tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post948705756847538254..comments2024-03-26T07:58:59.761+00:00Comments on I'll think of something later: Willa Cather's songs of the earthDavidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-15226009834222171882020-12-21T18:44:05.004+00:002020-12-21T18:44:05.004+00:00Thanks for your concern, Liam - yes, all of those ...Thanks for your concern, Liam - yes, all of those things but been very busy with Zoom - just spent a happy two and a half hours on The Nutcracker with students keen to do something now all live ballet performances have been cancelled. Autumn 2 on the way soon, too. All well with you and the Prof? We keep missing Damant in so many ways.Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-33939859244092433712020-12-21T15:56:34.671+00:002020-12-21T15:56:34.671+00:00no new blogs since end of november? hoping that yo...no new blogs since end of november? hoping that you aare ok ,good and healthy. Liam<br /><br />Liam mansfieldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07788263195389627235noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-82824915732769131112020-12-04T00:41:01.247+00:002020-12-04T00:41:01.247+00:00Oh, yes, the Santa Fe Opera Festival could not hel...Oh, yes, the Santa Fe Opera Festival could not help but be a wonderful base for a road trip. May the day come when it's possible again.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-26871716655511960342020-12-03T10:38:32.976+00:002020-12-03T10:38:32.976+00:00It's as Sarah writes in the first comment: ...It's as Sarah writes in the first comment: 'The descriptions of landscape linger long and make me want to go to Colorado and Arizona to see the sand hills, the cottonwood trees and canyon.' I've always wanted to go to the Santa Fe Opera Festival - so maybe that would be a good base for a road trip? Let's hope it will be possible. Though I don't really want to fly where I can avoid it for a good while yet. Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-63428324531466435332020-12-02T23:11:38.748+00:002020-12-02T23:11:38.748+00:00Well, let it be known that my understanding of UK ...Well, let it be known that my understanding of UK geography is beyond poor--and this despite getting several wonderful cook's tours of places all around the UK. That you took out an atlas while reading Cather truly touches my heart. May the day come when we can move from virtual to actual traveling again--perhaps we can all meet up in New Mexico one day. So many wonderful places to explore!Susanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15674930917585246294noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-71654646657993330922020-12-02T21:09:49.876+00:002020-12-02T21:09:49.876+00:00I confess my knowledge of American geography is po...I confess my knowledge of American geography is poor - I did study my big atlas while I was reading Cather to see what fitted in where. I could probably fit less than 20 puzlle pieces representing the states into a jigsaw.Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-87251757347378289032020-12-02T20:30:06.046+00:002020-12-02T20:30:06.046+00:00Ah, the southwest, then! (And yes, re the prairie,...Ah, the southwest, then! (And yes, re the prairie, there's hardly any of it left--so little, in fact, that I believe most of what's left of it is part of the Kansas Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve.) Re New Mexico: I sometimes think, if I had life to start over, I would live in New Mexico. Though I did visit there many years ago, and retail fond memories, if dimmed by time, my recollection of NM is likely to be made much more of myth than of reality. The Serge sounds fascinating. Here's hoping you'll weave some of it into upcoming classes. . . Susanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15674930917585246294noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-76911824318072909472020-12-02T08:59:33.832+00:002020-12-02T08:59:33.832+00:00The immediate answer - because The Song of the Lar...The immediate answer - because The Song of the Lark and above all Death Comes for the Archbishop are set in the south. The most evocative writing of all, it seems to me, is reserved for New Mexico. And while the prairie descriptions are atmospheric, they mostly speak of a time before the land was entirely cultivated, so no real desire to see that.<br /><br />The passage you quote is very much in harmony with the Cather ethos as I understand it.<br /><br />I read quite a lot of Faulkner when I was a student but there are glaring gaps, so yes, I should. I'm now deep in Victor Serge's Memois of a Revolutionary, where the prose is tough, spare and dark.Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-40614040519167716972020-12-01T23:27:03.016+00:002020-12-01T23:27:03.016+00:00This is a lovely post, and a serendipity, of sorts...This is a lovely post, and a serendipity, of sorts, that you should write of Cather right now. <br /><br />One of the miracles, for me, in the midst of all this turmoil, was the reopening of our local public library. Most recently, I obtained "The Saddest Words: William Faulkner's Civil War," and with it, because of author Michael Gorra's commentary about it, Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom, which I'd not read--and which I am finding mesmerizing. <br /><br />I note this because just yesterday I read a passage in which Gorra references Cather. Gorra is writing more generally about authors who "set their work in the nation's margins and yet in doing so extended their reach by inventing a character from the world outside, an intermediary, as a way to enter and depict a region they knew intimately." About Cather, Gorra writes, "The prairie towns of O Pioneers and My Antonia are every bit as isolated as Jewett's Maine, but that's because they're new. They lie on the verge of the national life in both senses of the term: along its edge, and yet also ready to enter, something about to be more; and her people are always in motion. They key text here is Cather's 1915 Song of the Lark . . .". On reading it, I made a mental note to get that book and read it.<br /><br />Other points of connection: I grew up outside Chicago. The Art Institute was, I felt, my personal museum, and The Song of the Lark among its (but really my) most treasured paintings. And of course I lived for many years in the rural Midwest, a place that only reticently yields up its secrets.<br /><br />As an aside, I'm curious to know, per your comment to the post, why reading Cather, as her work is located in the Great Plains state of Nebraska, would spur a desire to visit "especially the south." Perhaps Faulkner might be next on your list, who knows, as his fictional Yoknapatawpha County is based on Lafayette County, Mississippi, where he spent most of his life. A lot of my family is from or lives in various places in the south, and while working for the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers, I spent a lot of time there. It is a complicated region. Here's a fascinating pictorial taste: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/30/travel/ghosts-of-segregation.html<br /> Susan Scheidhttps://prufrocksdilemma.wordpress.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-23095009152551905412020-11-30T18:03:22.853+00:002020-11-30T18:03:22.853+00:00Yes, all these books made me want to go, especiall...Yes, all these books made me want to go, especially to the south. A happy reconciliation after the pre-election crisis when I was wondering if I would ever care to visit the USA again. When it's possible, I want to - though I imagine quite a few possible conflicts with representatives of the horrifying percentage who voted for the Horror Clown.<br /><br />I love the later dialogues with the men - very Jamesian, I thought. Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-92194178691455149512020-11-30T14:23:32.346+00:002020-11-30T14:23:32.346+00:00I have just finished The Song of the Lark and love...I have just finished The Song of the Lark and loved it. The descriptions of landscape linger long and make me want to go to Colorado and Arizona to see the sand hills, the cottonwood trees and canyon. The canyon was so vividly depicted, the heat, the apricot rock faces and the whispering aspen that when I looked at photographs afterwards, it was exactly as I had imagined. And the articulation of single-minded artistic passion rings true, although Wagnerian singers then were much less supportive of each other than they are today. Thea Kronborg is such a splendidly fierce character who is an equal to all the men with whom she has relationships. Sarah BaxterAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02366778992071582630noreply@blogger.com