[ilds] Roessel and Vincent on Durrell and Gourna

[Merrianne Timko]

A quick aside. 

I had the opportunity to have Hassan Fathy as a lecturer at the American
University of Cairo in 1973. Sadly, even then, Gourna was already crumbling
and unpopular with local residents. It was a utopian design with good
intentions. 

http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/newgournaupdate.htm

Merrianne

 

From: ILDS [mailto:ilds-bounces at lists.uvic.ca] On Behalf Of Bruce Redwine
Sent: Thursday, March 17, 2016 3:57 PM
To: James Gifford <james.d.gifford at gmail.com>; Sumantra Nag
<ilds at lists.uvic.ca>
Cc: Bruce Redwine <bredwine1968 at earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: [ilds] Roessel and Vincent on Durrell and Gourna

 

James,

 

The context of Roessel and Vincent's remark is that Durrell's does not
acknowledge his indebtedness to his own work, i.e., an unfinished novel and
later Revolt.  So they assert:

 

Yet, in all the fulsome praise of Fathy's model village and his book,
Durrell gave no sign that in 1956 he was inspired by the story of Gourna to
start a novel and that he returned to it various times between 1958 and 1964
before he transformed the work into the published Tunc and Nunquam.  Nor, in
Durrell's discussion of Fathy in "With Durrell in Egypt" does he ever inform
the reader of what Caradoc had declared in the typescript two decades
earlier, that Gourna was the perfect village that "no one ever lived in."
(p. 94)

 

I think, unless I once again miss something, that Durrell's riff on Egyptian
"mud bricks" is a classic Durrellian touch but not relevant to Roessel and
Vincent's criticism.

 

 

Bruce

 

On Mar 17, 2016, at 1:26 PM, James Gifford <james.d.gifford at gmail.com
<mailto:james.d.gifford at gmail.com> > wrote:

 

Hi Bruce,

On 2016-03-17 1:10 PM, Bruce Redwine wrote:



3.  The authors conclude by mildly criticizing Durrell for not
mentioning that Hassan Fathy's village and book inspired his future
work... In 1978, Durrell publishes a travel piece
on his return to Egypt /(NYT's/ "Egyptian Moments," see Gifford's
/Elephant's Back,/ pp. 359-78).  Roessel and Vincent believe that
Durrell should have "inform[ed]" his "reader" of indebtedness to Fathy
(p.94).  I agree.


I haven't received my copy of /DL/ yet, so this is hasty, but yes, Durrell
does discuss Fathy and Gourna in his 1978 piece "With Durrell in Egypt" and
mentions Fathy's 1973 /Architecture for the Poor/.

As you know, I find it hard not to see the mud brick from Gourna as a
political gesture -- he's explicit in saying it is "something more."

All best,
James
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