![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Mar. 17th, 2015
Jeanette Winterson "Sexing The Cherry" (Vintage)
In Sexing the Cherry, Jordan is found floating in the River Thames. A large woman, known only as the Dog Woman, rescues baby Jordan, and brings him up like her own son. But Jordan, having been ‘born’ of the river, belongs to the river, and it isn't long before the flowing waters reclaim him once again, as he sets of with sails to travel the world.
The book is told with alternating narratives, first Jordan, then the mother, then Jordan again and so forth. But while the mother’s narratives sound like actual accounts of what is truly happening in their world, the same can’t be said for Jordan’s narrative. Because you see, Jordan is a dreamer. His richest experiences are in his dreams, as he travels to places not yet known to him, but which he believes to perhaps truly exist.
Having dreamt of a beautiful dancer once, he then sets off in search of this elusive character. Which brings him to meet the Twelve Dancing Princesses. They, who were supposed to have lived happily ever after with their twelve princes, are now living together as sisters once again. They each tell him their story, and each one of them as enchanting as the next. All very unpredictable.
Towards the end of the book, we are introduced to another pair of characters, now in 1990. Nicholas Jordan is also a dreamer, someone who dreams of sailing and travelling the world, and to do so he decides he wants to join the army. During this time, he reads a newspaper article about a nameless woman who sits by a polluted river to draw attention and create awareness about what damage the world is suffering from.
Her thoughts (I assume these are her thoughts and beliefs), having been molded into the story, read just as beautifully as fiction.
In Sexing the Cherry, Jordan is found floating in the River Thames. A large woman, known only as the Dog Woman, rescues baby Jordan, and brings him up like her own son. But Jordan, having been ‘born’ of the river, belongs to the river, and it isn't long before the flowing waters reclaim him once again, as he sets of with sails to travel the world.
The book is told with alternating narratives, first Jordan, then the mother, then Jordan again and so forth. But while the mother’s narratives sound like actual accounts of what is truly happening in their world, the same can’t be said for Jordan’s narrative. Because you see, Jordan is a dreamer. His richest experiences are in his dreams, as he travels to places not yet known to him, but which he believes to perhaps truly exist.
Having dreamt of a beautiful dancer once, he then sets off in search of this elusive character. Which brings him to meet the Twelve Dancing Princesses. They, who were supposed to have lived happily ever after with their twelve princes, are now living together as sisters once again. They each tell him their story, and each one of them as enchanting as the next. All very unpredictable.
Towards the end of the book, we are introduced to another pair of characters, now in 1990. Nicholas Jordan is also a dreamer, someone who dreams of sailing and travelling the world, and to do so he decides he wants to join the army. During this time, he reads a newspaper article about a nameless woman who sits by a polluted river to draw attention and create awareness about what damage the world is suffering from.
Her thoughts (I assume these are her thoughts and beliefs), having been molded into the story, read just as beautifully as fiction.
Anais Nin "A Spy In The House Of Love" (Penguin Modern Classics)
Maybe because I expected a much simpler tale or maybe because I had higher expectations about what this book would be like, but somehow I couldn't help but feeling deceived by this story.
The short summary at the back cover seemed promising enough: a haunted woman, Sabina, who is unable to remain faithful to her husband Alan. She is helplessly attracted to total strangers and finally driven into fruitless affairs which leave her feeling restless, guilty and edgy. But at the same time, she can't live without these different kind of loves, she has multiple faces, she is specially transformed for each one of her lovers and she can't perform normally with her husband if she doesn't have the excitement of these other amorous adventures.
Don't know exactly why, but for me, it didn't work. The spell wasn't there. I thought the writer tried too hard, sometimes you got lost with her long descriptions of Sabina's red dresses or the feelings she shared with each of her lovers. She wandered too much, didn't focus enough and I felt like an outsider, a voyeur watching some kind of schizophrenic woman acting like a 17 year old. Then there was the repeating guilt and the references to Debussy and Mme Bovary all over the book. You got the point the first time, why did you have to read it all over and over again? I found it tiresome, thank God the book was only 120 pages long!
However, all is not lost because I sort of liked the last pages, where I could find a bit of what I had expected of the whole book. There were some good sentences which gave a glimpse of what the book could have been like, if only the writer had been more humble in her writing and had brought the novel to a more "earthly level".
Some quotations I liked from the book (well, the last pages):
"Let us say I had perverted tendencies: I believed everything I read"
"But if I told the truth, I would be not only lonely but also alone, and I would cause each one great harm"
"The enemy of love is never outside, it's not a man or a woman, it's what we lack in ourselves."
Overall, disappointing.
Maybe because I expected a much simpler tale or maybe because I had higher expectations about what this book would be like, but somehow I couldn't help but feeling deceived by this story.
The short summary at the back cover seemed promising enough: a haunted woman, Sabina, who is unable to remain faithful to her husband Alan. She is helplessly attracted to total strangers and finally driven into fruitless affairs which leave her feeling restless, guilty and edgy. But at the same time, she can't live without these different kind of loves, she has multiple faces, she is specially transformed for each one of her lovers and she can't perform normally with her husband if she doesn't have the excitement of these other amorous adventures.
Don't know exactly why, but for me, it didn't work. The spell wasn't there. I thought the writer tried too hard, sometimes you got lost with her long descriptions of Sabina's red dresses or the feelings she shared with each of her lovers. She wandered too much, didn't focus enough and I felt like an outsider, a voyeur watching some kind of schizophrenic woman acting like a 17 year old. Then there was the repeating guilt and the references to Debussy and Mme Bovary all over the book. You got the point the first time, why did you have to read it all over and over again? I found it tiresome, thank God the book was only 120 pages long!
However, all is not lost because I sort of liked the last pages, where I could find a bit of what I had expected of the whole book. There were some good sentences which gave a glimpse of what the book could have been like, if only the writer had been more humble in her writing and had brought the novel to a more "earthly level".
Some quotations I liked from the book (well, the last pages):
"Let us say I had perverted tendencies: I believed everything I read"
"But if I told the truth, I would be not only lonely but also alone, and I would cause each one great harm"
"The enemy of love is never outside, it's not a man or a woman, it's what we lack in ourselves."
Overall, disappointing.
Today in Faversham and Sittingbourne.
Mar. 17th, 2015 09:56 pmAfter a few zinc grey days, it was a pleasure to be out today. Despite a dull dew heavy morning, the sun broke out of diaphanous clouds and warmed the air/ I took a quick trip over to Faversham to sell some books, and schmooze over some beers at the local 'Spoons pub. Thoughts of Saturday's Brighton beer festival swirled around my mind as i drunk a pint of Golden Road California Breakfast Ale (4.8 % ABV) to complement my steak meal.
Devoid of an unconscionable thought, i checked my brief for the visit to Sittingbourne for one of my newer mystery shopping companies, and to take note of what merchandising said shop had for Google products and in particular a Chromebook.
This in Sittingbourne I completed my visit followed by a final pint of beer at the local ' Spoons before coming home.
Devoid of an unconscionable thought, i checked my brief for the visit to Sittingbourne for one of my newer mystery shopping companies, and to take note of what merchandising said shop had for Google products and in particular a Chromebook.
This in Sittingbourne I completed my visit followed by a final pint of beer at the local ' Spoons before coming home.
Today in Faversham and Sittingbourne.
Mar. 17th, 2015 09:59 pmAfter a few zinc grey days, it was a pleasure to be out today. Despite a dull dew heavy morning, the sun broke out of diaphanous clouds and warmed the air/ I took a quick trip over to Faversham to sell some books, and schmooze over some beers at the local 'Spoons pub. Thoughts of Saturday's Brighton beer festival swirled around my mind as i drunk a pint of Golden Road California Breakfast Ale (4.8 % ABV) to complement my steak meal.
Devoid of an unconscionable thought, i checked my brief for the visit to Sittingbourne for one of mu newer mystery shopping companies, and to take note of what merchandising said shop had for Google products and in particular a Chromebook.
Thus in Sittingbourne I completed my visit followed by a final pint of beer at the local ' Spoons before coming home.
Devoid of an unconscionable thought, i checked my brief for the visit to Sittingbourne for one of mu newer mystery shopping companies, and to take note of what merchandising said shop had for Google products and in particular a Chromebook.
Thus in Sittingbourne I completed my visit followed by a final pint of beer at the local ' Spoons before coming home.
Okay folks, last post of the day, and a musical one at that. From the second album by Tortoise here is the full length Djed.
Very Krautrock in flavour, but very much their own sound. Wire magazibe called this music post rock or math rock , go figure?
Here is a live thirty minutes of them in concert circa 2004 with a more systems music and jazz feel.
i
Enjoy LOUDLY!
Very Krautrock in flavour, but very much their own sound. Wire magazibe called this music post rock or math rock , go figure?
Here is a live thirty minutes of them in concert circa 2004 with a more systems music and jazz feel.
i
Enjoy LOUDLY!
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}