns to start afresh, and > when and how it finds or does not find its way to new resources. > > Did "shop girls" read such things? Oh dear. . . . > > Charles > > -- > ********************** > Charles L. Sligh > Department of English > Wake Forest University > slighcl at wfu.edu > ********************** > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > ILDS mailing list > ILDS at lists.uvic.ca > https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ilds From slighcl at wfu.edu Sun Feb 3 19:46:42 2008 From: slighcl at wfu.edu (slighcl) Date: Sun, 03 Feb 2008 22:46:42 -0500 Subject: [ilds] an assassin of polish In-Reply-To: <47A656A6.6080808@gmail.com> References: <47A64106.6090606@wfu.edu> <47A65301.2040501@wfu.edu> <47A656A6.6080808@gmail.com> Message-ID: <47A68AA2.101@wfu.edu> Let me venture another observation or two about the standard criticisms of Durrell's style. I hate that I am not up for citing specific critics, but then I am up late and want to sleep. First, most criticism of the style voices disapproval of Durrell's /lushness /or /exoticism/. I cry foul when I hear such judgments, not because Durrell is not lush or exotic, but because the criticism implies that the writer's imagination should be tamed or disciplined to some normative sort of prose style, a prose connected point-for-point with a corrective (politically or otherwise) sense of reality. Even an educated and cultured stylist like Burgess seems to be following in this line of criticism, a most curious thing. If I could scan it, I would say that Burgess thinks a good stylist should stay on point, writing always in his characteristic style. Again, Durrell's changing style evidences a more complex view of character and psychology. If character and psychology are multiplex and changing, then the styles expressing them will follow by being multiplex and changing. I will also admit that in /Justine /and in the /Quartet /Durrell is often working in haste. That the magic occurs even if the unevenness and cobbling show through makes it all the more amazing. A final point: Like Byron in /Don Juan/, Durrell equally mistrusts the prescriptive and proscriptive, I think. Thus he comes up short because, mistrusting "messages," he has no interest or inclination to stay "on message." That last point may be at the heart of the deepest critical suspicion of Durrell. He had loyalty to himself, not a program. For Byron and for Durrell--both of whom favor fragmentation, ellipses, a cosmopolitan range of reference, and a disinterest in neat endings--style reflects a world-view. Charles -- ********************** Charles L. Sligh Department of English Wake Forest University slighcl at wfu.edu ********************** -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.uvic.ca/pipermail/ilds/attachments/20080203/0e7994e0/attachment.html From dtart at bigpond.net.au Sun Feb 3 22:28:47 2008 From: dtart at bigpond.net.au (Denise Tart & David Green) Date: Mon, 4 Feb 2008 17:28:47 +1100 Subject: [ilds] On Message Message-ID: <00aa01c866f7$330fae00$0201a8c0@MumandDad> In my view, the closest Durrell came to staying "on message" was with Bitter Lemons. there is a defined angle here, but it's no polemik. A series of scenes and thoughts about an unfolding tragedy that to my mind are about a failure of intelligence, a failure of management. DG Denise Tart & David Green 16 William Street, Marrickville NSW 2204 +61 2 9564 6165 0412 707 625 dtart at bigpond.net.au -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.uvic.ca/pipermail/ilds/attachments/20080204/42d84440/attachment.html