[ilds] Spirit of Place question

[Marc Piel]

Surely surealism is "spirit of the mind" that can 
be sparked of by spirit of place and therefore is 
quite related?
Marc

William Apt a écrit :
> James:
>  
> Thanks so much for the detailed note!  The reason I suggest what I do is 
> because, with the exception of the surrealist pieces, a reoccuring theme 
> prevades Spirit of Place:  Durrell refers to it frequently:  the notion 
> of culture, traditions, food and wine as the spirit of the landscape 
> manifesting itself and thus animating a place.  Inclusion of the 
> surrealist pieces would not be in keeping with the book unless they too 
> have the same theme.  And that is, of course, if there is a theme, which 
> I can't help believe there is.  If I am not mistaken the phrase "Spirit 
> of Place" was coined by DH Lawrence who, as we know, was 
> a believer in the same idea to which Durrell subscribes.  And Durrell, 
> like Lawrence, had a keen sense of artistic balance.  To include 
> thematically out-of-place work would upset that balance, and that just 
> doesn't seem right. But of course this is pure speculation, and you well 
> may be correct about Thomas seeking merely to include little known 
> surrealist work.
>  
> Billy
>    
>  
> Date: Sun, 8 Mar 2009 20:15:16 -0700
>  > From: odos.fanourios at gmail.com
>  > To: ilds at lists.uvic.ca
>  > Subject: Re: [ilds] Spirit of Place question
>  >
>  > Hello William,
>  >
>  > I've always found "Asylum in the Snow" and "Zero" highly engaging works
>  > -- they're very much of that moment for Durrell, snuggled in between
>  > /Panic Spring/ and /The Black Book/. Much of the imagery overlaps with
>  > both novels, so their genealogy is fairly clear.
>  >
>  > That said, they are somewhat out of place in /Spirit of Place/. I'd
>  > suspect that Thomas simply wanted to include fine works that were not
>  > readily available in other editions. Probably nothing more detailed
>  > than that... They'd appeared in /Seven/, in Durrell's own publication
>  > on Cyprus, and also in an edition by Circle press in Berkeley, but all
>  > of those were preciously rare. Ditto for the scene chosen from /Panic
>  > Spring/, which is more for the sake of Thomas' desire to continue the
>  > character in /Pied Piper of Lovers/ than any compelling 'travel'
>  > component. There are plenty of other "place" scenes in /Panic Spring/,
>  > so the choice points to Thomas' tastes rather than the need to assemble
>  > a thematically cohesive volume.
>  >
>  > I wonder what others would think about /Spirit of Place/? I honestly
>  > never even thought of it as "place" oriented, probably because "Asylum
>  > in the Snow" was the first things I read... I see it as simply and
>  > anthology of unusual materials pitched to an audience keen on consuming
>  > more Durrell!
>  >
>  > As for the original appeal and generation of "Asylum," I have strong
>  > feelings about that: the English Surrealists developing out of the 1936
>  > London Exhibition but not yet become the New Apocalypse or New
>  > Romantics. A few people in Louisville already heard me drone on about
>  > that crowd.
>  >
>  > That generation's influence on the soon-to-be Beats and then psychedelic
>  > 60s would seem to be a straight line.
>  >
>  > Best,
>  > James
>  >
>  > William Apt wrote:
>  > > The surrealist pieces Zero, Asylum in the Snow, Solange and Down the
>  > > Styx seem out of place in this collection, unless they were 
> intended to
>  > > represent the landscapes of the mind. After all, the book was likely
>  > > assembled by Alan Thomas between 1967-1968 and was published in 1969.
>  > > Perhaps Thomas and Durrell sought to appeal to a new generation of 
> young
>  > > readers: the psychedelic generation?
>  > >
>  > > WILLIAM APT
>  > > Austin, Texas
>  > >
>  > > 
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