![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Good Morning
Mar. 5th, 2017 08:29 am
Coffee or tea. Pancakes and eggs perhaps?
Mar. 5th, 2017
Coffee or tea. Pancakes and eggs perhaps?
Just Wondering
Mar. 5th, 2017 10:58 pmWhat's the most embarrassing moment you've had to live through? Do you look back at it now and laugh, or do you still cringe when you think of it?
Which character from a book do you wish you could be for a day? Why do you find them so interesting (or fun or exciting)?
Where do you get your news from -- cable news channels, online sources, radio, newspapers?
Which character from a book do you wish you could be for a day? Why do you find them so interesting (or fun or exciting)?
Where do you get your news from -- cable news channels, online sources, radio, newspapers?
Umberto Eco "The Mysterious Flame Of Queen Loana" (Vintage)
As I made my way through this book, I kept thinking to myself "This is Umberto Eco's best book yet!" Then I'd get bogged down in a bit of poetry or a narrative about Flash Gordon and I'd think "Perhaps it's not quite as good as Foucault's Pendulum." In the end I found it impossible to decide which was better (and perhaps it's irrelevant anyway). Perhaps that is part of the reason this book tool longer to finish than most.
The narrative about a sixty year old Italian man who loses all personal memories as the result of a stroke seems touchingly personal. The narrator spends the first part of the book trying to comprehend what has happened to him. In the second part, he returns to his childhood home to rummage through the attic and rediscover his past through paper. In a heart-rending trade-off, he is finally able to relive his memories but nothing else.
In a way, Eco is giving us three books in one: First, the intriguing novella about losing personal memories; Second, a rather eclectic review of literature and pop culture in 1940s Italy; Third, a gripping account of some of the most significant events in a young boy's life. By turns humorous and poignant, this wonderfully-illustrated book is definitely worth reading.
As I made my way through this book, I kept thinking to myself "This is Umberto Eco's best book yet!" Then I'd get bogged down in a bit of poetry or a narrative about Flash Gordon and I'd think "Perhaps it's not quite as good as Foucault's Pendulum." In the end I found it impossible to decide which was better (and perhaps it's irrelevant anyway). Perhaps that is part of the reason this book tool longer to finish than most.
The narrative about a sixty year old Italian man who loses all personal memories as the result of a stroke seems touchingly personal. The narrator spends the first part of the book trying to comprehend what has happened to him. In the second part, he returns to his childhood home to rummage through the attic and rediscover his past through paper. In a heart-rending trade-off, he is finally able to relive his memories but nothing else.
In a way, Eco is giving us three books in one: First, the intriguing novella about losing personal memories; Second, a rather eclectic review of literature and pop culture in 1940s Italy; Third, a gripping account of some of the most significant events in a young boy's life. By turns humorous and poignant, this wonderfully-illustrated book is definitely worth reading.
Current Reads
Mar. 5th, 2017 11:47 pmSo these are my current reads -
Maya Angelou - I know Why The Caged Bird Sings
Bill Bryson - A Short History Of Everything
Georges Simenon - Felice
Georges Perec - Life,A User Manual
Steve Stack - 21st Century Dodos
James Watson - The Double Helix
Walter Benjamin - Illuminations
Andrew Motion - Philip Larkin, A Writer's Life
Malcolm Gaskill- Witchcraft, A Very Short Introduction.
Bill Bryson - A Short History Of Everything
Georges Perec - Life,A User Manual
James Watson - The Double Helix
Walter Benjamin - Illuminations
Andrew Motion - Philip Larkin, A Writer's Life
Ives - Symphony No. 4
Mar. 5th, 2017 11:51 pmI first heard this on a Radio 3 concert - great music.
Charles Ives - Symphony No.4
The Symphony No. 4 by Charles Ives was written between 1910 and the mid-1920s (the second movement Comedy was the last to be composed, most likely in 1924). The symphony is notable for its multi-layered complexity—typically requiring two conductors in performance—and for its large and varied orchestration. Combining elements and techniques of Ives's previous compositional work, this has been called "one of his most definitive works". Ives' biographer, Jan Swafford, has called it "Ives's climactic masterpiece.".
Detroit Symphony Orchestra and Chorus/Leonard Slatkin.
Charles Ives - Symphony No.4
The Symphony No. 4 by Charles Ives was written between 1910 and the mid-1920s (the second movement Comedy was the last to be composed, most likely in 1924). The symphony is notable for its multi-layered complexity—typically requiring two conductors in performance—and for its large and varied orchestration. Combining elements and techniques of Ives's previous compositional work, this has been called "one of his most definitive works". Ives' biographer, Jan Swafford, has called it "Ives's climactic masterpiece.".
Detroit Symphony Orchestra and Chorus/Leonard Slatkin.
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}