[ilds] Spirits of Place

[slighcl]

On 7/22/2008 7:33 PM, Bruce Redwine wrote:
>  I just don't see Morris's basis of comparison and see a qualitative 
> difference in what Durrell does with a place and what Conrad, Dickens, 
> and Dostoevsky do.  Durrell is a Romantic, but the others are largely 
> not (although Conrad often is when in SE Asia but not London, I think).

>>>         I haven't read Jan Morris, but offhand I don't see how Conrad's London nor Dickens's, nor Dostoevsky's Leningrad have much resemblance to Durrell's Alexandria.  


But I really do not think that Morris's point is to claim "resemblance," 
equivalence, sympathy, or even analogy between these very different 
writers. 

Instead, I think that Morris is merely sorting out her own aesthetic 
preferences--her desert island list of much "admired" city-writers:

>         She calls Lawrence Durrell "a virtuoso conjurer of the spirit
>         of place" and also admires evocations of cityscapes penned by
>         Joseph Conrad, Dickens and Dostoevsky.

That qualification aside, your point about the difference between the 
cityscapes of Durrell and Dickens and Conrad is certainly valid.

Giving Durrell place of preference by means of top billing and a quoted 
statement counts a great deal in the highly compressed context of UK 
Books Pages and sound-bite journalism.   The papers today  waste 
precious little space on recollecting or attending to Durrell.   Hats 
off to the Old Girl and to folks like Gore Vidal for rallying to 
Durrell's forgotten standard

I am always pleased when a much-read and lionized author of the current 
moment is unafraid to recall and praise a great precursor who has 
increasingly fallen into neglect. 

And that sort of recollection in a time of hard luck is a very 
Durrellian sort of tack.  Although Durrell is of a different magnitude 
than his bohemian "king" and dipsobibliomaniac, Johnny Gawsworth, I 
still am brightened when I watch and listen to Durrell and Alan Thomas 
raises their glasses to the much fallen Gawsworth on the video.  And I 
think that some of Durrell's thoughtful pauses as he reflects upon the 
vagaries of literary fame and fortune are significant. 

http://www.britishfantasysociety.org/news/?p=50

Rallying to the grand old cause once more. . . .

Charles

-- 
**********************
Charles L. Sligh
Department of English
Wake Forest University
slighcl at wfu.edu
**********************

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