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Thursday, May 13th, 2004
Heart of Darkness -- I was wondering yesterday what was with Marlowe's journey by foot to the Central Station -- the introduction explains that the Central Station was in Kinshasa, at Stanley Falls, and reproduces a map of the overland route (a trek which Conrad made in 1890). Clearly the falls would be an obstacle to shipping so the steamer had to stop there; not quite clear to me why another boat could not run from there to the coast.
posted evening of May 13th, 2004: Respond
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I started reading the introduction to The Heart of Darkness this morning, thinking that will get me into the mood of the story before I restart it. The introduction is written by Robert Hampson (of whom a quick Google search reveals little besides that he edits books by Conrad and writes books about Conrad) and is quite concise and well done -- I say this as someone who generally has trouble reading literary criticism. I am recognizing and identifying with points he makes, nodding in agreement, I think this background will really help my reading of the book itself. I was especially interested in his statement that the narrative structure (Kurtz's story told by Marlowe, told by the narrator) serves to distance the book from actual Africa (which continent is never named within the text) and make it more about European notions/archtypes of Africa. This rings a bell vis-a-vis the imagery I was getting while reading the first chapter, which was not all of the events in the story, more like a colloage of plot elements with stuff from outside the book.
posted morning of May 13th, 2004: Respond
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The front page of today's NY Post trumpets,  -- to which I can only say, oy.
posted morning of May 13th, 2004: Respond
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Wednesday, May 12th, 2004
I was playing "You Can't Always Get What You Want" tonight and having a lot of fun with it. The key seems to be just to find a groove and get into it -- there are (practically) only 2 chords in the whole song so in order to keep it from getting boring, you need to play it with a lot of energy. My version didn't sound much like the Stones but I think it sounded all right.
posted evening of May 12th, 2004: Respond
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Tuesday, May 11th, 2004
I read the first chapter of Heart of Darkness last night and this morning -- but I think I will start over this evening. I seem to be reading a little too fast and missing some detail. Nice imagery though. I'm a little perplexed by Marlowe's 20-day hike to the Central Station: why would the company not build the Central Station at the mouth of the river where it would be accessible by ship? The station is certainly on the river, I guess at a point where it is not navigable by ocean-going vessels. But why? If the whole point of the station is to serve as a transfer point between freshwater craft and ocean-going vessels, wouldn't it make more sense to build it further down the river? Maybe there is a long stretch of the river that no boats can navigate -- I can't quite picture this though.
posted morning of May 11th, 2004: Respond
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Monday, May 10th, 2004
This thread on Brad DeLong's site reminded me that I have not read Heart of Darkness since college -- in the same class indeed where I first read Don Quixote -- and that I have very little memory of it. Time to go back and reread; I picked up a copy of this newly topical book at Coliseum today.
posted afternoon of May 10th, 2004: Respond
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Wednesday, May 5th, 2004
Played guitar with Bob, Janis and Jim last night -- it went really well. I'm not sure what I was doing different but my guitar was just a lot louder and most of the notes were right, and when I missed a chord I was able to improvise single-note runs to play on top of it. I even played my first genuine, spontaneous solo against "St. James Infirmary". (On which note, I've been getting loads of idle fun lately from singing the relevant two lines of "You Can't Always Get What You Want" to the tune of the first two lines of "St. James Infirmary". For some reason I have been remembering "I went down, to the Delta drugstore" instead of "Chelsea drugstore"; make of that what you will.) By "genuine, spontaneous solo" what I mean is, we were playing the song, Jim singing; he got to the end of the verse, there was the turnaround, he signalled me, and I started playing the solo -- I had not worked out a solo beforehand, just made it up as I went along -- then the turnaround, and Jim started singing again, and I went back to playing rhythm. Totally seamless and coordinated. We also played "Shine a Light on You" and "Loser", both sounded great.
posted evening of May 5th, 2004: Respond
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Monday, May third, 2004
Flags in the Dust -- Bayard seems totally dissipated after his grandfather dies. I think this may have been true from the beginning of the book but I was reading with the wrong lenses in my glasses or something; I had seen Bayard as possessed of some depth of character and potential. The moment I really understood Bayard, I think, was during his visit to the MacCallum's place when he undressed to go to sleep and Buddy warned him to wear warmer clothing in bed.
posted morning of May third, 2004: Respond
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Sunday, May second, 2004
We finally got around to watching House of Sand and Fog on tape last night. That is to say -- I did; Ellen was involved getting Sylvia to stop screaming... Not too impressed by the movie. Ben Kingsley's performance was wonderful as was Shohreh Aghdashloo's; Jennifer Connelly was good, Ron Eldard made a good effort at playing a role for which he was fundamentally miscast. The problem as I saw it was that none of the characters was developed as fully as they were in the book -- this may not have been possible, so it could be argued that reading the book spoiled the movie for me. I think the only moment in the film where I felt fully involved with the action on screen was when Massoud was in the hospital, praying for his son's life. Update Sunday evening: Sylvia is quiet this evening (knock wood) and Ellen is taking the opportunity to watch the tape. Update Monday morning: Ellen stopped watching before the climactic scene because she could not take the suspense. (She also had a really hard time with reading the book at this part.) She agreed with me that Ron Eldard was a poor choice for Lester (actually she thought he was a lousy actor).
posted morning of May second, 2004: Respond
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Friday, April 30th, 2004
Lilith has suggested that everyone post a favorite poem today. Here is my contribution to the effort, an early poem by Rilke with my own translation. Der Novembertag
Kalter Herbst vermag den Tag zu knebeln,
seine tausend Jubelstimmen schweigen;
hoch vom Domturm wimmern gar so eigen
Sterbeglocken in Novembernebeln.
Auf den nassen Daechern liegt verschlafen
weisses Dunstlicht; und mit kalten Haenden
greift der Sturm in des Kamines Waenden
eines Totenkarmens Schlussoktaven.
The November Day
Cold autumn can muzzle the day,
silence its thousand jubilating voices;
from the steeple whimper, so peculiar,
death bells in November's mist.
On the wet rooftops lies sleeping
a white fog; and with cold hands
the storm inside the chimney's walls strikes
a death-karma's closing octaves.
posted morning of April 30th, 2004: Respond
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