From bredwine1968 at earthlink.net Mon Dec 14 10:19:13 2015 From: bredwine1968 at earthlink.net (Bruce Redwine) Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2015 10:19:13 -0800 Subject: [ilds] A teaser In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <904FB348-880C-4B96-925D-BA96495C6AD9@earthlink.net> A nice tease. It brings us back to Durrell?s underrated book, The Dark Labyrinth (1947). I?d forgotten about the ?statues.? Correct me if I?m wrong, but the statues get several references regarding their authenticity. This frequency calls special attention to itself, although my memory was faulty. Here?s one from the chapter ?City in the Rock?: He stepped forward into the little chapel and found his attention arrested by the perfect detachment and purity of the statues, by the coarse yet sensitive stone-cutting of the bas-relief. No, his experience had not been at fault. These were certainly not fakes: they were too weathered and lichened by damp: too self-consciously primitive and innocent to deceive. (165-66) I assume this passage is what Richard has in mind. Our ?attention? should be ?arrested,? along with Graecen?s. Now, did Durrell borrow this theme from the unidentified novel of 1937. (No bells are ringing for me!) I don?t see that this really matters (unless someone can draw an important connection). At the time of writing Labyrinth, Durrell was surely aware of the huge market in fake artifacts supposedly from antiquity. Sumantra mentions Douglas?s South Wind (1917). After all, Durrell lived in Cairo and had visited the famous Khan al-Kahili souk (later mentioned in ?Egyptian Moments? [1978]), whose shops are full of fakes (along with some real treasures). An ?Aladdin?s cave,? he later called it. So the idea of fake statutes was well-known and ?ubiquitous,? as Richard suggests. More importantly, what role does fakery have in the novel? Why all the references? What was Durrell up to, if anything? Was the labyrinth another ?Aladdin?s cave?? Perhaps someone can explain. Bruce > On Dec 13, 2015, at 8:57 AM, mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org wrote: > > Here's a teaser. The following is a quote from a source I won't identify. If you know the source, you already know it, it you don't, you don't need to know, but it's a fictional story> > > "---- played a horrid trick on ---- and got a sculptor he knows to make a [statue of Apollo] and fake it to look old. Then he pretended that a friend of his had found it in Sicily". ---- fell for this beastly thing and wrote an article on it for "The Archaeolgist" ...." > > It's from a novel published in 1937. Ring any bells? > The question is: it's almost certain that LD did not know of this novel. Therefore he could not have had the idea from this novel of a fake statue "found" in Sicily (which in the novel leads to a vendetta between the progenitor of the fake and its victim). So, if the same idea came into LD's head when conceiving Dark Labyrinth, was such an idea common at that time or is this an extraordinary coincidence? > Should literary sleuths bend every sinew to try to establish that L D DID in fact know this specific story or would their time be better spent arguing over the uniquity of such fictions or such pranks in the 1930s? Or should they just get on with enjoying Dark Labyrinth? > > (The novel from which the idea is taken is not, in fact, a great read - another reason for my not identifying it to those who don't recognise the story) > RP > _______________________________________________ > ILDS mailing list > ILDS at lists.uvic.ca > https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ilds -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org Mon Dec 14 12:51:47 2015 From: mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org (mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org) Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2015 20:51:47 +0000 Subject: [ilds] ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 11 Message-ID: Good point Sumantra - LD certainly knew South Wind (I think he borrowed a scene from it to indert into Sicilan Carousel) RP -----Original Message----- From: ilds-request at lists.uvic.ca [mailto:ilds-request at lists.uvic.ca] Sent: Monday, December 14, 2015 03:00 PM To: ilds at lists.uvic.ca Subject: ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 11 Send ILDS mailing list submissions to ilds at lists.uvic.caTo subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ildsor, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to ilds-request at lists.uvic.caYou can reach the person managing the list at ilds-owner at lists.uvic.caWhen replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specificthan "Re: Contents of ILDS digest..."Today's Topics: 1. Re: ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 10 (mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org) 2. Re: ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 10_Fake statues (Sumantra Nag) 3. Re: A teaser (Bruce Redwine)----------------------------------------------------------------------Message: 1Date: Sun, 13 Dec 2015 21:29:43 +0000From: mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.orgTo: ilds at lists.uvic.caSubject: Re: [ilds] ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 10Message-ID: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"Sorry - my typing is bad - for "uniquity" read "ubiquity" - rather a difference!RP -----Original Message-----From: ilds-request at lists.uvic.ca [mailto:ilds-request at lists.uvic.ca]Sent: Sunday, December 13, 2015 03:00 PMTo: ilds at lists.uvic.caSubject: ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 10Send ILDS mailing list submissions to ilds at lists.uvic.caTo subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ildsor, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to ilds-request at lists.uvic.caYou can reach the person managing the list at ilds-owner at lists.uvic.caWhen replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specificthan "Re: Contents of ILDS digest..."Today's Topics: 1. A teaser (mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org)----------------------------------------------------------------------Message: 1Date: Sun, 13 Dec 2015 16:57:58 +0000From: mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.orgTo: ilds at lists.uvic.caSubject: [ilds] A teaserMessage-ID: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"Here's a teaser. The following is a quote from a source I won't identify. If you know the source, you already know it, it you don't, you don't need to know, but it's a fictional story>"---- played a horrid trick on ---- and got a sculptor he knows to make a [stat! ue of Apollo] and fake it to look old. Then he pretended that a friend of his had found it in Sicily". ---- fell for this beastly thing and wrote an article on it for "The Archaeolgist" ...."It's from a novel published in 1937. Ring any bells? The question is: it's almost certain that LD did not know of this novel. Therefore he could not have had the idea from this novel of a fake statue "found" in Sicily (which in the novel leads to a vendetta between the progenitor of the fake and its victim). So, if the same idea came into LD's head when conceiving Dark Labyrinth, was such an idea common at that time or is this an extraordinary coincidence?Should literary sleuths bend every sinew to try to establish that L D DID in fact know this specific story or would their time be better spent arguing over the uniquity of such fictions or such pranks in the 1930s? Or should they just get on with enjoying Dark Labyrinth?(The novel from which the idea is taken is not, in fact, a great r! ead - another reason for my not identifying it to those who don't recognise the story)RP-------------- next part --------------An HTML attachment was scrubbed...URL: ------------------------------Subject: Digest Footer_______________________________________________ILDS mailing listILDS at lists.uvic.cahttps://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ilds------------------------------End of ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 10*************************************-------------- next part --------------An HTML attachment was scrubbed...URL: ------------------------------Message: 2Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2015 11:21:13 +0530From: Sumantra Nag To: ilds at lists.uvic.caCc: Richard Pine Subject: Re: [ilds] ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 10_Fake statuesMessage-ID: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"If I remember correctly there is a character (the Duke?) in the novel SouthWind (Norman Douglas) who sculpts fake ancient statues and sells them togullible Americans.Sumantra NagSent from my Asus ZenfoneOn 14 Dec 2015 01:36, wrote:> Send ILDS mailing list submissions to> ilds at lists.uvic.ca>> To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit> https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ilds> or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to> ilds-request at lists.uvic.ca>> You can reach the person managing the list at> ilds-owner at lists.uvic.ca>> When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific> than "Re: Contents of ILDS digest...">>> Today's Topics:>> 1. A teaser (mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org)>>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------->> Message: 1> Date: Sun, 13 Dec 2015 16:57:58 +0000> From: mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org> To: ilds at lists.uvic.ca> Subject: [ilds] A teaser> Message-ID: > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8">> Here's a teaser. The following is a quote from a source I won't identify.> If you know the source, you already know it, it you don't, you don't need> to know, but it's a fictional story>>>> "---- played a horrid trick on ---- and got a sculptor he knows to make a> [statue of Apollo] and fake it to look old. Then he pretended that a friend> of his had found it in Sicily". ---- fell for this beastly thing and wrote> an article on it for "The Archaeolgist" ....">>> It's from a novel published in 1937. Ring any bells?> The question is: it's almost certain that LD did not know of this novel.> Therefore he could not have had the idea from this novel of a fake statue> "found" in Sicily (which in the novel leads to a vendetta between the> progenitor of the fake and its victim). So, if the same idea came into LD's> head when conceiving Dark Labyrinth, was such an idea common at that time> or is this an extraordinary coincidence?> Should literary sleuths bend every sinew to try to establish that L D DID> in fact know this specific story or would their time be better spent> arguing over the uniquity of such fictions or such pranks in the 1930s? Or> should they just get on with enjoying Dark Labyrinth?>>> (The novel from which the idea is taken is not, in fact, a great read -> another reason for my not identifying it to those who don't recognise the> story)> RP>> -------------- next part --------------> An HTML attachment was scrubbed...> URL: <> http://lists.uvic.ca/pipermail/ilds/attachments/20151213/da677ebd/attachment-0001.html> >>> ------------------------------>> Subject: Digest Footer>> _______________________________________________> ILDS mailing list> ILDS at lists.uvic.ca> https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ilds>>> ------------------------------>> End of ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 10> *************************************>-------------- next part --------------An HTML attachment was scrubbed...URL: ------------------------------Message: 3Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2015 10:19:13 -0800From: Bruce Redwine To: James Gifford Cc: Bruce Redwine , Richard Pine Subject: Re: [ilds] A teaserMessage-ID: <904FB348-880C-4B96-925D-BA96495C6AD9 at earthlink.net>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"A nice tease. It brings us back to Durrell?s underrated book, The Dark Labyrinth (1947). I?d forgotten about the ?statues.? Correct me if I?m wrong, but the statues get several references regarding their authenticity. This frequency calls special attention to itself, although my memory was faulty. Here?s one from the chapter ?City in the Rock?:He stepped forward into the little chapel and found his attention arrested by the perfect detachment and purity of the statues, by the coarse yet sensitive stone-cutting of the bas-relief. No, his experience had not been at fault. These were certainly not fakes: they were too weathered and lichened by damp: too self-consciously primitive and innocent to deceive. (165-66)I assume this passage is what Richard has in mind. Our ?attention? should be ?arrested,? along with Graecen?s.Now, did Durrell borrow this theme from the unidentified novel of 1937. (No bells are ringing for me!) I don?t see that this really matters (unless someone can draw an important connection). At the time of writing Labyrinth, Durrell was surely aware of the huge market in fake artifacts supposedly from antiquity. Sumantra mentions Douglas?s South Wind (1917). After all, Durrell lived in Cairo and had visited the famous Khan al-Kahili souk (later mentioned in ?Egyptian Moments? [1978]), whose shops are full of fakes (along with some real treasures). An ?Aladdin?s cave,? he later called it. So the idea of fake statutes was well-known and ?ubiquitous,? as Richard suggests.More importantly, what role does fakery have in the novel? Why all the references? What was Durrell up to, if anything? Was the labyrinth another ?Aladdin?s cave?? Perhaps someone can explain.Bruce> On Dec 13, 2015, at 8:57 AM, mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org wrote:> > Here's a teaser. The following is a quote from a source I won't identify. If you know the source, you already know it, it you don't, you don't need to know, but it's a fictional story>> > "---- played a horrid trick on ---- and got a sculptor he knows to make a [statue of Apollo] and fake it to look old. Then he pretended that a friend of his had found it in Sicily". ---- fell for this beastly thing and wrote an article on it for "The Archaeolgist" ...."> > It's from a novel published in 1937. Ring any bells? > The question is: it's almost certain that LD did not know of this novel. Therefore he could not have had the idea from this novel of a fake statue "found" in Sicily (which in the novel leads to a vendetta between the progenitor of the fake and its victim). So, if the same idea came into LD's head when conceiving Dark Labyrinth, was such an idea common at that time or is this an extraordinary coincidence?> Should literary sleuths bend every sinew to try to establish that L D DID in fact know this specific story or would their time be better spent arguing over the uniquity of such fictions or such pranks in the 1930s? Or should they just get on with enjoying Dark Labyrinth?> > (The novel from which the idea is taken is not, in fact, a great read - another reason for my not identifying it to those who don't recognise the story)> RP> _______________________________________________> ILDS mailing list> ILDS at lists.uvic.ca> https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ilds-------------- next part --------------An HTML attachment was scrubbed...URL: ------------------------------Subject: Digest Footer_______________________________________________ILDS mailing listILDS at lists.uvic.cahttps://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ilds------------------------------End of ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 11************************************* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From bredwine1968 at earthlink.net Mon Dec 14 15:23:30 2015 From: bredwine1968 at earthlink.net (Bruce Redwine) Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2015 15:23:30 -0800 Subject: [ilds] A teaser In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Richard, okay. That makes sense, applying Tertullian?s ?credo? to faked or not faked antiquities. This fits in with Durrell?s preference for ?open? endings, as in the Quartet and Quintet. But the strong suggestion of fraudulence would seem to have other possibilities of a personal nature. For example, note Graecen?s musings about ?great artists? near the end: ?He wondered if perhaps all great artists, from whose company he reluctantly excluded himself, were not absolutely revolting as human beings? (p. 258). A rather strange statement, even with the qualification. Did Durrell think of himself as some kind of fraud? Someone not what he seemed. I wonder. Was he apologizing to Nancy Myers? Didn?t he say somewhere that Labyrinth paid for her alimony? Bruce > On Dec 14, 2015, at 10:46 AM, mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org wrote: > > Yes, that, and also the very end (which isn't the end at all, of course): "He says Axelos gave him money and told him he should say that they built the damn thing, carved it and all that". So we will never know... It's all a question of believing in the unbelievable sufficiently to make it believable (credo quia absurdum) LD ends by quoting from an 1873 book which questions the authenticity of a similar "installation" (from which he says he got the idea) but... > (Tozer went into a later 1890 edition which is now available in several reprints) > RP > -----Original Message----- > From: Bruce Redwine [mailto:bredwine1968 at earthlink.net] > Sent: Monday, December 14, 2015 01:19 PM > To: 'James Gifford' > Cc: 'Bruce Redwine', 'Richard Pine' > Subject: Re: [ilds] A teaser > > A nice tease. It brings us back to Durrell?s underrated book, The Dark Labyrinth (1947). I?d forgotten about the ?statues.? Correct me if I?m wrong, but the statues get several references regarding their authenticity. This frequency calls special attention to itself, although my memory was faulty. Here?s one from the chapter ?City in the Rock?: > > He stepped forward into the little chapel and found his attention arrested by the perfect detachment and purity of the statues, by the coarse yet sensitive stone-cutting of the bas-relief. No, his experience had not been at fault. These were certainly not fakes: they were too weathered and lichened by damp: too self-consciously primitive and innocent to deceive. (165-66) > > I assume this passage is what Richard has in mind. Our ?attention? should be ?arrested,? along with Graecen?s. > > Now, did Durrell borrow this theme from the unidentified novel of 1937. (No bells are ringing for me!) I don?t see that this really matters (unless someone can draw an important connection). At the time of writing Labyrinth, Durrell was surely aware of the huge market in fake artifacts supposedly from antiquity. Sumantra mentions Douglas?s South Wind (1917). After all, Durrell lived in Cairo and had visited the famous Khan al-Kahili souk (later mentioned in ?Egyptian Moments? [1978]), whose shops are full of fakes (along with some real treasures). An ?Aladdin?s cave,? he later called it. So the idea of fake statutes was well-known and ?ubiquitous,? as Richard suggests. > > More importantly, what role does fakery have in the novel? Why all the references? What was Durrell up to, if anything? Was the labyrinth another ?Aladdin?s cave?? Perhaps someone can explain. > > Bruce > > > > > >> On Dec 13, 2015, at 8:57 AM, mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org wrote: >> >> Here's a teaser. The following is a quote from a source I won't identify. If you know the source, you already know it, it you don't, you don't need to know, but it's a fictional story> >> >> "---- played a horrid trick on ---- and got a sculptor he knows to make a [statue of Apollo] and fake it to look old. Then he pretended that a friend of his had found it in Sicily". ---- fell for this beastly thing and wrote an article on it for "The Archaeolgist" ...." >> >> It's from a novel published in 1937. Ring any bells? >> The question is: it's almost certain that LD did not know of this novel. Therefore he could not have had the idea from this novel of a fake statue "found" in Sicily (which in the novel leads to a vendetta between the progenitor of the fake and its victim). So, if the same idea came into LD's head when conceiving Dark Labyrinth, was such an idea common at that time or is this an extraordinary coincidence? >> Should literary sleuths bend every sinew to try to establish that L D DID in fact know this specific story or would their time be better spent arguing over the uniquity of such fictions or such pranks in the 1930s? Or should they just get on with enjoying Dark Labyrinth? >> >> (The novel from which the idea is taken is not, in fact, a great read - another reason for my not identifying it to those who don't recognise the story) >> RP >> -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org Tue Dec 15 23:54:19 2015 From: mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org (mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org) Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2015 07:54:19 +0000 Subject: [ilds] ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 12 Message-ID: Of course LD knew he was a fraud. All artists know that, especially writers. None of us is what we seem. Writers just make a professsion of it, that's all. Anyone who thinks he is telling the truth is deceiving herself. RP -----Original Message----- From: ilds-request at lists.uvic.ca [mailto:ilds-request at lists.uvic.ca] Sent: Tuesday, December 15, 2015 03:00 PM To: ilds at lists.uvic.ca Subject: ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 12 Send ILDS mailing list submissions to ilds at lists.uvic.caTo subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ildsor, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to ilds-request at lists.uvic.caYou can reach the person managing the list at ilds-owner at lists.uvic.caWhen replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specificthan "Re: Contents of ILDS digest..."Today's Topics: 1. Re: ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 11 (mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org) 2. Re: A teaser (Bruce Redwine)----------------------------------------------------------------------Message: 1Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2015 20:51:47 +0000From: mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.orgTo: ilds at lists.uvic.caSubject: Re: [ilds] ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 11Message-ID: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"Good point Sumantra - LD certainly knew South Wind (I think he borrowed a scene from it to indert into Sicilan Carousel)RP -----Original Message-----From: ilds-request at lists.uvic.ca [mailto:ilds-request at lists.uvic.ca]Sent: Monday, December 14, 2015 03:00 PMTo: ilds at lists.uvic.caSubject: ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 11Send ILDS mailing list submissions to ilds at lists.uvic.caTo subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ildsor, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to ilds-request at lists.uvic.caYou can reach the person managing the list at ilds-owner at lists.uvic.caWhen replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specificthan "Re: Contents of ILDS digest..."Today's Topics: 1. Re: ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 10 (mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org) 2. Re: ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 10_Fake statues (Sumantra Nag) 3. Re: A teaser (Bruce Redwine)----------------------------------------------------------------------Message: 1Date: Sun, 13 Dec 2015 21:29:43 +0000From: mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.orgTo: ilds at lists.uvic.caSubject: Re: [ilds] ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 10Message-ID: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"Sorry - my typing is bad - for "uniquity" read "ubiquity" - rather a difference!RP -----Original Message-----F! rom: ilds-request at lists.uvic.ca [mailto:ilds-request at lists.uvic.ca]Sent: Sunday, December 13, 2015 03:00 PMTo: ilds at lists.uvic.caSubject: ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 10Send ILDS mailing list submissions to ilds at lists.uvic.caTo subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ildsor, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to ilds-request at lists.uvic.caYou can reach the person managing the list at ilds-owner at lists.uvic.caWhen replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specificthan "Re: Contents of ILDS digest..."Today's Topics: 1. A teaser (mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org)----------------------------------------------------------------------Message: 1Date: Sun, 13 Dec 2015 16:57:58 +0000From: mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.orgTo: ilds at lists.uvic.caSubject: [ilds] A teaserMessage-ID: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"Here's a teaser. The following is a quote from a source I won't identify. If you know the sour! ce, you already know it, it you don't, you don't need to know, but it's a fictional story>"---- played a horrid trick on ---- and got a sculptor he knows to make a [stat! ue of Apollo] and fake it to look old. Then he pretended that a friend of his had found it in Sicily". ---- fell for this beastly thing and wrote an article on it for "The Archaeolgist" ...."It's from a novel published in 1937. Ring any bells? The question is: it's almost certain that LD did not know of this novel. Therefore he could not have had the idea from this novel of a fake statue "found" in Sicily (which in the novel leads to a vendetta between the progenitor of the fake and its victim). So, if the same idea came into LD's head when conceiving Dark Labyrinth, was such an idea common at that time or is this an extraordinary coincidence?Should literary sleuths bend every sinew to try to establish that L D DID in fact know this specific story or would their time be better spent arguing over the uniquity of such fictions or such pranks in the 1930s? Or should they just ge! t on with enjoying Dark Labyrinth?(The novel from which the idea is taken is not, in fact, a great r! ead - another reason for my not identifying it to those who don't recognise the story)RP-------------- next part --------------An HTML attachment was scrubbed...URL: ------------------------------Subject: Digest Footer_______________________________________________ILDS mailing listILDS at lists.uvic.cahttps://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ilds------------------------------End of ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 10*************************************-------------- next part --------------An HTML attachment was scrubbed...URL: ------------------------------Message: 2Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2015 11:21:13 +0530From: Sumantra Nag To: ilds at lists.uvic.caCc: Richard Pine Subject: Re: [ilds] ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 10_Fake statuesMessage-ID: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"If I remember correctly there is a character (the Duke?) in the novel SouthWind (Norman Douglas) who sculpts f! ake ancient statues and sells them togullible Americans.Sumantra NagSent from my Asus ZenfoneOn 14 Dec 2015 01:36, wrote:> Send ILDS mailing list submissions to> ilds at lists.uvic.ca>> To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit> https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ilds> or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to> ilds-request at lists.uvic.ca>> You can reach the person managing the list at> ilds-owner at lists.uvic.ca>> When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific> than "Re: Contents of ILDS digest...">>> Today's Topics:>> 1. A teaser (mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org)>>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------->> Message: 1> Date: Sun, 13 Dec 2015 16:57:58 +0000> From: mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org> To: ilds at lists.uvic.ca> Subject: [ilds] A teaser> Message-ID: > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8">> Here's a teaser. The following is a quote from a source I won't identify.> If you know the source, you already know it, it you don't, you don't need> to know, but i! t's a fictional story>>>> "---- played a horrid trick on ---- and got a sculptor he knows to make a> [statue of Apollo] and fake it to look old. Then he pretended that a friend> of his had found it in Sicily". ---- fell for this beastly thing and wrote> an article on it for "The Archaeolgist" ....">>> It's from a novel published in 1937. Ring any bells?> The question is: it's almost certain that LD did not know of this novel.> Therefore he could not have had the idea from this novel of a fake statue> "found" in Sicily (which in the novel leads to a vendetta between the> progenitor of the fake and its victim). So, if the same idea came into LD's> head when conceiving Dark Labyrinth, was such an idea common at that time> or is this an extraordinary coincidence?> Should literary sleuths bend every sinew to try to establish that L D DID> in fact know this specific story or would their time be better spent> arguing over the uniquity of such fictions or such pranks in the 1930s? ! Or> should they just get on with enjoying Dark Labyrinth?>>> (The novel from which the idea is taken is not, in fact, a great read -> another reason for my not identifying it to those who don't recognise the> story)> RP>> -------------- next part --------------> An HTML attachment was scrubbed...> URL: <> http://lists.uvic.ca/pipermail/ilds/attachments/20151213/da677ebd/attachment-0001.html> >>> ------------------------------>> Subject: Digest Footer>> _______________________________________________> ILDS mailing list> ILDS at lists.uvic.ca> https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ilds>>> ------------------------------>> End of ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 10> *************************************>-------------- next part --------------An HTML attachment was scrubbed...URL: ------------------------------Message: 3Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2015 10:19:13 -0800From: Bruce Redwine To: James Gifford Cc: Bruce Redwine , Richard Pine Subject: Re: [ilds] A teaserMessage-ID: <904FB348-880C-4B96-925D-BA96495C6AD9 at earthlink.net>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-! 8"A nice tease. It brings us back to Durrell?s underrated book, The Dark Labyrinth (1947). I?d forgotten about the ?statues.? Correct me if I?m wrong, but the statues get several references regarding their authenticity. This frequency calls special attention to itself, although my memory was faulty. Here?s one from the chapter ?City in the Rock?:He stepped forward into the little chapel and found his attention arrested by the perfect detachment and purity of the statues, by the coarse yet sensitive stone-cutting of the bas-relief. No, his experience had not been at fault. These were certainly not fakes: they were too weathered and lichened by damp: too self-consciously primitive and innocent to deceive. (165-66)I assume this passage is what Richard has in mind. Our ?attention? should be ?arrested,? along with Graecen?s.Now, did Durrell borrow this theme from the unidentified novel of 1937. (No bells are ringing for me!) I don?t see that this really matters (unless someone c! an draw an important connection). At the time of writing Labyrinth, Durrell was surely aware of the huge market in fake artifacts supposedly from antiquity. Sumantra mentions Douglas?s South Wind (1917). After all, Durrell lived in Cairo and had visited the famous Khan al-Kahili souk (later mentioned in ?Egyptian Moments? [1978]), whose shops are full of fakes (along with some real treasures). An ?Aladdin?s cave,? he later called it. So the idea of fake statutes was well-known and ?ubiquitous,? as Richard suggests.More importantly, what role does fakery have in the novel? Why all the references? What was Durrell up to, if anything? Was the labyrinth another ?Aladdin?s cave?? Perhaps someone can explain.Bruce> On Dec 13, 2015, at 8:57 AM, mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org wrote:> > Here's a teaser. The following is a quote from a source I won't identify. If you know the source, you already know it, it you don't, you don't need to know, but it's a fictional story>> > "---- played a horrid trick on ---- and got a sculptor he knows to make a [statue of! Apollo] and fake it to look old. Then he pretended that a friend of his had found it in Sicily". ---- fell for this beastly thing and wrote an article on it for "The Archaeolgist" ...."> > It's from a novel published in 1937. Ring any bells? > The question is: it's almost certain that LD did not know of this novel. Therefore he could not have had the idea from this novel of a fake statue "found" in Sicily (which in the novel leads to a vendetta between the progenitor of the fake and its victim). So, if the same idea came into LD's head when conceiving Dark Labyrinth, was such an idea common at that time or is this an extraordinary coincidence?> Should literary sleuths bend every sinew to try to establish that L D DID in fact know this specific story or would their time be better spent arguing over the uniquity of such fictions or such pranks in the 1930s? Or should they just get on with enjoying Dark Labyrinth?> > (The novel from which the idea is taken is not, in fact, a ! great read - another reason for my not identifying it to those who don't recognise the story)> RP> _______________________________________________> ILDS mailing list> ILDS at lists.uvic.ca> https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ilds-------------- next part --------------An HTML attachment was scrubbed...URL: ------------------------------Subject: Digest Footer_______________________________________________ILDS mailing listILDS at lists.uvic.cahttps://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ilds------------------------------End of ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 11*************************************-------------- next part --------------An HTML attachment was scrubbed...URL: ------------------------------Message: 2Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2015 15:23:30 -0800From: Bruce Redwine To: Richard Pine , James Gifford Cc: Bruce Redwine Subject: Re: [ilds] A teaserMessage-ID: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"Richard, okay. That makes sense, applying Tertullian?s ?credo? to faked or not faked antiquities. This fits in with Durrell?s preference for ?open? endings, as in the Quartet and Quintet. But the strong suggestion of fraudulence would seem to have other possibilities of a personal nature. For example, note Graecen?s musings about ?great artists? near the end: ?He wondered if perhaps all great artists, from whose company he reluctantly excluded himself, were not absolutely revolting as human beings? (p. 258). A rather strange statement, even with the qualification. Did Durrell think of himself as some kind of fraud? Someone not what he seemed. I wonder. Was he apologizing to Nancy Myers? Didn?t he say somewhere that Labyrinth paid for her alimony?Bruce> On Dec 14, 2015, at 10:46 AM, mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org wrote:> > Yes, that, and also the very end (which isn't the end at all, of course): "He says Axelos gave him money and told him he should say that they built the damn thing, carved it and all that". So we will never know... It's all a question of believing in the unbelievable sufficiently to make it believable (credo quia absurdum) LD ends by quoting from an 1873 book which questions the authenticity of a similar "installation" (from which he says he got the idea) but...> (Tozer went into a later 1890 edition which is now available in several reprints)> RP > -----Original Message-----> From: Bruce Redwine [mailto:bredwine1968 at earthlink.net]> Sent: Monday, December 14, 2015 01:19 PM> To: 'James Gifford'> Cc: 'Bruce Redwine', 'Richard Pine'> Subject: Re: [ilds] A teaser> > A nice tease. It brings us back to Durrell?s underrated book, The Dark Labyrinth (1947). I?d forgotten about the ?statues.? Correct me if I?m wrong, but the statues get several references regarding their authenticity. This frequency calls special attention to itself, although my memory was faulty. Here?s one from the chapter ?City in the Rock?:> > He stepped forward into the little chapel and found his attention arrested by the perfect detachment and purity of the statues, by the coarse yet sensitive stone-cutting of the bas-relief. No, his experience had not been at fault. These were certainly not fakes: they were too weathered and lichened by damp: too self-consciously primitive and innocent to deceive. (165-66)> > I assume this passage is what Richard has in mind. Our ?attention? should be ?arrested,? along with Graecen?s.> > Now, did Durrell borrow this theme from the unidentified novel of 1937. (No bells are ringing for me!) I don?t see that this really matters (unless someone can draw an important connection). At the time of writing Labyrinth, Durrell was surely aware of the huge market in fake artifacts supposedly from antiquity. Sumantra mentions Douglas?s South Wind (1917). After all, Durrell lived in Cairo and had visited the famous Khan al-Kahili souk (later mentioned in ?Egyptian Moments? [1978]), whose shops are full of fakes (along with some real treasures). An ?Aladdin?s cave,? he later called it. So the idea of fake statutes was well-known and ?ubiquitous,? as Richard suggests.> > More importantly, what role does fakery have in the novel? Why all the references? What was Durrell up to, if anything? Was the labyrinth another ?Aladdin?s cave?? Perhaps someone can explain.> > Bruce> > > > > >> On Dec 13, 2015, at 8:57 AM, mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org wrote:>> >> Here's a teaser. The following is a quote from a source I won't identify. If you know the source, you already know it, it you don't, you don't need to know, but it's a fictional story>>> >> "---- played a horrid trick on ---- and got a sculptor he knows to make a [statue of Apollo] and fake it to look old. Then he pretended that a friend of his had found it in Sicily". ---- fell for this beastly thing and wrote an article on it for "The Archaeolgist" ....">> >> It's from a novel published in 1937. Ring any bells? >> The question is: it's almost certain that LD did not know of this novel. Therefore he could not have had the idea from this novel of a fake statue "found" in Sicily (which in the novel leads to a vendetta between the progenitor of the fake and its victim). So, if the same idea came into LD's head when conceiving Dark Labyrinth, was such an idea common at that time or is this an extraordinary coincidence?>> Should literary sleuths bend every sinew to try to establish that L D DID in fact know this specific story or would their time be better spent arguing over the uniquity of such fictions or such pranks in the 1930s? Or should they just get on with enjoying Dark Labyrinth?>> >> (The novel from which the idea is taken is not, in fact, a great read - another reason for my not identifying it to those who don't recognise the story)>> RP>> -------------- next part --------------An HTML attachment was scrubbed...URL: ------------------------------Subject: Digest Footer_______________________________________________ILDS mailing listILDS at lists.uvic.cahttps://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ilds------------------------------End of ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 12************************************* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From bredwine1968 at earthlink.net Wed Dec 16 08:31:37 2015 From: bredwine1968 at earthlink.net (Bruce Redwine) Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2015 08:31:37 -0800 Subject: [ilds] Seems In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <196D494F-9554-444B-99FE-5505BD783C27@earthlink.net> Seems, madam? Nay, it is. I know not ?seems.? ?Hamlet He wondered if perhaps all great artists, from whose company he reluctantly excluded himself, were not absolutely revolting as human beings. Dostoevsky writing about Christian meekness while he browbeat his menservants, Lawrence saying nasty things about one when one wasn?t there ? It was very odd. ?Dark Labyrinth, p. 258 I guess I?m one of those deceiving myself. Richard Pine?s objection to ?fraud? as anything special may be true in some existential sense, akin to Hamlet?s problem with ?seems,? but this is not the moral force of Graecen?s remark. He clearly censures duplicitous behavior, and I take that as Durrell talking about himself, as ?odd? as that may seem. Bruce > On Dec 15, 2015, at 11:54 PM, mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org wrote: > > Of course LD knew he was a fraud. All artists know that, especially writers. None of us is what we seem. Writers just make a professsion of it, that's all. Anyone who thinks he is telling the truth is deceiving herself. > RP -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From gammage.kennedy at gmail.com Wed Dec 16 10:58:58 2015 From: gammage.kennedy at gmail.com (Kennedy Gammage) Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2015 10:58:58 -0800 Subject: [ilds] Seems In-Reply-To: <196D494F-9554-444B-99FE-5505BD783C27@earthlink.net> References: <196D494F-9554-444B-99FE-5505BD783C27@earthlink.net> Message-ID: Quoting Hamlet, Bruce just reminded me of Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead. Wanted to ask Bruce about Acte, Durrell's second play, which he recently purchased at a local bookstore: have you read it yet? What did you think? It's natural for a writer of Durrell's gifts to want to write in almost every genre - you want to conquer the world! But were his plays good? Not compared to Stoppard. Maybe compared to Eliot? Recent Nobel Prize winners in Literature are from unexpected places all over the world. We all know Durrell wanted that prize - and possibly deserved it. But I'm not sure I've seen an analysis of his oeuvre compared with the recent winners. If such an article appeared in the NY Review of Books I would read it avidly. Thanks - Ken On Wed, Dec 16, 2015 at 8:31 AM, Bruce Redwine wrote: > Seems, madam? Nay, it is. I know not ?seems.? > > ?*Hamlet* > > He wondered if perhaps all great artists, from whose company he > reluctantly excluded himself, were not absolutely revolting as human > beings. Dostoevsky writing about Christian meekness while he browbeat > his menservants, Lawrence saying nasty things about one when one wasn?t > there ? It was very odd. > > *?Dark Labyrinth,* p. 258 > > > > I guess I?m one of those deceiving myself. Richard Pine?s objection to > ?fraud? as anything special may be true in some existential sense, akin to > Hamlet?s problem with ?seems,? but this is not the moral force of Graecen?s > remark. He clearly censures duplicitous behavior, and I take that as > Durrell talking about himself, as ?odd? as that may seem. > > Bruce > > > On Dec 15, 2015, at 11:54 PM, mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org wrote: > > Of course LD knew he was a fraud. All artists know that, especially > writers. None of us is what we seem. Writers just make a professsion of it, > that's all. Anyone who thinks he is telling the truth is deceiving herself. > RP > > > > _______________________________________________ > ILDS mailing list > ILDS at lists.uvic.ca > https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ilds > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From bredwine1968 at earthlink.net Wed Dec 16 12:35:50 2015 From: bredwine1968 at earthlink.net (Bruce Redwine) Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2015 12:35:50 -0800 Subject: [ilds] Seems In-Reply-To: References: <196D494F-9554-444B-99FE-5505BD783C27@earthlink.net> Message-ID: Ken, Embarrassed to admit, I?ve not read Acte. (I bought it for future reference.) The only one of Durrell?s plays that I?ve read is Sappho, and that was many decades ago. So I have no opinion about his abilities as a playwright. I find it interesting that the Germans were interested in his plays and performed a couple of them, I believe. I assume Durrell as playwright resonated with the Germans and their theater. He was familiar with Kleist in translation, who is alluded to in the Quintet in the ?Von Esslin? episode situated in Prussia. Maybe someone can generalize about the German theater and Durrell?s dramas, assuming there are similarities. Bruce > On Dec 16, 2015, at 10:58 AM, Kennedy Gammage wrote: > > Quoting Hamlet, Bruce just reminded me of Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead. Wanted to ask Bruce about Acte, Durrell's second play, which he recently purchased at a local bookstore: have you read it yet? What did you think? It's natural for a writer of Durrell's gifts to want to write in almost every genre - you want to conquer the world! But were his plays good? Not compared to Stoppard. Maybe compared to Eliot? > > Recent Nobel Prize winners in Literature are from unexpected places all over the world. We all know Durrell wanted that prize - and possibly deserved it. But I'm not sure I've seen an analysis of his oeuvre compared with the recent winners. If such an article appeared in the NY Review of Books I would read it avidly. > > Thanks - Ken > > > On Wed, Dec 16, 2015 at 8:31 AM, Bruce Redwine > wrote: > Seems, madam? Nay, it is. I know not ?seems.? > > ?Hamlet > > He wondered if perhaps all great artists, from whose company he reluctantly excluded himself, were not absolutely revolting as human beings. Dostoevsky writing about Christian meekness while he browbeat his menservants, Lawrence saying nasty things about one when one wasn?t there ? It was very odd. > > ?Dark Labyrinth, p. 258 > > > I guess I?m one of those deceiving myself. Richard Pine?s objection to ?fraud? as anything special may be true in some existential sense, akin to Hamlet?s problem with ?seems,? but this is not the moral force of Graecen?s remark. He clearly censures duplicitous behavior, and I take that as Durrell talking about himself, as ?odd? as that may seem. > > Bruce > > >> On Dec 15, 2015, at 11:54 PM, mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org wrote: >> >> Of course LD knew he was a fraud. All artists know that, especially writers. None of us is what we seem. Writers just make a professsion of it, that's all. Anyone who thinks he is telling the truth is deceiving herself. >> RP > > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org Wed Dec 16 12:43:16 2015 From: mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org (mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org) Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2015 20:43:16 +0000 Subject: [ilds] ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 13 Message-ID: I cannot see the difference between duplicitous behaviour detected in oneself (and for which one censures oneself) and being a fraud, for which one congratulates oneself. The question seems to revolve around self-other - who are we - who is that in the mirror? who is it that writes my work? Who left that note on my desk? Was it me or was it A N Other (aka me)? or maybe just A N Wilson. Only joking. Don't take everything so seriously you guys - especially your doubleness. RP -----Original Message----- From: ilds-request at lists.uvic.ca [mailto:ilds-request at lists.uvic.ca] Sent: Wednesday, December 16, 2015 03:00 PM To: ilds at lists.uvic.ca Subject: ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 13 Send ILDS mailing list submissions to ilds at lists.uvic.caTo subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ildsor, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to ilds-request at lists.uvic.caYou can reach the person managing the list at ilds-owner at lists.uvic.caWhen replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specificthan "Re: Contents of ILDS digest..."Today's Topics: 1. Re: ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 12 (mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org) 2. Seems (Bruce Redwine) 3. Re: Seems (Kennedy Gammage)----------------------------------------------------------------------Message: 1Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2015 07:54:19 +0000From: mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.orgTo: ilds at lists.uvic.caSubject: Re: [ilds] ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 12Message-ID: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"Of course LD knew he was a fraud. All artists know that, especially writers. None of us is what we seem. Writers just make a professsion of it, that's all. Anyone who thinks he is telling the truth is deceiving herself.RP -----Original Message-----From: ilds-request at lists.uvic.ca [mailto:ilds-request at lists.uvic.ca]Sent: Tuesday, December 15, 2015 03:00 PMTo: ilds at lists.uvic.caSubject: ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 12Send ILDS mailing list submissions to ilds at lists.uvic.caTo subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ildsor, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to ilds-request at lists.uvic.caYou can reach the person managing the list at ilds-owner at lists.uvic.caWhen replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specificthan "Re: Contents of ILDS digest..."Today's Topics: 1. Re: ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 11 (mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org) 2. Re: A teaser (Bruce Redwine)----------------------------------------------------------------------Message: 1Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2015 20:51:47 +0000From: mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.orgTo: ilds at lists.uvic.caSubject: Re: [ilds] ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 11Message-ID: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"Good point Sumantra - LD certainly knew South Wind (I think he borrowed a scene from it to indert into Sicilan Carousel)RP -----Original Message-----From: ilds-request at lists.uv! ic.ca [mailto:ilds-request at lists.uvic.ca]Sent: Monday, December 14, 2015 03:00 PMTo: ilds at lists.uvic.caSubject: ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 11Send ILDS mailing list submissions to ilds at lists.uvic.caTo subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ildsor, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to ilds-request at lists.uvic.caYou can reach the person managing the list at ilds-owner at lists.uvic.caWhen replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specificthan "Re: Contents of ILDS digest..."Today's Topics: 1. Re: ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 10 (mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org) 2. Re: ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 10_Fake statues (Sumantra Nag) 3. Re: A teaser (Bruce Redwine)----------------------------------------------------------------------Message: 1Date: Sun, 13 Dec 2015 21:29:43 +0000From: mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.orgTo: ilds at lists.uvic.caSubject: Re: [ilds] ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 10Message-ID: Content-Typ! e: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"Sorry - my typing is bad - for "uniquity" read "ubiquity" - rather a difference!RP -----Original Message-----F! rom: ilds-request at lists.uvic.ca [mailto:ilds-request at lists.uvic.ca]Sent: Sunday, December 13, 2015 03:00 PMTo: ilds at lists.uvic.caSubject: ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 10Send ILDS mailing list submissions to ilds at lists.uvic.caTo subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ildsor, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to ilds-request at lists.uvic.caYou can reach the person managing the list at ilds-owner at lists.uvic.caWhen replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specificthan "Re: Contents of ILDS digest..."Today's Topics: 1. A teaser (mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org)----------------------------------------------------------------------Message: 1Date: Sun, 13 Dec 2015 16:57:58 +0000From: mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.orgTo: ilds at lists.uvic.caSubject: [ilds] A teaserMessage-ID: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"Here's a teaser. The! following is a quote from a source I won't identify. If you know the sour! ce, you already know it, it you don't, you don't need to know, but it's a fictional story>"---- played a horrid trick on ---- and got a sculptor he knows to make a [stat! ue of Apollo] and fake it to look old. Then he pretended that a friend of his had found it in Sicily". ---- fell for this beastly thing and wrote an article on it for "The Archaeolgist" ...."It's from a novel published in 1937. Ring any bells? The question is: it's almost certain that LD did not know of this novel. Therefore he could not have had the idea from this novel of a fake statue "found" in Sicily (which in the novel leads to a vendetta between the progenitor of the fake and its victim). So, if the same idea came into LD's head when conceiving Dark Labyrinth, was such an idea common at that time or is this an extraordinary coincidence?Should literary sleuths bend every sinew to try to establish that L D DID in fact know thi! s specific story or would their time be better spent arguing over the uniquity of such fictions or such pranks in the 1930s? Or should they just ge! t on with enjoying Dark Labyrinth?(The novel from which the idea is taken is not, in fact, a great r! ead - another reason for my not identifying it to those who don't recognise the story)RP-------------- next part --------------An HTML attachment was scrubbed...URL: ------------------------------Subject: Digest Footer_______________________________________________ILDS mailing listILDS at lists.uvic.cahttps://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ilds------------------------------End of ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 10*************************************-------------- next part --------------An HTML attachment was scrubbed...URL: ------------------------------Message: 2Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2015 11:21:13 +0530From: Sumantra Nag To: ilds at lists.uvic.caCc: Richard Pine Subject: Re: [ilds] ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 10_Fake statuesMessage-ID: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"If I remember correctly there is! a character (the Duke?) in the novel SouthWind (Norman Douglas) who sculpts f! ake ancient statues and sells them togullible Americans.Sumantra NagSent from my Asus ZenfoneOn 14 Dec 2015 01:36, wrote:> Send ILDS mailing list submissions to> ilds at lists.uvic.ca>> To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit> https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ilds> or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to> ilds-request at lists.uvic.ca>> You can reach the person managing the list at> ilds-owner at lists.uvic.ca>> When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific> than "Re: Contents of ILDS digest...">>> Today's Topics:>> 1. A teaser (mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org)>>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------->> Message: 1> Date: Sun, 13 Dec 2015 16:57:58 +0000> From: mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org> To: ilds at lists.uvic.ca> Subject: [ilds] A teaser> Message-ID: > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8">> Here's a tease! r. The following is a quote from a source I won't identify.> If you know the source, you already know it, it you don't, you don't need> to know, but i! t's a fictional story>>>> "---- played a horrid trick on ---- and got a sculptor he knows to make a> [statue of Apollo] and fake it to look old. Then he pretended that a friend> of his had found it in Sicily". ---- fell for this beastly thing and wrote> an article on it for "The Archaeolgist" ....">>> It's from a novel published in 1937. Ring any bells?> The question is: it's almost certain that LD did not know of this novel.> Therefore he could not have had the idea from this novel of a fake statue> "found" in Sicily (which in the novel leads to a vendetta between the> progenitor of the fake and its victim). So, if the same idea came into LD's> head when conceiving Dark Labyrinth, was such an idea common at that time> or is this an extraordinary coincidence?> Should literary sleuths bend every sinew to try to establish that L D DID> in fact know this specific story or would their time be bette! r spent> arguing over the uniquity of such fictions or such pranks in the 1930s? ! Or> should they just get on with enjoying Dark Labyrinth?>>> (The novel from which the idea is taken is not, in fact, a great read -> another reason for my not identifying it to those who don't recognise the> story)> RP>> -------------- next part --------------> An HTML attachment was scrubbed...> URL: <> http://lists.uvic.ca/pipermail/ilds/attachments/20151213/da677ebd/attachment-0001.html> >>> ------------------------------>> Subject: Digest Footer>> _______________________________________________> ILDS mailing list> ILDS at lists.uvic.ca> https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ilds>>> ------------------------------>> End of ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 10> *************************************>-------------- next part --------------An HTML attachment was scrubbed...URL: ------------------------------Message: 3Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2015 10:19:13 -0800From: Bruce Redwine To: James Gifford Cc: Bruce ! Redwine , Richard Pine Subject: Re: [ilds] A teaserMessage-ID: <904FB348-880C-4B96-925D-BA96495C6AD9 at earthlink.net>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-! 8"A nice tease. It brings us back to Durrell?s underrated book, The Dark Labyrinth (1947). I?d forgotten about the ?statues.? Correct me if I?m wrong, but the statues get several references regarding their authenticity. This frequency calls special attention to itself, although my memory was faulty. Here?s one from the chapter ?City in the Rock?:He stepped forward into the little chapel and found his attention arrested by the perfect detachment and purity of the statues, by the coarse yet sensitive stone-cutting of the bas-relief. No, his experience had not been at fault. These were certainly not fakes: they were too weathered and lichened by damp: too self-consciously primitive and innocent to deceive. (165-66)I assume this passage is what Richard has in mind. Our ?attention? should be ?arrested,? along with Graecen?s.Now, did Durrell borrow this theme from the unidentified novel of 1937. ! (No bells are ringing for me!) I don?t see that this really matters (unless someone c! an draw an important connection). At the time of writing Labyrinth, Durrell was surely aware of the huge market in fake artifacts supposedly from antiquity. Sumantra mentions Douglas?s South Wind (1917). After all, Durrell lived in Cairo and had visited the famous Khan al-Kahili souk (later mentioned in ?Egyptian Moments? [1978]), whose shops are full of fakes (along with some real treasures). An ?Aladdin?s cave,? he later called it. So the idea of fake statutes was well-known and ?ubiquitous,? as Richard suggests.More importantly, what role does fakery have in the novel? Why all the references? What was Durrell up to, if anything? Was the labyrinth another ?Aladdin?s cave?? Perhaps someone can explain.Bruce> On Dec 13, 2015, at 8:57 AM, mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org wrote:> > Here's a teaser. The following is a quote from a source I won't identify. If you know the source, you already know! it, it you don't, you don't need to know, but it's a fictional story>> > "---- played a horrid trick on ---- and got a sculptor he knows to make a [statue of! Apollo] and fake it to look old. Then he pretended that a friend of his had found it in Sicily". ---- fell for this beastly thing and wrote an article on it for "The Archaeolgist" ...."> > It's from a novel published in 1937. Ring any bells? > The question is: it's almost certain that LD did not know of this novel. Therefore he could not have had the idea from this novel of a fake statue "found" in Sicily (which in the novel leads to a vendetta between the progenitor of the fake and its victim). So, if the same idea came into LD's head when conceiving Dark Labyrinth, was such an idea common at that time or is this an extraordinary coincidence?> Should literary sleuths bend every sinew to try to establish that L D DID in fact know this specific story or would their time be better spent arguing over the uniquity of such fictions or such pranks in the 1930s? Or should they just get on with! enjoying Dark Labyrinth?> > (The novel from which the idea is taken is not, in fact, a ! great read - another reason for my not identifying it to those who don't recognise the story)> RP> _______________________________________________> ILDS mailing list> ILDS at lists.uvic.ca> https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ilds-------------- next part --------------An HTML attachment was scrubbed...URL: ------------------------------Subject: Digest Footer_______________________________________________ILDS mailing listILDS at lists.uvic.cahttps://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ilds------------------------------End of ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 11*************************************-------------- next part --------------An HTML attachment was scrubbed...URL: ------------------------------Message: 2Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2015 15:23:30 -0800From: Bruce Redwine To: Richard Pine , James Gifford Cc: Bruce Redwine Subject: Re: [ilds] A teaserMessage-ID: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"Ri! chard, okay. That makes sense, applying Tertullian?s ?credo? to faked or not faked antiquities. This fits in with Durrell?s preference for ?open? endings, as in the Quartet and Quintet. But the strong suggestion of fraudulence would seem to have other possibilities of a personal nature. For example, note Graecen?s musings about ?great artists? near the end: ?He wondered if perhaps all great artists, from whose company he reluctantly excluded himself, were not absolutely revolting as human beings? (p. 258). A rather strange statement, even with the qualification. Did Durrell think of himself as some kind of fraud? Someone not what he seemed. I wonder. Was he apologizing to Nancy Myers? Didn?t he say somewhere that Labyrinth paid for her alimony?Bruce> On Dec 14, 2015, at 10:46 AM, mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org wrote:> > Yes, that, and also the very end (which isn't the end at all, of course): "He says Axelos gave him money and told him he should say that they built the damn thing, carved it and all that". So we will never know... It's all a ques! tion of believing in the unbelievable sufficiently to make it believable (credo quia absurdum) LD ends by quoting from an 1873 book which questions the authenticity of a similar "installation" (from which he says he got the idea) but...> (Tozer went into a later 1890 edition which is now available in several reprints)> RP > -----Original Message-----> From: Bruce Redwine [mailto:bredwine1968 at earthlink.net]> Sent: Monday, December 14, 2015 01:19 PM> To: 'James Gifford'> Cc: 'Bruce Redwine', 'Richard Pine'> Subject: Re: [ilds] A teaser> > A nice tease. It brings us back to Durrell?s underrated book, The Dark Labyrinth (1947). I?d forgotten about the ?statues.? Correct me if I?m wrong, but the statues get several references regarding their authenticity. This frequency calls special attention to itself, although my memory was faulty. Here?s one from the chapter ?City in the Rock?:> > He stepped forward into the little chapel and found his attention arrested by the perfect detac! hment and purity of the statues, by the coarse yet sensitive stone-cutting of the bas-relief. No, his experience had not been at fault. These were certainly not fakes: they were too weathered and lichened by damp: too self-consciously primitive and innocent to deceive. (165-66)> > I assume this passage is what Richard has in mind. Our ?attention? should be ?arrested,? along with Graecen?s.> > Now, did Durrell borrow this theme from the unidentified novel of 1937. (No bells are ringing for me!) I don?t see that this really matters (unless someone can draw an important connection). At the time of writing Labyrinth, Durrell was surely aware of the huge market in fake artifacts supposedly from antiquity. Sumantra mentions Douglas?s South Wind (1917). After all, Durrell lived in Cairo and had visited the famous Khan al-Kahili souk (later mentioned in ?Egyptian Moments? [1978]), whose shops are full of fakes (along with some real treasures). An ?Aladdin?s cave,? he later called it. So the idea of fake statutes was well-known and ?ubiquitous,? as Ric! hard suggests.> > More importantly, what role does fakery have in the novel? Why all the references? What was Durrell up to, if anything? Was the labyrinth another ?Aladdin?s cave?? Perhaps someone can explain.> > Bruce> > > > > >> On Dec 13, 2015, at 8:57 AM, mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org wrote:>> >> Here's a teaser. The following is a quote from a source I won't identify. If you know the source, you already know it, it you don't, you don't need to know, but it's a fictional story>>> >> "---- played a horrid trick on ---- and got a sculptor he knows to make a [statue of Apollo] and fake it to look old. Then he pretended that a friend of his had found it in Sicily". ---- fell for this beastly thing and wrote an article on it for "The Archaeolgist" ....">> >> It's from a novel published in 1937. Ring any bells? >> The question is: it's almost certain that LD did not know of this novel. Therefore he could not have had the idea from this novel of a fake statue "found" in Sicil! y (which in the novel leads to a vendetta between the progenitor of the fake and its victim). So, if the same idea came into LD's head when conceiving Dark Labyrinth, was such an idea common at that time or is this an extraordinary coincidence?>> Should literary sleuths bend every sinew to try to establish that L D DID in fact know this specific story or would their time be better spent arguing over the uniquity of such fictions or such pranks in the 1930s? Or should they just get on with enjoying Dark Labyrinth?>> >> (The novel from which the idea is taken is not, in fact, a great read - another reason for my not identifying it to those who don't recognise the story)>> RP>> -------------- next part --------------An HTML attachment was scrubbed...URL: ------------------------------Subject: Digest Footer_______________________________________________ILDS mailing listILDS at lists.uvic.cahttps://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ilds------------------------------End of ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 12*************************************-------------- next part --------------An HTML attachment was scrubbed...URL: ------------------------------Message: 2Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2015 08:31:37 -0800From: Bruce Redwine To: James Gifford Cc: Bruce Redwine Subject: [ilds] SeemsMessage-ID: <196D494F-9554-444B-99FE-5505BD783C27 at earthlink.net>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"Seems, madam? Nay, it is. I know not ?seems.??HamletHe wondered if perhaps all great artists, from whose company he reluctantly excluded himself, were not absolutely revolting as human beings. Dostoevsky writing about Christian meekness while he browbeat his menservants, Lawrence saying nasty things about one when one wasn?t there ? It was very odd.?Dark Labyrinth, p. 258I guess I?m one of those deceiving myself. Richard Pine?s objection to ?fraud? as anything special may be true in some existential sense, akin to Hamlet?s problem with ?seems,? but this is not the moral force of Graecen?s remark. He clearly censures duplicitous behavior, and I take that as Durrell talking about himself, as ?odd? as that may seem.Bruce> On Dec 15, 2015, at 11:54 PM, mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org wrote:> > Of course LD knew he was a fraud. All artists know that, especially writers. None of us is what we seem. Writers just make a professsion of it, that's all. Anyone who thinks he is telling the truth is deceiving herself.> RP -------------- next part --------------An HTML attachment was scrubbed...URL: ------------------------------Message: 3Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2015 10:58:58 -0800From: Kennedy Gammage To: ilds at lists.uvic.caSubject: Re: [ilds] SeemsMessage-ID: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"Quoting Hamlet, Bruce just reminded me of Rosencrantz & Guildenstern AreDead. Wanted to ask Bruce about Acte, Durrell's second play, which herecently purchased at a local bookstore: have you read it yet? What did youthink? It's natural for a writer of Durrell's gifts to want to write inalmost every genre - you want to conquer the world! But were his playsgood? Not compared to Stoppard. Maybe compared to Eliot?Recent Nobel Prize winners in Literature are from unexpected places allover the world. We all know Durrell wanted that prize - and possiblydeserved it. But I'm not sure I've seen an analysis of his oeuvre comparedwith the recent winners. If such an article appeared in the NY Review ofBooks I would read it avidly.Thanks - KenOn Wed, Dec 16, 2015 at 8:31 AM, Bruce Redwine wrote:> Seems, madam? Nay, it is. I know not ?seems.?>> ?*Hamlet*>> He wondered if perhaps all great artists, from whose company he> reluctantly excluded himself, were not absolutely revolting as human> beings. Dostoevsky writing about Christian meekness while he browbeat> his menservants, Lawrence saying nasty things about one when one wasn?t> there ? It was very odd.>> *?Dark Labyrinth,* p. 258>>>> I guess I?m one of those deceiving myself. Richard Pine?s objection to> ?fraud? as anything special may be true in some existential sense, akin to> Hamlet?s problem with ?seems,? but this is not the moral force of Graecen?s> remark. He clearly censures duplicitous behavior, and I take that as> Durrell talking about himself, as ?odd? as that may seem.>> Bruce>>> On Dec 15, 2015, at 11:54 PM, mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org wrote:>> Of course LD knew he was a fraud. All artists know that, especially> writers. None of us is what we seem. Writers just make a professsion of it,> that's all. Anyone who thinks he is telling the truth is deceiving herself.> RP>>>> _______________________________________________> ILDS mailing list> ILDS at lists.uvic.ca> https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ilds>>-------------- next part --------------An HTML attachment was scrubbed...URL: ------------------------------Subject: Digest Footer_______________________________________________ILDS mailing listILDS at lists.uvic.cahttps://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ilds------------------------------End of ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 13************************************* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From bredwine1968 at earthlink.net Wed Dec 16 13:29:58 2015 From: bredwine1968 at earthlink.net (Bruce Redwine) Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2015 13:29:58 -0800 Subject: [ilds] Seems, etc. In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <77B6671F-2574-4B0C-8D1F-911EBF4FC4BF@earthlink.net> Richard, No, I think this is an important distinction, which should be taken very seriously and is not as complicated as you make it. Simply put, is someone a phony or not a phony? Or to paraphrase Hamlet, should the world be as it seems or not as it seems. We?re discussing Graecen?s remark in Labyrinth, previously quoted, which is also raised by the many references to fake antiquities in the novel. (And I thank you for bringing up the subject.) In my opinion, Graecen sees a discontinuity between appearance and reality, especially in the context of human behavior, and it clearly bothers him. And I don?t think he?s about to make any leap into saying that we?re all phonies and that?s the way of the world?so enjoy! Or, ?What me worry?? in the words of Alfred E. Neuman, the mascot of Mad magazine. Now, with respect to Lawrence Durrell himself, the man as he appeared before his public was occasionally at great odds with the man in his private life. This fits Graecen?s remark perfectly. Instead of Dostoevsky ?browbeat[ing] his menservants? (p. 258), substitute Durrell beating his wives. All this talk of mirrors and multiple selves, I take as one big smokescreen to cover up something very basic and troubling. Bruce > On Dec 16, 2015, at 12:43 PM, mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org wrote: > > I cannot see the difference between duplicitous behaviour detected in oneself (and for which one censures oneself) and being a fraud, for which one congratulates oneself. The question seems to revolve around self-other - who are we - who is that in the mirror? who is it that writes my work? Who left that note on my desk? Was it me or was it A N Other (aka me)? or maybe just A N Wilson. Only joking. Don't take everything so seriously you guys - especially your doubleness. RP -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From james.d.gifford at gmail.com Wed Dec 16 18:38:11 2015 From: james.d.gifford at gmail.com (James Gifford) Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2015 18:38:11 -0800 Subject: [ilds] Seems In-Reply-To: References: <196D494F-9554-444B-99FE-5505BD783C27@earthlink.net> Message-ID: <56722013.6080001@gmail.com> On 2015-12-16 10:58 AM, Kennedy Gammage wrote: > But were his > plays good? Not compared to Stoppard. > Maybe compared to Eliot? For the 2012 London conference, Mark Morris had an excellent presentation on the plays as lead up to a discussion of the opera setting of Sappho. His sense was that they plays needed major cuts to work on the boards. There were some productions, including a review he dug up from Edinburgh. > Recent Nobel Prize winners in Literature are from unexpected places all > over the world. We all know Durrell wanted that prize - and possibly > deserved it. But I'm not sure I've seen an analysis of his oeuvre > compared with the recent winners. If such an article appeared in the NY > Review of Books I would read it avidly. I think the natural comparison for recent winners would be to Doris Lessing. They're of a generation, and there are good reasons for putting their works side by side -- Joe Boone has an excellent comparison of the Quartet to the Golden Notebook in his book /Libidinal Currents: Sexuality and the Shaping of Modernism/. I've taught the two books together before as well, and students certainly found bridges across them... The political commitments are distinct, but they share Jungian interests, shifting "selves" across the texts, and well, they're both Quartets in a sense too... Now back to exams week! Best, James From mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org Thu Dec 17 12:54:10 2015 From: mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org (mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org) Date: Thu, 17 Dec 2015 20:54:10 +0000 Subject: [ilds] ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 14 Message-ID: Bruce asks: "Simply put, is someone a phony or not a phony?" Does this question relate to a character in a book, or the person who wrote the book, or to some other person. (note the "other")? Whether we are writers, grocers or houswives, we ALL lie, we are ALL phoney (I prefer it with an 'e', sounds less like someone lying thru telecommunciations) we are ALL duplicitous, we ALL have adouble, we are ALL lived by the It. Try this: He is the man who makes notes, The observer in the tall black hat Face hidden in the brim. In three European cities He has watched me watching him. [echoes of The Third Man? and Welles's gnomic face?] He watches me now, working late, Bringing a poem to life, his eyes Reflect the malady of De Nerval: O useless in this old house to question The mirrors, his impenetrable disguise. Add the title of that poem, and you have both Durrells in a nutshell. And yourself. and her. RP -----Original Message----- From: ilds-request at lists.uvic.ca [mailto:ilds-request at lists.uvic.ca] Sent: Thursday, December 17, 2015 09:00 PM To: ilds at lists.uvic.ca Subject: ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 14 Send ILDS mailing list submissions to ilds at lists.uvic.caTo subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ildsor, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to ilds-request at lists.uvic.caYou can reach the person managing the list at ilds-owner at lists.uvic.caWhen replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specificthan "Re: Contents of ILDS digest..."Today's Topics: 1. Re: Seems (Bruce Redwine) 2. Re: ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 13 (mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org) 3. Seems, etc. (Bruce Redwine) 4. Re: Seems (James Gifford)----------------------------------------------------------------------Message: 1Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2015 12:35:50 -0800From: Bruce Redwine To: James Gifford Cc: Bruce Redwine Subject: Re: [ilds] SeemsMessage-ID: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"Ken,Embarrassed to admit, I?ve not read Acte. (I bought it for future reference.) The only one of Durrell?s plays that I?ve read is Sappho, and that was many decades ago. So I have no opinion about his abilities as a playwright. I find it interesting that the Germans were interested in his plays and performed a couple of them, I believe. I assume Durrell as playwright resonated with the Germans and their theater. He was familiar with Kleist in translation, who is alluded to in the Quintet in the ?Von Esslin? episode situated in Prussia. Maybe someone can generalize about the German theater and Durrell?s dramas, assuming there are similarities.Bruce> On Dec 16, 2015, at 10:58 AM, Kennedy Gammage wrote:> > Quoting Hamlet, Bruce just reminded me of Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead. Wanted to ask Bruce about Acte, Durrell's second play, which he recently purchased at a local bookstore: have you read it yet? What did you think? It's natural for a writer of Durrell's gifts to want to write in almost every genre - you want to conquer the world! But were his plays good? Not compared to Stoppard. Maybe compared to Eliot?> > Recent Nobel Prize winners in Literature are from unexpected places all over the world. We all know Durrell wanted that prize - and possibly deserved it. But I'm not sure I've seen an analysis of his oeuvre compared with the recent winners. If such an article appeared in the NY Review of Books I would read it avidly.> > Thanks - Ken> > > On Wed, Dec 16, 2015 at 8:31 AM, Bruce Redwine > wrote:> Seems, madam? Nay, it is. I know not ?seems.?> > ?Hamlet> > He wondered if perhaps all great artists, from whose company he reluctantly excluded himself, were not absolutely revolting as human beings. Dostoevsky writing about Christian meekness while he browbeat his menservants, Lawrence saying nasty things about one when one wasn?t there ? It was very odd.> > ?Dark Labyrinth, p. 258> > > I guess I?m one of those deceiving myself. Richard Pine?s objection to ?fraud? as anything special may be true in some existential sense, akin to Hamlet?s problem with ?seems,? but this is not the moral force of Graecen?s remark. He clearly censures duplicitous behavior, and I take that as Durrell talking about himself, as ?odd? as that may seem.> > Bruce> > >> On Dec 15, 2015, at 11:54 PM, mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org wrote:>> >> Of course LD knew he was a fraud. All artists know that, especially writers. None of us is what we seem. Writers just make a professsion of it, that's all. Anyone who thinks he is telling the truth is deceiving herself.>> RP > > > -------------- next part --------------An HTML attachment was scrubbed...URL: ------------------------------Message: 2Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2015 20:43:16 +0000From: mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.orgTo: ilds at lists.uvic.caSubject: Re: [ilds] ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 13Message-ID: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"I cannot see the difference between duplicitous behaviour detected in oneself (and for which one censures oneself) and being a fraud, for which one congratulates oneself. The question seems to revolve around self-other - who are we - who is that in the mirror? who is it that writes my work? Who left that note on my desk? Was it me or was it A N Other (aka me)? or maybe just A N Wilson. Only joking. Don't take everything so seriously you guys - especially your doubleness. RP -----Original Message-----From: ilds-request at lists.uvic.ca [mailto:ilds-request at lists.uvic.ca]Sent: Wednesday, December 16, 2015 03:00 PMTo: ilds at lists.uvic.caSubject: ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 13Send ILDS mailing list submissions to ilds at lists.uvic.caTo subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ildsor, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to ilds-request at lists.uvic.caYou can reach the person managing the list at ilds-owner at lists.uvic.caWhen replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specificthan "Re: Contents of ILDS digest..."Today's Topics: 1. Re: ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 12 (mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org) 2. Seems (Bruce Redwine) 3. Re: Seems (Kennedy Gammage)----------------------------------------------------------------------Message: 1Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2015 07:54:19 +0000From: mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.orgTo: ilds at lists.uvic.caSubject: Re: [ilds] ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 12Message-ID: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"Of course LD knew he was a fraud. All artists know that, especially writers. None of us is what we seem. Writers just make a professsion of it, that's a! ll. Anyone who thinks he is telling the truth is deceiving herself.RP -----Original Message-----From: ilds-request at lists.uvic.ca [mailto:ilds-request at lists.uvic.ca]Sent: Tuesday, December 15, 2015 03:00 PMTo: ilds at lists.uvic.caSubject: ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 12Send ILDS mailing list submissions to ilds at lists.uvic.caTo subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ildsor, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to ilds-request at lists.uvic.caYou can reach the person managing the list at ilds-owner at lists.uvic.caWhen replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specificthan "Re: Contents of ILDS digest..."Today's Topics: 1. Re: ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 11 (mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org) 2. Re: A teaser (Bruce Redwine)----------------------------------------------------------------------Message: 1Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2015 20:51:47 +0000From: mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.orgTo: ilds at lists.uvic.caSubject: Re: [i! lds] ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 11Message-ID: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"Good point Sumantra - LD certainly knew South Wind (I think he borrowed a scene from it to indert into Sicilan Carousel)RP -----Original Message-----From: ilds-request at lists.uv! ic.ca [mailto:ilds-request at lists.uvic.ca]Sent: Monday, December 14, 2015 03:00 PMTo: ilds at lists.uvic.caSubject: ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 11Send ILDS mailing list submissions to ilds at lists.uvic.caTo subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ildsor, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to ilds-request at lists.uvic.caYou can reach the person managing the list at ilds-owner at lists.uvic.caWhen replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specificthan "Re: Contents of ILDS digest..."Today's Topics: 1. Re: ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 10 (mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org) 2. Re: ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 10_Fake statues (Sumantra Nag) 3. Re: A teaser (Bruce Redwine)------------------------------------------------! ----------------------Message: 1Date: Sun, 13 Dec 2015 21:29:43 +0000From: mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.orgTo: ilds at lists.uvic.caSubject: Re: [ilds] ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 10Message-ID: Content-Typ! e: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"Sorry - my typing is bad - for "uniquity" read "ubiquity" - rather a difference!RP -----Original Message-----F! rom: ilds-request at lists.uvic.ca [mailto:ilds-request at lists.uvic.ca]Sent: Sunday, December 13, 2015 03:00 PMTo: ilds at lists.uvic.caSubject: ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 10Send ILDS mailing list submissions to ilds at lists.uvic.caTo subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ildsor, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to ilds-request at lists.uvic.caYou can reach the person managing the list at ilds-owner at lists.uvic.caWhen replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specificthan "Re: Contents of ILDS digest..."Today's Topics: 1. A teaser (mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org! )----------------------------------------------------------------------Message: 1Date: Sun, 13 Dec 2015 16:57:58 +0000From: mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.orgTo: ilds at lists.uvic.caSubject: [ilds] A teaserMessage-ID: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"Here's a teaser. The! following is a quote from a source I won't identify. If you know the sour! ce, you already know it, it you don't, you don't need to know, but it's a fictional story>"---- played a horrid trick on ---- and got a sculptor he knows to make a [stat! ue of Apollo] and fake it to look old. Then he pretended that a friend of his had found it in Sicily". ---- fell for this beastly thing and wrote an article on it for "The Archaeolgist" ...."It's from a novel published in 1937. Ring any bells? The question is: it's almost certain that LD did not know of this novel. Therefore he could not have had the idea from this novel of a fake statue "found" in Sicily (which in the novel leads to a vendetta between the progenitor of the fake and its victim). So, if the same idea came into LD's hea! d when conceiving Dark Labyrinth, was such an idea common at that time or is this an extraordinary coincidence?Should literary sleuths bend every sinew to try to establish that L D DID in fact know thi! s specific story or would their time be better spent arguing over the uniquity of such fictions or such pranks in the 1930s? Or should they just ge! t on with enjoying Dark Labyrinth?(The novel from which the idea is taken is not, in fact, a great r! ead - another reason for my not identifying it to those who don't recognise the story)RP-------------- next part --------------An HTML attachment was scrubbed...URL: ------------------------------Subject: Digest Footer_______________________________________________ILDS mailing listILDS at lists.uvic.cahttps://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ilds------------------------------End of ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 10*************************************-------------- next part --------------An HTML attachment was scrubbed...URL: ---------! ---------------------Message: 2Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2015 11:21:13 +0530From: Sumantra Nag To: ilds at lists.uvic.caCc: Richard Pine Subject: Re: [ilds] ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 10_Fake statuesMessage-ID: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"If I remember correctly there is! a character (the Duke?) in the novel SouthWind (Norman Douglas) who sculpts f! ake ancient statues and sells them togullible Americans.Sumantra NagSent from my Asus ZenfoneOn 14 Dec 2015 01:36, wrote:> Send ILDS mailing list submissions to> ilds at lists.uvic.ca>> To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit> https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ilds> or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to> ilds-request at lists.uvic.ca>> You can reach the person managing the list at> ilds-owner at lists.uvic.ca>> When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific> than "Re: Contents of ILDS digest...">>> Today's Topics:>> 1. A teaser (mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org)>>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------->> Messa! ge: 1> Date: Sun, 13 Dec 2015 16:57:58 +0000> From: mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org> To: ilds at lists.uvic.ca> Subject: [ilds] A teaser> Message-ID: > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8">> Here's a tease! r. The following is a quote from a source I won't identify.> If you know the source, you already know it, it you don't, you don't need> to know, but i! t's a fictional story>>>> "---- played a horrid trick on ---- and got a sculptor he knows to make a> [statue of Apollo] and fake it to look old. Then he pretended that a friend> of his had found it in Sicily". ---- fell for this beastly thing and wrote> an article on it for "The Archaeolgist" ....">>> It's from a novel published in 1937. Ring any bells?> The question is: it's almost certain that LD did not know of this novel.> Therefore he could not have had the idea from this novel of a fake statue> "found" in Sicily (which in the novel leads to a vendetta between the> progenitor of the fake and its victim). So, if the sa! me idea came into LD's> head when conceiving Dark Labyrinth, was such an idea common at that time> or is this an extraordinary coincidence?> Should literary sleuths bend every sinew to try to establish that L D DID> in fact know this specific story or would their time be bette! r spent> arguing over the uniquity of such fictions or such pranks in the 1930s? ! Or> should they just get on with enjoying Dark Labyrinth?>>> (The novel from which the idea is taken is not, in fact, a great read -> another reason for my not identifying it to those who don't recognise the> story)> RP>> -------------- next part --------------> An HTML attachment was scrubbed...> URL: <> http://lists.uvic.ca/pipermail/ilds/attachments/20151213/da677ebd/attachment-0001.html> >>> ------------------------------>> Subject: Digest Footer>> _______________________________________________> ILDS mailing list> ILDS at lists.uvic.ca> https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ilds>>> ------------------------------>> End of ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 10> *********************************! ****>-------------- next part --------------An HTML attachment was scrubbed...URL: ------------------------------Message: 3Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2015 10:19:13 -0800From: Bruce Redwine To: James Gifford Cc: Bruce ! Redwine , Richard Pine Subject: Re: [ilds] A teaserMessage-ID: <904FB348-880C-4B96-925D-BA96495C6AD9 at earthlink.net>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-! 8"A nice tease. It brings us back to Durrell?s underrated book, The Dark Labyrinth (1947). I?d forgotten about the ?statues.? Correct me if I?m wrong, but the statues get several references regarding their authenticity. This frequency calls special attention to itself, although my memory was faulty. Here?s one from the chapter ?City in the Rock?:He stepped forward into the little chapel and found his attention arrested by the perfect detachment and purity of the statues, by the coarse yet sensitive stone-cutting of the bas-relief. No, his experience had not been at fault. These were certainly not fakes: they were t! oo weathered and lichened by damp: too self-consciously primitive and innocent to deceive. (165-66)I assume this passage is what Richard has in mind. Our ?attention? should be ?arrested,? along with Graecen?s.Now, did Durrell borrow this theme from the unidentified novel of 1937. ! (No bells are ringing for me!) I don?t see that this really matters (unless someone c! an draw an important connection). At the time of writing Labyrinth, Durrell was surely aware of the huge market in fake artifacts supposedly from antiquity. Sumantra mentions Douglas?s South Wind (1917). After all, Durrell lived in Cairo and had visited the famous Khan al-Kahili souk (later mentioned in ?Egyptian Moments? [1978]), whose shops are full of fakes (along with some real treasures). An ?Aladdin?s cave,? he later called it. So the idea of fake statutes was well-known and ?ubiquitous,? as Richard suggests.More importantly, what role does fakery have in the novel? Why all the references? What was Durrell up to, if anything? Was the labyrinth another ?Aladdin?s cave?? Perha! ps someone can explain.Bruce> On Dec 13, 2015, at 8:57 AM, mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org wrote:> > Here's a teaser. The following is a quote from a source I won't identify. If you know the source, you already know! it, it you don't, you don't need to know, but it's a fictional story>> > "---- played a horrid trick on ---- and got a sculptor he knows to make a [statue of! Apollo] and fake it to look old. Then he pretended that a friend of his had found it in Sicily". ---- fell for this beastly thing and wrote an article on it for "The Archaeolgist" ...."> > It's from a novel published in 1937. Ring any bells? > The question is: it's almost certain that LD did not know of this novel. Therefore he could not have had the idea from this novel of a fake statue "found" in Sicily (which in the novel leads to a vendetta between the progenitor of the fake and its victim). So, if the same idea came into LD's head when conceiving Dark Labyrinth, was such an idea common at that time or i! s this an extraordinary coincidence?> Should literary sleuths bend every sinew to try to establish that L D DID in fact know this specific story or would their time be better spent arguing over the uniquity of such fictions or such pranks in the 1930s? Or should they just get on with! enjoying Dark Labyrinth?> > (The novel from which the idea is taken is not, in fact, a ! great read - another reason for my not identifying it to those who don't recognise the story)> RP> _______________________________________________> ILDS mailing list> ILDS at lists.uvic.ca> https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ilds-------------- next part --------------An HTML attachment was scrubbed...URL: ------------------------------Subject: Digest Footer_______________________________________________ILDS mailing listILDS at lists.uvic.cahttps://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ilds------------------------------End of ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 11*************************************-------------- next part --------------An HTML attachment was scrubbed...URL: -----------------! -------------Message: 2Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2015 15:23:30 -0800From: Bruce Redwine To: Richard Pine , James Gifford Cc: Bruce Redwine Subject: Re: [ilds] A teaserMessage-ID: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"Ri! chard, okay. That makes sense, applying Tertullian?s ?credo? to faked or not faked antiquities. This fits in with Durrell?s preference for ?open? endings, as in the Quartet and Quintet. But the strong suggestion of fraudulence would seem to have other possibilities of a personal nature. For example, note Graecen?s musings about ?great artists? near the end: ?He wondered if perhaps all great artists, from whose company he reluctantly excluded himself, were not absolutely revolting as human beings? (p. 258). A rather strange statement, even with the qualification. Did Durrell think of himself as some kind of fraud? Someone not what he seemed. I wonder. Was he apologizing to Nancy Myers? Didn?t he say somewhere that Labyrinth paid for her alimony?Bruce> On Dec 14, ! 2015, at 10:46 AM, mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org wrote:> > Yes, that, and also the very end (which isn't the end at all, of course): "He says Axelos gave him money and told him he should say that they built the damn thing, carved it and all that". So we will never know... It's all a ques! tion of believing in the unbelievable sufficiently to make it believable (credo quia absurdum) LD ends by quoting from an 1873 book which questions the authenticity of a similar "installation" (from which he says he got the idea) but...> (Tozer went into a later 1890 edition which is now available in several reprints)> RP > -----Original Message-----> From: Bruce Redwine [mailto:bredwine1968 at earthlink.net]> Sent: Monday, December 14, 2015 01:19 PM> To: 'James Gifford'> Cc: 'Bruce Redwine', 'Richard Pine'> Subject: Re: [ilds] A teaser> > A nice tease. It brings us back to Durrell?s underrated book, The Dark Labyrinth (1947). I?d forgotten about the ?statues.? Correct me if I?m wrong, but the statues get several references regarding their authenticity. This freq! uency calls special attention to itself, although my memory was faulty. Here?s one from the chapter ?City in the Rock?:> > He stepped forward into the little chapel and found his attention arrested by the perfect detac! hment and purity of the statues, by the coarse yet sensitive stone-cutting of the bas-relief. No, his experience had not been at fault. These were certainly not fakes: they were too weathered and lichened by damp: too self-consciously primitive and innocent to deceive. (165-66)> > I assume this passage is what Richard has in mind. Our ?attention? should be ?arrested,? along with Graecen?s.> > Now, did Durrell borrow this theme from the unidentified novel of 1937. (No bells are ringing for me!) I don?t see that this really matters (unless someone can draw an important connection). At the time of writing Labyrinth, Durrell was surely aware of the huge market in fake artifacts supposedly from antiquity. Sumantra mentions Douglas?s South Wind (1917). After all, ! Durrell lived in Cairo and had visited the famous Khan al-Kahili souk (later mentioned in ?Egyptian Moments? [1978]), whose shops are full of fakes (along with some real treasures). An ?Aladdin?s cave,? he later called it. So the idea of fake statutes was well-known and ?ubiquitous,? as Ric! hard suggests.> > More importantly, what role does fakery have in the novel? Why all the references? What was Durrell up to, if anything? Was the labyrinth another ?Aladdin?s cave?? Perhaps someone can explain.> > Bruce> > > > > >> On Dec 13, 2015, at 8:57 AM, mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org wrote:>> >> Here's a teaser. The following is a quote from a source I won't identify. If you know the source, you already know it, it you don't, you don't need to know, but it's a fictional story>>> >> "---- played a horrid trick on ---- and got a sculptor he knows to make a [statue of Apollo] and fake it to look old. Then he pretended that a friend of his had found it in Sicily". ---- fell for this beastly thing and wrote an article on it for "The Archaeolgist" ....">> >! > It's from a novel published in 1937. Ring any bells? >> The question is: it's almost certain that LD did not know of this novel. Therefore he could not have had the idea from this novel of a fake statue "found" in Sicil! y (which in the novel leads to a vendetta between the progenitor of the fake and its victim). So, if the same idea came into LD's head when conceiving Dark Labyrinth, was such an idea common at that time or is this an extraordinary coincidence?>> Should literary sleuths bend every sinew to try to establish that L D DID in fact know this specific story or would their time be better spent arguing over the uniquity of such fictions or such pranks in the 1930s? Or should they just get on with enjoying Dark Labyrinth?>> >> (The novel from which the idea is taken is not, in fact, a great read - another reason for my not identifying it to those who don't recognise the story)>> RP>> -------------- next part --------------An HTML attachment was scrubbed...URL: ---! ---------------------------Subject: Digest Footer_______________________________________________ILDS mailing listILDS at lists.uvic.cahttps://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ilds------------------------------End of ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 12*************************************-------------- next part --------------An HTML attachment was scrubbed...URL: ------------------------------Message: 2Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2015 08:31:37 -0800From: Bruce Redwine To: James Gifford Cc: Bruce Redwine Subject: [ilds] SeemsMessage-ID: <196D494F-9554-444B-99FE-5505BD783C27 at earthlink.net>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"Seems, madam? Nay, it is. I know not ?seems.??HamletHe wondered if perhaps all great artists, from whose company he reluctantly excluded himself, were not absolutely revolting as human beings. Dostoevsky writing about Christian meekness while he browbeat his menservants, Lawrence saying nasty things about one when one wasn?t there ? It was very odd.?Dark Labyrinth, p. 258I guess I?m one of those deceiving myself. Richard Pine?s objection to! ?fraud? as anything special may be true in some existential sense, akin to Hamlet?s problem with ?seems,? but this is not the moral force of Graecen?s remark. He clearly censures duplicitous behavior, and I take that as Durrell talking about himself, as ?odd? as that may seem.Bruce> On Dec 15, 2015, at 11:54 PM, mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org wrote:> > Of course LD knew he was a fraud. All artists know that, especially writers. None of us is what we seem. Writers just make a professsion of it, that's all. Anyone who thinks he is telling the truth is deceiving herself.> RP -------------- next part --------------An HTML attachment was scrubbed...URL: ------------------------------Message: 3Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2015 10:58:58 -0800From: Kennedy Gammage To: ilds at lists.uvic.caSubject: Re: [ilds] SeemsMessage-ID: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"Quoting Hamlet, Bruce just reminded me of Rosencrantz & Guildenstern AreDead. Wanted to ask Bruce about Acte, Durrell's second play, ! which herecently purchased at a local bookstore: have you read it yet? What did youthink? It's natural for a writer of Durrell's gifts to want to write inalmost every genre - you want to conquer the world! But were his playsgood? Not compared to Stoppard. Maybe compared to Eliot?Recent Nobel Prize winners in Literature are from unexpected places allover the world. We all know Durrell wanted that prize - and possiblydeserved it. But I'm not sure I've seen an analysis of his oeuvre comparedwith the recent winners. If such an article appeared in the NY Review ofBooks I would read it avidly.Thanks - KenOn Wed, Dec 16, 2015 at 8:31 AM, Bruce Redwine wrote:> Seems, madam? Nay, it is. I know not ?seems.?>> ?*Hamlet*>> He wondered if perhaps all great artists, from whose company he> reluctantly excluded himself, were not absolutely revolting as human> beings. Dostoevsky writing about Christian meekness while he browbeat> his menservants, Lawrence saying nasty things about one when one wasn?t> there ? It was very odd.>> *?Dark Labyrinth,* p. 258>>>> I ! guess I?m one of those deceiving myself. Richard Pine?s objection to> ?fraud? as anything special may be true in some existential sense, akin to> Hamlet?s problem with ?seems,? but this is not the moral force of Graecen?s> remark. He clearly censures duplicitous behavior, and I take that as> Durrell talking about himself, as ?odd? as that may seem.>> Bruce>>> On Dec 15, 2015, at 11:54 PM, mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org wrote:>> Of course LD knew he was a fraud. All artists know that, especially> writers. None of us is what we seem. Writers just make a professsion of it,> that's all. Anyone who thinks he is telling the truth is deceiving herself.> RP>>>> _______________________________________________> ILDS mailing list> ILDS at lists.uvic.ca> https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ilds>>-------------- next part --------------An HTML attachment was scrubbed...URL: ------------------------------Subject: Digest Footer_______________________________________________ILDS mailing listI! LDS at lists.uvic.cahttps://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ilds------------------------------End of ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 13*************************************-------------- next part --------------An HTML attachment was scrubbed...URL: ------------------------------Message: 3Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2015 13:29:58 -0800From: Bruce Redwine To: James Gifford Cc: Bruce Redwine Subject: [ilds] Seems, etc.Message-ID: <77B6671F-2574-4B0C-8D1F-911EBF4FC4BF at earthlink.net>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"Richard,No, I think this is an important distinction, which should be taken very seriously and is not as complicated as you make it. Simply put, is someone a phony or not a phony? Or to paraphrase Hamlet, should the world be as it seems or not as it seems. We?re discussing Graecen?s remark in Labyrinth, previously quoted, which is also raised by the many references to fake antiquities in the novel. (And I thank you for bringing up the subject.) In my opinion, Graecen sees a discontinuity between appearance and reality, especially in the context of human behavior, and it clearly bothers him. And I don?t think he?s about to make any leap into saying that we?re all phonies and that?s the way of the world?so enjoy! Or, ?What me worry?? in the words of Alfred E. Neuman, the mascot of Mad magazine. Now, with respect to Lawrence Durrell himself, the man as he appeared before his public was occasionally at great odds with the man in his private life. This fits Graecen?s remark per! fectly. Instead of Dostoevsky ?browbeat[ing] his menservants? (p. 258), substitute Durrell beating his wives. All this talk of mirrors and multiple selves, I take as one big smokescreen to cover up something very basic and troubling.Bruce> On Dec 16, 2015, at 12:43 PM, mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org wrote:> > I cannot see the difference between duplicitous behaviour detected in oneself (and for which one censures oneself) and being a fraud, for which one congratulates oneself. The question seems to revolve around self-other - who are we - who is that in the mirror? who is it that writes my work? Who left that note on my desk? Was it me or was it A N Other (aka me)? or maybe just A N Wilson. Only joking. Don't take everything so seriously you guys - especially your doubleness. RP -------------- next part --------------An HTML attachment was scrubbed...URL: ------------------------------Message: 4Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2015 18:38:11 -0800From: James Gifford To: ilds at lists.uvic.caSubject: Re: [ilds] SeemsMessage-ID: <56722013.6080001 at gmail.com>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252; format=flowedOn 2015-12-16 10:58 AM, Kennedy Gammage wrote:> But were his> plays good? Not compared to Stoppard.> Maybe compared to Eliot?For the 2012 London conference, Mark Morris had an excellent presentation on the plays as lead up to a discussion of the opera setting of Sappho. His sense was that they plays needed major cuts to work on the boards. There were some productions, including a review he dug up from Edinburgh.> Recent Nobel Prize winners in Literature are from unexpected places all> over the world. We all know Durrell wanted that prize - and possibly> deserved it. But I'm not sure I've seen an analysis of his oeuvre> compared with the recent winners. If such an article appeared in the NY> Review of Books I would read it avidly.I think the natural comparison for recent winners would be to Doris Lessing. They're of a generation, and there are good reasons for putting their works side by side -- Joe Boone has an excellent comparison of the Quartet to the Golden Notebook in his book /Libidinal Currents: Sexuality and the Shaping of Modernism/. I've taught the two books together before as well, and students certainly found bridges across them...The political commitments are distinct, but they share Jungian interests, shifting "selves" across the texts, and well, they're both Quartets in a sense too...Now back to exams week!Best,James------------------------------Subject: Digest Footer_______________________________________________ILDS mailing listILDS at lists.uvic.cahttps://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ilds------------------------------End of ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 14************************************* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From bredwine1968 at earthlink.net Thu Dec 17 14:40:53 2015 From: bredwine1968 at earthlink.net (Bruce Redwine) Date: Thu, 17 Dec 2015 14:40:53 -0800 Subject: [ilds] ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 14 In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <39987558-D76D-4232-9E79-61657E6706BF@earthlink.net> My use of ?phony? (Salinger?s spelling in Catcher) refers to both the character Graecen and to the author of Graecen, Lawrence Durrell, who often creates fictional surrogates reflecting his views and aspects of his own character. Phony is not simply equated with lying (i.e., the deliberate telling of a falsehood with the intention of someone believing the same as truth). Certainly, we all lie on occasion, and we all do things that are not admirable. But there?s a big difference, I think, between lapses in behavior and gross deception (i.e., ?living the lie?). I see Durrell?and this is entirely my interpretation?as touching upon the latter in Labyrinth. He?s concerned about what is and is not ?fake,? and he?s also concerned about this on a personal level (i.e., to what extent ?all great artists ? were not absolutely revolting as human beings? [p. 258]). Note, Graecen/Durrell does not say ?all human beings?; he specifically refers to ?artists,? of which Durrell obviously classifies himself, if Graecen doesn?t out of modesty, presumably. So, Durrell?s question is self-directed. I would not go so far as to say, ?We are ALL phoney? or ?We all live the lie.? I don?t believe this is true, and I don?t believe in the notion of ?multiple selves? or of some ?It? controlling our lives and robbing us of personal responsibility. The ?double? is a big topic in modern literature, but I don?t take it seriously outside the world of fiction. In the real world, we are held accountable for our actions and can?t blame them on another ?self.? (Try that in a court of law!) I?m rather old fashioned with the idea of truth and straightforwardness. This was an important topic in Germanic literature, particular Anglo-Saxon and Old Norse, where being what one seemed was highly prized. I?m sorry that this value is now questioned. Bruce > On Dec 17, 2015, at 12:54 PM, mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org wrote: > > Bruce asks: "Simply put, is someone a phony or not a phony?" Does this question relate to a character in a book, or the person who wrote the book, or to some other person. (note the "other")? > Whether we are writers, grocers or houswives, we ALL lie, we are ALL phoney (I prefer it with an 'e', sounds less like someone lying thru telecommunciations) we are ALL duplicitous, we ALL have adouble, we are ALL lived by the It. > Try this: > > He is the man who makes notes, > The observer in the tall black hat > Face hidden in the brim. > In three European cities > He has watched me watching him. > [echoes of The Third Man? and Welles's gnomic face?] > He watches me now, working late, > Bringing a poem to life, his eyes > Reflect the malady of De Nerval: > O useless in this old house to question > The mirrors, his impenetrable disguise. > > Add the title of that poem, and you have both Durrells in a nutshell. And yourself. and her. > > RP -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From marc at marcpiel.fr Thu Dec 17 16:48:02 2015 From: marc at marcpiel.fr (Marc Piel) Date: Fri, 18 Dec 2015 01:48:02 +0100 Subject: [ilds] ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 14 In-Reply-To: <39987558-D76D-4232-9E79-61657E6706BF@earthlink.net> References: <39987558-D76D-4232-9E79-61657E6706BF@earthlink.net> Message-ID: <567357C2.1070406@marcpiel.fr> He wrote it hilmsef....... we all live selected fictions! Surely that is enough? @+ Marc Piel Le 17/12/15 23:40, Bruce Redwine a ?crit : > My use of ?phony? (Salinger?s spelling in > /Catcher)/ refers to both the character Graecen > and to the author of Graecen, Lawrence Durrell, > who often creates fictional surrogates > reflecting his views and aspects of his own > character. Phony is not simply equated with > lying (i.e., the deliberate telling of a > falsehood with the intention of someone > believing the same as truth). Certainly, we all > lie on occasion, and we all do things that are > not admirable. But there?s a big difference, I > think, between lapses in behavior and gross > deception (i.e., ?living the lie?). I see > Durrell?and this is entirely my > interpretation?as touching upon the latter in > /Labyrinth. /He?s concerned about what is and is > not ?fake,? and he?s also concerned about this > on a personal level (i.e., to what extent ?all > great artists ? were not absolutely revolting as > human beings? [p. 258]). Note, Graecen/Durrell > does not say ?all human beings?; he specifically > refers to ?artists,? of which Durrell obviously > classifies himself, if Graecen doesn?t out of > modesty, presumably. So, Durrell?s question is > self-directed. > > I would not go so far as to say, ?We are ALL > phoney? or ?We all live the lie.? I don?t > believe this is true, and I don?t believe in the > notion of ?multiple selves? or of some ?It? > controlling our lives and robbing us of personal > responsibility. The ?double? is a big topic in > modern literature, but I don?t take it seriously > outside the world of fiction. In the real > world, we are held accountable for our actions > and can?t blame them on another ?self.? (Try > that in a court of law!) I?m rather old > fashioned with the idea of truth and > straightforwardness. This was an important > topic in Germanic literature, particular > Anglo-Saxon and Old Norse, where being what one > seemed was highly prized. I?m sorry that this > value is now questioned. > > Bruce > > > > >> On Dec 17, 2015, at 12:54 PM, >> mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org >> wrote: >> >> Bruce asks: "Simply put, is someone a phony or >> not a phony?" Does this question relate to a >> character in a book, or the person who wrote >> the book, or to some other person. (note the >> "other")? >> Whether we are writers, grocers or houswives, >> we ALL lie, we are ALL phoney (I prefer it with >> an 'e', sounds less like someone lying thru >> telecommunciations) we are ALL duplicitous, we >> ALL have adouble, we are ALL lived by the It. >> Try this: >> >> He is the man who makes notes, >> The observer in the tall black hat >> Face hidden in the brim. >> In three European cities >> He has watched me watching him. >> [echoes of The Third Man? and Welles's gnomic >> face?] >> He watches me now, working late, >> Bringing a poem to life, his eyes >> Reflect the malady of De Nerval: >> O useless in this old house to question >> The mirrors, his impenetrable disguise. >> >> Add the title of that poem, and you have both >> Durrells in a nutshell. And yourself. and her. >> >> RP > > > > _______________________________________________ > ILDS mailing list > ILDS at lists.uvic.ca > https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ilds -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dtart at bigpond.net.au Thu Dec 17 22:52:50 2015 From: dtart at bigpond.net.au (Denise Tart & David Green) Date: Fri, 18 Dec 2015 17:52:50 +1100 Subject: [ilds] ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 14 In-Reply-To: <567357C2.1070406@marcpiel.fr> References: <39987558-D76D-4232-9E79-61657E6706BF@earthlink.net> <567357C2.1070406@marcpiel.fr> Message-ID: <43FDBF03-2FB7-4E8F-87E5-4AE13C5E1D1D@bigpond.net.au> Facebook is international proof of this, no? I call it facade book. You see the the shop front, but not the garbage out the back, a carefully edited version of oneself, not the same as lying though. Did Durrell lie in interviews, yes, at times, in his books, never. It is all there, the face and the arse, the painted front and the dirty alley. The devil at large. Sir Charles Montcrief. Sent from my iPad > On 18 Dec 2015, at 11:48 am, Marc Piel wrote: > > He wrote it hilmsef....... we all live selected fictions! > Surely that is enough? > @+ > Marc Piel > > Le 17/12/15 23:40, Bruce Redwine a ?crit : >> My use of ?phony? (Salinger?s spelling in Catcher) refers to both the character Graecen and to the author of Graecen, Lawrence Durrell, who often creates fictional surrogates reflecting his views and aspects of his own character. Phony is not simply equated with lying (i.e., the deliberate telling of a falsehood with the intention of someone believing the same as truth). Certainly, we all lie on occasion, and we all do things that are not admirable. But there?s a big difference, I think, between lapses in behavior and gross deception (i.e., ?living the lie?). I see Durrell?and this is entirely my interpretation?as touching upon the latter in Labyrinth. He?s concerned about what is and is not ?fake,? and he?s also concerned about this on a personal level (i.e., to what extent ?all great artists ? were not absolutely revolting as human beings? [p. 258]). Note, Graecen/Durrell does not say ?all human beings?; he specifically refers to ?artists,? of which Durrell obviously classifies himself, if Graecen doesn?t out of modesty, presumably. So, Durrell?s question is self-directed. >> >> I would not go so far as to say, ?We are ALL phoney? or ?We all live the lie.? I don?t believe this is true, and I don?t believe in the notion of ?multiple selves? or of some ?It? controlling our lives and robbing us of personal responsibility. The ?double? is a big topic in modern literature, but I don?t take it seriously outside the world of fiction. In the real world, we are held accountable for our actions and can?t blame them on another ?self.? (Try that in a court of law!) I?m rather old fashioned with the idea of truth and straightforwardness. This was an important topic in Germanic literature, particular Anglo-Saxon and Old Norse, where being what one seemed was highly prized. I?m sorry that this value is now questioned. >> >> Bruce >> >> >> >> >>> On Dec 17, 2015, at 12:54 PM, mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org wrote: >>> >>> Bruce asks: "Simply put, is someone a phony or not a phony?" Does this question relate to a character in a book, or the person who wrote the book, or to some other person. (note the "other")? >>> Whether we are writers, grocers or houswives, we ALL lie, we are ALL phoney (I prefer it with an 'e', sounds less like someone lying thru telecommunciations) we are ALL duplicitous, we ALL have adouble, we are ALL lived by the It. >>> Try this: >>> >>> He is the man who makes notes, >>> The observer in the tall black hat >>> Face hidden in the brim. >>> In three European cities >>> He has watched me watching him. >>> [echoes of The Third Man? and Welles's gnomic face?] >>> He watches me now, working late, >>> Bringing a poem to life, his eyes >>> Reflect the malady of De Nerval: >>> O useless in this old house to question >>> The mirrors, his impenetrable disguise. >>> >>> Add the title of that poem, and you have both Durrells in a nutshell. And yourself. and her. >>> >>> RP >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> ILDS mailing list >> ILDS at lists.uvic.ca >> https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ilds > > _______________________________________________ > ILDS mailing list > ILDS at lists.uvic.ca > https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ilds -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dtart at bigpond.net.au Fri Dec 18 00:26:19 2015 From: dtart at bigpond.net.au (Denise Tart & David Green) Date: Fri, 18 Dec 2015 19:26:19 +1100 Subject: [ilds] Phoneyness and other beasts Message-ID: <0AFC5C07-8DDA-4C8E-966B-9D5E0023369A@bigpond.net.au> Richard, all, Your recent posts about Phoneyness and fakery strike me as glib or at least evasive, perhaps casting a pall of smoke around an author whose nature and modus operandi some are keen to explore further. Anyway, here are a few thoughts - there is Durrell scholarship that insists that all this stuff about a refracted universe and multiple perspectives is bullshit. That as Durrell lived, learned about people, events and ideas he wrote new books. In this way, Justine, which could have stood alone, became part of a four volume series. As Michel Houellebecq says in Submission: ..Privilege chronology. Not because the life has any real importance but because, taken in order, an author's books ad up to a sort of intellectual biography with a logic of its own. he ads Only literature can put you in touch with another human spirit with all its weaknesses and grandeurs...only literature can give you access to a spirit beyond the grave - a more direct, more complete, deeper access than you would have in a conversation with a friend (where, apparently, we all lie)..the beauty of an authors style, the music of his sentences have their importance in literature of course..but an author is above all a human being, present in his books, and whether he writes very well or very badly hardly matters - as long as he get the books written and is present in them. If we accept these ideas, then Durrell clearly wrote very much from personal experience, a form of truth if you like, with artistic embellishment or omission as suited his purpose (is this lying?). in Dark Labyrinth Durrell inhabits two principle characters, Lord Graecen and the young ratbag artist Campion. This follows the model (published two years earlier) of Prospero's Cell where Count D co exists with the aspiring writer Lawrence Durrell. Durrell finds meaning in these semi reclusive aristocratic characters who seem haunted by some lost eden or the failure to truly achieve and are pervaded by a sense of tedium vitae (Piers can be counted in this) 'speculative calm' shadowed by suicide. Dark Labyrinth, it strikes me, is about post traumatic angst in the wake of World War Two. Now that the coercive and unifying impact of war and survival are removed, what is one to do? leap into the void (take a plunge on the future), find hippy heaven above the world (abjure the world) or bumble on like Graecen and Baird, the one haunted by faked academic achievement, the other the by war and murder. Dark Labyrinth maybe a more significant work than is supposed. Gordon Bowker chose this title for his Durrell Biography and yet, mysteriously writes little about the book itself? Deliberate? Consider Dark Labyrinth by Lawrence Durrell - DL by LD, the devil at large (DL again). No need for smoke and mirrors, nothing is hidden. David Sent from my iPad From mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org Fri Dec 18 12:31:56 2015 From: mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org (mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org) Date: Fri, 18 Dec 2015 20:31:56 +0000 Subject: [ilds] ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 15 Message-ID: Some people on this list seem to think thatone can draw a line between fact and fiction, or between truth and falsehood.Well then? Let me therefore tell you ? in completeconfidence of course - a story that will frighten, shock, and dismay you. Butmore importantly, for those who doubt the relationship of veracity andmendacity, it?s a story ? true but as near to fiction as makes no difference. I am currently under surveillance by boththe police and the immigration authorities here in Corfu, allegedly for my involvementin human trafficking (i.e. smuggling people into Greece) because I have in mycare a young Albanian woman who has no passport, no Schengen, not even a name -in fact no proof whatsoever of identity. She is a non-person, and, when shecame to me, was hardly a recognisable person at all. She does not exist. She isa fiction. I have made inquiries through contacts in Albania, and there is absolutely no record of her existence. yet she is physically present in my house, living under my protection, under my roof. A body without a name, a mind without a home. She doesn?t even rank, in my opinion, as anillegal immigrant (and I?m sure you know about Greece?s and the EU?s currentcrisis on refugees, asylum seekers etc, which is the reason for my being undersurveillance). But the authorities see me as a possible lawbreaker, and thegirl as the proof of my trafficking. That is their fiction, which theyregard as a fact ? under Greek law it is I who have to disprove it, not theywho have to establish my guilt, once a case has been made against me. The factthat there is no TRUTH in this accusation is the narrative by which I now haveto live. The authorities DO believe it. They don?t believe ME. That?s where thefact and the fiction of this narrative become inextricably entwined. I am in anightmare situation of my own making. She is an asylum FINDER because I amsheltering her. She has found her home, a home I unhesitatingly have made forher. I FOUND her in the most squalid and inhuman conditions, inthe back of a truck owned by an Albanian peripatetic tinker (the old-fashionedkind who goes around villages mending pots and utensils). He, too, wasunlicensed. I was looking at his stuff, wondering if he could repair an oldcopper pot that had belonged to my grandmother, when I heard a small sound fromthe back of his truck. I investigated and found this child/creature, crouched, terrified,obviously starving, in only a few filthy rags, whimpering, hardly human at all.Because the tinker was scared of exposure, I literally BOUGHT the creature fromhim for a pitiful sum. She is now in my house where I am slowly rehabilitatingher. I have had to do all this in total secrecy. I could not even ask formedical advice when I first found her and was trying to save her life ? Iactually found the answers to my problems on the internet! I have cleaned her up, fed her (she weighedfive stone when I found her, she now weighs eight) and clothed her. She hasreached the stage, after 3 months caring - day and night ? where she can ALMOSTtrust me. We communicate most of the time with signs and, most important ofall, body language ? she has learned to smile, both in response to my own smileand, even occasionally, of her own volition. I have one Albanian-speaking friend in thevillage who is utterly trustworthy and whom I can therefore ask to help withcommunication ? she can barely speak Albanian, and even then it is only adialect, not the mandarin kind. I am unable to ask her anything about her background? even with my friend?s help with the language ? because words like ?mother?and ?father?, instead of provoking some kind of outcry as I had anticipated,brought nothing but a blank look.Whether the blankness of refusal (I think she is not clever enough for that) orthe blankness of ignorance (much more likely, and much more tragic) we cannottell. She is slowly becoming HUMAN. And when Ihad done all the filthy work of cleaning up this vile piece of subhumanity, Ibegan to realise how BEAUTIFUL she is. Out of the animal she is beginning toregain a Womanhood she probably hasnever previously enjoyed or even suspected. She cannot use a knife or fork, and when Ishowed her one she shrank back, suggesting that she has at some stage beenthreatened if not actually invaded by some such weapon (although an inspectionof her body does not reveal any incisions). I have locked away all knives andother sharp kitchen utensils ? even my greatgrandfather?s ceremonial sword thathangs on my study wall! ? for our own protection. She eats without grace, likean animal, using her hands to scoop up food, throwing bones onto the floor likea sixteenth-century milord. When I say that she eats without grace, Imean that her animal instincts prevail over any ?training? that I can attempt.But she is not without grace when I look at her and try to find hersoul. There is an innate gracefulness and beauty that her breeding ? or lack ofit ? has relegated to the vortex. Yet beauty there is. It shines and on therare occasions when she has smiled ? such is the position of trust that we haveestablished ? it is as if the sun has been extinguished and in its place herluminous soul lights up the darkened world. She usually sits in a corner, talking toherself in some strange language that is neither animal nor baby-speak.Occasionally she kneels (she will on no account sit on a conventional chair orsofa) beside my desk as I write, playing with any little bit of rubbish on thefloor ? a dropped paper-clip, a sheet or two of my discarded drafts ? and thenshe will look up at me and give me what I interpret ? probably incorrectly ? asa conspiratorial grin. It fills me with joy. Due to the need for secrecy, I can onlyexercise her at night, walking a few times the length of my garden, where, in amoment of tenderness, she once showed signs of sniffing the air for the scentof the oregano and mint we were crushing beneath our feet, and thenight-scented jasmine that tumbles all over the place. At full moon (yes, thisdoes sound like a Gothic tale, doesn?t it!) she gets excited, especially whenshe sees the Albanian mountains across the strait, which she seemsinstinctively to recognise and then I have to be careful, for she will bay likea hound and paw the ground like a young horse. She has three times tried to climb into mybed. Naked. Each time, I have taken her hand and gently led her back to her owncouch, because I think she feels that somehow by sleeping with me she would bepaying for what she is receiving. No doubt that is an atavism from her cruelyoung life. But the sign of affection which that little gesture means to me hasmade me realise more than ever that there is, in this maltreated but beautifulchild, a real loving person screaming to be liberated. However, it is necessary, (like the stowingaway of the knives) for both our sakes that she sleeps in a locked room, fromwhich I had thought that it would be impossible for her to escape. She has, in fact, escaped twice. The firsttime, I was lucky and found her: she had got into my neighbour?s hen-coop. Shehad killed a chicken by ripping open its neck with her bare teeth and hadpulled apart the body; she was eating the raw flesh and making guttural noiseswhich indicated satisfaction. I was able to get her back into the houseundetected. BUT ? and here comes my trouble ? anothernight she escaped ? a full moon ? and sheran about the village, reverting immediately to a near-animal state. One of thevillagers saw her, was (quite reasonably) terrified by what seemed to be aferal, squatting, growling creature and this villager called the police. I hadjust managed to persuade Tirana (that?s my name for this otherwise namelesswoman) to come home with me and had calmed her down, when police arrived at mydoor demanding to see the ?immigrant? whom I had allegedly smuggled illegallyinto Greece.I was able to satisfy them that Tirana was my house-guest and that there was nocause for alarm, but they will return with officials from the immigrationauthorities and will, I fear, try to deport her. Meanwhile, her condition has regressed tonearly the point at which I found her. The villagers (who are, in effect, primitivethemselves insofar as their basic instincts of fear, greed, etc. are concerned)are putting around the story that I have in my house a dangerous ?wolf-girl? ?that?s the way they perceive her from that one unfortunate escapade. I for mypart claim that I am attempting to restore to humanity, sanity and normaldelicate feelings a creature who has clearly been maimed (the lash-marks arethere on her back and her thighs) who has been infibulated, and probablyraped?And I am doing this not out of any sense of philanthropy or idealism oraltruism but ? can you understand this? ? because I LOVE HER!!! She has becomemore meaningful to me than any book, idea, or ray of sunshine ? more meaningfulthan any other person I have ever met. Assuming, that is, that she IS a?person? and not a ?thing?, an animal, a performing dog. If you saw the perfectoval of her face, the softness of her pallor ? grained though it is by years offear, darkness and secrecy ? and if you saw the magnificent set of her jet-black eyes andthe almost oriental accent of her cheekbones, your heart, too, would be meltedby the immanent gracefulness of this creature who is an orphan of life, a waifand jetsam of our so-called society. Am I playing Frankenstein to her LizaDoolittle (to mix metaphors)? Reconstituting a person out of all the bits thatare left after life has destroyed her? Should I have left her in that truck,probably to die, enceinte, in some Albanian ditch? She IS here ? you can come and see her foryourselves ? and her security IS under threat, perhaps more than it was beforeI ?rescued? her, because she could be thrown back into Albania among the wolves to whom aworld which is more inhuman than it judges her to be, assumes she belongs. Myheart is breaking, inside, while publicly I have to explain my actions and face the fact that my ownfreedom is jeopardised by what I have done. What can I do? If they take heraway they will also take me away from the only life I knew until 3 months ago, and away from the one person who has illuminated my recent life. If you do not believe this account, you canof course accuse me of lying, of a deliberate deceit, or you can accuse me ofbeing a fabulator. I feel like writing here: ?And you, Narouz,do you believe me?? but that would make it a fiction, wouldn?t it? And Narouzwould reply: ?Is it true?? to which I would have to respond ?I think so?. EVERYTHING I HAVE WRITTEN IS REAL. BUT ISIT TRUE? Or should I say EVERYTHING I HAVE WRITTEN IS TRUE. BUT ISIT REAL? Narouz would believe me, because he trustsin both the story and the storyteller. Do you? I cannot say any more because I and Tirana have yet to complete the story. I do not know how it willend. -----Original Message----- From: ilds-request at lists.uvic.ca [mailto:ilds-request at lists.uvic.ca] Sent: Friday, December 18, 2015 09:00 PM To: ilds at lists.uvic.ca Subject: ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 15 Send ILDS mailing list submissions to ilds at lists.uvic.caTo subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ildsor, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to ilds-request at lists.uvic.caYou can reach the person managing the list at ilds-owner at lists.uvic.caWhen replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specificthan "Re: Contents of ILDS digest..."Today's Topics: 1. Re: ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 14 (mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org) 2. Re: ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 14 (Bruce Redwine) 3. Re: ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 14 (Marc Piel) 4. Re: ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 14 (Denise Tart & David Green) 5. Phoneyness and other beasts (Denise Tart & David Green)----------------------------------------------------------------------Message: 1Date: Thu, 17 Dec 2015 20:54:10 +0000From: mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.orgTo: ilds at lists.uvic.caSubject: Re: [ilds] ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 14Message-ID: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"Bruce asks: "Simply put, is someone a phony or not a phony?" Does this question relate to a character in a book, or the person who wrote the book, or to some other person. (note the "other")?Whether we are writers, grocers or houswives, we ALL lie, we are ALL phoney (I prefer it with an 'e', sounds less like someone lying thru telecommunciations) we are ALL duplicitous, we ALL have adouble, we are ALL lived by the It. Try this:He is the man who makes notes,The observer in the tall black hatFace hidden in the brim.In three European citiesHe has watched me watching him.[echoes of The Third Man? and Welles's gnomic face?]He watches me now, working late,Bringing a poem to life, his eyesReflect the malady of De Nerval:O useless in this old house to questionThe mirrors, his impenetrable disguise.Add the title of that poem, and you have both Durrells in a nutshell. And yourself. and her.RP -----Original Message-----From: ilds-request at lists.uvic.ca [mailto:ilds-request at lists.uvic.ca]Sent: Thursday, December 17, 2015 09:00 PMTo: ilds at lists.uvic.caSubject: ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 14Send ILDS mailing list submissions to ilds at lists.uvic.caTo subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ildsor, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to ilds-request at lists.uvic.caYou can reach the person managing the list at ilds-owner at lists.uvic.caWhen replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specificthan "Re: Contents of ILDS digest..."Today's Topics: 1. Re: Seems (Bruce Redwine) 2. Re: ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 13 (mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org) 3. Seems, etc. (Bruce Redwine) 4. Re: Seems (James Gifford)----------------------------------------------------------------------Message: 1Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2015 12:35:50 -0800From: Bruce Redwine To: James Gifford Cc: Bruce Redwine Subject: Re: [ilds] SeemsMessage-ID: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"Ken,Embarrassed to admit, I?ve not read Acte. (I bought it for future reference.) The only one of Durrell?s plays that I?ve read is Sappho, and tha! t was many decades ago. So I have no opinion about his abilities as a playwright. I find it interesting that the Germans were interested in his plays and performed a couple of them, I believe. I assume Durrell as playwright resonated with the Germans and their theater. He was familiar with Kleist in translation, who is alluded to in the Quintet in the ?Von Esslin? episode situated in Prussia. Maybe someone can generalize about the German theater and Durrell?s dramas, assuming there are similarities.Bruce> On Dec 16, 2015, at 10:58 AM, Kennedy Gammage wrote:> > Quoting Hamlet, Bruce just reminded me of Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead. Wanted to ask Bruce about Acte, Durrell's second play, which he recently purchased at a local bookstore: have you read it yet? What did you think? It's natural for a writer of Durrell's gifts to want to write in almost every genre - you want to conquer the world! But were his plays good? Not compared to Stoppard. Maybe compared to Eliot?> ! > Recent Nobel Prize winners in Literature are from unexpected places all over the world. We all know Durrell wanted that prize - and possibly deserved it. But I'm not sure I've seen an analysis of his oeuvre compared with the recent winners. If such an article appeared in the NY Review of Books I would read it avidly.> > Thanks - Ken> > > On Wed, Dec 16, 2015 at 8:31 AM, Bruce Redwine > wrote:> Seems, madam? Nay, it is. I know not ?seems.?> > ?Hamlet> > He wondered if perhaps all great artists, from whose company he reluctantly excluded himself, were not absolutely revolting as human beings. Dostoevsky writing about Christian meekness while he browbeat his menservants, Lawrence saying nasty things about one when one wasn?t there ? It was very odd.> > ?Dark Labyrinth, p. 258> > > I guess I?m one of those deceiving myself. Richard Pine?s objection to ?fraud? as anything special may be true in some existential sense, akin to Hamlet?s problem with ?seems,? but this is not the moral force of Graecen?s remark. He clearly censures duplicitous behavi! or, and I take that as Durrell talking about himself, as ?odd? as that may seem.> > Bruce> > >> On Dec 15, 2015, at 11:54 PM, mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org wrote:>> >> Of course LD knew he was a fraud. All artists know that, especially writers. None of us is what we seem. Writers just make a professsion of it, that's all. Anyone who thinks he is telling the truth is deceiving herself.>> RP > > > -------------- next part --------------An HTML attachment was scrubbed...URL: ------------------------------Message: 2Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2015 20:43:16 +0000From: mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.orgTo: ilds at lists.uvic.caSubject: Re: [ilds] ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 13Message-ID: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"I cannot see the difference between duplicitous behaviour detected in oneself (and for which one censures oneself) and being a fraud, for which one congratulates oneself. The question seems to revolve around self-other - who are we - who is that in the mirror? who is it t! hat writes my work? Who left that note on my desk? Was it me or was it A N Other (aka me)? or maybe just A N Wilson. Only joking. Don't take everything so seriously you guys - especially your doubleness. RP -----Original Message-----From: ilds-request at lists.uvic.ca [mailto:ilds-request at lists.uvic.ca]Sent: Wednesday, December 16, 2015 03:00 PMTo: ilds at lists.uvic.caSubject: ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 13Send ILDS mailing list submissions to ilds at lists.uvic.caTo subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ildsor, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to ilds-request at lists.uvic.caYou can reach the person managing the list at ilds-owner at lists.uvic.caWhen replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specificthan "Re: Contents of ILDS digest..."Today's Topics: 1. Re: ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 12 (mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org) 2. Seems (Bruce Redwine) 3. Re: Seems (Kennedy Gammage)----------------------------------------------------------------------Message: 1Date: Wed, 16 De! c 2015 07:54:19 +0000From: mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.orgTo: ilds at lists.uvic.caSubject: Re: [ilds] ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 12Message-ID: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"Of course LD knew he was a fraud. All artists know that, especially writers. None of us is what we seem. Writers just make a professsion of it, that's a! ll. Anyone who thinks he is telling the truth is deceiving herself.RP -----Original Message-----From: ilds-request at lists.uvic.ca [mailto:ilds-request at lists.uvic.ca]Sent: Tuesday, December 15, 2015 03:00 PMTo: ilds at lists.uvic.caSubject: ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 12Send ILDS mailing list submissions to ilds at lists.uvic.caTo subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ildsor, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to ilds-request at lists.uvic.caYou can reach the person managing the list at ilds-owner at lists.uvic.caWhen replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specificthan! "Re: Contents of ILDS digest..."Today's Topics: 1. Re: ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 11 (mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org) 2. Re: A teaser (Bruce Redwine)----------------------------------------------------------------------Message: 1Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2015 20:51:47 +0000From: mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.orgTo: ilds at lists.uvic.caSubject: Re: [i! lds] ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 11Message-ID: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"Good point Sumantra - LD certainly knew South Wind (I think he borrowed a scene from it to indert into Sicilan Carousel)RP -----Original Message-----From: ilds-request at lists.uv! ic.ca [mailto:ilds-request at lists.uvic.ca]Sent: Monday, December 14, 2015 03:00 PMTo: ilds at lists.uvic.caSubject: ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 11Send ILDS mailing list submissions to ilds at lists.uvic.caTo subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ildsor, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to ilds-request at lists.uvic.caYou can reach the person managing the list at ilds-owner at lists.uv! ic.caWhen replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specificthan "Re: Contents of ILDS digest..."Today's Topics: 1. Re: ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 10 (mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org) 2. Re: ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 10_Fake statues (Sumantra Nag) 3. Re: A teaser (Bruce Redwine)------------------------------------------------! ----------------------Message: 1Date: Sun, 13 Dec 2015 21:29:43 +0000From: mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.orgTo: ilds at lists.uvic.caSubject: Re: [ilds] ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 10Message-ID: Content-Typ! e: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"Sorry - my typing is bad - for "uniquity" read "ubiquity" - rather a difference!RP -----Original Message-----F! rom: ilds-request at lists.uvic.ca [mailto:ilds-request at lists.uvic.ca]Sent: Sunday, December 13, 2015 03:00 PMTo: ilds at lists.uvic.caSubject: ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 10Send ILDS mailing list submissions to ilds at lists.uvic.caTo subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit https://lists.uvic.c! a/mailman/listinfo/ildsor, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to ilds-request at lists.uvic.caYou can reach the person managing the list at ilds-owner at lists.uvic.caWhen replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specificthan "Re: Contents of ILDS digest..."Today's Topics: 1. A teaser (mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org! )----------------------------------------------------------------------Message: 1Date: Sun, 13 Dec 2015 16:57:58 +0000From: mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.orgTo: ilds at lists.uvic.caSubject: [ilds] A teaserMessage-ID: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"Here's a teaser. The! following is a quote from a source I won't identify. If you know the sour! ce, you already know it, it you don't, you don't need to know, but it's a fictional story>"---- played a horrid trick on ---- and got a sculptor he knows to make a [stat! ue of Apollo] and fake it to look old. Then he pretended that a friend of his had found it in Sicily". ---- fell for this beastly thing and wrote an article on it for "The Archaeolgist" ...."It's f! rom a novel published in 1937. Ring any bells? The question is: it's almost certain that LD did not know of this novel. Therefore he could not have had the idea from this novel of a fake statue "found" in Sicily (which in the novel leads to a vendetta between the progenitor of the fake and its victim). So, if the same idea came into LD's hea! d when conceiving Dark Labyrinth, was such an idea common at that time or is this an extraordinary coincidence?Should literary sleuths bend every sinew to try to establish that L D DID in fact know thi! s specific story or would their time be better spent arguing over the uniquity of such fictions or such pranks in the 1930s? Or should they just ge! t on with enjoying Dark Labyrinth?(The novel from which the idea is taken is not, in fact, a great r! ead - another reason for my not identifying it to those who don't recognise the story)RP-------------- next part --------------An HTML attachment was scrubbed...URL: -----------------------! -------Subject: Digest Footer_______________________________________________ILDS mailing listILDS at lists.uvic.cahttps://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ilds------------------------------End of ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 10*************************************-------------- next part --------------An HTML attachment was scrubbed...URL: ---------! ---------------------Message: 2Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2015 11:21:13 +0530From: Sumantra Nag To: ilds at lists.uvic.caCc: Richard Pine Subject: Re: [ilds] ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 10_Fake statuesMessage-ID: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"If I remember correctly there is! a character (the Duke?) in the novel SouthWind (Norman Douglas) who sculpts f! ake ancient statues and sells them togullible Americans.Sumantra NagSent from my Asus ZenfoneOn 14 Dec 2015 01:36, wrote:> Send ILDS mailing list submissions to> ilds at lists.uvic.ca>> To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit> https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ilds> or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to> ilds-req! uest at lists.uvic.ca>> You can reach the person managing the list at> ilds-owner at lists.uvic.ca>> When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific> than "Re: Contents of ILDS digest...">>> Today's Topics:>> 1. A teaser (mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org)>>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------->> Messa! ge: 1> Date: Sun, 13 Dec 2015 16:57:58 +0000> From: mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org> To: ilds at lists.uvic.ca> Subject: [ilds] A teaser> Message-ID: > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8">> Here's a tease! r. The following is a quote from a source I won't identify.> If you know the source, you already know it, it you don't, you don't need> to know, but i! t's a fictional story>>>> "---- played a horrid trick on ---- and got a sculptor he knows to make a> [statue of Apollo] and fake it to look old. Then he pretended that a friend> of his had found it in Sicily". ---- fell for this beastly thing and wrote> an article on it for "The A! rchaeolgist" ....">>> It's from a novel published in 1937. Ring any bells?> The question is: it's almost certain that LD did not know of this novel.> Therefore he could not have had the idea from this novel of a fake statue> "found" in Sicily (which in the novel leads to a vendetta between the> progenitor of the fake and its victim). So, if the sa! me idea came into LD's> head when conceiving Dark Labyrinth, was such an idea common at that time> or is this an extraordinary coincidence?> Should literary sleuths bend every sinew to try to establish that L D DID> in fact know this specific story or would their time be bette! r spent> arguing over the uniquity of such fictions or such pranks in the 1930s? ! Or> should they just get on with enjoying Dark Labyrinth?>>> (The novel from which the idea is taken is not, in fact, a great read -> another reason for my not identifying it to those who don't recognise the> story)> RP>> -------------- next part --------------> An HTML attachment was scrubbed...> URL: <> http://lists.uvic.ca/pipermail/ilds/att! achments/20151213/da677ebd/attachment-0001.html> >>> ------------------------------>> Subject: Digest Footer>> _______________________________________________> ILDS mailing list> ILDS at lists.uvic.ca> https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ilds>>> ------------------------------>> End of ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 10> *********************************! ****>-------------- next part --------------An HTML attachment was scrubbed...URL: ------------------------------Message: 3Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2015 10:19:13 -0800From: Bruce Redwine To: James Gifford Cc: Bruce ! Redwine , Richard Pine Subject: Re: [ilds] A teaserMessage-ID: <904FB348-880C-4B96-925D-BA96495C6AD9 at earthlink.net>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-! 8"A nice tease. It brings us back to Durrell?s underrated book, The Dark Labyrinth (1947). I?d forgotten about the ?statues.? Correct me if I?m wrong, but the statues get several references regarding their authenticity. This frequency calls special attention to itself,! although my memory was faulty. Here?s one from the chapter ?City in the Rock?:He stepped forward into the little chapel and found his attention arrested by the perfect detachment and purity of the statues, by the coarse yet sensitive stone-cutting of the bas-relief. No, his experience had not been at fault. These were certainly not fakes: they were t! oo weathered and lichened by damp: too self-consciously primitive and innocent to deceive. (165-66)I assume this passage is what Richard has in mind. Our ?attention? should be ?arrested,? along with Graecen?s.Now, did Durrell borrow this theme from the unidentified novel of 1937. ! (No bells are ringing for me!) I don?t see that this really matters (unless someone c! an draw an important connection). At the time of writing Labyrinth, Durrell was surely aware of the huge market in fake artifacts supposedly from antiquity. Sumantra mentions Douglas?s South Wind (1917). After all, Durrell lived in Cairo and had visited the famous Khan al-Kahili souk (later mentioned in ?Egyptian Moments? [1978]), w! hose shops are full of fakes (along with some real treasures). An ?Aladdin?s cave,? he later called it. So the idea of fake statutes was well-known and ?ubiquitous,? as Richard suggests.More importantly, what role does fakery have in the novel? Why all the references? What was Durrell up to, if anything? Was the labyrinth another ?Aladdin?s cave?? Perha! ps someone can explain.Bruce> On Dec 13, 2015, at 8:57 AM, mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org wrote:> > Here's a teaser. The following is a quote from a source I won't identify. If you know the source, you already know! it, it you don't, you don't need to know, but it's a fictional story>> > "---- played a horrid trick on ---- and got a sculptor he knows to make a [statue of! Apollo] and fake it to look old. Then he pretended that a friend of his had found it in Sicily". ---- fell for this beastly thing and wrote an article on it for "The Archaeolgist" ...."> > It's from a novel published in 1937. Ring any bells? > The question i! s: it's almost certain that LD did not know of this novel. Therefore he could not have had the idea from this novel of a fake statue "found" in Sicily (which in the novel leads to a vendetta between the progenitor of the fake and its victim). So, if the same idea came into LD's head when conceiving Dark Labyrinth, was such an idea common at that time or i! s this an extraordinary coincidence?> Should literary sleuths bend every sinew to try to establish that L D DID in fact know this specific story or would their time be better spent arguing over the uniquity of such fictions or such pranks in the 1930s? Or should they just get on with! enjoying Dark Labyrinth?> > (The novel from which the idea is taken is not, in fact, a ! great read - another reason for my not identifying it to those who don't recognise the story)> RP> _______________________________________________> ILDS mailing list> ILDS at lists.uvic.ca> https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ilds-------------- next part --------------An HTML attachment was scrubbed...URL: -----------------! -------------Subject: Digest Footer_______________________________________________ILDS mailing listILDS at lists.uvic.cahttps://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ilds------------------------------End of ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 11*************************************-------------- next part --------------An HTML attachment was scrubbed...URL: -----------------! -------------Message: 2Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2015 15:23:30 -0800From: Bruce Redwine To: Richard Pine , James Gifford Cc: Bruce Redwine Subject: Re: [ilds] A teaserMessage-ID: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"Ri! chard, okay. That makes sense, applying Tertullian?s ?credo? to faked or not faked antiquities. This fits in with Durrell?s preference for ?open? endings, as in the Quartet and Quintet. But the strong suggestion of fraudulence would seem to have other possibilities of a personal nature. For example, note Graecen?s musings about ?great artists? near the end: ?He wondered if perhaps all great artists, from who! se company he reluctantly excluded himself, were not absolutely revolting as human beings? (p. 258). A rather strange statement, even with the qualification. Did Durrell think of himself as some kind of fraud? Someone not what he seemed. I wonder. Was he apologizing to Nancy Myers? Didn?t he say somewhere that Labyrinth paid for her alimony?Bruce> On Dec 14, ! 2015, at 10:46 AM, mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org wrote:> > Yes, that, and also the very end (which isn't the end at all, of course): "He says Axelos gave him money and told him he should say that they built the damn thing, carved it and all that". So we will never know... It's all a ques! tion of believing in the unbelievable sufficiently to make it believable (credo quia absurdum) LD ends by quoting from an 1873 book which questions the authenticity of a similar "installation" (from which he says he got the idea) but...> (Tozer went into a later 1890 edition which is now available in several reprints)> RP > -----Original Message-----> From: Bruce Redwine [mailto:bredwine1968 at earthlink.ne! t]> Sent: Monday, December 14, 2015 01:19 PM> To: 'James Gifford'> Cc: 'Bruce Redwine', 'Richard Pine'> Subject: Re: [ilds] A teaser> > A nice tease. It brings us back to Durrell?s underrated book, The Dark Labyrinth (1947). I?d forgotten about the ?statues.? Correct me if I?m wrong, but the statues get several references regarding their authenticity. This freq! uency calls special attention to itself, although my memory was faulty. Here?s one from the chapter ?City in the Rock?:> > He stepped forward into the little chapel and found his attention arrested by the perfect detac! hment and purity of the statues, by the coarse yet sensitive stone-cutting of the bas-relief. No, his experience had not been at fault. These were certainly not fakes: they were too weathered and lichened by damp: too self-consciously primitive and innocent to deceive. (165-66)> > I assume this passage is what Richard has in mind. Our ?attention? should be ?arrested,? along with Graecen?s.> > Now, di! d Durrell borrow this theme from the unidentified novel of 1937. (No bells are ringing for me!) I don?t see that this really matters (unless someone can draw an important connection). At the time of writing Labyrinth, Durrell was surely aware of the huge market in fake artifacts supposedly from antiquity. Sumantra mentions Douglas?s South Wind (1917). After all, ! Durrell lived in Cairo and had visited the famous Khan al-Kahili souk (later mentioned in ?Egyptian Moments? [1978]), whose shops are full of fakes (along with some real treasures). An ?Aladdin?s cave,? he later called it. So the idea of fake statutes was well-known and ?ubiquitous,? as Ric! hard suggests.> > More importantly, what role does fakery have in the novel? Why all the references? What was Durrell up to, if anything? Was the labyrinth another ?Aladdin?s cave?? Perhaps someone can explain.> > Bruce> > > > > >> On Dec 13, 2015, at 8:57 AM, mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org wrote:>> >> Here's a teaser. The following is a quote from a source I won't identify. If you know the source,! you already know it, it you don't, you don't need to know, but it's a fictional story>>> >> "---- played a horrid trick on ---- and got a sculptor he knows to make a [statue of Apollo] and fake it to look old. Then he pretended that a friend of his had found it in Sicily". ---- fell for this beastly thing and wrote an article on it for "The Archaeolgist" ....">> >! > It's from a novel published in 1937. Ring any bells? >> The question is: it's almost certain that LD did not know of this novel. Therefore he could not have had the idea from this novel of a fake statue "found" in Sicil! y (which in the novel leads to a vendetta between the progenitor of the fake and its victim). So, if the same idea came into LD's head when conceiving Dark Labyrinth, was such an idea common at that time or is this an extraordinary coincidence?>> Should literary sleuths bend every sinew to try to establish that L D DID in fact know this specific story or would their time be better spent arguin! g over the uniquity of such fictions or such pranks in the 1930s? Or should they just get on with enjoying Dark Labyrinth?>> >> (The novel from which the idea is taken is not, in fact, a great read - another reason for my not identifying it to those who don't recognise the story)>> RP>> -------------- next part --------------An HTML attachment was scrubbed...URL: ---! ---------------------------Subject: Digest Footer_______________________________________________ILDS mailing listILDS at lists.uvic.cahttps://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ilds------------------------------End of ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 12*************************************-------------- next part --------------An HTML attachment was scrubbed...URL: ------------------------------Message: 2Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2015 08:31:37 -0800From: Bruce Redwine To: James Gifford Cc: Bruce Redwine Subject: [ilds] SeemsMessage-ID: <196D494F-9554-444B-99FE-5505BD783C27 at earthlink.net>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"Seems, madam? Nay, it is. I know not ?seems.??HamletHe wondered if perhap! s all great artists, from whose company he reluctantly excluded himself, were not absolutely revolting as human beings. Dostoevsky writing about Christian meekness while he browbeat his menservants, Lawrence saying nasty things about one when one wasn?t there ? It was very odd.?Dark Labyrinth, p. 258I guess I?m one of those deceiving myself. Richard Pine?s objection to! ?fraud? as anything special may be true in some existential sense, akin to Hamlet?s problem with ?seems,? but this is not the moral force of Graecen?s remark. He clearly censures duplicitous behavior, and I take that as Durrell talking about himself, as ?odd? as that may seem.Bruce> On Dec 15, 2015, at 11:54 PM, mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org wrote:> > Of course LD knew he was a fraud. All artists know that, especially writers. None of us is what we seem. Writers just make a professsion of it, that's all. Anyone who thinks he is telling the truth is deceiving herself.> RP -------------- next part -------------! -An HTML attachment was scrubbed...URL: ------------------------------Message: 3Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2015 10:58:58 -0800From: Kennedy Gammage To: ilds at lists.uvic.caSubject: Re: [ilds] SeemsMessage-ID: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"Quoting Hamlet, Bruce just reminded me of Rosencrantz & Guildenstern AreDead. Wanted to ask Bruce about Acte, Durrell's second play, ! which herecently purchased at a local bookstore: have you read it yet? What did youthink? It's natural for a writer of Durrell's gifts to want to write inalmost every genre - you want to conquer the world! But were his playsgood? Not compared to Stoppard. Maybe compared to Eliot?Recent Nobel Prize winners in Literature are from unexpected places allover the world. We all know Durrell wanted that prize - and possiblydeserved it. But I'm not sure I've seen an analysis of his oeuvre comparedwith the recent winners. If such an article appeared in the NY Review ofBooks I would read it avidly.Thanks - KenOn Wed, Dec 16, 2015 at 8:31 AM, Bruce Redwine wrote:> Seems, madam? Nay, it is! . I know not ?seems.?>> ?*Hamlet*>> He wondered if perhaps all great artists, from whose company he> reluctantly excluded himself, were not absolutely revolting as human> beings. Dostoevsky writing about Christian meekness while he browbeat> his menservants, Lawrence saying nasty things about one when one wasn?t> there ? It was very odd.>> *?Dark Labyrinth,* p. 258>>>> I ! guess I?m one of those deceiving myself. Richard Pine?s objection to> ?fraud? as anything special may be true in some existential sense, akin to> Hamlet?s problem with ?seems,? but this is not the moral force of Graecen?s> remark. He clearly censures duplicitous behavior, and I take that as> Durrell talking about himself, as ?odd? as that may seem.>> Bruce>>> On Dec 15, 2015, at 11:54 PM, mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org wrote:>> Of course LD knew he was a fraud. All artists know that, especially> writers. None of us is what we seem. Writers just make a professsion of it,> that's all. Anyone who thinks he is ! telling the truth is deceiving herself.> RP>>>> _______________________________________________> ILDS mailing list> ILDS at lists.uvic.ca> https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ilds>>-------------- next part --------------An HTML attachment was scrubbed...URL: ------------------------------Subject: Digest Footer_______________________________________________ILDS mailing listI! LDS at lists.uvic.cahttps://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ilds------------------------------End of ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 13*************************************-------------- next part --------------An HTML attachment was scrubbed...URL: ------------------------------Message: 3Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2015 13:29:58 -0800From: Bruce Redwine To: James Gifford Cc: Bruce Redwine Subject: [ilds] Seems, etc.Message-ID: <77B6671F-2574-4B0C-8D1F-911EBF4FC4BF at earthlink.net>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"Richard,No, I think this is an important distinction, which should be taken very seriously and is not as complicated as you make it. Simply put, is someone a phony or not a p! hony? Or to paraphrase Hamlet, should the world be as it seems or not as it seems. We?re discussing Graecen?s remark in Labyrinth, previously quoted, which is also raised by the many references to fake antiquities in the novel. (And I thank you for bringing up the subject.) In my opinion, Graecen sees a discontinuity between appearance and reality, especially in the context of human behavior, and it clearly bothers him. And I don?t think he?s about to make any leap into saying that we?re all phonies and that?s the way of the world?so enjoy! Or, ?What me worry?? in the words of Alfred E. Neuman, the mascot of Mad magazine. Now, with respect to Lawrence Durrell himself, the man as he appeared before his public was occasionally at great odds with the man in his private life. This fits Graecen?s remark per! fectly. Instead of Dostoevsky ?browbeat[ing] his menservants? (p. 258), substitute Durrell beating his wives. All this talk of mirrors and multiple selves, I take as one big! smokescreen to cover up something very basic and troubling.Bruce> On Dec 16, 2015, at 12:43 PM, mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org wrote:> > I cannot see the difference between duplicitous behaviour detected in oneself (and for which one censures oneself) and being a fraud, for which one congratulates oneself. The question seems to revolve around self-other - who are we - who is that in the mirror? who is it that writes my work? Who left that note on my desk? Was it me or was it A N Other (aka me)? or maybe just A N Wilson. Only joking. Don't take everything so seriously you guys - especially your doubleness. RP -------------- next part --------------An HTML attachment was scrubbed...URL: ------------------------------Message: 4Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2015 18:38:11 -0800From: James Gifford To: ilds at lists.uvic.caSubject: Re: [ilds] SeemsMessage-ID: <56722013.6080001 at gmail.com>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252; format=flowedOn 2015-12-16 10:58 AM, Kennedy Gammage wrote:> But were his> plays good? Not compared to Stoppard.> Maybe compared to El! iot?For the 2012 London conference, Mark Morris had an excellent presentation on the plays as lead up to a discussion of the opera setting of Sappho. His sense was that they plays needed major cuts to work on the boards. There were some productions, including a review he dug up from Edinburgh.> Recent Nobel Prize winners in Literature are from unexpected places all> over the world. We all know Durrell wanted that prize - and possibly> deserved it. But I'm not sure I've seen an analysis of his oeuvre> compared with the recent winners. If such an article appeared in the NY> Review of Books I would read it avidly.I think the natural comparison for recent winners would be to Doris Lessing. They're of a generation, and there are good reasons for putting their works side by side -- Joe Boone has an excellent comparison of the Quartet to the Golden Notebook in his book /Libidinal Currents: Sexuality and the Shaping of Modernism/. I've taught the two books together before as well, ! and students certainly found bridges across them...The political commitments are distinct, but they share Jungian interests, shifting "selves" across the texts, and well, they're both Quartets in a sense too...Now back to exams week!Best,James------------------------------Subject: Digest Footer_______________________________________________ILDS mailing listILDS at lists.uvic.cahttps://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ilds------------------------------End of ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 14*************************************-------------- next part --------------An HTML attachment was scrubbed...URL: ------------------------------Message: 2Date: Thu, 17 Dec 2015 14:40:53 -0800From: Bruce Redwine To: James Gifford Cc: Bruce Redwine Subject: Re: [ilds] ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 14Message-ID: <39987558-D76D-4232-9E79-61657E6706BF at earthlink.net>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"My use of ?phony? (Salinger?s spelling in Catcher) refers to both the character Graecen and to the author of Graecen, Lawrence Durrell, who often creates fictional surrogates reflecting his views and aspects of his own character. Phony is not simply equated with lying (i.e., the deliberate telling of a falsehood with the intention of someone believing the same as truth). Certainly, we all lie on occasion, and we all do things that are not admirable. But there?s a big difference, I think, between lapses in behavior and gross deception (i.e., ?living the lie?). I see Durrell?and this is entirely my interpretation?as touching upon the latter in Labyrinth. He?s concerned about what is and is not ?fake,? and he?s also concerned about this on a personal level (i.e., to what extent ?all great artists ? were not absolutely revolting as human beings? [p. 258]). Note, Graecen/Durrell does not say ?all human beings?; he specifically refers to ?artists,? of which Durrell obviously! classifies himself, if Graecen doesn?t out of modesty, presumably. So, Durrell?s question is self-directed.I would not go so far as to say, ?We are ALL phoney? or ?We all live the lie.? I don?t believe this is true, and I don?t believe in the notion of ?multiple selves? or of some ?It? controlling our lives and robbing us of personal responsibility. The ?double? is a big topic in modern literature, but I don?t take it seriously outside the world of fiction. In the real world, we are held accountable for our actions and can?t blame them on another ?self.? (Try that in a court of law!) I?m rather old fashioned with the idea of truth and straightforwardness. This was an important topic in Germanic literature, particular Anglo-Saxon and Old Norse, where being what one seemed was highly prized. I?m sorry that this value is now questioned.Bruce> On Dec 17, 2015, at 12:54 PM, mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org wrote:> > Bruce asks: "Simply put, is someone a phony or not a phony?" Does this question relate to a character in a book, or the person who wrote the book, or to some other person. (note the "other")?> Whether we are writers, grocers or houswives, we ALL lie, we are ALL phoney (I prefer it with an 'e', sounds less like someone lying thru telecommunciations) we are ALL duplicitous, we ALL have adouble, we are ALL lived by the It. > Try this:> > He is the man who makes notes,> The observer in the tall black hat> Face hidden in the brim.> In three European cities> He has watched me watching him.> [echoes of The Third Man? and Welles's gnomic face?]> He watches me now, working late,> Bringing a poem to life, his eyes> Reflect the malady of De Nerval:> O useless in this old house to question> The mirrors, his impenetrable disguise.> > Add the title of that poem, and you have both Durrells in a nutshell. And yourself. and her.> > RP -------------- next part --------------An HTML attachment was scrubbed...URL: ------------------------------Message: 3Date: Fri, 18 Dec 2015 01:48:02 +0100From: Marc Piel To: ilds at lists.uvic.caSubject: Re: [ilds] ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 14Message-ID: <567357C2.1070406 at marcpiel.fr>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252"; Format="flowed"He wrote it hilmsef....... we all live selected fictions!Surely that is enough?@+Marc PielLe 17/12/15 23:40, Bruce Redwine a ?crit :> My use of ?phony? (Salinger?s spelling in > /Catcher)/ refers to both the character Graecen > and to the author of Graecen, Lawrence Durrell, > who often creates fictional surrogates > reflecting his views and aspects of his own > character. Phony is not simply equated with > lying (i.e., the deliberate telling of a > falsehood with the intention of someone > believing the same as truth). Certainly, we all > lie on occasion, and we all do things that are > not admirable. But there?s a big difference, I > think, between lapses in behavior and gross > deception (i.e., ?living the lie?). I see > Durrell?and this is entirely my > interpretation?as touching upon the latter in > /Labyrinth. /He?s concerned about what is and is > not ?fake,? and he?s also concerned about this > on a personal level (i.e., to what extent ?all > great artists ? were not absolutely revolting as > human beings? [p. 258]). Note, Graecen/Durrell > does not say ?all human beings?; he specifically > refers to ?artists,? of which Durrell obviously > classifies himself, if Graecen doesn?t out of > modesty, presumably. So, Durrell?s question is > self-directed.>> I would not go so far as to say, ?We are ALL > phoney? or ?We all live the lie.? I don?t > believe this is true, and I don?t believe in the > notion of ?multiple selves? or of some ?It? > controlling our lives and robbing us of personal > responsibility. The ?double? is a big topic in > modern literature, but I don?t take it seriously > outside the world of fiction. In the real > world, we are held accountable for our actions > and can?t blame them on another ?self.? (Try > that in a court of law!) I?m rather old > fashioned with the idea of truth and > straightforwardness. This was an important > topic in Germanic literature, particular > Anglo-Saxon and Old Norse, where being what one > seemed was highly prized. I?m sorry that this > value is now questioned.>> Bruce>>>>>> On Dec 17, 2015, at 12:54 PM, >> mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org >> wrote:>>>> Bruce asks: "Simply put, is someone a phony or >> not a phony?" Does this question relate to a >> character in a book, or the person who wrote >> the book, or to some other person. (note the >> "other")?>> Whether we are writers, grocers or houswives, >> we ALL lie, we are ALL phoney (I prefer it with >> an 'e', sounds less like someone lying thru >> telecommunciations) we are ALL duplicitous, we >> ALL have adouble, we are ALL lived by the It.>> Try this:>>>> He is the man who makes notes,>> The observer in the tall black hat>> Face hidden in the brim.>> In three European cities>> He has watched me watching him.>> [echoes of The Third Man? and Welles's gnomic >> face?]>> He watches me now, working late,>> Bringing a poem to life, his eyes>> Reflect the malady of De Nerval:>> O useless in this old house to question>> The mirrors, his impenetrable disguise.>>>> Add the title of that poem, and you have both >> Durrells in a nutshell. And yourself. and her.>>>> RP>>>> _______________________________________________> ILDS mailing list> ILDS at lists.uvic.ca> https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ilds-------------- next part --------------An HTML attachment was scrubbed...URL: ------------------------------Message: 4Date: Fri, 18 Dec 2015 17:52:50 +1100From: Denise Tart & David Green To: "marc at marcpiel.fr" , "ilds at lists.uvic.ca" Subject: Re: [ilds] ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 14Message-ID: <43FDBF03-2FB7-4E8F-87E5-4AE13C5E1D1D at bigpond.net.au>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"Facebook is international proof of this, no? I call it facade book. You see the the shop front, but not the garbage out the back, a carefully edited version of oneself, not the same as lying though. Did Durrell lie in interviews, yes, at times, in his books, never. It is all there, the face and the arse, the painted front and the dirty alley. The devil at large.Sir Charles Montcrief.Sent from my iPad> On 18 Dec 2015, at 11:48 am, Marc Piel wrote:> > He wrote it hilmsef....... we all live selected fictions!> Surely that is enough?> @+> Marc Piel> > Le 17/12/15 23:40, Bruce Redwine a ?crit :>> My use of ?phony? (Salinger?s spelling in Catcher) refers to both the character Graecen and to the author of Graecen, Lawrence Durrell, who often creates fictional surrogates reflecting his views and aspects of his own character. Phony is not simply equated with lying (i.e., the deliberate telling of a falsehood with the intention of someone believing the same as truth). Certainly, we all lie on occasion, and we all do things that are not admirable. But there?s a big difference, I think, between lapses in behavior and gross deception (i.e., ?living the lie?). I see Durrell?and this is entirely my interpretation?as touching upon the latter in Labyrinth. He?s concerned about what is and is not ?fake,? and he?s also concerned about this on a personal level (i.e., to what extent ?all great artists ? were not absolutely revolting as human beings? [p. 258]). Note, Graecen/Durrell does not say ?all human beings?; he specifically refers to ?artists,? of which Durrell obviou! sly classifies himself, if Graecen doesn?t out of modesty, presumably. So, Durrell?s question is self-directed.>> >> I would not go so far as to say, ?We are ALL phoney? or ?We all live the lie.? I don?t believe this is true, and I don?t believe in the notion of ?multiple selves? or of some ?It? controlling our lives and robbing us of personal responsibility. The ?double? is a big topic in modern literature, but I don?t take it seriously outside the world of fiction. In the real world, we are held accountable for our actions and can?t blame them on another ?self.? (Try that in a court of law!) I?m rather old fashioned with the idea of truth and straightforwardness. This was an important topic in Germanic literature, particular Anglo-Saxon and Old Norse, where being what one seemed was highly prized. I?m sorry that this value is now questioned.>> >> Bruce>> >> >> >> >>> On Dec 17, 2015, at 12:54 PM, mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org wrote:>>> >>> Bruce asks: "Simply put, is someone a phony or not a phony?" Does this question relate to a character in a book, or the person who wrote the book, or to some other person. (note the "other")?>>> Whether we are writers, grocers or houswives, we ALL lie, we are ALL phoney (I prefer it with an 'e', sounds less like someone lying thru telecommunciations) we are ALL duplicitous, we ALL have adouble, we are ALL lived by the It. >>> Try this:>>> >>> He is the man who makes notes,>>> The observer in the tall black hat>>> Face hidden in the brim.>>> In three European cities>>> He has watched me watching him.>>> [echoes of The Third Man? and Welles's gnomic face?]>>> He watches me now, working late,>>> Bringing a poem to life, his eyes>>> Reflect the malady of De Nerval:>>> O useless in this old house to question>>> The mirrors, his impenetrable disguise.>>> >>> Add the title of that poem, and you have both Durrells in a nutshell. And yourself. and her.>>> >>> RP >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________>> ILDS mailing list>> ILDS at lists.uvic.ca>> https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ilds> > _______________________________________________> ILDS mailing list> ILDS at lists.uvic.ca> https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ilds-------------- next part --------------An HTML attachment was scrubbed...URL: ------------------------------Message: 5Date: Fri, 18 Dec 2015 19:26:19 +1100From: Denise Tart & David Green To: Durrell list Subject: [ilds] Phoneyness and other beastsMessage-ID: <0AFC5C07-8DDA-4C8E-966B-9D5E0023369A at bigpond.net.au>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-asciiRichard, all,Your recent posts about Phoneyness and fakery strike me as glib or at least evasive, perhaps casting a pall of smoke around an author whose nature and modus operandi some are keen to explore further. Anyway, here are a few thoughts -there is Durrell scholarship that insists that all this stuff about a refracted universe and multiple perspectives is bullshit. That as Durrell lived, learned about people, events and ideas he wrote new books. In this way, Justine, which could have stood alone, became part of a four volume series. As Michel Houellebecq says in Submission:..Privilege chronology. Not because the life has any real importance but because, taken in order, an author's books ad up to a sort of intellectual biography with a logic of its own.he adsOnly literature can put you in touch with another human spirit with all its weaknesses and grandeurs...only literature can give you access to a spirit beyond the grave - a more direct, more complete, deeper access than you would have in a conversation with a friend (where, apparently, we all lie)..the beauty of an authors style, the music of his sentences have their importance in literature of course..but an author is above all a human being, present in his books, and whether he writes very well or very badly hardly matters - as long as he get the books written and is present in them.If we accept these ideas, then Durrell clearly wrote very much from personal experience, a form of truth if you like, with artistic embellishment or omission as suited his purpose (is this lying?).in Dark Labyrinth Durrell inhabits two principle characters, Lord Graecen and the young ratbag artist Campion. This follows the model (published two years earlier) of Prospero's Cell where Count D co exists with the aspiring writer Lawrence Durrell. Durrell finds meaning in these semi reclusive aristocratic characters who seem haunted by some lost eden or the failure to truly achieve and are pervaded by a sense of tedium vitae (Piers can be counted in this) 'speculative calm' shadowed by suicide.Dark Labyrinth, it strikes me, is about post traumatic angst in the wake of World War Two. Now that the coercive and unifying impact of war and survival are removed, what is one to do? leap into the void (take a plunge on the future), find hippy heaven above the world (abjure the world) or bumble on like Graecen and Baird, the one haunted by faked academic achievement, the other the by war and murder.Dark Labyrinth maybe a more significant work than is supposed. Gordon Bowker chose this title for his Durrell Biography and yet, mysteriously writes little about the book itself? Deliberate? Consider Dark Labyrinth by Lawrence Durrell - DL by LD, the devil at large (DL again). No need for smoke and mirrors, nothing is hidden.DavidSent from my iPad------------------------------Subject: Digest Footer_______________________________________________ILDS mailing listILDS at lists.uvic.cahttps://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ilds------------------------------End of ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 15************************************* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From skybluepress at skybluepress.com Fri Dec 18 12:53:51 2015 From: skybluepress at skybluepress.com (Sky Blue Press) Date: Fri, 18 Dec 2015 14:53:51 -0600 Subject: [ilds] Anais Nin Podcast: Miller & Durrell on writing Message-ID: <01b701d139d6$33eade70$9bc09b50$@skybluepress.com> Just wanted you to know that I've posted a new Anais Nin podcast which gets to the bottom of the question about how much Henry Miller (and Lawrence Durrell to a lesser degree) helped Anais Nin break through to a clearer, more accessible, more mainstream prose in the late 1930s as she worked on the last book of the Villa Seurat Series, The Winter of Artifice. Later in life, Nin denied Miller's influence, but we now have letters from Nin to Durrell and the manuscript edited in Miller's had to debunk the myth. We also explore why Nin denied Miller in the first place. The podcast, which runs about 20 minutes, is based on a paper I gave at Nanterre OMG 2008 (the day of the RER strike-remember that?). Here's the link: http://anaisninblog.skybluepress.com/2015/12/anais-nin-podcast-11-millers-in fluence-on-nins-writing/ You can listen to it through iTunes, or otherwise. Best, Paul Herron http://anaisninblog.skybluepress.com http://twitter.com/ansisninblog http://www.skybluepress.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From bredwine1968 at earthlink.net Fri Dec 18 16:45:41 2015 From: bredwine1968 at earthlink.net (Bruce Redwine) Date: Fri, 18 Dec 2015 16:45:41 -0800 Subject: [ilds] Stories In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Yes, I?m one of those who distinguishes between truth and fiction in the context of speech and storytelling. And I think Richard Pine does too, for the simple reason that he?s too smart not to (no irony). Part of the problem has to do with semantics, the various meanings of ?story? and its current use, namely, (1) story as narration of some event (e.g., newspaper ?stories?) and (2) story as fiction or fabrication (e.g., The Alexandria Quartet and Lawrence Durrell?s habit of telling ?tall stories?). I commend Richard on his humanity and hope his ?story? (1) resolves itself happily and does not interfere with his research and writings. Bruce > On Dec 18, 2015, at 12:31 PM, mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org wrote: > > Some people on this list seem to think that one can draw a line between fact and fiction, or between truth and falsehood. Well then? > > > Let me therefore tell you ? in complete confidence of course - a story that will frighten, shock, and dismay you. But more importantly, for those who doubt the relationship of veracity and mendacity, it?s a story ? true but as near to fiction as makes no difference. > > > I am currently under surveillance by both the police and the immigration authorities here in Corfu, allegedly for my involvement in human trafficking (i.e. smuggling people into Greece) because I have in my care a young Albanian woman who has no passport, no Schengen, not even a name - in fact no proof whatsoever of identity. She is a non-person, and, when she came to me, was hardly a recognisable person at all. She does not exist. She is a fiction. I have made inquiries through contacts in Albania, and there is absolutely no record of her existence. yet she is physically present in my house, living under my protection, under my roof. A body without a name, a mind without a home. > > > She doesn?t even rank, in my opinion, as an illegal immigrant (and I?m sure you know about Greece?s and the EU?s current crisis on refugees, asylum seekers etc, which is the reason for my being under surveillance). But the authorities see me as a possible lawbreaker, and the girl as the proof of my trafficking. That is their fiction, which they regard as a fact ? under Greek law it is I who have to disprove it, not they who have to establish my guilt, once a case has been made against me. The fact that there is no TRUTH in this accusation is the narrative by which I now have to live. The authorities DO believe it. They don?t believe ME. That?s where the fact and the fiction of this narrative become inextricably entwined. I am in a nightmare situation of my own making. > > > She is an asylum FINDER because I am sheltering her. She has found her home, a home I unhesitatingly have made for her. > > > I FOUND her in the most squalid and inhuman conditions, in the back of a truck owned by an Albanian peripatetic tinker (the old-fashioned kind who goes around villages mending pots and utensils). He, too, was unlicensed. I was looking at his stuff, wondering if he could repair an old copper pot that had belonged to my grandmother, when I heard a small sound from the back of his truck. I investigated and found this child/creature, crouched, terrified, obviously starving, in only a few filthy rags, whimpering, hardly human at all. Because the tinker was scared of exposure, I literally BOUGHT the creature from him for a pitiful sum. She is now in my house where I am slowly rehabilitating her. I have had to do all this in total secrecy. I could not even ask for medical advice when I first found her and was trying to save her life ? I actually found the answers to my problems on the internet! > > > I have cleaned her up, fed her (she weighed five stone when I found her, she now weighs eight) and clothed her. She has reached the stage, after 3 months caring - day and night ? where she can ALMOST trust me. We communicate most of the time with signs and, most important of all, body language ? she has learned to smile, both in response to my own smile and, even occasionally, of her own volition. > > > I have one Albanian-speaking friend in the village who is utterly trustworthy and whom I can therefore ask to help with communication ? she can barely speak Albanian, and even then it is only a dialect, not the mandarin kind. I am unable to ask her anything about her background ? even with my friend?s help with the language ? because words like ?mother? and ?father?, instead of provoking some kind of outcry as I had anticipated, brought nothing but a blank look. Whether the blankness of refusal (I think she is not clever enough for that) or the blankness of ignorance (much more likely, and much more tragic) we cannot tell. > > > She is slowly becoming HUMAN. And when I had done all the filthy work of cleaning up this vile piece of subhumanity, I began to realise how BEAUTIFUL she is. Out of the animal she is beginning to regain a Womanhood she probably has never previously enjoyed or even suspected. > > > She cannot use a knife or fork, and when I showed her one she shrank back, suggesting that she has at some stage been threatened if not actually invaded by some such weapon (although an inspection of her body does not reveal any incisions). I have locked away all knives and other sharp kitchen utensils ? even my greatgrandfather?s ceremonial sword that hangs on my study wall! ? for our own protection. She eats without grace, like an animal, using her hands to scoop up food, throwing bones onto the floor like a sixteenth-century milord. > > > When I say that she eats without grace, I mean that her animal instincts prevail over any ?training? that I can attempt. But she is not without grace when I look at her and try to find her soul. There is an innate gracefulness and beauty that her breeding ? or lack of it ? has relegated to the vortex. Yet beauty there is. It shines and on the rare occasions when she has smiled ? such is the position of trust that we have established ? it is as if the sun has been extinguished and in its place her luminous soul lights up the darkened world. > > > She usually sits in a corner, talking to herself in some strange language that is neither animal nor baby-speak. Occasionally she kneels (she will on no account sit on a conventional chair or sofa) beside my desk as I write, playing with any little bit of rubbish on the floor ? a dropped paper-clip, a sheet or two of my discarded drafts ? and then she will look up at me and give me what I interpret ? probably incorrectly ? as a conspiratorial grin. It fills me with joy. > > > Due to the need for secrecy, I can only exercise her at night, walking a few times the length of my garden, where, in a moment of tenderness, she once showed signs of sniffing the air for the scent of the oregano and mint we were crushing beneath our feet, and the night-scented jasmine that tumbles all over the place. At full moon (yes, this does sound like a Gothic tale, doesn?t it!) she gets excited, especially when she sees the Albanian mountains across the strait, which she seems instinctively to recognise and then I have to be careful, for she will bay like a hound and paw the ground like a young horse. > > > She has three times tried to climb into my bed. Naked. Each time, I have taken her hand and gently led her back to her own couch, because I think she feels that somehow by sleeping with me she would be paying for what she is receiving. No doubt that is an atavism from her cruel young life. But the sign of affection which that little gesture means to me has made me realise more than ever that there is, in this maltreated but beautiful child, a real loving person screaming to be liberated. > > However, it is necessary, (like the stowing away of the knives) for both our sakes that she sleeps in a locked room, from which I had thought that it would be impossible for her to escape. > > > She has, in fact, escaped twice. The first time, I was lucky and found her: she had got into my neighbour?s hen-coop. She had killed a chicken by ripping open its neck with her bare teeth and had pulled apart the body; she was eating the raw flesh and making guttural noises which indicated satisfaction. I was able to get her back into the house undetected. > > > BUT ? and here comes my trouble ? another night she escaped ? a full moon ? and she ran about the village, reverting immediately to a near-animal state. One of the villagers saw her, was (quite reasonably) terrified by what seemed to be a feral, squatting, growling creature and this villager called the police. I had just managed to persuade Tirana (that?s my name for this otherwise nameless woman) to come home with me and had calmed her down, when police arrived at my door demanding to see the ?immigrant? whom I had allegedly smuggled illegally into Greece. I was able to satisfy them that Tirana was my house-guest and that there was no cause for alarm, but they will return with officials from the immigration authorities and will, I fear, try to deport her. > > > Meanwhile, her condition has regressed to nearly the point at which I found her. The villagers (who are, in effect, primitive themselves insofar as their basic instincts of fear, greed, etc. are concerned) are putting around the story that I have in my house a dangerous ?wolf-girl? ? that?s the way they perceive her from that one unfortunate escapade. I for my part claim that I am attempting to restore to humanity, sanity and normal delicate feelings a creature who has clearly been maimed (the lash-marks are there on her back and her thighs) who has been infibulated, and probably raped?And I am doing this not out of any sense of philanthropy or idealism or altruism but ? can you understand this? ? because I LOVE HER!!! She has become more meaningful to me than any book, idea, or ray of sunshine ? more meaningful than any other person I have ever met. Assuming, that is, that she IS a ?person? and not a ?thing?, an animal, a performing dog. If you saw the perfect oval of her face, the softness of her pallor ? grained though it is by years of fear, darkness and secrecy ? and if you saw the magnificent set of her jet-black eyes and the almost oriental accent of her cheekbones, your heart, too, would be melted by the immanent gracefulness of this creature who is an orphan of life, a waif and jetsam of our so-called society. > > > Am I playing Frankenstein to her Liza Doolittle (to mix metaphors)? Reconstituting a person out of all the bits that are left after life has destroyed her? Should I have left her in that truck, probably to die, enceinte, in some Albanian ditch? > > > She IS here ? you can come and see her for yourselves ? and her security IS under threat, perhaps more than it was before I ?rescued? her, because she could be thrown back into Albania among the wolves to whom a world which is more inhuman than it judges her to be, assumes she belongs. My heart is breaking, inside, while publicly I have to explain my actions and face the fact that my own freedom is jeopardised by what I have done. What can I do? If they take her away they will also take me away from the only life I knew until 3 months ago, and away from the one person who has illuminated my recent life. > > > If you do not believe this account, you can of course accuse me of lying, of a deliberate deceit, or you can accuse me of being a fabulator. > > I feel like writing here: ?And you, Narouz, do you believe me?? but that would make it a fiction, wouldn?t it? And Narouz would reply: ?Is it true?? to which I would have to respond ?I think so?. > > EVERYTHING I HAVE WRITTEN IS REAL. BUT IS IT TRUE? > > Or should I say > > EVERYTHING I HAVE WRITTEN IS TRUE. BUT IS IT REAL? > > Narouz would believe me, because he trusts in both the story and the storyteller. Do you? > > I cannot say any more because I and Tirana have yet to complete the story. I do not know how it will end. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From sumantranag at gmail.com Fri Dec 18 22:05:32 2015 From: sumantranag at gmail.com (Sumantra Nag) Date: Sat, 19 Dec 2015 11:35:32 +0530 Subject: [ilds] ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 15_Message 5_David Green In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: I am inclined to take note of this positive view about Durrell's writing and David's expression about the writing as: " . . a form of truth if you like, with artistic embellishment or omission as suited his purpose . . " I have only recently come across Linda Radhidi's publication, '(Re)constructing Reality, Complexity in Lawrence Durrell's Alexandria Quartet', 2005, Peter Lang. Inc., New York. (Studies in Twentieth-Century British Literature.) Starting right from the significant opening lines of Justine, Linda has applied a linguistic model to analyse phrases in each of the four novels of the Quartet, and describe the purpose and effect of Durrell's specific selection of words. This close analysis - or dissection if you like - recreates the writer's mood, his reflections about his experience of Alexandria, his perceptions about the people and events in the city and his own relationship with them. In an introductory chapter the book also places the Quartet in the context of Durrell's professed philosophical references, including relativity and Groddeck's psychological framework. Linda has referred to critical comments on Durrell and examined the exploration of reality in the novels of the Quartet. It is very likely that this perfunctory summary of Linda Rashidi's book is superfluous and that many on the ILDS Forum are familiar with the publication. But I felt I should draw attention to this work, and David's post, referring to the development of Durrell's writing in his successive books, provided me with a tenuous context against which to do so! Personally I find it significant because of its focus on the language of Durrell which in my opinion - echoed I think in some of the critical writing - drives the creation in the novels of the Quartet. Sumantra ------------------------- Message: 5 Date: Fri, 18 Dec 2015 19:26:19 +1100 From: Denise Tart & David Green To: Durrell list Subject: [ilds] Phoneyness and other beasts Message-ID: <0AFC5C07-8DDA-4C8E-966B-9D5E0023369A at bigpond.net.au> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Richard, all, Your recent posts about Phoneyness and fakery strike me as glib or at least evasive, perhaps casting a pall of smoke around an author whose nature and modus operandi some are keen to explore further. Anyway, here are a few thoughts - there is Durrell scholarship that insists that all this stuff about a refracted universe and multiple perspectives is bullshit. That as Durrell lived, learned about people, events and ideas he wrote new books. In this way, Justine, which could have stood alone, became part of a four volume series. As Michel Houellebecq says in Submission: ..Privilege chronology. Not because the life has any real importance but because, taken in order, an author's books ad up to a sort of intellectual biography with a logic of its own. he ads Only literature can put you in touch with another human spirit with all its weaknesses and grandeurs...only literature can give you access to a spirit beyond the grave - a more direct, more complete, deeper access than you would have in a conversation with a friend (where, apparently, we all lie)..the beauty of an authors style, the music of his sentences have their importance in literature of course..but an author is above all a human being, present in his books, and whether he writes very well or very badly hardly matters - as long as he get the books written and is present in them. If we accept these ideas, then Durrell clearly wrote very much from personal experience, a form of truth if you like, with artistic embellishment or omission as suited his purpose (is this lying?). in Dark Labyrinth Durrell inhabits two principle characters, Lord Graecen and the young ratbag artist Campion. This follows the model (published two years earlier) of Prospero's Cell where Count D co exists with the aspiring writer Lawrence Durrell. Durrell finds meaning in these semi reclusive aristocratic characters who seem haunted by some lost eden or the failure to truly achieve and are pervaded by a sense of tedium vitae (Piers can be counted in this) 'speculative calm' shadowed by suicide. Dark Labyrinth, it strikes me, is about post traumatic angst in the wake of World War Two. Now that the coercive and unifying impact of war and survival are removed, what is one to do? leap into the void (take a plunge on the future), find hippy heaven above the world (abjure the world) or bumble on like Graecen and Baird, the one haunted by faked academic achievement, the other the by war and murder. Dark Labyrinth maybe a more significant work than is supposed. Gordon Bowker chose this title for his Durrell Biography and yet, mysteriously writes little about the book itself? Deliberate? Consider Dark Labyrinth by Lawrence Durrell - DL by LD, the devil at large (DL again). No need for smoke and mirrors, nothing is hidden. David Sent from my iPad ------------------------------ Subject: Digest Footer _______________________________________________ ILDS mailing list ILDS at lists.uvic.ca https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ilds ------------------------------ End of ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 15 ************************************* Sent from my Asus Zenfone -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From sumantranag at gmail.com Fri Dec 18 22:31:21 2015 From: sumantranag at gmail.com (Sumantra Nag) Date: Sat, 19 Dec 2015 12:01:21 +0530 Subject: [ilds] ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 15_Message 5_David Green In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: I am sorry for the typographical error in spelling Linda Rashidi's name in my post. Sumantra Sent from my Asus Zenfone On 19 Dec 2015 11:35, "Sumantra Nag" wrote: I have only recently come across Linda Radhidi's publication, '(Re)constructing Reality, Complexity in Lawrence Durrell's Alexandria Quartet', 2005, Peter Lang. Inc., New York. (Studies in Twentieth-Century British Literature.) ------------------------------ End of ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 15 ************************************* Sent from my Asus Zenfone -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From james.d.gifford at gmail.com Fri Dec 18 23:09:15 2015 From: james.d.gifford at gmail.com (James Gifford) Date: Fri, 18 Dec 2015 23:09:15 -0800 Subject: [ilds] ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 15_Message 5_David Green In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <5675029B.2010801@gmail.com> Hello Sumantra, Linda's book is fascinating, and there are 20 years of her articles prior to it in a similar vein. The linguistic work was very helpful to a reader response project I was involved with several years ago. I wonder if there are two ways of approaching things too. There's the text /as text/, meaning as an art object built in a process for specific purposes, and then there's the text as an expression of the author's mind. The French have emphasized the latter in critique g?n?tique while the Americans have leaned more to the former in bibliographical work. If memory serves me correctly, Linda made a fascinating comparison of the opening passages of each novel based on their linguistic traits > In an introductory chapter the book also places the Quartet in the > context of Durrell's professed philosophical references, including > relativity and Groddeck's psychological framework. I must admit that I'm of two minds on this, and perhaps Linda will offer us her comments. There have been a handful of interesting works on Durrell and Groddeck (and of course Durrell's "Studies in Genius" piece on him) -- the University of Victoria has one of Durrell's heavily annotated copies of Groddeck, and I was lucky enough to copy his markings in another in private hands. There's the sense that Durrell borrows a philosophy from these works but also the practical matter of his borrowing plots from the case studies. Semira's nose, for instance, is taken from UVic's /The Unknown Self/ (a tricky title since it's the same words in German we could also render as "The Unconscious Ego," just as "It" and "Id" are the same word). As for relativity, Beatrice Skordili did excellent work retracing Durrell's readings on the topic (I believe he read via Bertrand Russell's /ABC of Relativity/, but I'd need to check Beatrice's work on that). > It is very likely that this perfunctory summary of Linda Rashidi's book > is superfluous and that many on the ILDS Forum are familiar with the > publication. But I felt I should draw attention to this work, and > David's post, referring to the development of Durrell's writing in his > successive books, provided me with a tenuous context against which to do > so! I don't think Linda's book has received the discussion it deserves, and David's post certainly points to that accrual over time that seems so vital to Durrell's works as a whole as well as his writing method with the "quarry" books and revision over time (as much a theme in the Quartet as it was his own work method). I'm more inclined to think of Ruth in /Pied Piper/ becoming Gracie in /The Black Book/ becoming Melissa in the /Quartet/ becoming Iolanthe in /Revolt/, etc..., but I think that's the same point you're both gesturing to (right?). Personally, I tend to regard that theme as emerging from the writerly practice such that the thematic contents are an expression of the writing (and not so much the writing as an expression of the conceptual preoccupation). I have 2004 listed as the publication date in my copy of Linda's book, which is probably when I last read it... I'd be glad to have a reason to turn back to the book for the list! All best, James From james.d.gifford at gmail.com Fri Dec 18 23:51:00 2015 From: james.d.gifford at gmail.com (James Gifford) Date: Fri, 18 Dec 2015 23:51:00 -0800 Subject: [ilds] Phoneyness and other beasts In-Reply-To: <0AFC5C07-8DDA-4C8E-966B-9D5E0023369A@bigpond.net.au> References: <0AFC5C07-8DDA-4C8E-966B-9D5E0023369A@bigpond.net.au> Message-ID: <56750C64.4050603@gmail.com> Dear David, I'm awfully tempted to push just a bit on your devilish "Old D" to recuperate the original title of the book, Cefalu, and ask how much Aleister Crowley's Abbey of Thelema is involved... On 2015-12-18 12:26 AM, Denise Tart & David Green wrote: > Dark Labyrinth maybe a more significant > work than is supposed. I'd go along with that argument, and more than a little. Cheers, James From bredwine1968 at earthlink.net Sat Dec 19 09:11:21 2015 From: bredwine1968 at earthlink.net (Bruce Redwine) Date: Sat, 19 Dec 2015 09:11:21 -0800 Subject: [ilds] Phoneyness and other beasts In-Reply-To: <56750C64.4050603@gmail.com> References: <0AFC5C07-8DDA-4C8E-966B-9D5E0023369A@bigpond.net.au> <56750C64.4050603@gmail.com> Message-ID: <96B11C08-E9A3-48B6-978F-8EE502769395@earthlink.net> I had to look up Aleister Crowley?s Abbey of Thelma in Wikipedia. Thanks, James. The abbey, a real place, is indeed in Cefal?, which is also the original title of Durrell?s book, and a whole lot of goings-on went on there, sexual and mystical. An obvious connection. David Green?s point is well taken about the importance of The Dark Labyrinth (DL) and its direct relevance to Lawrence Durrell (LD). Surely there?s no coincidence that DL and LD are mirror reflections, and we all know the importance of mirrors in Durrell?s work. I think Durrell got lost in his own personal labyrinth. He may have hope to extricate himself from the maze and end up atop some mountain Shangri-La, but he never succeeded. So, the Quintet ends by a return to the cave. Bruce > On Dec 18, 2015, at 11:51 PM, James Gifford wrote: > > Dear David, > > I'm awfully tempted to push just a bit on your devilish "Old D" to recuperate the original title of the book, Cefalu, and ask how much Aleister Crowley's Abbey of Thelema is involved... > > On 2015-12-18 12:26 AM, Denise Tart & David Green wrote: >> Dark Labyrinth maybe a more significant >> work than is supposed. > > I'd go along with that argument, and more than a little. > > Cheers, > James > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From sumantranag at gmail.com Sat Dec 19 19:31:29 2015 From: sumantranag at gmail.com (Sumantra Nag) Date: Sun, 20 Dec 2015 09:01:29 +0530 Subject: [ilds] ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 16_Message 1 Richard Pine Message-ID: Richard's intensely human dedication to the rescue and resuscitation of the Albanian girl deserves every (discreet) commendation. Sumantra Sent from my Asus Zenfone -----------------------------------------------------------------Message: 1 Date: Fri, 18 Dec 2015 20:31:56 +0000 From: mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org To: ilds at lists.uvic.ca Subject: Re: [ilds] ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 15 Some people on this list seem to think thatone can draw a line between fact and fiction, or between truth and falsehood.Well then? Let me therefore tell you ? in completeconfidence of course - a story that will frighten, shock, and dismay you. Butmore importantly, for those who doubt the relationship of veracity andmendacity, it?s a story ? true but as near to fiction as makes no difference. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org Sun Dec 20 15:38:56 2015 From: mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org (mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org) Date: Sun, 20 Dec 2015 23:38:56 +0000 Subject: [ilds] ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 17 Message-ID: I am of course very grateful to bothSumantra and Bruce for their solicitude about my humanitarianism and my work,but I did not reveal what has been happening to me and my guest/prot?g? inorder to garner sympathy. I brought it to your attention becausesuddenly ? in an unwise moment, no doubt ? I saw that what this group has beendiscussing about self and other, about fact, fiction and supposition, wasactually happening in the privacy of my own life ? a privacy which has becometragically public due to T?s escapade. Obviously the arrival of ?Tirana? in my lifechanged many things, but if one works for a living, as I do (even after 2retirements!) the job must be done or I (and now we) would starve. The legalobstacle we are both facing, and the village gossip which precipitated it, haveof course exacerbated this, but, provided we get a positive outcome I amconfident that, unless some other event supervenes (such as the utterly remote possibility of T?s long-lostfamily claiming her) the life we had already established over the past fewmonths will continue. Even if I ? or rather, my lawyer whospecialises in human rights, which is rather necessary in Greek law ?succeed(s) in holding on to T, she will still have no history, and no identityother than what I can invent for her. (In a country known for what the secretpolice (who still exist) can do, it isn?t funny.) Some may regard it as a disadvantage that Icannot communicate in what conventional semioticists regard as ?human language?? they should try reading ?The Simian Tongue? (George Radick) or even the workof Lee Durrell on the language of primates, before prescribing human languagefor T and me. What I have had to come to terms with isnot ? this may surprise you ? the problem of communication ? finding a commonlanguage ? but the presence in my life of something (someone) more strange thana surd or an aboriginal, or an emotional cripple: a being who has to becomereal by being imagined and at the same time respected as a person of flesh andblood. Some on this group have expressedscepticism about the idea of the ?double? and the self-other dichotomy. Well,think ? if you want a literary, rather than a ?real life? example - of how this is expressed by Beckett in ?Film?:?Search of non-being in flight from extraneous perception breaking down ininescapability of self-perception. In order to be figured in this situation theprotagonist is sundered into object (O) and Eye (E), the former in flight, thelatter in pursuit. It will not be made clear until end of film that pursuingperception is not extraneous, but self?. Not extraneous, but self. Think about that! Ah, you will say. But that is only Beckett,that is only literature, that is only his scenario for Buster Keaton. Ah, saysI, that is before we (T and I) reached the end of the film and realised that mypursuit of her meaning was not extraneous, but self. Seldom have I (never infact) been so humbled by this revelation, especially as it is complicated, as Isaid, by love. Oh, that?s only a story? Come here and see for yourself. Putyour own E into pursuit of the O of my life and observe me finding not merelymyself, not merely Tirana, but the truth of masks (apologies, Mr Wilde). T isno longer ?extraneous? ? a weird outsider crouching like a fearful animal inthe corner of my room, an ?other?, but SELF ? my self and T?s self are now in asymbiotic unity (non-sexual as I have explained) which is challenginglybeautiful. I have written all this in order to try toexplain to people who would rather explain everything through the lenses ofDaddy Derrida that there is a REAL world with REAL fictions and REAL quotationsfrom our emotions. One of them is sitting here beside me as I write this. Beckett (again) in "Rockaby" says "fuck life" (a line most purist critics despair of) - I saay "fuck Derrida - love life". This episode ? so late in my life ? hasmade me realise that Josef K and Gregor Samsa found themselves inincomprehensible situations in which Kafka himself had lived (or failed tolive). In which their truth was the fiction of others. Yes, you will say, thatis a story. But what IS a ?story?? and what IS ?life?? I have described mypresent circumstances in order to show you that real life and the fictionallife are interdependent and that one is at pains to insist on truth whichothers regard as less than true, to question whether a fiction can also be atruth. If you don?t like Groddeck?s ?I am lived by the It? (as developed byDurrell in that poem, ?Je est un autre? ? and study the syntax of that title)try living with and for Tirana ? if you dare. In my own case I wake sometimes thinking?this cannot be true?. But then I see T and I know how appallingly true it ?she ? is, how love and beauty can transform a nightmare into an occasion ofrejoicing, however challenging ? and dangerous ? that may be. I am guilty of the crime prescribed ? but notproscribed ? by LD: ?there are only three things to be done with a woman You can love her, suffer for her, or turn her into literature?. I am doing allthree. LD would have done the same ? and DID! I do not know what the outcome will be. -----Original Message----- From: ilds-request at lists.uvic.ca [mailto:ilds-request at lists.uvic.ca] Sent: Sunday, December 20, 2015 09:01 PM To: ilds at lists.uvic.ca Subject: ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 17 Send ILDS mailing list submissions to ilds at lists.uvic.caTo subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ildsor, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to ilds-request at lists.uvic.caYou can reach the person managing the list at ilds-owner at lists.uvic.caWhen replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specificthan "Re: Contents of ILDS digest..."Today's Topics: 1. Re: ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 16_Message 1 Richard Pine (Sumantra Nag)----------------------------------------------------------------------Message: 1Date: Sun, 20 Dec 2015 09:01:29 +0530From: Sumantra Nag To: ilds at lists.uvic.caCc: Richard Pine Subject: Re: [ilds] ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 16_Message 1 Richard PineMessage-ID: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"Richard's intensely human dedication to the rescue and resuscitation of theAlbanian girl deserves every (discreet) commendation.SumantraSent from my Asus Zenfone-----------------------------------------------------------------Message: 1Date: Fri, 18 Dec 2015 20:31:56 +0000From: mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.orgTo: ilds at lists.uvic.caSubject: Re: [ilds] ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 15Some people on this list seem to think thatone can draw a line between factand fiction, or between truth and falsehood.Well then?Let me therefore tell you ? in completeconfidence of course - a story thatwill frighten, shock, and dismay you. Butmore importantly, for those whodoubt the relationship of veracity andmendacity, it?s a story ? true but asnear to fiction as makes no difference.-------------- next part --------------An HTML attachment was scrubbed...URL: ------------------------------Subject: Digest Footer_______________________________________________ILDS mailing listILDS at lists.uvic.cahttps://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ilds------------------------------End of ILDS Digest, Vol 104, Issue 17************************************* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: