tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post6804665331425130697..comments2024-02-26T00:59:26.907-08:00Comments on Ana the Imp: Sensational Writer, Unsensational LifeAnastasia F-Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01284602529524462457noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-51088105988524917242012-03-18T15:30:56.275-07:002012-03-18T15:30:56.275-07:00Oops, I've already said that. :-))Oops, I've already said that. :-))Anastasia F-Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01284602529524462457noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-51522626332140382862012-03-18T15:29:49.283-07:002012-03-18T15:29:49.283-07:00How fascinating!How fascinating!Anastasia F-Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01284602529524462457noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-24892618222156432092012-03-16T13:11:04.412-07:002012-03-16T13:11:04.412-07:00The sounds rather like what my double would be lik...The sounds rather like what my double would be like though what stops me from writing I call Ophiuchos, I wrote a poem about it too. Ted Hughes writes:<br /><br />I’ve noticed, the closer you get to the real thing in any bout of writing, the more formidable are the perverse interruptions, the deflections, tempting diversions and sheer obstacular incidents. Then Alchemists were so familiar with it, they gave it a name Ophiucos i.e. the Great Snake (no less!) <br /><br />(Ted Hughes. Letter to William Scammell. 2 October 1993. <i>Letters of Ted Hughes</i>. Selected & Edited by Christopher Reid. Faber & Faber, 2007. 648, 649).Rehan Qayoomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02391797858691917631noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-14147150705062057782012-03-15T17:02:21.258-07:002012-03-15T17:02:21.258-07:00How fascinating, Rehan. Collins' double was o...How fascinating, Rehan. Collins' double was of a malevolent nature, one who actively tried to stop him from writing.Anastasia F-Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01284602529524462457noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-53631968693007071182012-03-14T18:53:27.373-07:002012-03-14T18:53:27.373-07:00Auden also wrote about his double sitting writing ...Auden also wrote about his double sitting writing at a desk and refusing to look up as he peered over his/its shoulder. Plath's thesis was on the subject<i>The Magic Mirror: A Study of the Double in Two of Dostoyevsky's Novels</i> (available to buy for about £300). Ted Hughes saw himself, looking back from his future:<br /><br /><i>(I can't read the name at this distance)<br />But he's sipping the first claret he ever tasted, I know that<br />And chewing his first Gruyère. He will spend the rest of his life<br />Trying to recapture the marvel<br />Of that wine that cheese and this moment</i>Rehan Qayoomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02391797858691917631noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-9647289959221478502012-03-08T15:53:52.941-08:002012-03-08T15:53:52.941-08:00So do I. :-)So do I. :-)Anastasia F-Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01284602529524462457noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-12228918517665265302012-03-08T13:23:31.274-08:002012-03-08T13:23:31.274-08:00Ana, another vast subject--I'll hold off on re...Ana, another vast subject--I'll hold off on replying until when, if ever, you post a blog about the Vietnam War . . . and thank you for the head's up on the Andrew Lycett biography--I'll await it impatiently . . .Chris Coffmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16599801901347194290noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-44894585715204735692012-03-06T16:11:00.789-08:002012-03-06T16:11:00.789-08:00And thank you for that, Weissdorn. :-)And thank you for that, Weissdorn. :-)Anastasia F-Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01284602529524462457noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-28961459610646019172012-03-06T16:10:19.036-08:002012-03-06T16:10:19.036-08:00Yes! :-)) I like the comparison with Poe.Yes! :-)) I like the comparison with Poe.Anastasia F-Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01284602529524462457noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-34213654920450479012012-03-06T16:09:12.285-08:002012-03-06T16:09:12.285-08:00You have no idea how much that pleases me, Michele...You have no idea how much that pleases me, Michele. :-)Anastasia F-Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01284602529524462457noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-18156886768752576632012-03-06T16:08:02.959-08:002012-03-06T16:08:02.959-08:00Chris, you never bore me!
Thank you so much for...Chris, you never bore me! <br /><br />Thank you so much for this detailed contribution. Salinger's <i>Nine Stories</i>, which I bought as a result of a previous discussion we had, arrived today with a new batch of books, lots of books! I'm putting this right to the head of my reading, though, because of your compelling account. <br /><br />So far as your conclusion here is concerned it seems to be spot on. The true Age of Innocence in America is the 1960s, not Edith Wharton's 1870s. Brando may be one archetype. The other is Alden Pyle in Graham Greene's <i>The Quiet American.</i> I once wrote that every American president should read this book along with the oath of office!<br /><br />On Collins hold off for a bit. Andrew Lycett is presently working on a full-scale biography.Anastasia F-Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01284602529524462457noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-52415242175237671012012-03-06T12:21:52.426-08:002012-03-06T12:21:52.426-08:00Thank you for this nice blog on Collins. If you or...Thank you for this nice blog on Collins. If you or any of your blog readers are looking for free electronic copies of Collin's works, <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search.html/?default_prefix=author_id&sort_order=downloads&query=98" rel="nofollow">you can find them here at Project Gutenberg</a>.Celeste Neumannhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06121686507934885254noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-71469328746996674922012-03-05T17:04:44.319-08:002012-03-05T17:04:44.319-08:00Collins revealed more of the submerged 90 percent ...Collins revealed more of the submerged 90 percent of the Victorian iceberg of intrigue and corruption than almost any other writer, except, perhaps, Poe. It's interesting to revisit the real political, social, and cultural intrigues of the 19th century and imagine how different those decorous novels of social maneuvers the BBC dramatizes with such superficial monotony might have been written by, say, Elmore Leonard :)Calvinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10640148105202971907noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-4026197678513440272012-03-05T16:40:25.592-08:002012-03-05T16:40:25.592-08:00Wow - thanks Ana, I learned more from your post th...Wow - thanks Ana, I learned more from your post than I have in a number of so called literary journals. I loved the Moonstone, and then I found The Woman in White, and strangely I found many similarity in the ideas of Collins and De Quincey and in their attitudes, but I never knew that Collins shared the same addiction. So thanks for that, it's never a bad day when you learn something.Michelehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09117510718604467580noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-25228738588932610072012-03-05T16:33:15.412-08:002012-03-05T16:33:15.412-08:00Ana, this post is the latest superb expression of ...Ana, this post is the latest superb expression of your metier, the one of which you are the peerless mistress--the short, brilliant book review! <br /><br />And, unlike Dickens, who leaves me fairly cold, I'm with you on Collins-I adore MOONSTONE and THE WOMAN IN WHITE. In fact, having read your review I'd love to read a biography of Collins, and only your negative assessment of Ackroyd's effort keeps me from running out and purchasing it.<br /><br />By the way, I've now completed the Salinger re-reading project, and a couple of evenings ago came across another Ana F-B moment when the narrator of THE CATCHER IN THE RYE is discussing a movie whose plot revolves around two people whose favourite author is Dickens--they both happen to be carrying a copy of OLIVER TWIST in their pockets (page 179 of the Little, Brown boxed set edition).<br /><br />I've now re-read all four of the Salinger books, and I'm quite bemused by his fascination with children. The character Esmé in the delightful story "For Esmé with Love and Squalor"--which I've already mentioned to you--is a poised, precocious 13 year old, and when I first read the story as a 16 year old I was enchanted with her; this time, I must say, I wondered why a mature author had created such a splendid, attractive woman who was, in fact, only JUST a woman . . . having now re-read all of Salinger's work, I now really wonder about this aspect of Salinger's sensibility. A former professor of mine reminded me a couple of days ago that Nabokov particularly admired "A Perfect Day for Bananafish", and it crystalised a sense I had when re-reading that short story that there was something inchoately, but unmistakeably, Humbert Humbertian about the story.<br /><br />I'll bring these musings to an abrupt conclusion in the hope of not boring you--I'm amazed, upon re-reading Salinger's work, how his sensibility dominated the US in the 60s through the 80s . . . the work expresses, after all, a sentimentalised adolescent sensibility. If culture is the self-awareness of a society, it suggests that America was emotionally very immature throughout that period. It makes me wonder whether the tragedy of war visited upon the innocent people of Vietnam originated in a crude adolescent aggressiveness that was the emotional equivalent of the behaviour of Brando's biker gang in THE WILD ONE . . .Chris Coffmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16599801901347194290noreply@blogger.com