What are we reading? 29th March 2022

[Paul]

Machenbach wrote: "Osamu Dazai, No Longer Human (tr. Donald Keene)


I’m still pondering this one because the novel’s epilogue, in which an unknown third party brie..."


It's odd. I read this book only a year ago and I remember absolutely nothing about it, other than Luca's performance art piece. Your review didn't even jog the slightest memory. Either I'm heading towards dementia, or the book made no long-lasting impact on me. Both, probably

[Paul]

My most recent read was another cornerstone of Japanese literature, and it was a weird one. A sort of inverse Sisyphus, The Woman in the Dunes by Kobo Abe. A sort of Edgar Allen Poe/Angela Carter-like parable of oddity and low grade horror. An otherwise anonymous teacher goes to the seaside to collect beetles and happens upon a town being slowly engulfed by the sand dunes. He's tossed into a hole occupied by a complacent widow, press-ganged into forever emptying the hole out to protect the rickety home within.

Weird. Deeply weird. Unsettling in a chilling way like a Richard Matheson story. Are the dunes a metaphor for encroaching westernism suffocating the Japanese identity? Is it a subtle protest against the lack of identity inherent to a modern work system? A critique of the subjugation of the individual in Japanese society? A misogynistic protest against the ties of marriage and the artificiality of monogamy? The anonymity that would take a mother 7 years to notice that her son was missing?
It was bizarre in a way that seems quintessentially Japanese today. A quick read, it seems to be a stepping stone from the imperialists like Mishima and Kawabata to the modern day Western sympathizers like the two Murakamis.

[AB76]

Robert wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Ukraine War and previous wars (reading)

Shocking images from Bucha and Irpin, this war is a rolling horror show, i do feel like turning to some Snyder and Applebaum to study the effec..."

yes, i agree Robert and with impunity, these crimes will be the same in Kharkov area, the donbass and the south coast. It was all planned as captured russian police units revealed, they were to occupy regions behind the special forces and then deport or execute any protestors or troublemakers, mass executions were all part of the plan.

in the kiev area the russian special forces were decimated around Gostomel Airport and then the russian police forces destroyed as well, even so the survivors seem to have done a lot of dirty work.The russians were badly battered in the kiev area

[Gpfr]

Paul wrote: "The Woman in the Dunes by Kobo Abe..."

I've never read the book but I saw the film (1964, dir. Hiroshi Teshigahara) in our university cine-club and it made a lasting impression on me

[CCCubbon]

Shadowlands by Matthew Green
So far I have read the first chapter which is about the Neolithic settlement Skara Brae on Orkney. I am quite fascinated by this era.
I had not realized before that these houses, huts, were surrounded by their waste and that is how the midden built up around them. Imagine throwing all your rubbish, including excrement, out and it slowly disintegrating. My it must have been rather smelly. From an archaeological point of view there is much knowledge to be gained
The huts were occupied for more than a thousand years, one being built on top of another over time and, once abandoned all were covered by sand until a storm in the 19C exposed the site.

[Paul]

Another book I read relatively recently, but didn't have the energy to write-up was Jesmyn Ward's Salvage The Bones. It was a brilliant book, on the one hand an excoriation of the metaphysical shrug given by America to the black communities wiped out by Hurricane Katrina. On the other hand, a book of quiet dignity, with people trying their honest best to stay afloat physically and spiritually in conditions of perennial precarity.

A family that has lost their matriarch, and older son trying to play his way out of the bayou, the ignored middle child who clings to their dog like a life-preserver and a sister trying to balance the responsibility of being the lone women in the house and the need to be seen as somethign other than a surrogate.

It was a book that gently flowed from brimming rage to taciturn respectability peopled by flawed human beings just trying to do their best, honestly and maintain their families in the face of encroaching tides and bill collectors.
Ward writes with an easy patois that is never belittling or off-putting, and she shapes her narrative to draw in the reader into a sense of community without a suggestion of otherness. Right up there with Ralph Ellison in depicting a vital black community balancing anger and satisfaction.

Highly recommended with one VERY LARGE CAVEAT. Ruby/NellyBells, do not read this book. The animals in this story do not fair well.

[SydneyH]

Paul wrote: "A sort of inverse Sisyphus, The Woman in the Dunes by Kobo Abe. A sort of Edgar Allen Poe/Angela Carter-like parable of oddity and low grade horror."

I read this sometime during the last two years, but can't recall much about what I made of it. I don't think I was all that keen. I think that LL posted an article about surreal books (featuring Leonora Carrington), and Abe's Kangaroo Notebook was one of the books mentioned, so that's what led me to it.

How are you feeling about London Fields?

[FrancesBurgundy]

Gpfr wrote: "Paul wrote: "The Woman in the Dunes by Kobo Abe..."

I've never read the book but I saw the film (1964, dir. Hiroshi Teshigahara) in our university cine-club and it made a lasting impression on me"

I saw that film at university too. I could say it made a lasting impression on me too, though not really a favourable one ie I didn't understand it, but I'll never forget the woman running in the dunes.

[AB76]

Machenbach wrote: "AB76 wrote: " His life cut short in a brutal murder on the beach at Ostia in 1975.."
One of @Ongley's tales served to rehabilitate this beach for me as a less morbid place."

it will have a haunting memory for me from now on, when i visit the lazio region sadly!

[Lass]

@russel, @gpfr, @veuf. Luce d was certainly a formidable, and hugely admirable woman. I must seek out her memoir. As for Martha Gellhorn, I haven’t read her Travels with Another, but hope to do so. As for t’other in question I bought a copy of A Moveable Feast from Shakespeare and Co several years ago. It seemed apt, though I’ve not read much of Mr M’s work. It came complete with a bookmark, which I still have. If I’ve trotted out this reply previously, apols.

[AB76]

A Colm Toibin article in the LRB and another one in NYRB on John McGahern has directed me to his later work and the mid 80s short story collection High Ground and Other Stories

I include this as a modern read but am sure it will look back to the Ireland of his youth and the 70s and 80s. There is so much quality irish literature and so little time but its been a good decade since my last McGahern and i look foward to this collection

[AB76]

In a large collection of boxes containing my grandfathers effects(he died in 2007, my late uncle passed them on in 2020 before he died in 2021, to my mother) i found a copy of The Times from his birth date, June 5th 1913. It is a fascinating time capsule, capturing Britain before WW1, in its last sleepy days of imperial complacency

Amid tales of unrest in Ulster, the cricket scores, davis cup matches, debates over insurance funds(an MP saying he would abolish the Insurance Act , leave people to make their own bargain and not interfere with the friendly societies")there is an advert for the Daily Mirror!. Was this more common in those days, competing papers advertising in each others pages?

[Paul]

The best of my most recent read was Paolo Cognetti's Le Otto Montagne (The Eight Mountains). Spare and echoing, stark and taciturn, the mountain dwellers cling onto the thin layer of glacial topsoil and keep a space unto themselves. My heart remains in the mountains in which I grew up, so I was definitely the audience to which Cognetti was writing. The characters are strugglers, people who don't know how to admit dependency or accept help or mediate compromise. Snow-baked idealism, refusing to come to terms with the ebbing glaciers and the penetration of modernity rechanneling their brooks and runnels.

The main character bounces between the need to have a job/purpose, and the need to be alone. He is brought into the mountains by a father whose relation to other humans can only be judged by the degree to which they strive. His lifelong friend, Bruno, runs to the extremism of isolationism and sticktoitiveness, ignoring the futility of determination when being beset by an unfriendly firmament.

A beautiful book that had a lot to see with very few words, definitely recommended for the folks who take pleasure in cold air burning their lungs or the angry chirp of picas.

[Lass]

Bugger…I’ve not read much of Mr H’s work, as opposed to Mr M, whoever he might be. Back to hanging out the washing on this breezy day. Should probably concentrate on that. Time, perhaps later to continue with Louise Erdrich’s Future Home of the Living God.

[Lljones]

Paul wrote: "Another book I read relatively recently, but didn't have the energy to write-up was Jesmyn Ward's Salvage The Bones. It was a brilliant book, on the one hand a..."

Too true, that caveat. I had to keep my eyes closed for many pages.

But I'm impressed by Ward and will watch for her work. Look forward to your review of Sing, Unburied, Sing next year. :)

[Paul]

Lljones wrote: "Paul wrote: "Another book I read relatively recently, but didn't have the energy to write-up was Jesmyn Ward's Salvage The Bones. It was a brilliant book, on t..."


Sing Unburied Sing I read 2 years ago. I think I actually preferred it of the two, but both were masterful

[Lljones]

Paul wrote: "Sing Unburied Sing I read 2 years ago. I think I actually preferred it of the two, but both were masterful..."

Agree, Sing... is the stronger of the two.

[scarletnoir]

Bill wrote: "In 1877, when Nietzsche was beginning to develop his apostasy from Wagnerism, Wagner wrote to Nietzsche's doctor suggesting that N's health and eyesight problems were a result of chronic masturbation, which no doubt aggravated the breach.
https://dangerousminds.net/comments/b..."

Haha! Great find! I did like these quotes:

“In assessing Nietzsche’s condition I have long been reminded of identical or very similar experiences with young men of great intellectual ability. Seeing them laid low by similar symptoms, I discovered all too certainly that these were the effects of masturbation [by hiding under their bed, perhaps]. Ever since I observed Nietzsche closely, guided by such experiences, all his traits of temperament and characteristic habits have transformed my fear into a conviction.” (Wagner)

I do like the idea of masturbators hiding under the bed!

And this - a favourite quote from 'Twilight of the Idols' - which I read and re-read in my 20s:

“Survey the entire history of priests and philosophers, and that of artists as well: the most virulent utterances against the senses have not come from the impotent, nor from ascetics, but from those who found it impossible to be ascetics, from those who stood in need of being ascetics.”

I was inclined to agree back then - and still am.

(PS... I suspect Nietzche's problems were the result of the syphilis from which he suffered, though how and when he caught it does not appear to have been recorded. Presumably, there were no effective treatments at the time.)

[scarletnoir]

AB76 wrote: "i am never keen on ignoring or trying to avoid a modern conflict, i dont think i can read those grim books and watch Putins terrible crimes on 24/7 news at same time."

I am of the same mind - I refuse to ignore what's going on in Ukraine (the French TV stations are much less squeamish about showing shocking images than the British), but can't face doubling up by reading too much distressing material, especially war-related. I think for the sake of one's mental health, there is a limit to what can be digested at one time. COVID was bad enough for many of us, and now with Putin's war on top...

Let's try at least to persuade our governments to do more than pay lip service to Ukrainian refugees, and remove the absurd barriers put in their way.

[scarletnoir]

Paul wrote: "My most recent read was another cornerstone of Japanese literature, and it was a weird one. A sort of inverse Sisyphus, The Woman in the Dunes by Kobo Abe. [bookcover:The Woman in the Dunes|4916074..."

You may have picked this one up from me - I saw the film https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058625/...
many years ago, and decided to read the book.

It is a deeply strange story, open (as you suggest) to many interpretations... I'm sure there isn't a 'right' one!
I wasn't sure about your description of the widow as 'complacent' - did you mean to use another word? To me, she seemed desperate - her home would inevitably be buried under the sand, without an able-bodied man to keep digging... so the villagers tricked the entomologist to enter the 'hole' and then refused to let him out.

As for the man - was there an ironic notion behind the idea that he - someone who liked to trap and keep butterflies - was himself trapped and 'kept'?

Also, the end of the story, there is a sort of fatalistic acceptance - he seems to be saying - 'maybe I'll escape tomorrow, or maybe later on'. (I forget the exact words.)

I liked the book a lot, but maybe the film is even better - see it if you can.

[scarletnoir]

Gpfr wrote: "Paul wrote: "The Woman in the Dunes by Kobo Abe..."

I've never read the book but I saw the film (1964, dir. Hiroshi Teshigahara) in our university cine-club and it made a lasting impression on me"

Me too - see my comment (above).

[CCCubbon]

Mach wrote
I'm very interested in this book so let us know how you get on with it please...
Will do Mach. Chapter 2 is about the village of Trellech which was once the largest town in Wales, lost for 500 years. I expect you know more about it as I have only just started the chapter - it was not far from the English/Welsh border, Chepstow way. Sacked in the 13C.

[giveusaclue]

Finished reading

yesterday and was impressed. Did you know that the human hands between them have 25% of all the bones in the body? Not many people know that!!😀 I particularly liked her comment which went something like " someone not used to dismembering, and lets face it most of us aren't....."

[MK]

Machenbach wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "Shadowlands by Matthew Green
So far I have read the first chapter which is about the Neolithic settlement Skara Brae on Orkney..."

I'm very interested in this book so let us know ..."

Me, too.

[MK]

Anyone here have Apple TV? I see by the NY Times that Mick Herron's Slow Horses is now on view. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/31/ar...

I decided to redo Slow Horses and am now in line at the library for the audio version. I wonder if listening to it will be much different from reading it. Of course I know that a film is often a poor comparison to the book.

[AB76]

Not strictly book related-an engraving of Liverpool in 1770, in the King George Collection(all online and available) led me to wonder why two distinctive spires from that era, no longer remain.

Research led to St Thomas and St Georges/ St Johns, churchs built in the first half of the 18thc but demolished by 1898 and 1911. The former had problems with its construction, while the latter was in a region of the city that was 65% Catholic by 1905 and no longer had much anglican attendance at worship.

I think we forget the vandalism of that era, more than we do say the 1960s in London.

I am adding the section of the artwork including the two spires to the photo section now

[Tam]

We have just returned from a couple of nights in Bexhill with the sprog, who had come over from Spain for a few days. The De La Warr Pavilion, https://i.postimg.cc/9QNjGpK2/IMG-025... in Bexhill was quite fun to visit, nice view from the cafe balcony. Ol insisted that it had been name-checked in one of his favourite films, ‘Children of Men’ by Alfonso Cuarón, as a centre for refugees in post-apocalyptic Britain, but we watched some of it on Netflix, and could not actually find any footage of the actual Pavilion. I didn’t much rate the art I saw there. In fact I was beginning to wonder whether there was such a thing as too many art galleries. The jury might be out on that one for a very long time!...

I have coincidently been reading Susan Sontag’s ‘Under The Sign of Saturn’ where she, rather baldly, states, in her chapter on ‘Fascinating Fascism’. where she analyses Leni Riefenstahls’ filmic history, that Art Deco was a fascist architecture. Well I looked really hard at the De La Warr Pavilion, and with a bit of my own back-knowledge of Modernist architecture, I really cannot see why, or how she came to that conclusion. It mostly was an evolution of Art Noveau, inspired by the ‘fin de siecle’ fashion for stream-lining objects and combining the power of automation, with a bit of ‘symbolism’ in the mix as well. The ‘De Stijl’ movement came to mind, more than anything else. I have had many strong reactions to her book, but will reserve them for another piece of writing, another time,I think.

Hastings was the most fun place to visit. Loads of very quirky shops and ancient looking hippy's abound. One shop had some really wierd stuff. Anyone for Papua New Guinea votive pig-stick ceremonies? The net shacks on the beach are very emblematic of Hastings, it’s possibly the biggest existing fish fleet, without a harbour, in Europe, but of course the launching of the boats is all mechanised these days. In olden times the fishermen had to push them out and land themselves. It must have been a hard life!... Hastings has many bars and restaurants and seems like a lively place to spend a few days. There is bookshop, Boulevard Books, https://www.ellieandco.co.uk/2021/09/... turns into a restaurant in the evenings, so you can dine out, squeezed in, between multitudes of bookshelves. I’d imagine that quite a few here might enjoy the frisson of a bookish meal out. It looked very atmospheric through the window, alas we didn't have time to book it, but the staff were friendly, Thai based cuisine it seems, so I would definitely do that if I come back, Hastings way, at some future date.

This was followed by a visit to Charleston, centre of Bloomsbury coterie, and homage to rather amateur painting techniques to me, still it has its nicely eccentric side, (and a nice lunch in the cafe), as you can see from the goldfish table. https://i.postimg.cc/7YsRcLVM/IMG-028... I did like the painting of the cat. It encapsulates catness to me... aloof and no way is it going to take any crap... at all... https://i.postimg.cc/TYNR9f5B/IMG-028... The exhibition was a bit rubbish really, supposedly on Utopias, which turned out to be architects ‘maquettes’ of their supposedly ‘communitarian’, global building projects, but devoid of explanation they were as meaningful as staring at paper doilies!... I think the best time to visit Charleston would be to attend one of the speakers events during the 'festival' in May, if you are interested in them or the subject.

Finally, we dropped the sprog off at Brighton, which I have not been to for quite a few years. It seems very mainstream these days. The skyline of the Brighton Pavilion domes is now completely ruined by new high-rise buildings nearby. I thought back fondly, of my two days on the road with Dr. John the Night Tripper, back in the early 70’s (I attended their gig in Bristol, and became friends with some in the band, and they offered me a lift to London, but neglected to tell me that there was a ‘digression’ to Brighton, along the way). It was very run down in those days. Brighton town centre is now full of corporate ‘chain’ shops and eateries. I felt quite relieved that we had turned Brighton down, as a place to base ourselves for the weekend, and instead headed for the outliers of southern coastal borderlands.

[giveusaclue]

MK wrote: "Anyone here have Apple TV? I see by the NY Times that Mick Herron's Slow Horses is now on view. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/31/ar......"

No, and I was very miffed when I saw this is where it is airing!

[[deleted user]]

Tam wrote: "We have just returned from a couple of nights in Bexhill ..."

Really interesting, thanks, Tam. Very disappointed to hear Brighton is now full of corporate chain places Saw Procol Harum at the Pavilion Theatre in Brighton in about 1969. RIP, Gary Brooker.

[Bill]

scarletnoir wrote: "“Survey the entire history of priests and philosophers, and that of artists as well: the most virulent utterances against the senses have not come from the impotent, nor from ascetics, but from those who found it impossible to be ascetics, from those who stood in need of being ascetics.”"

The Nietzsche quote makes me think of Kundry's question to the self-emasculated Klingsor, "Are you chaste?"

[[deleted user]]

Aftermath: Life in the Fallout of the Third Reich, 1945-1955 – Harald Jähner (2022)

An accomplished study, a history of ruin in all its grimness that becomes a story of the human spirit renewing. The author has complete mastery of his material. He explores every corner of life and culture high and low in a thoughtful flow that never becomes solemn. He is unsparing in his examination of how post-war society sloughed off the Nazi past. Every bit as good as AB said.

[Veufveuve]

Lljones wrote: "Paul wrote: "Sing Unburied Sing I read 2 years ago. I think I actually preferred it of the two, but both were masterful..."

Agree, Sing... is the stronger of the two."

I prefer "Salvage the Bones" ... but as they're both brilliant, which is best is really neither here nor there.

[AB76]

Russell wrote: "Aftermath: Life in the Fallout of the Third Reich, 1945-1955 – Harald Jähner (2022)

An accomplished study, a history of ruin in all its grimness that becomes a story of the human spirit renewing. ..."

glad you enjoyed it Russ!

[scarletnoir]

Tam wrote: "We have just returned from a couple of nights in Bexhill...

Your post triggered a number of scattered thoughts - I hope you (and others) won't mind a few random responses here...

'Bexhill' - first time I came across the place was in Agatha Christie's The A.B.C. Murders, when Betty Barnard from Bexhill was the second victim... at the time, I thought it was an invented place as I had never heard of it. It was many years later I found out that it existed - or at least, I suppose it does (I have yet to see it with my own eyes!)

"The De La Warr Pavilion, https://i.postimg.cc/9QNjGpK2/IMG-025... in Bexhill ... I didn’t much rate the art I saw there. In fact I was beginning to wonder whether there was such a thing as too many art galleries."

Maybe, in a way... is there enough great art to go around, or enough new stuff that is at least interesting? When we visited the Jerwood Gallery in Hastings (did you go?) the exhibits were of only moderate interest, and the same could be said for the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Pont-Aven when we visited... most of the 'good stuff' produced in the impressionist era is in Paris, other cities or private collections. I actually thought that the buildings - in both cases - were more interesting than the exhibits. As for Hastings itself - a quirky town - I wonder if an old friend who lives there was one of the ageing hippies you spotted? ;-)

I have coincidently been reading Susan Sontag’s ‘Under The Sign of Saturn’ where she, rather baldly, states... that Art Deco was a fascist architecture."

If it was that 'bald', then clearly wrong... aspects of Art Deco were adopted by fascists later on, but the movement didn't start like that as far as I know... see this brief summary:
http://misani.com/blog/2017/9/21/a-sh...
(We love the many examples of Art Deco in NYC.)

As for Sontag herself, hers is a name I have known from way back without ever reading anything she wrote... until last week. I intend to write a brief appreciation of her Introduction to Leonid Tsypkin's Summer in Baden-Baden sometime soon - informative and insightful, not the pointless puffery you get too often. (Naturally, I read it after reading the actual book...)

[scarletnoir]

giveusaclue wrote: "MK wrote: "Anyone here have Apple TV? I see by the NY Times that Mick Herron's Slow Horses is now on view. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/31/ar......"

I actually have it - not 'paid for' exactly, but came free with the Mac Air I bought to replace my previous and expiring one (by trading in the old one before the overheating battery died, I got £200 off the replacement - may be worth knowing!). Anyway, although I've had it for months I have never used it, as the only things of interest needed paying for (!) If this is actually 'free', I'll give it a go...

[scarletnoir]

Bill wrote: "The Nietzsche quote makes me think of Kundry's question to the self-emasculated Klingsor, "Are you chaste?"

Good question - must come down to definitions, as in Clinton's "I did not have sex with that woman!" I assume that Klingsor was capable of 'certain actions'...

BTW - you don't say who this Klingsor is - I have read Hesse's Klingsor's Last Summer a very long time ago, but don't recall auto-castration... is that the Klingsor you mean?

[Paul]

SydneyH wrote: How are you feeling about London Fields?

It's just the right book at the right moment. Fantastically bitter and mucky.

It's a more cynical person than me that can read without laughing aloud "Crawling through the iodized shithouse that used to be England..."

What a wonderful asshole

[Gpfr]

The new What we're reading has finally appeared.
In the last one there were discussions about The Wind in the Willows which I've never read, and mentions of recordings. I remembered I have a CD given away by The Observer years ago, a BBC audiobook read by Derek Jacobi.
I finally made myself tackle the pile of ironing I've been putting off and thought it would be a good opportunity to listen. It's a treat!

[Bill]

scarletnoir wrote: "BTW - you don't say who this Klingsor is - I have read Hesse's Klingsor's Last Summer a very long time ago, but don't recall auto-castration... is that the Klingsor you mean?"

I was referring to characters in Wagner's Parsifal (of course, all of Nietzsche’s ideas derive from Wagner 😊).

I’ve only read Siddhartha and Steppenwolf by Hesse, both in high school. I always remembered that the author claimed the latter, with which I really identified at the time, was intended for a reader of 50. I re-read it when I turned that age and found myself much less engaged than I was in my teens. I’ve occasionally thought about reading Klingsor's Last Summer, solely due to the possible Wagnerian connection implied in the title, but I think first I should read Wagner’s source, Wolfram von Eschenbach.

(If there are any fellow Wagnerians reading this, I should note that this week Opera Depot is having a Wagner sale – 50% off. https://operadepot.com/collections/ri...)

[CCCubbon]

Shadowlands 2
I read the next chapter which is about a place called Trellech on the border between England and Wales. An amateur archaeologist named Wilson bought a field by the very small village convinced that under the ground were the remains of a very large town/ small city and proceeded to dig. He has been joined by other amateur and found various artefacts.
All this has angered professional archaeologists who dispute his belief that the city is there and, although it passed me by, there have been many articles written about it and posts on social media.
Matthew Green brings some perspective to all this by giving us a history lesson about the area with references to the burghs that are recorded historically. It seems that this area was once a stronghold of the de Clare family. Why would there be a city in this remote region? It seems that the area was rich in iron and the place became a centre for weapon manufacture, weapons much needed in the warring times of the 13C - Trellech was a boom town but like other places dependent on a particular commodity, when the iron ran out the city gradually disappeared.
Green doesn’t really come down strongly to support either side in the argument but I found the historical records very interesting as well as the history.
Now I am off to Winchelsea near Rye

[scarletnoir]

Bill wrote: "I was referring to characters in Wagner's Parsifal..."

Ah, I see... I have a couple of Wagnerian friends, but opera isn't (usually) my 'thing' - the music can be great, and often is, but the stories tend to be a bit daft - IMO, of course! I really don't remember the Klingsor in Hesse's book carrying out the act - but it's too long ago to be sure about anything.

I sort of feel that Hesse is an author best read (fairly) young - I must have run through nearly all his novels in my 20s, but don't feel inclined to revisit.

[scarletnoir]

CCCubbon wrote: "Shadowlands 2
I read the next chapter which is about a place called Trellech on the border between England and Wales. An amateur archaeologist named Wilson bought a field by the very small village ..."

Interesting story - of course, there are many instances of sizeable towns, and even cities, disappearing over the centuries, so the fact that there isn't much to see now is no proof.

I'm no archaeologist, but I have read that aerial photographs can often help uncover previously unsuspected sites... did they try that, or is the ground not suited to that approach? When it works, it saves a lot of digging!

As for the name - in modern Welsh Trellech means 'Tre' = 'town' and 'llech' meaning 'slate', so 'Slate Town' - is there, or did there use to be, a quarry? (Wikipedia has a different etymology based on 'old Welsh', which I guess is more likely to be right than my speculation.)

[CCCubbon]

There are some photos of the excavations done by Stuart Wilson

trellech aerial archaeology

Don’t know if they prove that this was a city of 10,000 people as the area covered must be larger and this is one field. The occupancy does seem to be borne out by the historical records but that’s all I can say.

During the very hot summer a few years ago, cropmarks in the field adjoining my garden revealed a line of bronze age circular barrows, one partly in my garden.

[giveusaclue]

scarletnoir wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "MK wrote: "Anyone here have Apple TV? I see by the NY Times that Mick Herron's Slow Horses is now on view. https://www.nytimes.com/..."

Do let us know what you think.

[Tam]

scarletnoir wrote: "Tam wrote: "We have just returned from a couple of nights in Bexhill...

Your post triggered a number of scattered thoughts - I hope you (and others) won't mind a few random responses here...

'Bex..."
She is an interesting person. I have not read much by her. A good article on photography, when I was at art college, and her novel 'The Volcano', a long time ago, which I have to admit her intentions seemed to have rather passed me by in the reading of it, as I have recently read reviews of it that have indicated levels of complexity that I was, apparently, completely unaware of whilst reading it. It was just a fairly average historical novel, to me.

But, reading 'Under the sign of Saturn' has passed on some of that complexity to me now. 'Methinks she dost project too much', so far, and on the whole. She seems to attribute too much into the psychological level of what people are supposedly thinking, at least for me, at the moment, particularly, about Walter Benjamin. And I am not at all sure that what I have learnt from her I actually wanted to know at all, but a bit of me says that she is somewhat making some of it up somehow, or reimagining the 'actualites'... Still early days...

I have to add this is not at all unusual in the world of both books and art. She is an inveterate name-dropper, which makes the likes of me quite suspicious!... But she is also a bright, insightful commentator. I think I would prefer it if she had kept out of the realms of perhaps Freudian/wishful thinking on more nebulous subjects. This might be why I valued her insights on photography, and not so much on the nature of various famous peoples inner demons that seemed to drive their conscious selves, and their own history...

I have a tendency to write about art I guess and I hope others don't feel that I am somehow subverting a place that is supposed to be about books...

[Tam]

https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-an...

There may be a few on here (CC?) that might be interested in this free on line lecture, if you register, by Roger Penrose, he of the 'Penrose tile tessellations' fame. He is giving the lecture as part of the Sir Thomas Gresham Annual Lecture, in Cambridge, on Thursday 9th of June at 6PM.

[Robert]

scarletnoir wrote: "Bill wrote: "The Nietzsche quote makes me think of Kundry's question to the self-emasculated Klingsor, "Are you chaste?"

Good question - must come down to definitions, as in Clinton's "I did not h..."

[Robert]

scarletnoir wrote: "Bill wrote: "The Nietzsche quote makes me think of Kundry's question to the self-emasculated Klingsor, "Are you chaste?"

Good question - must come down to definitions, as in Clinton's "I did not h..."

Klingsor is an evil wizard, enemy of the Grail Knights, and master of a group of girls, including Kundry, who have lured knights into his power. As he is sexless himself, he was apparently a Moon King, like Dali or Andy Warhol.

[Robert]

Re Parsifal: Wikipedia entry states that "the conductor of the premiere was Hermann Levi, the court conductor at the Munich Opera. Since King Ludwig was sponsoring the production, much of the orchestra was drawn from the ranks of the Munich Opera, including the conductor. Wagner objected to Parsifal being conducted by a Jew (Levi's father was in fact a rabbi). Wagner first suggested that Levi should convert to Christianity, which Levi declined to do.[67] Wagner then wrote to King Ludwig that he had decided to accept Levi despite the fact that (he alleged) he had received complaints that "of all pieces, this most Christian of works" should be conducted by a Jew. When the King expressed his satisfaction at this, replying that "human beings are basically all brothers", Wagner wrote to the King that he "regard[ed] the Jewish race as the born enemy of pure humanity and everything noble about it"

[Bill]

Robert wrote: "the conductor of the premiere was Hermann Levi, the court conductor at the Munich Opera."

Levi made a German singing version of The Marriage of Figaro, which was the form in which I became familiar with the opera from the Dresden / Suitner recording on Seraphim. He missed some of the cleverness of da Ponte, particularly the ambiguity that's sustained throughout in Barbarina's aria at the beginning of Act 4.