Woke Up This Morning.....
Mar. 19th, 2005 09:31 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphiloDuring the week the postman arrives round about mid-day. On Saturday he knocks on the door at 7.40. How is that acceptable?
Gah, I know; I'm being petit-bourgeois. And if there's one thing I try to steer clear of it's that. I will NOT whinge about minor inconveniences. I will NOT be one of those old bores who writes to the newspapers about litter in the streets and the youth of today. It's not even as if I really mind the postman calling early on a Saturday. He's a man and a brother and I guess he starts early in the hope of finishing early and getting to the football match. Actually I find it mildly amusing. Look at me, I'm being all Zen about it. Observe my smile of detachment.
I persevere with The Mysteries of Udolfo. It's the late 18th century equivalent of Lord Of The Rings- a massive wodge of escapist fantasy, with creepy things happening in a beautifully realised romantic landscape. Oh the umbrageous shades, the hoary headed mountains, the far-sounding torrents! For me it's a time machine. Jane Austen is for all time and takes me into the human condition rather than times past, but Radcliffe has nothing to say about people and everything to say about a very particular, time-coded sensibility. I like being in her company. She soothes my fevered brow.
Right now my gal Emily St Aubert has just returned home from a pointless excursion through the Pyrenees, in the course of which her nobly sententious daddy took ill and died. She is understandably weepy and faints a lot. As she ponders her future she is comforted and disturbed in equal measure by the attentions of that noble youth Valancourt, a man unspoiled by any contact with the sink-hole of corruption and false values that is Paris. She has assured him of her regard and he has departed a happy man. Meanwhile the mysteries thicken round her and she keeps thinking she sees ghostly figures gliding about in shadows of her country estate.
And now I'm going into Manchester to eat curry.
Gah, I know; I'm being petit-bourgeois. And if there's one thing I try to steer clear of it's that. I will NOT whinge about minor inconveniences. I will NOT be one of those old bores who writes to the newspapers about litter in the streets and the youth of today. It's not even as if I really mind the postman calling early on a Saturday. He's a man and a brother and I guess he starts early in the hope of finishing early and getting to the football match. Actually I find it mildly amusing. Look at me, I'm being all Zen about it. Observe my smile of detachment.
I persevere with The Mysteries of Udolfo. It's the late 18th century equivalent of Lord Of The Rings- a massive wodge of escapist fantasy, with creepy things happening in a beautifully realised romantic landscape. Oh the umbrageous shades, the hoary headed mountains, the far-sounding torrents! For me it's a time machine. Jane Austen is for all time and takes me into the human condition rather than times past, but Radcliffe has nothing to say about people and everything to say about a very particular, time-coded sensibility. I like being in her company. She soothes my fevered brow.
Right now my gal Emily St Aubert has just returned home from a pointless excursion through the Pyrenees, in the course of which her nobly sententious daddy took ill and died. She is understandably weepy and faints a lot. As she ponders her future she is comforted and disturbed in equal measure by the attentions of that noble youth Valancourt, a man unspoiled by any contact with the sink-hole of corruption and false values that is Paris. She has assured him of her regard and he has departed a happy man. Meanwhile the mysteries thicken round her and she keeps thinking she sees ghostly figures gliding about in shadows of her country estate.
And now I'm going into Manchester to eat curry.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-03-19 02:34 am (UTC)Blissfully trippy.
no subject
Date: 2005-03-19 05:01 am (UTC)And he's always late. I swear, I think the man takes breaks in between houses. He shuffles up to the door, sometimes when it's nearly dark, and at least once every two months leaves a letter that's meant for someone else on our street.
On Tuesday, he shuffled up to my next-door-neighbor's and left him my Time and Newsweek, which were returned to us the next day.
(I'd like to say I found toast crumbs on page four, but it would be a lie.)
Have fun with curry!
no subject
Date: 2005-03-19 09:10 am (UTC)We're recognised now and treated as regulars. It's a good feeling.
One day you and Kate will eat with us there.
no subject
Date: 2005-03-19 03:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-19 03:24 am (UTC)I don't pay my taxes to be rudely awoken at......
Erm, except I don't actually pay any taxes....
no subject
Date: 2005-03-19 03:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-19 05:51 am (UTC)The abridged version is in a sampler volume that also contains a chunk of Walpole's Otranto, similar genre and similar time.
no subject
Date: 2005-03-19 09:12 am (UTC)So far it's just aimless wandering and gliding apparitions.
"one of the worlds great soporifics". Yes, I know exactly what he means.
no subject
Date: 2005-03-19 09:31 am (UTC)Or aren't you there yet?
no subject
Date: 2005-03-19 09:45 am (UTC)Ooh good- something to look forward to!
no subject
Date: 2005-03-20 06:10 am (UTC)After Austen's treatment of it, I found the real thing to be a bit of an anticlimax, but I suppose it is something to look forward to.
no subject
Date: 2005-03-20 10:55 am (UTC)people
Date: 2005-03-19 06:02 am (UTC)people which is a problem as what sort of thing
one says about them? I am thinking that Thomas Love
Peacock says a good deal about people in Crotchet
Castle or Headlong Hall or Nightmare Abbey etc
but one doesnt regret it.
Re: people
Date: 2005-03-19 09:16 am (UTC)Re: people
Date: 2005-03-19 10:53 am (UTC)Just wait till you meet the uncle!
Re: people
Date: 2005-03-20 10:57 am (UTC)I remember being told that it had a lot to do with corsets.
Re: people
Date: 2005-03-21 01:34 am (UTC)Re: people
Date: 2005-03-21 02:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-19 12:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-19 01:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-19 01:25 pm (UTC)well you now dont expect , I dont know what,
the psychology of a Dostoevsky or a Proust
or something...
but more like Wodehouse...