June 2021
-
A few months back…no, wait, over six months back–see this post…I listened to an audio version of the Josephine Tey novel The Franchise Affair. It involves someone falsely accused of a crime, and early in the story there's an exchange between the accused and her lawyer which goes something like this: What have you done?…
-
Besides a useful search function, another thing that I've sometimes wished I had for this blog is a simple way for readers to be notified of new posts. Now that I've given in and set up Google search, the first point is taken care of, and I may have found a solution for the second…
-
Marianne gave us a sample of Jane Austen writing more or less casually to her sister: see this comment on the Emma post. Here's a somewhat more formal letter, from The Oxford Book of Literary Anecdotes, a book which I bought back in the '70s and which has given me in enjoyment at least 100 times…
-
There's a remark somewhere in Swift's writings to the effect that there is no quality that is a virtue in men that is not also a virtue in women. I seem to recall that he specifically mentions courage. And I think I recall, though this may be my own addition, that he says that the…
-
…and this variety and complexity, playing upon a refined sensibility, must produce various and complex results. The poet must become more and more comprehensive, more allusive, more indirect, in order to force, to dislocate if necessary, language into his meaning. —T.S. Eliot It dawned on me sometime fairly late in life that although the opening…
-
You must change your life. –Rilke I want to change my life. –Audrey Horne I am really enjoying my re-viewing of Twin Peaks, though I'm pretty sure that I'm not going to be able to get all the way through it before it goes off Netflix at the end of this month.
-
I went to hear the Mobile Symphony Saturday night. It was a peculiar concert, and I'm not sure I would have gone if I'd realized how peculiar it would be. But they've had a very difficult year-plus, of course, and I wanted to support them. And although it was not the most exciting program conceivable,…
-
Do they starve the dogs and cats before filming them for pet food commercials? Or do they lace the food with essence of hamburger or something of that sort? Addendum: I'm always telling people that when you're discussing this country you have to start with the understanding that we're crazy. (That's one thing I like…
-
I had not gotten very far in this re-reading of Kristin before I was willing to pronounce it to be one of the world’s great novels. Nothing that came after weakened that view, but rather strengthened it. This final volume of the trilogy brings Kristin’s story to an end in a way that, for the sake…
-
Coming home tonight just before dark and seeing into the living rooms and kitchens of houses where the lights had just been turned on but the curtains were open, I started thinking about this song. I never heard any of The Hollies' music apart from their hit singles, but those from the mid-'60s still sound…
Light On Dark Water 