First, for clarity’s sake – smallpeacock923, c’est moi! I don’t know if the “interim” posts made while the forum was being repaired will be corrected but I figured I should note this just for sake of continuity. (And of course I want full credit for all my, uh, Deep Thoughts.)
All I can say after completing The Werewolf of Paris is “Wow!” What a terrific novel. And an odd reading experience. Parts of the novel seemed familiar enough that I thought I must have read it before and simply forgot. But then there were passages that were completely unfamiliar. (Including the ending.) Strange. Usually I remember my reading quite well but it’s hard to account for this. Incipient senility?
One thing I really appreciated was the social/political subtext of the novel which deepens it and widens it out. And when you remember the novel was written in the 1930s there is an added jolt. The other work that comes to mind that accomplishes something similar is H G Well’s War of the Worlds. Both works can be enjoyed simply as monster stories. Neither author hits you over the head with the subtext but it’s sitting there waiting for the reader to find it. And this subtlety allows both to get away with some provocative views. (It was Rod Serling who commented that he could put opinions in the mouths of aliens that he could have never gotten away with if pronounced by Democrats or Republicans. My own favorite such moment is in the movie The Day the Earth Stood Still when Klaatu, the alien visitor, refers to the Cold War as a “petty squabble”! This at the height of the McCarthy period.)
I’ve been in 19th century Gothic mood in my reading for a while so why stop now? I found myself a copy of the original 1818 text of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein . Most of the editions you’ll encounter are the 1831 edition which has come to be rather the “official” version. Shelley provided an introduction to the later version and the text has several differences, including added text but also shifts in mood and changes in the narrative.
Of course many more people are familiar with the movies than the book. There were attempts very early on to adapt the novel, both on the stage and in silent movies. But the indelible performance is of course wonderful old Boris Karloff in James Whale’s productions. They stand on their own and succeed as individual works but they really don’t prepare you for the novel.
After that, I think I’m going to reread Dracula. Good books for the winter months.
On occasion in Anne Carson’s magnificent ** you do not have permission to see this link ** of Fragments of Sappho you will come across lines like these:
1
“And fine birds brought you,
quick sparrows over the black earth
whipping their wings down the sky
through midair—
they arrived.”
2
“And in it cold water makes a clear sound through
apple branches and with roses the whole place
is shadowed and down from radiant-shaking leaves
sleep comes dropping.
And in it a horse meadow has come into bloom
with spring flowers and breezes
like honey are blowing.”
For the most part, however, it will be like this:
42
“and I on a soft pillow
will lay down my limbs”
78
“]
]nor
]desire
]but all at once
]blossom
]desire
]took delight”
In recent years there has been a lot of progress in the use of digital imaging technology like ** you do not have permission to see this link ** and CT scanning to recover ancient texts without the necessity of taking them apart so I hold out the hope that more of Sappho’s work can be found. She was very well known in her own day and afterwards so it’s entirely possible one of those occasionally salvaged ancient libraries might contain riches that otherwise would have been lost.
I am reading The Hidden Life of TREES by Peter Wohlleben. “What They Feel, How They Communicate”.
TREES, mind you! What lives each one lives! Their struggles are beyond ours.
** you do not have permission to see this link **. I should add Simard’s is a good deal autobiographical as well including her struggle with the forestry industry.
Jill_L said
I am reading The Hidden Life of TREES by Peter Wohlleben. “What They Feel, How They Communicate”.
TREES, mind you! What lives each one lives! Their struggles are beyond ours.That does look good Judith! Trees are amazing. I’ve read this. I should add Simard’s is a good deal autobiographical as well including her struggle with the forestry industry.
The astonishing thing about all this is that these “revelations” about the plant world are coming not from mystics and psychics but from ecologists and biologists. The tragic part is that we’re so willing to destroy without making any attempt to understand what it is we’re destroying. Natural resources! Jeez.
Robert, if only I could! I’m not the writer so many of you are. If I were, then I’d begin with What the Robin Knows (Jon Young) that Jill told us about. I had no idea birds we see regularly know us. There’s a mockingbird who sits on the top of a lantern at the end of a picket fence outside my kitchen window watching birds at the birdbath. I’m careful around him and he knows I’m okay. The book tells how to disarm wildlife.
Stephen said
Jill_L said
I am reading The Hidden Life of TREES by Peter Wohlleben. “What They Feel, How They Communicate”.
TREES, mind you! What lives each one lives! Their struggles are beyond ours.That does look good Judith! Trees are amazing. I’ve read this. I should add Simard’s is a good deal autobiographical as well including her struggle with the forestry industry.
The astonishing thing about all this is that these “revelations” about the plant world are coming not from mystics and psychics but from ecologists and biologists. The tragic part is that we’re so willing to destroy without making any attempt to understand what it is we’re destroying. Natural resources! Jeez.
I’d like to read more ** you do not have permission to see this link **.
Whether we or our politicians
know it or not, Nature is
party to all our deals and
decisions, and she has more
votes, a longer memory, and
a sterner sense of justice
than we do.
Wendell Berry
Very nice.
I’d like to read more of him as well.
Robert said:
Two of my homes have been in semi-wooded settings, and I’ve been involved in local government to preserve green spaces
Best of luck with this very noble effort.
I grew up in a pretty green suburb where it wasn’t strange to see deer, foxes, or raccoons. And while it’s still relatively green compared to other nearby suburbs, I’m afraid the area has undergone some unwelcome changes.
My sister’s house is about a mile from where we grew up, and across the street used to be a pasture where horses grazed. A few years back the horses disappeared. In their place now stand absurdly expensive townhouses, one right next to each other with no yard to speak of.
Since the city did away with the minimum lot requirement of at least half an acre, the area is slowly being transformed.
Best of luck with this very noble effort.
Double that. You know control of resources is reliant on who owns them. I donate to Nature Conservancy, Audubon, for two. Nature Conservancy buys up land in order to preserve its natural state in perpetuity. Our town is an Arbor Association tree town, but just recently, reneging on their promises not to, they cut down a healthy 100 year old tree, illegally, to make room for a new apartment building including an inadequate number parking spaces — squeeze .
“Best of luck…”
The Hidden Life of Trees mentions one way of protecting forests is by having parts of them used as arboreal mortuaries, “where the trees are leased out as living gravestones for urns buried under them. To become part of the ancient forest after death…”; Then “In Scotland you can buy a piece of forest originally owned by the nobility to keep lumber companies out and help usher in the return of the ancient Caledonian Forest.” There are some efforts being made.
BDEhrman
FreedomBen
evgendob
Robert
1 Guest(s)