READIN

Sunday, December 7th, 2008

🦋 The Cordovan olive tree

They are seated on the ground, under a Cordoban olive tree, the kind that, according to the popular quatrain, makes the oil yellow, as if olive oil weren't yellow, or only occasionally slightly greenish...

posted evening of December 7th, 2008: Respond
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🦋 Mad about a gas car?

...I don't know -- hard to think of a clever title. Anyway: It's trite for adults to complain about the lameness of kids' movies so I'll just say that I found Madagascar II, to which I chaperoned Sylvia and Kaydi this afternoon, even worse than the original film. The animation was pretty mediocre and the plot points a dreadful hodgepodge of mass-produced sentimentality.

But what about this: There was a preview for DreamScape's Monsters vs. Aliens. OK -- looks kind of silly but in good fun. But why in hell does the evil leader of the aliens look like a caricature of Barack Obama? Am I paranoid and inventing this? Trailer here. The resemblance does not seem as obvious on rewatching as it did in the theater.

posted evening of December 7th, 2008: Respond
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🦋 Spain, Gibraltar

I sort-of knew that Spain does not have sovereignty over Gibraltar. I would have needed some kind of prompt to remember it though. Saramago gave me the prompt today, when he had Gibraltar break away from the Iberian peninsula, remaining with Europe as Iberia floats away. Strikes me as hilarious, to have the supernatural tectonic forces in the novel respect political boundaries rather than just physical ones. (Taking the Pyrenees as a natural physical boundary.)

So: it was interesting to see the Spaniards celebrating the departure of Gibraltar. I got the sense this passage was intended in fun -- I am curious to know what the Spanish national attitude toward British sovereignty there is. (Another point of sovereignty I found out about in today's reading is the dispute over Olivenza in Badajoz, which Portugal does not officially recognize the Spanish claim to. Joachim Sassa's car is not interested in seeing Gibraltar, since as a Portuguese car, "his ancient grief is Olivença, and this road does not lead there.")

Work on the Stone Raft Map proceeds apace -- this is really fun and will make a useful companion to the book.

posted afternoon of December 7th, 2008: 2 responses
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Saturday, December 6th, 2008

🦋 Orce Man

Near the end of the fifth chapter of The Stone Raft, José and Joachim are in a tourist office in Granada getting directions from the newly introduced* Maria Dolores, who describes herself as "an anthropologist by training and a militant feminist by inclination." She asks if they are doing research on Orce Man, the fossilized skull discovered "some years ago" which is the oldest human fossil found yet in Europe.

There is an article about Orce Man at talkorigins.org which says it was discovered in 1982 and that in 1984 a symposium about it was cancelled when French scientists suggested the skull was probably not human. So perhaps this narrows down the setting of the novel to sometime around late 1983 or early 1984? It was published in 1986.

*(Anyway I don't think she was mentioned in the first chapter. Should go back and double-check.)

posted evening of December 6th, 2008: Respond
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🦋 A map of the journey

Citroën Deux Cheveaux -- Joachim's wheels.

↻...done

posted evening of December 6th, 2008: Respond

🦋 Research to do

So I'm thinking The Stone Raft may benefit, as The Black Book did, from a Google Maps approach to reading. I find myself struggling to remember which character lives where, and wondering about the course of their journey and the landmarks they see along the way. I'm thinking it would make sense to create a Google Maps view of Spain and Portugal with markers for locations referenced in the novel. A sampling of locations and landmarks I did not recognize from the fifth chapter would include among other things, Orce (a village in Granada and apparently the spot where the oldest human remains in Europe were found), Aracena (the town where Joachim and José spend the night), the Giralda (a public work of art of some kind in Seville*)... Also I need to find out who the Spanish poet Antonio Machado is, whom I believe I have seen referenced in Saramago before.

*Update: the Giralda is actually a piece of architecture, a bell tower -- depending on how loose your definition of "public work of art" is, it might fit; I had been thinking it was a statue.

posted evening of December 6th, 2008: Respond

🦋 Prophecy

In the interview ..., Sourosh made explicit his alternative belief that the Koran was a "prophetic experience." He told me that the prophet "was at the same time the receiver and the producer of the Koran or, if you will, the subject and the object of the revelation." Soroush said that "when you read the Koran, you have to feel that a human being is speaking to you, i.e. the words, images, rules and regulations and the like all are coming from a human mind." He added, "This mind, of course, is special in the sense that it is imbued with divinity and inspired by God."

-- Mohammad Ayatollahi Tabaar, "Who Wrote the Koran?", NY Times Magazine, December 7th, 2008

---

1. Bismi Allahi alrrahmani alrraheemi
2. Alhamdu lillahi rabbi alAAalameena
3. Alrrahmani alrraheemi
4. Maliki yawmi alddeeni
5. Iyyaka naAAbudu wa-iyyaka nastaAAeenu
6. Ihdina alssirata almustaqeema
7. Sirata allatheena anAAamta AAalayhim ghayri almaghdoobi AAalayhim wala alddalleena

"In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
Praise be to Allah, the Cherisher and Sustainer of the worlds;
Most Gracious, Most Merciful;
Master of the Day of Judgment.
Thee do we worship, and Thine aid we seek.
Show us the straight way,
The way of those on whom Thou hast bestowed Thy Grace, those whose (portion) is not wrath, and who go not astray."

posted morning of December 6th, 2008: Respond
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🦋 Dalkey

Oh and as long as we're talking about gift ideas: as Scott notes today, you could go to Dalkey Archive Press and (if you act quickly) order 5 titles from their Spanish Literature Series for only $35 or 10 titles from their Latin American Literature Series for only $60!

posted morning of December 6th, 2008: Respond

🦋 JSP

Hey, anybody wondering what present to buy for their friend Jeremy this holiday season? Look no further: I would love to receive practically any of the box sets offered by JSP Records, but especially Mountain Blues or Rare Bluegrass.

posted morning of December 6th, 2008: Respond
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Friday, December 5th, 2008

🦋 Cinematic

This passage, at the beginning of the fifth chapter, is really striking:

They have spoken about stones and starlings, now they are speaking about decisions taken. They are in the yard behind the house, José Anaiço is seated on the doorstep, Joachim Sassa in a chair since he is a visitor, and because José Anaiço is sitting with his back to the kitchen where the light is coming from, we still do not know what he looks like, this man appears to be hiding himself, but this is not the case, how often have we shown ourselves as we really are, and yet we need not have bothered, there was no one there to notice.

I can picture exactly how this would look in a movie. Sort of deep reds and shadow, with a light yellow incandescence coming from the kitchen door and window (I sort of think the door is ajar), when the camera (which starts with the two of them in profile, with shadows across them and the starry night behind) pans past Sassa at one point the window will be a frame of light around his head. (For some reason I am thinking of this as set at the back yard of the house of one of the Great Whatsiteers, who posted pictures of her back yard a few months ago -- if I can remember where that post is, I'll add the image to this post.*)

This passage shows almost perfectly the ideal form of how Saramago structures his thoughts. The first sentence (the first sentence of the chapter) draws in the whole story so far, has an elegant, quick rhythm. Then period -- a moment to collect your thoughts. And charge into the second sentence, the long glissando with ups and downs, repetitions, speeding up and slowing down, and delivering you to another quick chord.

*(Aha! Found it.)

posted evening of December 5th, 2008: Respond

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