Forrest > Recent Status Updates

Moving beyond theoretical considerations (nice survey, though) and on to the actual art. Finally!

The narrative about the medium, Mary Wilson, is incredibly well-written. The description of her exercising of her gifts is fascinating.

Also, I did not know, until now, about the ties between Shiel and Machen (whether Machen wanted those ties or not is up to debate).

Shiel is an interesting, if scandalous, person. His biography - some of it his own fault, some of it just the circumstances he was born into - reads like a bad decadent soap opera. Machen said that he wasn't sure that Shiel knew that there was such a thing as "right" and "wrong".

Need to take this one slowly and meditatively.

[Insert poetic rant about how all religions and world governments are mistaken and need to embrace their inner poet]

*sigh*. This is where things get a little tedious. Probably could have just ended the book with the end of the last chapter.

The section I will title "The Lament of Graves" begins: . . . there are no poetic secrets now, except of course the sort which the common people are debarred by their lack of poetic perception from understanding, and by their anti-poetic education (unless perhaps in wild Wales) from respecting. I will quote the rest of this important (perhaps critical) paragraph in my review.

Sometimes I stop in the middle of a page and ask "how the heck did I get here"? Graves literary sleight-of-hand is remarkable the first time you read it. Then, when you go back and dissect the actual words, you wonder how you could've been so naive as to be fooled like that.

The gaps in Graves' arguments regarding early Christianity are big enough to drive a semi through. Still, I like his chutzpah and the fact that he's willing to play the provocateur, as he forces the reader to think about exactly why he's wrong. It's almost like he's taunting his audience. But well done, by and large. I am learning much, though I disagree with much of Graves' methodology (or lack thereof).

Ah, so that's what Robin Hood and Maid Marian were all about. Walt Disney, you've got some 'splainin' to do!

That moment when Machen and Aickman whisper in your ear "you don't need Lovecraft any more".

And that, my friends, is how a matriarchy is completely overthrown and supplanted by a patriarchy. Interesting.

The section on "Poststructuralism and deconstruction" is, by far, the most coherent and understandable of the introductory sections. It's exacting logic is a welcome departure from the mumbo-jumbo of earlier sections.

"The Lost Club" is a dandy (I use the word intentionally) story of high and hidden society in London. You can tell that Machen spent time among the decadents. Be careful seeking acceptance among the elite!

I have to note the very helpful explanatory notes at the end of the book - a great addition!

Jumping from god to goddess to god to goddess like a sacred flea from dog to doggess . . . It's dizzying after a while.

Oh, wow. Another level deeper down into the alphabet. Where does it end?

[The Constitution and Bylaws of the Hotel Argentum ". . . elucidated a doctrine of sedition and dissent."

And this is (one reason) I find Abyssinia so titillating. I find a sneaky part of myself in Petra. I know "where she is".

That . . . was a LOT of Greek history and mythology packed into a few pages. Guess I should have paid closer attention to those Classics classes as an undergrad.

I am in love with every character in the hotel. Petra, Dominik, Celia, Karl Reginald, the Colonel, the Apostate, even the hotel manager. Infuse A Room with a View with mystical philosophies and a hit of absurdism, and you begin to get the idea. Thus far, this is a fabulous esoteric mystery. I've loved Murphy's writing for some time now, but this one is leaving me gobsmacked. Brilliant.

"Projections": Mix one part Stone Tapes, one part True Detective, and three parts ancient cultist ghost of a nun driving a man insane. Despite the comparisons, this story (created well before TV even existed) is a compelling whole with a nasty ending that I wasn't quite expecting. Five stars!

I love that Graves openly admits that some of the answers to his questions came to him in a meditative trance.

Reading this, particularly Chapter 18, "The Bull-Footed God" gives me incentive to do a reread of the New Testament. The symbolism can be "cracked" much more easily with this as a cryptographic key, I can tell.

I must admit that the slow start of "At the Villa by the Sea" did not instill confidence in me. But by the end, the story unfolded like a gothic lotus, dark, dreamlike, and with it's own intoxicating odor. I started out disliking it and ended up liking it very much. Five stars.

Reading while listening to Sunn O))) on repeat. "Between Sleipnir's Breaths" somehow feels appropriate, in terms of mood. This is a beautiful book, to boot, one of the most beautiful I own. Algeria's stunning art compliments Murphy's exacting prose perfectly.

Okay, so the masculine bull-cult is superimposed over the feminine-partridge cult, with the evidence being the retaining of the limping dance. So Theseus going to kill the minotaur and being led out by Ariadne's thread (in Crete, a matriarchal society, anciently) is a sort of rebellion against the patriarchal order.

I think.

So far, there's too much explication and info-dumping in "At the Villa by the Sea". I'm hoping that the rest of the story can make that last stretch be subsumed in the overall tale, rather than sticking out so blatantly.

Just when you think "this is really bizarre, " Junji Ito ratchets it up another order of magnitude. Same thing with the gross factor. Continually turning it up to 11.

Death plays a drum of human skin.
With a sound more beautiful and stronger
Than the beating of a human hear.
Therefore I must learn to dance.