tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post7606879880893923939..comments2024-03-26T07:58:59.761+00:00Comments on I'll think of something later: Magnificent severity from Bach and DanteDavidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-9719858294053390182018-02-10T08:38:56.193+00:002018-02-10T08:38:56.193+00:00Too many essentials in the pile at the moment. I c...Too many essentials in the pile at the moment. I confess that I haven't yet filled in the gaps between our Dante sessions; I've been absorbed by a very singular novel by American Arthur Phillips (his first, I think). Though it's called 'Prague' - the mecca for young Americans in the early 1990s - it's actually set in Budapest at that time. I think its experimental quality must owe something to the great Hungarian novelist Peter Esterhazy. Nearly finished.Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-62164020860120382522018-02-10T00:04:24.515+00:002018-02-10T00:04:24.515+00:00Oddly enough, I d9n’t recommend it, even though it...Oddly enough, I d9n’t recommend it, even though it won the Man Booker. But it is short, so if you are curious, it’s not a big investment of time. But your Dante excursion (one I’ve yet to take myself) appears to me to be much more worthwhile. Right now, I am enjoying Denise Mina’s The Dead Hour, a mystery set in Glasgow. After that, not sure what comes next!Susanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15674930917585246294noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-1939210803512974972018-02-09T08:31:28.720+00:002018-02-09T08:31:28.720+00:00There's also Daphne, of course, turned into a ...There's also Daphne, of course, turned into a laurel in her plea to escape Apollo. The final scene of Strauss's opera depicts the rooting with hallucinatory aural magic. In our discussion, as I think I mentioned above, I asked whether Dante was first in actually having the trees, or parts thereof, speak, rather than the human to be seen manifest within. It presents a problem for visual artists. Same with the passage I'm about to write up, where Ulysses and Guido da Montefeltro speak as tongues of flame. Your book sounds fascinating: would you recommended it?Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-28104270358383451872018-02-09T03:24:56.019+00:002018-02-09T03:24:56.019+00:00The depiction of suicidal souls as voices in the t...The depiction of suicidal souls as voices in the tree branches is quite surreal. I am reminded of a novel I finished recently, by Han Kang, a South Korean writer, called The Vegetarian. Late in the story, as the protagonist descends into madness, she does endless handstands. It turns out she is feeling an intense kinship with trees, and, as I recall it, her arms and hands are (in her imagination) sprouting roots. While Han’s source for the human as plant idea was apparently another South Korean writer, it seems she could easily have been taking a cue from Dante.Susanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15674930917585246294noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-65622342441404634692018-02-04T08:21:31.037+00:002018-02-04T08:21:31.037+00:00Yes, Dr Scafi's reading makes this sound like ...Yes, Dr Scafi's reading makes this sound like the most beautiful poetry on earth. You should make an effort to come along one Monday. As for Shakespeare, whenever I hear it finely spoken across the board, I assume that the director has worked hard with the actors - though that aspect never wins him or her the credit deserved, since it's speculative. The RSC went through a terrible spate of whispering delivery, and the last things I saw there - Henry IV 1 and 2 - were abysmal in every way. The Globe excelled at projection and meaning for a while. Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-83984146003411266252018-02-03T17:41:28.997+00:002018-02-03T17:41:28.997+00:00I once heard Dante read in Italian ( by an English...I once heard Dante read in Italian ( by an English girl immersed in Italian, and maybe in one way the non-Italian Muttersprache helped me). For the first time I heard the music. In a play the music is more difficult to hear, especially as directors nowadays move in the direction of having the actors naively acting as the action seems to indicate, and the music of ( for example ) Shakespeare is lost ( Dadie Rylands with the Marlow at Cambridge opened my eyes to the music of Shakespeare but was criticised for not having the actors throwing themselves around the stage as is desired nowadays) The Latin languages should I suppose have the greater propensity for beautiful melody, perhaps Italian most of all. And music can come into prose also. As was said of Lettres de Mon Moulin, " Daudet possedait le don delicieux de la melodie"David Damantnoreply@blogger.com