The Surrealism movement was sparked from a revolutionary idea in Paris around 1924. And has been used by artists as a serious weapon in the struggle for political, social, and personal freedom.
I've started reading "Death Takes Me" and for now I'm reading it as a standard crime novel where the goal is to figure out whodunnit. The story is complex, however, and I'll see how long that crime novel framework will hold up. My sense is, not for long.
Thinking of your opening comments in this SITREP, I was reminded of that old saying, “April is the cruelest month,” which I’ve learned is the opening line of T.S. Eliot’s “The Wasteland”. The full moon caught my attention, too, this past early Tuesday morning, when I momentarily mistook its brightness for the sun, lighting my path on the way to the bathroom to water the mules. As for the “batshit crazy” pace of your life at present, I would enjoy it while you can. Believe it or not, these are the good old days you’ll look back at with some degree of longing when you’re my age.
I’ve been reading “The Magic Mountain”, which you’ve discussed in an earlier SITREP, and have reached the section called “Excursus on the Sense of Time” in Chapter 4, in which Thomas Mann describes how our perception of the passage of time depends upon how varied and full our days are. “When one day is like every other,”—one of the risks of retirement—“then all days are like one, and perfect homogeneity would make the longest life seem very short, as if it had flown by in a twinkling.” The solution, then, is to avoid settling into dull routines by adding variety to our life. “We know full well that the insertion of new habits or the changing of old ones is the only way to preserve life, to renew our sense of time, to rejuvenate, intensify, and retard our experience of time—and thereby renew our sense of life itself”, even though it may render us “batshit crazy” occasionally.
Speaking of Edith Wharton’s “not-so-subtle commentary on American capitalism and culture” in her novel, “The Custom of the Country”, I came across an example of Wharton’s own robust capitalist streak while reading Hermione Lee’s biography of the author.
In November of 1899, Wharton wrote to her friend, Ogden Codman, to offer some advice on the interior design and decoration business he was in the process of establishing. As gifted as he was, Wharton urged Codman to resist the temptation to demand overmuch for his services. Rather, she recommended that he charge reasonable fees so as to attract a large number of clients. Once he had established his professional reputation and customer base, he could begin charging more for his work. “Human nature, take it all and all,” Wharton wrote, “is pretty much the same all over, & … when you make a general reputation, you will find suckers who will pay any price because you are ‘the Fashion’”. Elmer Moffatt couldn’t have said it better.
It's not what I would call “a fun movie recommendation”, but it’s a movie I would make the effort to watch if I were willing to subscribe to streaming services. I’m referring to the adaptation of Richard Flanagan’s 2014 Booker Prize winning novel, “The Narrow Road to the Deep North”, which starts on Amazon Prime Video this coming Friday, April 18th. Flanagan’s novel is basically a tragic love story set against the background of Australia’s war in the Pacific in WWII. I listened to it on audiobook some years ago, and made a mental note to myself that this was a book that was so good it deserved a sit-down read. There is a trailer available on YouTube and the series has received very positive reviews, though the only actor in it whose name rings a bell is Jacob Elordi.
I've started reading "Death Takes Me" and for now I'm reading it as a standard crime novel where the goal is to figure out whodunnit. The story is complex, however, and I'll see how long that crime novel framework will hold up. My sense is, not for long.
Thinking of your opening comments in this SITREP, I was reminded of that old saying, “April is the cruelest month,” which I’ve learned is the opening line of T.S. Eliot’s “The Wasteland”. The full moon caught my attention, too, this past early Tuesday morning, when I momentarily mistook its brightness for the sun, lighting my path on the way to the bathroom to water the mules. As for the “batshit crazy” pace of your life at present, I would enjoy it while you can. Believe it or not, these are the good old days you’ll look back at with some degree of longing when you’re my age.
I’ve been reading “The Magic Mountain”, which you’ve discussed in an earlier SITREP, and have reached the section called “Excursus on the Sense of Time” in Chapter 4, in which Thomas Mann describes how our perception of the passage of time depends upon how varied and full our days are. “When one day is like every other,”—one of the risks of retirement—“then all days are like one, and perfect homogeneity would make the longest life seem very short, as if it had flown by in a twinkling.” The solution, then, is to avoid settling into dull routines by adding variety to our life. “We know full well that the insertion of new habits or the changing of old ones is the only way to preserve life, to renew our sense of time, to rejuvenate, intensify, and retard our experience of time—and thereby renew our sense of life itself”, even though it may render us “batshit crazy” occasionally.
Speaking of Edith Wharton’s “not-so-subtle commentary on American capitalism and culture” in her novel, “The Custom of the Country”, I came across an example of Wharton’s own robust capitalist streak while reading Hermione Lee’s biography of the author.
In November of 1899, Wharton wrote to her friend, Ogden Codman, to offer some advice on the interior design and decoration business he was in the process of establishing. As gifted as he was, Wharton urged Codman to resist the temptation to demand overmuch for his services. Rather, she recommended that he charge reasonable fees so as to attract a large number of clients. Once he had established his professional reputation and customer base, he could begin charging more for his work. “Human nature, take it all and all,” Wharton wrote, “is pretty much the same all over, & … when you make a general reputation, you will find suckers who will pay any price because you are ‘the Fashion’”. Elmer Moffatt couldn’t have said it better.
It's not what I would call “a fun movie recommendation”, but it’s a movie I would make the effort to watch if I were willing to subscribe to streaming services. I’m referring to the adaptation of Richard Flanagan’s 2014 Booker Prize winning novel, “The Narrow Road to the Deep North”, which starts on Amazon Prime Video this coming Friday, April 18th. Flanagan’s novel is basically a tragic love story set against the background of Australia’s war in the Pacific in WWII. I listened to it on audiobook some years ago, and made a mental note to myself that this was a book that was so good it deserved a sit-down read. There is a trailer available on YouTube and the series has received very positive reviews, though the only actor in it whose name rings a bell is Jacob Elordi.