From dtart at bigpond.net.au Mon Jun 2 01:00:46 2008 From: dtart at bigpond.net.au (Denise Tart & David Green) Date: Mon, 2 Jun 2008 18:00:46 +1000 Subject: [ilds] Chains of memory References: <483E0FA3.10505@gmail.com><003a01c8c17b$cbdf8220$0201a8c0@MumandDad> <483EA94E.2050908@wfu.edu> Message-ID: <023c01c8c486$c6f1b450$0201a8c0@MumandDad> Well, yes, Charles. You are right. perhaps i was hoodwinked by the Brigadier's knowledge of Swift. Overall Durrell's portrait of the British Military and memeber of the FO is unflattering. The Diplomatic Corps are sent up in Antrobus and one cannot read Bitter Lemons without coming to the sad conclusion that the Brits bungled it somewhat, showing an insenativity toward the Cypriots that I hope the US military in Iraq have learned from. Gideon is of course a roque and uses the military system to his advantage, setting himself up comfortably on the island and even using LD's skills to help with reports. Alcohol was obviously a bond between them, but is is clear LD liked the chap, whether real or constructed and so I am proposing to continue my study of Gideon and of Rhodes next weekend when I have time to write in detail. I encourage others to read Reflections and contribute. It is, for me, as intriguing as Propspero's Cell, but harder. A writer touched by War, the wreckage of which features strongly in Reflections. But despite the war, the Greeks continue, the same as ever?? or do they? David Denise Tart & David Green 16 William Street, Marrickville NSW 2204 +61 2 9564 6165 0412 707 625 dtart at bigpond.net.au ----- Original Message ----- From: slighcl To: ilds at lists.uvic.ca Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2008 11:02 PM Subject: Re: [ilds] Chains of memory On 5/29/2008 7:04 AM, Denise Tart & David Green wrote: LD Meets the British Military and discovers they are not not so boorish afterall. Experience remembered and embellished, a story told. What about this discovery, David? I think the discovery of Gideon's intelligence and sympathetic humanity are there, certainly. But how can we trace and determine in any precise way what Durrell's thoughts and feelings were toward the British military? Anglo-Indian sensibilities would have to be reckoned up as somewhere behind much of Durrell's thoughts and feelings about the servants of empire, I am betting. Also important would be how Durrell was thinking about his relation to other British writers who had written about the imperial holdings. Where is Kipling's Colonel Creighton (from Kim) in all of this? Like Creighton, Gideon is certainly no "everyman" standing in for the rank and file or for an enlightened officer corps found everywhere in abundance. Instead, he is a singularity troubled by his difference and the professional costs of his idiosyncrasies. The Brigadier reminds him of this. And then I am flashing forward to Bitter Lemons, where the officers and the administrative class attempt to live in a separate canton, a place echoing the sleepy comforts of home. 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 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.uvic.ca/pipermail/ilds/attachments/20080602/1c4430d4/attachment.html From slighcl at wfu.edu Mon Jun 2 07:53:46 2008 From: slighcl at wfu.edu (slighcl) Date: Mon, 02 Jun 2008 10:53:46 -0400 Subject: [ilds] Chains of memory In-Reply-To: <023c01c8c486$c6f1b450$0201a8c0@MumandDad> References: <483E0FA3.10505@gmail.com><003a01c8c17b$cbdf8220$0201a8c0@MumandDad> <483EA94E.2050908@wfu.edu> <023c01c8c486$c6f1b450$0201a8c0@MumandDad> Message-ID: <4844097A.3020906@wfu.edu> On 6/2/2008 4:00 AM, Denise Tart & David Green wrote: > I am proposing to continue my study of Gideon and of Rhodes next > weekend when I have time to write in detail. I encourage others to > read Reflections and contribute. It is, for me, as intriguing as > Propspero's Cell, but harder. A writer touched by War, the wreckage of > which features strongly in Reflections. But despite the war, the > Greeks continue, the same as ever?? or do they? I will follow you, David. Look for a follow-up email on a schedule for /Reflections /to come soon. C&c, -- ********************** Charles L. Sligh Department of English Wake Forest University slighcl at wfu.edu ********************** -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.uvic.ca/pipermail/ilds/attachments/20080602/77c42bc9/attachment.html From slighcl at wfu.edu Mon Jun 2 13:41:04 2008 From: slighcl at wfu.edu (slighcl) Date: Mon, 02 Jun 2008 16:41:04 -0400 Subject: [ilds] Reflections on a Marine Venus -- 1 In-Reply-To: <023c01c8c486$c6f1b450$0201a8c0@MumandDad> References: <483E0FA3.10505@gmail.com><003a01c8c17b$cbdf8220$0201a8c0@MumandDad> <483EA94E.2050908@wfu.edu> <023c01c8c486$c6f1b450$0201a8c0@MumandDad> Message-ID: <48445AE0.2070201@wfu.edu> Dear Listserv: I think that we should take up David's suggestion to start reading Durrell's /Reflections on a Marine Venus/ (1953). Summer is just beginning here in the northern hemisphere. And the antipodes are doing what they do best. Let's go. Let's start with the start--"Chapter 1: Of Paradise Terrestre." Two initial notes here--perhaps they are of consequence, perhaps not. First, a few thoughts on Durrell's term "islomania." I find it curious that wikipedia grants Durrell a primacy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islomania that the Oxford English Dictionary seems to have missed. *islomania* A passion or craze for islands. 1962 Listener 25 Oct. 693/1, I suffer from acute islomania, and was therefore specially interested in 'Let's Imagine'..which investigated the Channel Island of Herm. 1971 D. CONOVER One Man's Island 110 Islomania runs in my blood. I would rather talk about islands than eat, would rather{em}and often do{em}think about islands than sleep. 1972 Times 4 May 11/6 Psychologists have a word for it{em}islomania{em}an insatiable attraction to islands. Perhaps someone on the ILDS listserv should submit Durrell's 1953 use of islomania to the OED? Any others? Having said that, I will observe that the OED does give Durrell recognition for original, representative, or singular uses of many, many other words, many of which are drawn from the /Quartet/. Second, I will note that this book--like /Prospero's Cell/--opens in the key of "SOMEWHERE." That is a remarkable way to begin a "book of place," I think. "Somewhere" is a peculiar sort of flourish, I think, granting a kind of suspensive poise among or between different places and things and states of being. And then I recall the incessant "somewhere-ness" of /Justine/. Try the word search here at Amazon, which will serve us as a digital concordance: http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0571203973/ref=sib_dp_pt/103-6141751-2435800#reader-link 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/20080602/5f3f637e/attachment.html From slighcl at wfu.edu Mon Jun 2 16:21:37 2008 From: slighcl at wfu.edu (slighcl) Date: Mon, 02 Jun 2008 19:21:37 -0400 Subject: [ilds] Reflections on a Marine Venus -- 1 In-Reply-To: <48445AE0.2070201@wfu.edu> References: <483E0FA3.10505@gmail.com><003a01c8c17b$cbdf8220$0201a8c0@MumandDad> <483EA94E.2050908@wfu.edu> <023c01c8c486$c6f1b450$0201a8c0@MumandDad> <48445AE0.2070201@wfu.edu> Message-ID: <48448081.6080508@wfu.edu> On 6/2/2008 4:41 PM, slighcl wrote: > Let's start with the start--"Chapter 1: Of Paradise Terrestre." I suspect that Professor Godshalk will not let me skip merrily over that tag from Middleton's /The Spanish Gipsy/. Alright. Why that epigraph, Bill? Is it just an easy selection because of the Rhodes association? Anything else to draw out from one of Durrell's prime Elizas? Why would he have been drawn to Middleton in the first place? C&c. -- ********************** 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/20080602/3f102220/attachment.html From bredwine1968 at earthlink.net Mon Jun 2 16:55:23 2008 From: bredwine1968 at earthlink.net (Bruce Redwine) Date: Mon, 2 Jun 2008 16:55:23 -0700 (GMT-07:00) Subject: [ilds] Somewhere Message-ID: <6262735.1212450923810.JavaMail.root@elwamui-muscovy.atl.sa.earthlink.net> An important observation, Charles. Where does "somewhere" reside? Or why Durrell's emphasis upon somewhere, especially as used in Justine? I would suggest that your "key" is not musical, but metaphorical, an entry into Durrell's imagination. I don't read either Durrell's Corfu or his Rhodes as actual places, and Gideon's notebooks are not real either, given that Gideon himself is fiction. As to the Middleton epigraph, that seems plain enough and descriptive of Durrell's situation on Rhodes. He was an "exile" of sorts. I'm wondering if "Alvarez" is a Spanish name with an Arabic origin. "Al," an Arabic article, would suggest that. But this could be a false etymology. But if not, the Arabic may have struck Durrell as appropriate, given his prior circumstances. Bruce -----Original Message----- >From: slighcl >Sent: Jun 2, 2008 1:41 PM >To: ilds at lists.uvic.ca >Subject: [ilds] Reflections on a Marine Venus -- 1 >Second, I will note that this book--like /Prospero's Cell/--opens in the >key of "SOMEWHERE." That is a remarkable way to begin a "book of >place," I think. > >"Somewhere" is a peculiar sort of flourish, I think, granting a kind of >suspensive poise among or between different places and things and states >of being. And then I recall the incessant "somewhere-ness" of >/Justine/. Try the word search here at Amazon, which will serve us as a >digital concordance: > > http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0571203973/ref=sib_dp_pt/103-6141751-2435800#reader-link > >Charles From bredwine1968 at earthlink.net Mon Jun 2 17:32:24 2008 From: bredwine1968 at earthlink.net (Bruce Redwine) Date: Mon, 2 Jun 2008 17:32:24 -0700 (GMT-07:00) Subject: [ilds] Somewhere moment matures to anywhere moment Message-ID: <29631543.1212453144496.JavaMail.root@elwamui-muscovy.atl.sa.earthlink.net> I agree completely and will share this with the List, Dr. D. I wonder if old LD was humming to himself, "Somewhere over the rainbow," as he strolled down his own private "yellow brick road." Bruce -----Original Message----- >From: durrell at bigpond.com >Sent: Jun 2, 2008 5:14 PM >To: Bruce Redwine >Subject: Re:Somewhere moment matures to anywhere moment > >somewhere is intentionally used here with great leverage to disorientate and thrust the reader into a mental sphere with such cognitive gravity, so self absorbed, that their time and hence space are transcended.....in these somewhere moments we become independent of physical orientation and move effortlessly within an inner vastness that displaces any sense worth to the outer world with its lilliputian proportions...that infantile somewhere moment is now growing and may mature into an anywhere moment! Dr. D. >---- Bruce Redwine wrote: >> An important observation, Charles. Where does "somewhere" reside? Or why Durrell's emphasis upon somewhere, especially as used in Justine? I would suggest that your "key" is not musical, but metaphorical, an entry into Durrell's imagination. I don't read either Durrell's Corfu or his Rhodes as actual places, and Gideon's notebooks are not real either, given that Gideon himself is fiction. >> >> As to the Middleton epigraph, that seems plain enough and descriptive of Durrell's situation on Rhodes. He was an "exile" of sorts. I'm wondering if "Alvarez" is a Spanish name with an Arabic origin. "Al," an Arabic article, would suggest that. But this could be a false etymology. But if not, the Arabic may have struck Durrell as appropriate, given his prior circumstances. >> >> >> Bruce From slighcl at wfu.edu Mon Jun 2 17:42:38 2008 From: slighcl at wfu.edu (slighcl) Date: Mon, 02 Jun 2008 20:42:38 -0400 Subject: [ilds] four durrell reflections In-Reply-To: <6262735.1212450923810.JavaMail.root@elwamui-muscovy.atl.sa.earthlink.net> References: <6262735.1212450923810.JavaMail.root@elwamui-muscovy.atl.sa.earthlink.net> Message-ID: <4844937E.7010505@wfu.edu> Could somebody with closer knowledge of music set to Durrellian themes help me? James, perhaps: What about this? Is it simply something I knew and forgot? http://clarinet.cc/archives/recordings/index.html sfcover.jpg *DENNIS LECLAIR*/ Episode #1/ MP3 (complete version) *JOHN BAVICCHI* /Donata for Clarinet and Piano/ *ALLAN CROSSMAN* /Desiderata/ *****THOMAS MCGAH /Four Durrell Reflections****/* *WOLFGANG BOTTENBERG* /Sonata Modalis/ Sherman Friedland and Dale Bartlett - piano /All works on this CD are dedicated to Sherman Friedland/ *Recording number SF004* -- ********************** 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/20080602/282f1df5/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: sfcover.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 24935 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://lists.uvic.ca/pipermail/ilds/attachments/20080602/282f1df5/attachment.jpg From godshawl at email.uc.edu Mon Jun 2 17:58:42 2008 From: godshawl at email.uc.edu (william godshalk) Date: Mon, 02 Jun 2008 20:58:42 -0400 Subject: [ilds] Reflections on a Marine Venus -- 1 In-Reply-To: <48448081.6080508@wfu.edu> References: <483E0FA3.10505@gmail.com> <003a01c8c17b$cbdf8220$0201a8c0@MumandDad> <483EA94E.2050908@wfu.edu> <023c01c8c486$c6f1b450$0201a8c0@MumandDad> <48445AE0.2070201@wfu.edu> <48448081.6080508@wfu.edu> Message-ID: <1A.CF.05994.A3794484@gwout1> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.uvic.ca/pipermail/ilds/attachments/20080602/65b4ccbb/attachment.html From slighcl at wfu.edu Mon Jun 2 18:07:18 2008 From: slighcl at wfu.edu (slighcl) Date: Mon, 02 Jun 2008 21:07:18 -0400 Subject: [ilds] m john harrison and lawrence durrell In-Reply-To: <6262735.1212450923810.JavaMail.root@elwamui-muscovy.atl.sa.earthlink.net> References: <6262735.1212450923810.JavaMail.root@elwamui-muscovy.atl.sa.earthlink.net> Message-ID: <48449946.9040705@wfu.edu> *PRELUDE: * http://www.orionbooks.co.uk/QandA.aspx?id=5111&catID=3 M. John Harrison, author of /Nova Swing/, answers our questions > > Typewriter, word processor or pen? > > Word processor. "Cut-and-paste" is the best thing that > happened to anyone who wants to write well, because it enables > you to do more of the kind of operations that make writing > good and structures interesting. Keeping a Mont Blanc or a > 1930s Underwood for your important literary work is a > contemporary way of announcing you're a tosser. > > > Name your favourite literary hero and villain. > > Heroine: Justine Hosnani from /Justine/ by Lawrence Durrell. > Villain: Martin Plunkett from James Ellroy's /Silent Terror/ > (although, let's be honest, in a Godzilla versus King Kong > scenario, Martin wouldn't stand a chance against Justine. > She'd eat him up). Or did you mean, heroine: Katherine > Mansfield, villain: Middleton Murry? Jean Rhys and Ford Madox > Ford? > * ***** DENOUEMENT:* http://overnighttomanydistantcities.blogspot.com/2007/05/mike-harrison-tries-to-steal-my-girl.html *Tuesday, 29 May 2007 Mike Harrison tries to steal my girl* Like all right-thinking people, I am in awe of the great writer and rock climber M John Harrison. And until now, I had always thought he was a very nice man. But now I am going to have to fight him, because I discover he has been eyeing up my bird. I have always been in love with Justine. I have studied Arnauti's /Moeurs /for hoeurs. And she nowhere expresses an admiration for rock-climbing award-winning novelists. True, she is first drawn to Jacob by his messy room, full of books and newspapers. But anyone can cut things out of the newspapers. When I was 16, I wrote to Mr Durrell about Justine. He wrote me a nice note back saying a lot of people seemed to like her, but that in insight and generosity, I topped the lot. I think that is clear enough. So shove off, Harrison. She's mine. He also sent me a copy of (what was then) his new book, but she wasn't in it, so I didn't like it as much. I have very few signed books, actually, but I've always regretted not buying what I saw in the Charing Cross Road in the early 90s. It was three sets of the Faber paperbacks of the quartet (uniform with /Justine /and /Clea /below; /Balthazar /was yellow and /Mountolive /green, though as you see, my copies are the hardbacks). On the flyleaf of each in pencil, in Durrell's hand, were the notes "Eve's copy", "Sappho's copy" (I've forgotten who the other one was). They were a fiver each, which I couldn't afford. Posted by mckie at 23:22 ****** *CODA:* For the bibliographically inclined, who confesses to owning Eve & Sappho copies? C&c. -- ********************** 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/20080602/b9a5ca34/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: mike&dog.JPG Type: image/jpeg Size: 30315 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://lists.uvic.ca/pipermail/ilds/attachments/20080602/b9a5ca34/attachment.jpe -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: mjh1.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 53491 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://lists.uvic.ca/pipermail/ilds/attachments/20080602/b9a5ca34/attachment.jpg From slighcl at wfu.edu Mon Jun 2 18:23:44 2008 From: slighcl at wfu.edu (slighcl) Date: Mon, 02 Jun 2008 21:23:44 -0400 Subject: [ilds] Somewhere moment matures to anywhere moment In-Reply-To: <29631543.1212453144496.JavaMail.root@elwamui-muscovy.atl.sa.earthlink.net> References: <29631543.1212453144496.JavaMail.root@elwamui-muscovy.atl.sa.earthlink.net> Message-ID: <48449D20.5020500@wfu.edu> >> From: durrell at bigpond.com >> Sent: Jun 2, 2008 5:14 PM >> To: Bruce Redwine >> Subject: Re:Somewhere moment matures to anywhere moment >> >> somewhere is intentionally used here with great leverage to disorientate and thrust the reader into a mental sphere with such cognitive gravity, so self absorbed, that their time and hence space are transcended.....in these somewhere moments we become independent of physical orientation and move effortlessly within an inner vastness that displaces any sense worth to the outer world with its lilliputian proportions...that infantile somewhere moment is now growing and may mature into an anywhere moment! Dr. D. "[Days on Rhodes] follow each other in scales and modes too quickly almost to be captured in the nets of form[. . . .] Only by a strict submission to the laws of inconsequence can one ever write about an island[. . . .]" So "somewhere" is a crafty blend of metaphor, psychic state, and rhetorical strategy. For the rhetorical strategy, read "somewhere" as the Odyssean wanderer's gesture par excellence--"Oh yes, now I seem to recollect it: I ran across that old saying or that old friend /somewhere /among the many, many scattered /otherwheres/, other men and their manners." Somewhere evokes by implication, evocation. Dr. C. -- ********************** 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/20080602/5d3d6e81/attachment.html From bredwine1968 at earthlink.net Mon Jun 2 18:32:32 2008 From: bredwine1968 at earthlink.net (Bruce Redwine) Date: Mon, 2 Jun 2008 18:32:32 -0700 (GMT-07:00) Subject: [ilds] Somewhere moment matures to anywhere moment Message-ID: <14428398.1212456752617.JavaMail.root@elwamui-karabash.atl.sa.earthlink.net> A lot of Durrell is all about "evocation." -----Original Message----- >From: slighcl >Sent: Jun 2, 2008 6:23 PM >To: Bruce Redwine , ilds at lists.uvic.ca >Subject: Re: [ilds] Somewhere moment matures to anywhere moment > > >>> From: durrell at bigpond.com >>> Sent: Jun 2, 2008 5:14 PM >>> To: Bruce Redwine >>> Subject: Re:Somewhere moment matures to anywhere moment >>> >>> somewhere is intentionally used here with great leverage to disorientate and thrust the reader into a mental sphere with such cognitive gravity, so self absorbed, that their time and hence space are transcended.....in these somewhere moments we become independent of physical orientation and move effortlessly within an inner vastness that displaces any sense worth to the outer world with its lilliputian proportions...that infantile somewhere moment is now growing and may mature into an anywhere moment! Dr. D. >"[Days on Rhodes] follow each other in scales and modes too quickly >almost to be captured in the nets of form[. . . .] Only by a strict >submission to the laws of inconsequence can one ever write about an >island[. . . .]" > >So "somewhere" is a crafty blend of metaphor, psychic state, and >rhetorical strategy. > >For the rhetorical strategy, read "somewhere" as the Odyssean wanderer's >gesture par excellence--"Oh yes, now I seem to recollect it: I ran >across that old saying or that old friend /somewhere /among the many, >many scattered /otherwheres/, other men and their manners." > >Somewhere evokes by implication, evocation. > >Dr. C. From slighcl at wfu.edu Mon Jun 2 19:04:14 2008 From: slighcl at wfu.edu (slighcl) Date: Mon, 02 Jun 2008 22:04:14 -0400 Subject: [ilds] Somewhere moment In-Reply-To: <14428398.1212456752617.JavaMail.root@elwamui-karabash.atl.sa.earthlink.net> References: <14428398.1212456752617.JavaMail.root@elwamui-karabash.atl.sa.earthlink.net> Message-ID: <4844A69E.2090608@wfu.edu> On 6/2/2008 9:32 PM, Bruce Redwine wrote: > A lot of Durrell is all about "evocation." As in the following signature attitude toward the material: "of conversations begun and left hanging in the air; of journeys planned and never undertaken; of notes and studies put together against books unwritten" Ghosts rise up. C&c. -- ********************** 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/20080602/bd1ebec0/attachment.html From godshawl at email.uc.edu Mon Jun 2 20:20:11 2008 From: godshawl at email.uc.edu (william godshalk) Date: Mon, 02 Jun 2008 23:20:11 -0400 Subject: [ilds] Somewhere moment In-Reply-To: <4844A69E.2090608@wfu.edu> References: <14428398.1212456752617.JavaMail.root@elwamui-karabash.atl.sa.earthlink.net> <4844A69E.2090608@wfu.edu> Message-ID: An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.uvic.ca/pipermail/ilds/attachments/20080602/f5e71fe5/attachment.html From dtart at bigpond.net.au Tue Jun 3 03:02:17 2008 From: dtart at bigpond.net.au (Denise Tart & David Green) Date: Tue, 3 Jun 2008 20:02:17 +1000 Subject: [ilds] Somewhere Message-ID: <006901c8c560$e87170e0$0201a8c0@MumandDad> The 'somewhere' idea is wonderful. all the islands books begin with a sea journey. the first two start with somewhere and Bitter Lemons begins with journeys..........so we can say... Somewhere journeys begin and perhaps the word somewhere is powerful because we are never quite sure, in a metaphysical sense, when that is - as in at what point exactly did the blue really begin in Propero's Cell. The author does not say exactly. He becomes conscious of a sea change much as we can become aware of a new way of feeling or thinking but cannot say precisely when this happened. 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/20080603/d39377c8/attachment.html From godshawl at email.uc.edu Tue Jun 3 18:26:45 2008 From: godshawl at email.uc.edu (william godshalk) Date: Tue, 03 Jun 2008 21:26:45 -0400 Subject: [ilds] Middleton and Rhodes and lost email In-Reply-To: <481B219B.4000101@wfu.edu> References: <481894AD.2070202@wfu.edu> <001101c8aa14$520694d0$bcd978d0@vittoriohx7smy> <4818AF5C.4030806@wfu.edu> <001101c8ab35$b1821d90$bcd978d0@vittoriohx7smy> <481B219B.4000101@wfu.edu> Message-ID: <5E.F7.17315.A4FE5484@gwout2> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.uvic.ca/pipermail/ilds/attachments/20080603/21beb722/attachment.html From godshawl at email.uc.edu Tue Jun 3 18:29:28 2008 From: godshawl at email.uc.edu (william godshalk) Date: Tue, 03 Jun 2008 21:29:28 -0400 Subject: [ilds] Somewhere moment Message-ID: <89.78.17315.EEFE5484@gwout2> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.uvic.ca/pipermail/ilds/attachments/20080603/7303714e/attachment.html From bredwine1968 at earthlink.net Tue Jun 3 19:06:34 2008 From: bredwine1968 at earthlink.net (Bruce Redwine) Date: Tue, 3 Jun 2008 19:06:34 -0700 (GMT-07:00) Subject: [ilds] Middleton and Rhodes and lost email Message-ID: <16605901.1212545194294.JavaMail.root@elwamui-milano.atl.sa.earthlink.net> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.uvic.ca/pipermail/ilds/attachments/20080603/a547fc8f/attachment.html From bredwine1968 at earthlink.net Tue Jun 3 19:12:31 2008 From: bredwine1968 at earthlink.net (Bruce Redwine) Date: Tue, 3 Jun 2008 19:12:31 -0700 (GMT-07:00) Subject: [ilds] Somewhere moment Message-ID: <15341945.1212545551625.JavaMail.root@elwamui-milano.atl.sa.earthlink.net> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.uvic.ca/pipermail/ilds/attachments/20080603/9b77b4f0/attachment.html From slighcl at wfu.edu Tue Jun 3 19:56:28 2008 From: slighcl at wfu.edu (slighcl) Date: Tue, 03 Jun 2008 22:56:28 -0400 Subject: [ilds] Somewhere moment In-Reply-To: <15341945.1212545551625.JavaMail.root@elwamui-milano.atl.sa.earthlink.net> References: <15341945.1212545551625.JavaMail.root@elwamui-milano.atl.sa.earthlink.net> Message-ID: <4846045C.6050305@wfu.edu> On 6/3/2008 10:12 PM, Bruce Redwine wrote: > I guess Borges has come up because the first paragraph of > Reflections could pass off as one of the Argentine's > "ficciones." I believe that Bill originally put Borges on the table because of Durrell's "anatomy" of his /Reflections/, which he says might evoke > > > "notes and studies put together against books unwritten" > But beyond that we might also consider Durrell's use of Gideon and his "note-books." The imaginary Gideon's imaginary note-books are certainly an interesting sort of make-believe fulcrum to get things rolling, something like the way that Borges uses an apocryphal or "delinquent" printing of an encyclopedia as a make-believe fulcrum to begin spinning out the history "Tl?n, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" (1940): > I owe the discovery of Uqbar to the conjunction of a mirror > and an encyclopedia. The mirror troubled the depths of a > corridor in a country house on Gaona Street in Ramos Mejia; > the encyclopedia is fallaciously called /The Anglo-American > Cyclopaedia/ (New York, 1917) and is a literal but delinquent > reprint of the /Encyclopedia Britannica/ of 1902. The event > took place some five years ago. Bioy Casares had had dinner > with me that evening and we became lengthily engaged in a vast > polemic concerning the composition of a novel in the first > person, whose narrator would omit or disfigure the facts and > indulge in various contradictions which would permit a few > readers - very few readers - to perceive an atrocious or banal > reality. From the remote depths of the corridor, the mirror > spied upon us. We discovered (such a discovery is inevitable > in the late hours of the night) that mirrors hare something > monstrous about them. Then Bioy Casares recalled that one of > the heresiarchs of Uqbar had declared that mirrors and > copulation are abominable, because they increase the number or > men. I asked him the origin of this memorable observation and > he answered that it was reproduced in /The Anglo-American > Cyclopaedia/, in its article on Uqbar. The house (which we had > rented furnished) had a set of this work. On the last pages of > Volume XLVI we found an article on Upsala; on the first pages > of Volume XLVII, one on Ural-Altaic Languages, but not a word > about Uqbar. Bioy, a bit taken aback, consulted the volumes of > the index. In vain he exhausted all of the imaginable > spellings: Ukbar, Ucbar, Ooqbar, Ookbar, Oukbahr... Before > leaving, he told me that it was a region of Iraq of or Asia > Minor. I must confess that I agreed with some discomfort. I > conjectured that this undocumented country and its anonymous > heresiarch were a fiction devised by Bioy's modesty in order > to justify a statement. The fruitless examination of one of > Justus Perthes' atlases fortified my doubt. I believe that I am correct in recalling he cocktail party at which Durrell and Borges met did not go so well. Both writers were wary for whatever reasons and kept to their corners. I may be remembering darkly or engaging in an apocryphal distortion, but I believe that bit of biography came from the biographer himself in a conversation while I was preparing the text for Durrell's "Minor Mythologies" essay. Regarding Durrell on Middleton: I have absolutely no doubt that Durrell knew his Middleton, Dekker, Kyd, and many more of his "beloved Eliza's." Those plays and playwrights were his school and his solace for so many decades. 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/20080603/6e412da1/attachment.html From godshawl at email.uc.edu Tue Jun 3 20:03:28 2008 From: godshawl at email.uc.edu (william godshalk) Date: Tue, 03 Jun 2008 23:03:28 -0400 Subject: [ilds] Middleton and Rhodes and lost email In-Reply-To: <16605901.1212545194294.JavaMail.root@elwamui-milano.atl.sa .earthlink.net> References: <16605901.1212545194294.JavaMail.root@elwamui-milano.atl.sa.earthlink.net> Message-ID: <2C.2D.05994.AF506484@gwout1> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.uvic.ca/pipermail/ilds/attachments/20080603/d442f4db/attachment.html From bredwine1968 at earthlink.net Tue Jun 3 20:54:23 2008 From: bredwine1968 at earthlink.net (Bruce Redwine) Date: Tue, 3 Jun 2008 20:54:23 -0700 (GMT-07:00) Subject: [ilds] Apocryphra Message-ID: <27094571.1212551663461.JavaMail.root@elwamui-lapwing.atl.sa.earthlink.net> Yes to both points. I wonder how high a regard Durrell had for Borges, the latter being already famous and established. I'm not surprised the two didn't hit it off at that apocryphal cocktail party. Ellmann reports that Joyce and Proust barely spoke to one another at another famous dinner party, and it wasn't because of any language barrier -- which was true in both instances. Bruce -----Original Message----- >From: slighcl >Sent: Jun 3, 2008 7:56 PM >To: ilds at lists.uvic.ca >Subject: Re: [ilds] Somewhere moment > >But beyond that we might also consider Durrell's use of Gideon and his >"note-books." The imaginary Gideon's imaginary note-books are certainly >an interesting sort of make-believe fulcrum to get things rolling, >something like the way that Borges uses an apocryphal or "delinquent" >printing of an encyclopedia as a make-believe fulcrum to begin spinning >out the history "Tl?n, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" (1940): > >I believe that I am correct in recalling he cocktail party at which >Durrell and Borges met did not go so well. Both writers were wary for >whatever reasons and kept to their corners. I may be remembering >darkly or engaging in an apocryphal distortion, but I believe that bit >of biography came from the biographer himself in a conversation while I >was preparing the text for Durrell's "Minor Mythologies" essay. From odos.fanourios at gmail.com Tue Jun 3 23:05:19 2008 From: odos.fanourios at gmail.com (James Gifford) Date: Wed, 04 Jun 2008 00:05:19 -0600 Subject: [ilds] four durrell reflections In-Reply-To: <4844937E.7010505@wfu.edu> References: <6262735.1212450923810.JavaMail.root@elwamui-muscovy.atl.sa.earthlink.net> <4844937E.7010505@wfu.edu> Message-ID: <4846309F.10006@gmail.com> If memory serves me correctly, it's a Canadian recording of pieces inspired by Durrell, so purely programme music. If it's on CD, that's news to me. However, that's going purely off memory. Cheers, James slighcl wrote: > Could somebody with closer knowledge of music set to Durrellian themes > help me? > > James, perhaps: What about this? Is it simply something I knew and forgot? > > http://clarinet.cc/archives/recordings/index.html > > sfcover.jpg > > *DENNIS LECLAIR*/ Episode #1/ > MP3 (complete version) > *JOHN BAVICCHI* /Donata for Clarinet and Piano/ > *ALLAN CROSSMAN* /Desiderata/ > *****THOMAS MCGAH /Four Durrell Reflections****/* > *WOLFGANG BOTTENBERG* /Sonata Modalis/ > Sherman Friedland and Dale Bartlett - piano > /All works on this CD are dedicated to Sherman Friedland/ > *Recording number SF004* > > -- > ********************** > 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 odos.fanourios at gmail.com Tue Jun 3 23:10:35 2008 From: odos.fanourios at gmail.com (James Gifford) Date: Wed, 04 Jun 2008 00:10:35 -0600 Subject: [ilds] Somewhere moment In-Reply-To: References: <14428398.1212456752617.JavaMail.root@elwamui-karabash.atl.sa.earthlink.net> <4844A69E.2090608@wfu.edu> Message-ID: <484631DB.9000303@gmail.com> I've long been under the impression that they once met at a dinner party, but I'll have to hunt for the source. I believe it may have been in a Borges book rather than a Durrell book. Help from anyone? Cheers, James william godshalk wrote: >> (a) "notes and studies put together against books unwritten" >> >> (b) Ghosts rise up. > > (c) So when Durrell was in Argentina, he never heard of or read Borges? > That's hard to believe. (I have not checked Ian -- but Durrell and > Borges live together on the web.) > > Bill > *************************************** > W. L. Godshalk * > Department of English * > University of Cincinnati Stellar disorder * > Cincinnati OH 45221-0069 * > 513-281-5927 > *************************************** > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > ILDS mailing list > ILDS at lists.uvic.ca > https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ilds From grtaneja47 at hotmail.com Wed Jun 4 01:00:54 2008 From: grtaneja47 at hotmail.com (G.R. Taneja) Date: Wed, 4 Jun 2008 13:30:54 +0530 Subject: [ilds] Borges In-Reply-To: <484631DB.9000303@gmail.com> References: <14428398.1212456752617.JavaMail.root@elwamui-karabash.atl.sa.earthlink.net> <4844A69E.2090608@wfu.edu> <484631DB.9000303@gmail.com> Message-ID: I recall Ian mentions that Larry told him he met Borges in a party in Buenos Aires. G. R. Taneja / Editor In-between: Essays & Studies in Literary Criticism Department of English, R. L. A. College, University of Delhi Post Box 5205, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi-110 021, India +91 11 2271 4607 home, +91 11 2411 2557 college, +9198104 27837 mobile > Date: Wed, 4 Jun 2008 00:10:35 -0600 > From: odos.fanourios at gmail.com > To: ilds at lists.uvic.ca > Subject: Re: [ilds] Somewhere moment > > I've long been under the impression that they once met at a dinner > party, but I'll have to hunt for the source. I believe it may have been > in a Borges book rather than a Durrell book. > > Help from anyone? > > Cheers, > James > > william godshalk wrote: > >> (a) "notes and studies put together against books unwritten" > >> > >> (b) Ghosts rise up. > > > > (c) So when Durrell was in Argentina, he never heard of or read Borges? > > That's hard to believe. (I have not checked Ian -- but Durrell and > > Borges live together on the web.) > > > > Bill > > *************************************** > > W. L. Godshalk * > > Department of English * > > University of Cincinnati Stellar disorder * > > Cincinnati OH 45221-0069 * > > 513-281-5927 > > *************************************** > > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > > > _______________________________________________ > > ILDS mailing list > > ILDS at lists.uvic.ca > > https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ilds > _______________________________________________ > ILDS mailing list > ILDS at lists.uvic.ca > https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ilds _________________________________________________________________ No Harvard, No Oxford. We are here. Find out !! http://ss1.richmedia.in/recurl.asp?pid=500 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.uvic.ca/pipermail/ilds/attachments/20080604/c43d5660/attachment.html From grtaneja47 at hotmail.com Wed Jun 4 01:28:37 2008 From: grtaneja47 at hotmail.com (G.R. Taneja) Date: Wed, 4 Jun 2008 13:58:37 +0530 Subject: [ilds] Borges-II In-Reply-To: <4846045C.6050305@wfu.edu> References: <15341945.1212545551625.JavaMail.root@elwamui-milano.atl.sa.earthlink.net> <4846045C.6050305@wfu.edu> Message-ID: Re Charles below: I should have added that while Larry told Ian ("LD in conversation with INM 7 May, 1985"--MacNiven, p. 727) he met Borges in a party in Buenos Aires, Ian writes: "Larry was suitably complimentary, Borges polite. . . . In future, Larry would often name Borges among those writers with whom he was most in sympathy. At any rate Borges's philosophic flight accurately prefigured Larry's declared application of the _gigogne_ image to his future _Avignon Quintet_." MacNiven, p. 358. Gulshan Taneja University of Delhi G. R. Taneja / Editor In-between: Essays & Studies in Literary Criticism Department of English, R. L. A. College, University of Delhi Post Box 5205, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi-110 021, India +91 11 2271 4607 home, +91 11 2411 2557 college, +9198104 27837 mobile I believe that I am correct in recalling he cocktail party at which Durrell and Borges met did not go so well. Both writers were wary for whatever reasons and kept to their corners. I may be remembering darkly or engaging in an apocryphal distortion, but I believe that bit of biography came from the biographer himself in a conversation while I was preparing the text for Durrell's "Minor Mythologies" essay. Charles -- ********************** Charles L. Sligh Department of English Wake Forest University slighcl at wfu.edu ********************** _________________________________________________________________ No Harvard, No Oxford. We are here. Find out !! http://ss1.richmedia.in/recurl.asp?pid=500 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.uvic.ca/pipermail/ilds/attachments/20080604/0384b057/attachment.html From aslesauvage at aol.com Wed Jun 4 02:33:53 2008 From: aslesauvage at aol.com (Alain HERVE) Date: Wed, 04 Jun 2008 11:33:53 +0200 Subject: [ilds] Apocryphra In-Reply-To: <27094571.1212551663461.JavaMail.root@elwamui-lapwing.atl.sa.earthlink.net> Message-ID: You invited me very kindly to enter your network two month ago. I was charmed to read your exchanges, but i realize I am not that much dedicated to Durrell. Please cancel my E mail adress from your list for the moment. I cannot read ten Durrell's E mails a day. Sorry for the disturbance. But I will be happy to attend your meeting in France this summer if it takes place when I am around. All the best for all of you the Durrellians. Alain HERVE Paris, France Le 04/06/08 05:54, ??Bruce Redwine?? a ?crit?: > Yes to both points. I wonder how high a regard Durrell had for Borges, the > latter being already famous and established. I'm not surprised the two didn't > hit it off at that apocryphal cocktail party. Ellmann reports that Joyce and > Proust barely spoke to one another at another famous dinner party, and it > wasn't because of any language barrier -- which was true in both instances. > > > Bruce > > > -----Original Message----- >> From: slighcl >> Sent: Jun 3, 2008 7:56 PM >> To: ilds at lists.uvic.ca >> Subject: Re: [ilds] Somewhere moment >> >> But beyond that we might also consider Durrell's use of Gideon and his >> "note-books." The imaginary Gideon's imaginary note-books are certainly >> an interesting sort of make-believe fulcrum to get things rolling, >> something like the way that Borges uses an apocryphal or "delinquent" >> printing of an encyclopedia as a make-believe fulcrum to begin spinning >> out the history "Tl?n, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" (1940): >> >> I believe that I am correct in recalling he cocktail party at which >> Durrell and Borges met did not go so well. Both writers were wary for >> whatever reasons and kept to their corners. I may be remembering >> darkly or engaging in an apocryphal distortion, but I believe that bit >> of biography came from the biographer himself in a conversation while I >> was preparing the text for Durrell's "Minor Mythologies" essay. > > > > _______________________________________________ > ILDS mailing list > ILDS at lists.uvic.ca > https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ilds From slighcl at wfu.edu Wed Jun 4 06:42:42 2008 From: slighcl at wfu.edu (slighcl) Date: Wed, 04 Jun 2008 09:42:42 -0400 Subject: [ilds] Reflections on a Marine Venus -- 1 In-Reply-To: <48445AE0.2070201@wfu.edu> References: <483E0FA3.10505@gmail.com><003a01c8c17b$cbdf8220$0201a8c0@MumandDad> <483EA94E.2050908@wfu.edu> <023c01c8c486$c6f1b450$0201a8c0@MumandDad> <48445AE0.2070201@wfu.edu> Message-ID: <48469BD2.2050501@wfu.edu> I have been toying with the fancy that /Reflections /serves a "hinge" between Durrell's "Epilogue in Alexandria" (/Prospero's Cell/) and the opening episodes of /Justine/. Of course, /Reflections /is literally just that--a book by means of which Durrell made the passage from /Prospero's Cell /to /Justine/. There are interesting stylistic differences. /Prospero's Cell/ and /Justine /find Durrell using the journal / episodic mode to report on a /m?lange/ of sensations, ideas, and memory, whereas /Reflections /runs a steady course between points of adventure. Still, in /Reflections /Durrell does interpose little samplings from Gideon's note-books and some other letters and jottings and "reports". . . . But there are other moments when, if I carry the "Epilogue" to /Prospero's Cell/ and /Justine /lightly there in the back of my mind, I am getting uncanny echoes and refractions of those familiar moments and phrases. As Durrell bids farewell to "E" and Alexandria as he is leaving, for example, he finds "the upper town dissolved in soft pearl and gold." Immediate recollection for me of the "sky of hot nude pearl" in /Justine/. Perhaps that is also the magnetic attraction of the "E" figure drawing out the semblance, looking ahead to her later avatars Justine and Claudia? Then there are disparate phrases and descriptions--"with the suddenness of an axe falling"--ships turning in the oily harbor. . . . C&c. -- ********************** 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/20080604/9d625083/attachment.html From slighcl at wfu.edu Wed Jun 4 10:57:17 2008 From: slighcl at wfu.edu (slighcl) Date: Wed, 04 Jun 2008 13:57:17 -0400 Subject: [ilds] Reflections on a Marine Venus -- 1 In-Reply-To: <48469BD2.2050501@wfu.edu> References: <483E0FA3.10505@gmail.com><003a01c8c17b$cbdf8220$0201a8c0@MumandDad> <483EA94E.2050908@wfu.edu> <023c01c8c486$c6f1b450$0201a8c0@MumandDad> <48445AE0.2070201@wfu.edu> <48469BD2.2050501@wfu.edu> Message-ID: <4846D77D.7080101@wfu.edu> Here attached is the dust jacket for the Faber 1.1 of /Reflections /(1953). The fortress of Rhodes I can understand. But what is the function of the "/w/" set below Durrell's name? I feel as if I have forgotten or overlooked the obvious. Surely it is not for Wolpe, the designer? Charles -- ********************** Charles L. Sligh Department of English Wake Forest University slighcl at wfu.edu ********************** -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.uvic.ca/pipermail/ilds/attachments/20080604/19ac852e/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: 1079676301.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 82702 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://lists.uvic.ca/pipermail/ilds/attachments/20080604/19ac852e/attachment.jpg From godshawl at email.uc.edu Wed Jun 4 11:22:54 2008 From: godshawl at email.uc.edu (william godshalk) Date: Wed, 04 Jun 2008 14:22:54 -0400 Subject: [ilds] Reflections on a Marine Venus -- 1 In-Reply-To: <4846D77D.7080101@wfu.edu> References: <483E0FA3.10505@gmail.com> <003a01c8c17b$cbdf8220$0201a8c0@MumandDad> <483EA94E.2050908@wfu.edu> <023c01c8c486$c6f1b450$0201a8c0@MumandDad> <48445AE0.2070201@wfu.edu> <48469BD2.2050501@wfu.edu> <4846D77D.7080101@wfu.edu> Message-ID: <20.96.08661.27DD6484@gwout1> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.uvic.ca/pipermail/ilds/attachments/20080604/823f9f74/attachment.html From bredwine1968 at earthlink.net Wed Jun 4 11:39:02 2008 From: bredwine1968 at earthlink.net (Bruce Redwine) Date: Wed, 4 Jun 2008 11:39:02 -0700 (GMT-07:00) Subject: [ilds] More on somewhere Message-ID: <32949179.1212604742318.JavaMail.root@elwamui-rubis.atl.sa.earthlink.net> Yes, Charles, well noted, and I add the "pigeons" and "confetti" image later to appear in the Justine. It seems a little strange to me, however, that the Epilogue to Prospero's Cell and the beginning of Justine, both, at times, so poetic and nostalgic, do not match the tone of the letters to Henry Miller, which are very bitter about Egypt and eager to leave for the greener pastures of Greece. Note the letter of 26 or 28 February 1946, where Durrell writes, "I feel like a crusader when I think of Egypt. I'd gladly put an army corps into the country and slaughter the lot of those bigoted, filthy, leprous bastards!" (Chamberlin also singles out this passage in his Chronology.) Of course, the immediate context of Durrell's remark has to do with Eve's abominable problems in obtaining a passport from her Egyptian government. Still, Durrell's explosion is extraordinary in its vitriol and corresponds to other numerous and derogatory comments he makes about Egypt, when living in that country. My point -- Durrell the writer and Durrell the man do not always jive. And I think he led an entirely different existence in his writings, which gets back to where "somewhere" is. And in that regard, I think Dr. Anthony Durrell of Sydney, Australia has recently come up with the best description of that state. Bruce -----Original Message----- >From: slighcl >Sent: Jun 4, 2008 6:42 AM >To: ilds at lists.uvic.ca >Subject: Re: [ilds] Reflections on a Marine Venus -- 1 > >I have been toying with the fancy that /Reflections /serves a "hinge" >between Durrell's "Epilogue in Alexandria" (/Prospero's Cell/) and the >opening episodes of /Justine/. > >Of course, /Reflections /is literally just that--a book by means of >which Durrell made the passage from /Prospero's Cell /to /Justine/. > >There are interesting stylistic differences. /Prospero's Cell/ and >/Justine /find Durrell using the journal / episodic mode to report on a >/m?lange/ of sensations, ideas, and memory, whereas /Reflections /runs a >steady course between points of adventure. Still, in /Reflections >/Durrell does interpose little samplings from Gideon's note-books and >some other letters and jottings and "reports". . . . > >But there are other moments when, if I carry the "Epilogue" to >/Prospero's Cell/ and /Justine /lightly there in the back of my mind, I >am getting uncanny echoes and refractions of those familiar moments and >phrases. > >As Durrell bids farewell to "E" and Alexandria as he is leaving, for >example, he finds "the upper town dissolved in soft pearl and gold." >Immediate recollection for me of the "sky of hot nude pearl" in >/Justine/. Perhaps that is also the magnetic attraction of the "E" >figure drawing out the semblance, looking ahead to her later avatars >Justine and Claudia? > >Then there are disparate phrases and descriptions--"with the suddenness >of an axe falling"--ships turning in the oily harbor. . . . > >C&c. From dtart at bigpond.net.au Fri Jun 6 22:54:05 2008 From: dtart at bigpond.net.au (Denise Tart & David Green) Date: Sat, 7 Jun 2008 15:54:05 +1000 Subject: [ilds] Reflections on a different method of entry. Message-ID: <001801c8c862$e5d3eac0$0201a8c0@MumandDad> It struck me last night that a difference between Prospero's Cell and Reflections on a Marine Venus is that the former begins with a 'discovery of yourself' and the later begins with a discovery of the main characters; Gidgeon. Hoyle, Croker and Mills - and the Marine Venus, foam born and ripe of body. Indeed it is Mills who says "above all, introduce your main characters right away. Give the reader a chance to see if he likes them. It's only fair." Before we even meet Mills, the author has done this. Reflections is less of personal journey than Prospero's Cell. It is more structured, lacking the journal entry style, revealing, perhaps a writer growing in maturity and confidence. The story is told far more through the characters and their dialogue than through the poetic muse of the writer himself. In this respect it looks forward to Bitter Lemons rather than back to Prospero. Prospero's Cell is a gem, unique, but Reflections is a better book, much more of a novel and arguably more fictitious than PC; the writer emerges out of the the self absorbed note taker. David Denise Tart & David Green 16 William Street, Marrickville NSW 2204 +61 2 9564 6165 0412 707 625 dtart at bigpond.net.au -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.uvic.ca/pipermail/ilds/attachments/20080607/0963735a/attachment.html From dtart at bigpond.net.au Sat Jun 7 14:53:07 2008 From: dtart at bigpond.net.au (Denise Tart & David Green) Date: Sun, 8 Jun 2008 07:53:07 +1000 Subject: [ilds] Haughty Gideon and peasant dialoque Message-ID: <001801c8c8e8$df40c170$0201a8c0@MumandDad> two marked pages after reading LD this morning. On page 17 of my Faber paperback edition of Reflections we come across the ungentlemanly conduct of Captain Gideon towards the well-meaning Sergeant Croker. Croker had gone to the trouble of reading up a little on the history of the place which, given the erudite company he was walking with, was probably a mistake. Neverless, Gideon's response is unworthy 'My dear man, it is no good you rambling on about it. the thing is horrible. A design for a Neapolitan ice perhaps.' 'very good, sir.' 'Anyone who thinks it is beautiful is an idiot.' 'Very good, sir.' 'And stop repeating "Very good, sir" like a parrot.' 'Yes, sir.' While I got a laugh out of this wodehousian exchange, it made me wince also. maybe in 1945 this relationship between officers and NCO's was acceptable, but it is a blight upon Gideon's character, regardless of his abomination of Italian design. I certainly know what an Australian sergeant would possible have done, irrespective of the charges. I turn now to Orientations in Sunlight where the Grecian characters begin to emerge and a new layer of island exploration is enjoyed through them as well as the English characters. for the first time we encounter LD dialoque with a local Greek, Manoli the fisherman. Durrell clearly loves the idea of the peasant philosopher, but we must be careful with his reported dialogue - how much is reportage and how much is fiction. 'But you could reach the saddle with better education, book - learning.' 'Who can say what I should gain - and what I should lose?' Who indeed? This makes a nice point, I suppose, but it is easy to sentimentalise the peasants - and Durrell himself is aware of this. He warns against it in Prospero's Cell, but in both books he has his peasant philosphers; Father Nicholas and Manoli. Maybe the Greeks have a philosophical turn of phase, afterall it is their word, going right back to the ancients. An old Greek bloke I worked with years ago said: 'Davie, in Australia I am King!' 'Why is that Stavro?' 'I have house, I have garden, I have fruit tree to sit under and what for I worry for the broom?' Stavro swept the factory floor and did general odd jobs around the plant that needed doing. a low stress job. Durrell's peasant dialoques are an interesting study. David 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/20080608/35318129/attachment.html