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woddly woddly woddly
Tuesday, 1 March 2005 09:14 pmYes! and the Thurber chapter is DOWN! And, may I add, a higher, brighter, purer, nobler thing than it was. Those thesis examiners are actually pretty darned useful, there were some howling errors in that chapter. Mostly a result of me being hopelessly intimidated by Saussure and not reading him properly. Call it self-defense.
Have just finished reading John Crowley's Aegypt, which is pretty up there in the pantheon of the slightly pretentious, highly involved, obscurely historical, semi-occult contemporary novel. What's with the huge appeal of Renaissance magicians and philosophers? Very weird to read Aegypt in the same week as Patricia Wrede's Snow White and Rose Red, which is a much fluffier sort of book, but places the fairy tale in Renaissance Mortlake with Dr. Dee and Ned Kelley. Also, Neal Stephenson is now doing historical scientists in the Quicksilver series. Darned postmodernists and their fascination with history. Anyway, I very much enjoyed Aegypt, in a slightly confused sort of way. Dense, suggestive, sweeping sort of narrative. Interesting. I must re-read Little, Big.
Ah,yes. In pursuit of the threatened movie-watching, saw Hero with Jo-the-younger this evening. Good lord. Stylisation, both narrative and visual, taken to new heights, or possibly lengths. Emblematic, set-piece, stylised fights perfectly reflected in emblematic, set-piece, stylised, recursive, Chinese-box narratives. I loved the process of continual rewriting, the endless fight scenes re-run and re-re-run with different meanings and implications. And colours. Stylised, colour-coded meanings. *goes off into happy narrative daze* And, of course, wire-work. I completely adore the way Chinese martial arts movies matter-of-factly allow their heroes to float, fly, drift, leap, spin and walk on water as though gravity were more or less optional. It's magical.
My teaching starts tomorrow. Sigh. *girds loins*
Have just finished reading John Crowley's Aegypt, which is pretty up there in the pantheon of the slightly pretentious, highly involved, obscurely historical, semi-occult contemporary novel. What's with the huge appeal of Renaissance magicians and philosophers? Very weird to read Aegypt in the same week as Patricia Wrede's Snow White and Rose Red, which is a much fluffier sort of book, but places the fairy tale in Renaissance Mortlake with Dr. Dee and Ned Kelley. Also, Neal Stephenson is now doing historical scientists in the Quicksilver series. Darned postmodernists and their fascination with history. Anyway, I very much enjoyed Aegypt, in a slightly confused sort of way. Dense, suggestive, sweeping sort of narrative. Interesting. I must re-read Little, Big.
Ah,yes. In pursuit of the threatened movie-watching, saw Hero with Jo-the-younger this evening. Good lord. Stylisation, both narrative and visual, taken to new heights, or possibly lengths. Emblematic, set-piece, stylised fights perfectly reflected in emblematic, set-piece, stylised, recursive, Chinese-box narratives. I loved the process of continual rewriting, the endless fight scenes re-run and re-re-run with different meanings and implications. And colours. Stylised, colour-coded meanings. *goes off into happy narrative daze* And, of course, wire-work. I completely adore the way Chinese martial arts movies matter-of-factly allow their heroes to float, fly, drift, leap, spin and walk on water as though gravity were more or less optional. It's magical.
My teaching starts tomorrow. Sigh. *girds loins*
