[ilds] In the footsteps of LD

[Marc Piel]

Thanks Bruce for such an explicit explanation.
Now I understand       THIS.... = Is this really 
the place?

It is interesting for me to understand that when I 
went to Alex, I saw through the dirt and grime and 
found the bits that are in the AQ. Seeing is in 
the eye of the viewer! Maybe the same goes for 
writing?
B.R.
Marc

Le 22/01/11 02:54, Bruce Redwine a écrit :
> Marc,
>
> Back around 1960, when /The Alexandria Quartet/ was perhaps the biggest
> sensation in English literature, if not World Lit., I recall reading a
> magazine story about a man who devoured Durrell's novels and then rushed
> to Alexandria to see the fabulous city for himself. He got off the boat,
> looked around, and immediately exclaimed, /"This/ is the place?" That
> /"this"/ should be taken in the most pejorative sense, akin to Latin
> /iste, /an expression of utter contempt. The man was indeed sorely
> disappointed. Perhaps the story is apocryphal. Those, however, who would
> dismiss it as such, who say that that Alex was not the Alex of the
> 1940s, should read Durrell's letters to Henry Miller, written during the
> time he was living in Alexandria. There you'll see that Durrell himself
> considered the city grubby and detestable, the worst that the
> Mediterranean had to offer. LD had to escape the place, let time work
> its magic, and then come up with "Beloved Alexandria!" My point — the
> Alexandria of the /Quartet/ is the city of Durrell's Romantic
> imagination. That's what we enjoy — not the fact, not the actual place.
> And even I, at the tender age of seventeen, knew that to be so.
>
>
> Bruce
>
>
>
> On Jan 21, 2011, at 4:17 PM, Marc Piel wrote:
>
>> "They prove, however, that Durrell's poetry is
>> superior to fact"
>>
>> Please Bruce can you explain what you mean by that?
>> B.R. Marc
>>
>> Le 22/01/11 00:03, Bruce Redwine a écrit :
>>> They prove, however, that Durrell's poetry is superior to fact.
>>>
>
>
>
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