[ilds] Spirits of Place -- the city

[Bruce Redwine]

I think you're right, Dr. D., but I also think the ILDS is more  
comfortable chewing over topics like a concordance to LD's works.  Das  
Leben ist verboten.


Bruce


On Jul 24, 2008, at 3:35 PM, <durrell at bigpond.com> wrote:

> Mmmm....the balance and ratios of core qualities which define us are  
> a great source of interest to you and old LD....self love and self  
> hate....this is the essential tension that provides sustenance for  
> life bruce and the manner in which this duality unfolds drives the  
> evolution or devolution of personality, relationships and of course  
> spirituality....best wishes DrD
> ---- Bruce Redwine <bredwine1968 at earthlink.net> wrote:
>> Charles sounds to me like a Formalists, those critics who like to
>> stick to a text and ignore an author's life.  That is, if not  
>> naive, a
>> rather idealistic approach to understanding what makes art what it
>> is.  When looking at literature, I consider everything — and most
>> importantly biography — fair game.  Durrell opens himself up to
>> criticism when he goes after other poets such as Horace.  "Loeb's
>> Horace," a great poem, I find rather dishonest.  As I've said before,
>> Durrell had a troubling need to attack rival poets.  Maybe he did  
>> hate
>> himself, and I'll keep the "maybe" in, for I'm not certain what went
>> on inside his head.  Moreover, being called a Romantic is not such a
>> bad thing.  They were diverse enough to include all of Charles's  
>> points.
>>
>>
>> Bruce
>>
>>
>> On Jul 24, 2008, at 6:34 AM, slighcl wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>
>>> I think that those quickest to fault Durrell for his biographical
>>> peccadilloes--or for supposedly problematic connections between his
>>> art and his biography--miss several points.  The first point point
>>> missed would be the recognition that, as someone abidingly skeptical
>>> about human nature and his own self-worth, Durrell has already
>>> reckoned up again and again his own partnership in our human crime--
>>> his own and our own Arrant Knavery.  "But of course--Have I ever
>>> claimed or pretended otherwise?"--that really seems to be Durrell's
>>> attitude via Pursewarden or the poems.  "And what of yourself?"
>>>
>>> The second point missed would be to recognize that anyone seeking to
>>> catch out Durrell ends up sounding thoroughly naive, like someone
>>> who still believes in the perfectibility of the human project--i.e.,
>>> like someone who obviously has not been attending to Durrell's
>>> questioning message.  "Oh, Brother Ass!"
>>>
>>>
>>
>