Lurker Notes

Fitzgerald was the Keats of early twentieth century prose writers: everything he said, he said more beautifully than anyone else could.   A first reading of The Great Gatsby is like a first visit to Europe: you're so anxious to see everything that you rush ahead, missing countless wonders along the way.  Fitzgerald's narrative style is so fluid you're carried along effortlessly, but the way he describes things is relentlessly brilliant.  You do yourself a favor by slowing down and enjoying the ride. Daisy's voice, for instance, "was the kind of voice that the ear follows up and down as if each speech is an arrangement of notes that will never be played again." Tom was "one of those men who reach such an acute limited excellence at twenty-one that everything afterwards savours of anti-climax."  When dinner was announced, Tom took Nick's arm and "compelled" him from the room "as though he were moving a checker to another squar

I tend not to care much about the setting of Shakespeare plays.  This one's in Verona, this one in Rome, another in Illyria, wherever that is.  Who cares?  What does it matter to the substance of the drama? When I read the following passage however, in a history of the Normans describing Scandinavian religious sensibilities, I couldn't help thinking of Shakespeare's tragically indecisive prince and how this observation adds significance to the setting of Hamlet: "..the 'souls' of the dead play a considerable role in the lives of the living.  The separation between the two worlds is far from being as hard and fast as in Christian or Western beliefs. Ghosts intervene in the world of the living, often in a malign way.. The living may communicate with the dead, especially with their own parents or ancestors, through dreams and apparitions."  Francois Neveux, A Brief History of the Normans, pp 21-22.  Suddenly it matters that the Tragedy of Hamlet takes

Over the course of about 6 weeks, I spent probably 80-90 hours on Gravity's Rainbow, reading, looking up references and rereading.  My guess is that to get to a place where you would have some sort of grasp on the story and some understanding of the themes and symbols in play would require at least another 20.  Maybe twice that much.  I will spend more time on it, but at the moment I am Pynchoned out and need a break.   

Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon Nebula Award nominee National Book Award winner and Messed. Up. 

“The papacy.. continued to recognize Stephen as king.  It could not do otherwise: however suspect Stephen’s ascent to the throne, he had undeniably been anointed, and that beyond question made him a king.”  --Henry II, W. L. Warren, pp. 19-20.*    Ceremony in the middle ages was a powerful thing.  Even the hands of the pope were tied in the case of Stephen of Blois, who cleverly cut in line to the throne. The act of being anointed by the archbishop of Canterbury “beyond question made him a king.”  In today’s terms, imagine after the 2008 presidential election, John Mccain convincing Justice Roberts to administer the oath of office to him instead of Barack Obama.  He would certainly not have thereby been our new president. 

A woman walks into the living room one day to find her husband sitting in his chair wearing only underwear and a top hat.  "Why are you in your underwear?" she asks him.   "Because no one ever comes to see me," "Then why are you wearing a top hat?" "Because," he says, "someone might."     Blogging seems like a useful way to get some thoughts down in a format that is easy to track over time.  It helps me see ideas objectively and connect them to others.  I like that the web provides that big city anonymity of being lost in the crowd.  It seems unlikely that my blog will be stumbled across unless through some quirky search term.  Like if someone now Googles "quirky search term."  But as soon as I start writing, I feel the need to put the top hat on.  I find myself editing and scrapping thoughts and wondering if this or that will sound stupid, when the point is supposed to be throwing my thoughts out of my head so