[ilds] transcendental dimension in the Dark Labyrinth

[Bruce Redwine]

Miller uses the term "the dark labyrinth" in Time of the Assassins (1946; p. 146).  Cefalû is published in 1947.  In winter 1947, there's an advert for in Chimera for The Dark Labyrinth.  Durrell requests Miller's essay in 1954, which suggests he hadn't yet read TA.  But maybe not.  Maybe Durrell got the new title from Miller's essay, possibly in MS, which would establish a link between Miller's ruminations on Rimbaud and Durrell's adventures with the Minotaur.


Bruce



On Apr 22, 2011, at 11:11 PM, James Gifford wrote:

> LD did like to play with the LDG initials, such as Darley's and the 
> Lineaments of Gratified Desire, which he took from Blake (and perhaps 
> from Elizabeth Smart, or she from him...).
> 
> But alas, /The Dark Labyrinth/ was originally titled /Cefalu/ when 
> published by Tambimuttu, the same lad who published Smart's /By Grand 
> Central Station I Sat Down and Wept/.
> 
> Cheers,
> James
> 
> On 22/04/11 7:39 PM, Denise Tart & David Green wrote:
>> Cheers Charles. I try not to be shy of much...remembering the words of
>> U.S Grant who said something like 'when I learned that the enemy were as
>> afraid of me as I was of him, I determined to advance'...but agree that
>> the word transcendental can be overused. However in the case of DL most
>> apt. And it just struck like a champagne cork LD = Lawrence Durrell, DL
>> = Dark Labyrinth; perhaps then his most autobiographical work and hence
>> the one he least liked to talk about or dismissed as a pot boiler to
>> mask attention to himself. There are many LDs in DL!
>> David
>> 
>> *From:* Charles Sligh <mailto:Charles-Sligh at utc.edu>
>> *Sent:* Saturday, April 23, 2011 12:12 PM
>> *To:* Denise Tart & David Green <mailto:dtart at bigpond.net.au> ;
>> ilds at lists.uvic.ca <mailto:ilds at lists.uvic.ca>
>> *Subject:* Re: [ilds] transcendental dimension in the Dark Labyrinth
>> 
>> On 4/22/11 9:05 PM, Denise Tart & David Green wrote:
>> 
>>>        /"..as the season deepened they could hear the roar of
>>>        avalanches where the higher snow melted upon the desolate face
>>>        of stone. the wind strummed fitfully in the pines. They might
>>>        have been in Asia....and his wife lying down with her hands
>>>        behind her head, smiled up her content and happiness as she
>>>        chewed a grass stalk. She had realised that the roof of the
>>>        world did not really exist, except in their own imaginations!
>>>        (p 255/6)/
>>>        This only a taste, I know, but if it draws listees towards
>>>        this metaphoric and transcendental and much neglected piece of
>>>        Durrell's work, then I shall be able to head off the pub this
>>>        afternoon secure in the knowledge that this most spiritual of
>>>        Durrell's works has received appropriate attention.
>> 
>> I do like that passage, David.
>> 
>> I do not know what it means. But the thing lingers -- I will not claim
>> "transcendentally" -- I am too shy of such words these days! To say that
>> it lingers seems best.
>> 
>> Rest well --
>> 
>> C&c.
>> 
>> --
>> ********************************************
>> Charles L. Sligh
>> Assistant Professor
>> Department of English
>> University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
>> charles-sligh at utc.edu
>> ********************************************
>> 
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
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